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cihrp · 3 years

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The Resistance

Overview

Created in 2013, The Resistance was formed to counter the growing belief that humans and werewolves are viewed as lesser than the rest of society. Initially made to combat anti-humanism through violent raids and assaults, tactics have since changed under the new leadership of Jorey Yoon Lee. Now executing that mission through calculated and premeditated interventions, such as the extrication of human and werewolf prisoners, abolishing witch focused memorials or monuments, clandestine undercover work in fields of power, and much more--the Resistance has seen a higher recruitment and success rate.

Based in and around Salem's catacombs, the Resistance has a covert bunker more than sixty-five feet underground that acts as a main base of operations. It is here where a majority of Resistance personnel work, and where day to day activities occur. This is everything from pro-human/werewolf meetings, to the interrogation of anti-human supporters, to intel sharing and debriefs.

With the recent amendments to the Resistance comes a whole new mandate in which members believe in and work to enforce. Points in the mandate include some of the following:

Human Beings and Werewolves are not a lesser species.

Humans and werewolves are deserving of the same rights as other species.

Humans and werewolves are deserving to work in positions of power.

Equality can only be achieved upon first recognizing systemic speciesism in society.

History

- Formed in 2013, a few years after the witches have taken power and humans were made as inferior, under the leadership of Greyson Stilling.

- Greyson was a human Sergeant with the Salem police force, and began planning for a revolt against the supernatural community as early as 2011.

- His ideology shifted, however, upon noticing werewolves had also fallen victim to the witches tyranny.

- Greyson remained in power for nearly a decade, and in 2019 met a young werewolf by the name of Jorey Yoon Lee; a newly hired rookie constable who was to be trained under the expertise of Greyson himself.

- The following year in 2020, upon Greyson's passing, Jorey took over position of Commander of the Resistance, which at this point had begun to slowly flourish and grow in numbers.

- Although some of the morals and ethics of the Resistance have changed, it keeps the same foundational mission of restoring an equal balance in society.

Commander: (Reserved for Korra) Jorey Yoon Lee

The leader of the Resistance, it is their job to ensure the health and safety of their members while furthering the agenda of their cause. They make decisions on behalf of the entire organization and put its wellbeing before their own. All important information is relayed directly back to this individual, as in anyone of special interest to The Resistance. The Commander, although their role is mostly administrative, does go into the field during the more pressing and serious missions, as do they oversee some duties carried out by their Second in Command. Second in Command: (OPEN)

In charge of fulfilling a leadership role when the Commander can not, this individual has many responsibilities on their plate. They are tasked with overseeing simple, non- detrimental agenda's and act as the ambassador of the Commander in meetings and debriefs. The Second in Command has an army of sentries at their finger tips, and often deploys them to where they are needed in Salem. This means that, when need be, the Second in Command is in charge of giving the order for execution (a rare but still possible event).

Faction Lieutenants: OPEN (0/5)

South Salem - OPEN Witchcraft Heights - OPEN Gallows Hill - OPEN McIntire - OPEN The Point - OPEN

The Faction Lieutenants are five hand picked individuals from each district in Salem in charge of running the state of affairs in their corresponding faction. They are required to report to the Second in Command and Commander for monthly debriefs, where they - along with intelligence agents, share valuable information about any news or concerns of their faction. Faction Lieutenants often have many connections within their faction and usually are not of the human or werewolf species. These are individuals who, despite being a species in power, detest the current culture of society and wish to make a change. They hold positions of power in their primary career, such as being doctors, lawyers, CEO's, etc. This allows them to not only blend more with mainstream society, but also to use their contacts for the Resistance's benefit.

Medics: OPEN (0/5)

These people have several responsibilities within The Resistance. Aside from annual check-ups of personnel to ensure they are fit enough for duty, medics also care for those wounded by attacks from anti human supporters. One or two medics will also join sentries on assignments in case medical care is needed.

Intelligence Agents: OPEN (0/5)

These individuals are the eyes and ears of The Resistance; the spies so to speak. They gather intel about witch and anti human affairs and report to both the Faction Lieutenants and the Second in Command. Intelligence agents are essential in the Resistance's operation, as they provide information on the best place to strike, key influential figures of the opposing side, and on any attacks to their movement. These people also are the ones who will interrogate anti human supporters and their empathizers.

Sentries: OPEN (Unlimited)

Sentries are the enforcers, the people who join high ranking officials on missions and assignments meant to further their initiative. They are the brute force of The Resistance and are often the ones tasked with protecting the defending the main base of operations, and Resistance members from enemy aggression. Sentries are also the people who will utilize violence when it is absolutely necessary, and are extremely trained and skilled in the art of combat. They are the soldiers of this faction, and keep it functioning even in the midst of terrible onslaught. Sentries report back to the Second in Command with any troubling information.

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If you would like to reserve an open spot in this canon, please send us a message on here with your reserve (council or shifter union/position + character name + alias) and we will make updates! Additionally, you can message Korra at korra#0638 to discuss the faction, roles, or its leader at any time, if you would like. Reserves are first come, first serve. Once your canon is reserved, we will update this post and our reserves list, and you will have two (2) weeks after the soft open to finish your character before the hold on that position is released.

#crownedinhorns #cihrp #site buzz #factions #faction update #canons #open canons #canon reserves #the resistance

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worryinglyinnocent · 3 years

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Fic: Safe and Sound

Summary: Woven Lace. Follow-up to August’s No Bat Signal, But Close. Weaver rescues his informant Lacey when she finds herself in a dangerous situation.

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling December non-smut prompt: “I need you.”

Rated: T

Safe and Sound

“Please come. I need you.”

They were five such small and simple words and yet they made Weaver stop dead in his tracks with fear. He’d been in a meeting with his captain when his phone had started vibrating and he’d ignored the call, but listening to the ensuing voicemail, just those five little words, he was kicking himself. He should have checked the number and taken the call. He should have… Never mind what he should have done then, he needed to do something now.

Lacey. She had sounded so scared in her message, and it was clear from the hitched and breathless tone that she had been running whilst she was calling him. Weaver took off through the station, sending other officers flying in his desperate bid to get to their rendezvous point, hoping that it wasn’t too late, hoping that whatever Lacey was running from had not caught up to her.

She picked up on the first ring when Weaver called her back, and he didn’t think he’d ever been so relieved to hear another human being’s voice.

“Weaver?”

“Lacey, are you ok? Are you safe? Where are you?”

He was never normally so overt when he spoke to her, not knowing who might be around and who might be listening in on the other side. If Lacey was still in danger then he wasn’t doing her any favours, but he was into desperation now, past the point of coherent thought and good police procedure.

“I’m at the usual place. I’m ok, I think. No-one followed me here.”

Weaver kept on running through the stinging stitch in his side. “Are you hurt?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

“A bit,” Lacey admitted eventually. “It’s not as bad as it could have been. I’m pretty handy when I need to be.”

Weaver didn’t doubt it, but he still wanted to see her for himself. At last, he was forced to slow down as their usual haunt came into view, his legs nearly giving out under him, and he made himself stop and do a proper sweep of the area to check for unwanted company before he made his way to the roof.

“Lacey? Lace?”

She was huddled in one corner, her jacket pulled over her head, and he would have overlooked her completely if a pale, scared face hadn’t peeked out at the right moment. Her lip was swollen and split and her brow ridge purple with bruising; she’d been hit hard in the face but other than that she looked ok.

“Oh Lacey, I’m so sorry.”

Weaver skidded across the roof, still slick with recent rain, and he landed heavily on his knees in front of her.

“It’s ok. It’s not like you’re the one who punched me.”

“No, but…” But he knew the precarious situation that she was in and he hadn’t pulled her out when he should have done.

Then again, Lacey wouldn’t have appreciated him doing a knight in shining armour act before she needed it. She needed him now, and he was here now, and that was all that could be said.

“Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.”

Lacey accepted his hand to help her to her feet, and neither of them spoke until they were back down in the street, Lacey keeping to the shadows as Weaver hailed a cab for them. She didn’t ask where the safe place was; they both knew well enough that the only safe place he had was his apartment.

Weaver glanced sideways at Lacey in the back of the cab as they drove on. She wasn’t looking at him, instead staring out of the window. The last time that they had met, she had said that she couldn’t take living this life much longer, and he had offered to save her from it. She had declined then, but they had both known that it would not be long before she ceased to be on his informant books - whether that was because she had slipped away to something better in the middle of the night without trace, or she had made it official. Weaver liked to think that she would have made it official; he could still remember the desperation in her kiss on the rooftop before she had said goodbye to him the last time. It was a goodbye kiss, but one with the fervent hope that it would not be goodbye forever.

Now things were different. She had not left her world of her own accord. She’d not had any time to prepare for this. She’d been thrust out of the underbelly that had been her existence for so long, and now she had nowhere to go, no plans.

All she had was Weaver, and he was determined that whatever happened now, Lacey was going to be safe, and was going to be able to continue living her life with his gratitude for everything that she had done for him.

She remained silent until they reached his apartment, and it was only once they were inside with the door locked and bolted that she finally let her guard down a little, and Weaver could see tear tracks beginning to clear their way through the blood and mascara on her face. She had held herself together so well, and now that there was no need to do so anymore, she could let the sheer weight of the terror and desolation that she had no doubt been feeling for hours at this point come down on her.

“It’s ok.” Weaver pulled her in close as she cried against his shoulder. “It’s ok, I’ve got you, you’re safe now.” He knew that she must have had one hell of a night. Lacey had always been guarded with her emotions, and she’d never really let him see her cry like this before. Her vulnerability was a liability in the life that she’d led, and it was something she had always tried to keep hidden. Now, with that life in tatters behind her, there was no need for the pretence anymore and her facade was crumbling.

Weaver didn’t know how long they stood there in the entryway, but he knew he would have gladly stood there for hours if that was what it took. Eventually though, Lacey pulled away, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand, smarting slightly against the bruising on her face.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Come on in, let’s get you cleaned up.”

He led her through to the main room, making her comfortable on the couch whilst he went over to the little kitchen, making coffee and gathering up his first aid supplies. Lacey hissed as the hot beverage touched her cut lip and put it on one side, obediently turning her face up towards Weaver as he examined her injuries, carefully cleaning away the blood with cotton wool, water and disinfectant that brought fresh tears to her eyes. The cut on her lip was deeper than he’d thought, and he wondered if whoever had hit her hand been wearing rings. He hoped it wouldn’t need stitches, but that was a thought for the morning. Lacey probably wouldn’t take kindly to being dragged out to the hospital when he had just told her that she would be safe here.

Weaver sat back on his heels and looked critically at the results of his limited expertise. At least there was no blood anymore, but with her face now clean of make-up, the bruising against Lacey’s pale skin now looked even more violent.

“Thank you,” Lacey whispered. “Thank you for saving me.”

“I think you saved yourself, really.”

She shook her head. “No. That’s not what I mean. I would never have had the courage to run if I hadn’t known that I could rely on you as a safe harbour. I’d be dead in a dumpster somewhere tonight if I hadn’t known that I could run to you.”

Whatever words that Weaver had been about to say choked in his throat at that image, and he pushed it as far to the back of his mind as he could.

“I’ll always be here for you,” he said, and Lacey nodded.

“I know. That’s what makes you special.”

He couldn’t kiss her, not whilst her face was still so beaten up and her lip was still open, but her forehead had escaped relatively unscathed, and Weaver gently cupped her face and dropped a little kiss there. Lacey caught his hands, keeping him there and nudging her forehead against his.

“What do we do now?” she murmured. “I didn’t exactly have a plan when I ran. All I have are the clothes I’m standing up in at the moment.”

There were several things to do, of course. Weaver would try and get into Lacey’s abode and rescue some of her things if she would tell him where she lived. There were reports to file, there were the people who did this to her that needed to be tracked down. All that could wait for a better time though.

“Now we make things better,” Weaver said. “If we can.”

Lacey smiled, although it turned into a grimace. “I like to think that we can.”

Weaver liked to think so too.

#A Monthly Rumbelling #rumbelle fic #woven lace #Lacey French #Detective Weaver #Fic: Safe and Sound

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thegreatfanblog · 4 years

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Hey, I love your Orlo fics so muchh and honestly I can't wait for you to continue them!! If you're taking requests can u maybe write one where the reader and Orlo are in a relationship and at the end of a day, Orlo is trying not to have a breakdown because of those insults he gets everyday (and most importantly not to show it to the reader because he thinks it's a sign of weakness??) but the reader eventually finds out and comforts him saying how much she loves him and how amazing he is?? Thx

thank you so much for the request!! i hope you like it <33

The monthly meetings between Emperor Peter and the country’s nobles took the most out of Orlo, he thinks. He always found himself in the middle of the Emperor’s bullheadedness and the nobles’ threatening forces. Always to be crushed between the two. It was fucking tiring to be frank.

Today Emperor Peter had decided to take an extreme stance against non-Russian alcohol of all things, putting several noble’s trade relations in jeopardy. He decided this in the middle of a meeting with one of said nobles, interrupting the other man to smash the gifted 50-year-old Venetian wine at his feet. The entire room sat in silence, shocked.

When the nobleman looked towards Orlo, awed by Peter’s stupidity and insolence, he jumped into action trying to placate everyone.

“Emperor-“

He held up a hand, silencing Orlo embarrassingly fast. The Emperor raised an eyebrow.

“As well behaved as a dog today,” he mused, bringing a flush to Orlo’s face. “Orlo, you bitch, bark for me.”

Orlo’s face and ears burned at the amount of blood rushing towards them. He would not. The Count stared defiantly at the Emperor, jaw clenched shut. The room stayed deadly silent. Peter opened his mouth, but his words went unheard by Orlo over the roaring inside his ears. The Emperor grew furious.

Grigor handed Peter a knife, who then stalked forward, quickly applying it to the Count’s throat and pressing. Sound returned to him.

“You are going to die, you fucking piece of sh-“

Orlo let out a rough bark, the edges of it frayed with the dryness of his throat and the lack of mobility against the cold blade. Mirth returned to the Emperor’s face.

“Louder.”

Orlo did what he said, for all in the room to hear. He heard Arkady and Grigor laugh, followed by Peter’s own bellow, causing him to flinch.

“Get the fuck out.”

The knife was removed from his throat and he bolted to his desk, gathering his notes and exiting. The echo of their laughter followed him down the halls, embedding itself in his brain.

Orlo banged open the doors to his apartments violently, slamming them shut afterwards. Throwing his notes on his desk, he stood stiffly next to it, his anger growing. Hot tears betrayed the Count, slipping down his face, and that was the final straw. Orlo picked up a book, throwing it at the wall.

