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architectnews · 2 years

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Factory Face Lift in Waregem, West Flanders

Factory Face Lift Waregem, West Flanders Building, Belgium Property Interior Design, Belgian Architecture

Factory Face Lift in Waregem Building

31 May 2022

Architectural intervention in Belgian ice making factory

Location: Waregem, West Flanders, Belgium

Design: Enter Projects Asia

Photos by Edward Sumner

Factory Face Lift in Waregem, West Flanders, Belgium

In April 2020, only weeks into the global pandemic, Enter Projects Asia based in Thailand, received an unexpected phone enquiry from Waregem, outside Brussels, Belgium.

The prospective client had a 300sqm mix-use project that needed ‘balance and calm’. EPA were given what felt like a ‘wellness’ brief for the space, inviting nature and creativity into an industrial setting. As the curtains came down on the world, EPA came up with a clear concept to meet the client brief. The site was an ice making factory so the design was to be fluid and liquid, like the properties of pure spring water crystallizing, incorporating raw and sustainable materials wherever possible. A highly innovative logistics program was essential if the vision was to be realized 9,000+km later at the final destination.

Relying heavily on Zoom for all client meetings & virtual site visits, the EPA team prepared for remote working. The Project Manager was operating out of Japan, the designers in Phuket & Sydney, the fabricators in Northern Thailand. The team never met. They remotely made templates, exchanged digital files and ultimately manufactured a series of sculptural elements in natural, sustainable rattan ready for Belgium.

The sculptural segments were designed in accordance with the functionality: lighting, seating and directional flow, all culminating in a large 8 meter high sculptural statement piece which illuminates the lobby and compliments the image of the brand. As an overseas project, we had to come up with a highly innovative logistics strategy: every segment was then digitally deconstructed, so the shipping containers could be optimally filled.

Like a 3d jigsaw, the segments were assembled on site in Belgium – with little to no room for error. “The detail and precision with which the client approached this task was incredible to witness, even from a distance”, remarks EPA Director, Patrick Keane.

“Working across two continents always has its challenges” states Keane, “but this was on another level, nobody knew each other or exactly what the other was doing. It was a blank sheet of paper so given the result, I believe it’s the biggest and best challenge which often starts from zero”.

He also solemnly notes that “as a byproduct of this project, rattan factories were able to stay afloat during the darkest days: people were struggling to eat, supplies cut and shops closed. This project became a lifeline for many craftsmen who otherwise would have been without work. Maintaining these factories ensured local, sustainable arts & crafts production could continue”.

In April 2022, with the project complete, the client & Architect finally met in person at the site. In a post pandemic economy these changing work practices have become the future as we learn to adapt, to reinvent what it means to lead from a distance. This project is not only a pioneer of the new work philosophy but also gives a new face to the factory as an innovative & creative workspace.

Waregem Property in West Flanders, Belgium – Building Information

Title: A Factory Face Lift Location: Waregem, Belgium Client: 528 Size: 300sqm

Photographer: Edward Sumner

Sustainable Design by Enter Projects Asia

SUSTAINABILITY AT A GRASSROOTS LEVEL

At Enter Projects Asia, we have defined sustainability as a grassroots approach: to us, this means that sustainability is multithreaded. Often, we hear of “sustainability” as a term used in a product or a technology specified in a building. Often it gets added later and often that is too late. True sustainability needs to start at the very beginning, and that is with concept design.

EPA have defined a 3-tier approach:

1. Performance Sustainability 2. Environmental Sustainability 3. Material Sustainability

Using Belgium: ‘A Factory Facelift’ as a case study we will highlight the following:

Performance Sustainability

Performance criteria include a review of all structural and building principles from defining materials to management of light, air, ventilation, heating, cooling and overall power management. Here are a few examples from the factory:

• the roof is fully installed with solar power, 610 panels total.

• the use of low-E glass for the highest insulation value to prevent heat escaping but to allow light in

• heating the building is done with the extra heat that comes off the freezing units and production water.

• office area and swimming pool are 100% heated by power generated from running the factory equipment

• rain water reserve of 60.000L to catch the rain and use it all summer for growing vegetables, washing cars, flushing toilets and so on.

• LED lighting is used extensively throughout

• the concrete walls have an airgap reducing unnecessary material usage and adding to high insulation value

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental criteria focus on ‘going local’ and low waste. Arts & crafts in Asia are experiencing a revival. At EPA, we have reopened 3 factories and the artisans who work here have 5 generations of invaluable skill.

• As Covid shut down businesses worldwide, we were able to save a rattan factory on the brink of extinction, thanks to the project in Belgium. Without the work opportunities we provide to the factories, these highly skilled craftsmen (and women) find themselves relegated to taxi drivers or roadworkers.

• low waste approach. The product had virtually no wastage on the job site. As the construction industry becomes more wasteful, we are reversing the trend.

• dovetailing ‘Design & Sustainability’ as being inseparable for the future. We showed the client how to integrate arts & crafts in an industrial setting, at a large architectural scale so that they have impact and are integral to the design.

• storytelling: provenance and stories are more important now than ever; they help to ‘connect’ us in a world of disconnection. Where things are from and how they are made. Our contribution to this global initiative is to keep it local and shine a light on the talented craftspeople of Thailand.

• Low Carbon footprint: no travel, all work was completed remotely, mostly using Zoom.

Material Sustainability

Use of natural materials prevents our biggest competition……plastic. The importation of inferior and often toxic plastic products is truly catastrophic to the environment. For interiors and furnishings especially on large scale hospitality & commercial projects, this is now at reckless levels.

• we encouraged a sustainable upgrade policy for this project using rattan on the interiors rather than synthetics

• rattan is grown in major abundance all over South East Asia. It has texture, tactility, warmth and all of the great qualities natural woods have with no threat or shortage.

• rattan is locally grown

• rattan is 100% biodegradable

Aside from our architecture business, we have an initiative called “Project Rattan” : https://ift.tt/UFVEJbf launched during the first lockdown in 2020 and focuses on sustainable upgrades. Using the latest technologies and readily available materials, the initiative offers a modern pairing to our already creative design business. Project Rattan deploys local craft dovetailed with international design – this we classify as “sustainable upgrades”. These designs are currently being shipped to Belgium, HK and the USA.

EnterProjects 49/15 Boat Avenue (2nd Floor) Cherngtalay Thalang, Phuket, Thailand Tel: +66 62 820 1936 Head office :TAX ID 0835562004251 www.enterprojects.net

Factory Face Lift in Waregem, West Flanders images / information received 310522 from Enter Projects, Thailand

Location: Flanders, Belgium, western Europe

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Belle-île, province of Liège, Wallonia Architects: JDS Architects image courtesy of architects practice Belle-île Shopping Center Building

World first: Kamp C is first to print a complete house in one piece image © Kamp C 3D-printed model home, Kamp C Westerlo

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Le Toison d’Or Design: UNStudio, Architects photography © Hufton+Crow © Eva Bloem Le Toison d’Or Building

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Comments / photos for the Factory Face Lift in Waregem, West Flanders interior design by Enter Projects Asia page welcome

The post Factory Face Lift in Waregem, West Flanders appeared first on e-architect.

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the-dendrophile-bookdragon · 2 years

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7. Secret Santa

A/N: This is day 7 of my 31 Days of December challenge. I play this game I write about in this imagine with friends and boy I’m not disappointed about the junk I get every year. A friend of mine got a new toilet seat even though he never needed it. Enjoy!

Pairing: None, TF Boys x gn!reader Warning: a little swearing, mostly fluff

Secret Santa was fun but it got boring with time. So you and the guys changed tradition. Instead of the normal Secrete Santa you started to play Junk Secret Santa. And the guys loved it.

The boys were more creative than when you played the normal gift game. Especially Benny. Last year he had you and he got you potteries. He winked at you and teased: “For your toys.” You could have slept him. When you tested them at home all of them were empty.

One year he got Santi ‘used condom’ in a plastic bag. They weren’t actually used by him he just made a weird paste that is still a mystery to this day.

But Benny wasn’t the only little shit. Sweet, quiet Frankie is an unpredictable gift giver. Or more like trash giver. He gifted Santi an empty bottle of whiskey and tequila with a review on the alcoholic beverages. Benny got extremely rusty nuts and bolts from a helicopter Fish once flew. He also gifted Will ‘old fall decoration’. Will liked to decorate his and Benny’s home a little according to the time of the year. And he had a lot of stuff to decorate the house. And now he owned dried, crunched up fall leaves.

This year you had Santi. The poor guy was the favourite victim of the group. You got him cardboard boxes in different sizes. All boxes were neatly wrapped and decorated with zip ties, Duct Tape and bows in hot pink. He opened box after box with a not so amused face. The last box was a match box with matches inside. But does were burned. “Whose idea was this again? I like to go back to normal Secret Santa.” Everyone rolled their eyes at him. “You just want free booze again from your Secret Santa.” Benny replied. Santi shrugged, “At least I had a use for it. What should I do with twelve boxes and a box full of burned matches?”

Frankie side eyed him, “Burn it. Keep the boxes. Maybe you move and need boxes in that exactly size.”

You cursed yourself for not thinking of this kind of thinks, but then again, Santi rarely took advice this helpful and stored it into the back of his mind.

Will gave you your present. It was a puzzle with a twist, as he phrased it. The next day he got a very unhappy text message from you.

You: You ass. You know I hate it when pieces are missing in a jigsaw.😒😡🤬

Will: 🤷‍♂️😋😉

Wanna join my taglist? Taglist @Janesofia7 @jolovesfandoms @lovesbiggerthanpride

#triple frontier fic #triple frontier fanfiction #triple frontier x reader #triple frontier imagine #31 days of december

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carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory · 3 years

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How I Became an Archaeologist

If you had told me when I was 15 that I would spend my life as an archaeologist, I probably would have been pretty surprised. I didn’t grow up knowing a great deal about archaeology or even being fascinated by arrowheads. At that time, I might well have asked what an archaeologist really is and what one actually does. I did get to visit the Parthenon and other ruins while on a trip with my aunt when I was sixteen. Even then, I don’t remember having more than a casual interest in what could be learned from these places. I was more interested in the living people and the new food dishes I encountered on that trip, which was my first trip outside the United States.

From talking to other archaeologists, I’ve learned that there are a lot of paths to deciding archaeology is going to be your life’s work. In my case, what led me to archaeology was anthropology, and specifically an elective course I took in the Fall of my senior year in high school that was taught by a Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts. Until then I had not been a serious student, although I did well enough in school. Perhaps I was slightly bored by most of my courses, but anthropology was anything but boring! It looked at people elsewhere in the world and over great periods of time. Many of these people lived different lives than my friends and I did, and they sometimes thought very differently about what was important in life than people here in the United States. I was fascinated, and, honestly, I particularly liked the fact that the conventions of American society, which to my teenage self were sometimes a little confining, weren’t after all the only sensible way to approach life. That year, as I chose a college to attend, I specifically looked for anthropology programs. I chose Beloit College in Wisconsin, which to this day has an excellent anthropology program.

Initially, I thought that I was most interested in cultural anthropology, but like most anthropology departments in the United States, Beloit required its anthropology majors to take courses in biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology as well as cultural anthropology. These are what are known as the four fields of American anthropology and together, they give us a more complete picture of humans in both the past and the present. Most people focus their careers in one subfield or another, though we recognize the importance of each one for understanding humans, and in most cases in North America our degrees are in anthropology not one of the subfields. In college, I found all these courses more fascinating than anything I had studied before, and I actually became a good student as I explored anthropology. I was learning so much neat stuff! I also did volunteer work in the Logan Museum at Beloit, which was founded at the end of the nineteenth century and holds some pretty amazing ethnographic and archaeological collections. It was there I first became interested in artifacts and learned to clean and care for them. After a college internship in cultural anthropology convinced me that cultural anthropology was not the most interesting part of anthropology after all, I began to focus on archaeology. I was most intrigued by my courses in Mesoamerican archaeology and North American archaeology, which before college had been completely unknown to me.

