#i still have £50 in my amazon the christmas gift from my work

[mzannthropy]

A resolution to read all previously unread books of your favourite authors this year is all well and good, until you realise that there is a reason why you've not read those books. Because they are. Not that good.

I finished Pat of Silver Bush, but getting into Mistress Pat is a struggle. I can't get through the chapter when Tillytuck is introduced. His head looks like a marshmallow and I don't like the way he comes in and takes over a scene, which should be women having a quiet and cosy evening in the kitchen. LMM is not selling me the "he sat down and it was as if he always belong to Silver Bush". Sorry. So I have to put it aside for later.

Now for Agatha Christie. The only books that remain are Postern of Fate and Passenger to Frankfurt and I know those are bad. I actually started on Passenger but it was a slog and I gave after like, two chapters? I'll get her autobiography on audio, with memoirs and stuff like that I prefer listening anyway. I could get another of her Mary Westmacott novels, but I can't be bothered.

So fuck it, I've picked up Five Little Pigs for a re-read!

[arabellaflynn]

Holiday Housekeeping!

Hello all! The year is drawing to a close. FINALLY. I have good news and bad news, as usual.

The bad news is that my last steady gig sent me an email this morning telling me they won't be needing me after Thanksgiving. I am beyond pissed. Not at the lack of work; they essentially provide support services for ongoing events, so if there are no events, there's nothing to give me, and they have no control over that. What I'm pissed about is that these clients are supposed to be signing contracts for a fixed period of time/number of events, but they're letting people alter or cancel their contracts with basically no notice, and no penalty. They book me for a thing, I block off those dates and budget accordingly, then whoops! Event vanishes halfway through.

I was already looking for another job, but I guess now I have more free time to do it in. 

The good news is that I have some grant applications in process right now, and will almost certainly get one of them. The Mass Cultural Council offered recovery grants, with no strings attached -- the entire application was pretty much, "Are you an artist? Do you live in MA? Would you like some money?" Everything else is more merit-based and has to go through panels and committees first, but there is no Earthly reason that MCC would not award me that grant, so there is a good chance I will be getting $5000 somewhere in January. I realize this is not a huge amount of money to most people, but that's about six months' living expenses for me.

Unfortunately, January is still a ways away, so my Christmas list, for the third year in a row, is basically just "survival". Money is most useful and goes here or here. I do realize that you guys are here for entertainment, and "blogger pays rent!" is not very fun to read, but my Amazon Wish List is not much better. Mostly I wish someone would magically mail me shampoo and socks so that I don't have to worry about buying them. I did turn on the option that lets you ship other things along with Wish List items, so if anyone is dying to send me candy, have at.

If you wish to send the rats some holiday gifts... well, I don't blame you, they are almost criminally cute. Their Wish List is here. I put the kibosh on the 50 lb wheel of parmesan cheese, but it does include a lot of snacks, cuddly cage blankets, and the little hanging baskets they have so much fun with. You can also ship them random things, but please bear in mind that cage furnishings have to be either disposable, or made of something that is bleachable/boilable. Wood and other porous material will quickly become suffused with, shall we say, 'essence of rat' and will never be clean again. Rats, like dogs, are adorably disgusting.

Ratsgiving and Ratmas are not being canceled; they go up on Patreon, and are therefore work expenses. Plus it will force me to eat something other than beans and rice for a bit. I already bought most of the decorations before the bad news hit, anyway. I'm also running a promotion where anyone signed up to either this Patreon or my art/dance one by December 15th for $5 or more will get a Ratmas e-card, and $20 or more will be getting a physical Ratmas card, so keep an eye out for that.

I've tried to make the past few Advent Calendars more community-minded but this year I'm saying fuck it, I'm just going to spend a month writing about something I enjoy contemplating. Probably history of media/video games. I might also take another stab at streaming. I won't be on camera this time; the only private space I'd have to stream is in my bedroom, which is nowhere near big enough for a set, and unfortunately the gaming setup and the facecam setup in here are mutually exclusive. A Let's Play style stream with me on headset is the best I can do.

I'm just really tired, you guys. I want 2023 to be better.

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[katieskarlette]

No book for me (yet) :(

So I tried to be conscientious and get the new Sylvanas book from a brick-and-mortar bookstore instead of giving Jeff Bezos more money.  It was a dumpster fire of fail, and I ended up ordering it from Amazon after all, only now I have to wait until Sunday, April 3rd, to get it.

[Explanation/rambling rant below.]

I remember a small, locally-owned bookstore in a strip mall where I used to order books when I was in elementary school.  You could order and reserve a particular book, no matter how niche and obscure, and they’d call you to let you know when it was ready to pickup.  That was over thirty years ago.  Yet I can’t do the same thing now.  I can order that book online and have it shipped to me, yes.  But apparently my local B.A.M. (Books-a-Million) won’t do what that mom-and-pop store did circa 1988.  You can only reserve a book that they already physically have in stock.  They will not order a book that they wouldn’t normally carry and put it aside for you to pick up in-store.  You have to do it online and have it shipped to your door.  Is that convenient?  Sure, but if I want to save $5+ on shipping by driving less than ten minutes out of my way, and have the experience of walking into a bookstore, browsing other stuff, and then taking the book home, I’m out of luck.

Maybe I’m biased because I work in a public library, where reserving and picking up books--especially hot new releases--is a major part of my job, but it can’t be that complicated for a big store like B.A.M. to set up a system for in-store pickup.  I’m sure they would have some people order and then not pick up, leaving them stuck with an obscure book nobody else wants, but they could solve that easily by requiring customers to pay when ordering.  Then if someone doesn’t pick up the book, the store still gets the money.

So yeah, there was no option to walk into a store a buy a copy of the book, so I was forced to order it online.  I had gift cards from Christmas for both B.A.M. and Amazon, and by also ordering something a family member wanted I could get free shipping from Amazon, so that’s the route I went.  But I’m pissed. 

If I had known that’s what would end up happening, I would have ordered long ago so I could have gotten the book in the mail today.  I had called B.A.M. on Thursday to reserve a copy, but they told me then I couldn’t reserve a book they didn’t have in the store yet.  They didn’t tell me that they hadn’t even ordered the book at all.  They had to have known that, and if they didn’t then their system sucks even more than I thought.  Instead I went blissfully through the last few days, assuming I could just walk in today and grab a copy off the shelf, only to call this morning and learn this.  It’s bullshit.

I already had a bad taste in my mouth giving Blizzard my money right now, and I’m not exactly thrilled with feeling like I have to read a book to (hopefully) understand the trainwreck that is Shadowlands lore (although I’ve bought every Warcraft novel so far, regardless of my current opinion on the plot), but I thought maybe I could ease my conscience a little bit by getting the damn book from a brick-and-mortar store, but no.  There are no locally-owned bookstores in my city anymore (that aren’t exclusively Christian), so I didn’t even have the option to support one, but I figured even a big chain like B.A.M. was better than Bezos’ yacht fund.  And they would have been, if they actually had the book in stock.  WoW is too “niche” for them to bother stocking on their shelves, apparently.  It didn’t used to be. I guess the franchise really has fallen that far.

And no, the consortium of 50+ libraries that includes my place of employment hasn’t ordered a single copy of the book, either, despite having a handful of the previous WoW novels in the system.

Could I download the audiobook version?  Yes, but my brain doesn’t play nicely with audiobooks, and I lose focus very quickly.  Could I download the ebook?  Yes, but I’d still want the hardcover for my collection, so I’d end up paying for it twice.  No thanks.

Arg!  I was so looking forward to binge-reading the book on my day off tomorrow, but nope.  I’m screwed.  I’ll have to dodge spoilers as best I can.  :(

[westallenfun]

An Unexpected Christmas Vacation

An Unexpected Christmas Vacation, Part 1

WestAllen secret santa gift

From: @babyish14​

For: @cpflashfan​​

Note: Happy Holidays, CPFlashFan!  I hope you like your gift! This story is a part of a series of Christmas fics for WestAllen Secret Santa over the years! 

This story follows a few years after a Home For the Holidays! Found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17181491

Iris West-Allen finds herself frustrated in the holiday season. Barry Allen, always there to support his wife, plans an unexpected and unique Christmas vacation. 

In this story, Iris and Barry have been married for about 10 years; living in their new house in Central City. The twins are already born and are four years old. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Iris West-Allen stood in her bedroom with tape along her arm and a pair of scissors in her hand. The matriarch of the West-Allen family had spent the afternoon wrapping gifts for Christmas.

During her teenage years, Iris spent the holidays wrapping gifts at the local mall. Since then, Iris was the queen of the perfectly wrapped gift. It was normally the easiest task of the holiday season; however, this year was proving to be quite difficult.

“You gifts are really trying to defy me this year.” The gift on the desk looked misshapen and nothing like the usual Iris West standard of gift-wrapping. She ripped the paper off the gift and threw it across the room.

Iris took a deep breath and placed her head in her hands. “Not now,” Iris mumbled from behind her hands as she heard the sound from her phone. Her hand raised from her head to look at the message that currently required her attention.

Allegra: Got a tip on the current story. Do you have time to go over it?

Iris was happy that there was a tip on the story. It had been weeks since they had started investigating and the trail had gone cold. She was to the point of bringing in Ralph or closing the story completely. The boss reporter looked at the time and date on the wall. It was 7 pm on December 23rd.

It was barely two days before Christmas, and she had no gifts wrapped; and a few gifts were still missing. Iris wouldn’t normally fret about gift-wrapping, but one glance at all the used wrapping paper on the floor and you would understand her anxiety.

Iris: Sure girl! Send over the tips to my email.

Allegra: Will do.

As Iris waited for the email, she returned to wrapping one of the gifts. When she heard the email tone emitted from her laptop, Iris smiled. It appeared as if one thing was working out for today. The half-wrapped gift now laid temporarily abandoned didn’t look too bad itself.

Iris clicked open the file and her smile disappeared. There was only one piece of new information. The witness that they needed was found dead. The story they wished to develop was dead now too.

As Iris went to retrieve her phone, she saw a notification from Amazon shipping pop up on the laptop. The notification read: “Package delayed. New delivery expected Dec.27th.”

“Great,” Iris mumbled sarcastically as she closed her laptop with a thud.  The phone rang as expected with Allegra’s caller ID appearing on the screen.

“Hi, Iris. I’m –”

“It’s fine, Allegra. We tried.”

“Maybe we can dig into a bit more tomorrow. Susan and I were thinking…”

“No, no. It’s late. Make sure everyone heads home and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I appreciate everything all of you do. Tell Susan thanks as well and I’ll see you both after the holiday.”

