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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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If you are doing them the soulmate fic starter 3 or 9 for rexwalker? I love all your star wars stuff so much

soulmate au prompts

3. the one where you and your soulmate have matching marks on your bodies. 9. the one where your soulmate’s last words to you are written on your body.

Featuring marginally-less-terrible Jango with more excuses than usual.

------

The Kaminoans hate soul marks.

Rex knows this from the day he knows to ask. The Nulls and Alphas don’t have any soul marks, just scars where there was once a promise. The eldest clones have records, at least, where the scientists had taken photos before beginning th surgeries, but the marks themselves are long gone.

Prime had found out about the removals and thrown a fit, raging so intensely that Nala Se had ended up intubated from the damage he’d dealt, and she hadn’t been the only one. Rex isn’t old enough to remember that, but Cody is, and he whispers the story in the dead of night more than once. Nobody likes Prime very much, except Boba, but that’s one of the few instances they can point to and say ‘he cares more than he likes to admit.’

It’s anathema on Mandalore, one brother claims, a light in his eyes that Rex hasn’t ever seen before. That’s what I heard him telling one of the aruetti trainers.

So is refusing your children so much as a name, another grouses, and the conversation dies an ugly little death. So is letting your children die just because you don’t think they’re good enough. So is turning your back from even letting them be part of your house, let alone part of your clan. Sounds like he cares more about our soul marks than he does for our lives.

Rex doesn’t know how to address that. He does get a personal visit from Prime, one day, gets asked to show his little marking to the man that is, in some ways, his father.

“Another one,” Jango Fett mutters to the trainer that came with him, the woman holding a datapad and ready to record whatever it is that they’re looking for. He passes a thumb over the marking, frowning. “A lightsaber, lit white, with pale blue halo, between a set of symbolic Jaig eyes. The eyes are dark blue, slightly desaturated. I think they’re meant to frame it like an exaggerated beskad crossguard.”

“Sir?” Rex asks.

“That makes six,” Jango says, still so quiet, and then shakes his head. “Thank you for showing me, 7567.”

“Rex,” he corrects, before he can second-guess himself. “I’m Rex.”

“Thank you, Rex.”

------

The rumors say that anyone with a lightsaber soul mark is going to have a jedi for a soulmate.

Rex isn’t sure how true that is, but he’s eager to find out.

Prime gets more erratic, more unpleasant at times and almost awkwardly nice at others. Rex meets the others who got Jedi soul marks. He’s the youngest, so far.

Jango tells them all to hide the markings, and to keep them secret. They’d already all known that much, that only batchmates should be told about soul marks. All the adults that should know already do, after all.

“Where’s your dad going?” Rex asks once, when Boba’s been handed over to Cody’s squad for looking after while Prime goes haring off on some trip that nobody gets to know about. Rex hangs out with Cody’s squad more than his own batch, it feels like, but that’s a whole thing that he’s not supposed to talk about since the late transfer to command track.

“Dunno,” Boba says, kicking his feet back and forth. “My soul mark came in. Something about it made him really angry, I think.”

Rex doesn’t ask to see it.

It’s not his place.

------

The Alpha batch is getting quieter, angrier, and end up in hushed conversations with Prime and some of the trainers so often that the rumors start up harder than before. Rex keeps his head down, because the Kaminoans get antsier when Jango does. Soul marks come up more often, and Rex gets called in to talk to the Alpha clones about his mark. He’s not supposed to, but Prime says it’s important, and Prime is in charge.

“Oh, is that all it took?” one of the Alphas sneers, and Prime shoots them a look that has Rex taking a few hasty steps back. The Alpha clone isn’t even fully grown yet, by natborn standards, but they don’t back down. “What, ready to stop being a dar’buir--”

“That’s enough,” Prime says, low and hard, and the Alpha clone rolls their eyes. “There’s a child here.”

“So now you care about that?”

Rex is escorted back to his rooms.

------

Decommissioning finally stops, for all that it requires Jango almost decapitating a Kaminoan, and someone Rex hopes he never sees again shows up.

(His memory is blurred. He’s sure the man was human, and tall. Elderly enough to have white hair, probably? A... there was fabric that swished when he turned, something dramatic, but...)

(He is not the only one that cannot remember.)

It takes years for anything else to come of it all... at least where the clones can see.

------

Rex is fully grown, as far as clones go. His aging is supposed to slow down to ‘natborn normal’ now, because he’s reached his full height and most of his brainpower, and he’s officially old enough to fight on the field if the war starts tomorrow.

It might.

“Hey, look up.”

Rex listens, and looks, and sees a natborn with Nala Se, pale skinned and with reddish hair, soaked to the bone. They wear robes, brown and heavy-looking. Even as he watches, another natborn jogs up from behind, also sodden and pale, but with darker hair that sticks up despite the water. A third joins them, a tad slower and more controlled; this one wears all white, and they--maybe she?-- are slight and small and poised in a way that Rex thinks might be how a natborn leader carries themselves, if they aren’t a soldier.

They pass on through the walkway, showing emotions that the Kaminoans can’t read and the clones absolutely can. None of it is... good.

“Shit,” someone mutters. “That was a Jedi.”

“Venn--”

“What if they don’t want us?”

------

Rex is called to Prime’s rooms.

He tries not to look at the wide eyes of the brothers he’s been gossiping with, just stands and pulls on his full kit. He hesitates at his bucket, but then pops it on and marches to what might be his doom. It’s probably not.

He hopes it’s not.

He knocks, and is let in by Boba, and sits down on the couch when Prime tells him to. He removes his helmet when asked. Boba hops up onto the couch between Rex and his father, and leans in against Rex’s side.

There’s a list on the table, one he recognizes, quickly writing out all the paired elements on the Jedi-Clone soul marks. Nobody who isn’t already involved in the project would know it. He spots the ‘yellow tickets’ that Bly got tattooed on his face recently, the ones he won’t claim are or aren’t related to his mark. He spots his own listing of Jaig eyes.

“Prime?”

His... progenitor, maybe, in this situation, looks at him, and holds up a hand. “You saw the list. You can guess why Rex is here.”

Oh. Prime’s using his name without prompting. That’s nice.

“I can’t read it,” the younger Jedi says, with something that might be a pout. Rex wants to roll his eyes, but his helmet is on the table. People would see.

“It’s in Mando’a,” the elder tells him, voice low, and then glances between Rex and the younger Jedi. “Fett, how did you know which one to call? I can guess some things, but--”

“I have a good eye. The hilts are all different. Only one matches.”

“I see.”

Rex fidgets, and tries not to wonder at... at... oh. The younger Jedi’s lightsaber hilt does match Rex’s soul mark.

Boba notices when Rex starts picking at his glove, pressing a finger right to the mark on his wrist, and frowns up at him. He grabs Rex’s hand to still it, and tries to ask a question with his eyebrows. He is mostly unsuccessful.

“Anakin,” the elder Jedi says. Rex still doesn’t know his name. “Your hand, please?”

“Why?”

“...you’ll understand in a minute,” the Jedi says, long-suffering in the way of the trainers who dealt with the youngest cadets. “Your hand. No, the other one.”

“Why do you need my hand?”

“Reasons, Anakin. You there, ah... Rex, was it?”

“Yessir.”

The Jedi flinches. “Right. I suppose I’ll have to get used to that... right, Rex, can you come here? I imagine you know what it is that I’m looking to compare.”

Rex has been taught to listen to Jedi, but he has no idea who he’s supposed to listen to here. The older Jedi is probably in charge, but Rex hasn’t been assigned to anyone yet, so isn’t Prime still technically the closest thing he has to a CO?

He glances at Prime, who just gestures for Rex to go ahead with it.

Rex pulls off a glove, pulls back his sleeve, and bares the symbol on his wrist for inspection.

The younger Jedi’s face morphs from confused irritation to surprise, and then... something Rex doesn’t want to analyze too closely. He’s not sure if it’s wonder or horror. He wasn’t aware the expressions could look so similar.

The Jedi--Anakin--pulls back his own sleeve, moves his wrist to Rex’s and watches as the marks glow faintly from the proximity.

“Looks like Fett was right,” the elder Jedi mutters. He doesn’t sound happy. He looks at the other natborn, the one Rex is pretty sure is a woman, and raises an eyebrow.

She shakes her head, eyes closed.

“You said there were others?” the elder Jedi prompts, and Prime nods. “We are no more open about our marks than most, but I can spot one, maybe two, that I can guess at. I’d need to see the actual markings to confirm, of course, and I imagine that wouldn’t be something anyone would be happy with.”

“The rest can happen naturally,” Prime dismisses. “This was just proof.”

“Not just proof, I hope,” the Jedi mutters. “I’m.. I have to call the Council.”

Rex sees the panic in Anakin’s face, and is seized by the urge to do something, anything, to fix it.

“Obi-Wan, you can’t let them--”

“Nobody’s going to separate you,” the elder Jedi says. Obi-Wan, apparently. “And there’s no ‘let,’ Anakin, they outrank me. Significantly. Right now, I’m concerned about the implications of this war, of multiple of these cloned soldiers that have been indoctrinated to fight for and serve the Jedi having soulmates among us, especially given that I have no idea how recently our wartime protocols on such things were updated. There is an entire army that is supposedly in our name, ordered by a man ten years dead.”

“Count Dooku is involved,” Prime says, dark and satisfied and petty. “Calling himself Darth Tyrannus. The Kaminoans mostly believe he is an isolated and reclusive Jedi Master that serves as their contact when Sifo-Dyas is unavailable.”

The Jedi named Obi-Wan closes his eyes and breathes deeply, and then stands. “Right. That’s... well, alright, I absolutely have to call the Council now.”

Prime smiles, pulling Boba into his side. Rex finds himself tugged down to sit where Obi-Wan had been a few moments earlier.

“Why are you telling us all this?” the natborn woman says. “This Count sounds like he hired you, did he not?”

“The project predated his involvement, but yes, he’s my supervisor, so to speak.” Prime smiles that same dark smile, runs a hand over Boba’s head and pointedly doesn’t look at Obi-Wan. That smile is... unpleasant. Rex doesn’t want to look at it, and so he looks down to the faint glow at his wrist instead. “Did you know, they told me the clones would be sub-sentient and halfway to droids? Not really people? That my DNA was for the bodies, but the minds would be little more than lines of code? Do you know how much they hated that I saw the evidence of their lies written into my children’s skin?”

Rex jolts, head whipping about and hand pulling away from his soulmate, staring at Prime, his mouth agape in a way a soldier’s shouldn’t but--but he’s--

Rex has never, ever heard the Prime refer to any of them except Boba as his child. His copies, his echoes, his clones, but not his children.

A hand curls into his, and he looks down to find Anakin’s lacing their fingers together. He looks up into a hopeful, unsure smile.

Anakin tilts his head and leans in, lips to Rex’s ear, and says, “When I told Obi-Wan he was like a father to me, he didn’t even know how to respond. Just made a bad joke about it and then pretended it didn’t happen. Is this the same?”

“...close enough,” Rex breathes out, because now isn’t the time to explain just how different a clone’s existence is from what they’ve seen in the holos meant to prepare them for interacting with civilians. That ‘family’ here has always been brothers, your squad and any brother that chooses to take you on, or a brother you choose to nurture, that the Alphas raise them more than Prime or the trainers do, that the older squads are who they turn to because the adults won’t help, that they don’t have parents, and they are discouraged from thinking of children in their futures.

(Protecting intellectual property, one of the scientists had mused. They’d made it very, very difficult for any of the clones to impregnate a partner. Not impossible, because to make it impossible was itself impossible, but... nearly so.)

“There’s millions of us,” Rex says instead. “He doesn’t... he doesn’t usually acknowledge most of us as his.”

Anakin’s face twists, already angry, and the glare he aims at Prime is ghastly. Rex might already be a little in love, just for that. The way Anakin’s fingers squeeze around his is nice, too.

Prime does not notice.

“Can I see the contract you say you signed?” the natborn woman says, and Prime eyes her. He nods, at length, weighing her worth and finding she measures up to whatever it is that he’s decided is necessary.

“Boba, go pack like we’re going on a hunt,” Prime says, pulling out a personal datapad and only dropping his gaze to find the right file. “We’ll probably be leaving tonight.”

“Okay, buir,” Boba says, sliding off the couch. “Am I telling the Alphas the thing you said?”

“No, I’ll handle that myself. You just pack.” He stands, nods to the natborn woman, and moves around the table. “Senator, I’ll sit with you, if you don’t mind. I imagine you and Knight Kenobi are the best suited to get this problem fixed.”

“And me?” Anakin demands.

“You,” Prime says, with a just a hint of condescending drawl. “have just met your soulmate. I assumed you’d want some privacy to get to know each other.”

Anakin flushes, a little angry and a lot embarrassed. It’s frighteningly cute. “I--I mean--I don’t--”

“The clones are mentally the ages they look, but do remember they’ve had practically no time to gain any sort of experience,” Prime says, already ignoring them in favor of pointing something out on the datapad to the senator. “Take advantage of any of my kids, and I’ll be the one hunting you down. I’m told I’m rather good at it.”

