#Flexible Packaging Machine

[krishnaengineering25]

The flexible packaging industry is undergoing a revolution, driven by innovative technologies that prioritize precision, efficiency, and versatility. Among these advancements, the Slitter Rewinder Machine stands as a cornerstone of modern converting solutions.

[nichromepackaging]

The Evolving Landscape of Powder Packaging in the Indian Market

Packaging plays a pivotal role in being a link between the products and consumers. Right from influencing the purchase decisions to maintaining product integrity, it serves various purposes. This crucial function is particularly evident in India's booming powder packaging market, which is experiencing significant growth. This surge is driven by changing lifestyles and the increased demand for packaged food and consumer goods. Rapid urbanization and the expansion of e-commerce have further fueled this demand.

Powder packaging solutions are not limited to spices and milk powder. They cover many bases, from detergent powder packing machines to protein powder packing machines. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries, too, are expanding to the next level and require a huge number of powder-packing machines.

The packaging landscape in India is evolving with some advanced trends. In this blog, we will unpack the key trends behind this evolution, including new technologies and solutions to industry challenges.

Key Trends Shaping the Powder Packaging Industry in India

The powder packaging industry in India is responding to key modern trends, which are outlined below -

Automation and Efficiency:

Automation is making its way to every sector in the modern era. Packaging Solutions are no exception to this. Automatic powder packaging machines are reducing the labour cost and scope of manual errors. It is significantly accelerating the production lines that avail the businesses with the opportunity to address the evergrowing demand. The precision in the operation safeguards product quality with features like dust extraction and controlled environments, minimizing contamination risks.

Flexible Packaging Solutions:

Flexible Packaging Solutions have several compelling advantages. Right from its ability to cater to diverse products, various pouch formats and specialised packaging solutions to cater to the unique needs of the product. The considerations of material, cost, shelf life and convenience are at play in the flexible packaging solutions. For example, the automatic spice powder packaging machine provides many flexible powder packaging materials that provide superior barrier properties, effectively protecting the powder product from moisture, oxygen, and other environmental factors, thereby extending its shelf life. It offers bags or pouches over the rigid containers. This adds convenience in terms of weight, portability, storage, and handling, and it is also economical.

Sachet Packaging:

The tiny little convenience of a sachet is synonymous with affordability and accessibility. It provides consumers with an option to purchase small quantities of products, making them affordable and accessible to a wider segment of the population. The ease of carrying, storing, hygiene and consumption are the key elements contributing to the trend of sachet packaging. All the small sachets, such as tea, coffee and milk powder packaging solutions, pour in the added on-the-go convenience.

Customization:

Every product has its unique requirements of packaging in terms of shapes, design, shelf life and much more. Customized packaging solutions stand tall at the forefront in today's competitive market. The diversity in designs, materials, fillers, seals, shapes and sizes, every factor opens the scope for custom packaging solutions.

Challenges Faced by the Powder Packaging Industry in India

Despite the promising growth trajectory, the Indian powder packaging industry faces several challenges. Let’s look into these

Maintaining Product Quality and Hygiene: Multiple factors such as moisture absorption, contamination due to external elements or spoilage can easily affect and compromise the product quality. To ensure consumer safety, the packaging must overcome these challenges.

Ensuring Accurate Filling and Sealing: Leakage, spillage and weight variations in the powder packaging are some major concerns that can result in customer dissatisfaction and financial loss. Hence precise filling and sealing is critical.

Meeting Stringent Regulatory Requirements: Businesses operating in the Indian market must adhere to stringent regulations set by the Indian Government, from labelling to food safety.

Adapting to Changing Consumer Preferences: Understanding the evolving consumer preferences and innovating and improving the packaging solutions accordingly are the necessities of the modern Indian market.

Finding Reliable Packaging Machine Suppliers: Packaging Automation in India has brought immense change to packaging practices. Every manufacturer strives for this efficiency. To match that, selecting the right packaging machine suppliers is essential. Nichrome provides the best automatic powder packing machines in India and across the world.

Nichrome's Solutions for the Evolving Market

From Mirchi powder packing machines to washing powder packing machines, Nichrome understands the specialized needs of the Indian powder packaging sector. With our advanced range of Vertical Form Fill Seal machines, we address the unique challenges of this dynamic market.

1. Excel 400 Plus Servo Auger

Automation using a CE-marked PLC controller and touchscreen HMI is an added advantage of the Excel Plus series. Print mark scanners, servo motor-driven bag length control systems, static charge eliminators, and adjustable cross-sealing jaw strokes for best results are some of the key features. The EXCEL PLUS series offers a variety of fillers, making it a very flexible packaging machine for spices and other powders.

2. Sprint 250 Plus with Servo Auger

Nichrome's SPRINT 250 PLUS series provides speed, precision, and efficiency for flexible packaging for a diverse range of powders. Either as a food powder packaging solution or a washing powder packaging machine, this machine serves as the perfect powder packaging solution for pouch volumes up to 2 kg. It has a touch screen HMI and a PLC with a CE stamp. Its sealing technology, powered by a servo motor, can efficiently seal while maintaining pressure levels. It has a perforation mechanism to deliver a chain of tiny pouches and is designed to draw the precise length of film needed for packing.

3. Maxima 200/400 with Servo Auger

The MAXIMA 200/400's small footprint and compact design allow it to take up less room in factories. It has become a go-to solution for many powder manufacturers because of its PLC-based control system and optional interaction with PCs and data processors.

As the names suggest, MAXIMA 200 holds a capacity to pack 200 pouches every minute while the MAXIMA 400 holds a capacity to pack 400 pouches per minute. It is possible to create a single or perforated chain of pouches.

4. Wing Stickpack

For a variety of intricate and user-friendly applications, Nichrome's Wing sachet packaging machine series provides an effective packaging solution. This creative packaging idea is gaining popularity because of the rising need for single-serve, portable sachets, particularly in the travel and hospitality industries.

Conclusion

The powder packaging landscape in India has a promising future with its legacy of spices and innovations in the pharma and non-food industries. The rising growth of the industry has many driving factors including evolving consumer preferences, automation and technological advancements. As the market evolves, businesses that embrace innovation, prioritize sustainable packaging options, and invest in advanced solutions will be well-positioned to thrive.

At Nichrome, we offer customised packaging solutions to cater to the unique demands of your products. Providing high-quality, reliable, and innovative packaging solutions, we are well-equipped to assist businesses in navigating the evolving landscape of the Indian powder packaging market. Whether it is as small as a Haldi powder packaging machine or as big as an integrated packaging solution for bulk bag filling, we have got you covered. Partner with us to optimize your packaging operations and achieve scalable growth in this dynamic and competitive market.

[tyrecordmachinery-blog]

Rotogravure Printing Machine: High-Quality Packaging

KEW ENGG. & MFG. PVT. LTD. offers advanced Rotogravure Printing Machines for high-quality, fast printing in packaging, labels, food, and pharma industries.

Rotogravure printing machine is one of the most well-known and fastest print processes for high-quality printing, extensively used for packaging and decorative printing and for printing publications. In this method, images are cut into a cylinder surface, which allows for the transfer of ink to the substrate with unmatched precision. 

[uflex]

Both Flexographic and Rotogravure printing technologies are well established in their own stature and have their fair shares of advantages and disadvantages. Much of Americas is using flexographic printing while rotogravure technology is also picking up of late. Uflex shook hands with Italian Firm Comiflex SRL to manufacture gearless C.I. Flexo Printing Machines under a Technology Transfer Agreement.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Where Will All The Martyrs Go [Chapter 12: Please Call Me Only If You Are Coming Home]

A/N: Only 1 chapter left!!! 🥳 Be sure to vote in our final poll, which will be pinned at the top of my blog per usual 🥰

Series summary: In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, both you and Aemond (and your respective travel companions) find yourselves headed for the West Coast. It’s the 2024 version of the Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more undead antagonists. Watch out for snakes! 😉🐍

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, med school Aemond, character deaths, nature, drinking, smoking, drugs, Adventures With Aegon™️, pregnancy and childbirth, the U.S. Navy, road trip vibes.

Series title is a lyric from: “Letterbomb” by Green Day.

Chapter title is a lyric from: “Homecoming” by Green Day.

Word count: 5.8k

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🥰

“What the hell do you need that for?” Cregan says to Helaena in the next aisle over, sounding alarmed. You are raiding a Kwik Stop just outside Colusa, California, following Route 20 west towards the Pacific Ocean. But when Helaena replies, her voice is perfectly soothing, lyrical, too serene for the way the world is now.

“It’s not for me. It’s just in case anyone ever finds themselves in need of one.” And this makes sense, even though you can’t see what it is she’s taken off the disorderly, ransacked shelves; Helaena is always picking up trinkets to keep stowed away in her burlap messenger bag until their utility becomes essential.

Cregan is relieved. “Oh, okay, gotcha. Whew, you almost gave me a heart attack there, Miss LaeLae…”

Ice is stretched out and dozing on the cool tile floor. Luke and Rhaena are keeping watch by the front of the store. Aegon is standing by the decommissioned Icee machine and showing Daeron which route he’s marked on his map and why.

“Why do I need to know this?” Daeron is asking.