Susan was one of the newest reporters that had been added to the Citizen. The newspaper had grown heavily over the past few years. The Central City Citizen now had over 50 employees and moved to a larger office. The newspaper had been named as one of the top 10 growing publications to look out for in the coming year. It was the highlight of Iris’s year, but also came with the mounting pressure of living up to the expectation and hype surrounding the Citizen.

Allegra sensing the disappointment in Iris’s voice didn’t argue. It had taken a few years, but Allegra began to have a better understanding of Iris and also began to shape herself into a true reporter.

“I will. Happy Holidays, Iris.”

“Happy Holidays, Allegra.”

Iris placed the phone down on the desk and took notice of the half-wrapped gift. She felt like it was taunting her to finish it.

At her frustration, she left the bedroom and headed to the upstairs lounge of the house. It appeared as if the weather wasn’t even cooperating with the holiday, either. It was bright and sunny outside with little to no chance of snow.

Iris loved a white Christmas and the sight of this warm weather was quite disappointing. It was quickly shaping up to be one of those Christmases in which nothing was planning out as expected.

“Iris?” A small voice rang out from behind where Iris sat on the window seat.

Iris smiled. The sweet voice of her little sister could cure a thousand problems. Iris turned away from the window. 

“Yes, Jenna?” 

Jenna stood before her big sister with a game of Candy Lane in her hands. “Can we play?” 

“Of course, we can love.” Iris moved off the window seat and onto the floor. She patted the seat next to her for Jenna to join. 

Jenna happily ran over and sat on the ground. The youngest West child opened the box and carefully laid out the pieces and set up the board. 

Iris watched as her baby sister set up her favorite game; especially this time of year. There were times she couldn’t believe that Jenna was eight and her twins were four. Time seemed to be flying and she was determined to enjoy every minute of it. 

Iris and Jenna had made it to the end of the game when Barry made it upstairs. 

“I won!” Jenna exclaimed! 

Iris made a mock frown. “Aww! Well, there’s next time.” 

Jenna giggled. “Yeah right, Iris. I always win.” 

Barry laughed. “West girls are always competitive.” 

Iris looked up at her husband and joined in on the laughing. It was honestly the thing she needed right now. 

“Yes, we are.” Iris motioned for Jenna to start packing up the game. “I’m going to assume you’ve come to tell us dinner is ready.” 

Barry leaned down on the ground and started helping his sister-in-law pack up the game. “Yes, it is.” 

He looked up at Jenna. “Sweetheart, why don’t you get washed up for dinner? Iris and I will finish up here.” 

Jenna handed the pieces to Barry and headed towards the stairs. As she bounded down the stairs, she yelled out: “I’ll help the twins get ready too.”

Iris smiled. “Sounds great, sweetie. Be careful.” 

Barry picked up the game and placed it on the side. “She takes being an aunt very seriously.” 

Iris laughed. “That she does.” 

Barry watched as Iris rose from the floor and glanced out the window. He noticed as her joyful expression dropped. He knew how much Iris looked forward to snow on Christmas. 

He rose from his own position on the ground and started caressing Iris’s back. “We’ve got two more days. Hopefully, we’ll get some snow by then.” 

“Yeah.” Iris managed to mumble as tears began to track across her face. She attempted to shield her face away from Barry, but she knew the effort was worthless. Barry always knew when something was wrong, even when they were far apart. It was the connection the two held between each other since youth. 

Barry turned her face towards him. This was more to this than snow. “Talk to me.” 

Iris feigned a weak smile. “It’s stupid. Don’t worry about it.” 

“If it’s making you cry, it’s not stupid, Iris.” 

Iris leaned into her husband’s shoulder. “It’s just…you know I like things to be perfect for Christmas.” 

Barry continued to place caresses down her back. “It will be perfect, Iris.” 

She looked up at him. “I don’t even have gifts wrapped yet. And you know..” 

He interrupted. “I can do that.”  When she didn’t say anything, he continued on. “I may not do as well as you, but I can do it.” 

At the mention of her gift-wrapping skills, she continued to break down. “That’s the thing, I can’t seem to get it right this year. And to top it off, I don’t have all of your gifts.” 

Barry continued to listen and used his thumb to brush away some tears. It was clear she was more frustrated than she was letting on. This release of emotions was a long time coming. 

Barry responded in some attempt of comfort. He knew this was beyond Christmas, but he didn’t want to push. “It’s only Christmas. The kids will appreciate anything we give them.” 

The tears had begun to slow down. The warmth of being in Barry’s embrace was always the best source of comfort. “It’s not just Christmas. People have grown to expect so much from me. I just don’t know if I can do it all.” 

It was at this moment that Barry pulled her into a kiss. “This kiss is to remind you that I’ll always be here beside you, the same as you are with me.” 

He kissed her again. “This one is to remind you that you, Iris West-Allen, are capable of anything that is thrown your way. You will always find a solution.” 

Iris couldn’t help but smile. They had been married for over five years and she didn’t tire of hearing him call her by that name. “I love it when you call me that.” 

Barry grinned. “I love hearing it.”

The parents suddenly heard a thrust from downstairs and padded feet headed towards the kitchen. 

Barry pulled her back into his chest. “I think it’s time you go get washed up for dinner.” 

Iris managed at a laugh. “I guess it is my turn now.” 

Barry placed a kiss on her forehead. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” Iris turned towards their bedroom. “Don’t wait for me.”

Barry gave her a smile. “Take your time. Dinner will be there.” 

Barry headed down the stairs as Iris closed the bedroom door. He realized when she needed a little alone time. She strived so much to make life perfect for their family, and he hated it when it caused her this much stress. He wished she knew that her just being here was perfect enough. 

Iris needed a break before Christmas and he was about to find a way to get her one. 

Part 2 will coming very soon (between later today and tomorrow) Hope you enjoyed Part 1! Gave you something to look forward to lol! 

Here’s a sneak preview: 

Iris still remembered the Christmas in which Barry showed her the house. She remembered imagining the large Christmas tree that struggled to fit in the loft, sitting in front of the living room window. 

As Iris headed down the stairs, she glanced at the Christmas tree that sat in the living room just as she had imagined. …

Iris’s focus shifted from the tree to the lack of lights and people downstairs. 

‘Where was everybody?’ Iris thought to herself. 

She turned the corner to find a trail of candles and rose petals along the floor. 

“Hello, Iris.” 

[tifu-today-i-fucked-up]

TIFU: My Dick ruined our first Christmas

Obviously not today, but I just found this sub so join me down the yellow brick road of Fuck

Context: -I've never been very good with romance. Never bothered getting diagnosed, but aspbergers is the consensus

-First Christmas as a married couple.

-First time moving out on our own, into our own first home

-Pretty much broke, but doing alright. Saved up for Christmas with a strict budget.

-I travel a lot

Wife's birthday is two days after Christmas. She always hated this , cause it takes away from them being two distinct holidays for her. Mine is in June, so I've never had that problem. Don't judge her, imagine rarely getting birthday presents growing up, it's a thing with her and I'm fine with it.

We just bought our first house together, in fact, had just moved out of parents house to be on our own for the first time ever. You never realize how much shit you need on your own. We were missing boring, but vital things.

So, being the fucking romantic and practical man I am, I think ahead and decide I'm gonna make this her best Christmas ever. I start listening to occasional hints like -"Fuck this broom, we need a damn vaccum" -"Fuck, we don't own an ironing board and now I can't wear this wrinkly shirt" -" I really wish you didn't have to leave on your business trip" (idk how the hell to type that in a sexual tone, she wanted sex, I was late for a flight, happened frequently) -"I need new clothes" -about a dozen more little hints in the months leading up

So obviously, I put everything from the little hints list in my Amazon cart, but it doesn't feel like much. Stupid little presents, nothing satisfying. Aha! She wanted a fancy Dyson vacuum! Add to cart. And an ironing board! Add to cart. I leave everything in cart and wait, in case something catches my eye in real life.

I noticed a sex shop by our house and stop in cause hey why not, this is the first time in our lives we are truly free to do whatever we wanted in our own home. Wandering around, I found the thing that would ruin Christmas:

a DIY Cock replica dildo mold kit . It's perfect. She doesn't own any sex toys, She misses me when I'm gone, and what could possibly be better than having a part of me there. Also I thought it was hilarious, would be a great joke. And kinda kinky in case it goes over as better than a joke. But damn, it was like 50 bucks.

Now it's getting close to shipping deadlines so I revisit the Amazon cart. Total was way too expensive, so sacrifices had to be made. Vacuum and ironing board take top priority, the camera she wanted dropped to third place, but still a substantial pile of gifts she will love. Fuck, I forgot her fucking birthday in the budget. Again. She loves shopping , and gave me shit about last year when I spent all my cash on Christmas and only got her a card for birthday.

I'm terrible with picking clothes to begin with, so I split my budget in half, put half on a Nordstrom gift card so she can enjoy birthday shopping, and now my grand pile of Amazon items has to be culled. Necklace? Sorry, delete. Camera? Nah, stay practical, she doesn't use the crappy one she has. Should I swap this for a knockoff cheaper Dyson vacuum? Nah, that would suck, keep that. I made the presents fit in my (suddenly much smaller, and minus 50$) budget.

Christmas morning, she got up before me, made breakfast and snuck a ton of presents for me under the tree. I immediately realize my fuckup. She managed to work within our budget and get a ton of really sweet, thoughtful gifts.

I got her an ironing board, a vacuum, and a DIY cock mold dildo kit.

I hold my breath, certain that she's gonna just up and Lorena Bobbitt me in the living room then divorce me. The most awkward silence settles on us as she realizes that no, this wasn't a joke, and no, she isn't getting anything else. I let out a long sigh... "I think I fucked up..."

It took a year or two for her to be able to laugh about it.

Yes, we did eventually make a copy of my dick, yes, it's fucking weird looking at it, and no, she's absolutely not into it even a little bit. But lots of "go fuck yourself" puns from her for all eternity. I found a keeper.