Anakin’s face does some acrobatics. Rex would pay more attention, but he can feel himself turning just as red.

“Rex, you know where the private meeting room is,” Prime says, and waves a hand in the direction of the tiny, tiny office that’s by the door. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Be nice,” the Senator hisses, smacking Prime’s arm.

“He’s ten.”

“...still.”

Rex just stands and pulls Anakin away to the little room before things can get worse.

They’re delayed when Obi-Wan asks what they’re doing from the kitchen he’s been using to get a spot of privacy, but then Anakin says “we’re just going to talk, Master,” and they get an aggrieved sigh and a response of “the clothes stay on, padawan, and you’ll need to finish up whatever conversation you have soon, there’s work to do and being a padawan only excuses you from so much.”

Rex backs into the meeting room, yanks Anakin in, and then decides to throw caution to the wind and just press their lips together.

Oh.

Okay.

He’s kissing back.

Lack of caution: good.

The mark at his wrist thrums, warm and comfortable, and Rex pulls away. He stifles the noise he wants to make, and when Anakin whines, small and soft but clearly disappointed, Rex offers him a small grin he knows would get him called ‘shy’ by his asshole older brothers.

“We probably should actually get to know each other,” Rex says. “I don’t even know your last name.”

“I... yeah, I don’t know yours either, unless it’s Fett.”

“It’s not. I don’t have one.”

Anakin’s face does another one of those ‘I’m angry for you’ twists that Rex is quickly coming to recognize, and then he sighs and falls into one of the chairs. “Okay. So. I don’t know much about the soldier life. Tell me about it.”

And he does.

#Rexwalker #Anakin Skywalker #Captain Rex #Jango Fett #Obi Wan Kenobi #Padme Amidala #Soulmate AU #Phoenix Posts #Phoenix Answers Memes #star wars

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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907

Are you one of those lucky people to own a walk-in closet? lol lucky people. No I don’t have one of those. Is there a random object you own that has a huge personal significance? Well it’s more significant today because we had our virtual graduation this morning... so I’ll go with my graduation sash. Ever since I started university I’ve always wanted to wear my own sash in a physical ceremony so again, it sucks that our batch got affected by the pandemic. Do you use Google? For just about everything, yeah. Would you like to go swimming right now? That would be soooooo so nice. I’ve been going through old vacation photos and I really miss the beach. Can you play electric guitar? Nope.

Do you have an HDTV? My parents do. When was the last time you drank something through a straw? Around a month ago when my dad bought milk teas for me and my sister. Have you ever tried to teach yourself a different language? I didn’t teach myself per se, but I have tried my hand learning Spanish on Duolingo several times. It always comes in phases – I get passionate about learning and use the app for weeks, then it kinda burns out after a while. Right now I haven’t used it since I got sick in May. How long was your last phone call? A little longer than an hour, I think. It was pure silence though; we just wanted to hear each other’s surroundings. Do you need to repaint your nails? No, I never get it painted. Has there ever been a horoscope that came true for you? Psh. Are you a fan of industrial metal? Holy shit I feel so stupid right now. I thought this was referring to a literal kind of metal and I thought, that is such an odd thing to be a fan of...Google quickly taught me that it is in fact NOT a material for building infrastructure jdsskfjskf. Anyway, no I am not a fan. Are you one of those people who chew two pieces of gum, not one? Yeah, occasionally. I don’t like how one piece loses flavor all too quickly so I go ahead and pop two in. Do you have a wall calendar? Not since 2008. We only had a wall calendar in our old house; when we moved here we started to rely on digital clocks and our phones to tell the time. Have you ever taken the pictures from a calendar and used them as posters? I haven’t had a calendar like that, so no. I’ve done this with magazines though. Can you handle the cold? Hahaha no, I can’t. I was already in so much pain in 20ºC weather in Sagada, and I fared much worse in 12ºC Japan weather. I would still pick living in a colder climate in a heartbeat over a tropical one, though. Have you ever been to Canada? Nope. Do you believe in superstitions? Just one superstition involving my university that doubles as an inside joke, so it’s not like I take it 100% seriously. It’s a generations-old joke that’s impossible to ignore if you’re a student, so I just jumped in. When was the last time you took a taxi somewhere? It was from the airport to back home, but I forgot where we landed from. Bohol I think? Palawan? I don’t even know anymore. It was so inconvenient I begged my dad that we stop using taxis as transportation for our future trips. Would you ever join the army, airforce or navy? No. How old is the person you last kissed? 22. Is there a friend that you can always rely on to get you out of a jam? I don’t think so. When it comes down to it they all have their own different things going on and I can’t just call them whenever and expect them to come to me, and that’s okay. Generally though, I think my most reliable friends are probably Andrew and Angela. What was the most embarassing thing you've had to buy? I’ve never felt embarrassed by anything I had to buy, but it can get a little uncomfortable trying to buy napkins when my dress or pants are already soaked. I get over it quickly though, since menstruations are normal lol. Have you ever tried to balance the light switch between off and on? When I was a kid. I haven’t tried it in a while. Do you believe in ghosts / supernatural occurences? They’re fun to think about, sure, and I do enjoy watching the supernatural episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved where they go ghost-hunting. I like to think that they somehow exist, but I still also very much maintain my skepticism at all times. Have you ever mistaken a person's gender? I’ve used the wrong pronouns accidentally but I always correct myself and apologize once I’ve noticed my blunder. What was the most expensive thing you've broken? My old iPhones. I’ve also sported a few dents on my car, but I wouldn’t say I broke the car. Has anyone texted you yet today? Not text, but online chat. We had our virtual graduation this morning so my inbox was swamped with congratulatory messages and such. Did you stay calm during the whole swine flu scare? I did, but I mean I was 11 and had no clue how serious it was supposed to be. I remember cheering when they suspended classes for a week because of a local swine flu case, so yep – still ignorant back then. Is there a light on in the room you're currently in? There is, but it isn’t turned on. Are your feet touching the floor? Nope, they’re on the bed. Have you ever been in a car accident? Mild ones, nothing too life-threatening. Do you usually make back-up plans? Yeah man I’m so anxious I always have at least plans A-C lined up in my head and ready to go whenever necessary. Can you focus well in high-stress situations? Usually. Without the aid of mascara, do you have long eyelashes? I do. I get compliments on it all the time too. I didn’t realize it was apparently a nice feature to have until more and more people pointed it out haha. Is there a kind of music you listen to that helps you release your anger? Yeah I have a playlist that’s lined up with all of my favorite loud, angry punk rock music specifically for when I’m pissed off. Are you one of those people who keep their feelings bottled up? I can, particularly whenever I feel like it’s not worth it to blow up. Is one of your friends extremely odd but you love them regardless? Not really. Aya’s pretty weird but I wouldn’t call her extremely odd. Is there anyone you dread going into public with? My mom when she’s mad. Are you a victim of writing run-on sentences? For the most part, I wouldn’t say so. If I write a run-on sentence it’s almost always in an informal setting where I’m more loose with punctuation, like if I’m chatting on IM or writing an answer on here. Still, I try to avoid them and I never do it in a formal situation. Graffiti: an art or an act of vandalism? They can be both. Some people who genuinely just want to fuck around vandalize, like how I’ve seen “Mark <3 Erica” in spray paint on public walls or some similar shit lol. But a lot of graffiti are art as well; many have important messages or symbolisms to say. Do you buy things online? I’ve done it a few times. Not regularly. I like being able to see and touch something before buying it. Are you easily frightened? I definitely am but at the same time I’m really into horror movies and serial killers and a ghost-hunting series? Hahaha it’s weird. I guess I enjoy the thrill that comes with having those interests. Do you have a favorite model? Over the years I’ve loved Elizabeth Jane Bishop, Kiko Mizuhara, Taylor Marie Hill, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and (controversial pick!) Kendall Jenner. Have you ever watched Titanic? So many times. Honestly, one of my favorites. What's your current facebook display picture of? It’s my official graduation photo wearing my graduation sash! :) I finally changed it last Friday after I got the email saying I’m on the list of graduates. How about your IM display picture? My main IM is my Messenger, which also uses my Facebook photo. Is there anyone whose hair you envy? Gabie’s for one. Hers is really smooth and silky and wavy. Would you act in a movie if it offered a role? If I was going to be a mostly unseen extra in a blockbuster film and still be paid like $600 for it, then I don’t see why I wouldn’t take it. Does speaking in front of people make you nervous? Only if there’s going to be an unscripted aspect to it that’ll make me have to come up with answers on the spot, like miting de avances or thesis defense. If I have a script or even just a general gist of what I want to say, I have no problem improvising and speaking in front of a crowd. Can you read in a moving vehicle or does it make you sick? It makes me sick but it hasn’t stopped me before. Have you ever dated someone who was extremely shy? I’m the extremely shy person... Or have you dated someone who took things too fast? I felt that way with Gab at first when she wanted to have sex like two months after we started dating, though I was scared mainly because it was going to be my first time and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable. Now that I’m a little older, two months seems like a healthy amount of time. Does the idea of driving 220 mph sound exciting to you? Sounds terrifying. It could be fun, but only if we’re in the middle of nowhere where there’s loads of space to go that fast and no chance of crashing. Everyone has a weakness, what's yours? Food. Do you or anyone you know have an account on Deviantart? I had classmates in high school who had accounts but I’m not sure if they still have it, or if Deviantart is even still as active as I knew it to be. Thoughts on the Dunkin Donut commercial that says "America runs on Dunkin'"? It’s a creative slogan but if I was American I wouldn’t want a doughnut place claiming to represent my country. It cute though. Do you bother buying movies on DVD anymore or do you just download them? I watch them on Netflix, which is still technically like buying them since we pay for the subscription anyway. Do you listen to Daughtry? No. Do you get your eyebrows waxed? I don’t. Waxing looks so painful to me. How do you take your coffee? Lots of creamer or milk, a little sugar. I like trying out different coffees, but when I’m simply relaxing I do want my coffee as least bitter as possible. If you have a dog, what breed is it? I have an aspin mix, though we never figured out what Kimi’s other half is. And I also have a beagle. Have you found someone who makes you unconditionally happy? I don’t know if 'unconditionally’ is possible but yes, I do have people who make me very happy. Do you have a friend who always seems to be dying their hair? Not anymore. Jo used to dye her hair like every month though and she must have been able to go through the entire rainbow. She looked sooo good in each of the colors. Would you swap names with a friend? I love all their names but I don’t see why that would be necessary. Do you plan on going to university? I did. I graduated today. Guys who wear muscle shirts, yes or no? Idk man, they can wear whatever they want. Are you a fan of Carrie Underwood? No. I liked some of her singles when I was younger, but I’m not a fan in that I have her albums and know her lesser-known songs. Do you make playlists on iTunes? I used to, when I still used iTunes. I make playlists on Spotify now. Have you ever forgotten someone's birthday? I don’t think so. Are you scared of being left behind? Yessir. I’m super competitive, so I hate the feeling. Do you remember your last dream? No. I’m really bad at remembering them unless they’re nightmares or insanely strange. I do know that I dreamt while we were watching mass earlier on the television though, hahaha. Do you know someone who is an obsessed Star Wars fan? So many people in my circle are. Is politics something you don't care about? No. If there’s anything I give tons of fucks about, it’s that. What's a movie/tvshow/book/series that is way overrated? I’ll go with the first things I thought of...in that order: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before; Stranger Things (it’s good, but not as good as people hyped it to be); I don’t really read anymore; and what do you mean by series? Just realized I only gave 2 out of 4 answers lol oh well. Do you think Barbie presents an unhealthy image to young girls? I don’t like how its physical features are still unrealistic; but I appreciate their attempts at diversity. I can’t say it was upsetting seeing a Filipino-themed Barbie :) Is there a pet that you desperately want? All I ever wanted were dogs, and now I’ve got two of them. Would you ever get your bellybutton pierced? Nope. Are you musically talented? Hahahahaha Have you ever shot a gun? Not a real one, so no. Athenna’s dad had this practice gun he used for target practice (duh) and I messed with that a few times. Do you have a friend that always changes their mind last second? That’s Gabie. She’s lucky she’s my girlfriend and that I love her, because it’s actually a big pet peeve of mine. Are you not afraid to voice your opinion? Yup. The only time I don’t say it out loud is if it’s unnecessary and if it’s going to be simply disrespectful. An example would be when my uncle offered to make me a carrot cake for my grad gift, and I just said yes because it was already generous enough for him to offer me a free cake when he runs a food business. In reality it’s not my favorite cake at all; it wouldn’t even be in my top 20. Are you one of those people who are always pushing their limits? Yes, I definitely overwork myself to the point of exhaustion and burnout. But I honestly prefer doing things and being busy than sitting around. Is there a word that you will always find humorous? Bubbling. Because Drake and Josh.

