#they cost at least £89

[eastgaysian]

compiling a far from comprehensive list of palestinian fundraisers i'm aware of that are far from their goal (less than 25% raised) and/or stagnating. i will try to update this post at least every couple days - please check the op for updates.

if you can donate at least USD $15 (€14, CAD $20, kr160, £12) and dm me proof, i'll offer a colored sketch commission akin to these drawings (more details here). [EDIT: not accepting new donation comms at the moment until i've worked through my backlog; check back in a week or two!]

even if you're not able to donate that much or at all, please share, and follow the links to the fundraisers - there's much more important information for each one than i'm able to quickly compile into one list.

(created aug 2, updated aug 15)

Hazem Khalil (hazempalestine) - vouched for by bilal-salah0, who has been vetted - €6,015/50k (USD $6,556/$54.6k) raised to evacuate 7 family members

Mohammed Haboub (mohammedhaboubsblog) - shared by 90-ghost - kr85,347/300k (USD $8,108/$28.5k) raised to evacuate 4 family members, along with paying for rent and medical expenses - URGENT RENT + MEDICAL COSTS

Walid Al-Qatrawi (waled-family, waledps) - shared by 90-ghost, instagram - €2,164/€50k (USD $2,362/$54.6k) raised to evacuate a family of 5 with a child on the way - GOFUNDME HAD TO BE CLOSED, DONATIONS STAGNATING SEVERELY

Bilal Abed Rabou (bilalassadabedrabou) - verified by 90-ghost - €7,169/80k (USD $7,814/$87.3k) raised to evacuate a family of 3 + living and education expenses

Israa Alazaiza (isra-elazaiza, sarah-family) - verified #236 - CAD $5,480/48k (USD $3,946/$34,593) raised to evacuate 9 familly members - DONATIONS STAGNATING

Abdelmutei Al-Habil (abdelmutei) - verified by 90-ghost - €8,985/50k (USD $9,794/$54.6k) raised to evacuate 7 family members

Heba Al-Anqar (heba-baker) - shared by 90-ghost - €3,170/60k (USD $3,455/$65,499) raised to evacuate 7 family members + provide for living expenses - DONATIONS SLOWING DOWN

Salahaldin Hor (salahaldinhor) - shared by 90-ghost - €5,032/40k (USD $5,485/$43.6k) raised to evacuate 5 family members + medical and education expenses

Mohammed Atallah (mohammed-atallah) - shared by 90-ghost, organizer's instagram - €11,542/82k (USD $12,581/$89.5k) raised for a bone grafting procedure + rebuilding family home

Fatima Alanqar (fatma93-gaza) - shared by 90-ghost - €4,730/20k (USD $5,156/$21.8k) raised to support a family of 7

Mohammed Matar (matarmoh) - verified by el-shab-hussein - €1,119/€20,000 (USD $1,220/21.8k) raised to evacuate 5 family members, including a 6 month old baby daughter

Mohammed Iwais (mohdiwais) - shared by 90-ghost - kr156,227/500k (USD $14,842/$47.4k) raised to evacuate 10+ family members

Ahmed Abu Shammalah (ahmed8311) - verified by el-shab-hussein - €12,051/100k (USD $13,136/$109k) raised to evacuate 8 family members and provide living expenses - DONATIONS STAGNATING

Wafaa Resh (wafaaresh) - shared by 90-ghost, tiktok - €26,122/100k (USD $28,473/$109k) raised to support 15+ family members

Musab Abed (musababed) - shared by 90-ghost - £3,780/8k (USD $4,838/$8.7k) raised for living and education expenses

Fadi Zakkout (burningnightgiver) - shared by 90-ghost - CAD $10,310/50k (USD $7,423/$36k) raised to evacuate children who have been separated from their parents; their daughter Wafaa needs insulin

Malak Dader (malakabed) - verified by 90-ghost - €5,646/€25k (USD $6,154/$27.2k) raised to support a family of 6 with living and medical expenses + education

Shymaa Taiser (shymaafamily) - #141 - USD $10,878/$50k raised to reunite a father with his children in Gaza and provide for medical expenses

Yousef Hussein (adham-89) - shared by 90-ghost - USD $11,001/50k raised to evacuate 6 family members - DONATIONS STAGNATING

Sujoud Al-Sarsawi (sojid222) - #155 - CAD $10,587/45k (USD $7,623/$32.4k) raised for a single mother and her 3 children - DONATIONS STAGNATING SEVERELY

Siraj Abudayeh (siraj2024) - #219 - CAD $36,515/82k (USD $26,291/$59k) raised to rebuild a family home

[elaine19day]

To those who are confused as to where and how to buy OldXian's new artbook and merchandise, let me try to break it down for you.

