#posts that belong on nextdoor but i don’t have nextdoor

[fantasiavii]

I just think if you have to remove a tree from your yard out of necessity (root rot/irreparable storm damage/etc) you should plant another tree

And I just think that if you have a tree the last thing you should do is cut off all the branches until all that remains are ugly leafless stumps

And I just think if you have a tree you should actually take care of the tree

[geezerwench]

Michigan man searches for answers after dolls take over his mailbox: 'We've decided to live here'

Laura Colvin

Hometownlife.com

Published April 13, 2023

Michigan man searches for answers after dolls take over his mailbox: 'We've decided to live here'

Don Powell opened his mailbox one day last August and found, along with the usual mix of bills and pizza coupons, two small dolls sitting on a miniature couch near a tiny table.

The pair and their furniture came with a note: “We’ve decided to live here. Mary and Shelley.”

Powell first thought the homely wooden figurines – a man and a woman – were put in his mailbox by mistake. He wondered if someone in the neighborhood was playing a joke.

“I went around to the other homes on the cul-de-sac to see if anyone else had gotten dolls in their mailbox,” the 72-year-old said. “No one had. There’s a neighbor across the street named Shelly; I knocked on her door and asked if she had done it, but she said no.”

A psychologist by trade, Powell is president and CEO of the Michigan-based American Institute for Preventative Medicine, a company that facilitates worksite wellness programs for organizations and hospitals around the country.

He and wife Nancy ordered a custom mailbox after moving into their home in Orchard Lake, Michigan, about five years ago.

At 26 inches deep, the mailbox, while purposely not an exact replica, bears a striking resemblance to their home. The box features a spacious interior with an open floor plan and plenty of window to let in natural light. Solar powered ceiling lights illuminate the mailbox at night.

 

While it is against the law for someone other than the mailbox owner and the mail carrier to put items in a mailbox, Powell could see why a doll family might want to move in.

He was amused – although his first thought was to evict the couple and their belongings into the garbage can. But then, struck by a change of heart, he pushed the couple and their belongings to the back of the mailbox and went about his business.

That was just the beginning of the story. When Powell wasn’t looking, someone dropped off a dog for the couple living in the mailbox, along with a rug and even some art for the wall. Then came a four-poster bed.

“I thought, ‘OK, someone is really playing a joke on me,'” Powell said, admitting that by this time he was enamored by the situation and wanted to have some fun with it. “I didn’t think it was my neighbors.”

So he went on Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods.

In his first post on Nextdoor, Powell asked whether anyone would fess up and admit they put Mary and Shelley in his mailbox, or if they knew who did. No one came forward, so he posted again, joking that he’d contacted the police and asked them to do extra patrols of his mailbox.

“The whole thing got rather whimsical,” he said. “I have a quirky sense of humor.”

When Halloween rolled around, Mary and Shelley were mysteriously replaced by two dolls in skeleton costumes.

Around Christmas, Mary and Shelley reappeared with miniature-sized gifts for their mailbox home. Powell took pictures and documented it all on Nextdoor.

“The response (on Nextdoor) was just incredible,” he said. “People were saying, ‘This is so much fun to read, I was ready to get off of Nextdoor, but this makes me want to stay.’” 

Many posters, he said, were leaving comments and sending Powell messages asking for the next installment. 

At some point, a second mystery note appeared, claiming the Mary and Shelley dolls formerly lived in a two-story Dutch-style doll house, but had decided Powell’s mailbox house was more accommodating for their cousin Shirley – a third figurine with a broken leg – who sometimes visited the couple.

“Then, after (February) ice storm, I did a post that said the family was locked in the mailbox and couldn’t get out,” Powell said. “Somebody asked if they lost power, I said ‘No, they don’t have power to begin with, but they do have a wood burning stove and were working from home.’”

In the beginning, Powell said, he was worried the mail carrier would stop delivering the mail. But given the large size of the mailbox, space has not been an issue. Calls to the West Bloomfield Post Office went unanswered.

Meanwhile, his wife, Nancy, said she’s been enjoying the saga and likes to see when new things are added to the mailbox – but doesn’t get as worked up about it as her husband.

“It's very cute, “she said. “I get a laugh out of it…it’s a good positive thing, especially during these crazy times."

Powell said no new furniture or other items have arrived in the last month or so. Still, at this point, he’s not sure he’s ready to learn the true identity of the person who brought Mary and Shelley into his life. 

“I’m kind of enjoying the mystery,” he said. “I look forward to new things being added to the mailbox.”

The author of numerous health-related books, Powell says the experience has given him a new idea.

“I am thinking, given the reaction (on Nextdoor), of writing a children’s book,” he said. “I think it creates a novel story.”

originally posted in USA Today

[your-isolation-buddy]

6 mental health friendly quarantine tips 🌟

1) Change activities throughout the day.

They don't have to be 'big' things, it's ok if you don't have the capacity to do a lot right now. But switching activities from watching TV to drawing for example or walking around/sitting in the garden, or even just making a cup of tea can help stop that strange lethargic feeling (you know, the 'ugh I've done nothing today') or sometimes disassociation that can happen if you're just doing one thing by yourself for a long time.

So when your thoughts try and tell you've done nothing, you can go actually no, I've done enough.

2) Count the small victories

Try not to get stuck in the thought of not 'achieving enough'. If you made it through the day, congratulations, you've achieved something. When I was in my worst stages of isolation, I would make a list at the end of each day of my achievements. For example: messaged a friend, did some colouring, brushed my cat, made myself a cup of tea, found a new TV show that I like

3) Reconsider what it means to be 'productive'.

I don't know your personal situation; it may well be that you have commitments you will still need to fulfill right now. But it's easy, especially with all the stuff we can see online or what we think others are doing, to have very high standards for ourselves and all we 'should' be doing. Often, these things may not be as important as we think.

Depending on your circumstances, it could be worth making a list of your current 'obligations' and considering which are really essential and which are things you feel you 'should' be doing but which you could afford to set aside for a bit. For example, taking care of your child, feeding the dog or doing that work from home is probably not negotiable (I don't know your situation, maybe someone can help you or you can get some support) but 'mastering' that new skill, starting that new regime... (whatever it is people who aren't chronically ill usually do idk).. if you don't have the space for it right now and it can afford to wait, consider if it really belongs on the priority list for now.

4) Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of passing the time. And that's ok.

There doesn't have to be an 'end goal'. You don't have to be good at it. Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of having something to do, and there is no shame in that. Remember that stress is really tiring. You might find you're getting tired even if you don't think you're doing lots. Don't beat yourself up.

5) Find things that absorb you. You know, those things you do for no particular reason. Don't put any pressure on these things. Some of my favourites:

Puzzles

Colouring

Knitting

Baking

Sticker books

Researching a random topic

Making a mood board

Learning/playing a card game

Reading comics (if you don't have any, you can find webtoons online and I will also post some links to free comic sites later on)

Watching a TV series or favourite film

6) Keep talking to people.

It's ok to be scared, but don't keep it all to yourself. Talk to friends on the phone or through video chat if you can, or connect with online support groups. Even just joining chats about your favourite band or show can help with feeling less lonely (of course be sure to practice online safety, there are always strange people even in nice parts of the internet. Check that apps or sites are moderated and have safety measures in place, and check with someone you trust if you're not sure)

Some helpful apps:

7 cups of tea

Calm

Headspace (currently offering free content due to Coronavirus)

Calm Harm

Nextdoor (connect with neighbours and locals, lots of people are offering help on there)

Amino

The Mighty

The Tiredgirl society

Discord

For Kpop fans: Vlive, Weverse

[inkabelledesigns]

Sam and Jan’s Apartment - Nightmares are Reality Sims

So as of late, I’ve had a LOT of ideas brewing for yet another Bendy fic, and in some of my planning for it, I’ve built one of the locations in the Sims 4 to use as reference. It’s been busy at home, and I needed this to relax, so I’m glad I took the time to do that briefly. You may have seen my previous post about Nightmares are Reality, but if you haven’t, here’s the short version: Samantha Lorenzo from 2021 and Sammy Lawrence from 1946 wake up one morning with their bodies switched, and now both have to embrace the other’s friend group to not only find a way to get back, but also stop the inevitable fate of the studio staff as shown in the novel Dreams Come to Life. There’s angst, there’s fluff, and it get pretty rough, but there’s so much to play with for this story. 

Come with me, and let’s dive into Sam and Jan’s apartment!

So first, we gotta talk about Sam and Jan themselves. Samantha is the curly haired one, and Janet is the one in the hat (she wouldn’t be caught dead without one). Unfortunately the Sims does not allow me to change heights (and I don’t have a mod for it), but imagine for me if you will that Jan is significantly shorter than Sam. I did not have a ton in mind in the way of colors for them, but together their wardrobes have a LOT of red and black, with a little white and tan thrown in. I have Sam with the lifetime goal of being a successful author, which falls in line with her love of storytelling in modern media. Jan on the other hand is a songwriter and musician that’s still trying to find her path. The two met in college and graduated not too long ago, and now they’re both hunting for work (which Janet has part time when the fic begins). 

In addition to them, we have their cat, Figaro (named after the cat from Disney’s Pinnochio, Sam is a nerd like that).

Now, we move onto their apartment!

I chose the 1020 Alto Apartments lot for this, which came with the condition of the Romantic Fireplace that I can’t remove. But I added on Home Studio and Great Acoustics so they could bump up their skills a little easier. This is my first time playing with a lot challenge, and that is Spooky, which makes it so ghosts will come over now and again, which scares the crap out of both of them. And uh, funny story...

The ghost of Joey Drew was the third one to come, and he was VERY angry when Sam met him. X’’’D I did not see that coming, but now I kinda want to make more Bendy ghosts just to see if they pop in. Would you guys be into that? I mean Depths Henry is a ghost, so I probably SHOULD make him. 

At any rate, let’s look at the layout. Bear in mind, I am not phenomenal at building houses, much less apartments, but I think this worked out. 

It opens up into the kitchen, which is filled with all the essentials (these ladies are big on their caffeine). Currently I headcanon that Sam cooks while Jan cleans, but Jan is the better baker out of the two of them. Sam also likes to have fresh ingredients, and while I can’t do a window box on this lot, I can have some indoor vertical plants.

There isn’t much of a separation between living room and kitchen, but this is the living room! Some stuff is for playing with (since I actually play with my households now and then), like the dancefloor, but others are for actual use. They use a record player to listen to jazz and other music, and the furniture would be all mismatched like that (they were broke college kids, gotta sit on something, right? probably got it from a bunch of garage sales). The photo setup is something they use, but it belongs to their friend Vincent, which brings me to the first bedroom.

I haven’t made these two as Sims yet, but Sam and Jan have another duo living with them, Jess and Vincent, who are a couple. Jess is a makeup artist who often experiments on her friends, and she hopes to get into the makeup and wardrobe side of the cinematography scene. Vince on the other hand is a photography and film guy who’s an absolute sweetheart. Those two share this bedroom (Jess had more of a say in the decorating, Vince is pretty easygoing about the aesthetic). 

I had to make sure there was a special corner for Jess’ makeup stuff, she’d want space to move around. The mirror is also something she loves, and they all borrow it a lot. Why?

Because of this creepy room nextdoor! X’’’D So I just learned mannequins are a thing, and I can dress them however I want, so I put some in this pretty much functionless closet. (Though the two masculine ones have been glitching in a way that turns their heads a little at certain angles, and it creeps me out a LOT) This is the cosplay closet, which mostly Jess and Sam use, but all four of them have some numbers in here. These four are a cosplay group, mostly for Bendy, but for other fandoms too. Jess likes going as Twisted Alice (heavy special effects makeup, go figure), Vincent likes Henry and Joey (he likes scruffy nerds and suits), Janet dresses as Jack Fain (though she’s also done some gender bends of other characters), and Samantha (as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) is right there as the Sammy for their group. If I can ever learn how to work with custom content, I would love to have a cosplay for each of them on these mannequins, but we’ll save that for later. These nerds are absolutely the types to play around with cosplay photos and tiktok videos, I’m sure they duet often. XD

We have some bathrooms, which are pretty self explanatory, but then we have Janet’s room. She is big on the posters and loves having her instruments right there and ready to play. She plays guitar and piano, but I may have her pick up violin down the line. Both of them have the geek trait and are prone to playing videogames more often than not, but Jan is mostly found playing her music. 

We have a small corner of the hallway for the cat. And then last but not least: Sam’s room.

This is Samantha’s creative space. Much like my space, when she’s working, it gets messy. She loves turning on some jazz while she writes, and while she’s crafting. I gave her and Jan the knitting supplies, since I don’t really know how else to simulate sewing for these characters, and they also have some clutter. Sam has one additional mannequin in her room, and she’s into figures, so there’s one of those on the desk. Her closet and bathroom are pretty simple, but that closet is gonna be really important when we get into the story, you’ll see why later.

As always, I have their Sims up on the gallery, along with the apartment, in case you want to play with them for yourself. Just note: because of how apartments work in this game, it’s uploaded as a room, so you’re going to have to fill some walls in and add doors if you want it to work like an apartment would (and you can totally turn it into a house if you want to, you don’t need to have 1020 Alto if you wanna use this). Just search for KatAlystDesigns in the Sims 4 gallery! I’ve also uploaded a few other houses recently, including the DCTL cast for my BATIM mermaid collection, and Buddy’s mother and grandpa. 

I had a LOT of fun putting this together last night, and it’s given me a much better idea of how I want to work with things for this narrative. Bear in mind, Sammy’s the one who’s gonna have to live here and put up with it, so having these details established is gonna help me to make the fic go smoother. I may tweak some things, like actually using upper cabinets in the kitchen (which I always seem to forget about), but we’ll see. XD Either way, this was a good exercise.

I hope you’re all looking forward to exploring these two and their story as much as I am! As a quick final note, I actually have a blog set up for Nightmares are Reality to mimic the one Sam has in the fic, and I’m thinking of using it as a somewhat RP, somewhat fic and content delivery system for the story, so if you’ve got thoughts on that, or stuff you’d like to see, do let me know! Here’s wishing you are all wonderful day!

[lisianthoma]

do you ever think about flowers? and how pretty they can be without us ever having asked them to be that beautiful?

they're all unique and wonderful. even if they're not the prettiest like a bluebonnet, they're all so wonderful and good.

and if flowers could think, do you think they know that they're all unique and special and so so dear to the world? that each and every one of them stands out, in its own way, deserves to thrive for its uniqueness?

is a rafflesia any less worth its time in the soil than an eglantine rose? they're both wonderful, and unique, and they stand out in their own ways. they both deserve to thrive and think, "i am as wonderful and deserving of my life on the planet as other flowers."

...what if there's a lone flower, in a flowerbed of beautiful, wonderful blooms, that thinks to itself, "i am lesser than the flowers around me. i am not unique enough to belong here, in this flowerbed. no one sees me. would it matter if i wilted?"

...

...what if every flower in this flowerbed shared this thought? of being lesser than the other flowers?

you want to comfort these flowers, i hope. they may be just flowers, but if they could think, and they could be upset, they would deserve comfort. i would comfort them. i want to tell them:

"you aren't less, little flowers. you all think this way but you're just as deserving of being cared for as the hyacinths nextdoor or the bellflowers around the tree. you deserve to thrive, little flowers, please. do not wilt on me, do not wilt on the world- your presence is seen. and your presence is wonderful."

