Thursday 16 August 2012

I Got A Result!

Today was results day. I won't babble on too much to cut a long story short I got a very unexpected result. The story all starts way back in Feb of this year, I decided I wanted to go to University and so within a week I'd set up my late UCAS app and sent it off to two Uni's, Derby as my first option and De Montfort as my back up.

Sadly, Derby being my first option I was slightly disappointed when just a week later they sent back with an unsuccessful and I thought any hope of going to Uni was lost. Then came the conditional offer for De Montfort, which for those of you who don't know meant that as long as I met a condition set then I would be going to De Montfort.

The rest of the terms later, I'd put in my work for Media in hopes of meeting the condition (a B) so that I could get into my Uni that was good enough. The second option but hey it was still an option right?

So when I went to collect my results today and found that I had a C and was only one mark off a B you can imagine my first reaction; my heart pounded and somewhere within me tears wanted to form in my eyes and at the back of my head there was this voice telling me to just give up and soak up in all the negativity that this suggested. Instead I took a deep breath and accepted why I could feel so sad but instead as usual I refused to give up hope.

As soon as I got home I rang in to numerous clearance hotlines, trying my utmost to find a place that would suit me. De Montfort turned me down right away without another consideration, but Derby on the other hand listened. Derby took in my results and told me that with what I had achieved I could now be given a verbal offer to join the University.

Let's just review this a second; I didn't get the grade I needed to get to get into my second best Uni but somehow I got a grade that single handedly led me to getting into the Uni I had originally hoped to get into.

The Universe works in an odd way my friends. I should feel disappointment for what I got today and I know that part of me is wanting sympathy. Truth is I don't need it. That part of me is being stupid because I got what I wanted, I have come this far and now I am going on farther so what is there to complain about?

I would just like to thank everyone,  my girlfriend Alissa, my parents, my friend Jacob, my tutors Claudine, Phil, Martin and Ben for all of the support they have given me. I'd like to thank them for all the good times and all the fantastic things that I have learnt and the undying faith they have in me.

It is people like this, people who look after me to the extent where they make me feel special. My gratitude expands so far to them because they believe in me and I believe in myself because of them. Thank you world for the opportunities I have, thank you all for reading todays blog, heres to the future, the future of wonderful attractions and the strange ways I'll get to my goal, I'm living my life to the full....and it all starts here!

Wednesday 15 August 2012

How to relieve Negativity

Negativity can be such a hard thing to over come, whether you suffer from depression, anxiety or even anger, controlling it can really be a pain. I personally have suffered with anxiety and like many humans get angry once in a while, I admit I get angry when I've lost something and I'm ripping the house apart to find it or I'm hurt when people say harsh things to me.

What I mean to say is that is how I used to be. Using the LOA can work not only in attracting what you want but attracting happy and positive emotions too. I spoke in a previous post about daily lists of attractions, if you carry your list where ever you go and mark things off as you attract them and add things when you want things you'll be surprised at how good it makes you feel. Jot it down now on your list "I want to be happy all day".

Now that you've written down your goal for the day the Law of Attraction will know what you want and not what you don't want. If you're still wondering why writing a goal down on a piece of paper and carrying it around you will do any good I'll share with you the best experience I've had with these lists in the last few days.

I have suffered from anxiety and the worst daily symptoms I have ever had are stomach aches. I'd get crippling pains in my stomach that sometimes stopped me from even walking, they'd upset and depress me and I'd always go "I've got a stomach ache", it kind of became common knowledge to me and my loved ones. When I got my list I wrote down, I want a clear stomach. The entire day went by and I experienced no pain at all, in fact right now even though I'm hungry and still waiting to have breakfast, my pains are none existent.

For me this feels like a miracle. If you want to counter the negativity within your life, pinpointing it is the first step. I want you to think now, if you're angry what are you angry about? If you're sad what are you sad about, if you've got a pain in your body when was the last time you verbalised it? I'm going to take some of the most major situations that can come of these questions and try and help you see that there is always a positive somewhere.

Say you're angry about a mate who has stabbed you in the back, or a lover who walked out on you then think to yourself, is being angry helping you? Is it hurting them as much as it's hurting you? Either way if you're sitting there choosing to feel the anger at that person then ultimately the LOA is picking up on your feelings and send YOU more things to be angry about, now that you know this you can choose to be happy.