TL;DR: Forgot to budget for wife's birthday, cut list of gifts down to an ironing board, a Vacuum and a dildo copy of my Dick thinking I was being romantic. Can confirm, was not romantic.

submitted by /u/_Tigglebitties [link] [comments]

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 1971

today started with me waking up too early because i had a gas bubble at the top of my stomach that was excruciating, so i went back and forth between rooms, walking, rocking, bouncing, blah blah blah, until i got fed up, wrapped myself in a blanket, and went downstairs, where i did just about the same things. eventually the bubble disappeared, for which i was grateful, and then from there my mom and i went about our day.

we went to the candy store in wilton, we went to the grocery store, we stopped for lunch, and then we returned home and she made soup and started cookies while i took a shower and a break for a while.

i helped with the gingerbread cookies and i made a wreath out of the leftover dough, and then we wound up dipping the cookies on frosting a little bit. we had dinner when chelsea and james came over, and we decorated the tree and i took the honor of the annual reading of "'twas the night before christmas." after the first few pages i was told to do different accents for each page. so i did. my personal favorites were the irish and texan accents i did. also russian. i like accents.

anyway, once they left, mom and i did stuff for christmas. we filled the stockings first. this year, like a lot of other years past, my momma's stocking was empty. i've been good in the last few years about making sure mom always has things in her stocking, but with her new diagnosis of being prediabetic, she can't eat all the sugar like the rest of us can, so not only was i super busy and wicked distracted, i also forgot about it almost entirely.

now i know my mother. if given the choice between getting a thing versus receiving an act of service, she would pick the latter. she's always been a "do something for me" person instead of a "get me something" person.

knowing this, and knowing my shortcoming in not filling her stocking, when mom and o went back into the kitchen, i plopped myself on the floor after finishing the dishes and scrubbed the faces of the cabinets. i know having them gross is something that stresses her out, and i wanted to do something for her to help relieve some of her stress. she was appreciative of it, but i still knew i needed to do something else.

by the time mom went upstairs, it was around 10:15 or something. i had checked the Internets™ earlier and it said walgreens was OPEN until midnight and i was SO EXCITED so i went to walgreens and got a bunch of stocking stuffers for my momma. i came home to my papa watching hallmark movies after just having finished wrapping his gifts, so i showed him my spoils and then went to work wrapping my gifts.

(earlier in the day i had gone to lowe's to get another batch of the silver and gold bulbs to finish decorating the yonder, and i wound up getting a wreath for the front door, bulbs for the yonder, bulbs for the tree, anti-skid pads for the furniture in the yonder, and amazon gift cards for both of joel's brothers as christmas gifts. everybody i encountered was super kind and helpful and cheerful and i was so happy. plus everything christmas was 50% off already, so that helped too.)

i finished wrapping my gifts around 1:40 this morning. i finished watching my movie at 2, which i had kept on in the background to keep some noise and energy awake, and then i grabbed all the gifts is wrapped for my family and brought them into the other room to organize the gifts beneath the tree, like usual. i filled my mom's stocking the rest of the way. she's going to be so surprised!! and i completely set up the living room in preparation for the morning, loot boxes and trash bag and everything.

and having done all of that, i'm now in bed, it's 4am, and my tummy is being awful and i have heartburn. rad.

also i am really excited to spend tomorrow with joel's family. i've never had someone to celebrate christmas with like this, and i'm very excited to see the reactions of everyone for the gifts i got them and made for them. and, by the way, lisa's scarf looks amazing and it's so soft.

i'm excited to see them tomorrow.

[captainnickjohn-blog]

Hold My Beer. I Need a Career.

Forgive me, I'm a sucker for stupid rhymes.

I normally really don't enjoy bringing attention to myself, but for my first blog post, I wanted to, well....bring attention to myself.

Specifically, I wanted to write about my interest in beer. You might be wondering, "yea, who isn't interest in a beer right now?", or just straight up, "how is that even an interest?"

Well, over the last couple years I've spent time reading books, watching videos, visiting places, speaking with experts, all about beer. It’s something I've appreciated learning more about and I wanted to discuss how this interest has brought me to where I am today. This is an exercise in reflection for me. For you, there are some insights about me as well as some decent photos of beer!

I'll be examining how my beer interest came about and how I threw myself into it. I'll also talk about how I hoped to take this interest and turn it into something of a career. Finally, some thoughts about where my head is now and how my goals may have altered, but not eliminated something that I really enjoy.

Also just FYI, it's been really f**king hot outside. Let this post be a reminder to cool off with a delicious, cold pint. *insert wink face*

Beer Beginnings

It was September of 2016, I was a line cook at Jack Astor’s and I just got moved up to becoming a server. Moving from a line cook position to serving was a lot to take in all at once: learning the steps of good service, carrying three full plates at a time (took a lot of trial and error, and hungry irritated guests), and learning all of the different specialty drinks and beers.

At that time, Jack Astor's had over 20 draught taps and already I was wondering, "how on Earth am I going to remember all of these?" As luck would have it, the restaurant decided to add an additional 20 taps to their repertoire, which made me double down with, "Seriously, how on EARTH am I going to remember all of these??"  

Memorizing the names of all the beers was one thing, but retaining every beer's style, flavour profile, aroma, and attitude (I’m kidding, that's not a thing) were daunting to me. My solution: I had to learn about beer!

Back then, I was only drinking classics like Canadian or Budweiser; if it were hot enough I'd even go for a Kronenbourg Blanc or a Shock Top, but for me, that was a bit of a rarity. Hell, I honestly didn't even know that beer was broken up into two categories: ales and lagers, maybe YOU didn't even know that!

So to tackle this problem of mine, I took the time to watch several beer videos and look at beer infographics. Once I felt I knew about enough about the foundations of beer, I went back to the Astor's 40+ draught beer menu and guess what - it took WAY less time than I'd thought to remember all of the beers!

My work was done; I knew all 40+ beer taps and their styles, and I could even somewhat comfortably talk about the beers’ tastes to guests (with a pinch of BS). However, the more I spoke about beer at work and after reflecting on the beer learning I had done, I had the realization that I genuinely LOVED learning about beer. That whole process for me was actually kind of a blast. 

While writing this part I've thought about a time before this where I had a blissful learning experience, and I completely blanked. That was very telling to me. So, I figured I should commit myself to learn more about beer.

To get started, I ordered the mother of all beer books from Amazon, "The Oxford Companion to Beer." Given the size and scale of it, I prefer to call it The Holy Beerble:

P.S. I am aware I don't keep a very neat workspace, coffee stains and all.

Over 800 pages of diligent research on almost every single thing about beer that you could imagine. Beer countries? No problem. Beer styles? Yup. Beer history? Child's play. That one famous beer guy who did that one famous beer thing? It’s in there. This encyclopedia was amazing. The sheer amount of research done to create this is absolutely astounding. Even today, I will read through it and continue to make notes. I even ordered a couple more books on beer:

This was fun for me. I didn't mind taking the time to learn more about something I ACTUALLY liked.

Committing to the 'Craft'

Work at Astor’s was slowing down going into the winter of 2017. By then, I would casually read beer articles online or look through some of my beer books. Beer is a fun subject to learn about and share with others. That said, I felt that it was time I should try making my own beer! I knew a solid amount about the beer-making process already i.e. the mash, the boil, fermentation, bottling, etc., and I felt I should apply what I know to make something of my own. Maybe I could impress friends and family, save money on buying beer from the LCBO or The Beer Store, and it would add another layer to this new hobby of mine.

I figured a brewing kit would be my next subsequent Christmas gift to myself, so what I did was start simple: a 1-gallon starter kit, 10 empty beer bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, other miscellaneous brewing equipment, and some 2-row barley and Cascade hops.

Homebrewing and commercial brewing are different behemoths, and I knew more about the commercial brewing process. That wasn't really going to help me here because I didn't have 50+ hectolitre tank to brew beer in, so I had to watch a few YouTube instructional home brewing videos to get in the right mindset.  

I was eager to brew my first batch: a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) pale ale. A super simple recipe to start with that would ideally lead to a nice tasting beer. For those who don't know, brewing beer require ALOT of both patience and (ugh) cleaning. Literally, I spent over half of my time brewing just cleaning all of the equipment again and again. Any sort of impurity, big or small, is enough to completely ruin a batch of beer. I already respected brewing as an art form, but I learned more about how difficult it really is to make delicious beer that adheres to a certain style. After a 6-hour brew day plus a few weeks of fermentation, this was the result:

Aesthetically, it's a nice looking SMaSH beer, right?! But the taste....let's just say the taste did not match the look. This was a very important lesson in detecting off-flavours in a beer. There was plenty of them.

I didn't get discouraged; I crafted a chocolate maple porter that tasted pretty solid as well as a decent red ale. Despite my improvements with small batches of beer, I really had a difficult time seeing myself get too serious about it. For one thing, I didn’t always have enough room to fit 10-12 bottles of beer in my fridge. Imagine I start making 5-gallon batches that can yield over 50 bottles of beer, where the hell would I put all that? And if I ruined the batch? That’s a hell of a lot of waste. So, I decided I’d stick with learning and not doing. 

YouTube videos and books are great and all, but it's helpful to have a more hands-on learning experience. Enter Prud'homme - a Canadian beer education program with 4 levels of certifications, the top one being "Level 4 - Beer Sommelier."

Prud'homme Level 1 was a lot of fun, and while I knew the lion's share of introductory beer knowledge, the class gave me, even more, to think about. It was a group of 10 in my class (including myself), and each class we were given different styles of beer to try. Up until then, I never really kept any actual notes of the beers I've had, but in class, we would dissect a beer's taste, mouthfeel, finish, colour, clarity, and additional info.

The longer I was in the class, the more I realized that I preferred talking about a beer's characteristics over brewing the beer myself. I'd bought and read all these beer books, I've experimented with brewing, and now I've worked towards my Level 1 Beer Enthusiast certification; clearly, there's something here for me to dive into. I'd been out of school for over a year by that point, and here was this interest of mine that I'd spent time on.

I thought to myself that I should take this more seriously and try to shape this newfound passion of mine into the beginnings of a career.

The Pursuit of Hoppiness

That nugget of internal thinking actually helped influence my decision to apply for a postgraduate degree. Before this, I'd been glancing at different school programs in London, Waterloo, Toronto, etc., but it was mostly looking at programs that might complement my Criminology degree i.e. social work.

If I'd taken this strongly to learning about beer, how can I apply that interest and start a career? I did some thinking over a couple of weeks and ultimately, I decided that getting into marketing could be an excellent opportunity to pursue my interest. Not to mention that marketing is a very versatile degree that would open a lot of doors for me.

I liked the idea of being able to help out the little guy (small-scale craft/micro-brewers) over becoming a cog in the wheel of the bigger beer corporations. Ultimately, I found my way to the George Brown College Digital Media Marketing program web page. It checked off a lot of points on my program criteria list: 1-year in length, a good distance from London, learning all about digital tools used in the workplace, and a semester of work experience!

Getting Forked

Now that I'd made a decision to pursue marketing that could lead to a gig marketing beer, I figured I should find some REAL work experience of being in a brewery.

First and foremost was trying to get a job at Forked River Brewing Company. By then I had met and developed a solid rapport with a few of their staff, and eventually, it led to me landing a job there!  

In mid-March, I was hired to help in different areas around the brewery. Sometimes the bosses needed me to work retail or within the brewery, it really depended on the demand of that week. My main goal was to get a very clear idea of how a brewery operates and about their approach to marketing.

