#easy way to recycle o...

[tanuki-kimono]

Cw: We are going to talk here about periods, and sex education in the past. Read this note according to your own sensibilities :)

How women dealt with periods during Edo period, article by shunga enthousiast Shungirl who made a paper pad following instructions found in makura bunko 枕文庫 - ie ancient sex books illustrated with erotic ukiyoe.

One of such makura bunko is 渓斎英泉 Keisai Eisen's 閨中紀聞-枕文庫, first published in 1822. It details Chinese remedies recipes for menstrual pains and irregularities, give tips about sex, and information about menstruations and pregnancy. From a modern point of view, some beliefs are outdated, but it was then such a bestseller it went through several reeditions.

Several words were apparently in use during Edo era to designates menstrual period: keisui 経水, gekkei 月経, tsukiyaku 月水, etc.

When girls went throught their first period, their females relatives or nannies would taught them how to deal with them. One method was to use paper as sanitary products (please note people without easy access to paper probably dealt with periods differently).

__________ 御馬 paper pads

Sanitary pads, such as the one recreated above by Shungirl, were then called mima 御馬 (probably as a pun on true "mima" which were then fine horses own by noblemen, or attached to sanctuaries as mounts for gods etc) or simply ouma お馬 ("honorable" horse).

Ouma were made from inexpensive recycled paper called Asakusagami 浅草紙. Sheets were folded 8 times, tied with twisted paper strings (koyori 紙縒), and then wrapped with another layer of folded paper. It was secured once again with paper strings.

Part of the strings could be left long so to tie around the waist, or/and pad was hold into place by wearing fundoshi 褌 loincloth (which would also help prevent leaking on inner tights).

Asakusagami quality was low (it was also used as toilet paper) so paper pads had to be changed often, meaning you had to fold quite a lot of them to go through your period!

Shungirl folded the pad above following instructions found in the book 実娯教絵抄, which provided several other "models":

__________ 詰め紙 paper tampons

Another method for dealing with periods were tampon-like paper bundles which were inserted into the vagina, the 詰め紙 (tsumeshi? I am not sure of the reading).

This method may have first appeared in red-light districts (?). Beside its use for periods, prostitutes also used those tampons as method of contraception (OP has an interesting article on this subject).

By the end of Edo period and into Meiji, paper tampons were widely used even by women who were not prostitutes - despite voices branding this method as unsanitary.

__________ About girls' coming of age rites

Menarche (first period) was an important milestone for girls, and was celebrated as such via specific rites (shochō o iwau 初潮を祝). Those differed a lot from places to places, and also depended on social status.

Celebrations would concern close family, but often spread to wider community who could received for example a festive meal (sekihan 赤飯) for the occasion (some Edo era senryû poems stress how mortifying this publicity could be!).

Interestingly, some traditions were also pretty sweet: in some places, mothers would sew 3 stiches into their daughter's underskirt (koshimaki 腰巻き) as a good luck charm, hoping their periods would last only 3 days <3

Those rites were part of coming of age traditions (seijoshiki 成女式) which marked the start of a young woman adulthood. Another example is the blackening of teeth (ohaguro お歯黒) which usually started around 16-17 years old.

Celebrating menarche publicly was a way of advertising that the girl was no longer a child and would "soon" be a bride. Yet, if menarche often took place around 13-14 years old, in reality it was somehow unusual to have girls married so soon!

Before marriage, especially in non-noble/samurai families, young women often started their sexual life via flings or yobai 夜這い ("night crawling" ie pseudo-secret nighttime encounters) before any wedding actually took place.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Vexgit

CR 1

Lawful Evil Tiny Fey

Bestiary 2, pg. 145 (Image from 2nd Edition's Bestiary 2, pg. 134)

Among the most dangerous breed among the Gremlins, the Vexgits are banes and blights in the civilized world, and can quickly spell doom for any structure they manage to infest, to say nothing of everyone inside. Every bit as weak and wimpy as the other CR 1 Gremlins featured on this blog so far, like all of them a Vexgit is not a direct threat to the party that pops out of the walls to battle them, but a background danger to the party's belongings, allies, and homes. They're not threatening the party with their hammer, they're threatening to knock out a support beam, trapping the party in a collapsing home with them!

Vexgit are not combatants, they're worse: saboteurs. They LIVE to rip apart and repurpose existing devices, turning everything from clockwork machines to simple wagon wheels into tools of inconvenience, harm, or even death. Their danger isn't in their attacks--they struggle to deal lethal damage with either their tiny warhammer (1d4-2) or bite (1d3-2)--but what they can do if they're not stopped before they settle in, using their +9 to Disable Device checks to jam locks, loosen wheels, strip nails, and generally make nuisances of themselves. While normally disabling any device is a time-consuming process, Vexgit are Speedy Saboteurs, lowering the time it takes to sabotage any device by one stage.

If you've never looked at the speed chart for Disable Device, take a moment to do so now. See how a 'simple item,' such as a normal lock, mundane hinge, or a rope and pulley, takes 1 round to sabotage? Vexgit can sabotage 'simple' items as a free action once per round as long as it's within their reach, letting them pull off malicious acts mid-combat if they so wish. While this typically boils down to jamming door locks after running through them so the party cannot follow (or becomes trapped), it does also mean they typically have the time to perform more elaborate follow-ups. Since they can perform simple sabotage as a free action, they can then use the rest of their round sabotaging something rated 'tricky,' such as a wheel, a larger item held together with screws or nails, or a simple siege weapon to hamper the party more severely than they would if they simply attacked with their weapon.

Vexgit prefer to lure opponents to them rather than the other way around, as their penchant for recycling disassembled items into traps either via their Craft (Traps) skill of +5 or the Snare spell they can use 1/hour makes any infested areas a death trap that requires extremely careful navigation. They're more likely to simply flee any fight they get into, and they have a good chance of getting away; they can easily scamper up any surface thanks to their 20ft climb speed, protected by their DR 5/Cold Iron, while their 12 Spell Resistance shields them from retributive magic cast by unlucky mages. Their DR is especially hard to pierce thanks to their 1/hour Rusting Grasp dissolving any weapon brought into their reach, so if only one party member has a cold iron cudgel, the group will be in for a... well, not a hard time, but a slightly more annoying time, because like most gremlins the Vexgit have only 8 hitpoints and a moderate 15 AC, going down in just a few swings from any weapon that deals more than 6 damage per round.

Easy for a party, less so for the common man. I've said this before about other gremlins, but their resilience makes them difficult for commoners and low-level guards to clear out, so they're perfect little horrors for a party to be sent after without making the local guards look incompetent. When the little bastards can reach out and turn your equipment to ash while you're dangling upside-down over a latrine, you'd probably be inclined to let mercenaries handle it, too.

Especially if there's a lot of them. Vexgits can form insanely dangerous Wrecking Crews in groups as small as six, bolstering one member's Disable Device checks from +9 to +19 if each of them spends their turn contributing to the sabotage, letting them rip apart almost anything in less than a minute... or swiftly reset any traps that may have already gotten sprung, making the trip out of a gremlin's lair just as painful as the trip in. While on their own a Vexgit is content with causing injuries and humiliation with their pranks, when a whole crew of Vexgits is present, it becomes a race against time to track them down and destroy them all, because full infestations aren't satisfied with anything less than full-blown death and mayhem, driven to destroy greater and greater structures until whole city blocks are crumbling to ruin because of them.

You can read more about them here.

[wintertidewater]

A Beginner's Guide to Feminist Action: Independent, Anonymous, and Inexpensive

Stickers

There are wonderful feminist artists who sell stickers, however, the cost of small scale labor and shipping doesn't make it financially favorable for all of us.

Making your own can be as simple as using a pen, paper, and any type of tape. Glue can be a replacement. If you have extra tape, and it is clear, like scotch tape, you can "laminate" your paper to protect it. Hairspray works as well. Both tools can be found at places like Dollar tree if you don't already have one. Benefits of this is that the size and mottos are completely in your control and can be diversified.

Paper name tag stickers also work and are easy to mass produce with no cutting or adhesive necessary. You can write on them directly and they come on plastic so they're ready to peel like normal stickers. They come in packs of 25 or 50+ and can be found at places like target or walmart.

If you'd like your sticker to be permanent or are worried about others undoing your work, go back to Dollar Tree and get the small tubes of super glue. Place your laminated paper on a pole, use two small bits of tape to hold it in place, and squeeze out 1/2 to 1 small tube of the glue starting at the top. Once its stuck, take off the two bits of placement tape and apply glue to the full sides as well. This will make it weatherproof and unpeelable.

The goal of public feminist expression is exposure. Accordingly, postings in high traffic areas are more favorable than remote ones. This doesn't have to mean city hall. Parking lots, malls, schools, parks, and intersections are all favorable places. Stickers work well on poles. Placing them above crosswalk buttons ensures viewers.

One advantage of stickers is anonymity. You can quickly apply one and move on without drawing attention to yourself.

Writing

We're all familiar with the cascade of male genitals drawn everywhere. If there is one thing to learn from that, it is that graffiti can be as simple as using a sharpie in a bathroom stall. Sharpies work well on most surfaces. If you feel comfortable stopping somewhere to take the time and write or draw, they make a very cost friendly and effective tool. Thicker permanent markers are better for higher visibility, especially if the message isn't near eye level. Your messages can again be laminated with a layer of super glue.

You can also write with spray paint but assuming you are not experienced with this, it can be an unnecessary risk especially as it is audible and requires a larger surface area.

Posters

Posterboards do not need to be bought. If you've ever worked in a warehouse or at a store, you know just how many hundreds of flat solid pieces of cardboard are chucked everyday. You can approach a store employee to ask, or take a look around in their recycling bin outside. Some stores with long hours begin restocking before closing. At this time, you can simply ask whoever is right there unpacking and you will be allowed access to those trays and boxes. You can use old moving boxes and so on.

A quick and cheap way to complete your posters is to again go to dollar tree. In the school section they have packs of large paper letters with each containing the alphabet thrice. These work as reuseable and readily available stencils. As stencils, once you position them, you can use a can of spray paint, trace them, or even spray it with dyed water to leave your message. Little bits of tape or pebbles on the letters may be necessary if you're using spray paint to ensure they stay in place under the air force. You also can simply tape them on to be permanent however most phrases do not use letters evenly and so more packs (and thus more money) will be needed. Spray paint is available at walmart for $6 a can. I recommend black.

A great place to put posters is on your nearest overpass (or bridge that crosses your busy roadways). Make sure they are on the inside of the fence to avoid the risk of them falling and creating hazards for drivers. You can have two sets of signs for each overpass to cover both sides of traffic.

This is an example (of which the credit is not owed to me) from a recent roadtrip. The three signs read, "Women", "Liberty", and "Justice" on the Iranian flag. The second set of signs is on the other side of the bridge and its corresponding fence to be visible to the cars on the left side of traffic.

Adherring your posters to the fence well is important due to the winds from cars underneath and on the bridge. Make 4 (or more) holes in your board near but a sturdy distance away from the corners and sides. Rope, twine, wire, and duct tape are possible options to tie it to a chainlink fence. Maybe your sock has a hole in it. use that to tie your poster to a fence. Cut it into strips or use it whole. Point being you do not need to spend money. You can be resourceful as far as your imagination goes.

General

While doing any of these, it is a good idea to wear a mask, hat, and nondescript clothing to protect your identity. Be mindful that that outfit can make you seem more suspicious. You know your own neighborhood best.

If it is safe for you to do so, make use of the cover of night. Depending on the hour of night, even the busiest places will likely be completely empty.

Be wary of cameras. Scouting a place out in a completely different outfit during the daytime is wise to avoid landing up on film. Make note of where the safe places to graffiti are.

For both protection and to look less suspicious, if you have a dog, take her on a walk when you do this. You can also use a baby stroller for a similar reason with the added bonus of it carrying and hiding your supplies.

None of these projects should cost more than a flat fee of $7 for materials which can be used again and again.

Pepper spray and a knife are always recommended. Biking is also favorable. For the most part, you're safe as long as you keep moving when biking.

I hope this helped give you ideas on how you can create a feminist presence in your neighborhood. Good luck and stay safe.