When I graduated from college, I still wasn’t sure what I would do with my life. I worked for about two years both in social work and as a tax auditor for the IRS, but decided in 1974 to try graduate school in archaeology because I still found what archaeology had taught me about past people compelling. I lived in Chicago, so I enrolled in the Ph.D. program in North American archaeology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

My graduate self in the late 1970s. Photo credit: Phillip Neusius

The biggest shock of graduate school was my professors’ almost immediate insistence that I pick what research I wanted to do. They pushed me to develop an expertise or skill within North American archaeology through my research. It sounds obvious to me now, but I think many beginning graduate students are like I was, lovers of the discipline’s knowledge, but a bit daunted by becoming an independent researcher. Developing an area of focus and specialty skills is part of becoming a professional archaeologist. One reason for this is because contemporary archaeological undertakings rely on teams of researchers, each contributing special skills and knowledge to accomplish the many aspects of excavation, analysis, and interpretation. If you envision archaeology as the solitary pursuit of an elusive artifact or site, you don’t have the picture quite right. Think instead of archaeological fieldwork involving groups of scientists working together to discover and carefully record many different bits of evidence about what the world used to be like and what people did in it. Also think about the many hours these scientists and others will spend not only in the field, but in the laboratory after an excavation is completed cleaning finds, describing artifacts, and analyzing data in order to make meaningful interpretations.

For someone like myself, who loved all aspects of anthropology, not to mention archaeology, and who had only gradually settled on North America as my geographic focus, picking a focus on entering graduate school was a hard task. There was so much that would be interesting to study! However, I did remember especially enjoying a research paper I had done in college on the relatively new interdisciplinary field of zooarchaeology, so under pressure, I told my professors I wanted to pursue this subfield in graduate school. Amazingly, this turned out to be a good choice of specialization for me. I found that I really love to work with collections of animal bone. For me, opening a bag of bone refuse from a site still is exciting. Bone identification work is a little like doing a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces. It is challenging, and it takes concentration and careful observation to piece together what you can. There is so much to figure out about any single piece of bone! What animal is it? How healthy was the animal? What part of the animal’s body is it? Has it been burned or cut? How was the bone buried and changed after the humans were done with it? Then you have to record this information so it can be combined with other observations on the assemblage of bone you are looking at. After identification, making sense of what a collection of the bones means and correlating these kinds of data with other information from a site and region requires careful analysis, but also insight and creativity. To me it is endlessly fascinating.

Besides finding that I liked the work, choosing zooarchaeology was also serendipitous since my professors were looking for a student to work with them on this aspect of a big project they were undertaking in west-central Illinois centered on the Koster site, which was first inhabited more than 9000 years ago and then reinhabited by people right up into modern times. Most importantly the poorly known Archaic Period levels were numerous, well-preserved, and distinct from each other so we could add a lot of new information through our work. For my dissertation I was able to look at the animal remains from levels of this site dated between approximately 8500 and 6000 years ago, which represent how people used animals at that time.

Koster site strata. All those dark layers are from Archaic period camps at the site. Photo credit: Del Bastian, Center for American Archaeology.

Graduate school was intense, but I continued to be fascinated by archaeology’s ability to tell the story of people lost to standard Western history. In those days I was excited to be part of this science that could do so much more than describe and take care of cool artifacts. It was a heady thing to learn that I could contribute to what was known about people who lived thousands of years ago. In later years, I’ve had to think more critically than I did then about what a privilege it is for an archaeologist to learn about the history and lives of other ethnicities. Today’s archaeologists recognize their responsibility to present information about past people for both scholarly and public use in ways that are sensitive to what is considered sacred and private by the descendants of those people. I think this is an important change in perspective, but in the 1970s most archaeologists just wanted to show that people’s stories from the past could be told using the techniques of archaeology. I certainly was happy, if a little naively so, to have found a way to contribute to telling the human story.

If I consider entering graduate school as the start of my professional career as an archaeologist, I have been pursuing this career for more than 45 years! Over the years I have done zooarchaeological and archaeological work in the American Midwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast working on telling the story of people who lived as long as 9000 years ago and as recently as the Sixteenth century. I’ve worked at several universities, in a small museum, and on small and large archaeological projects in the field of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) doing archaeological survey, site excavation, and zooarchaeological identification and analysis. I’ve written scholarly papers and articles as well as a textbook on North American archaeology. However, beginning in the late 1980s, I spent more than 31 years doing research and teaching anthropology and archaeology here in Pennsylvania at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In this job I taught both undergraduates and graduate students, but, as is typical of university professors, I also spent time doing fieldwork and analysis as part of my research while at IUP. Fortunately, because archaeology is a team undertaking, I’ve been able to involve many students in my research. Working with students in research as they discover what fascinates them has been a highlight of being an archaeologist for me. I’ve now retired from teaching but not archaeology. I’m still working with both physical and digital archaeological collections both through CMNH and elsewhere and writing about archaeology. Who knows what this career still will bring me!

Drawing a profile at the Johnston site with one of my students in 2008. Photo credit: Erica Ausel, IUP Archaeology.

Tracking down a bone identification with one of my students in the Zooarchaeology Lab at IUP. Photo credit: Beverly Chiarulli.

If you are reading this blog because you are thinking about archaeology as either a career or a hobby, I hope you realize that mine is just one story among the many that could be told. Because there are so many aspects of archaeology, people come into it from all sorts of backgrounds and because of all sorts of interests. I think that it is important to remember though that it really is about understanding people and telling their stories through the artifacts and other evidence we find. This is what interested me in archaeology in the first place. Discovering the details of the human story is a giant undertaking. There is no shortage of research problems or work to do, but solving the puzzles presented by sites and collections is both challenging and fun. I’m certainly glad I decided to become an archaeologist and zooarchaeologist so many years ago!

Sarah W. Neusius is a Research Associate in the Section of Anthropology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Definitions of Bolded Terms

anthropology -the study of humans including the physical, cultural and social aspects in the past and present.

cultural anthropology - the study of the cultural aspects of humans especially recent and contemporary social, technological, and ideological behavior observed among living people.

biological anthropology – the study of the biological or physical aspects of humans, including human biological evolution and past and present biological diversity.

linguistic anthropology - the study of the structure , history, and diversity of human languages as well as of the relationship between language and other aspects of culture.

archaeology - the study of past human behavior and culture through the analysis of material remains.

ethnographic – relating to the scientific description of people and cultures especially customs and beliefs.

Mesoamerican archaeology - the archaeology of the area from central Mexico southward through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica.

North American archaeology - the archaeology of the area from central Mexico northward throughout the United States and Canada.

zooarchaeology – a subarea of archaeology involves the identification of animal remains from archaeological sites and investigates the ecology and cultural uses of the animals represented.

assemblage - a collection of artifacts from the same archaeological context.

Archaic Period - a time period from approximately 10,000 BP to 3000 BP that is recognized in most of North America.

Cultural Resource Management (CRM) – an applied form of archaeology undertaken in response to laws that require archaeological investigations.

archaeological survey – the systematic process archaeologists use to locate, identify, and record archaeological site distribution on the landscape.

#Carnegie Museum of Natural History #Archaeology #Zooarchaeology #Archaeologist

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cheri-translates · 3 years

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[CN] 100 Days - Shaw (Day 51 - 100)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for e-mails which have not been released in English servers! 🍒

What’s the 100 Days Companionship Event?

Day 1 - 3: here

Day 4 - 30: here

Day 31 - 50: here

Day 51

Learnt a new card magic trick and will leave you wide-eyed today. You coming?

Day 52

Instead of thinking about raising koi to change your fortune, why not buy a can of cola. As compared to nothing, at least my mood will be good.

Day 53

I have two tickets for an e-sports competition. It’s at 8pm. We’ll meet at the entrance of your place.

Day 54

The competition yesterday was pretty bad. I may as well have participated myself. Let’s not go for today’s competition. We’ll level up at home.

Day 55

Day 56

I heard that you have plans to try jigsaw puzzles. I’ve sent you one with 30,000 pieces - it’s completely white. No need to thank me, and I wish you an early completion.

Day 57

The professor keeps complaining that his snacks go missing. Placing the snacks in a laboratory where people walk to and fro - he deserves it. Don’t you agree?

Day 58

I found the snacks thief - it’s a big fat crow. Whoa, it’s awfully sly.

Day 59

Jensen has been working hard on practising his rap. Today, I even heard a flow in his snoring, and recorded it. Want to hear?

Day 60

It’s the day of Frost’s Descent. Of course you have to eat marbled beef with me.

[Trivia] 霜降 (“shuang jiang”) translates to “Frost’s Descent”, which refers to the last solar term of autumn. Shaw’s use of “marbled beef” is a play on words because in Chinese, “marbled beef” is “霜降肥牛”!

Day 61

Even three-year-old children know that they have to wear more clothes when it’s cold. Looks like you’re only one-year-old.

Day 62

There’s a small stall on Westmoon Street selling Double Ninth cake. It’s tastier than those in other places. Come out quickly, I’ll take you to taste the delicacy.

Day 63

Head to the hotpot shop first. The Old Man wants me to meet some of his old colleagues. How troublesome. Remember to order a plate of tripe for me.

Day 64

You want to compete to see who can replicate the most number of animal sounds tomorrow? You’ll definitely lose.

Day 65

Fine, I lost… But why do you know how to imitate the sound of a hippopotamus?!

Day 66

Are you really angry today? In that case, if I wear a pompom hat next time, I’ll let you tie a knot too.

Day 67

That song you shared with me before - its orchestral arrangement is still passable, but its effects will be ten times better with the bass. I’ll record a section for you later.

Day 68 (Halloween)

Title: Costumes

This is what you called an incredibly amazing costume? Wait at home. I’ll show you what’s truly “incredibly amazing”.

Day 69

A performance without an audience is pretty fun too. It’d have been even better if someone were around to record it. I think you’re pretty suited for it.

Day 70

Today’s challenge: To sneak away under the eyes of the professor.

Day 71

I signed in late today, but you can’t blame me for oversleeping. It’s all because the sun didn’t appear and head to work today.

Day 72

Unlocked a new breakfast combo. Even though I don’t see a need for it, I can recommend it to you.

Day 73

There’s a bad ending to that drama you haven’t finished watching, so I’m giving you a heads-up. I wasn’t wrong when I said fairy tales weren’t believable, was I?

Day 74

Feels like you’ve been busy for several days. Want to sneak out to relax for a while?

Day 75

Realised that my phone battery is running low, and can’t slack off and send you messages anymore. How unlucky.

Day 76

I’ve been busy preparing for exams recently, but you can still send me messages at night as usual. At most, I’ll reply you the next day

Day 77

There’s a sports meet in school next week, and I’ve been dragged in to fill the numbers. Come watch if you have time.

Day 78

Let’s compete in a round of “flash sale” tonight. The loser will buy whatever’s in the other person’s shopping cart.

[Note] Shaw is talking about 秒杀 (“miao sha”), which directly translates to “seconds kill”. It’s a term used in online shopping where once popular items are placed on the Internet, dozens of them are immediately snatched up, sometimes in a single second.