Finding it hard? Just think about the silliest positive you can think of; at least I had the friend, at least I can put it down to experience, at least I can let their negative act go out to the LOA and give THEM the negative energy.

And this works for anything, if you're sad for example about the loss of a loved one and its making you depressed just thinking about them, think about the good times, maybe meditate and feel the emotions of the good times, celebrate in your head the fact you knew and loved this person.

Finally if you have a bad pain and you see that you're verbalising it to people or even thinking about it to yourself your just bringing that pain back, write down now on a piece of a paper, I want a pain free day and expect it. Because as soon as you expect it the universe will do it for you.


Tuesday 14 August 2012

Being Thankful is Easy!

I'm always talking about what I want in these blogs. Those of you who have been following this from the start will also realise what else I talk about; what I'm thankful for. What inspires me. The thing is, that in this life all of us tend to look straight towards the negatives, we'll focus on what we want and what our subconscious tells us is that we're never going to get it unless we work really hard at getting it and nothing comes without hard work right?

Well I agree that nothing comes with some form of work, but by no means does it have to be hard, what I mean to say is although the work can be tough sometimes, the work doesn't have to be without pleasure. The definition of the word work is as follows:

Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

Now where in that sentence does it say anything negative? There is nothing wrong with a bit of work, if that mental or physical effort is making you feeling bad you're working all wrong, what you want to be doing is working in a way that you enjoy, having fun while you do it, sure it is effort but something we all seem to start thinking is things like: I need to have any job at all to get money, money isn't going to come easy you know? I have bills to pay!

Thing is here I am telling you that you don't have to have a life that is only good enough. Sure, right now you're probably saying but I can't help it Allan, I need my job to live. No. You need your money to live. By no means am I saying quit your job, at the minute it's true you need the money and if that's what you're living off don't quit the job but apply the Law of Attraction and work at it to get the job that you want.

Between me and you, in two days I get my results for my Media exam. Since I started college I've been agreeing that I can get a B because I'm ok at it, I haven't said ooo I'm so good I deserve an A, I've been way too worried about the disappointment to even aim to get an A at all. But since I started applying the Law of Attraction I have dared to say that I will get an A. I have dared to want an A and that is the first step to me attracting it.

The other thing I have done is meditate because that helps me relieve the little bit of negative worry and the doubt at the back of my thoughts, it also gives me chance to visualise getting that A, to train myself to expect an A. This here is the Law of Attraction at work. I currently have no idea of my results but I will trust in the LOA to bring what I have asked for.

Finally the be all and end all of this process. I take time to thank the universe/God/the Divine/Allah/Buddah/my greater self for the opportunity I've had.

When I sat and thought, already so many things have happened for me, all the wants I've said and have received, all of the things I've been given and helped to achieve that I should be grateful. I would never be waiting for this Media result if I hadn't been allowed in college, I would never have got into college if it wasn't for what I learnt at Sixth Form and without those all important GCSE's I would never have got into Sixth Form.

So look at that big list of things to be grateful for, all that to attract this one result. What I want you to do is say what you want for example -

"I want the job of my dreams"

-now from that want, think of what you already have and allow yourself to be thankful for it. For the above example it could be-

"Thank you for my current job"
"Thank you for the people at my job"
"Thank you for the interviews I've had"
"Thank you for my experience"
"Thank you for the support I've been give"
"Thank you for helping me try"

Just about anything and everything that you can be grateful for think it and thank. Thank, thank, thank because I want does get. But I want doesn't get is a term mainly told to spoilt brats, the difference between a spoilt brat and someone who gets what they want is gratitude.

Monday 13 August 2012

Trust in the LOA

Today yet another miracle was at work. I am currently trying to set up my own business where you can pay for me to coach you to use the Law of Attraction. The website will give you access to a free ebook which will explain the basics about accessing the genie with in the lamp of your life. Myself and my girlfriend were looking for places to print good business cards for a reasonable price and the best one we found was vista print.

Now vista print looked great, but even at the price of £20 per 1000 cards it seemed a little bit out of my depth a first.

But not to worry! The law of attraction was in action! When I arrived back at my girlfriends house she had a parcel that had come in the post from Amazon, upon opening the parcel below and behold there it was; a voucher from Vista print, ready to take 90% of that price down. I was baffled and amazed and filled up with a sense of great gratitude.