Aegon snorts. “In case I get killed, dumbass…”

Fluttering pieces of paper hang taped to the glass doors of the empty refrigerators: Don’t go towards Sacramento; People in Santa Rosa killed my brother for his car; Andrew Lounsbury, if you see this we are headed to Aunt Sarah’s house, meet us there! Meanwhile, in your own aisle, Aemond is watching you as your fingers flit through packages of Starbursts and Jolly Ranchers and Life Savers Gummies, separating the trash from the ones that haven’t been opened yet. His expression is wary, uncertain. “What?” you ask him.

“Are you…okay?” Aemond says, low enough that no one else will hear.

Of course you aren’t; you keep walking into rooms and looking for Rio, and he’s not there. But you know what Aemond means. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

“Did I hurt you? Are you…” He steps closer, the blue of his eye gleaming with attentive, penitent concern, sins he is certain he must have committed. “Are you sore, are you bleeding at all?”

You smile, just the ghost of a curve at the edge of your lips. “No, really, I feel fine.” And in your body, this is true. There is a tension that has vanished from your muscles, a softness in your bones, not shards of glass shifting beneath skin but living things like the branches of trees, flexible, green, damp life awash within.

“I was trying to…you know…take it slow and be super gentle, but then…by the end…”

“Aemond, you did everything right.”

And he exhales all the iron-heavy dread he’s been carrying around since he woke up this morning to find you already gone—showing Aegon how to flip Bisquick pancakes as Cregan browned them in a skillet in the woodstove downstairs—and you realize how much you’ve scared him. “I’m really sorry about…” He touches his chin restlessly. “I should have asked you if you wanted me to pull out, I just got, uh…kind of…distracted.”

Your smile grows; now you can feel it in your eyes, warm and luminous. “It’s alright. I did too.”

He is hopeful. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t have told you to stop. And anyway, I think we’re safe.” But of course you’ve lost track of the days, and in your dark trance of grief and Tramadol you were entirely unaware of the rhythms of your body, pangs of desire or clear ample wetness, biological cues, primal timekeeping.

“Cool,” Aemond says, now trying to sound casual. “And next time…are you thinking that I should try to…maybe…just to be sure…?”

You shrug, then tell him the first thing that comes into your mind, that flashes in your skull like lightning bugs at dusk. “I’m thinking that life is too short and too rare to put effort into preventing it.”

Aemond’s eyebrows go up, but he doesn’t seem disappointed. “So we’ll see what happens.”

“If you’re onboard.”

“I’m totally onboard. I just want to take care of you. I…” He glances down at his palms—open, clean—and then looks back up at you. “I’ve never had anything that felt right before. Not my family, not myself, nothing. But this feels right. And it’s where I want to be forever.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” And this is what everyone thought: Jace, Baela, Rio. But you make the oath anyway, a hollow promise that echoes like a windchime.

“Me either,” Aemond vows.

You turn to leave the aisle and your backpack hits the shelf, knocking something off the top and onto the tile floor, where it lands with a thump. You gasp, and people come running; but it’s only a box of Honey Buns that was stashed somewhere too high for you to see. “It’s nothing,” you assure them. “We’re all okay, no need to get excited.”

“Death by Little Debbie,” Aegon says, chuckling nervously, his heart still racing.

You pick up the box and think of Rio with abrupt, violent clarity: he’s playing with French-speaking kids on the beach outside Djibouti City, he’s drinking cans of Guinness with you under a full moon on Diego Garcia, he’s reaching out from the pier to pet finless porpoises in Chinhae, he’s bleeding to death on a floor in Winnemucca, Nevada. Your vision is blurring with tears; your throat is knotted and scalding.

“I want him back,” Aegon says softly.

“I know. I do too.” You open the box of Honey Buns and pass one to Aegon first, then distribute the rest. There are only six total. Helaena tries to give hers to Cregan, but he rips it in half so they can share; Aemond insists you take the last one. You eat it wordlessly, sugar melting into your bloodstream.

“I think I saw a minivan down the side street,” Luke says as he chews his Honey Bun, waving his binoculars with his free hand. “It’s probably out of gas like all the others, but…”

“We’ll check it out,” Aemond replies, and everyone follows him as he departs from the Kwik Stop.

It’s a green Kia Carnival with a zombie trapped inside: once a young man in a Nirvana t-shirt, now a ghoul that paws at the glass with its oozing hands and licks the windows, long animal drags of a decomposing tongue. But the fuel cap is still closed, and while the van is turned off you can see the keys dangling from the ignition.

“Think there’s any gas left in the tank?” Daeron says brightly. The Targaryen beach house, following the indirect route you must take to avoid the cities, is about 250 miles from where you are now in Colusa. That’s two weeks on foot, or as few as five hours by car.

Rhaena goes for the driver’s side door. “Let’s find out.” She yanks on the handle to discover it’s locked. Cregan uses his axe to shatter the window, and the zombie tumbles gracelessly out onto the pavement, rancid skin and necrotic muscle ripping from its bones. As it crawls towards the siren call of fresh meat, Ice barks viciously and Cregan swings his axe. The blade slices easily through the monster’s skull, and its flailing, murderous limbs go still.

Rhaena reaches through the broken window to unlock the doors, climbs into the driver’s seat, and turns the key in the ignition. There is a blessed sound: the thunder of a living engine. “Half a tank!” Rhaena cheers.

Aegon gags as he opens the passenger’s side door. “Oh, it reeks so bad…”

“We’ll roll down all the windows,” Aemond says curtly.

“There are organs on the floor! What the fuck is that, a liver?!”

Aemond gives it a cursory glance. “Looks like a spleen.”

“I don’t want to sit near a spleen! I don’t even know what a spleen does!”

“Then throw it outside somewhere!” Aemond snaps. “You’re thirty years old, you can’t clean a minivan?!”

Aegon grumbles as he uses sheets of Burger King coupons from the glovebox to toss zombie guts into the grass. Aemond wipes down the hard surfaces with antiseptic. Luke keeps watch and Daeron shoots down several zombies as they lurch out of nearby houses and towards the Kia Carnival. You ask Helaena for the box of 9mm bullets in her messenger bag and she gives it to you. You load your Beretta M9, stow the remaining bullets in your backpack, and take aim at the approaching zombies to make sure you still know how to get into the rhythm, that you can still be a killer when the circumstances require it. You are out of practice, but you’re beginning to feel more like yourself again. Aemond brought you back. They all did.

When the minivan is as clean as possible, everyone hurries inside and Rhaena drives west on Route 20 under the afternoon sun. At the intersection with Route 53, Aegon directs Rhaena to follow it south around Clear Lake, then to take Route 29 west through rolling hills that were once filled with vineyards, wineries, music, weddings, horse farms. Now the land is hushed, and wild, and dotted with silhouettes that sway drunkenly and swipe at vultures when they try to gobble tattered strips of putrid flesh that unravel from bones like the bandages of a mummy.

The Kia Carnival rides Route 175 west and then Route 101 south, where the earth turns dry and rocky and barren, reminding you of northern Nevada and piling stones of heartache in your belly. In a place called Pieta—an old 1800s railroad depot, according to a plaque mounted just off the road—Rhaena slows down to get a better look at something that doesn’t make any sense. There is a souvenir shop of rocks and gems, now long out of business, and in a shed beside the main building hangs a gruesome specimen that you can see through the open doors. It has two arms and two legs, but it’s not a zombie. Its flayed flesh is a vibrant, healthy red; parts of the thighs and chest have been carefully carved away like cuts of meat are sliced from beef cattle. It is suspended on meat hooks. It is being butchered.

Cregan notes uneasily: “That ain’t an opossum or a bison.”

“I think it’s human,” Aemond says, horrified.

“Guess we’re not stopping for the night anytime soon,” Rhaena quips, then floors the gas pedal.

One of Aegon’s mixtapes spins in the CD player. From the speakers flows Somebody To You by The Vamps.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you see anyone now?” Aemond asks.

Luke speaks without looking away from his binoculars. “And for the fourth time, my answer remains no.”

After a night’s rest in a cabin at Camp Liahona Redwoods in Sonoma County, you followed California State Route 1 down the coast of the Pacific Ocean until the Kia Carnival finally ran out of gas just south of Olema, a small town founded in the 1850s. A ten-mile hike has brought you to the cliff where the fabled Targaryen beach house is perched with a few hours left before sunset. The ailing daylight is golden, the wave crests glittering, gulls cawing as they swoop through the salt-lashed air. From the road that twists like a snake through the slopes of Bolinas—thick with redwoods, Douglas firs, oaks, cypresses, tall grass that whips in the wind and tufts of eucalyptus—Luke is searching the property. It is less a house than a mansion, a museum, a monument, a work of art: sharp rectangular lines and glass walls, balconies, fountains, a pool, a garden.

Cregan whistles. “A place like that has to cost a million dollars.”

“Try fifteen million,” Aemond says distractedly, and Cregan gawks at him.

“Well, from what I can see it looks safe,” Luke declares, lowering his binoculars. “No zombies.”

“You really think they’re in there?” Daeron asks eagerly. “Mom and Criston?”

“Yeah, kid,” Aegon says, squeezing Daeron’s shoulder; but his voice is morose, like he knows he has surrendered to something, a path of least resistance, a hostile planet’s gravity. “Of course they are. Let’s go say hi.”

