#every time Juli is active I have to react

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[angrythingstarlight]

1) Your fic where bumblebee accidentally ruined malyshka's painting and the way she reacted made me close my eyes for 2 minutes straight and smile so, thank you very much for that. She's doing parenting right.

2) Yesterday I saw a two parents and their kid in the park. "I told you three times three times not to touch that" she basically spat in the kid's face (the kid was sobbing so loud, it hurt) while holding something I couldn't make out what (god she was so angry) and the guy was just looking at his phone

And I don't think malyshka would ever ever do that, so well thank you for that fic because it resonated with me and thank you for giving our bee amazing parents

My question after all this is: how will she react though, when bee does something she was asked not to (she's a Lil kid ofc she will) and it was really important for maybe bucky's work or something

You don't have to answer this if you don't feel like it/don't have an answer/ or anything really

") <3 happy July to you

Bee is a pretty well-behaved child. On the rare occasion she doesn't listen because she was too engrossed in what she was doing, Malyshka would put her in time out.

Malyshka doesn't raise her voice because she doesn't like being yelled at and she's not going to do that to her baby.

Time out doesn't last long but it's enough that Bee despises it. She's too active and lively and sitting in one spot is tedious for the toddler.

You'll explain what she did wrong and then Bee and Mr. Tato have to sit in the corner, side by side.

"Can I asks you a question Mommy?" she asks after ten seconds, her body twisting around in her chair to find you sitting behind her with a book in your hand.

You grin indulgenty. "Of course."

"When I'm dones with my time out, can I has two hugs?" She holds up her tiny fingers, a hopeful smile spreading across her face.

You nod. "Yes you can."

It's the way she says tank you and goes back to her corner that warms your heart, you're already debating if you should cut her punishment in half. You joke that Bucky is wrapped around her finger, but you're no better.

"Mommy?"

"Hmmm."

"Is Papa mad at me?"

As if that man could fathom being the least bit upset with his baby. She would still be in his office if he had his way. But you both know she has to learn that there are consequences to her actions. "He's not. And you can still help him with his work, if you behave."

Bee turns back to you, bouncing on her knees, wide eyed and beaming. "I wills. And I 'member to asks before I touch his work. I pwomise Mommy."

"That's great, sweet Bee. Now turn around and go back to your time-out. When you're done, you and Mr. Tato can have a snack."

She does, sitting back, her small legs dangling over the edge of the seat. When she reaches over and holds one of her stuffed dino's legs, telling him that they both 'has to be good' you wonder how you got lucky enough to have such a sweet, adorable baby.

She's going to make mistakes every now and then but you know she's trying her best so you'll always be patient with her.

[avengersmansion-official]

Hello, i'm not american so i don't know a lot about american heroes like the avengers.

Like, i know they exist and i do see them once in a while in tv but the rotating roster really doesn't help so...

Could you go into the basics? Like, founding members or the regular members.

Certainly! So the Avengers have a long and storied history, going back to the dawn of the modern age of superheroes.

Shortly after the debut of the Fantastic Four, several other costumed crime-fighters began to make their appearances known, largely here in New York City.

These included:

Thor Odinson, prince of Asgard, cast down from the Golden Realm to learn humility by his father Odin.

Iron Man, armored bodyguard of Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark - later revealed to be Stark himself.

Ant-Man, alias Giant-Man, alias Dr. Henry Pym, who had developed a way to alter his size and a way to communicate with insects.

Janet van Dyne, the Wasp, Dr. Pym's partner and socialite daughter of scientist Vernon van Dyne.

Meanwhile, in the deserts of New Mexico, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner had begun to transform into the Hulk at sundown every evening, having been exposed to a near-lethal dose of gamma radiation in the process of saving the life of teenager Rick Jones.

Jones was the leader of an amateur radio group called the "Teen Brigade". When the Hulk went on a rampage - spurred on by a trick by Thor's stepbrother Loki, God of Mischief - Jones and the Teen Brigade attempted to hail the Fantastic Four to get them to subdue the Hulk.

However, the Four were otherwise occupied - but Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp responded to their distress call. The four of them teamed up to find the Hulk, and then all five of them join forces to defeat Loki.

(an image of a statue of the founding Avengers, plus Captain America, who was granted retroactive founder status soon afterwards)

The Hulk soon left the group, not exactly being a team player at the time, and the Avengers find Captain America frozen in a block of ice at the bottom of the North Sea, who effectively replaces the Hulk on the team - and who, for legal purposes, is recognized as the fifth founder of the Avengers.

As for the current roster, here's a quick rundown of both officially sanctioned Avengers teams in current operation.

(a publicity photo of the current Avengers roster)

The current "primary" team of Avengers consists of Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel, center), as well as (clockwise from top right) the Vision, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Black Panther (King T'Challa of Wakanda), Storm (Ororo Munroe, former Regent of Sol), and the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). They operate from the team's newest member, The Impossible City, a sentient city in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth.

(a publicity photo of the Avengers Emergency Response Squad)

The other currently active team of Avengers is the Avengers Emergency Response Squad, operating out of right here in Avengers Mansion. This team, hand-picked by Steve Rogers, is designed with the express purpose of swiftly responding and reacting to crises across the globe.

Their current roster consists of:

Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Lightspeed (Julie Power)

Shang-Chi

Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

Photon (Monica Rambeau)

Hercules

She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)

Wonder Man (Simon Williams - yes, that Simon Williams)

Wasp (Janet van Dyne)

Lightning (Miguel Santos)

Night Thrasher (civilian identity is a secret)

With other operatives brought in on an as-needed basis.

Now, I could go on about all the other Avengers splinter teams and sub-groups there have been throughout the years - but I hope this gives you a good enough overview to start off!

[jerebearcat]

For @bullymagnetweek day one: Breaking & Entering. / Medium Traits. Also available here.

It’s the middle of the night. Mayview is never very quiet, this must be understood, whether it be cars on the street or the pitter patter of ghost feet walking along the insulation of the interior walls, but it is the middle of the night. Max has been dozing off for some time, awakened by bodily functions every so often, but now he’s awake-awake. And his awakefulness keeps him aware of a knocking on the store door.

The glass store door.

The inviting, glass store door, with the grocery items in full view even in the dark. Mayview is safe, Max remembers his dad saying. Mostly. We don’t need a padlock. Padlocks are for the distrusting, you know, Max. And we’re all very trusting. Trust Mayview, Max.

Maaaaxx….

“I’m checking it out, and you’re coming, PK,” Max tells to no one except the kerfuffle of ghosts in his bedroom, and his trusty aluminum bat he’s used for a handful of fights. It bursts alight with energy, which isn’t unusual, but it makes his room look like a void instead of having the normal passing light of car headlights running over his walls. His bat always looks and feels like that creature he saw, reacting to every noise and move, coiling to strike. “I’m gonna need you if there’s a house-store intruder.” 

The bat says nothing because it’s a bat, of course.

“Good talk,” he says. It’s a force of habit.

He hears it again: Maaaaaxxxx… It’s not his internal faux-dad’s monologue, it’s an actual voice coming from downstairs. The bat’s energy flicks like a tongue, moving in his peripheral. He holds it tight, creaking open the door, and dodging the floorboards that’ll awaken his dad or sister. Creeping individual toe by individual toe, he opens the door where the stairwell ends just a fraction and peeks to the glass door.

It’s Johnny.

It’s Johnny. 

“Maaaaxxx…” Johnny says, leaning against the door, cheek squished and mournful. He’s saying it loud enough to be heard by every neighbor. He’s saying it loud enough that Max could hear him from his room. In the dark, Johnny’s eyes are visible, like visible. Isaac levels of bright. They’re orange beacons situated on his face.

Max considers leaving, but it’s Johnny. Johnny. His school bully facade is the most important thing to the guy—to break that archetype and go to Max’s house goes into stalkery bully that Johnny wouldn’t even consider touching if it was genuine. Johnny’s here because he needs something.

Probably.

..Right?

Max creeps out of the stairwell, putting his bat on the table. It protests, sticking a ramekin full of keychain pieces to it as an argument. He grabs the keys in the cabinet, and unlocks the door. “What do you want? It’s the middle of the ding-dang night, Johnny. And you’re creeping on my porch.”

“Max!” Johnny says, visibly returning to his old self, rather than a kicked cat Max has left on the porch, in the rain, during the Fourth of July. “I saw somethin’ weird out, and I know weird’s the name of your club. So you should come w’me. You like that sorta thing, don’t you?”

“Johnny, what do you think our club is called?”

“Weird Activity Club,” Johnny answers. He’s been invited. He knows what the name is. Max squints at him, even though it only worsens his eyesight. Again: middle of the night. Everything is dark.

