#maybe ill use a mask and bring hand sanitizer and just tell people to not come into my lil laptop cubicle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

occasionallyish--archive · 3 years

Text

new oc just dropped.... from the mlb fandom...

tiinii, the rat kwami of purification. i’m thinking their(hells yeah, undefined gender squad B] ) miraculous would either be a pair of gloves or a mask- i was gonna originally say a medical mask but wouldn’t it be sick to have a rat-themed plague doctor mask???- actually, scratch that, it starts off as a medical mask but after the user transforms it changes into a plague mask. that’s what we goin with

so uh. you can prolly already tell a lot of it is based on irony lmao- ‘cause, y’know, rats equal disease and this one equals purification and all that the rat’s special ability would be healing, so, y’know, purification. with a touch, they can do things like reversing rot, undoing rust, reviving dead plants, and healing those in need! they can heal both injuries and illnesses. this can probably only happen a couple times during a transformation though, and if it’s during a battle, should only be used if it’s life or death- because ladybug’s magical fixing everything will fix anything that isn’t immediate

with chat blanc and hawkmoth and mayura, i like to think if any miraculous holder gets unstable enough that they’ll have some sort of unstable/chaotic/evil counterpart. that said, should the rat miraculous holder ever somehow be put in a state like that, the reverse would be corruption- i admit it’s kind of similar to chat’s cataclysm, but it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful or destructive. like, rather than rotting a plant until it turns to dust, the unstable rat could only really do it to the point that the plant’s all dead and shriveled up to the point that it looks like a raisin or smth. they’d also be able to bring upon disease, though only when making contact with a victim’s... f-fluids?? i mean, like, if the corrupted rat touched an open wound or kissed somebody then it’s near certain that that somebody would end up terribly ill

i think the theme of the hero part is pretty obvious lol. we’d have these tall, grey, wide rat ears with a black plague doctor mask that just possibly has a little rat nose at the end... maybe the plague mask itself would only cover, like, the bottom half of their face though- like overhaul from bnha. but then their eye mask is connected to it, kind of resembling a real plague mask but not offering full face coverage as classic ones do. most of the rest of their suit of course resembles the other heroes’, the skintight spandex that covers the entirety of their neck down. it’s all a dark gray color, with the hands, feet, and stomach being a lighter gray(or maybe pink? but that might be too similar to the mouse miraculous) ohh!! but to just slightly push further with the doctor theme.. you know how carapace has a hood built into his suit? the rat’s suit is going to have a sort of similar like... layering? add-on like that, too, where they have a black sort of shawl that just... hangs around their shoulders. but it only reaches like halfway down their arms, stopping just below the elbows(you can get an example of this by looking up feth mercedes). maybe i can make it so the shawl also covers their neck, sort of connecting with the plague mask? but that might look weird.. and then ofc they’d have the long, pink rat’s tail in the back i’m kind of having a hard time coming up with an item of choice. i was thinking maybe a syringe? but that’s a little modern for what i’d expect, plus it can be considered violent when most miraculous gadgets we’ve seen so far are nonviolent, and can be used as tools. i’ll think more into that later

as for the holder themself, i haven’t really shaped the person’s name or appearance or anything but i do have their personality down to a T lol i want to say they have ocd, but i don’t know the experience and dunno if i could represent that in an accurate light. either way, our rat miraculous holder is a total germaphobe- they have a valid excuse to wear their mask everywhere that they go, though ofc some people will still probably end up skeptical. still, they have an obsession that “the world around me is sick and/or i am sick and will ruin the world around me” and so they have a compulsion to wash any surface before and after they’ve touched it, to use hand sanitizer every fifteen minutes or so, probably to wear gloves in any particularly social settings, etc etc despite this, though, they actually don’t mind social interaction! in fact, they’re more comfortable when with other people- as long as they’re people that they’ve established they can trust. i wouldn’t go as far as to say they’re a social butterfly, but the holder of the rat doesn’t mind of bit if somebody wants to come and establish them as a friend generally though, they can be kind of skittish- not in the way of “i’m scared, time to run away lol” but in the way of it is kind of easily to catch them off guard, and in this way they probably heavily rely on reflexes if they were akumatized prior to becoming a holder(or maybe even after??) it’d probably be triggered by somebody like.. touching their food or giving unwanted touch or something, in order to tease them for their germophobia. the goal that would come out of that would be to make other people feel the same fear that they themself feel in their day-to-day life- so their akumatized power would be like... a plague. of paranoia? anybody infected with it would become irrationally fearful

and finally, some more information on our kwami tiihii, themself: -they’re selectively mute, only speaking to their miraculous holder(even then that’s barely ever), their miraculous guardian, and... that’s probably it lol. maybe they have a special trust in tikki, since she’s the first kwami? -they’re pretty much the healer of the kwamis. should one come up with any sickness like tikki did in that one episode, they could count on tiinii to easily heal ‘em -their personality is akin to the holder’s, but probably a larger scale. they get anxious of so many things. the littlest thing can scare this bby, even though they do put effort into improving... also they probably downright hate interacting, in general. partly hence the selective mutism. -they probably speak almost purely through body language, since i’m going to assume the kwamis don’t have an established sign language. if you aren’t one of the people i named above, the most you’re going to get out of tiinii is a nod or shake or tilt of their head. otherwise you have to learn how to interpret their behavior -they have a gentle soul though and at the very least have shown to have faith in those around them

anyway, i started the oc process wanting to come out with a chaotic, homicidal hero... but i ended up with this precious one and y’know what they’re great either way <3

give me feedback! please! also ask questions abt them! help me develop the babe!

#mlb #miraculous ladybug #mlb oc #oc #original character #sickness mention #tw sickness #sickness tw #favish #bold #tw bold #bold tw #long post #big text #tw big text #big text tw #the great big book of ideas #ish oc

3 notes · View notes

neshabeingchildish · 4 years

Text

The Swellview Shut In

This is for Pearl @pearlselegancies, though I don’t know if she’ll feel up to reading at the moment. I do want to preface it by saying that it involves the quarantine, but not in a sad and negative way (mostly). Really, I wanted to do more of a focus on the good things in life/friendship/found family and bonding type of premise. Hopefully, she enjoys this and anyone else who reads, too.

Charlotte Page: Student Mentor - The Swellview Shut In

A sickness was sweeping over the globe. Charlotte figured that it wouldn’t get to Swellview. Nothing ever really reached Swellview, but apparently, this was everywhere, because whenever Jasper showed up to her house in the morning, he had on gloves, a mask and was carrying a cleaning caddy in his hand. “What is up with this?” She wondered.

“The sickness has made it to Swellview, they’re closing school for at least two weeks!” He said. Then, he pulled out a can of disinfectant and began spraying her door and her things.

“There’s no school today?” She asked.

“Oh, no… There IS, but it’s only so that we can go in and grab our things, then they are promptly shutting the doors until further notice. Come on, I have stuff in my locker and I know that you do too.”

“If there’s really something going around, isn’t it stupid for them to even have the school open?”

“They were going to straight up close, but a lot of parents and stuff made a big deal about stuff like devices that teachers took up and locker possessions, so they had to open for that, but they’re like, setting up handwashing stations in the front and stuff. Do you not watch the news?”

The school didn’t have handwashing stations set up at the front of the building, but there were handwritten signs reminding everyone to wash their hands before and after touching things. Charlotte went to her locker and emptied it into her bag, still not fully believing that it was necessary, but taking her stuff, just in case. She texted Henry to see if he was going to do the same. He had no idea what she was even talking about. She texted Piper and moments later, the freshman met her at her locker.

“They’re kicking us out of school for at least two weeks! What do they expect me to do for breakfast and lunch? Eat the food at home? That’s way more expensive! Henry is gonna flip. Can I stay at your house?” Piper made prayer hands. Charlotte thought about it for a moment. Her parents were out of town and she did have an extra bed, but also… Her parents would flip out if she invited someone over in the middle of a possible pandemic… “Tell them it’s for charity!” Piper squealed, knowing by now how Charlotte’s mind worked.

At that moment, Jasper walked up to the two of them and handed his cleaning caddy to Piper, “You need to sanitize and gear up,” he said. “Gloves, mask. Charlotte REFUSED, like a fool.” Piper sighed and furrowed her eyebrows, then dropped the caddy on the floor, letting it spill products, to Jasper’s dismay. He rushed to collect them and also told Charlotte, “Char, I’ve gotta quarantine at your place.”

“What? No,” she said. “I’m not gonna have you and Piper at my house while my parents are gone and school is out!” Charlotte said.

Piper squealed, “You’re letting me stay!” and she bounced up and down.

