#i moved to the US in high school from the middle east so its not exactly the same thing.

[rimouskis]

Hey! So there is a slight chance I could end up In Pittsburgh next year. As a resident, do you like living there? What are some of its selling points? (Some context: I’ve lived in or near every single big city on the northeast coast, from DC to Boston, so I’m used to cities. I’ve heard great things about living in Pittsburgh, so I’m curious about your perspective!)

oh hey! very cool, potential welcome to you, and I heartily recommend the city.

but: if you've lived in every big city in the east, pittsburgh is going to.... uh, not be like that! at all, haha. if you're looking for city living, I don't think you're going to find that in its purest form here.

my context is that I've actually not traveled the east very much; I've only been to DC and NYC. Neither feels remotely like PGH. actually-big cities like NYC, Chicago... probably Boston, though I've never been... they're cities, you know? they feel like it. they've got concrete jungle energy.

pittsburgh very much does not. pittsburgh, frankly, doesn't feel like a city to me, even though it has all the amenities of a city—we've got theaters and concerts and summers here are a total blast. pittsburgh feels like an oversized town in a lot of ways.

part of that is the geography and what it's done to the city as it has developed. the neighborhoods here are often really broken up by the topography. the hills and forested parts of the city still feel a little wild. some neighborhoods feel like they shouldn't be habitable at all because of how steep they are, lol (the very existence of rialto street feels Wrong to me). panther hollow being smack dab in the city speaks to that: we have a fucking ravine in the middle of this place!! I've seen so much wildlife here that I just haven't in other "urban" areas.

the other, bigger part of pittsburgh not feeling like a big city is the populace. you have a LOT of lifers here. did you know pittsburgh has the oldest population of any metro area in the USA? people are born here and they die here, haha. I know some of the local young people really don't like it (like, imagine all the people from your high school went to your college and then stayed in the same city after they graduated), but I find it to be really novel.

one of my old coworkers was born on the south side slopes and then moved to mt. washington as an adult. she's just never left the city, and that means I can literally play seven-degrees-of-[her name] with her because if I mention, like, anyone with roots in the city, it feels like there's an 80% chance she's going to know them or one of their relatives 😅 that's so fun to me! you can carve out individual pockets everywhere, and don't get me wrong, I don't have that kind of connectivity, but it's something that's possible here that doesn't feel possible in other cities and it gives it a very particular.... flavor.

that's part of the unique culture around pittsburgh that I'm very fond of. it was (is) a really good city to be a young person in, because it's big enough where there's stuff to do, buuuuut it's small enough that you won't feel eaten alive like you might in NYC. and while there are sooo many locals who are still local, there's a decent amount of transplants like myself too, so it's not like you'll be an outsider or anything.

I've also found really good people here. I like pittsburghers. they're pretty salt-of-the-earth (.... coal-of-the-earth? too soon?) and the culture is, like, very palatable to my midwestern sensibilities. if you're an east coaster you might find people a little too chatty or personable, but I'm used to it haha.

as for the living experience, I think it's pretty fabulous. winters get a bit grim (it's so GRAY here and people drive like MANIACS) but fall is very nice and summers in pittsburgh are just unparalleled. perfect weather—not too hot but not cold—and so so much to do. there's a ton of culture that happens, we love street festivals and art markets and night markets and each neighborhood does their own little twist on stuff. it's my favorite time of year, and there's also plenty of nature nearby. falling water is close by and I love it, and ohiopyle state park has good hiking. the cost of living can't be beat, too. I pay less in rent than both my siblings who live in another state, and I have a bigger living space. I was able to live really comfortably here when I made very little money. it's a great amount of flexibility, and you're not too far away from bigger cities if you want; the drive to DC is like 4 hours.

and, finally: if you're a pens fan, well. this IS the place to be! getting easier access to games has been such a blast. it's a fun life to live.

I will also say there are downsides. I'm from a blue state and I was honestly not ready for how red/conservative this area gets when you leave the bounds of pittsburgh proper. like, it goes pretty red pretty fast. that makes me uncomfortable, honestly, but that's the cost of living here. there was also a report put out a few years back that showed white residents in the city had "average or above-average standards of livability", but for black men it was "less livable" and for black women it was even LESS livable. there's some pretty serious segregation in terms of neighborhoods and the city is, on the whole, incredibly white. it isn't a very diverse place, which is of course a huge negative, and the city hasn't done the best job in making itself more livable for its black population. I think that's worth mentioning, especially if you're a person of color. pennslyvania is... well, this part of pennsylvania is very much part of the rust belt, and that shows in charming ways (old infrastructure and buildings) and horrible ways (systemic racism).

in sum: pittsburgh has been really, really great for me. I've met some wonderful people here, I've learned how to be an adult here, and I've really built a comfortable life here. that's involved a fair bit of privilege, though, so when I say I love pittsburgh, I'm aware that comes with asterisks.

if you have more questions, please reach out! you're actually not the first person who's considering a move to pittsburgh, and I really enjoy being an ambassador to the city :)

#ask #anonymous #be careful this is looooong

[im-madam-baby]

❝ 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞❞

In this first post, I would like to introduce myself and share some of my personal background. I believe that getting to know someone's story can help build a better understanding and connection between people. So, here's a little bit about me.

Hello, I'm Heidi. My first name is supposed to be spelled with a 'y' as Heidy, but for safety reasons, I prefer to use Heidi and not include my full name. I am from Indonesia.

I was born in Dili, Timor Leste on June 30, 1998. Although I was born there, there were riots in Timor Leste at the time, so my late maternal grandmother took me to a safe place when I was a baby. My parents followed not long after, and the rest was a journey of moving from one city in Indonesia to another, which happened about four times.

Now try to keep up with me haha.

The first city I lived in after birth was Manokwari, West Papua, where I spent four years (1999-2003) while attending preschool. As a toddler, I don't recall much except for playing with my stuffed doll. I then relocated to Denpasar, Bali, where I lived for almost two years (2003-2005), including attending school from kindergarten through the end of first grade. During my time there, I studied and competed in an abacus competition, although I only remember receiving a number three sticker once and am unsure of its significance.

I also have a bit of a mystical story here about when I was a child when I was living in Bali, but this will be told at another time. For a spooky and horror story time.

Moving on, the second longest city I've lived in is Manado, North Sulawesi, where I spent eight years (2005-2013). As a result, the language spoken in my home is a mix of Manadonese and basic Indonesian, which is still used today. I attended school here from the second grade of primary school until the end of middle school.

When I first started middle school, I was placed in the top class for outstanding students, but for some reason, after seventh grade, the class was removed. Nonetheless, I finished in third place out of the top ten in my eighth-grade class.

I must admit that I'm not someone who talks much to my friends here; almost all of them think I'm mute. I was even verbally bullied; the boys didn't even want to approach me and always mocked me for not being able to speak. There was also a girl who used to make fun of me by saying I was mute until I threw an empty water bottle at her in anger. Basically, they thought I was a freak.

In reality, I only talked frequently with certain people. I was lucky to have five good friends with whom I could hang out. We even thought about forming a music band, but it never materialized because we weren't all good at playing our instruments, haha. I also hung out at my friends' houses, both inside and outside of my circle.

Despite the good times, it often felt like living in hell because others weren't as respectful. However, I now understand that we were all just kids back then, and people's attitudes, behaviors, and personalities inevitably change over time. While I never felt particularly close to them, I believe that people can and do change. Nevertheless, I have no desire to meet them, but I simply wish them a healthy and happy life.

Moving on, the city that I have been living in until now is Balikpapan, located in East Kalimantan, for the past nine years (2013-present). I attended high school here until I graduated, and then moved to Jakarta to pursue my bachelor's degree. However, whenever I had the opportunity to take a vacation for a couple of weeks, I flew back and forth on a plane to spend time at home. The following year, my sister joined me at the same university, so I occasionally flew back and forth with her.

I have many stories while studying offline at my university, but they will also be told at another time.

Mainly at my university, I became a class leader twice for two semesters. During my first year, I met four of my best friends, and together we formed a group called FHAIF, which is named after the five of us. I also have an amazing and thoughtful roommate, as well as another amazing, loud, and kind roommate. Additionally, I have a male best friend who is half-Thai and half-Indonesian, and several other friends whom I cannot describe individually due to the length of this introduction.

Furthermore, I befriended almost everyone in my field of study. I don't mean to brag, but it's true that our group, including myself, was well-known throughout the university among seniors and juniors alike. We were probably one of the most popular groups on campus.

My social environment underwent significant changes during my university years. I took part in various events and organizations, gaining valuable experience and making numerous new connections.

I also have some interesting crush stories to share, but that will have to wait for another time haha.

Anyway, returning to the subject of when I started living in Balikpapan, I won't deny that I had a bit of a culture shock moment at first. I struggled with learning the local language and adjusting to a new environment. I would observe the people around me, listen to how they spoke, and gradually adapt to my surroundings.

Eventually, I was able to make friends with a few people and gradually broaden my connections. People my age in this city are different from my friends in middle school in the previous city; they are friendlier and more respectful.

Although I didn't join any organization here, I've gained quite a bit of experience in making friends. As usual, I always hang out at my friends' houses whenever I am invited or permitted to do so. However, my parents refused to allow me to spend the night at a friend's house because it would be inconvenient for the hosts.

There was another time when I went to a funeral for one of my classmates, and everyone came to mourn and see the coffin being buried. However, I did not witness the burial because some Indonesians believe in superstitions that must be done before and after visiting the grave, and it takes quite a few things to do. So, I just stayed in my friend's car, waiting for the funeral burial to end with the rest of my friends.

Oh, and there was also another where I once skipped a class in high school, jumped the fence, and joined one of my classmates in her car with one of my friends, we were going somewhere I don't remember much about it now. Don't worry, this happened only once, or perhaps not.

I also remembered skipping some classes because I was sick with GERD. I called my mom and told her about it; I remember crying because of the pain. She became so concerned and rushed over to the school to pick me up.

The pain was so severe that I had to be lifted on a stretcher in the middle of a class. I couldn't walk or breathe and had to crouch on my desk while holding my stomach. It was even painful to move my left foot due to the pain in my lower abdomen.

Afterward, on the stretcher, I just covered my face because I was embarrassed to be seen like that by so many people along the way to the car.

But overall, those were all good times haha.

Anyhow, by the time you read this paragraph, I will already be 24 years old in 2022. I have two siblings who can be chaotic at times, and two loving parents. I'm the oldest of three children, with one sister and one brother. My 23-year-old sister is only a year and four months younger than me (born in 1999). While my younger brother, who is five years younger than me, is now 19 years old (born in 2003). The three of us are currently studying at our respective universities.

At home, according to my siblings, I am an angry and noisy person. I'm always angry at them and like to act like a child. As a result, my sister has saved me as "Madam Baby" in her phone contacts, and my brother has saved me as "Assistant" or "household assistant" (cry). It's because whenever I clean the house with my bare face, he says I look like one and teases me about it ...

They can be annoying at times, as we tend to make a big deal out of trivial matters.

We also enjoy playing around and making stupid jokes about each other, as well as sharing our struggles and supporting each other. However, we rarely say "I love you" to each other because, well, who admits that to their siblings? Certainly not us.

But we do know that we love each other, just as we show our love to our parents in our own unique ways without directly saying it.

Despite all the ups and downs that I cannot mention in detail in this introduction, but perhaps in the near future, these experiences have taught me valuable lessons and given me a unique perspective on life. I believe that they have made me stronger and more resilient. I look forward to sharing more about myself and connecting with others who may have had similar experiences. Thank you for taking the time to read my introduction. That's enough about me. These events have shaped me into who I am today, and I'm happy to welcome you into my personal space ♥

#introduction #about me #introductory post #introducing myself #introducing me #story time #true story #original story #storytelling #life story #growing up #events #long story lol #long story short #story telling

[themowearchives]

Press Archive, Part 3

The Noise

Live Review, Middle East Corner, January 2004

I'm captivated halfway through My Own Worst Enemy's first semi-acoustic set. Portland is dreamy. Why Not Beautiful? while missing the "big" backup vocals from the recorded version, lives up to it's name. Their drummer John does an admirable job harmonizing with Sue's lead vocals. And when guitarist Steve kicks in, you do get those "big vocals." Sue ends the set by singing her venomous and brilliant ode to Courtney Love, Cry For Frances, with the refrain 'I Hate You', with such passion that many in the crowd respond with, 'We hate you too!'

A slow build of feedback announces the beginning of the second set which, while more aggressive in sound, isn't much louder than the first. The scene takes on a Sister-Morphine-like feel as an ambulance pulls up literally right behind the band and attends to somebody on the street. As the band starts their last song, Steve alerts somebody passing the stage, "Dude, you dropped your rolling papers." A high school-like roar of laugher ensues. It's always worth making it out to see this band. (Dilly)

Indie Music.com, Featured Artist of the Month

No Guarantees CD Review, June 2004

Every once in a while, I come across a band whose music makes me want to do the moptop head shake and jump around the room. My downstairs neighbors hate it when that happens. They're not very happy today.

My Own Worst Enemy is a Boston trio that loathes pretension. There's no wandering experimentation on these tracks, no demanding political views. Just raw, punk-fueled, high-energy rock with great hooks and excellent musicianship. It feels basic and solid, wild and fun. The perfect music to shake off life's complications to and just flat-out enjoy.

Sue sings lead on most of these tracks, has a gritty Patti Smith edge to her voice. In the quieter, folky tracks like Why Not Beautiful and Late Show, she sings with the same aggressive approach she uses on the harder rock tracks. It's a raw and confrontational voice that never resorts to the bratty shrieking that so many female rock vocalists succumb to.

These musicians manage to show off their chops without getting in the way of the song. The whole CD is worth a listen just for the mind-blowing guitar freakout on the bridge of Poison. Most of these songs are short and sweet, around the two-minute range, again showing their penchant for just getting to the point and sparing us the long, experimental solos.