Johnny squints back.

“I need my bat,” Max says, turning around inside. Johnny whoots outside, but waits patiently. He doesn’t even enter. “You’re not coming in?” Max asks. “You come to my house at, at—” he checks the wall clock. “At three-fourteen AM, you cajole out my name for several minutes, and then you don’t even…? You’re weird, Johnny. Weirder than even you know.”

“Isn’t this your house or somethin’? You slip in the freezer and sleep like a squirrel?” 

Max turns around, bat with ramekin of little toys and all, and says: “You think I sleep in the store? Are you asking me if I hibernate?”

“Yeah,” Johnny says. “You hibernate?”

“Why would I—why would I… no, nope, we’re not gonna get into it. Just show me where it’s weird, and drop the hibernation thing.”

“Yah, whatever you want.” Johnny looks at him. As Max passes through the threshold of the door, Johnny becomes very close. He’s extremely warm to the touch, even warping the air a half-inch or so from his skin. And his eyes are unreal; they’re the kind of thing where you look at him and go right, this guy’s possessed. 

Max used to think that his common black energy was a blessing, but Johnny’s simmering orange glow is like a poison dart frog. Danger, danger, it screams. And he barely even knows it. The duality of Johnny’s intensity as he faces the world versus his spirit’s energy bleeding into Johnny as a person—Max stops for a second in front of him, pulled into Johnny’s orbit.

“Y’good?” Johnny asks. But he doesn’t look away. He never does.

“M’good,” Max says, noncommittally. “You got a place in mind?” 

“Yeah, but you were lookin’ funky, like you got something in yer eye,” Johnny says, not looking away or moving. They stand there for who knows how long—just drawn into each other.

“Can we go, or..” Max says. He purses his lips, tucking them out of the way. “This is kinda..” Not bad, it’s just—new. Middle school new. Max is beginning to feel frantic to escape, but refuses to look away first.

Johnny’s the bigger person when he looks away from Max. “S’in the forest. Looks like a house.” 

Max exhales through his nose. “Right, we love houses in forests here in Mayview.”

The trip to the forest feels longer in the stretch of the night that they’re in. It reminds Max so much of the Ghost Train that he keeps looking over his shoulder, expecting a hazy orange light to pierce through the trees—or a hissing horn just outside of his peripheral. Johnny trucks on with no mind of the spirits nearby. Max sometimes wonders if he actually does see them, or got lucky a few times being asked what he saw.

“Do you actually..” Max starts, suddenly feeling like he’s actually following a bully into a dark corner of Mayview with no witnesses. The longer they go, the more uneasy Max feels. But what else could be the answer? Johnny’s eyes glow. 

“Do y’know you glow black when you’re uneasy?” Johnny says, looking back at him. There’s this—sincerity to his face. He looks like he’s always looking at Max for the first time each time. That intensity again. “Like, I’unno, anti-glow… it goes all black. I can’t even see the trees behind you.”

“Oh,” Max says. He feels his energy recede, like a cat’s fur going down. “It’s that bad?”

“Like a fart,” Johnny says, smoothly. And then he’s on the trail again, Max following closely behind.

xx

By the time Johnny stops moving, Max is wishing he’d stayed in bed at least pretending to be asleep than walking through the forest with Johnny in the middle of the night. Just as he imagines himself in his bed, Johnny stops moving and forces them to collide. Max smells smoke from Johnny’s shirt. “That’s it,” Johnny says. Max looks up, looking at the slanted, fungi-infested house in front of them. 

In the dark, it’s icky creepy, all yellowed walls and a nauseating tilt. Max’s mind races in an attempt to remember where in the heck he’s seen this place before, blinking at the house with no words coming out of his mouth. It’s definitely a fit-for-the-genre of the forest house; the windows are perfectly maintained but there’s creeping ivy pouring out of the bottom of the house and so many mushrooms it feels like a forager’s dream.

Brain: Stuck in sleep mode. Max: stalling like an engine. Johnny: About to start chewing the door to get in.

“Isn’t it weird?” Johnny asks, turning to Max. He reads his face for a second, then eventually says, “y’seen it before?”

“..Yes? I think so? It looks—weird and bad at night, honestly. Like it’s trying to creep me out on purpose.” Even so, Max creeps toward the window, Johnny in tow. He smushes his cheek against the glass and hides the moonlight with his hand, peering into the house.

In there, he sees the Doorman’s coat in the background as he—it—wanders.

Max’s heart drops. His energy flicks like a tongue, exploring the air. His bat grows interested. “I have—yup. This place is actually a secret, though, so we must—go… Johnny?”

Johnny is steaming straight Fanta, a candle-lit beacon standing beside Max’s form. “So what?” He asks. His spirit’s energy whips and wags, moving like unsteady flame. “Y’really not gonna help me break down this door, bully-style?”

Max feels a wry smile creep onto his face. “Am I a trope to you? Is this identity politics between bully and bullee?” 

Johnny has the audacity to pull his body away from Max’s magnetism. He looks even offended. “I wanna see what’s in it, tho. Y’already saw it, so that don’t count. Y’didn’t see it w’me.”

“Oh,” Max says, feeling a little out of place. Yeah, of course he would—and if Max just pretends that he doesn’t know the doorman—that’s still keeping a secret..right? As long as he doesn’t tell Johnny what the doorman’s deal is, that’s keeping the secret. Max also reminds himself he never promised the doorman anything, but it’s the principle of the thing.

“If you put it like that, I guess,” Max says, readjusting his grip on his bat. Johnny’s face changes to one of fulfilled delight. “I don’t actually know how to get in.. but—”

Johnny is a moving comet through the dark: he’s standing beside Max one minute and then he’s standing against the door, trying to push it open. Max watches him try to grip the doorknob but he fails; it jiggles but doesn’t turn like it’s locked. He pushes on the door, and when it doesn’t move, pulls hard on the doorknob like it’ll lodge it out of place. “Bat?” Johnny asks, looking at him, gesturing to his bat. “Bat.”

 “Bat? Bat, right, I have the breaking down doors weapon.” He pads the air around the door, shooing Johnny back. He does so dutifully while Max prepares a homerun shot at the door, hoping to crack it high enough that they can unlock it from the other side.

Black energy plumes around his body, both from his bat and his body as he prepares himself for the hit. Guilt eats at him for disturbing the doorman after Isaac already got so much from him for showing Max anyway, but brotherly shame always makes the next punch hit harder. 

The bat’s energy licks the air, ready to be back in line of sight with another spirit. That’s the thing with his eccentric little weapon is that it’s much like Johnny—always ready to prove itself.

“Do it, Max!” Johnny yells, and it spurs Max on to hit the door as hard as he can. KA-CRRNCH goes the door as the bat makes contact with it; huge strides of black energy like bat wings streaming from the tool as it lays there in contact with the door. Max gingerly plucks it out of the hole, staring at the successful break-in.

Johnny whoots, throwing his arms into the air. Max grins, too, feeling alight with exhaustion as it begins to transform into euphoria.

And then two little red eyes appear, and the door is not fixed, but the door is shoved in with new planks and what sounds like duct tape as the hole is filled. 

“What was’at?” Johnny asks. “Some kinda MacGuffin we’re s’posed to know its name or something? A black herring? That’s not cool.”

“I don’t know what it was,” Max says quietly. “I don’t remember seeing one of those last I visited.”

“Plan B, then. Plan better late than bnever.” Johnny says it so smoothly and cordially that it takes Max a second to think about what he’s—they’re—doing. He looks behind him just in time to see Johnny’s soaring frame, alight with orange energy, jumping through the manse’s window.

The glass crashes around him before Max even has the wherewithal to scream his name. As reflex occurs as quickly as a cat’s, Max jumps through the window straight after, hackles already up.

“It smells like gran’ma,” Johnny says, nose positively pressed into the floorboards, Max on top.

“You—you!!! You, you, stinky, you’re—I knew you were trouble!” The red-eyed creature hisses from several directions, its eyes only visible like a deer in infrared headlights. “I remember you—and you stink.” 

“Gee,” Max murmurs into Johnny’s back. He reluctantly peels himself off of his back, staring at the creature in the rafters. “And here I thought we were best friends. That look of undeniable fury you gave me through the door was basically platonic courtship.”

“I was not—oooh, you infuriate me. You’re making me mad on purpose, you clown.”

“Me?” Max asks, still sitting on the dip of Johnny’s spine. “I’m more of a jester, thanks. Clowns are creepy, and I’m practically cute. Don’t insult me, or clowns, by insinuating we are even remotely alike. Your makeup, however…”

“Max,” Johnny says, which sounds a lot like mhhx, as Johnny is still pressed against the floorboards. He pushes his face to the side so his cheek is against the floor rather than his mouth. His face is flushed. 

