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dangerdaysdiary · 4 years

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From Cassie the Venomous... A Danger Days FAQ

You can find the original post on Cassie’s website here.

Frequently asked 'Danger Days...' Questions Answered!March 18, 2011Now that My Chemical Romance's Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is out, I'm finding more and more questions about it leading people to this site. I figured it would be beneficial to address some of the ones that are asked most frequently in one place for the benefit of all! I hope this helps! ORIGINAL POST: November 24, 2010 @ 11:57 P.M. UPDATED: March 18, 2011 @ 9:47 P.M. ____ The Killjoys Fun Ghoul -Corresponding MCR member: Guitarist, Frank Iero -Raygun: Green with horror-style stickers attached to it -Symbol: A smiling face with one eye crossed out and a jagged mouth -Physical Description: Wears a yellow shirt with black-striped accents over which he wears a military vest. In the video for "SING," Fun Ghoul bears a scar on the right side of his face at his mouth. -Mask: Purple and green Frankenstein mask -Additional Information: ... Jet Star -Corresponding MCR member: Guitarist, Ray Toro -Raygun: Blue with red and white details and the text "BECAUSE I SAID SO" -Symbol: Star with a face and a lightening bolt rising from its left side -Physical Description: Wears an eyepatch on his right side. His jacket displays an American flag on its back. -Mask: Black astronaut-style helmet -Additional Information: The original name for Jet Star was "Raygun Jones." Kobra Kid -Corresponding MCR member: Bassist, Mikey Way -Raygun: Red with white details and a decal that says "deluxe" (his raygun was originally named "Demon-shark Deluxe"). -Symbol: the face of a hissing cobra -Physical Description: Wears a red jacket over a yellow-and-black zebra-print shirt -Mask: Yellow helmet with blue and red eye-like details that displays the message “GOOD LUCK” on its visor -Additional Information: In addition to his raygun, Kobra Kid can also be seen using a power glove in the video for “Na Na Na…." Mikey describes Kobra Kid as a "misunderstood" character with a "short temper" who "knows Kung-Fu." Party Poison -Corresponding MCR member: Vocalist, Gerard Way -Raygun: yellow with pink details and "Give Me Money" written in Japanese on its side. -Symbol: pill with an "X" beneath it -Physical Description: Wears a blue jacket with red details, a "dead pegasus" logo on the front and his Killjoy symbol on the back -Mask: yellow domino mask with blue circular details and clown-style eyes or a decorated "mousekat" helmet. -Additional Information: Party Poison was among the Danger Days... characters active on Twitter preceding the album's release. The Killjoys' names, which Mikey Way told NME are "themed after designer drugs," started as the names of their rayguns, but later turned into character names. The band has said that their Killjoy personas are not characters they are playing, but how they picture themselves in the future. Are the Killjoys Dead? Currently, as a result of the “SING” video, the Killjoys are presumed dead. However, a picture from Gerard Way of “Party Poison” in what appears to be an unzipped body bag (left) captioned “Killjoys never die” has many fans questioning how dead they truly are. UPDATE: April 10, 2011 Dr. Death Defying tweeted: that "there are four acceptable levels of dead after posting an ode to Party Poison, whom he called "dearly departed." More information will follow if the four levels of dead are explained further. Dr. Death Defying Played by Steve Righ? of Mindless Self Indulgence, Dr. Death Defying is the smooth-talking narrator who filters in-and-out of Danger Days…. He is a D.J. for 109 F.M., WKIL, a pirate radio station that operates in the Zones. He is recognized by his “Slaughtermatic Sounds” jacket, which also says “Jackals” and “Philly,” his aviator sunglasses and the bandanna he wears tied around his head. Dr. Death Defying uses an electric wheelchair because of an apparent injury to his left leg, to which an electric brace is strapped. In an hour-long video “listening party” hosted by the D.J., the character implied that he is a veteran, possibly of the Helium Wars, which have been alluded to vaguely. Show Pony and the Girl Show Pony, the character who can be recognized by his "NOISE" half-shirt, blue-and-white polka-dot tights & helmet and rollerskates is the companion of Dr. Death Defying, the narrator of Danger Days... (played by Steve from Mindless Self Indulgence). Show Pony is played by performer Ricky "Rebel" (Twitter | Reverbnation). Rebel opened for My Chemical Romance as Show Pony at the band's Hollywood album release show. The actress who plays the Killjoy girl in the videos, whose character name has thus far only been "the Girl," goes by Grace Jeanette. She, too, is an actress and a musical performer. The Girl's role in the Danger Days world appears to be a significant one; as, she was kidnapped by Better Living Industries for a stull-unknown reason. The Zones and Battery City

The Killjoys world centers around Battery City and its surrounding concentric Zones. The map to the left shows how the Zones are laid out in relation to the city. Utopian Battery City is central, corporate, clean and the center of manufacturing. It is where Battery Towers is located. Battery City, California is the setting for My Chemical Romance's "SING" video, to give you a better perception of what it looks like. The setting for the "Na Na Na..." video is in the Zones, which are a more lawless, desert terrain in which the Killjoys live, run and fully embrace their freedom. The Zones are dirty, wild and dangerous-- the opposite of Battery City. Geographic landmarks include: Route Guano, which is the road on which Gerard has said, "the shit happens." It is where Jet Star and Kobra Kid are "ghosted" by an exterminator in the Danger Days... track "Jet-Star and The Kobra Kid/Traffic Report." "The Getaway Mile," which may be a specific location, is mentioned in the song "Bulletproof Heart." There is also a place which Dr. Death Defying on Twitter called "Wolfblood Beach." Better Living Industries Better Living Industries (Also known as BLI, BL/ind, or BL industries) is the corporation that controls Battery City. The corporation strives to bring about structure in a post-apocalyptic world. It is known for producing emotion-eliminating medications as well as every other manufactured product one can acquire in 2019. BLI crosses over from the Killjoys world and into real life. The made-up corporation has its own web site with products that you can actually purchase, a mission statement and a "Zone Report" in both Japanese and English. Also, MCR takes it a step further by having changed the name under which their music is published to "Better Living Industries Music," which you can see in the liner notes of Danger Days.... BLI also overtakes the edited version of Danger Days..., whiting out the internal album art, taking away the lyrics and putting its smiling face logo (above right) all over it. The Danger Days: California 2019 Edition box set is packaged in a BLI box and the 3-song The Mad Gear & Missile Kid E.P. that comes with it is printed on a disc made to look like a BLI brand CD-R. Check out some BL/ind commercials and "Fact News" reports. Dead Pegasus Dead Pegasus is a 2019 oil company. Korse, Draculoids and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W

Korse is an exterminator for BL/ind's SCARECROW Unit. In the videos, he is played by comic writer Grant Morrison. The "SING" video has raised speculation among fans that Korse could possibly a robot of some sort; as, he is seemingly "activated" in his chamber by the push of a button. Some also speculate, based on Gerard Way's character sketches and his indicating that Korse suffers from "Zone sickness," that he may stay in the chamber shown in the "SING" video for medical reasons. Grant Morrison revealed to MTV that Korse is "intimately connected with the Killjoys and their secret history," which has yet to be revealed. The SCARECROW Unit of BL/ind is a sort of police force. Korse leads it, and The Draculoids are the other exterminators that appear to be of lower ranking than Korse. They're a "clean-up crew" for the Zones, getting rid of the things and people who do not comply with the monochromatic standards of Better Living Industries. The Mad Gear And Missile Kid

The Mad Gear and Missile Kid is My Chemical Romance's alter-ego band for Danger Days... Mad Gear is what MCR imagined the Killjoys would listen to in 2019. Fans who ordered the California 2019 Box Set received a bonus E.P. of the three tracks MCR recorded as The Mad Gear And Missile Kid: 1. F.T.W.W.W. (acronym for "fuck this whole wide world") 2. "Mastas Of Ravenkroft" 3. "Black Dragon Fighting Society" The genesis of TMG&MK came with the writing of "Black Dragon Fighting Society," which was originally recorded for the pre-Danger Days album the band "scrapped." "F.T.W.W.W." and "Mastas of Ravenkroft" followed as songs created specifically for TMG&MK. Gerard Way told Alternative Press that the MCR is interested in creating a full album as The Mad Gear and Missile Kid and that they would like to play shows as the alter-ego band on off-days of tours in the future. EVENTS in the Zones 2012: The Great Fires 2017: The Pig Bomb ?: Helium Wars

-- If there's something about which you are confused that you would like added to this post, let me know! Consider this a perpetual draft that will update as often as you, Reader, need it to. Also, please don't hesitate to submit corrections! I have compiled the information in this post using knowledge I've gained from interviews of the band by several sources. Suggested Reading to Expand your Killjoys Knowledge: The Twitter development of the Zones presented in a linear fashion. A full interview transcript series posted by Coup De Main Magazine. XoXo c.

#cassie the venomous #external #danger days

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morganhazelwood · 4 years

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a writer of middle-grade horror and SF, fan of both cats AND dogs

Readers! Let’s give a good, hearty welcome to Ty Drago!

Ty Drago is a husband, father, grandfather, dog and cat owner, practicing Quaker, and the author of (to date) eight published novels, one novelette, two anthology appearances, and loads of short stories and articles.

His novels include the five-book middle grade horror series, The Undertakers, which has been optioned for a feature film, and Phobos, which has been called by Publisher’s Weekly, “…a strong candidate for SF debut of the year.”

Ty, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most interviews start off with bios and such, and while I’ll get to that as always, let’s start with the important stuff!

If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?

That’s easy: a dragon, and the not the cutesy Puff or Elliot variety either. I’m talking about a full-blown, fire-breathing scaley lizard, thirty-feet long at least. I’d like to see our smug neighbor’s big husky get pushy with me then! Why, you ask? Well, for one thing my last name is simply Italian for dragon. For another, my most recent novel deals with dragons – though not the scaley lizard-kind. But mentioning that does make for a good segue (see the end of the interview).

Dragons are a classic choice. I’m sorry your neighbor’s husky is so pushy!

What do you write?

Mostly, I write kids books and have often gleefully declared that I scare children for a living. But the truth is that I’m a full-time, working writer, which means I write what I think I can sell.

I’ve been “writing” all my life. As a kid, I drew comic books, which usually dealt with a group of child superheroes I invented called “The Kid Kadets” (I was eight, and didn’t know how you spell “cadets.”) In any event, these woefully drawn comics were a hit with the neighborhood kids and helped me work my way up to short stories and novels in my teens and twenties.

But it wasn’t until my thirties, with my wife Helene egging me on, that my career started taking off. I sold my first novel, landed my first agent, and the rest has been a glorious exercise in patience, frustration, triumph, despair, pride, disappointment, and joy. In other words, life as a writer

The thirties seem to be an excellent time to get serious about one’s writing. Congrats on a fruitful career. And best of luck nurturing that patience and tempering the despair and disappointments.

What do you like to read?

I read all sorts of things. My favorite book is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. But I love the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child and the Dresden books by the great Jim Butcher. Go Mouse!

All that said, I frequently read to Helene at bedtime. It’s a ritual we’ve had, on and off, throughout most of our long marriage. So, as our interests differ where fiction is concerned, I find that my tastes have broadened in unexpected ways. Over the years, I’ve found that I hate Moby Dick but love A Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Phantom of the Opera. In a more modern vein, I enjoy a good saga, such as the works of James Clavell or Wilbur Smith.

What a lovely way to share your love of reading and your genre tastes with your partner. I might have to try it someday. (And who doesn’t love Mouse?)

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you.

Write what you know.

It’s nonsense. I mean, seriously, where’s the fun in that? Rather, I like to say, “Start with what you know, and then take it further … much further.” That’s where great stories are born.

Fiction writing is the exercise of that muscle in our brains that I call “The Idea Machine.” Keep it churning and your imagination will never starve. However, it can’t live on “what you know” but instead “what you dream.”

What a wonderful way to describe it. Speculative fiction especially doesn’t belong in the confines of a literal interpretation of ‘write what you know’.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that they can pry out of your cold, dead hands.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up. And if you ever feel like giving up – don’t.

Persistence and hope, the pair of things that keep a writer going.

Shameless Self-Promotion time!

In his 5-book Middle Grade series: The Undertakers

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 20%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

“On a sunny Wednesday morning in October, a day that would mark the end of one life and the beginning of another, I found out my grouchy next door neighbor was the walking dead. When you turn around expecting to see something familiar, and instead see something else altogether, it takes a little while for your brain to catch up with your eyes. I call it the ‘Holy Crap Factor.'”

Forced to flee his home and family, twelve-year-old Will Ritter falls in with the Undertakers-a rag-tag army of teenage resistance fighters who’ve banded together to battle the Corpses.

Funded just now on Kickstarter!! Dragons was a stretch goal for the Horns and Halos anthology! Dragons is an SF YA that, on the surface, is kind of a space-age retelling of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Eighteen-year-old Andy Draco is stolen from his family and his life by a powerful corporation that plans to use him for its own “noble cause.” You see, Andy is not the skinny high school kid he seems to be. Andy is “Kind,” a member of a vanishingly small subspecies of humanity that’s capable of generating enormous amounts of thermal energy. In short: a Dragon. They’ve existed since the dawn of man and aren’t the fire lizards that myth and legend have made of them. Instead, they’re a peaceful, reclusive race who live quiet lives alongside humanity – for the most part, undiscovered. Until now.

Against his will, and in the face of the cultural absolute of concealment under which he was raised, Andy is forced to reveal his power. It seems a mining colony deep below the ice on Europa has been seized by terrorists and the corporate entity that owns the colony needs a Dragon to burn their way down to reach them. After this “simple task,” Andy will be returned to his family. Or so they promise.

But all isn’t what it seems, and before long Andy will face betrayal, wonder, and terrible danger as he begins to grasp just how high the stakes really are. To win the coming battle will take more than a Dragon. It’ll take a hero.

Check Ty Drago out across the web!

Author Spotlight: Ty Drago a writer of middle-grade horror and SF, fan of both cats AND dogs #bookblogger #books #writingTips #writerslife a writer of middle-grade horror and SF, fan of both cats AND dogs Readers! Let's give a good, hearty welcome to Ty Drago!

#Author Spotlight

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hatari-translations · 5 years

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RÚV interview about the flag incident - translation/commentary

So this interview is already on YouTube with English subtitles (part 1, part 2), but these subtitles are fanmade, and they’re heavily condensed and paraphrased, the English is a bit shaky, and sometimes they’re not quite accurate (there’s nothing hugely wrong, but definitely bits that are a bit off). So I’ve retranslated the whole interview as faithfully as I could here, and added some notes.

English translation

INTERVIEWER: Good evening and welcome to Kastljós. Performance art group Hatari caused a real stir at Eurovision last weekend. They got tenth place and staged a sharp protest against Israel's treatment of Palestine, and since the beginning the group has talked about a 'plan', to dismantle capitalism among other things, and to use the song contest to show solidarity with Palestinians. They have also wanted to normalize the BDSM subculture and support the struggle for LGBTQIA rights. In the past two weeks they've garnered worldwide attention, but now they're finally home. Welcome, Matthías, Einar and Klemens.

KLEMENS/EINAR: Thank you.

INTERVIEWER: How... It was a bit of a hassle getting you in for an interview today, you were a bit tired. Are you completely exhausted?

MATTHÍAS: Yeah, we thought we'd have this day off.

KLEMENS: And that the Icelandic nation might have had enough of us.

INTERVIEWER: Are you still recovering?

MATTHÍAS: Yeah.

KLEMENS: Yeah, there's been a lot of pent-up tension to recover from, for several months.

MATTHÍAS: Yeah. For the next few days we're just going to be digesting this, I think.

INTERVIEWER: I'd like to just get straight to the incident that provoked the most attention. We've all been following you throughout this process, but perhaps we haven't heard exactly how this happened, when you'd received your points from the public vote and waved the Palestinian flag. How did this come about? When did you decide to do it in this moment?

KLEMENS: Well, we always talked about how we were following a plan, and that everything was going according to plan. But really... if we're honest, we were kind of jumping off a cliff, and for most of that time we didn't know exactly where this was headed.

MATTHÍAS: We had certain ideas, saw certain possibilities, and took these banners with us to keep that possibility open. But the fact it'd happen exactly there, and exactly in that way, we couldn't really predict, because we don't know exactly when we're going to be on camera, and how, and for how long. We're kind of confined within this box.

INTERVIEWER: So you didn't have a plan for this.

MATTHÍAS/EINAR: No, but...

KLEMENS: No, well, we had a bit of a plan. And it was a hassle to get the banners - they weren't flags, they were banners, and it was a hassle to obtain them. Iceland Music News helped a lot.

MATTHÍAS: Yeah, the reporters at Iceland Music News went to Ramallah and smuggled those flags back over the border, while we were just in our Euro-bubble, I can't remember what we were doing that day.

INTERVIEWER: How were they smuggled into...?

MATTHÍAS: You kind of have to ask them about that, but they described it as a nerve-wracking experience, where they had to walk across the border in full view of soldiers, with those banners under their clothes.

KLEMENS: It was also a big hassle to obtain the banners themselves, because it was, I think, Ramadan? And no stores were open. So our Palestinian friends were very busy, calling people they knew to open - I think in the end it was a toy store that was opened for us, and got us these Palestinian banners.

INTERVIEWER: But then, when you know you're about to get your public points, and the camera is about to be on you - describe the lead-up to that. What were you thinking and how did you decide to do this?

MATTHÍAS: We'd several times had a cameraman come up to us, and that's sort of a clue that maybe soon we're going to be on camera. I had one banner on the inside of my boot, the right Hatari boot, and I was ready and had already unzipped it each time the cameraman approached. But then we saw that other participants were shown when their public points were announced, especially when there was a large gap between the jury points and the public, as it was for us. So as soon as we heard that we were getting a lot of points from the public, and a cameraman came running and even pointed at the camera - then we knew that okay, this is the moment.

KLEMENS: We were like - [wild, frantic gesturing]

MATTHÍAS: Yeah, I remember Klemens sort of nodded to me, like "It's now", and I pull my banner out of the boot, and when I relive that moment all I can think is how relieved I am that the banner was the right way up. It could easily have been upside down.

INTERVIEWER: But then you record a video of staff coming to take the banners. What actually happened there?