Not a single filler track on this CD. Very impressive work. (Jennifer Layton)

Punk Planet

No Guarantees CD Review, September/October 2004

No Guarantees has its ups and downs considering it moves from delightful indie pop to brooding alterative-rock territory. It's former formula is the more likeable, with such songs as "MIA" and "Hey Hey Sunshine." Steve's charismatic voice has a familiarity to it without sounding recycled. (AJA)

The Noise

Live Review, October 2004

New England Pop Fest at the Abbey Lounge, 9-10-04

Next are My Own Worst Enemy, who play more the sort of thing I was expecting from a pop music festival. They are a three-piece with two guitars and a drummer (no bass). All three of them sing, with the two guitarists trading leads and the drummer adding occasional harmony. The songs are pretty and the harmonies are excellent. The guitars are mostly very simple, which is common in pop bands, but there's a bit of genuine lead from time to time that keeps it from getting boring. I really like [Sue's] singing voice which has a delightfully 'real' quality to it. (S. Gisselbrecht)

[lesfeldickbiblestudy]

  Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 3 * PART 2 * BOOK 79 PART 5 of the MESSIANIC PROPHECIES – PART 2 Psalms 68, 69, and 72 Okay, good to see everybody back from your break.  For those of you joining us on television, if this is your first experience, we’re just a simple verse-by-verse Bible study.  I’m not a pastor.  Please don’t write and say Reverend so and so.  I’m just a layman.  I always say I’m just a glorified Sunday school teacher, if anything.  We’re just lay people, and we’re cattle ranchers; and you’ll see we refer to that from time-to-time.  But the Lord has given us this ministry, and we just praise Him for it. All right, for those of you in the studio, you’re already where we left off in our last program.  For those of you out in television, we’re going to continue on in Psalms 68 and finish our book number 79—which is all in Psalms, if I remember right.  Then we’ll move on probably to the Book of Daniel in our next taping. But for today, Psalms 68 and we’re going to continue on from where we left off.  But I’m going to back up a verse or two, because we kind of ran out of time in the last lesson.    Remember we’re talking about the Kingdom that’s coming over which Jesus the Messiah will one day rule and reign.  Hills and so forth and mountains in the Old Testament usually refer to earthly kingdoms. Psalms 68:15a “The hill of God (In other words, this kingdom that’s coming.) is as the hill of Bashan;…”  Now I have to stop and explain that a little bit.  Bashan is the mountainous area just east of Galilee and the Jordan River through which the River Jabbok flowed. If you remember the story of Jacob, it is quite mountainous.  Not like the Tetons in Wyoming, of course, nor like our Rocky Mountains—but nevertheless, for the Middle East they’re pretty good sized mountains.  All right, so the analogy here is that this kingdom that’s coming will be as much higher than the normal kingdoms of the world as the mountains of Bashan are above the other hills and mountains of the Middle East.    In other words, it’s going to be so glorious and so complete in its control of the planet.  Now verse 16: Psalms 68:16 “Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill that God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever.”  In other words, this Kingdom is going to go right on into eternity.  Now let’s drop down to verse 18.  This is where we get the connection that this is a Messianic Psalm, in that it is tied also to a New Testament reference—in this case from the Apostle Paul.  And that is in verse 18. Psalms 68:18 “Thou (speaking of the King) hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.” Now let’s just go chase that down in Ephesians chapter 4. This is exactly what Paul is quoting from.  Now for the skeptics and the scornful, they probably say, well, he just went back and found that.  No.  That’s not the way the Scriptures came together.  The Scriptures came together as the Holy Spirit inspired these writers to write.  They did not go back and try to find another Scripture that would fit where they’re writing.  This is just one of the supernatural aspects of our Bible.  That even the Apostle Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit refers to this verse in the Book of Psalms. Ephesians 4:8-9 “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, (In other words, from His post-resurrection and His 40 days with the Eleven from the Book of Acts, we got the account of how He ascended back up into Glory.) he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”  You see, now this wasn’t in the Book of Psalms. Here we have an extension of what the Psalmist does not tell us.  He not only ascended, but He first descended.  And I think we’d better take the time to explain what Paul is talking about. Ephesians 4:9-10

“(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens, that he might fill(or fulfill) all things.)”  Now, the only way I can explain that is by the use of the Scripture itself.  Come back with me, if you will, to Matthew chapter 12 verse 38. Now what we’re talking about is where did He descend to, and what did He take from where He descended?  We’re going to chase this down from Scripture. Matthew 12:38 “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.”  Now you remember the Scripture tells us the Jews always required a sign. (I Corinthians 1:22)   So this is typical Jewishness of these people.  Show us a sign.  Verse 39: Matthew 12:39-40 “But he (Jesus) answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: 40. For (Now remember, this is Jesus Himself speaking.  So what does this tell us?  Jonah is not just a legend.  Jonah is not a myth.  Jesus puts His stamp of approval on it as the Creator of everything, and He says-)  as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  Now that’s not a play on words.  He’s speaking of the place to which He will descend and take those who are there in captivity out and ascend up into Glory with them. Now the only way we can explain this lower region of the earth is, again, to let the Scriptures do it.  And that would be in Luke chapter 16 where we have the account of the rich man and Lazarus.  And most of you here know it.  But remember, we’ve got a lot of people listening out there who have never heard these things before.  That’s the kind of mail we get, “I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before.”  Had a letter yesterday, “Been in church all my life.  Caught your program three months ago.  I’ve learned more in three months than I did in the previous 60 years.”  Well, they don’t hear it.  So that’s why I have to use the Scriptures. Luke 16 and we can’t take it all verse-by-verse, or it’d take all afternoon.  But we’ll just hit the highlights. Here we have Jesus again speaking.  And if He isn’t an authority, I don’t know who is.  And He says: Luke 16:19-20 “There was a certain rich man, (Now this is not a parable.  It doesn’t call it a parable.  It’s, I think, a reference to a real scenario.) who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: (on the other side of the coin) 20. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of sores,” He was poor.  Destitute! Luke 16:21-22a “And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (In other words, he was a sad, sad piece of humanity.) 22. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:…”  In other words, into the Paradise side of this place of the departed. Luke 16:22b-23a “…the rich man also died, and was buried; (Verse 23, now this is unfortunate in our King James anyway.) 23. And in hell he lifted up his eyes,…” Now, the first thing people think of when they hear “hell” is fire and brimstone.  But you’ve got to understand that in the three words—let me put them on the board.  That’s the best way to get them cleared up. We have three words that all mean the same thing—Hell in the English, Sheol in the Hebrew, and Hades is the word in the Greek.  Now this is unfortunate, because Hell is also described later as the Lake of Fire.  But in this instance, we’re not talking about the Lake of Fire.  We’re talking about the place of the dead, the departed—saved believers as well as the lost—before Jesus died on the cross. So when it says, “in hell he lifted up his eyes,” we’re talking about the Hebrew Sheol or the Greek Hades.

  All right, so in Hades, in this place of the departed dead, which included both Paradise and torment—got that?  It’s divided, and we’re going to see that in just a minute. Luke 16:23 “And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”  In other words, Abraham and Lazarus are over there in Paradise.  The rich man’s in torment.  Verse 24: Luke 16:24-25 “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”   The two totally different scenarios, and now here comes the clue. Luke 16:26-28a “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would come pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house: 28. For I have five brothers;…” And so on and so forth.  All right, so what we have here is this place of the departed in the lower regions of the earth as Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12.  On the one hand is Paradise—Abraham.  On the other side is torment. Now in order to understand this concept of why did the Old Testament believers have to go down into this place of the departed instead of up to Heaven is a theological one.  Hebrews tells us that the blood of animals and goats and bulls could not atone for men’s sin.  All they could do was cover them.  So, since these Old Testament saints did not have their sins totally atoned for, they could not go into Glory.  They had to go down to Paradise and wait for the True Atoning Blood, which was Jesus Christ. So when Christ shed His blood on the cross, then that was now sufficient for the whole human race provided they appropriated it by faith.  So after His death and during the time of His three days in the tomb, His Spirit went down into this place of the dead.  Not to the torment side, but to the believers’ side.  And what could He tell them?  The Atoning Blood has now been shed, and I can now take you with me up into Glory.  Whereas the lost are still going to the same place.  That hasn’t changed. Now then, with that in mind, we have to come back again to how Paul puts it.  Because like I said, he carries it a little more in detail than the Psalmist does.  But it’s still the same concept.  That the Old Testament believers went down into Paradise waiting for the shedding of the True Blood of Atonement.  Whereupon, then, Christ could take them out and up to Glory with Him after he had spent His three days and nights down there. All right, come back to Ephesians once again.  Hopefully now it’ll make more sense, especially if you’ve never heard these things before.  So after His death on the cross, while His body is up in the tomb, His Spirit goes down into Hades or Sheol.  And He announces to those believers from the Old Testament that He had now accomplished that which they were waiting for.  Now back to Ephesians again. Ephesians 4:8a “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive,…” In other words, those souls and spirits of believers confined down there in Paradise in the center of the earth, because they couldn’t go into the Glory of Heaven until their sins had been atoned for.  Verse 8 again: Ephesians 4:8b-9 “…When he ascended upon high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.   (Which, of course, was poured out at Pentecost.) 9. (Now that he ascended, (up to Glory) what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”  Exactly as Jesus spoke of it concerning Jonah—that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so must the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.    Same identical language.

Now I imagine everybody has the same problem I do.  And for me it’s not a problem, because I certainly believe the Scriptures.  But if we understand the makeup of planet Earth, what have we been taught is at the center?  The core of molten, molten material.  That’s our concept of the center of the earth.  But you see, we have to overcome that and realize that God is still able to—in spite of all that, there had to be a place that He was able to describe as we’ve seen here—where the departed believers were on one side and the departed unbelievers were on the other.  And, of course, they’re still there.  The unbelievers will be there until the Resurrection of John chapter 5.  Now verse 10: Ephesians 4:10a “He that descended (the same Jesus Christ) is the same also (Jesus Christ) who ascended up far above all heavens,…”  Well now, the Psalmist used it as “above all the highest hills.”  He is above and beyond everything that man can think of.  And then, of course, Paul goes on how that He gave gifts to men which were apostles, prophets, evangelists, and so on and so forth.   All right, let’s go back and pick up our account in Psalms 68 verse 19. Psalms 68:19a “Blessed be the Lord,…” See all these references to Deity as we come through this chapter?  It’s just over and over and over.  It’s either God or Lord or Jehovah or whatever.  All right, verse 19 again: Psalms 68:19 “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” Now you remember, I’m always stressing what is the main theme of Scripture?  Salvation!  The whole Book is constantly trying to bring lost people to a knowledge of salvation.   You remember the very verse we started with this afternoon in Peter?  “Of which salvation the prophets searched…”  Well, it’s the theme of Scripture. It is to bring lost people to a place of God’s salvation. Psalms 68:19b-20 “…even the God of our salvation. 20. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.”  But now we step in again to the wrath of God that’s going to precede this glorious Kingdom.  Now He comes back to the Tribulation experience. Psalms 68:21-22 “But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses. (speaking of lost humanity.)  22. The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.” In other words, He’s still going to bring His people Israel from wherever they are in the planet to be ready to come into this glorious Kingdom that is being promised.  All right, now verse 23, yet another picture of His wrath and the horrors of the Tribulation. Psalms 68:23 “That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in (will lick) the same.”   Now let’s go back and compare this to Revelation 19. We have the same scenario, the horrors of these final days of the wrath and vexation that’s coming on the planet. Now I know that I have people listening to me, not in here, but out in TV land that just ridicule this.  They just can’t imagine that the so-called God of the Bible is going to bring on such mass death and destruction.  Yes, He is.  And I’ve been giving the reason in all the programs lately.  Why?  Because during these last 6,000 years of human history, God has been merciful and gracious and offered salvation at every turn.  And when the mass of humanity rejects it, then, yes, His wrath is going to finally fall.  Hasn’t happened yet, but it will.   All right, Revelation 19 and let’s see how that compares with Psalms 68:23.   Now look how Revelation puts it, chapter 19 verse 17. Revelation 19:17a “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven,…”  Now, I’ve got to stop again.  Can’t help it.  People get all hung up on simple terms of Scripture.  And they say, “Well, Les, you speak of three heavens.  What are they?” Well, here’s one example.

  What is the heaven in which the birds fly, for heavens sake?  Oh, our atmosphere, the air around us.  Get a bird in here and he can fly.  What’s the second heaven?  Well, outer space.  The Space Program is penetrating deeper and deeper into space.  And then Paul speaks of the third heaven, and what was that?  The very Heaven of the heavens, the Presence of God.  Those are your three heavens of Scripture.  All right, that’s why I had to think of it.  The birds of the heaven—that just simply means the birds of our atmosphere. Revelation 19:17b “…saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;”  What is it?  To clean up the death of the human race that’s laying on the surface of the earth. Revelation 19:18 “That  ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, small and great.”  That’s going to be the end result of this final seven years. Now, I’ve got time.  A verse comes to mind, I don’t think you’ll find it in the margins of your Bible.  But, Jeremiah, I think it’s 25.  Now see, some of these verses I don’t even think of while I’m preparing.  It’s a good thing the Lord brings them to mind while I’m at it.  But here it is—Jeremiah chapter 25.  We’ve used them before, and the Bible is full of these kinds of descriptions for those final seven years, especially the closing months and days.  And I think it’s going to be nuclear war.  You’ve heard of the “nuclear winter,” where everything is just barren.  Well, I think it’s coming. In fact, they’ve been advertising—you know, the only TV I watch is pro-football.  Forgive me, those people that think it’s violent, but I love my Cowboys.  But what have they been advertising lately?  A movie is coming some time in the month of December, “The Last Days” of some sort. And as I looked at that preview, I just said, Lord, you’re getting them ready.  They’re going to see all that stuff that Hollywood dreams up.  It’s going to become a reality, and it’s going to be beyond human description.  Now look at it.  This is what the Scripture says.  It’s not what Les Feldick thinks.  It’s what the Book says.  Jeremiah 25.  I’ve got time.  Go all the way back to verse 30.  Jeremiah 25 and I know some of you see me use these more than once.  But again, there are people out there that have never heard this before. Jeremiah 25:30 “Therefore prophesy (or speak forth) thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD (Now that’s God the Son in the Old Testament, or Jesus Christ of the New.) shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.”  Not just Israel.  This is going to be for the whole world’s population, all seven billion of them. Jeremiah 25:31a “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations;…”  Why?  Because of their rejection of everything that He’s ever said or done.  Their hatefulness and their rebellion toward Him.  Their corruption, as we’re seeing every time we turn around lately.  The corruption.  And don’t think it’s confined to America.  My, you get into these Banana Republics, and corruption is what everybody thrives on.    Well, God is putting all that on their account. Jeremiah 25:31b “…for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, (that is to death) saith the LORD.”  Now, here’s where it’s going to come.  Compare this with the Psalms and compare it with Revelation and it all fits.  Verse 32: Jeremiah 25:32 “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the (borders) coasts of the earth.”  That to me is nuclear power being exercised.  Now here it is.

Jeremiah 25:33a “And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth:…” My, we thought the tsunami a few years ago was horrible, but that was just a little, just a little speck of planet earth.  This is from pole to pole and from east to west. Jeremiah 25:33b “…from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried;…”  How did Revelation picture it?  As food for the birds of prey.  Well, birds of prey don’t go six feet deep to go find a corpse do they?  It’s lying on the ground.  This is what’s coming.  It’s going to be total death and destruction. Well, we only have one more minute?  Two.  Let’s go back to Psalms 68, and then maybe we can move on from there in our next program. Now we come back again to the joy of the Kingdom—the Glory that’s going to follow the horrors of the Tribulation.  Verse 24 back in Psalms 68: Psalms 68:24-25 “They have seen thy goings, O God: even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.  (The King in the sanctuary—that’s the Nation of Israel.) 25. The singers (in other words, all the celebration of this coming King and His Kingdom) went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.”  Can’t you picture it? Psalms 68:26-27 “Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. 27. There is little Benjamin (down on the south part of Israel’s geography) with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun, (who is a little further north) and the princes of Naphtali.”  He’s on the north. So what have we got?  We’ve got a picture of Israel from south to north. The whole Twelve Tribes are all going to enjoy this glorious heaven-on-earth Kingdom ruled by their Messiah.    Now I’ll take one more verse, and I guess it’ll be time to wind her down. Psalms 68:28-29 “Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.  29. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem (See that?) shall kings bring presents unto thee.”

[atlanticcanada]

Anglophone East School District makes changes to try and address overcrowding

A dozen schools within the Anglophone East School Distract are expected to look different in the coming years following a decision made Thursday night by the Education Council to address overcrowding within its schools.

“In the last month we grew over 110 students,” said Anglophone East School Distract Superintendent Randolph MacLEAN.

“110 new students just in the last month, from all over Canada and all over the world.”

The school board came forward earlier this month with several proposals after seeing exponential growth across the entire district, including many schools being over capacity.

Thursday night brought forward decisions that MacLEAN calls systemic changes across the entire system to respond to the situation.

“We’re currently moving 51 students, who can not attend their local school because it’s full,” said MacLEAN.

“So we’re moving 51 students around the district. We want kids to be able to go to their local school and we want to be able to respond to that. These changes are in response to that.”

He says the decisions will be rolled out in two parts.

Providing a summary, MacLEAN says no boundary changes will be implemented in Shediac, but four portables will be added to address the immediate need. Additionally, he says a new school will be under construction next year.