...

...perhaps the flower talk is a metaphor for humans, the flowerbed a crowd.

perhaps it is not. perhaps i just really like flowers and would like to just, ramble, like this.

there could be many questions answered.

i don't have to answer them here in this post, though.

...

my only hope is that the little flowers believing themselves less, believing themselves undeserving, do not wilt on the world. so many have yet to see the bloom.

and no matter how little, they would leave a hole in the world if they wilted here, tonight. a hole in a flowerbed where a bloom will never be seen.

[hayffiebird]

Taste of Strawberries, Chap. 21

Hayffie Post-Mockingjay Multi-chapter, Rated M

I hope you like angst on your fanfic sandwish :) Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts!

Also: (spoiler not a spoiler) I included the Capitol anthem from the new THG book “The ballad of songbirds and snakes” but it doesn’t give away the story so it’s safe to read.

Chapter 21 The betrayal

*ring ring*

… What?

*swallows back a sob* Haymitch? Haymitch, it’s me.

Ah. There she is. Long time no princess. What can you want?

I’m sorry. I know I should have called you a long time ago.

Oh, I remember that voice. Effs Trinket needs a shoulder to cry on, huh? So she goes to good ol’ Haymitch. Course. *takes a mouthful of something* It’s too bad mine’re all the way down here then. Both of ‘em.

I can take the train. If I go now I ought to be…

Here in a day. Yeah. And I’m supposed to just welcome you with open arms?

Haymitch…

That’s my name.

I really must speak to you. It’s im…

What for? I’m a dead-end drunk, remember?

I’ve never called…

No, that’s right. Your words were much fancier.

I know you’re angry. This is not easy for me either but…

I’m fine, sweetheart. Just fine. Can’t ruin a life that’s already ruined, right? I s’pose you want all your crap back? Yeah, the kids have it. They think you’re gonna come back, you know. “When hell freezes over”, am I right? But you know Peeta. I’ll just tell ‘em to send it over straight away so you never have to set your foot here ever again. Great, huh?

You left me, Haymitch! I didn’t want you to go! I didn’t want it to end!

Could’ve fooled me. *twists the top of another bottle* And don’t you worry your pretty head, sweetheart. You’ll get over it. Trust me. Soon you’re gonna find some nice, wholesome guy who does exactly what he’s told. It’ll be all: “Yes, Euphemia. No, Euphemia. Whatever you say, Eu…”

Don’t call me that! Haymitch, please! Mrs. Q, she… she tried to… I need you! If you care about me at all…

Oh, I cared about you. A lot. More than a lot. Should’ve fucking known better. So why don’t you call Plutarch or Octavia or any other of your friends and just leave me alone. Cause I owe you nothing. Nothing at all.

*sobs* I’m so stupid.

Have a wonderful life, Eff. I’m sure you’re gonna be deliriously happy.

*toot toot*

xXx

There was still some broth left. Katniss slipped her flask into a jacket pocket and poured a second mug.

The storm had finally blown itself out, for now anyway, but one look through the window quelled all hope for a hunting day. No point roaming the woods for sustenance when the snow lay waist-deep.

She fed Buttercup her last piece of bacon and carried the mug into the living room.

“I’m going to the bakery.”

Nightmares had made Haymitch kick all the cushions off the couch again. He lay on his side with the knife cradled against his chest like some scary version of a teddy bear.

“There’re scrambled eggs if you want it,” Katniss said. “And some bacon. I left it on the stove.”

She couldn’t set the mug down. Wasn’t enough space on the coffee table and Haymitch grunted at the sound of glass against glass when she tossed the empties in the container by the door.

He muttered something she couldn’t make sense of and pulled his arm up over his eyes to ward off the light from the one lamp. “Drink the broth at least.” She placed the cup at arm’s reach and was gone.

It was almost a month now since Haymitch set up camp on their couch. One day mid-dinner he just staggered into their living room and he hadn’t left since.

He was decent enough to not completely trash the place but still, you didn’t want Haymitch Abernathy for a roommate. He was hard enough to deal with nextdoor.

Katniss couldn’t stand it being at home these days. Haymitch woke both her and Peeta almost every night with the agonized sounds he made in his sleep and daytime was no better.

Their mentor, hollow-eyed and shrunken on the couch – it all reminded her too much of her mother and Katniss fled when she couldn’t help. She kept to the woods as much as possible and if not the woods the bakery or the Hob or Hazelle’s.

Anywhere but home.

When they finally asked him if it wasn’t time he moved back to his own house, they cleaned it for him, Haymitch only shot them a long look, like a dog they had just mistreated and rolled over so he faced the couch.

“She’s there,” that’s all he muttered.

And what could they do? Not tie him up and dump him somewhere. He was their mentor and they already owed him more than they could ever repay.

They had known something was off the moment they got home, the day before Christmas Eve.

They walked up the old pathway, loaded with bags and the first thing they saw when they passed Haymitch’s house was the Christmas tree lying in the snow, still green and frosty and covered with ornaments. Like someone had just thrown it out the door.

And it wasn’t the only thing.

In the ever-growing light they saw the ground littered with items. Towels and bed sheets and bath robes lay in bundles, all frozen stiff. Soggy, old newspapers and magazines too, blown apart by the frisk wind.

Her clothes were everywhere, along with an endless number of bottles and jars and other beauty products half-buried in the snow. They found napkins and slippers, perfume bottles and pillows. Hairbrushes, tea cups, blankets, curtains, shower curtains, even anagrammed towel hangers attached to chunks of the bathroom wall.

The state of his house was even worse, like a twister had gone through it. They asked him about it but Haymitch was a closed book.

Then, of course they found Effie’s note on their kitchen table and it wasn’t hard to piece together what had happened in their short absence.

They wanted to help. Of course they did. Only, how? Wasn’t like they could change what had already happened or say anything to make it better.

Not that Peeta didn’t try to talk to him. Talk at him. Finally Katniss stepped up and said, not unkindly,

“Just leave him be.”

Haymitch had said next to nothing the whole time but when Katniss and Peeta turned to leave he stopped them in their tracks.

“Just so we’re clear,” he said and looked Peeta straight in the eye; a feat considering how intoxicated he was. “You don’t get any ideas ‘bout calling the Capitol, alright. I mean it, boy. This is my wreckage.”

Sun set early this time of year. For the remaining hours, Katniss and Peeta dug for treasures in Haymitch’s garden, until they had to squint in order to see. And even then some of Effie’s belongings would probably not be found until Spring.

They brought it all back to their house. Silently, Peeta filled the sink with hot water and suds and washed the plates and glasses and tea cups while Katniss stood at the ready with a towel, both of them deep in thought.

Back in District 4, when Peeta gathered her in bed, he had teased her about their cosy, up-coming Christmas. Painted her pictures of Effie plaguing both her and Haymitch with her bright holiday spirit and bringing them gifts – wrapped in regular wrappings so she didn’t technically break Haymitch’s rule of “no Christmas presents.”

Dinner at the Hob would follow where Effie would spend about two thirds of it clucking over Haymitch’s table manners and Haymitch stating he should just hire her voice to cut his turkey for him and “we’re not doing this again, that’s for sure”, all the while not quite able to keep his hands to himself.

“And then they’ll top the evening with a see-through excuse like ‘I’m gonna go get a bottle’ or ‘I am simply exhausted. Do you mind if we call it a night?’,” Peeta finished and grinned at Katniss who squirmed like a worm in hot ashes.

It just felt good to make fun of their mentor being happy for once. Happy with Effie.

Now, everything was in ruins and tomorrow would be just like any other day, with Haymitch drunk and getting drunker.

Not that Christmas had ever been a busy affair in the Victor’s Village. They had dinner and that was pretty much it. A slightly fancier one, perhaps, with about a 50% chance of Haymitch joining. He only ever showed up last New Year’s because of Effie.

Because of Effie. That phrase applied for many aspects of Haymitch’s life, didn’t it? He’d deny it but just the fact she got him to even consider drying out pretty much said everything.

“Maybe we should call her,” Peeta wondered, not sure himself.

“But you heard him,” Katniss said. “This is none of our business. And they’ll come around, eventually.”

They were both so used to their mentor and escort’s antics. Those stubborn, old fools were always at each other’s throat and through and through they found a way back to one other. Back at each other’s side.

This too would pass, surely? Sooner or later, one of them would swallow their pride and pick up the phone.

And while Katniss and Peeta waited for that call they stored Effie’s things for safe-keeping, well out of Haymitch’s sight and stopped asking questions.

But February rolled to a close with dark days and even darker nights. Life in Twelve was just one storm after another and people were forced to seek shelter at the Hob so as not to get lost in them. The vixen’s cry echoed in the night and Katniss and Peeta stored up on candle sticks for the blackouts.

March came with the deceiving breath of spring only to bury the district in a second winter. Hazelle’s kids put her on bed rest after a sprained ankle. Brooks gushed in plentiful streams under the ice and an apple-cheeked Katniss returned from the woods, game bag loaded with wild turkey.

April arrived with warmer weather. Tiny greens peeked in people’s gardens and the patches of last year’s grass grew bigger for each day. Water dropped down every icicle and town’s kids and Seam kids alike melted snow in water barrels to make the spring come faster.

Everyone kept busy. It was a time of change, of rebirth. Winter was finally over and it had a rejuvenating effect on everyone.

Well, almost everyone.

Effie’s name was never mentioned and yet she was ever present. If an outsider walked past and saw Haymitch on the couch he might think “same old, same old”. But Katniss and Peeta were family and they knew him better than that.

Haymitch had never been an easy person to deal with and definitely not a happy-go-lucky one. But every once in a while, if he had a couple hours of dreamless sleep it was like he got an energy boost.

That’s when he got up, checked on the geese, helped Peeta in the bakery, maybe just had a hot meal down at the Hob before he returned to his bottles.

Now, it was like he didn’t care about anything anymore. He just lay on the couch, drinking and God help the one who bothered him. He only ever left for the bathroom breaks or when his liquor ran out.

But even that came to an end.

It happened when Haymitch staggered into the Hob on a Sunday morning.

“Usual,” he slurred and tossed handfuls of money on Ripper’s bar counter.

“Sorry, Haymitch. You’re too early,” she said. “The train doesn’t arrive until Monday. We’re all out now.”

“Usual!” Haymitch repeated, louder this time like she was slow. Sighs rose from around the tables.

“It’s Sunday,” Ripper told him patiently. “Come back tomorrow and I’ll get your bottles. I can’t sell it to you now because we’re out.”

She couldn’t make him understand. Each time she tried Haymitch only got surlier. “Wha’s the problem?” he whined. “I have money. Wha’s the problem?”

He scared some of the little kids eating breakfast with their parents. The temperature in the diner seemed to have dropped twenty degrees and finally a gray-haired old man muttered, loud enough for Haymitch to hear it,

“Who’d have thought we’d ever wish for that fancy sow to come back?”

That’s when Haymitch wielded his knife. He was so drunk it was pathetic but for Ripper that was it! She kicked him out and told him either he left his knife at home or he would have to get someone else to buy him his liquor.

From then on, Katniss and Peeta stocked up his supplies and Haymitch found even fewer reasons to get up.

What for?

Maybe it would have been better, Katniss thought. Less cruel, if he never got those precious few months with Effie. Because losing her, losing her altogether and not just as a lover, seemed to have opened a crack in his rock bottom and pushed him down that hole as well.

And Effie, how was she doing?

xXx

May. God, he hated May. Ever since he turned twelve, the month right before the Hunger Games was nothing but a ticking clock. Even now, years after the war had ended, there were still times when he started awake, thinking,

Reaping day’s almost here!

He couldn’t sleep. While he marinated his liver a bug had detoured in to the house and was now buzzing about in the window.

The sound unnerved him because the bloody thing just wouldn’t give up! It bumped and thumped against the glass over and over again, yearning for freedom.

It was Peeta’s damn fault. He always opened a window when it rained.

Finally he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Alright, alright,” Haymitch growled and swung his legs off of the couch.

It was a wasp. Not the tracker jacker kind, just a regular one. It crawled along the window sill, flew into the glass once more and wiggled it’s antennae in irritation.

“Out with you now,” Haymitch muttered as he struggled with the window hooks. “Be free.” And watched the bug disappear.

The night air felt balmy against his skin. He took his time unscrewing the lid on the silver hip flask. The geese were quiet for a change but the mockingjays were still up, frisky and begging for company. He ran his hand through his wild beard and drank the flask dry. It didn’t take long.

He was just looking for something to fill it up with when he heard the sound. One even his soaked brain could place.

A phone. Ringing.

His mind jumped to Effie and he could’ve kicked himself for it. He resisted the desire to slam the window shut and closed it before he returned to the couch. The coffee table held nothing but empties. They clinked under his fingertips until he found one with some in it. He lifted it to his lips and greeted the burn with a sigh of relief.

Outside, the ringing continued. Even with the window closed, there was no escaping it.

It’s not her. Why’d she call now? No reason for her to call now.

After what felt like 10 years, the phone silenced. The knot in his stomach eased somewhat and after he promised himself to tear the phone out the wall as soon as the sun rose he walked over to the cabinet and peeked inside.

“Thank you, kids,” he mumbled at the welcomed sight. He grabbed same bottles at random and brought them back to the couch. But before he got the chance to flop down on his ass-print the phone went off again.

“Oh, fuck me,” he wheezed.

Who called him at three in the morning? No, strike that. Who called him, period?

Sweat trickled down his sides in never-ending streams. The sound played on his nerve strings like a violin. It was the wasp all over again because the caller, whoever it was, didn’t give up. Refused to stop until he did something about it.

A hundred whispered insults spilled over Haymitch’s lips as he pulled on his shoes.

He hadn’t seen the inside of his house in months. The last time he was here had been a fucking nightmare. Broken furniture, broken everything.

The long, hard signals cut through the stillness like a knife.

It’s not her.

He picked up the phone and the blare of music nearly ripped her ear drum. He held the thing a meter away.

“Hello?” someone called. “Helloo?”

He brought the phone closer.

“Who is this?”

“Well, hi to you too!” the person laughed. It was a woman’s voice. One he recognized, only he couldn’t quite place it. From the Capitol at least. “How’s the bachelor’s life treating you, Haycock?” the stranger woman asked. When he didn’t answer she went on, “It’s me, Gloria! Gloria Highgrass. We met at Octavia’s birthday party, remember? Yellow dress. Good-for-nothing cousin by my side.”

Haymitch drew a silent sigh. Of course.

“Where you’ve been hiding, hm?” she asked. ”Haven’t seen you in a while. Finally tired of your afternoon delight?”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself.”

“Oh,” Gloria chuckled. “You kiss your bottle with that mouth? What would Effie said?”

Her words drew giggles. Clearly, they had an audience and he was just about to slam the phone down when she said,

“I just saw her, that little cock-warmer of yours. And between you and me: I don’t blame you for leaving. What a mess, haha! You screwed her up good, Haycock! She’s so unfuckable now! Well done, sir. Well done.”

And her brilliant laughter hammered his head.

“Do you know we all placed bets on how long the two of you would last? It’s true! You cost me a fortune, Haycock! You guys stuck it out way longer than I thought. And then my useless cousin told me about your little scene at the train station. ‘Get your shit together’ and all that. God, I wish I was there!”

