#support your local indie feds! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

differenceenginegirl · 5 years

Text

Everything seems a little dark and scary at the moment, so I have complied a list of links to cultural and/or educational things (and some just streams of cute animals, or just plain fun) that are available to watch or listen to or do for free (mostly) online. Some of these will only work for the duration of the current situation (marked with a *), but most are permanent (so far as I know) so can be kept around for a little bit of sunshine on a rainy day.

Feel free to add to this with your own links or ideas, and remember, we’ll get through this together (with the appropriate social distancing). Follow the advice that’s been given, wash your hands, and be kind to one another.

The majority of links were brought to my attention by @theyahwehdance, @elleflies, and @buckysleftarm (plus a bit of a deep dive through my drafts). Under a cut because hoo boy it got long...

(Some links in the linked lists may be broken, some may be region-locked, and some may be duplicated, I haven’t checked them all.)

Culture and Education!

The Metropolitan Opera, free nightly (19:30 EDT, 23:00 GMT) broadcasts of operas, available for 20 hours following the broadcast too. (Schedule for the first week)*

Berlin Philharmonic: 30 days free access to their virtual concert hall (redeem before 31st March 2020)*

Playbill have compiled a list of 15 professionally recorded musicals you can watch at home (Not all free) and are inviting people to join them in watching Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella Starring Lesley Ann Warren on 20th March at 20:00 ET! (video may be region locked)

12 highlighted virtual museum tours and a whole load of others from around the world!

Science Twitter, a series of Skype with a Scientist virtual lectures! (A sign up with an email is required through the link in the tweet, running from 12:00-14:00 EST, (16:00-18:00 GMT)

30 virtual field trips! Links to virtual tours and live cameras of many different places! (Aimed at kids)

Animals!

Cincinnati Zoo Facebook Live virtual safaris, every weekday at 15:00 EDT (19:00 GMT)* Completed safaris will be posted to their website shortly after the Live finishes, and also kept on their Facebook.

Live Monterey Bay Aquarium Cams: 10 different cams showing various tanks and enclosures, and the bay itself!

Live San Diego Zoo Cams: 9 different cams showing various creatures in their habitats!

Atlanta Zoo Panda Cam

Danish Sea Eagles Cam (this site in Danish, and may go dark, as the equipment is solar powered): A live feed of a Danish Sea Eagle nest!

Peregrines in Norwich and Bath!

Live Animal Cam, Ohio: A cam focused on a feeding station, with night vision so the feed continues even after the sun goes down! (This shows wild animals, so there is no guarantee that you’ll see creatures)

Shedd Aquarium let their penguins out to explore! (Under supervision) More exploration here!

Two Oceans Aquarium did too, and look at these little cuties on the stairs!

A livestream of adoptable kitties!

And here’s a thread with some of these cams, and more!

Music!

Various people (started by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) playing/sharing music that comforts them on Twitter.

Virtual High School Musicals! (Original Thread) (Wider Hashtag) Many High School kids are now finding themselves unable to perform the musicals they’ve been working so hard on, so Laura Benanti invited them to video themselves performing and share it with her, so they still get to perform for an appreciative audience! (Some of these are absolutely stunning!)

Never before heard Hamilton track demo!

A playlist of Quarantunes on Spotify, compiled by Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks’ wife)

A playlist of 101 Feel-Good songs on Spotify, compiled by @lanamlouise

This guy made a really cool instrument out of PVC pipes!

A group of engineers in Stockholm turned a set of stairs into a piano to encourage people to use them rather than the escalator!

Stories!

Josh Gad reads a bedtime story (Olivia goes to Venice) with voices!

Various celebrities reading kids stories, as part of a charity initiative to keep kids fed during school shutdowns.

A bunch of free short stories, essays, audio and video by the wonderful author @neil-gaiman (Plus two photos of him in an ancient hat!)

Find your local indie bookstore and support them while also getting a new book! (US only)

And of course, you can’t leave out the marvelous Archive Of Our Own for fanfiction and fanworks for almost every fandom you can think of! (Remember to make use of the tags and filters to narrow your search or avoid things you don’t want to see/read!)

Food!

A recipe for Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares! (Apparently like sugar cookies, but in bar form and better)

A fudgy brownie-in-a-mug recipe!

A really nice chocolate pudding (in the British sense, so like a cake) with spiced chocolate sauce! (I love the whole cookbook that this is from, and it’s especially good for Discworld fans. Available from various sellers, I have linked my favourite money-sink, the Discworld Emporium: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook)

My favourite biscuits (cookies) to make! Honey and cinnamon, with a picture book (Honey Biscuits by Meredith Hooper) that you can read alongside to explain to kids where all the ingredients came from!

Creativity and learning new things!

LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems! (13:00 ET weekdays, videos remain post-stream) Aimed mostly at kids, but don’t let that stop you doodling with the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence!

A little list of doll makers/dress-up sites!

How to take really good photos of the night sky with a phone! (Please continue to observe social distancing rules while taking your pretty pictures)

Fancy making a language? Here’s a site with resources to help you get going with that!

A long list of sources of inspiration, arty websites, and some that are just fun!

Make your very own Peaches the Mouse by @my-darling-boy!

Want to learn 3D modelling? Fusion360 is free (for hobbyists and students) and professionally used, with a good network of tutorials and an, imo, fairly intuitive interface! (I use this a lot)

Want to play with Photoshop but don’t have the money? Here’s a free, in browser version! (Has ads, but they’re unobtrusive)

Want to try your hand at creating a sim? The Sims 4 Character Creator Demo is free! (Limited options, but still fun to play with)

Whether you play D&D or not, this is a really cool custom miniature creator, with loads of options that are being constantly added to updated! (And if you have the money, you can get it in a printable format, or printed for you in a variety of materials!)

Fancy learning something new? Memrise has a load of free courses, ranging from real languages like French or Spanish for beginners to fictional languages like Quenya (one of the Elven languages from LotR) or Klingon, or trivia bits like Harry Potter Spells or Noble Houses in Game of Thrones, and many more! (Available in multiple languages, although not all courses may be available in all languages)

Ever fancied trying to build armour or cosplay props from foam? R31 Studios has you covered with free PDF templates for all sorts of bits!

Meditation and Calm!

60 second meditation tool! Put a worry into a star, and watch it float away with a calming soundtrack and

Meditation with Lizzo!

Customisable Rain Sounds!

Customisable Train Sounds!

And many more customisable noise generators!

Play with liquid/particles! (Warning: this one made me feel a bit motion-sick, but pretty!)

Interactive generative art!

Random bits I couldn’t catagorise!

Don’t want to dine alone? Have dinner with the Gaffigans!

A series of Mildly Interesting images from @catchymemes!

A group of stuntmen doing Super Mario!

Another list of Good Links (Really well organised!) by @secretladyspider!

@thelatestkate draws wonderfully reassuring cartoons! (On Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook too!)

World Record Egg Instagram! Lots of nice little positive cartoons.

Happy news from The Happy Broadcast on Instagram, The Happy News, and HuffPost Good News!

Here’s an ongoing list of good stuff by @pftones3482! (Check the notes for more good stuff, and the latest addition)

Some feel-good browser games!

And finally, a little frog here to give you some reassurance!

#positivity #feel good #happy things #reassurance #link list

98 notes · View notes

etudier-avec-bella · 5 years

Text

My First Term at University

Hello! If you’ve been following me for a while, you may have noticed that this blog has been pretty dead for the past few months. Like, literally no new posts have gone up from me since results day. Yikes. Where have I been, and what’s been going on? That’s what I’m here to clear up. Because I have a lot to talk about.

I am going to be touching on three main topics: Life at York, my course and how I’ve been studying, and- finally- my mental wellbeing.

So, grab a hot drink, get cosy, and prepare for what is possibly the longest piece of writing I’ve ever produced in my life. Seriously. It’s huge.

**Disclaimer: In no way is this post supposed to reflect the ‘real’ life of the average student at York, nor am I making any comment on the quality of education or student life at York. I am aware that I’m extremely lucky to be a student on one of the best Chemistry courses in the country, and this post is simply detailing how I found the transition from living at home to living independently as a university student. York- I love you. Even if you weren’t my first choice, I am so glad I ended up here. I’ve met some wonderful people and learned so many incredible things just in this first term alone. Please don’t take this post as me hating on York or something, because I really, really don’t lmao**

Life in York

Let’s kick things off by talking about what it’s like to live in York!

Contrary to what I initially assumed about moving to a university in the middle of the countryside (i.e. that there would be nothing to do), York is a beautiful city, and I’m so excited to get better acquainted with it over the next three years.

The high streets here are jam-packed full of hidden gems- I seriously think that you could go to a different coffee shop every day for a year, there are so many of them dotted around. I’ve loved being able to wander around and see where my feet take me, and there’s always somewhere new to discover; bookshops, cafés, museums, the castle walls, art exhibits, concerts… Oh, my!

Some of my favourite places that I’ve discovered so far are:

● Drift-In- my favourite little coffee shop! It’s never too busy if you go before midday, making it the ideal place to crack out some work in a more relaxed studying environment. They also offer a 10% student discount, and have a wall of polaroids of the dogs who have visited the café. Incredible.

● Lucky Days- the perfect place to take your friends for lunch! They also do really good cakes if you ever feel like treating yourself after submitting an assignment.

● The Little Apple Bookshop- There are lots of cute little indie bookshops on the road leading to the art gallery, but I think that this one is my personal favourite. Stock changes frequently, so it’s worth popping in every once in a while, and they have classic novels at much lower prices than the likes of Waterstones (for all of you English Lit students out there!)

As for the University Campus, it’s similarly wonderful. The River runs right through Campus West, making itself home to lots of ducks, geese, and other waterfowl. We also have wild bunnies outside the Biology greenhouses, and I always see them hopping around in the dark when I walk home from my French classes. Campus West isn’t too big- you can walk from one side to the other in about 15 minutes- so the student community is super tight-knit. I have friends from loads of different colleges who I’ve met through mixers, societies, and my classes, and it’s really easy for us to link up and do stuff together because we’re all so near to each other.

There are also some pretty cool places on campus, if you don’t feel like leaving to go to the city centre- the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall are always putting on lunchtime concerts with cheap tickets for students, which is a nice way to wind down after working all day AND show support for the music students, and there’s also a student-ran supermarket in Wentworth College called Scoop, where you can bring your own containers and buy spices/grains/pasta in bulk for much cheaper than you can in other similar supermarkets. Scoop also sell boxes of locally-sourced produce, making it easy to support small businesses on a budget!

Honestly, there are still lots of places on campus that I’m yet to visit. Whenever I get fed up of working, I like to go for a little 30-minute walk to the other side of the university grounds and see what I can find (there’s a really lovely garden behind Derwent College, it has a big stately manor house and lots of fancy greenery). It’s a nice way to get some fresh air and change up the scenery when I get stir-crazy from being in my room for so long.

My Course/Studying

As many, many people have told me in the past- university-level Chemistry is hard. And you know what? They were right. However, I like a challenge as much as the next overachiever, and as a self-confessed science nerd I’ve got to say… My course is a dream.