[garaksapprentice]

In search of compostable clothing closures

Making clothes that are 97% biodegradable is surprisingly easy. Pick a natural fibre fabric, buy some 100% cotton or linen thread, and you're there. (You can even get 100% cotton overlocker thread - though you have to go searching for it.)

Those last few percent, though? That can be tough. One of the biggest offenders is closures. While there are plenty of clothes that don't need something to hold them shut, I confess I like having the option. Below is a round-up of various closures, and their compostability.

Note: for the purpose of this article, I'm treating metal closures as "compostable", in the sense that they're 1) easy to remove before you compost the rest of the object, and 2) infinitely reusable on other things, unless they break - at which point they're usually recyclable using our current commercial systems. And remember, re-using things that already exist is always preferable to buying new, "better" items.

Buckles/Rings

While less common than other closure methods, I find buckles, D-rings and O-rings are great when used in the right context. They're usually metal or plastic, neither of which are compostable - but metal will last practically forever, if it's good quality. Plastic tends to degrade over time, especially if exposed to the sun.

I find rings especially quick and easy to use, and a set of D-rings can give a very fine-tuned amount of tightening. My favourite belt uses two square D-rings instead of a buckle closure.

Buttons

The humble button, while ubiquitous now, took a while to catch on. Buttons as a common method of closure didn't become popular in Europe* until about the early 1300s, around the same time that the tailoring revolution[^] happened.

Nowadays, plastic is by far the most common material that buttons are made from. It's cheap and sturdy, but obviously it doesn't compost. So what are some alternatives?

Liz Haywood, a pattern maker who focuses on zero-waste designs, has thought a bit about this conundrum here. There's photos of several different DIY compostable and recycled buttons in her post.

For a completely compostable garment, wood, leather, horn, fabric, and thread buttons are your best bet. If, like most sensible people, you remove the buttons from something that's about to be worm food before you ditch it, the options expand considerably - metal, clay, recycled bottle caps, even glass buttons are all possible. You can have a lot of fun with making your own buttons - to match an outfit, or contrast with it, or maybe you'd like a different button for every buttonhole...

Another, related option is cufflinks - 18th century shirts often used cufflinks on the sleeves and one or two small thread buttons on the collar. That way one set of cufflinks could be used on multiple shirts, showing off a bit of wealth, while saving them from the (admittedly harsh) laundry practices of the day.

[*]: I have no doubt that buttons became popular in other parts of the world, too, but unfortunately I don't know much about it. Europe in the 14-15th century is my main area of study, mostly due to the fact that the historical re-enactment group that I'm a part of operates in that time period.

[^]: The tailoring revolution refers to the period where garments for the higher classes underwent a dramatic change in the way they were cut out. The very short version is, fashion garments shifted from primarily rectangular construction to more form-fitting, using the precursors of many standard cutting practices used today.

Elastic

While elastic isn't technically a closure, it's used that way in many different objects. Most elastic nowadays is made from polyester and synthetic rubber. No composting there.

But, all is not lost! You can now find elastics made of natural rubber and cotton! (I was quite impressed by this, to be honest. I thought I'd have to give up elastic for good.)

The downside, as is usual when you actually give a crap about the planet, is cost. You'll mostly only find it for sale online (Etsy has several options), and it can be more expensive (especially factoring in shipping). Prices on the compostable elastics I found were comparable to a mid-range polyester elastic at Spotlight (before shipping). I think that's actually pretty good, all things considered. (I don't trust the cheapest elastic, it loses its stretch ridiculously fast. A fact I discovered to my sorrow only after buying a 20m roll of it.)

As a bonus, supposedly natural rubber elastic lasts longer than synthetic elastics - this has been my experience with many natural vs synthetic things, but I haven't tested natural elastic specifically to know for sure.

The biggest downside here is the rubber - if you're dealing with a latex allergy, this is not the solution for you.

Hooks and Eyes

While these have fallen out of favour over the years, they do have their uses in a compostable closet. They're easy to buy, and easy to make if you can get hold of the wire - all you need is a set of needle-nose pliers.

Being metal, the hook/eye can be re-used until it breaks - which takes a while. Like buttons, they're easy to take off a garment and move to another one. Unlike buttons, they don't need a buttonhole - you can move both the hook and eye almost anywhere on a garment, really refining the fit of an item.

They are, however, somewhat limited in that application - hooks and eyes work best if they're under a small but constant amount of tension, pulling in opposite directions. I once tried to use hooks and eyes on a loose-fitting medieval tunic, and it just didn't work.

Laces and Ties

Before buttons became The Big Thing in medieval Europe (and for quite a few centuries after), laces and ties were the closure method du jour. Why did they stick around so long? The same reason pyjama pants often have a drawstring in them - they add adjustability to garments in a simple and easy to use (and create!) way. Stays and corsets are one of the most recognisable examples of this concept in action.

Lacing does work better on some things than others, but just about anywhere that you'd put elastic nowadays can likely use a drawstring instead. And there are some patterns (YouTube link) for adjustable garments that use lacing as an integral part of the design.

The main downside for me? They can be slow to use, and awkward, if you have difficulty with fine motor control. Mine is variable enough that I'll usually opt for a different closure, unless lacing or ties really is the best or only option.

Snaps

Confession: I adore snaps. They're fast and easy to use when my hands don't want to co-operate, and they can be wonderfully decorative as well as functional.

There are two general types - those you sew into place like you sew on hooks and eyes, and ones that are applied to the fabric using a press. The former takes more time to install, but can be replaced relatively easily if they stop working. The latter can technically be replaced, but it's a LOT harder and you risk damaging the fabric behind it while you try. They're also more likely to rip out of the fabric in the first place.

As for material, it's pretty much just metal and plastic (sometimes a combination). From a sustainability standpoint, metal is the better option - as long as you recycle it at the end of its life.

Zips

Zips are everywhere nowadays. They're easy to use, but can be hard to replace when they break. Putting them in correctly isn't always a cake-walk either. And in terms of compostability, the answer is definitely "no".

The vast majority of zippers on the market use a polyester or poly-cotton tape, with plastic or metal teeth set into it, and plastic or metal tabs and pulls. Because of the mix of materials, and the size of a typical zip, most municipal waste streams can't take them for recycling. However, textile recyclers` such as Upparel usually take zips (and the things they're attached to!).

I also found a couple of different manufacturers creating zips out of post-consumer recycled materials - a pleasant surprise, and a strong move towards closing waste streams. 

[`]: Clothing retailers are increasingly taking responsibility for their part in reducing waste by offering recycling programs through their stores. Recycling Near You and Frankie list some of the major programs in Australia, though it's worth noting that most of those listed only want whole textiles or large pieces - to my knowledge, Upparel is the only place that will take scraps, broken textiles, and related.

If I've missed a closure type, or you know of places selling compostable or truly recyclable versions of any of the above, I would love to hear about it. While I'm (currently) a far less prolific sewist than the blog name implies, I want to be deliberate and thoughtful in my sewing choices going forward. 

Also, as a last random thought, I wonder if anyone has started making bioplastic versions of any of the above? *Wanders off to do some research...*

Originally published at my blog: https://garaksapprentice.blogspot.com/2023/09/in-search-of-compostable-closures.html

[sorryimananti-romantic]

angel!yeosang singing to reader "oh my body, i don't wanna stop until the break of dawn" before he.. well.. went into retirement.

but yes!! i could definitely tell how much you keep improving after reading dazzling light (from 2022 btw.). and this is NAWT saying you were bad at it before 🙅🙅🙅 however you have changed positively so, yep yep yep!!

you remind me i forgot to mention some in my rblg, ofc. the way in which you build up to plottwists NOW is much more difficult (/pos) to foresee as a reader. sometimes it's nice to have a straight-forward plot and be able to tell how it's gonna end and other times i love to be pulled in by secrecy and be whiplashed by endings i did not see coming (*kisses out to An Empire of Dreams and Illusions*)

also, i love to see how over the amount of works you've written, it's really noticeable that you push to create and write worlds, lores, characters the yumi way™. everyone gets inspired and motivated by others and arts of many ways, being able to use that energy and make something out of it that is so Y O U is 👏👏👏 never an easy feat. 🩷

embrace the cringe. be the cringe. [insert burning elmo gif here]

every creation is a contextual piece of their time and place. not every rework is necessary but no harm recycling ideas or getting inspired by previous works. i heard it's good for the planet.

i don't remember WHEN our wedding took place but i am also not opposed to a runaway marriage, endless honeymoons, no consequences. that.. always ends well in fanfictions, right?..

what'd ya think about a honeymoon in south korea and japan? we could take the ferry from busan to fukuoka and really channel that deluyuyu travel boyfriendism

○ chron 🃏

WENT INTO RETIREMENT- (but yeah that's pretty much what happened lmao)

ahaha thanks yeah, i understand! like the writing style obviously improves the more you write but i think i'm more creative with my plots now? sometimes i do like writing predictable stuff like if there's a friends to lovers fic, there's only so much you can do lmao. but yeah i'm glad that it's getting harder for you all to foresee the direction of my fics AHAHA i like that-- i always leave hints tho ;)

AHAHA the yumi way™ i'm gonna remember this :') i've actually heard that a lot about my fics and honestly that's prob my fav part about writing like i can create my own universe and do whatever i want with it. but yes, even when i'm inspired by sth else, i just like to make it as unique as possible! that's very true, thank you for noticing and pointing it out!

oh i am the cringe ahaha it's a part of me i can't deny that but yes. thank you for that :')

oh so you wanted a step by step huh? i see i see (i just presumed the wedding happened already oops KJHFDJKGH) but omg. your honeymoon plan is perfect it's actually my irl dream to do that so you've read my mind :') we shall channel exactly that :') oh to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom with you :'))

[popculturebuffet]

Earth Day Special! (4-Episodes. Too Many To List, Comission for Weird Kev 27)

Happy Earth Day everyone! It's a day to reuse, renew and recycle, reflect on the gifts mother earth has given us and hope it dosen't die horribly from big corporations and general studidity bleeding it dry!

It's also a time to celebrate how cartoons tackle envornmentalism, as Kev, my sorta producer and the guy who pays for the bulk of my commissions each month, is an environmentalist, and thus thought it'd be fun to take a look at a few episodes that tackle a green message and see how they do.

Today we'll be looking at the Rocko's Modern Life Classic "Zanzibar" and three more recent examples; OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes "The Power is Yours", Big City Greens "Green Greens" and The Ghost and Molly McGee's carbon zeor heroes. So join me under the cut as we see how yesterday and today's toons try to teach kids what they can do to help the environment.

Zanzibar (Rocko's Modern LIfe)

We start with the oldest episode here, all the way back from 1996.

Zanzibar is a musical episode, a genre I can't belivie I HAVEN'T covered before but love dearly. Sure sometimes it can be done poorly, but when done right it's a thing of beauty and Zanzibar does it right.

A lot of that is in who wrote it: Dan Povmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh of Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law Fame. This is where they got their start and you can tell it's them by the beautiful music and self aware tone. In a great joke everyone dancing and singing is explained by the fact they rehearesed every thursday, except Rocko who wasn't aware this was a thing and is deeply confused. The episode knows it's a musical and an environmental episode when the general strategy to writing one was POLUTION BAD. PEOPLE WHO POLUTE ARE GROTESQUE CORPRATE MONSTERS WHO POLUTE BECAUSE IT'S FUN OR SEXY TIM CURRY POLUTION. We all know grotesque corporate monsters pollute because it's cost effective.

Instead, Zanzibar is pretty blunt about where the issues come from: When Rocko arrives to a full dump after the catchy opening tune, Ed's solution is that "There's plenty of room over there".. in a park. Ed represents callous assholes who dump garbage everywhere, but in a realistic sense: some assholes really are that callous about the environment or act like damaging it dosen't matter. Ed even sings a whole song about how birds and fish are "brainnnnlesss pinheads", which is both beautiful to hear and also gloriously obnoxious.

Thankfully our heroes instead listen to Captain Compost Heap, a wonderfullyd eisgned pile of compost that sings the spelling song, the signature piece of this episode and the one that has been grafted to my head since watching. IT's catchy has hell.. and that's by design as it teaches HOW to help the environment in a way kids could feasably try while getting stuck in their head so the lesson sticks. It teaches the steps: recycle trash to reuse it, conserve power, and don't you P-O-L-L-U-T-E the rivers sky and sea or else your gonna get what you deserve. Simple but effective and it even talks about ozone depletion in detail, one of the best examples i've seen of that, only topped by Futurama's Crimes of the Hot later. Gotta remember that one and a big piece of garbage for next year.