Do you frown upon immature people? Typically. Have you ever slipped on ice and hurt yourself? This may have happened to me once or twice when I was still regularly visiting the ice skating rink at the mall. People were always super nice and helped me get up, though. Do you try to have an intimidating impression? I don’t try. Apparently it’s naturally the vibe I give off. Living in the big city or chilling in the country? BIG CITY. Always the big city. I’ve gone to the country/province so many times; I already know what it’s like there. I’ll always prefer a noisy city. No one seems to obey the legal drinking age, do they? Hahahaha a lot seem not to. I know so many high school kids who’ve had a drink before turning 18. Do you like your country's flag? Sure. I like that we can switch up the colors depending on if we’re at war or not. Have you ever made a totally amazing snow fort? I’ve never even seen snow before. Do you use Bounty Paper Towels? No. Are you the one usually behind the camera or the one in the picture? BEHIND If you get married, will you have a traditional wedding? Traditional, yes. Religious, no. Do you feel you’re slowly losing one of your friends? No. But now that I’m no longer in school, I really hope I’ll continue to be friends with my orgmates. I’ll certainly keep in touch as much as I can. If you draw, what's one thing you always have trouble with? Everything about it. Is there someone you know moving away any time soon? No. I do know my friend’s sister had already moved and started her new job in California, but when the pandemic started she had to go back here. This virus is just ruining so many great things for everyone, man... Allergic to anything? Nope. How many cars have you owned? Zero. I drive one; can’t say I own it because my parents bought it. What are you going to do after this? Maybe take another survey.

#survey #surveys

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like-a-bag-of-potatoes · 4 years

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12 Dates of Christmas - Cookies

AN: This is a series from the 12 days of christmas challenge that I did last year, but considering the blog redo and the fact that it's Christmas, I thought it was a good time for a rerun. Hope you all enjoy!

Characters: Sebastian x Reader

Warnings: Mostly fluffy throughout the series.

Wordcount: 1569

October 30th

It was past 11 pm when a soft knock pulled Sebastian from the movie playing on his TV and back to reality. Furrowing his brows, he pushed pause and got up to go see who could be at his door at this hour of the night, no less confused when he saw you through the little peephole.

His heart dropped in his chest when he opened the door and got a good look at you. Your eyes were puffy and glossed over with tears, your nose was red, and you looked so heartbroken. “What's going on?” he questioned, his voice filled with concern.

“Jeremy cheated on me,” you said in a thick voice. The words had hardly left your lips before fresh tears fell from your eyes and you hurriedly hid your face in your hands.

When Sebastian wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into him, he could feel your body shaking with tears and all he wanted to do was go punch the asshole that had hurt you. “It's alright, (YN). I'm here,” he whispered in an attempt to comfort you a little bit.

December 14th.

Soft Christmas tunes filled your apartment as you danced around the kitchen to gather up all the ingredients needed. It was a Friday night, and as per usual, you would spend it at home, sad and alone. Well… you were officially working on the sad part. Things kind of sucked after your boyfriend of two years had cheated on you and the relationship had ended, but you sort of felt like you had wallowed in self pity enough so now you were determined to have a semi nice evening alone.

A smile crept to your lips as your phone rang and your best friends name lit up on your screen. “Hey, Seb. What's up?”

“Hey. You sound chipper today,” he noted and you could hear the smile in his voice. “I'm calling to make you come out and have some drinks with me,” he added.

“I am a little chipper,” you confirmed. “But I'll have to pass on the drinks tonight.”

“Come on, (YN). You've hardly left your apartment in ages,” he whined. “And no one else is free, so I need you to keep me company.”

“I have Christmas music playing, I've added some whiskey to my tea, and I'm about to produce cookies like a freaking factory. My plans are non negotiable.”

“You put whiskey in your tea?” he asked with a small chuckle.

“Damn straight. If you can't find anyone to hang out with, you’re more than welcome to come help me bake,” you said. Going out to a crowded bar didn't sound appealing to you in the slightest, but you definitely wouldn't mind the company.

“Fine,” he conceded. “Do you need me to pick something up on the way?”

“Nope. I got everything I need.”

“Alright. See you in a little,” he said, not giving you the chance to say goodbye before he hung up the phone.

Bing Crosby's smooth voice poured out of your speakers as you started mixing together the first batch of chocolate chip cookies, singing along to the words as you went. Sebastian had been your friend for as long as you could remember, but nowadays he was traveling and filming most of the time, so the two of you didn't really get to spend any time together anymore. He had been great over the past month and a half though, after everything that went down with Jeremy.

The first tray of cookies had just been put in the oven as Seb walked through the door, a smile on his face that turned into laughter when he saw you and your apron. It was drawn as a sexy Mrs. Claus with a huge cleavage, she was holding a spatula and the writing read “Naughty boys get spanked”. Inappropriate? Yes. Funny? Hell yes.

“What?” you asked, trying to keep a straight face. “Is it my hat?”

He hadn't even noticed your hat at first, but now he doubled over laughing at the ridiculous headpiece. “Why does it have ears?” His voice was thick with laughter as he motioned to the hat.

“It's not ears, it's antlers,” you corrected, your cheeks hurting from trying not to laugh at the adorable man in front of you. “You know, because reindeer have antlers. Oh… and look.” You reached up and pressed the red ball that stuck to the middle of the hat and it started blinking. “I'm Rudolph,” you stated proudly.

“This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen,” he said, cracking up again as he saw the blinking nose. “Hold still so I can take a photo,” he gently ordered.

You did as he said and put both hands on your waist, popping your hips out and offering him the most exaggerated smile in history. “Now, if you’re done laughing at my beautiful outfit, you can come help me with this.”

Sebastian looked at you with a wide grin as he shook his head. “I feel very little Christmassy compared to you,” he noted as he rounded the island in your kitchen and stood next to you. “I'm gonna need this,” he declared, pulling the hat from your head, making your hair frizzy at the top before he placed it on his own head. “How do I look?”

“Hold on,” you said, reaching up and squeezing the red ball to get it blinking again. “Perfect,” you giggled.

“So what do I do?” he asked, clapping his hands together as his eyes traveled the messy counter before landing on the bowl of cookie dough, ready to make some christmas treats. Sebastian wasn't the best cook in the world, but he figured that with you next to him, telling him exactly what to do, he couldn't mess it up too bad.

“You take a spoonful of dough in your hand and roll it up into a little ball, and place it on the tray there,” you explained simply.

“Sounds like something I can do. I also heard rumors about some whiskey flavored tea,” he hinted as he started rolling up the first cookie.

“One spiked cup of tea, coming up,” you said cheerily as you moved to put on the kettle again.

The hours flew by as the two of you goofed around the kitchen. Not just the hours though, but the whiskey too, and before you knew it was way past midnight. The kitchen looked like hell, but all the cookies had been made and you figured you’d leave the clean up for sober (YN) tomorrow. You did this because tipsy (YN) was a little bitch sometimes.

The two of you had plopped down on opposite ends of the couch and the Christmas playlist you had put on was repeating itself for the third time, but this was the first truly fun evening you’d had in a while, and truth be told, you didn't even notice the repeating music.

“Thanks for keeping me company tonight,” you said softly, looking into your now empty cup of whiskey tea and pouting a little before you leaned forward and set it on the table. However much you wanted one more, you knew that you had probably had enough for tonight.

“My pleasure, sweetheart. You seem better today,” he noted. Sebastian wasn't blind, he had seen the pain you’d been in since your breakup. Not that he blamed you for that, but the dick that had broken your heart was definitely not worth the pain… he understood though.

“I feel a little better today,” you told him, looking up to meet his eyes. “I’ve been dreading the holiday season to be honest, but I decided that I'm gonna find my Christmas spirit and enjoy it.”

“That's my girl,” he praised, sending you a smile. “Have you decided if you’re going home or not?”

Now that was the question, wasn't it. You and Jeremy had planned a three week trip to Hawaii to spend Christmas there, which meant you had taken out all your vacation days at work and told your family that you wouldn't be home for the holidays. So basically you were stuck in New York alone. “I called to cancel the Hawaii trip a couple of weeks ago so I could get some money back and get a plane ticket home,” you started, but your sentence died out.

“Buuuut?” he dragged.

“But one Mr. Jeremy had already called and changed the name on my ticket to Jessica something,” you continued, the hurt and anger in your voice poorly disguised.

“What? You’re joking right?” Seb asked, straightening up on the couch as you shook your head. “Jesus Christ what a dick.”

“Yup,” you agreed, bobbing your head slowly. “I can't get my half of the money back, so I'm gonna just stay here and make the most of it,” you said, trying to shrug it off like it was no big deal.

“You’re better off without him, you know that right?” he questioned in a serious tone, reaching out and giving your knee a squeeze. A simple gesture to let you know he was there for you.

“I know,” you said, but Seb had known you long enough to know you weren't being completely honest.

“Tell you what,” he started as he got to his feet. “Tomorrow, you and I are gonna go find a Christmas tree and we’re gonna get Christmas going for real in this place.”

“I also need decorations,” you piped in, also standing from your seat.

“Tree and decorations,” he confirmed. “Wait, are you telling me that the only Christmassy things you own are the inappropriate apron and the funny hat?”

“Yes,” you said a little proudly. “Because I picked them up at the dollar store earlier today,” you chuckled.

“You are a woman of impeccable taste,” he joked. “I'm gonna head home. Just let me know when you’re ready tomorrow.”

You walked Sebastian to your door and gave him a quick hug before he left, smiling slightly to yourself at the prospect of spending more time with him the next day.

#Sebastian Stan #sebastian fluff #sebastian stan fanfic #sebastian x reader #sebastian x you #12dates

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grandthorkiday · 5 years

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Mob AU! “Playthings” Part 5

[Link to mob!au anon’s “Playthings" fic tag]

[Start at Part 1]*

(*Note: Link is editable for other parts, just change the number. For mobile users, tag is “playthings part1”)

Thor swiped through his phone idly. They were finally making their way back to New York after the week away. Grandmaster was beside him in the back seat of the town car, also on his phone, speaking quietly to a business associate. Which business, legal or otherwise, he really didn’t care. He was being ignored for the time being; a thrilling and devastating respite from the man’s near constant attention over the week.

He thumbed through his gallery once more, stopping on a picture of Loki he had taken a few months ago. Unlike the numerous ‘fun’ photos he had of his brother, where the younger man smiled or posed or sent the camera a funny face, this picture was quiet. He probably didn’t know it had been taken. He was sitting in their private room in one of numerous hotels they called home. He was at the window, the evening light pouring in behind him as he read. No Grandmaster or his entourage peeping just barely within frame. No opulent sign of wealth. One could hardly tell it was in hotel at all. In this picture, his brother was freer than he had been in the last ten years. It took all Thor’s strength not to kiss the treasured picture.

Gast was concluding his phone call. Thor quickly switched albums on his phone to screenshots of items he ‘wanted’. He was supposed to be one of a pair of dumb sugar babies most of the time, after all. ‘His bimbo,’ as Grandmaster liked to cheekily remind him. ‘My spoiled little Princesses.’

“At least ‘the shipment’ is coming in on time. 'The batch’ is going to be delayed another three days because, I dunno!” Gast threw his head back dramatically as he put away his phone. “I give clear instructions and I am just surrounded by…” he drifted off. He did this often, when inconveniences happen. He would forget about it seemingly, never bring it up again. Until inconvenience led to incompetence.

He leaned over and put his head on Thor’s shoulder, glancing at his phone. “Whatcha looking at?” It was said flirtatiously, a hand once again creeping to his thigh.

Thor showed him the VR headset and controller he had saved. He made his eyes as wide and clueless as possible. “It’s only 199.”

“For everything? All the bits and bobs?”

He shrugged.

“Hmm, I could get you that, if you wanted. Or, or I could take you boys to the Caribbean again.”

“I think we’d prefer Disneyworld.” It was veiled sarcasm, but anything would be better than being in New York.

[read more cut]

“Well, maybe if my boys are good…,” he shrugged. They would probably get both, and the trip to the Caribbean so Gast could do his offshore banking. He doted on them when business was good, mostly to spend some of over accumulating wealth. Don’t want the IRS sniffing around.

When they finally made it back to the Gladiator Hotel, the doorman greeted Gast with his customary jolly manner. As always, the Grandmaster told him a joke and slipped him a twenty as he held his sides with laughter. The doorman spared not a glance at Thor. Even when Thor left on morning runs or to perform some errand, he barely seemed to register he existed. He was just 'one of the boys’.

The penthouse as always was already full of people. The usual group; the top Lieutenants and a few of their mistresses, a few people hoping to get some sort of favor, and of course the penthouse crew. Bodyguards and delivery men that practically lived on site. Most did. Who wouldn’t want to live in a penthouse? Or even under one?

“The gang’s all here!” Gast called. Everyone greeted him warmly and with loud cheers. A few of penthouse crew were on one of the numerous game consoles 'the boys’ owned. They waved and called like the rest but continued to play. Thor felt a strange possessive need to rip the controller out of their hands. That was his and Loki’s! It was a gift! A gift for…

For being good.

He settled in on one of the chairs at the drink bar that was along the opposite wall and tried to ignore the sound of gameplay.

“It’s good to be home!” Gast smiled as one of the women in the room pressed a drink into his hand. Then he frowned. “Something’s not right.”

Everyone went tense. They didn’t move a single muscle. They barely moved their eyes.