EINAR: Things got really unreal very quickly, as soon as we'd had those few seconds on the screen. Immediately people were booing. We were in the green room with all the other artists and delegations, and then there was a VIP section, and there were probably a lot of Israelis there. And they just immediately start booing. The mood kind of took a turn; people had been waving flags all night, and...

INTERVIEWER: You felt that people were unhappy with you.

EINAR: Um... well, really the people in the VIP section. We didn't feel that from the other participants. They were all just "Wow, they really did that." And...

KLEMENS: These were seats that people could buy, instead of being out in the crowd.

INTERVIEWER: Then, in the wake of this, this is being covered by many of the world's biggest news organizations, and we've seen on social media where you're sharing photos of the Palestinian flag, that under them you get comments where they’re just tearing into you and threatening you. How do you feel about that?

MATTHÍAS: That's nothing new, really, even if this got more attention than most other things. And we've kind of decided, or learned, from this to not put too much stock in internet comment systems.

INTERVIEWER: Well, this is a bit bigger than on the Icelandic news sites. You've just butted into one of the most heated international conflicts in modern history, and... you never know what people might do, you'd think.

MATTHÍAS: Sure, and of course we were stepping into uncertainty there at a certain point. As Einar described, the mood in the room really changed, in a palpable way, and we didn't really know... The journey from the green room - at this point we're not at all following the contest, we didn't even know the Netherlands' contestant had won until way later.

KLEMENS: Andrean, he...

MATTHÍAS: ...congratulated the Swedish contestant.

KLEMENS: On the way out.

MATTHÍAS: It was well-intentioned; he just wasn't thinking. But that was the most precarious part, the journey from the green room to our dressing room, and that... The technicians are shouting something at us, but there are also Israelis coming to cheer and support us.

EINAR: We didn't really know how much danger we were in, and that created a lot of uncertainty.

INTERVIEWER: A bit about this group. It hasn't existed very long, you start in 2015, 2016 you play your first concert, and then you decide to take part in Eurovision and have been playing a bit before that. But this ideology that you’re working with, you created a fake news website, Icelandic Music News -

KLEMENS: Iceland Music News.

INTERVIEWER: Iceland Music News, which is fake news.

MATTHÍAS: The most honest media organization in the country.

KLEMENS: In the history of Iceland.

INTERVIEWER: Then you have Svikamylla ehf., which is your holding company, and a fake sponsor, SodaDream - just to ask you yourselves, what's the message of your satire?

MATTHÍAS: I think everything you've mentioned, Iceland Music News, SodaDream and how we present ourselves in interviews, is about image, and the cultivation of an image. It's so... We live in a marketplace of personal image, with social media and so on, but then we also just revel in paradoxes, wherever they are to be found.

KLEMENS: The contradictions that we live with constantly, and are born into.

INTERVIEWER: One of those paradoxes is how, while you're out there, Iceland is going nuts for Hatari products. Hamburger buns with your logo, hotdogs, TVs, and all sorts of merchandise. Capitalism somehow took you over and swallowed you while you were out there. How do you feel about that? Is it part of the plan, or...?

[As he says this, we see examples: 40% off pizza at Domino's using the coupon code 'Hatari'; 'Hatrið mun sigra' hamburger buns; a Domino's ad saying 'Hungrið mun aldrei sigra' or 'Hunger will never prevail'; an ad for a Eurovision discount on pitas showing a gimp with the caption 'Go Iceland!'; stall selling actual branded Hatari merchandise at a mall; 'Hatrið mun sigra' written with balloons in a store window; a sign saying 'Ready for Eurovision? A bigger selection of Hatari products on the bottom floor']

MATTHÍAS: Well, what I felt - I felt a bit betrayed by Domino's Pizza, because they didn't even want to sponsor Iceland Music News, and then they use our lyrics in a commercial! Nah, not really. But obviously we're just stepping into a big commercial enterprise with Eurovision. We've been this grassroots multimedia project...

EINAR: It's weird how Hatari kind of becomes public property in the process of this.

INTERVIEWER: You go out there not just to participate in Eurovision - you go without the RÚV delegation to Hebron, and there you're talking to people and getting to know people and familiarizing yourselves with the situation there. Tell us a bit about that.

KLEMENS: We - well, our friends told us that if we wanted to see apartheid very clearly, we should go to Hebron and see the H2 area, which is in the center of the city. They went with us, and a friend of theirs lives there and showed us around what's called 'Ghost Town', which is some strategically chosen streets that have been closed off for settlers to travel between illegal settlements. There are three illegal settlements in the middle of the city, and...

MATTHÍAS: And it's all constantly monitored by soldiers, this city. The local kid who was showing us around was shocked that we were allowed in with a camera, because that never happens. And you just feel how electrified the tension is between the locals, the Palestinians who live there, on the one hand, and the soldiers and settlers on the other.

INTERVIEWER: You said before you left that you expected that going there and taking part in this would change your perspective on the situation, perhaps in a wider context. I'm not entirely clear on what context, but did this journey do that?

MATTHÍAS: Yeah...

EINAR: It's one thing to read the news and try to stay informed, and it's another thing to see the apartheid with your own eyes, talk to refugees and just hear their stories.

MATTHÍAS: In a way it confirmed - even though we see news headlines, it put them in context with the daily life there, and we heard a lot more perspectives, from both Israelis and Palestinians. It's a much more complicated reality than we perhaps believed, but the abuse of power by Israelis against the Palestinians is much clearer in our minds than ever before.

INTERVIEWER: Did you succeed in your goals with this act?

MATTHÍAS: Well... we've said that there's no one 'bomb', or whatever you call it, that justifies playing in this country, and participating in this big spectacle. But we tried to just follow our hearts and do what we could, and we hope we did that.

KLEMENS: We've received support from all over the world about what we...

INTERVIEWER: A bit about that support, since we don't have a lot of time left. You're still going, doing a small tour around Iceland. This has made you a bit of an overnight sensation, to use a cliché. Are you planning to tour abroad and become known internationally?

MATTHÍAS: We have some concerts in the pipeline, but we're starting here in Iceland.

KLEMENS: We're about to release a song with our friend and collaborator Bashar Murad. He's a Palestinian musician and we're publishing a song with him on the 23rd, on Thursday, which is our homecoming concert. Then we're going around the country - 'National Disgrace', that's our tour.

MATTHÍAS: National Disgrace, presented by Relentless Scam Inc. Tickets on tix.is. But yeah, Bashar was the main person cheering us on, informing us, putting us in contact with other Palestinian artists, so talking and collaborating with him has meant a lot for us.

INTERVIEWER: So, it's all very showy, your costumes and presentation and how you've expressed yourselves in interviews so far. Now you're here, having taken the masks off a bit. Is the performance continuing, in the form of Hatari the musical group?

MATTHÍAS: Yeah, I think right now our full-time job is shaking off the Eurovision stamp, and that's not going to be easy. And I think we're taking a break from the media after this.

INTERVIEWER: But you don't regret it?

KLEMENS/EINAR: No.

MATTHÍAS: No, I don't think so. The support and thanks we're bombarded with - you mentioned those hateful comments on social media, but they don't matter next to the messages we've received from Palestinians and others who support justice and human rights. One didn't quite realize - for us it's just a piece of cloth, and we're used to being able to wave whatever cloth we want wherever we want, but for them it was just - for many people who contacted us, talking about their friends in Betlehem or Gaza or East Jerusalem or Ramallah, wherever people were calling from - it was so important to them to tell us that everyone they knew was cheering so hard, and how deeply it touched them. One girl who contacted us said, 'I can feel now, for the first time in a long time, that I'm not alone in the world, and you gave me hope and made me proud to be Palestinian.' It had a way bigger effect on people than...

KLEMENS: ...than we could ever have imagined.

MATTHÍAS: For us it's a show of solidarity, but it's still just a cloth on TV. But that's not how a lot of other people saw it.

INTERVIEWER: We have to stop now, the producer is starting to yell at me. Time's up. Thanks a lot for coming.

Notes

This interview is from Kastljós, a show that airs after the news on RÚV and features interviews and/or in-depth coverage about things that are in the news.

When Matthías mentions the ‘bomb or whatever you call it’, he’s referencing a widely-shared opinion column from May 15th, the day after the first semifinal, titled ‘Hatari, when’s the bomb coming?’ Many Icelanders who support Palestine and were in favor of boycotting the contest were annoyed with Hatari participating, and after Hatari went on stage in the first semifinal and played their song without incident, the author of the column impatiently asked when the ‘bomb’ was coming - whatever grand gesture Hatari had planned that was supposed to justify participating. He went on to encourage Hatari to withdraw from the contest and refuse to play in the final.

My personal take on the issue has always been that boycotts are only effective on a large scale, and Hatari unfortunately just never had the power to orchestrate that when it came to Eurovision. If they had pulled out before the final, alone, while every other country went on and the contest was just business as usual, most of the viewing public would never even have noticed that Iceland wasn’t there, and it would’ve made virtually no impact on anything, whereas pulling out the banners where they did made international headlines and all in all provoked a lot of discussion about Israel and Palestine. I think Matthías and I are basically on the same wavelength, as he talks about how there wasn’t really anything they could’ve done that would’ve justified their participation, but they hope they did what they could.

I think from Hatari’s comments around the incident that it’s clear they had multiple plans going on - a plan for what they’d do if they actually won (perhaps a statement on stage in their speech), and then other plans for things they could potentially go for, depending on when they had an opportunity, including those banners, and this is what they ended up getting a good chance to do. I’m sad we didn’t get to see what they had planned for victory, and I’m curious what the other plans were - but I think this one worked out pretty well.

#hatari #interview #translation #cultural context #iceland #politics

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ohcoolnice · 5 years

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very unpopular opinion: Stop asking for money on tumblr

I’m gonna get so much hate for this but i can’t even hold back anymore.

so i hate to be *that person* because everyone is going through shit, but let me just make my point here:

I’m an 18 (19 in less than a month) year old white girl with a black father and a white mother. I might be bi but i’m really just confused tbh.

This is all irrelevant, though, because I live in an abusive home, which isn’t something i’d stand for if it were anybody else, i don’t give a shit if you’re a purple girl and thanos is your dad and you’re lesbian. It matters when people are hurting. My father controls my bank account, expects me to pay him, refuses to let me have ANY money, and the 20 dollars i have is from babysitting, and it’s hidden in my room, taped under my bed because it’s the only place he might not find it, since he searches through my room on the regular.

I do not have a job, because i had to leave the job i’ve had since i was 14 due to health issues, and i’ve been searching for a job for about six months, and haven’t got anything that’s more than a week (i worked a week on comic-con in the summer). I’ve probably applied to over 100 jobs by now, but I simply don’t have the “experience” that is so required but never given.

I’m currently making money via an online captioning site, that pays per video minute of captions, not per hour spent captioning, so i can spend 50 hours that week captioning, and only make $16. It’s not fast money, but it’s MONEY.

As i said, I live in an abusive household. I was very open about this on the last tumblr i had, but i decided i wouldn’t say anything about it on this one, i don’t like the way i’m addressed once people find out. It’s been so long that i’ve come to normalise the abuse, and it rarely makes me cry anymore, but what does make me cry, is seeing happy families and good relationships on TV. Something i might never have.

I had to use everything I’ve saved up since i started working at 14, over 5 years ago, and now my bank account is empty, and I’m struggling to earn enough to pay off my credit card (had to buy school supplies- i’m a fashion student). I have to come up with excuses why i don’t have certain materials in class when the truth is that i can’t afford anything at all. I live at home with my parents, grandmother, and three brothers.

The worst part of all this is that my family isn’t poor. Honestly, it’s the complete opposite. My father has a net worth of over 3 million, and my mother is not far behind. My brothers are constantly treated with new shoes and clothes and school supplies (two younger, one a year older than me who is on an internship in Halifax), and my parents love to go on multiple vacations each year without their kids, which i understand, four kids is a lot of work.

We’re not in debt and we’re well off. Our house is small, yes, but everyone has their own room and there is a separate apartment in the basement for my grandmother, and we have a backyard that’s oddly large for the city.

So why am i so broke?

Honestly, i’m not sure. I know my father loves me, but the times i can see that are so few and far between that i don’t even know anymore. My second youngest brother stole my father’s credit card and cash multiple times this year, racking up a lovely bill of over $2,000 worth of money stolen.

As a punishment, he has a full season pass to Canada’s Wonderland, gifts for every occasion, and he’s practically my parents’ favorite. Sure, they scold him when it happens and they find out, but their punishments never last more than a day, whereas i am still blamed for attending a year of private school in the fifth grade- something that was their choice, not mine.

And that’s not even the abusive aspect to my house. That’s merely my parent’s preference of my brothers over me.

My father is emotionally abusive, screaming and yelling and calling me fat (though i’m in relatively okay shape, and underweight) and lazy and stupid and somethings i’d rather not type out. If he’s in a mood, I’m his target, even if i’m not home, i’ll open up my email to see a bunch of wonderful new emails in my inbox telling me off.

He’s also been physically abusive.

So many people have told me to call the cops or anything, but at home, everyone is constantly yelling at me, and calling me a liar the moment i open my mouth, but i rarely ever lie because i absolutely HATE liars.

My father hates what i do, he hates what i want to do, because, to him, fashion isn’t a real career. He hates that I’m in art and that i paint and draw and that i barely was able to pass math in high school.

I’m also ADHD. While i don’t have any money, everything i make will be going towards paying my tuition. I have two scholarships, but still have to pay about $8,000 after the deductions.

I currently have a near-perfect score in all my courses, all 100% except one 80% (an 8/10), to which i was told that if he saw anything like it again, I wouldn’t be going to school next semester.

So for my Adhd, I have to take medication, and i’ve gotten better at being able to function without, but i still can’t fully, and it’s really hard to explain what i mean by that, so i won’t, it’s really too complex. For two and a half years, ending this summer, I was SEVERELY depressed: cutting and numb and crying myself to sleep more nights than not. Panic attacks and Anxiety attacks were the norm. Honestly, I have so much shit due that i’m gonna cut this short, because i have four more projects due this week, three due tomorrow.

I don’t have a phone, because i’m not “responsable like your brothers” and I have to walk down poorly-lit and dangerous areas of downtown after class to get to the subway. if something did happen to me, though, i’m not sure my family would really care. maybe my grandmother and my brothers and my mom. maybe my mom.

Basically, I understand that life is hard, but it really rubs me the wrong way when i see people asking for money on tumblr as if there is NO other option. there’s always some other way to do things. I’ve gone through more things in my 18, almost 19 years, than most people would in their lives, in terms of psychological and physical harassment.

And yet i have never asked for money, especially not from random people on the internet. Even though all i have in my purse for the rest of the year is a few coins that i probably just found on the sidewalk, I still give change to church boxes and i still leave food from my lunch next to homeless sleeping people- something i wish everyone did- because while my life might SUCK, other people have it worse, and I know that even if i have nothing, there’s always things i can do about it.

I don’t want pity, or anything from this. I’m just adding all that to help back my point and to show that I understand hardship.

There’s a website called TASKRABBIT and others like it that pays you to do tasks for others. There’s also things like DOORDASH and PETSITTER.COM and hundreds of other alternatives. I have to wait a few days, as you have to be 19 to join many of these, but please consult alternatives before asking others for money, perhaps asking others to give their money to people who have less, like those in shelters with families and children. Donate food etc.

Please stop asking for money. The device you’re using to ask for it on can be used to make money. So please, use the internet. Legally.

I know people can be rude, and I worked as a swimming instructor for four years, so i understand dealing with both difficult adults and children, and I’ve been called things in and out of home i’d rather not say, but that’s customer service for you. The customer is always right, even if they’re a jerk.

There are plenty of things online to make money from, and i company i work for required me to not give out it’s name when i started working for it, but there’s plenty of work out there that doesn’t require an interview or anything.

I’m sure things are hard now, and i’m not trying to be rude, but things like this really bother me, especially when there is clearly other options.

Best of luck to all of you in your future endeavors.

#tumblr stop #stop asking for money #unpopular opinion #i'm gonna get hate for this #yell at me #i don't care #i stand by my opinon.

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dailynewswebsite · 3 years

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Pro-anorexia and starvation content still exists on TikTok. Here's what the app is doing about it.

TikTok commits to evolving safeguards round content material that may set off consuming issues. (Getty Pictures)

TikTok is trying into new methods to maintain dangerous pro-starvation and anorexia movies off its platform after discovering how prevalent they have been on the short-form video app.

TikTok made a dedication to assist body-positive content material on its platform with a September assertion asserting efforts to crack down on advertisements selling weight-loss and weight-reduction plan merchandise, in addition to partnerships with the Nationwide Consuming Dysfunction Affiliation (NEDA) and different advocates utilizing the app. Nonetheless, a chunk within the Guardian confirmed simply this week how straightforward it’s for customers to search out dangerous movies by means of loopholes, reminiscent of utilizing slight misspellings for search phrases generally related to the pro-eating-disorder neighborhood that TikTok blocks.

The professional-eating-disorder neighborhood (which additionally dubs itself pro-ED and pro-Ana, for anorexia) is a dangerous, web-based subculture wherein “folks with anorexia, bulimia, or different consuming issues assist practices concerned with anorexia or weight reduction,” based on the American Dependancy Facilities web site. “These websites could strengthen the illness of anorexia, as folks concerned within the discussions typically reward weight reduction and discourage wholesome physique form and measurement.”

The movies the Guardian not too long ago uncovered has customers encouraging viewers to, for instance, “flood these feedback with methods to unfastened alot [sic] of weight in three days, wholesome or unhealthy.” In keeping with TikTok, efforts have already been made to make sure that these movies aren’t allowed on the platform.

“As quickly as this concern was delivered to our consideration, we took motion banning the accounts and eradicating the content material that violated these tips, in addition to banning explicit search phrases. As content material modifications, we proceed to work with skilled companions, replace our know-how and evaluate our processes to make sure we are able to reply to rising and new dangerous actions,” TikTok U.Ok. mentioned in a press release to the Guardian.

A consultant for TikTok U.S. assures Yahoo Life that the crew behind the U.S. platform has taken comparable motion. “We not too long ago launched new advert insurance policies that ban advertisements for fasting apps and weight reduction dietary supplements and place stronger restrictions on weight reduction claims and references to physique picture. A lot of these advertisements don’t assist the constructive, inclusive and secure expertise we attempt for on TikTok,” the consultant says. “As well as, we don’t present search outcomes for phrases associated to consuming issues, and we frequently replace our safeguards to account for intentional misspellings and as phrases/phrases evolve.”

