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fourseasonsfigs · 2 years ago

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Madame Tussaud's (Handcrafted)

These delightful little figures represent figures of another kind - wax ones!

The inspiration for these figs is the March 3, 2023 unveiling of Gong Jun's wax statue at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Shanghai.

Rumor has it that Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan both were scheduled to have wax figures on display at Madame Tussaud's. Perhaps in the future they can be there together.

In the meantime, I have them here in miniature fig form, looking as sweet as can be.

These figs originally started off their life as keychains. Or ornaments, I guess. I saw them pop up as ready-to-purchase items in my favorite ultra-light clay artist's store, and I was so charmed by them I had to bring them home.

This is my warehouse picture - I had to show this one off, because I thought it was utterly cute that the warehouse photographer put them right up against each other, even though they had the entire area to display them on.

The very last thing I would ever do is use these figs as keychains, of course. Not only do have a million and one Junzhe and Wenzhou keychains already (anyone need any? I will literally send you one in a padded envelope, you can just message me an address and your style preference and I will immediately drop one in the mail to you). Plus, the first time I got a ding or scuff on on one I would be terribly distressed. Nope, I planned from the start to convert these into figs on stands.

And here they are! Junjun is wearing his suit that he wore to the unveiling, and Zhehan is wearing the suit that the wax statue of Gong Jun is wearing. There's some thought among fans in China that they might have worn the same suits for the statue.

I just pulled out the hook on top of their heads that was holding the keychain loop, and glued their little tiny feet to a standee. There was no way that they would stand up on their own, unfortunately.

They are adorable. Their poses are really too wonderful - relaxed and elegant in the cutest chibi way!

You can see just how small their little feet are - they were really not meant to stand! That being said, with the glue they do stand just fine.

I love how she did their hair - we have Gong Jun's black hair with the higher volume up top (my favorite look on him!) and Zhehan with more brownish hair.

Not too much to see from this angle - the white suits are beautiful, but fairly plain on the back.

You can see the size difference here pretty well, with Gong Jun just slightly taller than Zhehan.

So debonair! Their little profiles are just adorable.

And we're back around! Please notice the hearts in their eyes, and the Wenzhou eye colors of blue for Zhehan and the sort of a maroon for Junjun.

Their little smiles are just too charming!

Their little feet! These figs are small, probably because they are meant to be keychains. A standard fig is generally anywhere around 8-10 cm. These measure around 5 cm.

You can see here where there's little divots in their head from where I pulled out the hanging hook. I was able to slowly work Junjun's out, but for Zhehan I had to use a pliers to get enough of a grip on it to get it out. I was worried it might damage the head, but actually the ultra-light clay seemed to self-heal a bit. I'm really pleased how it turned out. Worse came to worse, I was just going to leave the loops in and let them dangle down the back of the fig, but I like this better.

If I ever make it out to Shanghai, Madame Tussaud's will be definitely be a stop on the itinerary!

Material: Ultra-light clay

Fig Count: 450

Scene Count: 30

Rating: Tiny and perfect!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #gong jun #zhang zhehan #word of honor cast #shl cast #lld #figthusiast

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digitalmore · 7 months ago

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#IFTTT #DigitalMore.co

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wangsejabin · 3 years ago

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Chapter 47

Just as the Prince was deep in thought, Pan'er was also thinking about the question of whether she should say more or not. She knew that the Prince would come to Yangzhou on a special private tour, so he must have a purpose.What purpose? Apart from salt, there was nothing else in Yangzhou that was worthy of a prince's attention.

Pan'er did not know when in his previous life Emperor Jianping had set out to overhaul the salt service, but she knew that it was only when he was over fifty that he found the right opportunity to do so, and that he had set up a very big scheme, the extent of which she could only glimpse, but it involved her eldest son, Prince Zong Yue of Wei.

It was through the salt reform that the Prince of Wei met the future Princess of Wei, her daughter-in-law Fang Fengsheng, and even the downfall of the Crown Prince by Empress Chen, because of this matter. Although the Prince of Wei was not deeply involved in this matter, she understood in her heart that one hair would move the whole body.If she were to intervene at this time and draw the crown prince's attention to the two Huaihai salt administration in advance, would it change the pattern in the future? Will her son and daughter-in-law, and even her two lovely grandchildren, still be there? Will the crown prince from Empress Chen still fall, and will her son still be able to sit in the emperor's seat?

The stakes were too high for Pan'er to make a decision at the moment.

But it was at this moment that a grimy young man came out from a corner not far away, wearing a stone-green cotton robe that was slung over his body as if it had been tugged by someone.

When he looked up, he flinched and shouted something, but the other person did not hear him, and soon the figure was lost in the crowd.--.

Pan'er looked back.The Prince asked, "What's wrong?" Pan'er shook her head and said, "Let's go." She seemed to hear someone calling out to her, but who would recognise her dressed like that? Of course, it wasn't as if no one would recognise her, but the few people who did were in the north of the city and wouldn't normally come to a place like this. Since the house was not far away, the two of them walked all the way back.

Jiang Yi followed behind with a few brawny men, looking at Zhang Laishun, who was panting from exhaustion with a basket on his back, and the prince, who was walking in front of him, dressed as a down-to-earth scholar, and Su Fengyi, dressed as a young woman from the city, with a strange look on his face. But the fright he received today was also the only one in his life. When she returned to the house, Pan'er was excited to have someone carry the box of things she had bought to the kitchen.

Auntie Qing was not a bad cook, she could cook a few dishes of any kind, but she was most proficient in southern cuisine. She rummaged through the basket and had already decided what she would cook at noon, as it was just Pan'er and the Prince, so she kept everything simple when she was away, and four dishes and one soup would be enough.If there was anything left over, she would eat with Xiang Pu Qing Dai and Zhang Laishun, but as for the others, it was none of her business.

Pan'er said she wanted to make a haggis soup, which was delicious but not easy to wash, and neither Aunt Qing nor Pan'er had ever washed it before. The people of Yangzhou have a habit of drinking haggis soup in winter. A bowl of haggis soup with some chopped coriander sprinkled on top is delicious and removes the chill. Not only did she buy a pottery jar, but she also brought along a few rough earthenware bowls, both large and small, which were good for holding vegetables and soup.

When Auntie Qing saw this, she laughed at her for looking for such wild things. But life is so long, what's the point of not having some fun for yourself. It was because of this jar of haggis soup that she spent the morning tossing and turning with a few clay pots and bowls and plates. It was a method that Xiang Pu had told her about, which ordinary farmers would not have been able to do, but Pan'er had been told to play with it.

The lunch was ready, and it was just the usual home-cooked food. There was a dish of home-cooked pork, a dish of stir-fried wild rice with sliced meat, a dish of roasted tofu with bok choy, a dish of stewed radish with lamb and a steamed sea bass. In the middle was a large bowl of thick white haggis soup, garnished with some chopped coriander. The prince froze for a moment as he looked at the rough earthenware on the table, then remembered that it was something Pan'er had bought earlier in the dish. He had thought she had bought it as a piggyback, but had not expected to bring it up for use.

"I made this soup, master, you can have two more bowls," Pan'er pointed to the haggis soup, and saw him staring at the vegetable and rice bowls, "These bowls are good for rice and vegetables, don't look pretty,but they're actually clean, I washed them this morning.""It doesn't look bad, it just looks a bit strange."

It was indeed strange, everything used in the palace was perfect, the best of the official kilns were the first to be sent to the palace, the crown prince had never used this kind of rough pottery bowl that was not even glazed. It was not warm to the touch, nor was it delicate and soft, but rather astringent. Thinking that ordinary people used such wares, the Prince was not repelled. What he lacked now was knowledge of the lower classes.

Because he was standing too high and looking too widely and too big, he naturally ignored the most basic places under his feet. The Prince picked up the bowl and was the first to drink a bowl of the haggis soup made by Pan'er. At first taste, it tasted surprisingly good. There were hardly any extra spices, and naturally, it was not like the palace where you had to throw in some herbs or something to make the soup taste like medicine in your mouth. It's just pure lamb soup, but with the stinkiness removed and some pepper added, it's extra tasty.

"Doesn't it taste fresh? Remember those two little fish I bought along with it? I threw them all in together. Who was it that said, " A fish and a lamb together is fresh."The Prince laughed at her and said, "Sit down and eat too." The meal was exceptionally tasty for both of them. The prince probably ate out of his own mind, but Pan'er was absorbed in the fact that she was a good cook. --The two of them ate well. When Su Hai returned home, his maid Xiao Hong was carrying dishes to the table.

A table of eight immortals, on the main table are the Su family's male master, Su Datian, the female master, Yao Jinzhi, the eldest son, Su Jiang, the eldest daughter-in-law, Miao Cui Xiang, and the two grandsons, Mao Dan and Tie Dan.

Su Hai had not yet married, but the marriage had been agreed and the bride price had been paid, but Su Hai's wife's family withdrew the marriage after an incident in the Su family.Yao Jinzhi scolded her second son, and Su Jiang and Miao Cui Xiang were also full of grievances, but what could they do after what had happened? But the Su family's money from the sale of their daughter had not been in their hands for long before it was all gone. Yao Jinzhi had to go through a lot of trouble to get the silver from her cousin Zhao Wu's family, and she had to fight with Zhao Wu's daughter-in-law Song for several days to get it. Song saw that this woman was not easy to deal with, and because her family's business had been coming in frequently lately, she did not want her to spoil things.

When the matter was settled, she was given half of the silver. During this period, Song was so annoyed that she did not sleep for several days and nights, thinking that she had raised Su Pan'er for so many years for nothing, so she would not elaborate.Once the Su family had money, it was a big change.

They spent a lot of money on the house, on maids and matrons, and on clothes and jewellery for the men and women in the family. The rest of the silver Yao Jinzhi planned to find someone she knew and put it in a money bank to eat the dividends, or start a small business so that the family could get by, but it turned out that Su Hai had gambling debts in a gambling house and lost it all to others.Su Hai was already a gambling addict, which is why he was too old to get a wife. The family was too poor to go to the gambling house, so they didn't dare to gamble on anything but a few people they knew. Yao Jinzhi sold all the gold jewellery she had bought for herself and her daughter-in-law to make up for the loss.

Naturally, she couldn't afford to keep the servants, so she sold them all. Now she has a granny who burns the fire and cooks, and a little girl who hasn't cut her bangs yet, and it looks like she will have to sell them after the New Year. When Yao Jinzhi saw her second son come back from outside, she felt angry and thought that he must have gone to the gambling house again. So before Su Hai could even put his bowl of rice in his hand, he was scolded by his mother.

The scolding made him irritable and his two little nephews cried out in fear, so he dropped his chopsticks and said angrily, "I didn't go to the gambling house. When Su Hai became angry, Yao Jinzhi became quiet and picked up her bowl and ate as if nothing had happened. Seeing her like this, Su Hai's frustration was not to mention, but he had never been a match for his mother since he was a child. "Mother, I think I saw Pan'er at the East Market today."

"Pan'er?" Yao Jinzhi's next reaction was not to ask her daughter, but - "What were you doing in the east of the city? How dare you say you didn't go to the gambling house?"

"I really didn't. Dazhi asked me to deliver something for him, and I passed by there. Hey, Mother, didn't you say that Pan'er was sold to a noble lord, how come she is still in Yangzhou?" Yao Jinzhi was slightly uncomfortable at the mention of her daughter who had been sold, and shouted, "Can't a nobleman be from Yangzhou? Besides, what are you doing mentioning her when she's already been sold?" "I don't know if I'm mistaken, but she doesn't look like she's married to a nobleman, she looks like she's married to a poor family. She's with a man who is good looking, but he doesn't dress as well as I do and seems to be quite poor."

Hearing this, the Su family looked at each other, while Su Datian continued to sip his wine, looking very intoxicated."Drink, drink, drink, you just know how to drink, you can't get by without filling your yellow soup for a day, can you?" Yao Jinzhi was already irritated, and when she caught a glimpse of Su Datian's appearance out of the corner of her eye, she exploded. "You guys say your words, it's none of my business, what's wrong with not letting me have a drink?" Su Datian could not afford to mess with him, so he carried a plate of peanuts and avoided the bottle of wine. After this fuss, the topic of conversation naturally ended in vain, Su Hai also saw that his mother did not want to mention this matter, so he did not mention it again, but his heart was a bit sad.