She had a sip of something and then rallied on,

”You wanna know what I think? I think she planned the whole thing. So you’d never leave her. Too bad she forgot that district scum scurry off like cockroaches once the light’s on. Well, she’s paying for it now, isn’t she? How’d she tell you? Before or after you cleared out?”

It was a wonder the phone didn’t break in Haymitch’s fist. He could hardly breathe, that’s how furious he was. But he refused to give this woman the satisfaction of him losing his temper.

“Hey, lady,” he said, in a very measured voice. “If you know something about Effie, spit it out. Or else you can just stop wasting my time and go back to your pathetic little life.”

That finally silenced her. For about three seconds.

”You don’t know?” she said. “You kidding me? He doesn’t know!”

And everyone on the other end broke down in hysterical laughter. Gloria contained hers just long enough to say,

”Come back to the Capitol, Haycock! See for yourself!”

And she slammed the phone in his ear.

He couldn’t stand another second in this place. Her things may be gone but he still felt Effie’s presence in every corner of the house. Like fumes slowly killing you.

He didn’t realize how much his hands trembled until he was back on the couch. He balled them into fists.

The nerve of that woman! “Come see for yourself.” The hell’s that supposed to mean?

He needed a drink. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and tipped the first bottle he found in to his mouth, again and again until he came up choking.

The liquor numbed his worries like they numbed everything else.

“You screwed her up good.” Yeah, that’s likely. He didn’t fancy himself being important enough to lose even a minute’s sleep over.

Maybe so. But you’re not the only bad thing that’s happened to her. Remember?

“She’s fine,” he told the empty room. “Just fine.” Probably thrived now that she didn’t have to deal with him anymore. That low-life Gloria Highgrass was just fucking with his head. She wanted to cause a spectacle, get some gossip material, that’s all.

If Effie was in any kind of need all she had to do was pick up the phone and call him.

Besides, wasn’t like she kept in touch to see how he was fairing. It was damn clear she didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. And if she didn’t care, why should he?

Yeah, he thought and reached for the next bottle. Let her deal with her own demons.

xXx

If Haymitch thought he was the only one up he was wrong. Katniss slept a deep slumber for once but all the creaks and groans coming from the floorboards downstairs finally wormed their way into Peeta’s dreams until he flinched awake.

The room burned with morning light. Peeta’s heart pounded in his chest but he remained still so as not to disturb Katniss while he listened to the sounds below.

It wasn’t the first time Haymitch “ghosted the halls”. Peeta remembered it especially well from their train rides together and back at the penthouse during the Games.

Sometimes it seemed like Haymitch just couldn’t stand to remain in the same place, locked inside his own head. And that’s when he stalked from room to room, aimlessly. Like a bear in a cage. Well, a bear with a bottle in its paw.

No, it wasn’t the first time but it was the first time in a while. And he used to go to bed with the sun so what was he still doing up?

At least with Haymitch on the couch, you knew where you had him. Finally Peeta carefully extracted himself from Katniss and slipped out of bed, just to check on him. That wouldn’t be a first either.

He reached the foot of the stairs just as Haymitch returned in to the living room, surprisingly sober. Sobered up. He sunk down on the couch, elbows on his knees. He never noticed Peeta. His eyes were squarely focused on something in his hands.

Peeta couldn’t tell what it was at first but then Haymitch shifted it over and the penny suddenly dropped.

It was a paper goose. The paper goose. He knew it well because it used to sit on the window sill back in his studio. Haymitch must have ventured inside and stumbled upon it by co-incidence.

Effie’s paper goose. Well, Haymitch’s really since she gave it to him.

Peeta remembered the day she made it. It was the summer Haymitch had brought her here after the over-dose.

She had one of her good days and joined them for breakfast in the studio. He painted, Katniss ate cheese buns, Haymitch doodled a horrible caricature of Effie and in exchange she made him this little origami creature.

A good day in an ocean of bad ones.

Shortly after, the night terrors sent her in a down-ward spiral again and just to keep her from clocking out Haymitch said he thought about getting some geese. What’d she think?

The idea probably originated from Chaff. Eleven’s victor loved everything made from the bird. Roast goose and buttered potatoes, corned goose hash, fried eggs with mushrooms.

Those were the dishes he ordered at the training centre before the third Quarter Quell and if memory didn’t deceive Peeta he even told Caesar Flickerman after he was crowned victor, that he liked to raise geese once he returned to District Eleven.

Now he never really got that idea off the table. Instead, Haymitch did. Well, sort of. None of his birds had ever wound up on a plate.

In any case, Peeta bet the whole ”let’s go to Eleven” adventure wasn’t motivated by some great desire to buy geese. That’s just what Haymitch had her believe. Because for whatever reason Effie lived up a little whenever she got to plan things. It gave her a sense of control.

It was slick how he played it. Made her think “This will be good for Haymitch” when really it was “good for Effie”. Something to keep her mind occupied. His own way to try and coax her out of her depression.

A hundred memories drenched up by one paper bird. That’s what Peeta witnessed this very moment. Haymitch could have crushed it easily. Just made a fist and tossed it on the fire. He tossed everything else that even vaguely reminded him of her.

He didn’t. The way he held it, you’d think it was one of his goslings and he had a look on his face that would not have been there, had he known someone was watching.

“Morning,” Katniss yawned as she walked in to the kitchen, hours later. Peeta stood by the stove, quietly pouring hot water through the tea leaves. She reached for the jug of orange juice to set it on the table. “Where’s Haymitch at? I didn’t see him.”

“On the train.”

Katniss stopped, eyebrows lifted.

“You sure?”

In answer, he pointed at the table and she discovered the note, jotted down on a scrap of paper.

I’m gonna go see Effie. Call her and tell her I’m coming, OK? Thanks.

“You talked to her? What’d she say? What?” she asked at the look on Peeta’s face.

“I tried, for about an hour,” he said. “I can’t get through. The phone’s disconnected.”

xXx

Gem of Panem Mighty city Through the ages, you shine anew

Intertwined with their laughter, the Capitol anthem echoed around the deserted city. Morning light stretched their shadows into four giants as they walked down the street, arm-in-arm. Their makeup was smeared, the flowers in their outfits drooping. All evidence of what a smash hit the night had been!

We humbly kneel To your ideal And pledge our love to you!

Coriana’s voice rose highest of them all, the only member in their quartet who could hit all the high notes, drunk or sober, but they all joined in just as merrily with the voice they had.

Gem of Panem Heart of justice Wisdom crowns your marble brow

It felt good, comforting, to chant the age old verses of their childhood. The real anthem of Panem. The politically correct atrocity Paylor whipped together didn’t hold a candle to it!

You give us light You reunite To you we make our vow

Tipsy to say the least, Priscilla wobbled dangerously in her sky-high heels but each time she careened to far to the left, they steered her right again with many giggles and “Oopsy-daisy!”

Gem of Panem Seat of power Strength in peacetime, shield in strife

“Oh, this is my favorite part!” warbled Imogen who couldn’t carry a tune with a gun to her head.

Protect our land With armored hand Our Capitol, our…

Lancer gasped, mid-through the final crescendo. Linked with the others he almost toppled them over at sudden halt.

“My gracious!” he said. “It’s Haymitch Abernathy!”

Up ahead, a man had just appeared round a corner. Ruffled clothes, hair hanging forward, everything about him completely out of place here. He paid them no attention but it was him, without a doubt. The drunken traitor of District 12.

“You heard about him and Effie Trinket, right?” Imogen asked in a loud whisper.

“Of course we heard,” said Coriana. “The whole town knows.”

“Ugh. Just look at him.” Priscilla wrinkled her nose. “At least on television he dressed decently. Disgusting!”

“She’s the one who’s disgusting,” Lancer said and pursed his lips. “He’s district. What did you expect? But a Capitolian really should know better.”

“I would jump off a cliff if it was me!”

“It could never be you, Imogen, the very thought!” said Coriana. “What’s he doing here again? Flaunting himself on our streets after what he did. What they did!”

If Haymitch heard them he didn’t show it and he didn’t change his course. When they remained shoulder to shoulder, gawking at him he sawed right through them like they were a flock of pigeons and they jumped apart with furious cries.

“You should be ashamed of yourself!” Priscilla shouted to his back. “I really think you should!”

Those four weren’t the only ones who questioned what Haymitch was doing in the Capitol. Had there been one positive consequence of him and Effie breaking up it was that he would never have to see this place again.

Well, the joke’s on him.

She’s not back on pills, he told himself as he kicked a squashed ice cream cup far up the street. She promised she wouldn’t go down that road again.

The train ride was hell on earth. Throughout the long hours he failed to quiet his mind, to shake off his worries over Glorias’s words and why he couldn’t get a call through to Effie. Just thinking about their impending reunion made him sick, until he finally caved in to the bottles in his duffel.

Ironically, the one thing that stopped him from drinking himself completely senseless was the paper goose, now hitching a ride in his pocket. It helped him focus.

Walking the deserted avenues, through glitter and serpentines left from some party only reminded him of the first time he came here unannounced.

Little Ms. Hypocrite. She was one to talk about having someone almost die in your arms.

But she’s not back on pills.

The brightness of the sun reflected in the candy buildings, the lush public gardens alive with bird song, the bounty flowerbeds, the gushing fountains. It was like the Capitol mocked him with its splendor. Days like this were Effie’s favourites.

And there her building was. He saw it over the roof tops, windows reflecting bits of the blue sky. With a grimace, Haymitch slowed his steps like he’d run out of gas. Fuck it. He needed a drink. One more or less, what did it matter? He wasn’t going to stay here long anyway.

He was still struggling to close the zipper as he entered her street, her curb. He pulled the straps over his shoulder, about to give the door a knock.

And he just stared. Dumb-founded, for half a minute or more. Gaped at her front door, like the gaggle of fools he passed earlier.

No, no this can’t be right, he thought, unable to take in what his eyes were telling him. It’s gotta be a mistake.

The name plate on Effie’s door was gone. The window shutters were all closed. He turned the handle. It wouldn’t budge. He rang the bell. He knocked, pounded rather. No one opened. The place was completely dead.

But it made no sense! Effie had lived in this apartment almost all her life!

He walked over to the windows, shielded his eyes from the sunlight as he tried to peer through the shutters for any movements inside. 

“Eff?”

He returned to the door, raised his hand for another knock.

“She’s not here,” a voice rung out.

He turned at the sound. On the other side of the road, just across from him, stood an old lady. The same dry twig of a woman he’d seen twice before. At least twice.

“Mr. Abernathy,” she said. The sun glinted off the gem stones in her wrinkled cheeks. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line. “Didn’t think I would ever see you here again.”

He crossed the road.

“The hell’s going on here? Where’s Effie?”

The woman’s pale green eyes pierced his. She had to lift her chin to do it. Just like Sae she barely cleared his shoulders but that’s where the similarities ended. Because this woman’s eyes held none of her warmth or gaiety.

And yet, behind the frost he noticed that same sadness he’d seen there before. Only not for him.

“I warned her”, she said. “I told her from the very beginning not to get involved with someone like you. A man who would give her nothing but heartache. But she never heeded my advice. She didn’t want to listen.”

“Here’s an idea,” Haymitch cut her off. “How ‘bout you quit playing games with me and tell me what you know.”

“I blame myself,” the woman continued, unfazed by the interruption. “I insisted she applied for an escortship. If she became an architect like she first wanted, she wouldn’t be where she is now. Maybe none of us would.”

“Who are you?” Haymitch demanded. “What’s your name?”

“Mrs. Quinlan.”

Quinlan? He had definitely heard that name before. Nothing Games related, at least he didn’t think so. No, Effie had mentioned her at some point. Yeah, at the hospital, after her rescue. She asked if she was still alive. If she was safe.

Mrs. Q.

“You’re Eff’s landlady.”

The woman shook her head.

“Not anymore.”

“Because you kicked her out.”

“She’s beyond my help,” Mrs. Quinlan said. “Euphemia was a good girl, Mr. Abernathy. A good daughter. I have wept blood for her sake but I never gave up on her. Even after the war. She got one last chance to make amends. To build up a life for herself that she could be proud of. And she went and threw it all away the moment she decided to keep your young.”

Haymitch heard the words, loud and clear, but it was like he couldn’t absorb them. Make sense of what she just said.

It was like when he was little and broke his arm, falling down a tree. They all saw it was broken but it didn’t hurt. Not straight away. Like the shock was so great nothing registered.

“’Keep my young?’ he rasped. Heat rose up his throat and face until it burned. “What do you mean ‘keep my young’?”

For the first time, a flicker of surprise registered on Mrs. Quinlan’s face.

“Where is she?” He didn’t think his voice would carry at all. Instead it echoed around the buildings. “If not here, where’s she staying?”

“Go home, Mr Abernathy,” she said. “You have done enough damage as it is.”

“If you don’t want me to wake the entire neighborhood, you tell me where she is!”

Sleepy heads already poked out windows at the commotion. There were murmurs, curious looks thrown their way. Mrs. Quinlan’s lips pressed into the same tight line.

“She moved in with Caesar Flickerman’s daughter. I assume I don’t have to tell you which one.”

xXx

The bearded dragon slumped on her favorite spot in the vivarium - a gnarled old tree root and basked in the warm rays slanting through the windows.

When they first got her she fitted in your pocket. Now they had to use both hands to carry her properly. Sandy yellow and with a look on her face like “you’re all beneath me” you’d think she was the distant cousin of a certain District 12 cat but it was only an illusion.

“Hey, you,” June said and slipped a hand inside the enclosure, knuckles down, fingers outstretched in an inviting gesture. The reptile crawled down the root and over to her. June gave her a soft scratch under the spiky chin and the animal climbed up her palm.

Annabel sat by the secretary desk, her tea long cold and forgotten, but when June passed, she took the time petting their dragon before she returned to her letter. She eyed what she’d just written, critically and gave a deep sigh.

“They won’t even…”

“They will,” said June. She had settled on the couch with the dragon on her lap. The animal closed her eyes under the soft strokes.

It had been a quiet, docile morning with just the occasional car passing by and the gentle scratch of pen against paper.

“The crates should arrive today,” said June and reached for her own cup of tea.

Right on cue the bell rang.

“Speaking of the devil,” said Annabel. She set the pen down and slowly and painfully flexed her fingers.

It rang again, on her way through the hallway.

“Coming!” She pulled her hair back in a hasty pony tail. A shadow moved behind the frosted glass. She took the chain off the door.

And came face to face with the victor of District 12.

”Mr. Abernathy,” she said, eyebrows lifted. “I…”

He didn’t let her finish.

”Effie,” he said. His face was a deep red. “She here?”

“Bel?” June’s voice fluttered in from the living room.

“Is she here?” Haymitch repeated, the fury behind the words only barely contained. “Never mind that. I know she is.”

“She’s here, Mr. Abernathy,” said Annabel.

That’s all he needed. He pushed past her.

“Eff?” he called as he stalked into the living room. June had risen, face white as paper. The dragon’s tail flailed between her cupped hands at the sudden alarm.

Annabel had followed inside and he turned on her again.

“I know all about it,” he spat. She could smell the hard liquor fumes on him. June quickly set the reptile back in the safety of the vivarium. “I know she’s pregnant so don’t try and lie to me!”

“I’m not lying to you.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s resting.”

“Well, go and wake her up!”

“Mr. Abernathy,” she said, voice suddenly firm. “You will not shout in my house.”