Day 79 (Single’s Day)

The rain in November is pretty cold. I’ve decided to shower and sleep early today, so don’t disturb me after 12am.

Day 80

I can brush off how you added ginger ale to Cola the last time. But this time, what do you think you’re doing by adding indigo woad root?

[Note] Indigo woad root, also known as the root of Isatis tinctoria (板蓝根 - “ban lan gen”)is a traditional Chinese herb used for flu relief

Day 81

Horror techniques like inserting a jump scare in a comedic clip is too elementary. Next time, please come up with something new.

Day 82

Are you awake? Head out once you’ve signed in, or what I taught you about the skateboard will be completely forgotten.

Day 83

The graffiti wall I brought you to the last time has been torn down. I found a new unfinished building, and you can practice here.

Day 84

No one can be certain of the future. I can’t be bothered to think about it either. As long as you run in the direction you want to go, it’s enough.

Day 85

This semester’s elective course is almost over. There are some assignments I haven’t finished. If there’s anything, come to the library to find me.

Day 86

I don’t feel like writing anymore, and am prepared to head out for a stroll tomorrow. Give me two recommended locations from your collection of reviews.

Day 87

One principle applies to both ice-skating and skateboarding - you won’t learn it if you don’t fall a few times. In the worst case, I’ll catch you when you fall.

Day 88

Watched as someone failed to stick a straw in after three tries, and didn’t allow me to laugh out loud.

Day 89

That hook you hummed today was a little familiar. Did you watch the live performance of that very popular underground band recently?

Day 90

Call me along the next time you go to a Live. Relax, I’m on pretty good terms with the bassist from that band. I’m not going there for a surprise brawl.

Day 91

The Old Man’s a little sick, so I’m bringing him medicine. Since it’s along the way, I’ll bring the umbrella you left at my place to you.

Day 92

Didn’t expect you to grasp the move I taught you today so quickly. I’ll award you with a can of Cola.

Day 93

The punishment for today’s game are biscuits filled with mustard, and the person who loses will eat them. Do you have the guts?

Day 94

Have I been infected with your bad luck recently? Even the things I get in blind boxes are duplicates.

Day 95

Not just old antique shops - I can also find all the old game shops, old phonograph shops, and old appliances shops in Loveland City.

Day 96

Adam forgot to take the pot away the last time he had instant-boiled mutton hot pot in Live House. We could use it again today.

Day 97

Instead of believing in some “Mercury Retrograde”, why not come along with me to pray to Emperor Yang Gu, so he’ll save you from calamities.

Day 98

It’s become a habit to chat with you every day. If there are such challenges in the future, look for me too. Got it?

Day 99

It’s the second last day, and we’ll soon see the outcome of who has won this round. Are you sure you’ve been signing in every day?

Day 100

If there any other bets or challenges next time, I’m always ready and waiting.

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aoifeanamadan · 3 years

Text

After School Special

Fandom: Minecraft YouTube rpf (mcyt)

Word count: 6488

Relationship: DreamNotFound (DreamxGeorgeNotFound)

Summary:

Montague versus Capulet, Taylor versus Katy, Dream versus George.

It was one of those fueds, the kind you barely even had to acknowledge. The sky is blue, we breathe air, Dream hated George.

Needless to say, neither of them were over the moon when they found out they had to spend two months working together in weekend detention.

Support this work on AO3 :)

Chapter Four: Hat Trick

Dream didn’t think texting George was meant to be this exciting. He didn’t think texting any of his friends was meant to be exciting point-blank . Not in the way texting George was. Every time his phone buzzed he was rushing to grab it, always on guard, always waiting. He had spent years calling his friends stupid for the way their faces lit up reading their phones. Now he was worse than all of them. But, it was different. This was George. And texting George was fun.

Dream was certain now that he was definitely funny. And he was smart, in the hard kind of way. He was unpredictable. Dream never knew what was coming. And he was nice to talk to. Every message sent, every message received, Dream felt them growing closer.

So, yeah, maybe his eyes were constantly scouring his phone screen. But he had a good reason. He was talking to George.

George, who said he didn’t normally talk to be people through the phone. He called it a handicapped form of communication, just as George-like as ever. Dream had forgotten to make fun of him for it, mind too busy with ‘ He doesn’t normally talk to people over the phone. He talks to you over the phone’. It meant he was special.

George (2:20 am)

i dont want to annoy you lol

Dream (2:20 am)

if you sending me memes at fuck o clock in the morning was annoying me i wouldn’t have kept sending them back

George didn’t read the message for a full minute. Staring at the tiny symbol, showing his message was unopened, Dream couldn’t bring himself to feel pathetic. In the back of his mind he thought he should, but the rest of him was buzzing. Every cell was humming with a new kind of want. He wanted to know what George thought, hear how he felt. It was overwhelming. There was no room left for shame.

George (2:23 am)

i dont want to keep you up

Dont you have that match tomorrow

Dream did. It was against ‘ Saint Joseph’s Preparatory Institute ’ a private school just half an hour away from Dream and George’s school. The kids there were spoiled in ways Dream found difficult to understand, summer homes in Italy and money thrown away on nights out in the city. The person Dream thought Geoge had been just two weeks ago was nothing compared to the Saint Joseph boys. It was as if all of them wanted to play God, a family of clashing entitled titans, a Grecian mess.

Dream was certain if anyone on his team brushed against one of their arms they’d be on the floor, crying for the referee. It was the first match of the season, only a challenge, but he had been preparing his boys for almost three weeks to make sure they didn’t give away any fouls. Even if it didn’t affect their standing in the league it would affect team morale. It was important. He wanted to win, just like he always did.

But, that night, Dream couldn’t have cared less. The match, less than 24 hours away, was pushed to the back of his brain. His entire frontal lobe was taken up with George’s words, glaring brightly up at him from his screen, awaiting Dream’s reply.

Dream (2:24 am)

ur coming right?

Dream hit send, he always did. He was a full-send person down to the bone. For him, it was easy. He did everything with complete confidence, full fucking send. He couldn't imagine it any other way, not when everyone was hanging off his every word. Shame was foreign to him.

But, the second he hit the arrow on that message, something foreign happened. His stomach knotted itself, his heart sped up. His eyes glued themselves to the screen, trapping him in the silence of his bedroom, waiting for any kind of reply. Dream didn’t understand why he cared so much about a stupid message.

No matter how hard he tried to tell himself to calm down, it didn’t work. His mind couldn’t be reasoned with. Logic was out the window, replaced with the thought of George standing on the sidelines while Dream scored a winning goal. His heart was in palpitations for an agonising 40 seconds. George’s message was the first morsel of food in a year to Dream’s hungry eyes.

George (2:24 am)

do you want me to

Dream was typing a response before he could think. He didn’t need to think.

Dream (2:24 am)

yes

It wasn’t until he sent it that he realised how it could be read. Desperate. It was overwhelming, this new way of thinking. Dream had never considered how other people might read his texts. His mind never had the time to consider how he was perceived, always racing away from him. This new thing, it was dwelling. Dream hadn’t dwelled before.

George (2:25 am)

okay

ill go then

everyone knows i love to spend my saturday evenings outside in the cold

Dream didn’t mean to grin the way that he did when he read the reply. He didn’t even notice the smile snaking its way onto his. He had never smiled at someone's texts before.

George (2:26 am)

what time

Dream didn’t mean to lie. But he did accidentally tell George to be there an hour early so they had more time, away from the pressure of his role as captain. By accident . He felt justified in his deceit, his new constant urge to make George his friend was enough to allow it. He wanted to be around him, talking and laughing, bickering and disagreeing and teasing. He wanted all of it, the before and after of the years of resentment. The new growing fondness that Dream was trying his best to ignore.

Above all, he wanted to be liked by George. He wanted the reassurance of his approval.

If George, who had hated him for years, who had been on the receiving end of his cold stares and scoffs, could like him then it would be sure. Dream could be certain that he was a good person.

They kept texting until George sent his death sentence, in the form of a digital message.

George (2:31 am)

go to sleep

And that was that. George’s status switched to inactive and Dream was left staring at the tiny dot where his green light used to be, the Daisy to his Gatsby.

Dream (2:31 am)

george

georgie

Dream forced himself to turn off his phone, it felt as if he was cutting off a hand. Giving up the hope of hearing anything more from George that night and accepting the isolation. But he could do it, almost happily, comforted by the knowledge he would see George the next day.

He recentered his weight and let his head sink into his pillow. It smelled old. Not bad, but old. Dream couldn’t stop himself from smiling, sad and gentle. He held his phone to his chest and squeezed. The metal didn’t move but his fingers ached with the force.

In the back of his mind, Dream realised it was dangerous. This smiling, this thing burrowing itself into his heart. But he couldn’t stop himself. He let himself imagine a world where he knew George fully, recognised every part of him as George. A jigsaw in the shape of a man where Dream knew the place of each part as if it were the back of his hand. It was a different kind of friendship than what Dream had known. He wanted to understand him, to uncover all the secrets he was holding so close to his chest. It felt as if knowing George was inevitable. And he wanted George to do the same to him, to see all of him and like it. To prove he could be known in full and still seen as himself, still Dream. Still human.

Dream didn’t feel himself falling asleep but he didn’t wake up until 3 in the afternoon, his phone still lying over his heart.

Sapnap collected him before George, so he had time to explain his misleading statement before George got in the truck clueless at half four in the afternoon, three hours before the match started.

George understood what had happened once they arrived at the empty pitch. Dream was thankful he had briefed Sapnap before their arrival, because without Sapnap there he was convinced he would have ended up in a morgue.

Once George had accepted and made peace with the situation, that is to say 95 minutes and multiple very stern telling offs later, Dream and Sapnap decided the only natural thing to do was warm up an hour early.

With a ball from Sapnap’s truck, they started to pass gently to each other. George only managed to claim he couldn’t play for 10 minutes before Dream and Sapnap convinced him to join in.

Dream had been sure George was exaggerating his incompatibility with the sport. Fundamentally, it was just kicking a ball. But Dream was very wrong. Dream tried to tip him the ball, a gentle touch, but somehow George still fumbled it. He managed to stand on the ball three times before kicking it past Sapnap.

They spend half an hour trying to explain the basics of soccer to an increasingly annoyed George, who thanked God when the real team started to trickle in. It meant he was released from the seventh circle of hell - soccer drills

Dream went through the motions of his pre-match routine; the warm-up and laughter and tieing of boots. The coach, their chemistry teacher, arrived ten minutes before the match started. Dream gave a particularly rousing speech and then suddenly they were in the tunnel, waiting for the referee to call them onto the field.

Normally, the time in the tunnel made any other time spent on the field feel tiny, irrelevant. It was a place that didn’t obey the laws of time. Four seconds in the tunnel made a month on the field feel like maybe ten minutes.

That day, Dream had spent three hours on the field before the match. Normally, the tunnel would have made that feel like a millisecond. A blip.

But, Dream could recall the hours spent easily. He barely had to think before George yelling at him and Sapnap rushed to mind. George trying to score a goal from the penalty line, with no goalie, and somehow hitting the crossbar . George’s sigh of relief when he saw one of the players approaching to relieve him of his place in the drill. It was all cased in amber in Dream’s brain. It was proof that he had prepared for this match. There was a time before it and there would be a time after.

Standing on the tunnel, waiting to be called out to play the first match of the year, Dream was calm.

Before he could think too deeply, Sapnap turned to Dream. His eyes were almost pleading. He grabbed ream by the shoulders and tried to look deep into his soul.

“Promise me that you won't start any fights this time.” Dream couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped him. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. He never started fights, but he replied anyway to put Sapnap at ease.