"You said it would have been better if you had kept her for me as a wife, but you had to sell her."Yao Jinzhi had just sat down when she jumped up from her chair. "You little bastard, I haven't even looked for you yet, but you're talking about me. I spent the silver alone, but it was all lost to you, you loser! I'm telling you, after New Year's Eve, go back to the docks and carry the goods, and if you go to the gambling house again, I'll break your legs! After the meal, Miao Cui Xiang told Su Jiang that it would be better if we could split up, and that if we lived like this with your mother, I would be shortened by ten years. Su Jiang did not want to hear such words, although he also annoyed his mother, but as a child is to be filial, parents in the family is not divided, and the second is a bit muddy, but in the end is his own brother. "You married into my family, and you know what my family is like. Although the oldest brother has lost all the silver, there is still this mansion, can't this mansion hold you?"

Miao Cui Xiang suddenly stopped squawking.

After sitting dryly by herself for a while, she came over to Su Jiang: "Do you think what Old Two said was true or not, could it be that Little Sister has followed a noble master and is not liked by others, and they have sold her again?"Su Jiang's face instantly darkened: "Don't talk nonsense here, if you don't want to be scolded by mother, then don't mention this." "What's wrong with me mentioning it?" She said with some resentment. But seeing the man's unwillingness to talk to her about it, Miao Cui Xiang did not dare to say anything else. --.

On the other hand, Su Hai had ordered Yao Jinzhi's cannonball, but it didn't end well. He was personally escorted to the docks by Yao Jinzhi to help load and unload goods with the dock labourers. Su Hai used to do this kind of work, but he was a three-day fisherman and a two-day sunbather. The Su family had made a fortune in the last six months, and most of the people at the docks knew about it, but the boy had gotten into trouble and was now back at the docks carrying goods.

A labourer called Da Wang, who had told Su Hai to go to the gambling house, came to Su Hai and asked him if he was still going to the gambling house at night. "Fuck you, I don't have any money to go to the gambling house?" Da Wang gave him an ambiguous wink: "You can borrow money if you don't have any, I'll give you a guarantee ......" "Get lost, get as far away as you can!" Su Hai scolded and gave him another kick, and Da Wang slinked away.

A dark and tall young man came over and frowned at Su Hai, "Hai Zi, you should not hang around with Da Wang, you still don't remember after such a big loss?" When Su Hai thought of what had happened before, he wanted to vomit blood, but no one could blame him, he couldn't control his own hands. But he wouldn't go again, and even if he did, he wouldn't go with Dawang.

"Dazhi, you don't need to tell me about this, I know." The young man called Dazhi nodded and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't think too much, keep your feet on the ground and work hard, you will never be short of food." But Su Hai thought of the silver he had lost and was reluctant to talk to Dazhi about it. The two families used to be neighbours, so who knows if his mother will come to Dazhi and ask him about it, so Su Hai doesn't usually talk to Dazhi about his own affairs. Inevitably, he remembered what happened yesterday. "By the way, I think I saw Pan'er at the East Market entrance yesterday ......"

"Pan'er?"

Dazhi froze.

Su Hai nodded, "I don't know if I was mistaken, but I don't think I was, but this girl's appearance has changed a lot compared to before. It's strange to say, I heard my mother say that Pan'er was bought by a rich lord, but I don't see her dressed well, with a man by her side, and not dressed as well as me, and I don't know ......" He rambled on and on, but Dazhi didn't listen to a single word.

#mtl #yingchong

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celiabowens · 5 years ago

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Book recommendations, Literary Fiction edition(?)

A companion to this post (which should be updated, at some point lol)

Short Story Collections:

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield: grotesque and disquieting collection about women and their experience in society, how they view and perceive their own body and desires. Pretty strong mythic, magical realism, body horror elements in here.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks: fascinating collection in which Sacks reminishes some particularly odd stories of patients who had to cope with bizarre neurological disorders.

Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang: a collection focused on the Chinese millennial experience. Stories about love and loss, family, immigration and the uncertainty of the future. (also there’s an extremely beautiful short story about a pair of Chinese divers that broke me forever!!!)

Bestiary: The Selected Stories by Julio Cortázar: unforgettable selection of short stories that mix surreal elements to everyday life and apparently ordinary events. Would also recommend All Fires the Fire by the same author.

Novels:

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang: one of the biggest debuts of 2020, it follows two recently orphaned children through the gold rush era. An adventurous historical fiction piece that focuses on themes like gender, identity and immigration, this is one of my favorites 2020 reads so yeah, I’d really push it in anyone’s hands to be honest.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: historical fiction inspired by the last days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in the 1820s. A quite bleak, but beautiful novel (the prose is stunning).

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: historical fiction novel set in Norway in the 17th century, following the lives of a group of women in a village that recently (barely) survived a storm that killed all of the island’s men.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The book follows the lives of two boys sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. A bleak, but important book, with a shocking final twist (side note, I’ve been recommended The Underground Railroad by Whitehead as well, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. If you’re looking for something quite peculiar, if a bit less refined when compared to The Nickel Boys, The Intuitionist is a quite odd pulpy noir set in an alternate NY about...elevator inspectors *and racism*).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko: haunting book about identity and immigration as the main character is apparently abandoned by his own mother (an undocumented Chinese immigrant) during his childhood. Mainly a story about living in between places and constantly feeling out of place.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa: when everyone would probably recommend Murakami (not much against Murakami besides his descriptions of women and their boobs), I suggest checking out some of Ogawa’s books. The recently translated The Memory Police, published in Japan in the mid 90s, is an orwellian dystopian novel set on an unnamed Island where memories slowly disappear. Would also really recommend The Housekeeper and The Professor, a really short novel about a housekeeper hired to clean and cook for a math professor who suffered an injury that causes him to remember new things for only 80 minutes.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, following a son writing a letter to his illiterate mother. The book seems quite polarising due to Vuong’s writing style (his poetry background is really quite clear and the book doesn’t really follow a regular narrative, rather than portrays events and memories in brief flashes), but I loved it and I’d really just recommend going into it without knowing much? It’s a beautiful exploration of language, family history, trauma, sexuality and more.

Exist West by Mohsin Hamid: this book was fairly popular when it came out (in 2017 I believe) and was often incorrectly marketed as magical realism. Hamid’s book is a brief and quietly brutal journey with a few fantastical elements, following a couple trying to escape their city in the middle of war, as they hear about peculiar doors that can whisk people far away. The doors are, of course, a quite effective metaphor for the immigrant experience and the book does a great job at portraying the main characters’ relationship.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang: this has a really low rating on goodreads which...wow i hate that. Family Trust is a literary family saga/drama about a Chinese-American family residing in the Silicon Valley. It’s often been compared to Crazy Rich Asians, but I believe it to be more on the literary side and definitely less lighthearted.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: historical family saga (one of my favorites tbh, I’m absolutely biased, but this book deserved more hype) set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century, following four generations of a Korean family. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the prose, the book has really great characterisation and absolutely fascinating characters. (I’d suggest checking out eventual TW first, in this case).

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: another recent read, The Silence of the Girls, while not faultless, is a pretty good retelling of The Iliad, narrated through Briseis’ perspective. The prose can feel a bit too modern at times, but it provides the reader with some really strong quotes and descriptions.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: and also Little Fires Everywhere by the same author, to be honest. If you’re looking for really really good family dramas, with great explorations of rather complex and nuanced relationships? You should just check out her stuff. Vibrant characters, good writing, and some superb portrayal of longing here.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan: i’m starting with this one only to grab your attention (if you’ve even reached this part lol, congrats), but McEwan’s one of my favorite authors and I’d recommend almost everything I’ve read by him? Nutshell, specifically, is a really odd and fun retelling of Hamlet...told from the pov of an unborn baby. But really, I’d also recommend Atonement (of course), The Children Act, Amsterdam? All good stuff.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: I’ve read this book this summer and, while I’m still unsatisfied with the ending, I’d thoroughly recommend this? The novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, who, in 1922, is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in the Metropol, a luxurious hotel in the center of Moscow. A singular novel, funny and heartbreaking at once, following a vibrant cast of characters as they come and go from Rostov’s secluded life.

Human Acts by Han Kang: from the bestselling author of The Vegetarian (which honestly, I thoroughly despised lol), Human Acts focuses on the South Korean Gwangju uprising. It’s a really odd (and at times grotesque) experimental novel (one chapter is narrated from the pov of one of the bodies if I remember correctly), so one really has to be in the mood for it, but it’s a really unique experience, worth a chance.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: sort of a really chunky historical adventure novel following two artists in 1940s/1950s NY, who create a superhero and use him to wage a one man war on the Nazis. A bit slow in places (the pace can be uneven at times and the book is quite long), but an enjoyable novel that does a pretty good job when it comes to exploring rather classic themes of American contemporary fiction: the American dream and the figure of the artist (I think there’s a particularly interesting focus on how the artists navigates the corporate world and its rules) and their creative process.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: this is a pretty classic rec, the book really got a lot of hype when it came out? It’s a dystopian-ish novel set after civilisation’s collapse, following a post-apocalyptic troupe (of Shakespearean actors). It’s a really odd, but surprisingly quiet book. Not sure if a pandemic is exactly the right time to read it, but I thoroughly recommend it.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: I feel like this book is extremely complex to summarise to be honest. In short, it’s a book set in Malaya at the end of the 1940s, following a woman who, after surviving Japanese wartime camps, spends her life prosecuting war criminals. But truthfully this book is about conflicts and contradictions and in particular about remembering and forgetting. Lovely prose.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: and also The Goldfinch. I’m sure no one really needs me to introduce Donna Tartt?

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton: quite cerebral mystery set in New Zealand in 1866. Honestly you have to be a patient reader who enjoys novels with a pretty complex structure to like this, but if you’re into this sort of challenging read...go for it? It’s a book of interlocking stories (with 10+ pov and main characters) with a really fascinating structure based on astrological charts, which provide insight to the main characters’ traits and personality as the mystery unfolds.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ok...do not watch the movie first. The Hours is an incredibly difficult novel to describe to be honest: it begins by recalling the last moments of Virginia Woolf’s life, as she’s writing Mrs. Dalloway. The book focuses on three separate narratives, each one following a specific character throughout a single day of their own life. Goes without saying that I’d suggest being familiar with Mrs. Dalloway itself first though.

An Artists of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: not one of Ishiguro’s most famous works (most start reading his work with Never Let Me Go or The Remains of the Day), but probably my favorite out of those I’ve read so far. The novel follows Masuji Ono, an artist who put his work in service of imperialist propaganda throughout WWII. Basically a reflection and an account of the artist’s life as he deals with the culpability of his previous actions.

Stoner by John Williams: I feel like this is an odd book to recommend, because I don’t think someone can truly get the hype unless they read it themselves. Stoner is a pretty straight-forward book, following the ordinary life of an even more ordinary man. And yet it’s so compelling and never dull in its exploration of the characters’ lives and personalities. Also, I’ve just finished Augustus by the same author, which is an epistolary historical fiction novel narrating some of the main events of Augustus’ reign through letters from/by his closest friends and enemies. Really liked it.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien: back to integenerational family sagas (because I love those, in case it wasn’t clear lol), Do Not Say We Have Nothing follows a young woman who suddenly rediscovers her family’s fractured past. The novel focuses on two successive generations of a Chinese family through China’s 20th century history. While not every character got the type of development they deserved, the author does a good job when it comes to gradually recreating the family’s complex and nuanced history.

There’s probably more but I doubt anyone’s going to reach the end or anything so. There’s that lol.

#book recs #book rec #litblr #2020 reads #all the typos are my own LOL #also i didnt put here philip roth or auster #but tbh #i dont think anyone needs me to rec them???

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its-max-okay · 4 years ago

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A WOMAN SCORNED.

Tuesday, 2nd March 2021; morning Spade Territory; the Zhang family home Part 01.

Ultimately it was her mother who sent the message for her; no-frills, much like Hua, simply requesting seven days of bereavement for her daughter to mourn. Max was too tired, too embarrassed, still too full of shame for how she’d seen Jihoon last to write it herself. She’d even tried to insist she could go back to work, that it was better not to cause a fuss and raise questions, but Bolin had gently taken her hands -- smooth, pristine, easily healed with his expertise -- and reminded her with all due experience and authority on the matter, “You can’t heal others properly until you’ve healed yourself.”