OUr heroes DO mak ea change and help the dump reduce... but it also shows there's limits to what we CAN do as CCH points out the biggest polluter, Conglom-O the souless corporation that owns most of the city and city hall... to the point the crowd that's gathered decides to give up and sing about how you can't fight city hall. What's neat though is that Rocko.. dosen't and decides you can at least TRY to hold corporations accountable. Granted Rocko has a big unruly mob on his side but still.

Granted the episode does make the issue of holding them acountable easy as all it hilarously takes is Rocko barging in, adresssing the board, and then his big unruly mob singing a song to convince them "sure why not". IN real life.. they usually won't or may SAY they will but not actually do shit, and if they do do things it'll be in a performative measure. But I get this is a 90's era cartoon aimed at children, if fun for all, and thus can only do so much.

It DOES however work around this with catharsis: ed's in charge of it and thus gets the thankless job of undoing all Conglomo's shit which at least shows how big corprate greedheads really don't have to put any work into actually fixing their act and foster it on someone else. it's just in this case the someone else is a callous asshole incapable of learning a lesson, so it works out. And all Ed leanrs.. is to be pissed Rocko gave him extra work, and thus is smited by the ozone layer for his insolence. A bit broad? Sure but it works well for it's time and even now holds up really well, being a funny, sharply written episode that knows what it is and what it's limitations are and thus just has fun with it.

The Power is Yours (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes!)

OK KO is already pretty damn insane and it's great for that. It mixes subtle character development episodes, well done story arcs and a fun world with just about every genre of protagnist stuffed in and juiced up on energy drinks with wacky nonsense episodes.

This is one of those as well as one of OK KO's crossover episodes. While OK KO would do a proper big ole crossover with conteperary shows with Crossover Nexus, most of the time Ian instead focused on older properties. It's why the Grimwood Girls made their triumphant comeback here, why the Sonic crossover had a LOT of adventures of sonic the hedgehog homages, and why for it's first crossover... they choose captain planet.

Keep in mind Captain Planet, while aired on CN and grandfathered in as something owned by Time Warner Bros Discovery, originally aired on TBS and long predated the network. Of all the many great shows Cartoon Network had aired, it was a very left of field choice.

But it's one that clearly ian sincerly backed and rightfully so. The Power is Yours shows a love for Captain Planet while also lampooning the hell out of how over the top it is, which Given OK KO is already over the top in it's world, fits perfectly.

Here Lord Boxman, our resident baddy, gets help from evil efficency effort and former Captain Planet Villian Dr. Blight. He finds her sexay, so he gladly endugles her when she claims poluting and destroying the planet will somehow equal profit, a nice take on how most captain planet villians were greedy buisness types.. yet engaged in stuff that vastly outstripped the profit they'd actually get. There's a reason Captain Planet Villian is now short hand.

As a result the ice caps melt flooding the plaza, smog encroaches.. but only our lead KO gives a fuck. Rad is of course oblivoius and self intrested and Enid dosne't care a lot this early in the series.

Thankfully KO get shelp from Kwame, leader of the planateers played by returning acting icon Lavar Burton, who does a wonderful job. He gives each of the cast a ring.. including A Real Magical Skeleton and his buddy brandon, who have to share the wind ring.

Captain Planet is able to turn the tide and the animators.. just have fun with the series cartoony nature, having Captian Planet do the goddamn certified Jojo pose, complete with araki style art shift, above, suck up all the polution like a ballon and generally get to do looney tunes stuff.

As is standard procedure if I remmeber right, Captain Planet gets struck down and as is standard procedure fo rour heroes, Rad and Enid bicker and it takes KO using the power of HEART to get them to care about the environment which powers up CP enough to save the day.

The plot's simple.. btu what makes it work is how tounge in cheek it is: this is captain planet taken to it's most rediculous extreme and it works. The only thing missing is ted turner murdering people to really fit. And the ending.. improves on the source with Captain Planet pointing out what they've done.. really dosen't GUARANTEE the world is okay. We have to take systemic, group action to really make a change and not let the planet fall into a firey hell pit and while doing what you can is good, if exagerated for parody's sake here, climate change is something that's not easily fixed nor going away. It's a lesson we all need to learn and one well taught, mixnig the over the top parody and moralizing.. with a real message that lands because it's so seprated from what came before without feeling jarring. Captain Planet calmly telling a small child that it's not that easy.. works. The power is this episodes and the onlyt hing it was missing was a ted turner rampage.

Green Greens (Big City Greens)

Green Greens follows our favorite family as they try to clean up their own environment.. and also showcases how while Recycling IS a good thing, sometimes doing so can be a trial.

The ep kicks off with Bill finding out his garden is rotting. Naturally like 80% of his problems, it's cricke'ts fault, who has created a trash hole in the garden not getting that their crops are you know.. how they pay for food and stuff. As usual it dosen't sink in, not helped by the revelation Gramma has been aiding and abetting this nightmare. Tilly didn't know because "We knew you would snitch sweety" and I assume Gloria, their live in 20 something the family basically adopted in all but paper, didn't either.

Bill plans to clean all this up but runs into a problem thanks to said gloria; A flourcesnt bulb is among the trash and if not disposed properly it can leak into the enviroment, something I honestly forgot and is good to know. Wanting to both prove a point and not kill their yard worse than his son already has, Bill agrees to Gloria's suggestion to take it to an e-waste center. Gloria will drive and Tilly will tag along because she's a pure ray of sunshine while Cricket and Gramma will clean up the consequences of their actions.. which admitely isn't the biggest punishment as Cricket mocks bill about how he gets to play in the trash... though Gloria calling hi ma little racoon is adorable. She's a good big sister.

Gloria DOES have her limits though as our heroes end up in a traffic jam, and Gloria has big plans for tonight

Okay she just dosen't want to spend her saturday in traffic when her surrogate dad and sister can just take the train so their left on their own. What follows is an epic quest, as our heroes have trouble finding the chartruse line.. a gag I really like as Bill wonders if tha'ts even a color. They find help with an activist who is suprised anyone is actually doing something as fortold in the prophecy and guides them to their destination: beyond the bridge of woe to the e-waste center, it's frought with peril. Bill has an understandable question

And there's no real answer but I get their point: sometimes city planning makes it hard to .. you know actually recycle. not everywhere collects recycling. I know my town dosen't. And while Big City DOES, it's e-waste center is on the other side of town, in the shady and smog filled industrial district. It's not making it easy to do the right thing and it shoudn't be this hard to properly dispose of a lightbulb.

Our heroes treck through urban mordor.. and fine their on the wrong side. Bill does the understandable thing and goes laughing mad, scaring away some toughs and planning to just chuck it. TIllyt alks him down pointing out sometimes doing the right thing is hard.. but you should still do it.. even if it means crossing an industrial waste. And the thing is getting the bulb there for the one day a week, if that, it can be recycled... dosen't really fill them with any satisfaction.

What does that and gives them closure with their quest.. is the b plot> Cricket and Gramma are naturally hot mess. They do clean out the trash hole.. but now have a full trash can and a GARBAGE MOUNTAIN to deal with. Cricket does what I usually doa nd jsut stuffs it all in.. and it predictably backfires, spilling out all over.

They go with plan b: just stuff it in the neighbors dumpster.. and said neighbor says i'ts not very chill so they back off.. but does provide a solution. Recycling! The episode shows how recyling trash.. helps reduce it to a managable level, helping break down the issue of "well it makes it harder to have to sort the trash. it does.. at first.. but doing so helps reduce their trash. It honestly makes me want to try recycling simply because it seems like it'd help my room not be the wasteland it is.

It also delivers the episodes aseop: doing your part for the envorment is hard and often thankless.. but just doing your little bit with worth it. Just doing that much has already restored the soil around the crops.. and that's enough to make bill and tilly feel like their journey was worth it. And Gloria. she helped too. Probably.

Carbon Zero Heroes (The Ghost and Molly McGee)

Our final stop for this special, as we look in on the recently departed the Ghost and Molly McGee. Fun fact this is the first episode from season 2 i've seen.

This episode is also my first exposure to Ollie. He's our protaganist Mollie's boyfriend and thus to the shippers

That's somehow not an exageration either: See in season one Molly was heavily shipped with her closest friend Libby and her nemises turned friend Andrea, the former because they have adorable chemistry and compliment each other and the latter for both some of those reasons and because Disney shippers really love enemies to lovers. Given I ship both Sashanne and Lumity, I sympathize. So introducing a canon love intrest whose not either of them was always going to be a struggle. I'm a shipper myself, I get it. Sometimes it's hard. I mean i've been trying to ship this dog for several days

But i'm still not sure exactly who. It's a hard buisness and sometims you can go years without finding a character to pair with a character. Especially when ti's a cartoon british dog who already has a LOT of shit to put up with and thus needs someone SOMEWHAT stable. and also like 30's ish. What i'm saying is shipping wendy is harder than I expected and I get canon sometimes sucks.

I won't however bash Ollie for that as he was already being created byt he time season 1 aired, and thus the staff really didn't have time to pivot with the tides. At worst he's kinda bland as in at least this episode he's really just.. molly but a dude. That's it. Their adorable.. but unlike Libby or Andrea he dosen't really play off of her in an intresting way. his voice actor, who also has the voice of an angel in the musical number for this episode, feels he boosts her up, which fits.. but I still get that it's just not as intresting as Molly helping Libby with her shyness and Libby consequently help;ing Molly take about 10% off or Andrea's cool demeanor and slow reform contrasting Molly just going for it. It's not that Olly is TERRIBLE, he's just nojt AS good as the ships the fans had built up by the time he popped into the world.

So where were we.. ah yes. Someone help me ship this dog. She does pilates, can deadlift a grown dog man, and is the loving mother of one. She'as also easily startled but given her neighbor once slapped his ass in front of her as part of a game with his daughter and got shoved down the stairs for the same reasons while treating it as if it wasn't a big deal, you can see why maybe I want her to be happy

And oh yes the episode. Okay so our episode is kicked off by a lecture on how if we dont' fix climate change

And leaves the children all scared. Scratch, our ghost and Mollys ghost BFF, figures it's humanity's problem as he's dead. He dosen't have to deal with this and he certainly doesn't have a human body he forgot about. Nope not him.

Molly, being a go getter naturally dosen't take this lying down and wants to do something while Libby.. feels we're all fucked and there's ntohing we can do and has prepared a bunker. I was not expecting this to have a LIbby subplot about her survivial bunker for the inevitable fall of mankind, but here we are and it is glorious.

Ollie however agrees with Molly that they can do something so in classic kids tv fashoin tehy start recycling, pick up garbage, do all the carbon zero footprint stuff all to a catchy well done song.. and costume changes. I did say they were adorable, I prefer molibby but they aren't bad.

The episode also does something few kids shows have done, and something I like: While Big City Greens talked about taking small steps, Rocko foreshadowed what a bit task it was and OK KO showed whatever steps you tak earen't enough alone, TGAMM shows just HOW MUCH it'd take to actually leave a zero footprint. Our heroes bike everywhere, can't watch anything, can't have pizza, eat turnips they grew but can't cook them because gas (even though fire is an option. Whose for fire?), keep bugs off said turnips, miss a birthday party and are generally utterly miserable.. and it only improves the earth by .00000000003%. The hard truth is doing NO harm to the envronment in a world set up that way... is simply impossible without radical life changes two 13 year olds simply aren't capable of. They can't buy a farm or have the money to grow crops and can't bike up hills reliably. As a wise 10 year old once said

It's a hard truth.. but one kids NEED to hear. You can't do everything yourself, the world is hard to change and you shouldn't kill yoruself doing so. It dosent mean having a trash hole or nothing matters it just means saving the earth isn't something you can do by yourself.

While our heroes were hitting rock bottom we get that bunker subplot, which is the best part of the episode. Granted I already liked libby a lot as a character but given her sometimes depressed nature, it fits perfectly that she simply decided instead of trying to change thigns to prepare to the end, and seeing the normally shy libby show off her zombie bunker is great. She even gladly invites Scratch. What's a bunker without friends. This plot is here for two reasons. the first is it's hilarious and provides a nice contrast from how.. rough the a plot can get as while there are some funny bits it's rough watching two well meaning 13 year olds nearly drive themselves nuts trying to fix climate change.