Portables are also being added to Lou MacNarin in Dieppe, while officials continue to look at what a boundary change could look like down the road.

Maplehurst Middle School and Northrop Frye Elementary School, in the northern part of Moncton, both have changes expected to be rolled out for the 2024/2025 school year. 

MacLEAN says Northrop Frye will be converted to a Kindergarten to Grade 4 school and Maplehurst will become a Grade 5-8 school.  He says with this change all students will attend Harrison Trimble High School.

There is also a school under construction on the Bernice MacNaughton Campus, which MacLEAN says is expected to be a middle school when it opens.

He says once this school opens in 2024/2025 it will cause a domino effect for other changes within the district: Bessborough will become a Kindergarten to Grade 5 school, Edith Cavell will become a Kindergarten to Grade 5 school and Hillcrest will be reimaged as a learning facility.

However, schools in Riverview will see changes happen this coming September.

“Riverview East will become a Kindergarten through grade 5 school and that school will transition between 550 to 580 students with space for enrolment growth and then it makes Riverview Middle School about 775 with space for normal growth there as well,” said MacLEAN.

He says Riverview East is already over capacity, however, the solution doesn’t feel like the right answer for Shiekera and Glen Roy Smith, who have a child in Grade 2 there.

“People are moving every day so I think this issue is not going to go away because where we live, the houses have doubled since we moved there two years ago,” said Glen Roy.

“So I don’t think the solution is changing the structure of the school, re-zoning probably would have made a little more sense, but for me the change in structure of a school is not the right move.”

He adds, he believes the decision was made before parents had the chance to weigh in on it.

“To me it’s putting the ox before the cart and this was a rushed decision,” he said.

Shiekera put forward a petition to keep Riverview East a k-8 school when the decision came out, that has over 350 signatures on it.

“It’s not too late, it’s still not too late and I’m hoping that they don’t fail us,” she said.

“However far we need to take this, however much we can get this brought to the limelight, we’re going to do that. This is unfair what you’re doing to kids.”

She has also presented several solutions to the district and government officials including redirecting new students to schools that have space, update the requirements needed for parents to enroll their children, including proof of address, and “grandfather” the current students until the end of tenure.

“[Thursday] kids wore two hearts on their cheeks,” she said.

“Parents suggested it. In the middle of one heart was RES, in the middle of one heart was k-8. The teachers, the students, their hearts are shattered right now for the instability.”

While her child is in grade 2, she says she is fighting for all of the students who are going to be impacted by the change.

“When I see my child, at any school or any institution, that instruction is apart of me,” she said.

“So the substance of that institution will affect my child and other children so I don’t just consider ‘oh I only have a child there,’ all of these kids I consider them connected to me some how. These are her friends, this is her surrounding.”

Meanwhile, comments online were mixed after the decisions were made public. Some parents were speaking out in support for the solutions that the district came up with, but others were very upset.

“This is the second and third step to an ongoing process,” said MacLEAN.

“Part of those processes is when the new school comes online, both Hillcrest and Bessborough are supposed to come offline. We’ve made a request to the provincial government, there’s been a commitment that we’re able to keep those two schools that’s why there’s reconfiguring there to respond to growth. At the same time I’ll be going to the district education council in May to request new schools.”

He says these are the decisions the district will be moving forward with, but they will continue to evolve to meet the needs within the schools.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/kQ01xwH

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

[persianatpenn]

Interview with Dr. John Ghazvinian 

The University of Pennsylvania has had a Middle East Center, although at its founding it was called the “Near East Center,” since about 1965. Founded by Professor Ephraim Speiser who at the time was Chair of the Oriental Studies program at the university. A newspaper clipping from 1966 expressed the main idea of the center, that it would “examine all phases of the history and culture of the Near East. The idea behind the Center is that understanding the historical continuity of the Near East is necessary for a clear understanding of the region's pressing problems.” By the directorship of Thomas Naff in 1967, the Middle East Center has expanded academically with new links connecting it to many different scholars locally, regionally, and internationally.  The center was growing in recognition so much that it would rank number 1 or number 2 in many national competitions. By the 1980s, it had become “the premier institution for contemporary, as well as ancient and medieval studies of the Middle East.” 

I sat down with the current director of the Middle East Center Dr. John Ghazvinian to get to know him, his vision for the center, and what he thinks about the current US-Iran relationship going forward. 

The transcription is below:

Itros:سلام شما چطورین؟

(Hello, how are you?)

Ghazvinian:! خیلی خوب، ممنون (Very Good, thank you!) 

Itros: So firstly, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where's your family from, uh, where did you grow up?.

Ghazvinian: Sure. I was born in Tehran. Uh, we left, uh, for the UK when I was about one year old. So I grew up in the uk. Uh, when I was in high school, we moved to Los Angeles. I went to high school in la. Um, and then I did my undergrad at Brown. Uh, and then I went back to England, uh, for my master's degree and my PhD. So I did both of those, uh, back in England at Oxford. Uh, lived in New York for about two years in between that. And then I lived in London for a few years after the PhD. Uh, and then I was all over Africa doing the research for my first book. Um, and then in 2006 I got a postdoc, uh, at Penn, at the Penn Humanities Forum, as it was called at the time. Now it's called the Wolf Humanities Center. Um, and that brought me to Philadelphia. And, uh, then I taught for a couple of years in the writing program, um, freshman writing seminars, and then was, uh, kind of on my own teaching and writing and working on my second book for a few years. And since January of 2018, uh, I've been working at the Middle East Center.

Itros: So you briefly touched on some of the points that I got here, but I want to ask a more general question: how did you get into the line of work that you're in currently? Like what sort of spawned this want to, comes into the middle center? What spawned this want to be involved in Middle Eastern Affairs?

Ghazvinian: I did an undergraduate degree in History. I actually did sort of early modern British History and that's why I ended up going to Oxford. I realized as soon as I was in graduate school that I was actually increasingly interested in the Middle East and Iran. Something I hadn't really studied. I Think I'd stayed away from my heritage for a long time, but started to get more curious about it in adulthood in my twenties, and did my master's thesis on British travelers to Iran and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. And expanded on that in my doctoral thesis. [I] got more and more interested in Middle Eastern stuff. And honestly 9/11 happened and I think I, like a lot of people who have Middle Eastern heritage. I found it harder to kind of avoid, um, sort of in your face all the time. Um, and so I was really passionate about history, but I realized t in graduate school that I never really wanted to pursue that, that an academic career wasn't right for me. The traditional tenure track professorial kind of career wasn't right for me. I didn't wanna write articles that were gonna be, be read by, you know, a narrow range of, um, specialists in the field. To me, that's not what really excited me about history. So I went into journalism, uh, both during and after graduate school. So I worked in London for some of the newspapers there, as well as for Newsweek and the London Bureau. And I started to develop more and more experience as a journalist. My first book was a work of journalism, [I] realized I sort of had the opposite problem with journalism in some ways, which is that you're writing for a very large audience, but often the work is very superficial. And, you know, um, I thought there must be an in between. And so I've kind of been very passionate and developed a career out of that in between space. Which is kind of, to me, that very important work of making expertise accessible, uh, academics, speaking to general audiences. So that's the kind of work I like to do. Both my books have been published by commercial presses rather than academic presses. That's really important to me. Um, and that's something that I'm really passionate about. So when this job opened up in 2018, I thought, this is exactly the kind of work I wanna be doing. This is, this is, you know, the right, this is exactly where I wanna be in my life, which is at a place like this where you're helping to make serious scholarly research accessible and legible to a broader audience. This is actually much more appealing for me than a sort of, you know, traditional tenure track, uh, academic job. So,.

Itros: Right. So being one of the students a part of the Middle East Center, I look at, you know, all the things that you have going on. Like I see the emails that you sent out all of it, right? It's like you've done, you know, film viewings, you've done lectures, all that. And so what would you say would be one of the greatest achievements you've made or you've sort of been a part of at the Middle East Center thus far? Like, are those sort of your achievements or is it something bigger to it?

Ghazvinian: That's, No, thanks. I appreciate that question. Um, so there are a few things that I'm really proud of that we've accomplished here in the last almost five years that I've been here. Um, one of the things I've really cherished has been creating a, helping to cultivate a graduate student community, which, uh, didn't exist in, in any really meaningful way. When I first got here, we didn't really know who all the graduate students were, who were doing, um, work on the Middle East here. Penn is a very decentralized place, 12 schools and, you know, numerous departments. And, um, a lot of times you just don't know who…there are people [at] all corners of this university who are doing research on various aspects of the Middle East. And I started putting, uh, with help from Ibraheim [a worker at the center] started to put together a database of graduate students, which we try to keep current, which is actually very hard work, uh, just finding out who everyone is all the time. But what I do all the, and I've been doing this now for five years, which is every time there's a, a grad, a new graduate student or someone that I don't know, we, I send them an email and I say, Come in for a chat. I'd like to meet one on one with every new graduate student at Penn who has anything to do with the Middle East to learn a bit about their research, try to get them integrated into our community. And out of that came what we call the, uh, graduate Student Research Social hour, which is the graduate students meet every three or four weeks over a beer and pizza or soft drinks, uh, to kind of talk about their work and different people present. And you get people from the law school who are working on refugee rights. You get people in social work in schools who work on conflict resolution.

You get people, uh, in the nursing school who have worked as nurses in Afghanistan. You get, uh, people of course SAS [School of Arts and Sciences] PhD students. You get people in the education school who are interested in, you know, pedagogy in the Arab world. You know, a really incredible range of interests and what you hear consistently from people as well is ‘You know, I'm the only person in my department who works in the Middle East. It's so nice to be in a space where I don't have to re-explain the region all the time to people. And I kind of be with likeminded people and kind of talk about work.’  So that's been an achievement I've been really proud of. And then a lot of our events, you know, have, obviously the pandemic, you know, was a really tough hit.But we've had some both before and since we've had some really prominent speakers. Yeah. We've had, uh, last year the Nobel Prize winner, uh, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen. Uh, just this past week we had, of course Tor Wennesland, the UN special coordinator for Middle East Peace. Uh, a couple years ago we had the first ever commercial, um, premier of a, uh, of a film made in Yemen, uh, in the US. We hosted the, the, we brought the director and the producer here. We had 200 people for that. It was incredible. Um, there have been a number of, uh, events like, like that that I've been really, really, um, excited to be part of. Um, we did one, a big symposium on the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. We did, even during the pandemic, we did a 10 year anniversary retrospective on the Arab Spring that had a number of really important, um, speakers. 

Itros: Oh, this seems very, very interesting. Um, but a, you, like, I wanted to move on to your area of expertise and that is Iran. Right. And so I know that she wrote a book on Iranian and US history [America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present]. Tell me about that process.

Ghazvinian: Sure. That was a, a big process. Um, so I started that book well over 10 years ago now, and it took a much longer than I expected. My first book was much quicker. Uh, so yeah, this was part of my desire to kind of, um, go back and reconnect with my heritage and the things that I'm interested in. Um, I was, after my first book, I was thinking, you know, I think I wanna try to tackle Iran. I just dunno how. And I was thinking, well, what is the book that hasn't been done? And of course, people had written histories of US-Iran relations, but no one had started at the very, very beginning Right. And gone all the way through. And the last really good book on history of US regulations was by James Bill in 1988. Um, The Eagle and the Lion, which, you know, came out in the ashes of the Iranian Revolution and a lot of happened since then. So I wanted to kind of update that, um, but also take the story back further, like how exactly did we get here? Um, and it was really a much bigger pro, a bit off, more than I could chew probably. It was a huge project and I went to Iran three times through archival research. It was really important to me that, you know, I let the archives speak for themselves to make sure that all the different actors, including the US government, the Iranian government at various points that we actually understand the thinking behind the decision making so that we could get past some of this mutual demonization that takes place between the two countries. You know, and just a big believer that, um, if we take a moment to walk in each other's shoes a little bit Right. Um, and understand why decisions are made, we still may not agree with them. Uh, we still may think that our adversaries are fundamentally wrong, but at least we understand why they're doing what they're doing. And that is much more constructive than simply saying they're doing what they're doing because they're simply evil.

Itros: Interesting. So like that definitely does lead me to my next question, having to go into that. Like, what do you think of current US Iranian relations as they stand now? Like you definitely did mention mutual demonization, like these people are bad because, you know, a list of things, a litany of things. Right. And it goes both ways. Right. And there really isn't any like, mutual understanding. And one thing that I found really interesting is that in, uh, [Persian Class] class, we watched a video about youth culture in Iran. And one of the things that I found the most striking was that it was so similar [to the youth culture in the US]. These kids do what kids do here. Like they enjoy life just like we enjoy life here. Like they have similar traits like we do. So why, and one of the things that they mentioned in the video, was why you know, Saudi Arabia doesn't allow women to drive, Right?

Ghazvinian: Oh, it does now, but until…

Itros: Yeah, but until recently. Right. And that wasn't a thing in Iran though. Like it was, it was a different situation, but like, the point it was trying to make was that it was a bit more, it was relatively freer than it was in like Saudi Arabia, but yet we're like, so cozy with Saudi Arabia and not Iran.

Ghazvinian: Yeah. I mean look, US foreign policy rhetoric aside has never been about just….. It has never only been about shared values. Right. Right. It's often very easy for US policy makers when there is, when there is a country that they're very friendly with to say, Oh, you know, we share all these values. Okay, great. Um, but the reality is, I mean, the Iranian public, even the Iranian government, and this is something that not everyone will agree with, shares much more in common with the United States than probably Saudi Arabia does in so many ways. And I think a lot of our interests are much more aligned actually. But politics gets in the way. Right

Itros: باشه (okay)

 Ghazvinian: I mean, the fact is that, uh, you know, there was a revolution in Iran and things happened. Uh, of course, you know, history that's very well known, which we can go over if you want. Um, and generations of grievances have accrued in both countries the point where it's very, very hard now to get past those things. And there are reasons why the United States is friendly with Saudi Arabia, you know? Um, and I think that it's convenient not to talk about these things. Uh Right. But I think the larger point you're making though about youth culture. Yeah. I mean there's also a very large generational divide in Iran today, right? Yeah. The generation that came to power in the revolution and that is in power today, obviously, you know, um, they were informed by a certain revolutionary ideology that was a response to the conditions at the time, the Shah’s dictatorship, which was very pro-American and so on. A lot of their concerns seem much less relevant to people who are born well after the revolution, who just want their personal freedoms, who want life to exist the way it does anywhere else in the world. And that's a lot of what we're seeing right now in the protest [Current protests in Iran over the killing of Mahsa Amini] is, you know, just people wanting a normal, normal life, whatever that means. Um, and that is, it's self interesting to unpack, right? Because I think, you know, does that simply mean that, does normal simply mean like a life similar to what young people in the West Live? Or does it just, you mean life free of certain restrictions or, Um, so yeah. Uh, but I think people are often surprised, I guess by the normality of the relative normality of Iran. Obviously it's very different. Obviously there are certain things you can't do in Iran.

Itros: بله (Yes)

Ghazvinian: Right. But, you know, there are, uh, there are also a lot of rules that are bent, uh, a lot of time, a lot of times the authorities look the other way on a lot of things. Mm-hmm.

Itros: I've been watching, uh, BBC Farsi like a lot recently and I've been seeing like this, you know, 24 hour coverage of the protests going on in Iran, Like this is changing the social fabric of Iran. And so, you know, where do you think that's leading Iran going forward? Like it seems as like it's, it's, it's causing an uproar that is heard all around the world. Like youth are going out on the streets and people going on the streets protesting and saying, you know, (down with the dictator) Like this, you know, calling down the dictator. And it, it's, it's very interesting. It's different, something really, really different. We haven't seen it in a very long time. So where do you think this is leading?