Story continues

Representatives for the app say that outcomes for searches associated to consuming issues will not present up. (TikTok)

TikTok’s September assertion additionally made point out of steps customers can take to make sure that they’re not being served sure content material by reporting movies, blocking customers, filtering feedback and utilizing options to inform TikTok that they’re “not ” in seeing associated content material.

Relating to making certain that dangerous content material doesn’t make its means onto the app to start with, nevertheless, Clara Guillem, a 24-year-old content material creator who focuses on psychological well being and eating-disorder restoration, tells Yahoo Life that TikTok’s proactive measures aren’t sufficient. “The reality of the matter is that there are two totally different ways in which pro-ED content material makes its approach to TikTok. One is the apparent: Utilizing weight reduction hashtags, and totally different misspellings of proana search phrases (pr04n4, edthings, thinsparation),” Guillem says through e-mail. “The opposite is just not so apparent: Masking content material as pro-recovery.”

Guillem explains that widespread hashtags like #edrecovery will typically be used to submit content material which may not be supposed to hurt viewers however does, by the use of placing an consuming dysfunction or habits related to it on show. “Earlier than-and-after restoration images, the place the earlier than images can be utilized as ED inspiration,” she shares for example. “Different content material may embrace ‘bragging’ about eating-disorder signs or making ‘relatable’ posts like ‘you possibly can solely acknowledge these photographs for those who’ve had an consuming dysfunction’ adopted by images of crushed ice, apple cider vinegar, mint gum, health apps and others issues that in a means find yourself instructing children how one can efficiently starve themselves.”

Coming throughout this content material, whether or not intentional or not, might be extraordinarily dangerous, NEDA communications supervisor Chelsea Kronengold tells Yahoo Life. “With social media, it’s identified that persons are extra more likely to observe recommendation or observe developments from friends or folks they understand to be friends, so micro-influencers, and even you’re on a regular basis influencers, extra so than celebrities,” she says. “And so, these influencers which might be well being and wellness and weight loss plan, health, which have a big following, may cause hurt and injury, as a result of persons are taking their probably nonmedical, nontraining recommendation at face worth. So there are these wild fad diets and developments that persons are taking as medical recommendation when it’s not.”

The ability that this content material can have on customers might be seen by means of the huge responses and the dangerous communities that it in flip varieties.

Tw/consuming dysfunction, physique picture

Simply noticed a tiktok the place they confirmed actually skinny our bodies and captioned it “true magnificence is one thing it’s important to work for

” it’s simply terrible how this obsession with being skinny remains to be right here and hurting so many individuals

— ngl I really like u (@herewearepft) December 1, 2020

additionally, many little children are gonna lookup consuming dysfunction. that’s how i discovered ed tumblr and edtwt. they actually aren’t as onerous to search out as lots of people assume, and with how widespread tiktok is, an ed neighborhood can be a ticking time bomb

— daisy ♡ swag (@halfdeaddaisy) December 8, 2020

It’s additionally not new to TikTok, as quite a lot of social media platforms earlier than it have labored to dam comparable harmful content material and communities. Beforehand widespread hashtags like #thinspo discovered houses on Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram earlier than folks advocated in opposition to them. “Plenty of what I ‘discovered’ to do really got here from Tumblr,” Guillem says of her personal consuming dysfunction, which she developed at age 14. “Consuming issues are so aggressive, and on that web site (and between my sick pals and I) there was all the time an invisible push to be the ‘sickest’ one. Individuals would submit their sickly our bodies and habits underneath a number of totally different ‘pro-ana’ hashtags that children like me would simply get sucked into. Even after the competitors and Tumblr took absence from my life, the consuming dysfunction stayed.”

And whereas Guillem thinks that TikTok ought to “utterly ban any tags that can be utilized on this means,” TikTok’s security coverage supervisor, Tara Wadhwa, tells Yahoo Life that the app is cautious of eradicating sure hashtags that additionally present assist.

“TikTok helps those that need to share their story and use their voice to lift consciousness for consuming issues,” Wadhwa says. “Our insurance policies goal to allow folks to search out assist inside communities on TikTok whereas additionally addressing and eradicating content material that promotes consuming habits which might be more likely to trigger well being points.”

Whereas the steadiness of enabling supportive communities on the app and figuring out dangerous content material inside them is a troublesome one to strike, TikTok’s partnership with NEDA is to ensure it’s heading in the right direction. The short-form video app has even earned reward for elevating creators who’re posting movies of themselves consuming meals and providing customers a secure house to just about be a part of them, in an effort to supply meal assist to younger folks with, or recovering from, an consuming dysfunction. The app hopes to not solely remove dangerous content material but additionally make the most of the partnership with NEDA to current customers with useful sources as an alternative.

“We’ll quickly start redirecting searches and hashtags — for phrases offered to us by NEDA, or related to unsafe content material we’ve faraway from our platform — to the NEDA Helpline, the place NEDA can then present confidential assist, instruments and sources,” the TikTok rep says. “TikTok not too long ago supported Weight Stigma Consciousness Week by launching a devoted web page in our app to assist NEDA’s #EndWeightHateCampaign. This web page was featured in our Uncover web page and educated our neighborhood about what weight stigma is, why it ought to matter to everybody and the way somebody can discover assist or assist others who could also be struggling.”

Should you or somebody you recognize is fighting physique picture or consuming issues, NEDA’s toll-free, confidential helpline is accessible to assist by telephone (800-931-2237) and click-to-chat message. Disaster assist can be out there through textual content message by texting ‘NEDA’ to 741741.

Learn extra from Yahoo Life

Need life-style and wellness information delivered to your inbox? Enroll right here for Yahoo Life’s e-newsletter.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/pro-anorexia-and-starvation-content-still-exists-on-tiktok-heres-what-the-app-is-doing-about-it/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

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w0lfmaan · 5 years

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Introduction To Skijoring

Introduction to Skijoring

It's not news that humans have a passionate love affair with dogs. For over 10,000 years humans have kept dogs as companions. We used them to protect us while we sleep, help us kill our enemies, obtain food, and hundreds of other tasks. Tasks they are good at. For example the Jack Russell Terrier was bred to kill rats which helped keep down disease. One of the worlds first domesticated breeds was a version of the modern day Siberian Husky. [caption id="attachment_7829" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Lead Dog Luna[/caption] Siberian Huskies are very much culturally known as "sled dogs" and have retained a significant amount of their wild nature. Huskies (as they are commonly referred to) are known escape artists, and love to run. Siberian Huskies are fairly small, fast, and powerful dogs. They make adequate pets but will often require a significant amount of time and energy to domesticate. Running, however is something that Huskies are amazing at! Athletic huskies can run up to 40km an hour! They can also easily cover 200km a day. Huskies prefer to be part of a pack. This means most people will find they are more stable if you have two or more. Huskies also prefer cold climates. The colder the better. Anything below +10C is preferred by the breed. However if they are brought up in warmer environments their bodies will adapt, however are not suited to running. When the weather falls below freezing, Huskies come out of summer hibernation and are always excited for adventure! If you have a husky, it's fairly straightforward to get them onto their ancestral path.

It's Not Cruel

Sled dogs have been pulling sleds for over 10,000 years! Let's put that into perspective. Imagine how different where you're reading this from looked 10,000 years ago. Was it all forest? Was it all desert? Was it covered under an enormous glacier? Was it under the water? Put yourself right where you are now, 10,000 years ago. There were no houses, buildings, cars, electricity, and most likely few people. As humans we had not even discovered how to take metal from the ground and make things like swords and bowls! Most of the world was empty, and most humans were still living in tribes and wearing loin cloths. Now imagine at this time in Siberia, your dogs ancestors were actively pulling humans on sleds, and hauling deer carcasses for food. There is a saying in the mushing community: "you can't push a rope". This reigns true in for dog sports. If your dog is healthy. If their harness is correctly fitted, and you are respectful of their limits, skjoring and dog sledding is an amazing bonding experience with your dog. If you're on a set of skis or a sled, and your dog does not want to run and pull you - your dog is not going to pull you. Nothing you can do will force your dog to pull you up the trail. Huskies will run and pull because they love running and pulling. When they are tired, they will slow down. When they are exhausted, they will stop running. When done with love and care, you are tapping into the ancestral, primal part of your canine companion that cannot be accessed any other way. Huskies are literally built for this job.

Begin With Skijoring

Skijoring is the simplest method to introduce you and your dog to pulling. It's fairly inexpensive to get started, great if you only have one or two huskies, low impact on both you and your dog, as well as a great adventurous bonding experience! If you live in a northern climate, the easiest way to do this is to visit a second hand store and buy a set of cross country skis, poles, and boots. Familiarize yourself with cross country skiing at local parks, and trails. You most certainly cant trust your huskies to pull you on skis safely if you are unfamiliar with the equipment. Don't spend your money on the newest, greatest, and latest of gear if you're not sure you will enjoy it. Older, antique equipment will work fine for your first winter. Hit the internet and your favourite search engine to learn more about different kinds of skis, poles, and boots.

The next things you will need to acquire will be a specialised pulling harness for your dog. The importance of a proper dog harness cannot be stated enough! An ill-fitting dog harness will cause severe and permanent injury to your dog! [caption id="attachment_7831" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

X-Back-harness[/caption] There are many companies that offer correct pulling harnesses for your dogs. This includes Alpine Outfiiters, and Non-Stop Dog Wear. Most pet shops will not carry specific pulling harnesses which are designed to disperse pulling weight and allow your dog unrestricted movement under load. Get out a tape measure, and follow the instructions on each website to ensure you get a properly fit harness. For yourself, a good rock climbing harness is a great investment. They are available at most sports retailers and can sometimes be purchased used. They need to fit you correctly. Do not re-use your skijoring harness for climbing for optimum safety. You can purchase specific skijoring harnesses if you wish. However most people prefer rock climbing harnesses as they have great fit and are fairly comfortable. Ensure you get a size or two larger than you would expect. This is to accommodate your winter layering. [caption id="attachment_7832" align="aligncenter" width="425"]

Rock Climbing Harness[/caption] Once you have all your proper equipment, and are familiar with cross country skiing, you can hitch up your dog and take them out onto a local, flat trail. Most times a former rail-trail is a great choice as they are always flat, and well maintained. Just be sure to pick a miserable today to go out, so there will be less people on the trail. It's best to be alone especially as a new musher your dog will be in charge as they are pulling you. Rail trails also have no sharp bends. Also very important if you're new and can't get yourself around the trail bend as fast as your dog. Be mindful that the best way to stop your dog from pulling is to fall over. This is a great, and immediate brake. Again, flat terrain is best until you are experienced. There is noting worse than an unexpected down hill and complete loss of control. This can end up causing serious injury to you and your dog. [caption id="attachment_7834" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Skijoring Group[/caption] As with any activity, it's best to find a local group, club, or mentor to help you get started. This will ensure you are taking all the correct safety precautions with your dog, and yourself. There are also certain municipalities which have banned dog sports, and could result in a by-law ticket. Once you have had a few dozen shorter trips, you can hit the trails for a day out with your dog(s) and will find amazing satisfaction and adventure in skijoring and dog sledding. Huskies are built for, and desire this kind of activity. It's fairly simple, easy and inexpensive to get into, and will get you outside in weather when you would much rather hibernate.

A Few Warnings

As an experienced musher with thousands of kilometres under my belt, I can assure you that it will be quite an adventure. First and foremost, be sure to only by properly designed harnesses for your dog. If your boots aren't any good, your skis bad, or your jacket garbage - you'll be fine. You'll have a couple bad runs and then buy better gear. If your dogs harness isn't correct your dog will be unable to tell you of their discomfort. They can get chronic hip, back, and knee injuries that will cripple them for life. Learn to fall: This is an important skill. When out skiing without your dog, learn to fall and recover. Repeatedly. Get great at learning to fall and not get injured. One of my most serious injuries was taking too many dogs skijoring. The dogs went right, I went left, and fell. My ski pole got caught during my fall and pulled my shoulder out of its socket. When I landed my shoulder popped back into place. That injury took me over a year to fully recover from. When you're being towed at 20km/h up a trail and your ski hits a bald patch it may stop you dead. The kinetic energy of travel will still be there and you're going to go for a tumble. Controlled Falling is a great braking system: When out skijoring it's not uncommon for your dog to see a squirrel. Sometimes that squirrel is on the other side of a ditch. When your dog is in full-out run mode they connect with their ancestral, primal self and will bolt after that squirrel faster than you can imagine. As a new skijorer, your best course of action is a controlled fall to stop the dog from dragging you into a ditch, over a cliff, or other danger. It takes a while, but you'll get the hang of it. Try to be alone at first. Most humans dislike bad weather. This is a great time to bundle up with your dog, and hit the trails. Especially when you're new. Unless you are going with other skijorers, you don't want your dog taking off after another dog, or jumping on other trail users when they're 2m in front of you and you have no control over them. This can at least be humiliating and annoying and at worst end up being sued if your dog injures another dog or person on the trail. Tell someone where you're going! This is important! Lots and lots can happen when you're on a trail in winter, away from people. If you're skiing and you break a leg, and fall on your phone, it's important to have someone know when you're over due and go search for you. Bring Supplies: Again if you're alone on the trail ensure you have basic survival supplies such as matches, a lighter, water, small first aid kit, and other supplies to ensure if you do get stuck out there, you'll be able to last until help arrives. Below is a video demonstrating what running 5 dogs looks like. This was during a sled run as more than 2 dogs on skis is dangerous.

youtube

References: MILLIKEN, Grennan - First Dogs May Have Been from Central Asia, Popular Science October 19, 2015 BENSON, Kristi - Digging into our Common Ground With Dogs April 26, 2017 Koler-Matznick, Janice (2002). "The origin of the dog revisited". Anthrozoös: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People and Animals. 15 (2): 98–118. Wayne, Robert K.; vonHoldt, Bridgett M. (2012-02-01). "Evolutionary genomics of dog domestication". Mammalian Genome. 23 (1–2): 3–18 "WORKING DOG". therealjackrussell.com. Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. Brown, S K; Darwent, C M; Wictum, E J; Sacks, B N (2015). "Using multiple markers to elucidate the ancient, historical and modern relationships among North American Arctic dog breeds". Heredity. 115 (6): 488.

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swimmingwombatwinner-3f2339-blog · 7 years

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What do me and a dinosaur have in common? We are both extinct. For myself I don’t mean literally of course. But in every sense of the word I’m pretty much a dying breed. I’m from the generation X era that is too young not to be aware of social media. But too old to fully value and appreciate it. I’m not about to go all Black Mirror on you but if the legions of people reading this don’t mind I’m going to go through some of my musings on modern society. Focusing on the interactive side of things. You see when I was in my early twenties websites like Faceparty, Bebo and MySpace were prevalent. As fun as these sites were, you were in no real danger of becoming an addict. Everyone had at least an account on one of these websites. But I guess it wasn’t enough and so the Facebook era became the best things since sliced bread. I was very loyal to Bebo and thought long and hard before signing up to Facebook. It wasn’t as colourful or interactive as other sites but it was what everyone was using and I didn’t want to be left out. I’ve been a member of Facebook for about eight or nine years now. And a lot has changed since I first signed up. What started off as a way of keeping up with friends and finding out the latest news on their lives has now become the quest to keep up with the Jones’. It seems that people don’t get promotions, engagement rings or baby scans without sharing it with the entire world. Everyone and their auntie needs to know when “Bae” has taken you for a McDonalds drive through, #best boyfriend alert! Everyone needs to know when you are pissed of about something, from the council not taking out your bins, to your ex giving you hassle and winding you up. Don’t fret though the truly kind folk on Facebook wont give you the details they will just put something cryptic like “actual so angry right now!” (that’s right I’ve come to learn recently that the word actually has lost an ly!) what follows will be a chorus of moronic friends asking the obligatory “What’s wrong? You okay honey?” only to have their “over sharing” friend say “It’s fine I’ll PM you.” Why put it on Facebook then you eejit. Message your friends and tell them rather than tell the world. It’s the belief that we have that nothing is sacred. Every memory, every dinner, every rant needs to be uploaded and presented to the masses. So that you can glory hunt for likes, comments and best of all praise. I have this one friend on Facebook who likes every comment picture and post from one of her other friends. This other friend isn’t my friend, but from a quick snoop of her profile I have found her to be the perfect candidate for my Facebook asshole of the year award. In fact she could probably take the crown most years. But lets be honest there are more than a few Facebook douche bags that can share the crown. You see this girl falls into the pit falls that all of these douche bag Facebook people trip into. She is a young mother so first things first she is going to post close to a million pictures of her “wain” (her word not mine-oh and FYI if you’re reading this and aren’t Glaswegian wain means child) She posts everything her “wain” does not matter how miniscule or uninteresting. Every time he sneezes or has the slightest hint of a cough she tags herself at the hospital stating what a joke the NHS is, how sick her kid is and then tops it off with the sad faced emoji and several gun emojis. Her second crime against Facebook is the one I’ve mentioned above. She is a repeat offender when it comes to strategically aimed posts. Cryptic and elusive enough to get a reaction from the idiots, yet direct enough that the “nasty piece of work” (once again her words not mine) know exactly who she is talking about. That’s when it usually gets good. It turns into a full on battle of wits and extensive verbose. Or it becomes more like “Next time I see you I’ll fucking rip your hair extensions out!” (you’ve guessed it her words not mine!) I am a little guilty in taking a bit of pleasure reading these back and fourths wondering if I was ever this stupid and obnoxious in my late teens. The last thing that this bozo is guilty of is not using arguably the best tool at our disposal to garner information. That’s right instead of asking Google what time the gym opens or if the buses are running normally on the bank holiday. They take to Facebook and ask the list of intelligent and wise friends who took the initiative to Google the question and find out the answer. I guess this last one is a small gripe but it’s still enough to irk me. Perhaps Facebook and social media is just more of a young mans game these days. I tend to post sporadically and minimally. Choosing to share things I find funny or interesting. I have very good and receptive Facebook friends and I regularly do culls to make sure the people I have as friends are my actual friends. I don’t accept just anyone. Why would I want to have the most horrible girl from my year at school or the guy I went out with that one time and it didn’t work out? Probably why I have so few friends online, I always try and say that if you wouldn’t go out for a drink with someone or if you would avoid them if you saw them in the supermarket, why have them as a friend? I have broadened my horizons and allowed my trendy sister to put the Snapchat app on my phone but as for things like Twitter and Instagram I think I would have to be a far more interesting person. I’ll stick to Facebook and continue to moan about it thank you very much.

