if youd like to read the stephens from the beginning you can over here :)
if youd like to read the stephens continued you can over here:)
@ohsosims
blake- im just saying shes obsessed with me and you need to talk to her. get her to stop. all im hearing is shit from the guys now..instead of football its like hey did you bang her too. its a whole thing
river-goddamnit youre so cute,ted
blake- riv ! are you hearing anything im saying
river: i am but im having a hard time sympathizing with it to be honest,man
blake - we were broken up man
river: i know. im not faulting you for having a fling with someone. the issue isnt that. i did it too. the problem is it was SID. and you knew that was her boyfriend
blake- you dontknow the whole story man. it was more on the level than you think
river- i dont want to know the whole story. because its probably going to make you look like an asshole.and we're in a good place now,right? we have teddie.we are getting a new house finally. we're in a good place
blake: i know but its just irritating me that she has this way to speak what she said happened and i dont
river- i may be pulling a my dad here but i do not want to know if it was anything more than what she saying. you did something shitty. youre owning it now. leave it where it lies, man seriously. like just take the hit. you did something shitty because of who it was with . she has the right to be upset about it no matter how 'on the level ' it was. like just man up blake . we're 22 years old. like grow the fuck up. im putting him to bed
blake- riv
river- dude if you followed me in here to fight..no
blake-i followed you in here to say youre right. i was kinda like makign excuses for the things ive done and i dont want to do that. i dont want to be another version of your dad so youre right. and ill just.. keep my mouth shut.
river- im not saying keep your mouth shut. but probably..possibly..maybe find it in yourself to maybe apologize to scarlett. you literally have never done it
blake- theres no way she'll give me the time of day man. shes hard to talk to . as soon as i walk in the room she walks out
river- well again, you slept with her boyfriend. id do the same. HELL i do the same whenever im at your games and that prick comes up to me. text her. just apologize. youre going to be in eachothers lives even if i divorce you
blake- [laughs] looking into the future
river: [winks] little bit. now get out so i can put ted to bed
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It is wild to me how many people are like, "hahaha op's speech did nothing," as if I am running and participating in these polls to get validation for my blorbo. If I just wanted to be content with my blorbo, I would absolutely not be tossing him up on a platform to be heckled for a week straight. I would be retreating to some echo chamber Discord server to experience the emotional equivalent of everyone gathering around and petting a puppy.
I literally do not think Essek is going to win this poll! I do not think he is going to win the tournament! I seeded Laerryn number one for a reason! For a number of factors I think it would be very difficult for anyone to beat her! I literally put him and Laerryn on the same side of the bracket so that they would not end up in the final, because I did not think it was going to be an interesting fight! We as a fandom beat "Laerryn could smash any wizard in Exandria without contest" into the ground weeks ago! I considered writing a stump speech just for kicks for every semifinalist, because I like to argue things and I love playing up a ridiculous and meaningless kayfabe!
But like, Laerryn has swept many polls, and it's deeply boring to me if she wins in a landslide. I am a polling nerd, and I can confirm that no one watches landslide races. They are not interesting. And this is fully just for the fun of it, so I am gonna make it interesting.
If there's no challenge, no consideration of how the other side might win, then what the fuck is the point of running a tournament?
In conclusion:
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every year my landlord sets my rent up, and every year i think about moving, but damn if it isnt impossible to find another apartment as nice as this one (would be nice if i could find somewhere where im actually allowed to have a cat tho)
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Lindt, Mondelēz, and Nestlé together raked in nearly $4 billion in profits from chocolate sales in 2023. Hershey’s confectionary profits totaled $2 billion last year.
The four corporations paid out on average 97 percent of their total net profits to shareholders in 2023.
The collective fortunes of the Ferrero and Mars families, who own the two biggest private chocolate corporations, surged to $160.9 billion during the same period. This is more than the combined GDPs of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which supply most cocoa beans.
Decades of low prices have made farmers poorer and hampered their ability to hire workers or invest in their farms, limiting bean yield. Old cocoa trees are particularly vulnerable to disease and extreme weather. Many farmers are abandoning cocoa for other crops, or selling their land to illegal miners.
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Today in measuring your peahen, Bug is casually 2 foot, 3 inches tall (she can stretch a little taller when she REALLY wants a treat). This is just tall enough to see over a tray table and pull things off of nightstands and end cabinets.
Bug is also a little over 3 feet long from tail tip to beak tip. Most of Bug is made up of tail and neck. There is a 6lb dead weight in the middle somewhere that she knows how to directly place onto the ball of one foot while standing on you.
Bug's wingspan is around 3.5 feet, thought I didn't get a measurement. It will be over 4 feet as an adult.