It wasn’t enough. He grasped the edge of his desk, throwing it onto its side, paper, books, and ink scattering alike. His chest heaved with exertion and angry sobs as he collapsed onto his desk chair, defeated. Orlo buried his face into his hands in shame. He stayed like that for a long while.

—

It was hours later when the man came to. Without realizing it, Orlo had been sitting in the dark for an unknown amount of time, not paying attention to the change of light. Then he remembered.

Y/N! he thought, springing up from his chair. Fuck, what is the time? He desperately searched for a clock, realizing he had broken it in his rage. You were meant to come over after your shift in the kitchens and he had no idea what time it was. Orlo couldn’t let you see him like this. He rushed to right the fallen desk, stacking papers without care on top of it, and rearranging the, now broken, clock onto the desk along with other various items strewn about. The Count crouched under the desk to reach one last pen that had fallen...

A knock at the door rang throughout the room. Orlo startled from his position, banging his head against the desk in his rush. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He barely caught himself from raging again.

“One second!” he called, throwing the pen onto the desk and quickly walking over to the door. He paused, taking a deep breath and smoothing out the fabric of his vest, before plastering on a small smile and gently opening the door.

You had a rather lovely smile on your face, up until you had time to take him in fully. Your eyes tracked from his wild hair, strands escaping his bow in mass, to his red eyes, to his tear stained cheeks, until finally they bore into a line of blood that crossed his throat. You pushed your way into his rooms, grabbing him by the arm and leading him back to the desk chair. You pushed him to sit.

“It’s really nothing, I’m fine,” he tried to say, but you ignored him, leaving him in search of supplies to clean the wound. Finding them, you returned. You set them on the desk next to him and immediately began washing the wound in silence. Orlo didn’t dare to speak.

“What happened?”

When he wasn’t forthcoming, you put down your cloth and took his face into your gentle hands, rubbing under his eyes with your thumbs. Orlo’s eyes darted away for yours and he stayed silent. You took in a shaky breath. Unable to help yourself, your body swallowed his into a hug, the different levels forcing his face into your chest awkwardly. You did not care, hugging him for several minutes in silence. You could feel his own trembling breaths against you.

Giving him a kiss to his forehead, you pulled away to finish your work on his neck. Orlo immediately ducked his head after the release. You heard his quiet sniffles and knew he was trying to hide his weakness from you. As if you would care.

You stroked his hair, moving your hands to undo the disoriented bow. You gave him time to collect himself, letting him know you were there for him when he chose to come out of hiding. Patiently, kindly, and lovingly, you waited.

Orlo’s head slowly rose and your hands remained in his hair, gently untangling it as he revealed himself. There were tears in his eyes, and fresh tracks patterning his cheeks. Giving him your own watery smile, you wiped away a stray tear on his cheek. He exhaled, body turning to jelly after how tense he had made himself.

You resumed cleaning, wrapping his neck with a pristine bandage when you were finished. Urging him to stand, you led him towards his bed, stripping him of his tight vest and pinching shoes. He collapsed onto it, and after stripping yourself of your dirty apron and shoes, you joined him, both of you reclining into the many pillows. You tucked Orlo’s face into your neck, allowing him a small semblance of privacy. You laid in silence. And waited.

He finally spoke, his voice rough from lack of use.

“He made me bark.”

You blood ran hot, and you took deep breaths through your nose while stroking his back to calm yourself.

“When I didn’t, he pressed a knife to me...” he trailed off pitifully. “You deserve better. I truly am a coward.”

Your hand stilled on his back and you felt him tense against you. You resumed so as not to worry, collecting your thoughts while monotonously gliding your hand up and down his back.

“... You are alive, I can still feel your heartbeat, and that is all that matters to me.”

He sobbed quietly against your neck, wetting it with his tears.

“Orlo,” you nudged him to look up at you, so he could see how intensely you felt. “You are no coward. You are human; you acted for your survival, not simply laying down and dying.”

You continued, wiping his tears away, making it known how much you love him with your touch and soft gaze.

“The fault lies in him, Orlo. Not you. I will never blame you for what he does. I am... immensely relieved you chose life over death. You make me so happy each and every day.”

You kissed his forehead, tucking loose hair behind his ear.

“I would have had to kill him myself, Catherine’s plans be dammed.”

Orlo smiled through his tears, huffing a laugh and plopping his head onto your chest again.

“She would not like that.”

“Then fuck her.”

His giggle vibrated your chest, bringing warmth to your core. God, you loved this man. You would spend every second of your life proving it to him if you could.

#hes a softy #i hope the characterization was okay in this!#orlo #count orlo #mine #ficlet #peter #the great #cathrine #arkady #grigor #long post #count orlo x reader #count orlo/reader #request

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thebluemartini · 5 years

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Far From the Shallow - Chapter 1 [Nessian Fic]

TITLE: Far From the Shallow

SYNOPSIS: Post-ACOFAS. As part of a deal with Feyre, Nesta has agreed to live with Cassian in the Illyrian Mountains. However, shortly after her arrival, she receives that startling news that she's pregnant from one of her one-night stands. While she tries to quickly get a grip on her life, Cassian’s determined to make her see that she’s not facing this alone.

FIC LENGTH: Multi-chapter

*Also posted on AO3 and FF

TAGGING some folks who have expressed interest in my Nessian fics before: @dreaming-of-bohemian-nights @queenofillea1 @trash-for-nessian @nestaarcheronwillkillme @my-fan-side @strangeenemy @maastrash @cageddovepoetry @bybooksanddreams @lilbat90 @ritamordio19 @aelinashryvergalathyniusblog

A/N: This fic takes place right after that teaser for the Nessian novel at the end of ACOFAS. We're jumping straight into the drama with this first chapter! :)

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CHAPTER 1: October - Part I

Cassian could already hear her throwing up behind the bathroom door.

They had only been in the Illyrian Mountains together for one week - one week - and somehow Nesta had already gotten her hands on some alcohol. He wasn’t sure how that was even possible. Before she even arrived, he’d gone through his cabin from top to bottom, removing all the bottles of alcohol he could find. He went so far as to inform the few taverns and shops in the area that if a non-Illyrian female paid them a visit, it would be in their best interest to not serve her. He even slipped them each a good amount of money as encouragement.

But perhaps Nesta’s formidable presence was enough to make anyone cave...especially when there were already rumors spreading that the female currently inhabiting the General Commander’s home was a witch.

However Nesta may have gotten the alcohol...his High Lady certainly wasn’t going to be thrilled with him for allowing it to happen.

The sun’s rays had begun to break through the windows that morning. He had just gotten dressed for training with some of the Illyrians and came down the stairs when he heard the sounds of Nesta gagging in the bathroom.

At that moment, the door creaked open to reveal Nesta in a long lavender nightgown. When she found him standing in the entryway, her eyes briefly widened in surprise, but she quickly masked her face into a calm, cool expression. She turned her gaze away from him and brushed past him, heading toward the room in Cassian’s home that had become her temporary bedroom.

But Cassian wasn’t going to let her go that easily…

“Well, I guess you sure enjoyed yourself last night,” he remarked sarcastically.

Nesta paused and turned to face him. “What are you talking about?” she asked coldly.

“It sounds like you treated yourself to a lot of alcohol last night, despite the fact that that wasn’t part of the deal you made with your sister.”

Nesta narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms against her chest. “How the hell would I have gotten drinks when there’s not a single bottle in here nor will the nearby bartenders sell me any thanks to you?”

“You tell me,” Cassian stated as he also folded his arms across his chest and stared at her.

“I didn’t have a single drop of alcohol last night,” Nesta replied in an irritated tone.

“Well the sounds of you vomiting this morning say otherwise.”

“I didn’t even go out last night. I was here in my room in this freezing, wretched cabin all night. You know this,” she added with the Cassian is a complete and utter dolt look upon her face.

Cassian thought back to the night before. He had made dinner and left a bowl of food on the floor outside Nesta’s bedroom door as he had done the past few nights. She’d refused to eat with him, but he found that she was at least a little hungry to eat some of the food he made. He remembered hearing her open and close the door to retrieve it...but that was it. He didn’t recall hearing her bedroom door or the cabin’s front door open or close after that.

There was still a chance she could’ve climbed out her window though. While eyeing her suspiciously, he spoke. “Then why are you throwing up?”

“I. Don’t. Know,” she answered in a frustrated tone.

His eyes roamed over her gaunt face and bony body. Then he stared into her eyes of steel, which gave no indication that she was lying. Ordinarily, if she bested him at something or disobeyed him, Nesta would revel in gloating about it. In fact, she would’ve probably enjoyed doing that more than drinking.

Cassian’s gaze softened. “Do you want me to send for a healer?”

“Do whatever you want,” she answered bitterly. Suddenly, her face paled and she brought her hand up to her face to cover her mouth as she raced back to the bathroom.

“I’ll get the healer,” Cassian muttered to himself as he walked away.

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She had felt terribly nauseous all morning and now for most of the afternoon.

She must’ve been coming down with something. Perhaps her body did not adapt well to the despicable conditions of living in the Illyrian Mountains. It was much colder than Velaris. There was snow everywhere, and it was only October. She dreaded what the winter would be like.

Her sister probably wanted to punish her by not only sending her to live with an arrogant, oversized bat, but by freezing her to death as well. She was always shivering in Cassian’s cabin and constantly searching for a blanket to wrap herself with.

Feyre had told her that she would continue providing her a monthly allowance if she lived here for one year, or for as long as Cassian remained there to resolve the issues among the Illyrians, whichever came first. (And from what she gathered, it could take several years for Cassian to settle the discontent among the Illyrians.)

However, Cassian was left in charge of distributing her monthly allowance while she was here, and if he ever caught her drinking, Feyre had told him to deduct the monthly amount. And yet, she didn’t even currently need money for much, considering how dull Illyria was and how Cassian was providing her with housing and food. She supposed she could attempt to get a drink at some point when she really felt the need to escape, since there wouldn’t be much of a consequence…

But last night, she certainly did not get drunk. All she did last night was nibble on the dinner Cassian had made within her room, then read one of her favorite novels until she fell asleep. Before the sun even rose, she found herself rushing to the washroom to vomit.

Maybe she got food poisoning from dinner, and this was all that bastard’s fault.

At least he had the decency to send for a healer so she could find out what the hell was wrong with her.

...Even if that healer seemed to have peculiar methods for performing her checkup.

First, she did what human physicians would’ve done, which was ask about her symptoms, check her forehead for a fever, and take a look at her throat. But then she prodded her stomach and breasts and asked her to urinate into a vial that contained a exotic-looking crimson leaf. Nesta assumed it was some fae thing and did as instructed, but once she handed over the filled vial, Mara, the healer, vigorously shook it.

Nesta stared after her in confusion as she sat upon her bed and watched as the leaf’s color turned into a very light shade of purple. One of Nesta’s eyebrows rose into an arch at the sight.

“Just as I suspected…” The healer said softly as she held up the vial and stared at it. “You’re pregnant.”

Nesta’s eyes shot up to meet Mara’s and stared at her.

She waited for Mara to suddenly burst into laughter and tell her this was all just a joke.

Instead, she just remained silent and stared back at her with no trace of mirth upon her face.

Perhaps, Nesta had simply misheard. It couldn’t possibly be true.

“What?” Nesta said.

“You’re pregnant,” Mara repeated.

Nesta blinked.

“You’re lying,” Nesta replied harshly. “Did Cassian come up with this prank?”

“I am not lying,” Mara said firmly.

It felt as if the air had left Nesta lungs, and it was becoming difficult for her to breathe.

“How -” she began to say as she hyperventilated. “How do you know?”

“The leaf’s color turned to a light purple, which indicates pregnancy,” Mara said as she handed the vial to Nesta so she could see for herself.

With trembling fingers, Nesta took the vial from her and stared at the leaf inside. “What color would it be if I wasn’t pregnant?”

“It wouldn’t have changed color.”

Not wanting the light purple leaf in her line of vision, Nesta enclosed the vial within her fist and tightened her grip on it.

“Is Cassian the father?” Mara asked. “Do you want him here as I explain -”

“No,” Nesta cut her off. “He is not the father, and I certainly don’t need him here.”

To her credit, Mara didn’t flinch at Nesta’s sharpness nor was she riled up by it. Instead, she remained composed and proceeded to explain that she estimated Nesta was about two months pregnant as well as what to expect over the next several months.

But as Mara rattled on, Nesta found she could not focus on most of the words she was saying. Instead, she stared blankly at the bedroom wall across from her.

You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant.

The words kept repeating in her head over and over again.

In approximately seven months, she would be having a baby.

A baby.

She tried to let the words sink in, but somehow it just didn’t feel real.

How could she have been so stupid? She had been taking a daily draught to prevent pregnancy, but in her drunken stupor she must have forgotten to take it some days.

Now she was going to be a mother. And she didn’t have a single clue who the father was. She never bothered to find out the names of the males she slept with. She couldn’t even remember most of their faces. To her, they were just tools she used to help her to escape.

So she’d be left to face this unexpected pregnancy alone.

She didn’t even have a grip on her own life...and now she would have to take care of someone else’s?

The room was suddenly stifling. She had to get out of there.

As Mara was talking, Nesta abruptly got up off the bed and grabbed her coat from her closet, leaving the room without an explanation to the healer and still carrying the vial in her hand.

As she walked past the living room to get to the front door, Cassian looked up from his spot upon the sofa in the living room. Upon seeing her, he stood up and started walking in her direction.

“Nes? Are you all right? Where are you going?”

She didn’t have time for this. She couldn’t deal with him right now. She needed to get out.

“Out,” she replied stiffly without even a glance at him. She stepped outside the front door and shut it loudly behind her.

She hugged her coat tightly around her, hating the bitter cold that surrounded her. Yet, it was better than feeling trapped within that room, that house...a physical reminder of the life that’s she’s currently trapped in. A life she did not want.

She wasn’t yet familiar with the area and didn’t really know where she was going. She just let her feet tread through the snow and wander to wherever they wanted to go. Instead, she was more focused on the words pounding through her head.

You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant. You’re pregnant.

It was like the water was rushing in over her, and she could feel herself being submerged again. A moment that had changed the course of her life forever.

She eventually came across some Illyrians gathered around a bonfire, chatting and laughing. However, when they noticed her, they immediately went silent and stared suspiciously at her, probably wondering what the witch would do.

And while she didn’t give a damn what they thought about her...she still felt like a complete outsider.

And utterly alone.