Jasper stood up, with his products collected and asked, “You’re shutting me out? Ugh. Charlotte. You know that I can’t stay at my house for something like this. I spent hours cleaning up last night and barely made a dent. My mom’s not working again. This morning, the threw her empty ice cream pint right onto the recliner next to the couch she’s been sleeping on. I JUST cleared all of the trash off yesterday! I don’t want the illness in my space, Charlotte. LOOK AT ME!” She looked at him. He really appeared to be freaking out about the possibility of germs.

She sighed, “I’ll ask my parents, Jasper.” She wrapped an arm around Piper and said, “Come on. Let’s go get you some clothes from home.”

“TOO MUCH TOUCHING!” Jasper said and began to spray both of them with disinfectant, until Piper punched him in the ribs. “OUCH!”

“Jasper… tone down,” Charlotte said.

“She literally just punched me!”

“After you assaulted us with disinfectant!”

“For your own good!” Jasper said.

Piper let them into her house and was surprised to see Henry there. “For some reason, I assumed that when they closed school, you’d rush into work,” she said. He gave her a little smile, but didn’t respond. Charlotte raised an eyebrow and went over to him while Piper rushed upstairs to get packed.

“So, I’m gonna take her and Jasper in for a few at my place. My parents are actually stuck overseas and the town is officially going under curfew. So, I’ll make sure she’s taken care of for a little bit. Slight bit of stress off of you, right?” He frowned and nodded. “Why do I feel like it isn’t?”

He sighed and glanced towards the stairs, before saying quietly, “I’m temporarily out of work.” Charlotte gasped. Henry was the one who kept them above water and she could tell from his face that being out of work was going to most likely really hurt them. He noticed her face and forced a smile. “Don’t worry, Babe. I’ll figure something out.” He gave her a little kiss on the forehead and she smiled, in spite of being completely worried about him and Piper. But, there was something about him calling her “Babe” that kind of… made stuff at least go under the radar for a moment.

Their relationship was a little assumed, and not officially spoken of, but Henry was usually affectionate with her and called her “Babe,” so in her mind, they were pretty much married. In fact, she had been working out the logistics in her mind, hypothetically, for what if he came along with her whenever she left for college? Sure, it would be a struggle, but he was used to some level of that and the job market where she was going was actually better than Swellview. And, yes… They would have to bring Piper, because he certainly wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself, but she could have a fresh new start at a new school and maybe even thrive if she had a happy Henry there with her and also the mentorship of Charlotte, reaching beyond the school’s program… “Babe? You okay?” Henry wondered, cutting into her overthinking tangent.

“Yeah. You… wanna come over? Since, you’re not gonna be at work? We can maybe play video games and stuff. No school for the next few weeks. You rarely get a relaxing night.”

“Yeah, I actually want to try to see what one of those ‘good night’s sleep’ things feel like,” he said.

Piper came downstairs with her bags and said, “Henry, bring these to Jasper’s junk heap for me. I gotta see what cleaners we have. That’s what I’m using for “gas money” while we’re out of school.”

She dropped them on the floor by the door and Henry laughed and finally let his hand drop from Charlotte’s hip. “Guess WILL be working,” he said.

He went to go get her stuff and she went opening cabinets, “Do we SERIOUSLY not have basic household cleaners in this place? Are we THOSE people?”

“The oldest adult in your home just turned 18 a few months ago,” Charlotte reminded her. “Don’t worry about it, though. There’s plenty of cleaner at my place and Jasper took everything from his, because his folks were never going to use it anyway.”

“Dude… Are we about to do the apocalypse like the last kids on Earth?” Piper asked, excitedly.

“We’re spending some days, maybe a couple of weeks at my house. Did you bring hobby stuff? Because you’re not gonna be able to go out and hang with your girls when you’re bored. You need like books and stuff.”

“Books? Like… in case we run out of toilet paper? I think we’ve got some, somewhere…” Piper left and Charlotte didn’t even stop her.

Henry came back inside and Charlotte wondered, “So… Are you coming over? We might be stuck there and that might mean not seeing your sister for a few…”

He made a confused face. “You worried about me not seeing Piper, or me not seeing you?”

“I mean… Are you worried about it?” She asked, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders.

“It’d totally suck. Let me go get some stuff packed and I’ll meet you all there.”

“Cool,” she said. She was really cheering inside. In fact, mentally, there was an entire Glee Cheerios performance, complete with stunts as she awkwardly left the house.

Piper came back into view and said, “Well, most of these pages are pretty rough, so I vote making Jasper use these as toilet paper whenever stock gets low…” Henry stared at her in confusion. She waved a hand and stuffed a book into a duffel bag. “That was for Charlotte’s ears. Forget I said it.” She left, too and Henry sighed. This was going to be… Interesting.

Jasper and Piper worked on getting everything cleaned up while Henry unpacked and brought everything to the rooms that Charlotte assigned. Jasper was fine to take the couch, but most of his stuff would have to be kept in Charlotte’s room, simply because she wasn’t going to have her parents come back to see Jasper had moved into their living room! She and Piper were in her bedroom, all of Piper’s stuff fit beneath the spare bed, so Jasper’s was in the closet. And Henry was given her parents’ room, because he was the least likely to impose on their stuff. In fact, he was so uncomfortable that he didn’t want to unpack any of his things in there, but their bathroom was amazing. He was ready to at least spend some time in that shower.

In fact, he got into the shower after he unloaded everything from Jasper’s car. Charlotte was making a list of things that they might need - which, she felt like they were pretty stocked up for the house - but normally, 3 people lived there, and now four were and there was a different basis of need, too. Her mother told her to use the emergency credit card to stock up and to message them everyday updates on how things were, and also photos of the house. She and Jasper went to gather everything, people were really wilding at the store, like… she was shocked at their behavior. Jasper had to guard her several times, and when they finally made it out, hours had passed.

Henry and Piper were in her room whenever they got back to the house. They both felt uncomfortable being anywhere else in the house without permission, so they were just catching up in there. But, Henry rushed to help them bring everything in once they got there.

They all unloaded the truck and Jasper and Charlotte told them about the way that people were behaving and how much more serious it seemed after having been around them like that. Henry was bothered by the fact that people were getting rough with Charlotte and he hadn’t been there to protect her. Protecting was kind of his thing, and Charlotte was kind of his girl.

Piper told the others, “So, I’ve planned out a movie night thing for every night this week, since we’re gonna be in here at least that long. I’m thinking that it’ll be cool to watch some apocalypse kinda stuff. Maybe some zombie stories. End of the world, dystopian mood.”

“In this climate?” Charlotte wondered.

“Especially in this climate,” Piper said.

“I think we should have assigned chores and designated dinner making nights,” Jasper said.

“Good idea, but I don’t cook. I suck at it. It would be a waste of food.”

Charlotte said, “My mom told me to make meals, do meal prep and also freeze some meals, so I’m going to get started on that today, since it’s more people than I usually have had to do stuff like this for.”

“You’ve had to do stuff like that before?” Henry asked.

Piper chuckled, “Her parents are almost literally never home,” she said.

“They work a lot and since I’m older now, they take on a lot more overseas ventures than when I was younger,” Charlotte explained, defensively.

Henry furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how he didn’t know that piece of information, but then again, he and Charlotte didn’t tend to discuss family stuff. Or at least… not hers. In fact, it occurred to him that he didn’t even know what her family LOOKED like. He didn’t want to ask, but he made a mental note to look for a photo later or something. In fact, he checked her social media. Surely, she had something there. But, her social media was pretty lacking in the parental area. He did see some people with her last name, though they were all white, so he clicked on a few, just out of curiosity. He found Fiona Page, who actually had a lot of young photos of her and Charlotte and one of the posts was her wishing her daughter a great time at Future Visionaries Camp. Now, he felt the need to investigate…

Charlotte and Jasper went to the kitchen. They had a routine for things like this, and they got started on their cooking party while Piper learned the remote control to the Pages’ system and Henry sat on his phone, looking at Charlotte’s mom’s page. Charlotte was fine to leave them to that while she and Jasper made a meal. It was the first time that she had Henry over in all the time that she’d known him. Mostly… Charlotte didn’t let people into her home. Piper was the first person in a while, and even she had only been over a couple of times, and only in the past few months. Jasper was the only friend that came over kind of regularly, and that was because (she believed) that her parents saw him as a charity case, and boy were they big on those.

