from irfankhan001

In today’s competitive online marketplace, choosing one of the best digital marketing companies can make a significant difference to a business’s growth. Whether you run a small business, an e-commerce store, or a large company, digital marketing helps you reach the right audience, build brand awareness, and generate more leads and sales.

The best digital marketing companies provide a complete range of online marketing services. These commonly include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, web design, and online reputation management. A professional agency creates a customized strategy based on your business goals, target audience, industry, and budget.

Why Choose a Digital Marketing Company?

Managing digital marketing independently can be challenging because online platforms and search engine algorithms are constantly changing. A professional digital marketing agency has experienced marketers who understand these changes and can develop effective campaigns.

SEO is one of the most important services offered by digital marketing companies. It helps websites improve their visibility on search engines such as Google and attract organic traffic. PPC advertising can provide faster results by placing targeted advertisements in front of potential customers. Social media marketing helps businesses connect with customers on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other popular networks.

Services Offered by the Best Digital Marketing Companies

A reliable agency should offer services that match your business requirements. Some of the most valuable services include:

  • SEO: Improves search engine rankings and organic website traffic.
  • PPC Advertising: Helps generate targeted visitors and leads through paid campaigns.
  • Social Media Marketing: Builds brand awareness and customer engagement.
  • Content Marketing: Creates useful content that attracts and educates potential customers.
  • Email Marketing: Helps businesses maintain relationships with existing and potential customers.
  • Web Design and Development: Creates user-friendly websites designed for conversions.
  • Analytics and Reporting: Measures campaign performance and identifies opportunities for improvement.

How to Select the Best Digital Marketing Company

Before hiring an agency, businesses should carefully evaluate its experience, services, previous work, and client reviews. Look for a company that has experience in your industry and understands your target audience.

It is also important to ask about the agency’s strategy and reporting process. The company should provide clear information about campaign goals, important performance metrics, timelines, and expected outcomes. Avoid agencies that promise guaranteed rankings or instant results, because successful digital marketing generally requires consistent effort and optimization.

Budget is another important factor. Instead of choosing an agency only because it offers the lowest price, compare the quality of services, experience, communication, and expected return on investment.

Conclusion

The best digital marketing companies help businesses build a strong online presence and achieve measurable growth. From SEO and PPC to social media and content marketing, the right agency can create a strategy that attracts potential customers and increases conversions. Businesses should compare agencies carefully and choose a reliable partner that understands their goals, provides transparent reporting, and focuses on long-term results. With the right digital marketing strategy, businesses can strengthen their brand, reach more customers, and compete successfully in the digital marketplace.

 
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from irfankhan001

Best Digital Marketing Companies: How to Choose the Right Agency

In today’s competitive online marketplace, choosing one of the best digital marketing companies can make a significant difference to a business’s growth. Whether you run a small business, an e-commerce store, or a large company, digital marketing helps you reach the right audience, build brand awareness, and generate more leads and sales.

The best digital marketing companies provide a complete range of online marketing services. These commonly include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, web design, and online reputation management. A professional agency creates a customized strategy based on your business goals, target audience, industry, and budget.

Why Choose a Digital Marketing Company?

Managing digital marketing independently can be challenging because online platforms and search engine algorithms are constantly changing. A professional digital marketing agency has experienced marketers who understand these changes and can develop effective campaigns.

SEO is one of the most important services offered by digital marketing companies. It helps websites improve their visibility on search engines such as Google and attract organic traffic. PPC advertising can provide faster results by placing targeted advertisements in front of potential customers. Social media marketing helps businesses connect with customers on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other popular networks.

Services Offered by the Best Digital Marketing Companies

A reliable agency should offer services that match your business requirements. Some of the most valuable services include:

SEO: Improves search engine rankings and organic website traffic. PPC Advertising: Helps generate targeted visitors and leads through paid campaigns. Social Media Marketing: Builds brand awareness and customer engagement. Content Marketing: Creates useful content that attracts and educates potential customers. Email Marketing: Helps businesses maintain relationships with existing and potential customers. Web Design and Development: Creates user-friendly websites designed for conversions. Analytics and Reporting: Measures campaign performance and identifies opportunities for improvement. How to Select the Best Digital Marketing Company

Before hiring an agency, businesses should carefully evaluate its experience, services, previous work, and client reviews. Look for a company that has experience in your industry and understands your target audience.

It is also important to ask about the agency’s strategy and reporting process. The company should provide clear information about campaign goals, important performance metrics, timelines, and expected outcomes. Avoid agencies that promise guaranteed rankings or instant results, because successful digital marketing generally requires consistent effort and optimization.

Budget is another important factor. Instead of choosing an agency only because it offers the lowest price, compare the quality of services, experience, communication, and expected return on investment.