I know I’m only one term into my first year, but the way I look at basically everything around me has already changed so much. The fundamental knowledge you gain just from first module covers all of the main bases, and I’ve found that the way I think about and approach scientific problems is already very different to the way I would have looked at them during my A-Levels. You’re encouraged to think a lot more openly, and apply relatively basic concepts to solve really tricky problems instead of just learning the answers to a syllabus- it’s a great chance to utilise your all of your skills.

In terms of how I’ve been studying, not a lot has changed. My exams don’t carry any real credit this year, but I’m still aiming to achieve high grades. Over the Christmas break, I’ve been focusing a lot more on resting rather than working- so I whilst I haven’t done a LOT, the revision I’ve done has been productive. I still use flashcards and Quizlet, but I’ve recently introduced summary posters onto the scene as well, which has been working well for me. I’ll make a post on how I make these in the near future!

Overall, the first term has been pretty good academically. I feel stretched and challenged, and things are at a manageable level of difficulty. Which brings me onto something that has not been at a manageable level of difficulty this term…

My Wellbeing

Mental health. Something of a taboo topic within the study community. It’s something we all will deal with, and something most of us will struggle with to some degree at times. So, why don’t we talk about it more?

I won’t go into super deep, personal detail in this next section. Mostly because there are some things I’m not comfortable with sharing on the internet. However, I do think it’s important for me to use my small platform of followers to talk about my own experiences and attempt to tackle the stigma about being a student and struggling with mental health, so I am going to be as honest as I can about what’s been going on.

Before coming to university, I was already having a difficult time with my mental health, and had been for a few years. This summer was a particularly bad one for me. A-Levels left me completely exhausted, results day was a bit of a sticky one, and thinking about life as I knew it coming to an end was terrifying. I knew that, once I moved to uni, I was going to feel even sadder, lonelier, and more out-of-place than I already did. And I had no idea how to deal with it.

I believe that one of the biggest contributing factors to my sudden and sharp decline in mental wellness after arriving in York was the fact that, even two months later, I still hadn’t gotten over my Durham rejection. Ignoring my initial disappointment was a bad idea, though I didn’t know it at the time.

As someone who has been a high achiever their entire life, rejection and failure aren’t things I’m used to dealing with at all. Not on this scale, at least. Academics was the one thing I could always rely on, the one thing underpinning all of my successes. The one thing within which I had manifested almost my entire personality. Before, I was always Bella, the smart one. Bella, top of the class. Bella, the straight-A student; set to do great things; capable of going anywhere… But, now, here I was. Bella, just got rejected by her dream university.

Trying to settle into student life with a completely secure sense of self is hard enough- trying to settle in whilst struggling to cope with all of these new, conflicting feelings? It was so, so difficult. WAY more than I would ever admit to in real life. Stupid me was too proud to admit that I was upset to ‘only be going to my second choice’ so I told friends, family, and everyone else that I was perfectly happy to be going to York instead of Durham, and that I wasn’t sad about it at all.

(I want to clarify that I am in NO way trying to diminish the hard work and achievements of anybody who got into their second choice university, or anybody else who got into York. Only now have I realised that it’s nothing to be ashamed of, and if anything you should be proud that your efforts got you into whichever school you ended up in. I’m just sharing with you all how much I struggled to accept this rejection, and how it affected my mental health).

I knew people who had gotten in, and I saw them posting on Instagram about matriculation and other social events at the university. This completely broke my heart. I was happy for my friends who were studying there- they worked hard and more than deserved to be there… but I couldn’t help but feel jealous. I wanted to be there with them. The place that I had worked so incredibly hard to receive an offer for.

Although it’s embarrassing to admit, I did actually cry a bit after seeing these posts. I didn’t know how to process my feelings, because for those first few weeks after rejection I absolutely refused to let myself mope (looking back, I’ve got no idea why I did that. Wtf Bella?). I was determined to be strong about it and try to force myself to be happy with the situation I found myself in- despite the fact that, deep down, I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to be. Not at first, anyway. Pair the bittersweet pain of first-time rejection with my consistent struggle with self-esteem and low moods… Things got ugly fast.

If I had to put a finger on when I started to feel things getting really bad, I’d trace back to somewhere near the first month mark. Freshers week, whilst it felt awkward and drawn-out, wasn’t too bad in terms of my mental wellbeing. I think I was so caught up in trying to adjust to this crazy, new life I had that I didn’t have a lot of time to stop and wonder how I was feeling. Those of you who also struggle with mental health issues will know that they never really go away. They always at least linger in the background, if they aren’t in the forefront of your mind. So I suppose you could say that I felt my strange, healthy-but-unhealthy version of ‘normal’.

I hadn’t yet adapted to life as a York student, but that wasn’t much of a concern at this point. It takes a long time to adjust to change, and I had only been there for a few days. I thought I just needed to wait it out. But, after the first few weeks passed by, I started to notice something weird.

I still didn’t feel settled in. In fact, I didn’t feel like I was there at all. Nothing felt ‘real’. After years of dreaming and wondering what life would be like at university, I suddenly found that the situation I was in wasn’t what I expected it to be at all. I didn’t ‘feel’ like a university student here, even months into this first term. Or, rather, I didn’t feel what I had decided that being a university student ought to feel like.

For my whole life, I’ve attached so much of my identity to my intelligence and educational aspirations. To reach the highest stage of my academic career thus far- the place I’ve been working to get to my whole life- and find out that it was possible that this wasn’t where I wanted to be caused me to completely lose my sense of identity.

The conflict between feeling ‘too good’ for here, but simultaneously viewing my rejection as me ‘not being good enough’ for Durham left me drifting somewhere in the middle with all aspects of my life. University was a big deal for me, and had been for as long as I could remember. I attached so much of who I was to my work, and ergo the university I was going to go to. Having failed to prove to myself that I was who people had been telling me I was for years, I didn’t have scraps of personality left to hold onto.

I felt as though I didn’t belong here, but also that if that were true I didn’t really know where I did belong. I knew that I was smart, and that I was capable of achieving the A-Level grades that I needed to meet my offer requirements for my first choice. Things just didn’t go to plan in my Maths exams. But, at the same time, whenever I struggled with the work here in York, I would say to myself: ‘Oh, look. You can’t even manage the work they give you here. How did you ever think you were good enough for Durham?’

As you can imagine, this made my mental health quite difficult to manage properly. My inability to cope with rejection, trying to live independently for the first time, facing a whole new series of academic challenges, and missing my friends/family ALL took its toll on me in more ways than I care to say. But, stubborn old me tried to make the best of an unexpected, difficult situation. I decided that I wasn’t going to be ungrateful.

I had been accepted into one of the best schools for my subject in the country. I was going to try and make the most of life here, even if it wasn’t what I had wanted in the beginning, and even if it was proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I wish I could say I was able to move past the sadness I felt because of my rejection and because of all of the other things going on in my life (my already poor mental health, trying to live independently…), but that just wasn’t the case.

To keep it short and sweet, student life was kicking my arse.

The dip in my mental health began to affect my ability to work and take care of myself. I was struggling with this sudden and total lack of motivation to keep up with just about everything.

Independent study was completely forgotten about. I skipped countless music rehearsals, and rarely spent time with my flatmates and friends. I didn’t cook properly- I relied on foods that took less than five minutes to cook or didn’t eat at all. I didn’t put as much effort into looking after myself and looking presentable as usual; I usually love dressing nicely, carrying out elaborate skincare and makeup routines- but all of that immediately went out of the window. I rarely left my room, and I would stay essentially completely by myself for days at a time.

There was no part of my life that didn’t take a blow as a result of my poor wellbeing. It was like I’d given up and decided I would just settle for the bare minimum and float aimlessly until the winter break arrived. I didn’t care anymore. Not about appearance, not about my work, and not about me.

Now is probably the time to mention that I didn’t actually tell anyone that this was going on, spare one of my closest friends who I knew for sure wouldn’t judge me. To this day, most people still have no idea that I was having such a bad time, and that I’m still feeling the residual negative emotions from the last few weeks of term. There are a lot of reasons why I didn’t talk to anyone about it, but the main two were that I’m a very private person, and that my family isn't always the most understanding when it comes to helping each other deal with mental health issues. I desperately wanted other people to know what I was going through, but the thought of coming out and telling them straight-up petrified me. I knew I couldn’t do it. So, I chose to hide all of it under the façade of being exhausted from my busy timetable. Or whatever excuse was most convenient at the time for whoever asked me what was wrong.

Another reason I didn’t tell anybody about what was going on kind of plays into the problems I’d been wrestling with before coming to uni (they’ve been an issue for much longer than just this summer, just to point out). I won’t talk about them in detail, because I’m not ready to discuss a lot of what I went through and what I’m still going through, but I’ll say that part of it is that I have a pretty crippling fear of being judged by other people. For my physical appearance, for my academic achievements, for my personal opinions and preferences- for everything. Everything. I don’t really talk about myself to anybody, so even just writing this post feels a bit odd. As you can imagine, admitting I’d been having a terrible time with my mental health to my close friends and family was out of the question.

I had basically reached my lowest point ever. I felt lonely, isolated, and completely lost. I wasn’t living the life people were expecting me to, and I wasn’t

Maybe this seems silly to some of you out there reading this who are dealing with a much bigger and more painful situations than my own. I recognise that there are much worse things I could be going through. And no, of course not every day of the past term was awful. I’m not trying to say that being rejected from my dream university caused this- rather that it fed into what was already a significantly complex problem. But, for someone like myself who pinned all of their self-worth on their educational goals and achievements- for someone who had never really ‘failed’ at something like this before- I was pretty fucking crushed. Enough to make me lose track of basic things I’d never usually had a problem managing before.

My problems had engulfed my life. I was miserable and couldn’t stand it. I was fed up of sticking it out alone. Desperate to let someone else take the burden for a little while, I finally, finally decided it might be worth considering getting some help.

I made an appointment to go and visit the University mental health services, and they signposted me to the local NHS mental health services. The waiting list for an assessment was surprisingly short- it only took me 2-3 weeks to get an appointment where I could receive an initial diagnosis and learn what treatments were available.

It was at this point I found out that I had an anxiety disorder.

This wasn’t particularly shocking news- I struggled with social anxiety as a young teenager- but it made me quite emotional to finally hear someone tell me that what I was feeling WAS part of a bigger problem. It wasn’t just me blowing things out of proportion.

So, that brings us to where I am now. Currently on the waiting list for group therapy. I haven’t really decided if its something I want to talk about on this blog yet, but I feel like even just sharing with other students that I took the step to go and seek help from my uni will hopefully encourage more people who are struggling to do so as well. Most universities have decent mental health services, or at least someone who can point you in the direction of the appropriate resources to help you, so it’s definitely worth looking into in my opinion.

But, right now, I’m feeling okay. This term has been challenging for me and my emotional wellbeing, but the knowledge that I ploughed through and (for the first time in my life) asked for help when I knew I needed it makes me feel proud of myself. A month away from halls has definitely helped me, and I’m actually looking forward to going back with a new, rejuvenated perspective on student life- which leads me onto the final section of this long, waffly post...

What have I learned? How am I trying to make changes? What are my plans for the future?

Well, aside from developing my Chemical knowledge through some pretty fantastic lecture courses and practical sessions, I’ve discovered a lot about myself this term. For example- I’ve realised that I place too much of my personal value on academic achievement and the prestige of the institutions I’m a member of. I should learn to accept that I am so much more than my grades, and that it doesn’t matter where I go to school. Sure, it would have been nice to enjoy all of the things life in Durham has to offer, but does it really matter when I’m living in a beautiful city, studying the subject I love with people who are just as excited about it as I am, and watching myself change and blossom into a completely new person? Not at all.