“Want me to get off?” Max asks. He’s still sitting on him, and as the apparent situation begins to take hold, Max’s face also flushes. Johnny doesn’t reply, which is mortifying in itself, and then it’s Max scurrying off of his body without thinking too hard about it.

Johnny looks at him from the floor, pluming orange energy like giant peacock feathers flying in the wind, and Max looks at him for only a second before tearing his eyes off of Johnny’s face. “That was cool. Was that a friendship fusion?” Max says, trying to get his face to cool off, or his heart stop racing.

As Johnny peels himself off of the floor to an upright position, he says, “Nah, a fusion is our souls connectin’, our situationship makes it inappropriate for the time an’ place. Fusion ain’t for the weak-hearted, Max.” Max makes a face like what the 

Anyway, Johnny doesn’t seem to notice or mind. He seems seriously in thought about what exactly would be a proper situation for friendship fusion with Max.

As he thinks on it, Max looks up just in time to see the Doorman come into view. Back to Plan A: AHH.

“A spirit!” Max shouts, feigning ignorance, just as the Doorman points to his door, guided by Nin: “The Manse’s integrity!”

Johnny springs up like a dog awoken by the mailman. “Your door was in our way to comin’ in! ..What’s the place, anyway?”

Max springs up beside Johnny and grabs him by the back of his shirt. Johnny responds immediately, one hand behind him to hold onto Max’s arm, defensive positioning. Max feels suddenly very warm, and that’s not even where Johnny is touching Max.

“The Slanted Manse is not for you,” the Doorman says, sweeping his eyes through the space. He lands on Max, who is pantomiming decapitating himself over and over. “E—Either of you ne’er-do-wells! Leave at once!”

“You can’t tell me what t’do—ain’t that right, Max?” Johnny’s nerves are disappearing into righteous light, making him show off his energy like peacock feathers. The Doorman’s body language shifts into one of shock.

Max suddenly feels uneasy. “Nope, I’m getting bad vibes! Out the window, with you! He’s gonna get scary, and I haven’t slept!”

Max hears indistinct whispering and then the Doorman shouts: “That is correct, spectral trespassers! My door opens to hell!”

Johnny looks like he totally believes it. He must have forgotten that Max has been here before in the performance between the Doorman and himself.

Eyes wide, he shoves Max out first, and then follows, and then they’re off—scampering into the woods, making a race out of escaping the Doorman. At some point in the marathon, Johnny starts laughing. Max joins him not long after, shoving each other back the way to Max’s house and bedroom.

[covid-safer-hotties]

COVID-19’s summer surge shows no signs of slowing down - Published Aug 17, 2024

Asurge in COVID-19 infections has swept the country this summer, upending travel plans and bringing fevers, coughs and general malaise. It shows no immediate sign of slowing.

While most of the country and the federal government has put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the virus is mutating and new variants emerging.

Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer tracks individual infection numbers, experts think it could be the biggest summer wave yet.

So far, the variants haven’t been proven to cause a more serious illness, and vaccines remain effective, but there’s no certainty about how the virus may yet change and what happens next.

The highest viral activity right now is in the West, according to wastewater data from the CDC, but a “high” or “very high” level of COVID-19 virus is being detected in wastewater in almost every state. And viral levels are much higher nationwide than they were this time last year and started increasing earlier in the summer.

Wastewater data is the most reliable method of tracking levels of viral activity because so few people test, but it can’t identify specific case numbers.

Part of the testing decline can be attributed to pandemic fatigue, but experts said it’s also an issue of access. Free at-home tests are increasingly hard to find. The government isn’t distributing them, and private insurance plans have not been required to cover them since the public health emergency ended in 2023.

COVID has spiked every summer since the start of the pandemic. Experts have said the surge is being driven by predictable trends like increased travel and extreme hot weather driving more people indoors, as well as by a trio of variants that account for nearly 70 percent of all infections. Vaccines and antivirals can blunt the worst of the virus, and hospital are no longer being overwhelmed like in the earliest days of the pandemic.

But there remains a sizeable number of people who are not up-to-date on vaccinations. There are concerns that diminished testing and low vaccination rates could make it easier for more dangerous variants to take hold.

“One of the things that’s distinctive about this summer is that the variants out there are extraordinarily contagious, so they’re spreading very, very widely, and lots of people are getting mild infections, many more than know it, because testing is way down,” said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.

That contagiousness means the virus is more likely to find the people most vulnerable — people over 65, people with certain preexisting conditions, or those who are immunocompromised.

In a July interview with the editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, the country’s former top infectious diseases doctor, Anthony Fauci, said people in high-risk categories need to take the virus seriously, even if the rest of the public does not.

“You don’t have to immobilize what you do and just cut yourself off from society,” Fauci said. “But regardless of what the current recommendations are, when you are in a crowded, closed space and you are an 85-year-old person with chronic lung disease or a 55-year-old person who’s morbidly obese with diabetes and hypertension, then you should be wearing a mask when you’re in closed indoor spaces.”

Schaffner said hospitalizations have been increasing in his region for at least the past five weeks, which surprised him.

“I thought probably they had peaked last week. Wrong. They went up again this week. So at least locally, we haven’t seen the peak yet. I would have expected this summer increase … to have plateaued and perhaps start to ease down. But we haven’t seen that yet,” he said.

Still, much of the country has moved on from the pandemic and is reacting to the surge with a collective shrug. COVID-19 is being treated like any other respiratory virus, including by the White House.

President Biden was infected in July. After isolating at home for several days and taking a course of the antiviral Paxlovid, he returned to campaign trial.

Biden is 81, meaning he’s considered high risk for severe infection. He received an updated coronavirus vaccine in September, but it’s not clear if he got a second one, which the CDC recommends for older Americans.

Updated vaccines that target the current variants are expected to be rolled out later this fall, and the CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older should receive one.

As of May, only 22.5 percent of adults in the United States reported having received the updated 2023-2024 vaccine that was released last fall and tailored to the XBB variant dominant at that time.

The immunity from older vaccines wanes over time, and while it doesn’t mean people are totally unprotected, Schaffner said, the most vulnerable should be cautious. Many people being infected now have significantly reduced immunity to the current mutated virus, but reduced immunity is better than no immunity.

People with healthy immune systems and who have previously been vaccinated or infected are still less likely to experience the more severe infections that result in hospitalization or death.

Almost “none of us are naive to COVID, but the people where the protection wanes the most are the most frail, the immunodeficient, the people with chronic underlying illnesses,” Schaffner said.

[goodolddumbbanana]

I think there is something very funny about how people keep seeing Dark Sun worse than how he perceived himself.

Like sure, Dark Sun is smart, knowledgeable, selfish and self preservation, he tortured his Moon and maybe killed everyone else and did some immoral things off screen. But for real...

Have we seen him really do anything really truly evil or manipulative?

1. This is the same dude that can't even pretend to be himself, to be Sun without people keep recognising him.

Foxy, Nexus, Puppet, Ruin, like they only need to glance at the first sign and immediately go, 'yep, it is not our Sun.'

The only reason why Earth and Lunar fell for his trick was because 1. they haven't met Dark Sun before; and 2. They never thought they would fall for the same trick again after the Goliath thingy. And 3. Dark Sun wasn't too active about going along with his plan and actually played with Earth and Lunar a little bit.

And with Eclipse and Lord Eclipse because well, Eclipses always look down at Suns.

Because when I look back at Sun and Dark Sun's acting, they are literally the same. They both jump too quickly into their needs, their language bodies are too stiff, they are both making people feel like something was wrong about them but they couldn't tell what it is.

Like how Sun pretends to be Ruin, Monty could feel something very wrong but they didn't know why. Or when Dark Sun pretends to be Servant Sun, Lord Eclipse catches his of guard about the things he said but doesn't react to it. (LORD Eclipse never told Servant Sun to stop moving when Lord Eclipse kills him.)

Both of them, Sun and Dark Sun, only succeed in their acting because people usually look down or not pay attention to them. And when people do, they tend to get caught pretty quickly.

2. He totally used Nexus for his own advantage. But to be fair, from what I gather from these episodes, he literally lets Nexus do whatever he likes inside his lab. He pulled the strings to get Nexus to work with him for sure, but it was also the same dude who got pissed because Ruin stomps into his dimension.

He acts the same way Sun did when Moon got reset.

From these first days when Nexus woke up, Sun was the one who handed everything. He knew about Nexus's arm, he knew about the portal's access code...

It is not sudden Sun got smarter. He just has more knowledge than Nexus at that time...

