#Paula Steere

[paularoseauthor]

Ten Tips on Steering the Conversation: How to Express Your Desire to Convert to Catholicism with Love and Understanding.

Navigating this conversation with sensitivity, respect, and clear communication is crucial to fostering understanding and maintaining strong family bonds. Here's a guide on how to approach this significant conversation

Embarking on the journey to convert from Protestantism to Catholicism is a deeply personal decision that can evoke a range of emotions, especially when it comes to communicating this change to your Protestant family. Navigating this conversation with sensitivity, respect, and clear communication is crucial to fostering understanding and maintaining strong family bonds. Here’s a guide on how to…

[caribbeangirlfolkloring]

it is a beginning forests, canefields, move over the waters seeds of the dead fruit: cashew, grape, guinep, with their blind tendrils of freedom: a long way the one eyed stare of the coconut will travel steered by its roots, what its milk teaches, till its stalk, with its flag and its cross- sword, its mailed head and chained feet walks over the arawaks beaches

Edward Kamau Brathwaite, from “Harbour” in The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English, Selected and edited by Paula Burnett

[librarycards]

butter honey pig bread by francesca ekwuyasi, steering the craft by ursula k le guin, station eleven by emily st john mandel, the book of delights by ross gay, & in the dream house by carmen maria machado

yessss i love when ppl include multiple genres in their rec messages! here are some you may like:

Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad is Untrue

Minae Mizumura, The Fall of Language in the Age of English

Gloria Susana Esquivel, Animals at the End of the World

jia qing wilson-yang, Small Beauty

Paula Carter, No Relation

[cigarettecemetary]

Do I Wanna Know? - Matt Sturniolo Part 2

Part 1

Paring: Dealer!Matt x Bambi!Reader

Summary: Your friends and boyfriend want to go to a party, you’re not really a party person but they manage to convince you. After you witness something you rush out the room running into none other than Matthew Sturniolo. As time goes on you and Matt start to talk more, forming a very complicated relationship.

Warnings: MDNI, drug use & selling, tension, confrontation, argument/disagreement

A/N: here is part two of Do I Wanna Know! please enjoy!🫶🏽 With love and cigarette smoke, Moxxie<3

My eyes widened as they read the message. How did Matt get my number? Right as I began to think of possible ways he could’ve gotten my number, another text popped up.

“Your little friend, Paula I believe, was sweet enough to give me your number. Are you busy tomorrow? I have a few runs to make if you’d like to join me.”

I thought for a moment. I didn’t have much to do tomorrow. Plus Thomas would be at work all day so I’d be bored anyway. I texted him back quickly and sent my address as the uber pulled into my driveway.

“C’mon Thomas.” I mumbled, helping him out the car and into the house.

“I’m fine Y/N… you can let go.” Thomas said, stumbling. I let out a sigh, laying him on the couch. I doubt he could make it up the stairs. I planted a soft kiss to his forehead and laid a blanket on top of him before going upstairs to my room.

I walked into my bathroom to take a quick much needed shower, the water gently dripping down my skin. I got out and threw on a white fluffy bathrobe l and walked over to my vanity table, grabbing a hair tie and putting it up in a messy bun. I got into bed as a deep slumber overtook me.

⭑*•̩̩͙⊱••••✩••••̩̩͙⊰•*⭑

“Y/N!”

Thomas’s loud shout awoke me from my slumber. I sat up, rubbing my eyes.

“Thomas? What’s goin’ on?” I asked, yawning. He glared at me from my doorway.

“I heard you met someone last night? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” He snapped angrily. I scoffed.

“Well maybe if you weren’t so busy with that blonde chick, I wouldn’t have met him.” I snapped back. I saw him falter slightly. “Yeah I caught you.”

“Baby she meant nothing to me. I was drunk, I thought it was you!” He pleaded slightly.

“Whatever Thomas. Don’t do that shit again.” I said angrily getting up and walking into the bathroom to wash my face. He walked over to me, gently kissing my forehead.