Then she heard it.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The cracking of the logs in their fire felt like it reverberated through her, as if she herself was slowly cracking. It may have been logs cracking, but to her, it was a replay of her father’s neck snapping over and over again.

Hurriedly, she turned away from the Illyrians and strode toward the nearby wooded area. Her pace got faster and faster as the waves began to crash within her. She needed to get to somewhere private before she drowned.

Her boots crunched through the snow as she went through the stretch of trees. Once she knew she was hidden from view, her knees buckled, and she crumbled to the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she chucked the glass vial at one of the trees and watched the glass shatter before her.

She was an outsider in her own life...this life she never wanted. Growing up, the plan had simply been to attend balls and socialite events, marry well, and produce heirs. Now, here she was in the fae realm she hadn’t known existed for most of her life. She was forced to become a fae against her will, had to take part in a ridiculous war since she had powers she never asked for, and leave the human life she had known to live in the Night Court. Then she even lost her choice of where to live in the Night Court when her own sister forced her to go to the Illyrian Mountains.

Placing her hand against her stomach, she cringed at the thought of getting through her pregnancy alone, when she didn’t even know anything about fae pregnancies. How the hell was she supposed to raise a child? A fae child no less, when she hardly knew anything about fae life?

Would Feyre end up changing her mind about her living in the Illyrian Mountains and dictate once more where she should go and control how she should take care of herself and the baby?

As always, Nesta felt the control that she so constantly desired slowly slip out of her fingers.

She couldn’t help but let multiple sobs escape her as she wondered how she could even go on in this world, feeling so alone and powerless.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Nesta’s abrupt departure, Cassian was about to follow after her, but then Mara walked out of Nesta’s bedroom with a solemn look upon her face.

“What’s wrong with her? Is she all right?” Cassian questioned her.

“She’s...not ill. Just in shock, I think,” she replied.

He gave her a perplexed look. “Why?”

“That is something I cannot disclose,” she said gently. “It is up to her if she wants to share it with you.”

Cassian nodded in understanding. “Do you think I should go after her?”

“She may need some time alone to process.”

Cassian nodded again and pondered what news could’ve possibly sent her bolting out of the cabin.

And then it suddenly hit him.

She couldn’t be pregnant, could she?

The question raged through Cassian’s mind as he thanked the healer and bid her goodbye. Closing the door behind her, he began to pace back and forth in his living room.

It seemed to fit. Nesta was throwing up in the morning, and Mara said she wasn’t ill, but was something that would’ve shocked her so...that seemed to leave only one option.

Did she even want to have a baby? With the new, totally careless Nesta of the past year, he couldn’t tell what she wanted anymore.

Looking at his window, he saw the sun was beginning to set and something in his gut told him he should go find her and make sure she was okay. All everyone had been telling him was that Nesta needed time. After the war, all everyone - Mor, Az, Rhys, Feyre, and Elain - had told him was to give Nesta time.

And then in that time, she wasted away and drowned herself in alcohol. The Nesta he knew was lost.

Now Feyre wants to just give her time in the Illyrian Mountains to see if she can get herself together, while he just served as her keeper. Now the healer is telling him to give her time to process whatever news she just heard.

But what if what Nesta didn’t need was time, what if she just needed someone to be there?

He needed to find her and make sure she was okay. There was a chance she wouldn’t appreciate it, considering she always complained about him trying to bud into her life.

And yet, he couldn’t stop caring about her. He couldn’t let go of the girl who shielded his body with her own and nearly died with him on the battlefield.

So he wouldn’t bud in...he could just try to be there for her. Just like she was there for him.

And who knew if she encountered any of the Illyrians?

That thought gave Cassian a sickly feeling in his stomach. Quickly, he headed out the cabin door.

Luckily, it hadn’t been long since she left and it hadn’t been snowing, so he was still able to make out her footprints in the snow and followed them.

It was when the footprints led to the bonfire in the middle of the camp that following them got a bit tricky, considering it was an area where a many various footprints had been that day. As he took a gander around the camp, he caught the eye of Devlon.

Cassian sighed when he saw him start marching towards him.

“We’re going to need to talk about this witch of yours living here, Cassian,” he stated.

“That’s General Commander to you, and we’ll have to talk about this another time,” Cassian replied as he frantically looked around. “Have you seen her?”

Devlon gave him a stern, unimpressed look before nodding his head in the direction of the nearby wooded area.

Cassian nodded in gratitude. “Thank you. We will talk later.”

Devlon let out a “hmph” as Cassian trudged away from him and toward the forest instead.

When he reached the trees, it was harder to see as the sky grew darker. In the limited light, he scanned through the trees but didn’t see her. Taking a whiff, he detected a trace of her scent and did his best to follow it.

But it wasn’t until he heard sobbing that he was able to finally find her.

Slowly, he walked up behind her and found her sitting on her knees with her face buried in her hands. The sight of her looking so broken nearly broke him. He had never seen her like this before, so openly crushed. He’d always seen her trying to cover up and hide her feelings, maintaining a cool facade.

He walked up right behind her and noticed her body immediately go still. “Nesta…” he began to softly say in hopes of not frightening her.

She quickly wiped the tears away from her eyes with the backs of her hands before she turned and looked back up at him.

For once, she didn’t look at him like some nuisance nor was she glaring at him. Instead, she wore her sadness on her face and allowed him to see her puffy eyes.

Cassian came up beside her and crouched down on his knees.

“Nesta, are you all right?”

She took a look down at the ground before her, where all her tears had fallen. “I’m pregnant,” she announced quietly.

His thought was confirmed, so he nodded to indicate that he had heard her but said nothing more. He wasn’t sure what he could say. Usually, such news would elicit congratulatory remarks. But this...didn’t seem like a time for congratulating. He wondered if she knew who the father was, but that didn’t seem like an appropriate question to ask.

After they sat in silence for a few minutes, Nesta spoke again.

“Are you going to kick me out?” Nesta softly asked.

Cassian’s eyes widened in surprise that she would think that he would do such a thing. “What? No!”

“When Feyre made you a part of this deal, you didn’t know I’d be pregnant so -”

“I’m not kicking you out,” Cassian cut her off gently. “But if you told her, I’m sure she would reconsider this whole arrangement.”

Nesta let out a shaky breath. Wiping away her tears again, her voice grew stronger and transitioned into her typical steely tone that Cassian was used to hearing from her. “I am not telling her about this. And you can’t tell her either. Or anyone for that matter.”

“But she’s my High Lady.”

“So?”

Cassian sighed. “She expects me to report how you’re doing. How can I just ignore this? And when she finds out - because she will eventually find out - she’ll wonder why I didn’t tell her and Rhys.”

Nesta began shaking her head furiously as more tears fell. “Ever since learning of this fae world, I’ve lost more and more control of my own life. Give me this,” she pleaded.

“Why can’t she know?”

“If she’s going to send me away from her city and out of her life, she doesn’t deserve to know what’s happening in my life. Let her feel excluded like me for once. If I tell her, she’ll likely take control as she always does,” Nesta explained angrily. “In time, she will eventually find out, like you said. Maybe then she’ll finally realize she shouldn’t have forced me to live here to begin with.”

Cassian took a deep breath. It would take a long time for Nesta’s animosity toward her sister to go away.

“Do you promise not to tell her?” Nesta asked again.

He said nothing. He couldn’t disobey or deceive his High Lady and High Lord...it would be dishonorable.

“Cassian, please.”

She never said his name. She often referred to him as “that one” or called him a fool, a bastard, or an oversized bat.

Never his own name.

And she certainly never pleaded him for something before, which strangely made him feel compelled to appease her.

He took a deep breath. “I...promise not to tell her or anyone else unless it seems absolutely necessary.”

Nesta stared back down at the ground. “Well, you were never good at keeping your word anyway,” she muttered bitterly. “I don’t know why I even bothered to ask.”

Her words cut through him like a knife because they were true. He had promised to protect her, and he had failed.

“Nesta, you don’t understand. I can’t - ”

Nesta held up her hand, gesturing for him to stop. Then, her face paled and she quickly bent over onto her hands and knees. Shortly after, she threw up in the snow.

As she stayed in that position and continued to heave, Cassian kneeled down beside her. He reached out and pulled back her hair that had gotten tangled around her face. A shiver went through her when he touched her. He wasn’t sure if was from the cold or his touch.

And for as long as she retched, he continued to hold back her hair.

He may not have been able to completely honor her request, but for now, he could at least be there for her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N: I've been simmering on this fic idea for quite awhile - since July actually, when I saw Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and got the idea for this fic XD I've done all kinds of outlining and writing since then. I currently have half the fic written so I can hopefully provide steady updates! (Posting every other week is the goal!)

The idea for this fic is there will be one chapter for each month of Nesta's pregnancy...some months will have 2 chapters though because I have too much drama going on ;) This first chapter was just kind of a quick intro to set the scene...but most of the future chapters are pretty lengthy!

And I so hope you enjoy this fic! Please let me know your thoughts, and let me know if you’d like to be tagged! :)

---------> CHAPTER 2

#nessian #nesta #cassian #nesta archeron #a court of thorns and roses #acotar #a court of mist and fury #acomaf #a court of wings and ruin #acowar #a court of frost and starlight #acofas #fanfiction #far from the shallow

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delibitecatering · 4 years

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The Beautiful & Blessed Month Of Ramadan Kareem 2020 is Approaching in 3 Days, When Muslims Fast From Sunrise To Sunset For Approximately 30 Days

Mohammad Ali /Dubai Filed on 21 April 2020 | Last updated on April 22, 2020 at 10.00 am

Ramadan teaches us a great number of things; patience, piety and discipline are just a few to name.

We should strive to take advantage of the opportunity Ramadan brings. The month of Ramadan is undoubtedly a blessed month because it comes with a lot of blessings. The reasons why Muslims anxiously wait for the blessed Ramadan month 2020 to begin is that they want to get a chance in their life every year to fast for 29 or 30 days, please Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala in every way possible and bring happiness around through doing good deeds. All these things obviously have immense blessings and advantages for the hereafter but what Ramadan month can actually do is that it can create a society that is harmoniously living together and enjoying the freedoms given by Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala Corona virus will affect many aspects of Ramadan in 2020 - but the essence of the holy month will remain the same #COVID19 has brought a hard time for all of us. However, we can fight against it together and by helping each other. Don’t Let Covid-19 impact celebrating the blessing month of Ramadan 2020 Worldwide, businesses, government, families and friends have relied heavily on video conferencing to connect with people. Meetings have migrated online and the same is to be expected for many Ramadan traditions. Families who typically gather for iftar may have to time their Zoom meetings in time for breaking their fast at Maghreb.

Whether it’s gifting Iftari to your loved ones, or ordering one for yourself,

Deli Bite Caterers has you covered with affordable and super delicious food this Ramadan 2020 that can be delivered to your doorstep or your family or friends in Dubai . Once delivered we will and confirm to you. You can celebrate and participate with unique way and can be virtual host for iftar through Zoom and streamed live on Facebook instead. Despite all the changes that corona virus and the precautions put in place to prevent its spread, the essence of Ramadan 2020 will remain the same. Specially created ‘Ramadan 2020 Family Boxes’, we have put together a variety of delectable items in one box that is guaranteed to tickle everyone’s taste buds while catering to a diverse set of foodies. Deli Bite Caterers offering Ramadan Family Iftar Boxes at AED 125 for 5 people delivered to your doorstep Choose from an impeccable assortment of the finest Indian delicacies specially selected to make your Iftar unforgettable. Savour the flavors of yesteryear and create wonderful memories over an extraordinary feast.

Suhoor, Iftar and Fasting

Suhoor and Iftar are two elements of Ramadan that have great significance to Muslims. The Suhoor is a vital part of fasting. Muslims eat a healthy meal in Suhoor in order to remain in good health for the rest of the day during the fast. The right way to eat a meal during Suhoor is to eat in moderation. Many people skip Suhoor however, this is not favored by Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala because those who skip Suhoor find it difficult to complete their fast and end up breaking it. Suhoor is the right time to consume a meal and fill yourself adequately so that you can fast throughout the day. Revive the traditions of the holy month of Ramadan spend more time in ibadat & leave your meals worries to our Best Healthy Homemade style meals, Just as you Ate or Eat at Home – Contact less delivery right to your home before saher (Shuhoor) & Iftar Less Oil – just like home – Made “Mum” style – Lovingly – Fresh – Healthy!! We have taken great care in designing the menu 30 days 30 dishes to select only those dishes which, when cooked and packed, retain their aroma, flavor, texture and taste so that you can enjoy a great meal in the comfort of your own home. One thing that won’t change during this pandemic #covid19 and will probably increase during Ramadan is the concept of “giving back.” A core principle of Islam is helping others in need; this is heightened during Ramadan as “giving back” lies at the heart of the holy month.

Smile On The Face –Gift Iftar Meal packs “Charity makes no decrease in property”

As we welcome Ramadan, let’s keep the entire Muslim Ummah & Humanity in our thoughts & Prays. No time in history has required charity like today. It is a time to help, to give and to share. Donate a meal prepared by Deli Bite Iftar Box for just AED 10 There are many individuals in some parts of the world who will be fasting under the open skies with little personal belongings; So, be sure to donate generously to their cause as you make your fast. Give zakat , Donate a meal prepared by Deli Bite Iftar Box for just AED 10.00 The box is ready-to-eat and filled with a healthy food & beverage selection. Each Iftar Meal box includes DBC special Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, Water & dates We will deliver it to you through contact less delivery to distribute for charity or we can donate on your behalf to our community at various labor camps and/or the vicinity of blue collar accommodation In the midst of the COVID-19 challenge, we can safely distribute to the workforce who are on the front lines serving our nation. Photographs of Iftar box distribution can be sent via email or whats app Minimum Order: 10 Meal Boxes Payment can be made by cash, net banking & Credit cards In case you require assistance, Simply Call | what’s App at +971564160007 | 04 3603678 Practice healthy Eating to stay healthy during Holy Month of Ramadan Switch to nutrient-rich ingredients for a satisfying month of fasting Fasting during Ramadan can improve one's health, but only if done in the proper manner, if not, it can cause more harm than good. There are several important nutrients that play an important role in our immune system. Establish routine & practice mindful eating will decrease stress/anxiety & improve sleep. Because of the change in routine that the body can take some time to adjust to, high fibre food options are an important consideration for keeping good regular bowel habits and detoxing the body to maintain good health. Fiber is one of the main components stripped from foods, as we have embraced refined cereal products and turned more to convenience foods and juices. Returning to more conventional grains and whole foods, however, is an easy way to add fiber back.