The most important thing, and the most difficult, was to admit and accept that I wasn’t having a good time here. And that it was okay to feel like this. I could lie to everyone around me about it and say that I was happy, but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. In fact, it took being honest with myself for me to actually start to feel a little bit happier about where I was- literally AND mentally.

I suppose this begs the following question: would I consider transferring? Surely, after all of the emotional chaos I went through trying to get over what felt like the biggest setback of my life so far, I would take the ‘easy way out’ and re-sit my Maths papers so that I could re-apply to Durham and live the life I was convinced I needed to be living?

Honestly… No. Partially because the heartbreak of being rejected was kind of enough to put me off potentially going through it again by re-applying, but also because I feel like this is an important life experience for me to have.

I need to learn healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with rejection and being in situations I didn’t initially want to be in. Obviously, there are lines and limits with this kind of thing, and it differs from person to person and situation to situation, but I’m in a good place for me, I think. It isn’t perfect, but it isn’t meant to be. And I know that if I work hard to make the most of everything my life has to offer me, I’ll reach a point where the struggles I’m dealing with now will be but a distant memory.

...

So, that’s all I want to mention for now! I hope this explains why I’ve been so absent from this blog. Being productive was something I really struggled to do this term, so I didn’t have much going on that I could really post about. However, I’m looking forward to showing more of what my life as a Chemistry student at York looks like when I move back up for term two.

Talking about this has really helped me to reflect on my experiences and gain a little bit of closure from what was a pretty wild and confusing 11 weeks. I might post more content like this in the future, because I think it’s important to show other students that they aren’t alone and more people are dealing with things like this than they realise, but I won’t make any promises just yet.

I hope you are all having a lovely winter break, wherever you are, and I hope you are all looking forward to the next term of school, college, university, or even just the New Year by itself!

See you soon.

Bella <3

#studyblr #mental health #student mental health #anxiety #coping with anxiety

15 notes · View notes

lilnasxvevo · 5 years

Text

Really good ideas for charities to donate to right now:

-Bail bond funds. People who are packed together in jail have no way of escaping a coronavirus outbreak if one occurs. Hundreds of thousands of the people in jail right now are there because they are unable to post bail. Organizations like The Bail Project use your donations to post bail for people so they don’t have to stay in jail until their trial. The best thing about donating to projects like this is because bail is returned at the end of each person’s case, so the organization can use your donation to help post bail over and over and over again. If we can get more people awaiting trials out of jail, we can help mitigate the potentially devastating effects coronavirus could have on incarcerated people in America. We can continue to push for criminal justice reform, but on a short-term basis this is a great thing to do especially right now.

-Many kids who are in school get fed by their school. With many schools suspending classes due to COVID-19 outbreaks, many of these kids are not getting fed. Some school districts are still trying to feed these kids even though school is out and some aren’t. You can help by donating to organizations like Feeding America, or you can look up local organizations if you know closed schools in your area are struggling or unable to feed kids while schools are closed, or you can find other school districts that are having trouble feeding kids and donate to food bank organizations in that area.

Helping individuals:

-We’re probably going to see a huge uptick in people asking others to help them out because they aren’t able to earn any money during the outbreak, either because their company has temporarily closed and won’t pay them when they’re not working, or because they’re self-employed and their industry is struggling during the outbreak—I’ve seen a few posts, for example, from musicians who are unable to perform because anywhere they would be performing has canceled all shows.

Other things if you still have more disposable income:

-Small businesses are not doing well right now. If you can find a way to support a small business in your area without leaving your house unnecessarily, like ordering books online from a local indie bookstore, could be a nice thing to do right now. Small businesses are super important to our communities. Huge businesses like Wal-Mart have enough money to survive being closed for a while but a mom-and-pop probably doesn’t.

2 notes · View notes

flowrxchild · 5 years

Text

🌼Get To Know Me Tag🌼

Thanks @satans-helper for tagging me!!! This is gonna be a long one so if anyone feels it’s necessary, please tell me to shut up! oke doke les do it❤️

1. What’s your middle name?

Olivia!

2. How old are you?

20, very cool and very funky years..

3. When’s your birthday?

January 8th

4. What’s your zodiac sign?

Capricorn 🐏 also an Aries rising, Libra moon if anyone cares lol

5. What’s your favourite colour?

Rn it’s yellow!

6. What’s your lucky number?

Ok I rlly gotta pick one soon cuz I just don’t have one lol

7. Do you have any pets?

Used to have a chubby brown lab but she was an old girl:( BUT recently I have fed a stray cat enough for him to come back everyday so he is now mine by Ricky Law™️

8. Where are you from?

Toronto, Canada baybee

9. How tall are you?

5’5

10. What shoe size are you?

7 and a half? I think?

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Not that many like 5 tops lol

12. What was your last dream about?

Last night I dreamt about going horse back riding?? I woke up like ...she’s a horse girl, I knew it..

13. What talents do you have?

I can draw/paint?? Also I’m a pretty snazzy photographer

14. Are you psychic in any way?

I’m definitely intuitive...I’ve experienced some very strange coincidences in my life...

15. Favourite song?

Jimi Hendrix’ Voodoo Chile

16. Favourite Movie?

Moonrise Kingdom

17. Who would be your ideal partner?

*stares in Josh Kiszka yearn*

18. Do you want children?

Erm not sure yet

19. Do you want a church wedding?

Lol I want whatever the opposite of a church wedding is..

20. Are you religious?

Nope.

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?

Yes. I’m so clumsy I am a danger to myself at this point...

22. Have you ever gotten in trouble with the law?

No I’m literally a baby chicken and will cry if u raise ur voice at me

23. Have you ever met any celebrities?

Not formally? I’ve seen a lot of random celebrities just walking around tho cuz I live in a big city

24. Baths or showers?

Showers, practically but I love me a good bath now and again

25. What color socks are you wearing?

Im not wearing any ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ;-) Sam Kiszka tease ;-) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

26. Have you ever been famous?

One time my painting was put into a community art gallery and they took my photo for the local newspaper except they made the centre fold of the page fold into the picture around my face so it got all distorted and it was like when Mike Wazowski was in the Monsters Inc commercial...

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity?

Not rlly..

28. What type of music do you like?

Rock, folk and indie but I will listen to anything

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping?

Yes. Me and my friends do it every year as a cottage tradition!

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

3...I need to be snuggled AND supported

31. What position do you usually sleep in?

I don’t sleep unless I curl up into the smallest ball possible like a friggin cat

32. How big is your house?

She smol

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?

Literally just coffee most days. I love anarchy

34. Have you ever fired a gun?

Nope. Don’t have the desire to either.

35. Have you ever tried archery?

I have not but I’ve always wanted to!

36. Favourite clean word?

Cozzy

37. Favourite swear word?

Cunty but like as an adjective

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?

Not rlly sure...probably only a day. I’m a very sleepy person

39. Do you have any scars?

Yep

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?

If I told you, they wouldn’t be secret ;-)

41. Are you a good liar?

No not at all. My face gives it away so badly

42. Are you a good judge of character?

I like to think so. My first impressions of people tend to be true.

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own?

Ya but not well ahsgag

44. Do you have a strong accent?

I don’t think I do, but my family from the states always says we have the stereotypical “Canadian accent”.

45. What is your favourite accent?

I loooove Irish accents. I find them very pleasing to hear!

46. What’s your personality type?

INFP-T to be precise

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?

My prom dress I think? I got it a Free People for 90$ and at that store, that’s a steal...

48. Can your curl your tongue?

Yeth

49. Are you an innie or an outie?

If this is referring to my belly button then, innie

50. Left or right handed?

Right handed

51. Are you scared of spiders?

Ew ya

52. Favourite food?

Ok my fave food is also my fave foreign food and it’s Indian!

53. Favourite foreign food?

54. Are you a clean or messy person?

messy...ITS CAREFUL CHAOS OK?

55. Most used phrase?

I really am not sure...

56. Most used word?

probably ‘like’. Yes I’m gen Z, yes I have trouble articulating my thoughts. And what about it???

57. How long does it take you to get ready?

I need at least an hour...I like to plan

58. Do you have much of an ego?

I don’t think so??

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?

If you bite lollipops, you’re in jail now, I don’t make the law.

60. Do you talk to yourself?

Yes, I’m the funniest person I know.

61. Do you sing to yourself?

Yes, funny you ask, I’m not only the funniest person I know, but also North America’s greatest entertainer!

62. Are you a good singer?

No! But I will preform for myself and the spiders living in my room. Yes, we exist!

63. Biggest fear?

Losing the people I love, being trapped.

64. Are you a gossip?

No yuck i hate it.

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?

this is too broad and difficult but The Witch. It’s spooky and dramatic.

66. Do you like long or short hair?

I don’t rlly have a preference...

67. Can you name all 50 states of America?

Probably if I try really really hard lol as a Canadian, this is a good road trip game

68. Favourite school subject?

Art or English!

69. Extrovert or introvert?

Introvert

70. Have you ever been scuba diving?

No but something about makes me anxious

71. What makes you nervous?

I would really love to find something that doesn’t make me anxious. Let’s start with that.

72. Are you scared of the dark?

No! I find it comforting sometimes actually

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?

Depends. I hate confrontation so I only do it if it really matters...

74. Are you ticklish?

Ok I wanna know who isn’t! Like whomst is not ticklish??

75. Have you ever started a rumour?

I hope not...I would feel very stinky

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?

If by authority you mean telling my sister to get out of my unassigned-assigned spot on the couch even though my voice cracks a little as I do it causing her to laugh even harder, than yes.

77. Have you ever drank underage?

Yes. *police sirens grow closer*

78. Have you ever done drugs?

I have done a weed or 2. Yes

79. Who was your first real crush?

My neighbour lol

80. How many piercings do you have?

3! My ears and also my cartilage! Used to have my septum, but it caused me too many problems so i let it grow over :(

81. Can you roll your R’s?

Ya!

82. How fast can you type?

So fast *spongebob voice* wanna see me do it again?

83. How fast can you run?

I would probably be the first to go in a horror movie

84. What colour is your hair?

Dark brown

85. What colour are your eyes?

Brown

86. What are you allergic to?

Nothing substantial.

87. Do you keep a journal?

Ya I do!

88. What do your parents do?

My mums a school secretary and my dads a fraud investigator

89. Do you like your age?

U know what, ya..I can’t complain.

90. What makes you angry?

Injustice and rudeness

91. Do you like your own name?

Ya I don’t mind it

92. Have you already thought of baby names if so what are they?

I mean I have names that I like but it’s not something I write down so I always forgot lol

93. Do you want a boy or a girl child?

I really couldn’t care less

94. What are your strengths?

Physically, I’m a sack of bones with the upper body strength of a new born baby but I like to think my sense of humour makes me tolerable *finger guns*

95. What are your weaknesses?

I am one frightened human bean.