Considering how Max broke down at her father’s words and cried into the curve of his shoulder for the second time in twenty-four hours, he obviously had the right idea.

The second bout of tears had since dried, and now she sat on the back steps of the house wrapped in a thick down blanket, ignorant of the actual temperature because everything just felt cold. She held the grooved-clay cup of green tea more than she drank it, eyes staring blandly across the yard to the training dummy. The red smears Max had painted it with had turned a rust brown overnight. She tried not to think about Anton’s blood on the street as she turned her gaze down to frown into her mug instead, and heard her father’s soft footsteps before she saw his partial reflection on the surface of the tea.

“Can I sit?” He asked softly. Max nodded, barely perceptible. Bolin took a step down before he lowered himself to sit on the step beside her, close enough for their arms to lean.

He didn’t speak for a long moment, simply sitting next to her. Eventually, Max sniffled.

“Do you want to tell me about him?”

Max was quiet for a long moment in return, to the point where it wasn’t obvious she’d even registered the question. When she finally did answer, her voice was soft and raw. “You read the paper.”

Bolin shook his head, one hand moving to rub soothingly up and down her forearm. “Maxine, I don’t believe for a second that that’s the kind of man he was. I know I never met him,” he added as soon as she opened her mouth, cutting her off at the pass. “But I know you. You don’t let people like that into your life, or under your skin.” Bolin paused for a long moment, and from the corner of her eye, Max thought he was looking at the dummy as she had just been. “Maybe that was at least partially the man he used to be, but I don’t think that’s the man he was anymore.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Max didn’t say anything. Part of her knew that her father was right, or maybe part of her just wanted to hope that he was. She wanted to hope that the broad, easy smiles she could still see on Anton’s face when she closed her eyes were genuine, and that they didn’t belong to a cold-blooded killer.

“Did you love him?”

Max barely shook her head, hesitated, then lifted the weight of the blanket in a tiny shrug. “I only met him eight months ago.” Not even. She’d counted it down to the day, when sleep eluded her and she’d been left staring at the waning moon’s patterns cast through the trees onto the wall of her childhood room. Max was a romantic, but that didn’t seem to her like long enough to fall in love. There was still so much more about Anton that she’d wanted to know, or so she thought. At times, she felt silly; at times she felt as though she was mourning the could-have-beens just as much as she was mourning what was.

“He lied to me,” she whispered, warm tears again pricking uncomfortably at her already-raw eyes. Maybe the statement wasn’t entirely accurate; Anton had never told her he wasn’t resistance. She’d never asked. But it was such an enormous, glaring omission that to her, it still felt like a huge slap in the face not to learn until now, and not even to learn from him. How much longer might it have been until Anton finally told her? Would he have ever? It was just another string of hypothetical questions thrown on the pile of things she’d never get answers to. Max would never even know enough to piece together how she might’ve reacted if he had told her, because right now, even if he came back from the grave simply to explain himself, she’d have no room in her heart to do anything but throw her arms around his shoulders and kiss him again.

So, maybe that was her answer. Either she was a better judge of character than the Deck and its foul rumors were, or she was simply stupid and blinded by whatever it was she wanted to see. Max really didn’t know, and at this point was too bone-exhausted to figure it out.

Bolin only leaned in to press a lingering, familiar kiss to her temple. Max closed her eyes and let him, even as her brow furrowed and her breath hitched. “You’re never going to get all of the answers that you need,” he said as gently as possible. “All I can tell you is not to let what you’ve learned about him now to color what you, in your heart, already knew.”

For a long moment, Max didn’t answer. Eventually, all she could do was nod.

“I’ll try.”

#solo: a woman scorned #jung anton: feel myself go under #i woke up this morning to write other things #and max really said 'hold up bitch i ain't done'

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bookofjin · 5 years ago

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Annals of Taiping Zhenjun 6-8 (445-447)

[From WS004. Rebellion of Gai Wu. The Emperor orders the srmana massacred and images of the Buddha destroyed.]

[Taiping Zhenjun 6, 24 January 445 – 11 February 446]

6th Year, Spring, 1st Month, xinhai [13 February], the Chariot Drove to travel to favour Ding province. Summoned and saw the long-lived and elderly, and inquired and asked them.

Decreed the Combined Outer Staff Cavalier Regular Attendant, Song Yin, as envoy to Liu Yilong.

2nd Month [23 February – 23 March], thereupon went west to favour Shangdang, and observed the continuous pattern trees at Xuanshi.

Went west to arrive at Tujing, and chastised and moved the rebellious Hu, and sent [them?] out to matching commanderies and counties.

3rd Month [should be 4th Month?], gengshen [23 April], the Chariot Drove to return to the Palace.

Decreed the various with questionable lawsuits to all be handed over to the Palace Writers, so as to arrange righteous measures and judgements.

This Month [24 March – 22 April, or 23 April - ], the Duke of Jiuquan, Hao Wen, rebelled at Xingcheng, and killed the defence general, Wang Fan. The county magistrate Gai Xian led his lineage clan to chaiste Wen. Wen abandoned the city and fled, and killed himself. His household and staff submitted to execution.

Summer, 4th Month [should be 5th Month?], gengxu [12 June?], the Great General who Conquers the West, the King of Gaoliang, Na, and others chastised the Tuyuhun Muliyan at Bailan in Yinping.

Decreed the Inspector of Qin province, the Duke of Tianshui, Feng Chiwen, to strike Muliyan's older brother's son Shigui at Fuhan.

The Cavalier in Regular Attendance, the Duke of Chengzhou, Wan Dugui, drove by relay-station to issue out [from] Liang province with the western troops and assault Shanshan.

6th Month renchen [24 September], the Chariot Drove on a northern tour.

Shigui heard the army was about to arrive, abandoned the city and escaped in the night.

Autumn, 8th Month, dinghai [17 September], Feng Chiwen entered Fuhan, divided and moved 1 000 families and turned back to Shanggui.

On renchen [22 September], Dugui used light cavalry to arrive at Shanshan, and apprehended their king, Zhenda, so as to go to the Imperial City. The Emperor was greatly pleased, and lavishly wait on him.

The Chariot Drove to favour north of Yin Mountain, and stayed at the Guangde Palace. Decreed to issue out the troops Under Heaven, selecting one part out of three, each to undertake strict precaution, so as to wait for later instructions. Moved the various kindred and mixed people, more than 5 000 families to the northern border. Ordered the people to move north livestock shepherds to the Wide Desert, so as to bait the Ruanruan.

On renyin [2 October], the King of Gaoliang, Na's army came to Mantou City. Muliyan spurred his section groups west across the Drifting Sands. Na urgently pursued.

The former King of Xiqin, Mugi's Heir Beinang confronted the army to resist in battle. Na struck and routed him. Beinang escaped and ran with his light cavalry. The Duke of Zhongshan, Du Feng, pursued him with elite cavalry, crossed the Three Cliffs, and arrived at Xue Mountain. He captured alive Beinang, Shigui, and Chipan's son Chenglong, and sent them off to the Imperial City. Muliyan thereupon went west to enter the state of Yutian.

9th Month [17 October – 14 November], Gai Wu of the Lushui Hu assembled a multitude to rebel at Xingcheng.

Winter, 10th Month, wuzi [17 November], the Chang'an Garrison Deputy Commander, Yuan He, led the multitudes to chastise him, and was killed by Wu.

Wu's partisans thereupon multiplied. The people all crossed the Wei and ran into the Southern Mountains. Hence decreed to issue out the Chile cavalry of Gaoping to hasten to Chang'an. Decreed General Shusun Ba to drive by relay-station to command and organize the troops of Bing, Qin and Yong stationed to the north of the Wei.

11th Month [15 December – 12 January], the King of Gaoliang, Na rearranged the battalions to turn back to the Imperial City.

On jiwei [18 December], dispatched Na and the Master of Writing Within the Hall, the Duke of Anding, Han Mao, to lead cavalry stationed in Xiang province's Yangping commandery. Sent out the people of Ji province to build a floating bridge at Que'ao Ford.

Gai Wu dispatched his section group leader Bai Guangping to plunder Xinping. The chieftains of the various Yi of Anding all assembled multitudes in response to him, and killed the defence commander of Qiancheng.

Wu thereupon advanced the army to Lirun Fort, and divided off troops to rob Linjin and Badong. General Zhang Zhi fought with them, and greatly defeated them. The troops that drowned and died in the He was more than 30 000 people. Wu also dispatched troops west to plunder until Chang'an. General Shisun Ba fought with them at Weinan [or “North of the Wei”], and greatly routed them. The cut off heads numbered more than 30 000 people.

On gengshen [19 December], the King of Liaodong, Dou Loutou, passed away.

Xue Yongzong of the Hedong Shu assembled a faction steal several thousand public horses, and chased more than 3 000 people to enter the Bend of the Fen. To the west he communicated with Gai Wu, and accepted his ranks and titles. The Inspector of Qin province, the Duke of Jincheng, Zhou Luguan, led the multitudes to chastise him, did not overcome, and turned back.

On gengwu [29 December], decreed the Master of Writing Within the Hall, the Duke of Fufeng, Yuan Chuzhen, and the Master of Writing, the Duke of Pingyang, Murong Song, with 20 000 cavalry, to chastise Xue Yongzong. Decreed the Master of Writng Within the Hall, Yi Ba, to lead 5 generals and 30 000 cavalry to chastise Gai Wu. The Duke of Xiping, Kou Ti, with 3 generals and 10 000 cavalry to chastise Wu's partisan Bai Guangping.

Gai Wu titled himself King of the Heavenly Terrace, and appointed and set up the Hundred Officials.

On xinwei [30 December], the Chariot Drove to return to the Palace. Selected the brave and fierce among the troops of the six provinces, 20 000 people, and sent the King of Yongchang, Ren, and the King of Gaoliang, Na, to divide command, and go along two roads, each with 10 000 cavalry, to go south and carry off from the Huai and Si and northwards [?], and the population of Qing and Xu so as to fill North of the He.

On guiwei [11 January], the Chariot Drove on a western tour.

[Taiping Zhenjun 7, 12 February 446 – 31 January 447]

7th Year, Spring, 1st Month, wuchen [25 February], the Chariot Drove to stay in Dongyong provnice.

On xinwei [28 February], the Chariot Drove south to favour Fenyin.

On gengchen [9 March], the Emperor overlooked Xi River. Gai Wu withdrew and ran to Beidi.

2nd Month, bingxu [15 March], favoured Chang'an. Inquired and asked the fathers and elders.

On dinghai [16 March], favoured Kunming Pool.

On bingshen [25 March], favoured Zhouzhi. Executed the rebellious people at Gengqing and Sunwen Ramparts who had communicated plans with Gai Wu.

The army stayed at Chencang. Executed the Di of San Pass who had murdered the defence general.

Turned back to favour Yongcheng. Hunted on the sunny side of Qi Mountain.

The various armies on the northern road, Yi Ba and others, greatly routed Gai Wu at Xingcheng. Wu abandoned his horse and escaped on foot.

The King of Yongchang, Ren, arrived at Gaoping. He apprehended Liu Yilong's general Wang Zhang, plundered Jinxiang and Fangyu, and moved their people, 5 000 families, to the north of the He. The King of Gaoliang, Na, arrived at Dongpingling in Ji'nan, and moved its people, more than 6 000 families, to the north of the He.

3rd Month [12 April – 11 May], decreed the various provinces to massacre the srmanas, and destroy the various Buddhist figures. Moved the artisans and craftsmen of Chang'an city, 2 000 families, to the Imperial city. The Chariot Drove to turn around the carriage, and favoured Luo River. Detached an army to execute the rebellious Qiang of Lirun.

This Month, Bian Jiong of Jincheng and Liang Hui of Tianshui rebelled, and occupied the eastern city of Shanggui. The Inspector of Qin province, Feng Chiwen, struck them, and beheaded Jiong. The multitudes then pushed forward Hui as the leader.

Summer, 4th Month, jiashen [12 May], the Chariot Drove to arrive from Chang'an.