“I don’t care! She thought she can just have my kid and never tell me? Who the hell does she think she is!? I wanna talk to her. Give her a piece of my mind!”

“Not until you’ve calmed down!”

“The hell with you! I’ll go find her myself.”

He turned for the door but she was right at his heel.

“Stop it!” June cried when Haymitch shoved Annabel’s hand off of him. The tea cup knocked over and crashed against the floor. The dragon ran frantically around in its cage. “Stop!”

“Get your fucking hands off me!”

“Haymitch, what are you doing!?”

Her cry made them all turn. Flushed and out of breath from the rush and alarm Effie stood in the doorway, a robe carelessly thrown over her nightdress. Her eyes locked on his, for the first time in months and the words choked in his throat. It was like the rest of the room and everyone in it just disappeared. Everyone but Effie.

And through the blood pounding in his head he could make only one coherent thought.

What have I done to her?

xXx

“I’ll be in the back if you need anything,” Annabel said as she swept up the last of the broken cup. A spitting mad June had already retreated to their bedroom, carrying the dragon with her and now Annabel went as well, leaving Haymitch and Effie to talk in private.

Not that Haymitch looked like he’d ever speak again. He hunkered in the armchair with his arms crossed over his chest. Effie sat on the couch but they could just as well be light years apart.

“Who told you?” she asked in a hushed voice.

”Does it matter?” He wasn’t yelling now. Wouldn’t even look at her. He seemed to have aged ten years in the past half hour.

“No,” said Effie. “No, I suppose not.”

She had a blanket draped over herself. Like that was going to hide anything.

“I thought you were on the pill?”

“I was.”

“Time and money you could’ve saved, clearly,” he said through gritted teeth. “And the whole Capitol knows I’m the father?”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I wanted to tell you.”

“So why didn’t you? If you have my kid rolling around in your tummy I deserve to know about it, don’t you think?”

When she didn’t answer straight away his eyes darted to her face. And his insides contracted all over again as cold panic flooded his limbs.

“What, Eff?”

”It’s...” Her voice faltered. “We’re not...”

“We’re what?”

He saw his own anxiety mirrored in her eyes. She placed her hand against her stomach and his throat closed up. Because he knew the truth before she said it.

No! No, I don’t wanna hear it!

”It’s two,” she said. “Haymitch, I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I didn’t…”

But Haymitch had already heaved himself to his feet. He wanted to throw up. He would throw up.

“I can’t do this.”

”Wait,” she said but he didn’t look at her. Couldn’t look at her and her big stomach.

”I need some air.”

xXx

“Good afternoon, Mathilda,” Mr. Bumble smiled when he crossed her door. His elegant, twirled up mustache was dyed a dusk pink today, the same color as the lap dog, freezing at his feet.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Bumble,” Mrs. Quinlan said, hoping he would pick up on the very inappropriate use of her first name.

He didn’t.

“I’d stay and chat,” he said, “but Helga is waiting for us.” And he gave his bouquet of blue roses a little wave. “It’s our anniversary, you know! 25 years!”

“How wonderful. Give her my best,” Mrs. Quinlan said mechanically as he trotted off down the street. If Helga was home or even remembered what day it was, she would eat up her hat.

She dropped the key in to her handbag and crossed the road, mindful of any ice patches hidden under the fresh snow.

The door was locked but that she only expected. So she slipped her hand into her handbag and got out different set of keys. Normally she took pride in not using them but the girl had sounded very off on the phone. Sad.

“Euphemia?” she said as she stepped inside. The flat was dark but she turned the lights on as she went. She knew her way around this apartment, almost as well as her own. “Euphemia, where are you?”

She heard noises from the master bedroom. Retches that led her straight for the adjoined bathroom.

Effie’s nightgown clung to her with sweat. Slumped down on her knees, she clutched the toilet seat as she threw up. Tears and perspiration rolled down her face from the ordeal.

She didn’t hear anyone come in. That way she never saw the complete and utter shock on Mrs. Quinlan’s face. But she quickly composed herself again.

“Euphemia.”

Effie looked up, startled.

“Oh”, she groaned. She was pale as a sheet, her eyes wet and red. “Mrs. Q, now’s… not a good time.”

And she disappeared inside the bowl again as the next wave rolled in.

Mrs. Quinlan didn’t say anything. She just pulled up a stool and seated herself. She gathered Effie’s hair with one hand and held it back from her face until the worst was over.

When Effie grew still, head heavy against her arms, just heaving breaths of both exhaustion and relief Mrs. Quinlan reached for a towel.

“Here,” she said and soaked it under the faucet. “Clean yourself.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Q,” Effie mumbled and dabbed her mouth with it. She felt Mrs. Quinlan’s eyes on her and tried to elude them by wiping the tears off her cheeks. “I am not quite myself today.” 

“Euphemia.”

“Must be something I ate.”

“Euphemia, look at me, please.”

With an enormous effort, Effie lifted her head. She swallowed and swallowed. The color of her face had returned, from barely holding it together.

“Are you with child?”

Those words did it. It was like a dam broke. Effie buried her face against her babysitter’s lap and now they came. All those pent-up tears she hadn’t been able to shed since that awful day with Haymitch on the train station.

Mrs. Quinlan’s face was taut as a string.

”There now,” she murmured and stroked Effie’s hair. ”You will be alright. It’s going to be just fine.”

Effie soaked Mrs. Quinlan’s skirt with her sobs and it was like she was little again.

She’d been four or five and accidentally knocked over a vase. Everything in Mrs. Quinlan’s apartment was either ancient or valuable or both and little Effie stared in horror at the broken pierces. Finally she ran off and hid.

For the next half-hour Mrs. Quinlan had to go from room to room and from closet to closet, peer inside the cupboards and behind every thick curtain, calling her name. When she finally found her in the laundry basket Effie was so terror-struck she burst in to a wail of tears.

But Mrs. Q just scoped her up, pulled a dirty child sock off the side of her dress and carried her into the living room. With her skinny arms linked around Mrs. Q’s neck Effie sniveled and whimpered the entire time, her little body racked with sobs.

Mrs. Q. wrapped her in one of her own shawls that smelled of perfume and to the rhythm of the creaky old rocking chair, she hummed her to sleep with a Capitol lullaby.

She had never felt so safe.

“Why don’t you take a shower, Euphemia,” Mrs. Quinlan said once Effie’s sobs had subsided a little. She patted her hand between her own icy ones. “And then you and I will have a cup of nice, hot tea.”

“Oh, that is awfully sweet, mrs. Q, but I think I rather,” she started to object but Mrs. Quinlan only waved a finger in the air.

“It will do you some good,” she said. “Tea at my place, four o’clock.”

Effie had avoided Mrs. Quinlan’s flat for the past almost two years. She had spent a great deal of her childhood in the company of her landlady when mother and father couldn’t or wouldn’t take their daughter with them to one of their events.

But these days there was only one subject Mrs. Q wanted to discuss when they met and Effie found herself coming up with excuses. Because it didn’t matter how many times she tried to change the subject, Mrs. Q always steered the conversation back on the same sole topic.

Haymitch Abernathy.

Effie never talked about her and Haymitch’s relationship. Not with Mrs. Q or anyone else. But living just across the road, Mrs. Quinlan seemed to know everything anyway.

She didn’t approve. She never liked the gruff and unrefined victor of District 12 and nothing could change her mind.

She just didn’t understand. How could she? No one in the Capitol did.

“How far along are you?” she asked and poured them tea from the plump china pot. Effie tried to breathe through her nose. Just thinking about ingesting something made her queasy.

“Nine weeks.”

“Have you told him yet? Are you sure it’s his?”

“Mrs. Quinlan,” said Effie tiredly. “We’ve been through this. I’m sorry, but it’s private and really no one else’s business.”

“So, I take that as a yes,” she said mildly.

Exhausted, Effie’s eyes wandered longingly to the snow-specked window beyond Mrs. Q.

“He should have taken precautions,” the old woman said. “The situation he puts you in.”

”It wasn’t his fault,” said Effie. ”It just… happened.”

Mrs. Quinlan poured cream into her cup but Effie didn’t touch it. All she really wanted was to lie down.

There were cookies rounded up on the silvery cake stand. The frosting wasn’t like Peeta’s. Not nearly as nice but looking at them only reminded her of those lazy days in District 12 and Haymitch, teasing her for having such a sweet-tooth.

”Drink now,” said Mrs. Quinlan. “Add a little honey. Or would you rather I put some ginger in? It helps with the nausea.”

“No, it’s OK.”

Effie lifted the cup just to humor her. She was about to take a sip when the warm scent curled into her nose. A crease appeared between her eyebrows.

Mrs. Quinlan didn’t like surprises. Her routines had been virtually unchanged for the past decades. She washed her hands with the same kind of rose soap, combed her hair with the ivory comb that had survived two wars and she always drank jasmine tea.

This wasn’t jasmine tea. Effie should know. After all those tea parties at this very table, the flowery aroma was forever ingrained in her memory. She took another tentative sniff of the strange and unfamiliar fragrance.

It had a faint minty quality but not quite like the mint tea in District 12. She doubted she ever had it in the Capitol either. And yet the smell tugged at her, tried to tell her something.

Her eyes flitted to Mrs. Quinlan. The old woman stirred her own cup in slow, precise circles. The silver spoon rasped the bottom of the china. A cup she had yet to touch.

And a wave of dread flushed Effie’s face when the name surfaced.

”It’s pennyroyal.”

Mrs. Quinlan looked her in the eye. Her face was as hard and unyielding as the gems in her cheeks.

”You should never have let him into your bed.”

The beverage scalded Effie’s hands when she pushed back from the table. She stared at Mrs. Quinlan, eyes wide in terror.

”It’s for your own good, Euphemia. Nobody ever needs to know. It will be like it never happened.”

Effie didn’t stay to hear the rest. She fled the room, didn’t bother with her coat just bolted for the door. Her hands shook so badly she couldn’t work the locks and one terrible moment she thought herself trapped.

Footsteps approached or she imagined they did and a shriek escaped her lips. Then the door flew open and she staggered out into the sleet.

Blood pounded her ears as she locked her front door, fled into her bedroom and locked that door as well. She was shaking all over and slumped rather than sat down on the bed, hand clamped over her mouth.

I didn’t drink it. I never drank it.

Her vision was so blurred it took her three efforts to dial the right number. Her hand found her tummy and she tried to draw slow, deep breaths to calm the erratic beating of her heart.

”It’s OK,” she whispered to the unborn baby in her belly. ”It’s OK. You’re OK.”

So many signals just came and went, her hopes faltered with each one. Until,

“What?”

A sob slipped between her lips at the sound of his voice. She couldn’t help it. Her palm remained against her bump that wasn’t even a bump yet. Just a slight swelling beneath her dress. It made her feel stronger.

”Haymitch?” She fought to keep her voice steady. ”Haymitch, it’s me.”

“Ah, there she is,” he said with the nasty edge that sometimes crept into his voice when he drank, especially now under these circumstances. “Long time no princess. What can you want?”

“I’m sorry. I know I should have called you a long time ago.”

“Oh, I remember that voice. Effs Trinket needs a shoulder to cry on, huh? So she goes to good ol’ Haymitch. Course.” She heard him take a swig from a bottle. “It’s too bad mine’re all the way down here, then. Both of ‘em.”

“I can take the train.” Tears threatened to spill over her lashes but she held them back. Didn’t want to break down in to a blubbering mess. ”If I go now I ought to be…”

“Here in a day. Yeah. And I’m supposed to just welcome you with open arms?”

“Haymitch…”

“That’s my name.”

“I really must speak to you. It’s im…”

“What for?” he cut her off. “I’m a dead-end drunk, remember?”

“I’ve never called…”

“No, that’s right. Your words were much fancier.”

A wave of despair rose up within Effie. It was like a physical pain.

“I know you’re angry,” she said. ”This is not easy for me either but…”

“I’m fine, sweetheart. Just fine. Can’t ruin a life that’s already ruined, right? I s’pose you want all your crap back? Yeah, the kids have it. They think you’re gonna come back, you know. ‘When hell freezes over’, am I right? But you know Peeta. I’ll just tell ‘em to send it over straight away so you never have to set your foot here ever again. Great, huh?”

“You left me, Haymitch!” Effie cried and her voice broke. “I didn’t want you to go! I didn’t want it to end!”

“Could’ve fooled me.” He twisted the top of another bottle. “And don’t you worry your pretty head, sweetheart. You’ll get over it. Trust me. Soon you’re gonna find some nice, wholesome guy who does exactly what he’s told. It’ll be all: ‘Yes, Euphemia. No, Euphemia. Whatever you say, Eu…’”

“Don’t call me that!” she cried at the sound of Mrs. Quinlan’s name for her. “Haymitch, please!” She didn’t care that she begged now, hand clutched against her stomach like she could somehow protect it that way. ”Mrs. Q, she… she tried to… I need you! If you care about me at all…”

“Oh, I cared about you,” Haymitch said. “A lot. More than a lot. Should’ve fucking known better. So why don’t you call Plutarch or Octavia or any other of your friends and just leave me alone. Cause I owe you nothing. Nothing at all.”

Tears rolled down Effie’s face and she abandoned all efforts to try and stop them.

“I’m so stupid.”

“Have a wonderful life, Eff. I’m sure you’re gonna be deliriously happy.”

And she was left with just the flat audio tone.

Author’s note: I don’t know who I feel the most sorry for. Haymitch or Effie. How about you? And hayffie twins are on the way!

What did you think of Mathilda Quinlan? I face claim Geraldine Chaplin for her, the way she looked when she played Aurora in “The Orphanage”.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Facebook Domination vs. Self-Determination

We're months removed from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the public outrage of #DeleteFacebook, and new information continues to surface about Facebook's sloppy handling of data and hunger for surveillance.  Last month, we learned about an Orwellian patent that might allow Facebook to track you via mobile microphone.  Though some have cast doubt on the reports, mobile spyware like the now-infamous Alphonso do track mobile devices via sound emitted by TVs.

Yale Privacy Lab has been warning about proximity tracking via mobile sensors and microphones, and Exodus Privacy's excellent scanner will help you find nasty trackers that utilize similar spy methods.  The only way to really dodge Facebook's lidless eye, however, is jumping ship from the social network to a privacy-respecting replacement.

There is no shortage of alternatives, but you won't find surveillance sanctuary in Facebook-owned Instagram or ad-powered, centralized networks like Nextdoor.  Instead, you'll have to jump into the "Fediverse", a constellation of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) replacements.

Mastodon is the fastest-growing of the FOSS social stars, and its links to the rest of the Fediverse are strengthened by the new ActivityPub standard.  In a recent blog post, lead developer Eugen Rochko (@Gargron) sums it up nicely: "The social network that is Mastodon isn't really Mastodon. It's bigger. It's any piece of software that implements ActivityPub. That software can be wildly different in how it looks and what it does! But the social graph - what we call the people and their connections - is the same."

Are we really witnessing the origin of an all-new, all-different social Web?  For deeper insight into the Fediverse, read my short interview with Eugen, below.

What is Mastodon and how is it different from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter?