“Where’s Lo Lo?”

Thor’s mind snapped to attention. He began to look around the room. By now, Loki would have come out from their private room. No matter how beaten, no matter how scared, he would have come. He would play his part, leaping into the Grandmaster’s arms, asking if he had been brought a treat. Sometimes he would shyly walk out of the room, needing to be tugged into the embrace. Other times, when Loki was feeling bold, he would walk out wearing one of the numerous 'outfits’ that they had. Costumes that either left little to the imagination or clothing from Thor and the Grandmaster’s closet.

But Loki was not here. He quickly glanced at Gast. Gast had a bemused look of puzzlement on his face. Clearly, Loki not being here was not part of the 'punishment’. He tried not to leap up and pace or show any visible sign of distress, but his capacity to hide such things was nonexistent now. Immediately, Gast caught him beginning to panic. Quickly, as though he was comforting Thor (but it was comforting, wasn’t it?) he pulled the young man into his embrace.

“My Lo Lo better come soon. My Sparkle is loskng his shine,” he tutted, his voice an exaggerated tender parody.

Thor snorted pathetically, curling into his Grandmaster for comfort. He always knew what to say.

“Well? He was your responsibility?” This was directed at Mario, one of the lieutenants and head of the penthouse crew. “What happened?”

“Well we were going to give him the works, like you wanted,” Mario said nervously. “Then we got a call about 'The Batch’ and I went to deal with that for you best I could. So we wouldn’t be delayed a month on that.”

“And?”

“So I left the kid with Tommy,” he motioned to the couch to one of the men playing games. Tommy was fairly new to the penthouse crew and he was, to put it mildly, an idiot. He was a jumped-up relative of someone, and like anyone in a position because of nepotism, he had a certain attitude of invulnerability. He was still playing the game, ignoring all the attention in the room shifting to him.

Gast moved quietly to stand behind Tommy. He watched the screen and the flashing lights of the game. His face was calm. He even smiled slightly. “Tommy, um Tommy.”

Tommy didn’t pause the game but threw a glance over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“You took care of Loki for Mario?”

“The brat? Yeah, we roughed him up. Like yah said. Gave him the dock side special!” He laughed and elbowed one of his companions. The companion was catching on to what was happening and did not laugh back.

Thor began to advance on the man, seeing red. Loki wasn’t some nosy harbor agent or business owner who was late with his protection money. He didn’t deserve…

The Grandmaster put out a hand to stop him. “So after that. After you gave him this dock side special.”

“We went out for a bit I think. Dunno. Smoked a few bowls.” There was a shrug as he continued to play.

“We went to the hospital,” one of the other men said.

“Oh yeah! Fucking brat was moaning and not moving. Did a roll stop at Mercy.”

The room began to tilt. Thor stumbled back. It had been years since either of them had been beaten so badly to warrent the hospital. Gast had become more cautious and they had become more obedient. Usually though, they were back within in a few days. Hospital officials could be bought off to release patients early and their many a doctor who would be willing to treat them here in the penthouse. There would be only two reasons why Loki wasn’t here then.

“So, he’s dead?” It was asked casually, like he was asking if someone had a nice weekend. Likw Loki’s existence was nothing more than just a simple matter, like a chore off the list.

“I dunno!” Tommy continued to play the game.

“You didn’t go to the hospital to check?”

“Fuck, that ain’t my job!”

“Actually, that is.” The television was turned off. The man was suddenly keenly aware of the danger he was in. Tommy was dragged quickly from his seat by Mario and several of the other penthouse crew members. They quickly gagged the man and frog marched him to the maid’s elevator, the way to the basement and scene of operations.

Gast rubbed his face and pulled at his lips. “Well I-I can’t say that doesn’t change a few things.”

Mario had returned. “Grandmaster I’m sorry. He’s Lenny’s boy-”

“I know.”

“His Mother is going to want to at least bury him. She’s a proper broad. But I can talk to her if you want.”

“No it’s fine. Keep him alive and intact until I hear back from the hospital. Call Lenny. He has other kids?”

“He’s Catholic, so yeah.”

“Well, one less son is nothing to fret over. Someone fetch me Topaz.” He finally turned back to Thor. Thor knew better than to leave before being dismissed. “Poor Lo Lo, isn’t that right my love?”

“I-I want to go to the hospital to find him.”

“No, no! I want you here. Here at home. Right where I know you’re safe.”

He wanted to shake his head and ask again. He wanted to run at the man to either tear him limb from limb or to plead on his knees. He felt fear that Loki was gone, that he was truly alone now. That it was just him, the Grandmaster, and a memory he had no one to share it with. But there was a thrill of hope.

Loki could be free…one way or another….

“May I go to my room?” To be alone. To mourn, to pray, to rage, to laugh, to scream….

“For a few hours. Then we’re going to go talk to Tommy.”

Thor nodded and left. If there was silver lining to all this, it would be one of the few times he got to kill someone who had hurt his younger brother.

#Grandthorki #grandmaster #thor #thorki #thundermaster #sfw #fic #cw dubcon #cw noncon implied #cw drugs #cw rl drugs #submission #playthings #playthings part5

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nila737 · 5 years

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A new beginning - Final year at Uni

It's been a month since I finished my 4th year exam. So officially I am a final year student already. But last week was kinda vacation to me because I hadn't any appointment to attend in the morning. The lectures were held as usual.

The day before yesterday our batch organized a farewell party to the most senior batch who were graduated recently. I accompanied the singing team for an event in that party. And few days before that I went on a long trip with my clinical group buddies. We visited few waterfalls, Nuwara eliya and Hakgala botanical garden. I've attached a short video we did in our stay at Nuwara eliya and few photos taken during the trip. So last week no study but fun week for me. From today I will be doing anaesthesia appointment at Teaching Hoapital, Karapitiya. Its kinda start of my hard working days. I hope this fresh start will give me the strength to go alright in upcoming difficult days. ✌️😊

youtube

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tbinhho · 5 years

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Refect on 2018

I used to feel kinda cliche when people post about what they achieved throughout the year in this particular day. Yet today I think its necessary to spend some time reflecting. Life has been more and more busy these becoming-an-adult days, so its important to sit back, breathe, and reflect (now Im sounding like someone who’s into yoga and eats kale but what the hell haha Im not against it, Im just sux at yoga but gosh its exhausting yet rewarding after each session).

Its far from easy to relive what you did each month last year but what the hell, Ive got nothing but time today. Plus it would make me feel better I bet.

So here goes.

.jan - worked in KPMG and came to HCMC in the third week of the month. Different city different vibe. HCM Art Museum and GEM Center were pretty. And ofc it felt good to see the always-reason for every of your HCMC trips ever. Did shoot some photo for an Hanoi Airbnb. Its always nice to dress up and take photos some time, just to feel different and a bit prettier. Its a bit sad when you feel like you cant live wo lipstick now urgh.

.feb - Tet, family bonding, picture time and you know, the food and stuff. Traditional stuffs.

.mar - urgh its work again damn it sux coming back from a long ass holiday. And lemme take a wild guess, this year is no different.

.april - dueces to KPMG (yea, those past months I forgot to mention all the studying to prepare fo the entrance test), hello Vung Tau and HCMC. Important people are far so Ive got to/ had to travel. Liked Vung Tau ambience (ideal to spend a day or two as wkend getaway), always had a thing for HCMC Independence Palace and historical places in general. Ive got to meet the loved ones. Valuable time spent.

.may - birthday month and it was damn FUNN. Checked to one of the dream destinations, Disneyland. Hong Kong was so pur-fect. Lady M dessert killed mi. The pasta in Chessecake factory was the best ever. Dimsum. Urgh. Why did all this have to be so goood. All the night walks, the hidden bars, Victoria peak. I love yew Hong Kong, such expensive bish tho. The only regret was that I missed the horse race. But maybe we would come back one day who knows. I love my travel mate so. Boo gave me some flower for my birthday in Hanoi, such a cheesy move hihi. Had birthday dinner with my family at some famous Hanoi dimsum place. Now that I write this down, I just realise again how perfect my 23 birthday was. This is officially my favourite month in 2018. And I started my new job too.

.june - tried the city tour bus with the fam. The real biological one. Went camping (not exactly, more like some barbercue) with KPMG batch. Went to HCMC again with Mom to see my Dude, again. Came to his office, took cute photos.

.july - skin is fcked and work.

.august - work and skin is still fcked.

.sep - Boo came to Hanoi. Then I came to Nghe An fo some training. Made some new friends.

.oct - accidentally was forced to join the drama club, the team won A prize.

.nov - Boo’ birthday. First time saw our football team played on the field. Did we win Boo did not rmb lol. Boo no dare to sing to me publicly at Cong (like, go-to-the-stage kind of singing) hahaaha.

.dec - first biz trip. Some important case in the court. Field trip was one hell of an experience. And its even better that the case was in HCMC yet its so much shorter than expected. Got some moments with The Dude. Love The Dude.

.I finish 2018 and celebrate 2019 NYE in Ninh Binh, which was better than expected.

Man this is one pretty long ass stuff (to type on the cell). Thanks to iP library, cos this beauty rmbs shiet really.

.some NY resolutions, not in any order:

read more/ work harder/ smile more/ go to the gym more often/ travel more places/ be more loving and open (to the people that deserve it, who are genuinely care bout you)/ be less angry/ be less self doubting/ love the self more/ eat healthier/ be prettier/ and ofc, love The Dude more.

.cheers to the new 2019 of discovering more, and daring to experience./.

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addierose444 · 2 years

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A Typical Week: Spring 2022

There really is no such thing as a typical week, but I’ve done my best to capture what my schedule has been like this semester. If you’re curious about such “typical weeks” in some of my past semesters, click here. My school days usually start off with my 9:00 (or 8:30) alarm. I just use the default clock app on my phone and have it play a song called Home on the Mountain. The song is by a local (to my home in Vermont) band called Mayfly. I've been using this song on and off as my alarm for quite a few years. Believe it or not, I still actually enjoy the song. That said, I don’t entirely love the beginning anymore. At the end of the day, I aim to stop doing work and go to bed right around midnight but will admit that coding projects are sometimes a bit hard to stop working on. I also sometimes get inspired to work on blog posts after my official shutdown time. To check out my full batch of spring 2022 courses, click here.

Monday:

My Monday alarm is set for 9:00, but it’s not unusual for me to stay in bed for another five or ten minutes. My morning routine is nothing special. I really just get dressed, use the bathroom, brush my teeth, pack my bag, put on some shoes, and go. If you are curious about what I carry on a typical school day, click here. When I do get out of bed promptly I start the day off by listening to The Daily (a New York Times news podcast). To read about more of the podcasts I enjoy, click here. If I don’t listen to The Daily first thing, I will find time later on in the day such as during my lunch block. My first class is in the mechanics playground (located in the basement of Ford Hall) and starts at 9:25. I aim to walk out the door at 9:15 but can get away with leaving around 9:20 provided that I walk quickly. Fluids starts off with some announcements and then we jump right into the lecture. During class, I take handwritten notes in OneNote on my iPad. For more about how I use OneNote as a student, click here. My professor uses OneNote as well for their class notes. During the last bit of class, we typically work on practice problems on a whiteboard with a partner.

After fluids, which ends at 9:40, I climb three flights of stairs to my computational machine learning classroom. My first task is to get a copy of the current lab assignment. The class has a remote GitHub repository that I pull from. I then make a copy of the new lab and put it into my own folder system. I do all of this in my Ubuntu terminal. The class starts with ten or so minutes of the professor talking about what’s coming up next and going over some key points from previous labs. During class, I just work on the lab assignment which consists of writing Python code and text in a Jupyter notebook. As things get trickier I collaborate with my classmates. If I’m lucky enough to finish the lab during class, I post my submission to our Slack channel. Next up is lunch! The main dining halls I go to are Tyler or Chuckett. When the weather is nice I like to eat outside. Otherwise, I often return to my room or house living room to eat as the dining halls can be pretty busy.

After lunch, I return to Ford for my fluids lab. Below is a photo of me from our most recent lab. During the lab, we went on a little field trip (mini-hike) to the mill river to take some measurements in order to calculate the flow rate. Granted this wasn’t really a typical lab as we are usually inside for the whole lab period. Here are some photos of labs and projects from the beginning of the semester. In the ideal world, I crank out the lab report right after the lab, but unfortunately, I am usually really tired by the end of the lab period. It’s not a good habit, but sometimes I head straight to dinner after my lab ends at 4:00. Earlier in the semester, I had a walk scheduled with some Washburn friends, but we have since rescheduled to Thursday. Even though Mondays are long and exhausting, I get a surprising amount of work done in the evening. Specifically, I typically continue chipping away at my cognitive science readings and do my textbooks readings for many of my other classes.

