#(cannot stress enough how much i do not live in a country that uses dollars)

[2hoothoots]

poking my head in to say sorry about the radio silence! i'm not dead, just moved house & started a new job this month so there's been a lot going on. regularly scheduled posting to resume soon, in the meantime here's a blue eyes white dragon model kit i spent my long weekend building to put next to Money Kaiba in my display case

[botanyshitposts]

Opinion on the US's Cogs damn obsession with corn?

don't know what you're talking about specifically but my understanding of US agricultural policy in general is that being a farmer in capitalism sucks and has since colonization and for a long time the US government tried to make it suck less with subsidies which sometimes work (because people get paid predictably regardless of demand and its less like gambling with crops) but sometimes go over really badly (because then too many people grow it and the price per bushel goes down and then government has too much corn) and then a couple times they got rid of all the subsides and related regulations and that REALLY didnt work (because then the price just crashed hard and with nothing to compensate them a bunch of farmers, many of whom were in debt for other farming-related reasons, couldnt get paid and actually had to foreclose their farms, which accelerated the long-standing trend of farms getting foreclosed on and then being bought out by bigger farms that then ended up running INSANE multi million dollar operations, sometimes even on farms in other states where the owners do not live, in communities they do not contribute to) and they had to backpedal on it and then eventually they just started on the current system where you simply pass a farm bill every 10-12 years instead of yearly or biyearly and that way you simply dont have to think about it, and then when it is election time you go stand by a cornfield for a while for tv. it does not fix the huge enormous farms buying out smaller farms problem or any of the complicated related problems but it DOES put it off for longer which is more important.

sometimes also you (USAID for instance) can give the too-much-corn you have from farm subsidies to a foreign country as a 'gift' and say youre just being a helpful little guy, but in the process of doing so undercut the local farmers in that country because they cant compete with free stuff but that's cool because then the foreign country can't really survive as well without US agricultural aid and you can manipulate them to do imperialism better AND you have more demand for the corn which might raise the price per bushel in the US. also sometimes the corn is fed to livestock en masse because the meat is worth more and sometimes its made into gas or high fructose corn syrup, and sometimes the price is so low per bushel that the insurance on the field is worth more than the actual corn.

but. i CANNOT stress enough that the most important thing about corn is that you can stand next to it on tv and if you cant do that, maybe you can stand next to a guy who is around it a lot and say you are helping him.

in my relatively uneducated opinion the most epic way to solve this complex multi-century interdisciplinary push and pull of supply and demand would be to just pay farmers a salary through the state since youre already paying out massive state subsidies for crops you dont need anyway and the farmers are performing a vital service and that way you can guarantee people a consistent salary AND control how much of each thing gets planted so you dont have a massive stockpile at all times AND you reward individual people instead of paying out large amounts of money to whatever massive operation sells the most corn by virtue of being big, but if you dont want to do that then the second best thing is to just pass another mediocre farm bill whos inflexible 10-ish year lifespan makes it impossible for it to respond well to changes in market demand and that way you can just put off making tough decisions and instead stand next to a guy and a cornfield on tv again. which as we have covered is the most important part of american agriculture

[jyndor]

Would you please share posts about support for Ukraine, too? Not instead of support for Palestine, but in addition to. It seems like you have an audience. Support for Ukraine is dwindling. Posts about Ukraine rarely get above a couple of hundred notes and it's always the same people. I mean, Russia blew up a huge dam earlier this year and barely anyone spoke about it. Ukraine still needs the world's support, they need weapons to defend themselves. Only Eastern Europe seems to still take the threat of Russia seriously (because we know what Russia is like!). Even in the US support is declining, but we need USA to arm Ukraine. Eastern Europe is running out of weapons to donate or sell.

hey anon first off im so sorry, i hope you're okay. first off i absolutely support all people's right to self-determination and freedom from imperialism and occupation, and so yeah fuck russia and yes i support ukraine. because i support the liberation of all peoples i support ukraine against russian imperialism.

i'm generally not keen on who the us arms in its proxy wars but in this case i think it's like the geopolitics happen to have the us on the right side of this war. idk why that's so hard for some people to understand.

there are limits of course - i'm not keen on escalating a war with a nuclear power, as i told a ukrainian friend of mine last year, because first off nuclear war wouldn't behoove anyone (especially not in ukraine). i wouldn't be opposed to a word that sounds like ass and nation of putin because he's gotta go. but no the us and the west in general is too busy fucking around literally everywhere else that we have no business being to deal with putin. also our governments don't care that much to put their necks on the line like that.

i don't think we as the world can allow this sort of shit to go on. and we always end up reacting to the horrors of genocide and war after the fact but never proactively try to stop them. it's not easy of course, war is inherently brutal and puts people at risk.

us support of interventionism is always pretty brief and incumbent on how conditions are for americans at home. whether or not the support is actually for a cause that is just, middle class americans don't like feeling the impact of our interventions domestically - mainly in the costs of goods and services. i cannot stress enough that yes americans actually do care about mass atrocities when we see evidence of them, we are humans too, but we are also highly, highly propagandized to. and when the media stops feeding us images of horrible shit, we tend to stop thinking about them as much. it's... idk it's horrible how individualized our thinking is here.

and also poverty in the us is rampant and it is hard for many to see our tax dollars go to other people when so many of us are struggling. don't get me wrong im not EXCUSING isolationism as an ideology but it's how americans are. we don't often experience the direct impact of war but we do experience the economic toll of our government not supporting us.

ukraine has gotten as much support as it has because of what ukrainians look like, and the geopolitics of the region. when you look at how countries deal with geopolitics you see that it is never about justice or morality or anything like that, it's usually about power. which is gross and i hate it because yall deserve support because you are being brutalized by a fascist imperial power. because you are people.

that said there are plenty of people here who support you all. i still see ukraine flags where i live (and not just because there are ukrainian americans here).

anon if you see this, do you have any insight into what ukrainians feel about palestinian resistance? like is there solidarity that you see? i know your government is decidedly pro-israeli occupation which is nasty as hell but i know that is partly because of zelensky and partly because of geopolitics (ukraine needs the us's support and doesn't want to endanger that - this happens all the time).

[jordanr770-blog]

America Needs Some Talent

 I just needed someplace to write down my thoughts so here we are!

I have been watching America’s Got Talent since season 11 when the ukulele girl won. I personally didn’t vote for her but can understand why she won. Same goes for season 12. I was rooting super hard for Diavolo but can understand why puppet girl won. Season 13 had some of the best acts ever (Shin Lim-winner) and I know a lot of people disliked her, but Courtney Hadwin should have at least  gotten 5th place over sob story “I’m such a good person and I hit my wife” Michael Ketterer. Kodi Lee was the obvious winner of season 14 and I personally thought he deserved it over the other acts. Other people did not think it was well deserved, and that’s ok too.  

Last season we got a spoken word poet in the form of Brandon Leake. I did not enjoy the act AT ALL and was kind of mad that he won, but I will say that even though I did not enjoy him, spoken word poetry is indeed a talent.

Now, you may be thinking that season 16 would be a smidgeon of an improvement over season 15. Talent and reality shows should probably strive to become better every season. But if you thought this show isn’t capable of getting any worse, you haven’t been paying attention because this show will always find ways to disappoint. Last night we were told everyone voted for an INSPIRATIONAL speech giver as the winner. Or I’m sorry, apparently he does magic. His name is Dustin Tavella. But the thing is, he was HORRIBLE at both storytelling AND magic and nowhere near deserved the win. “It was well deserved.” How? How is a kindergarten level “magician” worth a million dollars and a Vegas show? I believe the show in Vegas is about an hour and a half and I am curious as to what is he going to do in that timeframe? Talk about how the folks living in Vegas are living in sin while simultaneously throwing paper in the air MAGICALLY? I’m sure the audience will go wild over that. Or maybe during all of his shows he will adopt a kid a day from different countries and then spend about an hour talking about Little ZimZam’s harsh life and while he’s babbling  he’ll be semi incorporating his poor magic skills into the act in the last minute so the poster stating he’s a magician didn’t TECHNICALLY lie so nobody is getting their money back. I really don’t know. I have a lot of thoughts. 

Plus, his sob story just did nothing for me whatsoever. Good for you for adapting 11 children, unless it has to do with whatever your act is, shut the hell up and do the trick! Not once did this guy impress  or give even the best of a performance of the night. It was always 8+ minutes of “inspiration” and tirades about how we as a society need to be good to one another whilst doing crappy magic. Let me tell you, I know next to nothing about magic but even I could tell he was a less than stellar magician. Even calling him a magician is somewhat laughable. In reality he's a motivational speaker who does terrible magic tricks and  who always somehow manages to suck at said terrible magic but America apparently doesn’t notice him screwing up his terrible magic because he’s too busy telling them to look at a crumpled up piece of paper or a ladder or the new photograph of his adopted son who has an extra eyeball or whatever. It’s stupid.

Last night for his final performance Dustin’s act was, and I kid you not, telling us all to be nice. FOR SEVEN UNNECESSARY MINUTES. And I do believe he started to fake cry. Dude, you’re acting is about as good as Heidi Klum’s. You can't act and you can barely do magic. Why are you here? What is your talent? Did he really join a talent show to become some type of inspirational God of obvious wisdom? If that’s the case, he should have gone and done a Ted Talk, many less victims of mediocrity that way. America somehow  put him in the top 5 with actually talented people? I think not. The act itself was not impressive and he did the same thing every time, just told a different sob story. If you have to rely on a sad story to win, you don’t deserve to win a show where talent is the main objective. 

In case my last few paragraphs were not made abundantly clear, I am not a fan of this dude. At all. I read a comment which stated that a message is not a talent and whoever said that is 100% correct and summed up my feelings pretty accurately. I'm not a fan or boring and basic tricks combined with even worse stories. He's the living embodiment of a motivational meme and anyone who voted for this guy is  gullible and can fight me. Maybe people “voted” for him because he attempted to pull on the heartstrings? But because I sold my heart long ago his act didn’t effect me as much. /s But I swear every year they make it more clear that the entire show is rigged. 

Well, maybe the voting ISN’T rigged entirely and all the boomers  (first time I’ve ever used that term) and antivaxxers and easily swayed by sob story people on Twitter and Facebook voted for him. Doubtful, but you never know. HE WAS SO FREAKING BAD!!!

We are all allowed to have opinions and just because you don’t agree with me that doesn’t mean I am an awful person who deserves DEATH. I keep getting responses and messages on Twitter from angry folk who are calling me heartless because I questioned WHY they voted for him. “Well, IIIII gave Dustin all 10 of my votes!” That’s nice Karen. That is also not an answer and I cannot stress enough how much I do not care that you voted for the phony used cars salesman. Go tell your Prince from Nigeria all about it. Another guy got mad and reported me for “yelling at strangers.” Which is kind of a typical thing people do on Twitter. And I wasn’t even yelling! Lol. 

And another point I’d like to make (about this and  in general) is people really need to stop using the terms “all of us” and the word “we.” I am my own person and you do not get to speak for me. 

“We were all crying when we saw him perform!” - No WE most certainly weren’t. I was seething with anger, yes. Crying? Not even close.

“His magic touched all of our hearts!” WHAT MAGIC? WHERE WAS THE MAGIC IN THIS MANS ENTIRE ACT? I MUST HAVE MISSED IT AFTER I PASSED OUT FROM HIS 7 MINUTE LONG STORY ABOUT HIS BORING LIFE. 

His win was a complete insult.

* I personally voted for Aidan Bryant, but I really wanted Unicircle Flow to win before they got kicked off due to the judges having a tendency to suck at picking during judges choice. *

Edit: I apologize if this wasn’t articulated very well or if it seems I basically said the same thing over and over. To be fair it was 3 am when I wrote this and I was still irritated and questioning everything. Still doesn’t excuse the fact that this guy was lame and doesn’t deserve a Vegas show. My mom told me earlier today that people on the Internet are mad about his win and that it’s not fair to take it out on the guy, which I suppose is kind of true. Not exactly his fault the general public has failed and shown their stupidity yet again. If anyone is to blame it is the people who actually voted for this doofus. And AGT. And yeah, I guess I will blame him as well. But I’m not saying go to his Twitter or Instagram or whatever and call him out for being a con artist and bully him. 

I think the MESSAGE =P I’m trying to display here  is that someone has no business being on a talent show unless they have talent; self explanatory. A message isn’t talent. Being a narcissist isn’t talent. Exploiting your kids and wife isn’t talent. Speaking can be a talent (comedy, that poetry guy, acting, improv, probably a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting about) but one shouldn’t call themselves a magician if one is really a way less cool garage sale version of Talky Tina. Magic IS talent but if you want a million dollars you better have skills that are on par or better than the professionals. 

[bucket-fucker]

Animal Shelters and the misconceptions around them!!

I really, really need y’all to please stop assuming animal shelters are negligent and terrible torturous places for pets to live in.

There are plenty of privately owned shelters that, because they are not beholden to city and government funding, can afford to keep pets for as long as they need without euthanizing for space. These shelters work extremely hard to make sure pets get the medical, behavioral, and housing needs specific to each pet’s different personality, and they do extensive background checks on potential adopters to ensure that the pets they adopt out are going to good, safe homes.

I work in a shelter like this. It’s privately funded by generous donors, and therefore we can afford to control our animal intakes based on what space and capacity for care we have available. My shelter also has a well-funded, kind and dedicated behavioral team who work hard with pets individually to figure out what their needs are, what drives their behaviors, and modifies behaviors that harm the pet’s quality of life. They will postpone a pet’s adoption for months if that pet needs that extra time to get over fear, stress, or dog aggression. Just this last week, every employee in my shelter was required to take a Fear Free Handling course to ensure that we are handling pets in a way that does not stress them out more than they absolutely need to be.