Bug is growing in her spurs. As a Spalding (hybrid) hen, Bug will likely have one inch bone knives conveniently attached to her tarsometatarsus. This is technically fused foot bones, not a leg bone. Curiously, pure Pavo cristatus hens have spurs, and pure Pavo muticus hens have spurs, but many domestic Pavo cristatus and low-percent Spalding hens lack them. This is one of the indications of domestication in the cristatus species. As I prefer the wild type, I prefer my hens spurred, so this is a good sign!
Bug's toes measure a smidge over 5 inches from the tip of her rear-facing to to the tip of her longest front facing toe. Try measuring that on your hand.
Bug's nails measure 1/2-3/4 an inch long, depending on the toe. That's almost as long as one finger section for most people.
When I had snakes, I got asked all the time if I was afraid of them biting me. The answer is no. I have been bitten by a 6 foot long, 20lb boa constrictor, and have no scars to prove it. Meanwhile I have so many scars from peafowl sitting on me, particularly on my forearms, that I have had to reassure people I am not a danger to myself.
I post these photos as a reference, but also as a precaution. This is a BABY peafowl, and a female at that. She is only 6 months old and weighs a little over 6lbs, which means she's about 2/3 of the way grown, and adult hens are typically 3/4 the size of an adult male. These are BIG birds that can do a LOT of damage, even accidentally. When they become aggressive, as in the case of hand-raised males or poorly bred birds, they become a potentially fatal threat to any other fowl you have. Unlike chickens, they are more than capable of (and prone to!) jumping to human face level before they flog (kick with their feet in a way that allows their spurs to hit home), which means they could easily take out an eye or cause other serious facial injury if they get a lucky strike. I have seen more than a few people end up with stitches, and more than a few birds end up euthanized because people think they are gonna be cute cuddly friends.
I know that Bug is a cute bird, but I also want to stress that a) she has an outstanding personality as a result of breeding choices and socialization b) she hasn't hit maturity, and won't do so for another 2+ years, so her personality could change considerably still and c) I have been raising peafowl one way or another for my entire adult life, which has been structured around keeping them. I love my birds, and I would love for more people to keep peafowl as they are great animals, but they are not casual animals. They are large and potentially dangerous farm fowl that take a lot of space, care, and knowledge to keep.
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Gaza Updates (1:30PM, EST, November 13, 2023)
Gaza's health ministry's director general, Ismail al-Thawabta confirmed that 11,240 Palestinian people have been killed. Al Jazeera added this as apart of his updates:
"Dead in Gaza include 4,630 children and 3,130 women."
"Number of killed medical personnel now 189, including doctors, nurses and paramedics."
"Ten people – “kids, babies, patients and wounded” – died at al-Shifa hospital due to operation rooms being shuttered as a result of a lack of fuel."
"If fuel shortage continues it will cause a communications and internet blackout. Al-Thawabta said this is projected to happen on Thursday and will lead to “all the crimes of Israel” being “hidden from the world”, and turn the humanitarian crisis from “bad to worse”.
"Fuel must be allowed into Gaza and the Rafah crossing with Egypt must be fully opened."
"Israel and the international community – particularly the United States – are fully responsible for “crimes against civilians”.
"The fighting has also destroyed 41,120 residential properties; 94 government headquarters; 71 mosques destroyed; and 253 schools have been damaged."
"There has been $181m in direct agricultural losses, with 25 percent of agricultural farms destroyed."
"4 governmental headquarters, 253 schools, 71 mosques and 3 churches destroyed in Israeli raids."
It has also been confirmed "all primary care for pregnant women has been lost"
"Dr Haya Hijazi, who works at al-Hilo Hospital in Gaza City, has confirmed: "there are no prenatal, neonatal or postpartum services catering to pregnant women, new mothers and newborns."
"UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, said that Gaza is home to 50,000 pregnant women."
It also said:
"70 percent of those killed and injured so far are women and children."
"5,500 women are due to give birth in the coming month – more than 180 births per day."
"Fuel, medicines, blood supply and other essentials for hospitals are running out."
"Two truckloads of Inter-agency Reproductive Health Kits have arrived in Gaza containing individual clean delivery kits and supplies and equipment for emergency obstetric care, including anesthesia and supplies for cesarean sections."
"Some 238 attacks against health care have been reported in the occupied Palestinian territories since the beginning of the hostilities, killing 517 people, according to WHO"
All of this information/everything I quoted can be found on Al Jazeera's live updates on their website -all credits to Al Jazeera journalists:
I need folks to continually keep understanding that everything happening right now in Gaza in NOT a war, it is a genocide. Israeli military and government is systematically destroying infrastructure for their Zionist agenda, and are massacring Palestinian people mercilessly and without remorse -nowhere is safe in Gaza, and reading these updates should continue to enrage you.
Keep posting, keep re-posting, keep researching and keep reading, stay informed, go to sit-ins and protests if this is accessible to you, and most importantly -keep fighting against Israeli and American propaganda.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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