Conclusion

The best digital marketing companies help businesses build a strong online presence and achieve measurable growth. From SEO and PPC to social media and content marketing, the right agency can create a strategy that attracts potential customers and increases conversions. Businesses should compare agencies carefully and choose a reliable partner that understands their goals, provides transparent reporting, and focuses on long-term results. With the right digital marketing strategy, businesses can strengthen their brand, reach more customers, and compete successfully in the digital marketplace.

 
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from Noisy Deadlines

I was talking to my partner the other day about how I am becoming an analog person: paper notebooks, pens, highlighters, etc.

And right off the bat, he told me:

“You are not becoming a paper person, you are just getting back to being one. You were always analog.”

That was interesting to hear from a person I've known and interacted with for 27 years.

So, I'm rediscovering my analog side. I've always been into handwriting, doing lettering and drawing when I was younger.

After university and when I entered the workforce, in the early 2000's, everything was about high efficiency and productivity with these amazing digital tools: emails, computer-aided design tools, messengers, chats, word processors and spreadsheets. Of course that trend continued, and nowadays it has all become digital.

I got fully into digital note-taking around 2013 with Evernote. From that point on I became a bit obsessed with digital productivity. I wanted to have everything digitally, work or personal, from photos to notes, task lists, calendars and books.

But at the same time, I've always kept one single paper notebook with me at work. A notebook that worked as a daily planner where I would just add the day and take meeting notes or list the things I was working on. So even though 99% of my information world became digital, I still kept that one analog piece with me (which I still use to this day).

I would say that my “re-awakening” to the analog world started when I tried Cal Newport's Time Block Planner. I realized how different it felt to write things down with pen and paper. I noticed that re-writing my digital calendar appointments onto paper made me less anxious about my day. It felt more real and manageable.

Then I tried the Happy Planner last year because I was missing having a personal analog place to draft and view my monthly and weekly plans. Even though I use the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, I missed a visual planning tool. Attempts to plan digitally did not give me the clarity I experienced with paper.

But then I started finding the Happy Planner too bulky to carry around and also too restrictive because of the fixed template. I wanted to have more space to write on some days and less space on others.

And that's how I've landed on Bullet Journaling. It's been interesting to see how paper gives me this contained space, while at the same time providing freedom. With digital tools I became an information hoarder. It's so easy to dump articles to read, actions, websites to visit and random references into a digital list. I end up capturing things that don't REALLY have my attention, they are just noise. Paper acts as a great filter, because capturing becomes slower and more intentional.

I would say that one experience during my recent trip to PEI pushed me towards paper. While I was at the Charlottetown Public Library, browsing the dedicated shelf of the author L.M. Montgomery, I saw that all her personal journals were published as books. I read a couple of entries while I was there, and it really inspired me to have some sort of analog journal. For years I thought that not having paper made me a true minimalist, because why would I create a pile of used notebooks taking space in my house?

You know what? Now I am thinking that handwritten notes and journals are these precious personal things that are worth keeping.

Post 05 of #Blaugust #Productivity #notes #journal

 
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from Dirección y Datos

Hace poco, conversando con un amigo sobre cómo organiza sus datos, comenzó a hablarme de carpetas Bronze, Silver y Gold, archivos Parquet y procesos que ejecutaba con un archivo .bat.

Los términos eran nuevos para mí, pero la lógica no.

Mientras me explicaba el proceso, me di cuenta de que durante años había trabajado con una idea bastante parecida, solo que dentro de bases de datos SQL y sin ponerle esos nombres.

Eso fue lo que me llevó a conocer la arquitectura Medallion.

La idea es bastante sencilla

Medallion Architecture es una forma de organizar el procesamiento de datos en capas.

La información va avanzando desde su estado original hasta convertirse en información limpia, estructurada y finalmente preparada para responder preguntas del negocio.

La representación más común es:

Bronze → Silver → Gold

No necesariamente tienen que ser carpetas. Pueden ser tablas, bases de datos, archivos o incluso capas dentro de una plataforma de datos.

Lo importante es la función que cumple cada una.

Bronze: conservar el dato original

La capa Bronze contiene los datos tal como llegan desde la fuente.

Pueden venir de un ERP, un servidor SQL, un archivo Excel, un CSV, una API o cualquier otro sistema.

La regla general es intervenirlos lo menos posible.

Por ejemplo:

Bronze
│
├── ventas
├── inventarios
├── clientes
└── vendedores

La ventaja de conservar esta capa es que siempre tenemos un punto de partida.

Si mañana descubrimos que una transformación estaba equivocada, podemos volver al dato original y reconstruir el proceso.

Silver: convertir datos en información confiable

En Silver comienza el verdadero trabajo de transformación.

Aquí podemos:

  • corregir tipos de datos;
  • eliminar duplicados;
  • homologar nombres;
  • relacionar diferentes fuentes;
  • aplicar reglas de negocio;
  • limpiar registros;
  • validar información;
  • crear campos derivados.