And for someone who manipulated, Dark Sun pretty much just like watching the newest shows before anyone else. Just like he has seen the future... And use it for his own interests.

Sun also did that too, the little manipulative thingy, but only with small inconvenienced things. He lies to Nexus about learning the star power. He brides Lunar to force Moon to go to sleep. He steals money to buy Rocksan Wolf rings or something when he used to crush her. Oh.. and he didn't tell Moon about July 16th...

3. Dark Sun only focused on his goal. We didn't know what it was but he never did anything to harm people outside it.

Like, he totally could harm or kidnap Lunar, but he didn't do that. Or he just killed off Moon, but he didn't. He also kinda pushed Lord Eclipse down to the cliff and did not kill him immediately, with the diaglode the same one when Sun went down the spiral and tried to kill Eclipse.

"I told you, you are going down, right now."

"To remind Every eclipse will fall in the end..."

Sound familiar? Both Dark Sun and Sun said so... When they killed Eclipse. The only difference is that the Sun gets his hand dirty and traumatized, he also falls when doing that task. And Dark Sun succeeded without his hand dirty.

And my favourite part, both Sun and Dark Sun pointed out how miserable and pathetic and stupid Eclipse is and admit they were pretty much thinking too highly about Eclipse.

Dark Sun still has some morals, and that show in the way he doesn't want to dirty his hands, he doesn't want to rule the world or something absolute like that. He just wants to live in peace without anything cross his way.

I love Dark Sun so much and I hope people wouldn't misinterpret him like someone who was cold and cruel and manipulated and abused Nexus while in fact He just flows with the stream and takes manners in the selfish way for himself.

[mimikittysblog]

✨MimiKitty's 2023 Fic Wrapped✨

So as a fun activity my friends all decided to make a 2023 wrapped ppt! So I decided to make one for all the fics I read in 2023! (I didnt get to present it btw lol)

I put what I decided to be my top fics for each month! Whether it be because of amazing writing, gut wrenching angst, sickeningly cute fluff or nastiest smut I decided to put it as my favorite fic for that month!

NOTE: Some of these were not exactly written/published in the month that I put them in but it was when I read and/or reblogged it!

Now without any further ado! Here is my 2023 Fic wrapped!

January

Happiness by @end-hyphen

Why is painter hoon so attractive???? 😭 The angst in this fic is SO GOOD! Its just really memorable and I love the ending too! ALSO THE PLOT TWISTS?!?! I was gagged yo. I was gripping my phone when I was reading this!!! It's just a really beautiful well written fic! Loooove it so much!!

February

In Another Life by @httphannie

First of all the smut was great!! Loved it! But maaann THE ANGST THROUGH OUT THE WHOLE FIC IS SO GOOD!! The ending is one of the most tear jerking, gut wrenching, heart breaking, soul crushing endings I've ever read. SEUNGCHEOL!! YOU SHOULD'VE JUST FUCKIN ESCAPED PLEASEEEE! I remember BAWLING when I first read it, and ✨surprise surprise✨ I cried again just recently when I reread it again. Its so beautifully written, I get every emotion thats poured into this fic and the story itself is so good and unique in a way I just love it! (also kinda funny but love how this is the only SVT fic that made it on this list 😂😂😂)

March

More than This by @heesbaby

KITTY JAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats all.

But in all seriousness, this is a wonderful smau!! I loved every bit of it!! Its so cute and soft! Jay is so BABY KITTY 🥹🥹🥹 I love him to bits! And the funny parts are also so funny! The smut is also good but to me its also so cute too! ALSO THE ANTAGONIST MAKES ME WANT TO COMMIT ARSON HOW DARE SHE HURT MY PRETTY BBY JAY!!! But when a fic gets me reacting like that you know its good! Overall an amazing smau! Love love!

April

The Archer and His Queen by @forjongseong

ARCHER JAY GOT ME ACTING UP DUDEEEE!!! The thought its so hot but you wanna know whats hotter??? HOW RESPECTFUL HE IS THROUGH OUT THIS FIC!! He truly respects his Queen and then truly falls in love with her?!? I CANNOT! Also I like how unique it is! In a way that Jay isn't a knight, not a prince, not a king, not just like a commoner, but an archer. Idk I just like how different it is, how often is it to have the love interest be an archer? (I'm sure pretty common but I rarely see it hehe) plus.. again, thats hot 🥰 The smut is so gooooood!! and the ending is adorable!

May

Ship Happens by @/tfwheeseung

MERMAID JAKE!!!!! Like. MERMAID! JAKE!! Now this story, I don't think any of you can read it anymore? as tfwheeseung (lily) has deactivated. So thats a shame, but if theres a way you can read it please do!! Its so cute and so funny! Jake is like a mermaid pup combined he's adorable here!! HE JUST WANTED TO CATCH YOU A FISH!!! How adorable is that?! Its just a simple and adorable fic that I cant stop giggling about every time I think about it!

June

Angels Like You by @ham-st4r

OH THIS ONE IS SOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!! DUDE THE HEART BREAK I FELT FOR HEESEUNG IN THIS FIC AAAAAAA!!

“I believed that you had changed, I really did,” // “I gave you my heart” // "I trusted you with my body,” //“I-I loved you”

Heart breaking dude 😭😭😭 Like how dare the reader break this soft boys heart!! BUT THE ENDING IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! LIKE AAAA!! I shed some tears!! Overall I truly absolutely adooooree this fic!!! Plus reading it while listening to the song makes you cry harder 👍

July

Hype Boy by @onlyjaeyun

DOMESTIC JAKE!!! Bro Jakes backstory man 😔😔😔 I've never heard of anything sadder like I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM AND HIS ADORABLE AND ANGEL OF A BABY BROTHER! I adore the Sim brothers so much and I will do anything I can to protect them AAAAAAAAAA!!!! Hype Boy is such an adorable and sad smau but it ends so beautifully! Jake has an amazing support system in this smau and just the love he has for his baby brother and the reader is unmatched I love love love!!

August

Rule Number 1: Don't Fall in Love by @jaylaxies

Dude idk why I love fake dating tropes, especially when its to get revenge! So I was hooked from the beginning!!! So HAHAHAH GET FUCKED HOON! Jake is SUCH A GREEN FLAG THROUGH OUT THIS ENTIRE THING ITS GORGEOUS TO READ!!!! Also Undercut Jake?!?!? 🤭 yes pleaseeeeee!! also this one?? the smut?? oh yeah it is NASSTYYYYY IN A GOOD WAY AND I LOVE THATT!! But the aftercare is just perfect!! This is a reaaaalllyy good fic that I always find myself constantly rereading!

September

Poison by @onlyjaeyun

Oh wow another onlyjaeyun smau??? well duh when this on is just AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE!!!! LIKE OOOHH MY GOD IS THIS ONE AMAZING! Like heeseung is so... AKJSJS I HAVE NO WORDS 😭 The fact he actually gets off on the readers pleasure??? HOT BRO. And how can I not put this as the best thing I read during september when it has lines like THIS:

"I've never wanted anyone as much as I want you, princess" // "I just can't break this promise, Sunghoon is my everything",

"and what about me? What am I to you?"

"My most precious treasure."

Do I need to explain further??? Yeah. I thought so 😊

October

Come Back to Me by @enhaheeseung

This entire series was a rollercoaster of a read. Like the way I went from "FUCK YOU HEESEUNG!" to "NO WAIT TAKE HIM BACK" to "YES GO HEESEUNG GO!!" to "HEESEUNG YOU DICKHEADDD" to "Oh god you poor thing" to "Omg yay! theyre together 🥰" is absolutely amazing!! As this was a series, every time I saw a notification for the next part of this fic showed up I immeeeediately read it! Caused me to be late for work a couple of times but it was worth it 👍👍👍👍. It's written really well! I just love this story and how it makes my heart clench and have me at the edge of my seat! Just amazing!

November

Verboten by @heesbaby

YES. JUST AN ABSOLUTE YES!! This smau is SO FRICKIN GOOD! Daddy Heeseung?? like duh yes please! But even before then reader got to play around with 02z 🤭🤭🤭🤭 so that was fun! and what made me love this one so much was also HOW FUNNY IT IS??? Like Cinna I don't think we give you enough credit youre like- SO FUNNY?? How you even thought of having Niki doxx Jake I'll never know but it's just so funny and I'll forever laugh at that thought. But this smau is also just so frickin fluffy at times! the relationship heeseung has with the reader is so fucking healthy, I'm actually jealous. I loved this smau very very much!