Tuesday:

My Tuesdays start with an 8:30 alarm. I have a backup alarm set for 8:35, but knowing that I have a 9:00 bus to catch really is enough to get me up and out of bed. On the bus, I typically listen to podcasts and other audio content like audiobooks and music. In the last few weeks, I’ve primarily been listening to music. Upon arriving at UMass, I head to Tobin Hall for my software engineering lecture. I am usually fifteen to twenty minutes early for my 10 a.m. lecture, so if I’m particularly tired I take a mini nap before class. Otherwise, I’m managing my email and continuing to consume audio content. During the lecture, I take typed notes on my laptop (in OneNote of course). The official end time is 11:15, but we almost always get out early. A few times a semester we have actual assignments to do during (and unfortunately after class) called in-class exercises. After class, I head to lunch with one of my classmates. I’ve now been to four different dining locations at UMass, but now almost exclusively go to Hampshire. Eating at UMass is a nice perk of taking classes there as they have some great Asian options like ramen, pho, sushi, and mei fun noodles. I also often get vanilla or chocolate soymilk. I usually take the 12:05 bus back to Smith, but occasionally stay a bit later and take the 12:30 bus. Our lunches aren’t actual project meetings, but we often touch base about assignments as we are partners for the in-class exercises and the final project.

Upon returning to Smith I head to McConnell for my statistics class. Class is typically a lecture, but we sometimes have assignments to work on as well. There are frequent informal group work assignments and occasional graded R labs. Depending on the week, I next have a 3:00 meeting with my supervisor. In the late afternoon and early evening, I try and get some assorted homework done and if necessary finish up my cognitive science reading. We don’t need to do the readings until the Thursday lecture, but I strive to complete the readings by the Tuesday lecture.

Around 6:30, I stop doing work and head to Chuckett to pick up some dinner. I then return to my room to attend my 7:00 cognitive science class over Zoom. Even though being stuck on Zoom sort of sucks, one nice thing is that my friend comes over to Zoom with me. One annoying aspect of my cognitive science class is that we sometimes have pop papers to write during the last bit of class. While I’m glad that the deadline is 10 p.m. this also means I can’t count on getting work done after class as I may be finishing up a paper. When there isn’t a paper to write, we typically hang out for a bit after class. If we are still hungry, we go to the campus center to grab burgers as a second dinner.

Wednesday:

Wednesdays are essentially tame Mondays as I have the same morning classes but no fluids lab in the afternoon. Despite being a pretty wide-open day, I somehow don't tend to get a lot of work done. In the afternoon, I try and attend some office hours as basically all of my classes hold them on Wednesday afternoons. In the evening I have a standing dinner plan with a few of my friends. We decide the time and location the night before depending on our other commitments and of course the menu.

Thursday:

My Thursdays are pretty similar to my Tuesdays. After my statistics class, I often meet with my group to work on our final project. Afterward, weather and schedule permitting, I go on a walk with some of my Washburn friends. One other difference is that I Zoom into cognitive science on my own.

Friday:

So if Wednesdays are my chill Mondays, Fridays are my chill Wednesdays. I literally just have one class (fluid mechanics) and have had no classes on a few occasions due to snow days. After class, I typically grab an early lunch (often from Chapin). Fridays are also chill because I have house tea at 4:30 followed by house dinner and typically more hanging out after that. Overall, I just don’t do much in the way of work on Fridays.

Saturday:

On Saturdays, I finally get the chance to sleep in! It really depends, but I often get up around 10:30 and grab lunch at 11:00. I always have grander plans for the work I’ll get done than what actually happens. Saturdays are the one day I usually have a wide-open schedule, but I sometimes have project meetings, meetings with residents, and performances to attend. Last Saturday was pretty busy as was the week before since it was spring weekend.

Sunday:

Sundays are without fail very busy, especially when Saturdays weren’t very productive. If not already done, the one thing I absolutely have to do is write my blog post! I mean I always have other work to do for the week, but the one actual Sunday “deadline” is my weekly blog post. The one assignment I consistently need to finish up on Sundays is my fluid mechanics homework as it’s due on Mondays and as already described I am in class all day on Mondays. Even though I don’t like how many separate assignments we have (labs, projects, homework, exams), at least the homework assignments aren’t as long as in other classes. I also try and get a good start on my cognitive science readings. In the evening I have a SWE board meeting at 6:00 and house council at 7:00. After, house council I submit my weekly report to my supervisor and generally prepare for the week ahead.

#college #Smith College #spring 2022 #week in my life #academics

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lotsofdogs · 6 years

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Dinosaurs, Doughnuts and Lake Nights

Hey, hey, hey! How are things going with all of you today!? I hope you had a great weekend.

With sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-80s both Saturday and Sunday, it felt like the first official weekend of summer in Charlotte!

Saturday

Early Friday morning I wasn’t sure what the weekend would look like for us since Chase was sick on Thursday but by late Friday morning he was fever-free, energetic and back to acting like his normal self. I’m not sure what was up last week but the 24-hour fever that kicked in on Thursday seemed to pass quickly and our two days of rest at home seemed to do the trick. When Chase woke up on Saturday morning (at 5:45 a.m. – phew!), he seemed 100 percent normal and after double checking his temperature, we figured we were in the clear to commence with weekend fun!

We really wanted to take Chase to see the new Tyrannosaurus exhibition that opened last weekend at Discovery Place Uptown and after reserving tickets for the 9:15 a.m. slot, we drove into the city to begin our dinosaur adventure.

I am one of the biggest fans of Discovery Place and Discovery Place Kids (we’ve been members of both since Chase was a baby and plan to be for years to come) but this exhibition was unfortunately a bit disappointing. I admittedly think a lot of this had to do with Chase’s age, but the exhibit wasn’t very extensive and we were in and out in about 15 minutes. Chase is SUPER into dinosaurs and the T-Rex is by far his favorite so we had really high hopes but I think the dark lights and growling dinosaur noises put him on edge from the beginning.

Chase thought the excavation station was pretty neat and we spent some time using tools to look for dinosaur bones but all in all, Chase was waaay more into the usual Discovery Place museum attractions than this exhibit.

One thing that did impress us was the way Discovery Place included dinosaur fun throughout the museum to go along with the temporary exhibition. Chase loved flipping through dinosaur books and playing with the giant dinosaur toys in the children’s area!

We spent a solid two hours at Discovery Place before breaking away and driving to NoDa, Charlotte’s historic arts and entertainment district, to walk around and grab doughnuts at Reigning Donuts, one of our local favorites.

Ryan and I were both victims of social media jealousy and felt left out when we realized we missed National Donut Day on Friday so we celebrated a day late with half a dozen doughnuts. Since doughnuts are one of Chase’s favorite foods, he was more than excited to join in our sugarfest!

We arrived home just before 1 p.m. and while Ryan settled Chase down for his nap, I immediately headed back out and drove up to Epic Chophouse in Mooresville for my friend Jess’ baby sprinkle. Jess is due with a baby girl at the end of July and it was so much fun to celebrate her little one on the way, dig into delicious food and chat with some of my friends. It was quite dark in the restaurant so I didn’t snap any pictures that turned out well but it was a beautiful sprinkle!

By the time I made it back home, Chase was up from his nap and Ryan, Chase and I did a little dinner prep for the birthday dinner we were hosting for our friend Ben. We made a big spread that included marinated flank steak with chimichurri (both recipes are go-tos for us when we host friends and come from Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook), roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli, pico de gallo salad and berries with coconut cream. Plus ice cream for dessert because that’s a nightly necessity for me right now. It was great to catch up with Ben and celebrate his special day!

Sunday

Sunday morning began bright and early and I kicked things off with a little meal planning while a batch of peanut butter baked steel cut oatmeal baked away in the oven. Once everyone was up and fed, we headed out on a family walk before church. I made sure to bring my favorite basketball along on the trek!

Sunday was one of those random days of pregnancy where I just felt really GOOD. It was so nice and a welcomed reprieve from how I’ve been feeling lately! I wasn’t too tired, no nausea kicked in and I wasn’t overly uncomfortable until I tried to go to sleep at night. It was awesome! (That is NOT a hint for our baby to stay in there for too much longer. I definitely don’t envy late deliveries at all and can totally see myself looking back at this post at 41 weeks pregnant wanting to smack myself! Sunday was just one of those surprisingly good pregnancy days where I didn’t feel as much physical discomfort as usual so it was pretty sweet.)

We made it to the early morning church service and of course I cried when we sang “Reckless Love” because that’s what I do whenever I hear that song. Phew!

(I think the above not-so-great pic was the first pic Ryan, Chase and I have together with my belly. Yeesh!)

After church, I dropped Ryan off at Ben’s house because they had plans to work out together and then Chase and I drove to ALDI to pick up groceries for the week ahead. Meal planning made the trip a breeze and we arrived back home with a bunch of goodies!

Here’s a glimpse at our meal plan for the week:

Monday: Chicken Taco Skillet (served with tortillas, diced tomatoes and guacamole)

Tuesday: Perfect Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Carrots and Onions (and possibly creamy mashed cauliflower if I’m feelin’ it)

Wednesday: Winter Chopped Salad

Thursday: Frittata and Blueberry Banana Protein Pancakes (Breakfast for dinner!)

Friday: Wing it!

Ryan made it home from the gym right before Chase went down for his nap and while he read him some books, I got a jump start on typing up this blog post and responded to a few work-related emails that were nagging me in the back of my mind.

Once Chase was awake, we took advantage of the gorgeous sunny weather and made our way onto the lake for some early evening swimming and boating.

The lake water is slowly warming up and it felt so good to splash around and swim with my crew!

We docked briefly at Hello, Sailor where we filled our boat up with gas and ordered burgers, fries and watermelon to go to eat on the boat as we made our way to a little beach to drop anchor for a swim.

(Can you tell I was on a mission for a better family photo after realizing the church pic from earlier in the day was the only one I have of us with my bump? Ha!)

This was actually the first time Ryan got to witness the glory that is Chase’s new puddle jumper and he was just as psyched as I was the first time I saw Chase have a ball in that thing!

I swear Chase could swim for hours and hours in his puddle jumper and would have had we not needed to get him home to unwind a bit before bed.

Chase ended up going to bed on the later side of the evening so Ryan and I followed suit and climbed into our bed right after we put him down for the night. I continued reading The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand which I’m 99 percent sure is my first novel by the incredibly popular author. I was in the market for a quintessential summer beach read and based on the Amazon reviews, this one seemed to check all the boxes. So far it’s light and easy and entertaining but some parts make me want to say, “Okay, get on with it already…” I’m about a third of the way through it and am enjoying it enough that I find myself looking forward to reading it at the end of the day, so I’ll keep on keepin’ on.

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy an even better week ahead! Thanks for stopping by PBF today!

[Read More ...] https://www.pbfingers.com/dinosaurs-doughnuts-and-lake-nights/

#health #fitness

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cam-studies-life · 6 years

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LU 1 First Semester Events

I wasn’t able to update this blog regularly about the memorable events of my first semester, so I thought of summarizing them in one post.

1. Freshmen Welcoming Assembly

All incoming freshmen of UP Manila were gathered in the Girl Scout of the Philippines Auditorium along Padre Faura for a welcoming assembly. There were performances from different college and university-wide organizations, speeches from guest speakers and UP Manila’s Chancellor, and of course, a mini rally from the UPM’s student council. It felt surreal watching other UP students run up to the stage, carrying banners and placards while demanding for free education. For the last fourteen years of my life, I attended a small, private school located in a safe, peaceful village. This day marked not only the beginning of a more challenging academic journey, but also the end of comfort and familiarity. This feeling was underscored further after the assembly, as I crossed Taft avenue for the very first time, exposed to the heat of the sun and the smoke of pollution, walking past beggars and street vendors, just to attend my afternoon classes in Rizal Hall.

2. Handog

Handog is an annual event for freshmen, consisting of a Mr. and Ms. Freshie pageant and several inter-block competitions. This was the first event that required our block to work together, so it was quite difficult to assign committees and coordinate with each other. We had people selling Spanish bread to raise funds for our pageant reps while others participated in the inter-block competitions, shooting and editing videos and creating publicity materials. The actual event was definitely memorable because of the performances of the pageant reps, but what made it even better was the fact that the two blocks of INTARMED bagged many awards.

3. All Orgs Fair and UPCM Org Applications

During the All Orgs Fair, UPM organizations set up booths in Rizal Hall (aka CAS) to promote their org. To be honest, I did not really check out the fair. I wasn’t interested in joining university-wide organizations. However, I did check out Christ’s Youth in Action because I want to deepen faith and find a community of people who share my values. All the members I’ve met so far are friendly. Even though I’m not as active as I would like to be, many of them still greet me when we see each other around campus. Aside from CYA, I also checked out the organizations of my mother college, the College of Medicine. Most, if not all, CM orgs host a small event where CM students can get a glimpse of the org’s activities, members, and application process. I was not able to attend all, but I signed up for the organizations which interested me, such as Medical Students’ Society and PAGSAMA. Aside from this, I also signed up for the VolCorps of the Medicine Student Council (MSC). Yes, quite a handful, but since I’m still an applicant, the load is not heavy… yet.

4. HS Uniform Day

This is not an official event organized by UPM. My blockmates just decided it would be fun to show up to class wearing our high school uniforms. It helped that there is no dress code in UPM. It felt good to wear my white blouseb and school skirt again, and it was also entertaining to see how my blockmates looked in their old uniforms. Looking at the photo we took as a batch made me feel super nostalgic for my high school days!!

