#Alignment laguna

[rocksibblingsau]

I’m making a headcannon that cloud guy would go after classical trolls and country trolls the most. Because A: classical is very refined, no funny business type of trolls who freak out over small things like poor manners, and B country trolls are very hardworking trolls who don’t play around till a jobs done.

(To me) Cloud Guy is all about messing with people (who to him) “can’t take a joke” and goes after those who are more serious and less playful. Makings country and classical, perfect targets.

I feel like he would leave techno Branch alone since he’s more happier and because techno trolls are like pop trolls (who I’m pretty sure cloud Guy leaves alone except for branch) but this is mostly just some headcannon stuff, since cloud Guy sucks and doesn’t care who he messes with.

Cloud Guy does for the most part seem to target people who don't care for pranks or have an attitude of someone he thinks 'can't take a joke'. 3 of his victims (Branch, Laguna, Dante) are serious types as well as introverts and one step further they all three honestly seem to be autistic coded to me.

This is in part one of my biggest gripes with TTBGO/Trollstopia Cloud Guy. A lot of his bullying sort of perfectly aligns with the kind of bullying that neurodivergent people face, particularly in schools. I've talked about my own experiences but it's very frustrating when someone's saying something to you and people are laughing and you don't even fully get why it's so funny, you just know they're picking on you.

Cloud Guy especially seems to pick on them in ways where they can't even fully understand or verbalize the issue. Like the one hug event. Branch isolated himself for 20 years and the Snack Pack is constantly jumping to the assumption that Branch has 0 idea what any holidays are but Poppy explains the 'clouds don't count' as if it's obvious. This bit is also another thing that clues me in to Branch being autistic: Literal and Black and White thinking. He takes things at face value and often times extracts the wrong message from a sentence. The word 'Troll' is used interchangeably with 'Person', so 'One troll' could be reasonably interpreted to him as 'One person' unless followed by 'other species not included'. She didn't specify that Clouds, Bergens, etc etc were exceptions so Branch would not have assumed that.

While Techno Branch is way more fun loving, he shares a lot of traits with Laguna, another victim of Cloud Guys. I could see Cloud Guy messing with the both of them.

Side note: Do you think Synth could launch him into the sky? He has water powers, clouds are water...

[pannaginip]

Baby Hero was born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition that affects the production of hormones in his body. Having CAH makes Hero intersex, and the type of CAH he has requires lifetime medication.

The couple is also able to secure some financial help from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. But explaining her son’s condition to the personnel handling her requests is always a pain, as they often don’t understand what CAH is.

The plight of the intersex community rarely comes into the national spotlight. But one time it did was when the Supreme Court (SC) sided with Jeff Cagandahan in a 2008 landmark ruling that paved the way for the community’s rights.

In 2003, at a regional trial court (RTC) in Laguna, Jeff filed for changes in his birth certificate, namely the change of his name from “Jennifer” to “Jeff,” and his gender from “female” to “male.”

The RTC sided with Jeff, though the Office of the Solicitor General tried to reverse the decision. In the end, the SC upheld it, saying that Jeff let nature take its course in allowing his body to reveal male characteristics. He was allowed to change his name and gender in his birth registry.

“Respondent is the one who has to live with his intersex anatomy. To him belongs the human right to the pursuit of happiness and of health. Thus, to him should belong the primordial choice of what courses of action to take along the path of his sexual development and maturation,” the decision read, penned by the late former associate justice Leonardo Quisumbing.

Jeff later on co-founded Intersex Philippines, and currently serves as a co-chair of Intersex Asia. Intersex Philippines has over 200 members.

Though it’s been more than a decade since Jeff’s legal victory, the lack of public awareness about intersex people and their concerns generally remained in the Philippines, even among medical professionals.

For instance, while there are plenty of endocrinologists across the Philippine health system, Jeff said that it is difficult to find “intersex-friendly” endocrinologists, who do not push intersex people to undergo procedures to conform with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Access to medicine remains the biggest challenge for intersex people in the Philippines, according to Jeff. Based on their group’s research, just one specialty compounding pharmacy, Apotheca, produces the medicines that most in their community need. It’s Metro Manila-based, which makes it even harder for those in the provinces to access them.

Jeff constantly receives reports of children with life-threatening intersex variations who succumb to their condition, as their parents were unable to acquire the medications that could have kept them alive.

According to Intersex Philippines, some intersex children undergo irreversible, unnecessary surgeries and treatment without their consent. Some also experience emotional harm from this treatment.

In November 2023, Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman filed the Cagandahan Bill in Congress, which seeks to make what Jeff achieved more accessible to intersex Filipinos.

While Republic Act No. 9048, enacted in 2001, allows Filipinos to correct clerical and typographical errors in their civil registry offices without judicial orders, the bill said that this does not “explicitly address the unique circumstances of intersex individuals.” Having their legal documents amended to align with their identities would acknowledge an intersex person’s right to self-determination, it said.

2024 Apr. 6

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 18, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 19, 2024

The events of January 6, 2021, overshadowed those of January 5, 2021, but that day was crucially important in a different way: Georgia voters elected two Democrats, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, to the U.S. Senate. Warnock and Ossoff brought the total of Democrats in the Senate to 48, and since two Independents—Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont—caucus with the Democrats and because in an evenly split Senate the majority goes to the party in the White House, their election gave Democrats control of the Senate.

Without that majority, the Biden-Harris agenda that built the U.S. economy into what The Economist this week called “the envy of the world” would never have passed. There would have been no American Rescue Plan, no Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, no CHIPS and Science Act, no Safer Communities Act, no PACT Act, no Inflation Reduction Act. 

In an era when Republicans refuse to vote for any Democratic measures no matter how popular they are, control of the Senate is vital. The Senate majority leader decides what measures can come to the floor for consideration, so a leader can shut out anything his party doesn’t like. The Senate also controls the confirmation of federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court. 

During the Trump years, then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stacked the courts with MAGA judges, some of whom are now so reliably handing down right-wing decisions that plaintiffs routinely “shop” for them to get the decisions they want. And with Trump’s three hand-picked extremists at the Supreme Court, challenging those decisions simply writes that extremism more fully into law. 

As Trump continues to crumble—he canceled another appearance today, and in a statement almost certainly designed to leak, an advisor said he was “exhausted”—and as Democrats are favored to take the House, Republicans are waging a fierce battle to take control of the Senate. 

They are starting with an advantage. There are 34 Senate seats on the ballot this year, and Democrats are defending 23 of them while Republicans are defending just 11. Republicans need to pick up one seat to control the Senate if Trump wins the White House, and two if Harris wins. 

The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund PAC has, so far, spent more than $140 million in this year’s Senate races, with more than $136 million going to attack ads. In the four races that are most vulnerable for Democrats—Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $17.85 million (MT), $55.5 million (OH), $38.1 million (PA), and $23.6 million (WI).

In each of those four races, that money is bolstering extremely wealthy Republican challengers. In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy, running against Senator Jon Tester, would be among the ten wealthiest senators if elected: his financial disclosures put his net worth at between $74 million and $260 million. Republican Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has a net worth between $38 million and $172.7 million. In the Pennsylvania race, David McCormick (who actually appears to live in Connecticut) reported assets of $116 million to $290 million in 2022. In Wisconsin’s race, Republican Eric Hovde (who lived in an ocean-view mansion in Laguna Beach, California, until he decided to run for the Senate from Wisconsin) would also be one of the Senate’s richest members. His financial disclosures say his net worth is between $195.5 million and $564.4 million. 

This is not a coincidence. Knowing that fundraising would be difficult this year with Trump steering funds from the Republican National Committee primarily to himself, Republican Party leaders actively recruited candidates who could pour their own money into their campaigns. By the end of June, Sheehy had put $10.7 million into his own race; Moreno had put in $4.5 million by mid-October. McCormick had loaned his campaign more than $4 million by the end of June; Hovde put in $8 million by the end of March. 