“I gotta get to work. I’ll see you tonight.” He said softly. I nodded, waving him off. I walked over to my closet and picked a white top and a baby pink skirt to wear. I sat at my vanity, curling my hair a little bit as my phone went off. I picked it up to see a message from Matt.

“Hey sweetheart. You almost ready?”

I felt my nerves calm down slightly. I texted him back quickly.

“Almost! I’ll be down in a minute!”

I hurried with my hair and slipped on a random pair of white shoes I found in my closet and ran downstairs. I grabbed my keys, locking the door and turning around.

In my driveway sat a beautiful black Corvette, leaning against the hood sat none other than Matt. I felt my jaw drop as I approached him.

“Matt.. Is this yours?” I asked amazed. I couldn’t hide my astonishment even if I wanted to. I gently grazed my hand against the hood, touching the car so gently, like i would break it if I touched it too hard.

Matt chuckled, the sound ringing through my ears. “Yes, it is. Isn’t she beautiful?”

“Y-yes! Yes, she’s gorgeous!” I gushed softly. I watched as Matt walked around me to the passengers side and opened the door for me. Thomas never did that for me before.

“After you, Bambi.” He purred softly. I felt my cheeks flush as I thanked him and got into the car.

The interior was black, the seat covers red. I watched as Matt got into the drivers side, his hands covered in rings, gripping the steering wheel. He placed one hand on the back of my seat, as he backed out the driveway.

“We’re gonna make a few deals. These people can be shady, don’t worry though, they’ll never put their hands on you as long as I’m here.” Matt said, as we got onto the main road. I nodded, glancing over at him.

I watched his hands on the steering wheel as he turned around the corner, nearing our first stop. I wasn’t used to being the passenger, I always drove Thomas around. Being the passenger for once was nice.

We pulled up to a trailer park, Matt putting the car in park.

“C’mon sweetheart. Stay close ‘ight?” He reached into the backseat grabbing bags of weed, pills and what seemed to be coke. I nodded as he got out, coming around and opening the door for me. I followed close behind him as we neared a bench. A man sat there, hands in his pockets.

“Matthew, my man! Finally.” The man dapped Matt up as he laid out the contents of what he had. The man’s eyes eventually trailed over to me.

“So I’ve got this stuff, I’m getting more later but this is what I’ve got now.” Matt said as he began to sort everything in piles. The man however wasn’t paying attention to him.

“Hey there pretty. Never seen you around here before.” I took a step towards Matt hesitantly as the man took a step forward. Matt’s hand immediately flew up, pressing against his chest and pushing backwards.

“And this is the only time you’re seeing her. Back off a bit yeah?” I bit my lip hesitantly as I watched the man’s eyes widen. He put his hands up immediately in surrender, chuckling.

“I got it man!” He laughed. Matt however wasn’t laughing. The man snickered as he grabbed a baggy of weed and pills, tossing Matt the cash. “Give the extra to the lady!”

Matt’s jaw clenched, gripping the cash tightly. The man walked off to his trailer I assumed. He turned to me.

“You okay Bambi?” He asked, his voice soft now. I looked up at him and nodded. He smiled and held out a hand. “C’mon we got a few more” I happily obliged, taking his hand and walking back to the car.

⭑*•̩̩͙⊱••••✩••••̩̩͙⊰•*⭑

I sat in the passenger seat, gingerly eating the fries Matt bought me from McDonald’s, not wanting to get crumbs on the seat. We were done with the runs he had to make and now we were on a hill, overlooking the city. Matt sat near his window, smoking a blunt.

“I’ll take you home after you’re done.” He said, looking over at me and slightly laughing as he saw me taking mini bites from my burger. “Don’t worry about the seats Bambi, that’s what the covers are for.”

After his reassurance, I took a bigger bite. I hadn’t expected to be so hungry, but it was almost 10pm. I put my trash in the bag and set it down at my feet. As I finished, we started making our way to my place.

“Matt? How long have you been dealing to Thomas?” I asked curiously. He glanced at me before returning his attention to the road.