“I promise I won’t start any fights.” Sapnap breathed a sigh of relief, ever the drama queen.

“Thank you.” Sapnap turned to head to the team huddle, everyone waiting for Dream’s final good luck. Before Sapnap could walk away Dream grinned, lopsided and hyper.

“I will finish them though.”

Dream was walking out before Sapnap could protest, the team behind him. Dream didn’t want to prolong their wait any longer. They knew what he was going to say, and he knew they didn't need to hear it. The atmosphere changed the second the crowd could see them

Oakland had walked out stiff and straight-backed. Proper as always. Beside them, Dream and his team’s causal jogs and crowd-pleasing waves were even more charming. Dream allowed himself a moment to revel in the cheers before locking his eyes on the ball.

Once he adjusted to the floodlights, Dream’s eyes raked over the crowds until they locked on George, leaning on the low fence. He shot him his lopsided grin and waved. He was charm personified. The crowd’s heads swivelled in search of the recipient, but no one looked at George smiling as he rolled his eyes.

Once the whistle was blown, the team came alive. The state champions ran circles around Oakwood. Dream was two-thirds of the way to his aspired hat trick by half time, with the total score at 4 - nil. Their team worked seamlessly together, everyone exactly where they needed to be. It was like watching a well-oiled machine, or embroidery at super speed.

Dream and Sapnap were shining through, their natural chemistry turned to telepathy on the soccer field. It was as if the ball was a piece of metal and they were the magnets. It stuck to them, gravitated to their feet.

By the second half, Oakwood were angry. It showed in their game. They started to slip up, losing easy balls. Their footwork got sloppy. But they also got more aggressive. Somehow, the referee was turning a blind eye to every misplaced kick and accidental shove in the back. But, Dream had trained everyone for this. They stayed calm, took their deep deep breaths and played fair.

Oakwood did not take the same approach. The more time they spent on the field, the rougher they played. Dream had cycled through six of the ten substitutes by the time the second half rolled around. He was convinced the referee had optional cataracts.

With twenty minutes left, Dream’s team were 3 goals up - the only three goals of the match. But, Dream was still a goal away from his hat trick, and he was getting tired.

The rest of the team was playing defence, just like Dream had told them to do during training. He had said it would be stupid to go for glory in this situation, three goals up and approaching the end of the match. It would be plain dumb.

Dream knew all this, thought about it even. He knew it was right, but he saw an Oakland striker, who he was not supposed to be marking, running up the field. He didn’t have the ball, it was on the opposite end of the pitch, but Dream could see it in his mind’s eye. Two easy, unlikely passes and it would be at the striker’s open feet.

There were other boys closer to him, it would’ve made more sense for them to run to mark him. It would have been easy. But Dream couldn’t stop thinking of the one goal he needed for a hat trick.

Aching feet and heaving lungs Dream ran towards him. The striker saw him coming from a mile off.

His leg connected with Dream’s, and suddenly Dream was on the floor clutching his shin.

At first, there was no feeling. Then, just as suddenly as the air had left Dream’s lungs when he hit the floor, there was intense pain.

Dream looked down at his leg, curled up on the floor. He couldn’t hear the referee’s whistle blowing. But he could see the blood.

Before he could make a scene, he was pushing himself up unto his feet. The Oakwood striker didn’t offer him a hand up.

Dream was sent off to the sidelines, limping with an arm around Sapnap’s shoulder. Someone’s mother was a nurse. She assured him it was just a surface wound. Dream saw his parents in the stand, he hadn’t noticed them before. He would’ve waved weakly, or shot them a thumbs up, but he couldn’t focus on them. His mind was racing through anger and pain and anger again.

From the bench, Dream nodded to Sapnap to take the penalty. It wasn’t a question.

He had to sit the final fifteen minutes out, screaming from the bench. The only benefit was George’s spot in the crowd behind him was right behind the bench. He was sitting with his friends, making sarcastic comments about Oakwood. It was nice to listen to, distracting.

With Oakwood playing a man down, the team won 4 - 0.

After the obligatory post-win speech, Dream enjoyed a long warm shower in the changing rooms. It was a scarce rarity for him, only his third long shower in the changing block in four years.

After, Dream was alone in the dressing room, all aching muscles and sore lungs. He was sitting on the bench, legs shaking with the exhaustion of it all. His hair was wet and his shoulders were slumped. There was a low humming echoing off the concrete walls. Dream barely noticed it. He had screwed his eyes tightly shut and had his head hanging between his shoulders. He was waiting there until it was firmly ten minutes since anyone had left, just like he always did. And he was humming, which he did not always do.

It was coming from the base of his throat. The tune of ‘Call Me Maybe’ was raspy, hidden under his breath. But it was there, soft and delicate. The rise and fall, the soft lilts. It made the cold of air of the changing room warmer, familiar. He didn’t think about it, didn’t imagine he would be heard. He just sat there, hair dripping and voice humming. It was tender and charged, too patient.

Hey, I just met you,

And this is crazy,

“Well done, you. You did great” George’s voice came from the doorway, distant and delicate. It shattered Dream’s bubble of gentle calm.

Dream’s brain froze. It caught him off guard, disarmed him. The softness of George’s tone. Too genuine. Before he could unfreeze his mind to think about it, George was talking again.

“Except when you fell. That was embarrassing.”

Dream lifted his head from the wall and cracked open his eyes. George was smiling softly at him. It made Dream feel as if he was bending back his ribs one by one to get a closer look at his panting heart. He couldn’t quite bring himself to stand.

“Brave words Mr Speed Chess.” This was easy, this was Dream and George. Sharp banter and too intense bickering. It was easier than the alternative, the thing Dream wanted once the sun went down. The symbiotic vulnerability.

Dream realised just how tired he really was, listening to his own fragile voice. He was sure George had to have noticed it too. He was sure his smile was too soft, his words too tender to be teasing.

He didn’t know what it was, this new wall he was building. This refusal to let George see him vulnerable. Dream tried to rationalise, call to mind the years of hatred and distrust. It didn’t work, he was met with the hours he and George had spent laughing, the simple rhythm they had so quickly fallen into. George’s quiet jokes, Dream’s beaming grin. There was no reason for this guard Dream was invoking. Yet still, he couldn’t stop it. The hand always hovering over his mouth, ready to slap it closed.

Sapnap was coming in behind George before Dream could leave himself exposed.

“I swear to God, whenever I see you two together it’s like I get to watch a chihuahua provoke a wolfhound." Sapnap was next to George in the doorway, grinning. Dream smiled back, heaving himself up off the bench. Dream wasn’t sure if he was meant to be the chihuahua or wolfhound.

“Fuck off, Sapnap.” He muttered it at the same time as George, shouldering his way past them towards Sapnap’s truck.

“You two are the closest thing I have to a real-life soap opera!” Sapnap was calling out as he followed behind. Despite his best efforts, Dream smiled.

Once the three of them were in the truck, they could really talk. Sapnap and Dream were trying to convince George to come to a party at one of the player’s houses in place of their normal bickering. It was only right to celebrate the win, but George was insisting he couldn’t go.

Dream and Sapnap had matching that’s bullshit looks on their faces,

Through a mix of begging and empty threats, they managed to get George to agree to come inside, just to congratulate the team.

He stuck to his word, entering, finding the team all together in the front room and saying a single ‘Great Game’. Then, he turned on his heel and made his way to the front door with his head down. Sapnap and Dream rushed after him.

By the time they caught up, his hand was on the doorknob. But, before he pulled it, he was turning his head to the space on his left. Dream and Sapnap were still standing in the doorway to his right.

“Bad?” Bad’s face lit up as he abandoned his conversation to turn towards George.

“George!” He ran to hug a laughing George.

“Since when were you the partying type?”

“Since when were you?”

Dream and Sapnap couldn’t believe they had forgotten to tell him Bad would be there.

Twenty minutes in, George was on his fifth shot. Dream and Sapnap looked like Christmas had come early. Bad looked like a concerned father spotting his child in the boxing ring with Muhammad Ali.

“George, oh my God! What are you doing?” George was drinking straight from the vodka bottle while Sapnap and George watched.

George kept drinking from the bottle until Bad took it off him.

“It’s been a boring week. I'm about to fix that.” Dream had never seen George like this.

George’s grin was devilish, the kind that would have made Dream’s heart flutter and stomach drop if he was a girl. But he was not a girl. And so he thought nothing of George’s gleaming teeth and impish eyes. Nothing.

One thing Dream realised, an hour into the party, was that George was just as clumsy with his mouth when he was drunk as his limbs when he was sober.

Dream was standing in one of the doorways to the kitchen, talking to a girl. She was nice. She liked swimming and pc gaming, not worlds away from Dream. He figured they could be friends. She left to dance with her friends and Dream left to get himself another drink. George was standing next to the spirits.

“She’s not good for you. She was a dick to my friends last year. Hell, even I would be better for you and you hate me”

He hated the way George made his breath stop with stupid comments like that. Dream gritted his teeth.

“Don’t hate you anymore, Georgie.” His shoulders were stiffer than he wanted them to be.

George grinned back at him and drawled.

“For now, Dreamer.”

That fucking grin, sprawling between his aristocratic cheekbones. And that fucking nickname. He hated the way it made his stomach flip, acrobatic routines in the pit of his stomach. Dreamer, Dreamer, Dreamer . A mantra.

“Are you drunk, George?”

George opened his mouth, ready to deny it, but the cogs of his brain snapped his mouth closed before he could get the words out.

“You know what? Nevermind, you’ll know I’m lying to you anyway.”

Dream didn’t know what it was, the resignation in George’s voice, the gentle familiarity. It made him mad. He made it make him mad, because the alternative was wobbly knees and blushing cheeks. And George didn't have the power to do that to him.

George grabbed his arm, slender fingers gripping strong.

“Come on, let’s dance.” He started to pull him towards the front room, where the speakers were.

“Wait, George, wait,” Dream pulled George back to him gently. He was still clinging to his arm. Dream shrugged him off as softly as he could. His touch felt like hot coals, the way it made Dream’s skin burn. He couldn’t handle it.

“Why?” Dream didn’t like the disappointment painted all over George, stitched on his face and laced through his muscles. He couldn’t hide his emotions the way he normally did. Not here, not drunk and tired looking as if he wanted to beg Dream to dance. Dream had to explain.

“I can’t dance.” George’s face didn’t change.

“Yeah, why?” He was looking up at him expectantly, which had not been the plan.

“What do you- I’m bad at it. I can’t dance.” Dream gestured to his long legs and stretched arms. George’s face lit up, a lightbulb moment. Dream realised, George had thought he couldn’t dance because of his injured shin. He cursed himself internally for not being more dramatic.

“You don’t have to be good at something to do it, Dream. Dancing at parties is fun. It’s like exercise, but for your brain.” George pointed to his two temples with both hands, grinning. Not the plan.

“It’s very literally exercise for your body.” Dream didn’t realise there was a smile on his face.

“Fine, it’s exercise for your soul. Now, come on. Dance with me.”

Dream managed to down a shot while he was dragged out by George, it felt like fire down his raw throat. Before he could say no, George was pulling him to the speakers. Dream didn’t dance, he had never known how to. His limbs were too jerky, arms too awkward. And bad dancing didn’t fit the Dream image , not cool and nonchalant enough.

But George was looking up at him with a messy grin and the speakers were thumping and the bodies around him were thrumming. He tried to justify it to himself, the lights were low, no one would see him, but Dream couldn’t have said no in a million years. Not to George, not there, not then.

It was easy to tell the song was on its outro as Dream and George stumbled in. Dream laughed easily at his accidental win.