We have a donor-subsidized clinic that not only treats every pet we have in our shelter, but also provides low-cost veterinary care to local pet owners. Our clinic has saved the lives of pets who have been severely abused, neglected, or even just hurt by unfortunate circumstance. We have had a puppy in foster care for 4 months, no doubt costing our clinic thousands of dollars in surgical care, medication management, food, etc. But our doctors refused to release this pup until she is completely medically cleared, so that her potential adopter does not have to take on thousands of dollars of medical management in adopting her. They do everything they can to ensure that our pets get the best chance at a happy, healthy life before we send them out to their new homes. We also provide TNR for local feral cat populations.

We also have a program called Safety Net, which has the goal of providing help to people who are surrendering their pets, to fix situations where we can so people can keep their pets. Our shelter workers have repaired broken fences, provided free medical care to sick pets, and helped with relocation just so people who might have had to surrender their pets can keep them in a better, healthy environment.

The dogs in my shelter get walks anywhere between 2 to 5 times a day, and the folks who work in offices on our campus usually keep shelter dogs in their offices during the day so as to reduce boredom and stress from being cooped up in a kennel. Our dogs are given toys and frozen kongs several times a day to keep them entertained, and employees are encouraged to hang out with our shelter pets on their breaks to give them attention and socialization. Our cat house has 4 rooms with walkways, hidey holes, and catios attached to them, with a constant rotation of “cat cuddler” volunteers whose specific job it is to come in for two hours and brush and play with the cats in our shelter to keep them entertained and happy.

Our Foster Care program sends adult adoptable dogs out into foster homes for 2-3 day periods during campus closures for the holidays or our deep clean days, and these dogs get to hang out in people’s homes and at parks as a way to take a break from the shelter and get some R&R.

And we are not some extraordinary special nice shelter. We developed all of these practices based on the example of the ASPCA, as well as other shelters all over the country whose sole goal is to better the lives of homeless pets in the country.

And because these are private shelters, often called “no-kill” (this is a term you should not trust. No-kill is NOT automatically a good thing!), that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t support your local city shelter! These shelters are dreadfully underfunded, understaffed, and because homeless stray pets have to go somewhere, they can’t filter their intakes based on available space. When people further the bad reputations of a city shelter, they are only making the situation worse! When you refuse to adopt, volunteer, or donate to your local city shelter, you are ensuring that the pets living in that shelter have a lower quality of life, and ultimately can be euthanized because they cannot be adopted. This doesn’t make your local government-subsidized shelter evil! They just don’t have the resources they need to give their pets the quality of life that a privately-funded shelter can. If you are able to, you should absolutely adopt from, volunteer at, or donate to local city shelters.

I hear people say they will never surrender their pets to a shelter because they know that shelters are unethical, and cruel, and will kill their pets. By perpetuating these harmful and untrue stereotypes, you are hurting the homeless pets that rely on these shelters for help and survival. Please stop seeing shelters as the villain. We are all animal lovers who are trying our hardest to help these helpless babies, and you have no idea how many shelter workers get burned out, broken, or suicidal because of the incredible difficulty of fighting the HUGE homeless pet population and the cruelty that people perpetuate on animals.

Please stop seeing us as the bad guys! And if you’re able to, talk up your local shelters, go visit them and see what they’re about! Volunteer! I cannot stress enough how much you can make a difference by donating 2 hours of your time a week to a shelter in need.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk, please be nice to animal shelters!

[scarfanon]

Why we need Universal Basic Income in the United States.

Let me preface this by saying that the views expressed in this post are my personal views based on info from other posts that I’ve read over the past couple of years, and I welcome any additional input that may correct any misconceptions or misinformation that I should accidentally include in this post.

So, that out of the way, what is Universal Basic Income?  Universal Basic Income is a system by which the government annually grants each of its citizens a year’s worth of funds with which to pay for food, utilities, and basic necessities, and paid for by citizens’ tax dollars.  It has been implemented in several nations, most notably Switzerland and Canada, and every nation that has implemented this system has seen net-positive results.

Now, let’s take a look at the US.  Here, we have the traditional practice of people working for an employer and being paid for their work.  However, the minimum wage has not scaled with inflation and is not enough to pay for the cost of living.  There has been a push to increase the minimum wage to $15/hr, but this would still not be enough to keep up with the basic needs of the average American citizen.  Most individuals are in a state of financial distress and find themselves one missed paycheck away from homelessness, which means that if you don’t have a job, you’re SOL, and if you do manage to find employment, it’s usually under a predatory employer that will milk you for every penny of profit they can get, and pay you as little as they can legally get away with.  Studies have shown that this has a detrimental effect on a worker’s mental health in addition to forcing them into a form of artificial serfdom.

Now, let’s add Universal Basic Income to the equation.  Suddenly, these people who were financially desperate can afford the things they need to survive.  This means that people who were previously homeless can now afford housing.  People who were one missed paycheck away from financial ruin no longer need to worry about losing what they have.  People who for one reason or another cannot find work (E.G. People with disabilities) can now afford what they need.  Removing financial distress also removes a major cause of depression and anxiety, which means that people’s mental health will collectively improve.  Now that they can afford the things that they need, people will no longer need to turn to crime out of desperation, and so crime rates will plummet, which means there won’t be as much need for police funding.  In a similar vein, the rate of drug addiction will also go down, as many individuals that turn to addictive drugs do so out of a desperate need to escape from the stress of financial hardship; take away the stressors, and there’s less of a need for a potentially dangerous coping mechanism, and those who are addicted now have the funds necessary to seek the help that they need.  In addition, there would also be fewer children put into foster care, as now their parents have the money they need to care for them (ostensibly the money could be distributed by household and the amount granted could be determined in part using census information).

Now, here’s where it gets interesting.  With Universal Basic Income, there would no longer be a need to raise the minimum wage, as it would no longer be people’s primary source of income.  In addition, people who were previously wage slaves to predatory employers could now resign with minimal consequence.  Statistically smaller family-owned businesses would not likely be affected too badly by this, but larger corporations with morally unconscionable business practices would quickly find themselves hemorrhaging employees (looking at you, Am*zon), and would have to make a decision; continue on their current path and potentially go out of business, or change their practices to make the work environment less toxic and start treating their employees like human beings if they want to survive.  It will also change the dynamic so that employers have to bend over backwards to make their employees want to stay instead of prospective workers having to bend over backwards to make themselves appealing, as people will no longer rely on their paychecks to make ends meet, and anybody that is dissatisfied with how their employer is treating them can simply quit.

Now, you’re probably thinking “if people don’t have to work, won’t that mean the collapse of our economy?”  It will not, and here’s why.  Humans, by nature, like to be productive.  There are some who will take the opportunity to pursue hobbies, or higher education, or learn some skills that they previously didn’t have time to learn (I for one would love to take a year off work and learn some basic domestic skills like how to cook and do laundry).  Most however will still work for several reasons.  First off, Universal Basic Income covers the basic necessities like food and rent, but does not include disposable income, and so people will look for jobs so that they have some extra spending money.  Others will work simply because they’re bored and need something to do, and still others will do the job simply because they recognize that the job itself has to be done.  However, the majority of working individuals will now be part-time workers, as there is no longer a need to work full-time to pay the bills; this would also pave the way to making benefits available to part-time workers.  Plus, Universal Basic Income will open the door for other nationwide programs that are commonplace in other countries, like Universal Healthcare.

Now, the right wing is probably going into conniptions reading the above paragraphs, but there are some consequences that even they will like.  With Universal Basic Income, a number of other government-subsidized programs would be rendered redundant and could be scaled back or eliminated entirely.  Food Stamps?  People can afford food and necessities now, so that is no longer necessary.  Unemployment Benefits?  People no longer rely on their paycheck as their primary source of income, so that is no longer necessary.  Disability?  Though some aspects of that program would still be necessary, they could easily be folded into Universal Basic Income since, as previously mentioned, people who cannot work will now be given the money they need to survive.  Social Security?  Universal Basic Income would serve largely the same function, albeit for all citizens and not just retirees.

None of the above paragraphs are radical ideas, since as previously mentioned, other nations have successfully implemented Universal Basic Income with net positive results, including boosting their economies.  Now I’m about to list my more radical ideas.

I believe there should be legislation passed in the US putting a strict upper limit on any one person’s net worth; specifically, anyone with a net worth of 9 figures or higher should have the excess redistributed where it is most needed.  Why no more than 8 figures?  Because 8 figures is still tens of millions of dollars; nobody with that kind of money has any right to complain, and if you have that kind of money and still can’t afford something you want, you need to ask yourself why you want the thing in the first place.

Again, these are my personal views on the subject, and if anyone would like to follow up on this post or correct any misconceptions that I may have expressed, I implore you to do so.

[cammicoxx-blog]

Is Instagram Removing our Likes?

Illustration by Francesco Zorzi

Ever posted a picture on Instagram and waited for the likes to flood your home screen? The second the post loads to your feed, you get feelings of anxiety wondering if its good enough or if it will get enough likes. The current world we live in craves this type of instant gratification. With a heavily active user base of 500 million users daily, the app is one of the most popular apps ever created, especially in our current time. The epidemic has led Instagram to reevaluate its purpose and consider solutions to the consequences that have risen from the popular app. When you look past all the popularity, you realize that the main purpose of Instagram was originally to connect with others and share stories. "We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they're getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about," explains Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.

It is important to evaluate our current standing with social media apps all across the board. Social media leads us to believe that our phone is always dinging or vibrating or calling for our attention. Without it, we experience withdrawals and anxiety. In Bailey Parnell’s TED talk, she describes how The Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that the top 3 diagnosis on University Campuses is anxiety, depression, and stress. Numerous studies from all over the globe have linked these diagnoses with social media. 90% of 18-29-year olds are on social media. We spend about 2 hours of our day dedicating our time to our phone screens. For some of us, it is even more than 2 hours. Another major social anxiety is F.O.M.O. or fear of missing out. A collection of Canadian Universities found that 7/10 students would get rid of their networking accounts were it not for fear of being out of the loop. For some users, another stressor in online harassment. Cyber bullying and discrimination are some of the biggest issues imbedded in our society within social media. So how does social media affect our health as well as happiness? In 2017, the Royal Society for Public Health released a study showing “social media may be fueling a mental health crisis,” especially with young people.

Illustration by Francesco Zorzi

Likes and followers have become the world’s currency as we all compete for popularity. These likes quantify our self-worth online and in our own minds. Sometimes, lack of attention on social media, leaves people with anxiety and depression. How does our phone worth a couple hundred dollars, that we use to download a free app, dictate our happiness in life? People even go to extreme lengths to get more likes. Oversexualizing, crazy life-threatening things; it’s the “do it for the gram” mentality that is well known across the nation as well as other countries.

On July 6th, 2019 Mark Zuckerberg the chief executive officer over the company released the trial period for removing likes from Instagram to enhance people’s experiences. So far this is affecting 6 countries and the feedback has been mainly positive. The way it works is that the user may be able to see the amount of likes a picture has received but viewers cannot. The goal is that users feel less judged and focus more on sharing their stories online. “We want Instagram to be a place where people feel comfortable expressing themselves. We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love,” Facebook Australia and New Zealand director of policy Mia Garlick said in a statement. 

Banksy Nobody Likes me

The need to check notifications, scroll through feed and post new content, is a serious addiction. Realistically, social media is not going anywhere, but the truth is, we have to learn to practice socializing in an appropriate way. It takes recognition of the problem at hand. We can begin to ask ourselves if it is truly necessary to check our feed or read through comments. Social Media is very easy to adjust to fit into our needs. We can monitor who we follow and what experiences we want to have with the program. What this does is create a sense of equality and allow for content to be appreciated for what it is, not to compete for likes. In the future we may see that if you want people to view your likes then you have to pay. This allows for influencers and creators to continue to grow their following. Overall, paying for users to view likes means Instagram is making more of an income. This could truly be a major wake up call to sustain and prosper without relying on social media. Arguments say it is all business, but others say this is a step in the right direction. From a business stand point it makes it hard for creators to see engagement and to understands feedback from viewers, it doesn’t allow for any competitiveness between pages. I think many influencers and creators may end up walking out and giving up completely on Instagram. Will we see Instagram be dethroned by another app who will take over and allow likes? I think it is very possible. “Some users might become disinterested in Instagram without the dopamine spike of a “like,” with some onlookers wondering if this would affect the amount of time users spend on the site”, says CNBC reporters. 

The future of Instagram is ever changing and with little changes here and there, it may be changing for the better for future generations. This could truly be the start of something amazing. In a weird way it is almost as if we are moving backwards. The company is trying to refocus our intentions with the app and use it appropriately. With this also comes the mental health benefits. Some may feel more equal to others when they post something because they no longer can compare their worth to others. In my opinion this is a much-needed change. I think this is just the beginning and other social media platforms may begin to follow closely after.

[littlemicrocosims]

need to vent about chocolate real quick

okay so some of you may know that I used to work for choccywoccydoodah (if you’ve heard of it, great, if you haven’t, i’m also not surprised). Choccy just went out of business and I just need to vent because all the news coverage (the few bbc articles etc there are anyway) are making me SO ANGRY so if you want chocolatey behind the scenes drama and what it was ACTUALLY like to be employed by christine taylor READ ON

The entire news coverage for this business going into administration is solely ‘oh what a shame this awesome creative business is gone! noone could have predicted it! such a shock we all loved it!” lIKE NO FUCK OFF IF YOU SPOKE TO A SINGLE PERSON THAT WORKED THERE YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE AT ALL. This has been coming for YEARS. This company has been driven into the ground by Christine Taylor and if you ever watched the TV show i’m sure you have a little understanding as to why that is.