This moment echoes the late nineteenth century, when wealthy businessmen sought a Senate seat as a capstone to their success, a perch from which they could protect the interests of other men like themselves. In that era it was relatively easy for a man like Nevada’s William Sharon to buy himself a Senate seat because the Constitution had established that state legislatures would elect their state’s senators. Determined to win a Senate seat to protect his railroad interests “regardless of expense,” Sharon bought a newspaper to flood the state capital with his own praise. The legislature gave him the seat in 1874. 

By the 1880s, even the staunchly pro-business Chicago Tribune complained: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation.” In 1892 the newly formed Populist Party met in Omaha, Nebraska, “to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of ‘the plain people,’ with which class it originated.” They called for the people to bypass the corrupt legislatures and elect senators directly. 

In 1900, William A. Clark of Montana provided the kick their proposal needed. 

Clark had arrived at the newly opened gold fields in Montana Territory in 1863 and transferred the money he made as a mule trader into banking. He made a fortune repossessing mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans. He invested that fortune in smelters, railroads, a newspaper, and copper mining, becoming one of the state’s famous Copper Kings. In 1889 he was the president of the Montana constitutional convention, where he made sure that mine owners could run the state as they wished. 

By 1890, Clark had his eyes on a Senate seat. He failed to get the support of the legislature in that year, and for the next decade he and his rival copper magnate Marcus Daly of the Anaconda Company poured vast sums of money into influencing the economy of the state, the location of the capital, and the state’s politics. 

Clark finally won his election in 1899, but on the same day he presented his credentials to the Senate, his opponents filed a petition charging him with bribery. An extensive investigation revealed that Clark had bought his seat with bribes ranging from $240 to $100,000, equivalent to almost $4 million today. His representatives had paid debts, bought ranches, and even handed envelopes of cash to legislators. The investigation also showed that Daly had spent a fortune trying to block Clark’s election. 

Montana politics, it seemed, had become a rich man’s game.

Aware that the Senate would vote to remove him from his seat, Clark resigned in May 1900. In January 1901 a new Montana legislature containing many of the same men Clark had paid off in 1899 elected him again to the same term from which he had been forced to resign. After an undistinguished term, he retired from the Senate in 1907.

Clark’s blatant purchase of a Senate seat added momentum to the demand for the direct election of senators, and in 1913 the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution established that the power to elect senators must rest in the hands of voters. That measure was supposed to make sure that wealth could not buy a Senate seat.

That the ability to self-fund a campaign is once again a key factor in winning a Senate seat from Montana—and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—seems to be history repeating.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[theeternalwomb]

spirit baby reading🍼

I’ve felt called to do this reading this whole week and I felt called to do it again this morning so i figured id oughta do the reading since I’ve been pulled to do it more than once. I hope you find something special to keep with you in this reading! 🫧

Pile one:

🍼~ significant colors: green, blue, orange, red, yellow.

🍼~ the chakras that are represented by those colors may be significant as well.

Green: the heart chakra “I love”

Blue: the third eye chakra “I see”

Orange: the sacral chakra “I feel”

Red: the root chakra “I am”

Yellow: the solar plexus chakra “I do”

🍼~ angel numbers: 222, 444, 666 7891, 6466

🍼~ locations: Maine, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Washington, laguna Beach, Mississippi, Connecticut, Virginia, Louisiana,,

-

Pile one is manifesting something. Manifesting a new life, manifesting pregnancy, long term commitments, relationships, happiness, success, abundance and so much more here. Very high vibrational energy coming through and I see all this coming through for you this is just being channeled alone from the heart space not even with the help of my cards yet. You could be needing to practice affirmations or write down affirmations using the proper openings aligned with the chakras. You could be building new routines in your life or in the process of trying to create a new reality. Lions gate portal is significant for this group. That’s to be august 8, 2023. Save the date. Someone’s getting married as well, “save the date.” Is often what we write on wedding invitations. There are many manifestations and desires coming through for you within the month of august pile one. By the end of the year your life will be completely different!! There are five months left in the year and the number five represents human perfection as well as prosperity and Justice as well as knowledge as well. You could be getting some news soon or something you’ve been hoping for or something you very well deserve is coming in for you. All those times you got your hopes up because you got messages that your wish fulfillments were coming in and they didn’t, this is not that time, this is not a drill. Wish fulfillments are their way to you and you don’t have to do shit. I’m hearing sit still. I haven’t even started reading the cards yet!!! Spirit has so much to say to you and so much they want to tell you. Top of the deck ace of cups, bottom of the deck nine of cups. Ace of cups talks about love, an outpour of it, many of you are about to receive the most beautiful, long term, and honest love. I see contentment and happiness with the nine of cups upright. I split the deck in the center, spirit has surprises for you, they don’t want you to know. Start working on those manifestations. The remainder of this week up into august 8 spirit wants you to write all of it down and start becoming familiarized with the new life you’re about to receive. Okay, okay, im gonna start with the cards!!

First card out here is the king of cups. A lot of you are feminine energies here the baby says the father is coming in and he’s being represented by the king of cups. Emotionally balanced, compassionate, honorable, diplomatic. He’s a real man, he’s a good man savannah!! He’s gonna support you, he’s gonna care for you and he’s gonna keep you safe. Some of you know this person already, this person is very protective of you. I’m hearing, “daddy is gonna keep us safe.” Some of you have daddy issues or father wounds that you’d been working through and healing these past years or months and I see this person really coming through for you and being the father you wished you had or the father that you’d want for your children or the father figure or divine masculine energy who is lead you in life or add to your life and improve your life and bring you peace, happiness and solace. I’m hearing “what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.” Everyone is looking at him, he leads by example, this is big daddy right here.

Yea, some of you know this man already, this could’ve been someone you had a past relationship with or have history with in one way or another whether y’all were friends or lovers or y’all had a relationship that just didn’t quite get off of the ground for certain reasons but I hear spirit telling me that all you guys went through or the events that took place leading up to this moment was divine protection and divine timing and intervention all at play!! Girl, I’m screaming! All I wanna type is exclamation marks!!! ‼️‼️‼️ this king of cups dealt with a lot within his life, a lot of loss, a lot of betrayal, a lot of heart break but I’m hearing you loved him through it, you were gentle with him, you were supported, your heart beat for him while his heart wasn’t pumping. He’s healing. He’s healed. He’s ready.

Daddy is working hard here with this knight of pentacles in reverse, he could be business savvy or really good with money and financially intelligent but there’s something here about him working hard for you, to provide you with something, to bring you a gift. You could’ve been receiving messages about him coming in and he’s taking his time here but he’s working. I’m hearing he’s a hard man to get in touch with but when he comes in he’s going to make time for you in many ways, answering the phone while he’s at work, you want him to come home early, he doesn’t care, he’s coming home early. He could run his own business or something he’s a boss. The baby is so excited the baby is ready to come in too. Some of you could be manifesting pregnancy or manifesting a family and I see the father ready to give you that and the spirit baby is excited. He’s a little boy. He’s gonna enjoy both outdoor activities and nature but also enjoy quiet indoor activities as well. You know those babies people talk about that eat well, sleep through the night and never cry unless they need something, that’s the energy I’m getting from this child and I see him being very smart and articulate I see you and the father going out of your way to see it through he get a good education and is very well taken care of and happy.

You and this divine masculine could not come from much here or may find that you guys have and had a lot of generational curses to break within your family and I see those generational curses being broken and ending with the two of you. Some of you have a pet, he or she is young and will be spending the next 20-30 years with you and will be very good with the baby and with the children and is going to love your husband or your partner. This divine masculine or your person is really passionate about you. He’s coming towards you, he loves you.