Before I go, probably to check my Facebook account I’d like to give some honourable mentions and shout outs to some Facebook repeat offenders that we are all familiar with.

1. The soap box guy. The guy that rants till his wee heart is content. About everything from prices going up to genocide in Syria. Bless him for having his heart in the right place, but if I wanted a rant I’d get into a taxi in Glasgow and let the driver put the world to rights thank you very much! .

2. The glory hunter girl. Probably someone who has recently lost a bit of weight and is attending slimming world classes. As a result most of her posts will be of Slimming World certificates and side by side pictures of when she was heavier and her skinny pictures now. Usually there is an obligatory picture of her wearing her old, fat work trousers and holding them out to show how much weight she has lost.

3. The mummy. A dead, bandaged Egyptian queen would likely be more interesting than the mummy on Facebook. Usually she doesn’t have a full time job, she works for one of these online cosmetic companies that are constantly cropping up on your news feed. They tend to post a lot of “hilarious” stories about their kids and add those little motivational pictures and quotes on a regular basis. These women are harmless if a tad dull.

4. The serial hash tag guy. FYI Facebook isn’t twitter. You don’t have to # every single word and phrase. These people are irritating on Facebook as they tend to post long uninteresting shit and by the end of their spiel you never want to see another # again!

5. The boyfriend appreciation club girl. The girl that tags her partner everywhere she goes. Be it to the doctors, for dinner or just chilling out in his living room. They need the world to know that they are in a relationship. They also tend to be the types to share those funny little memes that show a pissed off looking little puppy with a caption like, “whenever your boyfriend mentions another girls name” they usually tag their partners in these with a little laughing face emoji. If you are friends with a guy that has a girlfriend like this I implore you to like and comment on all of his pictures just to piss his girlfriend off.

6. The long week guy. We all know this knob. His pictures will usually be an upload of a beer bottle or pint on a Friday night with the caption well deserved after a long week. Yes it probably is but is it really news worthy? Can no one eat or drink without uploading a picture anymore?

7. The parent. This one is not gender specific, both mums and dads are guilty of this one and it’s a new breed to the mummies mentioned in number 3. The parents are always sharing stuff. Be it a funny meme that most have us have already seen. Sharing something about anti bullying or just one of those sappy if you have a son or daughter that you love pictures share this. They’re also suckers when it comes to those pictures you can’t scroll past without saying Amen. Those horrific images usually of little kids in war torn countries lying on hospital beds. Yes my mum has been this person on more than one occasion.

8. And my personal favourite, the attention seeker. Again this one isn’t gender specific but I find it tends to be more females that fall into this pitfall. Some of the examples that I’ve come across of this breed have been girls who take to Facebook to share that they are fed up of being wolf whistled at as they walk past building cites. Or that they hate shopping for dresses or tops because their boobs are too big. Or the worst offence of note was a girl I once seen share that she couldn’t wait to get her own place as her mum was always telling her off for walking about naked. Queue 25 guys typing as furiously as they could before they explode in their pants. It doesn’t always have to be a comment, sometimes it can be a sultry photo or full on cleavage shot. No matter what this person gets the validation they were looking for.

So that’s my round up of all things Facebook. I am older than probably most lovers of the site and social media in general, so I guess that the best thing to do if it bugs me so much would just be to delete it which I’ve toyed with several times, but sometimes when used properly it can be a funny and interesting bonding experience and a convenient way of catching up with friends who have maybe moved away or maybe don’t even live in the same country as you anymore. In the style of Jerry Springer I’m going to leave you with my final thought. To all Facebook users everywhere use it wisely. Eat your dinner don’t take pictures of it. Confront the person irritating you, don’t post it online hoping they will read it. And if you are in a relationship enjoy it in the flesh, not through tags and posts. The healthiest sign of a good partnership is no trace of it on social media.

Happy posting.

AG. x

#social media #facebook #angry #bebo #social commentary

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woodleyagnatanjahj70insuran-blog · 5 years

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alittlenomadchristina · 5 years

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An Extensive Guide to St. Catherine – Monastery, Hikes, Accommodation, Food etc.

Saint Catherine is not really a city but an area. As of 2004, it is a National Protectorate and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The "town of St. Catherine" is called Al-Milga, a small Bedouin settlement a few kilometers from the famous monastery.

Most people only come to St. Catherine to visit the monastery and/or climb Mount Moses (aka Mount Sinai). If you have time though, I highly recommend you stay longer. The surrounding area is one of the most impressive in the world. There is a reason it's such an important area for Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike. It can't be described, you have to feel it.

With this article, I want to give you an introduction to St. Catherine. I will talk about safety, list a couple of things to do (including but not only tips for visiting the monastery and hiking Mt. Moses), tell you about a few other hikes, where to stay and where and what to eat, the best time to visit as well as what things you should pack for St. Catherine.

Is Saint Catherine in Sinai Safe To Visit?

In short: YES.

Most people think that St. Catherine, and Sinai in general, is a dangerous place because the media doesn't distinguish between North and South Sinai. All tourist destinations are located in the south of Sinai and are not more dangerous than most other parts of the world. In the very northern part of Sinai, there are unrests from time to time, but you wouldn't even be allowed to enter that area.

Don't be scared or put off by the many checkpoints all over Sinai. The government is trying to make Sinai as safe as can be, and while military and guns seem intimidating at first, you have nothing to worry about. Just keep your passport handy at all times.

Also, the Bedouins in Saint Catherine are securing the area by themselves, so don't be surprised if locals stop you to ask a few questions about where you're staying and so on. They're adding an extra layer of security and vetting people themselves to make sure they don't miss any suspicious activity.

As soon as you arrive, you will feel the special energy in St. Catherine and the Sinai desert in general. It is absolutely magical. You immediately start to feel a sense of calmness and peace. The media portrays Sinai as a dangerous place, but I can assure you that there are few places in the world where you feel as peaceful as here, certainly no other region in the Middle East can compare. All the different religions actually live together in peace here, even though Egypt is predominantly a Muslim country.

I'm pretty sure you will feel right at home and perfectly safe and sound, at least the big majority of people do. I came as a tourist and am still here 3 years later, just like many other expats, and I feel safer here than in any city in Germany or Europe, where I come from. Please, don't let the media scare you from coming to Sinai and St. Catherine.

St. Catherine Monastery

The Greek Orthodox monastery is actually called "The Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai" and located at the very place where God appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, beneath the Mount of the Decalogue.

This iconic monastery, dating back to the 6th century, is one of the oldest in the world, established by the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian the Great. I will not go into more detail about the history of the monastery as it's been described countless times. This is the official website of the Sinai Monastery that covers everything you should know.

St. Catherine Monastery Entrance Fees

There is no entrance fee for the monastery, it is completely free. If you want to visit the museum with all its artifacts, however, it costs 80 LE for foreigners, 40 LE for Russian & Roman Orthodox, and 10 LE for Egyptians.

Note: It's not allowed to take photos!

St. Catherine Monastery Opening Hours

As a rule, the Holy Monastery is closed on Sundays, as well as during the important feast days of the Greek Orthodox Church. All the other days, the Holy Monastery is open between 9 am and 11:30 noon, except for Fridays, when opening hours are from 10:45 am to 11:30 am. Opening Hours of the book shop: 07:30 am - 12:00 noon; 05:30 - 07:00 pm

Holidays in 2019:

INSIDER TIP: To escape the worst crowds, try to visit during the last half hour of opening time, usually around 11 am. Most of the tour groups go directly to the Church of the Transfiguration, so it would be wise for you (if you happen to enter at the same time as a big group) to start your tour with a visit to the Sacred Sacristy.

What To Wear To Visit St. Catherine Monastery

To enter the monastery, you will need to have your upper arms and knees covered. Shorts, short skirts, and sleeveless tops are not accepted, neither for males nor for females. This clothing rule is not only recommended out of respect but strictly enforced, so cover up if you want to get inside.

Best Hikes in St. Catherine

The High Mountain Region is home to the Jabaleya Bedouin and located around the town of St. Catherine. The town itself lies at around 1600 meters from sea level, and many of the mountains around it are above 2000 meters. Mt. Katherine with its 2642 high peak is the tallest. The larger area is little known to most Westerners and a unique, captivating paradise for nature lovers and hikers.

Here is a map of the points of interest, mostly summits and valleys. To read the map, you should know that Gebel means mountain (also Gabal or Jabal), and Wadi means valley.

Mt. Moses (a.k.a. Mt. Sinai) – Gabal Moussa

Mount Moses is the most famous of all of the mountains in Sinai, and I'm sure you've heard about its significance [if not, Google is your friend ;)]. I will not go into detail about the history etc. but give some practical advice instead. I'm using the words Mount Moses and Mount Sinai interchangeably here, they're the same.

Organized tours (mostly from Dahab and Sharm El-Sheik) climb Mount Sinai in the pre-dawn hours to view the sunrise from the summit, so did I. It gets really crowded up there! Climbing late in the afternoon to see the sunset is a much quieter, more tranquil experience, has two downsides though. In summer, it can be pretty hot for such an intense hike in the sun, and you'll be descending in the dark, which can be a bit tricky because it's rocky terrain.

If you're not coming as part of a group, you can simply go to the monastery and hire a guide from the entrance. This way you can go as fast or as slow as you want. Especially for photographers, older people or anyone with "special needs", this is the best option.

Very Important: One thing I really want to ask everyone doing this adventure, from the bottom of my heart: Tip your Bedouin guide very generously!!! They only get a fixed price of 250 LE (May 2019: about 12€) for a whole night of extreme physical work and responsibility for you. The government sets the price, and since most people book a full tour from Dahab or Sharm, they don’t even know how much the guides earn.

It’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of money for this type of work and for the cost of living in Egypt, which is rising and rising after the devaluation of the currency. So, please, support the local community and tip them as much as you can. They're also incredibly kind people and as soon as they see you struggling just a tiny bit, they offer to carry your backpack or give you their jacket if you're cold. They'll do whatever they can to make the hike as easy as possible for you.

I'm writing a more detailed article about hiking Mount Moses soon, I will link to it here once it's done.

More amazing hikes around St. Catherine:

There are countless opportunities for incredible hikes in this protected area. It always depends on the time of year and your physical condition. I recommend talking to your Bedouin guide. Tell them what sort of hikes you like to do, how fit you are, what you'd like to see and let them recommend a trip. Here are two other beautiful hiking destinations:

Mount St. Catherine

Gebel Katharina (Remember? Gebel means mountain!) is the highest mountain in Egypt at 2642 meters. There's a small Orthodox church on the summit. Mount Moses lies below, and the views onto it and the whole high mountain area are stunning. The most common routes to the peak are from either Wadi el Arbain or from Wadi Shagg.

Wadi Talla

This is quite an easy hike easily reached from town. It's about 3 km each way and the difference in altitude you have to overcome is just about 60 meters. You pass beautiful gardens and an ancient monastery in Wadi Talla, which connects higher and lower wadis.

After these 3 kilometers, you reach a perfect spot to relax, have some tea and Bedouin food. The water at this spring is incredibly cold and refreshing, absolutely perfect for an extended break.

These are some more well-known hiking spots around St. Catherine, but I haven't done them personally so I can't share more information and photos, unfortunately. Ask the locals for advice :)

Wadi Jebal

Wadi Arbe’in

Bab Donya

Wadi Feiran

Gabal Abass

Gabal El-Ahmar

If you're really up for a challenge, you can hike the SINAI TRAIL. This is Egypt’s first ever long-distance hiking trail and it was founded in 2014. It's a 220 km long route that takes 12 days to complete and involves three Bedouin tribes.

Things To Do In Saint Catherine

Visit Dr. Ahmed Saleh

Without a doubt, you absolutely have to visit Dr. Ahmed when you're in St. Catherine. He is respected traditional herbalist and healer, well known all over Egypt. Not only is his knowledge about all Sinai-local herbs extensive and impressive, but he has a unique capability of diagnosing you and immediately spotting "what's wrong with you".

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2400"] Dr. Ahmed's "office". It's as simple as can be, you see it's really not about money for him.[/caption]

I was absolutely blown away, within a minute of only looking at me, he knew very intimate things that nobody else knew. Not just physical problems I had, but about what's going on in my mind. His diagnose was that my hormones are out of balance and that this causes most of my issues, physical and mental. He prescribed a tea for 40 days and asked me to check in with him and let him know how I feel after 10 days, which I did. I was more balanced and calm already. For all of this, he only charged me 100 LE (5€).

My visit is just 3 weeks ago, but when I went to Germany I immediately had all my hormone levels tested to see if he was right. I should get the results in the next few days.

Do some souvenir shopping

Shopping in St. Catherine doesn't mean malls and jewelry and clothes, I think you've figured out that much before. Capitalism couldn't be farther away from this magical place, so your shopping here will consist of locally grown plants and foods.

Dr. Ahmed Saleh has a lot of great tea and herb mixes which are not only an amazing "souvenir" for yourself but also to bring for your friends and family. I mean, who can say they got traditional herbs specifically for their health issues from the holy region of St. Catherine?

Other things you can buy in amazing, organic quality are almonds, honey, and olive oil. From the monastery, you can buy some rocks, e.g. with fossils on them.

Camel Safari

Instead of hiking, you can always take a camel. Especially a camel safari that lasts a few days is an incredible experience. The "ships of the desert" are fascinating animals and you can’t really leave Egypt before you’ve done that. I'm usually against using animals for human pleasure or entertainment, but the camels are treated fine here, not like at the pyramids or other tourist attractions.

Stargazing

With almost zero light pollution, the night skies in the desert are nothing short of mindblowing. You don't even have to climb any of the summits, the stars you see from town are already plenty.

Have Bedouin dinner in the desert

Bedouin food is simple but tasty, especially when it's cooked on a fire in the desert surroundings. It usually consists of salad, rice, potatoes or veggies, tahina or baba ganoush, and chicken or fish. The traditional Bedouin bread could easily be the tastiest bread in the whole world.

Pet the stray animals.

Sinai wouldn’t be the same without its cats and dogs. They’re friendly and won’t hurt you. Quite the opposite actually, they love to cuddle!

Ground yourself

Enjoy not caring about make-up, clothes, the latest trends, Instagram and anything that seems so important in your everyday life. Put on some harem pants and embrace your dirty feet, re-connect with nature and give your busy brain a chance to relax.

Talk to the Bedouins.

Everyone in St. Catherine (and Sinai in general) is incredibly welcoming and nice. It’s worth getting to know them and their stories. Many of them struggle with problems we never even thought about, yet they are always smiling.

Go Trad Climbing in the High Mountains

South Sinai and the area of St. Catherine offers crack climbing at its best, the possibilities are endless. There are more than 200m routes and unclimbed lines almost everywhere you look.

Go Bouldering

It's not just a great area for trad climbing but also for bouldering, with stunning blocs and loads of highballs in a unique desert setting.

Learn some Arabic

The friendly Bedouins will teach you a bit if you show interest. Many of them have very little "traditional schooling" experience, yet they speak several languages and are incredibly wise.

Have Bedouin Tea

You'll have Bedouin Tea every day and with everyone anyways. No chance you’ll get around it. Share it over a campfire and exchange stories. The beautiful thing here is, you won't feel like a tourist, but like a welcomed guest.

Have a shisha

Wind down from a day of hiking, exploring and sun by smoking a delicious shisha. There will always be people to hang out with and share.

Eat!

You will be hungry from all the adventures you get to experience in St. Catherine, so why not go to Ziko's restaurant and try as many traditional Egyptian Foods as you can - here is a list! He has lots of them on his menu, and he cooks them authentically! His falafels are to die for!

Nothing

Yes, that’s right! One of the best things you can do in Sinai is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It’s the perfect place to forget about work, home, stress and problems.

Best Time To Visit St. Catherine

Sinai is a hot desert climate zone, with very little rain and warm to hot temperatures throughout the year. Higher regions such as St. Catherine (1600 meters) receive 4-10x more precipitation than the rest of Sinai.

Winter in St. Catherine

Winter can be really cold, often below 0 ºC and you might even see snow. How crazy is that, going to a desert and seeing snow? Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and an incredible photo opportunity! On high peaks, such as Mount Sinai, you will face extreme cold and snow is the norm. Come prepared! During the day though, the sun usually keeps you warm, even in winter.

Spring & Autumn in St. Catherine

For me personally, spring and autumn are the best times to visit Sinai. It's not too hot and not too cold. Spring is a fascinating time in the desert, as all the trees, plants and flowers in the desert start to blossom and turn it into a green scenery you would never expect to see in a place like this.

Summer in St. Catherine

Thanks to the high altitude, it doesn't get much warmer than 30°C in summer, which makes Saint Catherine a perfect escape from the hot beach towns such as Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh, or even Cairo. You will need a jacket or warm sweater at night when you hike up the mountains as it can also get pretty windy up there. Trees and fruits had time to grow and you get to taste some fresh delicacies. It's also hot enough to dip your toes or even swim in water springs.

Where To Stay in St. Catherine - Hotels & Camps

As I mentioned before, I highly recommend staying in St. Catherine for a few nights instead of only doing a tour to visit the monastery or hike Mount Moses. To experience the serene beauty of the mountains after the tourist hustle has disappeared, you have the option to either stay at the monastery itself or in Al-Milga, the "town of St. Catherine" a couple of kilometers from the monastery itself.

Monastery

There is a Guest House just below the monastery that offers single or double occupancy rooms, with a few rooms for higher occupancy. All rooms have private facilities. You cannot book a room through any of the major hotel booking sites but here are some reviews and photos. The telephone number of the Guest House for reservations is +20 69 3470 353.

Masoudi Lodge

Masoudi Lodge is where I stayed at and where I'll go from now on when I visit St. Catherine. I like the location, it's a bit elevated and the surroundings are beautiful. The rooms are simple but have everything you need, including hot water. You will spend most of your time outside anyway, and they have plenty of nice sitting areas, in the shade as well as under the sun, plus a fireplace. You can park your car in a spot protected from the sun as well. As always in Egypt, the staff is really friendly and speaks several languages.