So instead we get another tween whose happily set up a zombie survivial bunker and counters Scratch's "those don't exist" with "People dont think ghosts are real either". Touche. She also has a blanket with spikes and a bed with spikes. Lots of spikes, canned goods and posters to prepare for the zombei apocalypse or any old apocalypse.

The other reason besides being objectively hilarious is it shows the other extreme: giving up, accepting the world will go to shit and errupt in fire and being prepared to live in a horrifying post apocalypse. And that itself.. isn't healthy. I mean having a bunker shockingly is as having somewhere safe and secure planned in case shit goes down, especially when your best friend has recently dealt with super ghosts, isn't that unresonable especially in these times. I can see why Libby's mom lets her keep it. They MIGHT need it.

The problem is just.. giving up: accepting the world will end instead of at least trying.

It's worth it to just.. try to make the world more sustainable. We can't probably entirely FIX climate change, but we can at least try. It's the lesson throughout all these episodes: climate change dosen't have an easy answer, but you can't give up.

So Molly and Ollie do.. but scratch encourages them.... ti's mostly to save ice cream as he realizes apocalypse food sucks, but it ends up being a good metaphor: that alone we can't save ice cream, but together we can. That community action.. is really what's needed> it might not fix EVERYTHING.. but we can at least try.

So Molly goes to town hall... which isn't as over the top as it might sound because she's tight with the mayor and has done a lot of community improvment. Of course their going to listen to her and her boyfriend and her future girlfirend and her army of racoons. She's earned it.

So Molly simply pitches a green intivaitve for the town which mayor patton oswalt naturally agrees to because he's a good dude and again, Molly has done a LOT for this town. He tried to make her mayor once. Simply doing their part, picking up trash, upping recycling, and setting up windmills... it'll only help them get carbon neutral by a decade from now.. but it's something, and shows you can acomplsih something by just trying. Also Scratch has become jabba the hutt from a lot of ice cream.

So that ends this retrospective and I gotta say.. not a bad episode in the bunch. All teach their lesson well without being patronizing or ignoring how hard going green CAN be. It was a great crop so this earth day, save a tree, try to recycle.. just do what you can. Do all you can do and it'll make the world just a little better.. and maybe tell a billionare to fuck off. I'm writing this in advance but Elon Musk will probably have done something that day. So thanks for reading and happy earth day.

[bcdrawsandwrites]

[ID: The first image Psychonauts fanfic banner on a black-to-gray gradient background. On the left in white text it says “Prompt #4: Rescue Mission” On the right is a pink animated figment of a thought bubble, inside which is a donut with frosting and sprinkles.

The second image is a Bad Things Happen Bingo card. Various prompts are marked with a half-brain (prompt requested but not filled) or full-brain (prompt requested and finished) symbol, while the “Rescue Mission” prompt specifically is marked with a full brain symbol. /end ID]

Okay so I hate the way Tumblr crops these so I’m putting the banner above the bingo card. I hope that’s okay, @badthingshappenbingo ​! (also I promise the figment in the banner makes sense for the fic)

I am currently NO LONGER OPEN FOR REQUESTS. I have enough to work on to get a bingo! I MAY decide to reopen prompts later if I want to keep going after finishing these fics, but for now, requests are closed!

This request comes from @echoing-interests​! Hope you liked my take on this. \o/; Thanks to @jaywings​ and @of-science-and-stars​ for beta-reading!

Prompt: Rescue Mission Characters: Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, and Razputin Aquato Warnings: None

---~~~---

Status report. Dustpan?

Listening to conversations at the water coolers, darling.

Have you gathered the intel?

No, just gossip. It's quite juicy, but I'm keeping an ear out for our target. What about you, Shoehorn?

Searching the trash bins. Sasha flipped through another folder in the file cabinet. The Gastronauts are still terrible at... recycling, so this is taking longer than expected. Eggbeater?

I'm still wondering why we have to use our code names when we're talking through telepathy.

Because the devices Egg Carton gave us to counteract the disruptive waves the Gastronauts put around their base are still experimental, and we don't know that they aren't listening in.

...Are there really devices that can listen in on psychic thoughts?

We don't know yet, darling.

Do you not recall our briefing?

I uh... Raz's mental voice faltered. I... was kinda so excited that we were infiltrating an enemy base that I... forgot to listen.

Sasha's brow furrowed, and he let out a hum. It's a good thing this isn't a more serious mission, or you would be in danger.

Sorry.

Darling, do you at least remember our goal?

Oh! Yeah, got that one. Find the blue—wait! We weren't supposed to relay that over telepathy, were we?

Correct. Can you relay your position?

Affirmative. I'm still in the air vents and looking for the office, as instructed. Over.

Let's resume. Let me know if you find anything.

With that, Sasha TK'd another stack of papers out from the filing cabinet, quickly sorting through them, his eyes darting over the dates. Annoyingly they seemed to jump from January, to March, to November, to May of last year. Either they never referenced their files or they just didn't care how disorganized they were, and he wasn't sure which was worse. Frowning, he slid the papers back into their places and moved onto the next drawer. This went on for some time—there were a grand total of ten filing cabinets in this forsaken clerk's office with four drawers each. This combined with how awful the Gastronauts' bookkeeping was certainly did not make it easy for Sasha to find what he'd been looking for.

At the very least he had a bit of time—this clerk, he'd discovered, liked to take his sweet time with his lunch break, sometimes taking longer than the time allotted. Plus, if their telepathy was intercepted, then whoever tried to investigate them would be looking in the wrong places. Typically for something like this they would've used encrypted telepathy, but Raz had yet to learn it, and the agent that usually taught it was out on a lengthy mission, so they had to fall back on simpler methods. This, at least, was something Raz had no trouble with.

Eggbeater is quite enthusiastic, isn't he? came Milla's voice over telepathy. It was a message sent to him alone, a familiar psychic whisper.

Yes, but his enthusiasm can be a bit... misplaced at times. Finding this stack only had papers from three or four years ago, he sighed and moved on. He needs to pay attention during briefings.

He'll get the hang of things soon, Shoehorn.

I'm sure you're right. Stooping down, he opened the last drawer to find it only had one folder within. He TK'd out its contents, looking them over. Eyebrows raising, he put a hand to his temple. I've only found worthless things here.

That's terrible! We'll have to move on, then, Milla replied with an excitement that did not match her coded words.

Sasha smiled, waiting for Raz's equally-enthusiastic response. As he quickly folded the paper and shoved it into his jacket, however, no reply came. Eggbeater? he asked. Please confirm you received the message announcing my failure.

Perhaps he's forgetting things again, Milla suggested.

Frowning, Sasha sent a stronger signal. Eggbeater? Respond.

His telepathy was met with the almost-physical thud of psychic energy striking against a barrier. Sucking in a breath, Sasha straightened his back. Dustpan, send a message to Eggbeater immediately.

Several heartbeats later, Milla sent an uncharacteristically quiet response: His signal was... blocked.

Change mission objectives immediately. Retreat to base.

Instead of heading for the exit, however, Sasha scanned the darkened office he'd been sneaking around in. Its owner had been out to lunch, but... He hurried up to the desk, spotted a pen, and put his hand on it before shutting his eyes.

Immediately his view was replaced with that of a half-eaten plate of french fries and ranch dressing. (Eugh.) With a subtle suggestion he made the person look up, granting him a better view of what appeared to be a cafeteria. Several other workers were milling about, chatting with each other and eating food. With a few quick uses of clairvoyance, he jumped from person to person, taking a moment to listen to their thoughts.

Ugh, that report is due tonight, gonna have to work overtime.

Can't believe they caught that listening device! That took months to plant.

Man, why are the fries always cold?

While Sasha could feel the anxiety tugging at his mind at finding no information on Raz's whereabouts, at the very least none of these people were aware that there were intruders, meaning that perhaps only a few people had found Raz. The fewer people they had to deal with, the better.

Finally he caught someone that was heading out of the room, and CV'd into her. Meanwhile an encrypted message reached him, and he quickly untangled it: Sasha, have you found anything?

He replied with an encrypted message of his own: I'm currently employing use of clairvoyance to check around the base. A note on the listening device we found in the Motherlobe, but nothing on Razputin.

I'm searching for ripples as we speak. This shouldn't take long.

Yet even now it already felt like they were taking too long. The woman whose head he'd hopped into was walking to the restroom, so he moved from her to a man that was exiting the men's room and striding down another hallway. This one only had a stack of paperwork on his mind, so he jumped from him and over into a person lingering in the doorway of an office. There was nothing of note in there other than a very tired worker holding his head in his hands while the woman in the doorway rambled about the latest football game. The man at the desk finally raised his head. "Rhonda, I know, I know we lost. Man, I can't believe I stayed up to watch that mess." He rubbed his eyes. "I'm so tired I think I'm hearing things—I swear I heard a kid in here earlier."

Sasha gave a start.

Sasha, Milla's encrypted voice came over telepathy. I've got something.

I may have as well.

"Seriously, like, did Jakob bring his kid in again?"

"Nah, we would've heard from Morter if he did."

"True..."

Quickly Sasha compelled the woman in the doorway to glance out into the hall, and from there, jumped into a different person's head through another open door. Some people here may have heard Raz's voice, he replied quickly. I may be close to where he was taken. He took a moment to listen in on the worker's thoughts, and upon finding only an extreme longing for donuts, he jumped to the next worker he could spot. What have you found?

I may have pinpointed where Raz was taken. Raz's signal is blocked entirely, but I've found a man who's very intently focused on a child, in a storage room...

Sasha's stomach dropped, his mind racing to several different conclusions, none of them positive. Perhaps a secret interrogation room, he thought frantically, compelling the man he'd jumped into to glance around the hallway. Sure enough, he spotted a storage room, but the door was shut. Frustration gnawing at his astral consciousness, he tried to send a subliminal urge to the man to grab some files that had definitely been put in that particular storage room.

What? the man thought. Where'd that come from? That one doesn't even have files in it, that's in the one on the second floor.

Gritting his teeth, Sasha sent another subtle signal: Someone left a very important file in there and it will get lost if I do not grab it.

...Oh yeah, Elliot dropped his report in there last time. Ugh.

With a sigh, the man fished in his pocket for a key before moving to open the door.

"Uh-uuhhhh hang on, occupied!" a frantic voice came from inside, followed by a lot of scrambling and clanking.

"Wha'd'you mean, 'occupied'?" the man outside asked. "You're in the device storage, Morter, not the bathroom!"

"Look I'm—I'm conducting something in here, okay?"

"Conducting... what, exactly?"

"An... interview?"

The man outside groaned. "Man, why don't you interview applicants in your office? What've you got one for if you're just—"

"R-Rhonda wouldn't shut up."

"...Ah, got it." Sighing, he shook his head. "Look, did Elliot leave his report in there?"

"I... oh. Huh, he did."

"Just hand it to me, and I'll leave you and the new guy alone, okay?"

"R-right."

Sasha readied himself, and the second the door cracked open, he jumped into the man—Morter's, apparently—head. Sure enough, once the man turned around he found himself staring at a dimly-lit room with shelves and shelves of boxes and strange devices he didn't have time to analyze.

And in the middle of the room was a metal chair, with Raz sitting on it, bound and gagged, a look of fear and worry in his eyes. The counter-device Otto had provided him with was sitting on the floor a distance off, too far away to properly block the disruptive waves around the building. He jumped into Raz's head, taking a quick read of his thoughts.

Oh no, oh no, please don't come back here, this isn't good...!

He'd seen enough.

Don’t worry, Eggbeater, we’re on our way.

Without waiting for a response, Sasha yanked his consciousness back to his own body, shutting his eyes against the dizziness it brought. He pressed a hand to his temple, fingers digging in so hard they hurt. I've found him. He's in danger.

There was silence on Milla's end for a moment. When she replied, her mental voice was cold. We've known the Gastronauts could do questionable things... but placing a child in danger...

There's no time to waste.

Nothing more needed to be said. Sasha levitated up into the ceiling vent he'd initially come out of, closing it behind himself and crawling through. He'd come to this place a number of times for routine missions, but he was less familiar with the location of the device storage. He'd seen the cafeteria before, so if he could remember where that was from his current position, and build a mental map of where he'd gone to find the door to storage...