I hear he’s finally learning his worth and you know yours. He could’ve spent a lot of time in the past with shitty people, around karmic energies and doing bad stuff or having bad habits as a way to cope or because he had unhealed wounds. He could’ve had an unhealed mother wound which affected his selection in women as well. But he knows better now, he loves himself better now and he’s not even worried about all of those other women or the type of woman he was surrounded by. For some of you there could be a third party interference or someone around him who sees him growing and wants to keep him but he’s not on any of that, he doesn’t fuck with that girl, he’s married. (To you) in spirit and soon to be in the 3D. He’s been working hard I see over investment in work and hustling.

Ace of swords upright, he could’ve finally had a breakthrough or he finally found mental clarity and this is bringing up so much success for him, I see him wanting to tell you, running to tell you what he’s found out or about how he feels and where he is in life. He’s excited and you’re the person he shares excitement and happiness with. I keep hearing “my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife”, this divine masculine could’ve had an issue here he could’ve struggled with depression, anxiety, addiction. All these entrapments of the mind that kept him down, energetically drained and unable to come through for you or show up for you but his mind is clear, he’s finally stepped into his power, he’s finally in his divine masculine energy. So happy for him.

I hear the baby, the baby says that his dad is manifesting you, if you feel him, if you’re communicating with him telepathically or you’re dreaming of him this is because his mind is open, his third eye is open, he’s in the right energy to fully connect with you and his conscious mind has been awakened to this as well. He could be on a spiritual journey or diving deeper into spirituality or learning more about himself and his souls purpose. This divine masculine could be destined for something, he’s protected by god, by your spirit guides and his own, his ancestors, your ancestors, I see everyone backing him and supporting him. He could be a prophet or have some type of divinely given gift here. You could have spiritual gifts of your own as well. I see you guys leading by example or showing people what divine love and what true power is. He’s the man. You know when guys are like “I’m him.” They’re not, this divine masculine is.

I’m hearing the child, it’s as if he’s saying “my daddy is coming and he’s going to set the world ablaze.” This child is very proud of his parents, very excited to be given to you, raised by you, taught by you. He could see you two as mentors, especially you. I hear the child saying that he’d been studying you, watching you all this time and he’s proud to be apart of your life and bring you happiness and joy. This could end up being a very talented child and a very well loved child as well. Bringing you more prosperity. There gonna grow up to do something and/or do something in their youth that will bring people happiness and joy.

I hear you bring your person or this divine masculine more power. I hear him saying “I’m connected with my intuition, I see all, but I am more powering with you.” He could be really withdrawn, he could not be talking to anyone right now and neither are you. I’m hearing you do your work or you use social media to do what you need to do and you get off. People are wondering where you are, they’re wondering where he is. He feels incomplete without you by his side you’re the missing piece within his life and all his prosperity and abundance. His souls purpose is to love you, all of his hard work, all of his abundance and love is to be shared with and given to you. It is not made for anyone else.

I hear he’s sitting on a lot of money here or he’s about to create something or develop something some time soon that may bring you two lots of money and abundance. Spirit is saying to dream big, stop thinking you won’t be able to afford the house or the wedding or whatever else you want or need because you will, this man has you. Stop thinking you can’t afford something or what if we can’t afford this or when you’re looking at inspo or looking at your mood boards and the type of stuff you want stop trying to be cautious and play it small just in case like you won’t be able to afford something cause that’s not a possibility for the two of you.

He’s taking his time cause he’s making his money, he’s reorganizing his life and getting himself right but he’s on his way. I keep hearing, “if you want me come get me/come see me” and he knows how you move so he’s coming. He comes baring gifts, good news, and an offer of long term commitment. And if you don’t like the ring he picked out, he’ll buy you a new one. I’m hearing or he’ll melt it down and make you a new one 💀 he’s an alchemist. He takes small things and makes them big. You could’ve been telling him he’s to be great for many years. You saw his power, you could’ve foresaw his future and success. Well he’s become who you knew he could be all along and he’s ab to come bless you.

Have the best day/night. Or whatever. Thanks for listening and getting a reading from me.

-

-

pile two

pile three

[the-takosader]

Non-Specific Ramble

Okay, so this is going to be mostly stream-of-consciousness stuff, but there's a lot of shit I think about, mostly guitar-related, but still there nonetheless.

Let's start with the offcuts of my builds. Of course, I've been building using either reclaimed wood or wood I bought online. The remainders of these woods are probably going to get reused in... something, but in the meantime, I've still got to finish building the thing. Speaking of, we're actually at the stage where there's a body and a top!

Last I checked in, the top was unfinished, as in, it wasn't two pieces unfolded and joined via glue, but there is at least a body blank, made just as specified in the spec sheet using 3 rather large chunks of mahogany, and smaller strips of ash. But of course, I mentioned the maple top, didn't I?

The thing with that is that there will, inevitably, be an offcut. I only needed about half of it, so of course that means we cut it to the size we needed, and then started levelling out the middle so we had a clean, flat and straight surface to glue across. I know, a sentence you'd never otherwise read on Tumblr, yet here we are.

While I was building it, an idea cropped up in my head, related to something I remembered my aunt telling me about. See, for the build, she bought a bespoke fretting jig off a guy in Pembrokeshire, meant for fretting 25" scale lengths. She also mentioned what other scale lengths he covered: 25.5, 24.6, the usual stuff. She also mentioned that he had one for 21.375", which caught my attention.

I think I've talked about this before, but to cover my bases, here we go again. So, if you're at all familiar with John Lennon or the Beatles or anything, you'll know about the Rickenbacker 325, the top-of-the-line short-scale of the 300 Series of guitars, calculated from base models at 310, 330, 360, plus some weird and wacky things that also just so happened to be numbered in the 300s, such as the 350 (long-scale variant of the 325), 380L (Laguna model, came with optional piezo, based on 360), 381 (also based on the 360, but with a German carve on the top and the back, making it thicker than a normal 360), plus some oddball acoustics in the '50s at the very top end (390-394) based on the designs of Roger Rossmeisl's father, Wenzel Rossmeisl.

Now, how were they calculated from these base models? Simple: add 5 to the model number to get a vibrato, add 10 to get an extra pickup, and add 15 to get both. You could also add 6 to select 12-string models to get a comb mechanism that muted the octave strings, or just write "/12" next to a model number to attempt to get a 12-string variant, not that you'd always get it. Some models just don't exist as 12-strings, while others do. Interestingly enough, while being effectively identical to a 320/12, Rickenbacker made one model that physically shouldn't exist, especially not by most people's standards for 12 strings.

That's going to need a small tangent to explain. See, in the world of guitars, especially in 12-strings, people tend to accept that you just don't put vibratos or trem systems on a 12-string model. They are either hardtail top-loaders or hardtail string-throughs. Rickenbackers, with their tailpieces, are hardtail top-loaders, while Fender's Electric XII, with a very specially designed bridge system, is a hardtail string-through. That doesn't stop some companies from trying though, or Chinese copycats from including it as a feature for some reason. For example, a couple years ago, I saw a Gretsch-style 12-string with a Bigsby B7 copy. No, there wasn't any other tailpiece, and no, it wasn't on a doubleneck. Meanwhile, for reputable retailers, the Burns Double Six Apache is fitted with a Bigsby-style Rez-O-Tube system, and was designed for Hank Marvin, oddly enough.

Getting back on track, the reason why it shouldn't exist is because it doesn't align with the addition-based feature calculation. A 325 has 3 pickups and a vibrato system, either the Kauffman Vibrola for models before 1960, or the Ac'cent Vibrato for models afterward (except, of course, the V59 reissues which came stock with a Bigsby B5, to match John Lennon's famous modification. C58 reissues came stock with a Kauffman), but that's not how they do the 12 string models. They just leave the vibrato off, and give you the trapezoid tailpiece, or in rare cases, the R-tailpiece, but that's only if you're lucky. As a result, 325/12s, of which an approximate total of 161 exist, 25 from 1985-1986, and 136 from 1999, are effectively the same as the 320/12s they made a few years before, but badged as 325s instead because of John Lennon.