On the retail side, I would talk with customers about the beer, sharing with them all of the traits of the beers. There were also other run-of-the-mill retail tasks like handling the cash register, stocking the shelves, or just making sure that people don't steal any beer.

During my time in the brewery itself, I would mostly help the brewmasters with canning (so. many. f***ing cans.) and filling up kegs, but I was also given a chance to help with the actual brewing. I'd go in twice a week early in the morning and work for about 5-6 hours. What I enjoyed the most was the very relaxed atmosphere compared to my time at Astor's. Both were fun, but for entirely different reasons.

I was even given a chance to work a couple of beer festivals around London and in Sarnia. Those days were the most fun because I could speak about the beers with confidence and encourage festival-goers to try our stuff. Overall, I had a great time over at Forked River and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.

George Brown Ale

Before I knew it, September came along and I was starting my program at George Brown. It felt weird to be back in school but I was excited to be taking this step towards a new career. In order to keep my mind fresh on everything beer, I got a job as a bartender at Biermarkt Don Mills; they've got 150+ beers including draught and bottles. Weekends were my game, closing bar Friday through Sunday (goooood times).  They were kind enough to give me another beer book that doubled as an employee handbook:

This new program was looking to be a great fit. It's worth noting though that I had spent a lot of my internship search on breweries or beer distribution companies. I wasn't having much luck with that until the next best thing came along - My Wine Canada, a wine/spirits marketing and sales company right down the street from my school building.

Was it beer? Nope. But it's the next best thing.

And also, wine's pretty great! The role itself was "Digital Marketing Manager", very expensive-sounding, right?

What enticed me about it was this internship would give me as close a perspective of what it's like to handle the marketing for beer as I could get. I was setting up social media content calendars, editing and creating photo content, writing wine blogs, drafting weekly emails, and coming up with catchy and funny captions.

Seeing the Bigger Pitcher

The funny thing is, after spending four months with My Wine Canada, I wasn't as certain about wanting to find a marketing job related to beer. Oddly enough, I spent so much time obsessing about finding a job just like it, that I forgot to really sink my teeth into marketing. I was surprised to find that I really liked learning about marketing. Made me reflect (again) on what I was doing.

In my final semester, I've wondered about whether or not my priorities were as straight as they should have been. For most of this program, I've been so narrowly focused on finding a marketing job involving craft beer that I may have completely missed other great opportunities. I don't want that to happen going forward, so I'm taking that into account and keeping an open mind without losing sight of why I got into this program in the first place. Beer is a hobby that's going to stick around in my life and because of it, I have gotten involved in great things and introduced me to some amazing people, and I wouldn't trade that away.

[jooniebeom]

50 questions tag

tagged by @wonpilism thank u!!

1. what takes up too much of your time? work

2. what makes your day better? playing overwatch with my friend jesse, driving and listening to music

3. what’s the best thing that happened to you today? nothing really stood out about today???

4. what fictional place would you like to go? im gonna stick with your lotr theme and say rivendell

5. are you good at giving advice? i don’t think so, i suck at thinking of things to say

6. do you have any mental illness? idk but i’ve been depressed and dealing with anxiety for a little over a year now :///

7. have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? yes and it SUCKS. but always in this house i would help my bf watch for a family friend that they thought was haunted

8. what musician inspired you the most? probably green day

9. have you ever fallen in love? yes

10. what’s your dream date? i..don’t really have one

11. what do others notice about you? if i’m at work, my name..everyone has to bring up amazon ‘alexa’

12. what is the annoying habit you have? idk, maybe cracking my knuckles?

13. do you still talk to you first love? nope idk if my previous relationships would even count tbh

14. how many ex’s do you have? 4...3 of them were less than a week :///

15. how many songs are on your playlist? i’m lazy and just go off of what spotify makes for me. i used to have a playlist for writing but i haven’t written in 2 years??

16. what instruments can you play? none

17. who do you have the most pictures of? my parents

18. where would you like to go before you die? i wanna take my mom to england :)

19. what is your zodiac? leo

20. do you relate to it? not really, in some instances yes but i only relate to my zodiac if you take all the other signs into account

21. what is happiness to you? being comfortable with how i’m doing in life, living somewhere i can have a new experience every day

22. are you going through anything right now? oh yea

23. what’s the worst decision you’ve ever made? staying in az when my parents moved back to the east coast. i made the decision for stupid reasons that i thought i wanted and now i can’t make myself get up and leave even though my parents would help me move at a moment’s notice

24. what’s your favorite store? i agree target is!! amazing

25. what’s your opinion on abortion? pro-choice

26. do you keep a bucket list? no

27. do you have a favorite album at the moment? want

28. what do you want for your birthday? idk yet, probably gift cards :///

29. what are most peoples first impression of you? that i’m quiet

30. what age do you seem according to most people? around 20

31. where do you keep your phone while you’re sleeping? on my bed next to me

32.what word do you say the most? ‘just’, idk why

33. what’s the oldest age you would date? 4 years older (28)

34. what’s the youngest age you would date? 1 yr younger (23)

35. what job/career do most people say would suit you? no one’s ever said lol

36. what’s your favorite music genre? metal but i love everything!!

37. if you could live in any country in the world, where would it be? there’s a few, but germany. i miss it a lot

38. what is your current favorite song? ‘say my name’ by ateez

39. how long have you had this blog for? 2 or 3 years i think, my old one since 2011 probably

40. what are you excited for? nothing really??

41. are you a better talker or listener? listener

42. what is the last productive thing you did? pay off a huge bill

43. what do you want for christmas? to be home

44.what class do you get the best grades in? english classes, some science classes

45. on a scale from 1-10, how are you feeling right now? 4

46. what can you see yourself doing in 10 years? i can’t even think that far ahead right now tbh, hopefully not stuck in the same position i’m in now

47. when did you get your first heartbreak? sophomore year in high school

48. at what age do you want to get married? i wanted to be married and have kids at a younger age, around 25-27 but now??? no idea, i don’t think i’d even be ready at 28

49. what career did you want to have as a child? i think a vet lol

50. what do you crave right now? progress, to be with my family, get my life started

[ravenbara]

Witchy wishlist 2018

Seattle area, WA, USA

Welp.... I meant to make this weeks ago.... But anyway!

1) amazon list!

2) anything and everything related to my critters. Art, gushing, sharing positive things that they make you think of. My babes are Harry the Siamese cat, Momo the pineapple green cheek conure (small parrot) and Zodi the standard green cheek conure (she plucks and is very fluffy). I did have Boris the greater jardine parrot but he passed away a little over a year ago. But I have a shrine space for him and he is still part of my little family.

3) crafting supplies!! I am running low on fiber to spin and want to crochet more on the bus (all my crochet projects are too big for bus work right now) if someone wanted to have yarn I spun or a scarf or hat or something I made I would do it at cost for you! Just get me the materials and pay for shipping and I can make most small crocheted or handspun things no problem!

4) tell me about your pets! I freaking love animals, the ones with naturally no legs wig me out a tiny bit in person but I'm getting better and the ones with more than 4 legs still are a little uncomfortable for me to look at but I would still love stories about your babes!

5) tell me about what you make! Your art, your craft, your job, whatever you create that makes you happy.

6 ) things related to my patron deity, Hephaestus are always welcome. I have very little currently representing him on my altar. Even art I can print would be amazing.

7) divination sessions are always fascinating to me. Doesn't matter what your tool is (I currently use decks and dice and just recently got my first pendulum) so some kind of reading would be amazing!

8) happy media suggestions are awesome! I love critical role currently but my brain isn't always up to how sad it can get. I no longer watch more serious and dark crime shows but I love musicals and silliness. I also like cartoons and Ghibli style anime but even music recommendations are welcome.

9) help me pay for the rest of my newest spinning tool? It is $95 for everything I could possibly want on this Kickstarter and I already have one ordered and got $50 for the holidays from a friend but the remaining $45 I can technically manage but would be a comfier budget if it was covered for me.

10) gifts for my babies! They each have their own stocking (not that they really care but I do) and each babe has one thing so far in their stocking. But I don't get paid again till after Christmas so that one thing per critter might be all they get this year. Ask for limitations if you want to get them things, they and I can be picky about what they are allowed to have (no feathers for the cat, no bells or mirrors for the birds, etc)

11) comfy work shoes. I work on my feet doing retail work, after this winter my work shoes will be toast.

12) anything that can reduce my fibromyalgia pain. Even if it sending money for meds or a massage or something

13) seriously commission me to make you something!!! That is one of the things that will make ma happiest!

[radillusion]

12.24.18 10:27 pm

im always alone during christmas :(

anyway

i just won $80 on our family’s bingo game

i got a $50 amazon gift card from my brother’s gf

i got a jack johnson vinyl record and urban outfitter’s 30 day challenge from my secret santa (aka my friend/coworker)

i got some lotion and chocolate from my friend/coworker

i got hand creams, toiletries, skin care stuff from church people

and i think my other friend/coworker has a gift for me tomorrow still

oh yeah, i have work tomorrow even though it’s christmas ://

[pbandjesse]

It's been such a nice Christmas Eve. I finally felt like I was actually on vacation. For the most part. I don't have to be anywhere or do anything that I didn't want to do. We can just move slowly.

I slept well last night. I woke up a couple times but mostly just cuz I was thirsty. I got up at 9 and I felt okay. Got washed and dressed. And then I hung out my room until mom was ready at 10.

We went to Friendly's for breakfast. Turns out from this Monday through Thursday during breakfast is always 50% off. So our entire meal was $12. That was cool. It was nice just hanging out too. Talking and laughing. It was good.

We went over to Sally Beauty First. I picked up hair dye. I'm going for a more red purple look this time. I'm going to do that tomorrow night. We left there and try to wander over to Habitat for Humanity but they were closed on Mondays. Oh well. We got back in the car and we went over to the Goodwill. We had very good luck there.

I got a great new blanket. Because that's what I needed in my life. I also got another pair of clogs which have break in the heel but still very comfortable. I'm going to have to fuss with them a little bit but very cute. We looked through all the stuffed animals to try to find three similarly-sized bears to get to Steve's kids. We actually found three Build-A-Bears. But the one was kind of dingy so we switched out for a pink bear. I also found a stuffed animal for sleepy and had a fun time looking around. I got a couple small things. A new sweater and I'm going to work at the Christmas party on Friday. And I got a cast iron heart baking tray. I grabbed a couple things and put them back. But mostly I just had a good time looking around and taking pictures of things and laughing at stuff with Mom.