“Me personally, about 6 months. He’s gotten shit from my friends though for longer. His main dealer, Manny stopped and he suggested me to him, so he started buying from me.” He explained, putting his blunt out in the ashtray sitting in the center consul. I nodded, looking out the window again.

Thomas told me he would quit but I knew he was bullshitting. I just didn’t think he would keep how long he was buying things from me.

“Interesting.” I mumbled softly, mainly to myself. I glanced at the driveway as we pulled up. Thomas was home. As Matt put the car in park he looked over at me.

“This was fun Bambi. I enjoyed having you along with me. Text me when you get in, alright?” He asked, looking at me intently. I nodded, thanking him and making my way inside.

“And where have you been?” Thomas asked me coldly. I was taken aback at his sudden coldness.

“I was out with a friend that’s all.” I replied. I mean it wasn’t a lie. I went to walk around him but he blocked my path.

“Oh yeah? What friend Y/N?” He asked, approaching me. I let out a sigh. He wasn’t about to intimidate me. I stood my ground and slightly pushed him back to make my way around him.

“What does it matter? You never ask me this.” He glared at me.

“Because it seems to me like it was with Matthew. I saw and heard his car.”

I scoffed making my way to the kitchen, grabbing water. “Oh your dealer Matt? Yeah it was him. I met him at the party yesterday while you were busy. He took me on a few runs. That’s it.”

Thomas faltered as I mentioned the dealer part. He cursed silently.

“Whatever. You should’ve told me.” he snapped.

“Why? You never seem to care who I’m with any other day?” I shot back, setting down my glass. I was starting to get irritated.

“Because everyone else you hang out with are girls.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not true and you know it. Vincent and Kyle aren’t girls, and I hang out with them all the time.”

“That’s because Vincent is Paula’s boyfriend and Kyle is her brother.” Thomas said, crossing his arms.

“Not true because I hang out with Kyle without Paula. You know that. This conversation we’re having is silly. I can hang out with who I want.” I snapped. “Besides, you never tell me who you’re with.”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “That’s different.”

“What? How?” I sputtered. Thomas was starting to get on my nerves.

“Because I don’t have to tell you anything. You do.” He replied. I stared at him in total disbelief.

“Excuse me?”

“Next time you’re with a man, I expect you to tell me.” He said coldly, walking upstairs to take a shower. I stayed put, still in shock. So I had to tell him everything while he could leave me in the dark? Absolutely not. I scoffed and made my way to my room, changing into my pajamas. Thomas came in a few minutes after me.

“I have to work overtime tomorrow. If you hang out with anyone I again, expect to be told who.” He said as he got into bed beside me. I laid down comfortably, as he wrapped an arm around me. I sighed, trying to forget about everything and just go to bed.

A/N: this was a bit rushed- i dont like this. anyways- new characters mentioned! Next chapter will have less Matt in it. I hope you enjoyed<3

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

Fucking Post Office inquiry.

Fucking Paula Vennells.

Do love that with this - and basically any scandal that gets bad enough someone in charge has to answer questions - that people in charge always try to play as though they're hapless, powerless, and never knew anything.

Oh! Oh I see! When everyone else does the work and it goes well that because of your potent leadership and so you deserve to be paid lots and get honours and your dick sucked, but when something bad happens - usuaully because you wanted it done that way! - well, that was out of your hands!

Fucking captain of the ship when times are good but the instant you steer into the fucking rocks, oh, I was a leaf on the wind! I had no control! No-one ever told me anything! I came into work, put my blindfold on and just assumed everyone was pious!

Fuck you! Fuck you!

Cry all you like, maybe if you hadn't been so full of shit you wouldn't fucking be here right now, having to do this!

[tarakaybee]

I'm gonna be honest, I was trying to be on board with Never Stop Blowing Up, but it just didn't do anything for me, there was just nothing to it beyond clippable scenes of individual jokes out of context.