Yes, seriously, he had a 325/12 in 1964. It was a one-off model for their 1964 tour across North America, and here's what it looks like:

And they say that the images can't be viewed in full-screen or downloaded. I call bull. Anyway, this all leads me back to what I was talking about with the offcuts of flame maple. Seeing as the 325 is a 3/4 guitar, with what some might call a 5/8ths neck because it's so short a scale, I could, in theory, build a flame-topped all-maple 325 with it. Now, that would require a lot of maple, but it'd be at least playable, considering the small size and the hollow body. Plus, it'd give some use to the offcuts that isn't building a Les Paul out of a door, or whatever I decide to do with the offcuts of mahogany.

So yeah, that's how my 2 month "hiatus" has gone. No specific reason I disappeared, I just didn't have much to talk about. The build's going well, I've got the bridge on its way, and the only remaining bits I *need* are electronic except the tuners, and aren't all that pressing a requirement as the bridge in order to properly build the thing. The neck is a different kettle of fish, though, because I'm cutting that myself. That'll be a fun thing. Same goes for the fretboard, but slightly more difficult, because flame maple is a bit wild with its grain.

[tameblog]

When most people think of Kristin Cavallari, Laguna Beach, California comes to mind. After all, the 35-year-old business owner and New York Times best-selling author rose to fame as a cast member on MTV’s reality television series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County during her junior year of high school. She later joined MTV’s spinoff The Hills, which followed Cavallari and her castmates’ personal and professional lives in Los Angeles. Her fans may be surprised to learn, then, that Cavallari settled in Tennessee, a landlocked state 2,000 miles from the sunny shores of Southern California. Though she still dabbles in entertainment, the divorced mother of three prefers the quiet existence that Franklin, Tenn., affords her. Nicola Harger “We are out in the country, where it’s peaceful and calm,” says the Uncommon James founder, who bought a three-story, five-bedroom farmhouse at the start of the pandemic. The 28-acre property features apple trees, blackberry, blueberry and strawberry bushes. Cavallari loves that her children—Camden, 10, Jaxon, 8, and Saylor, 7—can roam freely on her land and ride their go-kart all around. “I feel very lucky,” she says. “They are outside playing all day; it’s almost like an old-school way of raising kids,” says Cavallari, who shares custody of the children with her ex-husband, former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler. They help her care for dogs Kona and Quinn, as well as the family’s chickens and beehives. They also tend to the vegetable garden, harvesting carrots, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and more. “To have bees and honey and a chicken coop makes me so happy,” she says. “Plus, teaching your kids life skills like that is neat. For my kids to be able to go out to our coop and get eggs is a really cool way to grow up—and very different than how I grew up,” she says.  Cavallari cannot say for sure how many homes she lived in before this one. She was born in Denver, but moved to Connecticut, then back to Denver, and then to the Chicago suburbs before landing in Laguna Beach her freshman year of high school. After graduating in 2005, she relocated to Los Angeles, and then back to Chicago before coming to Tennessee. In some cases, she lived in more than one home in each city, part of the reason she lost count. “I am really thankful because this is the first house I’ve ever lived in that is exactly what I wanted aesthetically,” she says. Laughing at her own realization, she adds, “This is the first time I can truly say I really love my house.” Nicola Harger When Cavallari and Cutler separated in April of 2020, she went to see the property and made an offer right after. “I walked in and knew immediately that it was my house,” she says. “It was the energy more than anything,” she says. “It’s like it was calling my name.” She loves that there are tons of windows, but that she still has complete privacy. “Had I waited a month, I never would have gotten it because that’s when everyone started moving out here,” she says. “To this day, I thank my lucky stars that it all worked out. Honestly, it was like everything just aligned for me.” A few weeks later, Cavallari moved in and began an 18-month renovation. “I did a lot of work,” she recalls. “I completely gutted the kitchen, finished the basement, redid a lot of the bathrooms and added on to my closet,” she explains. Outside, she put in a pool and had a glass greenhouse built. For a six-week period when she was without a kitchen, Cavallari rented a house in a beach community about six hours away. “Other than that, I was living in it,” she says. “It was a process.” Though the kitchen was airy and open, she felt it was lacking character and needed a complete overhaul to work style-wise with the rest of the house. “That’s where I am most of the time, so I wanted to make it how I wanted it,” says Cavallari, whose third cookbook, Truly Simple: 140 Recipes for Healthy Cooking, comes out next April. She is clearly happy with the renovation, as evidenced by the book’s cover image:  the author standing at her new quartzite island, with the handmade mosaic tile backsplash visible behind her. “There’s no grout, so it’s really rustic-looking,” says Cavallari, who also opted for an unexpected mix of unlacquered brass and ceramic hardware in the kitchen. “I don’t like anything too perfect,” she says. Nicola Harger Cavallari collaborated with Nashville-based designer April Tomlin on the interiors. “I’ve known April for 13 or 14 years, and she’s decorated some of my other houses,” explains Cavallari. “She’s a friend, so she knows my style. I trust her and her taste.” By now, Tomlin is aware that her client is (a) very decisive and (b) all about neutrals. “For me, less is more. I don’t like anything too crazy,” says Cavallari, whose only real guideline for Tomlin was that the house be warm and cozy. That meant hardwood floors accented by wool rugs, sheer linen curtains that let light in, a mix of neutral paints and subtly patterned papers on the walls, and candles galore. “I always have candles lit because I think they set the mood, especially if you are having people over,” she says. Nicola Harger For the downstairs family room and upstairs playroom, Tomlin sourced large, comfy sectionals and added chunky knit blankets and plenty of pillows. Likewise, she chose kid-friendly, upholstered ottomans free of sharp corners, to serve as coffee tables in both spaces. The family room is located right off the kitchen and serves as the main gathering place. “That’s where everyone congregates,” says Cavallari. “If I am cooking in the kitchen and my kids are in there, it’s like we are in the same room.” The space is also where the foursome watches movies together. When Cavallari’s children have friends over, they typically head upstairs. “The second level is essentially the kids’ zone,” she explains. “It’s where all three of their bedrooms are, the playroom, an arts and crafts room, and a game room.” The playroom came with built-in bunk beds, which make sleepovers even more fun for Cavallari’s children. “Sometimes it looks like a bomb went off when I go up there,” she says, resigned, “but for the most part, my feeling is: keep the chaos upstairs and everyone’s happy.” Though she loves throwing parties, and decorating her house for the holidays, Cavallari admits that these days, the extent of her entertaining is letting each of her kids invite a friend over, and then cooking for seven. Not a bad idea, given that she needed recipe testers for her latest cookbook. “Truly Simple is quick, easy recipes, which is how I cook on a weekly basis when I am running around with my kids,” explains Cavallari, who began regularly preparing meals after Camden was born. “I always knew that I wanted to be the mom who was going to cook dinner every night for her family,” she says, adding that it’s very therapeutic and allows her to zone out. “I am not a chef by any means,” she insists. “I am a mom who loves to cook. If I can make these recipes, anyone can.” Most nights, Cavallari and her kids eat dinner at the marble-topped table in the dining room. “I came into this house with a set of patio furniture and that dining room set, and that was pretty much it,” she says. She swears by the cozy chairs, which have survived many spills over the past six years, and felt confident they would work just as well in this house. In the hutch, she artfully displays glassware and serving pieces up top, and stores Christmas plates and her favorite Uncommon James home goods down below. Nicola Harger The room is lit by a white plaster chandelier—another holdover from her last home—and of course, candles. Nightly dinners allow her to connect with her kids, whom she says are her favorite people in the world. “I’d rather hang out with them than anyone else, especially where they are right now,” she says. “Their ages are so fun because I can talk to them about real things that are happening in their lives.” At seventeen, the Laguna Beach High School junior could never have imagined that she would grow up to author four books, appear on a dance competition series, host a podcast with classmate (and then-sweetheart) Stephen Colletti, and launch a jewelry business that would later grow into a lifestyle brand—with its headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. “I was the kid who had no idea what I wanted to do,” says Cavallari. “I didn’t play sports growing up and my academics probably weren’t what they should have been,” she acknowledges. “But I do feel like my career in entertainment has led me to where I am today with Uncommon James. Everything I’ve gone through prepared me for owning my own company, and for that, I am thankful,” she says.  Nicola Harger There was a lot of drama on Laguna Beach and The Hills, which no doubt helped Cavallari learn to protect herself and her interests. After seeing an interview with jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher, she made the decision to take Fisher’s advice and maintain 100 percent ownership of Uncommon James. As a result, Cavallari has never taken on a single investor. “I don’t have to answer to anybody,” she says, “and I have complete creative freedom to do whatever I want. That is a dream come true, so why would I give that up?” she asks. “If I have to give someone 20% of my company, then I don’t have as much say anymore.” Cavallari also took full ownership of her latest cookbook. “I’ve always written the books on my own, but I used a chef to help me with the recipes for the first two,” she explains. “This one is 100% me.” From August of 2021 through February of this year, Cavallari was in her kitchen making food every single day, trying out recipes and scrapping those that didn’t meet her standards. “That was really nice for me,” she says, “because in the years prior I was hustling, and had so much on my plate. To stay home every day in my leggings and cook for months was exactly what I needed.” Her business acumen also enabled her to grow the Uncommon James brand, which began with just jewelry five years ago. Now, the company generates $30 million in annual revenue and has several brick-and-mortar locations, in addition to e-commerce. That’s because Cavallari has expanded her offerings to include home goods (Uncommon James Home), children’s apparel (Little James), clean skincare (Uncommon Beauty) and accessories. The skincare line is her latest venture. It came to be in May 2021 after Cavallari discovered that a lot of the products people use contain chemicals that age us. “I felt like there was an opportunity to make products that were effective, but actually clean,” she says, “and to scale it down. I don’t think we need 20 products in our skincare routine.” Cavallari enjoys jumping from one project to the next. “I am super creative, I love a challenge, and I like doing different things,” she says. “In fact, Uncommon James is the first thing I’ve had to sustain for over five years, so that’s been interesting.” Her elegant home office makes this juggling act much easier because she can sit at her desk and write, answer calls, and hop on Zoom when needed, all while admiring the view outside her windows. “I’ve been working from home a lot more, and so I am in my office quite a bit,” she says. “It’s feminine, without being in your face, which I like.” Opposite her desk is a signed, limited-edition archival pigment print of Kate Moss, by artist Batik. “I actually have a few images of her in my house,” says Cavallari of Moss. “She is a legend in the fashion world, and I love her style.” Cavallari also appreciates how the pinkish tone of the print works in conjunction with the custom side chair covered in a mauve Mokum fabric. “It’s those soft, little details that give the room a feminine feel,” she says. Nicola Harger The pride she takes in her home is palpable, partly because it’s absent of cameras capturing her every move. Her most recent reality series, Very Cavallari, aired for three seasons on E! and wrapped in 2020. “I’m not going back to reality. There’s no way,” she insists. “I have worked in entertainment for so long, and there’s a level of stress that comes with it that’s not conducive to my life right now.” In fact, Cavallari shares that she recently told a friend, “If tomorrow no one knew who I was and that all went away, I would be perfectly okay with that. I really mean it.” Though she recognizes that she could change her mind down the road, for now she is happy the way things are. “I worked really hard to get to this place and I have finally found a nice work-life balance,” she says. “I’m almost 36, so I know there’s more ahead. I don’t know what it is yet, and I’m okay with that.” While she spends less time in Los Angeles and New York than she used to, Cavallari still takes occasional trips to both coasts to do publicity for her business and books. “To be able to come home to this environment is so nice for me,” she says. “I can’t say enough good things about Tennessee. It’s very grounding for me and I feel so at ease here. This is home as far as I can see into the future.” Source link