Fast & Stay Fit with Keto Bites Balanced Diet Meal Plan – Eat right to stay healthy during Holy Month of Ramadan 2020

While iftars are an enjoyable experience, they can be daunting for people trying to maintain good eating habits during this holy month. It is extremely important to have a proper diet during Ramadan. To keep you nourished throughout the fasting month, Make this Ramadan the perfect opportunity to exercise discipline, self-restraint, to pick up new positive habits and even shed a few pounds! Ramadan Meal Plan is available in Keto protocol and a healthy balanced weight-loss protocol. Try Keto Bites Dubai, Fasting and the Fit: 30-Day Ramadan Healthy Meal Plan What is included in this menu? You will receive daily: Iftar (first dinner) – a hearty main which is varied menu of Non veg based protein (lamb, beef, chicken & seafood) and keto-approved vegetables. Suhoor (late evening dinner) – combination of Non Veg -based protein and healthy fats Keto snack between Iftar and Suhoor Keto mini dessert Mix of green salads each day to boost your fiber intake during the day Ramadan can be a fitness freaks nightmare or best month of the year depending on how you look at it. Since many people are looking to lose weight during Ramadan. It is the perfect month to do so. Keep in mind that you cannot use Ramadan as an excuse to not work out. Eating healthy and exercising is a way to take care of your body and taking care of your health is a blessed act. Get More information simply call | what’s app us at +971564118323 email us at [email protected] for more information. Deli Bite Catering Home Delivery Options for Non-Muslims During Ramadan In Dubai For those that are not fasting, if you are struggling to find a place to order food for delivery during Ramadan Look no further! Deli Bite Catering Dubai, provides a scrumptious Monthly / weekly / Daily Tiffin Meal plans to fulfill your each and every meal stay home stay safe need that will come straight to your doorstep. Please note eating is not allowed publicly from sunrise to sunset , so be mindful and respectful of this. Contact less delivery right to your home : Almost every delivery player has introduced the option of “contact less delivery”, where your food is delivered without any physical contact between you and the delivery Person With the capability of offering you the wide variety of services with options at very affordable prices. Our dedication to offer you the great taste and top quality hygienic food is the key to our success. We don’t just deliver the service and leave instead we maintain the relationship with our customers. One can maintain the relationship only by providing the top quality and hygienic quality value for money food with great taste When you get in touch with us thru call | what’s app Deli Bite Catering – Dubai you are dealing with a Professional Company. Please call us with any questions or to set up an appointment for your Free Samples & Consultation. Read the full article

#charityiftardubai #iftarhomedeliveryindubai #monthofblessings #ramadan2020inDubai #ramadanbenefitsandimportance #RamadanCountdown #ramadangivingapp #Ramadanhomestylecusine #RamadanWishes2020 #TheBlessedMonthofRamadan

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idesigncafe · 7 years

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Overcoming Content Challenges

Authors: Steve Glancey and Bryan Meszaros from the Digital Signage Connection

Although often relegated to the back seat, the process of content creation drives the success of a digital signage program. It is therefore essential to develop a mental map of each component stage, from strategizing and budgeting, through development and optimization, and to address the unique requirements and challenges of each one. With a clear plan in place, potential stall-outs are easily avoided, and obstacles, overcome. What follows is a collection of tips and tricks that we have developed in the course of our experience, and found helpful in navigating some of the difficulties that inevitably accompany a creative undertaking. We here pass them on to you to help better position you for your next endeavor.

Obstacle #1: Project Ownership

The nature of project ownership is critical and, unfortunately, often blurred in understanding. Is the person being said to "own" a project responsible, by definition, for all aspects of its design and production? In a word: no! Rather, they manage and monitor the numerous interlocking parts of the creative engine - the gathering of assets, messaging, design, and approval - each of which is the domain of a different person, or team. This last, the granting of approval, is generally understood, and intended as the concluding step. However, its finality hinges upon the clear delineation and coordination of the preceding steps, without which requests for further changes are far more likely to arise. Changing even one textual element could disrupt the flow, look and feel of the whole product, and force the designer to go back and rework it from the ground up to accommodate the change.

Obstacle #2: Content Strategy

Designers create content within "closed environments;" they alone experience, and interact with their creations during the design process. Yet given that their creations are ultimately destined for display in "open environments" subject to such variables as viewing distance, demographics, audience journey, time of day etc., it's important to keep in mind that every content piece adhering perfectly to fundamental principles of design in the abstract carries no guarantee of effectiveness when it goes "live." All these variables, and more, should be researched and applied to your content: type, structure, design, refresh rate etc. as they will deeply impact the audience engagement with, and effectiveness of the intended message.

Obstacle #3: Playlist Strategy

Optimizing your playlist requires the delicate counterbalancing of numerous considerations, all within the framework of your budget and network objectives. Loop length, for example, must be in step with audience dwell time. Make your playlist too long, and it will be a waste of network resources; too short, and you will forfeit network opportunities. Couple dwell time with the return rate of your audience; multiply by an effective frequency of 4-7 (the number of times a viewer needs to be exposed to a message before it is thoroughly communicated); and add to that any wish to day-part, or employ triggers, feeds, or logic that activates different content depending on the time, or viewer body-language or demographics and you will begin to get the measure of what it is to develop a strategic plan that truly capitalizes on the possibilities of digital signage.

Obstacle #4: Gathering Assets

The process of gathering assets is more complicated than the phrase would suggest, as they are not, in fact, necessarily useable simply by virtue of being "digital" - a reality difficult to concede for clients unfamiliar with concepts such as image quality, and display resolution. Fortunately, a little proactive education explaining such fundamentals within the specific context of your plan to develop content for a client (using which editing program, and in which output format) often goes a long way towards bringing about the submission better-quality files, even if they are not all vector graphics, files of 300dpi or more are ideal. Of course, there is always the possibility that there are no usable assets to uncover. Sometimes the image quality of a graphic is too poor, or the asset does not exist in a version that supports editing, requiring you to start from scratch. The bottom line is: avoid assuming anything about your client's level of knowledge or organization, and be prepared to explain why their idea and/or materials may need to be scrapped or revised.

Obstacle #5: Content Licensing

Content licensing does not abide by the "finders, keepers" rule. Possession of an asset does not necessarily confer the right to display it in a commercial setting, even if it was acquired "for free" - a reality sometimes difficult to accept in a world where side-stepping costs is so often possible. However, several lawsuits over the years have been brought against digital signage companies whose network owners failed to negotiate an agreement (either in the form of a one-time payment, or an ongoing subscription) with the owner of every asset in their playlist. Given the costs incurred by such a lawsuit, it's essential to address licensing costs early and often, and to ensure that a line item appears in the budget from the very beginning. "But that CNN feed says that it's free..." Look again at the terms. Free news feeds, and most free or inexpensive weather feeds are available only for non-commercial use.

Obstacle #6: Creative Budgeting

Talking money is like talking politics: everyone has an opinion, and no one is right. The question of budget must therefore be addressed both early in the development process, and regularly throughout the lifecycle of a project, for content carries a cost not only to create, but to maintain. The viewing frequency, and relationship it bears with its physical context give it a limited shelf-life, and while you would ideally have a surplus of content from which to chose, and/or assets with an automated feature, the project will, in fact, require ongoing programming, editing and management. True, most CMS (content management systems) now support advance scheduling, but someone still needs to oversee that task. The success or failure of a digital signage project therefore will depend on the project owners ability to accurately and creatively manage the fixed initial costs and variable ongoing costs to collect, license, and schedule content assets all powered by the most costly line item: human capital.

Obstacle #7: Stretching the Dollars

Were money not an obstacle, we would all simply hire ABC or Lucasfilm to build out our playlists, and keep them fresh. But money is an obstacle. Budgetary constraints come into play for everyone at some point. That is why I am a proponent of building playlists with an eye to maximizing value, as opposed to maxing-out one's resources. This can be done in a variety of ways, including investing up-front in custom templates; reusing assets that your company originally used elsewhere; leveraging user-generated, and data-driven content; strategically recycling content; and outsourcing parts of your playlist to licensed feeds or competitively priced creative agencies.

Obstacle #8: CMS and Hardware

This subject, once broached, easily leads the ensuing discussion down the proverbial rabbit hole, but my goal is simply to highlight a few of the cascading effects of your choice in CMS, and hardware. With respect to CMS, some solutions are new, and less refined due either to their time on the market, or target simplicity, and for content managers posting only simple messages, they present an appropriate solution. However, with simplicity come limitations, and complex networks may feel the lack of editing and programming options, readymade app stores, KPIs, feeds, triggers, localization, advertising market platform integration, weighted playlists and logic playback configuration. They may also feel limited by the breath of file-type options, API, security settings, reliability, remote management features, emergency messaging capabilities, etc. If so, there are other more established, robust CMS to consider.

The playback quality of the hardware you choose is also something to consider carefully, as it has a profound impact of viewers' visual engagement with your message. And finally, careful thought must be put into your connectivity strategy. Will you connect your system via Wi-Fi for which you pay with a monthly bill, or through a mobile provider that you pay by the gigabyte - a costly proposition if your playlist includes large video files or frequent content updates. There is no right answer, just the solution that best fits your content strategy.

Obstacle #9: Optimization

The effectiveness of your content is in direct measure to the quality of your messaging, so even the most thoughtfully designed content campaign can benefit from regular, controlled tests of its effectiveness. A/B testing or before and after comparisons are the easiest, most affordable kind of assessment, and can bring to light adjustments likely to increase the ROI (return on investment) of the campaign at hand. For example, how did one store do vs. the other without the promotion running or using the same content in two different locations with a slight change to the CTA? Audience engagement and reaction are surprisingly difficult to anticipate; that which is relevant, which resonates with viewers, and speaks to them in "their language" changes all the time, so if effectiveness is your end, self-assessment is your means.

Obstacle #10: Creating Value

What objective do you aim to meet by means of your digital signage network? From your viewers' point of view, a digital sign is not much different from a traditional printed sign. Both boil down to a message on a wall, and therein lies their value for audience and advertiser alike. Why then is so much attention and money diverted to the frame and mounting instead of the message? Mounts, frames, and hardware are inherently depreciating assets. It is the quality of your content strategy and execution that will make your 2-million dollar investment in digital signage worth 1 million, or 5. Funneling every piece of content through your network objective (ROO/ROI) is therefore the aim to which you should direct your primary energy as a network operator on day one and year five.

Interactive Design Cafe provides end-to-end digital signage solutions with the latest touchscreen displays and multi-screen video walls, to glasses-free 3D signage and holographic advertising players. We also offer both out-of-the-box software solutions, as well as fully customized software, while specializing in branding, customer experience and service design. We are a design consultancy, not just a “sales” operation, so we often fly out to our clients location to install hardware / software, and we strive to develop long lasting relationships with our clients. Our goal is to provide the most innovative and engaging experience for your brand with top notch service and support.

To learn more about Interactive Design Cafe and how we can help your business, please visit our website http://www.interactivedesigncafe.com

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uk-news-talking-politics · 5 years

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Just in case you're interested, this is what the European parliament actually does

By Jonathan Lis You may have noticed the European elections are on. The Tories are campaigning for their deal. Labour is campaigning to bring the country together. The Brexit party and Ukip are campaigning for Brexit. The Greens, Lib Dems and Change UK are campaigning for Remain. Like a mirage, the elections are fully present yet completely intangible. Why? Because nobody is discussing the literal purpose of the vote and the place we're actually electing people to: the European parliament. I first visited the parliament in 2011. I was nonplussed. What even was it? What was its function? It seemed the least important part of the EU, and I didn't much like that either. Like many people, I had never been taught about the EU and didn't understand it. The fact it was so impenetrable made me instinctively mistrust it. The friend I was visiting, an environmental lobbyist, led me through the corridors of the parliament's visitor centre and fielded my increasingly agitated questions. Did the parliament sit in Brussels or Strasbourg? Why did people talk about Luxembourg all the time? What was the difference between the Commission and the Council? And why the hell were we spending our Saturday afternoon in the European parliament visitor centre? The answers must have worked, because less than a year later I was working in the building as an MEP's assistant. The EU is confusing and complicated, and the European parliament is no different. It has developed over 60 years from a symbolic institution comprising delegates from national parliaments, to a comprehensive and influential directly-elected legislature holding the EU's bodies to account. Yes, it is bureaucratic. Yes, it can be inflexible. Yes, it is governed by many rules. That is the necessary product of an institution featuring 751 members from 28 countries, using three main working languages (English, French and German), and which interprets and translates all official meetings and documents into 24 official languages. But the place I worked in for two years was also a forum of ideas and cultures, where people from different countries gathered to negotiate their way out of problems, and where almost everyone was motivated by a genuine desire to cooperate and improve our continent.

So what does it actually do? The parliament is, in British terms, a turbocharged backbench. Some members are of course more senior and respected than others, but there is no equivalent to a minister. All have the opportunity to hold the Commission and Council to account. Each MEP is assigned to committees (three, in most cases), which meet for several hours each month to scrutinise and vote on legislation and non-legislative reports, debate new developments, and interview experts in the field. The committees' votes and reports then go to the monthly plenary sessions for approval by the whole parliament. Any member can amend almost any report or law and the amendment is guaranteed consideration. Unlike in the House of Commons, the president of the parliament has no discretion to block votes on an amendment - which makes it rather more democratic.

MEPs will act as a rapporteur for at least one report during their five-year term, which will involve regular meetings with the Commission, which is the EU's civil service, and Council, which represents national governments. At a legislative level, these are known as trilogues, in which representatives from the three institutions hammer out the final text. The process functions through compromise and consensus - no doubt one of the reasons it encounters such scorn in Westminster.

European politicians earn a level of access their national counterparts can only dream of. The joke among British MEPs was that Westminster MPs would stop sneering and start envying if they only knew what their colleagues in Brussels could accomplish. The foreign affairs committee, where I worked, welcomed heads of state and foreign ministers each month to discuss the most pressing issues of the day. We would receive regular briefings and high-level dialogues during the Ukraine, Crimea and Mali crises. I drafted a report on human rights in Western Sahara for my boss and on solo visits was hosted by both the Moroccan and Sahrawi governments. Why would they bother schmoozing a lowly MEP assistant? Because they took the European parliament seriously. A report mattered because the EU mattered.