December

Strictly Business by @onlyjaeyun

And a surprise to absolutely no one!!! Of course Zadie's third smau had to be on here! NOT MY FAULT SHE MAKES AMAZING STORIES!!! Plus Jay??? as a CEO??? WHAT CAN BE HOTTERRRRR?!?! Of course it's automatically my favorite!!! But besides that Jay is just... so amazing!! He'll literally do ANYTHING for the reader and thats so fucking endearing! My mans in love your honor! We love a rich man who's in love! Find me a man like that please! Besides that the smut is amazing yo, and the ddlg parts 🤭🥰🤭🥰 got me kicking my feet and twirling my hair bro!! It's really no surprise how amazing this one is! especially with how sweet and amazing everyone is (besides some of the antagonists of course!) 100000/10 smau! truly!

And that was my 2023 fic wrapped!!! Also Honorable mentions to these specific creators and fics cause I also REALLY LOVED THEM! I just had to mention them:

@ham-st4r for Wrong Doings

@enhaheeseung for Nobodies

@strzlun for Midnight

@yunjardi for Double Trouble

@luvyeni for Forever and Always

@shanbinswf for Brand New Moves

@yeonjunszn for So Sick

@kitten4sannie for Space in Between

@yoursjaeyun for Endless Love

Thank you to everyone who wrote all these amazing stories! You all really make my days better! I hope you all continue to write for 2024!! I also wish 2024 will be kinder to you! Love you all! 💕

[dasenergi-diary]

I have been back for a week now, from the silent meditation retreat I went on in August.

As always, you come back from these retreats as a changed person. I am not the same person as I was in July.

Oddly, there is not a lot I want to share about this retreat. But there are a few things I want to say.

First, the things I loved:

I love being in noble silence.

I love being in the mountains.

I love that food was provided for me, and I didn't need to want for anything.

I loved watching and listening to the birds and all of the other animals I saw.

I love hiking in the middle of nowhere and not seeing another soul.

I loved doing yoga every night under the stars, and afterwards just laying there watching the night sky.

I love meditation. My two favorite mediations, the first meditation of the day at 6am and the last meditation of the day at 9pm.

Usually when I come home from these retreats, I try to continue my practice. Meditating every day and eating healthier, etc.

But not this time.

Whereas everything about this retreat was just like every retreat I have ever been on, one thing was distinctly different — the teacher and the type of meditation she taught.

She was born into Buddhism in a Buddhist country. It is all she has known, often living in Buddhist monasteries.

In the United States most people gravitate to Buddhism after experiencing some hardship, looking for freedom from suffering. Most Buddhist practitioners in the United States want actionable teachings. Tangible things we can do, to be free from suffering. Tell us what to do, and we will do it.

Whereas my teacher doesn't teach us to do anything. “Do nothing. Just be aware. Observe what is happening right now. Be curious.”

“If you brush your teeth with your right hand, what is your left hand doing?”

I spent several days just watching my mind thinking…

"The mind is not you, it is a process happening all by itself."

The #1 thing my mind does? It makes plans. It's always planning. It plans things to do. It also plans conversations that I might have some day. It fantasizes about things that might happen, and plans what I would do, how I would react.

As my thinking mind was sensory deprived while on the retreat (no reading, no writing, no talking, etc.) it's favorite activity was counting. It wasn't counting anything in particular. It just likes to count 1-2-3-4-5…

Whenever I caught my mind counting, I stopped and checked all six sense doors:

What can I hear?

What can I see?

What can I smell?

What can I taste?

What can I feel?

How is my mind?

I used the counting as a reminder to be in the present moment and "pay attention to what I can be aware of in the present moment." And then I would usually follow that up with, "And what else?"

Don't meditate. Just be relaxed. Be aware. THAT is meditation.

A lot of people at the retreat had a problem with this style of "meditation". They wanted something to focus on. A mantra. A task to do / perform. Loving-kindness / metta meditation. Forgiveness meditation. Something other than doing nothing.

What dawned on me was that after 20+ years of meditation, this "style of meditation" accurately described my daily practice. I just didn't have a name for it or a way to describe it until now. I don't sit daily anymore, because I am always in a constant state of mindfulness… Being aware.

When I swim I am meditating. When I am fixing dinner I am meditating. When I am mowing the lawn I am meditating. When I am doing the dishes I am meditating. When I fall asleep at night I am meditating.

"Don't meditate with expectations. Let go of goals and simply observe what is happening right now."

"Don't be eager for results. Let things happen naturally."

"If you are tense, the mind cannot see clearly. Be relaxed and aware."

"Be here right now."

"Meditation is not just about sitting. It's about how you live your life."

[maaarine]

Why are women more prone to long Covid? (David Cox, The Guardian, June 13 2021)

"As Heightman points out, this is not a new trend when it comes to infectious diseases, rather one which has historically been neglected.

Women are known to be up to four times more likely to get ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome), a condition believed to have infectious origins in the majority of cases, while studies have also shown that patients with chronic Lyme disease are significantly more likely to be female.

But despite this, there have been relatively few attempts to drill down into why this is the case.

Instead, because these conditions predominantly affect women, they have more often been dismissed as being psychological in origin.

Over the years, both ME/CFS and chronic Lyme disease have been ridiculed by sectors of the medical community as forms of hypochondria.

“In general, there’s not as much research money and attention on conditions that primarily affect women,” says Julie Nusbaum, an assistant professor at NYU Long Island School of Medicine.

“That’s just a general disparity in medical research. I think certain biases persist that when women present with a lot of body aches or pains, there’s more often an emotional or personality component to it than medical origin.”

Worryingly, signs of these age-old biases have crept in over the past year with long Covid. (…)

But it is also linked to a theory called the pregnancy compensation hypothesis, which suggests that women of reproductive age have more reactive immune responses to the presence of a pathogen, because their immune systems have evolved to support the heightened need for protection during pregnancy.

This robust immune response is thought to be one of the reasons why women are much less likely to die from Covid-19 during the acute phase of the infection – but it comes with a catch.

One of the major theories for long Covid is that fragments of the virus manage to linger in remote pockets of the body, known as reservoirs, for many months.

Iwasaki says that remnants of Sars-CoV-2 have been discovered in almost every tissue from the brain to the kidneys.

Because women react so strongly to the presence of a virus, some scientists think that these viral reservoirs are more likely to trigger waves of chronic inflammation throughout the body, leading to the symptoms of pain, fatigue and brain fog experienced by many with long Covid. (…)

This is unlikely to be the sole explanation, however.

Many scientists studying long Covid believe that, in a proportion of cases, the virus may have triggered an autoimmune disease, causing elements of the immune system to produce self-directed antibodies known as autoantibodies, which attack the body’s own organs.

Since December last year, Iwasaki and others have published studies that have identified elevated levels of more than 100 different autoantibodies in Covid-19 patients, directed against a range of tissues from the lining of blood vessels to the brain.

While the level of some of these autoantibodies subsided naturally over time, others lingered.

Iwasaki believes that if these self-directed antibodies remain in the blood of long Covid patients over the course of many months, it could explain many of the common symptoms, from cognitive dysfunction to clots, and dysautonomia – a condition where patients experience an uncomfortable and rapid increase in heartbeat when attempting any kind of activity.

There have previously been indications of this in studies of ME/CFS.

Female patients have been found to be far more likely to experience autoimmune-related ailments, ranging from new allergies to muscle stiffness and joint pain, a similar symptom profile to many of those with long Covid. (…)

“Viral infections prompt the immune system to respond,” says Nusbaum at NYU.

“And for many women, particularly if they’re genetically predisposed, that immune response can be so robust that you enter into this kind of dysregulated immunity, which doesn’t get turned off even after the virus is cleared.”

Women are more prone to autoimmune problems for a number of reasons, ranging from a molecular switch called VGLL3, which women have in far higher levels than men and which can tip the immune system into overdrive, to the sex hormone oestrogen, which can increase inflammation. (…)

Many hope that the answers gleaned from understanding the long Covid gender skew could also help provide more insights into treating other conditions that are particularly prevalent in women, such as ME/CFS, and even certain autoimmune illnesses.

“A lot of the symptoms being experienced by the Covid long haulers are very similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and some of these other chronic conditions that we don’t fully understand,” says Nusbaum.

“I do think it’s possible that the attention now being placed on long Covid could help provide an insight into that, which would be a very welcome benefit.”"

[fuschiaarrowpublications]

The Ouroboros of Dave: Life is Hell PT. 1

"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything except temptation."

— Oscar Wilde

Chapter 1: A Full Plate

Dave woke up and fumbled out of bed. His legs tangled awkwardly in the sheets, nearly sending him face-first onto the carpet. Shaking it off, he lumbered toward the bathroom, scratching his chest absently.

The mirror showed a man in his early 30s, a little soft around the edges but not out of shape. His hair stuck out in every direction, the telltale sign of a restless sleeper.