[misfitwashere]

October 18, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

OCT 19

The events of January 6, 2021, overshadowed those of January 5, 2021, but that day was crucially important in a different way: Georgia voters elected two Democrats, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, to the U.S. Senate. Warnock and Ossoff brought the total of Democrats in the Senate to 48, and since two Independents—Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont—caucus with the Democrats and because in an evenly split Senate the majority goes to the party in the White House, their election gave Democrats control of the Senate.

Without that majority, the Biden-Harris agenda that built the U.S. economy into what The Economist this week called “the envy of the world” would never have passed. There would have been no American Rescue Plan, no Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, no CHIPS and Science Act, no Safer Communities Act, no PACT Act, no Inflation Reduction Act. 

In an era when Republicans refuse to vote for any Democratic measures no matter how popular they are, control of the Senate is vital. The Senate majority leader decides what measures can come to the floor for consideration, so a leader can shut out anything his party doesn’t like. The Senate also controls the confirmation of federal judges, including members of the Supreme Court. 

During the Trump years, then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stacked the courts with MAGA judges, some of whom are now so reliably handing down right-wing decisions that plaintiffs routinely “shop” for them to get the decisions they want. And with Trump’s three hand-picked extremists at the Supreme Court, challenging those decisions simply writes that extremism more fully into law. 

As Trump continues to crumble—he canceled another appearance today, and in a statement almost certainly designed to leak, an advisor said he was “exhausted”—and as Democrats are favored to take the House, Republicans are waging a fierce battle to take control of the Senate. 

They are starting with an advantage. There are 34 Senate seats on the ballot this year, and Democrats are defending 23 of them while Republicans are defending just 11. Republicans need to pick up one seat to control the Senate if Trump wins the White House, and two if Harris wins. 

The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund PAC has, so far, spent more than $140 million in this year’s Senate races, with more than $136 million going to attack ads. In the four races that are most vulnerable for Democrats—Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $17.85 million (MT), $55.5 million (OH), $38.1 million (PA), and $23.6 million (WI).

In each of those four races, that money is bolstering extremely wealthy Republican challengers. In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy, running against Senator Jon Tester, would be among the ten wealthiest senators if elected: his financial disclosures put his net worth at between $74 million and $260 million. Republican Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has a net worth between $38 million and $172.7 million. In the Pennsylvania race, David McCormick (who actually appears to live in Connecticut) reported assets of $116 million to $290 million in 2022. In Wisconsin’s race, Republican Eric Hovde (who lived in an ocean-view mansion in Laguna Beach, California, until he decided to run for the Senate from Wisconsin) would also be one of the Senate’s richest members. His financial disclosures say his net worth is between $195.5 million and $564.4 million. 

This is not a coincidence. Knowing that fundraising would be difficult this year with Trump steering funds from the Republican National Committee primarily to himself, Republican Party leaders actively recruited candidates who could pour their own money into their campaigns. By the end of June, Sheehy had put $10.7 million into his own race; Moreno had put in $4.5 million by mid-October. McCormick had loaned his campaign more than $4 million by the end of June; Hovde put in $8 million by the end of March. 

This moment echoes the late nineteenth century, when wealthy businessmen sought a Senate seat as a capstone to their success, a perch from which they could protect the interests of other men like themselves. In that era it was relatively easy for a man like Nevada’s William Sharon to buy himself a Senate seat because the Constitution had established that state legislatures would elect their state’s senators. Determined to win a Senate seat to protect his railroad interests “regardless of expense,” Sharon bought a newspaper to flood the state capital with his own praise. The legislature gave him the seat in 1874. 

By the 1880s, even the staunchly pro-business Chicago Tribune complained: “Behind every one of half of the portly and well dressed members of the Senate can be seen the outlines of some corporation interested in getting or preventing legislation.” In 1892 the newly formed Populist Party met in Omaha, Nebraska, “to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of ‘the plain people,’ with which class it originated.” They called for the people to bypass the corrupt legislatures and elect senators directly. 