On wuzi [16 May], at Ye City they destroyed the five storey Buddha image. Within the clay of the figure they obtained two jade signets, their writings both said: “Accept instructions from Heaven, soon long life and perpetual glory.” One of them had an engraving on its side saying: “Han's transmitted signet of state accepted by Wei”.

5th Month, guihai [20 June], the Duke of Anfeng, Lü Gen, led cavalry went to Shanggui, he and Chiwen chastised Liang Hui. Hui ran to Hanzhong.

Gai Wu again assembled at Xingcheng, declaring himself King of Qindi [“Qin Land”]. He made use of appointing the mountain people, the multitudes turned around and were again agitated. Hence dispatched the King of Yongchang, Ren, and the King of Gaoliang, Na to supervise the various armies of the northern road, and together chastise them.

6th Month, jiashen [11 July], issued out troops from Ding, Ji, and Xiang provinces, 20 000 people, to station various valleys in the mountains south of Chang'an, so as to forestall escapes beyond.

On bingxu [13 July], issued out from Si, You, Ding, Ji provinces, 100 000 people to build above the imperial domain a frontier circuit, rising up [from?] Shanggu and going west until the He, both in length and breadth a thousand li.

Autumn, 8th Month [7 September – 5 October], Gai Wu was killed by his subordinate people, they transmitted the head to the Imperial City. The King of Yongchang, Ren, pacified his left-over cinders. The King of Gaoliang, Na, routed Gai Wu's partisan Bai Guangping. Captured alive Tuge Lunaluo in Anding, and beheaded him in the Imperial City. Restored the Duke of Lüeyang, Jie'er to the feudal rank of King.

[Taiping Zhenjun 8, 1 February 447 – 21 February 448]

8th Year, Spring, 1st Month [1 February – 2 March], the Tujing Hu obstructed the strategic passes to make banditry. Decreed the General who Conquers the East, the King of Wuchang, Ti, and the General who Conquers the South, the King of Huainan, Ta, to chastise them. They did not submit. The mountain Hu, Cao Puhun and others, crossed west of the He. They guarded the mountains to strengthen themselves, and summoned and pulled in the various Hu of Shuofang. Ti and others guided the army to chastise Puhun.

2nd Month, jimao [4 March], the King of Gaoliang, Na, and others went from Anding to chastise and pacify the Hu of Shuofang. Following that, they combined armies with Ti and othesr, and together attacked Puhun, and beheaded him. Those of his multitudes who hurried to the strategic passes and died numbered in the ten thousands.

On guiwei [7 March], travelled to favour Zhongshan. Conferred and bestowed on the accompanying civil and military officials each proportionally.

The people of Yi county in Gaoyang did not follow the official instructions. Chastised and pacified them, and moved their remnant cinders to Beidi.

3rd Month [1 April – 30 April], the King of Hexi, Juqu Mujian, planned rebellion, and submitted execution.

Moved 3 000 families of the Dingling of Ding province to the Imperial City.

Summer, 5th Month [31 May – 28 June], the Chariot Drove to return to the Palace.

6th Month [29 June – 28 July], the various generals of the Western Campaign, the Duke of Fufeng, Yuan Chuzhen, and others, 8 generals were convicted of stealing and seizing army property that had been captured and plundered. The booty each numbered in the 10 000 000. Beheaded all of them.

8th Month [27 August – 25 September], the Great General of Guards, the King of Le'an, Fan, passed away.

Winter, 10th Month [25 October – 23 November], the Palace Attendant and Overseer of the Palace Writers, the King of Yidu, Mu Shou, passed away.

12th Month [23 December – 21 January], the states of Shanshan and Zheyi both dispatched sons to court to present.

The King Jin, Fuluo, passed away.

#ws004

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gerardbillet · 4 years ago

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Jobs, Homes and Cows: China’s Expensive Drive to Erase Excessive Poverty JIEYUAN VILLAGE, China — When the Chinese language authorities supplied free cows to farmers in Jieyuan, villagers within the distant mountain neighborhood have been skeptical. They nervous officers would ask them to return the cattle later, together with any calves they managed to lift. However the farmers stored the cows, and the cash they introduced. Others acquired small flocks of sheep. Authorities employees additionally paved a street into the city, constructed new homes for the village’s poorest residents and repurposed an old-fashioned as a neighborhood heart. Jia Huanwen, a 58-year-old farmer within the village in Gansu Province, was given a big cow three years in the past that produced two wholesome calves. He bought the cow in April for $2,900, as a lot as he earns in two years rising potatoes, wheat and corn on the terraced, yellow clay hillsides close by. Now he buys greens frequently for his household’s desk and medication for an arthritic knee. “It was one of the best cow I’ve ever had,” Mr. Jia stated. The village of Jieyuan is one in every of many successes of President Xi Jinping’s bold pledge to eradicate abject rural poverty by the top of 2020. In simply 5 years, China says it has lifted from excessive poverty over 50 million farmers left behind by breakneck financial development in cities. However the village, one in every of six in Gansu visited by The New York Occasions with out authorities oversight, can also be a testomony to the appreciable price of the ruling Communist Occasion’s strategy to poverty alleviation. That strategy has relied on huge, presumably unsustainable subsidies to create jobs and construct higher housing. Native cadres fanned out to establish impoverished households — outlined as dwelling on lower than $1.70 a day. They handed out loans, grants and even livestock to poor villagers. Officers visited residents weekly to test on their progress. “We’re fairly positive China’s eradication of absolute poverty in rural areas has been profitable — given the sources mobilized, we’re much less positive it’s sustainable or price efficient,” stated Martin Raiser, the World Financial institution nation director for China. Beijing poured nearly $700 billion in loans and grants into poverty alleviation over the previous 5 years — about 1 p.c of every 12 months’s financial output. That excludes giant donations by state-owned enterprises like State Grid, an influence transmission large, which put $120 billion into rural electrical energy upgrades and assigned greater than 7,000 workers to work on poverty alleviation tasks. The marketing campaign took on new urgency this 12 months because the nation confronted devastation from the coronavirus pandemic and extreme flooding. One after the other, provinces introduced they’d met their targets. In early December, Mr. Xi declared that China had “achieved a big victory that impresses the world.” However Mr. Xi acknowledged additional efforts have been wanted to share wealth extra broadly. A migrant employee in a coastal manufacturing unit metropolis can earn as a lot in a month as a Gansu farmer earns in a 12 months. Mr. Xi additionally referred to as for officers to guarantee that newly created jobs and support for the poor didn’t fade away within the coming years. Gansu, China’s poorest province, declared in late November that it had lifted its final counties out of poverty. Only a decade in the past, poverty within the province was widespread. Hu Jintao, China’s chief earlier than Mr. Xi, visited individuals dwelling in easy properties with few furnishings. Villagers ate so many potatoes that native officers have been embarrassed when a younger lady initially refused to eat one more one with Mr. Hu in entrance of tv cameras as a result of she was bored with them, in accordance with a cable disclosed by WikiLeaks. Although many villages are nonetheless reachable solely by single-lane roads, they’re lined with streetlights powered by photo voltaic panels. New industrial-scale pig farms, plant nurseries and small factories have sprung up, creating jobs. Employees are constructing new homes for farmers. Three years in the past, Zhang Jinlu woke in terror when the rain-weakened mud brick partitions of his house gave approach. Half the roof timbers got here crashing down with slabs of grime, narrowly lacking him and his mom. Officers in Youfang village constructed a spacious new concrete home for them, full with new furnishings. Mr. Zhang, 69, now receives a month-to-month stipend of $82 by means of the poverty program. His authentic home was rebuilt for him as a storage shed. Up to date Dec. 30, 2020, 9:23 p.m. ET “This home was once dilapidated, and it leaked when it rained,” Mr. Zhang stated. The federal government helps personal factories purchase gear and pay salaries in the event that they rent employees deemed impoverished. At Tanyue Tongwei Clothes & Equipment Firm in southeastern Gansu, about 170 employees, principally girls, sewed college uniforms, T-shirts, down jackets and face masks. Employees stated that a number of dozen workers acquired additional funds from the poverty alleviation program along with their salaries. Lu Yaming, the corporate’s authorized consultant, stated Tanyue receives at the very least $26,000 a 12 months in subsidies from poverty alleviation applications — out of which $500 a 12 months was paid to every of the 17 villagers deemed impoverished. However the viability of those factories with out ongoing support is much from clear. Till the subsidies arrived, the manufacturing unit incessantly had hassle paying wages on time, Mr. Lu stated. Inevitable questions swirl over whether or not some households have used private ties to native officers to qualify for grants. Corruption investigators punished 99,000 individuals nationwide in reference to poverty reduction efforts final 12 months, in accordance with official statistics. At native eateries in communities like Mayingzhen, the place a closely seasoned platter of fried donkey meat prices $7, the discuss is all about who acquired what, and whether or not they actually ought to have certified. Whereas the poverty alleviation program has helped tens of millions of poor individuals, critics level to the marketing campaign’s inflexible definitions. This system assists individuals labeled as extraordinarily poor sooner or later from 2014 to 2016, with out including others who could have fallen on laborious instances since then. It additionally does little or no to assist poor individuals in huge cities the place wages are increased however employees should pay much more for meals and hire. Based on the federal government’s difficult standards for figuring out eligibility for support, anybody who owned a automobile, had greater than $4,600 in property or had a brand new or not too long ago rebuilt home was excluded. Folks hovering simply above the federal government’s poverty line proceed to wrestle to make ends meet, however are sometimes denied assist with housing or different advantages. Zhang Sumei, a 53-year-old farmer,earns $1,500 a 12 months rising and promoting potatoes and had to make use of her financial savings to construct her house in concrete. She says that she ought to have certified for support for the extraordinarily poor. Farming Gansu’s notoriously infertile soil is difficult and tough. “On this society, poor households are designated by cadres, and we’ve nothing.” she stated bitterly. The celebration’s campaign-style strategy additionally fails to deal with deep-seated issues that disproportionately harm the poor, together with the price of well being care and different gaping holes in China’s rising social security internet. Villages present restricted medical health insurance — solely 17 p.c of the price of Mr. Jia’s arthritis medication is roofed, for instance. Hefty medical payments can smash households. Yang Xiaoling, a 48-year-old employee who works at one other government-subsidized manufacturing unit in Gansu, wept uncontrollably as she described the crippling debt she confronted after paying medical charges for her husband, who suffered kidney failure. Three years in the past, she borrowed $7,700 at zero curiosity from a financial institution affiliated with the poverty alleviation program and was supposed to take a position the cash in shopping for livestock. However as an alternative she borrowed more cash from family members after which spent all the cash on a kidney transplant and medication for her husband. Now the whole mortgage is due and she or he has no cash to repay it. Comply with-up medical remedies for her husband devour her whole wage. So the couple and their three youngsters and her husband’s invalid dad and mom subsist on month-to-month authorities poverty help funds of lower than $50 per particular person. “I don’t have the power to pay it again. I can’t assist it,” Ms. Yang sobbed. “I’ve already borrowed some huge cash, and now nobody lends me cash.” Regardless of the challenges, the poverty reduction program could have a long-term political profit that helps to make sure a few of it survives. Gratitude for this system appears to be reinforcing the political energy of the celebration in rural areas. In Youfang, Mr. Zhang was fast to reward not simply the poverty program but in addition Mr. Xi, evaluating him to Mao. “It’s good for the nation to have Xi Jinping,” he stated, “and the nationwide coverage is sweet.” Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Sydney. Liu Yi, Amber Wang and Coral Yang contributed analysis. Supply hyperlink #Chinas #Costly #cows #Drive #Erase #Extreme #houses #jobs #Poverty

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rafaelthompson · 5 years ago

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A Recap of The Barista League: Online’s First Two Episodes

The Barista League: Online Episodes 1 and 2 introduced the eight finalists who will compete in the organization’s first-ever remote barista championship.

BY ANGELA FERRARA SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

After a three-week application period and almost 90 application videos submitted, The Barista League: Online’s remote Selection Committee narrowed the pool of candidates down to eight finalists. These finalists will be challenged to guess the origin of five coffees, build a drink from a box of mystery ingredients, and roast the same green coffee two ways. The competitor with the highest overall score will win a spot on The Barista League’s Mystery Coffee Vacation, a five-day, coffee-fueled adventure to a mystery location. Each competitor will film themselves completing these three challenges, and The Barista League will air the footage in episodes for the world to follow. In case you missed Episode 1 or 2, which introduced the finalists, you can read more about them below, and click each contestant’s name for their video!