It wasn't the first time he'd had to do something like this, yet for once he was having trouble focusing; the longer he took to do this, the more likely it was that Raz could get hurt. How he was being hurt, he wasn't sure, and not knowing only worried him more.

A hand—one that wasn't truly there—gently rested on his shoulder before squeezing it. Sasha, Milla said, and he shook his head, bringing himself back into focus. Silently he crawled through the vents, heading in a direction just west of the cafeteria. Milla, meanwhile, was disguised as a Gastronaut herself, and navigating the building below him, moving over to where she'd felt the waves. Sasha could feel the frustration bubbling on her end when an actual Gastronauts agent stopped her to ask some questions, but he moved on, heading closer and closer to the storage room.

A wailing noise, distorted through the vents, made the hair on his neck stand on end.

It was coming in the direction of the storage.

Sasha was over the vent cover in moments, and with a single psi-blast knocked it off its screws and sent it crashing to the ground. He followed seconds later, landing a bit more roughly than usual, one hand to his temple. On the opposite side of the room, Milla slammed the door open, her presence filling the doorway.

Both of them stood partially crouched, one hand to their temple... until they took in the sight before them.

Raz was still sitting on the chair, no longer gagged, while the man that Sasha had caught a glimpse of earlier was now lying on the floor, hands covering his face as he sobbed. Between them sat Raz's Psycho-Portal. Upon seeing Sasha and Milla barging into the room, Raz whipped his head around, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Oh! Hi, guys!"

Slowly Sasha and Milla straightened their backs, lowering their hands as they both stared at him.

"...Razputin. What."

Raz shrugged sheepishly. "I felt your CV earlier, but I was kinda preoccupied with helping Morter, and I was also really worried that his coworker would come in here and see us. Which, speaking of—Milla, can you shut that door?"

Blinking, Milla stepped into the room and shut the door softly behind her. "Who's... Morter?"

"ME!" the man on the floor cried, scrubbing the snot and tears from his face.

"But don't worry! We've got it all settled now. D'you mind untying me, though? I was gonna ask Morter, but..." He lowered his voice to a stage whisper, "I think he's kinda having a moment right now."

Sasha felt oddly lightheaded as he stepped up to Raz, using telekinesis to untie the ropes that bound him. "So you're not hurt?"

"I feel a little stiff now that you mention it," Raz said as he hopped down. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs. "I think I can walk it off, though."

"We... may have caused a bit of commotion," Milla remarked, glancing back toward the door. "I think we should take our leave."

"Already?" Frowning, Raz snatched up his Psycho-Portal, hurried over to Morter, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I gotta go. Sorry I couldn't stay longer. But you're gonna stand up to Jakob from now on, right?"

Morter raised himself up onto his knees, scrubbing at his face again. "Y-yes!" he sobbed. "I will!"

"Great! Glad to hear it." Giving him a positive thump on the back, Raz stood up straight and hurried over to Sasha. "Are we heading back through the vents?"

"...Yes."

"Okay, got it. See you later, Morter!" He paused. "Please don't rat us out to your bosses, okay?"

"I-I—I won't!"

"Thanks!" Grinning, Raz hopped up onto his levitation ball and bounced up into the vent. Sasha and Milla exchanged bewildered glances before following.

Once they were out of the building and heading back to where they'd arranged for Oleander to pick them up, Milla finally spoke up: "So... can you tell us what happened in there?"

With a wince, Raz ducked his head. "Yeah, so, I kinda got caught..." Then his head shot back up, and he held up his hands. "But it's okay! 'Cuz Morter took me into that storage room—he wanted to interrogate me, I think, but I saw he was all stressed out, and I asked him about what was wrong, and he talked about how he's this office worker and this one agent keeps bullying him and dumping all this work on him and making him watch his kid at work, and... I kinda... asked if he'd like me to take a look around in here." He tapped on his head. "He was actually kinda curious about how we do that kinda stuff, so he agreed, and... I... kinda helped him sort things out from there." Raz paused, then screwed up his face. "His mental world was a daycare."

Sasha laughed, quite a bit louder than he'd intended, and Milla and Raz stared at him. "That's... quite remarkable, Razputin."

"You think so?" Raz smiled, only for his face to fall as he glanced aside. "I was... kinda worried that I wasn't doing as well on this mission, especially since I missed so much of the briefing."

Milla stooped down closer to him to give him a grin. "You did amazing, darling!"

"Awesome! Man, for a bit there I was worried we weren't gonna pull that mission off."

"Well, about that..." Frowning, Sasha pulled the paperwork he'd found out of his jacket. "I did find the new employee paperwork, but we weren't able to secure the blueprints for their newest device."

"...Oh, yeah! Almost forgot. I did get taken to device storage, so at one point while Morter's back was turned..." Glancing over his shoulder, Raz TK'd a rolled-up sheet of paper out of his backpack.

Sasha and Milla exchanged glances, both of them giving a relieved smile as they looked back down at Raz.

"You really are something, Agent Aquato."

[shyanshippingsociety]

Shyan Shipping Society Fic Promo - September & October 2022

last post

the smell of fall in the air, the premiere of ghost files, halloween, and all the fics written by our members in september and october 2022! what could be better than that?

September

Stim Boys Drabble Collection by Gilded_Quill | T, 17K, on-going

A collection of one-shots and drabbles based on a list of Autism-Centric Writing Prompts.

Featuring Stimming, Special Interests, Hyperfixations, Meltdowns, and two boys navigating the highs and lows of neurodiversity. Each chapter will be a stand-alone, and their relationship status won’t be consistent throughout. Nor will the timeline be.

Recycled Air by ouijaboy | G, 1K, complete

It’s a twelve hour flight, give or take, from LAX to London Heathrow. And it’s all going really well, until the seatbelt light turns off, and Ryan’s AirPods die.

A small ode to Shane’s music taste.

The worst anniversary gift ever by Haroldmay | T, 8K, complete

"Why did you put the Professor in the fridge?" Ryan asked curiously while brushing his teeth.

"Why are you opening the fridge while brushing your teeth?" Shane replied from the couch without looking up. He had a headache. -he had been having a headache for a while.

"I'm not sure," Ryan said. He exchanged the toothbrush for the Professor and closed the door before he continued to wander around in the room.

"Also, I did not put him in the fridge," Shane said. He was much too tired to argue.

Ryan smiled at the puppet and the puppet smiled back.

"Divorce Shane and run away with me," Ryan heard the Professor's voice in his head.

Disclaimer: This is just a little joke. More Meme than Fic. It's about the characters Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara and has nothing to do with the real people behind them: Brad Pistachio and Brian Cramblish.

a studdy in earth by TokyoTiger91 | NR, 300, on-going

Starting out with this small bit, this is mostly going to be a collection of any alien Shane ideas or one-shots I have. Tags will be updated with each chapter and if there's any warnings they'll be at the top of the chapter

once again getting an idea from a one-off comment by TokyoTiger91 | NR, 700, complete

"Honestly if I were a kid and I had an Ipad I would never learn anything. I'd be six years old watching LiveLeak, my brain would be ruined"

The Wolf King by PhyllisDietrichson | T, 4K, complete

“Then let’s say it reminds me that I am a man. Will that satisfy you?”

Ryan regarded Shane with an implacable eye. Shane, for his part, withstood this with his usual easy amiability.

Ryan found himself unable to suppress a smile from his face. “What riddles you present me with! It seems impossible for me to ever forget that I am a man.”

Simple Math by TheMouthKing & tripwirealarm | E, 118K, complete

While filming Ghost Files, a joke goes off the rails and lights a long-ignored fuse between its two co-hosts, but what’s initially just some fun fooling around under specific parameters leads to increasingly complicated feelings, and when a situation brings those feelings under a microscope, a choice has to be made.

October

The Beauty of the Beast by Gilded_Quill | M, 3K, on-going

Ryan Bergara is an adventurer trying to find his place in the world. He comes in possession of a mysterious map that details a castle that lays in a nearby forest. A castle that there is no record of, and that no one seems to know anything about. Seeing his chance to find this mysterious lost building and along with it his fame and fortune, Ryan sets off. Instead finding the adventure of a life time wrapped in a mystery for the ages.

How to Befriend the Monster in Your Closet by Golden4278 | G, 142K, on-going

Ryan: Hi God, it’s me again. I just moved to LA and I’m really lonely. I need someone to be my friend, someone who understands me. Maybe… you could send me an angel? Yeah! The nicest angel you have.

Demon Shane: *LAUGHS MANIACALLY*

The Only Way Out Is Down by Golden4278 | NR, 14K, on-going

The Bizarre Death of Elisa Lam episode REWRITE! How would things be different if Shane had been Ryan's co-host instead of Brent?

It's about to get spooky in here.

The Long Haul of Living by kameleonten | T, 9K, complete

Shane gets cursed by a witch to live forever. He tries to hide through history, careful not to make a mark. So how he ended up being a somewhat notable Youtube-star is a mystery even to him.

Beasts and Ghouls by MysticalGoog494 | T, 1K, on-going

The creators of the Mythical Beasts have befriended the Ghoul Boys, and after spending some time together, the two pairs can’t deny the electricity between them. Although Shane and Ryan are only in town for a few days for the collab, the group decides to indulge and explore these attractions.

Who You Gonna Call? by Golden4278 | G, 2K, on-going

Ghost Busters! AU

if you want to read some more fics, you can always check out our ao3 collection! see you soon! ♡

[ddelline]

slow(ly progressing wip) saturday

blurb | bc I missed posting on wednesday, lol, and I'll likely miss this upcoming wednesday as well, given how intense this work period is, and since I can never sit down for long enough to actually flesh out and edit down a chapter into coherence & posting shape, I'm satiating my update!cravings w posting more wip snippets

premise | this is, once again, from time loop fic wip cv/sm. part 2! doing my best to just get part 1 out of the way first, but ofc can't manage to write one single piece of work w/o deviating off intended writing process and launching ahead, lmao. part 2 feat. satoru who's been through ten loops at this time, and is starting to Feel It

very wip writing under cut

Satoru bites down on his bottom lip, a snap of jaws steeled with intent. Intent to damage. He knows, and notices, that there’s no enjoyment to be derived from the easy breaking of the already so frail skin and flesh. There is knife edged satisfaction, razor sharp and destructive, to be mined from one of few conditional probability fractions which still seem to apply universally to the world, though. Inflict bodily harm, whether upon yourself or someone else—prepare to suffer and endure the (painful) effect(s).

The Six Eyes, Limitless, plus the bonus ‘blessed with moderately high IQ and deduction capabilities’ has generally meant that Satoru’s been unlikely to encounter many problems which prove ultimately unsolvable. Fieldwork, or sorting through advanced theorems—at the end of the day, solving either is a matter of when, not if. A solution is matter of fact: whether it comes easily, or post the pulling of so many metaphorical teeth, is dependent on how much time and effort he’s willing to put into it. It’s never an unknown, a hypothetical.

He dunks his head into the non-wall of Prison Realm, where he’s woken up for what’s possibly the billionth time, at this point. 

(It’s the tenth, but he doesn’t want to count. It feels like eons, like myriads—like so many lifetimes). 

Time is linear, up until the point in which it apparently isn’t. At this point, the principle of parsimony seems to be that time isn’t so much time, as it is space, bent and twisted and torn into partials—Satoru both is, and isn’t. Time isn’t, or is, but not as the absolute consequence of events occurring in succession. If anything, time, as it’s currently playing out, seems to be non-linear sequences of unknown variables, an equation to which there is no solution. He’s bending over backwards, speed running through infinite hypotheticals, adjusting ad hoc to what’s happening, only to realize that there are no consequences to whatever action taken within any said scenario. He dies, and then he doesn’t. He acts, but then he hasn’t.

Actions have no consequences. Events have no correlation. Death is, apparently, not so much a finite state which occurs ‘after life’, so much as it is ‘a blip in time and space which has no impact on anything, and which keeps fucking happening to you’. Satoru is nearly two meters of solid muscle and viciously pumping blood, wreathed in cursed energy so potent and intricately realized his very birth, once upon a time, had upended the natural cursed world order. He hadn’t ever considered the circumstances of his very being from the angle of hubris, but he is familiar with the myth of Sisyphus; after being existentially rinsed, recycled, and reset for upwards of ten plus times, he’s beginning to feel the phantom strain in his shoulders and thighs from rolling the weight and heft of a boulder uphill; the mechanics of endlessly pushing solid granite up the steep hills of Tartarus seemingly familiar.