In 1900, William A. Clark of Montana provided the kick their proposal needed. 

Clark had arrived at the newly opened gold fields in Montana Territory in 1863 and transferred the money he made as a mule trader into banking. He made a fortune repossessing mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans. He invested that fortune in smelters, railroads, a newspaper, and copper mining, becoming one of the state’s famous Copper Kings. In 1889 he was the president of the Montana constitutional convention, where he made sure that mine owners could run the state as they wished. 

By 1890, Clark had his eyes on a Senate seat. He failed to get the support of the legislature in that year, and for the next decade he and his rival copper magnate Marcus Daly of the Anaconda Company poured vast sums of money into influencing the economy of the state, the location of the capital, and the state’s politics. 

Clark finally won his election in 1899, but on the same day he presented his credentials to the Senate, his opponents filed a petition charging him with bribery. An extensive investigation revealed that Clark had bought his seat with bribes ranging from $240 to $100,000, equivalent to almost $4 million today. His representatives had paid debts, bought ranches, and even handed envelopes of cash to legislators. The investigation also showed that Daly had spent a fortune trying to block Clark’s election. 

Montana politics, it seemed, had become a rich man’s game.

Aware that the Senate would vote to remove him from his seat, Clark resigned in May 1900. In January 1901 a new Montana legislature containing many of the same men Clark had paid off in 1899 elected him again to the same term from which he had been forced to resign. After an undistinguished term, he retired from the Senate in 1907.

Clark’s blatant purchase of a Senate seat added momentum to the demand for the direct election of senators, and in 1913 the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution established that the power to elect senators must rest in the hands of voters. That measure was supposed to make sure that wealth could not buy a Senate seat.

That the ability to self-fund a campaign is once again a key factor in winning a Senate seat from Montana—and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—seems to be history repeating.

—

[beacarrot]

Our Secret Song.

I never knew how to start this right,

But I bet I’d wanna miss you when you’re out of sight,

I feel the absence of my maze-like reflections,

But if that’s the price for peace, I’ll take the correction,

I won’t linger on your door, I’m not who they say,

You know, they love rumors, they don’t know another way.

So ambiguous, they say, a sad disguise,

Yet you’ll say I’m Kidman from Practical Magic,

Though only in her most miserable guise,

When she lost her mind and blamed art for talks with the walls,

And and for she has become a simple muse,

Starting a worship that set her fuse,

At least our sun signs align, like a small spark,

But that makes me sensitive, I know you caught that mark.

You touched me once,

So I wrote you a song,

Whispers close by, let them guess, but they’ll never catch on,

We don’t like the way they walk,

So we laugh, inside jokes for our own stuck clock,

Arms linked tight,

Paths crossing out of sight,

It was rhetorical, felt so real, so light,

We covered silence with our trust in confessions.

The scent that rises from his neck,

The gleam that glints from his chain,

The words trapped in his throat,

It’s all written on his face, just like in vain,

His hair, his cheeks pressed close to mine,

My green coat, his purple tee,

By this color, this song will be a secret, I guess you see.

You’ll carve these words in cherry trees,

In sacred woods on the right side of the hall,

Feels like we’ll always be teens in high school’s schemes,

Making up nonsense,

Just to fill the scene.

Thorns don’t bloom into laguna roses, only illusions,

Parallel shelves held on a cold wall’s tension, a mosaic of opened-hearts,

Only the luckiest ones stay unscarred,

They think we’re a couple, lost in affection,

I bet that’s what my cousin will tell our nosy family next,

I’ll jot it down to laugh at later,

What more should I expect?

Why go beyond this place?

I whispered, “I know you’re upset,”

But you wrapped your arm in mine and touched my leg,

“No, I’m okay,” you said.

I’ll be the one who grabs your hand that way,

And we’ll get kicked out of parties for having too much to say,

A chaos that somehow sparks a beginning’s edge,

Scratching records to our “Crazy Theory” pledge,

Doesn’t have to be love to be unique,

But maybe it is,

Well, maybe it is.

I was crying softly,

But you’d hear me even if a thousand bells chimed,

Inside or outside your mind,

No words need be spoken aloud,

You know, and I know, we’ve felt enough to vow.

I resist the common sense of things,

Like the modern world resists romantic scenes.

I’m so tired of the fetish craze,

I adore how embers fade before my gaze,

But our hands were sweating, slowly clasped tight,

My dad would shake his head, no doubt,

"But dad, I like him",

And now he loves him too,

That doesn’t mean I can’t contain myself,

Honestly, who are we to speak a non-verbal bond?

Honestly, why would I cut you from my poems’ sound?

Your arms warm me whole,

Onlookers guessing, hungry for more,

The air from your lips growing warmer still,

Will I finally tell a decent story’s thrill?

Has anyone touched me like this?

Or are you rare, a legend at will?

Some words were spoken,

Etched on the curve of my neck with skill,

And they said:

“I love you.”

You touched me once,

So I wrote you a song,

We’re close friendS, why risk disaster’s weight?

They’ll suppose, but never know,

We’re no fans of rules, but that’s okay,

Yet I can’t leave my notes empty when I’m with you,

Maybe I’m a bit of what they all claim,

But this time I’m wiser, I kinda know how to stay tame.

Lighthearted jokes,

Nine o’clock, we’re to be home,

But I return to that moment and live it once more,

It was gradual, natural as it could be, what’s left to ignore?

Quarter to ten,

And here I am, recalling the glint from your chain,

The words locked in my throat once again,

Already written on this page in front of me plain,

Your seventeen-year-old smile, your soft red cheeks near mine,

My green coat, your purple tee,

And now I can reply,

I love you too, I decree,

And now the song is complete,

By this confession, it’ll be our secret song...

(Sometimes I find myself really wishing that whoever inspired this poem never hears it. It's about the "Wednesday boy" and he inspires me so much! It's all partly real and partly fantasy. There are things that don't need to be exposed to the world, but this is a secret poem and now it's not so secret I always gonna be really grateful for all the times he made me feel so much better.)

Signed: Beatriz Ranzonni 🩵.

[kaycharles]

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[batsplat]

u r sooo right about the red team blue team rivalry which is also what I thought about the aesthetics of some pictures of fabio q vs pecco in the last title fight races of 2021. pecco was so unsure back then and fabio had more natural talent and gumption and pecco seemed nervous and fabio seemed like he was having a good time and they made for good a narrative in their blue and red leathers.

we have only had four title fights this century between a blue team and a red team! and even that is me being generous by including 2007 - which imo counts because casey had to outscore valentino not dani at motegi to clinch the title and dani only nicked second in the championship off valentino at valencia. so yeah, four title fights: 2007, 2008, 2021, 2022. just isn't good enough

I will say by the END of 2021 pecco had mostly finished finding his feet and was winning a bunch of races, whereas fabio was less self-assured and more going 'yeah this title is nice but... uh...? guys we might be a bit fucked?' but. yeah. aesthetically their title fights were nice vibes! I was totally pro that rivalry conceptually! in practise, these aesthetics were let down somewhat by the absence of this little thing I like to call 'actually fighting on-track', which as a traditionally-minded viewer I do on occasion like to see in my title fights. like, valentino and casey's whole rivalry aesthetic was enhanced by how you have cool shots of them actually being, y'know, in the same shot

a selection from some of my favourite on-track battles of theirs during the time they were at ducati and yamaha respectively (minus assen 2007 + phillip island 2009 for obvious reasons). very nice distinct colour scheme, colours really popped, we know casey was paying attention to luminous yellow covering things and it's symbolically neat that one of 'valentino's colours' is on casey's bike (no, I do not care about what the australian flag looks like and indeed refuse to acknowledge the existence of 'australia'). also generally liked their helmets during that era, strong stuff all round