Demi is ready for Challenge 2, which she thinks sounds like an episode of Chopped! Photo by Paige Hicks.

Demi Chacón (She/Her) – Barista, Bandit Coffee Competing from Tampa, Fla., USA

How long have you worked in coffee? Five years. What’s your favorite brew method? Poursteady. What was the inspiration behind your application video? I think my inspiration was mostly Vine videos. I wanted it to be really quick and I tried to edit it so that it was never more than 10 seconds of the same scene. And then I just didn’t edit out any of the dumb jokes I made. I just brewed coffee and didn’t edit anything out! What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? Round 2: The Mystery Box Challenge. It sounds just like Chopped on The Food Network. I’m so excited for that! What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? Well, I’m a really secretive person. I don’t like telling people things about myself. But really, I’m not what you would expect. That’s all I’m gonna give them! Fun Fact: Demi drove eight hours from Florida to South Carolina to compete in her first ever coffee competition in 2018, The Barista League: Greenville … and she won!

Marleigh’s submission included a handmade Kalita Wave from clay. Photo by Sarah Kistner.

Marleigh Chaney (She/Her) – Coffee Expert, River Bottom Roasters Competing from Waynesboro, Pa., USA

How long have you worked in coffee? Three years. What’s your favorite brew method? AeroPress. What was the inspiration behind your application video? Honestly, at first I didn’t have any inspiration. I really wanted to do something creative and I remembered that I had clay around the house and thought, why not try to make a Kalita Wave out of clay? And it totally worked! What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? Round 2 and Round 3. Round 2 because I really enjoy getting crafty, mixing random ingredients together, and getting to taste it. Round 3 because I really want to improve my roasting skills. What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I don’t think anyone should have shame about what they’re passionate about! That’s one of the biggest things working in coffee has taught me. Fun Fact: Marleigh has a degree in gender studies and volunteers with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance.

Stephen used four different brewers for his submission video, earning him a spot as a competitor. Photo by R. Jordan N. Sanchez.

Stephen Houston (He/Him) – Head Roaster, Bailie’s Coffee Competing from Belfast, Northern Ireland

How long have you worked in coffee? Six years. What’s your favorite brew method? Kalita Wave (small). What was the inspiration behind your application video? I have a lot of brewing equipment and I always have this pondering moment in the morning about what to use to brew my coffee that day. That got me thinking about if I could use more than one. So, using four brewers at once started as a bit of a joke. But I know this competition is meant to be some fun, so I figured, there’s no one tasting this and I wanted to see if I could do it! What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? I’m most looking forward to the DIY roasting round! Roasting is something I do nearly every day, so I’m a bit more confident in it, but we’ll have to see how I get on trying to roast at home without a roaster! What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I love this community. I love competing and I love to meet new people! I’m just here to have some fun. Fun Fact: Stephen is a former competitive kickboxer.

Kat is ready to roast coffee again for The Barista League: Online’s third challenge. Photo by Abby Thompson.

Kat Melheim (She/Her) – Founder/Editor, Coffee People Zine Competing from Stillwater, Minn., USA

How long have you worked in coffee? Seven years. What’s your favorite brew method? Espresso. What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? Round 3, the roasting challenge. I love roasting and I really miss it a lot. So, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get to roast again. What was the inspiration behind your application video? I wanted to make something that was very applicable to current times. I tried to pick elements of the COVID recommendations and try to reinforce them. So I thought of things like … how can I brew a coffee from six feet away? How could I sanitize it? What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? That’s a big question! I’m super excited to do this. I’m looking forward to connecting with the other competitors and the folks watching. Fun Fact: In her free time, Kat studies rosemaling, a decorative folk painting of Norway.

MiMo leads the double life of a barista/bartender supreme as a member of both Sey Coffee and Shaka Shaka Tiki. Photo by Mika Turbo.

MiMo (They/Them) – Production, Sey Coffee & Co-Owner, Shaka Shaka Tiki Competing from Brooklyn, New York, USA

How long have you worked in coffee? Six years. What’s your favorite brew method? Fellow Stagg. What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? The roasting. I’ve never done anything like that before. I think the cupping and making sig bevs are in my zone but I’m pretty excited to step outside my comfort zone for Round 3. What was the inspiration behind your application video? The inspiration was quaran-tiki! I wanted to make a video that people could follow with ingredients that they might have at home. I also used it as an opportunity to practice my competition vibe. What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I’m really silly and I like to laugh at my own jokes. Fun Fact: MiMo’s favorite cocktail is a rum and coke. Make sure to add some orange zest!

An won the New Zealand AeroPress Championship after having never used the brewer before! Photo by Yuki Zhang.

An Nguyen (He/Him) – Field Rep, Jacobs Douwe Egberts Competing from Auckland, New Zealand

How long have you worked in coffee? 15 years. What’s your favorite brew method? Any full-immersion method. What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? I’m most looking forward to identifying the coffee origins, Round 1. That’s a very fun one! What was the inspiration behind your application video? I really wanted to put the New Zealand DIY spirit into my concept! And so I showed some examples of how to grind your coffee where I’m smashing the beans and running them over with a car to be funny. The cocktail recipe that I used was the same that I used at a CIGS throwdown to win. So it was a real recipe! What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I think there’s so many ways to approach coffee. There’s a cup of coffee for everyone. Fun Fact: An won the New Zealand AeroPress Championship in 2018 despite having never used the brewer before.

Kendra believes that the one community that can definitely persist through COVID-19 is the coffee community. Photo by Kendra Sledzinski.

Kendra Sledzinski (She/Her) – Educator/Trainer, Joe Coffee Competing from Philadelphia, USA

How long have you worked in coffee? 13 years. What’s your favorite brew method? Clever Dripper. What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? Round 3! The DIY roast. That’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to hearing what the judge thinks of the coffee I roast on my stove. What was the inspiration behind your application video? I see all these brew videos from coffee companies online that aren’t really meeting people where they’re at. I don’t think giving people super technical brewing advice really makes them trust us as their coffee purveyors. So I thought I’d make a video that brings people along on the journey with me. What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I’m a fierce advocate for baristas. I am so thankful for the way the coffee community is staying connected to one another right now. If there’s any industry that can do it, it’s us! Fun Fact: Kendra co-created the 2017 wage survey in Philadelphia, prompting many café owners to increase their baristas’ wages.

Nicolas is always willing to experiment with coffee through fusion and other fun brewing ideas. Photo by Juanma Rada.

Nicolas Vargas Ochoa (He/Him) – Barista/Roaster, Roaster Boutique Competing from La Paz, Bolivia

How long have you worked in coffee? Three years. What’s your favorite brew method? V60. What round of The Barista League: Online are you most excited about? I’m looking forward to the roasting round because I’ve never roasted on an Ikawa so it might be a fun challenge for me. What was the inspiration behind your application video? The inspiration for my video is my life! I am always mixing coffee into everything. So in my video I made a fruit salad iced coffee. What should The Barista League: Online audience know about you? I’m a little bit crazy with coffee! I always want to make coffee in new ways, whether it’s on different foods or with three filters instead of one. I’m always trying something different. Fun Fact: Nicolas plays the violin.

Rounds 1, 2 and 3 of the competition will be aired as episodes on YouTube over the next three weeks, followed by a finale to announce the winner of The Barista League: Online! In addition to the finalists’ completion of these intense coffee challenges, viewers can expect appearances from some special guests and a ton of surprises that you’ll need to see to believe! Episodes will air every Wednesday at 11 a.m. EDT on The Barista League’s YouTube channel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angela Ferrara is the director of communications and social media at The Barista League. She’s based in Baltimore.

The post A Recap of The Barista League: Online’s First Two Episodes appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

A Recap of The Barista League: Online’s First Two Episodes published first on https://espressoexpertsite.tumblr.com/

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fourseasonsfigs · 2 years ago

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White Hanfu Jun

Well, the award for the least inspired fig name goes to this post. Which is too bad because the fig was inspired by a very beautiful set of photographs.

Here we have Gong Jun's endorsement for the video game Fantasy Westward Journey (10/29/2021), and the pose that became the fig:

For a little more detail on his beautiful suit, here's some more pictures:

I love how everyone gives him fans (and flutes!) after Word of Honor.

The fig maker was careful enough to let us know NOT to miss the fig's flute, as it was packed separately in a slit in the polystyrene and it would be easy to miss. Boy was it.

It was also SUPER delicate. I attacked the opening there with a little less delicacy than I should have. I cut all my resin figures out so in order to minimize any breakage, so I gently sliced the end of the cut in the foam there. I don't normally pull at the figs or their accessories, but I figured I could just pull the flute out once I had one of the ends. I didn't realize it had the tassel on it, and when I pulled it out I was horrified that I hadn't been more careful. The whole thing is terrifyingly fragile looking.

For a moment I was afraid I had broken the actual flute, since it looked to be on the short side, but no, it was fine.

Poor Junjun, I feel like I am always photographing him in the most awkward positions. The reason for this though is to illustrate that despite him being a sitting fig, he does not sit. His tiny little resin tush is canted up slightly because of his leg being propped up, and as a result his entire rear end is slanted to the side. Unfortunately, one small edge of one small butt cheek is not enough to offset the weight of his head, and he'll just topple right over when you try to get him to sit.

I ended up having to mold quite a bit of museum putty to offset the substantial lean, and to get him to stick enough to take pictures with. Unfortunately, you can can see under his leg there, that there's a lot of the putty showing. However, less putty than that and he wouldn't stick at all.

You can see how the flute is in fact the right size. It fits snugly but fairly easily in his hand.

Why so sad, Junjun?! Ah, I can't stand to see a fig look sad! His woebegone look is NOT what this photo shoot ordered!

You can see from this three-quarter angle the sizeable chunk of putty this butt cheek is sitting on. If I didn't have the putty, well, he wouldn't sit at all, but he definitely wouldn't be sitting straight up.

This angle gives you a nice shot of the flute again, held gently and elegantly in Junjun's gentle and elegant hand. You can also see the beautiful flower design on his left shoulder.

I might need to buy some ultralight clay or something and mold a rock or something for him to sit on. Other than something in the exact shape of his tush, I'm not sure what else will really be a good long term solution. I don't really want to glue him to the box, although I guess I could.

Ah, we can barely see the rear end that's causing me so many problems! I do like the idea of how he's sitting - his suit jacket looks cool like this.

You can see there's some paint overspray at his hairline, under his ear there. I will admit that looking at these pictures are the first time I've noticed it! It's not particularly noticeable head on, or even turned a bit, like so:

Junjun, why SO SAD!?!?! My heart can't take this! I want to give you sunshine and puppies and your Zhang Laoshi!

An extreme closeup so you can see all the beautiful detail. The fig maker did an amazing job on all the asymmetrical cuts and folds of this surprisingly complicated suit. I really like the detail on his sneakers too.

It's the blue coloring that they did on the eyes that makes it look like his eyes are welling with tears (and also the expression and the frowny pout!).

You already got the bottoms-up version in the beginning, so I'll just go straight to the fig card:

Yeah, I guess I might need to make that rock for him to sit on after all!

I will note he has much more of a severe fashion model expression for the camera in the box card art, vs. the enormous sad eyes in the fig.

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 228

Scene Count: 18

Rating: Shower this man in puppies, stat!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #gong jun #word of honor cast #shl cast #figthusiast

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zibizuba · 6 years ago

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10 Mysterious Ancient Inventions Science Still Can’t Explain

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Googling “mysterious historical discoveries” or “unexplained historical innovations” results in dozens of websites itemizing artifacts supposedly so baffling the one potential reply may very well be aliens, time journey, the paranormal, the Iluminati, or aliens. Wait – did we already point out aliens? Sorry: they’re a go-to clarification for something apparently too refined, bizarre, or “out-of-place” for “people figured it out, okay?” to be a satisfying clarification.

It’s a disheartening discovery, as a result of when you separate the hoaxes and nonsense from the finds of precise archeological curiosity, there are nonetheless cool mysteries to discover. The listing beneath options mysterious historical innovations, unexplained historical discoveries, and a few barely newer finds nonetheless baffling to scientists within the 21st century – however not as a result of they’re an indication of alien tech. Give humanity just a little extra credit score, y’know?