Ghazvinian: I honestly don't know. I mean, I genuinely don't know and I don't wanna be in a position of making predictions because I just don't know. Um, I don't know what exactly. I think it's fairly clear what most people want, which is a free and democratic Iran. Um, how to get there is, uh, the path to that is not as, is clear to me. But I, you know, I think that, so I think it's, um, right now everyone, the general feeling is the best we can do here in the diaspora is to give our support and empathy to people's people who are protesting and to their, uh, to their demands. Um, I, as a historian, I'm never comfortable making predictions about the future cause I tend to live in the past. Uh, so yeah, you know, I honestly don't know where things go, but it does make me nervous. I don't know, you know, the regime has not proved itself particularly capable of reforming. Um, and I don't know, there isn't a lot of room hasn't given itself a lot of wiggle room to back down. So, you know, that makes me nervous. 

Itros: And so we've been talking about politics and sort of like the social fabrics of like around, but I wanna change directions for our last question and sort of go into this one question that is really for you. Like, what is one particular aspect of Persian culture that you love dearly?

Ghazvinian: I just, you know, the warmth. Um, I think, you know, um, the hospitality, um, you know, Iranians will always try to make you feel, uh, you know, feel at home, um, when you're on that terrain. Uh, you know, make sure that you lead well fed. Um, you know, those are, uh, those are things that are not unique to Iranian culture, of course. Um, but I think I also appreciate that Iranians have a very strong sense of who they are. They don't always agree with each other about who they are., there are many different strands of Iranian nationalism, different ideas that people have about what Iran, what Iran is or what it should be. But I think Iranians are all very proud who they are. I think that's important and I think that's a good thing because especially for those of us who live in the diaspora, um, you know, in a country that doesn't always fully understand Iran or who we are. 

Itros: خیلی ممنون (thank you very much)

The Interview ends here. 

I found the interview with Dr. Ghazvinian to be enriching  and thought-provoking. Especially his assertion about the stark similarities between the US and Iran on a public and private level. I think going forward I want to understand more about Iranin public and the values that they hold dear. 

-Itros

#MiddleEastCenter #PersianatPenn #Culture #Politics

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

beppu and mt. aso

The weekend before last I went on a trip to Oita and Kumamoto prefectures in eastern Kyushu. Here’s a map for reference:

We first drove about two hours east across Saga and southern Fukuoka and made a stop in Hita, Oita prefecture on our way to Beppu. 

Hita is the hometown of the manga creator Hajime Isayama, who created the famous manga Attack on Titan. At Hita Station, you can find a statue of the character Levi as well as some other Attack on Titan figures. 

Hita station also had this cute sign where you can place yourself as the “I” in HITA. Behind the display it says “’I’ and ‘Love (Ai)’ is the same sound in Japanese. Your love makes HITA be completed.” It was so cute. 

Hita station was a really lovely station with a nice atmosphere. We got ice cream and cold drinks and enjoyed the shade before continuing on. 

Next we stopped by the Oyama Dam, which has a famous statue of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin from Attack on Titan. The statue shows them looking up in horror at the dam, referencing the show in which they stare up at a titan tearing down the walls of their city. It looks incredible and as a fan of the manga, it was really cool to experience the feeling they did looking upon that huge wall. We also went to the top and experienced the other perspective: looking down on the small humans from the towering wall. Some people were above while we were down below and we yelled greetings to each other and lines from the show like “I WILL KILL ALL TITANS!” It was really funny. 

From there we continued our road trip on to Beppu. The scenery of Oita was very lush and filled with mountains, so the drive was really beautiful. 

We arrived at our hotel in the city of Yufuin to the west of Beppu and checked in. The hotel was small and in traditional style, so all seven of us slept in the same room on futon mattresses. Our Japanese friend that came with us said it reminded her of school trips in middle school and high school. It was really fun and felt like a big sleepover. 

After this we grabbed dinner at a small local restaurant called Siesta. I ordered bibimbap, a Korean dish with rice and vegetables. I also ordered kabosu juice with honey. Oita is famous for kabosu, a kind of small lime. It was super refreshing. 

Here’s what a kabosu looks like for reference. 

Fun fact: I googled kabosu to find a picture and learned that the famous shiba inu dog from the doge meme was named Kabosu because of her round face. So kabosu. Much round. 

Anyway, we returned to the hotel and all headed down to the onsen, or hot spring. Beppu and Yufuin are famous hot spring destinations due to their geothermal activity. It was a small spring, but the water was hot and relaxing after a day on the road. The hotel also had free-to-use retro massage chairs, so we enjoyed a nice mechanical massage after our dip in the onsen. 

The next day we ate breakfast on the hotel’s back patio and enjoyed the view of Mt. Yufu. There were many frogs around the hotel and the hot springs, which were super cute. 

Next we loaded into the cars and headed to the Umitamago Aquarium in Beppu. Umitamago means “sea egg,” so they had a big sign out front of a large egg. 

We spent time looking at all the fish and watched dolphin and walrus shows. In between the dolphin shows we played with the dolphins a bit. One of the dolphins used its head to throw a basketball out of its tank and we threw the ball back in for her again. We continued on like this for an entertaining 30 minutes. 

Next we moved on to the Beppu Hells. Like Unzen, Beppu has geothermal pools called Hells which are famous tourist spots. There are seven Hells across Beppu, each with unique traits such as different colors or textures. Unfortunately we stayed at the aquarium a bit too long and were only able to visit two of the Hells before they closed for the day: Umi Jigoku and Chi no Ike Jigoku. 

Umi Jigoku, “Sea Hell,” was a bright blue pool named for its resemblance to the blue sea. 

There was a basket of eggs boiling in the water and you could buy them as a snack. It was super tasty. 

Behind Umi Jigoku was a small Inari Shrine, so we walked up and paid our respects there as well. 

Next, we went to Chi no Ike Jigoku, “Lake of Blood Hell.” This Hell was a red color, resembling a lake of blood. The chemical compounds of ferrous oxide, magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, and silicic acid give it its red color. The mineral-rich water from the pool can be used to make various ointments for treating skin diseases. It can also be used for dyeing cloth. It was definitely kind of spooky-looking, but very cool. 

After this, we went to a Round 1 arcade in Oita City for a night of fun and games. We played rhythm games, UFO catchers, and bowling. It was a ton of fun. The Round 1 was huge and you could look out onto the UFO catcher floor from the second level and watch everyone throw their money away in real time. I stayed away from the UFO catchers this time, remembering the $30 I blew getting my stuffed horse in Sasebo. I decided to stick to rhythm games this time. 

The final day we checked out of the hotel and loaded up the cars. One car split off to go home, and the remaining four of us drove another 2 hours southwest into Kumamoto prefecture to see Mt. Aso. 

On our way we saw very beautiful scenery of the mountains and plains of Kumamoto. We also passed a field of cows and stopped to say hello. Milk and beef is very common in Japan, but I have never seen cows anywhere so I had been wondering where they were keeping them. Kumamoto is also famous for dishes containing horse meat (a little hard to hear, I know), so there were some horses around as well. 

Next we continued on to Mt. Aso. Mt. Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan and one of the largest in the world. It’s peak stands 1592 meters tall and its largest caldera has a circumference of 71 miles. If you play Pokemon, it was the inspiration for Mt. Chimney in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. 

Unfortunately due to recent volcanic activity, we were unable to go up to the crater, and instead enjoyed the view of the volcano from below. There was a wide plain around the peak and we climbed up a small hill to admire the volcano. The wide plains reminded me of Howl’s Moving Castle and there were so beautiful and serene. Since Kumamoto is famous for horses, they had horse riding along the plain as well. 

We got lunch at a small shop near the visitor center. I was blasphemous and ordered a local dish served with Basashi (raw horse sashimi) on the side. I was curious about how it tasted and it was actually pretty good. I’m a horse girl at heart so I will never order it again, but I was curious about the experience and had to try it once. The soup served with the dish had local vegetables including a kind of mustard leaf and it was really tasty. 

After lunch we stopped for Aso Milk soft ice cream and it was some of the tastiest ice cream I’ve ever had. Aso cows make some tasty milk!

From there we decided to head home. It would be a bit far to drive north around the bay back to Nagasaki, so we decided to take the ferry across the bay to the Unzen peninsula to cut our driving down to just 2 hours. 

We drove onto the ferry boat with the other cars. Once we left port we were allowed to leave the cars and hang out in the main cabin or along the railing while we sailed. I’ve never taken a car on a ferry before, so it was a cool experience. 

After leaving the ferry it was only one hour more to return to Omura. This trip was really relaxing and a lot of fun! Summer vacation just started for schools in Omura and school is out for students. I still have to work at the Board of Education office during this next month, but I hope to make many more fun memories this summer before school starts again!

[thedaveandkimmershow]

A friend of ours witnessed a random, violent assault on the street a few days ago and, by proxy, we experienced a piece of that violence in the telling and retelling of it as we processed what happened with our friend.

And then two days later, this:

A mentally compromised young man is standing in the middle of Broadway & John.

Is he mentally ill?

Is he high?

I don't know.

But he's not right.

He's thin, haggard.

Rough looking.

There are rips in his clothes that aren't born of fashion.

He sees the traffic on all sides and holds his ground against that traffic even as drivers lock eyes with him, even as some shout, even as cars, trucks, and an extended Metro bus carefully thread what little space is available to either side of him as he moves about the middle of the intersection.

Soon, a Metro transit security vehicle pulls to the curb along the east side of Broadway in front of US Bank.

The transit security officer stands on the corner and tries to get the young man's attention.

At some point the young man approaches the transit officer and they talk, seem to talk... until he moves back to the middle of the intersection.

At some point a US Bank security guard joins the transit security officer on the corner.

A half block away, at the bus stop next to me, around me, are three other young men with similar demeanor to the one in the middle of the intersection. One of them steps off the curb, into the street and then into the intersection where he tries to talk, seems to talk, to the young man who continues to stake out his ground in the midst of traffic. He even attempts to physically guide him out of the intersection and into the crosswalk. But to no avail.

And still the traffic flows carefully.

And still the security guards observe from the corner.

And still the haggard young man is either high or mentally ill.

And he will.

Not.

Leave.

At my bus stop, standing by the actual stop at the curb, there's a large young man on his way to school or to work.

Seeing the drama down the street from us, he becomes angry. And the words racing inside his head suddenly find their way out of his mouth.

Now he's yelling down the street toward the intersection as if he's arguing directly with the young man there.

"Get out of the street!"

"You are NOT holding up my bus!"

"You need to take care of your own shit at home!"

"You need to be put down!"

And so on.

Until.

Hand to God, until there's this completely unreal moment when he's not yelling down the street and, in that moment, a woman happens to walk by who catches his eye. And, as sweet as you please, he turns his attention to her and says

"Oh honey... I LOVE those earrings."

And then maybe a half minute later...

He's yelling down the street again.

Enraged.

Outraged.

By this time, somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes have gone by.

Fifteen and twenty.

Minutes.

The haggard looking young man's still taking up the intersection, randomly but intentionally wandering around in there.

Cars and trucks are still carefully moving around him on every side as the traffic lights change.

The security guard and the traffic security officer are still watching from their corner and everyone's watching this drama unfold from every corner and sidewalk and crosswalk up and down Broadway, up and down John.

And the young man standing at the bus stop near me is still yelling down the street.

Until someone finally, finally has.

Had.

Enough.

A yellow sedan pulls to the curb on the north side of John street after passing through the intersection.

A man gets out and he's pissed.

He.

Is.

Pissed.

From more than half a block away I can see that.

I can see the anger that's taken hold of him.

So he gets out of his car, slams the door, walks straight into the middle of the intersection.

And gets in the young man's face.

Gets in his face. Right up close. An act of sheer aggression and intimidation that works. That, on its own, produces the desired outcome.

It's a brief confrontation. And now the young man's walking away to the northwest corner of Broadway and John.

And it's over.

It's over.

And we all go about our days in progress as if what just happened...

Didn't just happen.

Because that's how we do life anymore.

Of course I have any number of opinions about crime and homelessness and drug use. I can riff on public policy and city government and the use of the force. I can even hum a few bars of mental health professionals instead of police, if you like.

But.

After a day of thinking about what happened...

Here's what I know.

The first thing is that I'm reasonably sure that no one, least of all the security guards, wanted to play a leading role in this potential viral video.

Second, I'm absolutely sure that everyone on Broadway and John, people of all demographics and ideologies, would've been satisfied or, at least not outraged, even if the pissed off man struck the young man in the intersection. Knocked him down. And hauled him out of the way of traffic.

Third (and if this is super obvious, forgive me if I'm late to the party), I'm struck by how close to the surface is frustration and anger and violence...

On public streets.

In the middle of the day.

In broad daylight.

And.

I know for a fact that when no authority, no professionals are around to take control of these situations...

The situations get handled anyway.

No holds barred.

No matter what.

Regardless of my opinions or yours...

They get handled.

One of my college psych professors, on the last day of class, bade us a farewell with this cautionary observation: we are nowhere when it comes to helping people who are mentally ill, living on the street. For a lot of reasons... we are nowhere.

That was decades ago.

And we are still.

Nowhere.

Whether it's mental illness on the street, homeless encampments, or drug addictions...

We.

Are.

Nowhere.

And in those decades since our professor brought that state of affairs to our attention, both the circumstances of street life and the context in which that life is spiralling out of control, the frustration, anger, and violence bubbling just under the surface...

All of it, all of it's giving the impression that there's simply nothing that can be done other than address it by force at the point where "danger to self or others" is absolutely what's going on.

Which is too late.

That was our professor's point.

"Danger to self or others" is too late.

You know?

Anyway...

What I know is that, in the absence of effective early interventions, in the absence of professional interventions at the time of "danger to self or others" in public whether that's police or mental health professionals or something we haven't thought of yet...

In the absence of actual answers, people will handle these situations themselves.

And they will be angry when they do it.

And I'm sure it'll make for compelling viral videos.

#violence #random violence #anger #frustration #had enough #aggression #intimidation #public drug addiction #mental illness #street life #mental health professionals #police #city government #Seattle #capital hill #the cost of failure

[thebuckblogimo]

What can you tell about a market from a trip to the grocery store?

June 29, 2022

I've always liked grocery stores. Perhaps it's because my buddy Garry and I were stock boys for a while during high school at Family Market in Dearborn Heights. We were always sharing ideas about our job, trying to contribute in small ways to how the store ran. Even when shopping today I check out beer coolers to see if they're adequately stocked, observe the cutting techniques of butchers in the meat department, and silently evaluate the work ethic of store employees in the aisle ways. Here are a rambling set of observations about some stores I've shopped over the years:

Kroger's in Rosedale Park. When Debbie and I lived in Detroit's North Rosedale Park during the '80s, it was a tightly knit, integrated community. However, because of our close proximity to neighborhoods with higher crime rates, the women on our street shopped for groceries in the suburbs rather than the nearby Kroger on Grand River at Southfield. Undeterred, I often visited the store and was usually the only white person inside. I recall a young, black, seemingly disinterested female cashier. One day I tried out a stupid joke on her. I did it again on a subsequent visit. It wasn't long before we developed a friendly employee-customer relationship. Kindness begets kindness, I guess.

Farmer Jack in Southfield. During the late '80s, my employer, Ross Roy, moved its headquarters from Detroit to Bloomfield Hills. This was about a year before Debbie and I moved to Clarkston. So I started taking the northbound Southfield freeway, which eventually turned into Southfield Road, to get to work. Sometimes, on the way home at night, I'd stop at a Farmer Jack's store for a few things. (I think it was located between 11 Mile Road and 12 Mile Road.) Over time I picked up that many of the patrons were middle-class Jews. When one takes note of a store's regular clientele, it often reveals that "birds of a feather flock together."