I really feel a lot of fans who read this are going to call me a party pooper for taking a comedy season too seriously, so I want you to bear in mind that one of my favourite seasons is Fantasy High, which contains the "how big is the monster's butthole" scene. But in Fantasy High, the players were engaging with the premise and the story managed to be compelling, and at times even touching and emotionally profound. Dimension 20 to me is more than just Brennan and the players doings bits, and this just doesn't have anything other than that. None of them take their characters emotionally seriously, to the point that their character arcs felt arbitrary and like none of them were putting that much thought into it. Wendell's arc was that his brothers bully him, and his emotional lesson that he learns is that he should accept the fact that his brothers bully him because they're family, or something. Paula's arc is that she gets back together with her husband, I am absolutely positive Paula's arc was that her husband left her back in the first episode, but Izzy and Brennan in the climax frame it as though she left him for a reason neither of them care to remember.

Nothing annoys me more in both playing and watching improv storytelling is when a player refuses to relinquish control of an idea and insists on doing some moment entirely by themselves and trying to steer an idea back on a specific path when somebody else participates in it. A lot of NSBU in terms of the general storytelling and the comedy scenes are basically six players wrestling with each other to have moments and jokes play out the way that they want and not collaborating with each other. Like Rekha and the oily t-shirt moment that was just ten minutes of Rekha trying to persuade Brennan to let her character break the laws of physics and not moving on to another scene until she eventually rolls for it. If you thought the oily shirt bit was the funniest shit in the world, I'm happy for you but I was counting the seconds on the playback for it to be over.

Also, the "Be a GM for 60 seconds" mechanic is a good idea in principle, but every player who uses it immediately abuses Brennan's goodwill and goes against the spirit of the rule and exploits exact wording that makes things boring, Izzy and Rekha saying "everybody else gets what they want in their scenes" is very blatantly not in the spirit of things and is just using DM fiat to break the "Temporary GM" rule and allowing themselves to continue making things up when they're a PC. When Brennan gets back in the DM chair he basically either retcons everything or bends over backwards to make sure that whatever they did didn't further the story in any way.

I am a little disappointed that this season turned out this way. I watched one of the two London live shows earlier this year, I enjoyed the atmosphere and getting to see some of my favourite performers live, but the episode is about on par with what I saw, a lot of it I only laughed at because the energy of the room left me fizzing with excitement but it was just a long string of some of their less funny bits and a long string of Brennan just referencing character names followed by the room exploding.

[sheplayswithlifee]

Paula cried from seeing her man like that. She wanted to call the police but he was against it. His face would heal, he’d steer clear. Paula was thinking of a more permanent solution. She doesn’t want there to be a next time…

[ovaruling]

All technological developments can usefully be studied with a focus on women's social interactions, even those developments which would initially seem to have little to do with women's lives. For example: girls' and women's uses of bicycles. I have been fascinated by nineteenth century feminists' accounts of the bicycle as a mechanical device which changed women's movement through their communities. (Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared in 1895 that 'many a woman is riding to the suffrage on a bicycle' [Kramarae and Treichler 1986, 69].) Early feminists told stories of the ways women were discouraged (bottles and insults thrown their way) from riding bicycles. In some families bicycles and motor bikes are still considered more suited to boys' than girls' lives-and boys are often allowed more freedom as to when and where they ride. (One of the contributors for this collection tells me that her brothers were allowed to learn to ride at an earlier age than she was, and that even now her father discourages her, a postgraduate student, from riding her bicycle to work.) But in general in Western countries the bicycle is no longer considered only a male mode of transport. The situation is much different in other parts of the world. In Delhi I asked friends why I saw many men and no women pedalling bicycles or steering motorcycles-only some women getting rides on the cycles. I was told that even if a woman could afford a bike or motorcycle, she couldn't use it for fear of ridicule; those are men's modes of transportation. Besides, the woman's sari would make bike riding very difficult. (In the US, women's interest in bicycle riding was early linked to arguments for 'rational dress,' that is, women's clothing styles which did not require yards and yards of skirt material.) Millions of women in India daily walk many miles hauling water for their families; procuring water is a woman's duty just as riding a bicycle is a man's activity (Rami 1985). Women seldom use bicycles for such activities as getting water, visiting relatives, or taking their homemade lace to collection points for selling. Men with bicycles market the products of women lace makers (Mies 1982). Thus gender-differentiated technology deepens women's economic and social dependence. In this and other cases, we can see that the genderizing of transport affects women's talk, including when and where it occurs, the topics, and the perceived value of the talk by women and men. — Cheris Kramarae, Technology and Women’s Voices: Keeping in Touch (1988) REFERENCES: Kramarae, Cheris and Paula Treichler, with the assistance of Ann Russo. 1986. A Feminist Dictionary. New York and London: Pandora Press. Mies. Maria. 1982. The Lace Makers of Narsapur: Indian Housewives Produce for the World Market. London: Zed Press. Rami, Prabha. 1985. 'Just one more queue: women and water shortage in Tamil Nadu.' In Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita, eds. In Search of Answers: Indian Women's Voices from Manushi. London: Zed Books, 104-14.