MEPs are respected and sought out because most are highly competent and work hard. Unlike in Britain, where it is viewed almost on the level of a parish councillor, other countries send their ex-prime ministers and foreign ministers. National MPs often consider the role a promotion. A great many are fluent in multiple languages and form close bonds with colleagues from different countries and political backgrounds. The exception to this, of course, is Ukip. I used to see Nigel Farage propping up the bar with a cigarette, exuding bonhomie, relishing the lifestyle, loving to be hated, and all the while refusing to contribute a single meaningful thing towards his constituents' wellbeing. He and his colleagues registered for the daily allowance, alright, but almost none turned up to committees or did any discernible work whatsoever. The biggest problem with the parliament is its location. The original seat was and remains Strasbourg, on the Franco-German border, selected in the aftermath of the war as an icon of reconciliation. For years it shared a debating chamber with the Council of Europe, the institution set up by, among others, Winston Churchill. The administrative department sits in Luxembourg (don't ask), and most of the day-to-day work takes place in Brussels, to be close to the EU's other institutions. MEPs pile down to Strasbourg for three days each month to vote, then return to Brussels the following week. Do they enjoy the so-called 'Strasbourg circus', with its generous expenses? In a word, no. Strasbourg is exquisitely beautiful but the monthly commute is exhausting and pointless. MEPs have sought for years to remain in Brussels all year round. It's only that pesky national sovereignty which keeps it going: France vetoes any attempted change. Of course I want to use these elections to demonstrate my will to Remain, but we must take the European parliament more seriously and value what it accomplishes. As the heart of the EU's democracy, supervising the whole organisation and directly accountable to citizens, it represents one of the defining achievements of post-war European cooperation. It is not too late to appreciate it. It may not even be too late to stay in it.

#brexit #european elections 2019

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khalilhumam · 4 years

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The Uyghur Meshrep: A traditional community gathering censored in China

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-uyghur-meshrep-a-traditional-community-gathering-censored-in-china/

The Uyghur Meshrep: A traditional community gathering censored in China

Screenshot from a YouTube video featuring a meshrep in Almaty.

The Uyghurs, a Turkic nation of over 25 million people who live across Central Asia, have a long history and a rich cultural heritage that combines elements of nomadism and sedentarism, pre-Islamic, Sufi, and Muslim spiritual traditions. One component of this culture is the meshrep ( مەشرەپ in Uyghur), a community gathering, mostly male, in which music and judgement on moral conduct play a key role. A group of men usually meet in a courtyard, play traditional music such as muqam, and hold a sort of moral court, where the behavior of male members of the community is reviewed, and criticized, usually in a humorous way through mockery, jokes, and non-violent imitation of physical punishment, as can be seen in this short video of a meshrep held in Almaty, Kazakhstan: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8p4k5j62Q?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366] Meshreps vary in size and duration, but can last several hours and include anything from 30 to several hundred people. Women and children are welcome observers of the ritual. In the 1980s, meshreps, particularly in the city of Ghulja in the west of the Chinese province of Xinjiang (where the vast majority of Uyghurs live today), gradually took a more political tone, openly discussing issues of youth disenfranchisement, unemployment, and the practice of religion. By 1995, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had banned them as a threat to its own discourse of “ethnic unity” and hotbeds of religious activism. In his book “Down a Narrow Road: Identity and Masculinity in a Uyghur Community in Xinjiang China ” Uyghur culture scholar Jay Dautcher explains:

The increased role of meshrep groups in community activism and social mobilization, in forms such as anti-alcohol campaigns and youth sports leagues, led to a realization on the part of the local government official that unregulated grassroots organizations in Uyghur neighborhoods were proving more effective than official campaigns and state institutions at mobilizing Uyghurs.

As unauthorized meshreps continued to take place, the Chinese authorities decided to differentiate between “unhealthy” (and thus banned) and “healthy” ones, co-opting the latter category, and even registering the meshrep in 2010 within the UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. As large numbers of Uyghurs migrated to Kazakhstan following Beijing's policy of ethnic persecution, the tradition is enjoying a revival in the Central Asian state that is home to over 200,000 Uyghurs, both local and recently arrived. To find out more about the significance of the meshrep and explore the Chinese authorities’ approach to it, I talked to Rachel Harris, a London-based professor who teaches ethnomusicology at SOAS, University of London, and who now leads a British Academy Sustainable Development Project to revitalise Uyghur cultural heritage in Kazakhstan. She is also publishing her book, “Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam”, in fall 2020. The interview has been edited for brevity.

Photo of an informal “court” at the Gheyret meshrep, Kazakhstan, 2019. Photo by Mukaddas Mijit, used with permission.

Filip Noubel (FN) What is your own definition of the meshrep? What are its origins? Is it a strictly male ritual? Why is music a key component?

Rachel Harris (RH) Basically a meshrep is a party. But it's also much more than that. Formally, we might say that it is a system of community gatherings maintained by Uyghurs across the Uyghur region and in the diaspora. Meshrep gatherings involve food, music and dance, joking, readings, and an informal community court. They are an important part of Uyghur culture because they forge lasting community bonds, they support the transmission of language and expressive culture, and they provide a forum for discussion, planning, and community action.

There are many accounts of Uyghur meshrep by travelers in the region going back to the 19th century, but the roots of this tradition likely go back much further. Uyghur researchers have documented many different kinds of meshrep. Depending on local traditions, they are held for different reasons: sometimes to celebrate an annual festival, or to welcome guests. In some Uyghur communities – notably in the northwest Ili region and Uyghur communities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – they are held monthly, organized by a fixed group of men who host the meshrep on a rotating basis in their family homes.

Uyghurs are proud of their meshrep. They say that meshrep teach the rules of communal behavior to young men, and they serve as a way to perform and transmit expressive culture and communally shared knowledge. Music plays a central role: it accompanies social dancing, and song lyrics provide an important way for people to remember their history and their homeland.

Portrait of Professor Rachel Harris attending the 2018 International Maqam Festival in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan. Photo by Rachel Harris, used with permission.

FN What happens to the meshrep in the form that is authorized by the Chinese state?

RH Meshrep gatherings were inscribed by China on UNESCO’s list of “intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of safeguarding” in 2010. I've been observing China's approach to safeguarding meshrep over the past ten years. In the early years it took the form of the kind of “top-down” approaches to heritage that we so often see in China: spectacular song-and-dance performances for television and tourists, organized by government agencies.

At the same time, the ever-tightening restrictions on community life in the region under the “anti-religious extremism” campaigns meant that it was increasingly difficult for local communities to organize their own meshrep. Since 2016 the situation has become much worse. China’s radical policies of surveillance, mass internment, and coercive forms of “reeducation” in Xinjiang have seen an end to virtually all cultural activities except those organized by the state. These are massive abuses of human rights which violate many international norms and laws. Under these campaigns we saw the transformation of meshrep into compulsory singing and dancing sessions for Uyghur villagers, which were intended to “cleanse” them of the “virus” of their faith. This context renders China's commitment to UNESCO’s heritage agenda completely void. In my view, UNESCO should no longer sanction the Chinese government's claim to be “safeguarding” Uyghur culture.

Here is an example of government-organized meshrep performance aimed at tourists: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V4G-dAIb2U?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366] FN Is it accurate to talk about the revival of the meshrep through the Uyghur communities currently living in Kazakhstan? Will this “intimate heritage” be preserved as a participatory ritual in Uyghur culture?

RH Over the past few years, Uyghur communities in Kazakhstan have led a meshrep revival that takes a very different form. They are engaged in revitalising meshrep as a tool for community self-organisation and self-support, and a way to transmit Uyghur language and customs to the younger generation. At my university, we have been working with scholars, Uyghur organisations and local communities to document and support these efforts. Of course, the cultural heritage sustained in Kazakhstan represents only a tiny portion of the rich and diverse expressive culture of the Uyghurs, but what they are doing may provide a future model for real, community-based cultural revitalization.

For more stories on the persecution of minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, go here.

< p class='gv-rss-footer'>Written by Filip Noubel · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

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iamsielow · 4 years

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Eating Comics -- The Other Things …

*References to everything listed in the last post -- go read it if you haven't or just live life LARGE and move forward!

Comic Book Stores: You NEVER been to a comic book store??? SERIOUSLY??? Look, do yourself a mighty good favor. Like taking a shower, a visit to a comic book store opens the pores, stimulates the senses and stuns you as you experience it and leaves you tingly afterwards.

Comic Book Stores are NOT those corner shops that sell comic books from days gone by. Not any more. They are vibrant, open spaces, filled wall to wall with comics of every imagination! The comics they sell run comics books from for small kids, for children, for teens, adults and VERY adult. THEN they add on paraphernalia of every imaginable kind! Posters, statues, busts. Action shots, posed shots, adventure shots. T-shirts, dresses, masks. Toys, collectables, transformers!

Do yourself a MIGHTY GOOD THING! Look up the local comic book store, even if in the nearby big city. GO! On a Saturday adventure day, GO! Plan to spend an hour or two. GO! Without any expectations. This ain't yer daddy's comic book store -- Opps! Actually it is! He's over in the DC collectables area lookin' fer a good Green Lantern shirt! <Big Smile>

National Used Book Store Chains: Please tell me you have gone into at least one National Used Book Store Chains in the last year or so! Like the comic book stores, these places are a Universe unto themselves. Filled with not only well priced books, but CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, AND VINYLS!!!! -- Yes, the provider of rich sounds from before the 2010s, vinyl records, whose sultry sounds are making a comeback among those who prefer their music smooth and less digital.

But vinyl records are a different posting, right now we are talking about the comic books found in these stores.

And find them you shall! Sometimes complete collections, sometimes not, but always (and definitely) priced to sell! The comics you seek may or may not be here, likely cheaper than you imagined. But buy quickly because you see today can also disappear in a Flash tomorrow! So seek and yea shall find … today, but tomorrow you may come up dry! So if you find it, then buy it.

Speaking of which, once you tasted the national chain used book store ("Half Priced Books" is an excellent starting point) go and visit their cousins: Used Book Store and New Book Store and even Book Store!

Used Book Store IS that little shop in the odd place your parent's parents used to speak of. Some cobbled together by collectors, others put together with purpose. I discovered Used Book Stores in old churches, tiny rooms in malls, and even once in the 20 or so rooms of an otherwise empty house -- Yes, seriously! A man living by himself had a room for himself, a kitchen and his bathroom, but every other room in the house was filled with wall to wall books. Aisle after aisle after aisle!

The New Book Stores are coffee shops. Children reading hours. Gab shops. Creative projects. They are evolving into fun, HUMAN places. Go! Become a HUMAN again! Plus they have NEW books of everything under the sun! From books you'll use to impress strangers who visit your home to items that you'll fall asleep reading. The New Book store has evolved and does things the Internet will never do. The HUMAN in you will thank you for the adventure!

And then there is: The Book Store. This is the library, it's the non-chain store, the places you find on a stroll through town. Welcoming, bright and cozy, The Book Store is a place where you experience life again. The general book store is usually a like a personal pleasure someone has that they have decided to share with others. The Book Store is a place you find readers when there are no customers. If you have a favorite book series or even one book you've read dozens of times, The Book Store is where you go to share and exchange the experiences those books brought you.

Yeah, you can do such things on-line, but online uses just one sense. Going to The Book Store and discussing your reads can, at times, use all your senses. The difference between discussing books on-line and doing so at a The Book Store is the difference between washing your hands and soaking in a warm tub.

You have my word on this.

Gaming Sessions - At Comic Book Stores: One of the biggest secret for MANY comic book stores is that they either host or know where the monthly, weekly or even nightly gaming groups meet. These are not the private groups but those where people who have never "gamed" or haven't "gamed" in a while can come and duke it out.

You probably know the reference or seen it on the recent TV show "Big Bang Theory." People, yes men AND women, gather to use something called "their imagination" to travel on a directed adventure. The general name of the person directing the adventure, no matter what the game, is the "The Dungeon Master." The D.M. provides the flexible plot and direction the adventure travels. Backed by random chance provided by the most unusual dice you've ever seen -- not just six sided dice (D6) here but up to 120 sides (D120) on a single die. The “D” value indicates the number of sides on the die and runs from a D2 to a D120 die. That's right, a die (a single dice) with 120 sides to it. The normal die you are familiar with, the six-sided die, is a D6. The D2? It is basically a coin flip.

Trivia point about die: The numbers on the bottom and on the top of a roll add up to the number of numbers on the die, plus one. Roll a normal 6 sided die (D6). If a 6 is on top, a 1 is on the bottom, adding up to 7. 3's are opposite of 4 and 5's opposite is 2. All the opposite sides adding up to 7 or the sides adding up to six (sides) plus one.

The gaming sessions are mental adventures boosted by random chance. You also get a sense of bonding you cannot get from the internet. The people you are playing with, against or for are there with you. Snide remarks, stupid jokes, and smiles all items you cannot get as easily over a cable and through a screen.

All items you'll talk about for hours after the last die has been rolled.

You honestly have to experience it to understand what I'm talking about.

Finally, Board Gaming Societies: If you are lucky enough to live in the proper places or lucky enough to have the resources to start your own, you simply MUST find or create a board gaming society. The one I am aware of is called CABS -- Columbus Area Boardgaming Society.

Image all the board games you may have as a child. Everything from Candyland to chess to checkers to Monopoly. Now imagine adding things such as "Apples to Apple", "Connect 4" and others you may have seen but never had. After adding those to your pile, imagine discovering that there are professional game makers ALL over the world! Dice based, spinner based, word based, even gravity based games in almost infinite combinations and paying instructions. I once played an auto racing game, WITH shifting options, using dice, a shift indicator and curved track on a board three feet long! The number of times I crashed into the walls numbed me! While some how I didn't finish last, I did come in next to.

Finally pile on the experience some pizzas, sub sandwiches, BYO buffets, cookies, pies, cakes (home-made and store bought). Some free, some a dollar a section. Drinks of all type, including a few wine coolers.

Then you sprinkle the whole event with roars of laughter, screams of defeat, cries of angst and jumps of joy, all lasting from the end of the workday until possibly Four-in-the-Morning and beyond. One night I became friends with a group of people who included the owner of a chain of Chinese restaurants and we all left the gaming session to hang out at one of his restaurants where he made us a very late Chinese meal while his prep people were arriving to prepare the foods for the restaurant's operation that day.

If you have all of those in a large conference room, then there's a chance you have discovered a gaming society.

How popular is the local gathering? There have been times they meet 6 times a week, almost every night of the week. Twice a week they had adult only gatherings just simply to keep the noise down and possibly making the game playing a little fairer -- no leeway given because the opponent was young and learning.

On the weekends, the game play might start at noon on one day and end at noon on the next.