Mastodon is a decentralized social network that uses standard interoperability protocols and is completely [FOSS]. What this means is that anyone can run a Mastodon server, and the users of those servers can talk to each other. More than that, non-Mastodon servers are also part of this network if they conform to the same protocols. This means that Mastodon is more future-proof than Facebook or Twitter: Even if Mastodon-the-software falls out of fashion, the network can be simply continued by other interoperable software. You don't have to tear out your entire social graph to have all friends migrate to something new if that happens. Furthermore, Mastodon allows self-determination and control. When you run a server, it's yours. Your rules, your community, hosted on your hardware... you don't depend on anybody, definitely not on a [Silicon Valley headquarters]. There are a lot of other differences to Facebook and Twitter too.

Where did Facebook go wrong as far as privacy is concerned?  How can federated social networks do better?

Facebook is a vacuum for private information. It uses dark UX patterns to solicit every detail of your life from you, but also from your friends. It also builds shadow profiles about people even if they don't use the platform, through e.g. the contact books that people let it access, or from social sharing buttons on random websites. It's quite easy NOT to do that. If you don't intend to advertise to people then you don't need to know everything about them. Mastodon lets you broadcast messages to the public and to your friends, but there is no incentive to convince you to reveal more than necessary. The format of Mastodon is a lot closer to Twitter and Instagram than Facebook specifically, but I think that's a detail of decoration. Facebook replaced MySpace, and they were different formats as well. It doesn't have to be the same thing to be an alternative.

What is unique about federated social networks?  Where can they improve upon Facebook and the traditional social networking models?

Federation is key. In my opinion it's one of the most ideal forms of decentralization, and it can be found in many real-world institutions. There is no single point of failure and top-down authority like in a centralized system, communities can spring up by themselves, just like in the old days of the Internet... except now they are interoperable, so content can travel freely between them. And unlike peer-to-peer solutions of decentralization, some issues are avoided, such as having to encounter and moderate all bad content on your own (instead, servers have mods, and your server neighbours can help with reports), or having to be online to receive messages (the server is the one being online), or synchronization between devices.

What can we do about audio, video, and multimedia, to make publishing and sharing of these formats federated and decentralized?

Mastodon allows images and videos up to a certain size limit. The servers cache this content so end-users are not hotlinked to another server, this saves the origin server's bandwidth and protects end-users from leaking their IP address to a different server. Of course, this approach brings challenges when file sizes grow. PeerTube, a federated video sharing platform, takes a different approach by using WebTorrent (BitTorrent over the browser). This does reveal the end-users' IP addresses to other end-users who are watching the video, but bandwidth costs for the origin server are lowered and other servers don't have to download and cache  large files. A very similar approach to that is using IPFS. With IPFS, servers can cache large files (essentially also using a form of the BitTorrent protocol), and end-users can either peer with the IPFS network directly or use a gateway server to view the content.

How has the Facebook "scandal" affected federated social networks so far?

With growth and press attention, so quite positively. Privacy-minded people have been ringing the alarm bells about Facebook for years, but right now is when this idea is entering the mainstream.

Can Mastodon avoid the same pitfalls/errors as Facebook?

I think so, and I wouldn't be here otherwise. We have to be careful and thoughtful about our design decisions, but many of the fundamental differences between the platforms are reassuring.

How does Mastodon stand out, improve upon, or interop with the various social media projects of the past (StatusNet/GNU Social, Diaspora, Friendica, etc.)?

Mastodon begun as an OStatus implementation (this is the protocol that StatusNet/GNU Social implement), but it was quite dated and lacking in features, and OStatus never left the draft stage to become an official standard. So halfway through 2017 we performed an upgrade to the newer ActivityPub, which would, after our implementation, become a W3C-recommended standard. PeerTube, Hubzilla, Friendica and MissKey are some of the other softwares that implement ActivityPub. Support for ActivityPub in GNU Social has been planned, as far as I am aware. Furthermore, people are working on other implementations, such as Kroeg, Rustodon and Funkwhale.

Mastodon differents from GNU Social in having more privacy-oriented features, more moderation tools, a simpler/elegant API for client apps, a real-time streaming API, better content discovery mechanisms, and a more attractive user experience. Friendica and Hubzilla have a quite different user experience to Mastodon. Diaspora is the one big-name project that is completely incompatible with Mastodon because they use their own protocol rather than ActivityPub.

Where do we go from here (standards, interoperability, etc.)?

ActivityPub is already a W3C-recommended standard! And I am proud to see more and more implementations spring up. It's a really generic protocol that can support many different use cases of social networks. Microblogging, photo sharing, event planning, video hosting, it's all possible and beautifully interoperable. Ironically, perhaps ActivityPub is the thing that will truly "connect the world", rather than Facebook who that catchphrase belongs to.

https://boingboing.net/2018/07/18/platform-independence.html

[veronicassadboi]

Why do you like Jeronica? I like them because they look good together x

I would like you to know that I pulled out the laptop for this answer. 

As we are all aware, we haven’t been given a lot to work with so essentially, we all like Jeronica for the “look” of them. Two dark haired beauties, one who always looks some what emotionally pained and the other who is so badass and doesn’t stand for shit. Aesthetically pleasing in the sense that they simply “match” because, even on the side of Barchie who both have the air of “Boy/Girl nextdoor”, Jeronica wears, “I’ve-got-a-darkness-inside-of-me” and always just kicks me in the balls and cripples me. 

I personally can’t pull out dated receipts. I can’t pinpoint dates of episodes and specific scenes belonging to “insert episode on this day” because I’m a mum and wife and don’t have the brain capacity to retain such information but I do pride myself on being ONE (please don’t think I’m trying to talk myself up here) of the first Jeronica shippers to post on AO3. 

#aesthetic aside, Jeronica has a vibe that cannot be copied. Firstly we have J who’s from the wrong side of Riverdale, born and raised slightly disjointed from the rest of the town. Never quite meshing well with everyone else. Best friend is the All American Dream who comes from a good family and lives in a nice neighbourhood, parents who have done well in their own respects who own a successful business with a mum who is a Lawyer yet still holds love for J even though he’s “different”. 

V comes from a rich family who hasn’t been around in a while. Though brought up with the luxuries you just wouldn’t find in Riverdale, who just really wants to make a name for herself. Finds a best friend in B who, like Archie, is the epitome of Riverdale. Born and raised in Riverdale, she’s the opposite to V - Just like J is to A. 

Thought wise, J and V are very similar. They fight for what they believe in - Unlike A who fights for the good of the people (can’t believe I just said that) V and J fight for what they believe in, whether it be right or wrong, while still holding on to that thin thread of “even though it isn’t morally correct, it still stands right in my mind….” and that is something that neither A or B would be able to give either of them. 

Chemistry wise, I know I’ve touched on this a few times in my asks, they truly need someone like each other. A can’t give Veronica the emotional depth that she needs. Please, don’t get me wrong, I love A. He’s our #FaveDumbass with the heart of gold and though he would support anything V says, she doesn’t need that. What she needs is someone to walk alongside her and back what she says, not someone to baby her and try and talk her out of things that may not be 100% morally correct. V doesn’t need a babysitter. She needs someone equally as strong as her. J has been stripped of emotional support (FP, Sweety, I know you love your son but God damn, you lack in some areas…) No one has been there to tell him that he’s doing good or to help project his “voice” so, given the chance, I know he could do that for V. She needs someone without ulterior motives. J couldn’t summons an ulterior motive to save his life. What you see is what you get, plain and simple. Can’t anyone just drop the facade for once around V? I know he would, because our bby boi doesn’t even have one. V has a strength that she would hate being knocked down. B tries to talk her out of it, I don’t actually believe that A knows half of what’s going on in V’s mind but she’s so used to being somewhat lead by her parents that she doesn’t need someone to protect her or baby her she needs someone that can see the logic in her mind. J is a natural born leader (or he’s been forced into it, up to you) but he is slowly trying to pave his own path… He needs someone that he can rely on for strength, (insert B’s constant need of him) he has enough going on without having to be in a relationship that needs constant fluffing. 

Flip it around and we have V’s connection with J. J is currently in a relationship that on top of everything that’s going on in his life, demands a lot of attention. God, can’t we let the boy breathe?! J come across as kind of disinterested in the actual happenings around B (not B’s fault, bad writing…) he’s left to look after himself a lot of the time and maybe he’d like someone who could look after him in some aspects. V is portrayed to be a very generous and giving person and could offer him strength in just being there to lean on. Cannonically, though both tend not to see eye to eye initially, they both hear each other out and see the “correct-ness” of the other’s opinion (Let us mutually fangirl over V buying out Pop’s for the sake of Jughead). There are no lies between them, they tell each other everything straight. Jughead has no qualms in telling V exactly how he feels. So why is Bghead so secretive? The fear of hurting each other. Jeronica harvests no fear, just facts. Like how I said V doesn’t need to be babysat, well, maybe J does? Having not had stable support from anyone in the past (#parenting 101) maybe it would be nice for him to feel at complete ease and not fear losing whatever stability he clutches at straws for. 

Relationship wise, God, I’m not going to pretend they’re shitting out hearts and rainbows. It would be tough. Two very strong personalities shoved into this “It-shouldn’t-be-right-but-fuck-me-if-it-doesn’t-feel-right,” here I am going all Fan-ficcy on you but you can’t tell me that they didn’t at least try to hide what they have. Why would the #RichBitch fall in love with the Serpent? Isn’t that everything you said you wouldn’t do? How could you fall in love with the girl who’s all kinds of levels of too good for you? They’re stolen kisses in the dark and late night phone calls when you know you should be sleeping and he’s out there tomorrow morning leading his Snakes into the fucking pit. It’s laughs about escaping town together and phone sex because she mentioned black lace and God dammit, he loves black lace. It’s ‘Imagine if we just ran away…’ and ‘I wish we could tell everyone...’

And the fights would be fire. Small things, big things… Everything ends up BIG between them. If Serpents did something stupid and J would fight to the death to protect them even if he knows they’re wrong but she would tell him straight, black and white, ‘You’re being fucking stupid, do you even own a brain?’ and he knows she’s right, but fuck, she can’t be right again. No one says sorry at first but when J does, he’s met with a ‘I know,’ and but they fuck in the back of the car anyways because the tension was so thick, he could feel the way she feels in his lap even before he forced the sorry out of him. But she didn’t need the sorry, what she needed was for him to see that he was trying to stick up for the people he loves most even when they’re wrong, and she wants to know that even when she’s wrong, he’ll call her out on it. 

I am aware this is all based on a shit load of “What-Ifs…” but I guess that’s the fun of not shipping a ship that’s cannon. You can build on what you’re given. I know the fandom creates an entire world around Jeronica and that truly is something special. 

[junker-town]

A Texas football coach’s monkey bit a child and started the strangest sports story of the year

The monkey, “Pole Assassin” and Halloween have made everything go wild.

If you’ve spent any kind of time on the internet in the last 24 hours you’ve likely to see some phrases floating around that are utterly mystifying when put together: Monkey bite, special teams coach, and “Pole Assassin.” It’s like a word cloud from a piece of Harry Potter fanfic. Instead it’s one of the most bizarre and confounding sports stories of the year, that keeps getting weirder with every layer of the onion you peel back.

It should be noted that at this point everything in this surreal scenario has been unearthed by internet sleuthing. Without any official statement at this time, everyone is just trying to piece this together.

A trick or treater was bitten by a monkey at the home of Texas Longhorns special teams coach Jeff Banks

This element of the story first came from Tom Campbell, a sports photographer and Houston native first gave us the start of this story.

I'm hearing a repot from a credible source that Texas Longhorns Special Teams Coach Jeff Banks' monkey allegedly attacked and seriously hurt a young Trick-or-Treater last night on Halloween. The monkey's jaws apparently had to be pried off the small child.

— Tom Campbell (@thomasgcampbell) November 1, 2021

This sounds so fantastical it couldn’t be real, which is why everyone started to try and piece together why Banks had a monkey at his home on Halloween, and how it could have bitten a child.

Then, with some digging, people seem to have found the answer — and it came from Banks’ girlfriend.

“Pole Assassin,” and her performance monkey

Danielle Thomas, a former exotic dancer who once appeared on The Jerry Springer Show under the name “Pole Assassin,” uses a pet monkey named “Gia” as part of her act. Thomas calls the monkey her “emotional support animal.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by gia (@monkey_gia)

This weekend Thomas (who often uses the last name Banks on social media) posted on Nextdoor that she was building a haunted house and maze for children on Halloween.

Following the biting incident, Thomas posted a video walking through her backyard showing the lengths any child would have needed to go to in order to get to her monkey, saying she took every precaution to ensure it wouldn’t be around the kids.

While Thomas deleted her Twitter account in the wake of “MonkeyGate,” the video was saved and reposted by those who saw it.

Don’t worry folks I got the #MonkeyGate video pic.twitter.com/TAy6leBqDS

— Christian Sykes (@ctsykes13) November 2, 2021

Thomas shows that the monkey was far away from her planned maze route, essentially adding that a child getting bitten happened because of their own fault.

“How can she viciously bite someone if they don’t stick their hand in there where it don’t belong? This is her home, and her home only. It’s already clear as day on the gate “Don’t touch,” nobody’s allowed back here without my permission.”

Neither Banks, nor the Longhorns have commented on the monkey biting a child. Thomas has since deleted her social media accounts as people try to learn everything they can about Gia, the biting, and how this all fits together.

Just a constant reminder that when sports want to get weird, only college football has the power to give us something like this.

[onestowatch]

contradash Releases Video for ‘hi neighbor’ and Debut EP ‘all-star’ [Premiere]

California singer-rapper contradash is back with “hi neighbor,” the latest from the release of his debut EP, all-star. While the video opens with a mundane morning of fetching the newspaper, contradash is no typical boy next door.

It’s been a wild year for the artist, born Chase Blohm. Ever since releasing “blocked” at the beginning of 2020, the artist has been churning out genre bending songs, with each release showcasing a different dimension of his multifaceted talent.

On “hi neighbor,” contradash essentially resurrects the age of beaded bracelets and handwritten notes, revisiting a time when bands still practiced in garages and peeking through the blinds took precedence over gossiping on Nextdoor as a means of spying on the neighbors. The song feels like a long drawn-out eye roll, bemoaning the highs and lows of getting caught up in someone that’s sending mixed signals. But to have a guy like him across the street means being endlessly frustrated while watching contradash do pushups in the front yard.

The warm familiarity the visuals bring highlights the penchant he has for this particular era of music, a time when getting your friends together for band practice in hopes of one day securing a slot to open the Ernie Ball Stage on Vans Warped Tour was more tangible than an illusory fever dream.

Here, as with almost every other release, contradash is a high-speed hand mixer plunged into a bowl full of nods to the chart toppers of the late 2000s, emerging with a wild concoction of energy and nonchalance only a digitally overstimulated 22-year-old could possess.

We caught up with contradash on his wide variety of influences, the themes behind all-star, and what his goals are for 2021.

Ones to Watch: How did "hi neighbor" come together?

contradash: I liked the idea of being neighbors with an ex because I was fascinated with how something that once made a relationship great and convenient, (being neighbors) is now making a breakup horrible, and hard to get away from.

What inspired the music video? Did you happen to take any inspiration from Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me?”

The music video focuses more on the post-separation instances that would make things awkward. Smaller instances like taking out the trash and getting the mail become filled with all these unsettling emotions you’d never really feel otherwise. We definitely should have thrown a Taylor reference in there though, that would have been sick."

You used to do graphic design before music, how has that influenced your vision as an artist?

Oddly enough, graphics has kind of clouded my ability to see my own project visually. Because I like everything, I get option paralysis on what's my favorite, vs what fits the project best. It’s easiest to see what fits best from where you’re standing. Same reason we have mirrors if that makes any sense.

