#millburn legacy

[kruxty]

the millburn farm

just a tiny shack with a small outhouse, a farm which, for now, consists of one cow and four little chicks, and a garden for eadith out the back.

i like to think that frederick, being a maker sim, built everything and is planning to add onto it to make more space as the family grows hehe

[the-ghost-of-jason-todd]

@badthingshappenbingo fill for Heart Attack!

You can find this ficlet on ao3 HERE.

To say that Jason Todd took after his dad… well, to those who knew the pair, it would seem almost redundant.  “He sure is his father’s boy,” the waitress at the diner on the corner of Main Street would huff with a shake of her head as the boy in question walked past the front window, leather jacket thrown over one shoulder, and the other customers would hum and nod and know that wasn’t a good thing.  She didn’t need to explain herself, or say any more than that.  Everyone in the small town of Millburn, New Jersey knew what she meant.  Because Jason Todd took after his dad—from the curl of his black hair to the mean glint in his eye to the skill with which he could spin a tire iron, whether that be for profit or for pain.

And profit there was.  The Todd’s had a lucrative family business of doing any and all petty crime available across the state of New Jersey, and anywhere the elder Willis Todd went his son could be found following, to uphold the family’s legacy.  They were like two peas in a pod, rotten to the core, and everyone knew it.  There were, in fact, only two key differences between Jason and his father, besides the fact that one was in his early thirties and the other was pushing fifty.  For one, Jason Todd had no wife to beat, and seemed to have no interest in finding one; and for two, he might run drugs between the big cities for a certain Mr. Dent, but he never partook himself.  No, he was rude, abrasive, and uncaring, with a vindictive streak a mile wide, all without the aid of a single drop of booze.

So it was.  Jason took after his father in nearly every way that mattered, a swagger to his step and solid ice in his clear blue eyes.  And so it was that this would be the thing that killed him—for just like his father before him, he had a minuscule defect in his heart that, while generally harmless, could, under a very specific set of circumstances, prove fatal.

It happened on a Wednesday night, in a cheap trailer parked across five parking spaces at the lot used by the town’s only Walmart Super Store.  While Catherine Todd lay on the bathroom floor with a needle in her arm, and old Willis Todd sat on the couch in a drunk stupor with the game playing on the stolen TV, Jason stood in the sorry excuse for a kitchen waiting for the toaster to pop with a late night snack.  He wasn’t supposed to touch the pop-tarts (they were strawberry and cream flavored, his mom’s favorite—his father had bought them three weeks before as a consolation gift because he’d blown through too much of their savings to buy his wife an anniversary present that year), but he’d grabbed two anyway, sure no one would miss them. 

The sequence of events from there went as follows: the toaster popped, but because of the way the pop-tart on the left had been inserted into the slot, it got caught under the rim and wouldn’t come out.  Jason, annoyed, banged on the side with his fist.  When that got him nowhere fast, the only response a drunken mumble from his father, he pulled a fork from the mess of dishes in the sink, wiped it off on his mother’s dish towel, and stuck it into the slot.  Cursing and swearing, he tried to dig out the trapped pastry, only succeeding in forcing it down further.  He responded by shoving the fork in further behind it.

It was in vain.  Little did Jason know that thirteen seconds after inserting the fork into the toaster, he would make the unfortunate mistake of shoving the pastry down far enough that it triggered the heating element.  All it took was a touch of the fork to an exposed wire down near the bottom of the slot, and an electrical shock that should only have stunned him momentarily went on to cause a heart attack that stopped Jason’s heart like a stone in his chest. 

He jerked once, twice, dropped the fork to the floor, and was dead before he even came down to meet it.  It would take his mother fourteen hours to find his cold body, and she would only notice because she literally tripped over his sprawling leg.

Of everyone in the small town of Millburn, only a handful of people went to the funeral—just a few of Jason’s grade school teachers (“so much potential,” they had said in every parent-teacher conference, studiously avoiding Willis Todd’s eyes), the cop who had issued the warrant for Jason’s last arrest who was only there to make sure the bastard was truly dead, and Father Howard, the local preacher.  Jason’s parents were fashionably late as always, and only arrived after the grave had been filled and the last of the meandering ‘well-wishers’ gone. 

“It’s what you deserve for giving me such a shit-heel for a son,” Willis Todd said to a weeping Catherine Todd, putting out his cigarette on the headstone still waiting to be put in place.  And that, as they say, was that.

…Unless you count the part where Jason Todd blinked his eyes and came to awareness in the afterlife with a single calm inhale, that is.