The group I visited had a nightly entry fee of $2 or as a member, for $15 you could get in all month. Family rates were even better. The fees were mostly as a token payment to the business whose rooms we were using.

Being member also gave you an option of "borrowing" a game for a week or so. You could take a game home for "family fun night."

The games come from all over: Board game makers will send games in development for reviews by the players. Foreign gaming societies will send you their games for one of yours.

When I went, they had cabinets of board games. The number of games topped 100, so it was rare to find one you've play twice in one night or even one month.

You would go up to the cabinets and stand until one or several others approached. You would make it known you were looking for a game to play and they would offer to play with you. Then you'd look over the titles and choosing the one which match your agreed upon desire. You'd wander off to a clear table somewhere and play. Some games gathered audiences, and some people had partners they always played with. Nothing was forced and everyone had fun.

Honestly? It is rare that I see so many diverse people gathered in one place, laughing, smiling and having this much fun. Families, WHOLE families, gathered for gaming. Many of the people in attendance were good, church going folk just having fun. There were kids learning the joys of success and the agony of defeat. Many people were more than willing to explain the reasons behind the strategy they were using against their opponents once the game had been won or lost.

I will note that the people in the room deeply guarded the "family friendly" aspects of the setting. Drunks, druggies and people who became "excessive" were invited to leave and sometimes forced to do so. This was a FAMILY and FRIENDLY gathering of board game players. As such, people relaxed, enjoyed but did not put up with those wanting to cause troubles.

Everyone else was invited and welcomed. Everyone relaxed and had fun, either participating, observing or sometimes napping between games or between sessions.

So, after you’ve re-discovered comic books -- REAL, hold-in-your-hands, comic books and a vast paraphernalia they have these days, and after you've further collected used issues to keep you reading up, then go back to allow a Dungeon Master to control your fate and destiny until you ever find or start a local board gaming society.

People sometimes ask me what it's like to go to other worlds. I smile and then take them on a tour of their own world in places like these they've never knew existed just minutes away from home.

I Am Sielow, These are my words.

If you like what you've read, PLEASE hit the SUBSCRIBE button! I’d like to know I’m reaching you. I’d also ask you to share the post and recommend my works to others.

If you'd like to see other items I've posted, look for my blog at: https://iamsielow.tumblr.com/archive

If you like what you have seen and read, please consider supporting me at: www.subscribestar.com/IamSielow

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cutsliceddiced · 5 years

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New top story from Time: A South Korean Adoptee Deported From the U.S. Is Suing His Homeland Over Its ‘Child Export’ Frenzy

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Adam Crapser lives in limbo, a stranger in South Korea, the country of his birth.

Forcibly separated from his wife, children and friends in America, he is isolated by language and culture, left alone to navigate this sprawling city he’s been expelled to four decades after being sent to adoptive parents in Michigan at age 3.

Crapser was abused and abandoned by two different sets of adoptive parents in the United States; then he was deported after run-ins with the law because none of his guardians filed citizenship papers for him. He told The Associated Press in an interview that he has struggled in South Korea with intense anxiety and depression, even as he searches for answers about why his life has become defined by displacement.

That search has led him to file a landmark lawsuit against South Korea’s government and a private adoption agency, the Seoul-based Holt Children’s Services, over what Crapser calls gross negligence regarding the way he and thousands of other Korean children were sent to the United States and other Western nations without accounting for their future citizenship.

The 200 million won ($177,000) civil suit, which was described exclusively to the AP ahead of its expected filing Thursday by Crapser’s lawyers in a Seoul court, exposes a dark side of South Korean adoptions, which exploded as a business during the 1970s and ’80s when many children were carelessly and unnecessarily removed from their families.

The country was then at the height of a so-called “child export” frenzy pushed by military dictatorships that focused on economic growth and reducing the number of mouths to feed. There was no stringent oversight of adoption agencies, which were infamous for aggressive child-gathering activities and fraudulent paperwork as they competed to send more children abroad at faster speeds.

Crapser’s case also highlights the shaky legal status of possibly thousands of South Korean adoptees in the United States whose parents may have failed to get them citizenship, potentially leaving them vulnerable to deportation if they acquire a criminal record in a country that’s becoming increasingly aggressive about going after undocumented immigrants.

Crapser, who was named Shin Seong-hyeok by his Korean mother, is one of five adoptees who the Seoul government confirms now live in South Korea after being deported from the United States. Several of the deportees have reportedly dealt with mental health issues and served jail time in South Korea for assault and other crimes.

Activists say the South Korean government has done a poor job tracking deported adoptees and that the real number is almost certainly larger. Officials wouldn’t provide details about the other deportees.

In South Korea, human rights lawsuits against the government can drag on for years and are rarely successful because the burden of proof in non-criminal cases is entirely on the plaintiffs, who often lack information and resources. Even if Crapser wins, the payout will likely be significantly smaller than what was demanded, considering past cases, according to Soh Rami, one of his lawyers.

Crapser said the amount of money is less important than forcing officials from Holt and the government into a courtroom to face questions of accountability. He said the government and Holt are responsible for failing to follow through on his adoption and ensuring that his American parents naturalized him. Because he wasn’t a citizen, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordered him deported in November 2016 over criminal convictions, including unlawful possession of a firearm and assault.

His lawsuit will also attempt to hold Holt and the government accountable for supposedly fraudulent paperwork over his adoption status. Most South Korean adoptees, including Crapser, were documented as abandoned, even in cases where they had known parents or were simply lost, which made them easily adoptable under U.S. laws. He also seeks to hold the government responsible for allowing foreigners to adopt babies without actually visiting South Korea, which Crapser blames for screening failures that led to his adoption by abusive parents.

“It’s a daily struggle to survive and to continue to want to push forward and want some justice and want some accountability and want some answers,” Crapser, now 43, told AP. “For everything to fall apart and for everything to happen the way it has, most people wouldn’t be alive here to talk.”

Kim Ho Hyun, Holt’s president, said the agency followed the laws and procedures of the time and that it was mainly the responsibility of U.S. parents and institutions to ensure that adoptees obtained citizenship. Seong Chang-hyeon, an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, said the government is trying to improve welfare services for deported adoptees while also consulting with Washington over possible U.S. legal changes that could prevent adoptee deportations.

The U.S. State Department referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Currently living in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Seoul, Crapser said the deportation has seriously strained his marriage and he often sinks into dark moods over his inability to be actively involved in the lives of his children.

He described the difficulties of being stuck in a country where he doesn’t speak the language, including dismissive treatment at public offices and monthly visits to a psychiatrist who can’t really speak English. While he talked fondly about meeting with his Korean mother every few months, he also expressed frustration over what he sees as a social stigma against adoptees here. He has eight more years before he’s eligible to return to the United States.

About 200,000 South Koreans were adopted overseas during the past six decades, the majority to American couples. More than 4,000 Korean children were sent abroad in 1979, the year Crapser arrived in the United States.

Agency board members with ties to the military dictators of the day were less worried about child welfare than maintaining a business that brought in as much as $20 million a year by some estimates, critics say.

Reached on the telephone, Crapser’s birth mother, Kwon Pil-ju, sobbed and said she felt like she had “horribly sinned” against her son. She said she was single, disabled and desperately poor, and that she finally decided to give her children away because of fears that they’d starve. They also have problems communicating — he can’t speak Korean, she can’t speak English, and they don’t always have someone who could interpret.

Crapser said he “definitely didn’t win the lottery” when it came to his American parents. He and a sister were sent to what he says was an abusive couple in Michigan in 1979. Seven years later, the couple abandoned Crapser, then 10, and his sister, and he ended up with Thomas and Dolly Crapser, who he said would sometimes slam their children’s heads against walls, strike them with kitchen utensils and burn them with heated objects. Repeated calls to the Crapser home went unanswered.

In 1991, the couple was arrested on charges of physical child abuse, sexual abuse and rape. They were reportedly convicted in 1992 on multiple counts of criminal mistreatment and assault. Kicked out of his parents’ house after an argument, Crapser pleaded guilty to burglary after he said he later broke into the home to retrieve a Korean-language Bible and a stuffed dog that came with him from a Korean orphanage. He was later convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and assault.

Crapser thought he had turned a corner, opening a barber shop and an upholstery business and starting a family, when he was served his deportation paperwork in 2015 after a green card application triggered a background check.

“It’s heartbreaking. A lot of the depression that I deal with, a lot of the hopelessness that I feel at times is attributed to the separation from my family that I created and not being able to be actually involved in their life every day like I was,” he said.

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

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epchapman89 · 5 years

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Community Focused, DC’s The Potter’s House Is Many Things To Many People

In 2018, the concept of “service with a smile” is changing. While many have grown accustomed to the hospitality model of going above and beyond to please the customer, some cafes are taking steps not only to serve individuals but to honor whole communities.

The Potter’s House, a historic bookstore-cafe in Washington, DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, has been around since the 1960s. Founded by Gordon Cosby, the cafe and 501c3 non-profit first opened with loosely faith-based roots.

While the cafe today strays quite far from any sort of religious affiliation, the team at The Potter’s House tries to respect its original identity as a gathering space and a safe place for marginalized and housing-unstable people to come for a cup of coffee or a needed meal. The shop also faces a few challenges: a changing neighborhood, a widening demographic, and expectations placed on them as a historic gathering space. The Potter’s House aims to be many things to many people, including its own staff.

With a simple, spacious layout, liberally curated books, and a no-frills Counter Culture coffee menu, it may be hard to believe that The Potter’s House has undergone several different identities prior to a revamp in 2015. Most notably, the cafe was a crucial gathering point for the Civil Rights Movement after the assassination of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We were one of the spaces that stayed open to be a rallying space, a community space to talk through what this upheaval meant for the community and how we look after the community in an intentional way,” says Mike Balderrama, General Manager and Coffee Director of The Potter’s House. “We are constantly engaged in so many different things.”

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, The Potter’s House remained a central meeting space to tackle the issues of mental health and homelessness in America. After Reagan shut down several mental health facilities in his term, the Adams Morgan neighborhood became a birthplace for social programming and non-profit operations, many of which were conceived of within these cafe walls.

When The Potter’s House changed hands in 2015, the team had to ask itself how to maintain this historic identity. Balderrama said the focus became “upholding as much of the principles of the past and thinking what we can do while also offering really good food, really good coffee, and books that promote ideas and thought.”

Today, The Potter’s House honors its roots with an abundance of programming and books that speak to its past. Guests can expect to find a huge range of left-leaning reading material that ranges from ethnic cookbooks to self-help guides, liberal-themed graphic novels, memoirs from POCs, and more. In addition to poetry readings and open mic nights that focus on social justice and equality, the cafe also partners with a lot of local organizations and hosts community-centric events like “Mindful Monday Yoga” and monthly prison-letter-writing events—a chance for the incarcerated to connect with others on a human level.

The Potter’s House is connected to the D.C. coffee community too; the gang is always excited and ready to host a Thursday Night Throwdown when the opportunity presents itself. However, Balderrama hesitates to laud The Potter’s House as “specialty coffee cafe.”

“We are a shop that sells specialty coffee, but I wouldn’t necessarily call us a specialty coffee shop, because more than anything we’re a community shop and I think there’s a lot of weighted language that comes from the concept of a specialty cafe,” Balderrama says. “I want to engage with people in the community more—I want to make sure they have a cup of coffee that they like, have a pastry that’s good, have food that they enjoy and keep coming back for, and when they enjoy and their curiosity is piqued enough, I’m ready to talk coffee with them.”

“Community to me, in general, is super important because community is what keeps people in coffee in my opinion,” says Adam JacksonBey, a Potter’s House barista who also serves as a member of the Barista Guild of America’s executive council. “You’re drawn to it for many reasons, like the need for a job and customer service, but from all the coffee folks that I talk to, community is what keeps them there.”

“The community at The Potter’s House is different because you’re not just dealing with the greater, national coffee community or the D.C. coffee community—both of which I love dearly—but also with a community in D.C. that has been around for almost 60 years, so it feels great to be a part of something that large,” says JacksonBey.

JacksonBey says that the cafe’s goal to provide meals to those who need them is much of why he finds meaning in his work at The Potter’s House, where he’s worked for two years.

“We’ve been serving the community since the ’60s—serving people who didn’t have enough food, or couldn’t pay for it that week. Social workers know to come find some of their clients here. It’s a really beautiful thing to see and work with,” says JacksonBey.

However, keeping the doors open to a wide variety of faces can occasionally leave the doors open to conflict as well. To this end, Balderrama forgoes 911 on speed-dial at The Potter’s House, encouraging baristas instead to take de-escalation, bystander, and first aid training classes—but to also be welcoming resources for Adams Morgan.

“People think they are entitled to a very long laundry list of expectations when they come into our space and a lot of us is saying no, this is actually what our program is, and I think sometimes sitting in that discomfort is better than over-accommodating someone or having to move people around,” Balderrama explains.

“The things we do have control over and consistency over is the coffee that we make, the food that we make, those kinds of things. Everything else is negotiable in a way.”

Everything else, that is—except community.

The Potter's House is located at 1658 Columbia Rd NW, Washington, DC. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Katrina Yentch is a Sprudge contributor based in New York City. Read more Katrina Yentch on Sprudge.

The post Community Focused, DC’s The Potter’s House Is Many Things To Many People appeared first on Sprudge.

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mrwilliamcharley · 5 years

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Community Focused, DC’s The Potter’s House Is Many Things To Many People

JacksonBey says that the cafe’s goal to provide meals to those who need them is much of why he finds meaning in his work at The Potter’s House, where he’s worked for two years.

“The things we do have control over and consistency over is the coffee that we make, the food that we make, those kinds of things. Everything else is negotiable in a way.”

Everything else, that is—except community.

The Potter's House is located at 1658 Columbia Rd NW, Washington, DC. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Katrina Yentch is a Sprudge contributor based in New York City. Read more Katrina Yentch on Sprudge.

The post Community Focused, DC’s The Potter’s House Is Many Things To Many People appeared first on Sprudge.

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ellymackay · 6 years

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Struggling With Distraction? Here’s How Sleep Can Help (Or Hurt)

The following article Struggling With Distraction? Here’s How Sleep Can Help (Or Hurt) was first published on https://www.ellymackay.com

There are a lot of distractions challenging us in modern life. There’s a pretty good chance you’re reading this article on your smartphone. That ever-present device is one likely prime culprit in your battle against distractedness.

Another major contributor to distraction? Lack of sleep. Brand new research on sleep deprivation looked specifically at how lack of sleep affects distractedness. In the largest study of its kind on sleep deprivation, scientists found that sleep deprived people have a much harder time rebounding from distractions than people who are well rested.