We went over to the other side of the parking lot to go to Target. I got some of the home good stuff I needed. I wanted to find a new cup to replace the one I had smashed the other day. And the one I got I really like. It's silver. And it has a weird neon green or yellow straw. That's probably my least favorite part but it's leak-proof and it's the same brand and if I drop it it will not explode. And worst case I can paint the neon parts. It's not the worst.

We were going to also get groceries while we were there but they were short on a couple things that I wanted so we left and we went to Redner's.

I was running out of steam but we got the groceries we needed. I got some laughs from some of the others customer it's because I kept throwing things in the cart from too far away. We paid and we headed home.

When we got back here we unpacked and then I spent the next hour and a half working on lesson plans. I could not for the life of me remember where the list of terms they need to learn our. So I was very annoyed with myself. But I did get the first 4 weeks kind of mapped out. The lesson plans aren't exactly done but they're on their way. I will for sure finish at least some more of that tomorrow. And then I'll start a couple more. I would like to get the six done before the end of the week.

Around 3 I went to my room and lay down for a bit. I didn't nap but I did watch some videos and play on my phone. At 4:30 everyone started getting dressed and we got out of here pretty quickly relatively speaking.

Dad made a reservation at Bonefish Grill. I have never been but the men you didn't really seem promising. At least vegetarian wise. But I kind of just wanted a salad. So it worked out for me. We went and it was really really nice.

We all eat too much bread. Dad spilled olive oil all over the table. I got a Cobb salad that has avocado and kale and it was very good. That also got an appetizer that I ate the lettuce for an appetizer that was good too. Food was really good and it was nice talking to my parents. My brother texted me while we were at dinner and we're going to see him tomorrow. But I did invite him and his girlfriend to come to Baltimore to see me and be a tourist. I hope he takes me up on it.

And we all got dessert which was way too much. He had already eaten too much food. And the chocolate thing I got was a little too much chocolate. But we were full and happy and tired. Where did over the live nativity so we can all have some animals. The goats and the Sheep were butting heads and it was very cute. We went in the church to take a picture with the Christmas tree. Pastor woman was very sweet but did not know how to take pictures. But that was fine. It was just nice being altogether.

We are back here and Mom put the clothes in the dryer so I could dry my clothes that I had washed earlier in the day. And then we all got together to open presents.

I got to go first. I got a dapping set for a jewelry making. Which is going to be great once me and James moved to a new place. I'm just going to work on collecting my jewelry making stuff and cleaning up the stuff I already have since I can't really make metal jewelry in the space I am now since my floor is tile and I will break it if I try to hammer anything on it. I also got some rose petal bath salts and a cool metal anchor. I also got 12 boxes of pasta salad. My favorite kind of pasta salad. So he's very excited about that.

They also gave me some money and that that went towards the jacket in the jeans I got yesterday. Plus I was able to buy a couple of the things on my Amazon shopping list like the tea diffuser and purse I have had my eye on. So overall a really good Christmas.

Mom and Dad open all their gifts next. They really liked the things I got them. And then they both opened the why I love Mom and why I love Dad books I had filled out. I made mom cry. That's an accomplishment. We try to do that every year. I'm glad that they really appreciated hearing from me. They are very important to me and they are very good parents.

After everyone opened their gifts I remember James had left one for me to open why he wasn't here. And it was the deer we had looked at on Amazon a few weeks back that reminded me of toy act when I was a kid. He also wrote a very cute note to go along with it. The deer does make me laugh though because it has a very uneven shoulders. He's very soft and we have named him Cupid. Because of love and stuff.

I hung out in the living room with them for a while. But now I'm in bed. Surrounded by about 12 blankets. Of varying softness. I'm going to go to sleep soon and tomorrow we're going to have a really chill Christmas. We're going to go visit my brother at lunch time. And then we're going to come home. And I'm going to work on lesson plans. And I'm going to lay around and do nothing. And then me and Mom are going to make dinner. I hope to watch a Muppets Christmas Carol and just enjoy a nice day. I hope you all do as well weather you celebrate or not. Good night everyone. Merry Christmas.

[melyzard]

Solar Stuff

Hey @sleepykalena, here’s the list/info dump I said I’d put together for you. So like I mentioned, my spouse and I are big into things that save money without reducing comfort, because my in-laws aren’t well off but won’t accept any other form of help from us aside from small gifts and information. Also, we are both big into environmentalism, given how we’ve both seen shit like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or the plastic island that is bigger than Mexico floating out there around Taiwan. (There is a reason the US Navy has launched the Great Green Fleet and has started building vast solar arrays on bases - too many of us have looked out the ship portal (or the cockpit) and seen this shit and done a collective body shudder. Also: cheaper.)

So yeah, we’re big into lightening the load both environmentally and financially. Here’s some of the solar gadgets we use to charge our phones, ipad, and various small devices that have cut about a third off our power bill (you never realize how much those phones are sucking every night!):

We have two methods that we’ve tried (because Spouse is big into experimenting with these things, and a lot of his “hobby” part of our budget goes into this stuff....nerd): 

First method, battery packs with solar panels built in. His fave is the Hiluckey solar charger/battery ($20 Amazon, seen it on ebay as low as $10). The nicer, more expensive version is the Creative Edge solar charger ($57 Amazon), which has a higher capacity and charges up a little faster (but consider the weather where you live: is lack of sun a problem?).

Spouse likes this one because he can throw it on the porch or something, and then plug his phone in and it’s really light weight, withstands weather, etc. Personally, I think it’s a bit weak (as in, my phone eats through it too fast, but then I use a lot of apps and shit). Plus, it tends to lose it’s charge over time if not used quickly. That’s not an issue for him, because he is constantly charging something. (I still don’t like it as much, but the Hiluckey is the cheapest and least work-intensive solution).

My favorite method, and the one that we use most, is putting out small solar panels attached to regular battery packs, and then just using the battery pack when needed. The best panels that we’ve found are the Nekteck 20w solar charger ($50 Walmart, Amazon), which Spouse leaves it out in the yard, actually. It typically only takes a couple hours to fill 1 battery so he’ll swap it out and fill 2 or even 3 if he’s really paying attention and the sun is good. If you don’t want quite that much, or even if you want slightly more, we use the X-Dragon solar panels, which come in 7 different sizes/prices from $19-$100. The much smaller version (that still works really well) is the Levin SolPad Travel Charger, ($23 Amazon) which we’ve had for 2 years and it works like a charm. 

The batteries I like best for this set up are the EO Technology power bank ($32 Amazon, $34 Best Buy) (I love these so much that people keep giving them to me for holidays, so now I have like 6 and it’s awesome. I haven’t plugged anything except my laptop into the wall in ages, and that’s only because my laptop is a greedy pig and I use it for everything.) But Spouse also loves these TYLT micro-usb power packs ($22 Amazon, sometimes they are at Target for $20). He thinks they are really good power packers for being so lightweight and easy to carry around. I stick with the big batteries though, because I have lots of huge pockets and don’t care if they are heavy - and like I said, my phone eats through power like a champ.

Those are the products that have served us well and aren’t really super expensive. I did let him get a solar generator for Christmas, and we put solar panels on our house for the water heater which reduced our gas bill to $10/mo, which is really, really nice. Plus, big shit like that gets you a tax cut from the government, so it often ends up paying for itself really quickly. So if you (or anyone reading this) ever wants to know more about that whole process, hit me up. In the meantime, I’m going back to laughing at Spouse as he tries to take one of the not-as-good solar batteries together to figure out how they work, because he’s convinced he can reverse engineer and build his own for even cheaper. Again - nerd. 

Hope any of this is useful in some way!

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: A guest contribution from David Hoes to The Prepper Journal. I love this. Goes well as a supplement to the recent post on Prime Locations for Post Disaster Salvage. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share then enter the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.

Okay, I admit it. I am a scrounger. I don’t do it out of necessity; I do it because I enjoy getting a bargain and building my prepping stockpiles. Now, I need to clarify that I do not steal things. I do not take towels from hotels or silverware from restaurants. I do not find and keep items such as wallets, credit cards, or electronic devices that can be traced to an owner. I do not keep anything that someone is likely to try to reclaim. Such items I will turn in somewhere. If I see someone drop something, I will tell them.

I’m also not going to discuss using coupons or discounts. These are both good ideas, but have already been covered.

That said, I do take items that are unlikely to ever get back to their original owner, and things that I am allowed to take or that are come with something I have purchased. If in doubt – I ask. Here are some ideas:

Personal protective equipment: Most hospitals and some doctor’s offices now offer free respirators to visitors. I’ve picked-up several of these. Protective gloves are often available in the ER or in patient rooms, and some give-out small bottles of hand sanitizer. I have a little psoriasis on my hands, and they are happy to give them out. In the quantities a hospital purchases them, they are almost free.

Wipes and anti-bacterial solution: Doctor’s offices and medical facilities often have solutions or wipes available for free. They bill your insurance $150 for a few minutes with a doctor. They don’t sweat the little stuff. Heck, ask your doctor for appropriate medical samples while you are at it. You never know what you may get.

Gauze, wipes, Band-Aids, and surgical tape: I have asked if I could take a few gauze pads, alcohol wipes, and mostly used rolls of tape when I have gone to labs and imaging facilities. They are normally okay with it.

Salt, pepper, sugar, condiment packets, and straws: These all have survival and medical uses. Grab a few each time you go to a fast-food place. During the depression in the 1930’s, those down on their luck would go to a diner and order a cup of hot water for a few cents. They would then add ketchup and other condiments to make a sort-of tomato soup. There is actually enough vitamin C in a few packs of ketchup to prevent scurvy. Is this stealing? If taken in reasonable quantities, I do not believe so. If I order a cup of coffee, part of the price I pay goes to cream and sugar. My ex used to take her coffee with 4 creams and 4 sugars. I do not use either, so I do not think taking one or two of each is stealing. Now, taking a handful? Yes. That is stealing. Asking for salt and condiments at a drive through? Nope. What they put in the bag is yours.

Soaps and shampoos: Yes, in a motel I take what they put in my room. I do not consider it stealing; I believe that I have paid for it and can take it. When I or a loved one is in the hospital, I take whatever they give as well. Hospital staff has told me on numerous occasions that insurance paid for it and if I don’t take it they will throw it out. Also, many hotels provide courtesy tooth brushes, tooth paste, and combs upon request. If they give it to you, it isn’t stealing, even if you don’t really need it. But no, I don’t take towels or rolls of toilet paper.

Candles at church: Many churches toss-out candles after one or two uses, and may give-away the used ones for free if you ask. Although some now use propane or natural gas simulated candles, those that still use candles tend to use ones of very high quality. Small stubs can be melted down and used to create larger candles. My church had a Christmas Eve service where everyone was given a candle to hold. They were lit for about 10 minutes and not reused. Hundreds of good candles were thrown out.