[daniellewade]

six years ago today, there was a little show that was preparing for their opening night at the papermill playhouse, a ragtag gang of kids that literally didn't have a nickel to their name, but just loved to tell this story. six years ago there was also a girl, three thousand miles away, but watching every glimpse she could get of this cast, and quickly learning that no matter what she did in life, she wanted to do something that made other people feel the way that this cast and this show made her feel. that girl never did make it to ole millburn to tell this cast how much they meant to her, so to any of you that I haven't had the chance to speak to yet; thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. you couldn't possible hear this enough, but thank you for being who you are, and doing what you do, you've inspired me and so many others more than you could possibly know. thank you for helping bring this show and this message to life, thank you for sharing your talents with us every day. I hope you all know the extent to the legacy you've created, and the amount of people you've touched all across the world. some days I forget how much each and every one of you changed my life but then I see you again, carrying the banner and once and for all I am reminded how thankful I am that this little musical came to be. sincerely, a fansie from the start. •happy six years to the official opening of newsies: the musical• {September 25th, 2011}

[hayleygregg-finalyear-semester1]

Rituals

The difference between Habits and Rituals

When we mindfully choose our habits and repeat them to serve an end goal, they become rituals. Rituals are the foundation upon which great work is completed.

https://9clouds.com/blog/5-ways-to-create-rituals-from-habits/

THE RITUALS OF GREAT MINDS

Great artists throughout history have developed and followed rituals; many that seem ludicrous and even destructive to the casual observer.

Benjamin Franklin wrote naked for an hour every morning to “refresh” his mind in the cold air.

Beethoven rose at dawn and counted out exactly 60 coffee beans  to make his perfect morning brew before sitting at his desk and working until 2 p.m.

Painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec worked best at night setting up his easel in brothels around Paris.

Mason Currey’s book, Daily Rituals, shares the rituals of 161 artists from Picasso to Louis Armstrong to Woody Allen. While the rituals include everything from long walks (Kierkegaard) to secret note writing (Jane Austen), all of the artists have one thing in common: they all had a ritual.

1. PREPARE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

If you set your running shoes out before you go to bed, you’re more likely to run in the morning. If you set Facebook as the first page you see when you open your computer, you’re more likely to spend time on Facebook.

Creating environmental change has a dramatic impact on what we do. Great artists, business leaders and entrepreneurs set themselves up for success by preparing what they want to accomplish before the time to actually do it.

2. FIND YOUR PRODUCTIVE WINDOW

The artists in Daily Rituals knew when they were most productive, and they protected that window of time.

E.g. If you are a morning person, get up and make your ritual centered around that time.

3. DO THE HARD STUFF FIRST

Normally we push off the annoying work until the end of the day, which becomes the end of the week, which becomes the end of never. As Julien Smith notes if you work on the hardest task first:

you’ll discover that your day will get easier, and the rewards will get better as time goes on. So the first thing is hard, but next is easier, and then easier still, and so on until you have the most fun doing the easiest things on your task list

Plus, we know that the easiest thing on our list will get done anyway so leave that for later.

4. CHOOSE ONLY 5 THINGS YOU WANT TO DO

Think of these as your longer term vision of where you want to be. You can build tiny steps in your daily ritual that will help you get to where you want to be going.

As Julien reminds us, these activities don’t have to be world-changing actions, but if you have a goal to learn a language, just spend 10 minutes working on it. If you want to live a mindful life, try three minutes of sitting. If you want to spend more time outside, walk your dog around the block each morning.

Choose five simple activities you want to do and spend the minimum amount of time necessary to start getting them done.

5. FOCUS ON COMPLETION, NOT PERFECTION

The point of a ritual is to continually pursue your end goal. It will be ugly, painful and maybe even fruitless at first. However, if you are able to sit down and do it, the result will come.

USE YOUR RITUAL TO CREATE A LEGACY

Creating a ritual is the most important step you can take to succeed at business, create amazing art or become the person you always wanted to be.

You already have habits. All you need to do is transform these habits into positive rituals. These rituals help you to create on a regular basis and “frees our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action” as physchologist William James argued.

Bibliography from this post:

Daily Rituals by Mason Currey

“How to Change Your Life” by Julien Smith

Everything That Remains by Joshua Fields Millburn

On Writing by Stephen King

Freedom productivity software

[beautythroughthebeast-blog]

ESSEX COUNTY SURGEON REMEMBERED FOR KINDNESS, COMPASSION

When Montclair resident Chiara D’Agostino sat down for her first appointment in Dr. Jan Huston’s office at then-Mountainside Hospital in October 2014, she expected the usual doctor in the white lab coat to walk in. Instead, in came Huston, wearing a “cute leather jacket,” D’Agostino recalled.

It immediately didn’t feel like a standard doctor’s appointment. “I felt like we were going out for coffee,” D’Agostino said.

It was during that visit D’Agostino learned she had breast cancer, but Huston made receiving the life-changing news “a little less scary.”

“She spent over an hour explaining to me the ins and outs of my diagnosis. She drew everything on a piece of paper and wrote out everything so I could understand her technical terminology … so I could bring it home and look at it again in case I had questions,” D’Agostino recalled.

Huston gave D’Agostino her home phone number as well as her cell phone number.