One week of denial passed. Then, a week of realization. By the third week, they had touched base with all of the adults - her parents were going to remain overseas for now, but didn’t mind if she kept her friends there. Jasper’s parents were BOTH so sick that they could barely leave the house. Charlotte told him to just stay put and fight that urge to go help take care of them. They could always call 911 if they simply couldn’t stand it. He was no doctor and this was a pandemic. Henry’s mom had “been trying to figure out where on Earth her children were” this whole time (she was at the Hart house, had found Jake in an alley and brought him home and the two of them were going to spend the citywide quarantine there). Piper wanted to go home, but whenever Charlotte told her that she would have to stay there if she did, she opted for just staying, also; but she was very visibly upset about it. Henry spent time trying to cheer her up. His boss called to tell him that he wasn’t sure if he would even be able to reopen the store after all of this. Nobody was in a good way, except for Charlotte and her family, so she tried not to harp on the things that she was feeling too much, because she felt like it was petty in comparison to the others.

Charlotte left all of her friends in the living room after dinner to go into her room and relax for a moment. She usually had some time just before dinner to meditate and unwind from the school day, but the past few weeks, she hadn’t done so, considering the change in the house. She needed at least a couple of minutes.

After having been there for only a moment, Henry knocked on the door and peeked in, “Hey. You okay?” He asked. She forced a smile and nodded her head. She was lighting a candle and had a record player playing in the background. “I feel like I just interrupted something. I’ll go,” he said. She didn’t stop him. He sat down outside of the door and got back onto his phone. In case somebody else came around, he’d let them know that she didn’t seem to want to be bothered at the moment.

Charlotte went into her bathroom and drew herself a bath. She could shower tomorrow. It wasn’t like she did a whole lot today, anyway… Well… maybe she should shower afterwards, just to be safe, if there were so many germs going around that now they were getting emails about prom being cancelled and POSSIBLY graduation. That was a hit to her gut. She knew that she probably wasn’t going to win prom queen. That Bianca most likely had that in the bag, and while Charlotte got a lot more popular her senior year than previously, Bianca had been on the road to prom royalty since junior high. But graduation? That was basically robbery. That was something that she PERSONALLY looked forward to for 13 years of her life! The first day of school, she asked her teacher, “When does school end?” and they said 3:00. “Forever?” she’d asked. Well, she certainly loved learning, but going to classrooms full of other people to do it was never her favorite thing and now that she was the best of the best in her area at it… she hated the thought of not finally being front and center, standing up to say, “Nobody can force us to go to school anymore!” Though… she wouldn’t really say that and she was gonna continue to go to school, but… Graduation was just really important and the thought of not getting one was a huge loss to her!

She cried, listening to scratchy vinyl crooning, soaking away as much of her physical stress as possible, and posted a tiny rant about losing the opportunity to have prom and a graduation ceremony, and then just let it all out before taking a shower, doing her hair and resurfacing for her friends to let them know that she was going to go to bed and also to remind them to try to get some rest themselves.

She made it to the living room, where they all appeared to be having like crafts time or something - weird, but maybe not since they were quarantined. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, then said, “Um… I’m gonna go to bed. Probably like lay down and read or something. You all should try to get some sleep too.”

Henry had a pile of flowers he was toying around with until she began speaking, then he looked up and wondered, “Can I tuck you in?”

“I guess?” She said, laughing a little bit. He set down his craft materials and went with her. “You all look awfully busy with… crafts?”

“Yeah. We’re workin’ on something big,” he said, smiling. She wanted to ask him what, but she was actually exhausted from worrying and crying, so she kissed him goodnight and went to bed, opting for a book instead of reading on her phone, because she really didn’t want to see another mention of the quarantine, the virus, or the panic surrounding these things.

She was always the first one up, out of all of them. The few times she’d crashed at Henry’s, she learned that. Today was an exception, though. Whenever she got up, she noted first that Piper wasn’t in the spare bed, but figured that she probably slept on the couch, because that was where the TV was and she loved TV almost as much as she loved social media. Charlotte turned on some music, went to brush her teeth and did morning stretches. She went to the living room, excited to start the day out with her friends, but paused whenever she got there and Piper was hissing at Jasper that he was hanging it wrong. She stood for a moment, taking in the room. There were these individual sheets of paper, with string connecting them to make a banner and each page was a letter, for a banner that read “HOUSE PROM.”

“I have to be careful with it, or it’s going to tear!” Jasper fussed back at the freshman.

Henry came into the house with a bucket full of flowers and paused whenever he saw Charlotte.

“Morning…” He said. “I can explain.”

“You guys saw that I was bummed that Prom is cancelled, so you figured you’d turn my living room into a makeshift prom?”

“This guy gets it,” Jasper said from the step ladder.

“I know it’s not gonna be like a real prom, but… Me and Jasper are gonna wear suits. Piper’s gonna DJ. I made you a SICK flower crown… It’s gonna be okay,” Henry said, smiling and wincing at the same time, hoping that he sounded convincing.

She sniffled and went to hug him. “These are for additional decoration… I was gonna make some arrangements and stuff. Nobody’s buying the flowers from the supermarkets, so I was actually able to get a lot of them pretty damn cheaply.” She gave him a kiss on the lips and he smiled wider. “And, I get to see you in your prom dress! You designed it, right?”

“Yeah…”

“That’s awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of your design work.” He moved out of her reach to get back to decorations. She went to start on breakfast for everybody. He didn’t want to mention it right now, but he also was working on throwing her a mock graduation. Because, even though she had been trying to convince herself that everything would blow over and they would be able to finish the year out properly, the news said something totally different.

The House Prom was fun. Jasper made punch. Piper had great music and went live a few times so that kids at school could know that Henry and her did this FIRST, even if some of the rich kids might wind up doing it fancier. And Henry was stunned by Charlotte’s prom dress. He wasn’t sure what color it was, but went with whites and golds for her flower crown, which didn’t clash bad with the opaque pinkish dress that she had. The style of the crown wasn’t exactly a match for the style of the dress, but she insisted that it was perfect, that everything was perfect, and honestly, that was what really mattered to him.

Henry knew that he wasn’t as smart as her, or have as much money, or as much education and stuff.. But, making her happy… that still mattered to him, because he believed that he could, so he made sure that he did. The thought of them going their separate ways in a few months was always scary for him as he fell for her, but also… it made him aware that he had only a short period of time to impact her life forever. House Prom was one of those forever impacts.

They had an after party in Charlotte’s bedroom, which was just them laughing, eating and taking selfies to post to their House Prom tag, which was POPPING! Everyone at school wanted to be at Charlotte’s house, especially upon realizing that there were no adults there for the whole quarantine. She was extremely happy to have been so unpopular before. Now, nobody could just pop up at her house. Eventually, Piper fell to sleep and Jasper began dozing off in Charlotte’s bed. She scoffed, “How’s he gonna just fall asleep in MY bed?”

Henry said, “I can sleep on the couch, if you wanna crash in your parents’ room.”

“No, no. I’ll take care of it, she said.” She had to shower and stuff, so she went to do that and Henry retired to her parents’ room. After she was all washed up and ready for bed, she went to look at Jasper, halfway hanging off of her bed, his suit all disheveled and his hair tousled. He looked like a little boy and more importantly, peaceful. She sighed grabbed a blanket and left the bedroom. Henry was already in bed when she peeked in, but he sat up, so she either woke him or he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. “Hey… I wanna crash in here, if that’s cool with you?”

“Yeah. I’ll take the couch, sure.”

“No.. I wanted to crash in here… with you.”

He smiled brightly, “Even better!” She came and climbed into bed and pulled the blanket with her. “How did you like being Prom Queen for a night?”

“It was awesome! You’re amazing. Thank you for doing that for me. I really didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Your situation with your parents and Jasper’s… I’m actually so lucky and to complain in front of all of you felt cheap.”

He pulled her to himself and hugged her, “I want to know things about you, Char. You’re my girl. I don’t want you to feel like you have to wait until things are good for me to tell me what’s wrong with you. You’d be waiting forever.” She looked up at his face and he gave her a little half smile. “I never want you to have to wait on me,” he said.

She sat up now and placed both of her hands on his chest, tapping a little rhythm while she thought of how to say what she wanted to say.

“So… I was thinking… I know that you and Piper are a package deal, at least while she’s still so young, and that you hadn’t thought about things beyond graduation very much, but I was thinking and I’ve also kind of been looking into the details… IF you wanted to come with me, when I leave for Harvard, I’m gonna have a place out there. You won’t have to work to pay bills, but if you need something to hold you and Piper over, the job market is better there than it is here, and… I don’t know… Maybe you want to stay here and try to help your parents, or something, but if you did want to…”

“I do.” He smiled and then laughed, with tears in his eyes, “Of course I do! There’s nothing keeping me here and Piper… well, she’ll just have to understand that there’s not actually anything keeping her here either. I was so scared that whenever you left, you’d just forget about us. You’ve been… looking into the details?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “I can’t imagine my life without you in it anymore.”