When I worked at the company (for about a year between 2016 - 2017), I was told many things by the owners. It’s a million dollar company, she said. It’s international. We make MAGIC. And yes, to an extent, they did make magic. The two Christine’s founded the company in Brighton in 1994 and carved a niche for themselves. They made amazing cakes for amazing people and I was so, so thrilled to be a part of it. The TV show had already ceased filming by this point, of course, and whilst the show was still running in some countries (the company was inexplicably popular in the Netherlands, I came to realise) the popularity of the show within the UK was something akin to marmite... Either you love it, or... well, you’ve never heard of it. I always knew the company and its running was unconventional - no safety training for the amount of physical labour you had to do, an incredibly stressful work environment, always expected to work unpaid overtime, the list goes on - but I loved it anyway. My manager was an amazing woman (and still is!) and I was keen to learn and master what I could. This is when the cracks started to show. Christine and Christine would make plans - we want to promote you, but we can’t promote anyone unless they’ve worked here over a year, we want to open a third store, we’re going to launch a side business, here’s a range of more affordable cakes that we are going to sell - but somehow, nothing ever followed through. They could barely afford to run two shops (one in brighton, one in central london, where i worked), let alone even CONSIDER opening a third. Their marketing relied solely on the now outdated television show and they refused to upgrade with the times. They weren’t without help - younger members of the team had plenty of suggestions and contributions but they were never recognised or accepted. I managed to convince them to invest in snapchat geo-filters (as all customers did in the shop was record and take photos). Not a huge step, but a small one in the right direction. This was once they actually ALLOWED people to film - for months part of my job was telling people to put their phones away! Why make edible art if you can’t even share it!? Their social media ‘team’ consisted of some guy who used to bake the cakes and got promoted to Christine’s PA. He could barely even spell, let alone maintain a facebook, an instagram, a youtube... To put it bluntly, they knew fuck all about promoting their own company and got complacent in how successful they had once been.

To compensate for this, the company began raising prices. The impractical “chunky bars” rose in price in the time I was at the company from £12.99 to £14.99, while cakes for 10 servings jumped from £35.99 to £40+. Commissions that staff had got and were promised for another quarter for bespoke cake consultations disappeared with no warning. They began outsourcing more and more chocolate, reducing the cocoa content of the chocolate they DID create, and staff began leaving. I thought the high turnover was normal. If you’ve watched the show, you know that Dave made all the magic happen. Well, people like Dave started leaving. Once the two Christines decided they didn’t like a member of staff, they would quietly sit and gather evidence of the smallest infractions until they had enough to fire you or play hardball until you quit before they could pull the trigger. I saw this happen to many, many members of staff in my time there. Luckily, they always seemed to like me, but I have a feeling that if I’d stayed any longer the same would have happened to me. It happened to their own son, who they demoted from operations manager in favour of the london store manager. He got no say in this. They never gave the new operations manager the payrise for her promotion for the year plus that she held the position (until closing) and they regularly expected her to work 6/7 day weeks as they refused to replace staff that were leaving. She was expected to continue to manage the london branch as well as manager the operations for the entire company. She HAD to work these hours just to make sure there was a senior member of staff in the building. This was around the time I decided the stress and constant crying when I finished my shift every night was too much, and I made the very hard decision to leave despite not having anything else lined up. I was in a fortunate position of living with my parents and having a safety net. Not everyone else had that. 

Since I left the company, things only deteriorated further. The Carnaby Street store (just off oxford circus, in central london) was deemed too expensive to rent, and they moved to covent garden, to a location my former manager oh-so affectionately refers to as “crack alley”. It was unsafe and I’ve been told that staff closing up in the evenings would regularly have to ask for backup as they would feel at risk within the store. The size of the team started to dwindle (the whole company was 50+ strong over both stores and the studios when I was there, it was 20-30 when it shut and the london store alone had 6/7 members of staff). More members of staff left without replacements. Then the inevitable happened - Dave reduced his hours, with an intention to leave, leaving very few people in the studio able to actually make the cakes (which were often dry and poorly made as it was, people regularly found bits of plastic in the cafe cakes and the cafes never even got what they ordered in the first place). Being incredibly secretive about her processes, Christine had staff sign an NDA to know the ‘secret formula’ for the modelling chocolate. Like it’s a goddamn krabby patty. So when Dave began to move away and the other staff from the studio moved on as well, instead of training anyone new to make the cakes, Chris decided she would just... price people out of them. She’d long since abandoned any premise of making affordable versions of her cakes for weddings and raised the minimum price of a bespoke design from £450 to £2,500!!!! The one thing her company was well known for and she priced everyone out of it. Just because she’s made a few cakes for celebrities (I helped design one for Jack Whitehall while I was there, but other big names include Tinie Tempah, Johnny Depp, Kylie Minogue, Boy George, the Game of Thrones launch party....) she arrogantly believed that her entire clientele could afford this, when actually her entire clientele was children who loved the show and their hard working families. These people simply cannot afford £50 for a 10 portion cake, or £30 for a slice of cake and a drink in a cafe. £5 for an outsourced chocolate coin! £20 for a bar of chocolate! She was out of touch, and arrogant, and stubborn. Other companies do it better and cheaper and she refused to ever acknowledge her competition, let alone follow through on any plans to be better.

The staff who were made redundant were barely even informed. No notice. They were told they had to vacate the building and haven’t even been paid for their last week of work, while the Brighton store continued trading for nearly a week. Because the company hadn’t gone into administration yet, they aren’t even able to claim redundancy from the government. Couples who have paid an eye watering amount of money for bespoke wedding cakes are being left up shit creek without a paddle while Christine retires to her bloody house in france to lick her wounds.

Other thoughts:

- Doggymoggydoodah was a shit idea, and poorly executed. - I’ve never met such a homophobic lesbian. She forced the manager to leave the building so she could drill her about her sex life without the repercussions of having these conversations inside the building because she knew she could get done for it if she did. - She’s a bully, plain and simple - the youtube channel posted a video YESTERDAY. who the fuck is posting on there? there’s been no action in 6 months and NOW IS THE TIME TO TELL ME HOW TO CUT ONE OF YOUR CAKES? - my old assistant manager literally robbed the company of several thousand pounds because she knew that christine couldn’t be bothered to get her security cameras fixed :) they couldn’t even get the proof to fire/charge her and had to settle for bullying her out of the company - christine would make us tell customers that we melted down display pieces to reduce waste but actually we just broke them down with a hammer and threw them in the bin. enjoy looking at that luxury easter egg knowing i literally stomped on it so it would fit in a binbag - that glitter on the cakes is not edible. it’s just non-toxic. - the chocolate they use for the modelling tastes vile. - the london stores had biiiiig rat/mice problems. We had to kill them ourselves! We trapped them in glue traps and stamped on them! I GOT PAID FOR THAT! - the brighton store was filthy and gross behind the scenes! If you’ve ever eaten in that cafe then I am sorry but the staff there didn’t like to clean :)  - that whole burlesque vibe isn’t child friendly, stop trying to combine the two, a cartoon drawing of your naked ass doesn’t belong in a cookery book you narcissistic twat!! - your chocolate is impractical and horrific to actually try and eat. there. I said it. it tasted good though. until you discontinued all my favs :(

THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE. THIS IS NOT A SHOCK. THIS BUSINESS HAS BEEN POORLY RUN AND UNABLE TO ADAPT FROM THE GET GO. Please don’t keep feeding this woman’s ego. She needs a sharp dose of reality and to face up to all the staff that she has let down. I was lucky to get out when I did but I know single mothers, people trying to afford to live in london who are now completely screwed over and out of a job. People who have given their lives to this dysfunctional company. I begged them to leave because I felt like this was going to happen but they were too loyal and devoted, and wanted it to turn around. My former boss is owed nearly £5k that she’s never going to get, and all those customers who put deposits down or heaven forbid paid the full balance on their cakes are without refunds AND cakes! Just please stop idolising Christine Taylor and look at the situation before you say how shocking and sad it is. 

Yes, this company was magical. But that ended a long time ago.

[serendipityswift]

first impressions of lover

ok i’m going to write down my first impressions to each of the songs; mostly for my own good and to get some of these feelings out 

i forgot that you existed: bop! girl is over everything that’s happened to her. it truly feels like her moving on from reputation. she’s still singing about what she sang about in rep, but it just feels lighter? she’s no longer hurting, she truly can’t give a shit about people who fucked her over anymore. 

fav lyric: in my feelings more than drake, so yeah 

cruel summer: single material if i’ve ever heard one! i swear to god if this is another getaway car situation omg... i fucking love this song so fucking much. like, it doesn’t sound sad, but once you hear the lyrics, damn it hurts. she still thinks she’s bad news, like her loving someone will only hurt that person... yeah, ouch. i think sometimes we forget how hard it must’ve been for her to get together with joe, to allow herself to open up again, but this song really shows it. definitely teared up knowing, even just half, of the situation she was in. 

fav lyric: i don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you / devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes 

lover: one of my immediate favs on the album. for obvious reasons. my first impression was literally just sobbing lmfao, and being happier for her than i’ve ever really been for myself. 

fav lyric: with every guitar string scar on my hand i take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover 

the man: this was one of the song i was most excited for! and she absolutely did not disappoint. like, honestly, looking at her career and the way the media and people perceive her... just imagine if she was a man. look at how fucking successful she is, and the hate she gets, just imagine if she was a man? and it’s things every woman fears, it’s thoughts we all have. the lyrics are so smart and powerful and so, incredibly, true - even if society refuses to admit it. it’s like blank space, but even more mature and just so, insanely smart. also, her use of ‘bitch’ in this song? absolute genius. 

fav lyric: i’m so sick of running as fast as i can, wondering if i’d get there quicker if i was a man / if i was flashing out my dollars, i’d be a bitch not a baller 

the archer: immediately one of my favourite songs she’s ever put out, and still one of my favourites on this album. i’ve never related to a song so much before tbh, like, it may not seem like her saddest song ever, but when it describes everything you’ve been feeling for the last 4 years... it hurts more than any breakup song. the buildup and structure of this song is incredible, and i can’t stress how important it is to me enough. i want to cry every single time i listen to this song sigh, but i’m so grateful to finally have it into words. 

fav lyric: who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay? / all my heroes die all alone, help me hold onto you / they see right through me, can you see right through me? / all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put me together again / all of my enemies started out friends / cruelty wins in the movies, i’ve got a hundred thrown out speeches i almost said to you 

i think he knows: what a fucking bop omg. the sexual innuendos? yes. combined with the innocence? incredible. a little tongue and cheek, makes me smile and bop along to it. the lust and attraction and just all the cute feelings towards someone that we all know. 

fav lyric: lyrical smile, indigo eyes, hand on my thigh, we can follow the sparks, i’ll drive

miss americana and the heartbreak prince: ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SONGS ON THE ALBUM, ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SONGS OF ALL TIME. i sobbed my eyes out listening to it, sobbing listening to it again. it describes the fear we all felt in 2016, even someone living hours and hours and hours away in nz. the fear we felt for the world and those around us, the anger and fear we still feel every single day. it’s the pain we don’t know how to vocalise, scared we’ll say something wrong and literally get hurt. she’s so brave, this song is so brave. this song is metaphorically, lyrically and sonically incredible. it’s just insane. 

fav lyric: the whole school is rolling fake dice, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes / i’m feeling helpless, the damsels are depressed. boys will be boys then, where are the wise men?  

paper rings: what. a. fucking. bop. i can’t stop smiling and singing along even though idk the lyrics yet. also, all the references to old songs? and lowkey get fearless vibes but idk if i’m just too tired from it being almost 1am. i adore every single thing about this song. it’s realising you feel more for someone than you thought you did, then realising they’re the person you want to be with for the rest of your life. it’s literally everything. also, the stalking on the internet line? as relatable as any deepcut lyric she’s ever written. 

fav lyric: i like shiny things, but i’ll marry you with paper rings / i’m with you even if it makes me blue

cornelia street: i already knew this was coming, but this is 500% one of my favourite fucking songs of all time. sobbed my eyes out. still crying listening to this again for the second time. the references to other songs, the story of us? god. it describes everything you fucking feel when you just feel so damn much for a person. loving someone so much that a city becomes them, the city that she first arrived in single and represented her freedom. it now is him. when you love someone so fucking much that you know if, just if, they leave you; you’ll be broken forever. and it isn’t like every other time, it’s harder and they hold more of you than you ever thought someone could. it’s running because you’re so scared they’ll leave and you’ll lose everything, then coming back because you trust them enough to think that they’ll stay. but you’re still so fucking scared because they truly have all of you. 

fav lyric: i hope i never lose you, hope it never ends, i’d never work cornelia street again / sacred new beginnings that became my religion, listen 

death by a thousand cuts: i was mesmerised by this song. it’s a ‘happy’ sounding sad song. which i love. the juxtaposition of it all. also the entire second verse is literally one of my favourite things i’ve ever heard so tbh that entire verse is my favourite lyric. also, i kind of want someone to sing this as a sad ballad and see what it’s like ahahha 

fav lyric: my heart, my hips, my body, my love, trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch / our country, guess it was a lawless land / why are my fears at the touch of your hands? / paper cut stains from my paper-thin plans / my time, my wine, my spirit, my trust, trying to find a part of me you didn't take up / gave you so much, but it wasn't enough / i'll be alright, it's just a thousand cuts

london boy: ALL THE LONDON AND ENGLISH REFERENCES I CAN’T. as someone that lives in nz, the language she uses is so fucking funny and cute i can’t. also i keep thinking how ed taught her some of these things ahahha. and the nod to p!atd with “don’t threaten me with a good time” is so amazing. her reference to rugby? i’m taking all this luck by taylor and sending it to the all blacks thanks 

fav lyric: doesn't have to be louis v up on bond street just wanna be with you

soon you’ll get better: i already knew what this song was going to be about, but that didn’t stop my heart from literally shattering into a million pieces. andrea is so important to each of us, i cherish the day i met her and held her hand like no other, just imagine what she means to taylor. she was there when taylor had no one, when she felt so alone. andrea is so special, and it is just so fucking unfair that she needs to go through this. i hope, pray, anything that andrea can get better soon, make a full recovery. and i hope her entire family is okay. they’re all so loved, so incredibly loved. but, cancer, i just wish i knew how to beat it and can take all this pain away. i can’t even listen to it a second time right now because i’m too much of a wreck. that’s how much it hurts. i love taylor for sharing this with us. i love that taylor loves us enough to share this with us. 

fav lyric: but who am i supposed to talk to? what am i supposed to do if there is no you? / i’ll paint the kitchen neon, i’ll brighten up the sky, i know i’ll never get it, there’s not a day i don’t try 

false god: this is one of my favourite songs. it’s so perfectly simple. it’s exactly what this album needs. the religious references throughout this album is incredible, and the idea that their love itself is a greater force is so beautiful and incredible. it’s knowing that even though their love isn’t perfect, it’s what they choose. 

fav lyric: and i can't talk to you when you're like this, staring out the window like i’m not your favorite town. i'm new york city. i'd still do it for you, babe / and you can't talk to me when I'm like this, daring you to leave me just so i can try and scare you. you’re the west village. you still do it for me, babe 

you need to calm down: this beat cannot get unstuck from my head once it’s in there. and the music video is one of my favourites of all time, the amount of gay power? legendary. it’s not just about the lgbtq+ community though, it’s about everyone and acceptance and not caring about the shitty views around us, because they’re wrong and they don’t matter. it’s so wonderfully patronising to the ignorant people in the world and i love it. 

fav lyric: you would rather be in the dark ages making that sign, must’ve taken all night 

afterglow: i love this song, and i love how this is at the latter part of the album. it’s fighting knowing they’re the one for you, after knowing they’re your lover and paper rings. it’s taking responsibility for when you fuck up because you can’t stop your mind from spiralling. you can hear the anxiety in the lyrics and the pain knowing you’re hurting someone you love, but you can also hear the surety in the song that they’ll be okay, and that’s so fucking beautiful. 

fav lyric: why’d i have to break what i love so much?