“Another day, another dollar,” he mumbled, reaching for his toothbrush.

Downstairs, his stomach growled audibly as he opened the fridge. Leftover pizza called to him like an old friend. "Breakfast of champions," he said, grabbing three slices.

The first bite was heavenly, the cold cheese snapping against his teeth. By the time he was halfway through the second slice, his phone buzzed.

“Hey, Dave!” his mom’s voice rang out, cheerful and upbeat. “Big day! Don’t forget, dinner’s at seven. Julie and I have been planning it for weeks—celebrating your promotion!”

“Yep, wouldn’t miss it,” Dave said around a mouthful of crust.

“Oh, and don’t fill up too much before we go. You know how big the portions are there.”

“Sure thing, Mom.”

He hung up, finishing the third slice before glancing at the pizza box again. There was one slice left. “Might as well finish it,” he muttered. “Can’t let it go to waste.”

By noon, Dave had settled onto the couch with a bag of chips and a half-hearted plan to work through his backlog of TV shows. As the latest crime documentary droned on, he reached for his rolling tray.

“I deserve a break,” he reasoned, carefully twisting the paper.

The first hit sent a warm haze through his body. He leaned back, savoring the moment.

On screen, the narrator described a chilling murder scene, but Dave’s attention wandered to the clock on the wall. The second hand jerked forward, paused, then ticked twice in quick succession.

“Huh,” he said aloud. “Weird.”

But the moment passed, and he reached for the chips again.

By 5:30, Julie was knocking at his door.

“Dave! You’re a mess!” she said, stepping inside.

“What?” He glanced down at his T-shirt, which bore the remnants of several snacks. “I was... uh, getting ready.”

She rolled her eyes, sweeping a handful of wrappers off the couch. “Your mom’s going to kill you if you show up like this.”

“Relax, it’s just dinner,” he said, shuffling off to change.

The restaurant was bustling with activity when they arrived. His mom waved them over, already seated at a table piled high with appetizers.

“Look who finally made it!” she teased, giving Dave a quick hug.

“Did you order everything on the menu?” he joked, eyeing the spread.

“Just the essentials,” his mom said. “Now, remember: don’t fill up before the main course.”

Dave laughed but couldn’t resist the stuffed mushrooms. Then the fried calamari. Then a shrimp cocktail.

By the time the entrees arrived, his stomach was a solid, aching mass. He glanced at Julie, who raised an eyebrow. “What?” he said defensively.

“I’m just wondering if you’re going to make it to dessert,” she said.

The death blow came in the form of cheesecake. Dave knew he shouldn’t, but the rich, creamy slice seemed to call his name. He finished it, groaning as he leaned back in his chair.

Outside, the cool night air hit him like a brick wall. “I think I need to lie down,” he muttered, waddling toward the parking lot.

“You’re not lying down in my car,” Julie said.

“Fine, then—”

Headlights cut through the dark, blinding him. A car roared toward him, tires screeching. Dave froze, his sluggish body unable to react.

His last thought was, I should’ve skipped the cheesecake

[eljeebee]

For the friends ask meme thingy, the way I'd say "please answer all questions" bc considering your interesting and wonderful dynamics for your OC's I would really want to know it all!!! LOVE 'EM <3 BUUUT, it's also quite an... amount, so I'll say 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 27 🙈

A loooong one! Thank you for the ask Evan!!!!

(4) Who's the group baby? Who has to be protected at all costs?

Answered here!

(8) Who is the one with the troubling lifestyle? Who makes sure they take care of each other?

Agents:

I won't elaborate on this one, because secret agents has enough troubling lifestyle to live with, especially with Priscilla who grew up in their organization, trained to be its weapon.

DLU:

My main families (Davises and Vanderburgs) doesn't have that lifestyle yet. 🤐

Though when it comes to troubling lifestyle, Percival has some... traits. Off-camera, Percy likes to have casual sex, hook-ups, so he tends to go to different bars and clubs. He once tried looking for another one night stand in Sanguine, but Lilith kicked him out. I know this isn't troubling lifestyle, and that there are people out there who does this, but to Valentina, it is.

Percy also likes looking for a fight, and would always come home with bruises barely there, almost healed. Valentina's worried the oath he had is still lingering there, with lust and bloodlust mixing together. Percy assures her he doesn't hear whispers anymore, and explained that sometimes Lana gets on his nerves so much he needs an outlet.

Lenora picked up on this as well, and makes sure that every time tension rises between one ancient vampire and one young vampire, she's there to remove Percy from the room. She would always ask him to help her out with the recipe she found online and from the magazines, help her in painting, and would always tell him stories from before.

Now, the fights are less, but the casual sex is still there 👍🏻 Valentina always reminds him not to bite anyone, and not let anyone injure him while having sex so a drop of blood can't seep through an accidentally bitten fuck buddy.

(15) If there is or could be a group chat, who spams the chat with memes?

Agents:

No sending of memes on official channels, as well as in private communications, because memes can also be a meme. I will not elaborate this one for "safety measures" as Priscilla told me.

DLU:

Mason Davis mostly send memes. Jason reacts with a dad joke. Sophia sends a 👍🏻 with Louie and Sid sharing another meme.

The Vanderburgs does have a group chat, but they don't send memes. More on "Margaux, your agency wants you to sign on this project, it's going to conflict on this engagement on this date, shall we skip this show?" and "Please do, Penny. Thank you."

However, Louie, Sid, Julie, Mousse, and with their newest member, Mason, has a group chat! Out of all of them, both Julie and Sid has little activity on this group chat because they tend to have a separate conversation in the chat...while the boys sends their memes lol

There's one whole group chat with the Beau-Asvangs and Strauds, created by Lilith herself. Lenora participates by sending a video of a recipe, Lilith sends memes. Percival replies back with another one. Helen promptly reacts, Caleb leaves them on read. Valentina, Vlad, and Lana will only send a message if it's something important.

(16) On a day out or a night out, who typically ends up with the bill? Is there ever arguments?

Answered here!!

(23) Who is the pretty one? Who is the smart one? Do they label themselves as anything? How do they see each other?

Agents:

The Secret Agent, The Rouge Mage, and The Handler. These were given nicknames of their colleagues, and they didn't mind so they stick with it.

DLU:

I don't think anybody label themselves as anything??? Louie and his friend group doesn't like labelling each other because each and every one of them has their own strengths. One can't be smarter than the other, because everyone has their own smarts.

Except for one vampire called Lilith Vatore where she calls the older vampires, "The Ancients" sometimes with a teasing tone, and sometimes with hidden anger when she's pissed.

(27) Is there a particular song or playlist that reminds you of them?

I think this is my weakest point when it comes to writing. I don't use songs to associate them with a person, I use songs to give myself the proper mood in writing but:

Gilded Lily by Cults reminds me of Priscilla so much. Haven't I given enough?

[ctrl-alt-vibeshift]

i will die for my country twitter

i've traveled through many different social media lands in my time on the internet, and my netizenship has lasted almost as long as my citizenship offline. i got an instagram account behind my parent's back in the early days before it was purchased by facebook, i lived through the rise and fall of vine in middle school, and witnessed tiktok subsume musical.ly in high school. none of these changes in power, re-drawing of borders, annexations, or flag design overhauls have hit me as hard as the recent twitter coup.

as someone who often touts that i was raised on stan twitter, i haven't been dealing with the rebranding of twitter very well. i've been stuck in the first stage of grief (denial) ever since he-who-musk-not-be-named first announced that xtraordinarly terrible new name and logo. twitter was where i found my place online, where i could meet and become online friends with people just as parasocially attached to my latest obsession as i was. i first joined for the norwegian teen drama SKAM, which i actually found out about here on tumblr. once the series wrapped i gradually shifted to devoting my page to troye sivan and connor franta, before a complete descent into the gloriously hellish world of k-pop stan twitter.

regardless of whose face my profile picture was, i always had twitter to turn to when my socializing needs couldn't be met in my little suburban town where i was always one of the few resident stans of [insert past obsession here]. it largely influenced how i interact with people to this day, both on and offline, as well as my sense of humor, my politics, my music taste, my way of speaking, my aesthetic sensibilities, my viewing habits, my identity, etc. while i've informally revoked my stantwittership since late 2020, i still actively use a "personal" account to tweet about whatever i feel like, although i often fall back into reacting to and commenting on the k-pop and other culture happenings i do still keep up with, and if you scroll through my profile quickly my account could be mistaken for a stan one.