Satoru’s never given the concept of death much more than the most cursory, practical thought—death, conceptually, is very simple: regardless of contextual application, or situational definition, death is an inevitable and absolute state which occurs to an organism post-cessation of its biological functions. Simple, absolute rules apply to ‘death’, and ‘organisms that die’: it is a state which is irreversible. Moreover, it is inevitable. Even in singular, extreme cases, such as Ryōmen Sukuna, Satoru’s always been absolutely, calmly certain that death can’t be so much cheated, as delayed. An object infinitely suspended, whether in time, space, or both, doesn’t equate negation of causality.

Satoru is nearly two meters of solid muscle and viciously pumping blood, wreathed in cursed energy so potent and intricately realized his very birth once upon a time had upended the natural, cursed world order. It’s fitting, in a sense, for someone whose conception shook the very foundations of society as it’s always been known, and whose innate abilities refuses to conform to something as mundane as a verifiable theorem—to be living, breathing proof of the verifiability of a realized, true universal wavefunction. 

Schrödinger’s cat always lives, and always dies, its existence continually realized in infinite superpositions, in some off-branching of the universe. Gojō Satoru always lives, even though he always dies: quantum suicide and quantum immortality; death as a perfectly binary occurrence.

On the other hand, just because something happens to you, doesn’t necessarily mean it translates as a universal truth. Satoru’s being alive, and Satoru’s continued dying, haven’t been fixed, only the eventual results have been. 

He digs the heels of his palms into his eyes and goes slack with despondency: his shoulders sag inwards, and his spine curves into the non-wall like a wilted C. It’s as stark a display of Gojō Satoru: strongest sorcerer, contemplating defeat, as there’s ever been. 

There’s always somewhere to go from a point where you’ve stalled. Satoru’s not sure where that is, or how he’ll manage to progress from his point of stall.

He remains still. Eyes shut, shoulders forced to drop into a semblance of relaxation. If anything, at least he knows by now that some unquantifiable force, far beyond the scope of science, mythology, or imagination, will lap him up and spit him out wherever it wants him. He’s at the mercy of the ebb and flow of the cosmos. Or a demon. Maybe his own mind—he’s not above considering the very possible erosion of his own sanity, considering everything (and after everything).

[articledude]

Exploring the Benefits of Klebefolie Betonoptik for DIY Interior Projects

In recent years, the world of interior design has witnessed a significant shift towards more accessible and versatile materials that allow homeowners to express their creativity. Among these materials, klebefolie betonoptik—or concrete-look adhesive foil—has emerged as a favorite for DIY enthusiasts. With its striking appearance and practical applications, it’s transforming the way people approach home decor. In this article, we will explore the myriad benefits of klebefolie betonoptik and how it can enhance your DIY interior projects.

What is Klebefolie Betonoptik?

Klebefolie betonoptik is a self-adhesive vinyl film that mimics the look of concrete. It is available in various designs, textures, and finishes, making it incredibly versatile. While traditional concrete can be heavy, expensive, and labor-intensive to work with, klebefolie betonoptik offers a lightweight, cost-effective alternative. It is easy to apply, can be used on multiple surfaces, and requires no special tools or skills, making it perfect for DIY projects.

1. Affordable Aesthetic

One of the most significant benefits of klebefolie betonoptik is its affordability. Real concrete installations can be costly, not only in terms of materials but also due to labor expenses. In contrast, adhesive foil allows you to achieve a high-end, industrial look without breaking the bank. Whether you are looking to revamp a kitchen backsplash or create an accent wall, klebefolie betonoptik can give your space a modern, sophisticated vibe without the hefty price tag.

2. Easy Application

The application process for klebefolie betonoptik is straightforward and accessible for everyone, regardless of DIY experience. The adhesive backing means that you simply peel and stick the foil onto a clean, dry surface. Most products come with clear instructions, and some even include cutting guides for achieving a perfect fit. This ease of application allows homeowners to take on projects with confidence, transforming their spaces in just a few hours.

3. Versatile Uses

Klebefolie betonoptik can be used in various applications throughout your home. Here are a few ideas to inspire your next DIY project:

Furniture Makeover: Give old furniture a new lease on life by applying klebefolie betonoptik to tabletops, cabinets, or even chairs. The concrete look adds an industrial charm that pairs beautifully with modern or rustic decor.

Accent Walls: Create a stunning focal point in any room by covering an entire wall with klebefolie betonoptik. It works particularly well in living rooms, bedrooms, and dining areas, adding depth and texture.

Kitchen Backsplashes: Revitalize your kitchen with a concrete-look backsplash. This option is not only stylish but also practical, as the foil is easy to wipe clean and resistant to moisture.

Decorative Panels: Use klebefolie betonoptik on flat surfaces like doors, shelves, or even light switch covers to create a cohesive look throughout your home.

4. Durable and Low Maintenance

Despite its delicate appearance, klebefolie betonoptik is remarkably durable. It is resistant to scratches, moisture, and UV light, making it suitable for various indoor applications. Unlike traditional paint or wallpaper, it doesn’t peel or fade easily, ensuring that your investment lasts. Additionally, maintenance is a breeze—simply wipe it down with a damp cloth to keep it looking fresh and clean.

5. Eco-Friendly Choice

For environmentally conscious DIYers, klebefolie betonoptik offers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional materials. Many manufacturers prioritize sustainability by using recyclable materials and non-toxic adhesives. By choosing adhesive foil, you can reduce your carbon footprint while still achieving the aesthetic you desire. Moreover, since it requires no demolition or heavy construction, it minimizes waste and the environmental impact associated with more extensive renovations.

6. Customization Options

Another significant advantage of klebefolie betonoptik is the range of customization options available. The foil comes in various colors, textures, and finishes, allowing you to select the perfect match for your interior design scheme. Whether you prefer a polished, matte, or textured finish, there’s a klebefolie betonoptik that can complement your style. Furthermore, some manufacturers offer the option to create custom designs, enabling you to personalize your space even further.

7. Temporary Solution

If you’re someone who likes to change things up frequently, klebefolie betonoptik is an excellent temporary solution. Unlike permanent fixtures, the adhesive foil can be removed and replaced without significant effort or expense. This flexibility allows you to experiment with different looks, keeping your interior fresh and exciting. It’s perfect for renters who want to enhance their space without violating lease agreements.

8. Seamless Integration

Klebefolie betonoptik integrates seamlessly into various design styles, from modern minimalism to rustic farmhouse aesthetics. Its neutral color palette complements an array of decor choices, making it an adaptable option for homeowners looking to create a cohesive look. Whether you’re accessorizing with bright colors or keeping it monochrome, the concrete effect of the foil provides a versatile backdrop that enhances your overall design.

Conclusion

In summary, klebefolie betonoptik is an innovative and practical choice for anyone looking to embark on DIY interior projects. Its affordability, ease of application, versatility, and durability make it a standout option for both seasoned decorators and novice DIYers. By embracing this material, you can achieve a stylish, modern aesthetic without the stress or cost associated with traditional methods. So why not explore the world of klebefolie betonoptik and unlock the potential of your living space today? Your dream interior is just a peel and stick away!

[the-firebird69]

we heard our son and grandson and their wives...and said this. revolutionize the kit car industry and went tot eh group and told them to put it together. and it shall and i said NOw we need it now nad it is a composite no. it melds and we see why nd need it and yes is fast easy and cll cand o it dn too many loll all can.

Frank Castle Hardcastle

we do the work now see it huge idea huge

Duke Nukem Blockbuster

and i should get gong and ok for armor this rules isee it now

bg siad it too missed it flame sread and ok the ame and ccn add stuff now too it and cannot to metal oh boy better nd wow

we do this now

Olympus

The panels take 1/5 of the time to make they are half the price. As the materials are less expensive and we can grind up tons of used car panels to make them the paint we have to research but I think we can dip to remove the paint and that would be easy you don't have to melt it down as the reason and we don't have the ability to melt it down but we can dip them it takes seconds it's like etching it takes seconds and it's all off and you rinse it and this is great this will work and you can recycle the material we're going to get moving on this.

trump

we use mst panels yes lol and yeh ok the chevy malibue and has 380 horsepower's front wheel drive so you take the front wheel drive out and you put it as a rear engine it would look like a mid engine because it's really right on the axle it's more so almost a mid engine and it will handle that way and you also have more grip when the weather is in Clement. We need to get going on this and he wants me to have BG run tests and make up the panels and make some cars for us and work on his full blown car too so do kit cars and we'll leave the ones alone that are built we need them now this is gonna work for me.

trump

We cannot get the cars out of Ferrari in Bugatti and others they won't sell them to us and we work there and run the place

and we work there and run the placebg

nd ok sounds fishy so we look and help bg Trump will be in that situation in one month

Trump will be in that situation in one monthbja

bja

and will so i ck no but should wont no we are immobilized i need it now and ty

trump

he is immobliized yes. The cities are closed off they need speed and they need fly cars and all sorts of **** and the melded panels will are strong enough for fly cars and it can't stamp 'cause he doesn't have the facilities and he can't get them up.

Thor Freya

Olympus

[enoaoverprinting]

Nino o Nina Gender Reveal Invitation

Celebrate the Excitement with Our Nino o Nina Gender Reveal Invitation

Are you planning a memorable Spanish gender reveal party? Our Nino o Nina Gender Reveal Invitation is the perfect way to invite your loved ones to join in the fun and suspense. Whether you’re rooting for Team Blue or Team Pink, this invitation captures the excitement of revealing whether you’re expecting a Little Man or Little Miss.

Customizable and High-Quality Invitations

These invitations are available in a 5" x 7" size and can be customized in either portrait or landscape orientation. With our easy-to-use design tools, you can create your invitation from scratch, adding your personal touch to every detail. The invitations come with a standard white envelope and are printed with high-definition quality, ensuring vibrant and crisp colors.

Perfect for Spanish Gender Reveal Parties

Our invitations are designed with your Spanish gender reveal party in mind. With phrases like "niño o niña" and "revelación de género", these invitations perfectly fit the theme of your celebration. Choose from six unique shape options and 12 paper types, including our versatile Semi-Gloss paper that brings out the rich colors of your design.

Eco-Friendly and High-Quality Paper

Our Semi-Gloss paper is an eco-friendly choice, made with 50% recycled content and imported from Italy. It has a 12.5 pt thickness and a 110 lb weight, offering a bright white finish that enhances the vividness of your invitation’s design.

Invite Everyone to the Big Reveal

Whether you’re celebrating a Little Man or Little Lady, our Nino o Nina Gender Reveal Invitation is the perfect way to set the stage for your big day. Don’t miss the chance to make your gender reveal party unforgettable.

Start designing your custom niño o niña gender reveal invitations today by visiting www.zazzle.com/store/invitations_maker. Make your celebration one to remember!

[helloparent]

20 Preschool Activities and Play for Children.

Preschool activities, Games and Learning are fun!

Hello, parents and caregivers! Are you seeking fun methods to keep your energetic preschooler engaged, laughing, and learning at the same time? Well, you are in luck! We've compiled a list of 20 very fascinating preschool activities that will pique your child's interest and allow them to explore their surroundings through play.

What is the best part? These preschool games are simple to put up, use only household items, and may be played both indoors and outdoors. So prepare to be silly, creative, and possibly a little messy (don't worry, we have cleaning techniques too!). Let's get into these fun preschool learning activities and educational games for preschoolers:

1. Musical Freeze Dance Party

Put on some fun tunes and let your little one boogie for their preschool activities! When the music stops, say "Freeze!" Speak. And ask your dancer to maintain their pose. Whenever the music starts again, it's time to put away those idiots! This educational game for preschoolers is great for developing listening skills and clearing up those confusions.

2. Color Finder Hunt

Pick a color and go on a hunt around your house or yard and challenge your child to find as many objects as possible in that particular color. You can make it competitive by keeping score or adding variety by changing colors. This educational game for preschoolers is an easy way to learn colors and get moving!