He smiled and gave her a kiss. “Come on, it’s bedtime.”

*******************************************************************************************

Also Tagging, because now I feel like I should be because of how y’all been talking about it @sunbeameyes @kiddangers @bitchmilsky @chenoahchantel @adorkable-blackgirl @daintyurbanprincess @ciara-knightly I think that’s it. My comfort level has expired. Lol.

#Charlotte Page: Student Mentor #Quarantine Edition #Charlotte Page #Henry Danger AU #hd AU fic #Nesha HD Fics #Henry Danger #Henry Hart #Piper Hart #Jasper Dunlop #Flower Boy Henry

35 notes · View notes

luciferianbuddhism · 4 years

Text

Real talk from a Housekeeper in a Hospital

I need to rant. This is a real talk. That is me and I’m hiding my badge because I’m not giving away what hospital I am working at.

You know that shortage of ppe? I am living that nightmare but I feel as a housekeeper that I got the short end of the stick. When they started handing out n95s we got told that we did not get one because we did not have involvement in direct patient care. We did not even get a normal surgical face mask to wear and when my coworker was found wearing one, my boss reamed him a new one. He took her to the union, and he won us the right to wear face masks. But all of this began to build up despair in my heart and I could not help but wonder about my own safety. Do they even care for us? They say we are essential and I know that we are, but they do not act it.

Everyone got handed a surgical mask and a paper bag with their name on it and got told to take care of it. This was our one mask. I have been wearing the same mask for two weeks now. It does not matter if I have been in a dirty room or not. It's all I got, all I will get pretty much.

Someone made cloth masks for the hospital and the nurse managers were handing them out to the nurses and two of my coworkers was wearing them over their masks. Our manager freaked out on them insisted they take them off because it is not part of protocol. What part of any of this is protocol? Why can't we make sure our one mask is protected?

But it goes much deeper than this.

When it comes to the protocol of cleaning a room, when an airborne precaution is in a non-negative pressure room it is to sit for an hour before we can clean it. This is standard. Negative pressure rooms we are supposed to be able to go in right away and clean (though according to the ladies in cat scan we are still supposed to wait 20 minutes....but I am struggling to find any information on this). But when it comes to the ED we got told when it comes to a possible Covid-19 patient "You can clean the room right away, mask or no mask."

This was a change from waiting from an hour. Then it got changed to where we are required to wear a mask when cleaning the room upon discharge. That's all...that is no protection for us, but their reasoning is that they are not in there that long (even though they are usually there for hours) and obviously the patient is not in the room (which I get). Now once again they have changed their mind and said the room has to wait for an hour and if they want it to be cleaned before the hour they are to provide us with a n95 or a papr. The stuff that we really don't have on hand anyway, that people only have one of. Tell me again, how are we to clean that room?

I think what finally is really driving this home and why I am so upset is because I have been exposed to Covid-19 now due to all of this. It’s funny too because as I said the first excuse we were given was that housekeepers are not involved in direct patient care. I give them that, sure we are not with patients for extended periods of time and nurses and cnas needed them but so do we especially now when the assumption that every patient (or should be the assumption) has Covid-19. The way I was trained to clean a patient’s room, it takes on average 13 minutes to clean the room give or take a few minutes depending upon how clean or dirty the room is. Maybe that is enough time for exposure, maybe it is, but I am still around a patient, breathing through that surgical mask that seen better days. My time with one patient is limited but it is repeated again and again, but it is not enough to qualify for a mask. I feel for my coworkers who normally work the patient floors and the ER.

But back to exposure to Covid-19, yeah? I was cleaning patient rooms yesterday with another co-worker who is currently on light duty and cannot do certain tasks. We cleaned a room together unaware that it was a room for a Covid-19 patient. The patient was out of non-negative pressure room while we cleaned it but there was no sign, no caddy, there was simply nothing to say, stop! This is airborne precautions! My coworker told me later that the rapid response that was called over the loud speaker was on the patient and that they were a Covid+ patient. Sure, we wore our surgical masks but will that really be enough for us? I am trying to stay positive but I worry because I am immunocompromised on top of having asthma. I live with my parents, both who are older, with my mom to be turning 65, and she has mild emphysema.

But this accidental exposure has knocked out several people in our hospital already when patient was brought into ER, and she suddenly developed the Covid-19 symptoms. Could not the same for a patient elsewhere in the hospital? If all the housekeepers get sick or most of them get sick what is the hospital going to do? Who is going to clean their bathrooms? Their staff lounges? Who is going to take away all their trash? Change their needle boxes? Bring up clean linen or take away the dirty linen? Clean up the spills in the floor? Fill up the soap, the hand sanitizer, the paper towels? Who are they going to call? Who are they going to call then? We are like they their ghostbusters at the hospital, the ones they constantly call to clean or to find something for them, a commode, a stretcher, an iv pump. We aren’t just “housekeepers” are as much a vital organ to the hospital as nurses, cnas, doctors, respiratory therapists, etc, we just did not get a college degree.

Do we not deserve to be safe? To stay as healthy as long as possible? We are in the calm before the storm. Taking out workers now just seems like ill practice. We are already bleeding staff members, and we are not even a major hospital. We are only in the beginning stages of this marathon. It may be inevitable that many of us end up sick due to our lack of ppe.

I wanted to work and still do. I have a job to do, but I am beginning to regret this choice, and I am considering calling up my doctor and asking him to put me out. I am part of the high-risk group. If you can’t keep me safe then I need to keep myself safe but it may already be too late for that now. I like working, I know my co-workers appreciate me too. I’ve been thanked by fellow housekeepers and also by a public safety officer, by someone in nuclear medicine, by someone in cat scan, and someone else from pharmacy. I know I am appreciated. I wonder if the world will remember the voice of the unsung frontliners when all is said and done.

#coronavirus #covid19 #the c journal #hospital #Healthcare

24 notes · View notes

fiesta-freddie · 5 years

Note

hc’s of the boys making you feel better when you’re sick? the beatles btw. thanks so much, i love you

Aww thanks💜 this was a super cute idea btw I absolutely love it!

^^Also this gif isn’t related to this in anyway I just felt like it was necessary

ANYWHOMST....On to the Headcannons...

You’ve been laying in bed for like 3 days straight because you decided to go outside

Without a jacket

In the middle of winter

And now your paying the price

*cricket noises*

Anyways

The boys are all super worried about you (even though it’s just a little cold)

George is constantly making food.

If he’s not in the kitchen making you soup and hot tea, then he’s out at the supermarket buying you apple juice and crackers.

“I’m back! I’ve got stuff to make you some hot soup!”

“George you just made food two hours ago.”

“Food has no limit when it comes to illness.”

Paul is deffinetly a mom when it comes to this kind of thing

Thas This boy is making sure you stay 100% #

hydrated at all times too

He’s always making sure you have water (or some other liquid) to drink

“Y/N, have you had any water yet today?”

“Yes Paul I had a glass earlier.”

“A glass? Like as in one?”

“Yeah”

“I’m sorry that’s 7 glasses to little.”

Then he naruto runs to the kitchen at sonic speeds and gets you a glass of water

(I’m sorry you had to read that)

He keeps thinking that if you don’t go to the doctor then your cold will turn into something more and that you might end up dying for some reason

“Paulie it’s just a little cold, it’ll be gone by next week.”

“No no no, you say that but what if it turns into something worse? Hm? What if you get pneumonia? And then we have to take you to the hospital beca-”

“Macca!”

Now let’s discuss John

This man basically turns your house into a quarantine

Hes really out doing his best though

He’s cleaning non stop to make sure germs don’t spread and no one else gets sick

He’s constantly wiping down surfaces and sanitizing everything

Makes you wash your hands after you touch anything

He’ll rotate out your blankets for you

While one is being washed he gives you another one to use until he switches them out

He encourages everyone around the house to wear a mask thingy so nobody else gets sick

Nobody does

“People why aren’t you wearing your masks? Don’t you know germs can spread faster though the air?!”

*prolonged silence*

“Is anybody listening? This is serious stuff!”

*more silence*

“Don’t be complaining to me when you catch a cold too!” *puts on mask*

“Ew you look like a doctor.”

But then we have Ringo

Honesty he’s probably the most laid back

He could care less if he catches a cold

(Because of all the sicknesses he had as a child)

He just wants to make sure your comfortable at all times

“Is there anything I can get you?”