[ronispadez]

cooking up some earthbound roleplay blogs... :3 since i find it so hard to draw comics or write normal fanfictions, im gonna get this fanfic out roleplay blog style! please interact w them once i finish setting them up !!

some notes, so you can know if you're interested or want to steer clear of it. no biggie:

focus on tracy and picky

im a younger sibling and im interested in how they feel about their older brothers and all...

background nesscas because you cannot stop me.

this will create an interesting dynamic between picky and lucas

eventual trans girl picky because i just like the idea. he starts out as a boy so you can use he/him until that eventual change happens!

picky and tracy will also develop a romantic relationship, but it's not the main focus

still figuring out years and ages and all that, but I'm planning on Ness and Lucas being in their late teens, and Picky and Tracy being in their early teens.

i have not forgotten about the others!! Tracy and Paula are close, and Poo and Jeff will still be mentioned. I just have nesscas brainrot.

Smash Bros is seen as a big tournament thing that Ness goes to and thats how Lucas can universe hop over. whatever don't think about it too hard i dont care.

this is something that ive been thinking about for awhile and im excited to share it with you all!! you can see a few drawings ive sketched up about it on my art account: @mintyspadez

[georgefairbrother]

Remembering British film director, Michael Apted, who passed away January 7th, 2021, aged 79.

According to his obituary in The Guardian,

"He was a director who moved with ease between socially conscious documentaries and feature films with a special focus on female achievement".

His career began as a trainee at Granada Television, Manchester, where as a researcher he worked on the first of the ground-breaking documentary series, Seven Up, in 1964, originally conceived as a one-off episode as part of the World in Action programme. He also directed episodes of Coronation Street (he described Violet Carson and Pat Phoenix as 'the biggest divas in Britain'), and The Lovers, with Richard Beckinsale and Paula Wilcox, along with other television plays and programmes.

In Hollywood, he directed a number of acclaimed, diverse and successful movies, including Coal Miner’s Daughter (seven Oscar nominations with Cissy Spacek winning Best Actress), Gorky Park, Gorillas in the Mist, one James Bond (The World is not Enough), and Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

He continued to steer the ‘Up’ documentary series each seven years, which checked in on the fate of a number of British children from different classes and backgrounds, from the age of seven. The most recent, 63 Up, screened in 2019. He said, "The series was an attempt to do a long view of English society. The class system needed a kick up the backside."  He described the series as the most important thing he had ever done.

According to The Guardian;

"...Though the Up films were internationally acclaimed, winning Apted the coveted Peabody award in 2012, he mourned their skewed portrait of women. "The change that’s gone around with women in the workplace and women’s place in society is the most significant socio-political event in contemporary culture," he said in 1995. "I missed it. I only had four women out of the 14 and all four of them settled into domestic life very quickly"... In his good-natured way he prodded and challenged the trio of working-class women in the show, who gave as good as they got..."

He intended to continue the 'Up' Series for as long as he was able, and 70 Up was proposed for 2026.