I've been thinking a fair bit lately about how this era compares to the other era this century that is generally associated with poor quality of racing, aka the alien era. the word that is commonly associated with those few years is 'processional', not unfairly... I think a refrain I see quite commonly is that some fans still have too much nostalgia for the alien era because they're only thinking of the laguna 2008's and catalunya 2009's of this world, not all the many many races of that era that weren't laguna 2008 or catalunya 2009. which is true! my general take is that the average race quality these last few years has been higher and there's often something interesting happening somewhere - you don't get the abysmal lows of the alien era quite so often. on the flip side, while the alien era certainly is associated with technical regulations that produced some poor racing... well, it did seem to at least be possible when all the stars aligned to have a duel that lasted for more than three corners. that used to be a thing even in the alien era. like it did happen

as much as I find the alien era deeply frustrating and agree with the general point that race quality these days doesn't plummet quite the same depths, I also think you need those highlights!! just to give people stuff to remember seasons by, stuff that lives on in years to come because it was just such a foundational cool memory. the current dearth isn't primarily the fault of the riders, but we have been pretty short on outright classics since end of 2019 - and the ones we have had tend to be more in the dogfight category of the typical phillip island mould than the race long duel. my sense is the current formula makes these even more impossible than 800cc did, which also weren't conducive to duels but at least didn't have this infernal tyre pressure crap week in week out that makes it impossible for riders to follow each other closely. also does feel like one of the real issues with increased homogeneity between the bikes... like casey/vale was kinda the motorcycling rivalry for babies because you knew that casey would have the edge in the straights and valentino would have the edge in the twisty bits. now a bike like the current ducati just has a way more balanced performance profile, and that's what everyone else is chasing. which. y'know. harder to be doing dramatic duels if you're all good in the same places

anyway, the point is that fabio and pecco had all the ingredients for a perfectly enjoyable rivalry... fabio as the more precocious one but also by 2021 a somewhat steadier performer, pecco cerebral but also volatile, self-critical to a fault. pecco's actually someone who I'd kill to see in a better version of this sport just for a bit, seeing as one of his biggest strengths as a rider is how excellent he is at defending - which would be nice to see tested more in races where that like... actually matters. they're both a little bit too nice and non-confrontational for my tastes, like you kinda worry any rivalry between them is destined to just be quite friendly, but there was still enough contrast in personalities and approaches to theoretically generate intrigue. plus, obviously, most importantly - they did have a red and blue colour scheme

while I'm generally a fan of dark colour schemes, I do feel like the white of the fiat yamaha era did allow the blue to pop a little more. and maybe it would've helped if the red had been a bit brighter to provide more contrast - I like both of these designs on their own, but together they do look a tad bleak. also my god have these bikes become massive

unfortunately, however, it comes back to the lack of memorable on-track battles. 2021 and 2022 were both kinda weird years, with pecco not really establishing himself as The Title Rival until quite late into 2021, and then 2022 being... y'know, a truly bizarre experience. they were never really good at the same time! didn't ever really hash it out for the win! even when they came close, like jerez/mugello 2022, it wasn't all that much of a fight... it's a shame - we know they're both theoretically capable of perfectly compelling on-track battles, they just never really did it with each other. pecco's had more good fights with jorge than with fabio, and that's also not exactly happening at the rate I'd like

in conclusion. it is time to bring back red vs blue sports contests. let us return to this

and the only way to do that? well, that would be for the blue team to get its act together

[lapsed-bookworm]

"UNESCO World Heritage Committee Names Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to Prestigious List" (19 September 2023):

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 named the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, a group of eight ancient earthwork sites in southern Ohio, to its World Heritage List. The decision by the World Heritage Committee was made by consensus at its 45th session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

The monumental earthworks were built 2,000 years ago by Native American communities. Five of the earthwork sites are managed by the National Park Service and three are managed by the Ohio History Connection.

The destination was applauded by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), whose department oversees the National Park Service.

“Today’s designation by UNESCO is a tremendous opportunity and recognition of the contributions of America’s Indigenous Peoples,” Haaland said in a press release. “World Heritage designation is an opportunity for the United States to share the whole story of America and the remarkable diversity of our cultural heritage as well as the beauty of our land. The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are unique creations of America’s indigenous people and a remarkable survival of our ancient history.”

The sites that comprise Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were built between 1,500 and 2,200 years ago by people now referred to as the Hopewell Culture. The earthworks, built on an enormous scale and using a standard unit of measure, form precise squares, circles, and octagons as well as a hilltop sculpted to enclose a vast plaza. The geometric forms are consistently deployed across great distances and encode alignments with both the sun’s cycles and the far more complex patterns of the moon. Artifacts, which are among the most outstanding art objects produced in pre-Columbian North America, show that those who built the earthworks interacted with people as far away as the Yellowstone basin and Florida. These are among the largest earthworks in the world that are not fortifications or defensive structures.

The properties comprising the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks:

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe, including the Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks, High Bank Earthworks and Hopeton Earthworks

The Ohio History Connection’s Octagon Earthworks and Great Circle Earthworks in Newark and Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia

During a recent vote, the World Heritage Committee members agreed that these earthworks deserve to be recognized alongside such places as Stonehenge in England and the Nazca Lines in Peru, as well as other iconic places in the United States, including Independence Hall and the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service manages all or part of 19 of the 25 World Heritage Sites in the United States. It is also the principal U.S. government agency responsible for implementing the World Heritage Convention in cooperation with the Department of State.

The inclusion of a site in the World Heritage List does not affect U.S. sovereignty or management of the sites, which remain subject only to U.S., state and local laws. Detailed information on the World Heritage Program and the process for the selection of U.S. sites can be found at the National Park Service’s website.

[compassenergystorage]

Laguna Niguel’s Battery Future by Compass Energy

Compass Energy Storage furthers sustainability with its Laguna Niguel battery project, proposing scalable storage that aligns with the area’s energy goals. This project contributes to improved grid performance, reduces peak demand and fossil fuel dependence. Compass has a seasoned team that assures seamless integration with existing infrastructure, providing expertly-engineered systems that adhere with California clean energy requirements.

[topoathletic]

5 Long Weekend Running Getaways to Kick Off Summer

As the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day weekend is a great time to get away for a running adventure. Spring running means you have to be ready for unpredictable weather, but that’s part of the fun. Bright yellow balsamroot against moody skies or breathtaking views on a sunny day make the unexpected challenges worth it.

Whether you’re craving cool mountain air or desert sunshine, a running-focused trip can be a rejuvenating way to celebrate the long weekend. Let’s explore a variety of landscapes and destinations to check out. And don’t forget to pack your favorite pair of running shoes!

Trail Heaven for Elevation Lovers

Dream destinations for trail runners who like to get up high can be found in Colorado, Idaho, or Montana. Just keep in mind that higher-elevation trails can often still have snow or mud on them at this time of year. Come prepared with the right gear, and you’ll capture spring in all its glory. Rugged men’s or womens trail running shoes with grippy Vibram® outsoles are a great starting point.

Mountain Views and Craft Brews

On the East Coast, weekend warriors and hikers like to flock to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Trail. This could also be a perfect getaway near Asheville, NC, with so many sights to see and things to do as the town celebrates Memorial Day weekend. If you spend time in the city exploring breweries, museums, or the Festival of the Arts, you’ll want your high-cushioned wide toe box running shoes for cruising around on foot.

Coastal Runs with Ocean Breezes

Is Southern California calling your name? Wake up to a sunrise and jog along the beach, whether it’s in the Santa Monica area or Laguna Beach. In Santa Monica, cruise through Palisades Park or venture into the Santa Monica Mountains for a taste of the trail. Coastal SoCal destinations are ideal for runners who want to blend miles with mellow vibes and beachside recovery. Plus, they’re the perfect place to try out a new pair of comfortable, foot shaped sneakers with a roomy toe box.