Extra blanket? He’ll get it

Another pair of socks? No problem

Need tissues? He’s got ‘em

Hot tea? He’ll have it brewed in no time

Hotel? Trivago

Okay I’ll stop

He talks to you for hours because he doesn’t want you to be alone

He tells you jokes

He tells you stories

“And then he said ‘-I cant hide?’ I thought it was ‘I get high’ ”

He buys you at lest 3 different teddy bears for you to cuddling with while you sleep

Sometimes he’ll end up cuddling you

This man is like a heater

He wraps his arms around you and holds you close to his chest to keep you warm

You two lay there for hours

One time John came up to sanitize your entire room and found you two

“Ringo! Your going to get sick if you make any sort of contact with Y/N!”

He doesn’t move

Paul and George ran up in response to Johns yell

They see you two cuddling and get jealous

“Hey maybe we wanted to cuddle too!”

“Yeah! What he said!”

You look over at them and see pouts on their faces

“Well come on then, there’s plenty of room for you both.”

They run and jump into the bed like a bunch of five year olds

Once they get comfortable it’s one big cuddle-fest

John just stands there like he knows what’s going to happen

And he does

The boys end up catching a cold a few days later

So your all laying in bed and John is the one taking care of all of you

“I told you guys that physical contact with a sick person would end up getting you ill to. But did anybody listen to me? Noooo.”

“Ah shut up and bring us some soup, why dont ya?”

—————

Taglist: @beatlevmania @princesof-theuniverse @givemequeen

#the beatles #john lennon #george harrison #ringo starr #paul mccartney #john lennon x reader #george harrison x reader #ringo starr x reader #paul mccartney x reader #the beatles x reader #ringo starr imagine #george harrison imagine #paul mccartney imagine #john lennon imagine #the beatles imagine #my work

99 notes · View notes

welanabananaworld · 5 years

Text

Us and the voice of dystopia

Jordan Peele’s latest film, Us, is as uncanny and disturbing as his first movie Get Out which proved itself to be a cinematic feat at the time of its release in 2017. Rightly considered as one of the fathers of the horror film renaissance (see also Ari Aster), Jordan Peele has been succeeding not only in addressing societal issues and in adopting a critical stance toward his home country but also in injecting an artistic vision in what is unfairly and generally regarded as second-class films.

In Us, Jordan Peele’s strong sense of composition and framing reveals the main theme of the film : the duality of human nature through the evil self. Nothing revolutionary so far. Many films of the genre have explored the mythology surrounding the figure of the doppelgänger from multiple angles. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s and Darren Aronofsky’s use of the double has a psychological bent; to dig through Scotty’s perverse psyche in the haunting Vertigo (1958) and to explore a mental illness in Black Swan (2011), whereas in The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin chose to play both Hynkel and the Jewish barber for satirical purpose. In Us, nothing of the sort. Remember what we said about Jordan Peele’s films? About how the horror genre disguises social subtexts? But before aiming at the true meaning of this human mirror, one should focus more on the narrative use of the voice which proves to be of utter importance to understand what is at stake, because if you really listen to the voice, you understand the whole film.

Us tells the story of Adelaïde Wilson’s family who goes on holiday at the seaside in Santa Cruz. A series of strange coincidences reminds her of the trauma she experienced there when she was a little girl while vacationing with her parents. She made a disturbing encounter in the hall of mirrors of a funhouse. She came face to face with a little girl who looked just like her. After this event, she could no longer speak for a while because of, it seems, a post-traumatic stress disorder. At present day, overwhelmed with fear, she confides in her husband about her past. The same evening, they discover four people standing outside their house, their doppelgängers. Ruthlessly hunted, the Wilson family will have to look inward in order to counter their own selves.

What strikes first when they all meet is that Red, Adelaïde’s double, is the only one who is able to speak, or rather utter words. She is struggling with very word she says, as if her speech production was failing her somehow. When she starts speaking, her voice happens to be hoarse, cavernous, husky, strained, even choked. Her disorder of phonation makes her voice otherworldly such as of a creature’s coming straight out of hell. It feels like she is not used to talk, actually that this is the first time she tries to pronounce and articulate words to create sentences. In this perspective, it is worth stressing Lupita Nyong’o’s astonishing work to produce Red’s chilling croaky and guttural voice. She used spasmodic dysphonia to make a creepy voice, that is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary breaks or interruptions in the voice due to an irregular flow of air. This language impairment, however, does not prevent Red from telling her story; the story of a dystopian world.

youtube

Red and Adelaïde are two sides of the same mirror. One learns that everything Adelaïde does is mirrored and has an impact on Red’s life, only the other way around. Everything that is happening in Red’s life is a pale copy of Adelaïde’s achievements and takes on a nightmarish dimension. Red’s husband, Abraham, is rough and dumb; her daughter, Umbrae, is born laughing and her son, Pluto, is a dangerous arsonist. The ideal family meets the poor and sad version of themselves who now claims justice through revenge, hence the imagery of the good and evil self.

Throughout the film, the mise-en-scène keeps referring to the double as a warning or rather a prophecy as to the coming of those doppelgängers clad in red jumpsuits, which strangely resemble the clothing of prisoners. The clues left by the director are the following ones : the twin sisters of the superficial WASP family friends, the shadow of each member of the Wilson family projected on the sand while they are walking on the beach, the recurring number « 11:11 » featured here and there (an extract from the Bible, Jeremiah 11:11), Jason wearing a mask (maybe a reference to the iconic masked murderer of Friday the 13th whose name is Jason?), Jason’s drawing showing a kid who looks just like him, a toy plastic spider behind which a true spider appears crawling across the low table of the living room, and of course the daze of mirrors.

All those elements evoke duplicity and foresee a parallel world unknown so far. Red’s voice, alone, embraces all that imagery and embodies the punitive prophecy hidden behind the verse from the Old Testament book, the Book of Jeremiah, whose verse alludes to God’s wrath : « Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. » The invasion of the doppelgängers across the world is a divine plague orchestrated by Red from the underworld to take revenge.

In fact, what the film tends to reveal all along is the existence of an underworld located inside « the thousands miles of tunnels beneath the continental United States », which are « abandoned subways systems », as stated at the very beginning of the film as an introduction. Those subways are inhabited by people who are the product of a failed governmental scientific experiment designed to replicate the bodies of those above to manipulate them. However, they discovered that the « soul » could not be duplicated, hence the repudiation and neglect of that population now doomed to survive below the Earth’s surface, with raw rabbits as sole source of nourishment, and to « act out grim recreations of their respective partners’ above ground actions like sad little marionettes. »1 The scientific dimension of this governmental conspiracy is foretold in the opening credits by the camera progressively zooming out the caged rabbits. This shot conveys the idea of a sanitized laboratory. The existence of two opposite worlds is also mentioned by the shot which shows the funhouse twice, by night and day (darkness and daylight).

The organised overthrow, which takes as an example the Hand Across America charity campaign of 1986 (giant human chain), can be interpreted in many ways : an uprising against social inequalities, such as racial, gender and salary based discrimination, which undermine the U.S (or Us); a country where climbing in the social ladder is more and more unattainable for under-represented ethnic minorities. It can also be seen as a denunciation of what America has become, unfair, poor and divided; a denunciation of the famous ideology of American exceptionalism through the ostentatious display of American symbols distorted by the horror genre. The « tethered » are done being downtrodden and ostracized. They want to embrace the American myth that had been promised to them by taking their rights back and by building a new world, hence Red’s assertive reply to Gabe’s question « Who are you, people? » : « We are Americans. » They claim themselves as being true Americans (to be connected to the Native American reference of the original funhouse’s sign), free from all materialistic concerns.

Only, this does not constitute the twist ending of the film. Like all self-respecting horror films, Us is no exception in the matter and does offer a shocking one. And this is the voice which hints at it all along and that turns upside down the government’s theory about their human experiments.

Red’s whistling while walking up the alley of the Wilson’s family with a pair of scissors in her hand in the dark is where the truth really lies. If one has well paid attention to the details, one would have noticed that Adelaïde whistled the same way when she was trapped in the hall of mirrors when she was a young girl, as if to ward off the coming threat. Do you see my point? Why is Adelaïde so reluctant and does have trouble engaging in a conversation with Kitty on the beach? Why would Red be the only tethered to be provided with the ability to speak? Why this eager for revenge? Because Red actually is the true Adelaïde. Back to the funhouse in 1986, young Adelaïde’s clone, Red, was lured to go to the surface as Adelaïde progressively approached to her tragic destiny.