twitter is where i've met many oomfs over the years, some I still keep in touch with solely online, others have transitioned into oomirls. it's been somewhat of a home to me, at least to the digital persona that embodied everything i couldn't in my real one. it still had that feeling after that musky fellow initially took over, although some of my more impassioned countrymen immediately cut all ties with the platform, becoming refugees harbored by other social networks and encouraging others to jump ship with them in foreboding final tweets. nevertheless i've persisted, disappointed but not surprised at the monetization of twitter blue and verification checkmarks, unaffected by the changes in moderation and community guidelines. it wasn't until july 2023, when the rebrand was first announced, that my faith in my homeland began to waver.

i've refused to update to that dreary new version of the site, with its grim and cheaply assembled app icon. i will hold onto my little blue bird as long as i can, even if it means being shot out of the sky with it. i've turned off auto updates and have hastily canceled the download on the few occasions where i've accidentally tapped "update" on it while installing others. fortunately, the app still functions for me without issue, although subtle changes have implemented themselves regardless, like my notifications tab now reading "[user] liked your post" instead of "tweet." recently, i've been unable to look at quote tweets on tweets, but can still view individual ones in my feed. i'll continue living like this until the app is rendered functionless without updating, a day i pray never comes.

i wince in pain every time i see "X" written in place of twitter now, although i'm slightly relieved that it is typically followed by "formerly known as twitter" in parentheses. i can't imagine calling stan twitter "stan X," such a moniker sounds like telling someone to literally stan an artist or piece of media called "X," like exclaiming "stan LOONA!!" saying "i'm an X user" or "are you on X?" sounds like banter about the latest designer drug (or perhaps a colloquial shortening of ecstasy?) but let me stop myself before i write another essay solely about the preposterousness of using the 24th letter of the alphabet as your brand name.

i don't know what the future holds for twitter, and with each passing day i hold my breath when i tap my blue app icon with white bird graphic, a quickly disappearing relic of tweets past. i now feel like i'm the member of a stateless nation, joining the likes of the kurds and their longing for a kurdistan. while my flag no longer flies, i remain a reluctant patriot, holding fast on stolen land. you'll have to force me off my lot before i rise for the pledge of xllegiance.

[mit]

How are cities managing record-setting temperatures?

Professor of urban and environmental planning David Hsu explains what municipal governments are doing as climate change accelerates.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

July 2023 was the hottest month globally since humans began keeping records. People all over the U.S. experienced punishingly high temperatures this summer. In Phoenix, there were a record-setting 31 consecutive days with a high temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more. July was the hottest month on record in Miami. A scan of high temperatures around the country often yielded some startlingly high numbers: Dallas, 110 F; Reno, 108 F; Salt Lake City, 106 F; Portland, 105 F.

Climate change is a global and national crisis that cannot be solved by city governments alone, but cities suffering from it can try to enact new policies reducing emissions and adapting its effects. MIT’s David Hsu, an associate professor of urban and environmental planning, is an expert on metropolitan and regional climate policy. In one 2017 paper, Hsu and some colleagues estimated how 11 major U.S. cities could best reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, through energy-efficient home construction and retrofitting, improvements in vehicle gas mileage, more housing density, robust transit systems, and more. As we near the end of this historically hot summer, MIT News talked to Hsu about what cities are now doing in response to record heat, and the possibilities for new policy measures.

Q: We’ve had record-setting temperatures in many cities across the U.S. this summer. Dealing with climate change certainly isn’t just the responsibility of those cities, but what have they been doing to make a difference, to the extent they can?

A: I think this is a very top-of-mind question because even 10 or 15 years ago, we talked about adapting to a changed climate future, which seemed further off. But literally every week this summer we can refer to [dramatic] things that are already happening, clearly linked to climate change, and are going to get worse. We had wildfire smoke in the Northeast and throughout the Eastern Seaboard in June, this tragic wildfire in Hawaii that led to more deaths than any other wildfire in the U.S., [plus record high temperatures]. A lot of city leaders face climate challenges they thought were maybe 20 or 30 years in the future, and didn’t expect to see happen with this severity and intensity.

One thing you’re seeing is changes in governance. A lot of cities have recently appointed a chief heat officer. Miami and Phoenix have them now, and this is someone responsible for coordinating response to heat waves, which turn out to be one of the biggest killers among climatological effects. There is an increasing realization not only among local governments, but insurance companies and the building industry, that flooding is going to affect many places. We have already seen flooding in the seaport area in Boston, the most recently built part of our city. In some sense just the realization among local governments, insurers, building owners, and residents, that some risks are here and now, already is changing how people think about those risks.

Q: To what extent does a city being active about climate change at least signal to everyone, at the state or national level, that we have to do more? At the same time, some states are reacting against cities that are trying to institute climate initiatives and trying to prevent clean energy advances. What is possible at this point?

A: We have this very large, heterogeneous and polarized country, and we have differences between states and within states in how they’re approaching climate change. You’ve got some cities trying to enact things like natural gas bans, or trying to limit greenhouse gas emissions, with some state governments trying to preempt them entirely. I think cities have a role in showing leadership. But one thing I harp on, having worked in city government myself, is that sometimes in cities we can be complacent. While we pride ourselves on being centers of innovation and less per-capita emissions — we’re using less than rural areas, and you’ll see people celebrating New York City as the greenest in the world — cities are responsible for consumption that produces a majority of emissions in most countries. If we’re going to decarbonize society, we have to get to zero altogether, and that requires cities to act much more aggressively.

There is not only a pessimistic narrative. With the Inflation Reduction Act, which is rapidly accelerating the production of renewable energy, you see many of those subsidies going to build new manufacturing in red states. There’s a possibility people will see there are plenty of better paying, less dangerous jobs in [clean energy]. People don’t like monopolies wherever they live, so even places people consider fairly conservative would like local control [of energy], and that might mean greener jobs and lower prices. Yes, there is a doomscrolling loop of thinking polarization is insurmountable, but I feel surprisingly optimistic sometimes.

Large parts of the Midwest, even in places people think of as being more conservative, have chosen to build a lot of wind energy, partly because it’s profitable. Historically, some farmers were self-reliant and had wind power before the electrical grid came. Even now in some places where people don’t want to address climate change, they’re more than happy to have wind power.

Q: You’ve published work on which cities can pursue which policies to reduce emissions the most: better housing construction, more transit, more fuel-efficient vehicles, possibly higher housing density, and more. The exact recipe varies from place to place. But what are the common threads people can think about?

A: It’s important to think about what the status quo is, and what we should be preparing for. The status quo simply doesn’t serve large parts of the population right now. Heat risk, flooding, and wildfires all disproportionately affect populations that are already vulnerable. If you’re elderly, or lack access to mobility, information, or warnings, you probably have a lower risk of surviving a wildfire. Many people do not have high-quality housing, and may be more exposed to heat or smoke. We know the climate has already changed, and is going to change more, but we have failed to prepare for foreseeable changes that already here. Lots of things that are climate-related but not only about climate change, like affordable housing, transportation, energy access for everyone so they can have services like cooking and the internet — those are things that we can change going forward. The hopeful message is: Cities are always changing and being built, so we should make them better. The urgent message is: We shouldn’t accept the status quo.

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[jaidonschool]

July in Review

I moved to Salt Lake City

Learned: the basics of GraphQL, Next.js, React hooks, npm, CSS in JS, moped anatomy & repair

Built: 30 bentos, 3 bento heros with edited photos, how it works section, basic Apollo + WooGraphQL queries

Played: on antelope island, in the salt lake, in little cottonmouth canyon, on salt flats, on Scenic Mound, at zen center, at 2 drone shows, at Mexico festival, Peru festival, Japan Obon festival, with a cybertruck, with a moped, at an apothecary

Got gym membership, got my squat to 95lbs, bench to 45lbs, started deadlifting up to 165lbs, went 6 times (≈12 hours)

Got on a diet plan, tracking calories, and then got fucked with a big belly, and fasted for a bit, and am finally destabilized, with new goals to increase diet intensity more gradually.

Meditated 12 hours, and found Insight Timer app

Did a sick 1 week writing challenge!

Shin visited for 2 weeks

Have $10k in the bank and $5k in crypto - enough to last the year in Salt Lake!

Next month

I'd like to be very consistent with my habits: gym every other day, track macros, average 45m meditation per day

I'd like to dedicate more time daily/weekly to long term Blueprint goals like videos, developing products, or marketing products.

I anticipate that will take the form of learning code (thorough), and content output.

I'd like to make salt lake friends. I will seek events and activities I naturally love. More zen center, and tech/ai/design events.

Commit:

Shoot for at least 20 minutes each day for content creation, writing challenge, or project dev

The above is a small goal, but I hope to take it seriously and plant the seed for sustainable growth of it. The above is my only tweak for next month.

Booked 3 events for next month. I should book more.

Meditate every day, gym every other day, track calories

[songuku]

How can I make my brain sharper, smarter, and lightning fast?