In 1995, Michael Apted appeared on a documentary by fellow director Stephen Frears, along with Alan Parker, A Personal History of British Cinema. He was typically forthright, did not seem to think particularly highly of David Lean's epics including Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, and opined that Ken Loach's Kes was the best British film since the war.

Perhaps fittingly, 63 Up was Michael Apted's final screen credit.

(Sources include IMDb, The Guardian, Washington Post, and the Stephen Frears documentary A Personal History of British Cinema)

[cinema-tv-etc]

The True Story Behind a Deadly Love Triangle Involving Renowned Architect Stanford White

Expect to see White as a character in HBO's The Gilded Age.

By Mary Elizabeth Andriotis Jan 25, 2022

When design enthusiasts hear the name Stanford White, they likely recognize one third of the illustrious architecture firm McKim, Mead & White. White enjoyed much professional success—namely, designing historic structures such as the Washington Square Arch, Newport's Rosecliff, and the circa-1890 version of Madison Square Garden. However, White's personal life was much darker; the architect was widely known for his predatory behavior towards young women. This behavior would ultimately come to overshadow—and, eventually, indirectly end—his life in a twist of fate that sounds like something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

Following White's appearance as a character in HBO's new series The Gilded Age, now is a perfect time to look back at his real life. One facet that we have yet to see in the show? A deadly love triangle between the renowned architect, model Evelyn Nesbit, and coal and railroad scion Harry Kendall Thaw.

Who Was Stanford White?

White, who was born in 1853, designed—and decorated—the Fifth Avenue residences of high-society families such as the Vanderbilts and the Astors. Although the architect did not come from money, his father, Richard Grand White, formed connections with many notable names in the design world, including Frederick Law Olmsted and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

White began his architecture career at just 18 years old, when he started working as an assistant to Henry Hobson Richardson. In 1879—when White was 26—he partnered with Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead to form McKim, Mead and White.

Predatory Behavior

White himself lived at 22 West 24th Street, in a multi-story apartment near Madison Square Park. One room in this home boasted a red velvet swing, fashioned with ropes made of ivy and suspended from the ceiling. According to the New York Times, White designed this swing so that underage girls—including model Evelyn Nesbit, who was 3o-plus years younger than him—"could entertain him."

These activities, it seems, were widely known: Celebrated writer Mark Twain once described the architect as "eagerly and diligently and ravenously and remorselessly hunting young girls to their destruction," adding that "these facts have been well known in New York for many years."

Evelyn Nesbit

In 1906, Nesbit revealed that five years prior—when she was 16 and White was 48 (and married)—he invited her to his apartment for dinner, gave her champagne, and seemingly drugged her, before raping her while she was unconscious. Despite this unconscionable start, Nesbit and White remained lovers for quite some time. The model discovered that White had a "little black book" containing the names of other young women he was having affairs with.

In 1905, Nesbit was married to Harry Kendall Thaw, the son of Pittsburgh coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr. White is said to have warned Nesbit to steer clear of Thaw, as the architect had always disliked the scion, but had no concrete reasons behind his disdain. Eventually, after declining Thaw's many requests for her hand, Nesbit finally obliged. However, she had to tell Thaw the truth about what happened between her and White, given Thaw's obsession with female chastity.

As Paula Uruburu reports in the 2008 book American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century, while traveling through Europe together, Nesbit and Thaw partook in a tour of sites hand-picked by Thaw, all of which pertained to virgin martyrdom. The experience was, undoubtedly, miserable for Nesbit on many levels. Upon visiting Domrémy, France—the birthplace of Joan of Arc—Thaw left a message in the visitor's book, writing, "she would not have been a virgin if Stanford White had been around." Later in the trip, Thaw allegedly locked Nesbit in her room at the Katzenstein Castle before beating her with a whip and sexually assaulting her over the course of two weeks.

White's Murder

Approximately one year into their marriage, in 1906, Nesbit and Thaw went to a showing of Mam'zelle Champagne at the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden, where White was also in attendance. During the final song of the musical, Thaw, who was standing just two feet from White, shot the architect three times in a row, instantly killing him while hundreds of people bore witness. The bullets mutilated White's face to the point that none of his features were recognizable.