Living in a sort of 7th grade mentality and early 2000s nostalgia have shaped a lot of your creativity. How do you push your sound forward and make it fresh?

I think it's something you achieve by not actively trying to achieve it. It's best to let stuff feel like it writes itself, and if the end result is something fresh, you’ll know instantly. I personally try to keep my mind on neutral when writing & recording to avoid overthinking it.

You like to bait your audience by provoking them with little absurdities, like drumming with some bananas in “white lie” or including shots of you doing pushups in your music videos. What do you find fans reacting to most?

I usually act ridiculous out of pure fun and it makes the final cut. It also makes set go by faster for the people working. The goal is to always document real stuff, instead of creating gimmicky moments. As far as reactions go, the internet reacts to the hair above everything. It's always the unintentional things that draw attention.

If the all-star EP is a well-rounded team, which player would “hi neighbor” be?

First Baseman for sure.

2020 has put you in a position to continue working on recording music instead of touring the world. Has it inspired any plans for 2021?

2021 plans are closer to what 2020 maybe should have been. I've had so much time to perfect all aspects of this, and I really hope it shines through.

If there’s one thing you want people to know you for, what would it be?

Without taking myself too seriously, hopefully people recognize how insane the work ethic over here is. I literally write, record, direct, shoot, design, edit & color every piece of content you see. I don’t desire to be known for anything other than the music, my MW2 accuracy, and my insane desire for a Britney collab.

[copperbadge]

My parents signed me up for Nextdoor, which is like some kind of community-based mini facebook, and I am signed up in their neighborhood, which is (as we have established) The Boondocks.

I don’t mind belonging to their Nextdoor, it means that I will be kept abreast of local news, but also the local news is hilarious. 

The latest messages concern a HEATED DISCUSSION about hoof trimming because someone posted asking if anyone knows a farrier who will trim miniature horse hooves, which apparently most farriers have some kind of BASELESS PREJUDICE against according to this poster. Battle lines are quickly being drawn between the various camps including:

Miniature horses don’t need hoof maintenance the way regular horses do

Miniature horses ABSOLUTELY need hoof maintenance you monsters

Farriers who won’t do miniature horse hooves ain’t shit

Farriers who won’t do miniature horse hooves have their reasons

Miniature horses are some bullshit

Everybody shut up about miniature horses

I Have A Miniature Horse For Sale

I can’t wait to see who wins. I suspect it will be me. 

[our-talkwithstranger-blog]

Use Talkwithstranger to find friends, meet new people and strangers

Talk to strangers and find friends at talkwithstranger.com via text chatting. Talkwithstranger is an amazing chat website where you can find friends from 220+ countries, there are numerous chat rooms for you to choose from free chat rooms. At TWS users can find friends by entering chatrooms to find chat partners and chat with them. TWS brings you these services and an active community of users absolutely free of cost. Additionally, there are no sign up hassles or registration requirements in order for you to find friends. It is fast, efficient and a brilliant platform to find friends online.

There's no lonelier feeling than scrolling through everyone's group pics on Instagram while realizing you don't have a girl gang of your own. Not having a lot of friendsis often painted as a sign that *you're* the problem, but that's not true. Sometimes, it's just because life keeps changing. Maybe you moved. Maybe your good friendsmoved away or disappeared into relationships—or maybe both of those things happened at once. Or perhaps you cut out some toxic friendships (good for you!).

There are a million reasons to let go of some friendships and pursue new ones, but sometimes, the IRL options can feel sparse. You might feel "eh" about your coworkers, or too shy to approach someone in your dance class. Thankfully, there are so many, low stakes ways for you to connect with new people online.

Chat with friends - Make new friends via text chat

Young boys and girls may want to enter free teen chat rooms to find age mates to chat with and make new friends. If you are an adult and are looking for adult friends you can head onto the free random chat rooms. There are free singles chat online, chat with girls and lesbian chat rooms for you to find friends there. You will find gay chat rooms as well as chat roulette alternative chat rooms to find friends and meet new people online. Live chat rooms also available to join to make new friends online and meet new people or you can even head to anonymous chat to keep your identity secret. One of the many perks offered by TWS is that you can send pictures and videos to your friends.

If you've moved to a new neighborhood and findit hard to connect with new people (a definite suburb problem), Nextdoor lets you know everything that's happening nearby—from yard sales to babysitting gigs. It's not as straightforward as "Hey, I'm looking for friends!"but in a way, it can feel like a more natural integration into your community.

Find Friends App

In Today's world, finding good friends is a difficult task. When it comes to friends, you need to be choosy. Friends are a blessing. They are always with you in your hard times and they support you in your thick and thins. If you have a good friend, you are the luckiest person on earth.

Don't be friends with bad people who pretend to be your friends from inside but are your real enemies from inside. These people can harm you so always choose good friends that are sincere with you and enjoy a good company.

How To Make Friends Online?

People always face difficulty in finding friends. There are many ways to find friends, you can find them through Facebook, chatting apps. The best way to find friends and to have chat with them is Talk With Stranger website or by using the Talk To Stranger app.

If you want to find more friends, you need to create a good profile. Use exciting features like video chat and group chat to find new strangers and make them friends.

There is an option of location sharing in which you turn on the GPS and all the people who are near you get connected with you. If you don't want to be followed, hide your location.

You can also use other friendship apps to find friends online.

Apps Used For Finding Friends

Many apps are there on the internet that are used by millions of people to find new friends, date or flirt. Some of them are:

Meetup

Meetup is a great place to look for new friends. Other apps help you meet a small number of friends, while meetup is great for joining a large community. Find popular groups that are doing things that you have an interest in. Plan your events, manage your groups.

Get the app now-download on the App Store or Get it on Google Play. Stay connected to your community by using Meetup App.

Atleto

Atleto is an App used by Athletes who are looking to make new friends. Create a new circle of athletes' friends and enjoy playing games with them. Go for running or having fun with mates. Choose between the sports happening in your area and request your friends to join.

Features

Find

See nearby people and request to join

Host

Choose different sports

Build

Connect and grow your sports network

Rate

Use the review system to rate

Find My Friends App

This app allows you to find friends easily using portable devices like iPhone and iPad. Install the app on your phone and share your location. All the nearby people will connect with you and you can choose from them with whom you want to chat. You can also find friends by using their contacts, and email addresses.

Find My Friends lets you set up location-based alerts that notify you about your friends. This app supports all languages including English, Arabic, German, French, Australian English and many more….

Are you looking for new friends? Are you searching for 'Find My Friends App' on Android? If yes, then you are searching for it right. Find My Friends app is now available on Android also. Now Android users can also experience the fun and entertainment like iPhone users.

This app is the best for finding new friends.

Features

Locating friends and family is made easy

Location-based alerts

Free

Parental Control

Use the phone number or email to find friends

Video chat with friends

I bet you must have heard about Omegle chat and Omegle chat alternatives, omegle.randomvideochatting.com is an excellent alternative that lets you have a 1 on 1 cam chat with people to find friends or meet new people. It helps you connect with people who may share your interests or find friends to chat about new topics. As an adult friend finder you can also head over to omegle random video chatting in order to chat with adults through a webcam. Video chatting is also super fun way to meet new people, find new friends and can engage in adult conversations over the webcam. A great way to meet people that allows you to enjoy a video conversation with a stranger.

Best Benefits of Top Online Chat Rooms & Talking To Strangers

TalkwithStranger is the safest and fastest way to meet and chat with random people online! It is the best free chatting website on the internet.

Chat, send text messages, send voice messages, pictures, videos, animated gifs (pictures) and winks. We know a picture is worth of 1000 words, Feel free to express your emotions and feelings with other users. Contact thousands of singles right now completely free with our random text chat with random people online on this free chat line!

Easier access to like-minded people: Birds of a feather flock together, and they are happier that way too. You might feel alone in the real world situations and there are hardly any people who understand you but instead of being frustrated you now have a whole new world of opportunities to find your flock. People that you belong to. Chat forums provides you access to hundreds of people.

Allows time to reflect: As social media is a written medium you can actually think before you type hence allowing you to reflect on your opinion, It makes your comeback more sensible and more likely to be takes seriously. Chat sites on the internet are increasing to help people beat loneliness.

Social equality among shy and loud people: Anonymity on the web allows otherwise shy people to voice their opinions. Also unlike daily life situations where loud people get the limelight, everybody gets an equal opportunity to express themselves.

Larger outreach: Though speech is a powerful medium the written word has its own value, it reaches more audience and it gets documented so I can be shared to get your ideas across. It also provides you time and space to understand others opinions and ideas better. If you are a small community you can share your traditions and culture over the internet to make it more mainstream. Plus your dating scene is not limited to your town anymore. Get international and find the cupids arrow through your heart.

Our free online chat rooms community service is open for everyone. You can have clean chat, free chat on our website. teen chat and much more. If you were looking fore best free online dating sites you are at the best chat site. Start your free chat now today.

Everything gets documented: You got to be careful on the internet as whatever you post will stay there and come back lashing at you at any point in time. So it is very important to be cautious about what you share on a personal and public level. Never put your address or your children’s school address over the net. Don’t ever post or share pictures that might hurt your reputation in the future.

Broadens your horizon: Internet has brought the whole world on a single platform, in an international chat room or a social media profile you can get gazillions of ideas of ideas about any and everything. Want a makeover there are hundreds of tutorials and self taught artist available, you want to redesign your house get help from thousands of pictures posted online.

Enjoy Free Voice Calls & Voice Chat with our Voice Chatrooms with Strangers If you love doing voice calls with random strangers on the internet and like to talk to people on voice calls, then our free voice chat will let you speak with strangers in real time. You can chat with new people and make new friends in our free audio chat rooms with strangers. Voice calls are much more fun then our traditional text chat. Try it you will love speaking with other strangers and hear their voices.

Real People & No Bots! Our chat site is the best Omegle Random Chat Rooms Alternative & Random Chat Roulette Alternative out there. We work very hard to keep bots away from our site. We make sure that you always get connected with real people.

We have always online users from over 220+ countries world wide including UK, USA, Europe, Asia, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada and much more.

Improves health: Okay you might roll your eyes at this one, but really it has been proven people who have a good relationship with their neighbors’ stays safe from heart attacks. Talking to people in a bus or a train can make your journey interesting; anyone who loves to talk on a commute to random strangers can vouch for it. Having many friends can have positive impact on your health and overall well being.

Free mobile chat website is compatible with all devices and browsers, including Android, iOS, tablets. You can chat on mobile smoothly.

Meet with people from all ages, genders and countries , young, adults, teens, kids, boys, girls, males, females. Talk to strangers online. You can also do free video chat with strangers on our partner sites.

Our new TWS Chat & TWS Chatting apps allow you to talk to multiple people in a group chat. You can send pictures, voice messages and files to other strangers in the chat room. To chat with strangers and meet multiple people in international chat rooms. You can also do free chatting global TWS Chatting on our partner sites.

Free Chat Avenue Without Registration Instant Live Chat. Stop waiting for other people to respond back. All our users are as excited to freely chat anonymously with strangers in chatrooms. as you are.

Join our Free Online ChatRooms community to talk to real people online and meet strangers from all over the world. Chat with woman and females online, meet them in random chat, omegle chat, free chat rooms, text chat, or chat roulette. If you were finding free chat rooms no registration ,free chat room , chat to strangers, chat alternative, chat online, chat rooms without registration,chatstep or just want to talk to strangers. This is the most popular chat site on the planet.

New Online Users on our website increase everyday, so you will always meet new people no matter how many times you use our chat site. If you are looking for a girl friend or boyfriend online to chat with. Lot of our people want to talk, gossip, chatter, speak, converse, engage in conversation, tittle-tattle, prattle (on), jabber. They all have amazing personalities and we can assure you that you will find someone best to talk to.

Strangers love to chat with other strangers on our chat site. Stranger chat is one of the most exciting things to make new friends and meet new people online. Our free chatrooms are available 24/7 for all ages of people to chat with other random people online, meet new strangers, chat with girls, chat with boys, chat with gays, chat with lesbians, chat with kids, chat with lonely people. Free chat sites have many features for anonymous chat, talk to strangers, chat with strangers, talk to random people online for free.

Our latest new chatrooms for 2019 include, text strangers, fun chat, flirt chat free chat , latin chat and many more. If you ever wanted to remain anonymous and maintain your anonymoity in any online internet chatroom, our random chat, world chat and anonymous chat, are for you to do your free chat online anonymously & randomly.

Regional, Local & International Chatrooms

If you are from a specific country, and are finding talking partners from a different country or from your own local country or city, we have international & local chatrooms for you. Below is a list of top ones.

If you are american, and want to talk to american people, american girls, american boys, Join our American chatroom.

If you are indian, and want to talk to indian people, indian girls, indian boys, Join our indian chatroom.

If you are british, and want to talk to british people, british girls, british boys, Join our british chatroom.

Disclaimer: TalkWithStranger is not affiliated with Find Friends (brand/company/website) in anyway.Strict Chat Rules of TWS Chat services

Please read the following rules before using the TWS chat services or before joining any chat rooms. Any violation of these chat rules will lead to your account being banned from Chat.

Things to Consider

Be kind and polite in our chatrooms

Respect other humans and users.

Include everyone when using public chat rooms.

Listen to the moderation team and follow their guidelines

No bullying, no sexism, no racism, no homophobia or other hate-based chat. We take strict action against those who spread hate.

Do not spam words, bad words, unsuitable words or use all-caps

Do not use any adult or bad words, pictures or NO sexually suggestive content. 18+ and mature content is strictly prohibited on all products of TWS. This is a family friendly chat website.

No spoilers to a game, TV show or film

Don’t argue with people over chat — especially the moderators

Don't fight or disrespect with other strangers, this site is to meet new people & make new friends.

Use the language(s) spoken by the broadcaster (so they can reply to what you are saying and other people in chat can understand the conversation)

No advertising or self-promotion.

Article Source: Text strangers app

[shirlleycoyle]

How Ring Transmits Fear to American Suburbs

This is the third of a three-part series, where we’ll explore how Ring transformed from start-up pitch to the technology powering Amazon's privatized surveillance network throughout the United States.

On Halloween 2017, Ring’s servers crashed en masse. The Ring app was nonfunctional. Why? Millions of trick-or-treaters overwhelmed Ring’s servers. Children dressed as ghouls and superheros executed an accidental denial-of-service attack.

Kids are central in Ring’s marketing strategy, and the company even bragged about how many children they surveilled on Halloween this year.

When the company once known as DoorBot relaunched as Ring in 2014, its marketing strategy promptly changed. The convenient “smart home” doorbell butler was gone, reborn as Ring, a home-security product that doesn’t simply sell fear, but sells the idea that the nuclear, suburban family is a delicate, precious thing which needs protection from a hostile world.

In Ring’s advertisements and commercials—which are spread across HGTV, Fox News, podcasts, and social media alike—the company tells the public that it isn’t watching their families, but watching over them. Ring wants customers to think it's the protective father, but not Big Brother.

Although Ring is telling families that they need protection from unsafe neighborhoods, the company is also radically changing what a typical neighborhood is like. Ring has quietly partnered with over 600 police departments around the country and promotes Neighbors, its own neighborhood watch app, where users are supposed to report “suspicious” people.