Distractedness can seem like a minor problem, not least because it happens to so many of us with such frequency. An incoming email pulls us away from completing a timely task at work. The blip of a news alert causes us to lose our place in an article or a book we’re reading. But distractedness is a real and serious issue, with costs to productivity, accuracy, and safety.

Here’s what the latest research has to say about how poor sleep may be contributing to your distraction.

Lack of sleep magnifies distractedness

This new research comes from scientists at Michigan State University, who looked specifically at the effect of sleep deprivation on people’s ability to complete a task that involves following directions and executing multiple steps. The study included 234 people, who came to the sleep lab in the evening. Between 10 p.m. and midnight, each of them worked individually on a procedural task that required several steps to complete. While they were working participants were periodically interrupted. These repeated distractions meant participants had to reacquaint themselves with where they were in the sequence of steps required to finish the task.

At midnight, half the group went home to sleep. The other half remained in the sleep lab, and stayed awake for the remainder of the night.

The next morning, all 234 participants gathered again in the sleep lab, where researchers had them work on the same procedural task, with the same periodic interruptions.

The night before, everyone had successfully completed the task, meeting basic criteria for accuracy established by the scientists. The next morning, however, things went very differently. Researchers found a significant divide had opened up between the performance of the rested group, compared to the sleep-deprived group.

Among the sleep deprived participants, 15 percent failed to complete the task. Among the rested group, only 1 percent failed to do so.

The sleep deprived people who were able to complete the procedural task made more errors than their well-rested counterparts. And the number of errors made by sleep-deprived individuals increased the longer they worked on the task.

The costs of sleep-related distraction

Scientists in this new study found the increased distractedness among sleep deprived people was related to a cognitive skill known as “memory maintenance.” That’s our ability to hold relevant information in our memories and retrieve it efficiently.

In the case of the study, impaired memory maintenance meant the sleep deprived people were less able to pick up where they left off in their task sequence and carry on without making errors after being interrupted.

In our regular lives, the implications of impaired memory maintenance are pretty vast.

This latest research strongly indicates that small distractions have magnified complications when we’re sleep deprived. That stands to have a major impact on our productivity. Someone pops their head into your office, and it takes you longer to settle back into focusing on the project in front of you. A text message interrupts your monthly billpaying or bookkeeping, and you linger that much longer on your phone before returning your attention to your finances. Think about all the unavoidable distractions you face during a day, and it’s not hard to see how these small, seemingly insignificant interruptions can add up to some pretty dramatic productivity losses.

As the study shows, impaired memory maintenance that results from sleep deprivation also affects our accuracy. When that question comes at you at work, and it takes longer to get back to your proposal, you’re also more likely to forget to include a key piece of information. When that text message interrupts your bill paying, you’re more at risk for transposing numbers on a check, or getting a due date wrong. Taking a test? You’re likely to have a harder time retrieving the right answers when you need them if you’re sleep deprived—even if you’ve committed that information to memory.

This increased risk isn’t limited to “small” errors alone. And let’s face it, even the smallest errors can add up, piling frustration and stress onto our days.

This study also showed us that the longer we try to focus on tasks that involve multiple steps, the more likely we are to make mistakes, when we’re sleep deprived.

When we’re talking about sleep deprivation and distractedness, safety is another huge issue. For people with jobs in sectors such as public safety, health care, and transportation, the degree of their distraction can mean the difference between life and death. Catastrophic events, from the Exxon Valdez oil spill to Three Mile Island and the Challenger space shuttle explosion have all involved human error believed to be related to sleep deprivation. We hear all too often of rail, air, water, and road accidents that involve lack of sleep. Sleep-deprived doctors are more likely to make mistakes during surgery and non-surgical procedures, misdiagnose conditions, and dispense the wrong drugs. Police officers who don’t get enough sleep make more administrative errors, become more aggressive, and are more likely to fall asleep when driving on duty.

Then there’s our own sleepy driving to be concerned with. Drowsy, distracted driving contributes to more than 100,000 car accidents a year, according to the National Transportation Safety Board—and that’s a figure that many safety experts think is actually way too low an estimate.

It’s not only motor vehicle accidents that need to concern us when it comes to sleep deprivation and magnified distractedness. Accidental injuries at work and at home all become much more likely when we’re lacking sleep.

The relationship between sleep and memory

Decades of scientific research has established the powerful links between sleep and memory. High-quality, restorative sleep helps the brain make and store memories effectively. On the other hand, a lack of sleep, as well as poor quality, restless sleep, impairs our ability to make memories, making it harder for us to learn, store, and retrieve information.

But we haven’t yet learned all there is to know about the relationship between sleep and memory. Far from it. Scientists continue to make new discoveries, and break new ground in understanding the role sleep plays in helping—and hindering–our brain’s memory functions.

Just a few years ago, we saw the first study showing specific evidence that sleeping well may improve our memory organization. Memory organization is a term that describes our brain’s complex ability to strategically sort, categorize, and summarize information, to make it the most useful and easiest to retrieve when we need it.

Another fascinating study from a few years ago found that sleep deprivation can actually increase the risk for developing false memories. And in a separate, but potentially related study, the same Michigan State scientists who conducted this latest research on sleep and distraction found that sleep deprived people are significantly more likely to sign false confessions during police interrogations. The odds of signing a false confession, scientists discovered, were more than four times higher for people who hadn’t slept in 24 hours than for people who’d slept 8 hours the previous night.

And there’s more brand-new research about sleep and memory that’s of interest. Scientists at the UK’s University of Birmingham have discovered that distinctive brain activity that occurs when we remember things when we’re awake reappears during sleep itself. Identifying memory-related brain activity that occurs during both wakefulness and sleep could help scientists gain a better understanding of how memory works, and how sleep contributes to memory working well. This new information may also pave the way for a better understanding of memory disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

How to cope with distractions when you’re sleep deprived

While we can all work to limit the distractions in our lives, much of what distracts us in any given day is beyond our control. To limit the negative impact of distractedness on your productivity, accuracy, and safety, keep these strategies in mind:

Get plenty of sleep. You knew this was coming, right? As this latest research reveals, getting enough high-quality sleep is one powerful way to protect yourself from excessive distraction. Schedule regular bedtime and wake times that allow you plenty of time to get the sleep you need (for most of us, that’s between 7-9 hours a night), and stick to that schedule consistently.

Don’t drive when you’re sleep deprived. This is another fundamental piece of advice that bears repeating. Your safety and the safety of others may depend on it. This is about more than not driving when you’re feeling actively sleepy. That’s a no brainer—or at least it should be. We’re pretty terrible at gauging our own sleepiness, and we tend to overestimate our abilities to focus and concentrate. Even if you’re not feeling sleepy, sleep deprivation on its own puts you at greater risk for falling asleep—or having a magnified moment of distraction—behind the wheel. Play it safe and get someone else to drive, or make other arrangements.

Schedule—and re-schedule—the time you spend in complex, concentrated work. As this new study shows, the longer you concentrate when sleep deprived, the more likely you are to make errors. If you’ve had a poor night of rest, think about limiting or re-scheduling the time you’ll spend engaged in more complicated work until you can catch up on rest. If you can’t reschedule it entirely, at least organize your concentrated work into short stints, with plenty of breaks.

Create extra buffers against distraction. While the most sleep-friendly solution is to not be short on sleep at all, we all know that’s not realistic for everyone, all the time. When you do find yourself short on sleep, be extra attentive to removing possible distractions from your path. Power down your phone, turn off email, text, and news alerts. Close yourself in a quiet room to read, or work from home to allow yourself the additional protection you’ll need from distractions.

If you feel challenged by distractions in your life, that’s yet another great reason to pay more attention to getting the sleep you need.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM

The Sleep Doctor

www.thesleepdoctor.com

The post Struggling With Distraction? Here’s How Sleep Can Help (Or Hurt) appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.

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viralfeednova · 6 years

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Why this dating app aficionado isn’t sold on friendship apps.

It’s hard to find a friend — especially as an adult. Several tech companies are trying to make it a little easier. Back in March 2016, dating app Bumble launched a new feature called Bumble BFF. The premise was simple: Take the existing Bumble infrastructure and let people use the app with the specific goal of making friends. Why? Because the company realized that many people on the app were already doing that, and they might as well just make it a full-on feature. Making connections with strangers on the internet with hopes of finding friendship is a pastime going back years. From Craigslist’s “Strictly Platonic” (RIP) section to apps like Meetup, Peanut (which is aimed at moms looking for friends who are also moms), GirlCrew, and Patook — there’s no real shortage of places trying to help you make some new pals. While the stigma around online dating seems to have faded a bit in recent years — a 2015 Pew survey found that 15% of American adults have used a dating app, up from 11% just two years earlier — a lot of people still feel weird about making friends on the internet, with some going so far as to say that people you meet on the internet aren’t actually friends at all. Internet-based friendships are totally real. For example, I’ve never met writer and comedian Lane Moore — at least not in person — but we’re still good friends. Moore is probably best known as the creator of Tinder Live, a monthly show that is exactly what it sounds like: People gathering in a room to swipe through Tinder profiles projected onto a screen. She’s also the author of the upcoming “How to Be Alone.” Her knowledge of dating apps (thanks to her show, she’s about as close to a professional Tinder-user as it gets) led me to reach out to ask her a few questions about the internet and what role it can play in non-romantic relationships. Surely, an internet-savvy Tinder power-user would be a huge fan of friend-matching apps, right? Wrong. “I feel like this is the loneliest time in history in a lot of ways, and I’ve seen a lot of people say similar things,” she tells me. “We have more ways to connect than ever before, but we all feel really lonely.” Lane Moore. Photo by Mindy Tucker. But in a time where we have more access to each other than any other point in human history, how is it that so many of us still feel lonely? Or is it simply that we feel lonely because there are so many people telling each of us that “internet friends” don’t count in the same way your next-door neighbor might? In a January 2018 article at Inc., Amy Morin makes the argument that we’re not lonely in spite of the internet, but because of it. There are certain aspects of Morin’s argument that make a lot of sense to me. For instance, she suggests that the internet has created a culture where we put too much of an emphasis on the quantity of friends we have, at the expense of the quality. There’s also the fact that the faceless nature of the internet can sometimes make it difficult to read social cues. Both of those points are perfectly reasonable, but I’m not sure I buy the conclusion. The internet is just a tool, and maybe there’s simply no app or algorithm that can single-handedly cure such a human problem like loneliness. We are perfectly capable of fostering strong friendships online, but like any relationship, there’s work required that goes beyond the swipe of a screen. Moore makes the case for friendships that begin on the internet, especially for the world’s introverts and outcasts. “I think there’s that desire to feel connected and seen,” she says. “Especially if you’re somebody who’s been stuck don’t feel like you fit in some way. I feel like those are the people who internet friendships are really incredible for.” She tells me about the last time she took Tinder Live on the road, meeting many of these online friends for the first time in person by taking them up on offers to let her sleep on their couches (hotels are expensive!). It was a shockingly good experience. Just how people sometimes find romance when they’re not looking for it, that’s true of friendship, as well — and that might be the factor apps can’t account for. Moore was in Minneapolis for a Tinder Live performance. Following the show, she messaged one of the matches (the point of the show is to have a little good-natured fun at the expensive of the people she matched with, making jokes about cheesy lines on their dating profiles and whatnot) to let him in on the fact that his profile had been featured, and thanked him for being such a good sport about the whole thing. Then they kept chatting, and long after Moore had left Minneapolis, they stayed in touch, striking up a pretty good friendship. “We met because he was unknowingly part of my comedy show where I would joke about trying to steal his jeans, in a city that I don’t even live in,” she says, laughing. “And he’s been just such a really lovely friend. And I love that’s how we met. I think some of [the reluctance to make friends on the internet] is just conditioning because I think all those stories are beautiful and really fucking cool.” Photo by Mindy Tucker. To Moore, the idea of actively seeking out a friend through an app feels like some sort of job interview for friends. While she’s all for people using them if they help them make new connections, she just doesn’t think they’re for her. “All the really great friendships that I’ve had have it’s always just been part of beautiful story, a thing that I wasn’t necessarily expecting,” she says. “And then we kept bumping into each...

The post Why this dating app aficionado isn’t sold on friendship apps. appeared first on ViralFeedNova.

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careerandmoneystoryteller · 6 years

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Aimee Gates Life In Heaven Episode 13 Freestyle Mini Story andor longer stories weekly feature by Stella Carrier

January 08, 2018

Aimee Gates Life In Heaven Episode 13 Freestyle Mini Story andor longer stories weekly feature by Stella Carrier

I Stella Carrier intend to create heaven on earth and for those who surround me in all areas of my life both present and future.

I Stella Carrier intend to create heaven on earth and for those who surround me in all areas of my life both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to channel the energies of unlimited intuition power, unlimited genius powers, and unlimited imagination powers in all areas of my life both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to more powerfully connect with my heaven higher self and my heaven spirit ally team of the heaven worlds of divine love and divine happiness in all areas of my life both present and future.

start time after gathering resources 1015 am

completion time 1053 am

Aimee Gates here gathered near a festival near a celestial replica of Los Angeles California and a certain area of Canada. Yes outlandish as it sounds but both crazy and exciting there are also worlds in the non-physical realms that are fashioned and created from a collective pool of millions of spirits who may have liked a combination of multiple areas while living on earth and wanted to create a combination of those places. For instance, yesterday I was at a celestial replica of College Park Maryland, Alexandria and Arlington Virginia, and Virginia Beach Virginia helping over 800 spirits set up mansions for newly arrived spirits to this realm a joyful undertaking similar to what is done in relation to Habitat For Humanity just with more ease because we are able to combine the powers of our creative imaginations in certain ways in the realms I currently reside and visit compared to when I resided on earth. Today, in a few hours I am going to attend a class showing how to channel the wisdom, knowledge, and imagination/creativity of the higher self/soul to souls/spirits still residing on earth requesting just assistance in a celestial area that is a hybrid of Wheaton Maryland Norfolk Virginia, Orlando Florida, Anaheim California, and Woodbridge Virginia that was created less than five years ago by over 20,000 spirits who passed away from earth at least over 5 years ago. There is no restriction on how soon a sprit/soul residing in these realms can team up with another spirit or create from themselves certain celestial worlds combined from a multiple combination of places they enjoyed living andor visiting at. I Aimee Gates am about to hand over this communication to a spirit named Curtis Wade. He transitioned from the earth realm over 20 years ago and he is an author/writer/storyteller here in these realms. Curtis Wade also assists several spirit guides assigned to souls/spirits residing on earth to be brave in pursuing their writing dreams especially when the writings are taboo yet aligned with the destiny of the writer/author being gifted with the idea/ideas andor maybe the writing may be something called different other than taboo but they may need the encouragement andor celestial nudging from a spirit such as Curtis Wade to believe in their capabilities andor life purpose qualification to follow through on the idea even if they are intuitively aware of how they are being perceived for even daring to write. I as Aimee Gates am about to board a celestial train taking me to the area I am referring to in less than 90 seconds but I hand over the session to Curtis Wade as promised.