96. How did you get your name?

Tru story: throughout my moms whole pregnancy, everyone including the doctors were convinced I was gonna be a boy because they could never get a clear look at me in the ultra sounds so my parents had only picked out boy names until I was born to which they changed their choice of “Eric” to Erika :))

97. Were your ancestors royalty?

Not at all lol

98. Do you have any scars?

Did I already answer this one? I think I did?

99. Colour of your bedspread?

White with pink floral pattern! (From ikea lol)

100. Colour of your room?

It’s an off-white

Ok I wanna tag these lovely beans @pe2chie @turntonightfirelight @camomillacatalina @witchgoddess @blackdressedtinyone 💗💗💗

#tag game #get to know me tag #ty!!

14 notes · View notes

rootsooman · 5 years

Text

When are we going to acknowledge that plenty of African food staples are already vegan (AND gluten free)?

With dairy not being the most ancient food staple for *most* tropical and savannah Africans, plenty of various African food staples are already vegan because of that fact. Everything from gari to fufu to injera to tiger nut milk to agundai fitfit and shiro to jollof rice and chapatis... those plus dishes from Africa's diasporic cuisine in the West Indies and Latin America.... are absolutely RIFE with already vegan and gluten free options and here are some of the obvious reasons:

1. The abundance and ubiquity of starches in warm environments. Starches are filling, swell and carry water, and are abundant in warm hot climates and easy to prepare and store for long journeys too. Yams, non-European grains (millet, sorghum, teff, kamut) and other starchy vegetables, tubers, fruit and grains are super-staples that are curiously missing from the superfoods hype list despite their nutrition and accessible pricing. Just 3.5oz of millet contains 11 grams of protein. It prevents diabetes, lowers triglycerides, is packed with vitamin B6 and Manganese too. It's gluten free just like teff. These are affordable grains.

2. Spices gone wild! Spices make vegetables and savory fruits very very agreeable to the palate, resulting in simple dishes like collard greens or calaloo with nightshades being jam-packed with flavor, making it easy to forget that you're just eating leaves. You would think that with the abundance of spices and flavors that appeal to most tastes, these diverse cuisines would be hyped up.

There seems to be a food hierarchy that literally pushes the media-fed lie that certain people groups don't eat and have nothing to contribute to veganism and thus need to be "saved" by veganism. This ignorance bolsters the fallacious idea that veganism and food in general must be handed out or "taught" to them, which actually continues and validates the current colonial capitalist order that veganism is tiptoeing around with its shortsighted activism.

3. Lack of (or relatively late) non-human Animal Slavery. Due to a lack of total reliance on domestic bovids, many (but not all, I repeat, not all) African countries and cultures do not prioritize dairy, (with many many exceptions of course). Dairy is not exactly a base in most African cuisine. That includes the areas close to Mediterranean Europe (even nearby Greek and Italian food have plenty of dairy free options). Camels and dairy cows were not always present on the continent. They were actually introduced, so you'll find that a lot of very ancient dishes are dairy free. Nigeria actually has been drinking nut milk (tiger nut milk, coconut milk etc) for centuries! Why aren't vegans talking about this? The world NEEDS to know that nut milk is neither new nor unusual to human beings.

Mainstream veganism tends to fetishize Asian food in the same way Asian women are fetishized, and this hyping up of third world Asian countries for rich western vegans also has a problematic angle, because those same places (Thailand etc) have a big sex tourism industry as well as rampant rape culture that I am afraid is being swept under the rug due to it not happening to non human animals. See the whole Durianrider controversies....

This "ripe for the picking" attitude amongst elite vegans is eerily similar to the colonizer mindset. We do not, as vegans, need to fetishize one or two regions unsustainably. Central America and Southeast Asia are not to be plundered. Please spread out your interests and boost other economies too. Vegans should be first in line NOT to over-harvest specific regions of the world where indigenous folk are being pressured. Africa's economies are ripe for support and desperately need to EXPORT and make some money rather than be forced to import poisonous American food that wipes out local, native economies.

So next time you go to a small grocery store, pick up a box or bag of fufu, gari, cassava flour or groundnuts from an authentic, African brand. Let's show some support to these untapped markets and help introduce the world at large to the vegan foods so many people have been sleeping on for ages. Please try to promote accessible, affordable vegan food. Not every meal has to include avocados or açai berries. Sometimes the humble plantain is enough.

50 notes · View notes

bungendorenetballclub · 3 years

Photo

BNCs Match Report thanks to @wwellnesscentre . If you haven’t booked in for your first appointment yet, DO! It’s a beautiful local space that offers amazing therapies such as massage, hot/cold therapy and a float tank!! Plus it’s run by people who support the community! #amazingcommunitysupport #relaxunwind #infraredsauna #floatrank #massage #luxury BNC U12s versed Sunrise Gold, who are currently 2nd on the ladder. Dakota, Indi, and Hannah P rotated positions in defensive positions. Hannah P had some excellent intercepts, reading the ball well. Dakota worked hard to slow down her player, and she defended her shooter with a beautiful stretch and rebounded nicely. Indi played in WD, but had a quarter as GD. Whilst Indi was at a disadvantage in height compared to the opposition, Indi continued to chase with intensity and put pressure on the GA, which led to mistakes being made by the opposition. Hannah O and Lileah worked the shooting circle, making a great combination. Lileah showed tenacity against the opposition, often fighting for the ball with ferocity. Hannah put the pressure on the GD and opened up the passing opportunities for her team mates. Josie ran her game as centre, acquiring a number of intercepts and fed the ball beautifully down the court. But it’s Eva who shon today, with her exceptional improvement in passing, catching and making space in WA. Additionally, on several occasions, Eva looked in to the shooters and delivered the pass often with perfect timing and placement under the post. Eva was awarded and was highly deserving of the “Player of the Week”voucher- thanks to @thegatheringcafebungendore We are grateful for their support to our team. The Gathering offer delicious treats, fantastic coffee and are charitable to locals. #localcoffee #friendlycafestaff #supportingthelocals #greatcoffee #netballteam #teamwork #U12s #bncrocks #qnanetball #gratefulforsponsorship (at Queanbeyan Netball Association) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRtWr9sBEtA/?utm_medium=tumblr

#amazingcommunitysupport #relaxunwind #infraredsauna #floatrank #massage #luxury #localcoffee #friendlycafestaff #supportingthelocals #greatcoffee #netballteam #teamwork #u12s #bncrocks #qnanetball #gratefulforsponsorship

0 notes

dr-archeville · 4 years

Text

INDY Week: Cooper Wins! And We Don't Know Much Else!

Everything you need to know this morning

Thank you to this week's INDY Daily sponsor, NC Grind - Invest Local from the Mountains to the Sea. NC Grind helps you find investment opportunities connected to North Carolina and connect with people taking Shop Local to the next level.

Support the INDY Press Club: Better Journalism for a Better Community

It's Wednesday, November 4.

Hey y'all,

Good morning! I’m writing this from my parents’ house in Columbus, which is tucked into the foothills of Western N.C. about 45 minutes down the mountain from Asheville. I was driving around in the country today when a dude in a gigantic green Hummer truck started driving behind me. He was wearing a MAGA hat and had a big blue Trump 2020 flag mounted on the bed. It was weird.

Like the INDY Daily? Share it with your friends and ask them to subscribe!

The INDY Daily is made possible by the INDY Press Club, which is helping us keep fearless, independent local journalism viable in the Triangle.

Reflections on an Unresolved Election

Election Day is kind of like the Super Bowl of politics, except that it could last for multiple days and different channels claim that different teams are winning. Also, while the game is being played both teams are engaging in a million little mini-fights to juice the score in their favor and suing each other over the rules. So, uh, Election Day actually isn’t like the Super Bowl of politics at all. I’m writing this a little before one in the morning. The best anyone can tell, right now Biden has 213 Electoral College votes and Trump has 174. By the time you read this, those numbers will almost definitely have changed, though. Maybe we’ll have a winner in the six hours between me writing this and you reading it, in which case, please treat this newsletter as a time capsule from another time (that time being "last night"). Since Election Day is the only real story right now, in place of our usual "Quick Hits" section, I’m just going to link to a bunch of videos from The Dodo, a website that posts cute videos about animals. Election Day went pretty smoothly in North Carolina, except for the fact that, per the New York Times, a man "wearing a Trump hat, combat boots and a visible sidearm" was arrested outside of a Charlotte polling place for engaging in voter intimidation. But on a macro level, precincts in Cabbarus, Guilford, and Sampson County opened late and were subsequently granted permission to close late, which caused our results to be delayed by 45 minutes. Not a huge deal in terms of getting our election returns on time, and it was completely worth the wait so that people had a full opportunity to vote. The tabulation of the votes went well, too. It’s a close race, and so election officials are taking their time to make sure that they all get counted before they declare the winner. I actually found myself serving as an impromptu poll observer in Polk County, N.C. My dad is the head of the local Democratic Party (motto: "Small County — Big Tent!"), and last night, my partner and I went to visit him at the local Board of Elections as he was set up with his laptop to send in returns to the state party. The Republicans had sent a guy to observe the votes being fed into the system, and so officials asked if there was a Democrat who wanted to observe too. There weren’t a ton of Democrats there, my dad couldn’t do it, and I was sitting pretty close to the door, so I volunteered. I can confirm that the Polk County N.C. Board of Elections did a good job. Still, we don’t have a ton of conclusive results right now. We don’t know who won our 15 Electoral College votes. We don’t know who won the Senate race. But! Roy Cooper has won a second term as Governor, the Republican Mark Robinson beat Yvonne Holley for the Lieutenant Governorship, and the Raleigh Housing Bond passed by a considerable margin. Deborah Ross won her Congressional race in the Raleigh-area N.C.’s 2nd district, successfully flipping a Congressional seat in Democrats’ favor. And in Graham, demonstrators staged a march to the polls, returning to the place where just days ago they were pepper-sprayed by cops. I do have some questions about the state of the national race, though. Like: Was it a mistake to think that Biden was going to win before midnight? Why does the Electoral College still exist? Where are there still outstanding mail-in ballots remaining? Who’s sent those weird robocalls telling people not to vote? And which genius at MSNBC decided to put a camera on Steve Kornacki at every moment last night and call it the "Kornacki Cam?" These are the questions we still need answers to. This is the stuff we know, though. With the national results, there weren’t a ton of surprises last night, in part because we’re going to have to wait until at least later today for any conclusive results. But Biden won Colorado, he won New Hampshire, he won Illinois, and he’s probably going to win Arizona. Will the leads that Trump showed last night in places like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Wisconsin be part of a "red mirage" that fades away as absentee and early votes get tabulated, slowly turning into an Electoral College victory for Joe Biden? Golly jeez, I hope so. Either way, both candidates declared victory in their own way last night. Biden gave a speech in which he claimed his campaign was on track to win the race if we just give it enough time, while Trump made a Tweet saying that actually he was winning and that Democrats are trying to "STEAL" the election. In other words, when the dust settles, Biden will probably win.

Statewide COVID-19 by the numbers: Tuesday, November 3

2,349 New lab-confirmed new cases (280,337 total; seven-day average trending upwards)

25,125 Completed tests (4.15 million total; most recent positive rate was 6.8 percent)

1,175 Current hospitalizations reported (seven-day average holding steady; 4,457 total deaths)

Quick Hits, Animal Videos Edition

Here is a video about a squirrel who bonded with the human who rescued him.

Here is a video of a dog that copies its human’s yoga poses.