Rooms are 250 LE per night. They have a private bathroom en-suite and two beds, either single or double.

Fox Camp

This is the most known camp in St. Catherine. I haven't stayed here, so I can't say much about it, but I guess it's similar to Masoudi Lodge.

Sheikh Mousa Bedouin Camp

Same as for Fox Camp: I haven't stayed here, so I can't say much about it, but I guess it's similar to the other camps.

Daniela Village St. Catherine

This is a bit more upscale, they have air-conditioned bungalows with en-suite bathrooms.

Morgenland Village

Morgenland is a more expensive hotel in St. Catherine that has its own huge private pool, restaurant, bar and souvenir shop. The views from the spacious rooms are amazing, and you'll have your own fridge and sometimes a bath-tub. If you need comfort and are willing to sacrifice the more authentic, local experience, this place is for you.

Where To Eat in Saint Catherine - Restaurants

There are basically only two restaurants in St. Catherine (well, actually it's Al-Milga, the town close to St. Catherine). Everyone recommended us to go to Cleopatra, they said it's cleaner and tastes well.

We tried, and honestly, I didn't like the food, my friends thought it was okay. You basically get a set, typical Egyptian menu - rice, bread, tahina, and salad. My vegetarian addition was potatoes cooked in tomatoes, also very traditional, and my friends had chicken. There might be another meat option, but that's about it.

When we discovered Ziko's restaurant, we were much more delighted. Admittedly, it's not the cleanest place, very local, but none of us got sick whatsoever. Mr. Ziko is like the Egyptian version of an old Italian grandpa in love with cooking and life in general, an absolute delight, and he makes the place what it is.

He has a huge menu and offers everything from traditional Egyptian food (check out my guide on traditional Egyptian food here) to international dishes like pancakes and of course fresh juices. It's incredibly cheap and he's a really good chef!

Packing List For St. Catherine

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1800"] The guys styling me for our hike ;)[/caption]

Thermo clothes and hiking boots

Torch for hiking at night

Sunscreen (even in winter), sunglasses, hat or scarf

Reusable water bottle (the spring water is drinkable)

Sleeping bag and mat (if you want to sleep outside under the stars or do some yoga)

Camera (countless stunning photo opportunities

A good book for a chill day (I read on Kindle to save space)

How To Get To St. Catherine

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2400"] Going from Dahab or Nuweiba to St. Catherine, you will see this friendly face on the side of the road :)[/caption]

Getting From Dahab To St. Catherine

There are no buses going from Dahab to Catherine. You could get a taxi (prices are changing every few weeks to months so I can't give you an exact amount), which takes around two hours. Or you can join one of the many organized tours that go to St. Catherine to do the Mt. Moses sunrise hike. This is a cheaper option, but they all leave late in the evening.

Getting From Sharm El-Sheikh To St. Catherine

The same that goes for Dahab applies to leaving from Sharm El-Sheikh as well. You either take a taxi or join one of the group trips. Since Sharm is bigger than Dahab, you might find a group that goes for the sunset hike so you could go earlier in the day. Ask around. If you want to book the tour ahead of time, you could join this one and simply stay in St. Catherine after your group leaves.

Getting From Nuweiba To St. Catherine

There's only one East Delta bus per day that goes directly from Nuweibaa to Saint Catherine. It leaves at 6:00 pm and arrives around 7:30 pm. You depart from the East Delta Bus Station near the port of Nuweiba.

Getting From Cairo To St. Catherine

In order to get from Cairo to Catherine, you can either fly to Sharm or go by bus. There are two East Delta buses that run daily. They leave from El-Torgoman and Almazah Station.

You can book your ticket at the station (I recommend you go a day early, or at least a few hours, especially during weekends and holiday seasons), or on their website.

Tickets can be booked from both stations or online through this website. Tickets cost around 100-150 LE one-way. I recommend you bring a sweater on the bus as they usually crank up the AC big-time. Also, you will stop at many checkpoints and be asked to leave the bus and show your luggage at Suez Canal. It's a pretty exhausting trip, but you'll be in the best place you could be to relax after - Sinai restores energy and mood immediately :)

From El-Torgoman the buses leave at 9:30 am and 11:30 am from 1 El-Adaweya, Boulaq Num.3, Boulaq. The same busses get to Almazah (ميدان الماظة، Almazah, Heliopolis) around 10:15 am and 12:15 pm.

Your expected arrival is around 7:30 pm, but don't trust that for a second. You're in Egypt. Take it as it comes and relax. Patience is the number one lesson you will learn in this country ;-)

This Post Was Originally Published Here: An Extensive Guide to St. Catherine – Monastery, Hikes, Accommodation, Food etc.

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my9inctravelblog · 6 years

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Are you not making any money on your blog, frustrated with your instgram unfollowers, and Pinterest doesn’t make sense to you? You know tons of bloggers are killing it on Instagram, Pinterest, but you just can’t seem to figure it out. In this detailed guide, You will learn exactly how to make money through blog step-by-step.

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This is not some pro- blogger, guru, high-level technical mumbo jumbo about robots.tx, canonical URLs, disavow files, and other stuff you don’t understand, strugling to remember, dont care about and won’t help you and a newbie who doesnt know jack!

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So if you’re looking to brush up on your SEO skills and knowledge, you’ll love this guide. And perhaps share the post and buy me coffee.

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NEWBIE BLOGGER

Please this post might be modified for better user feel, dont fret, just going to make it better!

WHAT IS A BLOG?

——> Definition Of Blog

What Is A Blog?

– A Blog is an abbreviation that is widely used, but the original term is a weblog. A blog is actually not much more than a place on the internet where articles are regularly posted. Such a place can be a special blog platform like WordPress.com, but often a blog is a regular website where news is regularly posted. Blogging one of the most popular hobbies.

A blog can contain images and video as well as text. A reader can leave a comment under a blog post. The articles YOU ARE READING NOW is called a weblog or blog posts or post. But how does a blog or blog work exactly and what is its use for your company or private life?

The origin of blogs

Blogs or weblogs were first a sort of diary on the web in the early days of the internet. They were often used as a travel report. Because they were online, it was an ideal way to keep the home front or friends informed about the trip. It is similar to a logbook on ships. In such a logbook the captain keeps the trip daily. Also, a mum who prefers to work from home blog about their life and including book writers eventually it became popular then as a source of income as well. Now let’s get back to why you are here in the first place, shall we?.

How many blogs are there?

No precise or objective figures are available as people post every day. The figures ranging from 150 million to as many as 400 million blogs, out of some 980 million (or more) websites on the Internet and still counting.

There are lots of blogs out there that continue to exist online but have effectively been abandoned by their owners for years, many blogs get abandoned just three or four months after launch. The blog stays online, unremoved, undeleted, but otherwise dead in reality. There are over 1.5 million new posts daily, so that must mean quite a lot of blogs are still alive out there.

Most blogs searched queries:

In this post, we will be concentrated on key areas. I will try to provide easy guide and possible tips to all the listed questions, of course, with time and in-depth research, I shall do a post on them all as we go along. For now, let’s concentrated on question 1 and 2

How to start a blog *

Beginners Guide For Pinterest, Instagram And Blo*

How a newbie can start a blog without much experience *

How do I start a luxury travel blog without much money?

How do people travel around the world if they’re not rich? Can people get a part-time job with a travel visa so they can work while traveling?

How to start a blogging business?

What’s the best way to travel the world?

How do people travel around the world if they’re not rich? Can people get a part-time job with a travel visa so they can work while traveling?

How do bloggers get paid to travel the world?

Blogging isn’t Nike -Just Do It thing! it has become way more complicated and increasingly difficult for newbies to grab, but not entirely impossible to achieve. Here are beginners guides and Tips for Newbie Bloggers, Instagram and Pinterest Beginner on how to grow their social media and blogs scattered all over the internet but what’s you should be weary of is too much information becuase it can be dangerously misleading and one could end up more confused.

You are probably thinking aloud by now how do we get started then? Good question!

Every Professional Will Tell You To Follow This Tips To:

Add your site to Google Search Console

Add you site to Adsense

Add your site to Pinterest

Add your site to Yandex

Add your site to Bing

Ping Your Site

Grow Your Pinterest Visibility

In other to Increase Your Instagram Followers (Unless you plan to buy followers, you should make time to grow your followers)*

Increase Your Blog Visibility and Brand Awareness*

Builds Dofollow Backlinks

How to Turn Your Blog Visitors into Paying Customers*

How To Engage With Your Social*

Increase your blog followers and Hits

Check Your SEO Follow Instructions For Optimization

Increase Your Site Traffic*

make time to grow your followers)*

Increase Your Facebook Like (Unless you plan to buy followers, you should make time to grow your followers)*

Overwhelming Right?, I know, I am afraid it is the only way to get your content and blog seen. But look on the bright side whether it’s a luxury travel blog, foodie blog, book blog, event planning blog etc, you really don’t need that much money to set it up – it’s the hard work, trips that cost more, still as explained in my previous post blogging isn’t a rocket science

How To Sign up and Register A Blog

Starting a blog can be very low-cost if you choose the right platform and tools. That being said, sign up with free WordPress.com or pick self-hosted WordPress, Blogger, Wix site and choose a domain name, next chose a hosting provider (if you are all set to buy a domain name), ortherwise use the free blogger or wordpress.com, work on your contents, choose a travel-related theme and start from there. It’s the very basics.

When Signing up for your Blog please learn more about how to set up a blog here

All in all, it should cost $120-$150, after the initial price, you renew the domain name and hosting plan each year, which is half the total price.

The next thing to do is decide on the topics, the overall travel blog strategy, content creation, bog promotion and that kind of stuff. In addition to that, I recommend reading all the link articles listed at the end of this post. Go ahead and:

Add your site to Google Search Console

Add your site to Pinterest

Add your site to Yandex

Add your site to Bing

Ping Your Site

Stay Focused, Be Inspired, Work Harder, Go For It And Don’t Look Back!

Once you have done all that, you should be posting and sharing your posts. Before you go oh, this process is too long and defficult!!. I hate to be the one to break it to you there is no shortcut or easy way to success, but there is always a way to get there through hard work, dedication and persistence!

Yes; lots of people who buy fake follower, sugar coat their blogs, pride themselves on being successful, but even them did some hard work too. Of every social media post you see online, one in every ten of them is a blog, some are even a few weeks or months old that’s how much blogs are sprouting up like mushrooms!! whats more those who have already made it are also competing with followers and audience, its a never ending cycle once you are in, get ready to do the race!

Do not despair and don’t worry your beautiful self, I am here to encourage and share a few techniques I have learned about my journey as a fellow blogger. I will also share some stories of how I had to deal with Instagram and Twitter unfollowers, perhaps you have been dealing with them too.

Yes; you will find inspiring posts telling you how to grow your blog but not one of them will give you the complete package free of charge, and so you will be directed to link after link, link after link until you end up giving up or eventually buying their products. Well, I have got good news for you whatever I learn I will share to help you, especially for those who can’t afford to pay for the costly SEO optimization plugins. Why don’t we go straight to the point?

Patience!

If you haven’t subscribed to my blog posts yet, now is the time to do that, and if you are here for the first time, I am delighted to have you on board. Subscribe to My9incTravelBlog by Email

In my previous post about 12 Ways How To Review And Improve Blog SEO For Newbies ? I provided great tips for you, so go on and run a test on your site then come back here and finish reading the post or you can do it the other way as you wish.

I made a promise to assist newbie bloggers and especially those who cannot afford to pay to get their site tweaked. Well, I did some research and it turns out to be helpful for those who tried it. And now, having come across several posts about newbies desperately seeking for help on the social media, one thing was strange very few people responded and those who cared to explain further were busy urging them to pay for the service to which they are asking help for.

I decided to do something about it or at least fulfill my promise.

So here we are again, I urge you not to quit just yet. Your day will come and you will be thankful that you didn’t succumb to that negative voice inside your head, telling you-you can’t do it.

Again before you go, I am so new to this!- what, does it matter? Working round the clock and constantly researching for a way to grow a successful business outfit may not pay off immediately especially if you are just starting, and even if you are doing it right it might take some time to start yielding results so do not to give up. This is not the case of the blind leading the blind. Before I did this post I have done my research for this post at least to the extent necessary!

Let’s Begin,

Pinterest For Beginners

Hmmm, in other to grow your Pinterest you must first learn the basics and the best way to do so is by no other than by the site Pinterest Beginners Guide

By the way have you been thrashing your work? You could be thrashing the best posts ever made!

Conduct a research within your recycles bin or paper thrash can!

First, go straight to the recycle bin to reopen that scribbled posts you threw away in frustration, yep go get it, now read it again, does it make sense to you now?

We sometimes throw away the best piece of our work in anger or frustration until someone else discovers them for you or steal them and put them to good use, don’t lose your hard work!

When I started I usually scribble some notes or good points I thought will make sense, then throw them away in frustration when I couldn’t bring it together until one day I made a huge discovery. I was going through my notepad when I stumbled upon a beautiful piece I wrote and when I took my time to read it all over again, it gave me a new idea of how best I could make it better and before you know it, out came a beautiful post!

People want information–make it interesting and they will pay attention. Make it really compelling, and they might even keep it around for a while, but make is complicated they will simply give it a try a little and dump it to look elsewhere for a more basic and easier information. Get the drill?

Back to Pinterest beginners guide-

PINTEREST BEGINNER

If you still think Facebook and Twitter are the coolest and end-all of social media marketing tools, you best think again.

Now, say hello to your SEO friend – Pinterest!

Yup, Pinterest pins are 1000 times more spreadable than a tweet. If you don’t have an account already, or if your account is personal, you’re going to need to sign up for a Pinterest Bussiness account.

Pinterest can be used to create a share and engage space for your blog, such as youtube or blog, displaying your products and creating an idea of what your business or blog is all about. Your pin’s success relies on creating ‘pinnable’ images that other users will want to repin such as travel photos, foodies recipes, weddings ideas, Blogging tips, DIY crafts ideas, and interior designs etc. But before you start, make sure you claim your site. Copy the given code in Pinterest follow the instructions and past in your site. Also, make sure your blog or business has a social media account such as Facebook and Instagram, Twitter etc, you will need to connect your accounts to your Pinterest accounts this is a good way to increase your reach and engagement.

Make sure you verify your account!

Verifying your account is a good way to gain authority and build trust. When Pinterest users see that little red check mark next to your website, they know you’re legit.

You can verify your website in the settings section by adding a meta tag. This will give you a verification badge, and you’ll be official. If you choose not to verify your site, you can still include a link to your site on your page, but you won’t be able to use Pinterest Analytics. About that, hmmm, ok, to me one of the best features on Pinterest is the super helpful Pinterest Analytics. Although this feature is only for business accounts and allows you to see: All the stuff happening on your account behind your back!. To get this feaur,e just regiter your pinterest as a business account.

Also, You Can Apply For Pinterest Promoted Pins-Business

Pinterest promoted pins offers a simple advertising platform for all your business needs. Just sign up to a Pinterest account and get your promotions going. To start off, you will need to select a pin that you want to use to promote your brand or blog posts. Next, you will set your goals and then you will choose your audience -potential pinners as explained above.

Make your site images pinnable so people can pinnit. Also create boards and pins on your pinterest with clear sharp photos using a longer title and description. Remember no one is going to find your pin if you don’t optimise it for engagement.

The easiest way to explain it is that Pinterest is a one-stop shop for bloggers business and brands, in fact, in essence, Pinterest is a shoutout platform for your blog, brand or business. Over the year Big and small businesses have keyed in on the many benefits that Pinterest can offer including:

Expansion and growth

Increased visibility and brand awareness

Builds dofollow backlinks- (I did a post about this find it below)

Increased your Sales

High Social engagement

Powerful SEO

Increased Traffic

Increase in sales and services

INSTAGRAM

Increase Your Instagram Followers (Unless you plan to buy followers, you should make time to grow your followers)*

If you’re just starting out on Instagram, posting photos can be pretty depressing. When all your excitement and hard work are met by nothing more than few likes from a handful of followers, it’s easy to get discouraged, even if you know the drill.

How To Grow Your Instagram Followers

I am pretty sure it is everyone’s dream to hit 1 million like per day with a social network with over 800 million people that not asking for too much. Either way, you need at least 100k followers before brands will start to take you seriously. Be focused just because you haven’t reach 1k subscribers and hits, let alone a 100k does not mean you can’t get there, me neither, I couldn’t care less either, even though I am not running a super blog on a hosted domain, either way I did this post becuase it could help someone out there who is struggling and almost giving on blogging. So cheer up, you could be on your way to becoming a pro-blogger sooner than you think. Just follow this tips, I am doing the same too, and bottom line is you got nothing to loss!

Cool easy tips you can try:

Guest posting

This will always work for you and has been helping bloggers grow. Get on online and search for any industry or any blog, next share your experiences, tips, and tricks, posts that are useful and helpful are most sought after, so post something useful.

Cool Hashtags You Can Use For Instagram Posts

#coolblogs #photography #instablogs #blogger #timepost #wanderlust #instagood #photooftheday #vacation #nature #travelgram #love #blogging #postoftheday #photography #like #amazing #instagram #countrye #my #picoftheday #beautiful #architecture #mywork #cool #follow #o #view #instadaily #blogposts

Forums Posts

There are forums dedicated to bloggers. Join them and repeat the process from Facebook. Eventually, you’ll be seen as an expert and people will naturally gravitate towards your website and possibly connect.

Sadly, it’s only when you have enough traffic and engagement that brands will consider working with you. But look on the brighter side, that should be your motivating factor! Every brand has different guidelines so you’ll have to be proactive once you think have what it takes or you’re big enough to blow their minds.

YouTube

Please keep this in mind unless you are willing to maintain your Youtube, You will find it quite useful as this is another great medium to grow your audience and command a premium for working with cool brands out there. The process of promoting Youtube account is also similar to Blog posts but keep in mind that all your videos must have good clear audio and should be of high in quality to keep people coming back.

Facebook groups

Facebook has been spammed badly, lots of people who are now using facebook are mostly spammers the key is to apply the correct technique because Facebook is still a goldmine of traffic although badly mined. Unless you are ready to part with your monies for Facebook ads, instead do this before joining and dropping your link you will have to join and participate in the groups-choose group relating to your blog genre and follow their rules for posting. Help others, share insights, follow, like and leave good comments. Every now and then, let them know about a new post you just published.