East Dearborn's Super Greenland Market. I often tell the story of how I got to know the owner of a Lebanese restaurant in Pontiac who gave me a recipe for the marinate he used to prepare an Arabic dish I liked. So one day, while visiting my parents in Dearborn, I visited the Greenland Market on Warren at Miller, a Middle Eastern store, for some spices I was not familiar with. I asked one of the employees for help and was kindly escorted around the market. By the time I collected the various ethnic ingredients and proceeded to checkout, I was bid farewell by a handful of Greenland employees who wished me luck with my recipe. It just shows what can happen when you take a little interest in the other guy's culture.

Clarkston's A&P, Farmer Jack and Kroger. We lived in Clarkston from 1990 to 2010. This was a time of explosive growth in the northern suburbs of Oakland County. There was a smallish A&P store when we arrived in town. When it closed, a Farmer Jack opened in a new strip mall on Dixie Highway. A few years later a Kroger store opened in yet another new strip mall. I can't think of a single distinguishing characteristic about any of the three stores, other than the preponderance of upwardly mobile young professionals, many of whom worked for Chrysler Headquarters in Auburn Hills or GM facilities in Lake Orion and Pontiac, who regularly patronized the stores. I sensed a "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality amongst them that I never grew accustomed to.

West Dearborn Kroger. Old Dearbornites will recall the Crowley's department store in the Westborn Mall. Today, it's a huge Kroger. I find it to be a fascinating place. I visit the store often because I have a daughter who lives in Dearborn and a sister who lives in Dearborn Heights. When I was a kid, both towns were virtually all white. Walk into the store today and you'll see lots of Arabs (Lebanese, Yemenis, Iraquis), many Blacks, a smattering of Hispanics and Asians, as well longtime Dearbornites. Thing is, I have a beef with the store's management team. I've never noticed a single one of them on the floor. I question how much they care. I find the cleanliness of the men's john to be consistently substandard. Carts pile up excessively in the parking lot. While the area where carts should be found inside the door looks grimy and in need of being swept. C'mon, guys, the place could be like an international marketplace.

Westborn Martkets. At one time or other I've shopped three of the four Westborn Markets--the ones in Dearborn, Berkley and Plymouth. They're wonderful stores. Excellent produce. Good meats. Some gourmet-type products. A good selection of craft brews and wines. And they do a good job of hiring consistently helpful, enthusiastic employees, such as the butcher at the Berkley store who gave me tips for how to make pot roast. Westborn tends to attract upper income types, their prices trend a little higher, but I really like the store's vibe. Patrons often mingle as they shop shoulder to shoulder in crowded aisles. Consequently, it always feels as though something's going on inside the store.

Riesbeck's of Woodsfield. There are about a dozen Riesbeck's stores in southeast Ohio. I visit the one in Woodsfield, my wife's hometown. It serves mostly common folk and a contingent of rural poor. After getting past the produce department with its not-so-fresh fruits and vegetables, my first stop is usually the meat aisle. I have never spotted a package of ground sirloin in the meat case. Ground chuck is a staple for the store's target market--rugged country fellas sporting ball caps and the women who stand by their sides. I miss the product choices of home when shopping Riesbeck's, but for over 90 years the store has been a solid pillar of the community. I don't know how Woodsfield would survive if the store were ever to go out of business.

Grand Haven Meijer. People of Dutch heritage--very family oriented, usually members of the First Reformed Church--predominate in Grand Haven. I regularly shop among them at Meijer's, a store that functions as well as any I have ever patronized. It's clean, brightly lit. And the hired help is accommodating. Kudos to Meijer for employing some (what I believe to be) autistic people. They zone in on returning carts left in the parking lot to the front of the store, and a couple of them are store greeters. On occasion I visit one of the Meijer stores in Muskegon that serves a mostly working class population. I sometimes see management types on the floor at both of the Meijer stores I regularly shop. Sometimes they even take turns working the registers. Meijer "gets it" when it comes to customer service.

If you don't do the shopping for your household, I suggest you take an occasional turn at it. It can cause one to engage with others unlike yourself and to stay abreast of little changes in society. I recall taking my father-in-law to the Publix grocery store in Fort Myers a couple of years ago before he died. I was amazed that he was amazed at the workings of the self-checkout kiosks. Also, the price tags on many items flipped him out. It's good, of course, to keep tabs on such things as we battle inflation these days. And another thing, every grocery store is a good place to watch for grandmotherly types pushing loaded carts who intently examine product labels: I find that they're generally happy to answer any question about cooking, from how many ounces in a cup to tips on how to make linguini.

[robbyykeene]

I also just think it does such a disservice to Miguel as a character. And I feel like this fandom especially needs to recognize that Johnny and Miguel are the center of this show and honestly the most interesting part (in my opinion lol but that’s cause I relate to Miguel as a person of color way more than the other catchers on this show) BUT that doesn’t mean that their storylines need to always be linked together. Johnny can learn to heal and not put that on Miguel (or his mother) to do that for him, and he can repair his relationship with Robby while not sacrificing his relationship with Miguel and Carmen. And there’s so many interesting things the writers could explore with Miguel - he’s this kid who’s mother sacrificed so much to raise him, he’s a low income brown kid going to a school with predominantly wealthy white people. I want more about Miguel’s journey being explored and not using him as a prop to better serve Johnny’s growth. Like Robby and Miguel have so much in common too - wouldn’t it be interesting to explore that and how their rivalry could actually end the cycle of harm that Kreese has inflicted on Daniel and Johnny (and by the extension the entire valley as he keeps amassing all these child soldiers). I really do love this show and like so many of the characters but I keep feeling like there’s so many missed opportunities. As a poor kid of color who was bussed to a rich school, you can’t tell me that kids like Robby, Miguel, and Tory wouldn’t have had more to connect on together than these rich kids lol. And it would be so interesting to see that play out instead of the same misscommunications of Robby or Miguel walking in on something without all the details.

.

#i once again have nothing constructive to ass because this is so so so on point #so im just going to ramble in the tags and YES about exploring the part of Miguel who’s an immigrant and all those unique difficulties #i moved to the US in high school from the middle east so its not exactly the same thing. #but immigrating is hard. having to learn to speak english is hard. having to constantly code switch is hard #getting used to the differences in culture is hard!! #and i know miguel probably moved to the US when he was born or very very young. but growing up in a family that is culturally different from #everyone around you and experiencing rscism and xenophobia #these are all such complex things to navigate through as a kid. and they have such a great opportunity to showcase that with miguel #like i was that kid who went to a rich person school but was the odd one out. and you really really feel it. and they kind of showed that #in season 1 on the golf n stuff date which i loved #but theres so much more to talk about. #and like. i dont want them to turn miguel into the token brown kid obviously. I actually really like how the show incorporates his culture #and doesn’t shy away from him being latino while simultaneously letting him being a fully developed character #with personality and nuance and complexity while still being latino and not just completely erasing that aspect of him #i think they actually do so so so kuch better than so many other shows in that regard #but yeah sometimes i just feel like there are other avenues that could be explored. like him and robby and tory ultimately having way more #in common than any other characters. and hopefully theyll explore that later on??? #none of this is coherent but thats why its in the tags so!

[wkil-109-fmx-radio]

[Zone Info]

Events:

Helium I - Fought between 1993 and 1998 when tensions between governments around the world finally turned to war. Nuclear warfare wiped out Northern-Middle Eurasia, most of South America, South-Eastern North America, and Southern Africa. The war ended when what was left of Europe and Asia surrendered.

The Rise of Better Living Industries - BL/ind started as a weapons manufacturing/power company that rose into a major monopoly and self-governing body that overthrew the US toward the end of the first Helium War. It immediately began an effort to bring “peace” to the nation by ridding the country of all individualism and “radical” beliefs, believing that different ideas would turn into conflict. This quickly turned into ridding the country of creativity and self-expression to make a perfect, crime-free society.

Helium II - Fought between 2006 and 2011 when Better Living Industries had taken control of what was left of North and South America and began attacking the rest of the world, trying to rid the planet of ideas that didn’t match theirs. The East Coast started rebelling against the West Coast, where BL/ind had established their capital in what was once Los Angeles but had been renamed Battery City. A wall of nuclear bombs was dropped around the Rocky Mountains and thanks to the radiation around the globe affecting the radio waves, no one knows for sure whether there is anyone else living on the planet outside of Battery City and its surrounding Zones.

The Rise of the Rebels - Since the very beginning of Better Living Industries’ reign, rebels had appeared. When Battery City was established as BL/ind’s capital city, settlements started popping up in the desert outside of the city. On the East Coast of North America, a massive rebellion effort was led against BL/ind during the second Helium War. As the years passed, more rebels started appearing in Battery City and moving to the desert, eventually renamed The Zones, especially after BL/ind seemed to have destroyed the East Coast rebels. Rebels in the Zones became known as Killjoys and rebels in the city became known as Juvie Halls. Rebels began attacking Better Living Industries factories and facilities, hoping to weaken the company but only resulting in angering BL/ind.

The Fires of 2012 - From April till August of 2012, Better Living Industries began lighting fires across the Zones in an attempt to destroy the Killjoys, as they had grown out of BL/ind’s control. The Fires got out of control and ended up spreading to some Better Living Industries camps and buildings that were still stationed in the Zones. As a result, BL/ind blamed the rebels for the Fires and denied any claims of the truth. The blame being placed on the rebels sparked the start of the Analog Wars.

The Analog Wars - Fought between 2012 and 2017 or, to some, from 2012 to the present. The Analog War wasn’t your usual war; it was mostly small battles in the Zones or sabotage of BL/ind or rebel facilities. Better Living Industries describes it as “an effort to suppress the rebels and their radical and dangerous ideals.” During the war, BL/ind established the Draculoid and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W units.

The Pig Bombs of 2017 - On July 4, 2017, Better Living Industries dropped a series of bombs in Zone 8 to destroy the Killjoy farming communities that were settled there. BL/ind had previously withheld using nuclear weapons in the Zones because they didn’t want the radiation destroying Battery City so they settled for dropping them in Zone 8, although they ended up also destroying several important Better Living Industries facilities in the process. The bombs wiped Zones 7, 8, and 9 off the map, left some places in Zone 6 uninhabitable, and created a wall of radiation around the Zones and Battery City, trapping them and isolating them from the rest of the world. This marked the end of the Analog Wars, although some believe that since there was no official surrender or treaty, the war is still going on.

Places:

Battery City - The capital of whatever is left of the US that Better Living Industries can control. In Battery City, the citizens are required to take “Happy Pills.” In the city, BL/ind controls the weather, the way people dress, where kids go to school, and where adults work. Every citizen has a set routine, sent to them in the morning along with their medication. In the center of Battery City is the Better Living Industries headquarters which is the tallest building and largest complex in the city and home to the Director, the head of BL/ind.

The Underground - The subway systems under Battery City where many juvie halls live and plot against Better Living Industries. “The Underground” doesn’t always literally mean the subway systems and can be used as a relative term for anywhere juvie halls may live.

The Outskirts - The edge of Battery City, bordering Zone 1. This is where lower-class citizens live, along with some juvie halls, as this is the least regulated part of the city.

The Zones - The desert surrounding Battery City, where the Killjoys live. As the number of the Zone gets higher, so does the population, as the Killjoys like to be as far away from Battery City and BL/ind headquarters as possible.

Route Guano - The most used interstate in the Zones, running from south-eastern Battery City all the way out past Zone 6.

The Getaway Mile - The interstate south of Route Guano, which is shorter and goes more south but is often used for quick escapes from Battery City.

Death Valley - The area outside of Zone 6 that is dangerous and completely uninhabitable due to the extreme radiation.

Lighthouses - Well-known places across the Zones that provide sanctuary for Killjoys on the run

Train Station Avenue - A popular lighthouse along Route Guano in Zone 5 that is notorious for fights, food, and hitchhikers

The Nest - The largest lighthouse in the Zones, located next to DESTROYA in Zone 4

DESTROYA Site - The home of DESTROYA, a massive droid built by Better Living Industries to destroy the Killjoys during the Analog Wars but ended up malfunctioning and turning against them. The droid was shot down and has remained there ever since.

The Bunker - An underground bunker turned nightclub in Zone 6, popular for raves and huge amounts of attendees

Witch’s Hut - A small hut in Zone 6 where a supposed prophet of the Phoenix Witch lives

The Tracks - A race track in Zone 5 used for competitive drag races where parties are held and bets are placed for your favorite racers

Vocabulary:

Angel Cake - Killjoys who travel across the Zones selling food for cheaper prices

Audition - Initiation rituals that gangs in or outside of Battery City may have for you to be able to join. What you have to do varies from gang to gang

Babysitter - a term used to poke fun at a gang leader but also used as a genuine term for gang leaders who may be visibly older than the rest of the gang

Bacon - dead or dying Dracs and Crows

Batt out of hell - a term for new Killjoys but not used in a derogatory way

Batt Rat - a derogatory term used by Sand Pups to describe new Killjoys who just escaped the city and don’t know the Zone ways

Black Smith - someone who’s good at repairing or modifying technology or cars

Bifrost - places in the Zones that were so greatly affected by bombs, that the sand turned to glass

Blanket drive - driving at night with the headlights off, the windows down, and the music turned up loud

Carbons - The currency used in Battery City and the Zones. One carbon equals four dollars

Chilly - something or someone that’s suspicious

Clap - a physical fight

Cloud - A large group of Draculoids and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W traveling through the Zones

Compass Rose - a Killjoy who knows the desert like the back of their hand

Costa Rica - things that went crazy or got out of control

Crash Queen - a daredevil or thrill seeker who is known for doing things that could easily get them killed and doesn’t care

Deadfaced - taking Battery Acid

Dead Pegasus - a fuel company in the Zones

Debut album - someone’s first love

Digital - An important moment shared amongst two or more rebels that they know they will never forget

Draculoid - droids and brainwashed Killjoys designed to kill rebels. Also called "bats" or "Dracs"

Drifter - someone who lives a nomadic lifestyle and strays from commitment in relationships

Drifting - A relationship that isn’t strictly anything but simply some sort of attraction between two individuals. A sort of go-with-the-flow, whatever happens, happens kind of relationship

Drive sidestreet - another way to tell someone to piss off. Also could use “get off the highway”

Dust Trail - an urban legend or a term used by non-religious Killjoys to describe religious Killjoys’ beliefs

ElectroKat - the most popular battery brand in Battery City and the Zones

Exterminators - High ranking Better Living Industries officials placed in charge of S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W units

Fact News - The one news program in Battery City, notorious for spreading lies to the citizens

Favorite Record - someone’s significant other

Firefight - a fight using ray guns

Fly half-mast - that state after having recently lost someone close to you

Gearhead - someone who’s obsessed with all things mechanical

Gemini - someone suspected of being a spy for Better Living Industries

Ghost Chase - Searching the Zones for someone who is possibly, or most likely, dead

Ghosted - killed. Also can use "dusted"

Graffiti Bible - A collection of religious writings across the Zones, mostly talking about how DESTROYA will come back to life and destroy Battery City and the Phoenix Witch

Gravehead - crazy Killjoys who have lost everyone and everything and throw themselves into dangerous situations

Gravity - anything that brings you down

Groupie - someone who travels with different gangs and trades favors for food, water, and protection

Halo Head - religious Killjoys who believe their beliefs put them above everyone else, especially non-religious Killjoys

Happy Pills - Pills issued by Better Living Industries that they say will lift your spirits and protect you from the radiation but make you more submissive and easier for BL to control. The rebels call them "Battery Acid"

Hit the red line - run away, usually from a bad/dangerous situation

Icy - when someone dies or goes missing in a suspicious way

Juvie Hall - rebels who haven’t left the city, usually because they can’t or because they’re working with the Killjoys to smuggle supplies out to the Zones and/or give them information from the city