Here is a video about an orangutan who adopted a baby orangutan.

Here is a video of a dolphin who has befriended a dog named Zyzz.

Today’s weather: Sunny in the day and clear at night. High of 68, low of 40.

Song of the day: "Waiting Room" by Fugazi

More themed Songs of the day! I will be posting songs with the word "waiting" in the title every day until we know who won the Presidency, and if I run out of songs with the actual word "wait" in the title, I will resort to posting The Band's "The Weight."

— Drew Millard — Send me an email | Find me on Twitter

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily's 33,000-plus subscribers, please contact John Hurld at [email protected].

Love the INDY Daily? Support it by joining the INDY Press Club.

#news #NC #Roy Cooper #2020 Elections #Election 2020

0 notes

ruffsficstuffplace · 7 years

Text

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 54)

Akko could finally use the mind palace machine later that day, and the sound of cranking, pedaling, and whirring quickly became a constant presence in AWRD’s dorm room, like their studying for their exams on Thursday and Friday had been given a soundtrack.

Whether it was going over their notes, old quizzes, and mock tests they’d borrowed from Blake, Lotte, and the rest of the student tutors; planning and practicing for the practical projects like for Gen-Mech; or even the rapid ramping up of their recovery training, there was scarcely a free moment in their schedules.

However, they unanimously agreed that Wednesday evening would be free for all of them, and Ruby and Weiss took that opportunity to go down to the city with their siblings for dinner.

“You guys are really going all out for this, aren’t you?” Yang asked, reaching into the steamer basket in front of them for another steamed bun.

“Mhmm!” Ruby replied as she munched on the one in her hands. She swallowed, and continued, “Gotta get those good grades so we can focus on the Tsukimi Festival! It’s gonna be really bad for the plan if we have to do the really intense extra credit work, like with your team.

“How’s your week off going so far, anyway?” she asked, before she swallowed the last of her bun.

“Amazing, and it’s actually gotten even better!” Yang said, smiling as she peeled off the paper underside of her bun. “Dr. Freya’s just up and decided to give us an extra two days off!”

“That’s great!” Ruby said, still chewing. “Changed your plans any?”

“Oh, you bet your ass we have! Whole thing’s still starting right after exams Friday afternoon, but now ends early Wednesday morning!” Yang explained before she ripped the top off a sauce packet with her teeth. “It may just be two weeknights, but it’s going to be two weeknights where we can decide how the hell we’re going to spend them, and we are going to make them count!

“You or any of your teammates want in?” she asked as she poured a generous heaping of spicy sauce on to her bun. “Sucy’s coming with us this time, now that she can leave campus and all, but I promise I won’t let her try any freaky experiments on any of you—just keep a very close eye on your drinks, she’s like a ninja,” she said before she bit into her food.

“Oh, I’d love to, but we’re going straight back to the plans for the Festival right after exams—Diana and Weiss made synced up schedules and alerts for our scrolls, and everything,” Ruby said as she reached for the basket again.

“Aww, c’mon, Ruby, I know it’s important and all, but you gotta fit in some fun time in there!” Yang said through a mouthful of food.

“We already are!” Ruby replied as she peeled off the bottom. “We’re actually going out to dinner at the Bakunawa on Friday, because they want us to give our opinion on the new Festival menu—so business and pleasure!”

“Oooh, sounds fun!” Yang swallowed. “Any chance we can get in on that? We need a new hangout since we’re still can’t afford to buy our way back to the Shitty Bar.”

“Sorry, it’s a negative, not unless you’re willing to fork up the Lien like any other customer,” Ruby said as she poured sweet sauce on her bun. “We’re only eating free because we’re helping for the Festival, and Weiss and Akko both say that Aqua’s uncle Jun-Jun is SUPER strict about who gets free food and discounts.”

“Ah, well, at least I get to hang out with my little sister again!” Yang said, roping her arm around Ruby’s shoulders and pulling her in close. “Been way too long since we’ve done this last...”

“Well, to be fair, the world does seem to be incredibly intent on either killing you and your team, or drowning you in work, which has made scheduling difficult,” Whitley said as he and Weiss had dinner in a different restaurant. “There’s also the fact that we’re going to two different schools now, and you’re not living at home any longer.”

“Fair points,” Weiss said as she poked another cube of meat on her skewer, dipped it into the pot of boiling broth between them. “How is life in Sanctum, anyway? We haven’t really had much time to discuss, well, anything about you.”

“That’s mostly because my school year has been infinitely more boring and tedious than yours,” Whitley replied, casually pointing his empty skewer at Weiss.

“Oh, c’mon, Whitley, something interesting has to have happened in your life.”

“Not if it isn’t related to you, Akko, or the Shiny Rod,” Whitley replied. “I assure you, life in Sanctum is still just the same old teenage angst bullshit with legally sanctioned death matches that you and Akko have finally escaped,” he said as he looked at the remaining selection of bite-sized food in front of him.

Weiss nodded. “Speaking of which: are you doing alright now that we’re not around?”

“I’m… managing, I suppose...” Whitley replied as he slowly skewered a piece of potato.

Weiss frowned. “Define ‘managing,’ please,” she said as she fished out her meat, let it drain over the pot before she brought it over her plate.

“I’m attending all my classes,” Whitley started as he dipped his food into the broth. “I’m doing well in them for the most part, save for PE, but that’s always something of an inevitability. And of course, BCT continues to be the bane of my existence, except on the rare occasion when I do get a team or a partner that understands the concepts of ‘semblance exhaustion,’ ‘protect your support’ and ‘for fuck’s sake, get out of the way!’”

Weiss chuckled. “Met up with your old friends? Made any new ones?” she asked as she put her food to her mouth.

“… Kind of, and kind of...” Whitley replied, his eyes keenly on the end of his skewer and the bubbles rising from the broth.

Weiss stopped, and frowned. “What do you mean by that?” she asked as she put her skewer down on her plate.

Whitley pulled his potato out. “Well, with the old friend situation, we’ve recently realized you and Akko more than just the people that introduced us to each other, you two were kind of the reason we even hung out with each other and/or tolerated the other’s presence.

“With the new friend situation… it’s been… complicated.”

Weiss face softened. “Whitley...” she said as she reached out to him.

Whitley pulled his hand back. “Look, Weiss, please don’t worry; I’ll figure out something on my own eventually. That’s what this whole year is for us, isn’t it? Learning how to be independent?” he asked before he put his potato into his mouth.

“Yes, but being independent doesn’t mean you suddenly can’t, or shouldn’t rely on others...” Weiss said as she pulled her hand back. “Do you need help? Someone to talk to about it?”

Whitley shook his head. He swallowed, and said, “I appreciate the concern, Weiss, but I want to do this by myself a little longer, and I don’t want to talk about it—not right now.”

Weiss looked at him in concern, before she reluctantly nodded. “Good luck with that, then.”

“Thanks,” Whitley said quietly. He gave Weiss a warm look. “I mean it, honestly.”

Weiss smiled. “You’re welcome, Whitley,” she said, before they both returned to their food.

“So, the new Starlight Crusaders spin-off was released last week,” Whitley said as he skewered a chunk of meat this time. “You been able to watch it, by any chance?”

“No, haven’t had the time,” Weiss said as she pondered her choices. “Have you?”

Whitley nodded. “I have; the animation is still solid thanks to Lucidity doing it, but of course, Bhatt still wrote it, so I wouldn’t recommend it to you.” he said as he dipped his food into the pot.

“Ugh, I still don’t get what you see in them, Whitley,” Weiss said as she speared a chunk of carrot. “Black Hole was an absolute mess, and Centauri somehow made it even worse!”

“Bhatt has potential, Weiss!” Whitley complained.

“I’ll agree on that, but I still think the studio should be throwing all that money, resources, and good will with the fanbase on someone that can actually produce something actually good on its own, rather than with the extended universe media!

“Just admit it, Whitley, Bhatt should just go back to the indie scene or smaller studios; they had their chance in the spotlight, and they face planted not once, but twice in a row!”

And so the two siblings continued to argue, shouting and throwing points and counterpoints, until the hour grew late, and it was time for them all to head back to Haven.

“… And what do scholars generally agree doomed the state of Archaea?” Diana asked, holding a mock exam in her hands.

“In-fighting,” Akko muttered as she had her face flat on her desk, the top half of the mind palace machine pushed away as far as possible. “All the factions in the city finally got fed up and decided to go to all out war in the middle of winter when the grain started to run out.”

“Correct, but be more detailed, Akko; try and give me the names of at least three of those groups.”

Akko groaned. “Let’s see… there was the ruling class, the ‘Fortunata,’ the uh, the nationalist ‘Builder’ guys, and uh, the local mafia.”

“Who called themselves…?”

“The uh… the…?” Akko groaned. “I give up...”

“Ouroboros, Akko,” Diana said, “they called themselves the Ouroboros, as their philosophy was that man taking advantage of their fellow man was an inevitability, like death for everything that has ever lived.”

“Uuroobooroos, got it...” Akko muttered.

The lock to their door beeped, and was carefully pushed open. Weiss and Ruby paused for a moment as they noticed the overhead light was still on, before they stepped in. “Hey guys!” Ruby said, waving.

“You two are still up?” Weiss said.

“I don’t feel yet adequately prepared for exams,” Diana replied.

“And I’ve been waiting for you guys to get back...” Akko said, still face-down on her desk.

Weiss smiled. “Wanted to give a rousing speech to the team before exams?”

“No, I need someone to drag me to bed ‘cause my legs and arms are dead from all the studying I’ve been doing...” Akko muttered.

“I would have done it myself, but you all know how well that went last time...” Diana muttered, blushing.

“I’ve got it!” Ruby said, before she dragged Akko out of her chair and into her futon; they didn’t end up in the most dignified positions, but Akko was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and Ruby easily untangled herself from her.

“Not going to bed yet either, Weiss?” Ruby asked as she saw her sitting down at her desk.

“Yes,” Weiss replied as she pulled out one of her binders. “Before sleeping is the best time to learn, anything, after all!”

“Well don’t stay up too late!” Ruby headed to their closet, and started changing into her pajamas. “All that studying’s going to be useless if you fall asleep on your answer sheet.”

“Fret not, Ruby, we’re still well prepared for that,” Diana said, gesturing to two thermoses full of moon bloom or black moss.

“Can’t hurt to have a reminder or two!” Ruby chirped as she passed by them again on her way to her futon. “Good night, guys.”

“Good night, Ruby.” Weiss and Diana replied, before they shut off the main light and turned on their desk lamps.

They continued to read and quietly quiz each for an hour more, until their scrolls both locked and started vibrating, a cartoonish representation of Freya’s face scowling at them and telling them to go to sleep.

Diana chuckled. “Your grandparents were really involved in your studies, weren’t they?”

“That they were,” Weiss said, pressing the button labeled ‘Yes, Grandma!’ before she got up from her desk, and stretched. “You feeling ready now, Diana?”

“Not even close,” Diana replied as she neatly put away her things. “Then again, my idea of being ready for exams is to have studied and prepared for them daily since the first day of each grading period, and, well, life hasn’t been very accommodating to that recently.