According to witness reporters, Thaw proudly stood over White's dead body while shouting, "I did it because he ruined my wife! He had it coming to him! He took advantage of the girl and then abandoned her!" (Reports are mixed as to whether Thaw shouted "ruined by wife" or "ruined my life").

The crowd in the theater originally thought that the shooting may have been part of Mam'zelle Champagne, before soon realizing that this was not the case. Nesbit, who was not at her seat during the murder, asked her husband what had happened shortly thereafter, to which he responded, "It's all right, I probably saved your life." Nesbit and Thaw remained married for the next nine years, until 1915.

The subsequent trial for White's murder was deemed the "trial of the century;" it ended with Thaw being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

https://www.housebeautiful.com/about/a38871160/stanford-white-evelyn-nesbit-harry-kendall-thaw-hbo-the-gilded-age/

[420hamlet]

Her dreams and nightmares — Paula Velasco (#59)

My mother never had any wish to become a bride.

When she was nine, she wanted to be a professional skater, but there was no ice rink in town. So she abandoned that dream.

In high school, my mother realized she was a terrible student, and her dream of becoming a doctor was shattered.

By the mid-90s, the only thing my mother was sure of was that she wanted to enjoy her life, and she did. She stayed out past curfew, took her sisters to concerts, shared a boyfriend with her best friend, and caused havoc in the small, conservative town where she lived.

After that, of course, she had to take the leash of her own life and steer it somewhere. Loving the colors and shapes around her, she had always been creative. So she chose to be an artist… At least the closest thing to an artist her parents allowed her to be.

At the age of 20, my mother was sure that, if possible, she'd like to skip getting married and get on with the rest of her life. Perhaps she would move in with her best friend and adopt as many cats as she could. Or maybe she would take out a loan and go traveling around the world…

But then she got pregnant. And although my mother never wanted to be a bride, she saw herself becoming one.

She never rehearsed for the role, after all, it was a scenario ripped from her worst nightmares: living with someone else, being a housewife, preparing food for three.

Dreams of a life she had left behind used to haunt her at night, along with the crying of a baby.

Marriage is not a cage for everyone. But, it seemed to be for her and her rebellious soul.

For a long time, I did not understand her anger, until the day she told me about all the plans she had made in the past. After that, I could only hope she would somehow find a way to make those dreams and hopes come true.

She took the first step and divorced my father after many, many years. And on she went, chasing after the dreams that were within her reach.

She'd never be a skater or a doctor. And she can't come back to be a rebellious teen. But, in the end, she was free.

At least that one dream became true.

[insidecroydon]

Brassed off: Borough of Culture's 'contempt' for arts groups

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Readers have reacted with equal amounts of disgust and dismay at the on-going revelations of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money squandered by the shambolic Borough of Culture – where fewer than 500 people downloaded the Music Heritage Trial’s app. Here, PAULA GOODWIN offers an insider’s take on the council’s arts steering group, questions the grant-allocation…

[jcmarchi]

3 Questions: Darrell Irvine on making HIV vaccines more powerful

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/3-questions-darrell-irvine-on-making-hiv-vaccines-more-powerful/

3 Questions: Darrell Irvine on making HIV vaccines more powerful

An MIT research team led by Professor Darrell Irvine has developed a novel kind of vaccine adjuvant: a nanoparticle that can help to stimulate the immune system to generate a stronger response to a vaccine. These nanoparticles contain saponin, a compound derived from the bark of the Chilean soapbark tree, along with a molecule called MPLA, each of which helps to activate the immune system.

The adjuvant has been incorporated into an experimental HIV vaccine that has shown promising results in animal studies, and this month, the first human volunteers will receive the vaccine as part of a phase 1 clinical trial run by the Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development at the Scripps Research Institute. MIT News spoke with Irvine about why this project required an interdisciplinary approach, and what may lie ahead.

Q: What are the special features of the new nanoparticle adjuvant that help it create a more powerful immune response to vaccination? 