At the end of the driveway, the five-car garage is open. There is an Alfa Romeo, a Porsche, a Ferrari, a Ducati motorcycle, and a white Chevy Tahoe, which Aemond says belongs to Criston. And there are other items of interest mounted on the walls.

“Yes!” Daeron says as he runs to a quiver full of arrows for his compound bow. Aegon lifts a golf club out of its bag and makes an imaginary putt, getting reacquainted with the feeling of his hands on the grip.

“This is an iron,” Aegon says when he catches you watching him. In the shade of the garage, he pushes his neon green plastic sunglasses up into his windswept hair. “It’s metal all the way through and gives you good control over the shot. Drivers are for long-distance, and wedges and putters don’t have enough power. But an iron is just right.”

“Are you going to teach me how to golf?”

Aegon grins, his first real smile all day. “You think you can handle it, SunChips?”

“I don’t,” you answer honestly, and he laughs.

“If you teach me how to shoot, I’ll teach you how to golf.”

“An unfair trade! My skill is useful.”

Aemond knocks on the door that connects the garage to the main house. “Mom? Criston?” There is no response; all of you wait for one, listening intently through the crashes of waves and reverberating gull shrieks. Ice begins to pace agitatedly and nudges Cregan’s hands. He looks at Aemond, half-fear and half-sympathy.

“No,” Aemond says. “No, she’s wrong.”

“She might be,” Cregan replies, steady and ever-agreeable. Helaena is wringing her small, gentle hands. Everyone is watching Aemond to see what they should do next.

He pounds on the door again, this time with a closed fist. “Mom, we’re home! Mom? Criston? It’s me! It’s Aemond!”

Still, there is no answer. Aemond tries the doorknob, and it turns unimpeded. It is unlocked. He opens the door, peeks inside, and then crosses through the threshold. The rest of you trail him like he has eight shadows, the last in the shape of a wolf.

You step into the living room: wide open windows, the ocean breeze breathing through the house. The air tastes like sand and saltwater, sun and blue skies. There are three-story glass walls that overlook the water, a staircase leading up to the next floor, pristine white couches, black end tables topped with vases full of dead flowers, grey marble floors, bejeweled golden crosses that glint cruelly in the bloody late-afternoon light, family photographs on the mantle of the fireplace. There are many pictures of Aemond, and some of Helaena and Daeron as well. You don’t see a single photo of Aegon. He notices you scanning the snapshots in the frames and looks away, ashamed.

“Mom?” Aemond calls, his voice ricocheting through the vast, open space, clinical like a hospital or a morgue. “Criston?”

“Grandpa?” Helaena says meekly. Cregan is clutching his axe and peering around vigilantly. Ice whines and paces, her strange yellow eyes glowing like flecks of gold in a stream. Rhaena tries to soothe her with ear scratches; Ice begins to howl, low long mournful sounds.

You catch Aegon’s attention when he glances at you again. “This isn’t right,” you whisper. “If they were here, they would have heard us by now.”

Aegon turns to his brother. “Hey, Aemond…”

And then there are footsteps from upstairs, slow and shambling. Everyone looks, and it appears at the top of the steps like a mirage or a night terror, like a wrathful god glaring down from Mount Olympus. Long, filthy strands of white hair hang from what is left of its scalp. Its gore-stained teeth are bared. Its eyes are cloudy like the poisoned atmosphere of another planet, one gasp enough to singe your lungs and infect your bloodstream. The snarls pour out ragged and rasping from its disintegrating vocal chords. The man was wearing a suit when he died, and the pale blue shirt is now splattered with crimson and bits of rotting flesh. The black leather shoes on its feet clop as the zombie descends the staircase with staggering, unnatural steps, its decaying arms grasping for the mortals who wait below.

Daeron says numbly: “Dad?”

Aemond’s eye is wide and dazed. Ice is growling. Helaena is screaming and fleeing towards the wall; Cregan embraces her and she clings to him. “Aemond? Buddy?” Cregan shouts. “How do you want to handle this?” And what he means is: Do you want to kill it, or should someone else? Do you need time to process what’s happened? How can we help you?

“Aemond?” you say. You touch his arm; he doesn’t react. Rhaena draws her Ruger but doesn’t shoot yet. She is looking to Aemond for permission. Luke is standing in front of Rhaena and forcing her backwards as the zombie nears the bottom of the staircase. Now you can smell it: dark wet rot, spoiled meat, blood and oily fat and organs putrefying in a threadbare patchwork of flesh.

“Dad!” Daeron wails, and he’s covering his face with his hands because he knows what this must mean for the rest of his family too.

“Aemond?!” Rhaena yells. “Aemond, what do you want us to do?!”

You reach for your M9 as the zombie’s leather shoes settle on the marble floor. This seems to shake Aemond from his paralysis.

“No,” he says. “I’ll do it.” He grabs his Glock and aims, but his finger hesitates on the trigger. And you can see the ghosts of the people who have died by his hands lurking in the crystalline blue of his remaining eye: Alys, Jace, Baela and her baby…and now Viserys Targaryen too.

In the lull, in the indecision, Aegon roars and swings his golf club. The metal head collides with the zombie’s skull. Weak corroded bone collapses; blood and brains the color of black mold leak out onto the polished marble.

“It wasn’t enough, huh?!” Aegon screams, then hits the zombie again. The corpse crumples to the floor, but Aegon isn’t done yet. “You couldn’t just fuck everything up when you were alive, you had to keep torturing us from beyond the grave, you sick bastard, you selfish prick, what is wrong with you?!” He whacks the carcass with his golf club again and again. “I hate you! I hate you! You deserved so much worse than this! We crossed an entire goddamn country, and Jace died, and Baela died, and Rio died, all so we could get back here, and now it’s all for nothing because you’ve destroyed everyone you’ve ever touched! I fucking hate you!”

Aegon strikes the zombie one last time—the skull is a pulverized soup of gore and bone fragments—and before anyone can reach for him, he has bolted up the steps to search the rest of the house. You find them in their final resting places: bones in the hallway interspersed with gold rings and a medallion of Saint Irene of Thessaloniki, bones in the shower pierced with stainless steel surgical screws from hip and knee replacements, bones in the master bedroom entangled with shreds of a bloodstained silk nightgown and long locks of auburn hair. Daeron is sobbing, and Cregan takes Helaena outside to the garden to calm down, and Aemond wanders through the rooms in shock. You don’t know what to say to him; you remember how nothing anyone said made a difference when Rio died. But Aegon is furious. He tears away from everyone and goes to his bedroom: racks full of CDs, neon green blankets, an acoustic guitar propped in one corner. Then he ravages his hiding places—inside drawers, under his mattress, on tiny shelves he carved into the walls behind golf and Green Day posters—and collects mint tins. Then he pours out the white powder inside onto his desk and arranges it into lines like contrails behind airplanes, like wagon trails across the earth.

You try to stop him. “Aegon, wait, please don’t—”

“Get the fuck out,” he hisses, and for the first time you see the cold reptilian sheen of something like hate in his eyes. “You don’t have to pretend to love me. I can be alone. I’m used to it.”

“Aegon, I’m not—”

“They’re gone. You can leave too.” Then he slams the door and locks it.

~~~~~~~~~~

While Aegon is upstairs getting high and Helaena is downstairs inventorying supplies in the massive walk-in pantry, the rest of you use shovels from the garage to bury what is left of the bodies in the backyard, unceremonious shallow graves, the soil too rocky for anything more elaborate. Rhaena uses her jagged sliver of slate to mark stones with their names and a few kind words about each of them; but Viserys’ stone is left blank. Then Rhaena returns inside to help Helaena prepare for dinner, while Daeron inspects the perimeter of the house with Cregan and Ice. Luke uses a telescope near the pool not to gaze up at the rising stars but to study the neighboring properties.

Aemond murmurs as he stands in front of the four graves: “I should have gotten here sooner. Maybe I could have saved them.”

“You still have a family,” you say, begging him to believe that there are things worth living for. “You have Aegon and Daeron and Helaena, Rhaena, Luke, Cregan. And you have me.”

Aemond stares out over the Pacific Ocean. The sky above is red and lavender, fire and dreams. “How do we get to Diego Garcia?” He is only half-joking.

“Well you just find a boat and row about 10,000 miles that way.”

He sighs and drags his trembling fingers through his hair. It has always been his job to know what happens next, and now he doesn’t. Gulls squawk and wheel in the air. His right cheek glistens with tears.

“I never saw the ocean until I joined the Navy,” you say, and Aemond looks over at you, curious but not wanting to react in the wrong way and scare you into going quiet again. He’s always mining for details of your past, and you’re endlessly evading him. But perhaps you have been too secretive. He wants to know these things because he wants to know you, and you have no idea how long you’ll be here to shed your mysteries. If a story dies with you, it dies forever.

“Really?”

“Yeah. My mother…Mama, I always called her Mama…she went to Virginia Beach a few times while I was growing up, and that was her favorite place in the world. But she never took me with her. She’d go with my aunt or my oldest brothers. So when I got to basic training on the shore of Lake Michigan, that was the closest thing to an ocean I’d ever seen, and it absolutely amazed me.”

“Lake Michigan,” Aemond repeats, trying not to sound like he’s mocking you.

You smile. “And then of course I ended up in some more impressive places. But compared to Soft Shell, Lake Michigan was a whole different planet.”

“Soft Shell?”

“Like softshell turtles. They’re one of those animals that are so ugly they’re almost cute. We have a lot of them in Kentucky. Well, we used to. Maybe people ate them all when the food ran out.”

“Soft Shell, Kentucky,” Aemond says. “What was it like? I mean…I know you left, and I know you had good reasons…but I’ve never been to Kentucky. I’ve never really been to Appalachia period.”

“It’s beautiful. You get all four seasons, and you’re out in nature all the time, and it feels old, like hardly anything has changed there in thousands of years. You feel connected to the earth. I loved the forests and the mountains. I don’t think I realized how much I loved certain things about where I’m from until I’d been gone for years. I didn’t leave because I had to get away from Kentucky. I left because I had to get away from who I was when I was there, you know? Someone lonely and helpless. But how my family was isn’t Kentucky’s fault.”

“No,” Aemond muses. “I suppose not.” You begin walking together back towards the house.

“Ready for more bad news?” Luke asks, and gestures for you and Aemond to peer through the telescope. Aemond lets you go first, and immediately you see what Luke means. There are zombies in the surrounding hills, and not just a few. There are hundreds, stumbling around aimlessly and posing no current threat; but you are not safe here.

“We don’t have enough people to defend ourselves,” Aemond says once he’s taken a look, tapping his chin in that way that he does when he’s fearful but trying to hide it.

“No, we don’t,” Luke agrees.

“And there aren’t many natural resources here to subsist on. Even the fishing prospects aren’t great without a boat or a pier.”

“Right,” Luke says.

You wonder if Aemond is thinking the same thing you are. He might not know what has to happen next, but you do.