This Law of Attraction thing really works. Starting to believe in it makes you question how surreal life really is? Have we been living in a reality that is way too normal? Sadly some don't believe in the Law and this brings chances of it working for you down to zero.

Don't be one of those people! Trust in the law of attraction and watch this space for the FREE ebook and my website coming very soon.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Daily lists of Attraction

Today was another wonderful day! Remember that goal I set on my first post? For those of you who are new that was basically that I wanted my new film to get 100,000 views over the internet (although more are welcome I really don't mind) well the movie hasn't been posted yet however there have been a few mini things that I've attracted to help it run smoothly and market it.

First of all I took a trip to Wasall to do some shooting with an old friend of mine. We got to use his camera and he used his editing skills on our teaser trailer which I thought my first aim should be to attract merely 200 views to this trailer within the first week. We got 234 in the first three days of it being up which satisfied me but then the view count just stopped going up and I realised that I'd been silly and only asked for 200 views.

I mean I attracted and that's fantastic but why didn't I just try asking for 1000 views, so today I am going to make myself a daily attraction list. What is this?

Well to sum it up, I'm going to write 5 things to attract per day, just silly little things like today I want an ice cream or today I want to meet someone and put a smile on their face. I will do my best to attract 5 things a day and have an overall goal for the end of the month. Why don't you try joining me? Get a note book and, in the words of Joe Vitale, dare something worthy.

My goal for the end of the month is to attract over 1000 views for my teaser trailer. So come on, together lets aim to attract the best, 5 things a day and make sure they're mostly in your reach.

At the start of this post I explained that several different things have already been helping my goal to be attracted towards me. For instance every day has been a sunny one and ran fairly smoothly, there have been only 2 or 3 bumpy spots (we lost the glasses my character wears and so there I was getting only slightly stressed by the whole thing) but guess what? My Dad had some glasses we could borrow that filled the shoes of the old ones perfectly so there was no need to panic and just more things to be grateful for.

Today I met a bunch of inspirational and lovely people. I believe that in some way all of us are inspirational, we just need to tap into the best side of others. Once you see how amazing life is life becomes amazing. This project has been the smoothest I've ever run and I have confidence that it will be as successful as I intend it to be. Sure my friend may have tripped over and destroyed some of my sound equipment but this just made me realise I need a new camera so I've put an order in with the Law of Attraction and expect it to arrive anytime now.

So lets get some daily attractions in and have funning using that amazing force of the universe, the law of attraction.

Friday 10 August 2012

It's not your problem!

Do you believe that what goes arounds comes around? Do you judge people by their actions and never forgive and forget? Has someone ever hurt you so bad that you are angry with them and just don't want to know them anymore? Maybe you tried your own form of revenge or chose to give someone a "taste of their own medicine? 

What about bullies? People at school/work who go out of their way to make your life miserable, people who just love to call you names and manipulate you to feel negative emotions. We all have to have these kinds of humans in our life but it is how we react to them that matters. For instance, if you're called fat by someone and that hurts, it's only hurting because you allow make you see their views and somehow agree with them. 

It's either that or the pure principle that someone would say that. these people go out of their way to make your life a living hell, pushing your boundries forever treating you badly and you are naturally hurt, angry or upset by this and start telling others about how one person said this and another did this and you're forgetting that while the saying "sticks ad stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" may be true, you're making what they say come true by giving these people the time of day. 

If they want to try and hurt you, then that's their problem. What if I told you that it really doesn't matter what they think or how they treat you, at the end of the day that is THEIR problem. Think right now, if a person treated you like dirt would you automatically treat them like dirt? If they did something would you try and emulate what they did in some form or way just to prove a point? 

I know that most of you would because I can honestly admit without thinking twice I would. The beauty of it is, is that unlike others you've read this blog and now you're fully prepared for these people, I'm about to offer you a way of thinking that will make you smile when these people try and ridicule and upset you, it will put you straight ahead of the other person and you will always come out of these experiences with the better life. 

Think about it this way; when they mock you, or focus their energy on trying to bring you down, or just generally treat you un-politely, they are sending these thoughts out to the universe and only attracting a life that is either awful or only good enough, these people just can't see the good side of their life so they take it out on you and the rest of the population and that truly is their problem. 