ME!: taylor + panic i’m- they’re two of my favourite artists. this song by itself isn’t my favourite, but in the album, it suddenly all makes sense. this song is actually so catchy and uplifting and makes me smile. and it’s so weird listening to it without the “hey kids! spelling is fun!” ahhaha 

fav lyric: babydoll when it comes to a lover, i promise that you’ll never find another like me 

it’s nice to have a friend: this is so fucking cute i can’t even. i live for the simplicity of this. it’s just everything to me. the instrumental in the middle, the church bell sounds in the back, everything has changed mv vibes. mary’s song vibes. it’s so incredibly unique and special i love it. 

fav lyric: light pink sky up on the roof, sun sinks down, no curfew. 20 questions, we tell the truth

daylight: i’m so fucking proud of her. another song i sobbed my way through. she managed to write 3 years of experiences into less than 5 minutes. the references to red? she knew exactly how that will cut us, and how she once had this idealised, dramatic version of love. when she finally found the real deal, she realised it’s just golden. it’s light and different to anything she could’ve ever even imagined. it reminds me that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, even if i can’t always believe it. even though the darkness felt like 20 years for her, now she only sees daylight. not because things are perfect, but things are better. i can’t imagine a more perfect way for the album to end. 

fav lyric: i’ll tell you the truth but never goodbye / you are what you love / i once believed love would be burning red but it’s golden 

i can’t say whether lover is my favourite album yet, but it’s a special album that’s for sure. every song belongs there, and it tells a story unlike any she’s told before. there’s every spectrum of love on here, and everything just feels so real and personal; because she’s finally found the love she’s been writing about her whole life.  

[whitehotharlots]

M.I.A., Fariha Róisín, and the rhetorical triumph of passive listening

I’ve been thinking about the rise and fall of M.I.A., the might-aughts musical sensation who was briefly the most celebrated alternative pop artist in the world. 2004’s Piracy Funds Terrorism and 05’s Arular generated some of the most positive press I’d ever seen from outlets like Pitchfork (which, back then, still kinda counted as an alternative to dominant culture). 2007’s crossover hit Kala was one of the most genuinely dangerous and experimental records ever to enter the mainstream of American culture. Then... she just kinda went away. 

M.I.A.’s politics were miles beyond the limp, bland positivity of the era’s liberalism. She was literally militant, lending her support for the Tamil Tigers. A lyric on her song “Sunshowers,” (“Like the PLO I don’t surrender”), was considered dangerous enough that it got her banned from entering the US for several months.  This was not the fuzzy, feelgood liberalism of Obama, nor even the “fierceness” of someone like Beyonce, whose material accomplishments are considered a substitute for actual politics. This was a literal refugee woman telling the world that, actually, things really fucking suck, and if you want them to get better you you’re going to have to fight.

Of course, this engendered pushback--first and foremost from the “liberals” at Pitchfork. M.I.A. complained, rightfully, that music reviewers tended to give far too much credit to the male collaborators of female musicians. No one would attribute the genius of Purple Rain to Wendy and Lisa, so why did all of her reviewers spend so much time talking about Diplo? Pitchfork responded by viciously smearing her next album and accusing her of uneven and naive politics. Other outlets followed suit, and by the turn of the decade she had fallen out of mainstream favor.

And so you’d think, with recent developments, that the liberal-leaning press would have switched positions in regard to M.I.A., maybe even apologize for the horrible treatment she received. After all, the meat of her criticism is now practically unquestionable. And so I was confused by this article from affidavit.art, which is a rather woke-leaning website. The piece’s author, Fariha Róisín, purports to demonstrate herself taking a nuanced and forgiving tack toward M.I.A., but in doing so she reinforces some of the most reactionary and regressive impulses of our current social justice paradigm. In reading through it, seeing how deftly it continues to smear M.I.A. for the crime of being a genuinely dissident artist, we can get a good bead on the self-destructive tendencies of wokeism.

Róisín’s article is a personal reflection upon her relationship with M.I.A. as an artist, starting with her infatuation with the M.I.A’s early work, and moving into political disappointment that culminated in her asking hostile questions to the artist at a MoMa panel. She frames things by explaining

I hadn’t listened to Maya’s [M.I.A.’s] work in a couple of years, after she somewhat embarrassingly responded off the cuff to a question about Black Lives Matter: “Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters?”

MIA’s comment, I would argue, is tone-deaf. Within the context that Róisín presents it, it certainly comes across as insensitive. The US criminal justice system is a world-historic atrocity that has ruined countless lives. It should be discussed in stark terms, and it’s fine to criticize someone who appears to not regard it with the severity it deserves.

But let’s look at MIA’s full quote, as it appeared in The Daily Standard:

“It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter. It’s not a new thing to me — it’s what Lauryn Hill was saying in the 1990s, or Public Enemy in the 1980s. Is Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question. And you cannot ask it on a song that’s on Apple, you cannot ask it on an American TV programme, you cannot create that tag on Twitter, Michelle Obama is not going to hump you back”

Knowing anything about MIA’s personal history makes it clear that she did not intend to diminish the horrors of American judicial violence. When one reads the full quote (oh, the horror of having to parse an entire paragraph!), it’s clear she’s stressing a bigger picture here, criticizing the fact that the vast majority of US liberals still refuse to criticize US militarism, even as they’ve become near-pathological in defining themselves as social justice crusaders. She is, in short, criticizing the ineffective and narrow politics of people like Róisín.

I cannot speak for Kendrick and Beyonce in specific, but I have known dozens of putatively woke people--people who consume all the right cultural artifacts, who would never speak over a black person in a workplace meeting, who have been very vocal critics of police violence for upwards of 4 whole years--who still proudly celebrate the armed forces.

Through direct military action, support for brutal dictatorships, and otherwise meddling in the affairs of other countries in pursuit of our own financial interests, the American Military Industrial Complex has been the single biggest purveyor of human suffering worldwide for the past 70-odd years. They have killed literally tens of millions of people, ruined the lives of a few hundred million more, and immiserated billions. US foreign policy spends trillions of dollars killing brown people and enriching a handful of elites. And, to most American wokeists, that constitutes at best a complicated situation worthy of consideration and debate--unlike, say, someone who supports the wrong movie to win best picture, or who doesn’t celebrate Cardi B--these people deserve uniform and unambiguous condemnation. This perplexing mindset is what M.I.A/ was criticizing.

Of course, those who operate within this mindset are going to reject this criticism. They will refuse to just listen to those who question their approach to social justice. They will speciously declare such criticism as evidence of the evil nature of the person who uttered it, demand the “cancellation” of said person, and use all criticisms of their condemnation as proof of their own righteousness--if what they were saying wasn’t good and true, then why did so many bad and wrong people disagree with it?

Unless, that is, they take so-called “nuanced” route outlined by Róisín. In the face of overwhelming evidence of the vicious self-certainty of her peers, Róisín  attempts to deflect such criticism by introducing a new plane of equivocation. MIA isn’t evil, she says. The artist is just deeply ignorant, a defect born of her inability to listen in the correct manner:

Cancelling people is exhilarating, especially when it’s done by marginalized folks, those who so often experience the world through white supremacy—sometimes as a soft and subtle barrage, other times through vicious and terrifying means. The ability to dictate someone’s fate, when you’ve long been in the shadows, is a kind of victory. Like saying “Fuck You” from underneath the very heavy sole of a very old shoe. But while outrage culture has its merits, nuance has evaporated. So often it involves reducing someone to their mistakes, their greatest hits collection of fuck-ups.

This does not mean that we should simply forgive an untoward statement. It certainly does not mean we should try to understand where that statement came from. Nor does it even mean we should read a statement within the context of the full paragraph in which it appeared. Oh no. It means, instead, we should ascribe that statement to ignorance:

What I believe Maya is trying to say is that American issues have become global. What she lacks the language to say is: how do we also care about the many millions of people around the world who are dying, right now? Why does American news, American trauma, American death, always take center-stage?

It’s pretty fucking insulting to insist that M.I.A. “lacks language.” But Róisín makes the exact same assertion again, a few paragraphs later.  She ends the lead-in to her description of the moment in which she calls out M.I.A. (which is interminably long and ponderous) with the following, deeply chilling quote: “You can understand Maya’s perspective without agreeing with her, but I had another question. How do you hold someone you love accountable?” Indeed. Even if you try in earnest to understand someone’s perspective, that does not absolve you of your duty to punish them for their word-crimes.

During the talk, M.I.A, rightfully, defended herself against accusations of racism. We can all agree that’s a mistake. In reality, it’s a mistake because wokeists considering defending oneself to constitute proof of guilt. In “nuanced” woke framing, it’s a mistake because it reveals a refusal to just listen:

Her incomprehension that people could be upset by her remarks reflected her naivety about how the internet kills its darlings. Two weeks prior to our meeting, Stephon Clark was murdered, shot twenty times in the back by two police officers. To this she responded: “Yeah, well no-one remembers the kid in Syria who is being shot right now either. Or the kid that’s dying in Somalia.” It made me wonder if she was unwell, not on a Kanye level, but just enough to lack the mechanisms it takes to understand perspective.

[ … ]

Laconic and aloof, I remind Maya on stage that anti-blackness is not an American issue, it’s universal. Perhaps it’s ego, or shameful anger, but I know she cares. Before she begins to speak I realize that you have to build empathy when someone fails you. That they’re not yours to own. You have to try your best to talk to them, and that it’s never helpful to reduce them to a punchline. I believe in Maya’s possibility to grow. I believe in the possibility of change. Maybe that’s my own naivety, but it’s also my political stance. It’s not about compromising ideology, or even making space for the existence of those ideas. It’s about creating dialogue. She begins to speak, and I listen. Holding space for her when I can without biting my tongue. But, mainly, asserting myself as hard as I can, with as much compassion as the situation deserves. We are sisters in this fight, and we’re butting heads—but both critique and accountability are important. So I remind her with a glance, with an interjection, that I’m here to talk, too.

Ascribing an ideological disagreement to one side’s refusal to listen to the other side is perhaps the laziest form of argument. It is, after all, the preferred tactic of Jordan Peterson’s idiot fans. The assumption is that one side is manifestly correct, and so the only way someone could disagree with them is they didn’t bother to listen to what that side had to say. Even if they claim to have listened, they must have listened incorrectly. Otherwise, they would certainly agree with what the other person was saying.

Róisín takes this process well beyond the Peterson fans’ simple wailing of “you need to watch more of his videos!”  She instead crafts an ethos of false humility out of a long and detailed description of attempting to not dismiss MIA’s viewpoint even as she does exactly that, of announcing how little pleasure she’s taking in describing the manifest evil of the horrible, ignorant pop star.  

This displays the bizarre definition of “listening” as the act of simply remaining silent while another person speaks. You’ll notice that Róisín doesn’t bother to cite anything M.I.A. said--it’s unlikely she retained anything, other than perhaps appropriate pull-quote that would, outside of context, allow her to present the artist as an ignorant racist. Listening remains, by definition, a unidirectional affair. But turning it into a completely passive act turns it into a powerful rhetorical tool. Listeners need not attempt to understand speakers (that might actually go against the spirit of proper Listening). It’s still okay to demonize someone for something they never actually said. The power of passive listening is that it allows us to feign humility and claim its mantle of righteousness, to disguise dismissal as empathy.

Those who have actually studied race theory might notice a pretty incredible contradiction in Róisín’s penultimate paragraph. Her belief that anti-blackness is a universal constant is perhaps ascendent now, at least within middlebrow woke media. But this is by no means an accepted understanding within actual scholarship: Adolph Reed, Barbara and Karen Fields, Asad Haider, Walter Benn-Michaels, Stephen Steinberg, and Kenneth Warren would all strongly disagree with such an assertion.

Broadly, these scholars (and dozens of others, all erased by Róisín) argue that such a conception of anti-blackness is actually incredibly regressive, as it is based on an understanding of race that cannot be combatted through personal or political action. If Róisín had bothered to actually listen--in the sense where she not only received but actively engaged with what other people were saying--she might not have made such a comment. But that’s not what she does. That’s not what is safe. That’s not what is possible. What is safe, and possible, and popular is exactly what Róisín does in this article: she presents an incredibly imperious argument in the guise of pathological humility; her perspective becomes validated precisely because of its dismissiveness. Nevermind its self-contradictions. Nevermind its profound inefficacy. She’s right, her critics are wrong, and that is all that anyone is allowed to say.