“Speaking of which, can I ask you a question, Weiss?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“How have you survived all of the events of this month, and still be able to function this well?” Diana asked. “I mean, we’ve all suffered in one way or the other, but you’ve had objectively the worst time out of all four of us, as if some sadistic deity was targeting you specifically, and we were simply victimized by associtaion.”

Weiss shrugged. “Eh, I guess it’s a Schnee thing: the universe just seems to have it in for us both ways of the spectrum.” She looked over at the peacefully sleeping Akko. “Though, having a friend like Akko helpst, even if she did cause problems almost as much as she solved them.

“Why do you ask? Worried you can’t take much more?”

“No, not at all,” Diana said. “It’s just that that the events of this month are quickly becoming on par to some of the worst years I’ve faced, and it’s… well, it’s noteworthy, I suppose.”

Weiss smiled and touched Diana on the shoulder. “We’ll just make sure to pack lots of umbrellas from her on out.”

“Pardon?” Diana asked.

“It was my grandpa’s polite way of saying ‘Be prepared for future shitstorms,’” Weiss explained. “He couldn’t use the original for interviews little kids were watching, after all.”

Diana chuckled. “I see…”

5AM Thursday morning, Weiss didn’t wake up as usual, exhausted from last night.

5:30 AM, the alarm Akko set in her scroll activated.

“AKKO! WEISS!” Freya’s voice screeched. “WAKE UP! IT’S EXAM DAY!”

Akko and Weiss woke up screaming, bolting out of their futons. Diana and Ruby were jolted awake, sat up in their beds and watched as Weiss and Akko zipped about their room, rushing through their morning routines, ready to go in little less than a minute.

“Wow, you guys really weren’t kidding when you said this’d get you ready in no time at all, huh?” Ruby said as she climbed out of her futon.

Akko and Weiss both nodded, leaning on their desks as they waited for their heart rates back down to reasonable levels. Ruby and Diana went through their morning routine at relatively slower pace, and soon, they were standing before their door and ready to go.

“Team AWRD to exams?” Akko asked, raising the arm not holding a cup of black moss tea.

“To exams!” the rest cried, before they joined the droves of students filing out the dorms, and to wherever their exams were.

They headed to massive halls lined to the brim with desks; they got up on stages and before their proctors and peers; they carved out a spot for themselves in massive open areas they shared with dozens of other teams.

Pens, erasers, scratch papers, and pencils were used up, lent, broken, or lost in the blitz; presentations were given and questions were thrown back at them; machines were examined, repaired, or taken apart then put back together again.

Akko sweated and panicked at the blank spaces and pages on her test papers. Ruby flubbed a question that was far from any of the ones they’d rehearsed for. Diana got her fingers stuck in their “Useless Machine” project for Gen-Mech, Weiss was hit in the face with a wayward nut in her attempts to free her.

But still, they survived each their exams, if not feeling confident that they’d aced it, then at least that they had passed, or hadn’t failed that badly.

Finally, 6 PM Friday night, down in a tent in lower Mistral, team AWRD’s exams were finally over, Ruby pulling off her headset and waving at her teammates as they victoriously rode in on the back of a rickshaw, waving three digital trackers in their hands, their lights glowing bright green.

“Great job, AWRD!” Professor Nelson said as they turned the devices in, Akko signed the equipment sheet. “Maybe you four didn’t even need that handicap, with how fast you got this done anyway!”

“It really rather helped that Ruby knew so many shortcuts,” Weiss said. “Even if some of them were a little… out-of-the-way.”

Nelson chuckled. “I’ve noticed, but like I said, so long as we don’t get any reports of trespassing or anything else illegal, go for it. Anyway, you four are free to go; feel free to take the rickshaws back to the elevator, or wherever else they can take you—school’s got them paid for the next hour, anyway.

“See you on Tuesday, AWRD!”

The team bade her farewell, before they all climbed into the rickshaw, and they were off to the Bakunawa to celebrate.

Note: I know I've said this before, but feedback really means a lot to me. Anything from a short "Good chapter" or a little comment on what you liked or didn't like would be really appreciated.

Next chapter's going to be team AWRD's double-date night team bonding dinner.

#dianakko #white rose #rwby #little witch academia #and the awrd goes to #fanfic

1 note · View note

coralmccallum · 5 years

Text

Last weekend a message dropped into my FB Author Page inviting me to take part in a “Donated by the Author” community book exchange offered by an independently run coffee shop.

As an indie author, I was instantly intrigued. Well, who can afford to dismiss opportunities to get their book in the hands of a reader?

Over the next day or so I exchanged messages with the owner, took a trip to the local post office and by Monday a copy of Ellen was winging it’s way to join in the exchange programme.

Two things I love are reading and coffee so the thought that these could be combined in a one stop shop was music to my ears!

So, where is this wonderful haven? It’s The Gingerbread Tea House in Widnes, Cheshire, England.

Being of a curious nature I wanted to know more about and also to show my support for this venture.

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce coffee shop owner and aspiring author, Nicola Duty.

Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions for me, Nicola. So, can you tell me a bit about the history of The Gingerbread Tea House? (I love the name)

N –When my kids were little I always used to love baking with them. One of their favourite things to make were Gingerbread.

When I decided to leave teaching and open my own business, The Gingerbread Tea House seemed fitting for our family business.

I opened the cafe a little over two years ago. Partly because my husband and I were fed up of being unable to find quality food when out and about. I wanted to offer quality food prepared fresh to order, that’s what we do! It’s difficult at times, especially when it’s busy and I have lots of different orders at the same time, but I love it.

What inspired you to offer a book exchange to your customers?

N–I’ve always had a passion for reading myself. I love the way you can escape into another world, how you can engage with the characters and be taken on a journey along with them.

When I was teaching I found that far too many students had no interest in books or reading. The quality of students work suffered as a result. I felt that it was important to do something to help. I had a little space so I decided to use it to start the book exchange.

Do you cater for children’s books as well as adult books?

N–We have books for readers of all ages, including children.

Tell me about the Donated By An Author piece? Do they just go into the “library” to be swapped around?

N–The “Donated by the Author” section of the book exchange is new, but the expectation is that books will be taken away just like any other book. I have asked authors donating books to make a note on the inside cover stating that they donated the book to us and asking the reader to pass the book on once they’ve finished with it. That could mean returning it to the book exchange or passing it on to a friend or relative. The idea is to get people reading and also get the authors noticed. For authors donating books I create a Facebook post including an image of their book and a profile.

(Oops…. I might not have added that commentary inside the copy of Ellen I popped in the post. Sorry!)

You mention in the bio on Facebook that you’re also a writer. What genres do you write?

N–I’m more of an aspiring writer. I used to write plays for the kids in my street when I was growing up. In adulthood I’ve tried my hand a few times, but work and commitments and various distractions I never actually finished anything. I am near the end of a project at now. It needs editing and tidying up, but it’s almost there and I feel quite proud of it.

As for genre, I’d say it’s kind of a mystery. I already have the idea for my next book, but I don’t want to start it until I’ve finished this one.

Have you published anything or do you have a blog to share your work ( As an aside, if you have any short stories or poems you’d like me to share via my blog I’d be happy to lend my support. I’ve done the same for a few folk who are just starting out.)

N–I haven’t published anything to date, but “Chasing Butterflies” should be finished later this year.

Hmm… butterflies…another of my favourite things. Consider me intrigued, Nicola!

Who are your favourite authors? Slightly cruel question, I know.

N–Oh so many! Jane Austin, Patricia Cornwell, Stephen King, I was obsessed with Dean Koontz for a while too.

Which authors are proving to be the most popular in the Gingerbread Tea House?

N-To be honest it’s difficult to tell which authors are most popular. The books normally come and go while I’m busy in the kitchen! John Grisham seems to be fairly popular.

Would you consider running a book club in the café where your customers could meet once a month to talk about a particular book? (Just a thought)

N–I actually tried to start a writers’ group at the cafe, but sadly those interested couldn’t all come at the same time. It may be something that we look at in the future.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of running The Gingerbread Tea House?

N–Most of my customers are regulars and many have become friends. Making people smile and providing good quality food is the most rewarding aspect by far.

Now, for a bit of fun, can you tell me:-

1 your favourite food?

N–A juicy, rare fillet steak with chunky chips, Asparagus, over baked mushrooms and tomatoes.

2 your favourite holiday destination?

N–I love holidays. I like to try to visit different places. I love Barcelona and Paris, but I also love Portugal.

3 your favourite song or band/artist (if that’s easier)?

N–My favourite song of all time is Creep by Radiohead. It was out when I was in my late teens. As a bit of a misfit it seemed to suit me perfectly.

I also like Oasis, The Arctic Monkeys, Hudson Taylor, Kodeline and Jake Bugg.

Thanks, Nicola. I wish you all the best with this venture and many hours of happy reading!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’d love to see this community book exchange in coffee shops take off across the country. It’s a quick and easy way to connect readers and the “Donated by the Author” is a great incentive for authors to connect with their readers.

Here’s a sample of the submissions received so far-

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now, I think it’s time to get the kettle on then sit back and chill with a good book, don’t you?

If you want to learn more about The Gingerbread Tea House, check them out on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/TheGingerbreadTeaHouse/

Fancy a good book with that coffee and cake?….. Last weekend a message dropped into my FB Author Page inviting me to take part in a “Donated by the Author” community book exchange offered by an independently run coffee shop.

#amreading #amwriting #blog #bookexchange #cafe #Cheshire #coffeebreak #coffeeshop #communitybookexchange #donatedbytheauthor #Ellen #MondayBlog #thegingerbreadteahouse #Widnes

0 notes

chicagoindiecritics · 5 years

Text

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Troop Zero

(Image: imdb.com)

TROOP ZERO— 4 STARS

You can look up to the stars. Their heavenly bodies present undiscovered infinity all around us. You can also look up to people. If the gaze is met by a caring person, you will find a different kind of infinity. Go ahead and look to both. Such is the infectious moxie and bountiful courage zipping through the filthy accouterments and unkempt hair of the motley mess of girls that comprise Troop Zero.

To rightly thumb its nose at the historically warped expectations of young ladies, Troop Zero may not be high-minded cinema. What it is, however, is high-hearted entertainment. That calls for trite covered in treat. Put this movie in front of any girl, hell, any kid period, that’s been demeaned about their differences or forced to conform to supposed societal standards. Let them watch this movie, smile, and stitch their own sash or freak flag to be proud of.

Continuously emerging small screen and big screen starlet Mckenna Grace is Christmas Flint, a redneck rascal of a girl from her unkempt platinum locks to her sloshing rubber boats of choice. She is the sprightly star-gazing daughter of her widower father Ramsey (comedian Jim Gaffigan). He is an unlucky and toothbrush-gnashing lawyer with one employee, his tough secretary and long-pining law student Miss Rayleen (Oscar winner and producer Viola Davis), and one regular ne’er-do-well buddy and client Dwayne (Mike Epps). The lot of them live in the dingy decadence of a trailer park in the rural speck of Wiggly, Georgia in the summer of 1977.

LESSON #1: YOUR CLASS OF YOUR UPBRINGING DOES NOT REFLECT YOUR POTENTIAL— Someone who does not grow up in mainstream finery or sparkling sophistication is not doomed to mediocrity. Their uniqueness forges their own path and personality. Christmas can be anyone she wants, not because of crystalline cultivation, but from the loving support of her surrounding family and friends. The caring values of one’s upbringing exceeds the socioeconomic class of it.