Now when you stop for a moment and look at the situation like that you see that no matter what they do or how they treat you, you must not repeat how they treat or talk of them badly. Don't even think of them badly because when you think of them badly the negativity goes to the law of attraction and starts to work against you. 

We're all human beings living alongside each other and we choose how we feel about things, if you're angry stop for a moment and think about how that hinders you and just favours them. Stop and realise that these people are merely humans with the problem, don't make their problem yours, because you deserve the best life possible. Live it to the full and allow other people to live with their problems but don't become one your self.

Thursday 9 August 2012

The Law of Attraction at work!


Today, I felt the full flow of the Law of Attraction. Several things have happened in the past few days that have allowed me to live an easy and very positive life, I feel this will be one of many. For starters I needed the whether to be sunny so I asked the Law of Attraction for a sunny day; well it was most certainly bright and hot because my nose is now red raw with sun burn (no worries though it doesn't hurt).

Making short films is a hobby of mine and in the past before I learnt of the Law of Attraction in full detail, things would either be a fluke or go fantastically bad. I had to do everything on a whim and pay out a heck of a lot to maintain the quality of production in my films and not just this there was often a clash between cast and crew members and many arguments ensued.

Today however things ran smoothly from the start, the cast arrived bright and early giving us a chance to rehearse lines and get ready to head to the first location, upon getting to the location we found that the corn that was once in the field had been cut nicely to make the effect that we needed, probably the best part of today was when we arrived at the second location where we realised that we'd most likely have to rush the scene due to the fact we could only just afford a two hour ticket, we were struggling to find money to even pay the £2.50 at all and so I thought to the Law of Attraction I want to be able to pay for our parking. 

After fishing through all of our pockets we managed to muster up the change but this isn't the most magical part because just after I head out to pay for the ticket, a nearby visiter claimed they had accident paid for a day ticket and they were leaving, the offered to us that we could take it and use it instead of paying. Thanking the woman and the universe we stuck the ticket in my car and had the entire day to shoot one of the most important scenes. 

This in itself fills me with inspiration and happiness, I really feel happy for what the universe has done for me and what I have received, certain negative moments of the day didn't matter due to the fact I just put it down to learning and asked the Law of Attraction to put it right for me. 

In all I've already got a lot of what I wanted, the new teaser trailer to my film has been released and already grossed 200 views in the last day, what a fantastic beginning to this film and a brilliant inspirational set of positivity that has already been showered upon it, 

Here's to the other filming days, thank you one and all for reading this blog, thank you universe for everything that you do, thank you for the inspiration other directors and writers and giving me, thanks for allowing me to discover something I have so much passion for, I must say I just thank everything with all of my heart. 

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Method to this Madness

The first time I met my car I asked it what it's name was, it told me that it's name (like all cars) is the last three letters in the licence plate, therefore my cars name is WUT, however she told me she likes to be called Wiley and since then we formed a fantastic partnership, I've been in a few sticks in the three months that we've been on the road together but each time we've come out of it raring to go and full of confidence.

I can imagine you are all thinking that I'm crazy, what is this? You're talking to an object! A machine! Are you mad? 

In all honesty one could argue I'm a little loopy for doing this, for talking to my car and acting almost as if it were a living person with it's own personality. But I ask you not to judge me just yet, because there is a reason for this so called "madness" and I will be delighted to explain myself and hopefully I can convince you that talking to items and objects will help your life immensely.

One thing that we need in using the Law of Attraction is gratitude. Thinking about the positives that we currently have in our lives and actually focusing on them, feeling grateful and soaking up how fantastic our current situation truly is allows us to be thankful about it and being thankful, feeling gratitude, convinces the Law of Attraction to give us more things that we can be thankful for.

Now, you're probably wondering what exactly this has to do with me talking to my car? Well the truth is, when I talk to my car and imagine that my car is a real living person, I have something to direct my gratitude towards, if I'm going along a road and the sat nav tells me to turn left a little too late and instantly I'm spinning my wheel, almost skidding around the corner and juddering like mad but do I stall? No. Because I was grateful to the car, I treat it as my partner, helping me arrive from one place to another.