Killjoy - rebels who live in the Zones

Lawyer - someone who ruins all the fun

Mailbox - small landmarks in the Zones where an old mailbox is painted and decorated and filled with letters, mostly to people that other Killjoys have lost. The more religious Killjoys believe the Phoenix Witch delivers the letters put in the mailboxes to the dead

Maple Plaza - Places in Zone 6 where radiation is still very thick and dangerous

Mega - interchangeable with "wicked"

Motorbabies - people who live and breathe all things car-related

Mousekat - a cartoon character from Battery City

Murder - a magazine in the Zones with Zone news

Pangea - A friendly gathering of two or more gangs

Paperboy - someone who travels across the Zones collecting news, gossip, and reporting deaths, usually for Dr. D or Murder magazine

Phoenix Witch - a supposed deity of the Zones, looking out for the rebels and carrying the souls of the dead into the afterlife

Pigs - another term for Dracs and Crows

Plus - A battery replenisher used by droids that are known for being highly addictive

Power Pup - a pre-moistened dog kibble brand that is often the only source of food in the Zones

Ray Gun - guns that shoot high-powered lasers instead of bullets. Rebels often customize them

Rebel - anyone who actively works against Better Living Industries

Ritalin Rat - drug addicts, usually used for those addicted to Happy Pills but can be used for Zoneweed addicts as well

Robin Hood Honey - party going Killjoys that look beautiful but don’t act like it

Rongee Kay - Killjoys who wander from party to party

Royal - something fancy or high end

Runners - juvie halls who smuggle supplies into the Zones

Sand Pup - someone born in the Zones or someone who has lived there most of their life

Sand Worm - a derogatory term for Killjoys used by Better Living Industries

S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W - BL loyalists specially trained to destroy anything they deem worthy of destroying. Also called "Crows"

Screwhead - someone who parties too much and thinks too little

Shiny Magazine - a magazine for mature readers in the Zones

Shiny - interchangeable with "awesome" or "cool"

Shower Curtain - A rare day when the sun is behind the clouds and the heat isn’t so unbearable

Smiley - someone acting suspiciously

Sour - something off

Squeaky - not having committed a crime against Better Living Industries but still wanting to rebel against them. Also used when someone seems to avoid fights or dangerous situations even though they’ve never done that before

Static - another word for sand or remote areas of the Zones

Trojan Horse - a painfully obvious lie

Tumbleweed - someone who wanders the Zones, living a nomadic lifestyle, having no home or gang

Vend-a-Hack - A device used by Killjoys to hack into Better Living Industries vending machines to steal various supplies

Vending Machine - Dispense a variety of items, including ray guns, batteries, ammo, stickers, stress toys, Plus, Power Pup, and water

WKIL 109 FMX - Doctor D’s pirate radio station that plays news and music

Zone Rat - a derogatory term for Killjoys used by Better Living Industries and some Battery City citizens

Zoneweed - a popular drug grown and passed around in the Zones

#mcr #my chemical romance #killjoys #the zones #danger days #better living industries #bl/ind #party poison #fun ghoul #jet star #kobra kid #death tw #drugs tw

[ghostgothgeek]

Map of Amity Park

So I did a bunch of research and traced over the map the GIW had in DCMH and extended it to try and build a map of Amity Park. I also paid close attention to locations and places named in canon. I am by no means an artist, map maker, photoshop pro, or civil engineer; I just wanted a general reference map for the phandom to use. 

Here is where I place Amity Park. We know AP isn’t in Michigan or Wisconsin, but is most likely a day drive away from Madison (Bitter Reunions). AP is a decent sized city of itself, so I can see it being an outskirt of a large city like Chicago. Lancer mentions the Northwestern Testing, and Northwestern University is in Evanston, IL, which is why I placed it where it is.

LIST OF PLACES (in great detail): 

Every city needs it’s basic services: energy supply, water supply, sewage, and trash/recycling. These of course are located more on the edge of the city, as they need a large amount of space and are typically isolated.

I placed a local airport in the city as well. Typically you would fly out of one of Chicago’s airports anyway, but private planes (Vlad, Mansons, etc.) can take off and land here. 

University of Amity Park is located at the north side of the city, and is home to a Nasty Burger location, an LGBT Center, and is probably near a gas station. The blocks surrounding the campus are more student housing. 

Near the University, we have the Science Center, Axion Labs, a Mental Institute, and the Museum, as a lot of research from the University would go into those places. 

In the more isolated areas, we have the Penitentiary, the abandoned North Mercy Hospital, and the GIW Headquarters. 

The Zoo is located on the north side of the park and is also close to the University for research purposes.

The Observatory is also located in a more isolated area, so you can actually see the stars without a bunch of light pollution.

Going into the center of town, where most things are actually located:

A community college, which is near the internet cafe where Danny and Tucker play games, a gas station, a liquor store, a thrift shop, a Planned Parenthood, Java Jive (the coffee shop), a tech store, and a gym. 

We also have a shoe store, the hunting goods store and Guitar Palace that Skulker and Ember take over in Reign Storm, the U-Ship Box Store the Box Ghost takes over, a barber and a hardware store.

There is a hair salon, tanning salon, and nail salon, where Paulina frequents. There is also Elmer’s Pharmacy, a dentist office, a law office, the TV repair store, butcher shop, and pet store (which we see next to each other in an episode), a toy store, and a vet office.

Government buildings include City Hall, a public library, a court house, a DMV, a bus station (for all mass transit in the city), a community center (likely where town halls are located and other smaller events; Ida plays bingo here every week), and a retirement home. 

There is also the post office, Amity Park Fire Department, a bank, the 24K Jewelry shop, a nearby ice cream shop, and another Nasty Burger location (this is the one right by Casper High that the trio usually hangs at). Also an animal shelter, a grocery store, and a pizza joint.

Education: there is a preschool and daycare, the elementary school, a playground/park, the middle school (yes, a Beetlejuice reference), and Casper High. Casper High campus also has the track, a fieldhouse, and the football field. 

Moving towards Amity Park Mall:

Bucky’s Music Mega Store, an apartment complex, Amity Park Police Department, a bookstore, doctor clinic, gas station, a Denny’s (where Phight Club happens), Material Grill restaurant, the mini golf course and bowling alley, Freddy Fazbear’s (which is actually a horror video game, but here it’s a kids pizza place like Chuck E. Cheese), a furniture store, a party supply store, and the movie theater (which is Marmel’s Multiplex 22, Amity Park Multiplex, and Googolplex Cinemas...it seems that they go to the same movie theater throughout the series and the names just change, or these could also be other movie theaters in the area (like near the college campus). I just picked Multiplex 22 cause it sounded very mall-y).

Along the interstate, there’s a pawn shop, a publishing house (which somehow prints all 5 of Amity Park’s newspapers), a homeless shelter, the diner, Safe House Motel, a laundromat, the 89¢ Store (a nod to Fanning the Flames), and the car dealership.

Also near the mall is Amity Arena, which hosts concerts, sports events, and other large entertainment events. There is a hotel near both the arena and the hospital (the one that isn’t abandoned and haunted). Towards the outskirts of the hospital, there’s a trailer park; north a few blocks is the TV station, where News 4 is headquartered. There’s also a construction site near Amity Arena, but that kinda went out the window when Undergrowth hit. 

On the other side of town, we have:

A-Mart, a convenience store. I named it like this because it can be like an offshoot of KMart, but A for Amity! 

Floody Waters, right off the interstate.

North of Floody Waters, East of Casper High, we have the main residences: the Foley household and only a couple blocks away is Fenton Works. 

There’s also another gas station and the Amity Park Radio Station nearby. There’s also a private school near ultra posh Polter Heights, but the A-Listers attend Casper High because the private school doesn’t have a football or cheerleading team.

Moving into Polter Heights and the surrounding area:

The Polter Heights Golf Course and Country Club are exclusive to those in the neighborhood, as well as their private neighborhood pool; members only. 

The Mayor’s Mansion (eventually Vlad’s) is located in here too.

All of the A-Listers’ houses are of course in this neighborhood, as well as Val’s previous residence and the Fenton’s temporary mansion from Living Large (which is of course right next door to Vlad, but with some distance, because the rich are always socially distancing with their big houses).

Polter Heights is adjacent to a bunch of farmland (this is the midwest, we like cows and stuff), and there is a church close by as well.

Just outside Polter Heights is the Manson Mansion (with Sam’s greenhouse). Lucky for Sam, the Skulk and Lurk Books and an occult shop are just down the street. The Manson residence is also near a funeral home and graveyard (how did Sam get so lucky? Oh, because I love her), a synagogue, Mario’s restaurant, and a dry cleaners. 

We get more spacious as we get away from the center of town! 

Along the shore of Lake Eerie, there are the docks which are home to many warehouses, including the mattress factory.

Also along the shoreline, there is a pier which doubles as an amusement park (think kinda like Navy Pier in Chicago in comparison) and alongside the pier is the public beach area. 

Camp Skull and Crossbones is located on the other side of Lake Eerie, and the fishing area is more on the north side of the lake. Lake Eerie is not one of the Great Lakes, it’s just its own thing in Amity Park. 

Back towards the park, we have event grounds space, which is where Circus Gothica is located, as well as the Meet Swap and flea market. Basically whatever rotating event hits town, it comes right here. Just next door is a theatre (for music, opera, Broadway, etc.). There is also the third and final Nasty Burger location in AP.

This is all surrounding the actual park Amity Park, which has a pond, a big fountain, and also hosts that really big hill that overlooks City Hall.

On the south side, across the bridge and over the interstate is Elmerton, where Val currently is resided. 

All the other blocks are filled with more office buildings, apartment complexes, houses, and businesses, but all of the main places are already listed and placed. 

Finally, yes, I did name some places for myself and my friends because they’re great and they deserve it. These include Steph’s (mine) Occult Shoppe, Nick’s Liquor Emporium (@ecto-american), Lexx R Us Toystore (@lexosaurus and appropriately named after the Lexxpocalypse), Laz’s Law Offices LLC (@kinglazrus), Dee’s Dentistry (@qlinq-qhost​), Lily’s Looks Thrift Store (@dannyphantomisameme​), Ceci’s Funeral Home (@ceciliaspen​), Vic’s Amusement Park (@babypop-phantom​), and Reverie Books (@wastefulreverie​). 

#Danny Phantom #Amity Park #this is literally not a perfect map but here have it anyways #I hope this actually comes into use for you guys #stephanie shares things #Amity Park Map #map of Amity Park #long post

[causeiwanttoandican]

The Times

Prince William’s close friends on what makes him tick — and why he’s not trapped

March 20 2021, 6:00pm

As the world devours the Harry and Meghan interview, what’s going on with the brother who was left behind? He’s embracing his destiny, William’s close friends tell the Sunday Times royal correspondent, Roya Nikkhah

Next month Prince William will celebrate his tenth wedding anniversary — the day he became a duke and embarked on the most formative decade of his life. Back then, the tentative 28-year-old newlywed was not ready to devote himself entirely to royal duties. A decade on, he is in a very different position.

The job of being the heir to the heir to the throne, of finding a balance between life and duty, is difficult at the best of times. These are not the best of times. In their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey this month the Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused the royal family and the institution around it of racism and callous disregard for a suicidal newcomer, among many other damning charges. Harry the spare also declared that William was trapped within “the system … My brother can’t leave that system, but I have.”

In the immediate aftermath of the interview William was “reeling”, a source close to the duke says. “His head is all over the place on it.” Four days after the Sussexes had their say, he hit back during an engagement with the Duchess of Cambridge at a school in east London. Asked about accusations of racism, William retorted with restrained fury: “We’re very much not a racist family.” He also confirmed that he hadn’t spoken to Harry yet, “but will do”. By the weekend it emerged they had “been in contact”.

William is thought to have been less than thrilled a few days later when that conversation made global headlines after the American presenter Gayle King, a close friend of the Sussexes, revealed live on air that it had not been an easy chat: “I did actually call them to see how they were feeling,” she told viewers. “Harry has talked to his brother and he had talked to his father too. The word I was given was that those conversations were not productive.” The intervention prompted a senior royal source to say that “none of the households will be giving a running commentary on private conversations”.

A close friend of both brothers says Harry’s “trapped” comment was “way off the mark”, insisting that William does not see it that way. “He has a path set for him and he’s completely accepting of his role. He is very much his grandmother’s grandson in that respect of duty and service.”

When the Queen turned 90 nearly five years ago William admitted “the challenge” that “occupies a lot of thinking space” is how to “modernise and develop” the royal family, and make it “relevant in the next 20 years’ time”. Twenty years now seems like a very long time. In the hours and days after the Oprah broadcast, William was at the heart of all discussions with the Queen and the Prince of Wales about how to respond to the Sussexes. He was keen that the issue of race should be acknowledged in the Queen’s statement as an area of particular concern that “will be addressed”.

William has always railed against being a “ribbon-cutter royal” and the issues he champions — mental health, battling racism in football, homelessness and his ramped-up eco-warrior role — are a window into where the future King William V will take the House of Windsor. A friend says: “He’s a small-c conservative. He values tradition and the need to go around the country, but he realises he can make a difference beyond traditional royal duties.”

Today royal popularity is, to put it mildly, in a state of flux, but William’s strategy has been working. Post-Oprah, he ranks just below the Queen at the top of a YouGov poll of royals. Not so long ago such a position looked like a long shot, when the “workshy Wills” and “reluctant royal” tags plagued him and he was clocking up fewer days of royal work than his nonagenarian grandparents. Pictures of him hitting the ski slopes and clubs of Swiss resort Verbier in March 2017, missing a Commonwealth service that even the Duke of York flew back for, didn’t help.

After the lasting PR gold dust of the Cambridges’ 2011 wedding and the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, it was the first public nosedive for William, who was still working as an air ambulance pilot. “That pissed him off,” a friend says. “He was leaving home at 5.30am, getting home after dark and saving lives in between, but people were still being critical of his commitment to his [other] job.” William was based at Cambridge airport with East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years, where he was on call for “some very sad, dark moments”, often working “on very traumatic jobs involving children”. He later acknowledged that “after I had my own children … the relation between the job and the personal life was what really took me over the edge, and I started feeling things that I have never felt before”. But it was a job he loved, because of “working in a team … that’s something that my other job doesn’t necessarily do. You are more out there on your own.”

A former royal aide says: “Immediately after their wedding he had a very clear idea of the pace at which he wanted to take things.” William was adamant he wouldn’t curtail his day jobs, first as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey and then with the air ambulance. “If you’re not careful, duty can weigh you down an awful lot at an early age,” he said, insisting he didn’t “lie awake waiting or hoping” to be king. He delayed full-time royal duties until the autumn of 2017, when, acknowledging the Cambridges’ future required more time at “monarchy HQ”, they moved from Norfolk to London and George started school.

He’d had to fight his corner for the air ambulance role. A source close to William reveals “there were lots of raised eyebrows in the Palace when he wanted to do that. While the Queen and his father backed him, some senior courtiers questioned whether it was becoming of a future king to be doing a middle-class role, hanging out with ordinary people. They thought he wouldn’t stick it out, he’d find it boring, or was doing it out of stubbornness to put off royal duties. He was pretty bloody-minded about it, and determined that other people’s expectations in the media or the system shouldn’t get in the way of his own values.” In the wake of Harry and Meghan’s interview much has been speculated about the extent to which royal life is dictated by Palace officials, but it is clear that William has managed to forge his own path. Who knows how high those senior courtiers’ eyebrows rose in 2019, when William spent three weeks shadowing the spooks of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to learn how they combat terrorism. He insisted on being called “Will” and lunching in the canteen every day.