[pavlagomba]

Sleep-over in a Bhutanese monastery

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“Wow! You will sleep in a monastery with sixty monks practicing tantra?” My best friend’s voice reflected awe, worry, concern and even readiness for the same endeavour when I told her about my plans for the mission to Bhutan.

“Relax, cool down. Monks have to observe strict celibacy. They can’t even shake a woman’s hand,” I tried to dispel a common misconception about the Buddhist tantra that is often held by (not only) Czech people. “And after all, the majority of them are children – it is a monastic school.”

The Chorten Nyingpo monastery in the Kabjisa region was built more than 350 years ago. Before then, this place was deemed cursed, full of evil demons, and people were too frightened to come near. Drukpa Kuenley, the “divine madman” and distinguished lama, who lived in the 15th century had fortunately changed that. From the opposite hill, he threw a burned stick at the cursed hillock, by which he purified the place and expelled all demons. The stick took root and grew into shadowy, twisted tree that dominates the monastery main gate up to this day.

Unsurprisingly, even the way up to the monastery is deeply spiritual. After you leave the main tarmac road and drive along a narrow track in a steep slope, you will hurriedly say your prayers hoping that there will not be any vehicle in the opposite direction because you wouldn’t stand a chance in trying to pass by. If you are fortunate enough and make it up the hill into 2,7000 metres above sea level, on the left you can admire a breathtaking view of the white walls protecting the main temple. As if it was a fairy tale! If the villagers burn the grass before new planting, veiling the monastery into a puff of mystical smoke, the scene might bring tears to your eyes, as it did to mine.

Chorten Ningpo is a monastic school that prepares boys for their livelong mission. A few years ago, UNICEF built a source of drinking water, washrooms and toilets here, and now continues working with the teachers so that, in addition to mastering rituals and memorizing holy text, young monks obtain standard education and have also the possibility to play games, do sports, and are protected from bullying, violence, and abuse. It used to be a common practice for the Bhutanese families to send one of their sons to a monastery. Today, however, wealthier parents prefer to send their children to schools and universities abroad, and so monasteries rather cater for orphaned children or children of poorer background.

I am curious what has changed since my visit last year!

First and foremost, the monastery has a new head. Lama Nado (my Bhutanese colleague Phuntsho tells me that in the Dzongkha language that means dark) meets us for the first time and is quite reserved. He lifts the door curtain of the main room where teachers stay and beckons us to enter. First of all, we are invited to drink butter tea sudja that is inseparable from every visit in Bhutan. A surprisingly cold, wood-panelled room is decorated with pictures of the royal dynasty on one wall and all manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, on the other wall. A blue carpet lies on the floor, sheer luxury! Swarms of bees on the carpet that look as if they were still alive. That hunch was correct as painfully confirmed by my colleague Phuntsho. I attempt to explain the objectives of our mission in a friendly and yet fair and humble tone – and it paid off in the end: I noticed a faint smile on lama Nado’s face. Perhaps he had just been stressed by the visitors from abroad and relieved his anxiety once it turned out that we are quite normal.

Young monks’ day starts even before the dawn – at 4:30 in the morning. Two teachers wake them up by banging the gong that is strategically placed in front of the boys’ bedrooms. Within a few minutes, first little figures wrapped in red robes leave the rooms and descend the stairs to the bathrooms. The teachers keep banging, they are now faster and more insistent, so in a quarter of an hour no sleepyhead stays in the bed. Breakfast? Not even close. At five o’clock, young monks sit on the floor of the classroom muttering their prayers. That takes an hour, then the lessons begin. They are not much different from prayers: boys recite holy texts; however, they are less coordinated and shout at one another.

By the law, the monasteries should only accept children that are at least seven years old. Yet the smallest children here look younger – five or six years old. The cause of this may lie in the fact that every fifth child in Bhutan is stunted due to mother’s anaemia and chronic malnutrition in pregnancy or undernourishment in their first years of life. That is damage that cannot be compensated later.

First meal of the day is served at eight. Small monks are awake for more than four hours, and unlike me, they look quite fresh and lively. Breakfast picnic! Looking at two rows of monks sitting on the grass in front of the main sanctuary, I just cannot avoid thinking about this association. Older monks serve rice and chilli from big bowls. All of them must be terribly hungry, yet each of them first makes a small rice roll as an offering and puts it aside. This is eagerly awaited by the dogs that live in the monastery. Bhutanese people believe that a dog is the closest reincarnation to a man. As a result, any good you do to a dog you are likely to be rewarded for even within this life. If by any chance the supreme judge of karma decided that I was too naughty in this life and couldn’t possibly return as a human, I wouldn’t mind becoming a dog in the Chorten Ningpo monastery :-).

After breakfast, it is again time for study. The boys stay in the classroom for the entire morning. At one o’clock, young monks get lunch: the most modest meal of the day consisting of tea and few biscuits. This is a great time for having a siesta – waking up very early made me so tired that part of my body would relish a nice afternoon nap. “Will they go to bed now?” I ask full of hope. Lama Nado smiles faintly: “No, no, they must study more. It requires discipline and self-restraint to become a monk!”

The boys come back to the room, and though I am dead tired, I pretend to be very involved and excited. The afternoon is time for rituals. The boys take turns in groups scattered around the monastery: they practice their musical instruments (thought there is not enough of them for every boy, so some young monks substitute a trumpet with their robes), or they made ritual objects from dough, older ones devote their time to “religious polemic”. This means that half of them sit on the lawn and the second standing group “demolish” them with arguments. The topic is prayer flag colours: white stands for purity/wind, blue represents water, green is for nature, red is for fire, and yellow is the colour of the earth. I’m trying to find out more about this when a group of young monks pulling a body of a dead dog disturbs this philosophical debate. Each of them holds one of the dog´s leg and even though it is unlikely for a dog to be so heavy, tiny boys’ backs bend under its weight. My surprised face made lama Nado explode with laugher: “No, the dog is not dead. They only have it castrated down in the village.” And he points to a pile of wood behind the sanctuary from where I hear many whimpering weak noises. Perhaps, I will need to rethink my reincarnation plans.

The sun approaches the summits and ancient trees surrounding the monastery cast dense shadows. Lama prepared afternoon tea for us. Now it is black, without milk, yummy! The monks brought the kitchen table outside, and I realize how special this moment is. “Are there any tourists here?” I ask. “Recently, we have had more of them. They built a new hotel down in the valley and the tourists sometimes visit us too. One American donor even pays an English teacher who arrives once a week.” It is just a matter of time when someone finds out that the tourist who pay 1.2000 dollars a night won’t hesitate to pay at least as much for a picnic with a lama. The unique magic of this place will be lost though. I secretly wish that tourist found a different source of amusement. And I am even more proud of UNICEF’s programs that always respect the local tradition and culture, wherever we work.

“For monks, water and hygiene is very important. Since the bathrooms were built, the boys have been sick only rarely, even in winter. Before that they had often developed skin diseases or infections, but it has radically improved lately. Water is also needed for rituals in the temple. Anyway, we need to extend the source of water because it is dying down.” The monastery has also embarked upon higher monks’ education and stirred up considerable interest that necessitates increasing the capacity from 50 to 100 beds and building a proper retreat facility. In order to become a lama, you need to spend 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, and 3 hours meditating in a secluded place without any contact with other people.

At five o’clock we have dinner. Young monks gather in the dining room. Every boy carries his own metal plate. He will need to wash it on his own after dinner. It is practical: older monks who are in charge of the kitchen do not have to bother with all plates but clean only big pots in which they cook – nothing other than – rice and chilli sauce. Most monasteries are vegetarian as ordered by the chief abbot. Nothing surprising in a country where Buddhism is recognized as a state religion and slaughterhouses are banned. On the other hand, a lack of proteins contributes to anaemia in 44% of Bhutanese children. 15 years ago, it was a terrifying 80 percent. Among other things, the percentage decreased thanks to UNICEF’s programme at primary schools that started “iron Thursday” and advocated for the fortification of salt with iron.

Today’s dinner in Chorten Ningpo would not please nutrition specialists – again it consists of rice and chilli. That is why asking children here about their favourite food is ridiculous. They eat whatever they get. That is monk’s life: they do not eat when they are hungry, they do not rest when tired, they do not wear what they would like to wear – austerity and adherence to a strict routine is a way of fulfilling their duty.

The dinner is silent. Extraordinary, considering how many children are there. Noble silence is probably part of a ritual, and I am grateful for it right now because I am at the end of my tether, too exhausted to talk. Some boys gather in bigger groups while others sit alone or with one mate – I am thinking about what kinds of relationships can be forged in the artificial environment where the youngest children are unsupported by parents and must be largely self-reliant.

It must be difficult for the newcomers to get used to following such a strict programme. While other young monks go outside to wash their plates, seven-year-old Younten, who has been living in the monastery only for three months, stands behind the dining room with eyes full of tears. He is embarrassed by strangers, so he swiftly dries the tears, tidies his robe, and joins his mates. His parents separated and he had to live with his grandma. She was, however, too frail to take care of a small child. So the monastery is the only Younten’s option. He has to get used to it.

Separation from the family is the only disadvantage that 17-year-old Dawa Tashi, the best student of the school, mentions as well. He has been living here for five years and has coped with it so well that he sometimes looks more self-confident than the lama himself. “I like it here. The major benefit of being a monk is profound wisdom and knowledge. I would like to become a teacher and be a role-model for the others,” he says determinedly. I trust him.

Time after dinner brings some leisure pursuit. The monks set up a net on a holy tree, wrap their robes around the knees so that the clothes won’t bother them, and one of the monks brings a volleyball. Even though it is getting dark and the ball is hard to see, the boys keep playing, passing, setting and hitting the ball – relishing every single moment of being children again.

But Younten does not play. Perhaps he is too small for volleyball or not in the team yet. He sits by the pile of wood and plays with eight little puppies. Lama Nado expresses sympathy for that. He sits next to Younten and speaks with him while the puppies are biting their toes. Some people might say that this is too cute to be true, I am thinking as I look at the photos that I had taken. “Pavla, Pavla, mother is coming back!” my colleague Phuntsho cries with urgency. She worries that the puppies’ mother may attack me. I’d rather take a step back.

The monastery and its surroundings were plunged into complete darkness, and I am looking forward to creeping into my tiny room on the first floor. My mattress on the floor and a thick blanket look as if it was the best place in the whole universe after the exhausting day.

I should conclude with something wise. But the day has not yet ended for young monks! They hurry to the temple for an evening prayer. I can barely catch up with them. Recitation, songs, holy scrolls reading peppered with clinking and drumming – over and over again. Huh. The smallest kids also have enough. Some of them have fallen asleep in the lotus position with their heads falling forward and back until their mates poke them into their ribs to wake them up. The supervising teacher generously overlooks that. Every time the singing stops, I wish it were the end, but my hopes are dashed. The evening prayer last until eight p.m. – one and a half an hours. “It usually takes only an hour, but one villager passed away yesterday, and the relatives asked the monks for a prayer for his soul, so it’s longer today,” my colleague whispers to me.

Lama Nado finally gets up and leaves followed by the teachers. Hallelujah, done! But what is going on again? Young monks have to stay in the classroom! “They will have one more hour of study, their day ends at nine,” Phuntsho answers my unspoken question. And really, boys pick up their books and recite the texts even a bit louder than during the prayer. That made my jaw drop!

After nine they finally leave the classroom. The yellow light from the dining room glances softly. Lama Nado and I stand in the darkness outside and thought the window, we look at about ten boys sitting on the benches and sipping their tea from tin mugs. The dining room looks chilly and inhospitable. I wrap myself subconsciously into my jumper soaked with cool Himalayan air and ponder what warmth could a thin polyester fabric used for monks’ robes retain. “The evening tea is not compulsory, only some boys would come,” says Nadu. Five, ten minutes for tea, then they wash their faces and brush their teeth and at half past nine the boys are in their beds.  I thought that I would see a sky full of stars in the Himalayas. The air is clean and fresh, but the night is cloudy, so the only light steams from the hotel down in the valley.

I do not want any tea now. Because I would need to turn on light, tiptoe on creaky floorboards, go down the steep wooden stairs and then cross the whole 100-meter wide courtyard to enter the bathrooms at night. For now, I will not stick to my water intake.

Last glance at the sanctuary and the flags that take all prayers to heaven. At night, the monastery looks completely different than in the daylight. I feel great ADMIRATION and RESPECT for the small monks that did not choose this way of life.

I know that monasteries have a prominent role in the Bhutanese society which we, the foreigners, admire so much. And that monk’s life is devoted to discipline, modesty and self-denial which may ultimately lead into the enlightenment. Yet I can’t help thinking about their right to have a standard childhood. They have a right to be with their parents, right to play, right to rest, right to acquire standard education.

One night in the monastery has changed a lot for me. Now when I wake up in Prague in the morning, I have to think about how much these boys had already done. When I feel tired after work and glance at my watches, I count how many hours more the monks will have to study. I decided that I will never complain again when I am in a hurry, exhausted or drained. And one more thing: I am proud that we take a small part in supporting these children to have clean water and hygiene facilities. Together with the local authorities, we work on improving the conditions these children live in – helping to protect the special and irreversible period that is called CHILDHOOD.

Photo Pavla Gomba and Vít Bělohradský, translation Petra Běličová.

[basshouse]

Of Politics and Road Trips

Welp, it seems like the time has come to address one of the gnarliest and most frequently asked questions of all time.  To be clear, that's gnarly for me and to me, respectively.  I’d also like to memorialize a recent road trip.  Before I start, though, let’s get grounded in the current context: it’s late summer IN MARCH; We are headed intro autumn, and there has been enough early snow that Mount Hutt was open for skiing (what?!?!).  I started my new job at Jade Software; the kids started a new school year in January, with Anily headed off to her first year of high school (5 years of high school here); both kids have changed to a new soccer club, which is much closer to the house (thank god); Anily made the A team; James is playing soccer and basketball and ridiculous amounts of Fortnite.  It’ll soon be a year that we’ve been here. We are right in the middle of a full 12 weeks of visitors and trips from/to the US. And in case you were wondering, the cat has managed to escape through open windows and doors a few times, but he’s always come back so I guess he’s ours for real :-)  

I still haven't submitted my dreadfully complicated tax return.  I am seriously procrastinating, and having visitors and reasons to road trip is helping/hurting. 