5. Histo 1 Field Trip

From what I know, all History courses in UPM require one field trip per semester. In our case, we had a field trip to Batangas, visiting the shrines of famous heroes such as General Malvar, Apolinario Mabini, and Marcela Agoncillo. The scenery was beautiful (sorry this is all I could say, I’m not good at describing things lol), and the shrines were very informative. Also, having chips and packed lunch while riding in a bus made me feel nostalgic again for my high school days! After the field trip, we were required to submit a two-page reaction paper a few days later. It was worth 30% of my final Histo grade - already had four 75′s in our daily quizzes (RIP), so you can imagine the EFFORT I put into writing that paper.

6. TRP: Tao Rin Pala

TRP is one of the most-awaited annual events in the College of Med where students showcase their talents for dancing and performing. CM organizations and LU I & II students are required to perform a dance number, while LU III-V compete in a chorale competition. I don’t like dancing or performing (at all), but I REALLY enjoyed TRP. Since I applied to two orgs, I had a total of THREE dance numbers. I was even placed in front for all three, so you can imagine my initial apprehensions about the whole thing. But during the actual performances, I found myself smiling at the crowd and trying to pretend I’m a good dancer. Aside from this, it was fun watching the other performances, especially those of the upper levels. It amazes me how students in med proper (with a schedule of 8-5 every day) found time to choreograph their performances, much less rehearse regularly. I was also amazed by the efforts of the MSS members to organize the whole event. TRP was probably the highlight of my first semester tbh.

7. Oblation Run

I wasn’t aware there was also an Oblation Run in UP Manila. On its scheduled time, my blockmates and I positioned ourselves in front of the CAS library on the second floor. Soft screams and laughter could be heard once several naked men started walking along the hallways holding placards. Somehow, it felt like my official induction into UP (LOL).

8. Lantern Parade

This took place at the end of the first semester, after finals week. Similar to the one in Diliman, each college is required to make a float/lantern that will be paraded along campus - or in UP Manila’s case, along Taft Avenue and Padre Faura. The actual lantern/float was made by LU III students - they did REALLY GOOD, can I just say - while the props were made by LU I students. I feel really GUILTY for not helping out as much with the preparations for the lantern parade, and I was even late for the actual parade. But I arrived in time to witness the announcement that our college won first place. When “College of Medicine” was announced, cheers erupted from our side. I found myself surrounded by people jumping and chanting the college’s cheer, and the whole thing just felt surreal. It was a great way to end the semester.

#mypost #my.txt #latepost #i'm sorry #intarmed #imed #lu 1

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davehodgetts-blog · 5 years

Photo

The sky was perfect. It wasn’t all blue. The blinding-white clouds formed interesting figures and were moving at slow pace. It provided a minute shade every time it hovered above our smoothly-moving fast craft. The sea, on the other hand, was completely placid, reflecting the exact copies of the figures above it. The minor distortions created by the surface swimmers are very evident – I could see the finest ripple.

It was our fast craft’s horn that woke me from that real daydream. We were approaching Liloan Pier in Santander, so I had to get myself ready. In a moment, we were all allowed to disembark. I alighted last to avoid troublesome passengers rushing their way out of the boat.

When I stepped on the port, the squeaky-clean water below reminded me of my fantasies. I was thinking for an adventure. Since it was too early to return to the city, I decided to spend a good time nearby.

Way to Dao Falls

I reached Samboan town proper in less than 30 minutes. I was walking under the scorch when Kuya Arnold approached me, and then offered a ride to 4 waterfalls including Ponong Lake for ₱500. I asked other drivers too, and it seemed that they had standardized the rate. That wasn’t a bad price. The downside, however, is that I was alone. It would be perfect if I had someone with me to share the expenses with, as well as the experience.

Before reaching Dao Falls, this blue pool graces every traveller

Since I got no other option, I accepted the guide who was assigned to me. I did not let him carry my backpack because I knew I could not give him a decent amount. I just followed him in a very obvious pathway. Kuya Arnold, by the way, was left in the drop off area.

We crossed a river, trekked along a muddy slope, and shook our way across a bamboo-made hanging bridge.

I was completely awed when I finally had the glimpse of the waterfalls. The water slides peacefully through the slanting ravine, thus the plunge pool is shallow and calm. There wasn’t enough flat space for picnickers though. However, with just a little tactic, you can find a good place under any shade.

The main Cascade of Dao Falls

After taking some photos, getting a quick dip, and munching for a snack, I headed to my next stop

Trekking against the waterfall current at Aguinid Falls number 3

You need a little work out at falls number 3. You have to climbed against the rolling waters to get to falls number 4. Since this is a one-way climbed, you have to wait until a batch of those going down is done with their descent.

Entrance at Aguinid Falls for locals is also ₱20. The guide fee depends on how much you can shell out.

Getting a waterfall massage at Aguinid Falls no. 4

A small falls greets you before seeing the hidden falls of Binalayan

Before reaching the main cascade of Binalayan, a not-so-high falls greeted us.

The was water was cold as expected. The breezy surrounding complimented well, and gave me gooseflesh.

Similar to that of Dao Falls, the plunge pool of Binalayan Hidden Falls is also not that deep, so be extra careful when doing an undaunting stunt. I almost broke my heel bone here when I jumped.

Binalayan Hidden Falls

Ponong Lake

There are no ATMs in the town, so make sure that you bring enough cash for the entire trip.

Bring swimming attires to experience the cold and pampering pool below the cascades.

Mobile signal reception is decent in the town proper but is poor in remote areas like the waterfall vicinity.

To fully explore Aguinid Falls, you need to climb against some steep rocks with running water. Make sure that you always follow your guide’s direction.

You can do picnic at the floating raft in Ponong Lake. Bring food to share.

Waterproof your gadgets.

Travel in group to save on transport and guide fees.

Closest accommodations are available in Badian and Oslob.

You may also consider spending a beach camp in Moalboal or getting enough adrenaline rush by joining the Canyoneering in Badian.

Waterfalls hopping in Samboan: Dao, Aguinid, and Binalayan Hidden Falls appeared first on Freedom Wall.

#>Waterfalls #008000;#>A #3366ff;#ff00ff;#>Tips #0000ff;#ff9900;>Dao #ff6600;>Finding #ff6600;>Samboan #008000;>Suggested

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dalanmendonca · 5 years

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Decadence & The End

Snap back to reality

So this was the final term and things started with a bang. I used the term break to go on a trip to Rajasthan.This was my first proper ISB trip. I’m a complete laggard in this matter. A lot people travelled the surrounding hillscapes like there’s no tomorrow, before placements and much more after placements. I loved campus a bit too much and didn’t want the (apparent) hassle of travelling. Rajasthan was warm and fun. It was a new experience visiting forts and palaces, seeing old weapons and finding out that the Rajas smoked a lot of hash! A Desert Safari and tent stays in Jaisalmer were fun too. The warm(er) weather was good break from the chills of Mohali. And soon I was back.

On the academic front things were as cool as they could be. Over-loading on courses earlier meant that I had to study only 3 courses and had plenty of time for socialising, fun and … co-ordinating my marriage!

My courses for Term 8 were ENVC (Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital), MFIN (Micro-Finance) and MKAN (Marketing Analytics).

ENVC was about the world of startups and venture capital. It was taught by Professor Francis Kim who is a former (successful!) entrepreneur and covered both sides of the table; we learned how to value a startup company and also about what kind of ideas succeed and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. The most amazing (and useful) part of the course was the simulation. Many academic courses use a simulation to show you how markets evolve, and how a manager has to respond. These are usually computer-based simulations, so they don’t feel all that real. In ENVC, the professor divided the class into 24 teams, 8 of these were VCs and 16 were ENs (entrepreneurs). All the entrepreneurs competed in the same market (“Edtech in India”). Every class entrepreneurs would present to VCs and half of them would get eliminated. Watching the simulation progress and observing the economic + human dynamics play out was a real treat. Initially, all but a few teams had over-lapping ideas. As rounds progressed and teams observed who died/survived, they started learning from each other and incorporating each others ideas. Every VC had 15 sticks to invest. As expected from economics, one team (mine! 😉)got a disproportionate share of the total funding in accordance with a power law distribution. Politics played a huge role too! Many couples put themselves into complementary EN-VC pairs; so that they could support each other! People called upon friendships and other niceties to get funded; objective judgement RIP. It was a faithul simulation of the ugly truth that is human life.

MFIN was about a still emerging branch of the finance that deals with facilitating the development of the poor/not-so-well-off. Here are the core ideas: To make people well-off we want to give them income sources, the simplest of these is running a small business. To start that business requires some inputs/capital. These inputs are beyond the means of these folks (else they would’ve started these businesses already!). So we can just lend money to these folks, right? Wrong. All of lending works on the idea of collateral, the poor being poor don’t have any collateral in the first place! All is not lost, this challenge has been confronted head-on by social entreprenuers, most notably Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and replicated in many countries world over. Their weapon of choice is group lending, where you start by lending to a group of people who keep each other from defaulting. Initial loans are small and grow with time. Because these banks can’t take the easy (and impersonal) way out when it comes to lending, banks like Grameen Bank have innovated on multiple fronts to make finance accessible to a whole new section of society. For example, repayment happens daily/weekly (as opposed to monthly) as this keeps the borrower engaged and aware of their loan. Loan repayment is a social process done in front of a group, thus adding social pressure to avoid shirking on a loan repayment; some wonderful uses of human psychology these are. Grameen Bank is the posterchild of the microlending/microfinance movement and a huge chunk of the economic and social development of Bangladesh has been attributed to it. An interesting concept I encountered was the double bottom--line (we measure only the financial impact of a business, business should also evaluate their social bottom-line and their impact on society). The course was taught by Shamika Ravi, who is a fantastic teacher (and a member of the Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council); I really felt like I was understanding the core economic concepts as their immediate applications throughout the class.

Finally there was MKAN. MKAN was using the now available glut of data to apply age-old marketing principles of Segment, Target, Position. We used the now classic tools of clustering, regression, etc to do everything from segment customers to predict sales. The course was a good blend of hands-on tool driving while keeping marketing principles in mind. The classes happened at 8 AM in the morning, and hence I scarcely have much to say about this course. That wraps up the acads front.

Offer letters started pouring in for a few people with proactive companies. The gym was finally a thing for me. Some attempts were made in a bid to get skinny before the wedding. The attempts weren’t very successful. However, I’m glad that I got rid of my unfamiliarity anxiety about the gym. One of my reasons for not going to the gym is that I just don’t know what to do there, fortunately the ISB gym has two full-time trainers available 24x7 to guide you. It was my first honest attempt at gyming after trying in the 11th standard, and I’m now comfortable doing basic weights and using the machines. ISL continued its march in March (shitty line, I know). I remained blissfully ignorant.

Yearbook awkwardness continued. People scoured the land for places to get their yearbook photo clicked. Some people came with highly representative ones. It was also time to write yearbook testimonials for people. You had to nominate 3-4 of your friends to collectively write one testimonial for you. Here is where your true friends were revealed! This became just another group assignment with 1-2 people leading the charge for every testimonial.

CS and AoE sessions: A small segment of brave laptop warriors rekindled the joys of multiplayer games. And given the amount of free time available, a lot of kindling happened until the the wee hours of the night. I earnestly tried to join the fun by watching AoE tutorials, but then AoE on my PC kept crashing. And then I was like, why isn’t this in a browser?

SLC calendar

The Student Life Council went into beast mode, driving a ton of events on campus.

These events covered everything from Food fetes (like a giant potluck) to SV wars (which was basically student housing buildings competing to see who can throw the best party). The Food fete really brought the campus together, with everyone either cooking or helping or eating! The dishes students cooked up turned out to be better than expected – not everyone is an amateur in the cooking domain!

This period being a sort of end-of-days, for us all meant that people were extremely enthusiastic about partying. The winter had started relenting a little and spirits were uplifted. SV wars and the usual birthday parties that happen on campus meant that there was a party every other day, but you couldn’t say no to the next party because this was the last time this would happen.

Which brings us to the most epic party after all the other parties. Holi! The Holi was lit and was the best party I’ve attended in my life. The SLC provided gulal and pichkaris and a giant inflated swimming pool and a DJ and a raindance area. In addition, there was bhaang-laden thandai and bhaang-laden bhajias. It was a warm(er) day compared to others. People were excited and in good spirts, going about throwing colour on friends, enemies, everyone. Then throwing friends, enemies, everyone into the inflated swimming pool. Then dancing and losing their shit after having bhaang. The post-holi post-bhaang time warp in which I struggled to get back to my room and ended up bathing for what seemed like an eternity is something I will never forget.

This concluded formal student life on campus, … or did it?

D-week

The conclusion of ISB life happens through two events - one formal and one informal. The formal one is of course graduation day – the hat toss, the tassel turning, the address to the graduating students by the guest of honour, etc. The informal one, unique to ISB, is what we call D-week, short for De-orientation week, the evil twin of O-week, that happened at the start of the year. Feeling the need to make the final week of ISB life super-duper-ultra-goddamn fun, I joined the D-week team to plan some events.