How To Tweak Your Blo

Write and SEO-Friendly, and Engaging, Headline

Your headline may be the most important part of your post. According to research, eight out of ten people will only read a headline, and won’t even bother to click through to the full post, which underlines the importance of getting it right. The first time I started blogging I messed up big time, and did all sort of hurtful things to my posts, but all that will be corrected as time goes on, I have been studying and doing my due deligence. In other words, it doest matter how messed up your blog is, good or bad you are going to do something about it, at least that is what matters, time and research will solve that problem did I add patient, yup, that too. Don;t beat yourself up, follow through with this posts. I also added external links to other sites to help you learn more and get it right.

Headlines Strategy For Bloggers

One great strategy for headlines is to think about the various needs of your reader – what problem are you solving for them with your blog post and it is worth their while? The most common Google searches are people like you and me looking for fast, easy solutions to solve their problems – look to address that focus head-on with your headline. So the next time you pick up a topic make sure it is helpful to other too.

Proofread

Read over your text to spot any errors – then do it again. Then, if you can, ask someone else to do the same. As for me am still proof reading, I used grammerly but found out that there are still errors on my posts here and there. The trick is to run a weekely proof reading on all your posts, overwelming right? I know, alternatively if you are leveled-up I mean (loaded) why not pay for that service, proof readers gotta eat too!. By the way if you spot any on my post why not be a sweetheart and whisper it to me here

Perform A Free Website Speed Test

Ping your site with Pingomatic

Perform a site Speed Test

To get advanced SEO optimization for your blog find the link to SEM & SEO at the end of the post.

Tips:

– Always use good filters in all your pictures

– Use storytelling in your captions

-Again Keep working harder.

-Follow your followers do not unfollow

– Whenever you can use a mix of videos and images for your posts

– Create Instagram stories so people can follow your day to day Activities

– Repost from followers and popular accounts it gives people a sense of

– Post-high-quality pictures (you knew that already)

– Post often (at least once a day)

– Post consistently-not spam

– Communicate with influencers to like your content

– Research and use popular and not so popular hashtags, also share to increase your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest Followers reach.

– Create a color theme for your profile.

WHY I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT OTHER’S POSTS AND SHARE THEIR WORK?

Have you ever been at a social gathering and met someone who seems to self-proclaimed themselves to be the most interesting well-achieved professional man or woman in the world? I bet nobody will like to spend another second with that kind of person — after a few seconds of conversation anyone stuck talking to them will suddenly do the following:

-A sudden need to visit the loo,

-Spots a “friend” they haven’t seen in ages across the room

-Or just suffers through by downing conversation

That brings us back to blogging, as we strive to keep up with the constant need to, end up obsessed about ourselves in our tweets, our blogs, and our Facebook posts.

I recommend sharing a few blogs you like and also help give them a shout out. I do this almost all the time. Of course, the process of growing your blog or social media handle does take some effort and time, but like most things in life that are worth it, don’t’ always come easy. The good news is you are ready, up and kicking your way to success!!.

I continue to work on my blog, I tweak and try to do as much as I can to improve the hit rates and SEO optimization including speed check, at the moment it is low, so we are in the same shoes, still I am working on it. However, I am more concentrated on creating better helpful contents. Also I recently changed the look of my blog for more user friendly and accessibility. Do you like the new look? I want to hear from you, please share your thoughts.

I hope this post inspires you to know your worth, go ahead and make things happen. If you don’t ask you’ll never know.

I look forward to reading comments on how you improved your site, blog, social media and how you landed a deal to collaborate and partnered with cool brands. If you like this post pin it, share it or leave me a nice sweet comment!

As for me, I look forward to emailing some hotels and resorts in West Africa requesting to do a review on their services! Am saving for this trip!!

Links I promised-

CHOOSE YOUR CAREER PATH WISELY

SEO OPTIMIZATION FOR NEWBIE BLOGGERS

SEO TITLE GENERATOR

UPCOMING POSTS!!!

Coming Soon-

-What is Your Tea Culture?

Brief Post Intro-

Japanese Tea Culture-Coming Soon

Tea culture is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking. It includes aspects of tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media issues.

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu or sadō, chadō, while the manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called temae.-(Source)-Wiki

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Tea are known to boost immunity, increase fetility and maintain general health. Scientists have found that the catechins–antioxidants in green tea extract increase the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel, which accounts for improved muscle endurance also, drinking tea could help reduce the risk of heart attack but do not exceed 4-5 cups per day. Tea might also help protect against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. Drinking the tea every day will actually help prevent IBS bloating and gas in the first place, if you’re suffering from common Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms-IBS fennel tea will help relieve them. Also Peppermint tea is great too – Peppermint is one of the oldest of herbs and has been around for ages. Chamomile tea not only reduces stress and anxiety, but it also helps treat insomnia. Just like peppermint tea, chamomile tea has great benefits in relaxing the muscles and reducing irritability.

How to fix- Dry chamomile, add 3-4 tablespoons in 8 ounces of boiling water, boil for a sec and serve.

6 Healthy benefits of tea:

Tea may help with weight loss.

Tea may help protect your bones.

Tea may keep you sleep better.

Tea contains antioxidants.

Tea has less caffeine than coffee

Tea may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke

Tea may boost your immunity

Shop now: Shop SPF essentials at everyday low prices from Walmart.comSupport healthier habits with wellness essentials available at Walmart.com

I can wait to do this next post!

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positivepsychologyinterventions · 6 years

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How Much News Should We Expose Ourselves To?

Read today’s news and it’s easy to get depressed — one troubling story after another. An online survey taken about a year ago taken by the American Psychological Association (APA) reports that 57 percent of Americans say that the current political climate is a very or somewhat significant source of stress. How do we keep our balance when we’re buffeted by fierce social and political winds?

We’re each challenged to find a path that works for us — and make adjustments along the way. Here are some survival strategies that may or may not have resonance for you.

Limiting Exposure

I watch less television news than I used to, although there are some informative news programs with interesting guests. I want to know the basics of what’s going on so that I don’t get blindsided by some stunning development. I read news captions and selective articles on the internet — and in newspapers at my gym. But everyone is different.

The problem with chronic exposure to troubling events is that it can release a stress response in our body that can have damaging long-term effects. Any perceived threat, such as a dog charging us, a horrendous news story, or the latest political debacle can trigger an alarm that prompts our adrenal glands to flood our body with hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

Our body is designed to be resilient enough to deal with passing stressors. But when we’re continually in the fight, flight, freeze mode, our stress response may get stuck in the “on” position. As described on the Mayo Clinic website, when the stress-response system is activated long term, cortisol and other stress hormones can interfere with other bodily processes, increasing the risk of heart disease, sleep problems, memory impairment, digestive problems, anxiety and depression.

Each person needs to get a felt sense for what they can handle without feeling overwhelmed or traumatized — weighing the risks of over-exposure with the risks (both to yourself and society) of remaining ignorant. Some people with sensitive nervous systems seek protection by exposing themselves to very little news, if any. Others may have sensitivity to lurking danger and stay glued to the news as a way to manage their anxiety.

Others read or watch just enough to be informed, so they’re not oblivious and can vote wisely, but without being glued to the TV or computer screen, like a moth being drawn to a flame. Others find the news interesting or entertaining rather than distressing. The news media cranks out a dizzying amount of news every day. One part of self-care is to know our boundaries in relation to how much we can expose our psyches to without feeling paralyzed or besieged

Self-Care Practices

We all know the importance of self-care, but in today’s turbulent times it’s especially essential. Meditation and mindfulness practices can help regulate our nervous system. Physical activity helps release stress from the body. I find yoga, meditation and exercise to be especially helpful, along with having a decent diet. Whatever resources help you discharge stress and maintain some inner balance, such as art, music, or nature walks (alone or with a friend), can be revitalizing.

Most of us lead busy lives, so taking care of ourselves is easier said than done. We need to use our creativity to see how we might design a life that includes activities and practices that replenish us. Just do your best without stressing out about it or over-thinking it.

Emotional Support

It might surprise you to realize how many people feel the same way you do. Feeling alone and powerless is one of the greatest stressors. It’s not unusual to feel a reactive anxiety or sadness about our current political situation. In fact, it might mean that you care enough to be deeply affected by current events.

Finding friends or a support group where you can share your feelings and concerns can be enormously reassuring and healing. You are not alone with your concerns. Talking with a therapist about your fears and feelings can also be very helpful, especially if you are finding yourself not sleeping or functioning well due to depression or anxiety.

Giving emotional support to ourselves is also important. Can we find a way to be gentle with our feelings without concluding that something is wrong with us? A process such as Gendlin’s Focusing can be a helpful way to make room for our feelings without being debilitated by them.

Contributing to Our World

Being part of the solution instead of part of the problem can be empowering. As philosophers and psychologists have written, we have little control over what happens to us, but more control over how we relate to what happens. Perhaps you are already contributing to society through your work and lifestyle. Or maybe you want to consider joining causes that can make a difference.

We’re not condemned to wallow in terminal powerlessness. Even a small effort to make the world better might help you feel better. Small acts of kindness can have rippling effects.

I find some comfort in remembering that sometimes an individual — or a society — needs to hit bottom before finding their way forward. Hopefully there won’t be too many more bottoms. Whether there are or not, it may help to remember that we’re in this together and that the human spirit is very resilient.

Take some deep breaths, remember who you are, join with like-hearted people, do your best to live in the moment, and allow yourself to abide in meaningful moments of joy and connectedness with others.

from World of Psychology http://ift.tt/2pxKvTA via IFTTT

#IFTTT #World of Psychology

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southaustinlocation · 7 years

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Scraping the Courts

Uncensored government records are tough to get and our local agencies make it no easier. Unlike the Federal Government, where they’ve been releasing useful information for years, the City of Austin just got into the Open Data game.

At the end of 2011, they revamped their site and included their own online public information section, data.austintexas.gov. There are little quotes plastered on it about being dedicated to “Open Government” and “transparency, efficiency, and collaboration.”

The site holds totally random records from various city agencies. You can find stuff like a restaurant inspection scores database, a chart of popular crimes, a list of places where tickets were written, and even a map of “declared dangerous dogs.”

I looked for Austin Police Department arrest data and found it. I was surprised. But when I actually browsed the records, I saw they left out everything useful – there were no details about who was arrested, so I couldn’t analyze it. I dug further and saw the APD also has some transparency tools on their website. One called CrimeViewer sounded like something I’d want to use, but it turned out to be pretty lame. This tool just shows a map with little icons drawn on it that represent where crimes happened and is even less useful for picking apart.

What about the courts? I know that court records are supposed to be public information, but does the County publish them freely? No. The Open Data website was City-only and the County seemed to be even further behind using the internet.

Neither the City or the County published useful information that someone could actually use to see where people are arrested, who they are, and what happens to them once they’re booked. I filed some open records requests with the City and the County to find out how many people were arrested in the past year and a half and how often they got bailed out. Technically, they had ten days to either give me access to the information or to tell me why they couldn’t. (Twenty if the request took a lot of programming, which mine didn’t.) But almost two months later, after nagging e-mails and calls, and still no arrest records, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I found something called the APD Incident Reports Database where you enter a date and it prints out the police reports filed. I figured out that I could write a program to automatically download all the police reports for the past year and a half, the furthest back they allow, and enter them into a database. Compared to the arrest information on the City’s Open Data website, this information was totally raw and unfiltered.

Caption: APD arrests between May 2011 and Nov 2012. These arrests were gathered from the APD Incident Database, geocoded, and plotted here. The larger the circle, the more arrests happened at that address. The colors represent different races/ethnicities being arrested — green: Hispanic, red: White, blue: Black.

I found something similar on the Travis County Clerk’s website that I could use – a misdemeanor court search tool. I wrote a computer program that went through them, by offense date, and collected everything I could. Within a few hours I’d downloaded over six years of criminal history.

The City’s Open Data turned out to be useless. Travis County made it so you couldn’t get court case info without serious computer skills. Going through normal channels (public information officers) was taking forever. But this didn’t stop me from being able to hack together a big-picture view of how people move through our local criminal processing machine from arrest to sentencing.

Step One: Arrest

This is where it all begins and it doesn’t work the same for everyone. Between May 2011 and November 2012, I logged 75,692 arrests. This was every arrest reported by the APD in the past year and a half.

According to the city’s eventual response to my open records request, the Black arrest rate during this time span was over four times higher than Whites’ and almost three times higher than Hispanics’. Whatever the reason, the Austin Police Department was arresting Blacks way more often than anyone else.

When I built a crime map using the gathered APD data, a few areas stood out: Downtown, grocery stores, and the 12^th^ and Chicon corner.

Downtown dominated the map, in general. About 11% of all APD arrests happened around 6^th^ Street. Drinking type-crimes ruled. Public intoxication was the number-one single charge. Warrant arrests were the second most common followed by DWI, sitting/lying on sidewalk, urinating in public, possession of marijuana, and violating misc. city ordinances. As a city, we’re spending a shit load of money to let all these people get fucked up downtown. Is it worth it?

Grocery stores turned out to be a huge generator of arrests. The single address with the most arrests was a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Norwood Park Blvd., just northeast of where I-35 and 183 meet. Over 900 people were arrested at this store alone. The Riverside HEB was also on the top-five list of arrest addresses. Mostly everyone was arrested for theft and a lot of them got possession charges tacked on. But we can’t talk about possession arrests without mentioning our next spot on the map.

The few blocks surrounding 12^th^ and Chicon are notorious for prostitution, drugs, and violence, but the arrest reality shows more of a disaster-type situation. Police are arresting people for anything possible and they’re arresting mostly Blacks. You can get a sense of activity on the corner by reading through the list of common charges: possession of drug paraphernalia, warrant, possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance or narcotic, violation of a city ordinance, pedestrian in the roadway, driving while license invalid, blasting car stereos, and drinking in public. The police made 902 arrests (again, mostly Black) in the 18 months of Incident Reports, and none of them seem to be helping.

Over half of these arrests were of the same person more than once. One guy got arrested 19 times in those 18 months – all on that block. What the hell is going on in a system where people are being arrested over and over, and then getting busted in the exact same place again? People have been calling for stricter sentences for violent crimes in this area, but if you actually look at what people are being arrested for, it’s nonviolent crimes.

It’s not pretty when you’re driving by randomly and see two thugs slugging it out in the middle of the street and homeless-looking folks watching from the sidewalks. But if low-level arrests haven’t been the solution here in the past, why would we think more would be the answer of the future?

Policies like throwing more time at people arrested in these areas are going to hurt more minorities, and stack the odds of being arrested against them even more. It’s not like Whites aren’t buying cocaine, heroin, and weed. They’re just not doing it on 12^th^ and Chicon and they’re not getting caught, booked, and jailed as often for it.

Step Two: Booking and Pre-Trial Release

Once you’re arrested, you’re brought down to the jail and you sit there. You have three options for getting out. Sometimes a cash bond will be set – this is the amount of money you need to pay as collateral for you showing up to court. If you show up, you’ll get your money back. If you don’t, they keep it and put out a warrant for your arrest. You can also pay a bondsman to bail you out. This is called a surety bond. The bondsman will pay your cash bond for you, but will charge you a percent of it. If you don’t show up, they will come after you because it’s their money at stake. But in Travis County, personal bonds, where your word is your collateral, are by far the most common.

Travis County Pretrial Services is in charge of overseeing the whole process of letting people out of jail before their trials (called pretrial release, bonding/bailed out, etc.). They publish a little information on their website about how often people are screened and granted a personal bond. But it’s useless to me because it’s not broken down at all.

Luckily the Travis County Clerk’s Misdemeanor Court database holds bond information. According to this data, White defendants got any form of bond the most often (65% of the time) followed by Hispanics (63%) and Blacks (56%).

So minority defendants, especially Black ones, don’t get a pretrial release as often as Whites. But why is this? Pretrial Release is an inexact science. Basically a lot of guesswork goes into figuring out whether or not a defendant will show up for their court date. The County never really knows if someone is going to jump bond, so they look at things like prior criminal history as an indicator.

The APD arrest data shows that minorities, Blacks especially, are arrested way more often than Whites. If prior record is a major deciding factor of whether or not someone gets a pretrial release, it makes sense that Blacks get out the least. Not only is jailing someone before their trial basically punishment of the innocent, but this also has a huge impact down the line. People who get out of jail before their court dates get better case outcomes.

Visualization: Average Sentence length by Crime & Race

This chart is based on information downloaded from the Travis County Misdemeanor Court’s case search tool. The bars represent how much time, on average, someone from each race was sentenced for each crime. The averages were calculated for all cases with offense dates starting on January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2011. Active cases weren’t included here. Click on the dates below to see a breakdown for that particular year.

2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2006-2011

Step Three: Sentencing

Sentencing is the symbol of our entire system. We’re all technically equals, so we should see similar sentences. This isn’t the case, though. When I tallied up the jail time averages by race and ethnicity, Blacks and Hispanics got more time in jail, overall, between 2006 and 2012.

In the 202,446 misdemeanor cases I’d downloaded from the court’s website, Whites got an average sentence of 15.2 days, Hispanics got 22.1, and Blacks got 21.4. My initial thought was “are judges just sentencing unfairly?”

These numbers included all punishments, jail or not. In other words, if one group got more probation/dismissals instead of jail than other groups, then that group would have a lower average sentence length. When I accounted only for cases where jail time was handed out, the differences evened out and all groups got almost exactly the same punishments.

This confused me, so I contacted as many law firms as I could for answers. What was the cause of this racial disparity? What am I overlooking? Nobody really wanted to talk about these questions publicly, but I did manage to find a few who would, as long as I kept their names anonymous.

These lawyers didn’t think race was a factor in sentencing. They thought this for a couple reasons, one being their personal experience. They just didn’t see judges sentencing based on race. The second reason being that at this low of a level in the courts, the cases mostly end in an agreement between the defense and the prosecution. The judge just signs off on agreements and pushes cases along.

In my experience, this is how most minor crimes go down in court. When I was in trouble, I showed up to my date and found a room packed full of other people who’d done even dumber stuff than I did. I talked to the prosecutor, who’d probably had five seconds to look through my case. She offered me a lesser charge, a small fine, and a few months of probation. She explained that while the judge technically could sentence me more, most of the time he just OKs the agreements … just be respectful. She was right. The judge gave me a lecture and signed off on our little agreement. I watched that same thing happen to fifty people before me.