“Oh no! There goes that idea. Come on, let’s find Sapnap and Bad.” He went to tug George out, but George tugged him back. It caught Dream off balance, making him stumble after George to keep from falling.

George rolled his eyes, slinking his way to the boy with the aux cord and dragging Dream with him.

“Hey, Toby, what’s up?” George talked to the boy, who he was apparently friendly with. Dream knew he went to their school, but he didn’t know the boy. If George hadn’t just said his name, he would’ve had no idea. He stood awkwardly behind George, unsure whether or not he should introduce himself. He was too caught up in the unfamiliar awkwardness to listen to what they were saying. Before he knew it, George was smiling Toby a thanks and dragging him back into the crowd.

“What was that about?” Dream had to bend down to whis[er into George’s ear. George didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.

The iconic opening of Carly Rae Jepsen's ‘Call Me Maybe’ started to play. Dream couldn’t stop the barking laugh he let out. George smiled so widely Dream was sure his cheeks would rip open.

Dream wasn’t sure if it was the shots, or the crowds or the boy standing open and soft before him, but he felt the hardened rock around his muscles and tendons melt away. He couldn’t dance, but he could sway next to George while Carly Rae Jepsen sang one of her masterpieces.

George was his only salvation from the heaving, living heat of the crowd. His flushed face and ruined hair were all Dream could see. He tried his casual swaying, but George’s energy called for more.

Dream couldn’t help but sing along.

I threw a wish in a well,

I looked at you as it fell.

George was not a great dancer, really he just flailed and hopped. He yelled to the beat and flung his arms about him. Dream had to apologise on his behalf to a girl he had accidentally whacked. She didn’t acknowledge it.

Dream realised, no one there cared. Everyone just wanted to dance. Dream looked to George, laughing and jumping to the mirage of singing violins. It was all so intense, Dream couldn’t resist it.

His thudding, thumping body didn’t quite match George’s plasmic flow. His muses thrashed with the musical pulses, throat raw from the singing. No matter how loud he was, everyone around him was louder.

It felt like indulgence, sweeping slowly over his skin and through his veins. He had to choose to let himself enjoy it.

His dancing was horrible, but George loved it. Dream felt like it was a newfound candour, this allowance. He was bad, he was having fun. There was no contradiction. He could do both.

Where you think you’re going, baby?

Dream’s thudding stomps didn’t match George’s rough edged-grace, but he was there. And he was dancing. It felt like a win. It felt human, more human than Dream had felt in days. In those three minutes, he wasn’t the Dream. He was just another person.

He felt like one cell in the body of a giant, doing the same as everyone around him, but for the first time he liked it. He was doing the same as George, who was jumping offbeat.

But here’s my number, so call me maybe?

Dream’s panting chest felt like it was holding corporal freedom inside it. He thought his heart was about to beat it’s way out of his cell wall chest and soar away.

Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad.

I missed you so, so bad.

Dream couldn’t believe he had ever thought George was restrained and standoffish.

The George Dream had thought he had known for years, detached and reserved, quiet and reclusive; Dream watched in his mind as he died and was replaced with this new man. This new George had an unrelenting mind and thrashing heart. It fit perfectly with Dream’s aching body and delicate soul. There, sweating next to George as he sang his throat raw, Dream was sure George had to be his missing part. His final puzzle piece. If there was an empty cave in Dream he would stretch and chip away at it until it was the perfect size for George to settle in.

As the song ended, Dream tried to sort out his jumbled thoughts. His brain felt like a smoothie. Before he could take an internal inventory, Sapnap was beside him. It was easy to guide a panting Dream and George away from the dance floor and down a quiet hall, muttering about ‘totally unlike you, both of you’.

Dream couldn’t process the moving. He shut his eyes to keep it out, only opening his eyes for sporadic flashes of the house. He knew they were going down a hall together, but it all blended into one.

Sapnap got more and more excited the closer they got to the end of the hall. When he finally opened the last door, he was practically hopping.

Dream’s muddied brain recognised it as some kind of game’s room, like the basement in Sapnap’s old house. There was an easily ignored pool table, and on the pool table was an open bottle.

George got to the bottle first. He offered it to Dream and Sapnap before drinking from it. He coughed and spluttered as it went down.

“Gin.” His grimace was enough to deter them all.

Sapnap found a VR headset, the kind none of them had at home. They had to arm wrestle for it. Sapnap won, through methods involving plain cheating if you asked Dream. He had kicked Dream’s blooded shin ‘accidentally ’ mid-wrestle and refused a rematch. George hadn’t wanted to get involved.

Sapnap got to play on the VR first.

George was a nice drunk to be around. He wasn’t loud or annoying or excitable. He was just George, but less guarded. He thought out loud about the universe and the human condition and why goldfish were called goldfish when they were orange. Dream sat cross-legged in front of him while he spoke, slow and heavy. His brain felt cloudy, but in a nice way. A buffer between Dream and George, and everything else.

George liked to do things wrong. The more he talked about random things, the clearer it became. He ate pasta at breakfast time. He sat on chairs backwards and sideways and even upside down, laying his back on the seat and letting the blood rush to his head. He used his conditioner before his shampoo.

Dream tried to tell him, tried to enlighten him that he was living wrong.

“Well, I’m doing perfectly fine.”

Dream didn’t know how George managed to slip this gentle tenderness into everything he did. He swapped from sitting cross-legged to lying down, sprawling like a starfish. Dream did the same. He could feel their fingers brushing against each other.

Sapnap was immersed in his own digital world, but Dream was sure they were feeling the same thing, total separation from reality It was as if he and George had escaped time. They just lay there on the dirty carpet together, fingertips barely brushing.

“Ow!” The serenity didn’t last long. Sapnap had walked into a wall.

George laughed aloud. “That's going to hurt in the morning.”

Sapnap held up his middle finger, in the wrong direction. The headset was still on.

“It hurts now, idiot.” Dream grinned between them. He wasn’t used to their friendship.

“Well, at least you did your best!” Dream tried to give his positive input from his position on the floor. Sapnap shuddered.

“God, I hope not.” He went into the game again.

Dream turned his body back to the ceiling, but it wasn’t the same. The bubble was popped and he couldn’t stitch it back together.

Instead, he sat up to face George again so they could talk.

Ten minutes later, Sapnap was still alive and thriving in the game, while Dream and George were falling back into the natural rhythm of their conversations.

“Why did you think I hated you?” George’s voice was a rock skimmed on the pond of quiet. Dream was laying back on the couch, eyes again locked on the ceiling. It made it easier, not having to look at George on the other end of the couch. Their feet were tangled together. George was being gentle with Dream’s recovering shin. Dream didn’t think about it before replying.

“Didn’t you?” He didn’t see the gentle shake of George’s head.

“No. If anything, you hated me.” His voice bounced from the ceiling to Dream’s ears. Dream sat up to face him, ceiling tainted.

“No I didn’t. No, I don’t.” It was Dream’s turn now to shake his head. He wanted to lean forward and tell George a hundred times. He didn’t, he doesn’t.

“Okay, Dream.” George hadn’t sat up, still staring at the white ceiling.

Neither of them said anything for a minute. Dream looked at George, George looked up. Dream couldn’t handle the quiet, the noncommitment in George’s voice. He needed to fix it. He spoke into the silence.

“You just, you stopped talking to me. Like, overnight. So, I just thought you hated me.” Dream couldn’t keep looking at him. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes. He wished he hadn’t had that vodka. It was shoving cotton in his mouth and down his throat. There was morphine in his lips, he couldn’t get his words out.

“Yeah. I was anxious. I wasn’t talking to anyone.” George’s gaze was deadset, not on Dream.

“Well, you ignored me. I thought you hated me.” Dream tried to justify himself to George, to rationalise his behaviour at nine years old. George just hummed.

“So all of that, the years of dirty looks and rolling eyes, it was because I hurt your feelings by being too quiet?” George finally looked at him. Dream couldn’t believe he had ever wanted him to. His eyes were cold stone.

“Don’t say it like that.” Dream wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. His voice sounded small. Sapnap still had the headset on, he couldn’t hear them. He wasn’t coming to save him.

“Well, how would you say it, Dream?” George was still staring at him. Dream wanted to sew his eyes shut.

“I-” He looked away, but found himself looking back in George’s eyes before speaking again. “You weren’t just quiet . You ignored me.” It was all too quiet.

“You were too busy for me Dream. I wanted to be your friend, for years. Don’t try and spin this as if I dropped you. You couldn’t deal with me being quiet, with me going through a hard time. You needed my attention, you wanted it, 24/7. You were selfish.”

Dream couldn’t speak. He felt like someone was sucking the air slowly from his lungs and then the last traces of oxygen from his blood. George stood up and it was the final kick.

Sapnap must have sensed the movement, because just then he took off the headset.

“I think I saw some of my friends in another room. I’m going to go and say hi.”

“Hey, we’re your friends.” Dream had no idea how Sapnap knew to make his voice so soft at that moment. He had always had a sixth sense for those things.

“Yeah.” Dream managed to choke the word out.

“Come on Dream. Sometimes I think if you saw me bleeding out on your kitchen floor, you’d act like you hadn’t seen me.” George smiled tightly to Sapnap and left.

Dream let him go. He hated the tightness in his chest, the bitter taste in his mouth. He made himself feel angry in a way he knew he didn’t deserve to be. For the first time in his life, he knew George was right about what had happened. A lot of it had been his fault.

#mcyt #mcyt fic #dnf #dreamnotfound #dreamsmp #dream/george #dreamxgeorge #psa i actually dont ship them i just like creative writing and heat waves made me obsessed with their characters #dream #georgenotfound