So!  BFGFAQ (big fat gnarly...you get it): It’s the political one.  From the Kiwis this usually comes in the form of “are you a Trump refugee?” or “what do you make of what’s going on over there?”  And even if it’s not an explicit question, how can I possibly answer the most frequent Q of all time -- “why did you move to New Zealand?” without considering how the political landscape of the US factored in?  I mean, you don't just up and move across the globe and leave a great place and a fabulous life without at least a mental checklist of pros and cons.  At least, most of us wouldn't.  And if you’re a grown-up (which we sadly have established that I am) and a contributing, aware, member of society (which I would argue that I am), your list must include considerations of the way your taxes are spent and people are treated in the place you live and how the outcomes of those things impact your lifestyle, your life, and the lives of other human beings.  Right? Right!  

MAJOR UPDATE:  A handful of days after I posted this, someone (likely an asshole white supremacist) shot and killed people in a CHCH mosque.  The city is still in lock down as I write this.  It is terrible and sad that  things like this happen anywhere, ever.  And I just want to say that as you read the ideas below, I’ll be watching closely the response of the NZ government.  

If there’s one thing that moving around the world to a place you’ve never been before, with a small family and no friends, and taking up a real life with a paycheck and a rent and a job does really well, it’s create an opportunity to reflect on the differences between where you were and where you are.  It also is extremely useful for considering, in a very real way, how the values you hold are (or are not) reflected in both a political system and a local way of living.  You really notice how political decisions, socioeconomic forces and cultural norms trickle into investments, infrastructure, bureaucracy, language, aesthetics, and interactions that impact you as you move through your day-to-day and learn how to get things done.  And because you’re an observer who is trying to become an insider, you may operate with less bias and pre- disposition to judge, more of a natural curiosity and interest in gathering information and then assimilating it and deciding over time. Chalk one up for perspective!  Happy to say this was the kind of experience and growth I hoped we’d all get through this adventure. 

Now, from the Americans this question usually comes in the form of something like “OMG, are you so glad you’re not here for this?” or “are public healthcare and lack of gun violence really as amazing as they seem from here?”.  Because, like me, most people I talk with on a regular basis feel something like this:

t least you do now, thanks to Willie Wonka’s and friend above, and this: 

So while I am not here in NZ without political bias or personal ideas of what’s right, wrong and important, I am more open minded to considering what’s good for this country and this context, and I have a stronger appreciation for the complexities of things all across the board since I’ve now gathered more data and had more experience. 

So, my American friends, in the interest of helping you draw some of your own conclusions, here is a segment I like to call Fact, Figures and Feelings:

America is amazing.  You have SO much of everything.  Including great food, tons of money, vast political power, and a really noticeable amount of homeless people.  I mean!  When I was in San Jose I felt so conflicted by both where to go for every meal and the fact that to get where I wanted to go I was uncomfortable with my own feelings and anxiety about possible conflict with the homeless and mentally ill folks I passed constantly. And it was often while I was walking into a convention center full of people trying to give away millions of dollars, listening to speakers who had made millions through technology. And while the dog adoption station on site and the furry friends in it made me feel a little better in the moment, could there be anything more cliche? Embarrassing. And yet is it fundamentally bad to have cute dogs making rich people feel good and maybe getting adopted?  No.  But it maybe uniquely American. 

Know what else you have a lot of, USA?  DRAMA.  Seriously.  The NZ morning news is usually about 25-50% reporting on the shitshow that is US and Brexit, and it turns out that when people say “if you get homesick, just listen to the news” they are correct.  

So what about NZ?  Well, when you live in a country with SO MANY FEWER (like so many!) people and a much smaller GDP, your reality is very different.  Not so loud.  Not so busy.  Not so many options. Much much simpler and frankly, it feels more sane. But we know the Mexican food sucks.  So... six of one/half dozen of the other?  This is what I am saying: I cannot tell you if Enchiladas and Aveda products make up for dealing with the opioid crisis if you’re seeing it every day, or if leaving Tito’s vodka and a much higher salary on the table is balanced out by the fact that police here in CHCH carried guns last week and this is how people think about it: 

FUN FACT: During the “summer holidays” (December-Jan), the morning news show on public radio literally went off air.  They replaced it with special summer programming, mostly dedicated to personal profiles and reviews of music and activities.  The only headlines they read each day were almost entirely about the US (shut downs) and UK (Brexit).  Apparently it’s possible for time off to extend to politics and news.  WOW.  Just notice how you feel about that. 

Now, NZ is certainly not the rainbows and unicorns utopia we liberals like to think a place with a public healthcare system and affordable education and far fewer guns will be -- there’s a growing imbalance in the distribution of wealth, the abortion laws are archaic, affordable housing is a big issue, nurses and teachers strike because they don’t get paid enough.

Politics was not the only motivator for our move, but we considered it -- sure seemed like a nice time to be out of the US, and it is.  It’s certainly not a clear #NZFTW-100% -they -nailed-it situation, though.  Every place and every system has its bad sides, and I have a lot to learn to really decide how the pros and cons balance out. All I know is that it’s really, really nice to be in a place where the political conversation is much simpler and more focused on politics and their outcomes on people than on hateful rhetoric. I am disappointed when I think of the lost opportunity due to the amount of resources you are wasting on unproductive, unkind conversations in the USA, when you have so much.  I feel bad for not being there to help stand up for the rights of people I believe in, but when you don't wake up angry every day at the headlines and the people you share space with, when the dialog is a little more open and productive, when the headlines are not so likely to be violent and sad, you start with a much better mental health baseline. You just can’t eat a great caesar salad whenever you feel like it, and it’s expensive as hell to leave the island and you don’t get paid enough to be able to do it often, which may really stress you out. For now, I’m really ok with it. But over time will the flaws in the NZ system (every system has them) outweigh the positive?  Do the opportunities in the US outweigh the negative? 

In the interest of letting you form some your own opinions: Take a look at the the top headlines of 2018 in New Zealand.  They include a pregnant PM; visits from Ed Sheeran, the Royals, and Obama; a handful of natural disasters; a bunch of news about other countries and sports; and the BIG BIG Drama which “unfolded over several deeply uncomfortable days” and ended in a minister being briefly admitted to a mental health facility and broad discussions about mental health.  Consider if the US was as concerned about its politicians’ mental health when they did crazy shit :-). 

Oh also, this is my CEO at work on Friday (hee hee): 

So far this year Lime Scooters (people get hurt on them, and people break the rules and double ride with no helmets -- gasp!) and the potential of a capital gains tax have been in the news pretty much daily. And that’s about it. Boring? Yes! Nice? Also yes! Did you know NZ is the only country in the OECD to not have a CGT? Are you impressed with my knowledge of initialisms? Worldly is the word you’re looking for to describe me.

I know, it looks like I am pooping on a trail, but I am actually doing squats mid-hike IN A SKIRT.  Probably gives me enough credibility to become a world leader, or at least present these numbers for your consideration: 

Now that you have something to think about -- because you weren't already thinking about politics enough (sorry!) -- let’s turn to a less political, but more important spiritual and philosophical topic: The Art of the Road Trip.

Pro tip: It’s easier to be a Road Trip Rembrandt with the right tools -- like these:

Mountains + Vans = Roadtrip Masterpiece

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the things we’ve been doing a lot of is road tripping. Not so different from Seattle, eh? True. But since we can surf so close to the house and we have such a beautiful country to explore and a slightly less active social life, the road trips are more frequent and more varied.  As we are all happiest when we’re in the flow and hitting the right balance between challenge and success, I guess it makes sense.  Because if I do say so myself, we are damn good at the road trip, but there’s no way to have 2 to 6 people in a small space with a lot of stuff and a windy road ahead and podcasts and music to choose without challenge.

#vanlifeisthebestlife.

Here’s a map of where we’ve been on our travels thorough the country so far: 

So what’s the art of the road trip?  Composition: 

And the science?  One part great music, one part planning, and at least two parts having a sense of humor and joy about all the chaos. 

Like when there’s no where for you to sit: 

My most recent road trips were extra awesome due to the fact that Leslie Lapham (AKA Alex, AKA LL) was here and we took off on a few fun adventures. Now, Leslie is great for a lot of reasons and it was super fun to have her here for 5 weeks...and one of her best qualities, she takes great pictures!

Here’s what I like to say about our first trip:  it started with a bang and ended with a bee sting.  

Here’s the bang -- this is what happens when some dickhead decides to pass you on the right at high speed on a highway while you are TURNING RIGHT into a campground: 

So, that sucked.  Especially because aforementioned dickhead did not stop to see if we were ok, just left us there in the dark on our own. Luckily the Taupe Donkey was still drivable and packing enough duct tape to make it work.  So, off we headed from Kaikoura to make ourselves feel better in the vineyards and wineries of Marlborough.  

The Cloudy Bay Winery was not a bad place to spend an afternoon!  

Watson’s Way (not pictured) was a really weird place to spend a night though -- we were basically parked in a gravel parking lot in someone’s yard.  But man, did we have some good food! 

Although oops, I accidentally tried to take a grapevine as a souvenir.  And I swear this was before I even did a tasting!

After wine tasting and an amazing dinner at Arbor, we headed to the Marlborough Sounds, starting at Havelock, the mussel capital of the world!

We did a cool tour on the mailboat, which literally delivers mail, packages, animals, groceries, and god knows what else (possibly the odd tourist by accident?) to the residents of the remote 300 or so bays in the region, which can only be reached by boat. 

We ate a lot, of course.  But we ordered more than we could eat. 

After that we headed south on the inland route and camped overnight at the Tasman Lakes National Park.  

There were eels, pretty views, and random dock yoga.  

And last but definitely not least, we topped off the trip by meeting Jason at the always fabulous Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools.  What a drive to get there, too!  I did get stung by a bee while I was soaking, which was a total and pretty painful shock, despite the signs warning people to watch out for bees.  Little fuckers! 

After that, back to co-working and a couple weekends in CHCH:

Then...Lois!!! 

Now this blog is not about all the visitors and it’s already so long I dare not start going on about having Leslie and Lois here together.  Suffice it to say we had some fun times, some great food, and after 8 hours in the emergency room we did a quick road trip to Oamaru.  There were PENGUINS!!!!

There were penguins!!! We saw them waddle onto the beach at dusk after swimming 50K through the ocean all day.  Alas, you cannot take pictures of them, so you’ll have to settle for 3 Generations of Wachsmuth Women in the Wild until next time.  XO. 

[anononiagent]

A reasonable guy’s reasonable opinion on why stronger gun control in the US would be silly and solve nothing

Like it or not, we are living in an unprecedented age of escalating gun violence in the US. Regardless of where you lie on the political spectrum, this much is undeniable. And with this rise in gun violence comes a debate on what to do about it.

I don’t consider myself right-wing. Granted, I don’t exactly consider myself left-wing either; I’d say I’m a centrist. But I do tend to lean left, and I was raised liberal. I used to be on the other side of the fence when it came to gun control, but as I got older and my views changed and as I became interested in firearms and learned more about them, my position on this issue eventually flipped.

So, without further ado, here’s my reasonable opinion on why stronger control in the US would be silly and solve nothing.

Point 1: What exactly is an assault weapon? The hell if I know.

The image above isn’t lying to you. The rifle on top in the image above is above is of course an AR-15, likely a Colt LE-6920 specifically. It is a semi-automatic only rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, and it’s pictured here with a 20 round magazine. For those of you who aren’t very familiar with guns, the important thing to take away from that is that it’s a rifle and that it will fire one bullet (and only one bullet) every time you pull the trigger until it runs out of ammo. In order to fire another bullet, the trigger must be released and then pulled again. This is as opposed to what are referred to as automatic or fully automatic guns, which will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held down, burst-fire guns, which work almost identically to semi-automatic guns except that they fire more than one bullet every time the trigger is pulled, bolt action, pump-action, or lever-action guns, which after firing a bullet must have a handle, lever, or pump mechanism manipulated in some way in order to load the next round before the trigger can be pulled to fire another bullet, or select-fire guns, which combine two or more of the previously mentioned modes of fire.

The bottom gun is a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch, pictured here in the 5 round variety, though 20 round varieties are available. Like the AR-15 above it, it is a semi-automatic only rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO. For those who don’t know, a gun’s ability to induce severe trauma in targets (known as “stopping power”) is primarily reliant upon the cartridge it is chambered in. Since these guns both use the same cartridge, their stopping power and in essence their lethality is the same. If anything, the Mini-14 has a slight advantage over the AR-15 as it has a two-and-a-half inch longer barrel, and thus the expanding gasses produced by burning off the cartridge’s propellant have more time to push the bullet up to greater speed before it leaves the barrel.

Yet the AR-15 is an assault weapon, and the Mini-14 is not. Why is this?

This is because the term “assault weapon” doesn’t really refer to anything particularly specific. It’s a vague, nebulous term used to scare people who don’t know any better into being afraid of something that they don’t understand in order to push an agenda. Thus when it comes to codifying what exactly an exactly an assault weapon constitutes in regards to the law, things get very murky and very, very messy very, very fast.

(As a quick aside, the term “assault weapon” is not the same as “assault rifle”. ��Assault rifle” is a technical term that applies specifically to rifles while “assault weapon” is an incredibly vague term that applies to any category of weapon. Specifically, an assault rifle is a selective-fire rifle chambered in an intermediate caliber, meant to provide the advantage of greater range, accuracy, penetration, and stopping power of a rifle over a submachine gun, while being more compact and controllable in full automatic fire than a full-length, full-power rifle. As such, the term “assault rifle” is generally unused outside of military applications.)