I don’t know why the prosecutor chose to deal with me in the way she did. I mean, logically, it makes no sense to “throw the book” at someone with little criminal history, but her reasoning was totally in the dark. Even if I wanted to find out how she came up with the fine and probation, there’d be no way for me to do it.

I analyzed all the misdemeanor cases by outcome and saw that the lawyers were right. The largest group of cases ended in a “no contest” plea bargain. This is where the defendant agrees to a punishment without actually admitting guilt. This protects him or her from getting sued, but fucks the person’s life in almost exactly the same way as a guilty plea. The second most common outcome was dismissal. A lot of them were dismissed “pending further investigation” or “in the interest of justice,” but the reasons behind these identifiers are vague at best.

A lot of cases were “12:45’d” which, after some digging, turns out to be a weird technicality for people who are charged with multiple crimes. Let’s say I was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and for evading the police. I could get one of them dropped by admitting guilt to it and having that guilt considered in the sentencing of the other charge.

Deferral was the third most popular outcome. These are usually an agreement by the prosecution and defense and usually involve doing rehab or taking classes. Probation, where you don’t go to jail as long as you stay out of trouble for a year or two, was the next most common case outcome. These seem better on the surface, but probation is usually time-consuming and very expensive. According to a lawyer friend, a lot of people prefer to do some time and have it be over with than spend the next few years paying huge fines and jumping through hoops.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, Black cases were most likely (48%) to end in jail or a fine. Hispanic cases ended in a punishment like this 42% of the time compared to Whites’ 35%. Blacks and Hispanics were both 6% less likely to get their cases dismissed than Whites. Deferral programs were given to White defendants between one and two percent more often than Blacks and Hispanics.

When I first collected the misdemeanor case data, I only collected information on closed cases. That worked well for all outcomes except for probation, where a case could still be open if someone jumped bail. So I went back to get all of the cases, closed or open, and noticed that a lot of the racial and ethnic fields in the data had been changed on the Travis County Clerk’s site. Cases where someone had been identified as Hispanic were suddenly changed to “Not-Specified.” I’m not sure why this is, but it screwed up my confidence in analyzing the probation ratios.

Either way, minorities are still getting shittier case outcomes. I’d love to dig further into why, but unfortunately there’s not a lot of paperwork to follow beyond this. If the judge isn’t influencing most of the cases, then it must be a combination of the prosecutor and defense. And while the judge is held to a lot of scrutiny, the prosecutor is not. In cases like this, there are hardly any details to follow.

Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d shown up to my court date and called the prosecutor a piece of shit. Would I have ended up with a worse punishment just for being rude? Maybe she would’ve flat out refused to deal with me, told the judge what I did, and let him fuck me over. Is being polite an integral part of the justice system? If these are possibilities, then what’s stopping prosecutors from playing “hardball” with minorities or people they don’t like, maybe without even realizing it?

Caption: The Austin Police Department headquarters on East 8th Street. We made sure the photographer looked as suspicious as possible when he took this nighttime photo.

Race, Crime, and Information

The lawyers I talked to believed that poverty was a major player in the disparities here. According to a Health and Human Services study from 2011, 23% of both Blacks and Hispanics lived in poverty. Only 9% of Whites did. It was tempting to label this the cause of our racial and ethnic disparities, but then there’s the case of Asians who have a 14% poverty rate, but have an extremely low arrest rate and better case outcomes.

When I was writing this article, I’d talk about it with friends and coworkers. A lot of them had the same, fair questions. Are minorities committing more crime? Why? Or are police just picking on them?

Ever since men picked up criminal skulls and measured them for links to antisocial behavior, we’ve argued over why certain groups have different crime rates. And even though we laugh about bullshit like Phrenology now, over a hundred years later the same questions still haven’t been answered.

Research starting in the ‘60s focused on discovering what about minority groups caused crime. Early ideas focused on things like IQ and temperament, but these were thrown out. There was no evidence for that. Theories about inherent racial differences fell flat, too. Race – based mostly on skin tone – is a fucking awful indicator of almost anything. Any anthropologist will tell you that there’s as much if not more variation within races as there is between. Ideas about racial groups accepting violence weren’t consistent with findings that people from all races and social statuses tend to feel the same way about violence and crime. Nobody wants to be assaulted or robbed.

At the same time, researchers trying to find evidence for system-wide discrimination at the sentencing level also couldn’t find anything. The “No Discrimination Theory” is still in tact – there is no evidence of directly racial bias in our courts. But this doesn’t address the influence of indirectly racial factors like socioeconomic status or broken families (possibly due to the criminal justice system itself).

Overall, a lot of research is still needed to find the reasons why minorities get arrested and imprisoned so often. If there’s anything I’ve seen from just our local criminal justice system, it’s that every new bit of information brings up as many questions as it does answers.

While researching this article, I’ve seen minorities arrested more than Whites, minorities fighting cases from jail more often, minorities getting worse case outcomes and worse average punishments. I’ve been able to uncover how the system treats people, but not the reasons why. There are a lot hidden layers in the criminal justice system and many decisions made at each level. Beyond what I’ve dug up here, there doesn’t seem to be much of a paper trail to answer these questions further.

Figuring out how minority groups do in the criminal justice system has been the major question in criminology and sociology of the past 50 years. If our local government was serious about getting the important information out to us, they’d have released this arrest and court data long ago. It’s not like it would take a lot of work to do – the information already exists in an easy-to-publish format. I’ve already grabbed it.

Maybe next time they revamp their sites and throw around big ideas about openness and transparency, they could actually put work into making their bureaucracy more “open” and “transparent.” And not just with talk. I mean with actual uncensored data. That would show they give a fuck. Until that happens, all we get are some watered down lists, a ton of filler, and a bunch of bullshit quotes.

The post Scraping the Courts appeared first on South Austin Location.

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anavoliselenu · 7 years

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Manwhore chapter 19

Worst of all, I can tell he’s enjoying talking to me. And teasing me. I pinch my eyes painfully shut, savoring it too, “Don’t hang up yet, just say something long and important. . . . Say your name! Your ridiculously long name . . .”

“Justin.” He indulges me. Then, slowly, “Kyle,” then “Preston,” then “Logan,” then “Justin.” Then, more intensely: “I miss you, Selena.”

I wipe away a stray tear and strain my throat to say something in reply. “Okay.”

“That’s all I get?” He laughs, incredulous.

“I love you,” I say. The emotion gets the best of me, and I repeat, “I love you, Justin,” and before he can answer, I hang up and cover my face.

Oh god. Oh god oh god, I just said it. And I have no idea what effect it had! OH GOD.

Shaking from the adrenaline, I put my phone on my nightstand and watch it for a few minutes.

What. Did. I. Just. Do?

I fall back in bed feeling a mix of excitement and dread and . . . disbelief. Well, I did say “I love you” to a man for the first time in my life. Just like that—wham!—over the phone. To Justin Justin.

How silly it must seem to him.

I must seem so . . . gah! Stupid!

Why could you not wait until you talked to him in person, Selena? Why?!

I wish I hadn’t missed his face, his expression. I mean, he must have been completely dumbstruck. Dazed. Was he surprised to hear it? Pleasantly so? Or not-so-pleasantly so? Well, did he laugh? Or frown? Puzzle? Fuck my laptop, what did I do?

I lie awake for a while in full-blown stress mode, in his shirt, my body aching for his, haunted by his eyes and by the last time we were together and every moment in between. Haunted by the dread of LOSING HIM before I can really be his girlfriend.

“Dibs . . .” I remember.

“I’m an only son. . . .”

“Are you coming up, or do you want me to carry you?”

I’m flooded with him.

Remembering the way I could almost swear he caught his breath when he saw me at the Ice Box.

The way he kissed the corner of my mouth first, always, leading into his bigger kiss.

The way he saved an elephant.

The way he saved me.

The way he fed me grapes.

The way he opened up to me.

Please come back to Chicago and let me explain, let me tell you why I don’t deserve you . . . and give me your advice. Give me your wise advice on what to do. Because I should’ve come to you before anyone else. I should’ve trusted that you would help me because that’s all I’ve seen from you—I’ve just never trusted a man before.

I hear my text beep and read:

Sin: I’m going to take that as a yes

TRUTH AND LOYALTY

“Wake up, Livingston.”

I tuck my face into my pillow while someone who sounds a lot like Gina keeps knocking on my door. I groan, “I’m going to kick your ass when I get out of this bed.”

“You’re going to be too busy.”

“Busy with what?”

“Selena, the door’s freaking locked.”

“So?”

“So open up.”

Hmm. Don’t think so. My life’s a mess. My life’s a mess and I need to fix it and I need to think of how to fix it. And the only pleasure I can derive anymore is in thinking and remembering, remembering talking on the phone only a few nights ago; I dreamed he said some things, and that I said some other things, then I remember that, yes, I think it’s true—I said I loved him.

Holy crap.

“Raaaa-chel,” Gina whines. Hard banging at the door. “Open up, Livingston. You need to see this!”

“I don’t want to see anything today. I’m seeing Justin when he gets back from New York and I want some beauty sleep, okay? It’s Saturday,” I grumble, but when she keeps banging, I leap off the bed and whip the door open, then rush back under my warm covers. “What is it?”

Wynn and Gina drop onto my bed.

Wynn is here too?

I’m aware of a strained silence while Wynn goes to open the curtains and comes back. Their stares . . . they look ominous.

A shadow of fear looms before me. “What?”

Their expressions alone set alarm bells ringing throughout my head. Leaping off the bed, I open my laptop and start scouring the Net, and all I can think is no, no no nooooooooo.

Within seconds, dozens of results with the words exposed and undercover and lies and betrayal pop up, tying Sin, my glorious Sin, to me.

“Selena, you’re all over the gossip sites,” Wynn says.

The results come at me with talons. One after the other.

“Go here.” Gina points at a website.

My hands have never shaken so hard on the track pad. I force the cursor to move and go to the site, and my stomach drops. I see Victoria’s byline and realize they went ahead and released her story in blog form before going to press.

I can’t see through my tears.

“That BITCH!” Gina yells.

As though someone else is speaking for me, numbly, in my own voice and with my own lips, I hear: “She’s doing what she has to. She wants to succeed, like me,” and as I speak, my tears keep gathering in my eyelids.

“She can suck my dick!” Gina yells.

I duck to read.

DECEIVED: Justin Justin’s New Girlfriend Really Undercover Press!

If you’ve been waiting for the dish on one of the most unexpected “relationships” to arise with one of our bachelors, prepare to have your mind blown even further when I let it all out of the bag. At least, Justin Justin’s girlfriend’s bag. . . .

I can’t continue. Each word is out there for Justin to read. Snarky, like the words of a real-life Gossip Girl amusing herself while my world is torn asunder.

My eyes well. “He’s read this by now, ohgod.”

“Selena, calm down. . . .”

“You don’t understand! Truth and loyalty are important to him! They’re so important to him . . . I can’t.” I cover my head in my hands as I start to hyperventilate. “I’m going to throw up.”

“Selena.” They try comforting me, both of them slinging their arms around my shoulders, but I’m beyond comfort.

My cell phone is buzzing madly. I suck in deep breaths, and when my phone falls still, the landline starts to ring. Gina lifts the kitchen phone in the air. “It’s Helen, Selena.”

When nothing happens, she waves the phone at me.

“Helen’s calling.”

“Don’t talk to her,” Wynn whispers.

Gina covers the speaker. “Hello? Wynn? She’s her BOSS.”

I know what she wants, what she will say. I grab the phone while my hand trembles and the rest of me starts to grow numb inside. I have disappointed everyone in my life. “You saw?” she asks.

I can’t answer.

Helen growls, “We’ll ride this if it kills us. Get to work.”

I’ve barely hung up the phone when Gina raises my cell phone before me, eyes wide and apologetic. “It’s your mother.”

With a moan of distress, I shoot Gina a “help me” look. What will I say to her? Well, let’s see. That I lost my heart and my senses with it. That I lost the man I loved before I had the courage to let myself truly have him. That I lost a story to my colleague. That I might, if I can’t find my balls soon, lose my job.

That I’ve lost all sense of direction. Of what’s right and what’s wrong. Of who I am and what I want—

“Heyyyy, adoptive mom!” Gina finally picks up on my behalf. “Yes! GINA! Oh . . . Selena? She’s super busy writing the article that will leave this other one in the dust. Oh, pfft! It’s just a blog article! Selena’s will be IN PRINT, and it’s much more important in that format. . . .” She starts to wax poetic to my mom while I go back to the computer and go to Justin’s social media.

I scan a few pictures.

There he is.

I see a picture of him getting out of his Rolls and into M4. A picture of him flipping off a reporter.

A set of slick aviators shield his eyes.

He looks sharp and on top of the world as he gets out of the car and, just like that, flips off the reporter. And a caption beneath the image reads: “When asked by a reporter, outside his offices, what he thought about his girlfriend being undercover press, this is what Justin Justin had to say.”

Justin is back in Chicago. He’s back from his business trip. To find this.

He’s being tagged. He’s being BOMBARDED.

@JustinJustin U deserve much mre and better than a cunt lke her!!

“I’m going to go talk to him.”

I run into my room and change as fast as possible into a pair of black slacks and a professional-looking white button-down blouse; then I quickly gather my hair into a ponytail and, despite Wynn and Gina’s reservations, take a cab to M4.

I cross the pristine lobby. If I’d thought it was difficult to walk up to the receptionists behind the oval desk the first time, it’s even more excruciatingly painful now.

I know that they know what’s going on; I can tell by their pointy stares.

My pulse is dangerously high. I can’t imagine what it will feel like when I see him.

“Selena Livingston for Mr. Justin, please.”

It strikes me, after several heartbeats, that none of them wants to answer me.

“We apologize,” the middle one with the tidy bun finally says. “But Mr. Justin just got into town.”

“Yes, I know.” I can’t believe how calm I sound, considering how twisted up my insides are. “I’ll wait.”

“Miss!” she calls as I walk toward the elevators. “No one is to be allowed to the top without authorization today.”

I stop mid-stride, puzzled. “Oh.” I hesitate, and notice that the elevator bank is, in fact, quite empty today. “I’ll wait here, then.” I try to stay calm as I walk back in their direction. Did Justin cancel all the meetings in his “packed” day? I feel increasingly anxious about it. “Just please tell him Selena Livingston would love to see him. It’s terribly important.”

“Like I said, he’s terribly busy.”

“I’ll wait,” I say, soft but firm.

I head to one of one of the lounges by the window. Huddled in my seat, I wait, feeling cold, remembering the absolute gossip storm taking place online. I shift uneasily from side to side, watching the elevators and the cars outside.

There are two or three people outside the building trying to keep their cameras hidden but occasionally taking snapshots of the building. So they want a piece of him too? Annoyance flares inside me. Annoyance, impotence, and loathing at myself for having caused this. The receptionist approaches moments later, and there’s an intimidating bodyguard with her.

Slowly, I rise to my feet.

“I’m sorry but we can’t have you here,” the receptionist says. “He’s busy, just arrived from out of town.” I see anger in her eyes. My attention flicks to the large man and . . . I just can’t believe there’s a bodyguard. I can’t believe he’s having them escort me out.

“Tell him I stopped by,” I murmur. Then I do them all a favor and take myself outside, using my hair as a curtain to avoid being recognized—glad that my hair can also hide the absolutely crestfallen look on my face. I head straight home, where Gina and Wynn appear to have been waiting by the door.

“How did it go?” Gina takes me by the shoulders and forces me down on the couch.

I’m still numb with disbelief. It takes me a moment to answer. “He’s walling himself up. I couldn’t see him. They . . . I was escorted out.”

“What?” Wynn cries, outraged.

And Gina: “Didn’t you tell me his staff is loyal to a fault? Of course they’d be overprotective of their Justin.”

“But did he know Selena was there?” Wynn wants to know.

They start arguing about whether or not Justin instructed them to kick me out, but I can’t join the speculation. I’m feeling more and more hopeless as I look at my phone. My silent phone.

Locking myself in my bedroom, I call his cell phone and pace around as I leave a message:

“Heyyyyy. Hey . . . will you please call me back? I need to talk to you.” I flounder with what to say next, my thoughts stumbling one after the other.

“Justin . . .” I trail off, but my voice breaks so fiercely, I hang up. I wipe my tears away and dial again. “Sorry,” I whisper. I have never wanted to hear his voice so much. “I want to say that . . . I don’t know. . . . I just wanted to hear your voice.” I think of what else to say when I reach his voice mail.

I dial again. “You value truth and loyalty, and I . . . I need to talk to you, Justin, you need to let me explain. If that’s all you do, please let me explain.”

It’s killing me. I can’t sleep. Can’t eat. I have a constriction in my chest and I literally can’t breathe. This time it’s not in a good way. I keep waiting to hear from him, keep expecting him to message me back.

I storm into Gina’s bedroom. “Do you think it’s over?”

She jolts up in bed. “You scared the shit out of me. I thought we had an intruder!”

“Do you think it’s over? Not talking and this shit happening, it means it’s over. Right? Who am I kidding? I wasn’t even his real girlfriend. Not even for a day. There’s nothing to be over.” I laugh sadly and struggle with my tears, and with my conscience, and my desperate need for him.

“I feel bad for you, but Justin’s a powerful man. When Paul betrayed me, I couldn’t look at him, not even a single possession of his. He broke me. And this is . . . this is public, Selena. How would you feel? If he came with something like this, throwing you for a loop? Give him time to assimilate what’s being said. Maybe he just wants to rationalize.”

Maybe he just needs to count to four, I think to myself.

“I have a temper. . . .”

One instant I’m trying to feel positive by telling myself that I will have a moment to explain, eventually, and the next I’m heavy with grief. The next, I’m one big, gigantic knot of regrets. Remembering those few, rare moments when he completely opened up to me makes me even more anxious to be with him right now, to explain. To make it okay. To hold him. To BEG him to hold ME. “Selena, what are you going to do with your article?” Gina asks worriedly.

In my hand, on my phone screen, for the thousandth time, I look at that picture of him arriving at M4 after a business trip. Looking like a true, first-class billionaire . . . but flipping off whoever was snapping that picture. All of that glass and technology in the background, and him, in that killer suit, his dark head bent, his eyes shielded behind his aviators. No comment, the caption says. But the finger said plenty.