What the film did not show is that Red strangled Adelaïde until she fainted, dragged her down the tunnel, attached her to her bed in the dormitory and switched place with her among Adelaïde’s family, hence her early language deficiency. While Red grew up like a normal little girl and learned how to speak, Adelaïde lost progressively her language abilities growing up among zombie-like human beings, which proves that the government’s theory is wrong. The soul cannot be duplicated but this does not mean that the tethered are « soulless creatures ». If given the chance, as Red has had, the tethered would have turned out perfectly okay. They would have followed the regular human evolution process called « hominisation » or « anthropogenesis », the process of becoming human. Indeed, the doppelgängers all look like primitive animals. Pluto, by his gesture, reminds of a monkey-like primate’s attitude and Abraham’s moans, groans and grunts are those of Cro-Magnon man. Their names evoke ancient times, something rough yet to evolve, and the mythology of the doppelgänger, Pluto being the god of the underworld, Umbrae the latin word for shadow. Abraham is the « Father of the nations » which can be connected to the human chain the tethered seek to initiate to rise up and find they own humanity. Red’s name could refer to the color of the tethered’ garments, and thus evoke the state of imprisonment which they have been reduced to until now.

In this perspective, Red’s voice is not only the voice of dystopia but goes far beyond this sole and somewhat manichean opposition which is the driving force behind the narrative of the film. Red’s voice, by also being the voice of anthropological evolution, mainly serves to establish a connection between the latter subject and the current state of American society. With no equality of opportunity, people cannot equally seek higher social and intellectual status and end up being the slaves of the system. America has now no other choice but to drop her delusions and take her mask off.

1 Bojalad, A., (2019, March 22). Us, Hands Across America, and the failed American experiment. Retrieved from https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/us-jordan-peele-hands-across-america/

2 notes · View notes

brokestminimalist · 7 years

Text

Minimal Disease

Society is disgusting, let’s just face it. People don’t wash their hands after they shit. People wear the same dirty shirt over and over. They step in dog crap then wear those same shoes in public or at their (or your) house. People touch their faces, rub their noses, sneeze into their hands, and the worst of the worst offenders lick their fingers before counting money or separating papers.

Ew. If you are a finger-licker, you need to stop. We bet our last 37 cents that all six of those dollar bills you just counted have been in a stripper’s buttcrack at some point in their lives. Ya nasty. Ya real nasty.

As minimalists, we want to minimize our exposure to disease. We want to reduce how often we get sick, reduce how much work we miss because of being sick, and reduce how much we expose others to our own germs. So let’s take a few minutes to talk about how we can achieve those things, and what actions we can take when we fail.

Get your shots. Get your flu shot. Get your MMR. Get your tetanus shot. Get your hepatitis shot. Get your Gardasil shot. No, really, listen. Tetanus is a real disease, an awful, horrible, deadly disease. It’s a disease that no one gets anymore because we’ve all been vaccinated for it, and because nobody we know has ever seen someone die of tetanus, we as a society aren’t scared of it. But hear us now, people. If it couldn’t kill you, no one would bother making a vaccine for it. Google it, the pictures are awful. Did we scare you? Good. Get vaccinated for anything and everything.

Wash your hands. Every chance you get. Wash your hands with hot water and real soap. Do not just wet them and then dry them on your pant legs. That doesn’t do anything but confirm that you’re a lazy piece of crap. Lather up and count thirty Mississippis like an adult. Wash after using the restroom, wash before eating, and wash anytime you shake hands or touch doorknobs or other community objects like phones, computer keyboards, and light switches. Avoid touching your face or biting your nails.

Avoid public places. Like, you don’t have to live in a cave in the desert like Ben Kenobi, but don’t go out unless you have to. Don’t go shopping for fun. Unless you’ve been waiting for that movie to come out for months, don’t fool with the theater until it’s safely spring again. If you have to go out, be mindful of what you touch and have some hand sanitizer ready. It isn’t a good replacement for actual hand washing, but it’s better than nothing.

Eat right, get some exercise and fresh air. Illnesses go around in winter not because of the cold, but because we stay in close quarters indoors with other people moreso than we do in the summer. Get out of doors, make sure you eat a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins and minerals, and keep your circulation going with walks or light cardio. Being generally healthy can ward off a lot minor bugs.

Get plenty of sleep. Sleeping is how our body heals itself, and if you’re chronically sleep deprived it will take much longer to recover from an injury or illness.

Don’t share food or drinks. Even with your spouse or kids or bff. Get everyone their own cup and their own serving of food. If one of you catches a cold and you’re sharing utensils, the other will have it soon.

Avoid eating out. Servers in particular have shitty benefits and likely no sick time, so that girl bringing your wing platter out could be all hopped up on cold medicine just so she can come to work today and not get fired. Yes, this is real. Job security in the United States is in a scary state of affairs right now. Cook at home to avoid possibly sick food workers and also the restaurant’s other patrons.

Avoid known sick people. If your sister in law has the sniffles, don’t go visit. Even if you don’t come in contact with her, you might touch things she has touched. If you have a relative who is sick enough to need help doing daily things, wear a face mask and gloves to protect yourself.

Keep your medicine cabinet stocked. Check out our post about minimal hygiene if you like, but make sure you’ve got some cold meds and fever reducers on hand. Grab a box of real Sudafed from the pharmacy counter and keep it ready. Breathe Right strips and Halls Mentholyptus will change your life.

If you do get sick anyway, because hey, it happens, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the situation.

Stay hydrated. Drink lots of water, broth, Gatorade, whatever. Have a bowl of soup. Get liquid in your system.

Take your meds on schedule. If it’s OTC cold meds, follow the directions on the box. If it’s from a doctor, read the directions carefully and follow them. If it’s antibiotics, make sure you finish them. If you have questions, call and ask.

Wash your hands more frequently and avoid touching your face. Don’t shake hands with people, and avoid going out in public. Maybe this is a minor cold for you, but the person you give it to mind wind up with bronchitis or pneumonia.

Get plenty of rest. Stay home from work if you possibly can. We know some people don’t have sick days available or can’t afford to miss a day’s pay, and we understand. It sucks bad. But stay home if you possibly can. You’ll minimize your risk of infecting others and you’ll recover faster.

If you aren’t getting better, go to the doctor. Now, let us clarify. If you’ve been sniffly for an afternoon, take some DayQuil and see how it goes. If you’ve been sniffly for a week, are running a high fever, or can’t muster the energy to do normal things like brush your teeth or take your dog outside to pee, then you need to go see a doctor. If you’re lucky enough to have insurance, take full advantage. Be prepared that they might tell you to go home and rest, though.

A few more thoughts:

Please ignore myths and old wives tales. Do not feed a fever and starve a cold. Your body needs calories to fight infection, no matter what your symptoms are. Eat right and stay hydrated. Don’t eat a spoonful of Vick’s Vapo-rub like our mom’s friend did. Don’t worry too much about going out in the cold without a coat. You get sick from germs, not from being chilly. And yes, being cold all the time lowers your immune response according to some research, but not by enough to be clinically significant. If you need to run outside to grab some firewood and your hair is still damp from your shower, it’s ok. Go ahead and go. It’s not going to kill you.

It isn’t rude to refuse to shake hands with sick people. Just tell them flat out that you can’t afford to get sick, literally. In fact, they’re the rude one for trying to shake your hand while dripping snot everywhere.

According to the CDC about 35k people die every year from the flu. Get your flu shot. It isn’t a scam, it won’t make you get the flu. And yes, you might catch the flu anyway if they’ve guessed the wrong strain this year, but ask yourself this question. If you can’t be protected from all strains of the flu, wouldn’t you at least like to be protected from some of them rather than none of them? PS, they aren’t going to give you autism. But even if they did, would you rather be socially awkward or dead? We know the correct answer to that, and so do you.

Furthermore, you aren’t just doing it for you. You’re doing for that kid sitting next to you on the bus, who was a preemie and has a bad immune system. You’re doing it for the little old lady in line behind you at the checkout. You’re doing it for the perfectly healthy 40 year old mechanic you’re handing your credit card to. Our dad died from the flu in 2009. He was a real person and he really died from a preventable disease. Get your flu shot.

And finally, antibacterial soap is not necessary. Hand sanitizer is bad enough, but antibacterial soaps are contributing to antibiotic resistance and we’re all going to die someday of a superbug that can’t be cured. Ok, enough gloom and doom. But seriously, regular soap works not by killing germs but by washing them off your skin. Lather up properly and rinse well, and you’ll be fine.

Stay warm and healthy this winter, peeps!

Links: CDC flu prevention, tetanus Wiki, myths busted about the flu

#brokestminimalist #health #shots #tetanus #flu

179 notes · View notes

theponchosection · 4 years

Text

Episode 105 (Sports Pandemic) - After Show

What the hell is Trashball?!

We found a few sources; each a different game. How do you play?!

Rules according to Hesston College

Type: Group/Active

Group Size: At least 4 people

Equipment:

2 Trash cans (like yard trash cans work the best).

Playground ball (also known as a dodge ball).