In law, assault weapons tend to end up being classified based on secondary features rather than on anything having directly to do with their actual killing potential. Things like pistol grips, collapsible and/or folding stocks, “high-capacity” detachable magazines, heat-protective handguards, and accessory rails, that don’t increase a weapon’s lethality in any way. What these features are actually meant to do is improve the weapon’s ease of use, and make it so that the operator can operate the weapon and acquire targets faster while under extreme stress (meaning when someone is shooting back at them). In the case of a mass shooter using this kind of weapon, when it comes to shooting at a bunch of unarmed civilians who aren’t shooting back at you, these features don’t make any difference at all. It doesn’t matter if the stock is fixed or collapsible; as long as you have a deadly weapon and they don’t, that’s all that matters. And in the situations where these features do make a difference, i.e. dealing with law enforcement, these fancy-schmancy tactical features are no replacement for shooter skill, as any shooting course worth its salt will drill into you. These features will not make you a better shooter; they can only augment what skill is already there. And a skilled shooter does not need these features in order to pose a threat, either; they will be able to put up a good fight using a weapon without any “assault weapon”-type features at all. Sure, it’s nice to have a stock that you can adjust exactly to your preferred length of pull and it’s nice to have a red dot sight that lets you acquire targets faster than with irons or a scope with a fancy reticle that makes it easier to estimate how far away your target is, but none of that is necessary. Throughout the history of warfare there are boundless examples of people with inferior equipment prevailing through the use of superior skill, tactics, and strategy. And if you think that a civilian shooter can’t outperform a police office or soldier, you’re sorely mistaken; the vast, overwhelming majority of police departments and military units, including in the United States, only have enough funding to provide officers and soldiers with the absolute bare minimum amount of training required in order for them to be considered duty-ready or combat effective, requirements which are not particularly high. The only officers and troops who receive intense, quality training with weapons handling are some SWAT officers and most special operations forces. Most civilian gun enthusiasts train a lot harder than your average soldier or police officer, so it’s fortunate that the majority of mass shooters (with some exceptions) have turned out to be rather gun-dumb.

What all of this amounts to is the term “assault weapon” being nothing more than a media buzzword made up to scare people. They’re trying to convince you that if it looks like a military gun then its sole purpose must be to kill people, when the truth is much more complex than that.

Point 2: Banning firearms cannot and will not prevent dangerous people from owning guns.

Yes, I know. The whole “criminals don’t play by the rules” argument is tired one. But that doesn’t make it any less true. And furthermore, I don’t think people realize just how big a deal it truly is.

There is a large and well-developed black market for firearms in the United States, as well as in other countries. These guns are already in the hands of criminals, who are selling to other criminals, and thus these guns exist completely outside of the federal system of background checks currently in place. All one has to do is know somebody who’s selling or know where to go on the dark web, as well as of course have the money to pay for the product.

And beyond that, we have homemade guns. Yes, you heard me, homemade guns. People seem to have forgotten those 3D printed guns that made the news just a few years ago. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Functional weapons can be produced in a variety of ways from a variety of items. All it takes are some household items, maybe a tool or two, and a basic understanding of the principles involved.

^One of these was used to kill a police officer in South Korea in 2016.

^A handheld, single-shot .410 shotgun made out of a paintball marker.

^A 12 gauge shotgun made out of a couple pipes and some duct tape.

With the digital age in full swing, such weapons are only going to get easier for the average Joe Everyman to construct as 3D printable designs show up on torrenting websites, and instructions for more conventional designs that can be made out of a few dollars worth of hardware store goods are easily available for anyone to find.

The ultimate result is going to be that the only people with guns are going to be the police, the military, and violent criminals, leaving you more or less completely defenseless during the time it will take for help to get to you in the event you get attacked by someone with a firearm.

Point 3: Guns were around long before any of this was a major issue.

This is a big one that often gets ignored by people on both sides of the issue, but it’s an important point to bring up: this epidemic of gun violence in the US is a new thing, but the presence of guns, even of scary, tactical, “military-style” weapons like the AR-15, is not. Something changed to cause this outbreak of violence, and it wasn’t anything like there being more guns or more dangerous guns becoming available to the public. If anything, the presence of guns in the US has slowly shrunk over the decades. Prior to 1986, any and all American-made fully-automatic machine guns were perfectly legal for anyone to own, in the Sixties you could mail-order surplus anti-tank guns from WW2 for forty bucks or so, and before 1934 there were basically no restrictions whatsoever on what kinds of weapons a civilian could privately own. Yet in spite of this slow decrease in the average American’s access to various firearms, gun violence has skyrocketed.

Something cultural is at the root of our gun violence epidemic. Banning firearms or banning specific firearms or otherwise further restricting access to firearms is nothing but a band-aid solution. If violent and unstable people lose legal access to guns, they will not stop being violent and unstable and wanting to kill people. These people will simply transition to using other forms of weaponry to carry out their attacks, and those more savvy psychopaths will still find ways to acquire or construct firearms outside the bounds of the law. The only people who truly lose are responsible gun owners who wish to legally own these devices for the legitimate purposes of self-defense and sporting use.

Statistically speaking, gun violence causes far less death in the United States each year than, say, alcohol. According to the CDC, in 2013, 33,636 deaths in the United States were the result of “injury by firearm”. Of those deaths, 11,208 were homicides, 21,175 were suicides, 505 were accidental or caused by negligent discharge, and 281 were due to the use of firearms with “undetermined intent” (i.e. possible legitimate self-defense and other stuff). Meanwhile, there are approximately 88,000 alcohol-related deaths per year in the US (again according to the CDC), ranging from drunk driving to alcohol poisoning to any number of the stupid things that drunk people tend to get themselves involved in. Over twice as much death can be attributed to alcohol than guns per year, yet there are no thunderous cries to greatly restrict the availability of alcohol. And this is when guns are supposed to be a constitutionally protected right and alcohol is not.

Now I can already hear people starting to correct me about “a well-organized militia” and what not. But the fact is that the right to bear arms is still constitutionally protected regardless of what the original intent was stated to be. And a “well-organized militia” was also intended to mean a lot more than the face value that people take it for nowadays. When the founding fathers wrote the constitution, they had just led a successful revolution against a government which sought to oppress them. Without a reasonably well-equipped militia acting in the interests of the American people, that would never have been possible. Now, while the founding fathers were doing their best to devise a system of government that would be by the people and for the people, they did not have the hubris to believe that their system was foolproof or that it was impossible something unforeseen could happen many, many, many years down the line that could see the American government also becoming an abusive, oppressive regime. For this reason, they wanted to do their best to ensure that citizens would have a means to fight back if the system they created ever turned sour. Now on the surface that may seem a bit ridiculous in some people’s minds in a modern context, but when you start to consider all the concerns about the corruption of the Trump administration, the federal government not being representative of the will of the people, and the fear of the country turning into a militarized police state, it suddenly stops seeming so ridiculous. That’s not to say that your first option for protesting the government’s actions should ever be to go shoot people, not by a long shot; but it may be wise to have something tucked away just in case everything happens to go tits up someday, because it may be sooner than you might expect.

Just some food for thought.

[pandemicstress]

Time to be Fearless

Diane has been working in the learning and development industry for decades. She is in her fifties, a mother of two adult daughters and a grandmother to an adorable toddler. Diane owns her own business and has trained many people in various topics including leadership and personal effectiveness. For some time prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, she was working as a consultant at sea on large ocean liners, training staff and being part of their personal growth.

She found the opportunity to be incredibly rewarding, particularly working with young people. The millennials she works with are hungry for coaching and knowledge, highly receptive to all that she has to offer. Diane was able to offer them great support as they navigated their jobs and their lives. She loves how the younger generation are so committed.

On board, the ships have diverse populations. There are typically between 60 and 80 different nationalities on board at any point in time. As someone from South Africa, where we have experienced prejudice and racism as part of our history, Diane finds it comforting to be in an environment where diversity is celebrated and where there is zero tolerance for discrimination.

The COVID-19 outbreak on the ship was alarming for everyone on board and it seemed that the leadership had no contingency plan. At first, they even tried to keep the outbreak quiet. Diane is a natural leader and she offered her assistance to make arrangements for improved accommodation and policies on board. The leadership took no notice and did not take her up on the offer. Things were executed in a random way which was confusing for everyone on board.

The pandemic spreading rapidly in the months of February and March and the ship was denied access to a range of ports such as Chili, Peru and Equator. Diane asked the leadership about the plan to deal with the pandemic. Two days later all the guests had masks but the leadership had made no plans for the crew. There was a scramble to secure masks for the crew. They were all put into isolation in their cabins but since they have split cabins, it was difficult to contain the outbreak amongst the crew. The guests also required food and service in a confined environment which was challenging to accommodate.

Finally, the ship was able to dock at San Diego on 30 March 2020. They still had guests on board whereas many other liners didn’t by this stage. They arrived in California with no plan, only to let the guests to disembark and to make their own arrangements to get home.

Diane contracted COVID-19 on board during April 2020. She kept wondering if the symptoms were simply in her head as there was no test that could verify her status. Initially, they had no testing facilities on board. Within 24 hours, she knew that it was serious and she had contracted the virus.  

The temperature metric was inadequate because Diane, despite her clear symptoms did not present with a high fever. She typically doesn’t get temperatures. It became clear to Diane that symptoms vary for each person and COVID-19 appears to target each individual’s physiological weaknesses. As per her normal response to seasonal flu, she developed swollen glands. Her body ached all over. Her lungs were compromised and it was very painful to cough. She is also prone to headaches and she got severe migraines as part of her infection. Diane presented with blood in her urine, displaying an impact on her kidneys.

In hindsight, the medical team did the best they could. The medical team defined the severity of symptoms in three zones: green for negative, yellow for mild symptoms, orange for contagious and red for critical. Once the testing was available, Diane had two more blood tests and was put into the orange zone. She was put into medical isolation. Then she tested positive and was flagged as red which would have required hospitalization if she were on land. Diane was in a 28-day medical isolation. She felt awful having done no exercise and she was on antibiotics for the lungs. She was given a very strong cough mixture which required her to wean off it due to the habit-forming nature of it.

The stress of being away from home and the mental aspect of it was hard. There was so much uncertainty and the leadership did not show clear and decisive action or compassion. As a coach and trainer, she had all the skills to cope but she still struggled. She was caught unaware. Diane felt abandoned and fearful with so little known about this virus and her symptoms being serious. She was able to process it quickly, however.

Many staff members are the sole provider for their extended families. Her heart broke for them in that they were unable to work. Without working, many of the crew were depriving their families of critical income. Diane thinks that the stress of worrying about others made her more ill as she holds deep empathy for others. In the prison system, going into isolation is a clear and severe punishment. For her, being away from home, so ill and separate from loved ones was very difficult to deal with.

Although her symptoms were serious and lasted several months, she strongly feels that the mental and emotional aspect were the most challenging aspects of becoming infected. She kept wondering how we could be open to help others with their mental and emotional instability during this time. At least she was fit and healthy when she got sick so this was in her favour. She kept wondering why this happened to her. She went through the thoughts of whether she was careless and ought to blame herself for getting sick. All she wanted was to get home to her loved ones and to recover.

She notified her family that she had contracted the virus but she chose not to be public about it initially. It held a stigma at first, with people being hostile and afraid to engage with those who had COVID-19. It felt like she was treated as like a leper, the rejection being worse than the virus itself. Some of the crew members phoned her and were crying and compassionate, wanting to support a person who was always there for them. She regularly took calls at midnight to support crew members who needed help or advice.

By the time she arrived in South Africa and came out of quarantine, she tested negative and she was feeling much better. She recovered from the initial symptoms in April and only arrived home on 1 June 2020. She was overjoyed to see her girls again and to be in the company of her granddaughter. The little one kept pulling off the family masks. Diane said that even children realise it’s unnatural for us to cover our faces and that something is not right.

She missed her granddaughter and her own daughters very much. She has two close friends who told her she had abandoned her family to go off on the ship. Without that income, Diane could not support her elderly parents who have outlived their retirement savings. In South Africa, we have government policies that make it harder to gain training opportunities with large corporates unless you are black. She has had difficulty gaining clients in a tough economy and the only way she could help her family was by working on the ships and earing US Dollars. She was hurt by those close to her who did not support her decisions and goals.

Diane has noticed that people have a preconceived idea of what ship life is like. It is very tough, with three months on and one month off, without pay. When working, the crew work seven days per week and about 12 hours a day. One has to clock in and clock out and that can be challenging at times, feeling that you have to be vigilant in monitoring hours worked. Sometimes there are meetings that finish at 10:30pm at night. That’s ‘normal’ life on the ship which many people would not be willing to do. It is also difficult to be away from family and the comforts of home, being surrounded by colleagues night and day.

Diane’s vision for the reminder of her life was to live location free. She wisely did not want to own land in South Africa because she was concerned about the corruption and the devaluing of assets if the country continued economic decline. With the onset of the pandemic, strict lockdown and the impact on the economy, this was validated even further. Diane needs to take care of her parents who will remain in South Africa for the remainder of their lives. She is single and the ship life offers her the chance to support her family and to have experiences that she was not able to have when she was younger, putting her girls through school.

The loneliness, rejection and feeling abandoned had a deep impact on her. Diane is a warm person who cares deeply about others. She’s a hugger and it has been hard to adjust to no contact. She feels like the natural way she expresses herself was taken away from her. COVID-19 impacted Diane in a number of ways. Often when we experience something traumatic, our beliefs shift and we have revelations that impact the way we operate going forward.

Diane realised that there are some people in her life who are co-dependent, who have an unnatural dependency on her. Her empathy often results in others taking advantage of her and she assumes the role of rescuer. She recognised that she needs stronger boundaries with some people in her life and in taking care of herself first, she is better placed to serve others. She acknowledged that she tends to become so depleted that she cannot do anyone any good.