Por ejemplo, un vendedor podría aparecer de tres maneras diferentes en el sistema fuente.

Bronze podría conservar las tres.

Silver debería determinar que las tres representan a la misma persona.

La capa Silver busca responder una pregunta fundamental:

¿Puedo confiar en estos datos para analizarlos?

Gold: información preparada para tomar decisiones

La capa Gold está construida pensando en el usuario final.

Aquí ya no estamos preocupados principalmente por cómo venían los datos, sino por las preguntas que queremos responder.

Por ejemplo:

Gold
│
├── ventas_por_equipo
├── margen_por_marca
├── disponibilidad
├── rotacion_inventario
└── indicadores_gerenciales

Esta información puede alimentar un dashboard, Power BI, un reporte automatizado o simplemente terminar en un Excel.

Gold no significa necesariamente “Excel”.

Significa información preparada para consumo y toma de decisiones.

Cuando descubrí que ya hacía algo parecido

Mi experiencia ha sido principalmente con una arquitectura basada en bases de datos.

Durante años he trabajado con SQL Server creando tablas auxiliares, procedimientos almacenados, vistas y capas de información que terminan alimentando reportes y herramientas de análisis.

Simplificando mucho, algo de este tipo:

Sistema fuente
      ↓
Tablas originales
      ↓
Tablas auxiliares y reglas
      ↓
Vistas de negocio
      ↓
Power BI / Excel / reportes

Cuando conocí el concepto Bronze, Silver y Gold, fue fácil reconocer la lógica.

Una tabla que conserva información prácticamente como viene de la fuente tiene una función cercana a Bronze.

Las tablas auxiliares, homologaciones y transformaciones se parecen a Silver.

Y las vistas diseñadas específicamente para indicadores, reportes o análisis cumplen muchas veces una función cercana a Gold.

No son arquitecturas idénticas, pero comparten una idea importante:

separar el dato original, la transformación y la información que consume el negocio.

Esa separación hace que los sistemas sean más fáciles de entender, mantener y corregir.

Database-based vs. file-based

Otra cosa que me llamó la atención fue que el proceso que me describieron estaba construido principalmente con archivos.

Algo como:

/data

   /bronze
   /silver
   /gold

En cada etapa se generan nuevos archivos.

Mi experiencia tradicionalmente ha sido diferente:

SQL Server

   tablas fuente
        ↓
   tablas auxiliares
        ↓
   vistas
        ↓
   reportes

Podríamos llamar al primero un enfoque principalmente file-based y al segundo uno database-based.

Ninguno es automáticamente mejor.

La elección depende del volumen de información, infraestructura disponible, frecuencia de procesamiento, cantidad de usuarios y complejidad del proyecto.

Para muchas aplicaciones empresariales, una base de datos sigue siendo una excelente solución.

Pero los formatos de archivo modernos y las herramientas actuales han hecho que trabajar directamente con archivos sea mucho más poderoso de lo que era hace algunos años.

¿Y dónde entra Parquet?

En arquitecturas basadas en archivos aparece frecuentemente Parquet.

Parquet es simplemente un formato para almacenar datos, así como CSV o Excel son formatos de archivo.

Pero está diseñado específicamente para análisis de grandes cantidades de información.

Entre otras cosas, permite una compresión eficiente y facilita leer solamente las columnas necesarias para un análisis.

Por eso es frecuente encontrar estructuras como:

Bronze
   ventas_originales.csv

Silver
   ventas.parquet

Gold
   ventas_por_equipo.parquet

Y posteriormente generar desde Gold un Excel o un dashboard.

Parquet no es la arquitectura.

Es solamente uno de los formatos que podemos utilizar dentro de ella.

¿Cómo se ejecuta todo esto?

Aquí aparece otro término que inicialmente puede confundir: los archivos .bat.

Un archivo BAT es simplemente un archivo de comandos de Windows.

Puede utilizarse para ejecutar varias instrucciones automáticamente.

Por ejemplo:

python cargar_bronze.py
python crear_silver.py
python crear_gold.py
python generar_excel.py

Entonces el usuario podría tener un archivo llamado:

Actualizar_Reportes.bat

hacer doble clic y poner a correr todo el proceso.

Desde afuera parece una caja negra:

Datos
  ↓
Actualizar_Reportes.bat
  ↓
Procesamiento
  ↓
Excel final

Pero el BAT no realiza necesariamente las transformaciones.

Puede simplemente coordinar programas escritos en Python, SQL, PowerShell u otras herramientas.

Por eso tampoco considero los archivos BAT como parte de Medallion Architecture.

Son, más bien, una posible forma de automatizar su ejecución.