Instructions:

Divide the group into two teams, and place a trash can at each end of the playing field, and then go to your side of the field.

Then decide who gets the ball first.

You can not run with the ball. You catch it, stop, and throw it to another teammate. It is kind of like Ultimate Frisbee.

To score you must get the ball in your basket, or trash can.

You win by making the most baskets.

Hints: Game can get rough, watch out for flying elbows. Best played outside or in a gym with a high ceiling.

Critique: Play by ultimate Frisbee rules. More than just two trash cans; maybe have two at each end. Have more then one ball. Pretty good game.

Rules According to Playworks.org

Before You Start

Equipment Needed: Cones; an empty trash can or container; and a soft ball, beanbag, or wadded up piece of paper.

Separate players into teams of 6-8 and have them line up behind the cones.

Set Up

Indoors. Set up one empty container, 2-3 cones to mark where students will stand in line, and three other markers of varying distances from the container.

How to Play

Ask a question related to something the players are learning in class (math problem, spelling word, etc.). Only the players at the front of each line can answer. If someone from the back of the line answers, that line is disqualified for that round.

Whoever answers the question first wins the right to shoot the “ball” into the container.

They have three choices:

1. Shoot from the closest spot (slam dunk) for 1 point. 2. Shoot from the medium spot for 2 points. 3. Shoot from the farthest spot for 3 points.

After each round, the contestants return to end of the line.

Variations

If the shooter misses, the other players at the front of the line get a chance to shoot (greater involvement for everyone).

Give the shooters only one designated spot to shoot from (speeds up the game).

Let all students shoot (good for K-1st).

Rules according to Boy Scout Trail

Required:

a wastebasket 1 or 2 tennis balls, nerf balls, or similar

Instructions:

Everyone stands in a circle around the wastebasket, facing inward. A scout tries to toss a ball into the wastebasket. If a basket is made, the patrol gets 1 point. If it's a miss, the patrol loses 3 points. But, the scout can get those three points back by immediately doing 3 sit-ups, 3 push-ups, or running 1 lap around the circle of scouts. First patrol to a specified score is the winner. You might want to use 2 balls for a larger group. An unbiased leader by the wastebasket could help retrieve the ball and toss it to the next scout.

How Do You Play Trashball?!

Let us know in the comments below

What are you doing to keep busy during the Pandemic?

Playing sports during the Pandemic

Rules from the CDC

What you need to know

Stay home if sick.

Players should bring their own equipment, like gloves and bats, if possible.

Reduce physical closeness and keep 6 feet of space between players when possible.

Wear a mask if possible.

Players should clean their hands before and after practices, games, and sharing equipment.

Tell a coach or staff member if you don’t feel well.

On This Page

Make a game plan to reduce risk

Prepare before you participate

Take steps to protect yourself and others

Checklist for coaches

This information is for youth and adult athletes considering participating in a sports league or team.

This information is not designed to provide guidance to adult sports leagues or organizations who plan or manage competition. CDC does not currently have guidance for adult sports leagues, however organizations and administrators can reference the Considerations for Youth Sports to find strategies for reducing exposure risks during sports competition.

Make a game plan to reduce risk

You can take a number of steps to help lower the risk of COVID-19 exposure and reduce the spread while playing sports.

The more people a participant interacts with, the closer the physical interaction, the more sharing of equipment there is by multiple players, and the longer the interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread.

Therefore, risk of COVID-19 spread can be different, depending on the type of activity.

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with members of the same household

Increasing Risk: Team-based practice

More Risk: Within-team competition

Higher Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area (e.g., city or county)

Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas (e.g., outside county or state)

If organizations are not able to keep safety measures in place during competition (for example, keeping participants six feet apart at all times), they may consider limiting participation to within-team competition only (for example, scrimmages between members of the same team) or team-based practices only.

Similarly, if organizations are unable to put in place safety measures during team-based activities, they may choose individual or at-home activities, especially if any members of the team are at an increased risk for severe illness.

Prepare before you participate in sports

Bring supplies to help you and others stay healthy—for example, masks (bring extra), hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, broad spectrum sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher, and drinking water.

Prioritize participating in outdoor activities over indoor activities and stay within your local area as much as possible.

If using an indoor facility, allow previous groups to leave the facility before entering with your team. If possible, allow time for cleaning and/or disinfecting.

Check the league’s COVID-19 prevention practices before you go to make sure they have steps in place to prevent the spread of the virus.

If you are at an increased risk for severe illness or have existing health conditions, take extra precautions and preventive actions during the activity or choose individual or at-home activities.

Take steps to protect yourself and others

Stay home if sick

If the participant has symptoms of COVID-19, has been diagnosed with COVID-19, is waiting for COVID-19 test results, or may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, they should stay home and not participate in any sports.

Have smaller team sizes

Sports with a large number of players on a team may increase the likelihood of spread compared to sports with fewer team members.

Limit your team to a core group of participants, by restricting non-team players from joining when your team is short players and not adding new members during the season.

Keep space between players in practice areas

Reduce physical closeness between players when possible

Maintain at least 6 feet between yourself and your teammates, other competitors, and officials while actively participating in the sport.

Focus on building individual skills, like batting, dribbling, kicking, and strength training.

Avoid high fives, handshakes, fist bumps or hugs.

Keep space between players in the practice areas, including on the sideline, dugout, and bench.

Wait in car or away from the playing area until just before the warm-up period or the beginning of the game.

Avoid congregating in the parking lot or near the field before or after games.

If it is not possible to avoid congregating, practice social distancing by ensuring there is at least 6 feet between participants.

If social distancing is not possible, wear a mask whenever possible to reduce risk of virus transmission.

Space out spectators by 6 feet

Limit nonessential visitors, spectators, and volunteers. Ensure they wear masks and maintain social distancing.

Wear a mask if possible

Wear masks when able

Wear a mask if feasible, especially when it is difficult to stay less than 6 feet apart from other people or indoors, for example in close contact sports such as basketball.

Lower intensity sports: Emphasize wearing masks and practicing social distancing for lower intensity sports.

Higher intensity sports: People who are engaged in high intensity activities, like running, may not be able to wear a mask if it causes difficulty breathing.

If unable to wear a mask, consider conducting the activity in a location with greater ventilation and air exchange (for instance, outdoors versus indoors) and where it is possible to maintain physical distance from others.

In situations where individuals might raise their voices, such as shouting or chanting, we strongly encourage wearing masks.

For youth athletes, parents, coaches, and sports administrators should decide if the kids need to wear a mask.

It is not known if face shields provide any benefit as source control to protect others from the spray of respiratory particles. CDC does not recommend use of face shields for normal everyday activities or as a substitute for masks.

Minimize sharing of equipment or gear

Encourage players to bring their own equipment

Encourage players to bring their own equipment if possible, like gloves, balls, and helmets.

Limit the use of frequently touched surfaces on the field, court, or play surface.

Bring your own water to minimize use and touching of drinking fountains.

Clean and disinfect shared items between use.

Don’t share towels, clothing, or any items used to wipe your face or hands.

Avoid sharing food, drink containers (e.g., coolers), and utensils.

Minimize spitting. Cover your coughs and sneezes.

When coughing or sneezing, use a tissue or the inside of your elbow. Used tissues should be thrown away and hands washed immediately with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol.

If soap and water are not readily available, hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol can be used.

Wash hands

Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol.

Before and after you play.

Before adjusting your mask—review information about proper use, removal, and washing of masks.

Limit travel outside of your area

Consider competing against teams in your local area (neighborhood, town, or community).

Checklist for coaches

Send a welcome email or call parents (for youth players) and/or players. Inform them about actions that the sports program will take to protect players. Remind them to stay home if sick or if they have been around someone who is sick.

Be a role model. Wear a mask and encourage family members, fans, officials, and sports staff to wear one during practices and games.

Provide hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol to players before and after practice/game and encourage them to wash their hands with soap and water.

Educate players about covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or their elbow. Discourage spitting.

Encourage players to focus on building individual skills

Remind players about social distancing and identify markers (such as signage or tape on floor).

Encourage your players to focus on building their individual skills and cardiovascular conditioning, so they can limit close contact with other players.

Check with your sports administrator to make sure they are following cleaning and disinfection recommendations.

Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces on field, court, or play surface (such as drinking fountains) at least daily or between use.

Clean and disinfect shared equipment.

BONUS AFTER SHOW MINI-EPISODE

(VIDEO)

0 notes

skittykittie · 7 years

Text

Mile to Kaiyuan

July 29, 2015 (written actually on this day)

Oh my gosh, my days are already starting to blur together. I began writing about today, but realized I was actually recounting YESTERDAY morning instead of today. (I even used the same words to describe it!)