The D-week happens after ISBs academic session has wrapped up i.e. after the last exam has been written and before the graduation ceremony. Students officially have nothing to do, which adds to the pressure of planning some nice long events. Obviously, students are also free to leave campus and travel around, so making the events awesome and crowd-pulling becomes a must.

This D-week we had a game night, a “hotbox” party, a stand-up performance along with a roast of the GSB, a sundowner party, paintball, sufi night, an awards night along with a prom (the last party). The last event was the distribution and signing of yearbooks.

The events where I contributed to the most were the standup/roast and the awards night.

I gave the longest standup performance of my life (and emerging comedic career), lasting more than 20 minutes. I cracked jokes on every aspect of ISB life and proceeded to crack a few general ones. The auditorium was FULL, as the entire batch had turned up. It was my honour (and pleasure) to entertain these folks laugh; they laughed, a lot, which was a very inspiring and proud moment for me. Fortunately, this time the performance was recorded (by multiple people!).

Me and a handful more folks planned the awards and content for the awards. The winners were decided by live public voting which made the event really fun; thus the winners were a surprise to us too. Lots of controversial awards were given out. To add to the fun, we played jingles related to every award when the winners came on stage, adding to the cheery vibe of the vibe of the evening.

All D-week events were accompanied by some party or the other. I didn’t partake much in the daily drinking, however I did partake hugely in the daily eating. It was such a tough choice between indulging in end-of-days hedonism & trying to get in shape for my wedding. Both sides had a strong case.

On the last day, students gathered in “The Hub”, a small lawn in front of our main building to collect and sign yearbooks. This was fun few hours, writing messages to each other and recollecting memories. With this informal student life at ended.

Graduation

Graduation was a moderately long drawn out affair. Over the course of two days, we had a rehearsal of the graduation, “The Deans Dinner”, the ISB award ceremony, the official graduation ceremony followed by the Deans lunch.

For starters, it was complicated to wear graduation robes. While it’s fun to look like you’re in Harry Potter, wearing a gown is moderately difficult, especially the ISB gowns which have multiple moving parts. I’ve graduated before and it wasn’t so difficult :P. Also, ISB follows the tradition of turning the tassel - when you receive your degree, you turn your tassel from the right side of your hat (“mortarboard”) to the left indicating your successful graduation.

After the rehearsal we had the batch photo clicked followed quickly by the official ISB awards night. I am happy to state that I won awards for winning competitions, being a torchbearer (i.e contributing to student life + the brand of ISB) and finally also won a giant gold trophy for best club. Winning best club was thrilling to say the least. Just before the awards night could start, my Mom who was travelling all the way from Bombay arrived, coincidence? divine providence?

The awards night was followed by the Deans dinner where only the elite (like Deans listers, Club presidents, etc.) were invited. Yours truly was invited too, and he watched the awkwardness of socialising unfold for the umpteenth time.

That was it for pre-events. As I had dinner that evening, it was with my mother instead of the usual coterie of friends/students, it really started to sink in that things were coming to a close, whether I was transformed or not, a whole year had passed by. A year quite different from those before it.

I dropped my mom off and wished her goodnight. Tomorrow was going to be a momentous day.

Graduation day started early with breakfast opening at 7. Me being an eternal early bird, arrived promptly at 7. Then came the … waiting, students, who were all gown-ed up, waited in the academic block in a neat line so they could walk in a procession into the convocation hall. The convocation hall was a newly setup airplane hangar-like structure on the lawns. After a long wait that involved lots of photo sessions and false starts, some orchestral music was played and we all went into the hall in a glorious procession. An invocation was sung, our GSB president gave a speech followed by a few more addresses. We were told that our placements had been the best ever, and thus we were a great batch (Thanks!). The guest of honour gave a really boring and uninspiring speech, lots of people slept off or got busy on their phones. This was followed by announcements of the best professor, best academic associate. Finally we came to the graduation, students were called on stage one by one, in alphabetical order, except for those who received any sort of ISB honours, they went on stage first. My row got up all together, I waited for my moment, my name was called, I walked towards the center of the stage, shook hands with everyone present, grabbed my degree, looked at the camera, smiled, click, and walked out. As I walked out, I remembered to turn my tassel and officially become a graduate. Ah! Long journey. Then I sat as the degree disbursal wrapped. Finally, we all stood up, did a royal hat toss, smiled, laughed, cheered and walked out of the hall as graduates together. It was a fun ceremony. Then there was my favourite part, lunch

Since I had a plane to catch from Delhi, for which I had to take a 4-5 hour cab ride, I was in a rush! There was sadly no time for pleasantries and ooh-aahing. I wrapped up all my exit formalities, packed my bags a proper and took one last look at ISB, a place and people that I did indeed feel a little fonder towards.

This was the end. Of one sort.

I had come here with few expectations, for me B-school was just a brand and a network, these benefits come to after you graduate, I thought (back then) that this was mostly not relevant, I just had to get through it. But I was in for a lot of surprises, mostly pleasant. Apart from discovering news branches of knowledge, made new friends and newer perspectives, headed a club, won competitions and honours (in a far cry from my undergraduate days), tried standup comedy, gotten a kickass job and more. It felt like an eventful and significant year had gone by.

The transition from student to alumnus is most stark when you turn in your student ID card and receive your new Alumni ID card, it is precisely when the feeling of “shit, it’s really over” sinks into you. I wasn’t too emotional as I left, I had come prepared for this end. Back in Bombay, when I was packing for ISB, I packed quite lightly knowing that this was just a year, a temporary stay; and I could also save myself a lot of effort in moving stuff around. My past self had seen my future self which was now my present self and done it a favour! Cool, right?

The fun wasn’t over. Members of the drama club got together and gave every student leaving the campus a proper tear-filled and emotional vidaai; while I left early and couldn’t get one, it was a very sweet gesture.

But there was no time to be chill, my wedding and honeymoon were oncoming!

And so ended #LifeAtISB

#lifeatisb #journal #endings

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aventurasennicaragua · 7 years

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July 10th-27th: Last two and a half weeks in Nicaragua

So, it’s occurred to me that I write quite a lot in these posts. I’m not sure if anyone other than myself will actually read through all of these (which is fine) so I’ll keep this last post relatively short. When I’m done, I’ll put up one last batch of pictures to wrap things up.

(EDIT: This post is not short at all. I’m an inherently wordy writer. But, that’s okay, right?)

I mentioned earlier that we had a lunch to celebrate José’s birthday. José, the electromedicine technician that Seth and I worked with in Juigalpa, has his birthday on July 16th, which was a Sunday this year. The next day, Seth and I told him we’d take him and the other hospital techs out for lunch at Lespool’s Pizza, the restaurant owned by our Juigalpa family. In my opinion, the lunch was a really great chance to get to know José and the other techs (Elgin, Jader, and Pedro -- there is also another tech, Hector, but he unfortunately could not make the lunch) better. At one point, José was telling me about various plans that the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health and Hospital Asunción have for buying and maintaining medical equipment. According to him, every year brings more positive changes, and there is currently a program called “technological vigilance” being implemented that’s aimed at educating people in the medical field about properly taking care of devices. He also told me that the only university in Central America with a biomedical engineering program is Don Bosco University in San Salvador, El Salvador. I looked this up and found an article that talks about how graduates of the program have gone on to work in Central America, the U.S., and Europe (unfortunately, I can’t find the article right now :| ). I thought this was interesting, and according to José, he knows the program director.

During the weekend before the lunch, Seth and I stayed in Juigalpa rather than traveling with other EWH kids. Unlike our first weekend there, we really took the time to get out, explore, and learn more about the city. On Friday night, we went to a casino (don’t worry, we each limited ourselves to spending no more than 200$C -- about $7), and later on we went to a bar called The Safari. I liked The Safari because it was one of the few places in Juigalpa that played American and European music. However, what I did not like was that, for some weird reason, there were only men there - no women! (I have to admit that in some nightlife settings, I actually don’t mind being in a crowd with more men than women -- however, those are called gay bars lol. And the men in The Safari certainly did not seem gay.) When I asked Jader, my homestay brother about this, he just said that women don’t really go out on Friday nights. Hmmm, I’ll have to ask more about that someday.

The next day, Seth and I went to the Juigalpa zoo, which pleasantly surprised me. Since I knew that the hospital in Juigalpa often lacks pharmaceuticals for patients, I was thinking that the animals in the zoo might be visibly unhealthy, since perhaps they don’t always receive nutritious food and proper medications. However, most of the animals looked great, and there was quite a variety of species. Lions, tigers, cougars, monkeys, anteaters, buffalo, birds, wildebeests... there were a lot! When we left, we walked to the Central Park and climbed the Juigalpa Cathedral. The view from the top was the first glimpse I had looking over the city. While it may not look like Granada or León, Juigalpa has its own form of charm that I really grew to appreciate during my stay there. I’ll be sure to post a picture of that view in my next post. That night, Seth and I went to a rodeo, where some of the craziest people I’ve ever seen attempted to ride on top of bulls. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, and it was actually really fun to watch. When we came home, I was coerced (well, it wasn’t complete coercion because I wanted to do it) into going out with my Juigalpa family (meanwhile, Seth passed out). And when I say family, I mean everyone -- including the 2 little kids! We went to a lovely hotel/restaurant/bar called Café Iguana. Being that it was Karaoke Night, everyone kept begging me to sing. Unfortunately, I was a little dehydrated and ended up not feeling too great, so I never belted out a tune as my family was hoping I would. But we still had a fun time enjoying the music and some drinks. The next day, our family dropped us off at Las Peñitas (this is the same name as the beach in León that I went to), which was a pretty community pool right outside of Juigalpa. Overall, I think it was a really fun weekend, and I finally felt like Juigalpa was really growing on me. I was suddenly really sad to think I’d be leaving in a week.

Well, a week passed and Seth and I, along with Alyssa, left Juigalpa for Granada. Saying goodbye to my family was sad. Lesbia, Lesja, and the others were really wonderful hosts, and I wish I could have stayed a little bit longer just to know them more and spend more time with them. However, I’m thankful to have spent so many nights eating their delicious food (I’ll never forget their pizza, especially the crust) and talking to them about my love of Nicaragua. I’m still in touch with many of them through WhatsApp and Facebook, and we have continued to communicate. Saying goodbye on that last morning was a little teary, but after we left, I was glad to be heading back to Granada.

Reuniting with everyone from EWH was really good. I was happy to see the others, and our hostel was in a really great location within the city. When we arrived in Granada, I felt like I had entered a large, cosmopolitan city with a diverse mix of people -- well, perhaps it just felt like this in contrast to Juigalpa. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ton of time to explore and have fun. Each group of students had paperwork to complete and a powerpoint presentation to prepare. Fortunately, Seth and I had already started everything earlier on in the week, so Saturday was really just a chance to put the finishing touches on everything.

The next morning, we woke up early, dressed up, had breakfast, and walked to our old school to have the conference. There were five student presentations (Chinandega, Juigalpa, Somoto, Matagalpa, and Jinotega), as well as presentations from our coordinators. We attempted a skype call with Leslie Calman (the EWH CEO) and Iyad, who were both in the U.S., and the EWH SI group in Uganda. That way, we would have more of an audience for the conference. Unfortunately, the Skype called burned through the data we had purchased so quickly that only 2 of the 5 student groups could share their presentations. Luckily for me, Seth and I were one of those groups! I was really happy with how our presentation went. Our powerpoint was fairly balanced with text and photos, and Seth and I went through it quickly enough that we explained everything without boring everyone. I really liked listening to our coordinators’ presentations, too. One thing that Jack spoke about was how grateful we should be to have made friendships with one another -- not only did we now have new friends, but we had made connections with other students who are passionate about global health. Something that Alyssa spoke about was reverse culture shock: an experience that people have when they return to their home countries after being abroad for a long time. An important part of going through reverse culture shock is staying in touch with the people you went abroad with; they are the only people who can truly relate to the experiences you had, and it can be helpful to talk to them if you have any difficulties readjusting to life back home.

The end of the conference marked the official ending of my journey with Engineering World Health. However, my time in Nicaragua did not end on Sunday. I don’t plan on elaborating on this too much, but I made a really great friend from Costa Rica when I visited San Juan del Sur in early June. We stayed in touch for the remainder of my time in Nicaragua, and we decided to spend a few days together back in San Juan del Sur at the end of July. Jean Carlo (that’s his name) visited me in Granada that Sunday, and we spent the afternoon having lunch on Calle Calzada and then touring Las Isletas in Lake Nicaragua. The next day, we traveled from Granada to San Juan del Sur and enjoyed three days there. Jean Carlo and I are still friends today, and I’m really thankful to know him. On Wednesday, I traveled back to Granada, and early on Thursday morning, I departed from the Managua airport back home to New Jersey.

My summer with Engineering World Health has been an unforgettable experience that I will forever treasure in my heart. I posted a photo on Instagram the day I came home, and the caption I wrote is copied below. I think it adequately concludes this blog post.