With crafty creations and library-fed ideas, Christmas has a loving home complete with a rooftop deck for watching meteorites, signaling aliens, and reflecting on memories of her dear mother. Her monologue voiceovers express a mindfulness to match her bravery. Unfortunately, Christmas is seen by her peers as excluded weirdo trash who likes dirt and science instead of dolls and shoes.

LESSON #2: WEATHERING VERBAL BULLYING— The teasing Christmas receives is unrelenting at times, proof that there was too much in that era just as their is now as well. The lead attackers are the local troupe of hoity-toity Birdie Scouts overseen by the local school principal Miss Massey (Oscar winner Allison Janney). Christmas absorbs that dissonance with pluck, but words hurt. The more wrong ones cut deeper than others can see until a breaking point.

Christmas’s draw towards astronomy peaks when it is announced that local youths will have the chance to record their voice on NASA’s famed “Golden Record” that will be going into space with Voyager 1 and 2. All they have to do is win a state-level Birdie Scout “Jamboree” talent show, the vacuous culmination of prescribed lady-like expectations. To compete against Miss Massey’s faction of fakery, Christmas seeks out fellow outcasts in the form her sensitive BFF Joseph (Charlie Shotwell of Captain Fantastic), the barbarically bossy Hell No (Milan Ray), the gassy glutton Smash (Johanna Colon), and the pious pushover Anne-Claire (Bella Higginbottom) to form a squad. Miss Rayleen, with one-upmanship and cigarette drags targeted towards Miss Massey, is coaxed to lead this rumpled rabble.

LESSON #3: LET KIDS BE KIDS— Take that uniqueness from Lesson #1 and promote it. Don’t stifle it solely because it’s different. Don’t shame it because it’s not what others expect. Let them strut their stuff and be themselves, no matter their gender, caste, or interests. If they want to crank up David Bowie and gyrate through imagined galaxies instead of step to safe showtunes, let them. If they “funna” want to kick ass in their own endeavors, let them kick ass. If they make friends while doing so, even better. If they are happy and creative, let kids be kids.

The wellspring of the fun in Troop Zero comes from watching this mob bond and carry on. Viola Davis and Allison Janney are automatic impressive presences. For a tidy indie here, they soften nicely from their recent dramatic trajectories to become young again themselves while acting as the “I don’t play” adults. Jim Gaffigan is always good for affable laughs, scruff or no scruff (the former in this one).

The adults are game and wonderful, but the tweens are the magnets. As the lead, this is Mckenna Grace’s largest work to date and it adds to her future capability. Grace is a carrot of enticing endearment in nearly every role she’s had and the youthful ensemble around her, complete with three newcomers (Ray, Colon, and Higginbottom), multiply that power.

It is from all this wondrous spirit that Troop Zero exudes its strength and worthy purposes pointed towards courage, identity, and resilience. Beasts of the Southern Wild writer Lucy Alibar trades isolation vitality for group dynamics and hearty humor. What cliches exist are spun with pleasing gumption. Directed by Katie Ellwood and Amber Templemore-Finlayson (known as the team of Bert & Bertie), this isn’t a girly Goonies of contagious uncouth behavior. Rather, unity is the prize over riches. Confidence is the invaluable magic, a power still sorely needed in the parallel present. The film and Rob Lord’s score shines that brightness into its settings and morals in hopes that some of that luminosity can carry across the screen to the viewer. Catch the shimmer of these stars and enjoy yourself.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED

Permalink

from REVIEW BLOG – Every Movie Has a Lesson https://ift.tt/36hDNDN via IFTTT

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2RD86iW via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress #CIFCC #film critics #movies #film #Chicago

0 notes

darrylmessner-blog · 5 years

Text

AUTH—Merge Information For Search

The subsequent is a list of releases by Merge Data. Audio Merger : MP3 Joiner App is Merger Few Songs or Ringtones and Share it alongside along with your Beloved Once. One of the principal causes I purchased Seen MP3 Splitter was the Silent detection device. It labored very correctly and was a good time saver when splitting a number of mp3 recordsdata containing entire CD's. Free Merge MP3 is a product developed by Soundelf Software This site just isn't immediately affiliated with Soundelf Software program All trademarks, registered trademarks, product names and firm names or logos mentioned herein are the property of their respective house owners. Founded by Superchunk's Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance in 1989, North Carolina's Merge Records quickly grew to develop into one in all America's essential indie labels. From supporting their local indie rock scene to launching worldwide stars, for over 25 years Merge has discovered success by staying true to their independent roots. Even when the article offers an inventory of audio mergers, it's still tough for you to choose the correct one. You should know what the best audio joiner must be first. Listed below are some features and the reasons it is best to know. While Free MP3 Cutter Joiner performs the capabilities it advertises and precisely splits audio information, it does not have many different features. You can merge an unlimited variety of recordsdata into an enormous MP3 file, however be careful not to exceed the free space in your hard drive when creating the brand new file. Joining MP3 files ends in a separate monitor saved in a folder of your selecting, so in case your input recordsdata complete 2GB in dimension, your output file will take up the identical amount of arduous drive area. With the growing growth in technology, we have seen the capabilities that Android and merge mp3s iPhone SmartPhones have brought with them. With this development, there has been a necessity to separate or merge videos foe simpler transfer via these devices. Due to this fact the emergence of video joiners and merging instruments has been evident. However, both android and iPhone apps are usually small and fewer advanced apps that offer a easy interface foe easier and faster operations. The time of video process will definitely rely on the size of the video files. Listed below are a few of the most recommendable Android and iPhone video joining tools that you would opt for anytime you want to mix two or extra movies. Now, go to File > Export Audio and export your merged audio file. Finally, merge mp3s you have to enter a location, name, and file extension for the file. Merge Records was began in the summertime of 1989 by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they fashioned the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The primary couple of Merge releases had been cassettes (keep in mind those?) by Wwax and Bricks, adopted by the first Superchunk (then recognized only as "Chunk") 7-inch single. Observe: Merge Mp3S of FED data isn't supported.

Then click on the Merge recordsdata button. Choose a Master File. You can click on SELECT ALL, if you want to take all of the master record values as closing and merge the duplicates. As a way to fight this I used to be pondering of an method which is able to merge the correct mixture of MP3 files on the fly into an appropriate phrase, save this within the %temp% directory, and then play this 1 MP3 file which should overcome the problem I am experiencing with gaps. Merge Information turns 30 in 2019. And to have a good time, the North Carolina-based mostly indie label, based by members of Superchunk, might be holding a music competition and launching a subscription service. The MRG30 Competition will take place in North Carolina from July 24-27. To this point, the lineup has yet to be introduced, although a kickoff show has been introduced for March 30 at Haw River Ballroom, featuring Teenage Fanclub. You can too merge a wide range of audio file formats with this software much the identical. Press the Audio button to choose a few music information to merge together. You may choose to merge WAV, WMA, AC3, M4A and different audio file formats. Then click on Convert on the menu bar as before, and select a format for the merged file. The lower than 1 meg obtain onto my Vista box is a zipper file containing 2 information: One for iTunes, and one for the featured Merge MP3 program. I used only the latter. Then, you may reorder some audio blocks to patch a tune cowl. Moreover, as a ordinary audio editor, WaveShop can cut, trim, merge MP3s , add audio transitions, normalize, amplify, reverse, fade audio, and so forth. Merge MP3 could very effectively be a part of mp3 information in a variety of audio codecs, encoded with utterly utterly completely totally different codecs utilizing absolutely utterly utterly totally different settings. Greatest Audio Merger to Combine Audios Recordsdata like Merge MP3, Merge WAV, Merge M4A, Merge FLAC, Merge AAC, Merge AC3, and so forth. Click on on Run" on the correct nook after you specify the output folder, and you're going to get the merged music file quickly. Mp3splt-gtk is a utility to split MP3, OGG Vorbis and native FLAC recordsdata with none change in quality. Just select start and an finish positions to chop out undesirable audio information and space, or to separate whole albums to obtain the unique tracks. Supported Codecs: FLAC, MP3, OGG. First points first, be sure you download Mp3Splt-GTK moderately than merely Mp3Splt (which is a command line software program that is more bother to study than merely using the GTK model's graphical interface). After step 2, a merge process window comes out. Merely click on on Merge" button and drag positive audio recordsdata within the Original" field above. As a part of the merging course of, you choose the contact document you want to stay lively and the opposite document to be merged and archived. Wild Apricot doesn't present a mechanism to search for possible duplicate records. Subsequent is go to the editor and highlight the part of the track that you wish to merge then hit the Edit button followed by Copy. After which transfer to the succeeding observe, on the boards editor move the cursor at the finish of the monitor and press Edit > Paste Repeat this course of till all the mp3 information that you simply want to merge for you mission is finished.

0 notes

linuxgamenews · 6 years

Text

Rainswept brings the mystery to Linux

Rainswept bring the murder mystery to Linux games. Thanks to the development efforts of Frostwood Interactive. Just announced on Steam, which also has 96% Positive reviews. Rainswept is classed as an adventure game. A murder mystery dealing with themes of love. Also relationships and pending trauma. The story starts with detective Michael Stone. While he enters the small town of Pineview. Working to assist the local police force. Since this is what seems like a simple case. A couple found dead in their kitchen. Since the locals believe to to be a murder suicide. Their beliefs are fed by rumours. Since the couple nature of their relationship is bitter. Is it just idle gossip? Or is there some truth to the rumors? While playing Detective Stone in Rainswept. You also have help from the driven and sensitive Officer Amy Blunt. As he attempts to discover the truth about Chris and Diane. Talking to the locals. Also exploring and investigating the town. Interviewing suspects and reliving the victims' memories. But this tales comes with a warning. The further Stone pursues the case. The more his own past will also come back to haunt him. And the closer his own sanity will come to the edge.

Rainswept: Launch Trailer (Linux, Mac, Windows)

youtube

Features:

The story first approach for a vivid. And also superb experience. Making gameplay linger in your mind. Years after you've played the game.

Simple yet surreal 2D art of Rainswept. Combines a cinematic approach to storytelling.

A town full of characters with deep backstories. Distinct personalities and a whole lot of opinions.

An Immersive game world that will pull you in. Drench you with its atmosphere. And never ending rain.

Rainswept is the work of Frostwood Interactive. A studio founded by Armaan Sandhu. The soundtrack is also composed by Micamic. The composer behind Harvester Games' excellent 2012 indie title "The Cat Lady". Rainswept murder mystery is available on Steam. While supporting Linux, Mac and Windows. The games also on GOG, but no Linux support yet.

#rainswept #murder mystery #linux #gaming news #frostwood interactive #ubuntu #mac #windows #pc #steam

0 notes

megacircuit9universe · 5 years

Text

What Will the 2020s Be Like?

DEC 13 2019

I focus a lot in this blog on technology, because it’s something I understand, and also because it does very much transform society and civilization. The cotton gin made slavery sustainable, and the Civil War, therefore, inevitable.

Tech made WW1 the deadliest war ever, and many believe that the advances of tech in the 1920s (radio, telephone, automobiles, etc) was so disruptive, it made the Great Depression inevitable.

WW2 wasn’t so much brought on by advances in technology, but more than any other event before it (or arguably since) it catapulted technology forward. From the first rockets and computers, to the first atomic bombs.