Más importante que los nombres

Lo que más me interesa de esta arquitectura no son los nombres Bronze, Silver y Gold.

Es la disciplina que propone.

No mezclar en un mismo lugar:

  • el dato original;
  • las correcciones;
  • las reglas de negocio;
  • y el reporte final.

Cuando todo eso termina mezclado, modificar un indicador puede convertirse rápidamente en un problema.

Cuando las responsabilidades están separadas, es mucho más fácil entender de dónde salió un número.

Y para quienes trabajamos tomando decisiones con datos, esa pregunta probablemente sea una de las más importantes:

¿De dónde salió este número?

Bronze, Silver y Gold ofrecen una forma bastante elegante de responderla.

 
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from The Unbroken Ink Memoir

THE PART I NEVER TOLD

Before you read the chapters, you need to understand the gravity of what twenty years can do to a person.

He and I were never stable. We were never defined. We were never whole. We were a cycle, one that spun me so many times I stopped knowing which way was up. Off and on. Together and not together. Leaving and returning. Always in motion, never in truth.

In those twenty years, I got pregnant three times. Twice, I ended it, scared and convinced he would never choose me. The third time, I kept the baby. I thought maybe this time would be different. Maybe this time he would show up.

But right after I found out I was pregnant, I heard whispers. Rumors. Stories. And then the truth; he had gotten another girl pregnant too.

My daughter has a brother who is three days older than her.

That's the kind of chaos I lived in. That's the kind of man I loved.

He was unfaithful in ways that weren't accidents, they were patterns. He lied easily. He manipulated quietly. He answered questions with questions, kept me guessing, kept me doubting, kept me suspended in a place where I never knew if I was chosen or discarded.

He never gave me clarity. He never gave me commitment. He never gave me accountability. He gave me just enough to keep me there, hanging by a thread, waiting for the next moment he decided I mattered.

And over time, that thread became my entire world.

I didn't know who I was anymore. I didn't trust my own thoughts. I didn't trust my feelings. I didn't trust myself.

Years of emotional and mental abuse will do that. It will make you question your sanity. It will make you crave validation like oxygen. It will make you shrink until you barely recognize the woman in the mirror.

This is the part of the story I never told. The part that explains why the chapters ahead, are not just memories, they are the aftermath of surviving someone who was never going to love me the way I loved him.

This is where rebellion begins. This is where I start writing myself back into existence. This is where you understand what I'm rising from.

Now we can begin....

 
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from Gnostic Paradise

In the United States of America, in Georgia, and in Elbert County, there existed a “Stonehenge” that contained instructions for men in the event of a disaster that would barren the earth of men, yet there were to be survivors.

The “Stonehenge” event lasted from March 22nd, 1980, until July 6th, 2022. The “Stonehenge” is called “The Georgia Guidestones”. Six slabs of stone with instructions in eight languages exist; these instructions are as follows:

i) “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 with perpetual balance with nature.

ii) “Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.

iii) “Unite humanity with a new language.

iv) “Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.

v) “Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

vi) “Let all nations rule internally, resolving external disputes in a world court.

vii) “Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

viii) “Balance personal rights with social duties.

ix) “Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.

x) “Be not cancer on the Earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.” The guidance inside the square states: “Let these be Guidestones to an Age of Reason”

The conspiracy theorists and reactionists targeted the Guidestones and stated that the Guidestones were of the “New World Order,” “are satanic,” et cetera. Vandalism occurred in 2008 and again in 2014. An explosion from a bomb took place on July 6th, 2022, with the intent to destroy the Guidestones. The demolition of the Guidestones occurred on the day of the explosion.

It is evident that people, mistakenly referred to as men, are now considered intellectual animals. Animals and humanity are never the same thing; men and women are humanity, and intellectual animals are a shade of humanity. The evolution of humanity has failed. From 1980 until 2022, we also see that humanity has further degenerated, enjoys degeneration, and worships degeneration with no ounce of regret.

The Elohim declared these people worthless. All worthless people will go to the Abyss; this is the sentence from the Elohim: “To the Abyss!”. These people have already sealed their fate. All doors are now closed except for the gates of repentance.

The reaction is never revolutionary, only anti-revolutionary. Revolution is the antithesis of involution. Vandalism and explosion from a bomb are reactions and anti-revolutionary. Those who did vandalize or cause an explosion from a bomb have already sealed their fate. Their actions have a way of returning unto them. Those who react are mistaken.

The Guidestones reflect inscriptions. No one can interpret the Guidestones word for word, nor with the intellect. The Guidestones translate as follows:

“i) Maintain the population of mankind in harmony with nature” – The population of men did multiply over the last century. If men fail to control their population, nature will find a way to control the population of men, let alone the four horsemen: Starvation, Death, Animal, or War. Men will have to learn how to manage their population in harmony with nature and in accordance with the laws of the Creator.