~~~~~~~~~~

The dining room table—large enough to seat twenty—is illuminated with candles, meticulously arranged with china and silverware, and cluttered with canned soups from brands you’ve never seen before: Amy’s, Pacific Foods, Health Valley. There are cases of Perrier and San Pellegrino to drink, and bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild red wine. Everyone else is here except Aegon. You are just about to go find him when he comes rushing down the staircase and into the dining room. He is wearing clothes from his closet here: a salmon pink polo that emphasizes his sunburn, khaki shorts, a white puka shell necklace, Sperry Bahama sneakers. The left shoe just barely fits over the bandages still protecting his healing left leg. There are fingerprints of white powder on the front of his shirt.

“Oh, look!” he announces. “Isn’t this precious? A family dinner?”

“Aegon, please sit down,” Aemond says briskly.

“Come on, it’ll be just like old times. We have all four of us kids, and then…Rhaena, you can be my dear departed Grandpa Otto, you just have to scowl at everyone…and Luke can be Criston.”

Luke is confused. “What—?”

“No no no! Don’t worry. It’s a very easy part. All you have to do is gaze worshipfully at Aemond and talk about how brilliant he is. There’s really not much to it, and honestly you do a lot of that already. And then…” Aegon floats by you, skimming his palm down the length of your hair. Something about the weight of his hand gives you goosebumps: careless, careful, fleeting, intimate. He sighs: “My beautiful, tortured mother.”

“Aegon, sit down,” Aemond orders.

“Father!” Aegon cries out suddenly, spotting Cregan at the head of the table. Cregan looks around the dining room, baffled. “You’ve joined us! How unusual! Did your Titanic replicas spontaneously combust? Did the world end? Well, actually, it sort of did…”

“Buddy, I have no earthly clue what you’re trying to—”

“Now this is a tough part,” Aegon says forcefully. “Patriarch of the Targaryen dynasty, big shoes to fill! But don’t worry, I’m here to help. I’ll give you your lines. All you have to do is repeat after me, okay?”

Cregan studies him and does not assent.

Aegon slams both palms down onto the table. “You’re so fucking stupid, Aegon. You’re a humiliation, Aegon. Why can’t you be smart like Aemond, or sweet like Helaena, or obedient like Daeron? Why did my firstborn child turn out to be such a fucking waste?”

“I’m not going to say that,” Cregan replies quietly.

“Say it,” Aegon seethes.

Now Daeron is weeping between spoonfuls of Amy’s tortilla soup straight from the can. “I want to go home.”

“We are home,” Aemond says.

“This isn’t home anymore, Aemond,” Daeron sniffles.

Aegon is still trying to feed Cregan lines. “Have you found a wife yet, Aegon? No, of course you haven’t. You’ve got hands like a rat and a disposition to match. You’re an overgrown vermin, you’re a plague to every house you enter. Who would fuck you out of anything but greed or pity?”

“Aegon, please stop,” Aemond pleads, wincing and rubbing his forehead.

Helaena folds her arms atop the table and rests her head on them, hiding her face. Luke and Rhaena keep their eyes downcast. Daeron reaches for a bottle of red wine, but Aegon swats his hand away.

“Nope. Illegal. You’re not 21.”

“Aegon, seriously, I’m so over that joke—”

“Shut up. You can’t even get a tattoo without parental consent.”

“Our parents are dead!” Daeron shouts. “They died terrible deaths and they’re never coming back and you’re making everything worse!”

“Then get rid of me! Put me out on the street and I won’t be anyone’s problem anymore! I’ll get murdered or eaten and it’ll be the best thing that ever happened to you!”

Helaena breaks down sobbing, and before Aegon can register what’s happening Cregan scoops him up off the floor and throws him over one broad shoulder. Then Cregan lugs him upstairs as Aegon struggles and yowls and punches at Cregan’s back, all in vain. You can hear a lot of commotion and then finally Cregan reappears, sweat beading on his brow but otherwise composed.

“I tied him to his bedframe with an extension cord,” Cregan says. “I don’t think he’ll be making any more trouble this evening.”

“Thank you,” Aemond replies, defeated.

“If he’s going to be up there all night, he’ll need water and food,” you say. “And enough blankets to make sure he’s warm.” It gets chilly when the sun goes down here, as low as the 50s. You grab two bottles of Perrier off the table and stand to bring them upstairs to Aegon, but Cregan gently takes them out of your hands.

“I’ll make sure he’s well supplied, Miss Chips,” Cregan insists, and you are convinced he thinks he’s doing you a favor. He doesn’t want Aegon to have the opportunity to upset anybody further. And yet a part of you is undeniably disappointed.