I grew up in the 1970s, which was the peak of the analog world... the world of newspapers, and three-network broadcast TV. There was an antenna on every roof... a pay phone and a mail box on every street corner. Cameras used film, recorders used tape, and electric typewriters had ribbons.

Your watch and your clock were analog, as was your record player. Your electric guitar had pick ups that fed an analog signal to an amplifier with a tube inside it. And your car... well all the gauges on your dashboard had needles. Any feedback systems it had, such as the automatic transmission, power steering, or the carburetor, relied on fluid dynamics or vacuum pressure.

Tech-wise, the 1970s wasn’t much different from the 1960s or the 1950s, other than doing all these things more cleverly... as one would expect after several decades of honing techniques.

Politically, however, the 1970s was a lot different from the 1950s, because of all the upheaval and transformation that happened through the 1960s. Civil rights were finally being taken seriously. The Draft had disappeared in favor of an all volunteer military. Social conformity was out the window forever. Secularism was on the rise, abortion was legal, and divorce was becoming more common and more acceptable.

Conservatives have never gotten over these political changes, which is why they have, in every succeeding decade, fought dirtier and more desperately to regain control of society... still dreaming to this day of overturning Roe V Wade, for example, but also longing to bring back racism, the subjugation of women, the persecution of gays, and state sanctioned Christianity to the exclusion of all other religions... and of science.

Not that I want this entry to be a screed about conservatism... so let’s just acknowledge that they’ve always been out there, through the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and teens... struggling like hell to claw us all back to the 1950s any way they can... and move on...

Having grown up in the 1970s, I became of teenager of the 1980s. So I can recall clearly that what made the 1980s different from the previous three decades was the advent of, “electronics.”

I put that word, “electronics,” in quotes to emphasize that this was still a world that did not have computers as we know them now, and nobody thought of their electronic devices as being, “digital”.

Yes, home computers existed in the 1980s... for hobbyists. I even had a very crude home computer, the Timex/Sinclair 2000 in the early 80s, but there wasn’t much you could do with it, and after it flopped, all support for it vanished.

This was the story for a lot of home computers in the 1980s. If they were useful for anything, it was teaching you how to program in BASIC, and learn the fundamentals about how these analytical engines worked, but many people saw them as kind of a fad.

Only super hardcore computer geeks really stuck with them through the 1980s. The rest of us just kind of lived our lives, knowing they were out there, but not really thinking they would ever matter much.

Electronics, on the other hand, was seen as a different kind of tech that really did revolutionize our everyday lives in this decade before the World Wide Web came into its own.

The term, “electronic,” was for any device from the analog days, that now had a circuit board inside it... with transistors on it... maybe a chip? People didn’t talk a lot about chips in the 80s, even if they did exist inside our devices.

A Telephone, for example, was an analog thing in the house, with big curly cords. In the early 70s, they still all had analog dials on them. By the late 70s, they all had all become, “touch tone,” with a keypad that sounded, “electronic,” tones to do the “dialing.” But the first truly electronic phones, were the magical cordless phones... with the stubby antenna on the handset that you could amazingly take all the way out to the front stoop!

This same kind of transformation happened to everything... from digital clocks, to electronic tape decks, cameras, speedometers, and even typewriters with little LCD screens on them, that could save what you were writing to little discs... which they called, “word processors.” :O

There were a million hand held devices... I remember owning an electronic dictionary and thesaurus, about the size of a small tablet today, and twice as thick, with a tiny LCD screen. It allowed you to play a few shitty word based games like hangman. It seemed like a modern marvel.

Video arcade games, of course, had a massive impact on our lives in the 1980s, as well as the first home game consoles, for those who could afford them... usually the upper middle class families that also could afford cable TV.

And after video games, the other huge tech that really transformed our lives was the video recorder. Again, you had to have some money to own one back then, but those giant, klunky camcorders of the day were a massive improvement over the old Super8 film cameras that only recorded video, with no sound.

With a camcorder, you not only could capture both video and sound, but on magnetic tape, rather than film... which meant you could watch it immediately. No need to have it developed... or rent a projector!

I could go on, but the point here is that the 1980s was a time when the analog world of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, was being magically transformed by electronics, and we really felt like electronics were going to allow us to do anything... and yet nobody imagined home computers, networked together, would be a part of that.

The original Ghost Busters movie from 1984 is a wonderful example of this, because it’s set in the real world... which is beset by the supernatural problem of ghosts, spirits, vengeful gods that range from nuisances, to existential threats, but heretofore have never been tangible, touchable, or provable.

But three, clever, modern men of the 1980s have developed an arsenal of electronic devices to deal with these ghosts. They can detect and analyze them, track them, attack them, trap them, and hold them in a containment grid... all with state of the art transistorized tech.

The movie really captured the feeling of the times, like no other... that we can use electronics, here on Earth (rather than in a galaxy far far away) to deal with problems in our everyday lives (rather than hacking into NORAD to teach an AI that nuclear war is pointless) and be heroes in our home town.

Young people did take that message to heart, embracing electronics to do what young people like to do... create stuff. In 21st century parlance we would say they were creating, “content,” but at the time, the big problem was in publishing said content.

Garage bands recorded songs and albums. Others recorded videos, both long, short, and very short form videos. People wrote poems and prose on their word processors... started, “zines,” which were published using photocopiers, in stapled booklets.

All this stuff we attempted to shop to big publishers, who’s gate keepers ignored it, so we tried to sell zines, and indie tapes in local record stores, or showcase local videos at get-togethers in coffee houses. We developed an, “underground,” of indie music, video, writing, comics, etc... which relied on a network of high school and college students disseminating copies of content from hand to hand, throughout the country, and across the pond.

Most of the greatest musicians and other artists of the 1980s... the ones who did get signed to indie studios to produce more professional material... were never acknowledged by the mainstream media... which by the 80s was under the control of 30-something baby-boomers whose only agenda was to celebrate their own youth, and crank out cheep garbage pop for commercial consumption.

So, when the 1990s arrived, and the World Wide Web came into being, with cheep, but reliable home computers that had dial up modems to get anybody with a paycheck online... that underground movement from the 80s took it over immediately.

Most of us had at least some prior experience with BASIC, as mentioned above, and knew the fundamentals about computing... even if we hadn’t used that knowledge much for several years.

Now, those skills were suddenly relevant, and most of us were still young enough (in our twenties now, rather than our teens) to take on the learning curves necessary to do everything from code HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, but learn how to work on and upgrade our machines, how to master operating systems and all the big applications... the word and graphics processors, the animation tools, the video tools, the audio tools... how to get freeware... how to make freeware... you name it.

The teens of the 1980s, including those hard core computer hobbyists mentioned above, who helped build the primordial backbone that would become the WWW a decade later, built the internet. We pioneered it, formatted it’s culture... of memes, piracy, boundless creativity, and the free sharing of ideas and technology.

And we did it all in the late 1990s and early 2000s before the mainstream media had any real clue that this silly internet thing could be come kind of a threat to their carefully curated analog kingdom.

Flaming and trolling were things back then... conspiracy theories, fake news, and disinformation were problems back then... but they were manageable. Nothing like what they are now, at the end of the twenty-teens.

The problem there, is that in the twenty-teens, the old conservative farts finally left the safe confines of AOL and began to slowly populate places like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter... as did all the AM radio shock jocks they listened to.

At the same time, “Big Media,” began to take the internet seriously as a threat, with YouTube and Netflix stealing so many of their captive eyeballs and earlobes, and launched a hostile takeover of the internet that continues to play out to this day... with Disney buying up every franchise and attempting to shut down Netflix, and net neutrality itself having been destroyed by the Trump administration two years ago now, allowing ISPs to partner with big media outlets and throttle competitors content, as they all attempt to stamp out independent, original content altogether.

YouTube’s on life support, for independent creators. Tumblr is a zombie husk of what it was just two years ago. Twitter is a hellscape. Facebook is for lifeless mannequins. Vine is dead. Blogger and LiveJournal are forgotten to time. MySpace, Geocities and AngelFire... all ashes now. All destroyed by blind corporate greed and the same army of bigoted killjoys we’ve been trying to beat back since the dawn of civilization.

Still, technology continues to evolve, and the internet of 2019 is not the desktop computer based internet of 1999. Twenty years later, it’s become a wireless internet that’s expanded to include very powerful handheld devices which can do everything every, “electronic,” device of the 1980s did, and much more... all in a thing that fits in your shirt pocket.

This changes the game going into the 2020s, as smart phones settle into their final form factor... and slowly begin to assume their ultimate role as the, “mission brain,” for an individual’s life.

In the 2020s, my phone will not just bluetooth to my watch, and be the thing I bank and shop with, as it is today. It will talk to my car, if I still own a car. It will talk to my house, if I own a house. It will talk to my smart glasses, overlaying my view of the world with augmented reality. It will be even talk to me... and work with me to solve any problem I might have... from finding a dog walker, to complex legal and financial issues.

From a political perspective... it will represent me in polls... the way today’s smart phone and land line phones have never done. And it will register me to vote, remind me when to do it three weeks early, and clear my schedule, and get me a ride if necessary... meaning voter turnout will be far higher than ever before among the younger demographics... from 18 to 55... or GenZ up to GenX... with aging Boomers still sitting on Facebook at their desktops, paying their bills with paper checks unable to understand why even primaries and midterms are largely decided by the time they show up in their walkers to vote straight Republican down the ticket, like what’s worked in their favor for many decades.

The bigger picture here, if you zoom back... is that, with the form factor of smart phones having been worked out in the twenty-teens, the big advances in the 2020s will be in the AI those devices have.

And that coming level of AI, will allow individuals to continuously circumvent any roadblocks the corporate and political behemoths of old try to lay down for us... from bureaucratic red tape and voter suppression, to monopolization of media and markets, to censorship and the moderation of free speech.

I know all of that sounds idyllic and Utopian... and loudly echoes the original view of what the internet was gonna do for humanity, back in the 1990s... but much of what we have today would have seemed overly-futuristic and impossible just twenty years ago.

I’m sure there will still be a dark political backdrop to deal with, as today’s upsurge of racism and fascism around the world struggles to stay relevant.

And the effects of climate change through the 2020s will be another big source of darkness and drama like we are only beginning to see at the end of the teens... which will trigger major transformations in the way we all live.

Homes will get smaller and more efficient. Car ownership will dive to new lows. Families will get smaller, and suburban sprawl will ebb backward, creating, “ghost subdivisions,” haunted by the spirits of Karen and Craig.

They will follow the trend of today’s abandoned shopping malls, which will also only get worse.

Meanwhile, weed will come to be legalized nationally... as it is already doing state by state, leading to an eventual end to the War on Drugs, and much of the gang violence related to drug trafficking... as well as an influx of tax money, even before we’ve figured out how to tax the rich at a fair rate.

The 2020s will not be without their tumult and tribulations, but I believe that on the whole, compared to the twenty-teens, they will be a lot less crazy, and a lot more hopeful.

Time traveler traffic... also... won’t be nearly as heavy.... which will ease the craziness considerably.

As for aliens?... well... Trump might just get his Space Force so... they will probably be taking the brunt of the trolling from the aliens, rather than the Air Force... for whatever that’s worth.

Time for bed.

0 notes