Community events: Where I live, they have several free community disaster planning, home and garden, and wellness events each year. They give-out items such as samples of seeds, dental floss and toothbrushes, band aids, energy bars, bottled water, samples of vitamins, water bottles, and other swag. At one event, the first 50 people through the door got a bag with some very nice stuff.

Food banks: I have been fortunate enough to have survived without going to one. However, if you are looking to build a small emergency stockpile, why not go and pick-up a few cans of food? They will probably mostly have items near or past the expiration date, but canned food is generally safe to eat long after the expiration date. I have eaten MRE’s and canned foods that were 10 years past their expiration dates and suffered no ill effects. The exceptions are if the can is damaged, in poor condition, or if the can contains acidic products such as tomatoes. Is it wrong to take food from a food bank if you are not immediately facing hunger? I think the answer is, it depends. If you are sufficiently wealthy to purchase your food and have plenty of money to stock-up on prepping supplies, I would say that it is wrong. However, if you can buy all you now need but are unable to afford to purchase a enough for a 72 hour emergency supply of food to see you through a disaster, I would say not. I donate money to food banks, and I give so that people do not go hungry. As a donor, I am not bothered by those who use the food bank to prepare for future hard times.

Wooden Pallets: I live near a business that sells pools and hot tubs, and another that sells paving stones. They dispose of dozens of wooden pallets each week. I have used them to create raised garden beds, for firewood, and for woodworking projects including building a bed frame for a futon.

Road Debris: When I drive, I keep an eye on the shoulder and medians. I frequently find bandannas, bungee cords, tools and knives, Bic Lighters (still good), coolers, storage totes, thermoses, 5-gallon plastic buckets, gas cans, and a variety of other items. Bandanas are my favorite find; I have found 30 or more. Bikers lose bandannas like crazy. Wash and reuse them. They have lots of survival uses. One of my favorite finds took place a few weeks ago. I found a Camillus Titanium folding knife lying in the road. It was a bit scuffed-up and not very sharp, but I cleaned it up, sharpened it, and it has become my EDC knife.

Post-disaster giveaways: Here in Florida, following Hurricane Irma, the County and many different organizations gave-out a lot of food and water to anyone who came by. No questions were asked. A friend of mine got dozens of bags of cookies, boxes of Pringles chips, ten cases of Civilian MRE’s and ten cases of bottled water. It is unfortunate, but the ones who give and the ones who distribute often have very different goals. Churches, civic groups and charities may raise money for 1,000 meals. They want to see 1,000 different people get food. Those who distribute the aid may not care. If one person arrives with a truck that can carry 1,000 meals, they may let them have it all. They don’t want to carry it back at the end of the day. They will report back that the food was distributed and everyone will be happy. Don’t be a pig, but if you can put it to good use, do so.

Free bicycles: I am only speaking about Florida, but I think this is true for other areas. Law Enforcement departments recover a huge number of bicycles that have been abandoned, discarded or stolen and that are not claimed by owners. In some places jail inmates repair them as part of a work program. It is not widely advertised, but there may be periodic giveaways where serviceable bikes are distributed on first come basis. I once had two bikes stolen in a particular county. One of the two was recovered, but I had already replaced it, so I donated it to this program.

Why am I mentioning bicycles? Well, because I believe that in a TEOTWAWKI situation, they may become the most important method of transportation.

Complaining about lousy stuff: I wrote a negative review about a pair of gloves I bought on Amazon. I included a photo clearly showing the defect. They sent me a new pair without making me return the old pair. The old pair went into my preps box.

I have complained about the quality of canned or packaged foods. They sent me coupons for free products. I DO NOT invent complaints to get free stuff. In some cases, the original product was so nasty I did not want coupons for two free ones. That was the case where I bought a can of collard greens that contained a large cockroach. Still, if you pay for a product and you really get something nasty, complain. Then add it to your preps. If SHTF and you have nothing else, you may be willing to risk eating a cucaracha. Even sending a suggestion may earn you a coupon for a free product. I told a company that sells crackers and tuna snacks that the crackers crumbled too easily. They send me a coupon for a free package. I did not lie and I did not steal.

Garbage day: I’m not going to go into the finer points of dumpster diving, but the finds possible on garbage day are incredible. I have changed residences 18 times since leaving High School. Many were interstate moves. When your car and U-Haul are packed to the max and there is still more stuff, you put it on the curb. I once had a Saturn so overloaded it could barely make 50 mph on an Interstate. I left a lot of valuable stuff behind that could have really helped some prepper. If you see a big pile of stuff waiting for the garbage truck, most of it probably still works.

I realize that my suggestions may be distasteful to some. It is much more fun to purchase prepper items from Amazon or WalMart. In America, second-hand, discarded and used are bad words. Nevertheless, if SHTF, scrounging skills will become more valuable than shopping on-line with a credit card skills. And if you have some more ideas, I would appreciate hearing them.

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[rashystreakers]

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/F_cpx8i7H6M

TONGS

Blacksmith Depot: https://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/ not cheap but solid and they sell a wide range of options. Consider a pair of Universal V-bit or some Offset tongs. Expect to spend $50 per set plus shipping.

GSTongs: https://www.gstongs.com/tongs.html these are generally shorter tongs 11”-12” but solid and heavy duty. They are $37 a piece plus shipping.

Ken’s Custom Iron: https://kensironstore.com/ these tongs are super affordable while still being good quality. However, they are not finished. Your blacksmith will have to put their skills to the test to finish these. The upside to that is they can forge them as they need and add to their experience, the downside is they aren’t ready to go right out of the box. Price is $50 for a bundle of 5 sets plus shippin.

Amazon Prime: V-Bit Bolt Blacksmith Tongs - 450mm (18")

HAMMERS

Brent Bailey Forge: http://www.brentbaileyforge.com/ Classic Cross Pein Hammer. Brent makes quite a few hammer types and they are all worth looking at. Most of them are a bit high in price for a low-budget beginner but if you have the cash you should consider purchasing one of his higher end models. If you want the quality and a good all around hammer though his cross pein comes in at $60 plus shipping. It’s a great deal and a great product.

Guildwerks: https://www.guildwerks.com/ They make a beautiful and classic American style rounding hammer. While they are not cheap, this will be a hammer that can be passed down from generation to generation. Hammers start around $250 per hammer.

Hammer Source: https://www.hammersource.com This site stocks all types of hammers. They are generally very affordable like the 1.5 lb Nordic rounding hammers $47 per hammer and the Swedish Pattern Blacksmith Hammer for $49 per hammer plus shipping. If you are looking to save some money but still get a great functioning product check them out.

FORGES

Chile Forge: http://www.chileforge.com/ Arguably one of the best propane forges on the market, they heat hot, fast and evenly. Used by smiths like Jason Knight and David DeLagardelle, you won’t be disappointed in performance. They start at $750 for a one burner and go up from there (plus shipping).

NC Tool: https://www.nctoolco.com/ A mid range forge of good quality and design, this forge is one of the popular forge makers out there. Price starts at $435 for a single burner.

Texas Forges: https://www.facebook.com/jcfuzzzyface47/ They sell a one burner forge starting at $200 and price includes shipping to continental U.S. It’s a solid forge on a budget and may just be what your blacksmith needs to get hot.

Coal Forges: http://www.centaurforge.com/ They have a huge selection of coal forges and they start around $375. They are running specials through the holidays this year.

ANVILS

Centaur Forge: http://www.centaurforge.com/Anvils/departments/141/ This distributer has quite a few options starting at about $300 for a 70 lb anvil and going up from there. The nice thing about Centaur is that they have a $9.85 flat rate shipping fee or free shipping for orders over $375.

Anvil Brand: https://www.anvilbrand.com/shop-categories/anvils/   While they have many of the same options as Centaur they have a few additional brands that may be worth a look if you have a little more jingle this holiday season. JHM Certifier 100 Lb. Anvil

Grizzly Industrial: http://www.grizzly.com/products/300-lb-Anvil/G8150 This anvil is a decent weight and the price is quite nice. Perfect beginner forge. Maybe also get a magnet and a chain with this to help turn down the ringing. Grizzly G8147 Anvil, 55-Pound

DRIFTS, CHISELS & PUNCHES

Tomahawk Drift: Sold by Brent Bailey Forge http://www.brentbaileyforge.com/ , these tomahawk drifts ($110) drifts are made to take a beating. They are forged from tool steel and have a much longer lifespan than a cast iron drift. While you are on his site check out some of his other pieces too, like the basic punch for $45.

Slot Punch: https://www.wateroakforge.com/products/blacksmith-slot-punch?variant=26989971463 The slot punch makes so many projects possible to a blacksmith. Bottle openers, axes, hammers and more will all be possible when your blacksmith has a slot punch at their disposal. Water Oak Forge sells one for $13.50 plus shipping. At that price you might as well buy 2!

Anvil Devil: http://www.piehtoolco.com/contents/en-us/p7195.html These little devils, available from Pieh Tool Co. are little anvil top chisels that can be used to hot cut, mark lines and create texture without having to see if it fits in your blacksmith’s hardy hole (the square hole on the face of the anvil). They are handy and portable cost less than $5. They are perfect for stocking stuffers!

STEEL

New Jersey Steel Baron: http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/shop/product-category/high-carbon-steel/ Okay, most steel from here is sold in 4 foot sections. So you may have to cut it up or give it in a long tube. Maybe start with some 1075, 1084 or something a little more durable like my favorite, W2. On second thought stay away from the W2 so there is plenty left for me ;)

McMaster Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-steel-rods/=1ae9p7r  They sell a decent range of steels and in various sizes. You can get some bar stock W1, the same steel I made my winning Panabas from on Forged in Fire.

Jantz Knifemaking: http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/1502.htm They offer some smaller sized pieces, cheaper for shipping and you can pick up some other handy items from their online store.

FUEL

Propane: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Worthington-Pro-Grade-40-lb-Propane-Tank/3089595 Buy an exchange propane grill tank from a grocery store or gas station. Even if your blacksmith already has one, two is even better! You can also give a gift card to KOA, which refills propane 7 days a week.

Coal: You can order this from Ebay, Blacksmith Depot and Centaur Forge or you can just be bad and hope Santa delivers a big pile on Christmas morning.

Lump Charcoal: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Royal-Oak-100-All-Natural-Hardwood-Lump-Charcoal-4-lbs/54065925 Yes, you can use charcoal, no it’s not the best or cheapest but it’s a good fuel option and lump coal from wood is often sold in grocery stores. Make sure you are not purchasing briquettes as they really mess up the steel, burn cooler and dirtier.