“And after two months, I’m back home in New Jersey. How do I begin to describe these past experiences in Nicaragua? This trip has been more than what I ever imagined, and I don’t know how to thank everyone who made it so special. From my EWH companions, my families and friends in Granada and Juigalpa, and everyone else I’ve met along the way — I'm so lucky to have known all of you, and I will always look back on this time with incredible fondness. Thank you simply for everything.

Y después de dos meses, estoy en casa en Nueva Jersey. Como puedo empezar a describir estas experiencias pasadas en Nicaragua? Esto viaje ha sido más de que yo imaginaba, y no sé cómo decir gracias a todos quienes lo hicieron tan especial. De mis compañeros de EWH, mis familias y amigos en Granada y Juigalpa, y todos los otros quienes he conocido por el camino — tengo tanta suerte por haberlos conocido a todos ustedes, y siempre miraré hacia atrás en esto tiempo con increíble cariño. Gracias simplemente por todo.”

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priscilawithonel · 7 years

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super chismosa girl: another photo essay

As i near the beginning of my masters in information studies program at UT this fall, becoming more evident is the lack of information organizing and record-keeping that was required of myself and my family, ever. Every year, as a child, i would visit my grandparents’ house to spend the summer-- the obvious alternative to summering at home in Texas (where it was either do “nothing* at home or join some expensive soccer club or something, which required money, which didn’t exactly line our pockets, so it was do nothing at home). I’ve always been a super metiche girl, so the goal of my summers would be to go through every inch of every purse and shoebox of my grandmother’s closets, armoires, buros, drawers, dressers to find memories, to get lost in another era. Typically, the items found were, in no particular order: batches of photographs; mixed with official documents of my grandfather; his miners’ badges; letters to my mom from my uncle from prison. I don't imagine my grandparents re-visit and re-arrange their mementos often throughout the year; therefore, frequently i would run into the same photographs, letters, untold stories. One of my favorites, which has become an old friend, is a polaroid photograph of my lanky, young father, standing in a hallway wearing only shorts, and this subtle, almost eraser head hairdo, but handsome. On the outside border, he wrote “para mi gordita. Houston, TX” My father was a migrant worker, and he would travel back and forth from all over texas, back to Muzquiz. He and my mom met at a baile, “Yo estaba alli parada, esperando que me llamaran para bailer y se acerca tu papa todo mojoso, con una camisa de coca cola y unos chores bien rabones.” Shortly after that fateful night, he continued his border-crossing, meanwhile keeping their love alive via images of himself. in my grandma’s stuff, I’ve found several other envelopes addressed to my mom from papi (i don’t dare to read them), but nothing has ever been found from mami t’ papi. Mi papi no guarda las cosas muy bien, so i imagine those are lost forever.

Some other things i find in my grandparents’ things are many official passport photos, pens, wigs, bra enhancers (which began to appear a few years after my grandmother survived the shame of a mastectomy and her hair grew back). More curious than those things, though, was a album i recently resurrected, containing a half-page full of inch squared size photographs of young men. “mami quienes son estos? los conoces?” She gasps. “son todos los novios que tuve.” Este es *****. TE acuerdas mari (my mom’s sister, my aunt, who lives an hour’s drive away, and always visits my grandmother when my mother does, and when is not cleaning, is sitting next to my mom, gossiping), de *****. el era bien bueno. el era dueno de la carniceria de palau. She tells me other stories of other guys she went on trips with, dated for a while, jealousies from cousins who liked the same guy she was dating. Eventually, the same photographs were too familiar, and finding something new became more and more an elusive feat. The oldest thing i’ve found in my grandmothers’ time machine home, is ironically the newest thing i’ve found. it is a photograph of my grandfather, sitting in a circle of other men, wearing the same white button-up, jeans and boots and cowboy hats. in the middle of the photo is a radio, obviously the thing keeping those men sitting together. My grandfather died in 2016. I got a call from my sister the night before taking my last final exam, about to finish my penultimate semester in grad school. He died at the hospital, in his hospital bed, during a nap. I took my exam the next morning, holding back tears, wondering how in the world i would find the money to buy a flight home, in a matter of hours**. I eventually arrived at the San Antonio airport, where my brother waited for me, and we drove down to Palau, just missing his wake and burial. My arrival was met with many hugs, a cookout, laughs and tears. For the next few days, faces i’ve never seen before or rarely saw approached my grandmother’s house, to pay respects or to just sit and reminisce (i met one of my grandfather’s brothers, who looks eerily like him). Meanwhile, my grandfather’s spirit played in the background through the speakers of the little radio he required be on at all hours of the day. That little radio was the little radio that could. as a kid, i would wake up at 9 am, to the rhythm of the broom. i would run outside to meet papa as he swept the nogal leaves out of the dirt driveway, followed by the mangera showers to pat down the dirt. and always was La Rancherita del Aire in the background, playing and replaying songs from the most iconic artists in regional nortena, colombian cambia, mexican cumbia. Diabetes, beer, and age soon caught up with his health and he reluctantly lost his ability to do many, many things. But he always had his radio. If anyone turned it off, i can probably almost guarantee you that hell would actually break loose. when everything else was gloomy, the radio continues to play Ramon Ayala, and my grandfather lives on. In the days after people came and went to say their pesames, my mother was tasked with closing papa’s chapter, and opening my grandmother’s into head of the household, which required: filing a death certificate, creating my grandma’s own bank account, obtaining her debit card, and a pin number that she would now need to remember forever and ever. “donde esta tu acta de nacimiento, ama? y la de papa?” Filing the acta de defuncion proved a feat comparable to nothing else. It required many documents, voting cards, marriage certificates, wedding certificates, more documents, intertwined with signatures from the union president, and this guy, and her, and they and them. My mom has much anxiety she copes with on a daily basis. Because of this, and my rudimentary introduction to archives, I found myself, in the role of assistant to Mom, returning to my grandmother’s shoe boxes, purses, in the dressers, armoires, buros-- in pursuit of entirely different documents than i had searched for in the past. I now sifted through prison drawings from my uncle meaninglessly, in search of “credenciales de votar”, and “un papel que se llama asi”. We soon discovered that my grandmother’s way of record-keeping was to put anything of importance either under her mattress, or in between pages of her many bibles. As I near the beginning of my masters in information studies program, I realize that as an archivist, I want to be able to protect the basic rights and interests of underrepresented individuals. I want to pay close attention to the way i organize my information. and the information of my parents. Ever since that event, which was a BITCH, i have wondered ways to help my mom maintain better records of her documents. Recently, i was searching for my naturalization certificate through my mom’s important papers-- located in the bottom drawer of her nightstand, intertwined with batches of my schoolwork from kindergarten, and could not find it. Within the next month i plan to move back home with my parents, to create for them a way to store their information. Additionally, i plan to help them learn to use the computer. This is a whole other chapter, however. So, this story is to be continued.

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savetopnow · 6 years

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2018-03-28 23 CAR now

CAR

Auto Spies

#NYIAS: Up Close And Personal - Lexus Rolls Out It's Urban Warrior, The UX Crossover

#NYIAS: If You DIG The All-new Lincoln Aviator, THESE Are The DETAILS You Want — OFFICIAL Info HERE!

Financial Sector Fed Up With Tesla's Production Issues - Slashes Credit Rating

Uber Will Not Renew California Permit To Operate Self Driving Cars

#NYIAS: EVERYTHING You Want To Know About The Audi RS5 Sportback — Right HERE, Right NOW

Autoblog

2019 Nissan Altima wants to shake up midsize sedans

Nvidia halts self-driving tests; Uber drops test permit in California

2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS gets faster still with Weissach Package

NHTSA proposes scrapping higher 'gas guzzler' penalties

2019 Toyota RAV4 actually looks pretty cool

Car Throttle

BMW Has Made An All-Electric Classic Mini, And We're In Love

A Manual Aston Martin Vantage Is Happening But A V12 Is Unlikely

Here's What's Inside One Of Mercedes' Complex Massage Seats

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Electrek

Tesla sends out massive batch of Model 3 invites to Canadian reservation holders

BMW unveils an all-electric version of the classic Mini – its third electric Mini concept

First look at Tesla’s latest Autopilot (2.5) computer in Model 3, S, and X vehicles

Tesla elaborates on details and potential cause of fatal Model X crash under investigation

Tesla (TSLA) stock loses over $4 billion in value in one day over a series of bad news

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Tesla Model X Fire Required Huge Time Commitment From Authorities

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2019 Nissan Altima

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#car

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cyberpoetryballoon · 4 years

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Mold? In My Trendy, Artisanal Jam?

Food Twitter had two things on its mind this weekend: cake memes, and moldy jam.

Since it opened in 2011, Jessica Koslow's Los Angeles restaurant Sqirl has been positively fawned over for its "new California cooking" and artisanal jams (including by MUNCHIES). "For a certain stripe of out-of-town visitor (me)," wrote Marian Bull for Eater in 2016, "a meal there has come to symbolize everything that defines the most stereotypically bourgeois notion of a contemporary Los Angeles lifestyle right now." No trip to Sqirl is complete without Instagram proof of its toast: thick-cut bread topped with a ricotta cloud and bright swipes of its signature small-batch jam. Sqirl's jam is the focus of a cookbook due next week, but following recent allegations, it's now also the center of a microbial controversy.

twitter

In a series of Instagram stories titled "The Fungal," scientist and self-described "food antagonist" Joe Rosenthal shared claims against Sqirl, screenshots of which circulated on Twitter. Testimonials from current and former employees allege that the restaurant had a separate space hidden from health inspectors where jam was improperly cooled and stored with lids off, allowing it to develop a thick layer of mold. As recently as this week, employees allegedly removed mold from the jam under Koslow's guidance, deeming it "satisfactory for use once mold was scraped off." (Rosenthal also shared a photo from one of his sources of a bucket of mold scrapings from the jam.) When inspectors visited the restaurant, Koslow and her team allegedly instructed employees to hide "locked in this illegal kitchen space, with the lights off." And on top of all that, the restaurant and this hidden space reportedly had a rat and roach problem. Sqirl's high-end jams retail for $14-17 per jar, or $180 for a yearly jam subscription.

twitter

In response to the allegations, Koslow stated through Sqirl's Instagram that the restaurant has an A rating from the health department and that its jams have always been made "legally and always labeled accordingly." She added that the low sugar content and lack of commercial pectin or stabilizers in its jams—part of their initial appeal—result in a product that's "more susceptible to the growth of mold." Comparing it to the mold growth on cheese, charcuterie (think: the white mold on salami), and dry-aged beef, she wrote that discarding the mold, and the inches of jam below it, was done with "with the guidance of preservation mentors and experts." (MUNCHIES has reached out to Sqirl for comment and will update with a response if we receive one.)

But as the New York Times' California restaurant critic Tejal Rao has pointed out, while this practice is accepted by the USDA for hard salami and hard cheese, the agency does not recommend it for jams and jellies. "The mold could be producing a mycotoxin. Microbiologists recommend against scooping out the mold and using the remaining condiment," says the USDA's Molds on Foods fact sheet. Similarly, the National Center for Home Food Preservation's official guidance is to regularly check homemade jam for "mold or yeast growth, or off-odors" and to "discard the product immediately if any signs of spoilage are detected." According to Michigan State University, low-sugar jams are, indeed, more likely to ferment, but that anything fermented or moldy should be tossed, not scraped.

That said, after an interview with mycologist Dr. Patrick Hickey, who Koslow cited as guiding Sqirl's practices, the BBC concluded in 2014, "Fruit normally lasts better than vegetables because the acid in fruit keeps harmful bacteria at bay. The [molds] you find on jam, are fine—just scrape them off." (As Hickey told the BBC, apples are the exception to this, due to their ability to produce the mycotoxin patulin.)

Sqirl announced that it will change its practices for handling bulk jam, but the damage of "The Fungal" has perhaps been done. Spice company Diaspora Co., which recently worked with Sqirl on a rhubarb jam made with its cardamom, pulled their collaborative product after conversations with Sqirl's leadership and past and present employees, and will issue refunds.

As off-putting as moldy jam is, it's just a layer above a much bigger discussion. Scrape it back, and employees allege that Sqirl's work environment was toxic and abusive in other ways, with former chefs like Javier Ramos and Ria Dolly Barbosa claiming that Koslow took credit for their recipes to great success. (Koslow was a recent James Beard Award nominee, and her 2016 cookbook was critically acclaimed.)

Koslow has also made unapologetic remarks about Sqirl's gentrifying effect on the primarily Latinx stretch of Virgil Avenue where it has been located since 2011. As Marian Bull wrote in her 2016 piece, Koslow has attributed part of Sqirl's success to what she calls its "shitty corner" where space comes at "two dollars per square foot," but as the blog Jimbo Times argued just last week, Sqirl's long lines and crowds are the manifestation of "another white wall encroaching upon another once-predominantly immigrant neighborhood," a process that has failed to cater to longtime residents of the community.

Yet again, reality is never as perfect as a well-lit, tightly cropped Instagram post might make it out to be.

via VICE US - undefined US VICE US - undefined US via Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network Mom's Kitchen Recipe Network

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