Aegon has been gone for ten minutes, and you miss him already.

~~~~~~~~~~

In Aemond’s childhood bedroom, a huge, impersonal, spartan space, the very few pieces of furniture all in the same color scheme of white and navy blue, you cannot say anything to bring his family back to life, or his friends, or the possibilities of what his life might have been before the dead began to walk. But you remember what he did for you when Rio died and you were sinking in dark, numb despair, and so you take Aemond’s hands and place them on your body—skimming under your t-shirt, circling around your waist—offering yourself like a sacrifice that you both desperately need, like a shot of antivenom that will only buy you hours. He draws you into his lap, and beneath your palms and your lips and your thighs, you can feel him coming back to you, filling up with light like a horizon at dawn.

“I’m still here,” you whisper as he throws you down onto the bed, eases himself into you, carries you away like a ship coasting out into open water. I don’t ever want to be anywhere but here.

Aemond holds you after, ensnared in sweat-damp sheets and entwined fingers, and he confesses: “I knew it was possible that they might not still be alive. Logically, I knew that. But it was like I never allowed myself to feel it. And now it’s…it’s…it’s all at once and it’s too much. I can’t fathom that I’ll never see them again. But I don’t even have time to mourn. I need to figure out where we’re going next.”

“Aemond?”

His lips to your forehead, his voice a drowsy murmur: “Hm?”

“I have to tell Rio’s family what happened to him.”

He pulls back to look at you. “You want to go to Oregon?”

“What if Odessa really is safe?”

At first he is bewildered; then he begins to consider it. “Criston’s Tahoe is in the garage. If we siphon the gas left in all the vehicles, we might have enough to get us halfway there.”

“That’s a lot better than none of the way there.”

“We’ll all have to vote on it. The trip will be dangerous.”

“Everything is now.”

“Almost everything,” he teases, his hand sliding down between your legs, taking you far away again.

~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning, you find Aegon at the cliffside smoking one of his Marlboro Golds, slow meditative drags, eyes bloodshot with lack of sleep. That’s alright. He can nap in the Tahoe. Rhaena won’t need his directions for a while; you’ll stay northbound on Route 1 for 200 miles before cutting inland as you near the Oregon border.

You sit down on the sandy, shrub-strewn ground beside Aegon and wait for him to speak. It takes a while, but you don’t mind. You’ve always had patience; you’ve always been a better listener than someone who fills silences.

At last Aegon says: “I don’t want to be like this anymore.”

“Then stop.”

He smirks bitterly, glaring out into the sunrise, orange light like fire on his sunburned face. “You make reinvention sound so easy.”

“It’s not easy. But it is simple. You decide to get out, and then you do it. You don’t let anything convince you to give up or change course. The only way out is through.”

“I have a proposition.”

“I’m still not interested in fake dating you.”

He cackles. “No, it’s something else.”

“Okay. Let’s hear it.”

Now Aegon is serious. “I don’t ever want to split up again. Not in a year, not in ten years, not in twenty. Never.”

You smile as you watch the reflection of the dawn in his eyes, murky faraway blue like oceans all across the globe. “I didn’t know you thought so highly of commitment.”

“I want to take care of you until you die. I want you to take care of me until I die. And that’s as far as commitment goes with me.”

“Deal.” You offer Aegon your hand.

He shakes it. “Deal.”

Two hours later, Criston Cole’s white Chevy Tahoe is loaded high with supplies—including several of Aegon’s golf clubs and his acoustic guitar—and heading north on Route 1, a Fall Out Boy song from one of Aegon’s mixtapes blaring through the speakers:

“When Rome’s in ruins

We are the lions, free of the Colosseums

In poison places, we are antivenom

We’re the beginning of the end…”

You rest your head on Aemond’s shoulder and wait for the sapphire-and-gold Bay Area to become the misty, primordial emerald green of the Pacific Northwest.

[shirecorn]

I don’t have the money right now to buy them, but I want you to know that one of your cat magnets, Kiwi, looks SO much like my sweet childhood Tabico that passed last year. Her name was Keke, which is pronounced very similarly to Kiwi (alternative spelling of the name is also Kiki, just one letter off!). She would have turned 20 this April.

I hope the ramble is okay. It just brought me a lot of joy to see one so close to her!

If you ever want ideas for new colors/patterns for designs, I’d recommend looking into ‘Salmiak’ aka ‘The Finnish Mutation’! It’s only been found in one population of very inbred cats in Finland, but it makes an interesting gingham-esque crosshatched pattern.‘Salmiak’ actually comes from Finland’s signature salty licorice candy, Salmiakki! It’s a very acquired taste and when I’ve had it, it tastes a lot like how cat pee smells. I still wouldn’t say that it’s wholly bad.

I would make a salmiak if someone promised to order one! I do love those weirdos, and all weirdos.

I'm glad kiwi brings you joy. I worked in a cat shelter for 2 years, and my favorite duties (which I usually donated) was taking profile photos and writing descriptions of them. So most of the beans are based on shelter cats I knew, named, and adopted to their forever homes.

Because I have experience with several hundred cats, I know what colors are common and how to make something generic enough to fit a bunch of cats within that color scheme. Kiwi is a dilute tortie with white, aka a dilute calico, but i leaned more toward tortie with the color mixing.

As for cost, they aren't all that expensive. A sticker is only a dollar! And shipping is 1-3 dollars even for international.

While I like making money, I'm poor myself, so I always add low-cost options so everyone can benefit.

By the way, did you know you can turn any sticker into a magnet? You can get a bendable magnet at a craft store, or repurpose one from the thrift store. They're really easy to cut with scissors and then you have it!

You can do this with any sticker from anywhere!

And flexible magnets are easy to come across. You can go to a craft store or even a hardware store. Some are printable, some are glueable, some come with their own adhesive for double the stick.

And some aren't meant to be used for crafts, but for vents!

I cut mine out with my cutting machine, but if you're just doing a few you can cut them with scissors.

Be a bit wary when buying magnets online or in packages where you can't feel them. Magnet thickness is measured in mils (thousandths of an inch) and anything below 20 mil sucks. The paper thin stuff can't even hold up its own weight, much less a shopping list. Most craft magnets don't have the mils listed, but they're usually 12 mil and suck.

A ramble gets a ramble in return! Now you know how to make your own magnets and can order stickers from me or anyone else in the world and get fridgable items. Magnet hack!

[neonthewrite]

The Office Fae

The next prompt was Tangled, and I ended up with a brand new character for this one. He's fun so far. I'm enjoying his very gremlin energy. I hope you all like him too!

~~~

Life in an office building generally worked well for Simon, despite technically being a house fae. The rules could be fuzzy on that front, with so many humans coming and going every day. Sure, there wasn’t a singular family loving the place and cherishing their lives there, but a lot of humans from many families liked the building and their jobs there well enough to make the energy inviting. Something about flexible hours, good wages, and a solid benefits package made for a harmonious office with plenty of memories–some friendly, some dramatic, even some spicy memories.

Plus there was a vending machine. Simon came for the vibes originally, but he absolutely stayed for the vending machine. At a modest five and three quarter inches tall, he had easy access to a good variety of things in portions that lasted him days.

Another house fae rule he bent–it wasn’t precisely a bowl of cream left out for him specifically, but nobody could expect that these days. Keeping the vending machine stocked was close enough, and if the light bulbs and printer cartridges in the building all lasted longer than they should, well, Simon earned his keep. He probably saved them hundreds on the annual operations budget.

Work always slowed down around the end of winter, aside from some buzzing over in the accounting office. All the holiday parties were done and the potluck food all taken home from the break room fridges. Simon planned for it and handled it well, though things could get cold with the shorter hours and heat on less to make up for the emptier office.

To that end, Simon wintered in the ceiling of the server room. The servers, bulkier and taller than a human, stood clustered in a side room and were never turned off. Blinking lights of green and red and blue twinkled on each machine, colors filtering into the ceiling along with the ample warmth those hulking obelisks gave off.

With so much downtime, he found himself perched near an opening in the ceiling, a spot where the tile had broken off long ago, and watched the server lights flicker on the tangled mess of multicolored cables that ran between them. It was a game of his to trace each cable from end to end with his eyes, idly kicking his bare, grey-skinned feet (his skin had shifted to a tasteful, cool grey a few years ago after an office refresh had updated all the paint). Long, slender fingers absently braided silky hair the color of faded ballpoint ink while he scanned the cables with eyes reminiscent of the shocking, dreaded blue of a computer on its way out.

Most house fae took on colors in equal parts camouflage and defense. Simon would be tough to spot if he happened to be out in the open near a human, but if someone did see him, humans never liked seeing that blue. So his eyes would probably protect him.

Not that he ever intended to test that. As much as he liked his many many humans and their water cooler chatter, Simon was realistic. They wouldn’t like him much even if he shared their scale. All his features were a bit elongated, just enough to seem strange and other. He only wore flowing pants made of scrap fabric and he ate bugs sometimes. Humans would call him scary or freaky or any number of words they had for things they didn’t like, and if his eyes couldn’t scare them off he’d be in danger of a rolled up magazine or a dusty phone book.

He’d stayed hidden for a long time, and he anticipated many games of look-at-cables in his future, all without humans being a bother.

Of course, until they were a slight bother anyway. Simon paused his movements and tensed when the door opened abruptly. Light flooded in and he lost track of the cable he was tracing when he looked over, grateful for his higher vantage point and the human tendency to ignore background details.

Two figures stood there, one familiar and one not. One was Tom, a human whose limbs gangled a bit but whose middle had padded out after so many years in a desk job. His bald spot glowed with light from the hallway, and his rumpled t-shirt sported a band name Simon thought he recognized. From what Simon knew, Tom was every bit an IT master and a vital cog in keeping the office running smoothly. He didn’t have to dress any higher than casual.

The other human was a new face. A woman, probably younger than Tom by a couple decades. Her dark skin contrasted with his pale complexion. Her hair, coily and thick, grew longer atop her head though it was tapered close at the sides. She wore a smart blouse and slacks, which Simon immediately recognized as the sort of thing one wore to a job interview, or one’s first day at work.

Tom waved a hand at the servers whirring away in the room. “Servers in here. Probably not gonna need to be in here a ton, but y’know. If something needs a reset…”

The woman nodded and smiled faintly as she scanned the room. “What are the chances I can fix up some of those cables?”

She said it as a joke. Simon didn’t find it funny at all. Tom did. He laughed. “Now that I get someone to pass tasks like that along to, I imagine I can convince the bossman to let me schedule a maintenance day. Now, let’s get you some of your equipment…”

The door closed and the humans walked away, and Simon cared not at all for their conversation or the rest of the onboarding for this new IT interloper. She wanted to organize the cables, which simply would not do. Simon stalked back to his makeshift camp to get his pack.

This new hire was simply not a good fit, and he’d do what he could to stop her horrible plan.

[ratthew-sims3]

(A couple Sim years ago / pre-Reshade)

Nancy felt better and ready to gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss again after a ridiculously expensive spa package. She actually needs them to function…

Most people don’t know this, because she goes to great lengths to hide it, but Nancy is pretty chronically ill…

Thanks to the Passion mod STDs feature… When it was seeding STDs it picked random Sims and she was one of the unlucky ones to get “SIV.” I forgot to rotate back to her to get her quarterly treatment at the hospital, and now the mod has given her a -50 “SIV Complications” moodlet that doesn’t go away no matter what.

Honestly really worried for her, and couldn’t find any info on how this works in the game, like if it shortens their lifespan or not. Hopefully it’s just a bad moodlet. Obviously SIV is meant to be HIV, but I just pretend it’s a generic chronic illness, for storytelling flexibility, as I don’t want to misrepresent a more specific chronic illness experience. I don’t think the mod represents it very well either.

Nancy has the privilege and endless money to spend on the most expensive spa packages. They help offset the terrible moodlet. I pretend they’re treatments or therapies that are less accessible to most Sims. Also her beautifully decorated lot and comfortable expensive objects help as well.

The other Sim with this illness is Monika Morris (no complications as I’ve been on top of treatments) and Bessie Clavell (with complications — blame me. I forgot to rotate back to send her to the regular quarterly hospital treatments, and I feel so bad. I love Bessie. I don’t deserve forgiveness.)