BOOKS, DVDs & LESSONS

Books: The Backyard Blacksmith by Lorelei Sims, The Complete Modern Blacksmithby Alexander Weygers and The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way To Perfectionby Jim Hrisoulas.

DVDs: J. Neilson’s How to... series http://chriscrawfordknives.com/dvds/

Classes: There are many schools and folk schools and bladesmiths that offer classes like Walter Sorrells and Alec Steele who has quite the “okaly dokaly” online course https://beginblacksmithing.com/.

SHOP SUPPLIES

Beeswax: Hansi Beeswax Premium 5 oz> Nothing shines up a freshly forged piece like a bit of wax. You can pick this up at Hobby Lobby and other crafting stores.

Rags: Blacksmith shops are messy places, our hands are dirty and are clothes are dirty, but with some good shop rags we can keep some of that dirt at bay. Shop towels, Perfect for your Shop (14x14) inches, 25 Pack, (Red)

Vinegar: It’s a great product for removing scale. I keep a bucket full at all times in my shop. We buy it in bulk sized containers from Costco. Distilled White Vinegar Jug, 1 gal

Grinder Supplies: Belts, discs and wheels get burned through pretty quickly in a blacksmith shop. A replenished supply at Christmas would go a loooooong way. Just make sure you know what type of equipment you are buying for and that your order will fit. Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Menards are all good places to buy many of these items. 4.5" Angle Grinder Flap Disc 40 Grit - 10 Pack

Soapstone: It’s a fireproof stone that comes in the shape of chalk like sticks that smiths can use to mark their work as they go. They aren’t very expensive and you can find them at just about any hardware store. Flat Soapstone Holder with 7 Flat Professional Quality Soapstone

Wire-brushes: These help us keep the metal clean and free of scale as we work it. We can wear them out rather quickly so we don’t usually turn our nose at them. Also readily available at most hardware stores. Steel Wire Brush

Sandpaper and Steel Wool: Also another item that seems to burn up faster than wood. Even though I have a grinder I still go through packs of 120, 220, 320, 400 and 600 grit sandpaper on a regular basis. I also use my fair share of steel wool, just make sure it’s #0000 Steel Wool #0000 Super Fine

Oils: We use oils for all kinds of things in our shops. From polishing wood to quenching knifes and sanding blades, oil helps us get the job done. Linseed is good for handles, mineral is good for quenching as is vegetable oil and even transmission fluid. Oil is good for darkening steel and giving it a rust protectant coating. Break-Free CLP-2 Cleaner Lubricant Preservative

SAFETY

Gloves: No elastic wrist bands, should be all leather. If married, order them some silicone rings so they are more likely to keep their fingers should a finger related accident occur.

Eye Protection: DEWALT DPG82-11 Concealer Clear Anti-Fog Dual Mold Safety Goggle Get something shock rated, Face Shieldsare a great investment!

Respirators: 3M(TM) Half Facepiece Respirator Assembly 6291/07002(AAD), Medium, with 3M(TM) Particulate Filters 2091/07000(AAD), P100 Blacksmith air is dirty air. Give the gift of healthy lungs this Christmas.

[masterjslave]

Serving DirtySocks

Here is the final part of my Descent into Servitude of DirtySocks. This will detail how I’ve been serving Him since I found Him nearly a year ago.

I’d spend the past few days pleasuring myself to the pics that I’d found of DirtySocks and was looking for a way to thank Him for putting these pics out to the world to sate our footboy foot lust. First, I’d emailed Him to actually just see if I could get in touch with Him and to my complete and utter surprise He responded. So I started messaging Him on Instagram, telling Him how much I loved His pics, how I’d been a fan for a couple of years by that point, all the sappy things that people likely don’t really care to hear all the time like He does.

I had seen that He had an Amazon Wishlist on Instagram so, after a few days of my pathetic flattering not really being worth His time in my mind, I resolved to get Him something from it. Not something terribly expensive but something nonetheless, something of actual substance besides all the empty words. So I bought him some Adidas training pants for about $30, like I said, nothing extravagant.

But over the next 24 hours as I thought about all of the hours of enjoyment I had been given by Him by looking at His perfect feet and the graciousness with which He had handled my idolatry I started to feel like my tribute just wasn’t enough. It was a mere token unequal to the gift I’d received from Him. So I went back to His Wishlist and purchased Him a brand new pair of Timberland boots for about 88 dollars. Together those two purchases were much more adequate. I was so proud of myself that I had to tell Him that I’d gotten Him the boots immediately.

His excitement to see them off of His Wishlist was apparent and I wanted nothing more than for them to arrive, for my tribute to officially be given. I was so excited that I gave Him nearly daily updates on the status of His shipment, I could barely contain myself. He even sent me pics of His feet to enjoy for demonstrating my servitude to Him. It was like being tortured while in heaven, getting to interact with my god while anguishing over the fact He didn’t have His new shoes and pants yet. I was so ready for them to get there that I was already planning what I wanted to get Him next. Before the shoes had even arrived I’d already pledged to start getting Him all of the oldest items on His list and to work up to the newest items with the goal of clearing the entire Wishlist out. We were both so excited by the prospect.

And once His shoes arrived, once it was real, then we were really off to the races. Since I wasn’t able to serve His perfect feet in person I figured I had to serve Him the only way that I really could, I was going to give Him all of the tributes possible. We were talking on a daily basis about how He’d come to know that He was a Dom, realized the true power of His perfect feet. How I’d discovered my desire to serve and to worship Superior Men like Him. How I’d fallen in love with His perfect feet the first moment I laid eyes on them.

During our conversations together I shared everything with Him, bore my soul to Him, all the while paying Him the tribute that He deserved for giving me His attention and allowing me to learn more about Him. For over a month I worked on His Wishlist, my inhibitions about doing what I knew was right diminishing more and more every day. He had a constant stream of packages that were on the way to Him at any given time. I didn’t just clear the whole Wishlist out at once like I really should have but during that short period of time I’d spent nearly $600 on gifts for Him. That was more than I’d spent on my family for Christmas and I’d only introduced myself to DirtySocks less than two months before. I was desperate to serve Him and He gave me every opportunity to do so, not demanding and outright expectant like some other “masters” I’d seen but most definitely enabling. Only He can say for sure but I think He was judging me then to see if I would continue and that it wasn’t just a phase, giving me the latitude to either prove my worth or show myself to be just like every other wannabe footslave that promised the world but never delivered.

But He seemed to find me worthwhile and so, after a time more when I’d finally gotten up the courage to do so, I asked if He wouldn’t mind swapping phone numbers so that we could text and he agreed. We were both tired of the inconsistency of various messengers and I like to think that I’d earned some level of His trust by that time. He’d certainly earned a good deal of trust from me. He never once gave me the impression that He was just a punk or abusive or downright cruel and exploitative like others that I’d seen before. Don’t get me wrong, I can see the appeal of those Doms from time to time but how can you ever fully trust someone that doesn’t know how to take care of their things, doesn’t show that they understand the value of their possessions.

And that’s how I began to think of myself, one of DirtySocks’ possessions. And since I wasn’t able to be owned by Him in person I committed even more to giving to Him. Just a little more than two months into my servitude I transferred money directly to Him for the first time on PayPal: $100. It was absolutely exhilarating. He wasn’t confined to having to find something on Amazon that He wanted so that I would be able to purchase it, He was able to spend it on anything He wanted wherever He was. Then we had decided that I should put a massage parlor membership on my credit card for Him, so that He could enjoy that convenience as well. Then suddenly, shortly thereafter, almost unnoticed I’d finally cleared out all of the items that had been on His Wishlist when I first started serving Him. I hadn’t reached my ultimate goal of clearing the whole thing out but I wasn’t upset because my service had now extended beyond Amazon and we were both ready to make it even more personal.

From that point on I began paying for His day to day expenses. When He would go for drinks, they were on me. When He would get coffee in the morning or get lunch I would get a payment request. The Square Cash app is a wonderful thing. Every time I would hear the cha-ching sound from His newest payment request my fag dick would twitch. I always paid immediately, barely even glancing at the amount I was sending Him, simply tapping “Pay” and being satisfied that I was taking care of His needs.

After a couple of months, we decided that I should start paying down His credit cards as well so I began sending Him even more money directly from my bank account to His this time. We watched in glee (at least I was giddy) as I paid off two of His small credit cards and began working on the last. To make things even easier for Him I even added my checking account to His payment methods and began taking care of all minimum payments that were due automatically. DirtySocks would never have to worry about when His credit card payments were due because they would always come directly out of my checking account automatically each month.

Then I suggested that I start paying Master (by which time I was calling Him regularly since we both knew it was true) a fag tithe each week, a percentage of anything that I spent that would go to Him like a tax. I paid Him 10% for necessities like rent and food and 50% for non-essential items like take-out or movies.

All of this happened in just a few months. Just six months after that fateful first message I was paying for His daily expenses, was paying off His credit cards, and was paying Him fag tithe on everything dollar I spend on myself (which He usually saved or put down on his credit cards). It was the most intense experience that I’d ever had, committing so deeply to serving Him.

But I did falter. I’d seen how my service was affecting my funds and I panicked. Don’t get me wrong, I had thousands of dollars in my checking and savings account still but I hadn’t seen them so low in a long time. I’d actually dropped below $1000 in my checking account and that always sent my into a panic even before I started serving Master. I started to feel like I was out of control and I most certainly was. I couldn’t control myself around Him because my desire to serve Him was simply too great. I wanted to give Him the world and I was already well on the way to giving Him mine. In my panic I did what I’d done many times in the past before to other Masters and I withdrew from Him.

My relative silence dragged on from days into weeks. He asked where I was and if I was ok, which I assured Him that I was, but I served Him and responded to Him only the bare minimum to keep Him from prying too deeply. I never stopped serving Him completely but I contemplated it during that time. And all the while Master gave me space, never demanding, never expectant, just like He’d always been.

He gave me the time I needed to consider everything and to realize that I was being an idiot. Of course I was losing control around Him, that was the fucking point! What the hell did I think being His slave was all about? I wasn’t supposed to be in control of anything, that was His territory. But I hadn’t been completely idiotic and there was some part of my panic which was valid. I’d only first encountered this Man a few months ago and I was in very deep with Him. I’d committed a lot but I still didn’t know whether or not I could trust Him fully.

So, I went back to Him and I apologized and we discussed my fears and what had happened. And just like the gracious Man I know Him to be He listened and He expressed His concern that I hadn’t brought this up with Him earlier. He knew something was wrong and figured out what it was long before I told Him. And that’s when I suggested that we try a regular monthly tribute, always on payday and always for the same amount, demonstrably less than what He was receiving from me now, something that I could plan around (thinking on it now that was me still trying to control the situation a bit). After hearing my proposal, He agreed. We talked about how He didn’t want me to be a desperate, destitute slave but I did need to be desperate for Him and I most certainly was.