A: Most vaccines, such as the Covid-19 vaccines, are thought to protect us through B cells making protective antibodies. Development of an HIV vaccine has been made challenging by the fact that the B cells that are capable of evolving to produce protective antibodies — called broadly neutralizing antibodies — are very rare in the average person. Vaccine adjuvants are important in this scenario to ensure that when we immunize with an HIV antigen, these rare B cells become activated and get a chance to participate in the immune response.

We particularly discovered that this new adjuvant, which we call SMNP (short for saponin/MPLA nanoparticles), is particularly good at helping more B cells enter germinal centers, the specialized location in lymph nodes where high affinity antibodies are produced. In animal models, SMNP also has shown unique mechanisms of action: Administering antigens with SMNP leads to better antigen delivery to lymph nodes (through increases in lymph flow) and better capture of the antigen by B cells in lymph nodes.

Q: How did your lab, which generally focuses on bioengineering and materials science, end up working on HIV vaccines? What obstacles did you have to overcome in the development of this adjuvant?

A: About 15 years ago, Bruce Walker approached me about getting involved in the HIV vaccine effort, and recruited me to join the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard as a member of the steering committee. Through the Ragon Institute, I met colleagues in the Scripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), and we realized there was a tremendous opportunity to directly contribute to the HIV vaccine challenge, working in partnership with experts in immunogen design, structural biology, and HIV pathogenesis.

As we carried out study after study of SMNP in preclinical animal models, we realized the adjuvant had really amazing effects for promoting anti-HIV antibody responses, and the CHAVD decided this was worth moving forward to testing in humans. A major challenge was transferring the technology out of the lab to synthesize large amounts of the adjuvant under GMP (good manufacturing process) conditions for a clinical trial. The initial contract manufacturing organization (CMO) hired by the consortium to produce SMNP simply couldn’t get a process to work for scalable manufacturing.

Luckily for us, a chemical engineering graduate student, Ivan Pires, whom I co-advise with Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, had developed expertise in one particular processing technique known as tangential flow filtration during his undergraduate training. Leveraging classic chemical engineering skills in thermodynamics and process design, Ivan stepped in and solved the process issues the CMO was facing, allowing the manufacturing to move forward. This to me is what makes MIT great — the ability of our students and postdocs to step up and solve big problems and make big contributions when the need arises.

Q: What other diseases could this approach be useful for? Are there any plans to test it with other types of vaccines?

A: In principle, SMNP may be helpful for any infectious disease vaccine where strong antibody responses are needed. We are currently sharing the adjuvant with about 30 different labs around the world, who are testing it in vaccines against many other pathogens including Epstein-Barr virus, malaria, and influenza. We are hopeful that if SMNP is safe and effective in humans, this will be an adjuvant that can be broadly used in infectious disease trials.

[muddyriveragricultural]

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Article and Picture by PAULA THOMPSON

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[meettherejectz]

"A head-on collision" WHAT HAPPENED??Who was at fault?

So I wrote it all down on a google doc but the short version is that Paula was short on money and decided to ramraid Norm's Organ Emporium, where Lucy was working at the time. She drove through the window and, via a combination of super-soldier strength and demon magic, Lucy braced their arms out and caused the front of the car to crunch in on itself, protecting the civilians within. They were damaged enough to basically alter their nerve wiring, meaning they could now feel pain, like, a lot of it, but this wasn't as bad as Paula, whose eyeball had been run through by the middle part of the steering wheel.

It's a lot more convenient to scapegoat a robot, and Paula's then-boyfriend intended to press charges on her behalf, so Norm's threw Lucy under the bus and they were sentenced to community service in the form of looking after the now catatonic Paula. During this time they made money doing various odd jobs and also literally forcing Stu-Pot to pay for the privilege of seeing his girlfriend. Over time they slowly jacked up the price, but Stu got wise to this and a fight broke out in the flat that resulted in all three of them getting severely electrocuted. The high voltage woke Paula up, and the rest is history.