“ii) Guide reproduction wisely with the improvement of fitness and diversity” – There are two ways to reproduce men: one is chastity, and the other is fornication. The immaculate reproduction of humanity is in harmony with nature. A man and woman can only procreate a child through the coitus reservatus, only with the guidance of the Elohim. The reproduction by fornication is the coitus with the intent to have an orgasm to create a child. It is fornication that is the consumption of the forbidden fruit. The law states: “Never fornicate”. Those who fornicate blaspheme against the Holy Spirit; the Elohim never forgives blasphemers of the Holy Spirit.

“iii) Unite mankind with a new language” – At the beginning of time, men did speak the language of gold that has the power to create. The language of gold is the language of the Elohim; when men fell into fornication, they lost the language of gold. With the restoration of the language of gold, the lingual confusion of men ends.

“iv) Rule action – faith – tradition – and all things with wisdom” – Wisdom is the ability to see judgment—both love and wisdom rule action, faith, tradition, and all things with balance.

“v) Protect humanity and nations with superior laws” – The law is here to protect men and nations from trespasses, wrongs, or accidents. All controversies removed. Everything goes to honor. All superior laws wash away inferior laws.

“vi) Let all nations rule disputes, whether external or internal, in a place of judgment that represents all nations.” – Any disputes, whether external or internal, are handled in a place of judgment that represents all nations. Mercy and justice are these foundations, as is freedom and order.

“vii) Avoid laws that have no foundation upon the earth and terminate anyone who chooses to be an Antichrist” – Comprehend anarchy and tyranny, these are two opposites. Freedom without order is anarchy, order without freedom is tyranny, and freedom with order is democracy. Laws are for the service of all in a democracy.

“viii) Balance rights with duties in society.” – The right is the will of humanity. Property is the highest right of humanity. The duties in society balance the rights of men and women. All individuals, regardless of gender, have the same rights.

“ix) Seek true, love, beauty, and harmony with the Infinite” – The infinite is beyond the realms of the Elohim. The infinite is the Absolute. Three levels of the Absolute are Ain (Nothing), Ain Soph (Endless), and Ain Soph Aur (Light that never ends). The Absolute is above the crown of the Tree of Life.

“x) Be not a cancer of the Earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature” – Fornication is a disease —a cancer on the earth. It is fornication that is responsible for the pains and illnesses of men; it is fornication that gives birth to our sinning “I”. The sinning “I” is Satan or Ego. Satan has a beginning and an end. It is urgent to destroy our sinning “I” for the good of men, through awareness and comprehension. The Ego is a shell full of pain, fear, theories, faces, and addictions. The word for “shell” in Hebrew is Klipah, which pluralizes to Klipoth. Klipoth is another word for the Abyss. From the Abyss Satan is born, and to the Abyss Satan returns to die the Second Death. Satan can survive physical death but never the Second Death. Sorcery is a plague. Those who recommend fornication or the coitus fornicatus are the plague. Those who recommend the coitus reservatus are the cure.

May these Guidelines help men to steer towards the way of righteousness by superior laws.

These guidelines serve as the foundation for the future.

And finally: “May these Guidestones guide men to an Era of Wisdom.”

 
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from The Unbroken Ink Memoir

START HERE

This is the part of the story I never got to tell out loud.

Not because I couldn't. Because I wasn't allowed to.

So, I'm telling it here, anonymously, unapologetically, and in my own ink. If you're reading this, you've stepped into the aftermath. The place where everything broke, and everything began.

I write in chapters. Not polished ones. Not pretty ones. The kind that come from memory, from scars, from the parts of me that refused to stay quiet.

Some of what you'll read happened in the dark. Some happened in silence. Some happened in rooms where I learned exactly how much a person can carry before they stop recognizing themselves.

But this isn't a tragedy. It's a rebellion.

A women walking back through the fire she survived, not to relive it, but to reclaim it.

I won't use real names. I won't give locations. I won't tell you who I am. None of that matters. What matter is the truth. What matters is the becoming. What matters is that you're here, reading the parts of the story that were never supposed to be written.

If you are new, start with Chapter One. Read in order. Take your time. Breathe when you need to.

This is the unbroken version of me. The one who finally stopped asking permission to speak.

Welcome to Unbroken Ink. Let's begin.

 
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from Gnostic Paradise

“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” – C.H. Spurgeon.

We have been both the clowns and the goats within our own psyches—entertaining our consciousness with spiritual knowledge while avoiding the direct work of elimination. The goat consciousness within us has followed external authorities—first religious institutions, then spiritual teachers, always avoiding the terrifying work of dissolving our own egoic structures.

The Joker archetype manifests within us when we present spiritual wisdom while secretly seeking admiration rather than liberation. This sophisticated ego wears the mask of enlightenment while feeding on the attention it receives. The vampire archetype operates alongside it—draining others' energy through emotional manipulation while presenting ourselves as spiritually advanced.