Reflecting on my recent internal crisis and the time we’d already spent together I could see that He was a good Man. He didn’t ask for much, at least He never asked for it forcefully, He just wanted my devotion and worship. He’d never tried to destroy me, He’d only ever tried to reshape and mold me into the slave that He wanted me to be. And the slave He saw that I could become was the slave I’d aspired to be. With is handling of me over the past few months and my time of crisis I grew to trust Him even more and I began my Descent into Servitude anew.

This still doesn’t bring me up to the present but I think this is a good place for me to end this series and reflect on the things that I’ve learned throughout my service to Master DirtySocks thus far.

First and foremost is that my Descent will never end. There is always something more that I can and should be doing for my Master. Every time I think that such-and-such a goal will make me feel like a truly owned slave I discover that there is still so much more to do, the target is always moving. But it’s not frustrating as you might imagine, it’s what makes it all worthwhile. I will never be restless as long as I’m exploring the endless depths of my servitude with my Master, whom I truly adore.

Second, it’s a constant struggle to stay on the right path and not try to take control. In my everyday life I need to take control quite often. I’ve also been an autonomous human being all of my life so that’s kinda playing against me. But I know it’s always going to be this way and that’s part of the enjoyment, overcoming my urges to be in control and serving my Master and His needs is an accomplishment. Even if I were to perform my servitude perfectly, do everything perfectly and without instruction, the path to serving Him completely mind and soul is never-ending.

Third, you never stop building trust. As much as Master has demonstrated that He is worthy of it there is always the potential for that trust to be broken, same for me. It can be eroded away by time or by chipping away at it through mistakes made by either party. We have to keep working at it or you’ll trust will falter and how can you give up control to someone if you can’t trust them with that control?

Fourth, I stated it before but it bears repeating over and over again, a good Master takes care of His property, period. If they will abuse and destroy the things that store or bring value to their lives then how can they be trusted with your mind, body, and soul?

I’m always open for questions so feel free to send them my way if you have any. If you enjoyed my story then please tell @dirtysocks009 Himself. Better yet, forego the words and get Him something from His Amazon Wishlist for the both of us.

[365-money-diary]

days 63-69

day sixty-three [mar. 5]

8:00 am - Notice my tax refund has hit +$1213! Make a chemex. Try to be chill for this am’s call. It’s kind of a big one.

10:00 am - Well it went really well. I was asked to be a decisionmaker on the call so that’s a nice boost to my ego. Eat the final piece of pineapple pie to celebrate / also just to eat breakfast.

2:00 pm - I have a giant monthly report that I’m delivering next week, so I get started on that. I get ¼ of the way done and decide to cut work early to exercise. 

5:30 pm - We try to order from Monroe’s – the hot chicken place I picked up food from for M’s birthday but it’s closed / not taking online orders. We decide to get Cornish Pasty instead. K gets a veggie Mexican and I get the vegan Guinness stew. We also share an order of oven chips with garlic & jalapeno. K pays for this one.

8:30 pm - I am so so full. I have a phone date tonight with C - I think in my last diary I referred to him as BFF? Either way, he’s moved to Seattle and we chat probably every month or so for a few hours. I am feeling so so full from pasty that I take a really long walk to settle my stomach. I walk to the lake and then across and down to campus. At some point I stop to buy a water from a vending machine but it gives me a Dr. Pepper. Find a different one and buy a water instead. $4.25

11:30 pm - Realize I need to go to bed and let C go.

day sixty-three total: $0

day sixty-four

8:30 am - Wake up and make a chemex. Read a few chapters of The Guest List and start to move all of the furniture in the living room into the center of the room for the trim. Spend the next hour cleaning/prepping while K walks to the lake.

11:00 am - Last time I did the kitchen my quads were so sore so I decide to do a pure barre class prior to starting knowing that I’ll be way too sore tomorrow.

12:30 pm - K and I are determined to get this hot chicken. We place an order at the downtown location and I go over there to pick it up. We both get vegans - extra hot + hot + fries + 2 orders of pickles. $48.18

3:00 pm - Finally start taping the living room.

6:45 pm - That took 400 years. Start the first layer of paint.

9:45 pm - Second layer of paint.

11:45 pm - Eat some chips and salsa. Manage to bolt the door closed and head to bed. What a day.

day sixty-four total: $48.18

day sixty-five

8:45 am - Wow my legs. I am so so sore. I want to try to get the living room put back together as soon as possible so I don’t delay in making my coffee and ripping up tape. 

11:00 am - Why does this take 800 years? It’s not fair. Make us tofu/egg tacos for breakfast with low carb tortillas.

12:00 pm - K helps me put the room back together. We really take our time sweeping and dusting and even going through all of our things. He is a big help! 

2:30 pm - The living room is put back together! Rejoice.

3:30 pm - K and I go hit golf balls. We both do a lot better than the first time we went out and have a lot of fun. He pays for the bucket of balls.

5:00 pm - Toss beans in the instant pot.

6:00 pm - Pour a glass of wine and meet with K’s family on zoom.

7:30 pm - Big burritos for din with beans, rice, lettuce, cheeze, & jackfruit with chips and salsa.

8:00 pm - idk what’s up with me but i am in a huge snacky mood. Eat chocolate and a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. 

9:00 pm - K walks to the lake and I start scoping out clothes/sales again. I have a $100 gift card from Everlane for Christmas from K’s parents and decide to use that. I buy 2 dresses and a pair of pants. ($18.27) I also stumble across a pair of boots that are just beautiful. I want them so badly but they’re made of leather. I scope out Poshmark and find a pair in my size and they’re ACTUALLY used and in my size. They’re listed for $80 and I offer $70. The seller accepts ($83.12) $101.39

day sixty-five total: $101.39

day sixty-six

8:00 am - I am so sore still. Ugh. Pure barre charge comes thru. $15

10:00 am - Officially done with pie for breakfast so I eat yogurt instead. 

12:00 pm - Finish the last of the BBQ chicken salad for lunch. Continue my shopping adventures and find a pair of mules from Madewell on Poshmark. Offer $50 and it’s accepted. $61.50

4:00 pm - I’m still pretty sore but I stretch out a bit and do a pure barre livestream. 

5:30 pm - The weather is really nice out and so I decide to read on the porch. It doesn’t take long before K asks me to come with him to his office so he can clean out his stuff. Background: he was furloughed in August and the place he works isn’t renewing the lease. 

7:00 pm - We arrive home. I think K feels defeated. I kinda do too.. Feels like the end of an era. He isn’t up for dinner. I heat up some pozole for myself.

8:00 pm - K decides to go for a walk and I want to finish Season 21 of The Challenge (Rivals) so I stay home. Make a rum drink with soda water, a tiny agave squeeze and some limes. It’s very good.

day sixty-six total: $76.50

day sixty-seven

7:45 am - up early today. I have a meeting at 8:30 today to pull some data/talk about KPIs for the project I’ve been put in “decision-maker status” for. The meeting goes well and I feel good about the data alignment.

9:30 am - I get sent a zoom link without any warning. I tell them to give me a minute so I can pee and heat up my coffee. On my way to the kitchen I knock over a glass and it shatters EVERYWHERE. I take a few minutes to clean it up and forget to pee.

10:45 am - run to the restroom. K asks me to join him in the spare room where his “office” is. I work on reporting for a while in there. Eat plant yogurt.

12:30 pm - i wait too long to eat and am feeling overwhelmed and stressed. K rubs my back and helps me clean the kitchen. I swear these dishes never end.

1:15 pm - i have to pee again and this time it burns. Fuck fuck fuck. Not sure if it’s yeast or urinary tract but either one can’t be good. I pay some more attention to my body and realize that i can feel my bladder swelling which means i’m in uti territory. I have a super sensitive bladder and this puts me in a panic. Change my underwear, dig through my supplies and find a test strip, and AZO. Pound a bunch of water to keep things moving. 

1:45 pm - Fears are realized. At home UTI test comes back positive. I am able to land a prescription very quickly through undisclosed sources. In the meantime, I take AZO for my symptoms and advil for my bladder inflammation.

5:45 pm - Finish working for the day and all I want is a glass of wine but I know that will fuck up my urinary tract even more. Stick to water and such. Decide not to work out tonight either given I don’t have the antibiotics yet and any agitation to my bladder will harm my current state.

6:15 pm - Roast potatoes in the oven and the text from CVS comes that my prescription is ready. Roll on over to pick it up. $1.02

7:00 pm - Buffalo chicken sandwiches is the vibe for dinner. Continue drinking water, take more AZO. 

day sixty-seven total: $1.02

day sixty-eight

8:00 am - wake up feeling like my body did some solid healing work. Make a chemex and QA some stuff for a 9:30 meeting where I have to present.

11:00 am - plant yogurt. Definitely feeling a lot better today already AND my calendar is clear for work aka def going to work out before 5. 

11:45 am - Buy vitamin D on amazon but it’s free since I have the gift card from my boss. Eat leftover cauliflower fried rice for lunch.

3:00 pm - work is actually slow today and my urinary tract is feeling on the mend. Take a barre class recording and shower all before 4 PM.

6:00 pm - tonight we’re doing leftover big burritos with roasted potatoes. We’re out of tortilla chips and honestly dipping the potatoes in salsa is pretty dope.

8:00 pm - i kinda ease in and out of feelin’ tired. Read some of The Guest List before turning in.

day sixty-eight total: $0

day sixty-nine

8:00 am - wake up feeling again like i was in a deep deep healing mode sleep. Make coffee and get to work.

11:30 am - make pad thai for lunch.

2:30 pm - try on all of my clothes that came from ann taylor/loft plus the boss boot shoes from poshmark. Everything fits really well and I’m happy I took the plunge to figure out what my new sizes actually are. I am still really self conscious of my belly… it’s like a ledge and i really don’t get it because i am otherwise very thin. It could be a hormone thing or it could be a gut thing but i decide to try to tackle both at once. Vitamin d and zinc for horomones (which I already have on hand) i do some research and find a supplement from hum nutrition to try and decide to start taking ACV shots to see if anything changes. $25.45

4:50 pm - do a pure barre live stream recording. Shower and eat too many snacks.

7:00 pm - start a new season of the challenge while k goes to hit golf balls. Upon his return I make him a burrito with potatoes and myself some leftover pozole.

11:00 pm - finish the guest list. Didn’t see the ending coming at all! Get some sleep for vaccine #2 tomorrow.

day sixty-nine total: $25.45