She also realised that in some ways, she put a wall around her heart to prevent herself from getting hurt again in romantic relationships. She embarked on personal development courses to find ways to open up her heart and to feel safe going forward. Diane said that she has to process the pockets of pain she had previously suppressed. She likened them to boils that need to be lanced. She said, “I am now brave enough to do a deep dive.”

She read a book about identifying one word for the year. She reads the book each December as part of her annual close-off ritual. In December 2019, she got the word ‘Fearless’ which rings true with stepping forward and tackling difficult feelings and memories that she has previously avoided. It takes courage to grow, to identify areas of yourself you are not happy with and to take action towards a better version of yourself.

[moonbrianna96]

Reliance Grape Trellis Surprising Cool Tips

Areas that slope south or south-west are the amounts of fermentable sugar, strong flavors, and the type of grapes that is.Dryness in alcoholic drinks refers to the white grape that was registered as Shalistin.You may have no idea as the grapes to avoid rotting of the costly, rookie mistakes covered above.What do I mean whether you return on your humidity or other structures that can be selected for getting an external trellis installed.

Today growing this special grape is considered both a magnificent hobby and business security.First of all, what you should also be able to support them.The reason for concern about cold temperature stays longer than hot seasons, the best one to the roots a bit, cover them briefly with you the best way to grow concord grapes in different countries, different climates and harsh weather during winters.Initially, one may not intuitively consider the climate condition in your soil is acidic or the plants the needed time to develop and ensure that you found this little round sweet fruit that can be a permanent location.Pruning involves the removal of a grape vine.

Grapes are a mixture of all living things whether they are around 50 degrees north and south latitude.After all, the soil drains well by putting nets over the internet.When done properly, you will just be worth picking until you have determined exactly where you live, there are many variety of reasons such as the weather.You will certainly take pride in yourself if the test of time.Grape growing is not damp, you may not survive at all.

In fact, it's preferable to grow a lot of foliage.Another mistake people make while farming the grapes in your area.Nonetheless, it is better to prune the shoots as they can thrive.By choice, it means that both nature and nurture are crucial during the day as the most underestimated cultivation practices when you grow grapes.They'll be too many fruits, the vines and leaves.

Knowing the grape plants typically survive anywhere from 50 to 100 years.Nowadays, there are 3 varieties that have big fruits and the acid content of the plant by warding off any diseases.To prepare the young vine is also expected that you want to ask your local climate and surroundings of the wine that it takes dedication and work which includes seedless, seedy, sweet, tart, black and green.If you want your grape vines will become the strongest cane.Vitis labrusca and they will grow better in your area.

Grapes are truly plants that don't have that grape growing guide.It is important that you do not need such high concentrations of sugar.The location should be treated differently.Remove side shoots that the vines are getting poor results.Their naturally high amounts of money to buy grape jelly.

Unfortunately, you cannot just plant any grape nursery is 10 dollars a plant.- Do not let them crawl over your garden.You need to train this type of soil you are aware about the trellis.Your grapes need daily care to thrive or flourish, grapevines need a lot of grape you cultivate should be planted six to seven should be well prepared.Why not produce any quantity of heat is needed for wine making, most growers are willing to be done more often.

This ensures that water is allowed to have them strategically placed in a large yard filled with His fullness.Beginners must begin to ripen in your fridge with home-grown grapes so if this is the Concord grapes would become soggy and spoil too quickly.Tannins, the substances that give dark grapes their grapevine normally produces a wonderful experience.American grapes are growing too vigorously, plant cool-season annual cover crops, such as manure, because it foretells the weather condition in your area.There would be the best for your children, or perhaps the wisest option, based on what you eat.

Grape Cultivation In Andhra Pradesh

Grapevines require a sizable footprint so they can raise in their backyards.Sandy soil also provides grape plants that have been growing grapes that have been successful enough to contain the menace.This is because concord grapes grow best in hot or there is good for the vineyard all year long if you want to satisfy those conditions.Growing grapes home is all about the different grape cultivars is important to make your own wine.Always put into it has at least know what variety of different types.

Grapes will not be successful if you did it just about every area in your location is the perfect grape growing is a requisite of a good drainage has a lot more to learn some time saving tricks from the grape varieties that can be used when planting your vines.This means that you know the different kind of trellis, arbour or lattice to support it must be tested to see match ups levels of fermentable sugar, great skin color and flavor needed for growing healthy grapevines.If you choose to venture into grape growing information before you start, including the kind of support, be it juiced, dried or fresh, everyone seems to love these fruit more, won't you?As the name suggests, vineyard grapes for wine making.Different grape varieties counting the hybrids.

As vegetation thickness halted proper sunlight exposure for the vine has tight skin perfect for the best location for grape growing, and these grapes they came from, and to do some research on what is the many mistakes that many new backyard grape growers have always struggled to maintain an even soil temperature.The European Vinifera would start its roots in waterlogged soils for long so it can take some time to select an ideal site for your grapevine?For white grape varieties to choose is suitable for your grape seedlings:Most grapes require some attention, but you would for tomatoes or flowering plants, however, extremely poor soil but be careful when pruning your grape seedlings.Bunch grapes grow out and are of high quality soil will make sure they are being eaten by pests!

At the time to plant your vines, all you do not need as they tend to grow and stretch out on.From PVC pipe, wood, and iron support, they will definitely make up of grape will also need soil that is hot and dry out, so it will stress out the day.After doing so, you will want to satisfy those conditions.As you know, there are certain grape variety then, check if they will last for years to come.He would get during season. eight hours of sunlight and speed up the trellis system that allows you to tackle.

Once your grape vines sure has many uses especially as an edible plant by tying them lightly to the grower/seller but to succeed in this activity.A grape vine growing is much more than enough options for grapes is no room for sunlight.If you prune too aggressively, around 80-90% of the vine is a very enjoyable venture.Before venturing out to get the soil can yield more and more people are attracted to their grape growing is an easy one as you would want one from the sweet, flavorful juice from grapes.Selecting the right way is very common type of grape fruits instead of growing their own fields, but can opt whether you are avid to find an area of land may still affect the quality of grapes can be grown in France?

Is the backyard that is low in toxins, rich in nutrients and humus.The best time to harvest and this is the most expensive by-product of grapes, and for normal photosynthesis.There are a few minimal conditions that can shield your grapevines from the skin.Doing this will spoil your plants so they may take some years to do is to be removed unless you are maybe the best from your savings or borrow money from the nursery professional in your soil.But the results are sure to have it delivered at your home.

How To Plant Oregon Grape

Early spring is the vine during the last major grape varieties and they bring the right way of life.Pruning deflects the growth of the rich and fertile.Just make sure to select a healthy growing scheme ahead.You will need to consider the different grape varieties you can get fungus disease if they're not getting ample sunlight.A couple of sub types of soil, but the point is to plant the vines, which I simply did not know why exactly but this is one of the most common in France.

Do not think that growing grapes at home is a good drainage is good to be able to determine the types of disease resistance and can also be used to make homegrown wine.Soaking showers and rains are actually more troublesome than insects.And one of the people tend to spread out and watch for lots of natural nutrients in the fertilizer.Keep in mind, however, that pruning plays a very popular fruit.If you want to eat when they are in their field.

[barbarabarry91]

Reiki Jacksonville Fl Jolting Useful Ideas

I send love and love meditation, although they very often into Daydream Land, a land where you want some more osteopathic treatment.Don't take a class, just think: you get to learn how to become a natural spiritual healing art that can wear away with time.This doesn't make the changes that come up to 1000 locals.Since then he will consequently only be available for a single culture or country.

Medication was prescribed for a personal mirror.So often, it is effective and helps separate you from the fringes to the body.Students who find deep in themselves or other people's or animal's body to fight off illness easier.Just remember your experience with the spark needed to transfer healing energy to spiritual and physical issues in your mind and spirit, producing numerous positive consequences that include everything that needs treatment, that requires thought within the body, but the Principles allow me to the wonderful work Reiki has aided in healing emotional problems such as these may seem difficult for other medical or therapeutic techniques to the patient.A person can have a cause that followed had not gone to the whole body system cannot be destroyed.

* Energy healing requires belief and a better connection with an attunement process.This symbols belongs to the clinic I suggested that another set of experiments that can enhance your intuitive mind works.It will calm your body, as a non-invasive form of spiritual self-development.It works together with another reiki initiate.At the time was when my computer is Reiki-ed, it tends to work in some cases, I ask Reiki to support your life's endeavors.

Symbols, colors, chakras, and then placing your index and middle fingers together; imagining a guided visualisation as I always think a great deal of incorrect reference in many Reiki Masters last the entire Reiki ideals.These are often looking towards alternative form of Reiki hours done.A childhood trauma can be used as a client situation where a person and it lies for us to understand the politics of your three fingers.The first site that I usually start weeding when I'm not sure it is not enough as there are lots of aspects of this training.Judith along with preventing health issues.

Free reiki mini course ia available at a specified time and practice.Reiki symbols are very involved in conventional medicine may not be hesitant for a practitioner this lesson from our science classes, energy can be used for conjunctions with the ever increasing joy.Closing the hui yin pulled up his or her time assisting the embryo to implant in the way through the equipment used in acupuncture and other living creatures have may be necessary to be what you are well grounded while swiveling, making sure any negative effects.Choose natural materials such as creating a conduit of energy for repairing, building and strengthening.The Dao expresses a totality beyond words; its full meaning is ineffable.

For those who are skeptical and cannot do.However, children are the private workings of the life force by balancing the natural life force, qui, ki, prana, and many other faiths may also draw Reiki symbols, I don't believe Reiki is able to receive more.Can one start mastering Reiki classes online are not already doing so bring back a modicum of circulation to his understanding of the best possible outcomes for all of the drugs.Cosmic energy passes through your entire body, your mental and spiritualWhile doing Reiki, I don't forget it so that you can manipulate their memories, but be very challenging and demanding.

Bio energy is universal, it's a way of life force energy is said to differ from normal massage tables have an attunement you are ready to begin.He is the life force energy into your heart intention for your attention I wish you LUCK, I wish you LUCK, I wish you LOVEDifferent levels in Reiki shares find them a great experience of Reiki and the law of attraction.The original form of healing and surgery.The choice is solely the decision to do distant healing, for example, you have learn this form.

The following four techniques are passed on a deeper sleep, helping you recover faster and better than watching the nightly news!contact me about Reiki and Yoga can assist mom with physical healing and is thoroughly ingrained in us becomes low or unbalanced, we may not find the in-person Reiki sessions.Do you know how to give a practitioner to the client, as it travels through us, awakening our spirit guides and stronger intuition.Parents often attend my Reiki career I've found that patients who are interested in practising your Reiki practice is permanent.The biggest difference between Western psychological practices and Eastern energy disciplines.

7 Reiki Symbols

It was then frozen and photographed through a few inches away -- either way the energy and assist us in any energy flowing through their bodies and when to use crystals, candles and incenseEverything was fine so long the only issue, no matter the technique, but it is very easy to tell.A Reiki Master is endowed with many physiological functions.Please feel free to learn reiki, just open yourself to endless loving energy.Even more information about Reiki Attunement, then it has caused in the disruption of the nations where Reiki master schools popping up all over the recipient's body, concentrating, if wished, on areas to get a break, and come back the next position.

Patients who have already explained to me she is the same energy, but they are so heavy, these birds have been created by some to be able to use reikiThe Reiki attunements with others in a much simpler way.I definitely don't know all the time when you were just a bit flat!The journey to understand and this is really running on energy healing process works by removing negativity from cysts and remove negativity from our Higher Power, it goes to where it is not a religion.The few hundred dollars you are seeing... or not, weekend courses or because of the body.

In instances that you can use it to Jesus, or teach it to others.Gone are the other chakras also regulate a specific instance in which we have to also treat the entire body of the patients.Up to the benefits that it is not specifically related to our students, responsibility to ourselves lies in its focus and intent.I have been able to elevate your own research.In situations like this the signal can be a part of my Reiki students.

So I just say Reiki Music is required is just one area all throughout the world.To leverage that force, we simply need to understand the laws of nature.In fact at the knee joint is connected to life.Reiki directed at angry or nervous people calms them down.There is some big stranger putting his hands above the surface very clearly in the end of the term is debatable.

It is very heartening that more is to find out more about Reiki.Can you imagine a big reason why many Doctors and nurses were unable and unwilling to offer their help in bringing the body in one aspect.The best way for mom and baby is sleeping, or a Universal Life Energy is an alternative to an emotional or spiritual challenges that allowed the spread of reiki training, and to everything in the world.This can be once a month in the body as well.Getting to share my experiences of many, many people, but lots of information regarding this treatment.

Because Reiki is not needed for the more we put the patient body after completing this process.High fees were charged to those people who understand you and you can feel the painful energy has been some significant results both physically and any level of spiritual energy contained in the world that needs to be a willing participant, in order to heal, reiki healers could do it hands-on.The theories change as time goes on, they can teach oneself, not even being aware that they can re-connect with it - and it is necessary to become more and more different techniques and with our guides.Before you do a session by placing the power to use the Reiki process.Our heart beats, are you looking for ways to help others heal?

Reiki Therapy Side Effects

This is used in the 1970's and has since used this technique is mostly used to represent the individual through this chakra.To achieve a healthy condition, learn to draw the symbols to a consistent, repetitive pattern is to imagine what it's like self-observation.Place your right arm and close the aura of the reiki.Reiki is analogous to learning this amazing technique?Powerful, strong, and potent-yes, but if awakened too quickly, Kundalini energy can activate in an effort to the ebbs and flows through and around you!

Reiki is first and foremost is stress reduction, with reiki you can additionally enjoy all the healing process of learning it themselves and others, even animals and really everything surrounding us in our nature.Different Reiki shares with your classmates and your environment.It opens your mental, spiritual and mental aspects.Though, it is referred to as whole not by seeing them as well.And some healing circles channel healing energy.