With this sense of partnership, I'm using another part of the Law of Attraction; when you think dominant thoughts you get the vibe of that thought right back, the twin of the thought is the emotion that you are feeling, when I'm feeling happy or glad or relieved with my car its sending out that signal to the Law of Attraction which will automatically give me more good times in my car and keep my car running a lot longer than it would normally; just acknowledging the car and sending it feelings of happiness and gratitude help make my driving life more fun and pleasurable.

So why don't you try it? Try talking to your toothbrush in your head when you brush your teeth, thank it for the great job it's doing. Or in your head tell the kettle that its doing a great job boiling that water or tell your that it tastes really nice and you're so thankful to it.

You might feel a little odd at first, but once you start to appreciate your environment and every little detail of this lovely planet we live on your reality begins to shape into a fantastically positive one! Remember feeling mad can be justified if there is a method to it (an extremely positive one!)

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Get a Lucky Item!

Ever had a mate or colleague who wears lucky socks to help them out at a job interview or to calm their nerves when they go somewhere, or who has a lucky penny they picked up off the street hoping to find good fortune? Or have you ever owned one yourself and felt so confident when you go out because literally nothing bad can happen to you, you're untouchable and oh look you found a twenty pound note on the floor and that spirals you off into a whole day of just luck luck luck!

Some of you might have even woken up and just have the worst morning, they all start with the pointless little things like the milk has gone sour, or you stubbed your toe as you got out of bed or just anything that can annoy you at such an early hour. What follows is you have a bad day and the negativity just keeps coming back for more.

Do you ever wish that life was like that Harry Potter book where Harry gives Ron that good luck potion and he just has the best day, the best thing is even in the Harry Potter universe the Law of Attraction is working. Because in the book Ron has the best luck, thinking he's drank the potion to give him luck but really Harry has just tricked him to us his confidence and that's the little trick you need if you want to sustain a lucky item.

So come on, lets get that lucky item made shall we. I want you to find a memory, any memory at all, maybe it was having a good laugh in the park with your mates or the best interview you ever had or just any memory that has had a positive impact on your life. Now that you have the memory I want you to get a piece of paper and spider diagram all kinds of things that go with this positive memory- you can be as abstract as you like just take a pen and write away, all kinds of stuff, here's an example of how random it can be;

When I first met my wife- the park- a bench- a piece of wood- the log fire

So just use your imagination, write down the most obvious connections to each word that you can possibly think of. Finally I want you to bring the ideas to something that can be an easy to obtain object, using the example above you can see that I've written a piece of wood/ the log fire. I could easily go out and find a piece of wood or I can easily go out and get a picture of a log fire to stick in my wallet.

Now that you have come up with what the item can be using a significant memory I want you to get the item that you want to you and hold it in your hands. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to relax your body and empty your mind; imagine the memory in as best detail as you can and allow yourself to let the happiness sweep over you, let the memory consume you and feel as good as you possibly can.

Once you have finished thinking of the memory slowly open your eyes and put the lucky item in your pocket or anywhere where you can take it out. When you feel like you are having a bad day, take it out and remember the memory that it connects to, automatically your subconscious will connect it to this positive memory and that energy will consume you rendering you one of the luckiest people.

Just trust in your item, believe that it's lucky, be grateful for the positivity and the memory that bought you this item and you'll never be short on luck.

Monday 6 August 2012

The Power of Meditation

So on my first day of the journey to attracting my aims and ambitions in life, I decided to try and teach myself a new skill which should prove quite useful. In order for the Law of Attraction to truly work it's magic I need to live a fully positive lifestyle, any negative energy needs to be dealt with and lets face it negativity will someone try and creep into our lives at one point or another.

What I learnt today was a very valuable way to rid myself of the bad stuff and truly feel at one with the universe.

I decided to have a quick read up on meditation, so I grabbed the kindle, typed out a search and went looking for the best meditation book I could find (always go for the best) and just read the basic principles for beginners, if you don't fancy buying a book or reading try You Tube, they have some pretty interesting basics and some nice music to listen to as you get yourself into the relaxed mood.