First thing in the morning just put on your shoes and go for a run or cycling for atleast about 30-40mins.

Get rid of hot water baths. Cold bath refreshes your entire nervous system making you fresh in thoughts.

Play a lot of chess with computer at least two games a day.

Read, read and read a lot. Read NFL Arizona Cardinals Hawaiian Shirt Special Floral Tropical Team Spirit that are new to you and informative. Stop watching stupid movies and useless publicity news channel and page3 news.

Read simple physics or do some basic Arizona Cardinals Hawaiian Shirt school math exercises.

Spend lots of time with the youth, preferably college folks or high school buddies. They have the innovative minds.

Numbers, play a lot with numbers, try to memorize phone numbers of all of your friends and close people and make sure to dial their number rather than calling from the contact list or call log.

Learn the art of calmness and get rid of anger. Makes you a smarter decision maker. In any tense situation think before you react.

Make it a NFL Arizona Cardinals Hawaiian Shirt Flower Hawaii Shirt For Football Fans to speak at least to one stranger a day at your office or surrounding and try to remember their names and what they do.

Learn a new language every year. Also speak in multiple languages through out the day.

Start playing a new sport and try to be at least an intermediate player in it.

Be curious be hungry, ask questions to yourself about everything that you are curious about and find answers to it.

Eat only what is required for your Arizona Cardinals Hawaiian Shirt in limited quantity. If possible eat foods which contain essential amino acids for brain development. (Ex - sea food and nuts.)

Take a stroll down your lane before hitting the bed. Do not use your phone just before sleep or when in bed. Finish all phone activities an hour before bed time. Have a 7-8 hour undisturbed sleep.

Go on a solo trip once in a while to a new place and stay away from phone as much possible. Adapt to the NFL Arizona Cardinals America 4th Of July Independence Day 2024 Hawaiian Shirt of the place where ever you go.

Learn to play a musical instrument or simple start singing songs and get better at singing.

I hope this answer helps you

[teenmomcentral]

It’s won’t be a very merry Christmas for Ryan Edwards.

The troubled Teen Mom star— who has been in jail since his court hearing earlier this week— faced the judge again on Friday, while his parents Jen and Larry Edwards and girlfriend Amanda Conner watched and later reacted to the bad news that Ryan would be spending the holidays in the slammer.

The Sun reports that the judge sentenced Ryan to stay in jail at least until at least January 17, meaning the father of three will spend Christmas and New Years’ behind bars. As The Ashley previously reported, Judge Gary Starnes (who had arguably always gone very easy on Ryan) made it clear on Monday that he was done with Ryan’s continued habits of breaking the law and not following through with his probation requirements. 

Judge Starnes’ anger toward Ryan reportedly resurfaced on Friday, with the judge telling Ryan to “grow up,” according to The Sun, and insisting that he’s given Ryan plenty of chances to get his life on-track.

The results of a drug test that Ryan took on Monday were read in court on Friday, with the District Attorney stating that she was “surprised” to hear Ryan passed his drug screening.

The DA — who had previously urged the judge to sentence Ryan to his original, full three-year jail sentence— told Judge Starnes that Ryan needed to do “simple” things to stay out of jail: continue with the Vivitrol shot (which he is overdue for); submit progress reports and attend AA meetings. However, Ryan has not been doing them.

According to The Sun, Ryan’s lawyer argued that Ryan “hasn’t used” drugs recently, but Judge Starnes did not seem to be impressed.

“There was plenty of time for him to get it out of his system from the time took the test,” the judge stated.

“I don’t know how many more opportunities Mr. Edwards is entitled to,” the judge continued.

“He has failed to do what he’s supposed to,” the judge continued. “He’s been revoked and put in jail for almost three months. He’s had violations at Oasis [halfway house] and CADAS [rehab], but they didn’t kick him out.

“He wants to stand here and ask for more time to do it. How many more chances does Mr. Edwards think he’s going to get? What do you think when he doesn’t follow the program? He has gotten so many chances and every single time he got an opportunity to do things he should’ve been doing. Now he’s back again.”

Judge Starnes was also not impressed to hear that Ryan recently made an appointment to receive his overdue Vivitrol shot on December 12. (Vivitrol is a prescription injectable medicine designed to help curb alcohol and/or opioid dependence. Ryan has been getting the shots since July.) 

“Today, out of nowhere he sets up the shot. You shouldn’t have to tell him that,”  the judge told Ryan’s attorney. “It’s simple. Time and time again he shows he will not do it until he is made to do it. Here we are today.”

Judge Starnes then brought up some of the menacing activities Ryan has been involved in over the last few months.

“If he were released today, he would do the same thing today. Going 145 mph in a 65 mph speed zone is not the greatest decision. I could revoke him on that. How many times does he think he’s going to be entitled?” he said. (Last month, The Ashley broke the news that Ryan was caught going 80 miles over the speed limit on his motorcycle. He has since pleaded guilty to the charges he received for that.) 

Judge Starnes also brought up the fact that Ryan has blown every shot at rehab that he’s been given, and nearly killed himself in April after overdosing in his truck a few days after leaving a Texas rehab.

“He’s been to three different rehab facilities in Texas, he voluntarily left and didn’t do what he was supposed to do,” the judge said. “He showed up down here passed out in a truck and had to be Narcaned several times. He was given more chances then, more rehab.

“Here we are. He was in an altercation at a bar, he was dragged out. His decision-making throughout his, he has not improved at all.”

The Sun reported that Ryan’s lawyer tried to defend the ‘Teen Mom’ star, insisting that Ryan “doesn’t feel entitled” and that he is making some progress because he at least passed his last drug screen.

“That shows progress, that shows he’s trying. Is he doing everything ordered? No sir. But I think he’s going to try,” Ryan’s attorney stated.

Judge Starnes was unwilling to blame Ryan’s recent behavior and actions on his drug problem, instead pointing out the fact that Ryan simply refuses to follow the rules.

“As far as his addiction, it’s successful. He’s not willing to do anything he’s told. He’s not blaming it on addiction today,” he said.

Ryan was given a chance to speak at Friday’s hearing. He insisted that he does attend AA meetings and that he wanted to get his shot.

“I was not trying to ignore your court. I intended to do it,” Ryan said. "They only take the first two people. When I enrolled, I got the date to go. It was on the court date at 2.”

Judge Starnes again told Ryan that his problem isn’t drug addiction, implying that Ryan feels he’s above the law.

“You backed the court into a corner you continued to do that. We gave you chance after chance. You’re not on drugs, you’re negative. You’re not going to follow anything you’ve been told to do,” the judge said.

“I am not going to continue to be your babysitter. You’re a grown adult. You always take the wrong route,” he continued. “You have kids. You do what you think you’re going to do.”

As ‘Teen Mom OG’ fans know, Ryan is the father of three–  Bentley, whom he shares with Maci Bookout, and Stella and Jagger, whose mom is Ryan’s soon-to-be-ex-wife Mackenzie. (Stella’s birthday is January 1, so Ryan will be in jail for that as well.)

The DA expressed her concern for “public safety” if Ryan was released, stating that she is particularly concerned that he will drive recklessly and/or under the influence.

“He put himself in the bullseye,” the judge told the DA. “If I let him out, he’ll be right back here. Sending him back to rehab won’t help. He won’t do what he’s supposed to do.”

Ryan then pleaded for “one more chance,” but the judge cut him off. 

“I have given you chance after chance. I’m glad to see you’re not on drugs. That’s very important,” he said. 

The judge scheduled Ryan’s next court date for January 17, meaning the ‘Teen Mom’ star will stay in jail at least until then. As for whether or not Ryan will get his Vivitrol shot, the judge seemed unconcerned. 

“We can try to get you the shot in jail. I’m not going out of my way. Your attorney can help you,” he told Ryan. 

Ryan confessed that he was unsure what time his appointment to get the shot was, due to the fact that his family made the appointment for him.

“It’s always an excuse,” the judge responded.

The Sun‘s reporter (who was in the courtroom) stated that Jen “cried hysterically” as Judge Starnes got stern with Ryan, often shaking her head in disagreement as the judge spoke.

Ryan’s girlfriend Amanda— whom he met during his recent stint in rehab– reportedly “seemed worried” and also shook her head in disagreement with what the judge was saying about Ryan. 

After Ryan’s court hearing, Amanda took to Instagram to express her sadness that Ryan will remain in the slammer for at least 39 more days. In the caption of a photo of her and Ryan on his motorcycle, Amanda wrote, “I miss you dearly. I don’t care what they say about you or me. You have been doing so good and I just want to say I’m proud of you. I love you. 39 Day countdown baby.”