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 4 years

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SOLAR ORBITER TO PASS THROUGH THE TAILS OF COMET ATLAS ESA’s Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to be taking science data at this time, mission experts have worked to ensure that the four most relevant instruments will be switched on during the unique encounter. Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020. Since then, and with the exception of a brief shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and engineers have been conducting a series of tests and set-up routines known as commissioning. The completion date for this phase was set at 15 June, so that the spacecraft could be fully functional for its first close pass of the Sun, or perihelion, in mid-June. However, the discovery of the chance encounter with the comet made things more urgent. Serendipitously flying through a comet’s tail is a rare event for a space mission, something scientists know to have happened only six times before for missions that were not specifically chasing comets. All such encounters have been discovered in the spacecraft data after the event. Solar Orbiter’s upcoming crossing is the first to be predicted in advance. It was noticed by Geraint Jones of the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, who has a 20-year history of investigating such encounters. He discovered the first accidental tail crossing in 2000, while investigating a strange disturbance in data recorded by the ESA/NASA Ulysses Sun-studying spacecraft in 1996. This study revealed that the spacecraft had passed through the tail of Comet Hyakutake, also known as ‘The Great Comet of 1996.’ Soon after the announcement, Ulysses crossed the tail of another comet, and then a third one in 2007. Earlier this month, realising that Solar Orbiter was going to be 44 million kilometres downstream of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in just a matter of weeks, Geraint immediately alerted the ESA team. Bonus Science Solar Orbiter is equipped with a suite of 10 in-situ and remote-sensing instruments to investigate the Sun and the flow of charged particles it releases into space -- the solar wind. Fortuitously, the four in-situ instruments are also perfect for detecting the comet’s tails because they measure the conditions around the spacecraft, and so they could return data about the dust grains and the electrically charged particles given off by the comet. These emissions create the comet’s two tails: the dust tail that is left behind in the comet’s orbit and the ion tail that points straight away from the Sun. Solar Orbiter will cross the ion tail of Comet ATLAS on 31 May/1 June, and the dust tail on 6 June. If the ion tail is dense enough, Solar Orbiter’s magnetometer (MAG) might detect the variation of the interplanetary magnetic field because of its interaction with ions in the comet’s tail, while the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) could directly capture some of the tail particles. When Solar Orbiter crosses the dust tail, depending on its density -- which is extremely difficult to predict -- it is possible that one or more tiny dust grains may hit the spacecraft at speeds of tens of kilometres per second. While there is no significant risk to the spacecraft from this, the dust grains themselves will be vaporised on impact, forming tiny clouds of electrically charged gas, or plasma, which could be detected by the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument. “An unexpected encounter like this provides a mission with unique opportunities and challenges, but that’s good! Chances like this are all part of the adventure of science,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science. One of those challenges was that the instruments seemed unlikely to all be ready in time because of the commissioning. Now, thanks to a special effort by the instrument teams and ESA’s mission operations team, all four in-situ instruments will be on and collecting data, even though at certain times the instruments will need to be switched back into commissioning mode to ensure that the 15 June deadline is met. “With these caveats, we are ready for whatever Comet ATLAS has to tell us,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter. Expect the Unexpected Another challenge entails the comet’s behaviour. Comet ATLAS was discovered on 28 December 2019. During the next few months, it brightened so much that astronomers wondered whether it would become visible to the naked eye in May. Unfortunately, in early April the comet fragmented. As a result, its brightness dropped significantly too, robbing sky watchers of the view. A further fragmentation in mid-May has diminished the comet even more, making it less likely to be detectable by Solar Orbiter. Although the chances of detection have reduced, the effort is still worth making according to Geraint. “With each encounter with a comet, we learn more about these intriguing objects. If Solar Orbiter detects Comet ATLAS’s presence, then we’ll learn more about how comets interact with the solar wind, and we can check, for example, whether our expectations of dust tail behaviour agree with our models,” he explains. “All missions that encounter comets provide pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.” Geraint is the principal investigator of ESA’s future Comet Interceptor mission, which consists of three spacecraft and is scheduled for launch in 2028. It will make a much closer flyby of an as yet unknown comet that will be selected from the newly discovered comets nearer the time of launch (or even after that). Grazing the Sun Solar Orbiter is currently circling our parent star between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, with its first perihelion to take place on 15 June, around 77 million kilometres from the Sun. In coming years, it will get much closer, within the orbit of Mercury, around 42 million kilometres from the solar surface. Meanwhile, Comet ATLAS is already there, approaching its own perihelion, which is expected on 31 May, around 37 million kilometres from the Sun. “This tail crossing is also exciting because it will happen for the first time at such close distances from the Sun, with the comet nucleus being inside the orbit of Mercury,” says Yannis Zouganelis, ESA Deputy Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter. Understanding the dust environment in the innermost region of the solar system is one of Solar Orbiter’s scientific objectives. “Near-Sun comets like Comet ATLAS are sources of dust in the inner heliosphere and so this study will not only help us understand the comet, but also the dust environment of our star,” adds Yannis. Looking at an icy object rather than the scorching Sun is certainly an exciting -- and unexpected -- way for Solar Orbiter to start its scientific mission, but that’s the nature of science. “Scientific discovery is built on good planning and serendipity. In the three months since launch, the Solar Orbiter team has already proved that it’s ready for both,” says Daniel. IMAGE 1....A view of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 23 April 2020. The comet was first discovered in December 2019 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) collaboration, and its fragmentation was confirmed in April 2020. Hubble has provided astronomers with the sharpest view yet of the comet breakup, resolving roughly 25 fragments of the comet in this image. In May 2020, studies indicated that ESA’s Solar Orbiter would serendipitously cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS on 31 May–1 June (ion tail) and 6 June (dust tail). NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA), Q. Ye (University of Maryland), CC BY 4.0 IMAGE 2....ESA's Solar Orbiter mission will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury at its closest approach. ESA/ATG medialab IMAGE 3....Solar Orbiter's suite of ten science instruments that will study the Sun. There are two types: in situ and remote sensing. The in situ instruments measure the conditions around the spacecraft itself. The remote-sensing instruments measure what is happening at large distances away. Together, both sets of data can be used to piece together a more complete picture of what is happening in the Sun’s corona and the solar wind. The in situ instruments: EPD: Energetic Particle Detector EPD will measure the energetic particles that flow past the spacecraft. It will look at their composition and variation in time. The data will help scientists investigate the sources, acceleration mechanisms, and transport processes of these particles. Principal Investigator: Javier Rodríguez-Pacheco, University of Alcalá, Spain MAG: Magnetometer MAG will measure the magnetic field around the spacecraft with high precision. It will help determine how the Sun’s magnetic field links to the rest of the Solar System and changes with time. This will help us understand how the corona is heated and how energy is transported in the solar wind. Principal Investigator: Tim Horbury, Imperial College London, United Kingdom RPW: Radio and Plasma Waves RPW will measure the variation in magnetic and electric fields using a number of sensors and antennas. This will help to determine the characteristics of electromagnetic waves and fields in the solar wind. RPW is the only instrument on Solar Orbiter that makes both in situ and remote sensing measurements. Principal Investigator: Milan Maksimovic, LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, France SWA: Solar Wind Plasma Analyser SWA consists of a suite of sensors that will measure the solar wind’s bulk properties, such as density, velocity and temperature. It will also measure the composition of the solar wind. Principal Investigator: Christopher Owen, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, United Kingdom The remote-sensing instruments: EUI: Extreme Ultraviolet Imager EUI will take images of the solar chromosphere, transition region and corona. This will allow scientists to investigate the mysterious heating processes that take effect in this region and will allow connecting in situ measurements of the solar wind back to their source regions on the Sun. Principal Investigator: David Berghmans, Royal Observatory, Belgium Metis: Coronagraph Metis will take simultaneous images of the corona in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. This will show the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere in unprecedented detail, stretching out from 1.7 to 4.1 solar radii. This will allow scientists to look for the link between the behaviour of these regions and space weather in the inner Solar System. Principal Investigator: Marco Romoli, INAF – University of Florence, Italy PHI: Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager PHI will provide high-resolution measurements of the magnetic field across the photosphere, and maps of its brightness at visible wavelengths. It will also produce velocity maps of the movement of the photosphere that will allow helioseismic investigations of the solar interior, in particular the convective zone. Principal Investigator: Sami Solanki, Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Germany SoloHI: Heliospheric Imager SoloHI will take images of the solar wind by capturing the light scattered by electrons particles in the wind. This will allow the identification of transient disturbances in the solar wind, such as the type that can trigger a coronal mass ejection, in which a billion tons of coronal gas can be ejected outwards into space. Principal Investigator: Russell A. Howard, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., USA SPICE: Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment SPICE will reveal the properties of the solar transition region and corona by measuring the extreme ultraviolet wavelengths given off by the plasma. This data will be matched to the solar wind properties that are subsequently detected by the spacecraft’s in situ instruments. European-led facility instrument; Principal Investigator for Operations Phase: Frédéric Auchère, IAS, Orsay, France STIX: X-ray Spectrometer/Telescope STIX will detect X-ray emission coming from the Sun. This could be from hot plasma, often related to explosive magnetic activity such as solar flares. STIX will provide the timing, location, intensity, and energy data for these events so that their effects on the solar wind can be better understood. Principal Investigator: Säm Krucker, FHNW, Windisch, Switzerland Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Its mission is to perform unprecedented close-up observations of the Sun and from high-latitudes, providing the first images of the uncharted polar regions of the Sun, and investigating the Sun-Earth connection. Data from the spacecraft’s suite of ten instruments will provide unprecedented insight into how our parent star works in terms of the 11-year solar cycle, and how we can better predict periods of stormy space weather. ESA-S.Poletti IMAGE 4....The main components of a comet – nucleus, coma, hydrogen envelope, dust and plasma tails – indicating their composition, relative sizes and location. The diagram is representative and not to scale. ESA IMAGE 5....The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with the sharpest view yet of the breakup of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). The telescope resolved roughly 30 fragments of the comet on 20 April and 25 pieces on 23 April. The comet was first discovered in December 2019 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) and its fragmentation was confirmed in April 2020. NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA), Q. Ye (University of Maryland); CC BY 4.0 IMAGE 6....Solar Orbiter was launched on an Atlas V 411 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, at 05:15 CET on 8 February 2020 (23:15 EST on 7 February). Gravity assist manoeuvres at Earth and Venus will enable the spacecraft to change inclination to observe the Sun from different perspectives. During the initial cruise phase, which lasts until November 2021, Solar Orbiter will perform two gravity-assist manoeuvres around Venus and one around Earth to alter the spacecraft’s trajectory, guiding it towards the innermost regions of the Solar System. At the same time, Solar Orbiter will acquire in situ data and characterise and calibrate its remote-sensing instruments. The first close solar pass will take place in 2022 at around a third of Earth’s distance from the Sun. The spacecraft’s orbit has been chosen to be ‘in resonance’ with Venus, which means that it will return to the planet’s vicinity every few orbits and can again use the planet’s gravity to alter or tilt its orbit. Initially Solar Orbiter will be confined to the same plane as the planets, but each encounter of Venus will increase its orbital inclination. For example, after the 2025 Venus encounter it will make its first solar pass at 17º inclination, increasing to 33º during a proposed mission extension phase, bringing even more of the polar regions into direct view. Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Its mission is to perform unprecedented close-up observations of the Sun and from high-latitudes, providing the first images of the uncharted polar regions of the Sun, and investigating the Sun-Earth connection. Data from the spacecraft’s suite of ten instruments will provide unprecedented insight into how our parent star works in terms of the 11-year solar cycle, and how we can better predict periods of stormy space weather. ESA-S.Poletti

#space #science #Astronomy #physics #solar orbiter #ESA #comet atlas

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evodex · 5 years

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51 Activities To Do With Pre-schoolers That Will Keep Them Creatively Engaged

51 Activities To Do With Pre-schoolers

51 Activities to do with pre-schoolers

Are you looking forward for some fun activities to do with pre-schoolers so that you can help them grow better, smarter and keep them engaged?

Here we bring you some of the activities to organize:

51 Activities to do with pre-schoolers

Create a Bubble Painting: For this idea, make your kid paint a bubble sheet and then draw paintings on cardboard or a t – shirt.

Craft a Story Together: Help your child to craft a story through imaginations.

Create a Marble Painting: Help your preschooler to create paintings on a metal box or a shoe box with marbles and poster paint.

Cook Together: Cooking offers many choices from baking to teaching how to butter a slice of bread and cut or peal a fruit without knife. Be ready for the mess but happy faces.

Draw Pictures on the Walls: Give your kids some coloured but washable chalks and let them draw their imaginations on the wall. Kids love this one :)!

Family Tree: Help them making a family tree on a sheet of paper or on a computer using templates and let them go back to as many generations as possible.

Leaf Hunt: Pick an outdoor green area and collect leaves, fill them up in different containers and hand over to your kids and ask them to match the leaves they have with those which are growing on the plants.

Travel Alphabet: Play the game while you are travelling, especially long trips. Ask your kids to spot the letters that you give them and then the kid who spots the maximum of these wins. You can play several rounds of these.

Car Racing Track: Use a colored tape to make roads on the floor along with signals and stop signs and some special zones for the parking.

Hand made stuffs: Ask them to draw on a plain muslin cloth and colour with fabric pens and then you can bring their creation to life by cutting and making handmade stuffies of these.

Swimming games: Take them swimming and play find the coin by placing a coin in the bottom of the pool or just throw the ball game is fun too.

Room Cleaning Race: Get a timer for this activity, sit back and let your kid do the work. Give them small cleaning challenges Reward later for all the hard work.