Ring has also heavily pursued city discount programs and private alliances with neighborhood watch groups. When cities provide free or discounted Ring cameras, they sometimes create camera registries, and police sometimes order people to aim Ring cameras at their neighbors, or only give cameras to people surveilled by neighborhood watches.

We don’t have any substantial proof that towns become safer when Ring enters the picture. But when Ring cameras enter a town, it’s easy for cities to equate surveillance with being a good neighbor.

Inside Ring’s Marketing World

Ring’s marketing materials on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are a strange mix of installation instruction videos, testaments to how Ring supposedly reduces crime, and family moments as captured through surveillance cameras. It’s like a combination of America’s Funniest Home Videos, Ellen, and Cops.

In these videos, high schoolers leave for school and say goodbye to their parents. Small children in costumes talk to their parents through the camera intercom. A family plays in the front yard, unknowingly activating the motion-detection feature on the doorbell camera.

Image: Obtained via public record request from Commerce, CA

Ring dedicated a blog post to a video showing a 19-year-old woman leaving for a date. Her dad demanded to interview her date before allowing her to leave the house. The dad made the man repeat, several times, that he would return his adult daughter before her 10:30 p.m. curfew.

These videos sell old-fashioned notions, depicting the typical customer as a nuclear American family with a patriarchal father figure supervising women and children who are unable to protect themselves.

This ethos extends to the influencers that Ring has chosen to sponsor its cameras:. At least a dozen popular Instagram accounts , almost exclusively run by white women, have promoted Ring products, according to Ring’s tagged posts on the platform. They all appear to be mom lifestyle bloggers who favor a Charleston aesthetic of white houses, linen clothes, and Etsy signs that say things like “Hello” or “No Soliciting.”

View this post on Instagram

When you’re paranoid like I am & think every time the doorbell rings it’s a crazy person on the other side (who else pretends like they’re not home & hides when the doorbell rings 😂) you invest in security for peace of mind. Y’all know I love my security cameras so we recently got the @ring so now I know who is coming & going and that makes this Mom feel so much safer! Check out my IG stories for details ❤️ • I just wish I had it a few months ago when my door was shot with silly string 🤷🏼‍♀️ 📷: @chelsearoc

A post shared by Ashley McClellan Houston (@nashvillewifestyles) on Jun 7, 2018 at 7:25am PDT

Ring also has a section of its website called RingTV dedicated to sharing videos hand-picked by the company. RingTV’s Fun & Convenience tab is dedicated to videos like "Goldendoodle Puppy Uses Ring Doorbell."

But aside from all the wholesome family videos and cute puppies, the company also uses the RingTV website to try and prove that its cameras prevent crime.

The Crime Prevention tab shows videos depicting people who "stop crime in its tracks" or catch "strangers in the act." Some of the videos appear to show people apparently considering stealing a package, but not doing so after seeing a Ring camera.

However, it’s unclear how commonplace any of these success stories are. Millions of people own Ring cameras, and the Crime Prevention tab hosts nearly 50 videos.

Image: Screenshot from RingTV

The Neighbors App, and the Racial Politics of Suburbia

Suburban life is at the center of Ring’s marketing materials, and almost all footage that the company shares is captured at suburban homes. This focus says a lot about what Ring is selling, and to whom: Historically, American notions of the suburban, nuclear family have been built upon the exclusion of people of color.

After World War II, white families fled from urban centers and resettled in homogeneous suburban regions. Redlining practices excluded people of color from getting loans and mortgage payments that would allow them to move into the same areas.

Additionally, as Vanderbilt University historian Sarah Igo writes in her book The Known Citizen, Americans associated the sanctity of the suburban home with the right to privacy. Suburbia was meant to be not only a destination of white flight, but a refuge.

Neighbors, Ring’s neighborhood watch app, efficiently encapsulates the mixed politics of privacy within the home and racial exclusion.

The Neighbors app, in its most basic function, allows people to upload footage from Ring products or other security cameras for other users to see. A post can be sorted into one of five categories: crime, safety, suspicious, stranger, unknown visitor, or lost pet. The Neighbors feed consists of these user-submitted posts and bite-sized alerts posted by Ring about possible dangers around town.

The app was launched in May 2018, one month after Amazon finalized the acquisition of Ring. (It wasn’t the company’s first experiment with mobilizing the politics of neighborhood watches to sell their products. In 2017, Ring offered free swag and discounted Ring products to neighborhood watch groups that promoted Ring and agreed to testify against their neighbors in court, if necessary.)

The Neighbors app has since developed a culture that is completely obsessed with crime and the self-policing of neighborhoods, and users often resort to racial profiling. Similar problems exist on the crime-reporting app Citizen and the neighborhood hub app NextDoor. On Neighbors, all posts are dedicated to crime, and three out of the five possible post categories deal with suspicious, strange, or unknown people. These options implicitly encourage people to post about people they don’t trust. In practice, this lack of trust is often racist.

The Aesthetic of Fear on Neighbors

The Neighbors app empowers people to not just watch their neighborhood, but to organize as watchers. Ring markets Neighbors as a “digital neighborhood watch,” which is an accurate description. It encourages people to think about who belongs and who is an outsider. In this way, Neighbors is not just a digital neighborhood watch. It’s a digital gated community.

“So much of it is this shared sense of the people who happen to be on that [app], or who we assume are neighbors like yourself, and watching and policing the dangers in your neighborhood,” Igo told Motherboard. “[Neighbors] also will undoubtedly reinforce some sense of who belongs here and who doesn't.”

When people take pictures or videos, they determine who and what is worthy of attention. But when people use security cameras specifically, they also determine who is suspicious and who does not belong.

Security cameras carry an aesthetic of suspicion and fear. Footage is often grainy, black and white, or green-tinted due to night vision filtering—but these aren’t inherently “sketchy” traits. Since security footage is usually shared in the context of crime on local news, all security footage is marred with the appearance of suspicion. Local news tends to over-represent crimes committed by people of color, meaning people of color captured on security cameras are at an especially high risk of appearing to be suspicious.

As more people buy cheap home security systems, the amount of security footage is proliferating. This means that more people appear suspicious than ever before. Even if a person has done nothing wrong, even if they have the wrong address or if they’re dropping off a package, they will appear suspicious.

Neighbors, and apps like it, have empowered people to publicly share footage that they consider unsettling, and people who they consider to be out of place, at a scale that we’ve never seen before.

Individual Decision With Group Implications

There’s a crucial, unstated aspect of owning a Ring camera: You aren’t just making the decision to surveil your own property and visitors when you buy one. You make a decision on behalf of everyone around you. If someone walks by your house, lives next door, or delivers packages to your home, they will be recorded and surveilled. They don’t get a choice. Buying even one Ring camera is a fundamentally communal decision.

Andrew Hager, who was a delivery-person for a meal-prep company in the Portland suburbs, said that he noticed all the “fancy houses” had Ring cameras, especially around Beaverton, OR. (The Beaverton Police Department has partnered with Ring, per documents obtained by Motherboard.)

For a while, he didn’t realize that Ring doorbells were actually cameras.

“It might've changed how I acted if I knew that there were cameras,” Hager said. “I was always professional, but I would’ve made sure I was not picking my nose or something.”

Hager added, more seriously, that he would not have been “blatantly checking the house out” if he knew he was being recorded.

“I feel like if people were watching me, they would've thought, ‘Oh, is this guy casing the joint out or something?’” Hager said. “Because you could totally think I was like, ‘Oh how much square footage is in here. I wonder how much they pay for this place.’ Before the door opens, I’m always looking around.”

Hager’s fear is justified. On the Neighbors app, users frequently post videos of people looking at their homes, taking pictures of their homes, or lingering around their homes. The captains often speculate as to whether the person is planning a robbery, although they just as well could have been at the wrong address or admiring the house.

“Making sure that packages are okay seems like a pretty common sense goal,” Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the anti-surveillance advocacy group the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and member of the Immigrant Leaders Council of the New York Immigration Coalition, said. “But the problem is that it comes at the price of recording these workers who are delivering them. It's just part of this surveillance web on the job that's depriving workers of autonomy and privacy, and can really have an emotionally toxic effect over the long term.”

The New Neighborhood of Ring Cameras

Ring has two aims that work in tandem. On one hand, it wants to become embedded in the process of policing. But it also wants to build relationships with neighborhood watches, and to have its cameras to become a feature of neighborhoods.

Ring doesn’t only partner with police departments. The company also provides discounts to local neighborhood watches and homeowners associations. According to emails obtained from Olathe, KS using a freedom of information request, all community leaders need to do is reach out to Ring.

"We would ask that a community leader (for instance head of HOA or neighborhood watch president) go to [redacted] to begin the process,” a Ring representative told a police officer who asked about local subsidy programs. “The community programs teams at Ring will work with them to create a limited time, zip code specific discount zone."

Ring also provides city-level discounts, if the city agrees to pay up.

Dozens of cities have Ring discount programs, which involve cities and towns paying Ring up to $100,000 in taxpayer money in order to subsidize Ring camera purchases for their residents. Ring will match every dollar committed by a city per the terms of these discount programs. This means that for every $100 residents save when buying a Ring product, the city pays $50 and Ring pays $50.

These city-level discounts have been happening since 2016, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.

By funding these discount programs, cities conflate surveillance and citizenship. For instance, West Hollywood, CA distributed flyers advertising its Ring subsidy program at voter registration events, according to documents obtained by Motherboard. West Hollywood also sold subsidized Ring products “exclusively” to residents in areas moderated by neighborhood watches. Everyone who bought a discounted camera was added to a registry list with their name and address.

West Hollywood isn’t alone. Camera-purchase registries—which Motherboard obtained from Redondo Beach, CA, West Hollywood, CA, and Green Bay, WI—included the names of purchasers and the police patrol areas in which they live.

Image: “RE__Request_for_shapefile_assistance.pdf” from West Hollywood, CA.

Documents obtained by Motherboard also show that several cities will loan or sell discounted cameras Ring cameras to residents. In one camera “loan” program in Green Bay, WI, police technically owned all footage generated on all cameras given to residents, per contract documents residents had to sign.

Police from Redondo Beach, CA even used the pretense of camera registries to determine who should get a discount and who shouldn’t, according to a city council meeting memo obtained by Motherboard. Police said that they inspected the facades of homes of each applicant, and looked for who had the most “optimal viewpoints that could assist with criminal investigations.”

In a slide presentation obtained by Motherboard, Redondo Beach police said that applicants who offered to surveil their neighbors would get a heavier discount than those who only offered to surveil their own property.

Image: Screenshot from Secure Your Castle slide presentation from Redondo Beach, CA obtained by Motherboard.

Ring doesn’t officially endorse cities requiring people to go on a camera registry in order to obtain free or discounted cameras.

“Ring won't subsidize devices to cities to be used for camera registration programs,” a Ring lawyer told city officials in Peoria, IL, who asked about creating a camera registry program. “If you cannot agree to that, then we cannot do the program.”

“This is getting ridiculous,” the Peoria lawyer said to a Peoria City Manager, after forwarding the email thread to him.

But cities can make camera registries without Ring’s permission. The Peoria Police Department unveiled a surveillance camera registry program two weeks before these emails were sent.

“As a policy, Ring does not support any subsidy match program that requires recipients to subscribe to a recording plan or share footage as a condition for receiving a subsidized device,” a Ring spokesperson said in an email. “We actively work with these groups to ensure this is reflected in their programs."

The Fanatic Culture of Ring Stans

People decide to buy Ring cameras for lots of different reasons. Ring customer Bryan Herbert told Motherboard that Ring makes his life easier.

“I’m disabled and tend to walk slow,” Herbert said via Twitter DM. “It’s nice being able to speak to people at the door and let them know it’s going to take me a minute to get there.”

But one thing connects all Ring camera owners: a sense of community.

Digital community is a crucial tenant of Ring ownership. There’s Neighbors, where geographic neighbors connect with one another through Ring’s platform. But there’s also Facebook and Reddit, where user-moderated, fanatic communities for Ring product owners have flourished.

In these groups, people are implicitly understood to have accepted the privacy tradeoffs that come with owning the cameras, and the proliferation of police partnerships. The resulting culture is a combination of a do-it-yourself machismo and intense product loyalty.

The most noteworthy examples are r/Ring, the Ring-focused subreddit, and Ring Doorbell Users Group, the Facebook group for Ring owners. These online communities aren’t primarily focused on sharing “success stories,” or sharing so-called sketchy footage on Ring cameras. Users mostly troubleshoot technical problems and answer one another’s questions. Often, people who speak too negatively about Ring products are disparaged, even when they face frustrating technical problems with no obvious solution.

The admins of the Facebook group often advocate on behalf of Ring. In one post, the Facebook group admin screenshotted and shared a post, which began by complaining about the quality of Ring cameras.

“Don’t get me wrong,” the group admin wrote, “I’m sorry that [name redacted] is having issues and feels he must so eloquently announce to everyone that he is GIVING UP.”

The admin suggested solutions to fixing Ring products that were often more labor-intensive or expensive than setting up the device itself.

The culture on r/Ring is pretty similarly to the culture in the Ring Doorbell Users Group on Facebook. Dan Sullivan, one of the moderators of r/Ring, said in a phone call that he’s been a subreddit moderator for about four years, around the time that DoorBot became Ring.

“I’ve been leading that disaster for a while,” Sullivan said. “It was really an echo chamber when I came across it… There were people who loved it, people who hated it, and there was no one to talk to about it. It’s still like that now.”

Sullivan said that he tried to engage with Ring’s social media team and get them to provide help. Ring tried, but it’s mostly stopped engaging.

“Ring used to participate, but then they stopped because people were attacking the employees,” Sullivan said.

How Does It Feel to Be Watched?

Among the many Ring users that Motherboard spoke with for this article, none expressed privacy concerns, or misgivings about having a camera in and around one’s home.

Sullivan, the r/Ring moderator, said that if people are worried about their privacy, they just shouldn’t get a camera. It’s like Facebook, he said. If you don't like Facebook, just get rid of Facebook.

“I don't have it inside of my house for a reason, but I don't really care who sees what goes on on the outside,” Sullivan said. “You could make a list on why you shouldn't have a camera. Obviously these [videos] are going somewhere, being sent to a server somewhere. But I don't have anything to hide. I’m not a criminal, there's no risky things going on at my house. So I’m not worried about it.”

Sullivan added that there are benefits and drawbacks to every product. For him, the benefit of catching a criminal on camera outweighs the risk of relying on a private company to catch them.

Several Ring camera owners told Motherboard that they, in part, chose Ring because they wanted cameras that weren’t made in China, citing security concerns. Neither of them were concerned about how camera footage and customer data is used.

Why We Watch Ourselves

There’s one unavoidable fact about Ring: people are choosing to use this product. They’re choosing to put a camera in their homes. They’re choosing not only to watch other people, but watch themselves.

Self-surveillance isn’t a Ring-specific phenomenon. The core of self-surveillance has to do with how we understand privacy.

Sarah Igo, the historian, says that “privacy” deals with the threshold between where the individual person ends, and a collective society begins. As a result, privacy concerns are often invoked in situations where people are scared, apprehensive, or uncomfortable about changes happening in their society—technological, social, or otherwise.

As explained by Igo, after World War II, when white people fled to the suburbs, a combination of academic scholarship and popular opinion strengthened the idea that freedom, especially freedom from authoritarianism and fascim, can be found in the right to private property, space, and land.