Those closest to the duke say his resistance to the idea of full-time royal duties stemmed not only from a desire to achieve something for himself but also from a fear of the impact on his family life. Miguel Head worked alongside the prince for ten years until 2018, as William, Kate and Harry’s communications secretary and later as William’s private secretary. “In his role everyone’s going to tell you you’re marvellous,” Head says. “The RAF and air ambulance jobs were about knowing what his abilities were, what he was good at in his own right. Without that he’d still be hankering for something that was his own.” After children came along he says William developed a “visceral determination to give them a life of consistency and privacy that were missing for large parts of his own childhood”.

Another close aide says the plan enabling the Cambridges to have a few years of “normal” married life, away from the full-time glare of the royal spotlight, paid dividends: “For years, the battles around privacy and paparazzi intrusion were all-consuming. He wanted to know, could we build them a credible plan allowing them a family life while slowly increasing the profile of official life? It took years to get there, but the success of that plan allowed him to be confident and content in his role. He’s not worried about his kids’ privacy any more and he has been able to be the kind of dad he wants to be.”

“Marriage maketh the man,” a friend says. “Catherine’s groundedness has been the critical anchor. And where his relationship with the media was once all fury and frustration, he now understands using the power of modern media, so the public feel they’re getting enough access.”

The children’s birthdays are marked with photographs — often taken by the Duchess of Cambridge — and there has been a noticeable increase in their public appearances of late. While not “officially” staged, William was happy to let George and Charlotte be photographed at their first Aston Villa match with Mum and Dad in 2019. Pandemic set pieces have shown the family clapping for the NHS on the steps of Anmer Hall, their Norfolk home, and, before Christmas, their first red-carpet appearance together for an evening at the panto with key workers and their children.

As they celebrate their anniversary on April 29, friends who joined the Cambridges on their wedding day tell me the partnership’s equal footing is key to its success. “They’ve got a solid relationship and she gives him confidence,” one says. “There is no jealousy, no friction, they are happy for each other’s successes.” In private William talks as passionately about Kate’s work as his own campaigns, and takes pride in her growing confidence on the public stage.

William has said his grandmother’s approach to being head of state is to take “more of a passive role. She’s above politics and is very much away from it.” He doesn’t plan to meddle in party politics, but he was not happy about the unenviable position the government put the Queen in with the 2019 proroguing of parliament, which was later ruled to be unlawful and forced an apology from Boris Johnson to the monarch. Constitutionally the Queen had no alternative other than to act on the advice of her government, but in William’s reign there will be “more private, robust challenging of advice”. His last three private secretaries — Christian Jones, Simon Case, now the cabinet secretary, and Head — had all worked in government departments, helping William to keep his finger on the political pulse. The new incumbent, the Whitehall heavyweight Jean-Christophe Gray, who served as David Cameron’s spokesman, continues in that vein.

The former Conservative leader Lord Hague of Richmond was last year appointed as chairman of the Royal Foundation to develop William’s work on mental health, the environment and a raft of new support programmes for key workers. “People internationally and nationally respect his credibility and knowledge on these issues,” Hague says. “He’s very persuasive. You only see that behind the scenes. He knows what he wants and he goes out to get it.”

Charlie Mayhew, chief executive of the conservation charity Tusk, has known William since he was 20. In 2005 Tusk and Centrepoint, the homelessness charity championed by Princess Diana, were the first patronages William took on. “In those early years I kept having to pinch myself to remember how young he was,” Mayhew says. “He was much more mature than his age and very aware of his destiny coming down the track. He had a sincerity, but never without wicked humour. His teasing is merciless.”

William knows some people see his passion for conservation as a posh man’s part-time hobby, but Mayhew says the duke’s “genuine and huge knowledge” undermines that view. “He’ll call and WhatsApp to flag up something that I haven’t even seen in the conservation space. He can be impatient to get things done.” Last year William launched the Earthshot prize, a £50 million Nobel-style environmental award to galvanise solutions to global problems over the next decade. He believes “conservation and the environment … shouldn’t be a luxury, it’s a necessity”, Mayhew says. “That’s the drum he wants to beat. He’s got a megaphone and wants to use it in the most constructive way. He speaks for that next generation and I think they can relate to it.”

A turning point for William was his 2015 official visit to China, one of the world’s largest consumers of ivory, where he met President Xi and condemned the illegal wildlife trade as a “vicious form of criminality”. Unlike his father, who has refused to visit the People’s Republic over its human rights record and treatment of Tibet, William’s view was that despite the UK’s fractious relationship with China, “we’ve got to engage”.

“It was very political, raising the illegal wildlife trade in China. I’m sure the diplomats were having all sort of nightmares in advance,” says Mayhew, who joined the duke in China. “But he was gathering greater confidence that he had the ability to be a mouthpiece for the issue.” Mayhew reveals that while William was visiting Japan before China, he still hadn’t secured a meeting with Xi. “But when the Chinese saw all the high-level meetings he was having in Japan, they changed their minds and Xi made time for him.” Later that year, as Xi began a UK state visit, William appeared on Chinese television condemning the ivory trade. Two years later China banned the trade.

In 2018 he spent months prepping for his most high-stakes overseas visit yet, to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories that summer. Navigating the diplomatic tightrope walk between Jerusalem and the West Bank, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah. As he travelled back to Jerusalem, he changed his speech for a reception with young Israelis and Palestinians to strengthen his solidarity with the latter: “My message tonight is that you have not been forgotten … The United Kingdom stands with you.” It was a bold move, but both sides hailed his visit a success and the officials breathed a sigh of relief. To the delight of the travelling press pack, William’s engagements on the final day were brought forward, allowing the diplomat duke and president of the Football Association to land back in the UK in time to watch England’s World Cup tie.

Ask him if he’s a peacemaker and William will laugh, saying Kate is the mediator. But according to a source close to William and Harry, his bridge-building skills were deployed in the lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, when tensions in the Kensington Palace household, then still shared by the brothers, were running high: “Every time there was a drama, or a member of staff on the verge of quitting, William would personally try and sort it out.”

As the brothers clashed more over the substance and style of their work, and the family hierarchy that William is a stickler for but Harry is less keen on, a split was inevitable. When they finally divided their households in March 2019, it had been a long time coming. But he never thought that a year later his brother would up sticks for America.

The pair went for a long walk to clear the air after the “Sandringham summit” when the Megxit deal was hammered out, but did not part shores as friends. What upset William the most was Harry and Meghan’s surprise launch of their “Sussex Royal” website before the summit, which featured their blueprint wish list of a part-time, commercial royal future. Later, when the Queen decreed they could no longer use “royal” in their future ventures, their website hit back with this bold statement: “While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy … over the use of the word ‘Royal’ overseas, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ … or … ‘Royal’ …” Both “the content and that it’s still online is staggering”, a senior royal source says. “That was it for William, he felt they’d blindsided the Queen in such an insulting and disrespectful way,” says a source close to him, who reveals it was still at the forefront of William’s mind at the Commonwealth Day service one year ago. It was the Sussexes’ final engagement as working royals, and the froideur between them and the rest of the family was unmistakable.

It is a year since the Sussexes left for California and William misses Harry. “Once he got over the anger of how things happened, he was left with the absence of his brother,” an aide says. “They shared everything about their lives, an office, a foundation, meetings together most days and there was a lot of fun along the way. He’ll miss it for ever.” A close friend says William “definitely feels the pressure now it’s all on him — his future looks different because of his brother’s choices, it’s not easy.” Another friend says: “It’s still raw. He’s very upset by what’s happened, though absolutely intent that he and Harry’s relationship will heal in time.”

After lobbing bombs in his Oprah interview, Harry said: “I love William to bits … We’ve been through hell together … we have a shared experience … The relationship is space at the moment, and time heals all things, hopefully.” Harry would be wise not to set his stopwatch.

The first test will come this summer, when the brothers could be reunited for a series of family engagements including the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday and the Queen’s birthday parade in June. In July they are scheduled to unveil a statue of their mother at Kensington Palace, marking what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday, an emotionally charged occasion with the world watching.

While a chasm has opened up between the brothers, William has grown closer to the Queen and Prince Charles. He has helped them to navigate their way through Megxit, Prince Andrew’s removal from public life following the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and, now, the Oprah controversy. “That has changed the way the Queen sees him and values his input,” a courtier says. William also feels his relationship with his grandmother has “massively improved” in recent years and their views are “more aligned than ever”.

Friends say there has also been a “renaissance” in William and Charles’s relationship. “As the years passed there were strains imposed by the system — money, work, competition, Diana,” one says. “Part of William’s evolution is that as he has become closer to his father, he sees their similarities. At William’s wedding there was a gag in one of the speeches that he was more like his father than he’d ever admit, which made a lot of us laugh. As their respective destinies get closer, it weighs more heavily on them and strengthens the bond. The rift with Harry has also brought them closer.”

William is said to hate “flummery”, though the role of future king comes with plenty of bowing and scraping. But in 2017, for the first time publicly, he didn’t get his way. As a new parent worried about rising teenage suicide rates, he had spent a year convening a Cyberbullying Taskforce with big cheeses from tech and social media giants including Facebook, Snapchat, Apple, Google and Twitter. He wanted them to adopt industry-wide guidelines creating safer online spaces for children. According to William the meetings at Kensington Palace got “fruity” and the tech giants didn’t come close to the change he wanted. He was furious.

Tessy Ojo, chief executive of the Diana Award youth charity, sat on the taskforce. “He was deeply disappointed,” she says. “He didn’t come into it as ‘the duke’, he gave emotional pleas as a father.” William has since publicly condemned social media giants for their “false choice of profits over values” and privately offered support to the family of Molly Russell, who took her life at 14 after viewing images of self-harm online. Ojo believes it is William’s “lived experience of the fragility of life that guides the work he does”.

It also shapes the way he and Kate are raising their family. William has said he is determined that the grandchildren Diana never knew should “know who she was and that she existed”. He “constantly” talks to his children “about Granny Diana” at bedtime, so that they know “there are two grandmothers in their lives”. Earlier this month on Mother’s Day, Kensington Palace’s social media feeds published George, Charlotte and Louis’s cards paying tribute to “Granny Diana”, revealing it is an annual ritual for the Cambridge children. After a difficult few weeks for William, a line in Charlotte’s card provided poignant insight into how he is feeling: “Papa is missing you.”

He is on course to be a more modern monarch than any before him, but William is still a creature of habit at heart. He has the same tight circle of friends from his schooldays, one of whom says that, with William, “it’s all about trust and loyalty”. He plays five-a-side football in his Villa socks when he can, goes to the Chelsea Harbour Club gym he went to as a child with his mother and has a “smart casual” public uniform of chinos, jacket, blue shirt and no tie.

“William’s not trying to be down with the kids,” a friend says. “He never wants to be painted as irrelevant or dull, though he’s allergic to being compared to celebrities. The public doesn’t always get to see his funny side, but otherwise he’s the same in private as in public. He once said, ‘I’ll be in the public eye all my life. I can’t hide who I am because I’ll be found out.’ ”

In 2019, during a visit to a youth homelessness charity supporting LGBT people, William was asked how he would feel if one of his children was gay. “Absolutely fine,” he replied. “I fully support whatever decision they make, but it does worry me from a parent’s point of view how many barriers, hateful words, persecution and discrimination might come.” Such a personal exchange was a radical departure from royal engagement small talk. But William, the first in his family to be photographed for the cover of a gay magazine, had personally put the issue on the agenda.

As president of Bafta he gave the academy a diplomatic dressing down in his speech at last year’s ceremony, expressing his “frustration” over the lack of diversity: “In 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process — that simply cannot be right in this day and age.” The 2021 nominees announced this month suggest his words hit home.

William “thinks the public look to him to keep royal work looking modern”, a confidante says. “The Queen and Prince of Wales are providing continuity and stability. He’s carving out his own relationship with diverse communities. He sees it all as a way of doing things now that will help a smooth transition when the time comes.”

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as a former frontline worker himself, William has led the royal charge supporting key workers. “Now, more than ever, he knows what his role in public life is, and he sees the value in it,” a close aide says. Chatting to NHS workers in January, William said: “Something that I noticed from my brief spell flying the air ambulance … is that when you see so much death and so much bereavement, it does impact how you see the world … as a … darker, blacker place.” Soon after the first lockdown was announced, the Cambridges’ Royal Foundation launched Our Frontline, a round-the-clock mental health and bereavement service for key workers.

Miguel Head says the future King William will continue to campaign on his big issues: “I can’t see him backing away from causes he’s passionate about. And while he’s not someone who loves ceremony, he knows the importance of it. When he gets the top job he won’t do away with it all. He’s mindful the monarchy represents something timeless that’s above all of us, and many people like the magic and theatre of it.”

Roya Nikkhah

Roya is royal correspondent at The Sunday Times. Over more than a decade she has covered royal events for the BBC, interviewed the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry and presented the films Prince William, Monarch in the Making and Meghan and Harry: The Baby Years.

#William #TeamQueen #TeamWilliam #TeamCambridge

[annarendellsa]

my heathers headcanons

it's the way i see them and draw them, you don't have to agree! this is based on both the musical and the movie

CW: mention of suic*de and e*ting disorders (bulimia) as well as various mental illnesses

Heather Duke

• heather duke is aromantic and yes its because she wears green, have you seen her socks in the off broadway musical? /hj

• more seriously, she IS aromantic but it took some time for her to figure out. she is allo but she doesn't label her sexuality, and she was always confused and frustrated to experience sexual attraction but never romantic attraction; she had a hard time accepting this part of herself.

• post heathers: maybe she discovers about non binary identities and asks her girlfriends to test out they/them pronouns on her? idk? aro-agender duke?

• she also struggles with empathy as she is naturally apathic

• and she's putting this image of a cold mean girl because she believes she can only be that given she's aro and ND

• post musical: she had no idea mcnamara actually tried to commit suic*de and when veronica tells her she breaks down in tears and spend a few days writing an apology letter to mcnamara

• post musical: mcnamara helps her to develop her compassion, knowing it's not her fault she's incapable of empathy. she didn't have to forgive her, but they did, and it really motivates duke to become a better person and be as nice as her

• post musical: she sees a doctor! she eventually recovers from her bulimia. veronica and mac are 100% supportive of her recovery, and very proud

• she gets bigger as part of her recovery and learns to embrace it

• duke is very pale with really dark and thick hair and eyebrows, soft features and quite a lot of body hair

• you know the bootleg where duke has blonde hair? when she's on the tv she speaks german and i vibe with german duke now

• duke Cannot say fuck and if someone is prude/innocent/idk it's her. the why are you pulling my dick was just to fluster veronica i think

Heather McNamara

• they use she/they pronouns!! just because. she still identifies as a girl though

• mac is autistic of course, it's like semi canon in the musical

• since she's very tall (movie) she stims while standing like being on the tip of her toes or rocking back and forth and the others can be quite annoyed because she moves a lot but they never snap at her

• post musical: veronica finds her stimming endearing and they know it's safe to stim around her, especially since veronica stims herself

• post musical: mac hums as a stim too and you can often find macnamawyer snuggling on the floor while humming in harmonies together

• she used to mask a LOT and it played a big part in her depression. she knows they had to stop themselves from stimming when she was a heather, she had been the weird kid in middle school but now that chandler took her under her wing, she has to pretend to be NT in order to stay in the lifeboat (😭)

• she's a lesbian!! of course she is

• she knows it since she is in middle school and has been """gal pals"""" with chandler since them but she still struggles with it she has comphet yk, but still less than chandler

• chanamara definitely practiced kissing together "to be ready when we'll have to kiss boys" 👀👀👀

• chandler always had a soft spot for mac and tried to hide it by being cruel to duke

• post musical: it took mac some time to understand that duke had nothing against her personally. she was chill with them until chandler died. from that moment she had to prove herself as the new queen bee and mac was a collateral victim

• duke definetely gave her trauma though and mac is in the process of trusting her again

• mac themselves is not a cinnamon roll just yet and she still has to make up for what they've done to others

• mcnamara has nicknames like mcNcheese or macaroni (veronica came up with those)

• they're also a vegetarian and she loves yellow food

• like she ever only eats yellow food actually (autistic thing). that girl is deficient! part of why she looks that fragile and thin

• also i see mcnamara as mixed race with golden/light brown skin and they have this type of curly curly hair but she straightens it all the time so it's only just wavy (once again, to blend in with the heathers)

• her natural hair colour is actually a dark strawberry blonde? her dad is irish and he's a redhead that's why (stole this from @cam-eats-candles hehe) but she dyes it so it's lighter

• post musical: she starts wearing her natural hair!! and goes with her mom to the afro hairdresser to start to get her curls done right (cornrows mac!!)