The economic inequality in my Sunset Valley is quite pronounced… and you feel it even more when one of the poorer Sims are ill but still is pressured to work. A Sim like Nancy will be fine if she never works another day in her life… But #girlbossing is such a big part of her identity. She has trouble not working. She puts a lot of pressure on herself, and doesn’t want there to be any cracks in her image that might suggest she is anything less than the perfect productivity machine!

[444namesplus]

Abl Abov Absenc Absolut Abus Accurat Achiev Acquir Activ Acut Adequat Advanc Advers Advic Advis Advocat Agre Aliv Allianc Alon Announc Anyon Anywher Appl Argu Aris Arriv Articl Asid Assum Attitud Audienc Avenu Averag Awar Balanc Bas Battl Becam Becaus Becom Befor Believ Besid Blam Blu Bon Bottl Bridg Brok Cabl Cam Capabl Captur Car Cas Castl Caus Centr Chanc Chang Charg Charli Choic Choos Chos Circl Climat Clos Closur Cod Coffe Collaps Colleg Com Combin Commerc Compar Compet Complet Compris Conclud Concret Continu Convinc Cor Coupl Cours Coverag Creat Creativ Crim Cultur Cycl Damag Danc Dat Databas Deadlin Debat Decad Decid Declin Decreas Defenc Defin Degre Describ Desir Despit Devic Dialogu Diseas Disput Distanc Divers Don Doubl Driv Drov Duk Eas Edg Eligibl Els Emerg Empir Employe Enabl Engag Engin Enhanc Ensur Entir Entranc Envelop Escap Estat Estimat Evaluat Everyon Evidenc Examin Exampl Exchang Exercis Expens Explor Exposur Extrem

Fac Failur Fals Featur Femal Figur Fil Fin Financ Fir Fiv Flexibl Forc Fortun Fram Fre Futur Gam Gat Gav Gen Generat Genuin Giv Gon Grac Grad Graduat Guid Guidanc Handl Hardwar Hav Henc Her Heritag Hir Hol Hom Hop Hors Hous Hug Ignor Imag Imagin Improv Includ Incom Increas Indicat Insid Instanc Intens Intimat Involv Issu Jan Judg Justic Lak Lan Languag Larg Lat Leagu Leas Leav Leisur Leverag Licens Lif Lifetim Lik Likewis Lin Littl Liv Los Lov Machin Mad Magazin Mak Mal Manag Marin Marriag Massiv Matur Maximiz Mayb Meantim Measur Medicin Mer Messag Middl Mik Mil Min Minut Mistak Mixtur Mobil Mod Moderat Modul Mor Mortgag Mov Movi Multipl Muscl Nam Nativ Natur Negativ Nic Nin Nois Non Not Notabl Notic Nurs Offens Offic Offshor Onc Onlin Operat Opposit Orang Organiz Outcom Outsid Overcom Pac Packag Pag Palac Passag Payabl Peac Peopl Persuad Phas Phon Phras Pictur Piec Pipelin Plac Plan Plat Pleas Pleasur Polic Portabl Positiv Possibl Practic Precis Prepar Presenc Preserv Pressur Pric Prid Prim Princ Privat Priz Probabl Produc Profil Promis Promot Prov Provid Provinc Pur Purchas Purpos Pursu Quit Rac Rais Rang Rar Rat Realiz Receiv Reduc Regim Relat Relativ Releas Reliabl Relianc Remot Remov Replac Requir Rescu Reserv Resolv Resourc Respons Restor Revenu Revers Rid Ris Rol Ros Rout Routin Rul Saf Sal Sam Sampl Sav Scal Scen Schedul Schem Scienc Scop Scor Secur Senat Sens Sensibl Sentenc Separat Sequenc Serv Servic Settl Sever Shap Shar Shortag Sid Silenc Simpl Sinc Singl Sit Siz Smil Smok Softwar Sol Solv Som Someon Sourc Spac Spok Squar Stabl Stag Stak Stat Ston Stor Storag Strang Strik Struggl Styl Suit Suitabl Suppos Suprem Sur Surfac Surpris Surviv Syndrom Tabl Tackl Tak Tangibl Tap Tast Terribl Theatr Them Ther Thes Thos Thre Tim Tissu Titl Ton Trad Tre Troubl Tru Twelv Twic Typ Ultimat Unabl Uniqu Univers Unlik Updat Upgrad Usag Valu Valuabl Variabl Vehicl Ventur Vic Villag Violenc Visibl Voic Volum Vot Wag Wak Wast Wav Websit Welcom Welfar Wer Wher Whil Whit Whol Whos Wid Wif Wildlif Win Wir Wors Writ Wrot Zon

[krishnaengineering25]

Flexible Packaging & Converting Machinery: Innovation Driver for Industries in Packaging

Innovation, efficiency, and sustainability are driving the future of flexible packaging. Krishna Engineering Works is focused on enabling industries with high-end machinery that meets the requirements.

[psatalk]

Bambrew’s range of eco-friendly packaging alternatives

Bambrew, an Indian startup specializing in sustainable packaging, is making strides in the fight against single-use plastics by offering a range of 'eco-friendly' alternatives, says Vaibhav Anant, founder & CEO. The company provides packaging solutions made from renewable, biodegradable materials such as bamboo, seaweed, banana fiber, and agro-waste. According to Anant, these materials are fully compostable and serve as viable alternatives for businesses seeking to reduce their environmental footprint.

“Our solutions are governed by four core principles of sustainability—eco-friendliness, functionality, cost-efficiency, and scalability. These guiding principles enable us to deliver packaging options that are not only environmentally responsible but also commercially viable for businesses of all sizes,” Anant says.

Bambrew offers a range of packaging alternatives, including mailer bags, flexible pouches, rigid boxes, and custom solutions, all designed to meet the functional needs of various sectors while remaining scalable. It has developed solutions for industries such as FMCG, CPG, fresh fruits and vegetables (F&V), food and beverages (F&B), and e-commerce and retail packaging.

Notable clients include Amazon, Nykaa, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra Logistics, and Tata 1mg.

Material-Agnostic Company

Anant explains that Bambrew is a material-agnostic company, meaning it develops solutions using various materials, all adhering to the four core principles of sustainability as mentioned earlier.

Bambrew prioritizes sustainability not only in its products but throughout the entire product development lifecycle, from sourcing and compounding to conversion processes, says Anant. The company works closely with raw material providers and maintains complete control over production with the latest technology machines for in-house manufacturing. It also operates tech-assisted warehousing and logistics to ensure timely delivery to customers.

“By reducing our reliance on fossil fuels through the use of biofuels and solar energy, we are significantly lowering our carbon footprint. Equally important is the well-being of our workers, and we are committed to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We adhere to an 8-hour shift structure and offer a range of benefits to ensure a supportive and positive work environment, with a strong emphasis on mental health,” Anant states.

The company has its manufacturing facility in Bangalore and collaborates with several contract manufacturing units across India to expand its reach and capabilities.

Rapid Growth

According to Anant, the company has made big progress over the last 12 months, with growth exceeding 8x.

“This momentum has been incredibly encouraging, and we’re excited to continue building on it in the years to come. As the demand for sustainable solutions grows, we’re committed to scaling responsibly and staying focused on our mission,” he says.

New Offerings

Bambrew is actively working towards the continuous development of advanced meta-materials. It has been extensively researching materials such as Biophil, a home-compostable bioplastic alternative, while also exploring other renewable resources. These materials are designed to offer high performance while being environmentally friendly.

In August of this year, the company introduced a new category of rigid boxes that utilize Kappa boards produced from post-consumer recycled fibers. The product features components like non-animal-based glue, recycled paper cladding, plastic-free Biophil lamination, and plant-based inks. Each element of this product is designed to meet Bambrew's environmental goals and contribute to a fully sustainable manufacturing cycle.

“Additionally, we are actively developing alternative solutions for pharmaceutical packaging, as well as advanced barrier films for food packaging within the FMCG sector. While these are only a few examples, all our efforts are directed towards the broader aim of pushing the envelope of what’s possible within the realm of sustainability and delivering solutions that meet the highest standards of quality while supporting a greener, more sustainable transition into the future,” Anant concludes.

[packagingworldinsights]

Domino Presents New Monochrome Inkjet Printer at Labelexpo Southeast Asia 2025

Domino Printing Sciences (Domino) is pleased to announce the APAC launch of its new monochrome inkjet printer, the K300, at Labelexpo Southeast Asia. Building on the success of Domino’s K600i print bar, the K300 has been developed as a compact, flexible solution for converters looking to add variable data printing capabilities to analogue printing lines.

The K300 monochrome inkjet printer will be on display at the Nilpeter stand, booth F32, at Labelexpo Southeast Asia in Bangkok, Thailand from 8th–10th May 2025. The printer will form part of a Nilpeter FA-Line 17” hybrid label printing solution, providing consistent inline overprint of serialised 2D codes. A machine vision inspection system by Domino Company Lake Image Systems will validate each code to ensure reliable scanning by retailers and consumers whilst confirming unique code serialisation.

“The industry move to 2D codes at the point of sale has led to an increase in demand for variable data printing, with many brands looking to incorporate complex 2D codes, such as QR codes powered by GS1, into their packaging and label designs,” explains Alex Mountis, Senior Product Manager at Domino. “Packaging and label converters need a versatile, reliable, and compact digital printing solution to respond to these evolving market demands. We have developed the K300 with these variable data and 2D code printing opportunities in mind.”