Lethal “Greek Hearth” Was a Household Secret

Photograph: Public Area/via Wikimedia

It’s not like anybody is aching for napalm to make a comeback, however scientists and historians are nonetheless very curious about Seventh-century “Greek Hearth,” a lethal proto-napalm fired from ships that “would cling to flesh and was unattainable to extinguish with water.” Feels like a nightmare!

The Byzantine Empire wielded it with aplomb, however, like Coca-Cola Traditional and Bush’s Baked Beans, the recipe for Greek Hearth

was a protected household secret. Nationwide Geographic pulled a Mythbusters and took a guess on the elements in 2002, utilizing a “bronze pump” and a “combination of sunshine crude oil and pine resin.” The outcomes? It destroyed a ship “in minutes.” Good guess!

The Recipe for Damascus Metal Stays a Thriller

Photograph: Public Area/via Wikimedia

Getting back from the Crusades, quite a lot of perplexed Europeans began speaking about swords wielded by Islamic warriors “that would slice by means of a floating handkerchief, bend 90 levels and flex again with no harm.” Quick-forward to the 21st century and the recipe for so-called “Damascus steel” is nonetheless a thriller. The blades had been probably manufactured from “crucible metal,” which is created by melting iron with plant matter, however nobody is aware of the particular sort of crucible metal used to yield such a blade. It’d as properly be a lightsaber.

The Voynich Manuscript Could In the end Simply Be Indecipherable

Photograph: Public Area/via Wikimedia

Should you haven’t heard of the Voynich Manuscript, you’re in for a deal with. Researchers say the completely bonkers, hand-written and hand-drawn manuscript, that includes textual content in an indecipherable language and a whole lot of illustrations together with “a myriad of drawings of miniature feminine nudes, most with swelled abdomens, immersed or wading in fluids and oddly interacting with interconnecting tubes and capsules,” was created by somebody someday through the 15th century in Central Europe. A Polish-American antiquarian bookseller named Wilfrid M. Voynich acquired it in 1912. Apart from that, who is aware of? It’s a complete thriller.

If it’s presupposed to imply something or assist folks perceive something, it has failed miserably. That stated, it is among the few real mysteries on the market. Do your self a favor: leap down the Voynich rabbit hole. Simply don’t blame Ranker if you happen to lose your thoughts just a little.

The Antikythera Mechanism Is a Mysterious Astrological Calendar

Photograph: Marsyas /via Wikimedia

Not like the Roman dodecahedra, scientists have a pretty good idea what the so-called Antikythera Mechanism is all about. Found on the backside of the ocean in 1901, the intricate gadget was probably constructed across the finish of the second century BC. It “calculated and displayed celestial info, notably cycles such because the phases of the moon and a luni-solar calendar,” in keeping with analysis compiled in Nature.

However we nonetheless don’t know who constructed it, who used it, and what they used it for, precisely. It’s additionally nonetheless unclear why it’s “technically extra advanced than any recognized gadget for no less than a millennium afterwards,” to cite the Nature summary, which prompted a zillion “historical aliens” and “TIME TRAVEL IS REAL!!” weblog posts after it was revealed in 2006.

However historical past, as Brian Dunning of Skeptoid notes, tells us related gear-based know-how was round two and a half millennia prior, and Occam’s Razor tells us any “siblings” of the Antikythera Mechanism, like most commonplace bronze objects of the interval, had been probably “recycled” into different objects. It’s nonetheless mysterious, only for much less horny causes than some may suppose.

Zhang Heng’s Seismoscope Detected Earthquakes (Someway)

Photograph: Kowloonese/via Wikimedia

The primary earthquake-detecting instrument in historical past was this ornate, golden, dragon-festooned, toad-surrounded vessel from round 132 AD. The image is of a reproduction, however you get the thought, proper? No? Okay, right here’s the idea: when the earth quakes, one of many dragons, every representing principal instructions of the compass, would spit out a ball right into a toad’s mouth, indicating the route of the quake. The instrument was stated to have “detected a four-hundred-mile distant earthquake which was not felt on the location of the seismoscope.” Both that, or somebody bumped up in opposition to it, as a result of to this present day, nobody truly is aware of what was actually contained in the factor. (Extra dragons, possibly?) Some say it may have been a easy pendulum-based system, however the actual “science” stays a thriller.

It’s Unclear How Vikings Made Their Ulfberht Swords

Photograph: Anders Lorange/via Wikimedia

Talking of insane swords – the Vikings could have used strategies or supplies borrowed from the creators of Damascus metal to make their legendary “Ulfberht” swords. When archeologists found the Viking blades, they had been shocked as a result of “the know-how wanted to provide such pure metallic wouldn’t be invented for an additional 800 years.” However in 2014, a Ninth-century Viking grave was found in Scandanavia with an Islamic inscription that means “for/to Allah,” linking the 2 worlds and making the shared data believable – however that’s only a guess. The true origin of the blades continues to be unknown.

Scientists Disagree About Why the Iron Pillar of Delhi Received’t Rust

Photograph: Imahesh3847/via Wikimedia

The more-than-1600-year-old “Iron Pillar of Delhi” has scientists divided about its bizarre resistance to rust. There are two faculties of thought: Workforce Setting says the gentle local weather of Delhi, India, is in the end to thank. Proper place, proper time, basically. Workforce Supplies says it’s all concerning the “presence of phosphorus, and absence of sulfur [and] manganese within the iron,” plus the “giant mass of the pillar.” One factor each camps agree on? It’s a complete thriller how the rust-resistant iron lumps had been “forge-welded to provide the huge six-ton construction.” Regardless, it’s a spectacular piece of engineering.

The Phaistos Disk May Be a Prayer or an Historic Typewriter

Photograph: C messier/via Wikimedia

This large sugar cookie is a head-scratcher, for certain, however there are some attention-grabbing theories on the market. Found in 1908 in Crete, this 6-inch diameter clay disk dates again to round 1700 BC and options 241 “phrases” created out of 45 particular person symbols, organized in a spiral. It may very well be a type of historical “sheet music” to a hymn or prayer devoted to matriarchal deity, or possibly it’s an ancient proto-typewriter? Who is aware of? It certain seems to be scrumptious, although.

Roman Dodecahedra Would possibly Simply Be Candlesticks

Photograph: Itub/via Wikimedia

Should you suppose these little bronze guys would make glorious paperweights or tchotchkes – properly, so did the traditional Romans, possibly? We actually have no idea. They might have been ineffective objects meant for adornment, a dialog piece for the 2nd-to-4th-century Roman equal of espresso tables.

George Hart of Stony Brook College notes dozens of those twelve-sided, 4-to-11 cm. spheroids have been discovered all through Europe, but the Romans made no mention of them. Guesses embody candle stands, flower stands, surveying devices, finger ring-size gauges, and even D&D-style cube. Possibly the traditional Romans had been pen-and-paper stylus-and-papyrus RPG lovers?

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peterlista · 8 years ago

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Gongfu Brewing

Among internet tea people, gongfucha (功夫茶) is often represented as the best, most authentic method of brewing loose-leaf tea. New tea people tend to fetishize gongfu brewing and overemphasize its ritual. (On r/tea especially, posts asking about the gongfu “tea ceremony” are fairly common.) The more experienced you get, however, the more you start to think of gongfu as just one of many methods available to brew the best possible cup of tea. As a relative newcomer to gongfu tea, I’ve found it difficult to know what information is true and what can be safely ignored. To that end, I want to summarize the research on gongfu brewing and dispel some of the myths that I’ve encountered.

Gongfu is Old

Gongfucha (literally, “making tea with skill”) is often misrepresented as a traditional brewing style with ancient origins. In reality, however, the historical record suggests that gongfu brewing developed within the past 200 years.

There are two excellent academic sources on the history of gongfu brewing, both by Lawrence Zhang (2012, 2016). According to Zhang, contemporary gongfucha developed in 1970s Taiwan, though its origins are in an 18th century brewing style local to the Chaozhou region of China (bordering Fujian and Guangdong).

The earliest written mentions of gongfu brewing were by gastronome Yuan Mei in 1792 and bureaucrat Yu Jiao in 1801. Yuan, for example, described the practices of tea drinkers in the Wuyi Mountains who used (quoting Zhang) “pots that held no more than one ounce of water and drunk from cups no bigger than a walnut.” In 1937, translator Lin Yutang wrote that gongfu brewing was “an art generally unknown in North China” practiced only by “connoisseurs and not generally served among shopkeepers” (Lin 1940: 218). Zhang notes that prior to the 1960s, gongfu brewing was virtually unknown outside of Chaozhou.

In 1957, Weng Huidong wrote the “first dedicated treatise” on gongfu brewing, which, though never published, was meant to spread the local brewing style beyond southern China. Weng’s descriptions mirror what contemporary tea drinkers think of as gongfu brewing—high leaf to water ratios, whole-leaf tea brewed in small clay teapots, multiple quick infusions. Still, gongfu brewing was only a local custom and not well known (let alone practiced) outside of the Chaozhou region. Even as late as 1999, Chinese books on Chinese tea customs only mentioned gongfucha in passing. Again quoting Zhang (2016:55):

To the rest of China gongfucha was interesting, but no more so than any other regional tea culture; it was novel for its unique procedures and implements. There were many other traditions in China for tea drinking.

The misconception that gongfucha has ancient origins derives from two sources. First, Lin’s writings on gongfu brewing include references to traditional Chinese tea culture (and philosophy) in an attempt to “emphasize that [gongfucha] was a part of the canon of traditional Chinese cultural practices“ (Zhang 2016:54). Still today, gongfucha is incorrectly associated with early writings on Chinese tea, such as Lu Yu’s The Classic of Tea. More recently, the confusion can be attributed to the introduction of chayi (“tea arts”) and chayiguan (“tea art houses”) in 20th century Taiwan. Zhang writes that Taiwanese tea house owners claimed that “they were recovering a lost tradition by means of emphasizing the pureness of tea drinking as an activity” (2016:56). Moreover, in the 1980s, Taiwan used chayi to lay its political claims as the legitimate China and keeper of authentic Chinese traditions (see also Kim and Zhang 2012).

Since the 1990s, many have tried to locate gongfucha in an historical narrative of Chinese tea drinking, despite the evidence of its newness. Contemporary gongfu brewing is represented as an extension of past practices “with one dynasty’s tea practice seen as building on practices of previous dynasties and culminating in modern tea arts” (Zhang 2016:60). It is, as Zhang argues, an “invented tradition” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983).

Gongfu is Traditional

Similarly, gongfu brewing is often described as the traditional method of brewing tea in China. As noted above, this is not the case, with most tea in China being drunken either “grandpa style” or “western style,” using less leaf, more water, and longer infusions.* If anything, the history of gongfu brewing has proved that this brewing style is thoroughly not traditional:

Zhang (2016) points out that brewing with whole-leaf tea really only began in the Ming dynasty (1386-1644). Prior to then, in China tea would have been ground to a powder and whisked—like Japanese matcha—or “powdered and ground up, then boiled in water, with added fragrance such as spices and salt”—like Tibetan butter tea. In fact, the tea that Lu Yu described in The Classic of Tea would be unrecognizable to most tea drinkers today.

Moreover, as outlined above, contemporary gongfu brewing developed in 1970s Taiwan and was heavily influenced both by Japanese senchadō (“the way of steamed tea”) and Mainland tea culture (Kim and Zhang 2012; Zhang 2016). The development of gongfu brewing is a direct consequence of blending these various tea cultures. This fact, however, does not fit the mythology surrounding gongfucha, and is often left out of contemporary accounts. To this effect, Kim and Zhang (2012) write that:

Such omission is quite common among newer publications on tea, and reflects a growing sense that Chinese chayi, or as it is increasingly called, chadao, has always been in existence in China for over a thousand years. [...] Even Chinese works that discuss Chinese and Japanese transmission in tea culture tend to emphasize China as the source and Japan as the recipient and developer of tea knowledge, but rarely mention that the direction of transmission also occurred in reverse.

Ironically, those who practice gongfucha for its tradition (or aesthetics) are actually engaging a much younger practice; whereas an older, more authentic approach is to treat gongfu brewing simply as a means to an end.