• their parents divorced (movie) and it's for the best. mac has daddy issues and only goes to her dad to get cute jewellery for their girlfriends 💖 (he doesn't just sell engagement rings. a lot of regular expensive rings, really)

• she's not a baby, she's not weak nor completely innocent and pure!! the girl is a head cheerleader, she's strong and flexible as hell.

Heather Chandler

• heather chandler is Also a lesbian BUT she is on the ace spectrum like demisexual? so yeah she's double disgusted when she "sleeps" with men

• as a queen bee she's also convinced that the only way to exist is through male validation :(

• chandler is taller than duke and veronica but shorter than mac

• chandler's skin is like rosy and it freckles very easily. i see her with the same cloudylike hair she has in the movie, dark blonde, with the red scrunchie only holding back some of her hair

• she is Buff and is genuinely into sports (lesbian jock like regina george)

• she has a sharp hourglass shape her shoulders are broad and her legs long and strong. she could lift veronica against a wall easily. and she did

Veronica Sawyer

• ADHD!! she's been diagnosed for a while but only became medicated post musical

• bisexual!! so bisexual!! without a preference. she's always been open and proud about it and her parents are supportive

• for me veronica is brown, with thick and dark hair and dark brown eyes, midsize, average height

Martha Dunnstock

• that's canon i know, but she's fat, and not the socially acceptable-hourglass kind of fat. big arms! big tummy! double chin! (i see fanart of her just being chubby quite often and it's ANNOYING like that's a big part of her character)

• she's perfectly healthy like this as are many fat people :))

• i also like the hc that her attempt at sewer slide made her permanently disabled and that she keeps using a wheelchair! because it happens, it's important to show it, and it gives me a lot of ideas for cute kindergarten girlfriends prompts 💓💓

• of course realistically being fat AND physically disabled in the 80's was and is not an easy thing to go through but it's in my head so

• she's also a tiny bit taller than veronica

• i don't hate the outfit she wears in the off broadway show, but I like her west end outfit better!! it's a lot more 80's inspired and i totally see her in kidcore/clowncore etc, even if pastels are cool too

• in the current west end version, martha is played by a black woman and she looks amazing! however I've been drawing and imagining martha as east/south east asian, for no reason really?? also idk kinda rubs me the wrong way that in the more official versions of heathers it's always duke that is black, or martha? not the others? hmm

• i'm not comfortable with hcs that exclusively babyfy her or patronise her like a bunny rabbit just bc she's a fat outcast who likes unicorns!! she's not just cute and giggly! martha can and does swear and she Fucks, like mcnamara

• big round glasses + big nose + long brown hair

• taking inspiration from the princess bride line but she's a huge movie nerd. yes she loves happy endings but she also loves horror movies, as long as they have a happy ending

• she never gets a makeover omg y'all just hate people with glasses and a childish aesthetic istg

• she takes this aesthetic further though and

• post musical and high school: she doesn't just wear baggy clothes anymore as she only did that to prevent more bullying. she develops an unique style with a lot of pink and glitter and she's awesome

------

ok this is getting long ill probably do more!! tell me what you think <3

#heathers #heathers the musical #heathers the movie #heather chandler #heather mcnamara #heathers west end #heather duke #martha dunnstock #veronica sawyer #chanamara #heathers headcanons #heathercanons #autistic mac #lesbian chandler #bironica #aro duke #dawn speaks #heathers musical #heathers movie #bulimia tw #suicide mention

[atlanticcanada]

Anglophone East schools getting new portables to cope with student surge

Four new portable classrooms at Anglophone East School District's largest school are now ready to welcome students.

Moncton High is one of four facilities getting new portables to help accommodate the influx of students this fall.

In total, 11 new portables are being built at Moncton High School, Lewisville Middle School, Riverview East School and Petitcodiac Regional School.

The district was expecting 300 to 400 new students, but instead received 1,182.

District superintendent Randy MacLean says he was surprised by the volume of new students.

"We projected a moderate increase, based on year over year averages for the last several years, but there was no way for us to predict an almost 1,200 student increase in enrolment," said MacLean.

The district's total enrolment is currently 18,007. The expected enrolment was 16,825.

Forty new teachers and 20 support staff have been hired and the Department of Education has granted the district an extra $5.4 million in funding.

Ukrainian newcomers make up 149 of the new students.

So where are the rest of the kids coming from?

"Everywhere," said MacLean. "We have migration from within the country. Students and parents moving from Ontario, parents moving from Quebec, parents moving from Alberta, moving back home."

Moncton High School currently has 1,431 students. It was originally built to house 1,250 students without portables.

Now with a total of eight portables, is MacLean concerned about bursting at the seems?

"Is the school at more bodies than what we had hoped for? Yes. We continue to respond in terms of those needs by adding portables. At the same time, as I said in the DEC [District Education Council] meeting the other day, we'll also be doing a systemic review in terms of boundaries and catchment areas," he said.

The district has already changed boundary areas for one K-8 school in the city to try and reduce the strain on Moncton High. It will also continue to explore options for boundary changes as a means of potentially alleviating some of the space issues at several of its schools.

Students are expected to move into the new portables at Moncton High this week. Four portables at Riverview East are scheduled to open in early November. One portable at Lewisville Middle School is expected to open at the end of November and two portable classes at Peticodiac Regional School should be ready by the end of December. 

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/FZRaf3c

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

[bex-la-get]

Hi! I'm new to tumblr and... can I request a fic where Ethan is the one who ask questions to Nat to test the new fMRI scan, but it is set on book 2 instead. Thank you and I admire your writings!

NONNY!!! I absolutely love this!!! I'm gonna say this takes place in mid-Book 2-ish.

K, before we start, I just wanna throw a disclaimer out there: my memory of Book 2 is fuzzy which means mistakes are likely. Sorry in advance if I get something wrong. Also, I'm not a medical professional, so any mistakes made are my own. Thank you.

Okay, let's go!!

Nat sat on the couch of the Diagnostics Office, absent-mindedly staring out the window and chewing on her lower lip. The last few weeks had been exhausting. Between the news that Edenbrook had lost its funding, Kyra's diagnosis, and the stress of being a Junior Fellow on the DT, it was all beginning to feel like it was too much. She wasn't sure how much more she could take at this point.

"Hey, you okay?" a voice asked.

She turned to the source and found Ethan looking at her, eyebrows furrowed in concern. She hadn't even heard him come in. She sat up straight. "Yeah, sorry; just needed to take a break."

"Nat," he said, coming to sit next to her. "It's okay if you're not. You don't have to be 'okay' all the time."

She sighed. "I know."

"What's going on?"

Nat shook her head. "Just... feeling a little overwhelmed is all. With everything going on as it is, it just kind of feels like a little too much."

Ethan nodded sympathetically. "I understand. The last few weeks have been... challenging, to say the least." Nat nodded in agreement and he gently ran his fingers along the back of her hand. "I wish I could offer you words of wisdom or at least better advice." He said, smiling sheepishly.

She gave him a small smile. "Just being here for me is enough. Thank you."

He returned her smile and linked his pinky with hers, giving it a tight squeeze. "I don't know if it will provide the distraction you need, but I could use your help with something if you have a few minutes?" Nat nodded. "The fMRI machine went on the fritz about a week ago and I was just told that it's back in working order. I'd like to test it out and make sure that it really is working normally. Care to help me out?"

"Sure," Nat said, "but only if you ask the questions this time. It's only fair since I did it last time."

Ethan chuckled and nodded. "Deal."

The two of them made their way to the imaging lab, set Nat up within the machine, then Ethan made his way into the control room. "Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Loud and clear, boss," Nat replied.

"Good. I presume you remember the drill from last year. I'll ask you some questions and see how your brain responds as you answer."

"Sounds good."

"All right. First question: What is your middle name?"

Nat scoffed over the speakers. "That's your first question?"

"What's wrong with the question?"

"It's boring. I distinctly remember asking you some scandalous questions."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Just answer the question, Rookie."

"Fine. Paige."

Ethan pursed his lips. Natalie Paige Cusack. Very pretty. Very her. Tucking this new knowledge into the back of his head he nodded as the scanner showing her brain lit up.

"All right. Next question: do you have any siblings?"

"Ethan, these are questions you can ask me in casual conversation," Nat protested. "Ask me something fun! I thought the point of this was to provide me a distraction, after all."

Ethan chuckled and shook his head. "Fine, answer this question while I think of something fun to ask you."

"Deal! In answer to your question, yes. I have an older brother named Victor but everyone calls him Vic. The only time I call him Victor is when he's in trouble."

"And just how often is he in trouble?" Ethan asked, amused. Nat's hippocampus lit up as she thought of her answer and he raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"When we were kids? All the time," she answered, giggling. "As an adult, less often. Though it still happens."

Ethan chuckled and nodded. "All right. Per your request, here's a fun question. What's an embarrassing story from your childhood?"

"Oooh, you went right for the jugular. Respect. I like it. Okay, um... have I ever told you the goblin story?"

"The goblin story?"

She laughed. "Oh, man! You're gonna love this. Okay, so when I was little, I had a pretty big nose. I grew into it as I got older, but when I was little, it wasn't proportional to my face at all." Ethan listened to the story with an amused smile on his face as the scan showed her pregenual anterior cingulate cortex light up during her story.

"One night," she continued, "I stupidly fell asleep with gum in my mouth and woke up with it all in my hair. It was a nightmare."

"Oh no," Ethan said.

"Yep," Nat confirmed. "It was so bad that the only thing we could do was cut as much out of it as possible, which left me with this terrible haircut that, low-key, had me looking like I had been electrified.

"Anyway, Vic's knee-jerk response at seeing me with my short hair and big nose was to promptly call me goblin. And the stupid nickname stuck! He still calls me it even though it was over twenty years ago!" She paused in her storytelling, expecting to hear a response but heard nothing instead. "Ethan? Are you there? You better not have left!"

The speakers turned on and all she heard was his laughter. "Are you laughing?! Ethan!"

Ethan tried to speak through his laughter. "I'm sorry, I sympathize, really." He laughed again and Nat rolled her eyes.

"You are the worst, you know that?" she told him.

"Sorry Nat," he said, finally getting his laughter under control. "I'm sure you made a very cute goblin."

Nat rolled her eyes. "Ugh, just ask your next question, Ramsey."

He chuckled again and thought for a moment when a question appeared in the back of his mind. Rationally, he knew he shouldn't ask it. It wasn't exactly professional and went against the reset rule he initiated.

But he had enjoyed getting to know more about Nat and he was curious. “Tell me about your first kiss.”

“Trying to figure out how I got such high standards?” she joked.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to trigger an emotional response in your brain. Go.”

She giggled. “Hmm.. first kiss. Um, it was my first boyfriend, Matt. I was a Freshman in high school and he kissed me during the slow dance at our Homecoming dance.”

Her limbic system lit up on the scanner. “Sounds romantic,” he mused, pushing down the surge of jealousy he felt at the thought Nat kissing another man, even if it had been when she was significantly younger.

“Mm, not really. He wasn’t really good at it. He was kind of slobbery, if I’m being honest.”

Ethan scrunched up his face. “Gross.”

“Very,” she confirmed.

“Last question,” he said. He knew this was approaching risky territory but damn it, if Nat didn’t make him want to throw every one of his morals and rules right out the window. And, if he were honest... he really wanted to hear the answer to this question. “What was the best kiss you’ve ever had?”

“Hmm...” she hummed in thought for a long moment, Ethan’s heart pounding as he waited for her reply. Finally, she spoke. “New Year’s Eve, 2017.”

Ethan’s heart sunk. “Oh? Why then?”

“My ex-boyfriend was moving. He had accepted a position at one of the National Labs in New Mexico and I knew I was staying on the East Coast so we split. When the Ball dropped at midnight, he gave me a goodbye kiss. Then he got in a moving van the next day and moved across the country.”

Her amygdala lit up like a Christmas Tree and Ethan frowned. Clearly that memory was still fresh for her. “That’s enough questions, Nat. I think we’ve done our job here.” 

Ethan stopped the machine and met Nat back in the lab as she stood up. Ethan had been prepared for Nat to be sad after that last story but instead, he found her smiling up at him. “That was fun. I needed that.”

“You needed to be put into a giant metal machine and have your brain looked at?” Ethan asked.

She lightly hit his shoulder. “You know that’s not what I mean.” Her smile grew, making Ethan’s heart skip a beat. “Thank you, Ethan. I appreciate the distraction.”

“I’m glad it helped,” he said, returning her smile.

“Well, I better go make my rounds,” she said as she began to make her way out of the lab. 

“Hey, Nat,” Ethan called. In a flash, he grabbed her hand, pulled her back to him, and cupped her face with his hands, giving her a searing kiss. Nat made a quiet noise of surprise at Ethan’s gesture but quickly melted into the kiss, her lips matching his fervor. His hands moved from her face to her waist as he pulled her impossibly closer, her arms circling around his neck as if to hold him in place. 

Neither knew how long they stood there. It could have been hours, days, even years. It didn’t matter; they didn’t care. In that moment, all they cared about was each other and they both hoped that the moment, however long it may have been, never ended.

But alas, eventually they broke apart at the sound of Nat’s pager beeping. Their lips separated, but neither moved very far apart, as they both fought to catch their breath. Ethan’s eyes were still closed, his forehead resting against hers as Nat opened her eyes. She nuzzled her nose against his and sucked in a breath when his blue eyes opened, locking with hers.

“What was all that for?” she asked in a whisper. 

He smiled sheepishly. “I may have taken slight offence as not being your best kiss ever.”

She pulled away slightly to look at him better, a giggle on her lips. “Did you get jealous after hearing about my ex?”

“No,” he retorted, defensively.

This time, she laughed. “You did! I can’t believe it, Ethan Ramsey got jealous. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re never going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope,” she confirmed. She leaned in close again and placed another chaste kiss on his lips. “But don’t worry, Ethan. You have nothing to worry about.” She pulled out of their embrace as her pager beeped again (thankfully it was just a notification that her latest lab test results were in and not an emergency). “I’ve had some much better kisses since then. One of them, in this very room.”

Ethan smirked. “Glad to hear I made the running.”

She returned his smirk. “You also might be interested to know, I was lying. That New Year’s kiss was best kiss I’ve ever had. But it was beat by a mysterious tall doctor on a balcony in Miami last year. You might remember him; he was a bit of a risk taker, that one.”

He chuckled. “He sounds familiar, I admit.”

“I hope he comes back,” she said as she made her way out of the room. “His kisses are mind-blowing.” She winked at him as she finished her statement then sauntered out of the room, leaving a smirking Ethan, shaking his head, behind.

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#bex answers #asked and answered #anonymous asks #anonymous prompts #ethan ramsey #natalie cusack #ethan x natalie #ethan x mc #open heart mc