Bowling Track: Use a wooden board on a flat surface. For bowling pins, use pencil erasers or fat crayon stubs and marble or a ping pong ball for the bowling ball. Keep scoring and have fun.

Hold a Car Wash: A perfect way to cool off on a hot day. Just park the car in the drive way and let your kids give it a good scrub with water and sponges.

Life Size Selfie: Making a life size portrait is a beautiful way to express. It helps kids to explore who they are and what they would like to become. Activities to do with pre-schoolers

20 Indoor Activities For Kids On A Rainy Day

16. My Turn, My Task: Divide groups in tow or more teams and start a relay game by keeping things ready on a table and dividing them amongst the players.

17. Spinning Top: Take your kids down to 90’s and let them play with spinning tops which are popularly known as ‘Lattu’ then.

18. Picnic: Take your kids to a picnic and enjoy fun activities outdoor.

19. Play UNO: UNO is one of the most famous card game which is played by people of all ages. Help your kids with the rules and teach them how to play.

20. Fly a Kite: A traditional Indian game which is liked by all. Help your kids in learning how to fly a kite.

21. DIY Paper Bracelet: It is a 2 for 1 activity because it involves painting poppy abstract shapes with watercolours and then cut it into strips and fold them in to wearable bracelet.

22. DIY Tie – Dye Art: Transform the salad spinner in the carnival style spin art machine. Fill the squeeze bottles with washable paint.

23. Window Art: Give your kids some coloured transparent sheets and let them cut different shapes and stick them to the wall.

24. Foam Paint: The 3 ingredient recipe is both art and science. Use paintable foam which hardens overnight into puffed master pieces.

25. Musical Chair: The best game to play with a group. Do not forget to reward. Best game to improve the listening skill and discern between sound and silence.

26. Sock Puppets Show: Let your kids make hand puppets with socks and put up a show with other kids.

27. Information Game: Preschoolers must know few basic personal information when heading into preschool. Help them learn full names, address and contact numbers. Use small cards and ask your kid to arrange it.

28. Notice Seasons: Share details of the seasons with your kids as it is an important subject.

29.Sensory Toys: It is an important and a messy learning technique. Use Play Doh for the help.

30. Grocery Shopping: Take your kids out for grocery shopping and teach them about various names of fruits and vegetables.

31. Funny Face Flip Book: DIY Funny Face Flip Book is not only fun to put together but it keeps kids creatively entertained for an entire afternoon. Use markers for sketching and clip the cards.

pic credit: Activities to do with pre-schoolers

32. Plan a treasure hunt: Go the old fashioned way. Hide goodies in different corners of the house. Give them clues when they reach a particular point to reach to the next.

33. Fireworks in a Glass: Use food colouring, olive oil and water mix to create a mesmerising result.

34. Gardening: Teach your kids about soil, water and plants and help them plant more trees and seeds.

35. Play Hide and Seek: In this idea, hide an object and give instructions to the kids to lead them to the hidden object.

36. Freeze Dance: Play the music, ask your kids to dance. Stop the music and let your kids freeze with funny faces and fun poses.

37. Indoor Obstacle Course: Push your furniture aside and practice motor skills like running, jumping and hopping without breaking anything.

38. Scavenger Hunt: Use patterns, colours and letters and hunt around the house.

39. Yoga for Kids: A perfect activity to increase their stamina, concentration and growth.

How To Introduce Principles Of Yoga To Kids: Yamas For Kids

40. Ice Cube Sorting and Pattern Making: Mix art, math and fine motor skills. Watch this video to know more.

pic credit: Activities to do with pre-schoolers

41. Playdough: Playing with Playdough your preschooler will learn to use their imagination and have an open-ended playtime.

42. Collage: Provide few items and let your kid arrange and re arrange to make a collage.

43. Music: Fix a time of the day and play music to which you and your kids can dance to. It’s great exercise and bonding.

44. Build a House of Cups: Help kids in making a house with the help of paper cups.

45. Go on a Walking Tour of the City: Take a tour of the city and help your kid learn the names of the areas and also the famous places.

46. Do a Puzzle: Play puzzle games like jigsaw puzzles to enable your kids gain fine motor skills. Puzzle games teaches patience. Use puzzle games having pegs to make it easy for little hands to use.

47. Crunch Snack: A delicious snack which you can make with your kids and always leave it out in various occasions. For example, you can prepare a reindeer crunch snack for Christmas Eve’s.

48. Drive a Train: Enjoy a rail ride in your city’s park for an outing with your kid. You can also visit National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri in Delhi where a train ride around the place will serve as a cherry on the cake.

49. Spark Creativity: Hang out with your little ones to see, touch and understand the wider world of handicrafts, our country prides in. You can visit The Handicrafts Museum in Delhi, Delhi Haat or Chaukidhani in Mumbai to see and experience the impressive culture, embroidery, weaving and pottery.

50. Learn Phonics Basics: It is one of the most wonderful gifts you can give to your kids. Getting informed about the basics of phonics will prepare your kids for reading readiness and spelling.

51. Try Science Experiments: You might get visions of a chemistry lab while talking about a science experiment and the explosions related to it but now you need not fear of it. Try the basic volcano experiment. Your preschoolers can enjoy simple science experiments that don’t require much of an effort yet are jam packed with fun learning opportunities.

DIY Decoupage Happiness Jar: A Perfect Gift For Christmas

Hope this list has given you many ideas to keep them busy. Use these ideas and watch your kids grow smart and sharp.

The post 51 Activities To Do With Pre-schoolers That Will Keep Them Creatively Engaged appeared first on Maa of All Blogs.

51 Activities To Do With Pre-schoolers That Will Keep Them Creatively Engaged published first on https://bestbabyinc.tumblr.com

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tkmedia · 3 years

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British & Irish Lions: What the pundits said

Each match from the Lions tour of South Africa is exclusively live on Sky; fans who don't have Sky will be able to catch all the action via streaming service NOW, which offers day/monthly passes; read the thoughts of Ronan O'Gara, Sir Ian McGeechan, Sam Warburton and Maggie Alphonsi

By Sky Sports Rugby Union Last Updated: 10/07/21 10:07pm

Tadhg Beirne again proved a standout in the six jersey for the Lions as they romped to a 71-31 win over the Sharks on Saturday The British and Irish Lions made it three wins from three in South Africa on Saturday, as they routed the 14-man Sharks 71-31 in Johannesburg. In all, Warren Gatland's men put 11 tries past the Sharks, with scrum-half Jaden Hendrikse's red card for elbowing Liam Williams on the ground in the head playing a huge part.Centre Chris Harris, hooker Jamie George (two), wing Duhan van der Merwe, flanker Tadhg Beirne (two), No 8 Jack Conan, centre Elliot Daly, wing Anthony Watson (two) and replacement flanker Tom Curry all ended up on the scoresheet, while Dan Biggar added eight conversions.

5:18 Highlights from the Cell C Sharks against the British & Irish Lions in the third match of the tour of South Africa Highlights from the Cell C Sharks against the British & Irish Lions in the third match of the tour of South Africa Below is a look at what Sky Sports' team of pundits made of things...Sam Warburton on looming Test selection and who stood out"This Saturday now is normally the first time you try to align your Test team subtly," Warburton told the Sky Sports Rugby studio."I think Anthony Watson came in and proved to everybody what he was all about. Duhan van der Merwe backed up what he's been doing all along.

Anthony Watson showed what he can do on the wing vs the Sharks, said Sam Warburton "Tadhg Beirne carried really well. I think there are now some guys, even though you never know, who can be very confident, and they will know that at the back of their minds."But at the same time, you don't want to lose track."A lot of the Sharks tries came from Lions mistakes, so they'll know they can cut that out, and it's good to have those learnings now and not in two weeks' time.

2:40 Warren Gatland says his Lions players responded well after a challenging first half against the Sharks Warren Gatland says his Lions players responded well after a challenging first half against the Sharks "The Lions will pick a team for the first Test, and there will almost certainly be an adjustment going into Test two."In 2017, Johnny Sexton was on the bench for the first Test and they brought both Sexton and Owen Farrell in for Test two, so there is more than one combination that can work."Neither myself, Sexton or Maro Itoje were involved in the first Test in 2017, and then we were for the second and third Tests, so players shouldn't get disheartened if they aren't in the first Test because they can still have pivotal roles in the weeks to come after.

Sir Ian McGeechan's Lions XV to face Boks in first Test After the British and Irish Lions' 71-31 win over the Sharks on Saturday, Sir Ian McGeechan shared his starting Test XV to face Springboks "I think hooker is a toss of a coin at the minute, at No 7 Tom Curry needs another start before you can definitively say who will play there, and I still think Bundee Aki could work at 12, as could Dan Biggar and Farrell as a 10/12."12, hooker and No 7 are up for grabs, but the rest of it is starting to take shape."

1:56 Captain Jamie George says his Lions team can learn a lot from their hard-fought victory over the Sharks Captain Jamie George says his Lions team can learn a lot from their hard-fought victory over the Sharks O'Gara disappointed with Biggar vs Sharks | "Who to play at 13 is the missing piece of the jigsaw""I would base my Test team around Conor Murray and Owen Farrell. I was disappointed with Dan Biggar," Ronan O'Gara said."I thought he kicked the ball away unnecessarily twice, and it's his capacity to see space. I think Farrell sees the space better."To back up that argument, when Biggar passes inside to Anthony Watson late on, there's 50 or 60 metres of space with no defenders on the left-hand side. But that's being very harsh.

Dan Biggar's performance at 10 disappointed Ronan O'Gara "It's a real position of strength is the No 10, and there's debate around No 12 and No 13 with probably a big meeting needed there."I think the big challenge at the minute is who to pick at 13. I don't see a striking candidate."Robbie Henshaw probably would have been favoured until he got a hamstring injury, which creates a cloud over him."And in the back of my mind, when he plays in the centre with Garry Ringrose for Ireland, Ringrose plays at 13."I like the combination of Bundee Aki at 12 and Henshaw at 13, but there are so many options with the quality of players they have on this tour.

Robbie Henshaw's hamstring injury has made 13 a problem position to fix "For me, it's the big, missing piece of the jigsaw at the minute, because the way teams defend at the moment, the 13 and openside winger are just as important as your half-backs, because if you play 13 in the front-line, it takes a smart, intelligent winger to cut out what the opposition attack are doing."Going back five years and before that, the winger stayed in the back-field a lot. Nowadays, the winger is so important because he has to be brave, and his eyes and ears are his 13."You wouldn't want to be doing that for the first time at that level . So that's why I think you need to look at combinations."

Watch every Lions tour match live, only on Sky Sports Get Sky Sports today from just £18 extra a month Alphonsi: Anthony Watson and Tadhg Beirne impressed"Anthony Watson definitely stood out. We said that all the wingers had really stepped up and he was one who still had to show what he's capable of doing," said Maggie Alphonsi."He had a good Six Nations, even though England didn't, so it doesn't surprise me that he is starting to perform. He put his hand up."Talking about the No 6 position, I think Tadhg Beirne is one who would be the Test No 6 because of what he does.

Beirne really impressed Maggie Alphonsi, as well as Warburton and Sir Ian McGeechan "He is a big-statured player who could really front up in front of South Africa, and he scored two tries today. The way he scored them was really impressive."He's strong and can get over the gain-line, which is really key. He spots gaps and the space behind a breakdown, and it is really impressive."He's also starting to show that he can play like a No 7: a back-row who's got hands, pace, and scores smart tries in space."McGeechan on players handling Test match omissions"I think you've got to confront it," Sir Ian McGeechan said. "We did in 1997 and again in 2009, saying: 'Look, down the line, the first Test team will be announced, if you're not in it, what do we need the reaction to be like? What is the way we keep everything in place?'"And that challenges the environment. It either grows it or it starts to split it. You have to confront it, and week five for me is when any issues will come out.