* For western style, brew 5g tea/350ml water for 2-3 minutes in a mug or pot.

Gongfu is Complex

Calling gongfu brewing a “ceremony” has caused a lot of confusion among newer members of the tea community. Even Wikipedia gets it wrong. Often this misconception arises when people mistakenly equate gongfu brewing with Japanese chadō, which does have a ceremonial quality. Other times, I think it is simply the fetishization of Chinese tea culture.

This misconception has two parts, equipment and ceremony:

Though some gongfu enthusiasts do use large, complex tea sets—e.g., this one, which costs $300 and includes 40+ pieces—gongfu brewing can be done very simply. (See also MarshalN’s semi-sarcastic post on “essential teaware”.) For example, to brew gongfu at home for myself, I use only a gaiwan, a small mug, a tea towel, and a medium sized bowl for waste water. My tea set cost $20.

The “ceremony” of gongfu brewing need not be complicated either. While some people prefer to brew gongfu with large, flowing gestures and what appears to be significant difficulty, this is neither necessary nor particularly useful. Instead, it is best to brew quickly, carefully, and as efficiently as possible.

When I sit down for a solo gongfu session, I attempt to make the best tea that I can with as little fuss as possible. I start by preparing the table. I lay out a tea towel, on top of which goes a gaiwan, a small mug, and a bowl for waste water. The gaiwan holds 100ml of water and the mug holds about two infusions, so there is no need for a gongdaobei (“fairness pitcher”). I measure out my tea—using a gram scale—and heat my water—using a variable temperature electric kettle. I use water from the tap or, alternatively, from a filtered pitcher. Once all of my equipment is assembled, I start brewing.

Gongfu is Best

Lastly, it is a mistake to think that gongfu brewing will always be the best method of drinking a particular tea. In fact, for some teas, gongfu is a poor brewing method and returns substandard results. Imagine trying to gongfu a CTC-style Assam—chopped leaves will brew strong and bitter—or an Earl Grey—the first few infusions will taste heavily (almost chemically) of bergamot. On the other hand, some teas that I love to drink gongfu have fared poorly when I’ve tried brewing them western or grandpa style. Thus, if you only brew gongfu (or only western), you can end up with disappointing results. The trick is to match the tea with the right method, and then dial in on the specific parameters. For most tea people, figuring out how to brew our favorite teas is almost as important as sourcing those teas in the first place.

One trick that I use when selecting a brewing method is matching it with the “traditional” origin of the tea that I'm drinking. So, Chinese greens like Longjing (”Dragon well”) or Taiwanese oolongs tend to get brewed gongfu with a ceramic gaiwan or grandpa style in a tall glass. Alternatively, CTC teas from India or Sri Lanka and traditional English flavored teas will always get brewed western style in a mug or pot. I almost always brew Japanese style green teas in a kyusu, which is a whole other process. Consequently, the style of tea matters more than where the tea was actually produced. So, Indonesian oolongs made in traditional Chinese or Taiwanese styles will still be brewed gongfu or grandpa style. Likewise, if your Taiwanese oolong gets severely broken (or if you are down to only fannings), it will be better brewed western style.

(Note: I cite MarshalN a lot in this post. He takes a very practical approach to gongfu brewing, which I tend to emulate in my own tea practice.)

#tea #article #history #gongfucha #gongfutea #brewing

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juniperpublishers-etoaj · 6 years ago

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Using GIS Techniques to Model RUSLE’s ‘K’ Factor for River Nzoia Basin in Kenya - Juniper Publishers

Juniper Publishers - Open Access Journal of Engineering Technology

Abstract

RUSLE is a model used to estimate mean annual soil loss. The model is a predictive tool used to evaluate land use and land cover options. Soil Erodibility (K) Factor is a measure of the predisposition of soil particles to detachment and conveyance by rainfall and surface runoff. The study sought to model soil erodibility (K) factor for river Nzoia basin, western Kenya. Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques were used to generate spatial representation of soil erodibility in the basin. The soil erodibility in river Nzoia basin was classified into: Low (0-0.09); Moderate (0.09-0.13); High (0.13-0.19) and Severe (0.19-0.13) levels. The upper and parts of the middle river Nzoia basin with low and moderate erodibility levels are mainly defined by forestland. These areas experience minimal soil erosion due to dense vegetation cover. Areas with high and severe erodibility levels are defined by land use that is primarily characterized by agricultural activities that tend to leave the soil surface bare. These areas experience high soil erosion due to rainfall and surface runoff. Therefore, to attain environmental restoration of river Nzoia basin, there is need to employ resources for conservation programmes in the areas with high and severe erodibility levels.

Keywords: River Nzoia; GIS; Model; erodibility; K-Factor

Introduction

River Nzoia basin is in western Kenya and originates from Mt Elgon, Cheranganyi Hills and Nandi escapments. According to Ssegan [1], the economy of the basin is largely rural-based and more than 90% of the population earns its living from agricultural activities. The basin is also of great economic importance especially in such sectors as agriculture, tourism, fishing, forestry, mining and transport. However, the basin is experiencing degradation due to high levels of soil erosion resulting from surface runoff during rainfall events [2].

Soil erodibility (K) factor is a quantitative description of the inherent erodibility of a particular soil; it is a measure of the susceptibility of soil particles to detachment and transport by rainfall and runoff. As a result, the factor may be referred to as the rate of soil loss per rainfall erosion index unit plot. The unit plot is 22.1m long, has a 9% slope, and is continuously in a clean-tilled fallow condition with tillage performed upslope and downslope [3]. The factor is a quantitative value which is experimentally determined taking into consideration the soil texture, soil structure, the organic matter content and the permeability [4]. In practical terms, the soil erodibility factor is the average long-term soil and soil-profile response to the erosive powers of rainstorms. Thus, it is a lumped parameter that represents an integrated average annual value of the total soil and soil profile reaction to a large number of erosion and hydrologic processes. It can be determined on the basis of nomograms with due considerations of the granular-metric fractions of 0.002-0.1mm, 0.1-2mm, the organic matter content, the soil’s structure and permeability. Zhang et al. [5] observe that, determination of the soil erodibility involves assigning values that correspond to the soil types contained within the study area. A calculating relation was developed by Renard et al. [6] as expressed in Equatio

Where,

Dg- Geometric mean weight diameter of the primary soil particles (mm), see Equation 2.

Where,

di Maximum diameters of the particle size class i

di-1- Minimum diameters of the particle size class i

fi- Sub-unitary percentage of the particle size class i

Information required for determination of the K factor can be obtained from the soil taxonomy map. For each of the soil textural classes, the mean percentage of silt, clay and sand can be derived from the texture triangle, and these values can be used to calculate the geometric mean particle diameter (mm) as recorded by Shirazi & Boersma [7].

The information required for the determination of the K factor can be obtained from the soil taxonomy map. At the basin scale, soil reconnaissance survey can provide information required for generation of composite maps of soil mapping units that can be used for the determination of K values. For each of the soil textural classes, the mean percentage of silt, clay and sand can be derived from the texture triangle (Figure 1). These values can be used to calculate the geometric mean particle diameter Dg [mm]. Shirazi and Boersma [7] used the proportions of clay, silt and sand to obtain the geometric mean of particle diameter Dg[mm] and its geometric standard deviation (σ).

Soil texture triangle is used to classify the texture class of a soil. Sides of the triangle are scaled for the percentages of sand, silt, and clay. Clay percentages are read from left to right across the triangle (dashed lines). Silt is read from the upper right to lower left (light, dotted lines). Sand from lower right towards the upper left portion of the triangle (bold, solid lines). Boundaries of the soil texture classes are highlighted in blue. The intersection of the three sizes on the triangle gives the texture class. For instance, consider a soil with 20% clay, 60% silt, and 20% sand it falls in the “silt loam” class. As argued by Wischmeier et al. [4], when data on soil permeability, structure, and organic matter are available, Equation 3 can be applied to determine K- factor.

Where,

M-[%very fine sand+%silt]×[100- %clay]

OM-Percentage of organic matter

S-Code according to the soil structure (very fine granular=1, fine granular=2, coarse granular=3, lattice/massive=4), and

P-Code according to the permeability/drainage class (fast=1, fast to moderately fast=2, moderately fast=3, moderately fast to slow=4, slow=5, very slow=6)

Methodology

Basic data to estimate the erodibility (K) factor values and soil hydrological parameters (texture, hydraulic conductivity, soil moisture, soil depth) were obtained from the soil map for river Nzoia basin. The soil map was obtained from FAO (http://www. fao.org) i.e. Kenya Soil and Terrain (KENSOTER) database. The soil map shape file was added as a layer into ArcGIS 10.1 and its attribute table edited with additional new field of K values generating K-Factors for various soil layers. Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram used to generate the soil erodibility (K) factor.

Result and Discussion

Soil erodibility K value map was generated to show spatial distribution of erodibility (Figure 3). The study revealed that K-factor value range was 0.00 to 0.31ton ha-1MJ-1mm-1.

The erodibility factor was classified into: Low (0-0.09); Moderate (0.09-0.13); High (0.13-0.19) and Severe (0.19-0.31) levels. Areas spanning Soy, Leseru, Eldoret, Kaptalelia, Kitale, Ainabukoi and Cherenganyi with erodibility factor between 0.0 and 0.13 are at a low to moderate soil erosion risk. These areasare mainly characterized by heavy vegetation cover. Regions covering, Khachonge, Kipkaren, Sang’alo, Mumias, Buhuyi had erodibility (K) factor (0.19-0.31) that reflects severe predicted soil losses due to water erosion.The high values of K-Factor could be as a result of the highly silty nature of the soils from the affected areas. Silty soils lack cohesion as their particles are loose therefore require little drag force to be transported by the force of moving water.

Most erodible soils are silts and fine grain sands. High erodibility of silty soils is due to small size and weight of the grains and to their low cohesion. As a consequence, sandy and silty grains are easily detached and transported by overland flow. In addition, anthropogenic activities, mainly agricultural, pre-dispose these areas to high soil erosion risk. The low erodibility factor value could be attributed to the more clay content present in the soils in most parts of the basin. They provide higher binding and inter binding forces that increases cohesion of soil particles. As well, there is the presence of land cover which helps in resisting detachability of the soil by water.

Conclusion

Soil erodibility factor (K) in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) significantly correlates with soil loss. It is a fundamental factor in soil erosion hazard modeling and prediction. In this study, soil erodibility (K) factor was classified into: Low; Moderate; High and Severe levels. Its range was between 0.00 and 0.305ton ha-1MJ-1mm-1. Mean factor was estimated to be 0.13ton ha-1MJ-1mm-1. The upper river Nzoia basin has a low soil erodibility factor (K) ranging from 0 to 0.13ton ha-1MJ-1mm-1. This was attributed to the land cover that is majorly forestland. Area spanning middle up to the lower basin has a high K-factor with a range of 0.13 to 0.305ton ha-1MJ-1mm-1. The high K-factor is associated to the land use that is primarily characterized by agricultural activities that tend to leave the soil surface bare. This area is likely to experience high soil erosion due to rainfall and surface runoff. Therefore, it is in priority for soil conservation programmes.

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sciencespies · 6 years ago

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What gives meteorites their shape? New research uncovers a 'Goldilocks' answer

https://sciencespies.com/space/what-gives-meteorites-their-shape-new-research-uncovers-a-goldilocks-answer/

What gives meteorites their shape? New research uncovers a 'Goldilocks' answer

Meteoroids coming from outer space are randomly shaped, but many of these, which land on earth as meteorites, are found to be carved into cones. To explore the forces that produce cone-shaped meteorites, researchers replicated meteoroids traveling through outer space: clay objects, attached to a rod, served as ‘mock meteorites’ that erode while moving through water. Credit: NYU’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory

Meteoroids coming from outer space are randomly shaped, but many of these, which land on earth as meteorites, are found to be carved into cones. Scientists have now figured out how the physics of flight in the atmosphere leads to this transformation.

The progression, discovered through a series of replication experiments in New York University’s Applied Mathematics Lab, involves melting and erosion during flight that ultimately results in an ideal shape as meteoroids hurl through the atmosphere. The findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Slender or narrow cones flip over and tumble, while broad cones flutter and rock back and forth, but we discovered between these are cones that fly perfectly straight with their point or apex leading,” explains Leif Ristroph, an assistant professor in NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, who led the study. “Amazingly, these ‘Goldilocks’ cones of the ‘just right’ angles exactly match the shapes of eroded clay resulting from our experiments and of actual conical meteorites.”