RESEARCH

A short while later I slip into my bedroom and stand, in my socks and his shirt, and stare at my laptop.

Inhaling, I bring it, along with my shoebox filled with note cards, to the little rug beside my bed. I sit Indian style on the floor and read my notes, one by one. Notes on him.

Truth and loyalty, I had written.

Traits he probably admires in his best friends. Traits he may never have found in the women who are after him. Truth and loyalty . . .

That’s all I can write about. The rest of what I’ve learned is too raw for me to share.

But truth and loyalty.

Things Justin values above love.

Things he wouldn’t find in me. I read the back of the card, my scribbled note, this one talking about me.

I SUCK SOOOO HARD.

He’d stood there talking about truth and loyalty while I sat there moved by everything we talked about, absolutely knowing that I was falling in love, helpless to stop it.

And still, I was taking notes. Studying him like a lab rat. As if he wasn’t human. As if he weren’t driven by the same things everyone else is: a heart, a mind, a body, hormones; as if he didn’t need air and water and maybe even love; as if he were this robot to be scrutinized and picked apart for the amusement of the world.

Really? What does it matter that he’s been with a thousand and one women? What does it matter that he’s the city’s obsession and now also mine? He’s human. He’s entitled to the little privacy he has. He’s so damn closed off, he rarely opens up to anyone, and I know it’s because he’s always so judged and scrutinized.

My eyes water, and suddenly I grab the cards and start tearing them up, one by one. Then I lie with all the notes scattered around me and cry a little. Then I look at the scattered mess. What did I just do? Oh god.

If I want to save the magazine, I need to deliver something.

I breathe in and out.

“Selena?” I hear Gina call.

She peers inside and scans the mess of torn note cards, and then me. As broken as the paper around me.

“Oh, Selena.”

I start crying.

“I need to write it.”

“Selena, tell him the truth. Tell him the truth. If he knows you well at all, he’ll understand.”

“What? That I’m a liar?”

“Tell him you love him,” she says.

“He doesn’t want my love. He values . . . truth and honesty, qualities I don’t possess.”

“You possess them in spades. You’re loyal and honest with everyone.”

“But not with him.”

“From the moment you talk to him and come clean, you will be. Make him see it from your eyes. Maybe you can have it all.”

“Whoever gets it all, Gina? Nobody. Nobody, that’s who.”

“But yet we all believe that we can. Isn’t that the point of everything we do? We want it all. So write this piece. And if you still want him, then you should go get him.”

I pause. “I do want him,” I whisper, wiping my wet face with the back of my hand. “It’s a million tiny things that, added up, tell me there is no one in this world, ever, who will have this spectacular effect on me but him. Sometimes I just can’t see myself when we’re together, I’m so lost in him.” I wipe my eyes. “He’s the only man I dream about at night, and the only man I want to wake up next to in the morning. Everyone is after his fame or his money, but I love him not because of anything he has but because he has me. . . .”

“Oh, Rache. Don’t cry. Maybe there’s hope for you two.”

“How can there be? He doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.”

“He’s fucking hurting, Selena! Even I can tell, because there’s not one picture of him without fucking shades to cover his eyes. There must be hell in those eyes, Selena. I can’t believe I actually feel bad for him now.”

“Because I was the Paul in our relationship. I was the liar.”

“Paul played me. You never played him. Your feelings were real.”

I groan and bury my face in my hands. I remember how Helen warned me from the beginning. That I was too young, playing with adults. I hadn’t seen all of this coming. She was right. I was not ready for this at all.

But I take the Kleenex Gina passes, wipe my tears, connect my laptop, boot it up, and write my heart out.

The day I turn it in, Helen tells me that the Edge email servers are bursting with hate mail for me, and she advises me to take the week to work from home.

The day it’s published, I don’t get out of bed. I don’t answer my phone. My mother stops by, but she ends up chatting with Gina because I don’t want her to see me like this; I’m too sad to fake it today, and she knows me so well. She tells me before she leaves, “I’m going to go paint.”

She’s telling me I should do the same. She’s telling me I’m free to go out there and do something I love.

But what I love hates me.

Twitter:

Did you read your girlfriend’s article? @JustinJustin

On his Instagram:

No way @JustinJustin would give that bitch a second chance!!

And the feminist groups online:

Selena Livingston, our hero! Revenge on the playboys! Want to play with our hearts? Beware the time you will find your own weakness. Revenge is sweet!

Later that week I find enough energy to get out of bed and go to work, and I’m immediately called into Helen’s office.

There’s tension between us. Helen was not happy when I sent over the article. She said, “It’s not what I asked for.”

“No,” I concurred.

Helen took it and printed it anyway.

Today, I’m surprised that she seems pleased to see me, genuinely pleased. “It’s a circus out there,” Helen tells me, waving me forward from behind her cluttered desk.

“I’m not online. Can you blame me?”

“No. But let me fill you in.” She signs to a chair across from her desk, but I remain standing. “Your boyfriend,” she begins with obvious glee, “pulled Vicky’s piece. It can’t be reposted without legal repercussions now.” She eyes me with a new gleam of respect and admiration, and adds, “In case you lost me when I said ‘your boyfriend’ ”—she laughs happily—“Justin Justin canned any print editions of Victoria’s post—and it was removed from the blog.” She nods ever so slowly and somberly.

My eyes widen. “What?” I finally speak.

“Victoria’s article. Your boyfriend owns the rights. It can’t be published anymore—not without his say-so.”

“What? How?”

She shrugs, then leans back in her chair with a little creak of the wheels. “Seems like Justin doesn’t want it out there.”

Ohmigod, he made Victoria’s story go away? “If he canned Victoria’s, why not ours? Why didn’t he can mine?” Why didn’t he read mine?!

My heart is in a fist in my chest and so are my lungs.

“Guess he doesn’t hate you that much.” She shrugs casually, but stops herself when she seems to notice—finally notice—that I’m crushed. That my hair is a mess, my face is a mess, I’m a mess. “Maybe he does like you, Selena,” she says softly. “I’m impressed, did you know? I’m not the only one who’s impressed. The world is impressed too. He hasn’t been seen . . . consorting with you-know-what types.” She taps a pencil absently on her desk, her eyes narrowed on me. “But he’s been skydiving daily. You’d think he has a death wish or has some serious mojo to get out of his system.”

I hardly hear her. I need to get away. From Edge, from her, from this office. “Is it all right if I work from home today, Helen?”

Though I sense her reluctance, she agrees. I go get my things from my desk, aching to my bones.

Justin skydiving.

Justin buying Victoria’s article.

Justin thinking I betrayed him.

Outside that afternoon, I stop when Edge stares back at me from a newsstand, one copy remaining on this side, a few on the other.

“You read that yet?” The man behind the newsstand whistles and laughs. “That reporter’s got her panties in a twist over the guy.”

I lift my head, prepared to scream at the man. Instead, I scan the picture of Justin that Helen used on the cover—those icy green eyes staring back at me. And yes, this man is right. I do have my panties in a twist over Justin. Not just my panties—my entire body. My entire life.

I miss him like nobody’s business.

I want to kiss him.

I want to squeeze him. With my arms. And my thighs. With my whole body until I BREAK or he breaks me, and that’s just fine, as long as he comes after me.

“Smart woman,” I finally whisper, emotion thickening my voice. “I think I’ll take him home with me.”

I buy the copy just because of Justin’s picture. Sharp tie, perfect collar, and that thick-lashed gaze, screaming to be warmed, that gets me. It’s a marvel how those eyes of green ice can so easily melt me.

I sit down on a bench with the magazine on my lap, brushing my fingertips over his eyes, wondering for the thousandth time if he will ever read what I wrote to him.

AFTER THE STORM

It’s over.

There wasn’t rain or thunder when we ended. We just ended like we began. There were no flashes of illumination that told me I would fall in love, that I would meet the one man who would challenge me, drive me crazy. Now it’s ended, my project done. Completed.

My mornings have returned to normal. I still have brunch with my friends on the weekends. I still visit Mom on Sundays. My world is back to ordinary, almost the same as it was before I wrote the exposé. I hadn’t realized how bleak it was. I’m afraid I will pick up the paper and there he will be . . . with someone. Or with three.

The crying spells are bad. You go out and accidentally smell wine and oops, snivel. And don’t talk to me about elephants, that takes me to a whole new level of despair. But the fear is gone. You were afraid of going out and suddenly you’re right there, daring the universe to take that from you or pleading with it to give you an excuse to feel like shit today. Gina passes me the Kleenex.

Some of my coworkers . . . some of them envy me.

“I wish I’d been asked to go after Justin Justin,” Sandy, my coworker, tells me because of the positions I’m being offered, but most importantly because “being paraded around in a yacht and being pursued like that . . .” she says dreamily.

“Fess up, was the sex phenomenal?” Valentine asks.

I think they’re trying to cheer me up . . . but I’m uncheerable.

I still stalk his Twitter feed. I can’t help stalking him, wanting to know how he is. Though the social media around him has been more active than ever, Justin himself has been . . . quiet.

He’s been asked about me—by reporters on live TV, and online. He says “no comment” or ignores the online jabs. Just like he’s ignoring me.

“It wasn’t going to last,” Gina assures me when she notices I’m mopey. “It was a hookup. He’s a womanizer to the next level.”

But it kills me that I’ll never know. I’ll never know if all the times he said I was his girl, he meant to keep me.

I have all these unsent emails addressed to Justin, and very little courage to do anything with them when I know that I don’t deserve for him to give me the time of day.

To: Justin Justin (Drafts)

Status: unsent

I have a thousand and one emails just like this that I won’t send either. I just needed to write to you.

Please forgive me

Do you think about me at all?

Dibs on your mouth and dibs on your eyes and dibs on your hands and dibs on your heart. Even your stubbornness cause I deserve it. Even your anger. I want it all. Dibs on my man. See #Iamsogreedytoo !!!!

Gina tells me that if she could survive heartbreak, I can survive breaking my own heart.

“Baby, I know it hurts. When I found out about Paul, I wanted a meteor to fall on my head so I could go numb inside a coffin.”

“God, Gina, I know. I just want a chance.”

I stare out the window this morning at the street. No more shiny Rolls-Royce waiting outside on Saturday mornings to take me “anywhere.”

Is it funny, though? That I keep waiting to see it? That I wake up with hope every day? For a text, a message, a call, the car, a glimmer of a chance?

Stop being so hopeful, Selena . . . he would have read it by now.

Maybe he did and he just doesn’t care to let you know what he thought of it.

I found out so many things about him during all the time we spent together, but I didn’t really find out if he could come to love me. If he’ll be too proud to ever forgive me. If he’ll seek to ease the pain of my betrayal with other women, or if he’ll shut himself off, like I’m doing. I found out dozens of things about him, but not the dozen ones that could give me any kind of comfort right now.

We saved an elephant together, he took up my fight for a safer city, but all I physically have to remind me of my time with him is his shirt.

His shirt, which sits like a priceless trophy folded away in plastic, inside a box, in the deepest part of my closet, because I can hardly bear to see it now. I can’t bear to wear it now. But sometimes when the melancholy hits, I go into my closet and pull it out, stark white and large, completely male against my frilly items, and still with his scent clinging to its collar. Self-pity washes over me on those days, and it takes one second, two, three, and then I think of him, and so I take four. Four seconds before I let myself breathe again.

EXPOSING JUSTIN JUSTIN

By R. Livingston

I’m going to tell you a story. A story that managed to pull me apart completely. A story that brought me back to life. A story that has made me cry, laugh, scream, smile, and then cry again. A story I keep telling to myself over and over and over until I have memorized every smile, every word, every thought. A story that I hope to keep with me forever.

The story begins with this very article. It was a regular morning at Edge. A morning that would bring me a big opportunity: to write an exposé on Justin Kyle Preston Logan Justin. He’s a man who needs no introduction. Billionaire playboy, beloved womanizer, a source of many speculations. This article would open doors for me, gain a young hungry reporter a voice.

I dove in, managing to get an interview with Justin Justin to discuss Interface (his incredible new Facebook-killer) and its immediate rise to popularity. As obsessed as the city has been with his persona for years, I considered myself lucky to be in this position.

I was so focused on revealing Justin Justin that I let my guard down, unaware that every time he opened up, he was actually revealing me to me. Things I had never wanted were suddenly all I wanted. I was determined to find out more about this man. This mystery. Why was he so closed off? Why was nothing ever enough for him? I soon discovered he was not a man of many words, but rather a man of the right words. A man of action. I told myself that every inch of information I hunted was for this article, but the knowledge I craved was actually about myself.

I wanted to know everything. I wanted to breathe him. Live him.

But most unexpectedly of all, Justin began to pursue me. Genuinely. Wholeheartedly. And relentlessly. I could not believe that he would be truly interested in me. I had never been pursued like this, intrigued like this. I had never felt so connected to something—someone.

I never expected my story to change, but it did. Stories tend to do that; you go out searching for something and come back with something different. I wasn’t looking to fall in love, I wasn’t looking to lose my mind and common sense over the most beautiful green eyes I have ever seen, I wasn’t looking to drive myself crazy with lust. But I ended up finding a little piece of my soul, a little piece that isn’t really that small at all: it’s over six feet tall, with shoulders about a yard wide, hands more than twice the size of mine, green eyes, dark hair, and it is smart, ambitious, kind, generous, powerful, sexy, and has consumed me completely.

I regret lying, both to myself and to him; I regret not having the experience to recognize what I was feeling the moment I felt it. I regret not savoring each second I had with him more, because I value those seconds more than anything.

However, I don’t regret this story. His story. My story. Our story.

I’d do it all again for another moment with him. I’d do it all again with him. I’d leap blindly into the air if only there were even a 0.01 percent chance that he’d still be there, waiting to catch me.

FOUR

Saturday.

The fourth one since.

There are still dozens of messages in my drafts folder that I won’t ever send to him.

I’ve still, more than ever, been living in the land of “what could’ve been” and trust me, this is a very sad place to live in. In the zip code of the lost, you breathe in regret with every breath, sadness permeating every space in which your body stands.

Of all the things that drive people to change, it is despair and sorrow that cause it most of all.

Sadness is so disempowering. Anger, on the other hand, demands action and empowerment. But I can’t get angry when it was me who put myself right where I’m standing.

I’ve spent weekends at the window of my apartment, trying to make myself want to go outside and not really feeling like it.

Never let anyone tell you that your life will return to normal after a hurricane.

I’ve got folders and folders with pics I can’t open.

A number I can’t dial.

A shirt I can’t wear.

A name I can’t say out loud.

The memory of a pair of eyes that will haunt me forever.

I live in fear of never seeing those eyes again. And in even more fear of what I’ll see in them if I do . . .

Helen had complained it was not what she had wanted.

She’d said it was “a love letter to Justin.”

But we all know stories are like that. Stories change. Just like people change. We change when we suffer, when we take, when we give, when we love. When you lose the object of your love, your normal will be perennially changed; there’s no returning to the old anymore. You have to rebuild stronger walls, change your expectations, and wait for the sunlight.

There’s nothing like a sunrise in Chicago, the orange-gold light shimmering over the buildings’ mirrored windows. I’ve watched the sunrises and the sunsets and I’ve watched it rain from this very window. I’ve watched Gina go out, and I’ve watched the cars drive by, not really focused on what colors they are, only that none of those cars belong to him.

My laptop hums nearby. Gina went out to lunch with Wynn, but I still can’t seem to work up the enthusiasm.

I’m trying to work on a new story. A story with good stuff. Stuff about people. Loss. And hope. And . . . forgiveness. I’m pouring tea for myself when my phone vibrates. The number is unlisted.

I stop and set my cup aside, then answer.

“Miss Livingston, this is Catherine Ulysses.”

I pause.

Justin’s assistant.

“Are you there?”

My heart. My heart is going to literally leap out of my chest.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“He’d like to see you in his office.”

I close my eyes.

“Should I tell him you declined?”

“NO! I . . . at what time? I’ll be there.” My fingers tremble as I write down the time and start nervously scribbling when I hang up.

The world tilts a little when I force myself to lower the pen. I stare at the hour. The date. The question mark. The heart. And the name Justin, I wrote, with all of that.

I’m finally going to see him. I have no idea what I’m going to say, where I will begin, what can even make this okay.

I picture myself kissing him, having the courage to say I love him.

I picture myself getting teary maybe, too, because this has been the worst month of my entire existence.

I picture him in all his glory, and my chest can’t take it without gnarling up like a live rope.

His office.

M4.

Justin.

I brush my teeth, take a shower, then hurry to my closet and swing open the doors, staring at my clothes, hoping something—the right outfit—stands out and yells, WEAR ME, HE CANNOT SAY NO TO THIS. Instead I see a lot of sleeves and nothing, nothing, fit for this moment. Hidden in this closet is his shirt. How I loved sleeping in this shirt. It engulfed me like his arms did, and I had the best dreams, sometimes even erotic ones, even after I was back from his arms, recently sated. I pull it out and look at it, missing it with an ache, then impulsively hide it in the long-dress section again.

I go for something white, a white turtleneck sweater, a pair of light-colored jeans, my lambskin boots.

I feel exposed, all my walls tumbled down. But I go brush my hair, add a light peach lipstick, and look at myself, my gray eyes staring back at me, as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen them.

Because I’ll tell him the truth—the entire truth.

And I’ll deserve whatever he comes back with; I’ll deserve it, every bit.

At M4, I take the elevator, trembling.

Our every complex human emotion, bottled up inside our bodies, our minds and souls and hearts.

Every member of every ethnicity, every human in the past and the present and every one in the future wants to feel like this. The way I feel right now, just a girl hoping and craving, dying to see him, praying the guy she loves loves her back.

My throat is so tight I can’t talk when I step out. His four assistants lift their heads from their computer screens. “I’m . . . here to see—”

“One moment,” Catherine tells me.

I’m standing here wondering if he’ll smell like I remember, look at me like I remember. If he’ll smile or frown, if he’ll hate me forever, if he thinks of me at all. If he misses me at all.

It doesn’t matter so long as he sees me right now. That’s all I want, to look into his face again. Hear his voice.

Finally Catherine hangs up and nods at me as she walks to the door and pushes it open for me, and I walk inside.

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