3. Shape Recognition

Take some chalk or masking tape and draw different shapes on the ground outside (or even on the floor inside if it's raining). Call out any shapes and ask your child to push, jump or jump over those shapes. This is a fun way to get active while reinforcing shape recognition.

4. Snack Necklace

Let your child make their own trendy (and delicious!) ornaments by stringing O-shaped cereal or other circular food items onto a piece of yarn or string. They'll develop fine motor skills while also making a lovely snack. Just be sure to monitor the necklace pieces for safety and keep them short.

5. Recycled Tool Band

Save toilet paper rolls, empty boxes, pots and pans – anything that you can shake, tap or bang to create musical magic. Let your child decorate their "instruments" as they wish, then have a little concert! It's loud, creative fun.

6. Laundry Basket Basketball

Place balled-up socks at different distances into an empty laundry basket. Keep score, try silly stances, and make it a silly game to work on aiming and motor skills. You can even decorate the basket to create your own special hoop!

7. Cotton Ball Bowling

Place some empty bottles or containers on the floor and let your child roll them or knock them over by gently throwing cotton balls at them. You can even count how many pins they get each round to work on the numbers!

8. Dance Freeze

Similar to freeze dancing, but without the music! Say different dance moves like "Wiggle like a bug!" or "Fly like a butterfly!" And let your little dancer dance. When you say "Freeze!" It is said that whatever stupid posture they are in, they have to stay there.

9. Parachute Play

Use an old bedsheet as a "parachute" and ask your child to run under it while you go up and down. then swap roles! You can toss light balls or plush toys up and bounce them around by shaking the parachute.

Also Check: Preschool Extracurricular Activities

10. Indoor Obstacle Course

Get creative by using tunnels made of couch cushions, step stools, hula hoops, boxes – anything you can find in your living room to create a fun obstacle course to crawl down, jump and straight across!

11. Car wash for toys

Fill a small tub or sink with soapy water and let your child "wash" their toy cars, dolls, or plastic animal figures! This is a great sensory activity that also works on fine motor skills. Just make sure to set up a drying station with towels when you're done.

12. Paper Plane Pilot

Fold some fun paper airplanes and let your child practice throwing and flying them around the house or yard. See whose plane can fly the farthest or straightest. You can even decorate and name your planes first!

13. Homemade Pizzeria

Keep some dough on hand and use it to make fake pizza! Your child can roll out the "dough", add toppings by poking holes with a pencil or straw, then when their design is complete you can "bake" and "cut" their creation.

14. Bubble Blowing

Bubbles are a blast for kids of all ages! Mix up some homemade bubble solution using dish soap and water, then let your child blow bubbles with a stick or even just a straw. See if they can blow giant bubbles or catch them before they burst! You can also add a few drops of food coloring to create colorful bubble fun.

15. Simon Says

Help your child practice listening skills with this classic game. You'll be Simon, "Simon says clap!" As if giving orders. or "Simon says to jump on one leg!" Hunt? Your child should only follow commands that begin with "Simon says." If you give instructions without saying those magic words, they shouldn't do it! Take turns being Simon to keep them on their toes.

16. Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunts are an exciting way to get your child moving and learning. Hide some small objects or toys around the house, then give your child a simple treasure map with X's marking the hiding spots. Or make it even more interactive by giving them clues to follow to each location instead of a map. You can even follow some counting or coloring instructions along the way!

17. Puppet Show

Let your child's imagination run wild by putting on a puppet show! You can make easy puppets out of paper bags, socks, or even decorate some cardboard boxes. Then put on a big performance, make up stories or act out your child's favorite books. It also helps to develop social skills like taking turns if you each have a puppet.

18. Building Block Towers

Simple wooden blocks, Lego, or any type of building bricks can keep kids entertained for hours. Challenge your child to build a tower as tall as possible, or work together to build anything from houses to spaceships and pretend zoos. You can also try making something more complex by following the step-by-step instructions to practice the following steps.

19. Flour

Get creative with homemade or store-bought flour! Let your child roll out long snakes of different colored dough, then decorate them with buttons, dried pasta, or anything fun you have around. Once their "parade floats" are ready, line them up and let the parade begin! Small toys and plushies can also join the march as you make up stories and sing songs along.

20. Sidewalk Scribble Awesome

On a nice day, take art and learning outside with sidewalk chalk! Let your little one draw pictures, write their name, leave fun messages, or turn the street into their own hopscotch court. To practice recognition you can also ask them to trace the letters, numbers, shapes, or any other educational element that you write about first.

The joy of educational games for preschoolers is endless!

These preschool activity ideas are only the beginning; there are countless preschool activities and alternatives! The most essential thing is to let your child's natural curiosity guide the way, to be creative with everyday household goods, and to spend every minute of quality time together.

Don't forget that certain preschool activities might be dirty, so dress for fun and lay down an old sheet or towel if you're playing indoors. Supervise any small pieces or items, and feel free to modify activities based on your child's age and ability. Most importantly, relax and enjoy seeing your child's smile as they explore, imagine, and make amazing memories through playful learning!

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to be silly, creative, and develop a rewarding relationship with your preschooler through these thrilling play experiences!

Check: Preschool in Wagholi, Preschool in Noida

[celtfather]

Celtic Dance Party #667

It’s a Celtic instrumental dance party on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #667. Subscribe now!

The Drowsy Lads, Fig for a Kiss, Runa, Dublin Gulch, Lúnasa, Louise Bichan, Telenn Tri, The BorderCollies, Charlene Adzima, Fialla, Bealtaine, Dancing With Hobbits, The Crowfoot Rakes, High Octane, Conor Mallon

GET CELTIC MUSIC NEWS IN YOUR INBOX

The Celtic Music Magazine is a quick and easy way to plug yourself into more great Celtic culture. Enjoy seven weekly news items for Celtic music and culture online. Subscribe now and get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free.

VOTE IN THE CELTIC TOP 20 FOR 2024

This is our way of finding the best songs and artists each year. You can vote for as many songs and tunes that inspire you in each episode. Your vote helps me create next year's Best Celtic music of 2024 episode. You have just three weeks to vote this year. Vote Now!

You can follow our playlist on Spotify to listen to those top voted tracks as they are added every 2 - 3 weeks. It also makes it easier for you to add these artists to your own playlists. You can also check out our Irish & Celtic Music Videos.

THIS WEEK IN CELTIC MUSIC

0:10 - The Drowsy Lads "The Green Mountain (Reels)" from Wide Awake

5:20 - WELCOME

10:04 - Fig for a Kiss "The Trip to Pakistan" from Wherever You Go

15:25 - Runa “Jutland Set" from When The Light Gets In

20:38 - Dublin Gulch "Kerry Rose Hornpipe" from Tap 'Er Light

23:27 - Lúnasa "The Blue Fiddle" from Live in Kyoto

28:38 - FEEDBACK

31:15 - Louise Bichan "Pinnacle" from The Lost Summer

36:00 - Telenn Tri "Hope Rising set" from The Cat's Meow

39:57 - The BorderCollies "The Sweetness of Mary  -  Clumsy Lover" from To the Hills and Back

43:28 - Charlene Adzima "Jimmie McGetrick's/John Naughton's/Tom Ward's Downfall" from The Initiation

46:39 - THANKS

50:02 - Fialla "Bull Set" from Home & Away

54:47 - Bealtaine "Frieze Britches" from The Founders' Room

57:33 - Dancing With Hobbits "Folk on Foot" from Dancing With Hobbits

1:00:31 - The Crowfoot Rakes "Maid Behind the Bar (Live)" from Off She Goes

1:02:22 - High Octane "Lazy Sloth" from High Octane

1:07:28 - CLOSING

1:09:32 - Conor Mallon "Tullycrine" from Unearthed

1:12:46 - CREDITS

The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather and our Patrons on Patreon. The show was edited by Mitchell Petersen with Graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. Visit our website to follow the show. You’ll find links to all of the artists played in this episode.

Todd Wiley is the editor of the Celtic Music Magazine. Subscribe to get 34 Celtic MP3s for Free. Plus, you’ll get 7 weekly news items about what’s happening with Celtic music and culture online. Best of all, you will connect with your Celtic heritage.

Please tell one friend about this podcast. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to support any creative endeavor.

Finally, remember. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and think about how you can make a positive impact on your environment.

Promote Celtic culture through music at http://celticmusicpodcast.com/.

WELCOME THE IRISH & CELTIC MUSIC PODCAST

* Helping you celebrate Celtic culture through music. I am Marc Gunn.

This podcast is for fans of Celtic music. Not just the big names you’ve probably heard of. But also the Celtic bands in your neck of the woods, at your festivals.

It is here to build a diverse Celtic community and help the incredible artists who so generously share their music with you. If you hear music you love, please email artists to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Musicians depend on your generosity to keep making music. So please find a way to support them. Buy a CD, Album Pin, Shirt, Digital Download, or join their communities on Patreon.

You can find a link to all of the artists in the shownotes, along with show times, when you visit our website at celticmusicpodcast.com.

Back from the Isle of Man

Plastic Free July.  Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single - use plastics?

Today’s show is an all - instrumental podcast episode. I have a lot of great music to share as well as a fascinating observation. In the past, it is the Celtic songs that were voted on the most for the Celtic Top 20. But I was looking at the last few weeks. And it’s the Celtic tunes, the instrumentals, that are dominating your voting.

That is fantastic. So keep those votes coming. But I guess that also means I should do a Celtic song episode in the coming weeks. I’d love to know what your favorite contemporary Celtic songs are. By that I mean, what original songs by Celtic musicians do you love the best?

I have found several songs on this podcast that were covered by other Celtic artists. I might do a show like that in the future too. We shall see. But let me know your thoughts.

Thanks also to our Executive Producers, author Rie Sheridan Rose (www.riewriter.com), and Richard Trest of the Middle Tennessee Highland Games & Celtic Festival (www.midtenngames.com) on Sept 7 - 8, 2024 at Sanders Ferry Park, Hendersonville.

If you are a Celtic musician or in a Celtic band, then please submit your band to be played on the podcast. You don’t have to send in music or an EPK. You will get a free eBook called Celtic Musicians Guide to Digital Music and learn how to follow the podcast. It’s 100% free. Just email Email follow@bestcelticmusic and of course, listeners can learn how to subscribe to the podcast and get a free music - only episode.

THANK YOU PATRONS OF THE PODCAST!

You are amazing. It is because of your generosity that you get to hear so much great Celtic music each and every week.

Your kindness pays for our engineer, graphic designer, Celtic Music Magazine editor, promotion of the podcast, and allows me to buy the music I play here. It also pays for my time creating the show each and every week.

As a patron, you get ad - free and music - only episodes before regular listeners, vote in the Celtic Top 20, stand - alone stories, you get a private feed to listen to the show or you can listen through the Patreon app.  All that for as little as $1 per episode.

A special thanks to our new and continued Patrons of the Podcast: Daniel Ide, Eric McFarling, Lorraine F

HERE IS YOUR THREE STEP PLAN TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Go to our Patreon page.

Decide how much you want to pledge every week, $1, $5, $25. Make sure to cap how much you want to spend per month.

Keep listening to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast to celebrate Celtic culture through music.

You can become a generous Patron of the Podcast on Patreon at SongHenge.com.

TRAVEL WITH CELTIC INVASION VACATIONS

Every year, I take a small group of Celtic music fans on the relaxing adventure of a lifetime. We don't see everything. Instead, we stay in one area. We get to know the region through its culture, history, and legends. You can join us with an auditory and visual adventure through podcasts and videos. Learn more about the invasion at http://celticinvasion.com/

The Celtic Invasion of Scotland’s Whisky Distilleries is now booked. The next Celtic Invasion will go to Galicia in Spain IF I can get enough people to explore that region with me. I need a minimum of 6 to make it happen. It’s not yet open, but if you’d like to join, sign up to our mailing list. #celticmusic #irishmusic #celticmusicpodcast

I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK

What are you doing today while listening to the podcast? Please email me. I’d love to see a  picture of what you're doing while listening or of a band that you saw recently.

How are you listening to this podcast? I’d love to know that as well. The show is available on a bunch of podcast apps like Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, iHeartRadio, Player.FM, Pocket Casts, Cast Box, Pandora, Podbean, and my favorite Overcast

Email me at follow@bestcelticmusic.