Red Rocks and Radiant Dirt

If you haven’t been to Moab or Sedona, put these must-see running destinations on your bucket list. Known for its jaw-dropping red rock formations and spiritual energy, Sedona is a trail runner’s and hiker’s paradise. Explore the Cathedral Rock loop, Bell Rock Pathway, or the more rugged Hangover Trail for a serious adventure. Moab is also amazing, with endless miles of slick rock trails and a super laid-back vibe. It can get crowded during Memorial Day, but that gives you a good reason to search for a hidden gem.

Country Roads and Quiet Beauty

This could be anywhere in the country! From the West and East Coasts to the heartland of the Midwest, running on country roads or anywhere off the beaten path is a chance to enjoy some solitude and quiet reflection. Long, uninterrupted time on dirt or gravel roads is a great training strategy. Is there a small town or area you’ve always wanted to visit? Lace up your trusty shoes and get out there.

Wherever you’re headed this Memorial Day weekend, let your running shoes lead the way. With the right destination and the perfect pair of comfortable, cushioned running shoes, you’ll start the summer strong.

About Topo Athletic

Are you looking for a comfortable running shoe that doesn’t sacrifice performance? Topo Athletic has the footwear to take your active lifestyle to the next level. Whether you love trail running, enjoy morning walks, or have a job that keeps you on your feet all day, every Topo Athletic shoe is designed with your comfort in mind. Experience The Topo Difference with their signature roomy toe box, a secure midfoot and heel, and a low heel to toe drop. Athletic shoes with wide toe box allow your toes to align in their natural position, offering enhanced comfort and better balance. Train for long-distance races, log your daily miles, or explore a new part of town.

Find shoes from Topo Athletic for your next running weekend away at https://www.topoathletic.com/

Original Source: https://bit.ly/4j3vHnI

[erenmortel]

Saturday, May 10 2025

Note to self: never do that. I still haven’t learnt my lesson from Joshua, it seems. At least he didn’t hurt me the way Allen did. This time, I’m very sure that I’ll never fall in love. (June 9 2016)

Ate ko. The things my 14-year-old self could not even fathom. This entry was almost 10 years ago, and I could never imagine the amount of transformation I would go through within these 10 years. Let alone definitely say that I'll never fall in love. That is quite simply insane.

Falling in love is the best feeling in the world. Better than sex. Better than anything. You have been taught to repress your love because it is seen as immoral--disgusting. Further, your family situation didn't give you the best model for how to love. Your dad is narcisstic, your mom was an enabler, both of whom didn't know how to show love in a way that a healthy adult needed to make meaningful attachments. Now you're here, dealing with Complex PTSD and having a disorganized attachment style, hoping only to love and be loved.

It's not your fault. Some things are simply out of your control. The good thing is, you can now choose how you handle your life, and thankfully, I spent the next 10 years living and learning.

I've exhausted the pages of my second physical journal, so I'm writing on my online journal to cope. And to also check back with myself.

I feel hopeful. I have been on multiple dates, all of them failed situationships, but I have not given up hope. I know what I want. And this is coming from a guy who just this morning left some guy's apartment after hooking up with him and staying the night. It seems a little hypocritical. I'm sure the guy feels that way, too.

We planned for it to be a coffee date with the intention of knowing more about each other, of hobbies, interests, and goals. It changed when he suddenly told me he couldn't be available for a date outside, and offered his place as consolation. And the intention didn't change--we talked, and talked, and talked. I was supposed to commute home after a few hours.

But we were just talking in his bed, laying down besides each other, and all my mind was saying whilst he was talking to me about Marvel or the grand house he grew up in in Laguna is kiss him. Obviously, this desire was mediated by my superficial attraction to him. Nothing foundational of the sorts. Believe me, I fought against this instinct hard.

But I failed. I told him to hug me, then I told him his stubble feels good to touch and when I nuuzzled it with my cheeks, I maneouvered insofar as to let our lips touch, and you already know the rest.

I didn't expect that, Hans said.

Neither did I.

I guess I had a hunch when you said you liked how my stubble felt, then I guess I maneouvered my lips to align with yours, he said.

Oh really?

I can't believe I made this guy believe it was his doing, I thought.

I may have betrayed my values. I may have gone back on my word. But I just couldn't leave without getting anything. Sure he paid for my meal but I wanted him. We were besides each other in bed. Why not? This is what happened between me and Seiji the first time we met (after four days of talking online and getting to know each other, dude), so I thought why not try and emulate it?

And then you realize you're emulating something that failed, not something that was true nor everlasting.

So I admit, I made a mistake, and I know he sees it, too. I know he's bummed that this meetup has been reduced to just another hookup. Maybe that's why I haven't had any new messages from him since getting out of his bed in the morning. What's weird is that I did still like him in the morning. I feel like I just needed to get that out of the way in order for me to really lock in, I don't know. Maybe this isn't a winning strategy. Maybe I should reconsider.

[westerngossips01]

Latest Kristin Cavallari Fashion Photos Feature Braless Look and Statement Jewelry

Kristin Cavallari is once again making waves in the fashion world with a fearless new look that’s grabbing attention for all the right reasons. The former reality star turned fashion entrepreneur recently stunned fans and fashion critics alike by stepping out in a striking, braless outfit paired with bold statement jewelry.

Known for her effortless blend of elegance and edge, Cavallari’s latest style moment is a clear reflection of her evolving fashion sense. Ditching traditional styling norms, she opted for a minimalist outfit that highlighted her natural confidence, choosing to go braless under a sleek, tailored ensemble that showcased her figure without compromising sophistication.

The look wasn’t just about going without a bra — it was about balance. The clean lines of her outfit allowed her accessories to truly shine. Cavallari completed the look with chunky gold jewelry, including layered necklaces, oversized hoop earrings, and a few bold rings. The jewelry served as a focal point, elevating the simple silhouette and adding a touch of glam without overwhelming the outfit.

This appearance is another reminder that Kristin Cavallari knows how to make a fashion statement while staying true to her style roots. From her early days on Laguna Beach to running her own lifestyle brand, she’s always championed authenticity and confidence. Her latest fashion moment is just the latest chapter in a career filled with fearless choices.

Fans were quick to praise her bold look on social media, applauding her for embracing a more natural and empowered image. It’s clear she’s not just following trends — she’s setting them. Her braless choice aligns with a larger movement in fashion that encourages body positivity and freedom of expression, allowing women to dress in a way that feels right for them rather than fitting into outdated expectations.

[iconsofchange]

LPU-Laguna Honored at Icons of Change Awards 2025 for Industry-Driven Educational Excellence

Here’s the moment worth celebrating: the Lyceum of the Philippines University - Laguna (LPU-Laguna) proudly receives the Excellence in Industry-Driven Education and Innovation Award at the Icons of Change Awards 2025—an inspiring snapshot of academic brilliance meeting real-world impact.

A true trailblazer in higher education, LPU-Laguna is rewriting the playbook for how learning institutions can serve as launchpads for globally competitive, purpose-driven graduates.

Founded on the vision of the late Senator Sotero “Teroy” Laurel and fueled by decades of innovation, LPU-Laguna has become a benchmark for integrating cutting-edge technology, industry partnerships, and experiential learning into its educational DNA. From ISO certifications to world-class internships and alumni success stories, the institution stands as a model of how education can drive sustainable development and future-proof an entire generation.

This recognition at the Icons of Change Awards—held in synergy with the Metro Manila SDG Action Summit 2025—cements LPU-Laguna’s position not just as a center of learning, but as a force of national transformation aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education).

Congratulations to the entire LPU-Laguna community! Your legacy of excellence is powering a new wave of leaders, dreamers, and changemakers.

#IconsOfChange #ExcellenceInEducation #IndustryDrivenLearning #LPUlaguna #QualityEducation #SDG4 #GlobalCompetence #InnovativeEducation #UniversityExcellence #EmpoweringFutureLeaders #RecognizingVisionEmpoweringTransformation