Huston, also known as Dr. Jan Huston-Pryor, a surgeon who specialized in breast health at HackensackUMC Mountainside in Glen Ridge and Montclair, was fatally struck by a vehicle Tuesday while walking her dog near her home in Essex Fells.

The accident is under investigation. The driver remained at the scene and no charges had been filed as of Wednesday, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Huston was medical director of the Breast Center at Mountainside. She was the founder and director of Summit Breast Care, prior to joining the Mountainside Medical Group, according to a bio on the hospital’s website.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she was past medical director of the Connie Dwyer Breast Center at Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, and former surgeon at Millburn Surgical Associates.

In a statement, Mountainside chief executive officer John Fromhold called Huston “a beloved colleague and a strong advocate for women’s health throughout the community.”

“Among her many attributes, Jan was kind-hearted and enthusiastic, always bringing laughter and a smile to those around her," he said.

Some of Huston’s patients also remembered her for her personality and ability to connect with those she was treating.

D’Agostino, who is battling stage four breast cancer, chronicles her experiences in a blog called “Beauty through the Beast.” She has also written guest editorials for The Montclair Times. She has come across many doctors over the past several years. But Huston stands out for the ability she had to communicate the diagnosis clearly and compassionately, D’Agostino said.

“She was able to explain what was happening to me in a caring, clear way,” she added. “When going through something so shocking and life-threatening, to find that in a physician is monumental.”

Huston was one of the doctors who diagnosed Raquel Williams with breast cancer in September.

“[Dr. Huston] was kind and encouraging…made sure she spent some time talking with me assuring me I would be OK,” Williams said in an email.

Williams said she talked with Huston about her children, some of whom Williams taught at West Essex Regional High School.

“We had a beautiful connection. It's sad news but I believe she is with God and she will continue to be in our hearts and memories,” Williams stated.

D’Agostino said Huston saw her as woman, rather than just a sick patient.

“I feel sad for the women who needed her. She spread so much love,” she said. “I think focusing on what we did get from her is going to help me get through today.”

D’Agostino said even though Huston was not her primary doctor, she kept in contact with her and would still see her at Mountainside when she was there for appointments.

“She would stop and talk and see how I was doing. Which she didn’t have to do,” D’Agostino said.

Social media users have also commented on her passing, calling it a tragic loss and Huston an “incredible doctor.”

Essex Fells Mayor Edward P. Abbot posted a statement on that borough’s website, calling Huston one of “our dear friends and residents.”

She and her husband, Jonathan, had 12 children.

“Our entire community is in pain and beyond sorrow and despair over Jan’s passing. To say that Jan/Dr.Pryor/loving wife/adored mother/dear friend touched the lives of literally thousands and thousands of people is an understatement,” stated Abbot.

“Through her work, her vision, her and Jonathan’s definition of ‘family,’ and her commitment to making this world a better place by actions, not words, Jan’s legacy will forever be wonderfully remarkable and pristine.”

Written by Mollie Shauger at NorthJersey.com

[kruxty]

1302 1st - monday

frederick has come home, sadly, without any money, but he put aside his concerns to meet his very own little annalise, who has now aged up into an infant!

[kruxty]

1302 3rd - wednesday

they visited erik and winfred today, and found out that she was also pregnant!

[kruxty]

1303 2nd - saturday

harvest season has come and the two millburn children have both grown!

[kruxty]

1301 1st - thursday

the start of the new year brings great joy as the millburns find out that they will be having a child!

[kruxty]

1303 1st - friday

labor was incredibly difficult for eadith this time, and frederick was trying to help out as much as he could. after many hours, they finally welcomed little baby edward into the world!

[kruxty]

1302 2nd - tuesday

the millburns have once again been blessed with a child!

[kruxty]

1301 4th - sunday

eadith has given birth to our beautiful baby girl, annalise! shes so ugly

[kruxty]

1301 3rd - saturday

saying goodbye to the men before they set off on their long journey into town, hoping to make some money.

after a short rest in the cheapest room they could find, frederick began to start selling the sculptures he had made. however, not one person came to buy his goods, and frederick ended the day with less money than he started with.

[kruxty]

gen 1 millburns

main household: frederick and eadith side household: erik and winfred

[kruxty]

1301 2nd - friday

frederick has become an official woodworker and plans to go to town twice each season (every saturday) to sell his goods.

then reginald crook the tax collecter came by, strutting his proud self, and eadith made it very clear that she hates people like him and refused to pay the taxes. but reginald would not leave until the tax was payed, so frederick reluctantly gave him the §100 simoleons he demanded

[kruxty]

1300 4th - wednesday

eadith got up bright and early to start harvesting her crops, despite it only being mushrooms, carrots and sage, since anything she manages to collect will definitely be a step up from the gruel her and frederick have been forced to eat the past year. trader jacques came by to see if the millburns had anything to sell and/or buy, so while frederick was still sound asleep, eadith helped sell the sculptures he had been making in exchange for §40 simoleons!