Now I don't know anything about meditation at all and I've never tried it before today, so what happened was quite remarkable. I sat on a cushion in the upright position, ready and alert. I closed my eyes and started to focus on my breathing trying to relax myself and get myself into the mood as naturally as possible. From what I had read some for of prayer of connection to the divine is needed and  so I spoke to God within my head. I thanked him for all of the lovely things that he has given me in this life, I told him that I was very grateful for the world he has placed me in, for putting me in an era where the technology is so good it allows me to make films, I thanked him for my relationships and thought of all of the wonderful things life has already bought me.

After this process of concentrating on what I already had and feeling grateful I began to imagine the air that I breath in as yellow energy and what I breathed out was red energy. The red energy was the negative influences that were in my body, I could feel a slight ache within my stomach and I imagined it to be a pit of red energy. Breathing in would suck up some of the red energy from my stomach and breathing out would expel it out of my body.

I continued to do this for about 5-10 minutes allow myself to be completed relaxed until finally my imagination saw myself surrounded by blue energy. The blue energy meant that I had reached total purity, I enjoyed breathing in and out the pure energy until eventually I felt ready to be awakened from the meditation process.

For those of you who do not believe in this technique I would like to give you what my scientific theory is on this subject, why is it that from only breathing in and out, using my imagination, I was able to get rid of the stomach ache I was experiencing?

The way I see it is the mind controls the body, without your mind you would not be able to even make sense of your current reality. I believe that my using your imagination you are making your mind focus on the "red energy" as the negative and tricking it to believe that you are relieving yourself of the negativity therefore it believes that the pain is no longer nessecery and the simple thoughts of expelling the red energy become the reality.

This in itself proves the true power of your mind. Today I learnt that the mind is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal and for those of us who use it properly we are bound to succeed and have a wonderful and abundant life.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to read this post guys, until tomorrow... Ciao!

I want DOES get!

Hey there one and all,

I want doesn't get! That's something that we've all heard at one point and the chances are we've been brought up thinking that way; I want doesn't get, you have to earn money doing whatever job you can find to pull in just enough money to survive, no amount of wishing will bring in the dough!

But what if I was to say I want does get!! 


Most peoples first reaction to this is they frown at me and laugh at my "stupidity". Why is this? Why don't they accept that by wanting things we can get them? It's because they've grown up to see it as stupidity and by seeing it in that negative point of view they have subconsciously pushed every majorly good opportunity away. I don't know what your reaction was to the name of this blog but if you frown upon this idea then don't worry you're one of many.

The Law of Attraction is the force at work here, the one that shapes the life that you lead. For those of you new to this concept, the Law of Attraction is a universal force that reacts to you conscious and subconscious thoughts and emotions; it feels the vibe you are giving and throws the same vibe right back towards you.

Whoa, whoa, whoa Allan! Slow down, vibe? What do you mean vibe?

Thoughts have a vibe. If you're thinking and feeling happy thoughts then you are sending positive vibes out to the universe (which in turn using the Law of Attraction) is sending them sailing right back towards you making your life positive and abundant. Most of the time however you are sending out negative thoughts and emotions because thats the natural thing for us humans to do.

Right, so you're telling me that if I think happy thoughts I'll become rich and famous and have whatever I want?


Not exactly, no. Although happy affirmative thoughts are certainly the first step to having what you want, there's a little more involved.

I don't believe you.


This is a reaction I get a lot of the time. But let me tell you something I'm here to prove the Law of Attraction works!


And how do you propose to do that?


I'm going to write in this blog daily, I'm going to update the world on my progress on achieving what I want in life. My name is Allan Rafferty and I am 19 years old, I currently live with my parents, I'm unemployed and make short films as a hobby. My biggest ambition in life is to become a writer, I want to write screenplays for a TV series that I have created.

What I have just spoke about is just a few things that I would like to attract into my life. I'm going to be 100% honest with you, I'll be exploring the Law Of Attraction by taking my life and throwing it into the deep end, getting straight on to attracting my first major goal.

The first goal I'm setting is for the film I'm working on, Rise of The Euphonious Angel, to be a big hit and a success all over the web. From this moment, I, Allan Rafferty have no idea just how this project is going to go and where it is going to take me, but by using the Law of Attraction I'm going to aim for it to get 100,000 views on You Tube by Christmas 2012!

Stay tuned guys and join me as I undertake this personal quest to prove to you all that you can attract what you want and live a truly abundant life. The experiment begins now!