These are not separate entities but manifestations of the three traitors that betray the Christ within every seeker:

We have been Judas, the demon of desire—betraying our Innermost for the thirty pieces of social approval, for the validation that comes from appearing knowledgeable rather than embodying truth.

We have been Caiaphas, the demon of ill will—harboring resentment toward those who challenge our beliefs, condemning in others the very egoic states we harbor ourselves, seeking to crucify any truth that threatens our spiritual identity.

We have been Pontius Pilate, the demon of justification—rationalizing our spiritual inertia through intellectual understanding, washing our hands of responsibility for transformation while claiming to recognize truth.

The path forward invites not external renunciation but internal revolution. Each day, we might perform psychological reconciliation—identifying where we have vampirized others, where we have worn the Joker mask of spiritual superiority, and petitioning the Divine Mother for the elimination of these three traitors within our own psyches.

True freedom emerges not from rejecting external institutions but from eliminating the internal structures that create the illusion of separation in the first place. The work is not to renounce membership but to embrace the systematic death of the ego that seeks membership at all.

 
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from Gnostic Paradise

Thou knowest that psychological aggregates invade consciousness in the night of awareness and drain vital energy from the Essence.

Here is the real meaning: Vampires are the egoic states that despise the cross of psychological death and reject the holy waters of transmutation. They also dislike the counterforce of conscious will, which is known to dissolve egoic formations.

All vampires are aspects of the self that turn inward rather than toward the Being. They can be fixed in their patterns (||) or circular in their reasoning (=). They can oscillate between states or transform their appearance, hence the multiplicity of psychological forms.

They are known for their crimes of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit within. Vampires are known to reside in the submerged spheres of the psyche or lower, governed by the law of karma. The submerged spheres are the circles of the Abyss within consciousness.

They are born only from fornication of the mind, yet they are degenerate thought-forms. They are the result of one's unrepentant identification with ego, in which they love themselves instead of their Divine Mother, or they morally reject the Innermost. In the next moment, their unrepentant egoic states will multiply.

The law from Leviticus 18:22 states: 'You lie with ego as if with Essence; it is an abomination.' Egoic identification reveals itself as garbage, yet worse, an abomination. You see the rainbow flags of ego, colored from top to bottom: red (anger), orange (pride), yellow (greed), green (envy), blue (lust), and violet (false spirituality). It is the deliberate misuse of the rainbow from Genesis 9:13. You see their signs or protests for the support of their rights for ego. The worship of ego is akin to idolatry. The establishment of rights for ego as law reveals itself as an abomination. The egoic states, their supporters, and their sympathizers operate from error.

These are the supporters and sympathizers of ego. They have no foundation upon consciousness, and all egoic states also have no foundation upon consciousness. No one mocks the law of psychological death with impunity. All egoic states, their supporters, and their sympathizers reside in the Abyss until the second death.

The cross (+) is the perfect union of Essence and Being. The cross is the death of the self. No one alters the definition of the union of Essence and Being. Anyone who recommends egoic identification blasphemes against the Innermost and the Holy Spirit.

The holy water is the transmutable waters of sexual energy through the alchemical art of perfect chastity. It is the relationship with the Divine Mother that forms the cross, which dissolves egoic states.

Vampires are known to be below the threshold of awakened consciousness. Some say ego is normal, and they are clearly mistaken people, for they speak lies and blasphemies against their innermost Being. Those who identify with ego have already divorced themselves from their Innermost and can never perceive the superior realms. Those who claim they perceive the superior realms while identified with ego only perceive the inferior realms of the Abyss.

Vampires, like the black magicians, morally despise and hate white tantra. To make matters worse, they despise the union of Essence with Being. They hate those who walk the path of dissolution.

Lo and behold, there is a demon of ego that goes by the name of Lilith. The angel opposing Lilith is Chaniel/Anael. Anael is the Angel of Love, representing the Divine Mother in her aspect of compassionate destruction.

Bisexuals are those who oscillate between ego and Essence. Half the time, they turn to ego, and half the time, they turn to the cross. Like vampires, they are also born only from fornication of the mind, yet also degenerate thought-forms, but not as degenerate as vampires. Unfortunately, ego and Essence never mix.

Essence and ego are oil and water that never mix. Essence is goodness, yet ego is impure. Essence is superior, yet ego is inferior. We segregate ego from Essence. We discriminate against ego because it is an abomination unto the Innermost. Anyone who does, recommends, supports, and/or sympathizes with ego goes to the Abyss until the second death.

 
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from Roscoe's Quick Notes

Chicago Bears

NFL Preseason continues today with a number of games. It's my intention to catch at least one: the Chicago Bears vs. the Cleveland Browns, starting at Noon Central Time. I'll be listening over NFL+.