“By showing how the shape of an object affects its ability to fly straight, our study sheds some light on this long-standing mystery about why so many meteorites that arrive on Earth are cone shaped,” he adds.

The forces behind the peculiar shapes of meteorites, which are meteors or “shooting stars” that survive the fiery flight through the atmosphere and land on Earth, have long been a mystery.

“The shapes of meteorites are not as they are in space, since they are actually melted, eroded, and reshaped by atmospheric flight,” explains Ristroph. “While most meteorites are randomly shaped ‘blobs,’ surprisingly many—some say about 25 percent—are ‘oriented meteorites,’ and complete samples of these look almost like perfect cones.”

To explore the forces that produce cone-shaped meteorites, the researchers, who included Jun Zhang, a professor of physics and mathematics at the Courant Institute and NYU Shanghai, replicated meteoroids traveling through outer space: clay objects, attached to a rod, served as “mock meteorites” that erode while moving through water.

The clay objects held in the water current were eventually carved into cones of the same angularity as conical meteorites—not too slender and not too broad.

However, the researchers recognized the limitations of this experimental design: unlike the clay objects, actual flying meteoroids are not held in a fixed position and can freely rotate, tumble, and spin. This distinction raised the following question: what allows meteorites to keep a fixed orientation and successfully reach Earth?

The team, which also included Khunsa Amin and Kevin Hu, both NYU undergraduates, and Jinzi Huang, an NYU doctoral student at the time of the work, then conducted additional experiments in which they examined how different shaped cones fell through water. Here they discovered that narrow cones flip over while broad cones flutter. However, in between these two are “just right” cone shapes that fly straight.

“These experiments tell an origin story for oriented meteorites: the very aerodynamic forces that melt and reshape meteoroids in flight also stabilize its posture so that a cone shape can be carved and ultimately arrive on Earth,” observes Ristroph. “This is another interesting message we’re learning from meteorites, which are scientifically important as ‘alien visitors’ to Earth whose composition and structure tell us about the universe.”

Explore further

Oldest meteorite collection on Earth found in one of the driest places

More information: Khunsa Amin el al., “The role of shape-dependent flight stability in the origin of oriented meteorites,” PNAS (2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1815133116

Provided by New York University

Citation: What gives meteorites their shape? New research uncovers a ‘Goldilocks’ answer (2019, July 22) retrieved 22 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-07-meteorites-uncovers-goldilocks.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Space

#07-2019 Science News #Physics/Space/Nature/Humans/History #Science #Science News #Space

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lesbianrewrites · 8 years ago

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Blood of Olympus - Chapter 51

*disclaimer* This is a project done for fun, and none of these characters/works belong to me. I do not claim to own any of the material on this page. This is a Lesbian edit of The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. Chapters will be posted every day at 10am EST. Google doc version can be found here. The chapter can also be found under the cut. Enjoy!

SO MUCH FOR A TENDER FAREWELL.

The last Jessica saw of her dad, Zeus was a hundred feet tall, holding the Argo II by its prow. He boomed, ‘HOLD ON!’

Then he tossed the ship up and spiked it overhand like a volleyball.

If Jessica hadn’t been strapped to the mast with one of Lorena’s twenty-point safety harnesses, she would have disintegrated. As it was, her stomach tried to stay behind in Greece and all the air was sucked out of her lungs.

The sky turned black. The ship rattled and creaked. The deck cracked like thin ice under Jessica’s legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.

‘Jessica!’ Lorena shouted. ‘Hurry!’

Her fingers felt like melted plastic, but Jessica managed to undo the straps.

Lorena was lashed to the control console, desperately trying to right the ship as they spiralled downward in free fall. The sails were on fire. Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air. Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees.

Wider cracks opened in the deck as Jessica staggered towards the hold, using the winds to keep herself anchored.

If she couldn’t make it to the others …

Then the hatch burst open. Frances and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they’d attached to the mast. Piper, Annabeth and Penny followed, all of them looking disoriented.

‘Go!’ Lorena yelled. ‘Go, go, go!’

For once, Lorena’s tone was deadly serious.

They’d talked through their evacuation plan, but that slap across the world had made Jessica’s mind sluggish. Judging from the others’ expressions, they weren’t in much better shape.

Buford the table saved them. He clattered across the deck with his holographic Hedge blaring, ‘LET’S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!’

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away.

Frances changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, she was now a dazed grey dragon. Hazel climbed onto her neck. Frances grabbed Penny and Annabeth in her front claws, then spread her wings and soared away.

Jessica held Piper by the waist, ready to fly, but she made the mistake of glancing down. The view was a spinning kaleidoscope of sky, earth, sky, earth. The ground was getting awfully close.

‘Lorena, you won’t make it!’ Jessica shouted. ‘Come with us!’

‘No! Get out of here!’

‘Lorena!’ Piper tried. ‘Please –’

‘Save your charmspeak, Pipes! I told you, I’ve got a plan. Now shoo!’

Jessica took a last look at the splintering ship.

The Argo II had been their home for so long. Now they were abandoning it for good – and leaving Lorena behind.

Jessica hated it, but she saw the determination in Lorena’s eyes. Just like the visit with her father, Zeus, there was no time for a proper goodbye.

Jessica harnessed the winds, and she and Piper shot into the sky.

The ground wasn’t much less chaotic.

As they plummeted, Jessica saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others he couldn’t even name – surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

Giant eagles circled Jessica, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Frances the grey dragon flew alongside with her passengers.

‘Hazel!’ Jessica yelled. ‘Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don’t merge with the rest of the demigods –’

‘On it!’ Hazel said. ‘Go, Frances!’

Dragon Frances veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, ‘Let’s get ’em!’ and Penny in the other claw screaming, ‘I hate flying!’

Piper and Jessica veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.

Jessica’s heart lifted when she saw Nicola di Angelo on the front lines with the Greeks, slashing her way through a crowd of two-headed men. A few feet away, Reyna sat astride a new pegasus, her sword drawn. She shouted orders at the legion, and the Romans obeyed without question, as if she’d never been away.

Jessica didn’t see Octavian anywhere. Good. Neither did she see a colossal earth goddess laying waste to the world. Very good. Perhaps Gaia had risen, taken one look at the modern world and decided to go back to sleep. Jessica wished they could be that lucky, but she doubted it.

She and Piper landed on the hill, their swords drawn, and a cheer went up from the Greeks and the Romans.

‘About time!’ Reyna called. ‘Glad you could join us!’

With a start, Jessica realized she was addressing Piper, not her.

Piper grinned. ‘We had some giants to kill!’

‘Excellent!’ Reyna returned the smile. ‘Help yourself to some barbarians.’

‘Why, thank you!’

Reyna and Piper launched into battle side by side.

Nicola nodded to Jessica as if they’d just seen each other five minutes ago, then went back to turning two-headed men into no-headed corpses. ‘Good timing. Where’s the ship?’

Jessica pointed. The Argo II streaked across the sky in a ball of fire, shedding burning chunks of mast, hull and armament. Jessica didn’t see how even fireproof Lorena could survive in that inferno, but she had to hope.

‘Gods,’ Nicola said. ‘Is everyone okay?’

‘Lorena …’ Jessica’s voice broke. ‘She said she had a plan.’

The comet disappeared behind the western hills. Jessica waited with dread for the sound of an explosion, but she heard nothing over the roar of battle.

Nicola met her eyes. ‘She’ll be fine.’

‘Sure.’

‘But just in case … For Lorena.’

‘For Lorena,’ Jessica agreed. They charged into the fight.

Jessica’s anger gave her renewed strength. The Greeks and Romans slowly pushed back the enemies. Wild centaurs toppled. Wolf-headed men howled as they were cut to ashes.

More monsters kept appearing – karpoi grain spirits swirling out of the grass, gryphons diving from the sky, lumpy clay humanoids that made Jessica think of evil Play-Doh men.

‘They’re ghosts with earthen shells!’ Nicola warned. ‘Don’t let them hit you!’

Obviously Gaia had kept some surprises in reserve.

At one point, Jill Solace, the lead camper for Apollo, ran up to Nicola and said something in her ear. Over the yelling and clashing of blades, Jessica couldn’t hear the words.

‘Jessica, I have to go!’ Nicola said.

Jessica didn’t really understand, but she nodded, and Jill and Nicola dashed off into the fray.

A moment later, a squad of Hermes campers gathered around Jessica for no apparent reason.

Connor Stoll grinned. ‘What’s up, Grace?’

‘I’m good,’ Jessica said. ‘You?’

Connor dodged an ogre club and stabbed a grain spirit, which exploded in a cloud of wheat. ‘Yeah, can’t complain. Nice day for it.’

Reyna yelled, ‘Eiaculare flammas!’ and a wave of flaming arrows arced over the legion’s shield wall, destroying a platoon of ogres. The Roman ranks moved forward, impaling centaurs and trampling wounded ogres under their bronze-tipped boots.

Somewhere downhill, Jessica heard Frances Zhang yell in Latin: ‘Repellere equites!’

A massive herd of centaurs parted in a panic as the legion’s other three cohorts ploughed through in perfect formation, their spears bright with monster blood. Frances marched before them. On the left flank, riding Arion, Hazel beamed with pride.

‘Ave, Praetor Zhang!’ Reyna called.

‘Ave, Praetor Ramírez-Arellano!’ Frances said. ‘Let’s do this. Legion, CLOSE RANKS!’

A cheer went up among the Romans as the five cohorts melded into one massive killing machine. Frances pointed her sword forward and, from the golden eagle standard, tendrils of lightning swept across the enemy, turning several hundred monsters to toast.

‘Legion, cuneum formate!’ Reyna yelled. ‘Advance!’

Another cheer on Jessica’s right as Penny and Annabeth reunited with the forces of Camp Half-Blood.

‘Greeks!’ Penny yelled. ‘Let’s, um, fight stuff!’

They yelled like banshees and charged.

Jessica grinned. She loved the Greeks. They had no organization whatsoever, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

Jessica was feeling good about the battle, except for two big questions: Where was Lorena? And where was Gaia?

Unfortunately, she got the second answer first.

Under her feet, the earth rippled as if Half-Blood Hill had become a giant water mattress. Demigods fell. Ogres slipped. Centaurs charged face-first into the grass.

AWAKE, a voice boomed all around them.

A hundred yards away, at the crest of the next hill, the grass and soil swirled upward like the point of a massive drill. The column of earth thickened into the twenty-foot-tall figure of a woman – her dress woven from blades of grass, her skin as white as quartz, her hair brown and tangled like tree roots.

‘Little fools.’ Gaia the Earth Mother opened her pure green eyes. ‘The paltry magic of your statue cannot contain me.’

As she said it, Jessica realized why Gaia hadn’t appeared until now. The Athena Parthenos had been protecting the demigods, holding back the wrath of the earth, but even Athena’s might could only last so long against a primordial goddess.

Fear as palpable as a cold front washed over the demigod army.

‘Stand fast!’ Piper shouted, her charmspeak clear and loud. ‘Greeks and Romans, we can fight her together!’

Gaia laughed. She spread her arms and the earth bent towards her – trees tilting, bedrock groaning, soil rippling in waves. Jessica rose on the wind, but all around her monsters and demigods alike started to sink into the ground. One of Octavian’s onagers capsized and disappeared into the side of the hill.

‘The whole earth is my body,’ Gaia boomed. ‘How would you fight the goddess of –’

FOOOOMP!

In a flash of bronze, Gaia was swept off the hillside, snarled in the claws of a fifty-ton metal dragon.

Festus, reborn, rose into the sky on gleaming wings, spewing fire from his maw triumphantly. As he ascended, the rider on his back got smaller and more difficult to discern, but Lorena’s grin was unmistakable.

‘Pipes! Jessica!’ she shouted down. ‘You coming? The fight is up here!’

#heroes of olympus #hoo #lesbians of olymous #lesbian #lesbiansafe #gay #lgbt #lgbtq #sapphic #wlw #lesbian rewrites #lesbian rewrite project #the blood of olympus

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