The K300 monochrome inkjet printer can be incorporated into analogue printing lines to customise printed labels with variable data, such as best before dates, batch codes, serialised numbers, and 2D codes. The compact size of the 600dpi high-resolution printhead – 2.1″ / 54mm – offers enhanced flexibility with regards to positioning on the line, including the opportunity to combine two print stations across the web width to enable printing of two independent codes.

Operating at high speeds up to 250m / 820′ per minute, the K300 monochrome inkjet printer has been designed to match flexographic printing speeds. This means there is no need to slow down the line when adding variable data. Domino’s industry-leading ink delivery technology, including automatic ink recirculation and degassing, helps to ensure consistent performance and excellent reliability, while reducing downtime due to maintenance. The printer has been designed to be easy to use, with intuitive setup and operation via Domino’s smart user interface.

“The K300 will open up new opportunities for converters. They can support their brand customers with variable data 2D codes, enabling supply chain traceability, anti-counterfeiting, and consumer engagement campaigns,” adds Mountis. “The versatile printer can also print variable data onto labels, cartons, and flatpack packaging as part of an inline or near-line late-stage customisation process in a manufacturing facility, lowering inventory costs and reducing waste.”

Code verification is an integral part of any effective variable data printing process. A downstream machine vision inspection system, such as the Lake Image Systems’ model showcased alongside the K300, enables converters and brands who add 2D codes and serialisation to labels and packaging to validate each printed code.

Mark Herrtage, Asia Business Development Director, Domino, concludes: “We are committed to helping our customers stay ahead in a competitive market, and are continuously working to develop new products that will help them achieve their business objectives. Collaborating with Lake Image Systems enables us to deliver innovative, complete variable data printing and code verification solutions to meet converters’ needs. We are delighted to be able to showcase an example of this collaboration, featuring the .”

To find more information about the K300 monochrome printer please visit: https://dmnoprnt.com/38tcze3r

[shadowglitch90]

Retro computer emulation/virtualization resources

Not too long ago, it was one of my hobbies to recreate and emulate old machines and try to use them in a somewhat 'legit' way in order to experience how using them in an accurate time-period might have felt like. While it's always better to use a real machine, it's also important to note that time-accurate machines are essentially a 'ticking bomb'. Some of the electronics inside can go bad at any given time, like capacitors, and other critical components might also go bad due to humidity, moisture in the air, changes in temperature, etc. Plus, they are not always cheap and they take space that you might not have.

This is why I prefer using emulators and virtualization software in order to virtualize a time-period accurate machine that I can use. This is the software I found that I like the most, and what systems I use them for.

DOSbox-X

This is a modified version of DOSBox that includes support for multiple video devices including 3dfx emulation (Voodoo), networking, and even printer support (emulated, but AFAIK it only prints in black and white). It's perfect for MS-DOS and Windows (1-3.11) emulation. Technically you could even install Windows 95 in it.

86-box

This is the way to go if you want to emulate old retro systems. No questions. The best part of it is how flexible it is. You can select the motherboard, the processor you want to emulate, the video card, you can also enable 3dfx support up to the Voodoo 2 (but it also emulates a Voodoo3 and the Banshee), sound card, literally every detail. It's like building a PC, but virtually. And it has hardware from the old 8086 IBM PCs to more modern Pentium 2 machines. It also has network and printer support.

The downside is that since it's low-level emulation, you need a 'beefy' CPU with very good single thread performance in order for more modern systems like Windows 9x and ME to run more smoothly. Another flaw is that for some reason the FP emulation for older processors doesn't work properly for some reason, so you might prefer to use DOSBox-X if you want DOS emulation. The 3dfx emulation is also 'so-so' and not very great, but it works.

It also requires valid ROMs, but you can search for a valid ROMset online (check Github) if you want to use it. For legal reasons, I can't provide links to them, but they are not hard to find.

VMWare Workstation Player

I choose VMWare over other virtualization solutions because of it's graphic drivers capable of running relatively new games from the mid 2000s, and because unlike VirtualBox (since version 6) it still supports old Windows versions, including XP, 9x, ME and old NT systems.

Broadcom wants you to buy a license for the Pro version so they hide the links to the free Workstation Player version. But they are still available and they even release updates once in a while (yes, it's free of charge).

In the link I'm providing, go to the 'player' folder and select the latest version (higher number, now it's 17.6.1) and your system to download VMWare Workstation Player. Then go to the 'ws' folder and select the same version and system, but then select 'packages' to download a matching copy of vmware tools.

Finding software

If you need software, there are three places you need to look for. One is archive.org, the other is WinWorld PC, and the other is Vetusware (requires an account). I can't provide links so search for them on your own. I also browse sites like oldversion.com, but I don't trust these too much, so go at your own risk (or better yet, don't). Naturally you should always buy the software you use, whenever it's possible, and use backups of your legally owned software.

Did you like this post?

I will make more posts in the future about how to set up these emulated machines and how I work with them.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter 3. Economy

Anarchism is opposed to capitalism and to private ownership of the tools, infrastructure, and resources everyone requires for sustenance. Anarchist economic models range from hunter-gatherer communities and agricultural communes to industrial complexes in which planning is carried out by syndicates and distribution is arranged through quotas or a limited form of currency. All these models are based on the principles of working together to fulfill common needs and rejecting hierarchy of all kinds — including bosses, management, and the division of society into classes such as wealthy and poor or owners and laborers.

Without wages, what is the incentive to work?

Some worry that if we abolish capitalism and wage-labor, no one will work anymore. It is true that work as it exists now for most people would cease to exist; but work that is socially useful offers a number of incentives besides the paycheck. If anything, getting paid to do something makes it less enjoyable. The alienation of labor that is a part of capitalism destroys natural incentives to work such as the pleasure of acting freely and the satisfaction of a job well done. When work puts us in a position of inferiority — to the boss who oversees us and the wealthy people who own our workplace — and we do not have decision-making power in our job but must mindlessly follow orders, it can become excruciatingly odious and mind-numbing. We also lose our natural incentive to work when we are not doing something that is useful for our communities. Of the few workers today who are lucky enough to actually produce something they can see, they are nearly all making something that is profitable to their employers but completely meaningless to them personally. The Fordist or assembly line structuring of labor turns people into machines. Instead of cultivating skills workers can be proud of, it proves more cost-effective to give each person a single repetitive task and put him or her on an assembly line. No wonder so many workers sabotage or steal from their workplaces, or show up with an automatic weapon and “go postal.”

The idea that without wages people would stop working is baseless. In the broad timeline of human history, wages are a fairly recent invention yet societies that have existed without currency or wages did not starve to death just because no one paid the workers. With the abolition of wage labor, only the kind of work that no one can justify to himself as useful would disappear; all the time and resources put into making all the useless crap that our society is drowning in would be saved. Think of how much of our resources and labor go into advertising, mass mailings, throwaway packaging, cheap toys, disposable goods — things no one takes pride in making, designed to fall apart in a short time so you have to buy the next version.

Indigenous societies with less division of labor had no problem doing without wages, because the primary economic activities — producing food, housing, clothing, tools — are all easily connected to common needs. In such circumstances, work is a necessary social activity and an apparent obligation from every member of the community who is able. And because it takes place in a flexible, personal setting, work can be adapted to every individual’s capabilities, and there is nothing to keep people from transforming work into play. Fixing up your house, hunting, wandering in the woods identifying plants and animals, knitting, cooking a feast — aren’t these the things that bored middle-class people do in their leisure hours to forget their loathsome jobs for a moment?

Anti-capitalist societies with greater economic specialization have developed a variety of methods for providing incentives and distributing the products of workers’ labor. The aforementioned Israeli kibbutzim offer one example of incentives to work in the absence of wages. One book documenting life and work in a kibbutz identifies four major motivations to work within the cooperative labor teams, which lacked individual competition and profit motive: group productivity affects the whole community’s standard of living, so there is group pressure to work hard; members work where they choose, and gain satisfaction from their work; people develop a competitive pride if their branch of work does better than other branches; people gain prestige from work because labor is a cultural value.[30] As described above, the ultimate decline of the kibbutz experiment stemmed largely from the fact that the kibbutzim were socialist enterprises competing within a capitalist economy, and thus subsumed to the logic of competition rather than the logic of mutual aid. A similarly organized commune in a world without capitalism would not face these same problems. In any case, unwillingness to work due to lack of wages was not one of the problems the kibbutzim faced.

Many anarchists suggest that the germs of capitalism are contained in the mentality of production itself. Whether a given type of economy can survive, much less grow, within capitalism is a poor measure of its liberatory potential. But anarchists propose and debate many different forms of economy, some of which can only be practiced to a limited extent because they are wholly illegal within today’s world. In the European squatter’s movement, some cities have had or continue to have so many squatted social centers and houses that they constitute a shadow society. In Barcelona, for example, as recently as 2008 there were over forty occupied social centers and at least two hundred squatted houses. The collectives of people who inhabit these squats generally use consensus and group assemblies, and most are explicitly anarchist or intentionally anti-authoritarian. To a large extent, work and exchange have been abolished from these people’s lives, whose networks run into the thousands. Many do not have waged jobs, or they work only seasonally or sporadically, as they do not need to pay rent. For example the author of this book, who has lived within this network for two years, has survived for much of that time on less than one euro a day. Moreover, the great amount of activity they carry out within the autonomous movement is completely unwaged. But they do not need wages: they work for themselves. They occupy abandoned buildings left to rot by speculators, as a protest against gentrification and as anti-capitalist direct action to provide themselves with housing. Teaching themselves the skills they need along the way, they fix up their new houses, cleaning, patching roofs, installing windows, toilets, showers, light, kitchens, and anything else they need. They often pirate electricity, water, and internet, and much of their food comes from dumpster-diving, stealing, and squatted gardens.