The American home, in the face of these fears, became a place of safety and tradition. It was a place for families where a patriarchal figure protected his wife and children.

Americans, as Igo describes it, often fear and mistrust objects that mediate between the private home and the outside world. Many people in the early twentieth century viewed the telephone as an unwelcome intruder in the home. Fear of wiretapping was widespread throughout the century. The doorbell, for many, was no exception. Igo writes that people viewed the doorbell as something that empowered the outside world to penetrate and intrude on “domestic tranquility.”

Interestingly, Ring customers believe that the doorbell camera protects the home. It doesn’t invade the home; rather, it guards the home. Igo said in a phone call that this isn’t necessarily surprising. Ring doorbells, like all doorbells, mediate the relationship between the home and the outside world.

“Video cameras, security cameras, and so forth is the turning of the home outward to watch, in the other direction,” Igo said. “So I think it's still connected to this longer history of worry about invasions of the home. To prevent those, you have to look outward and invade the privacy of those potentially right on the street outside.”

“[There’s] this sense that the barrier can also be a window on to who's on the other side,” Igo added. “And that, at the very least, suggests rising distrust of unplanned interactions.”

So What Now?

Ring has some experienced pushback in recent months. In August, Senator Markey demanded the company answer questions about its data retention and relationships with law enforcement. Then, in November, five senators demanded Jeff Bezos answer additional questions about its data security practices.

Despite this pushback, Ring is not faltering or losing momentum.

It doesn’t hurt that the company has crucial connections to power. Jacqui Irwin, a member of the California state assembly, is married to Jon Irwin, the chief operating officer for Ring. Kira Rudik, Ring Ukraine’s chief operating officer, was recently elected to Ukranian parliament. Ring has connections in precisely the places it needs them in order to continue operating as it always has.

However, it’s impossible to talk about Ring in a vacuum, as if Ring is the only home surveillance company selling fear and promising security in return. Ring is the symptom of a worldview in which crime is an existential threat, and data-capturing technology is the solution. For people who subscribe to this worldview, it doesn’t matter that crime rates are actually going down nationwide. The only thing that matters is that they believe crime is a threat.

According to Evan Greer, deputy director of digital activist group Fight for the Future, Ring is a product that’s “incompatible with a functioning community.” If you don’t trust your neighbors, Greer said, it becomes okay to surveil in perpetuity.

“That's a fundamental idea that ties community together: neighbors trust each other, and protect each other, and take care of each other,” Greer said. “It just feels like, for Amazon’s business model to succeed, they have to sow distrust and fear between neighbors.”

Cahn, the privacy advocate, said that Ring and security products like it capitalize on a widespread feeling that we are never safe.

“It goes to some almost society-wide anxiety, that if we can't prove everything's okay, at every moment,” Cahn said, “then somehow, something terrible is happening.”

There is no single reason that people choose to watch themselves and others. The people of Baltimore, MD believe that camera footage can be a tool that facilitates justice in a city where justice feels rare. For others, Ring cameras offer the convenience of seeing who is at the door. Some people buy Ring cameras to usher in peace of mind.

Everyone who buys a Ring camera shares one core belief: that Ring cameras are neutral, objective, or even benevolent. However, in a world so overcome by fear that the people believe they must not only watch others, and watch themselves, there’s no such thing as a truly benevolent tool.

How Ring Transmits Fear to American Suburbs syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[theokbrowne]

What is farming in real estate? (Part 2)

Download the free guide:

Fill out my online form

In part one of Real Estate Farming we talked about how to choose your geographic farming area, determining the best size and doing the research necessary to ensure that it’s a viable marketing area. If you missed “Real Estate Farming” Part 1, you’ll find it here.

Today we’ll take a look at how to build name or brand awareness in your geographic farming area and ways that specific agents are using geographic farming in their real estate businesses.

But, before we dive into all that, take a minute to ensure that no other agent is farming the area you’ve chosen. Check the MLS activity for any agent’s name that pops up frequently. The last thing you want to do is waste time and money in an area in which another agent has an established presence.

Create a dedicated website or landing page for your geographic farming efforts

Before you start marketing to your geographic farming area, create an online “home” for your leads. This is where you will drive all your marketing. While a squeeze page works well for this, give Easy Agent Pro’s InstaFarm app a whirl.

You’ll find an example of how one agent used the app in this Easy Agent Pro video (at :35).

By the way, use basic online writing best practices when you enter the text below the header. The text in the video example needs way more white space. Shorten your paragraphs to no more than 5 sentences (less is better).

Avoid words such as “cumulative,” empty adjectives such as “great” and the word “families” (for obvious reasons). And, despite what Kelvin Krupiak (the video’s narrator) claims, you know better than to use crime statistics, right?

If you’re spending the time and money to drive people to this page, ensure that it’s compelling and readable.

How to build name or brand awareness in your geographic farming area

Next, head over to your neighborhood’s NextDoor.com online community. While you must be a resident of the neighborhood you choose, the platform includes posts from nearby neighborhoods that you are free to participate in.

Be sure to read the Community Guidelines – direct marketing to neighbors is considered spam and isn’t tolerated. You can, however, mention your services in responses to anyone looking for an agent.

The most important aspect of your participation, however, will be getting your name out there as someone who is knowledgeable and involved in the neighborhood.

2 Most popular marketing methods used by geographic farming agents

Now it’s time to become the “mayor” of your geo-farm area. Remember, like most marketing you won’t become an overnight success. This is going to take time, consistency and commitment before it starts to pay off.

Keep that in mind too, that when choosing marketing vehicles, go with those that you’ve been successful with in the past and those that you won’t mind doing repeatedly.

Door Knocking

For some agents, this includes door-knocking while other agents would quit farming if it was a requirement. Thankfully, it’s not, but it has been successful for many agents.

You don’t even necessarily have to knock—print up some door hangers with a marketing message driving the homeowners back to your InstaFarm page. Prospects Plus sells door hangers as does Vista Print.

We ran across a 2013 YouTube video produced by TopAgentInterviews.com. It includes an interview with Arizona agent Joshua Smith, who prints up 10,000 “cheap” doorhangers, delivers them to his farm and “lists 7 -15 homes per month.”

He teams up with a local title company to help defray costs and says he ends up paying about “10 cents a door to have them delivered.”

Direct Mail

When I was selling real estate, I relied heavily on direct mail for marketing to my farm. Back then, I had lots of competition. Today, more agents are choosing email, leaving less competition in mailboxes for agent messages.

And, the bonus is that people prefer direct mail marketing messages over email. See the stats for yourself and get some real estate direct mail marketing tips, here.

Additional ways to dominate your geographic farming area

Any online platform that allows you to target by ZIP code, is worth consideration. The two most popular among agents are Facebook ads and Zillow Premier Agent.

Then, join some online groups popular in your geo-farm. For instance, I belong to a Facebook gardening group specific to my city and you wouldn’t believe how many posts are from local gardeners asking for advice on how to move their plants if they decide to sell their homes.

Like NextDoor, these groups aren’t necessarily for marketing your services. Being visible in them helps get your name out there and humanizes you as one of their neighbors who, oh-by-the-way, just happens to be a real estate agent.

Offline, start getting involved in local events and groups. Sponsor the area’s kids’ soccer or baseball team. Throw an event, or help sponsor one. Volunteer to help clean up the park, walk dogs at the animal shelter or give talks on your hobbies at the area elementary school.

Geographic farming is ideal for the new real estate agent but don’t rule it out if you’re a veteran. Either way, consistency is key.

Learn from the best – here’s what the top 10 real estate agents are doing with their websites

Here’s some great tips to help your farm pages rank higher on Google:

The post What is farming in real estate? (Part 2) appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.

from theokbrowne digest https://www.easyagentpro.com/blog/what-is-farming-in-real-estate-part-2/

[kansascityhappenings]

Metro teens mowing lawns for free as many struggle financially during pandemic

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two seniors from Lincoln College Prep are mowing people’s lawns for free all summer.

Andrew Robinson and his best friend, Darby Hattaway, usually cut grass during the summer months to make money.

This year, they’re spending money in their savings to do the job for free because they recognize many people are hurting.

“Having someone to come mow your law for you is a luxury, and so when you don’t have a source of income coming in, you can’t spend for that luxury,” Robinson said.

“We really just feel like it’s a great opportunity for us to be able to go out and make connections with the neighborhood,” Hattaway added.

Robinson said his mom, who is a physician at the University of Kansas Hospital, inspired him to want to help others during the ongoing pandemic.

“She’s still working through all of this but even then, she’s cooking food for old people that can’t do it on their own and going to get groceries for them,” he said. “So I just really looked up to her for it.”

The 17-year-olds started organizing their efforts two weeks, posting an ad on the neighborhood app, Nextdoor. They have already completed four yards, including one belonging to Lisa Dunn.

“It just totally surprised me,” Dunn said. “I was really in awe.”

The retired firefighter had been looking for someone to cut her grass for a while when she came across the teens’ ad. She has a torn meniscus and arthritis in the knee, making it difficult for her to mow certain sections of her yard.

“It really was like and answered prayer,” she said. “[Andrew] has a good heart.”

Dunn said it is nice to see young people doing positive things in the community.

“This is what we need to see,” she said. “This is what gives us a glimpse of a brighter future.”

Robinson and Hattaway said they’re not in it for the recognition. They’re doing this because there’s a need.

“It feels great when you get the text and it says that their prayer was answered or it made their day or something,” Robinson said.

The teens have more friends who are willing to help if more people start to reach out. If you or someone you know would like the boys to cut your grass, text Andrew at 816-753-6672.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/this-is-our-kc/metro-teens-mowing-lawns-for-free-as-many-struggle-financially-during-pandemic/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2020/05/20/metro-teens-mowing-lawns-for-free-as-many-struggle-financially-during-pandemic/

[ganjalovergirls]

6 mental health friendly quarantine tips

🌟

1) Change activities throughout the day.

They don't have to be 'big' things, it's ok if you don't have the capacity to do a lot right now. But switching activities from watching TV to drawing for example or walking around/sitting in the garden, or even just making a cup of tea can help stop that strange lethargic feeling (you know, the 'ugh I've done nothing today') or sometimes disassociation that can happen if you're just doing one thing by yourself for a long time.

So when your thoughts try and tell you've done nothing, you can go actually no, I've done enough.

2) Count the small victories

Try not to get stuck in the thought of not 'achieving enough'. If you made it through the day, congratulations, you've achieved something. When I was in my worst stages of isolation, I would make a list at the end of each day of my achievements. For example: messaged a friend, did some colouring, brushed my cat, made myself a cup of tea, found a new TV show that I like

3) Reconsider what it means to be 'productive'.

I don't know your personal situation; it may well be that you have commitments you will still need to fulfill right now. But it's easy, especially with all the stuff we can see online or what we think others are doing, to have very high standards for ourselves and all we 'should' be doing. Often, these things may not be as important as we think.

Depending on your circumstances, it could be worth making a list of your current 'obligations' and considering which are really essential and which are things you feel you 'should' be doing but which you could afford to set aside for a bit. For example, taking care of your child, feeding the dog or doing that work from home is probably not negotiable (I don't know your situation, maybe someone can help you or you can get some support) but 'mastering' that new skill, starting that new regime... (whatever it is people who aren't chronically ill usually do idk).. if you don't have the space for it right now and it can afford to wait, consider if it really belongs on the priority list for now.

4) Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of passing the time. And that's ok.

There doesn't have to be an 'end goal'. You don't have to be good at it. Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of having something to do, and there is no shame in that. Remember that stress is really tiring. You might find you're getting tired even if you don't think you're doing lots. Don't beat yourself up.

5) Find things that absorb you. You know, those things you do for no particular reason. Don't put any pressure on these things. Some of my favourites:

Puzzles

Colouring

Knitting

Baking

Sticker books

Researching a random topic

Making a mood board

Learning/playing a card game

Reading comics (if you don't have any, you can find webtoons online and I will also post some links to free comic sites later on)

Watching a TV series or favourite film

6) Keep talking to people.

It's ok to be scared, but don't keep it all to yourself. Talk to friends on the phone or through video chat if you can, or connect with online support groups. Even just joining chats about your favourite band or show can help with feeling less lonely (of course be sure to practice online safety, there are always strange people even in nice parts of the internet. Check that apps or sites are moderated and have safety measures in place, and check with someone you trust if you're not sure)

Some helpful apps:

7 cups of tea

Calm

Headspace (currently offering free content due to Coronavirus)

Calm Harm

Nextdoor (connect with neighbours and locals, lots of people are offering help on there)

Amino

The Mighty

The Tiredgirl society

Discord6 mental health friendly quarantine tips 🌟1) Change activities throughout the day.They don't have to be 'big' things, it's ok if you don't have the capacity to do a lot right now. But switching activities from watching TV to drawing for example or walking around/sitting in the garden, or even just making a cup of tea can help stop that strange lethargic feeling (you know, the 'ugh I've done nothing today') or sometimes disassociation that can happen if you're just doing one thing by yourself for a long time.So when your thoughts try and tell you've done nothing, you can go actually no, I've done enough.2) Count the small victoriesTry not to get stuck in the thought of not 'achieving enough'. If you made it through the day, congratulations, you've achieved something. When I was in my worst stages of isolation, I would make a list at the end of each day of my achievements. For example: messaged a friend, did some colouring, brushed my cat, made myself a cup of tea, found a new TV show that I like3) Reconsider what it means to be 'productive'.I don't know your personal situation; it may well be that you have commitments you will still need to fulfill right now. But it's easy, especially with all the stuff we can see online or what we think others are doing, to have very high standards for ourselves and all we 'should' be doing. Often, these things may not be as important as we think.Depending on your circumstances, it could be worth making a list of your current 'obligations' and considering which are really essential and which are things you feel you 'should' be doing but which you could afford to set aside for a bit. For example, taking care of your child, feeding the dog or doing that work from home is probably not negotiable (I don't know your situation, maybe someone can help you or you can get some support) but 'mastering' that new skill, starting that new regime... (whatever it is people who aren't chronically ill usually do idk).. if you don't have the space for it right now and it can afford to wait, consider if it really belongs on the priority list for now.4) Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of passing the time. And that's ok.There doesn't have to be an 'end goal'. You don't have to be good at it. Sometimes you will do things just for the sake of having something to do, and there is no shame in that. Remember that stress is really tiring. You might find you're getting tired even if you don't think you're doing lots. Don't beat yourself up.5) Find things that absorb you. You know, those things you do for no particular reason. Don't put any pressure on these things. Some of my favourites:PuzzlesColouringKnittingBakingSticker booksResearching a random topicMaking a mood boardLearning/playing a card gameReading comics (if you don't have any, you can find webtoons online and I will also post some links to free comic sites later on)Watching a TV series or favourite film6) Keep talking to people.It's ok to be scared, but don't keep it all to yourself. Talk to friends on the phone or through video chat if you can, or connect with online support groups. Even just joining chats about your favourite band or show can help with feeling less lonely (of course be sure to practice online safety, there are always strange people even in nice parts of the internet. Check that apps or sites are moderated and have safety measures in place, and check with someone you trust if you're not sure)Some helpful apps:7 cups of teaCalmHeadspace (currently offering free content due to Coronavirus)Calm HarmNextdoor (connect with neighbours and locals, lots of people are offering help on there)AminoThe MightyThe Tiredgirl societyDiscord