McGeechan says management must confront the fact players will deal with Test omissions in different ways "You nip everything in the bud all the way along, but you present week five and say: 'This is the challenge.' "If there's niggles or injuries or things not going well, if something is going to spill over, it tends to be week five, because people put up with it for three or four weeks."If there's going to be arguments or fights in training, it will be that week." Read the full article

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vetor2064 · 6 months

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Day 29

Enjoy the show

#vetors art #saw #saw franchise #jigsaw #jigsaw 31 day challenge #billy #billy the puppet #puppet #puppets #puppet show

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chahiri · 3 years

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Celebration Autism Awareness Month April 2021

This is not a condition that we can run from nor are there cures right around the corner, but we can learn through the eyes of those who deal with it every day. Many amazing people have grown up facing the prejudice of the world because they were different, but didn 19t let it dampen nor demean who they were. Autism Awareness Month helps us learn that while they face certain challenges, those who face the world are people just like you and me.

History of Autism Awareness Month

The Society for Autism founded in 1965 by Dr. Rimland, to promote research and help as well as guidance for those who lived with this condition, and to support those living with the people who face the world with Autism gain a better understanding of what was going on with their loved ones. The Society for Autism went to bat for Autism sufferers by helping to establish legislation in Section 504 of the disabilities act to recognize and protect them.

Their campaigns started in the early 1970 19s and are still going today; Autism Awareness Month was established to promote a better understanding between those with Autism and be a part of the world they live in, not stand outside looking in. The face of Autism isn 19t set in stone, and there are multiple ways it can manifest. Every person who lives their life with this condition faces different challenges depending on where they lay on the Autistic Spectrum, and which facets of the condition the experience most severely.

How to celebrate Autism Awareness Month

Go out to a seminar or conference to gain a better understanding of how to recognize and support those with the illness is a great way to start. You can also take some time out of your life to run or walk a marathon to support the Research. You can start by buying a ribbon to help fund research into this condition, and to help the world understand the lives of those that live with this condition.

Support for those with this condition can begin with donations and wear the jigsaw ribbons, to attending conferences, sending letters to your congressmen and watching seminars. If you know someone with Autism or are an Autism sufferer yourself, there 19s a month set aside to help the world better understand you, and for you to celebrate your successes living life with Autism.

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#AutismAwarenessMonth

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toffeebuzz · 3 years

Text

115 Ways to Be Your Own Boss

(1) HAND DECORATING

of regular items will pay well. Remodelling jewellery Their price is frequently quadrupled. Prepared stencils and designs are available from interest shops. You can work in attic or basement and want invest very little in elements. Saleable gadgets are initialled tumblers, stools, trays, jugs, bins, waste-baskets, greeting playing cards, toys. Sell your work to present stores on a sale or return foundation.

(2) ADDRESSING AND MAILING SERVICE

This work may be acquired via writing or telephoning branch shops, retail and mail order firms, addressing bureaux, and unsolicited mail services indexed within the telephone listing. You can market it your provider beneath "Employment" in nearby newspapers and in the phone ebook.

(3) COLLECT AND SELL COINS

Coin amassing is booming. Supplying collectors is a worthwhile home business. Get to realize values via studying books and catalogues. Buy cautiously from professional sellers and from non-public assets thru classified ads in local papers. Sell via non-public contacts and mail order classified ads in "Coins" and different collectors' and hobby magazines, and in "Exchange & Mart " Weekly, under "Coins". See No 113 on Home Mail Order Business . Combine with No seventy nine.

(four) CORRESPONDENCE CLUB

Your earnings is from prices charged for people to sign up for the membership to receive the names of others who wish to correspond. In this domestic mail order commercial enterprise you cater for some unique interest: hobbyists, coin or stamp creditors, booklovers, prize contest lovers, writers. (5) PROFITABLE SEWING AT HOME

There is money in a home dressmaking service. It frequently can pay to specialise. Some do well re-modelling vintage dresses, or making novelties or children's wear. A sign in your window, a card on Y.W.C.A. Notice forums and students' announcements, classified ads inside the nearby newspaper and calls on get dressed shops and gift shops bring commercial enterprise.

(6) MAKING LAMPS AND SHADES

at home pays well, as they frequently promote for normally the fabric prices. Lamp shades may be made in home workshops from linen, plastics, silk, paper and parchment. Local public libraries have manuals at the difficulty. Outlets are gift shops and branch shops. Co-operate with indoors designers.

(7) RENTAL BUSINESS

This has mushroomed into an appealing new enterprise possibility. People like to borrow, do-it-yourselfers rent professional device. Many guys are doing properly nowadays by way of performing as rental marketers for all way of factors - electricity equipment, vans, automobiles, electric generators, and so on.

(8) ANIMAL BREEDING

Pedigree dogs and different pets command excessive fees these days. It is vital initially the proper stock and hold to the instructions given in handbooks to be had at nearby public libraries. Two ladies mated at extraordinary times of the year may want to show worthwhile. (nine) BASKETRY AND CANE WORK

may be successful if you preserve an amazing preferred of expertise. Use shiny tooth paints for completing and keep to standard designs and articles. Study the market and offer your products on sale or go back to gift and novelty shops, shops, ladies's exchanges and so forth.

(10) LOCAL NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT

Suitable in case you are a terrific 'mixer' and feature right neighborhood expertise and write undeniable English. Start by using sending local editors specimen reports.

(11) CRITICISM OF WRITERS' MANUSCRIPTS

Profitable if you are eager, have some aptitude, and take a look at writers' manuals. Advertise in "The Writer", "Writer's Review", and "Writing".

(12) RESEARCH SERVICE

Writers, academics, enterprise agencies and others need loose-lance specialists to look up records which may be found in public and unique libraries, museums and exchange associations. Get paintings through classified ads in literary and writers' magazines. Home operators can earn oe2.50 to oe3.00 according to hour. Your local reference libraries will help.

(13) BUYING AND SELLING ON COMMISSION

Start with an outbuilding or store room until you can take a small keep. No know-how of your goods is important. Take a commission of 15% to 25% on everything you sell. Suppose a customer brings in a table, chair, or digicam for which he asks a positive charge. When you've got located a consumer you notify your patron, who collects the cash and can pay your commission. Your handiest costs are for the gap, and classified ads. Furniture, T.V. Units, cameras, typewriters, prams, sell nicely.

(14) IDEAS FOR CARTOONISTS

Cartoonists pay well for ideas and gags that healthy their style. Write to cartoonists care of the magazines wherein their cartoons seem.

(15) AT-HOME BABY SITTING

is an increasing in-demand spare-time pastime. Mothers bring their toddler to the toddler-sitter's domestic, a few taking seven or 8 right away, charging by means of the hour, plus something more if a meal is given. Combine with No 92.

(sixteen) AGENCY SUPERVISORS

operating from home are desired via Buying Protection Services, 20 Gorham, Rottingdean, Brighton. BN2 7DP.

(17) INVISIBLE RE-WEAVING

This service is popular and worthwhile because it salvages expensive clothes at appreciably much less fee than might be had to replace them. There is especially proper scope in small network neighbourhoods.

(18) HANDBILL DISTRIBUTION

for enterprise corporations and different advertisers may be profitable. Door-to-door transport may be organized with senior faculty-youngsters. Sales letters sent to branch shops and different local advertisers can carry good consequences, additionally advertisements in "The Trader".

(19) RUG AND FURNITURE CLEANING

is a developing enterprise. In America in particular, more and more human beings very own and operate an 'on vicinity' rug and furniture cleaning franchise, consisting of Service-master, 2117 North Wayne Ave., Chicago 14, Illinis. In England comparable firms promote it in "Exchange & Mart", "Sunday Times", and "The Observer".

(20) SELL MAGAZINES

This requires no workplace and it may be evening paintings. Write to publishers soliciting for the right to get subscritions. Approach schools, hospitals, offices and private people in their domestic and at their commercial enterprise. Solicit orders through telephone and direct mail advertising. Or deal with returned numbers which can be offered and sold through classified ads in

(21) HOME MANUFACTURING

Many saleable products can easily be made at home, and bought thru gift shops and other shops.

(22) USED CRRESPONDENCE COURSES

at reasonable prices are in demand and numerous humans in America are running this type of mail order enterprise. They encompass second-hand instruction manuals and self-development books in their lists. Advertise under "Educational" in "Exchange & Mart". Combine with NO 114.

(23) UPHOLSTERING AND FURNITURE REMODELLING

Once you have got discovered the "expertise" this may pay properly. Public libraries have a few exact books on the challenge and loads can be found out from craft and interest magazines. Many begin with just a container of hand tools and a few special gadget.

(24) WINDOW DRESSING

requires, of path, inventive capacity and ability with gear, plus imagination. It is recommended to get tuition within the issue at night lessons.

(25) MAKE PLYWOOD NOVELTIES

and promote through present stores. Popular items: weather vanes, ships, squirrels, dogs, birds, row-boats, call and address backgroungs, photograph puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, jewel packing containers, comic plaques, doll fixtures.

(26) JUVENILE CLOTHING EXCHANGE

Many ladies inside the suburbs of London and different cities run a kid's apparel alternate, where mothers change children's undesirable, out-grown clothes for others and pay an exchange price. This task can be combined with the sale of boys' and youths' put on together with shorts, T-shirts and so forth., of your personal make, or from wholesale providers listed in "The Trader".

(27) BOOK INDEXING Indexing books for non-fiction publishers is first-class, profitable paintings. The technique may be discovered from handbooks in public libraries. Work is obtained through writing to non-fiction publishers indexed inside the "Writers and Artists Year Book".

(28) DANCING LESSONS

Needs skill and a gift for teaching. Local classified ads carry students. Teach in your home in the beginning. Special classes for center-aged human beings pay nicely.

(29) HANDWRITING ANALYSIS

This is a service which can be profitably marketed with classified ads in magazines and newspapers. The ability may be received from manuals on graphology.

(30) REMINDER BUREAU

With this kind of service you undertake for an annual fee to remind people of birthdays, wedding anniversaries, dates for payments, and so forth. You get your clients through "Personal" commercials in "Sunday Times" and "Observer".

(31) RAISING RABBITS

has the benefit of three markets: promoting fur, breeding inventory, and meat. This project may be commenced in a huge outdoor loose from local restrictions towards elevating animals. Get "knowledge" from nearby library.

(32) ENTERTINING in the shape of making a song, recitations, magic, dancing, doing a comedy act etc., calls for talent to your particular line, and a "way" with an audience. To get bookings it's miles important to come to be well known to your area via giving advantage performances for charitable affairs, hospitals and orphanages. (33) EMBROIDERING

beautifully embellished cigarette instances, velvet compacts, pin cushions, child attire and so forth., is worthwhile. Sales are via gift stores. Get "Embroidery" mag which advertises opportunities and a correspondence direction from Embroiderers Guild, 73 Wimpole Street, London W.1.

(34) DRAW CARTOONS FOR MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

Cartoons are nicely paid today and there are some high-quality handbooks and correspondence courses on the subject. Some cartoonists do nicely by way of specialising in supplying business magazines with cartoons. Markets are listed in "Writers and Artist Year Book".

(35) DECORATED CANDLES

These are accurate dealers to present stores. Study craft magazines, visit gift shops, and attempt to show out something exclusive.

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