Curtis Wade; Thank you Aimee Gates Yes as the spirit you have known of Aimee Gates stated I assist countless, over 500 spirit guides a year in the area of encouraging various souls/spirits residing on earth to follow their writing dreams regardless of how they are being perceived for doing so. I specialize in various writing genres but many of the spirit guides I am helping are in charge of female souls and some male souls whose destiny involves working some type job coupled with balancing their writing abilities. As with Aimee Gates I frequently attend classes and I often write either stories for myself andor stories tales that I might want certain earth based spirits/souls to channel.

For instance, I am standing outside this orange purple and white castle that has a theme park and college inside of it that specializes both in how to write stories pertaining to theme parks both here in these realms and on earth. There are hybrid classes taught to sometimes over 5000 people in one class at a time by at least 15 instructors in a 2 hour session that may consist of lets say 15 minutes on how to write a theme park fiction story set around one of the celestial realms, The next 15 minute segment may then be taught by another celestial instructor showing myself and other spirits assisting both celestial spirit guides and angels on how to channel certain theme park story ideas to earth based spirits making contact with their muses. Less than five yards from me is a yellow green and blue building where I may go into a laboratory containing sometimes over 1000 rooms that allow me to access certain machines and devices not yet referenced on earth that allow me to channel certain writing ideas to various earth based spirits sometimes I help as much as over 20 spirits a day. In less than five minutes I am about to go into a library fashioned after a combination of a popular grocery store theme park and university created in Switzerland by the year 2100 and then an hour later I have to attend a meeting in a 3 story mile wide building that is a combination of a shopping mall theme park university and train station building that has prototypes and models that were built in Norfolk Virginia by the year 2120 and College Park Maryland by the year 2125. Yes, Aimee Gates as busy as she was left out that it is now the year 2200. Anyhow, the first library meeting I am reference pertains to me writing a series book that I am going to share with other spirits at a festival that is in a place that is a hybrid of 2110 downtown Washington D.C. and 2111 Los Angeles California. I am also going to meet up with a male and female spirit guide who are joined together romantically speaking in the celestial realms who are looking after a married couple still residing on earth-the male spirit guide is in charge with over 40 other spirits of the wife and the female spirit guide is in charge of the husband in conjunction with also 40 other spirit guides. They need my help in traveling with them to a writing class being attended by over 19 spirits on earth to help channel the creativity and wisdom of the realms I currently reside in. I Curtis Wade have spiritually evolved to the privilege of becoming what many on earth refer to as a Muse. I must close this session for now as one of my proteges is asking for my advice regarding a writing project they too are undertaking.

Resources

I Stella Carrier intend to live a life filled with joy, creativity, love, passion, excitement, spiritual connection, fun, energy, health, learning growing happiness and abundance in all areas of my life both present and future.

I Stella Carrier intend to create a life of unlimited abundance in which money, opportunities, ideas, connections, and all forms of wealth come to me effortlessly with harm to none in all areas of my life both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to double my after tax monthly income within 2 years or sooner both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to create heaven on earth and for those who surround me in all areas of my life both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to channel the energies of unlimited intuition power, unlimited genius powers, and unlimited imagination powers in all areas of my life both present and future.I Stella Carrier intend to more powerfully connect with my heaven higher self and my heaven spirit ally team of the heaven worlds of divine love and divine happiness in all areas of my life both present and future.

AffirmationsI Stella Carrier mark a new beginning in the book of my life and wisely use the free time I have been giving to rest and tune even deeper into various aspects of my life-spiritual, athletic goals such as walking more, balancing my writing time with some online courses I have enrolled in etc.

I Stella Carrier am well provided for. I live in an abundant universe.

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/stage-names.php#.WTqvpOvyucw

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dimension-names.php#.WXs6PVWGOcw

Expose Come Go With Me

Five When the Lights Go Out

Start Me Up by the Rollingstones

Return to Innocence by Enigma

I See Right Through To You DJ Encore

Step by Step by New Kids on the Block

4 Ever by the Veronicas

Popular by the Veronicas

Dreams by the Cranberries

Beautiful Now by Zedd feat. Jon Belion

Get Low by Liam Payne and Zedd

Just Dance by Lady Gaga

Champion Fall Out Boy

Come Undone by Duran Duran

Feels So Good by Armin Van Buuren feat. Nadia Ali

Learning to Fly by Tom Petty

Automatic Lover by Real Mccoy

Follow You Follow Me by Genesis

Gimme All Your Luvin by ZZ Top

Summer Jam 2003 by the Underdog Project

Moondance by Van Morrison

Wonderwall by Oasis

Something Like That by Tim McGraw

Around the World by Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Game of Thrones' returns for eighth & final season in 2019

Deadline

January 4, 2018https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/game-thrones-returns-eighth-final-190916176.html

A look inside the marriage of billionaire investor Mark Cuban and his wife Tiffany, who met at the gym, are worth $3.3 billion, and insist he won't run for presidentby Aine Caine Business Insider

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A look inside the marriage of billionaire investor Mark Cuban and his wife Tiffany, who met at the gym, are worth $3.3 billion, and insist he won't run for presidentBusiness Insider Sat, Jan 6 12:00 AM EST

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Donald Trump suggests he wants US law to limit free speech in wake of publication of explosive new book by Chris Stevenson The Independenthttps://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-suggests-wants-us-172200667.html

A look inside the marriage of billionaire investor Mark Cuban and his wife Tiffany, who met at the gym, are worth $3.3 billion, and insist he won't run for presidentby Aine Caine

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A look inside the marriage of billionaire investor Mark Cuban and his wife Tiffany, who met at the gym, are worth $3.3 billion, and insist he won't run for president by Aine Cain

http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-wife-tiffany-relationship-2018-1

A look at the weddings of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, LeBron James, and more highly successful peopleby Aine Cain

http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-mark-zuckerberg-wedding-2017-12/#the-100-or-so-guests-attending-the-surprise-wedding-of-mark-zuckerberg-and-dr-priscilla-chan-initially-thought-they-had-been-invited-to-the-latters-medical-school-graduation-party-the-nuptials-took-place-in-the-backyard-of-the-couples-palo-alto-home-on-may-19-2012-1

boss website

https://www.hugoboss.com/us/sale/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=N7384.285985MEDIAIQ&utm_term=211759941_96102747&utm_medium=display&utm_source=N7384.285985MEDIAIQ&utm_term=211759941_96102747

Arizona State University Online

https://go.asuonline.asu.edu/lpppc-brand/?utm_campaign=Retargeting+Brand&utm_medium=internet&utm_source=THETRADEDESK&st-t=ttd

Burlington Coat Factory website

https://www.burlingtoncoatfactory.com/burlingtoncoatfactory/shop-all-coats-jackets-50110.aspx?utm_source=2597956&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=bcfalwayson18&utm_content=93028971&utm_term=212014131

Great Wolf Lodge Williamsburg Virginia website

https://www.greatwolf.com/?utm_source=MediaIQ&utm_medium=Display&utm_campaign=Mason&ctcampaign=6786&ctkwd={keyword}&ctmatch={matchtype}&ctcreative={creative}&ctadpos={adposition}

19 simple social skills that will make you more likable by Rachel Gillett and Aine Cain

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-more-likable-2017-12/#smile-2

18 hobbies you can turn into a high-paying side gig by Rachel Gilletthttp://www.businessinsider.com/hobbies-high-paying-side-job-2017-7/#acting-1

15 hobbies highly successful people practice in their spare time by Rachel Gillett

http://www.businessinsider.com/hobbies-successful-people-2017-2/#richard-branson-plays-chess-1

What 13 highly successful people read every morningby Rachel Gillett and Aine Cain

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-highly-successful-people-read-every-morning-2017-6/#warren-buffett-starts-his-days-with-an-assortment-of-national-and-local-news-1

Even I'm aware that there is nothing filthy about being rich and that it is actually a blessing to be rich, and that a rich person is to be studied in an envy free manner. However, I am following both my logic and intuition by keeping this article for further present and future study.

The GOP tax plan separates Wall Street's rich from its filthy richby Linette Lopez

http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-tax-plan-separates-wall-streets-merely-rich-from-its-tycoon-rich-2017-12

I confess that despite my politics, the profile of Hope Hicks fascinates me as she successfully pulled herself from a modest background and wisely harnessed it into a successful public relations career. I intend to keep this article and the following article for further study for both present and future reference. However, this is independent from the fact that I respectfully disagree with President Donald Trump trying to censor writer Michael Wolff and President Donald Trump needs to be more cooperate and understanding with special counsel Robert Mueller. Allowing Robert Mueller to be harshly judged and scrutinized on pro-Trump media sites reflects more on if Trump himself is being fair rather than Mueller. Additionally, my admiration for Hope Hicks and Ivanka Trump are separate from the fact that I feel that President Donald Trump needs to show that he actually cares about representing America in a dignified and lawful manner even if he does not agree with his political opponents/political rivals by being dictator-free and allowing other people to say andor write whatever they want about him as long as they do not do any harm to him andor those close to him. To try to mess with the first amendment just because a writer andor reporter struck a raw nerve would only prove to his critics that he cares more about running a dictatorship than truly making America Great. Someone close to Trump needs to tell him that this is America where a writer andor reporter deserves to not back down a la the Tom Petty song and be allowed to say andor write whatever they want as long as their actions andor writings are harm-free to others.

How 29-year-old Hope Hicks became the youngest White House communications director in history — and Trump's 'real daughter' by Rebecca Harrington

http://www.businessinsider.com/hope-hicks-bio-trump-spokeswoman-2017-2/#hicks-and-her-sister-mary-grace-were-successful-teen-models-hicks-posed-for-ralph-lauren-and-appeared-on-the-cover-of-it-girl-a-spin-off-of-the-best-selling-gossip-girl-book-and-tv-series-1

Kellyanne Conway and other women reveal what it's like to work in Trump's White House by Eliza Relmanhttp://www.businessinsider.com/women-trump-white-house-2017-5

sarah huckabee sanders

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The tax bill is good because MSNBC staffers got a bonus by Maxwell Tanihttp://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-bill-good-msnbc-staff-comcast-bonus-2017-12

I definitely wish that I would have invested 1000 dollars in stock in 2018 as it was around this time that I started to become interested more in the Disney brand for some reason. I even purchased some a red book pertaining to Walt Disney World when I was still stationed in Norfolk Virginia on the aircraft carrier the USS Eisenhower

If you invested $1,000 in Disney 10 years ago, here’s how much you’d have now

Shawn M. Carter

@shawncarterm

2:17 PM ET Wed, 3 Jan 2018

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/03/if-you-put-1000-in-disney-10-years-ago-heres-what-youd-have-now.html?recirc=taboolainternal

JAN. 5, 2018, 5:36 A.M.

Michael Wolff, Sarah Huckabee Sanders give dueling TV interviews as controversial Trump book hits the stores

Associated Pres

http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/sarah-huckabee-sanders-PEGPF00231-topic.html

16 skills that are hard to learn but will pay off forever by Rachel Gilletthttp://www.businessinsider.com/skills-that-will-pay-off-forever-2017-7/#mastering-your-sleep-2

Paris Hilton and Chris Zylka's Romance Will Make You Say, "That's Hot!" by popsugarhttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/m/ea659376-09e3-33a5-b972-0759d21422d3/ss_paris-hilton-and-chris.html

Robert Mueller 'is looking at Ivanka Trump's interaction with Russian lawyer during infamous meeting at Trump Tower'

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is looking at Ivanka Trump's brief interaction with a Russian lawyer, according to a report

The infamous meeting with Trump's family and closest advisers with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was at the height of the presidential race

The meeting was exposed after Donald Trump had taken office and the president dictated a misleading statement saying it was regarding Russian adoptions

Days later it was revealed that statement - issued by his son Donald Jr - was false

The investigation could be looking at possible obstruction of justice charges aimed at the president, his family and several top advisers

by Jessica Finn

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5242965/Mueller-looks-Ivanka-Trumps-interaction-Russian-lawyer.html#ixzz53TeQiLAB

@MailOnline on Twitter

DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5242965/Mueller-looks-Ivanka-Trumps-interaction-Russian-lawyer.html

You Won't Believe These Pop Culture Moments Happened 10 Years Ago

January 6, 2018 by

LUCY KENNY

https://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Pop-Culture-Moments-2008-44470582

Paris Hilton and Chris Zylka's Romance Will Make You Say, "That's Hot!" by Monica Sisavat

https://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Paris-Hilton-Chris-Zylka-Cutest-Pictures-44470477

Grubhub Website

https://www.grubhub.com/restaurant/americas-best-wings-5811-eastern-ave-hyattsville/325117?utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=display_paid&utm_campaign=crm_criteodisplay_201701&utm_content=no-promo_restaurant-recommendations

Bob's Discount Furniture Website

https://www.mybobs.com/

The ultimate luxury treehouse: Apartment nestling in the New Forest foliage offers a wrap-around balcony, hot tubs and marble bathrooms

Chewton Glen Hotel has opened a new treehouse comprising two apartments - Great Yew and Little Yew

Together they're called The Yews and offer five-star hotel-style luxury in the heart of the New Forest

Impressive touches include the delivery of a breakfast hamper every morning through a concealed hatch by Rachel Ellis

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-5234739/Chewton-Glen-Hotel-offers-ultimate-luxury-treehouse.html#ixzz53Tf9puVi

@MailOnline on Twitter

DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-5234739/Chewton-Glen-Hotel-offers-ultimate-luxury-treehouse.html

Norfolk Virginia website

https://www.visitnorfolk.com/?CID=mv35578_200659

Think Disneyland Paris is just for kids? Think again with our guide to a truly grown up getaway by Sadie Whitelocks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-5217683/Think-Disneyland-Paris-just-kids-Think-again.html#ixzz53Tg1q7BQ

@MailOnline on Twitter

DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-5217683/Think-Disneyland-Paris-just-kids-Think-again.html

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