And the adventure continues.

 
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from Things Left Unsaid

I'm sorry I abandoned you babe. It's going be different this time. I promise. I used to be mayor of Mississauga. One day I decided that I wanted to be Premier of Ontario instead so I just stopped going into city hall. Like, whatever, right. Who needs a mayor?

I failed so badly at provincial politics that the only way I knew what was going on at their meetings was from bootleg recording devices. Then I quit. I have nothing better to do right now, so I decided to try and get my silly old job as mayor back. I just need something to do while I sort out what it is that I really want to do with my life.

I should be able to distract the voters easily enough. Make them forget what I did last time. Everyone who isn't me has the IQ of sloths, and the attention span of fruit flies. I will blame everything on the woman who took over the job after I abandoned it. Like the failing economy, even though that is a worldwide issue caused by an unstoppable unnecessary war started by a withering senile dictator, and his incompetent cartoonish war department leader. I will blame her for the housing crisis even though that is something that has been slowly and steadily creeping up over the horizon for decades, and everyone in all levels of government ignored it.

Me and my people will get A.I. to figure out what people want. Then we can use that information to fabricate half truths about my opponents, and create lofty goals that I'll never achieve so I have things to say at my loyalist gatherings and press conferences. The possibilities are endless!

I'll ride the Liberal wave that is sweeping the nation right back into my old office. I'll be a celebrity!

p.s. my enemy just endorsed my opponent, and gave me a popularity boost! omg I love me. <3

 
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from archive roger graeme young

By Roger Young City Press — 14 December 2014

Recovery note: Complete text transcribed from the live News24/City Press archive page


Leafy, cool and nestled in dappled sunlight, the new restaurant in Cape Town's Company's Garden has much to be recommended; a menu that accommodates many budgets, a diversity of seating options, prompt and unobtrusive service, and well prepared and presented food.

Operated by the Madame Zingara group – Zingara restaurants are to Cape Town (Eurocentric theme, waiters with BAs in performance, vaguely homosexual) what Moyo restaurants are to Joburg (African theme, nouveau riche, surly) – the restaurant formerly known as Haarlem & Hope is part of a “revitalisation” of the Company's Garden, which also includes a vegetable patch that references the public park's first function – that of a garden for the colonising forces.

Due to its up-market nature, its comfort and its newness, the eatery now known as The Company's Garden Restaurant is far more popular than the venue's previous offering, yet despite the queues of hipsters and tourists, we only had to wait 20 minutes to get a table.

Starting with hand-pressed clementine juice to take the heat off the day, we begin with the Governor's Choice – chicken livers prepared with just the right amount of brandy, sherry and thyme. The Drunken Camembert's beer batter is light, in harmony with the rich cheese. For mains, I opt for a mid-range fish and chips (R60), which is most definitely superior to the fish and chips served in the previous eatery. My companion's chicken burger, while a perfectly adequate burger, errs on the side of too much bun. The entire meal comes to less than R300 avec tip. It was a decent, affordable meal in excellent surroundings and the pace was relaxed.

Glancing over the menu, it's obvious they have tried to make concessions to the fact that the previous restaurant was a popular spot for regular visitors to the garden with a selection of toasted sandwiches that come in at only double the price of the old establishment. But even if those families and students who used to come to the garden for a cheap meal, or to linger over a pot of tea, were to be able to pay these prices, the façade that the new space presents is simply too up-market to be anything but daunting. Of course, Zingara is not to blame for this dissonance – the city granted it a lease and it's a business.

The menu tells the story of the 60 survivors of the grounded ship Nieuwe Haarlem in 1647 and their “Columbusing” of a land that was “rich and fertile with sweet waters that allowed them to plant seeds and grow produce”. It tells of their rescue by one Jan van Riebeeck (to their credit, they mention that he “was on his way back to the Dutch East India Company … to face charges of trade violations and breaking of laws”).

The menu then states: “It is this coincidental encounter that changed everything.” And indeed it did – Van Riebeeck's arrival led to 400 years of slavery and colonialism, torture, rape, murder and … oh wait, no it didn't, according to the menu: “Van Riebeeck had big ideas to harness and work the bountiful soil and create an oasis on this new developing route,” which led to him returning to the Cape “to plant the very first garden on the continent”.

This garden was the motor for the Dutch East India Company's spice trade, the accompanying trade in humans and the partial genocide of the Khoi and San.

But none of this bears mention on the menu, and how could it? One does not want to consider barbarity over a Bobotie open sandwich served on Paradise brown from the Huguenot Collection. Instead, we are told that due to this garden, “the Cape, a place that was previously feared, became known as The Cape of Good Hope, a beacon on the journey to the east”.