Thomas Michl emailed from the south of Germany: “Hello Marc,

in your last newsletter you ask about personal favourites and I do indeed have a band that I haven't heard in your podcast yet, but that I really like: The Rattling Kind with Eddie Sherlock (Dublin)

I would love to hear them on your podcast. Otherwise, I'm already looking forward to St Patrick's Day with good music from the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast ; - )

Greetings”

Kathy Glasgow replied to my St Patrick’s Day request: “I celebrated by getting my next semester of classes ready while listening to your podcast. I have them on my phone, so I was also listening to them today between classes. “

Ryan McKinney of O'McPub Band: “Marc,

Thank you for all you've done for Irish and Celtic music. We've listened for a number of years and I play in an Irish folk duo with my friend Joe.  We've been playing at pubs and wherever else they will take us for a few years now. We are finally going to try and get some of our versions of Irish tunes recorded but not exactly sure where to start.  Then I remembered you offer the ebook on digital music.  We would greatly appreciate your guidance and suggestions to make sure we think of everything.

Thanks again and hope when we get everything done we can someday hear ourselves on your podcast!

Slainte,”

Hey BTW, the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast is now a proud sponsor of IrishFest Atlanta in November. I’ll have more details in the future.

Check out this episode!

[garaksapprentice]

Compostable Clothing Closures

Originally posted at my blog: https://garaksapprentice.blogspot.com/2023/09/in-search-of-compostable-closures.html

~~~

Making clothes that are 97% biodegradable is surprisingly easy. Pick a natural fibre fabric, buy some 100% cotton or linen thread, and you're there. (You can even get 100% cotton overlocker thread - though you have to go searching for it.)

Those last few percent, though? That can be tough. One of the biggest offenders is closures. While there are plenty of clothes that don't need something to hold them shut, I confess I like having the option. Below is a round-up of various closures, and their compostability.

Note: for the purpose of this article, I'm treating metal closures as "compostable", in the sense that they're 1) easy to remove before you compost the rest of the object, and 2) infinitely reusable on other things, unless they break - at which point they're usually recyclable using our current commercial systems. And remember, re-using things that already exist is always preferable to buying new, "better" items.

Buckles/Rings

While less common than other closure methods, I find buckles, D-rings and O-rings are great when used in the right context. They're usually metal or plastic, neither of which are compostable - but metal will last practically forever, if it's good quality. Plastic tends to degrade over time, especially if exposed to the sun.

I find rings especially quick and easy to use, and a set of D-rings can give a very fine-tuned amount of tightening. My favourite belt uses two square D-rings instead of a buckle closure.

Buttons

The humble button, while ubiquitous now, took a while to catch on. Buttons as a common method of closure didn't become popular in Europe[^1] until about the early 1300s, around the same time that the tailoring revolution[^2] happened.

Nowadays, plastic is by far the most common material that buttons are made from. It's cheap and sturdy, but obviously it doesn't compost. So what are some alternatives?

Liz Haywood, a pattern maker who focuses on zero-waste designs, has thought a bit about this conundrum here. There's photos of several different DIY compostable and recycled buttons in her post.

For a completely compostable garment, wood, leather, horn, fabric, and thread buttons are your best bet. If, like most sensible people, you remove the buttons from something that's about to be worm food before you ditch it, the options expand considerably - metal, clay, recycled bottle caps, even glass buttons are all possible. You can have a lot of fun with making your own buttons - to match an outfit, or contrast with it, or maybe you'd like a different button for every buttonhole...

Another, related option is cufflinks - 18th century shirts often used cufflinks on the sleeves and one or two small thread buttons on the collar. That way one set of cufflinks could be used on multiple shirts, showing off a bit of wealth, while saving them from the (admittedly harsh) laundry practices of the day.

[1]: I have no doubt that buttons became popular in other parts of the world, too, but unfortunately I don't know much about it. Europe in the 14-15th century is my main area of study, mostly due to the fact that the historical re-enactment group that I'm a part of operates in that time period.

[2]: The tailoring revolution refers to the period where garments for the higher classes underwent a dramatic change in the way they were cut out. The very short version is, fashion garments shifted from primarily rectangular construction to more form-fitting, using the precursors of many standard cutting practices used today.

Elastic

While elastic isn't technically a closure, it's used that way in many different objects. Most elastic nowadays is made from polyester and synthetic rubber. No composting there.

But, all is not lost! You can now find elastics made of natural rubber and cotton! (I was quite impressed by this, to be honest. I thought I'd have to give up elastic for good.)

The downside, as is usual when you actually give a crap about the planet, is cost. You'll mostly only find it for sale online (Etsy has several options), and it can be more expensive (especially factoring in shipping). Prices on the compostable elastics I found were comparable to a mid-range polyester elastic at Spotlight (before shipping). I think that's actually pretty good, all things considered. (I don't trust the cheapest elastic, it loses its stretch ridiculously fast. A fact I discovered to my sorrow only after buying a 20m roll of it.)

As a bonus, supposedly natural rubber elastic lasts longer than synthetic elastics - this has been my experience with many natural vs synthetic things, but I haven't tested natural elastic specifically to know for sure.

The biggest downside here is the rubber - if you're dealing with a latex allergy, this is not the solution for you.

Hooks and Eyes

While these have fallen out of favour over the years, they do have their uses in a compostable closet. They're easy to buy, and easy to make if you can get hold of the wire - all you need is a set of needle-nose pliers.

Being metal, the hook/eye can be re-used until it breaks - which takes a while. Like buttons, they're easy to take off a garment and move to another one. Unlike buttons, they don't need a buttonhole - you can move both the hook and eye almost anywhere on a garment, really refining the fit of an item.

They are, however, somewhat limited in that application - hooks and eyes work best if they're under a small but constant amount of tension, pulling in opposite directions. I once tried to use hooks and eyes on a loose-fitting medieval tunic, and it just didn't work.

Laces and Ties

Before buttons became The Big Thing in medieval Europe (and for quite a few centuries after), laces and ties were the closure method du jour. Why did they stick around so long? The same reason pyjama pants often have a drawstring in them - they add adjustability to garments in a simple and easy to use (and create!) way. Stays and corsets are one of the most recognisable examples of this concept in action.

Lacing does work better on some things than others, but just about anywhere that you'd put elastic nowadays can likely use a drawstring instead. And there are some patterns (YouTube link) for adjustable garments that use lacing as an integral part of the design.

The main downside for me? They can be slow to use, and awkward, if you have difficulty with fine motor control. Mine is variable enough that I'll usually opt for a different closure, unless lacing or ties really is the best or only option.

Snaps

Confession: I adore snaps. They're fast and easy to use when my hands don't want to co-operate, and they can be wonderfully decorative as well as functional.

There are two general types - those you sew into place like you sew on hooks and eyes, and ones that are applied to the fabric using a press. The former takes more time to install, but can be replaced relatively easily if they stop working. The latter can technically be replaced, but it's a LOT harder and you risk damaging the fabric behind it while you try. They're also more likely to rip out of the fabric in the first place.

As for material, it's pretty much just metal and plastic (sometimes a combination). From a sustainability standpoint, metal is the better option - as long as you recycle it at the end of its life.

Zips

Zips are everywhere nowadays. They're easy to use, but can be hard to replace when they break. Putting them in correctly isn't always a cake-walk either. And in terms of compostability, the answer is definitely "no".

The vast majority of zippers on the market use a polyester or poly-cotton tape, with plastic or metal teeth set into it, and plastic or metal tabs and pulls. Because of the mix of materials, and the size of a typical zip, most municipal waste streams can't take them for recycling. However, textile recyclers[ ^3] such as Upparel usually take zips (and the things they're attached to!).

I also found a couple of different manufacturers creating zips out of post-consumer recycled materials - a pleasant surprise, and a strong move towards closing waste streams.

[3]: Clothing retailers are increasingly taking responsibility for their part in reducing waste by offering recycling programs through their stores. Recycling Near You and Frankie list some of the major programs in Australia, though it's worth noting that most of those listed only want whole textiles or large pieces - to my knowledge, Upparel is the only place that will take scraps, broken textiles, and related.

If I've missed a closure type, or you know of places selling compostable or truly recyclable versions of any of the above, I would love to hear about it. While I'm (currently) a far less prolific sewist than the blog name implies, I want to be deliberate and thoughtful in my sewing choices going forward.

Also, as a last random thought, I wonder if anyone has started making bioplastic versions of any of the above? Wanders off to do some research...

[inscameracom]

Ultimate Storage Solution: Unlocking the Potential of Durable Aluminum Boxes

In the realm of storage solutions, durability and versatility are paramount. Whether you're organizing tools in a workshop, transporting gear for outdoor adventures, or safeguarding valuables in harsh environments, having a reliable container is essential. Enter the durable aluminum box—a rugged, lightweight, and highly adaptable option that has become a staple for professionals and enthusiasts alike. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into the myriad uses and benefits of durable aluminum boxes, exploring their practicality, versatility, and unique advantages.

A Closer Look at Durable Aluminum Boxes

At first glance, a durable aluminum box may appear simple, but its construction belies its strength and resilience. Crafted from high-grade aluminum alloy, these boxes boast exceptional durability while remaining lightweight and easy to handle. Their robust construction makes them resistant to dents, scratches, and corrosion, ensuring that they can withstand the rigors of everyday use, as well as harsh environmental conditions.

Practical Applications Across Industries

The versatility of durable aluminum boxes extends across a wide range of industries and applications. In the automotive sector, these boxes are ideal for storing tools, spare parts, and emergency supplies, providing mechanics and technicians with convenient access to essential equipment. In the construction and manufacturing fields, aluminum boxes serve as portable storage units for transporting materials, equipment, and finished products to job sites. Meanwhile, outdoor enthusiasts rely on these rugged containers to safeguard camping gear, fishing tackle, and other essentials during rugged adventures.

The Advantages of Aluminum

What sets aluminum apart as a material for storage containers? For starters, its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio makes it an ideal choice for applications where durability and portability are paramount. Unlike steel, aluminum is resistant to rust and corrosion, making it suitable for use in wet or humid environments. Additionally, aluminum is highly recyclable, making it an environmentally friendly option for conscientious consumers.

Durability in Action

To truly appreciate the durability of aluminum boxes, one need only witness them in action. Whether subjected to the jostling and vibrations of off-road travel or the pounding waves and salt spray of maritime environments, these boxes hold up admirably, protecting their contents from harm. Their rugged construction and secure closures ensure that valuable equipment, tools, and supplies remain safe and secure, even in the most challenging conditions.

Customization Options

One of the key advantages of durable aluminum boxes is their versatility when it comes to customization. With a variety of sizes, shapes, and configurations available, users can tailor these containers to suit their specific needs and preferences. From foam inserts and dividers to custom logos and branding, there are countless options for personalizing aluminum boxes to match your unique requirements.

Weathering the Elements

Whether you're battling scorching heat, freezing cold, driving rain, or blowing sand, a durable aluminum box is up to the task. Thanks to its rugged construction and weather-resistant properties, it provides reliable protection for your valuable equipment and supplies, no matter what Mother Nature throws your way. Whether you're working in remote wilderness areas, harsh industrial environments, or bustling urban centers, you can trust that your aluminum box will keep your gear safe and secure.

Security and Peace of Mind

In addition to their durability and weather resistance, aluminum boxes offer peace of mind when it comes to security. Equipped with sturdy locks and reinforced latches, these containers provide an added layer of protection against theft and tampering. Whether you're storing valuable tools and equipment on a job site or safeguarding personal belongings during travel, you can rest easy knowing that your aluminum box has your back.

Cost-Effective Solutions

Despite their rugged construction and advanced features, durable aluminum boxes remain surprisingly affordable compared to alternative storage solutions. Their long lifespan and low maintenance requirements make them a cost-effective investment for individuals and businesses alike. By providing durable, reliable storage solutions at an affordable price point, aluminum boxes deliver unbeatable value for money.

Conclusion

In the realm of storage solutions, few options can match the durability, versatility, and practicality of durable aluminum boxes. From their rugged construction and weather-resistant properties to their customizable designs and cost-effective pricing, these containers offer a winning combination of strength, reliability, and convenience. Whether you're a professional tradesperson, an outdoor enthusiast, or simply someone in need of reliable storage options, a durable aluminum box is sure to meet—and exceed—your expectations.