Anyway~ This morning I woke up at 7:30, not feeling like going out to find something to eat. I had the sweets I had bought at the bakery from the night before so I filled myself with dantat and the sweet rolls with pork in the center. I know, so nutritious, right? I'm really not that into breakfast.

After finishing my snacks, Donna returned from breakfast and we packed our stuff. Like the day before, we put all of our things into Dr. D's room and checked out. We made our way to the hospital by about 8:15 am. As we drove through the city to the hospital, I was surprised that I didn't recognize where we were. I felt like I had seen a good portion of Mile when I came with Jason a few days before, but I guess Mile was larger than I had first thought.

When we got to the hospital, we were received by a couple of the staff on the first floor. We were taken up to a floor that was pretty empty. I'm not sure what the floor was supposed to be, but there was a large meeting room that suggested it was mostly used for more business than patient care. We were taken into this room for our meeting with the hospital staff. Though the arrangement of desks and chairs suggested that this room had not been used in a while (nor was it prepared for us, we had to arrange the tables and chairs ourselves prior to starting the meeting), and half of their staff came without white coats on, it still felt more "official" than the small cramped room in Luxi.

The meeting went similarly to the day before, Fangqi gave her proposal and the reason for our visit, they listened and asked a few questions, then the contract was signed. There was a lot of picture taking at this meeting. This seemed to be a bigger deal than Luxi.

Then it was time to get ourselves set up. Sophie and I got stuck in the hallway between the waiting room and the ultrasound room. It was alright, though, as long as it was away from the waiting room. We also had enough desk space to put our new toys, candy, and the triage equipment. Most of the patients we saw were babies, it was really fun yet challenging. Babies don't like it when you take their vitals. But the toys that Sophie and I had picked out proved to be fairly successful in distracting them! Good idea, Sophie.

A big difference between today's clinic and yesterday's was that the hospital staff was hovering over our shoulders. It was a bit annoying because I felt like we were being judged. They also didn't quite understand our system we had going and were sending us patients before we were ready. They were a big help with managing the sign-in list, though. They gave all the patients numbers and made a roster of the order of patients.

We got through most of our patients for the day before we were called in for lunch. It had been a busy morning, but it was nice to have a break. We didn't have to be back to see patients until about 1, and it was only early noon when we finished eating. One of the men that had greeted us that morning offered to take us around the NICU of the hospital. Most of us were extremely eager to see it, including myself.

Now, I had only been to two hospitals in China so far, but I had the impression they are less sanitary than American hospitals. However, the NICU was probably the cleanest place in the entire city. Donna even commented that it seemed more strict than the American NICUs (I've never been in one, so I can't agree or disagree). They didn't even let parents come in to see their child. Instead, they had cameras set up at each bed so parents could at least watch their child via video streaming. They dressed us up in pre-packaged and sanitized hospital gowns, put shoe covers on us (the shoe covers weren't even allowed to touch the ground in the entryway), we had to put our hair up and wear hair nets, face masks, and of course wash our hands up to our mid-forearm. All of these procedures were for the sake of reducing risk of giving the infants any other illnesses.

We were brought inside a large room with probably 20 small "baby cages." Many of them sadly were filled with infants. I have never seen so many newborns in my life. They were all so tiny and precious. Our tour guide was a nurse who worked in the NICU. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand what she said, so I just observed and asked Jessica questions when I could think of them.

We didn't spend a long time in the NICU since there wasn't much to see past that room. It was definitely cool to see, though. We exited back through the way we came, disposed of our protective gear, and headed back to the clinical site to see the remainder of our patients. In total we saw about 12 kids today. Many more of them gave me the impression of "village" people. I think it's because Mile is a bit more rural than the last place. Our last patient was a cute little boy, about 2 years old? He had a twin brother, too. They were so much fun. Sophie and I played with them once we finished triage.

Once he was taken into the ultra sound room, Sophie and I had a lot of spare time. Apparently our car to pick us up for the next place wasn't supposed to come for a few more hours. We spent our time in our corner talking about life. Well, mostly me answering her questions about college and life after high school. I'd like to think we bonded a lot during that time. I can tell she is a very driven kid, but still has a lot of years of experience to gain. I hope I can be a good example for her! Gosh, I'm getting old...

At 4:30, we packed up the ultrasound room and went downstairs. We were met by two cars, one regular sized one and one large van. I was ushered into the van with Dr. Li, Sophie, Landy, Fanqi, and Zhangrui. It was a bit squished, but somehow we were able to load all of our equipment and luggage that was at the hotel. We were headed to our next city called Kaiyuan. Despite being squished in the back of the van, I was able to sleep the whole way there. I don't even remember how long the drive was.

I woke up to the noise of the side door opening. Had we arrived? I opened my eyes, and all I saw was an aggressive looking Chinese man dressed in a military uniform staring at me, barking something that I didn't understand. I was confused because he was looking straight at me, but I had no idea why or what he was even saying.

All I was able to say was, "Huh..?" as I took out my earbud that was playing music. Thankfully, Dr. Li was sitting next to me and answered for me, "We're from Kunming." The others followed her example saying their respective cities. "Harbin." "Shanghai."

The guy glanced around our car and nodded, closed the door, and we were back on the road.

My mind took a moment to process what had just happened... we had gotten a car inspection. Wow. I guess they are pretty strict here in China. I'm glad I'm Chinese and he believed we were all natives. I wondered what happened to Donna's car. Did they stop them, too? Did she get interrogated? I was a bit afraid that would happen again in the future and I wouldn't be so lucky to get away with saying I'm a Chinese citizen.

I barely had time to try to go back to sleep because soon we arrived in the next city- Kaiyuan. Kaiyuan was beautiful. There was a beautiful view of the mountain sides when you looked down the street, and the city was fairly well kept up. We were in a busier part of the city, but I could tell it was overall more suburban than the previous two cities.

We checked into the hotel with a whole crew of hospital staff waiting to greet us! Wow. There were maybe 3 or 4 of them. They helped us unload the car and bring the luggage upstairs. Afterwards, they ushered us all to dinner at the hospital. That was good with me, I was starving.

We were loaded into a few cars and taken down the road to the Kaiyuan county hospital where we'd work in the morning. It was a pretty short distance, actually. I wish I could have gotten to see more of the city.

Anyway, we were led through the hospital cafeteria into the back where there were a number of private dining rooms. We entered into the largest one, where many more people were sitting, waiting for our arrival. They stood up and clapped to welcome us as we entered. There were 2 large round circular tables waiting for us with hot food and plates and bowls all set up for us. There were even a couple of waiters/cooks. Talk about a welcome party!

The hospital staff divided us all up, half of ChinaCal at one table, half at the other, and then did the same with their staff. I sat at the "foreigners" table with Jess, Dr. D, Donna, Fangqi, and Shanshan.

The food was delicious! It was the first not-muslim food I think I had eaten in awhile. We also had local wine to accompany the meal. And of course with wine came toasting and jingjiu*. I'm glad I had practiced this custom with Jason and his family in Mile. If not, I would have been so confused with what was happening. It was also slightly embarrassing because, like last time, I barely understood what people were saying when they toasted me.

It was still very nice, though. It created a lot of laughter and brought joy to our meal. I only had one glass of wine by the end of the night, but I could feel my face getting flushed as it usually does whenever I drink. It was slightly embarrassing, especially because one of the staff seemed to be taking a liking to my natural blush and kept toasting me to drink more. Donna told me after dinner she thought he was trying to hit on me.

...Awkward.

Anyway. After we finished dinner, the main hospitality guy took us around the outpatient ward on a little tour. He was very proud of this building because it was their newest addition to their hospital. It was pretty nice, though to me it kind of felt like a mall. It was very open in the center with escalators going all up and down the center.

We were able to go in to see their ultrasound equipment, too. That was more interesting for Donna than the rest of us, but we were able to get a glimpse into the patient care rooms.

After the tour, half of us opted to walk the short distance back to the hotel with our guide. I was one of them. I wanted to enjoy the cool evening mountain air. I was able to slightly keep up with the Chinese conversation, but half the time talked with Sophie about other random things. She told me that one of the staff members she sat with at dinner had invited her to see the maternity ward, and if there was a child birth, she could observe. She had asked Dr. D for permission to go after lunch, and he said yes. He also suggested to her I go with her... so... I guess I was going to the maternity ward tomorrow. I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of watching a childbirth and secretly hoped it would be empty when we went in.

We got back to the hotel and wrapped up for the day. We had work to do in the morning!

*Jingjiu: It is a Chinese tradition called jingjiu. It is when people take turns offering drinks to and for certain reasons, usually to one individual at a time.

0 notes