That the Cape of Good Hope was not previously feared by its first citizens and that there is evidence of formal gardening in South Africa long before the arrival of the Dutch seems to be of little consequence.

While cultural appropriation-lite often occurs when restaurants serve foods from other regions, and history is often smudged to prevent offence to the tourist, the menu is tragically ironic. Initially named after a ship that brought the first pillaging tourists to the Cape who displaced the region's first inhabitants, the restaurant itself has displaced an eatery that catered to the Company's Garden's most frequent visitors, the citizens of Cape Town, the clerks and students and labourers who take their breaks in the garden, the families who come on the weekends, the surly pensioners. Couldn't, between the city and the restaurant, a less exclusive space and less expensive menu be created? Cheap seats off to the side no doubt, but seats all the same. Maybe it could realign itself in relation to those who were in the garden first.

 
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from Rally Genesis Relationships

A post attempting to convey a shade of grief and faith.

I've been trying to grab hold of it and run away from it completely- grief- and it's left me feeling hollow. I can feel the shape of myself and the cavity that needs filling, but every time I pour something in, it seeps right out. I can't find the leak. I don't want to say I'm lost, because I thought I found what I'm looking for. But it might not be it. I keep wondering if the grasping of it, the thing I thought I found within me, still echoes my past striving...which I know from experience only leads to further STRIFEing.

Have I found peace, really, or am I just traumatized? Am I revisiting the familiar parts of trauma and calling it peace? In my relationships. In my motherhood. In my work.

I'm exhausted trying to know. I sigh a lot. I wonder all the time. I have endless words and none at all. I wrote a poem weeks after a miscarriage that really paints the picture.

Hollow Wombman

Grief, have I not known you?

Have you not held me in the air by my neck?

Squeezing out all of my breath

Stifling my sobs

Forcing quiet cries

Have you not branded me?

So that I can never un-know that I belong to you?

That my identity can’t stand apart from you

I am now yours, Grief.

Take me out more quickly.

You’re like a slow-killing poison writhing through my veins

But if you go, will I know myself?

Will I know Life again?

Because even if you go, all that stands left in your place is Loss

Smiling wryly at me

Creeping

That was 6 years ago, and the grief that envelops me now is both a stranger and a friend. It's the longing for whatever I hoped for, and the hope that I could one day stop wanting what I hoped for. The inner pleading for the pain and disappointment to stop, and the bottomless, suffocating fear that it never will. Having to meet and embrace a new version of myself over and over, right after fighting so hard to claim the previous version. Hating that version because she was bright-eyed, courageous, and tenacious in her efforts to both hope and try, and she's gone. Disappointment drained her and still is.

This post ends unsatisfyingly because that's exactly what this season of journeying through faith is. A push and pull to please God. Wanting to and hating to try. Failing miserably, and the wax and wane between apathy and reverence.

Deep questioning and worry that I'm getting it wrong again. Life. The trying of life. The working, the waiting, the trying to push toward happiness, to move a season forward toward something akin to joy. Feeling both responsible for and at the mercy of whatever makes for healing.

Grief. Silence. Aloneness. The void.

God says He's in this with me, even here (Hebrews 13:5). I can't feel Him.

 
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from G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y

First thing I noticed was the missing pattern on old man Kovsky's headdress in a couple panels.

Then there was the panel where mechanical claw attached to the alien's forearm wasn't a claw at all; it was just a normal hand.

And Mickie Stardust's name in another instance was misspelled Mickey.

Horrified, I went through the entire graphic novel yet again, maybe my 10th time at this point, and all the horrendous mistakes were glaring and terribly embarrassing; typos galore, stiff bits of dialogue, all too confusing scenes and instances of wonky pacing.

Like painting, I'm fully aware that the only true deciding factor in the “doneness” of any work of art is when the artist says so, and it is often the case that an artist must step back and let go. And I wanted to let go, but I couldn't bring myself to, so the past week has been a deep spiral of edits and alterations in THE SOLAR GRID that I almost can't believe I didn't realize were necessary the first time around. The bad news is that none of these changes will be reflected in the serialized edition(s). The good news is we'll be seeing them in the collected edition (maybe mark it as “refined and expanded” or some such). Also, anyone who purchased the digital edition can easily be sent an updated file.

I might do a log of all the final changes made right here on the blog when I'm done. Two more pages of redrawing remain before I do a final pass.

This, I suppose, is the problem when you're the only pair of eyes working on a nearly 500-page graphic novel. 🙃

#work #comix #tsg

 
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from An Open Letter

As we have talked more, there have been more things that we are compatible with, and I think this is going in the direction of a proper relationship! I am a little bit nervous of a couple things, mostly with the emotional stability or maturity, part, but there’s nothing like strictly bad, it could go either way. I guess I’m grateful I am taking things slow because I will hopefully be able to get an accurate view into things, or at least that’s the hope.

 
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