In the total absence of wages or managers, they carry on a great deal of work, but at their own pace and logic. The logic is one of mutual aid. Besides fixing up their own houses, they also direct their energies towards working for their neighborhoods and enriching their communities. They provide for many of their collective needs besides housing. Some social centers host bicycle repair workshops, enabling people to repair or build their own bicycles, using old parts. Others offer carpentry workshops, self-defense and yoga workshops, natural healing workshops, libraries, gardens, communal meals, art and theater groups, language classes, alternative media and counterinformation, music shows, movies, computer labs where people can use the internet and learn email security or host their own websites, and solidarity events to deal with the inevitable repression. Nearly all of these services are provided absolutely free. There is no exchange — one group organizes to provide a service to everyone, and the entire social network benefits.

With an astounding amount of initiative in such a passive society, squatters regularly get the idea to organize a communal meal or a bicycle repair shop or a weekly movie showing, they talk with friends and friends of friends until they have enough people and resources to make their idea a reality, and then they spread the word or put up posters and hope as many people as possible will come and partake. To a capitalist mentality, they are avidly inviting people to rob them, but the squatters never stop to question activities that don’t put money in their pockets. It is evident that they have created a new form of wealth, and sharing what they make themselves clearly makes them richer.

The surrounding neighborhoods also become richer, as the squatters take the initiative to create projects much quicker than the local government could. In the magazine of a neighborhood association in Barcelona, they praised a local squat for responding to a demand the government had been ignoring for years — building the neighborhood a library. A mainstream news magazine remarked: “the squatters do the work the District forgets about.”[31] In that same neighborhood, the squatters proved to be a powerful ally to a rent-paying neighbor who was being pressured out by the landlord. The squatters worked tirelessly with an association of old folks who were facing similar situations of chicanery and illegal eviction by landlords, and they stopped the eviction of their neighbor.

In a trend that seems common to the total abolition of work, the social and the economic blend to become indistinguishable. Labor and services are not valorized or given a dollar value; they are social activities that are carried out individually or collectively as a part of daily life, without any need for accounting or management. The result is that in cities such as Barcelona, people can spend the majority of their time and meet the majority of their needs — from housing to entertainment — within this squatters’ social network, without labor and almost without money. Of course not everything can be stolen (not yet), and the squatters are still compelled to sell their labor to pay for things like medical care and court costs. But for many people the exceptional nature of those things that cannot be self-produced, scavenged, or stolen, the outrage of having to sell valuable moments of one’s life to work for some corporation, can have the effect of increasing the level of conflict with capitalism.

One potential pitfall of any movement powerful enough to create an alternative to capitalism is that its participants can easily become complacent living in their bubble of autonomy and lose the will to fight for the total abolition of capitalism. Squatting itself can easily become a ritual, and in Barcelona the movement as a whole has not applied the same creativity to resistance and attack as it has to many of the practical aspects of fixing up houses and finding subsistence with little or no money. The self-sustaining nature of the network of squatters, the immediate presence of freedom, initiative, pleasure, independence, and community in their lives have by no means destroyed capitalism, but they do reveal it to be a walking corpse, with nothing but the police, in the end, preventing it for going extinct and being replaced by far superior forms of living.

[digitaldetoxworld]

Top Trends Shaping Classrooms Latest trends in educational technology for personalized learning

 latest trends in educational technology for personalized learning  is remodeling the panorama of getting to know, shaping how college students and educators engage with content material, and altering the very nature of the instructional enjoy. As we circulate in addition into the twenty first century, numerous tendencies are rising that promise to decorate academic results, customise getting to know, and put together students for a hastily evolving world. This article delves into the current developments in academic technology, examining their implications and potential effect on the future of training.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

Impact of artificial intelligence on classroom learning experiences  and machine gaining knowledge of are revolutionizing schooling by way of enabling more customized and adaptive studying reports. AI-powered systems can analyze pupil performance records to tailor educational content to man or woman wishes. For example, AI can perceive a student’s strengths and weaknesses, supplying customized sporting events and resources to address particular gaps in expertise.

Key Applications

Adaptive Learning Systems 

Platforms like DreamBox and Knewton adjust the problem and kind of content based on real-time evaluation of scholar interactions.

Automated Grading

AI can grade assignments and provide instantaneous comments, reducing the administrative burden on educators and letting them recognition greater on interactive coaching.

 Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are developing immersive gaining knowledge of environments that could decorate engagement and information. These technologies offer college students the opportunity to discover and engage with content in approaches that conventional strategies can not.

Key Applications

Virtual Field Trips

 VR allows college students to go to historic websites, outer space, or maybe microscopic environments with out leaving the classroom. For instance, Google Expeditions gives virtual area trips to numerous global landmarks.

Interactive Simulations

: AR packages like JigSpace permit students to visualise complex ideas, such as the workings of the human frame or mechanical structures, via interactive 3-D fashions.

 Gamification

Gamification incorporates recreation design elements into instructional settings to make gaining knowledge of extra enticing and motivating. By integrating factors, badges, leaderboards, and other recreation-like functions, educators can beautify scholar motivation and participation.

Educational Games

Platforms like Kahoot! And Quizizz use game mechanics to make quizzes and evaluation periods extra interactive and competitive.

Game-Based Learning Environments

Tools like Classcraft include function-gambling sport elements to encourage nice behavior and collaboration among students.

 Learning Analytics

Learning analytics involves the collection and evaluation of data related to pupil getting to know methods and results. By leveraging data, educators can benefit insights into student overall performance and make knowledgeable selections to enhance teaching strategies and gaining knowledge of environments.

Performance Tracking

Learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas and Blackboard offer analytics dashboards that assist educators monitor student progress and identify trends.

Predictive Analytics

Tools such as Brightspace’s Insights use ancient statistics to expect student performance and perceive those at risk of falling at the back of.

 Cloud-Based Learning Platforms

Cloud-primarily based mastering systems provide flexible and scalable answers for handing over educational content material and dealing with classroom sports. These systems facilitate collaboration, useful resource sharing, and get right of entry to to instructional materials from anywhere with a web connection.

Collaborative Tools

Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams for Education provide gear for document sharing, institution work, and communication amongst college students and teachers.

Resource Access: Platforms like Edmodo and Schoology enable college students to access route materials, submit assignments, and interact with friends and instructors on-line.

 EdTech for Special Education

Technology is more and more getting used to support students with unique wishes, imparting gear and assets tailored to numerous mastering requirements. Assistive technologies and adaptive mastering equipment are assisting to create more inclusive academic environments.

Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text Tools

Tools like Kurzweil 3000 and Dragon NaturallySpeaking assist college students with analyzing and writing problems.

Customized Learning Environments:

Software like ModMath helps college students with dysgraphia by using providing a digital platform for fixing math troubles.

Blockchain for Education

Blockchain generation, recognised more often than not for its use in cryptocurrencies, is beginning to make an impact in education through its ability to securely and transparently manage instructional facts and credentials.

Digital Diplomas and Certificates

Platforms like Learning Machine and the MIT Media Lab are using blockchain to issue and verify virtual diplomas and certificates, lowering fraud and simplifying the credential verification method.

Decentralized Learning Records

: Blockchain can create steady, immutable statistics of scholar achievements and gaining knowledge of pathways, supplying a complete and verifiable educational history.

 Personalized Learning

Personalized learning leverages technology to tailor academic stories to the specific needs and options of every student. This technique aims to enhance learning by using accommodating person getting to know styles, paces, and hobbies.

Customized Learning Paths

Platforms like Khan Academy and Coursera provide publications that adapt to the learner’s pace and provide recommendations based totally on progress and hobbies.

Learning Profiles

Tools inclusive of SMART Learning Suite allow teachers to create and track personalized getting to know profiles for every student, facilitating targeted coaching and comments.

 Internet of Things (IoT) in Education

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects various devices and sensors to the net, enabling clever lecture rooms wherein bodily items can have interaction with digital structures. This technology has the ability to enhance each coaching and mastering stories.

Smart Classrooms

IoT gadgets like clever whiteboards and related sensors can music classroom situations, along with temperature and lights, and modify them to optimize gaining knowledge of environments.

Interactive Learning Tools

IoT-enabled devices, including linked robots and programmable sensors, offer hands-on learning reviews in subjects like robotics and science.

Mobile Learning

Mobile getting to know, or m-studying, utilizes cellular devices like smartphones and capsules to facilitate getting to know out of doors traditional classroom settings. This fashion helps anytime, everywhere access to educational assets.

Educational Apps

Apps such as Duolingo for language getting to know and Photomath for solving math troubles offer on-the-go gaining knowledge of possibilities.

Flexible Learning Resources

 Mobile structures allow students to get right of entry to path materials, participate in discussions, and entire assignments from their devices.