A few days ago, OldXian announced the pre-sale of their new artbook which comes in two versions.

Variant A (regular) includes: - the new artbook - a poster - 2x postcards

Variant B (deluxe edition) includes: - the new artbook - a poster - 2x postcards - 4x buttons - a shishiki board - a sticker sheet - a 24 page booklet

Furthermore there's two new acrylic standees which can be purchased separately. A tianshan and a zhanyi version.

The cost of these items is as follows: Artbook (version A): 89 Yuan [roughly: 13 USD | 12 Euro | 10 GBP] Artbook (version B): 189 Yuan [roughly: 27 USD | 25 Euro 21 GBP] Acrylic Standee: 49 Yuan (each) [roughly: 7 USD | 7 Euro | 6 GBP]

All of these items are available for purchase in their taobao store now, under this link: https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?ft=t&id=786971367604

But if you have trouble creating a taobao account or your country isn't on the (very short) taobao shipping list [China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand] then you have several other options to get your hands on these new items.

1. You could use aliexpress, koonbooks or any other China-based shopping app/website to buy these things from a 3rd party seller.

Now, keep in mind that these sellers obviously want to make a profit, so you will pay more than in the original taobao shop. However, on the plus side, they usually offer free shipping, which is nice considering that items like artbooks are heavy and shipping costs are based on weight, so if you pay over, some of that money also goes towards covering the shipping costs, which is not bad.

The risk of ordering with such a website is obviously that the independent seller could turn out to be a scammer and keep your money and not send you the goods. I have no idea about koonbook's policies, however in the case of aliexpress you are at least protected by such practices and should you not receive what you paid for, you will be refunded and get your money back.

Also keep in mind that the artbook and merch is still in production at this point! But Old Xian said the merch will be shipped out BEFORE May 20th. That's less than 4 weeks from now.

That being said - in some cases the merch will be cheaper on aliexpress after official ship-out, because there will be more people offering it, competing for best prices.

However there's obviously also a risk that the deluxe edition will sell out before that or that these re-sellers only ship the artbook itself with none of the extras.

Here's two links where you can have a look at potential resellers, but carefully think about all the pro's and con's I gave you before you consider to buy. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006893284852.html https://koonbooks.com/products/old-xian-19-days-art-collection-3-chinese?variant=46493038674166 2.

The other option you have is using a taobao shopping agent. If you google that, you'll find dozens of websites offering their services. I myself have used parcelup, 42agent and superbuy before. Here's links to all of them: https://www.superbuy.com/ https://parcelup.com/ https://www.42agent.com/ What all of these agents have in common is that you need to create an account BEFORE you can start searching and shopping. All you need for that is a valid email address. I'll show how it works with superbuy screenshots here. After you signed up, you can copy the taobao-link I gave you earlier and paste it into the search-field.

What will come up is an embedded view of the taobao listing where you can pick which variant you want and then add it to your shopping cart.

Once you have added everything you want, click on the shopping cart and simply follow all further payment instructions.

They will also ask you if you want them to keep the original packaging or if you want them to remove anything unnecessary and repack everything in order to make it weigh less so shipping will be cheaper. It's up to you. You will then be asked to pay for items, domestic shipping (so mosspaca studios can ship the goods to your agent's warehouse) and in some cases a service fee. For example, superbuy has no service fee, however they stopped offering paypal as payment method recently so you'd need a credit card or other online methods to pay for your order and everything. Parcelup, however, still offers paypal, but they also charge service fees. (They are fairly low though, if you ask me.) So after you paid for your goods, they will order the items for you and then you'll have to wait about 4-5 weeks for them to arrive, because keep in mind - like I said earlier - everything is still in production and Old Xian aims to ship everything out before the 20th of May. There's hundreds, if not thousands of parcels arriving to all agent's warehouses every day, so it will take them a few days to sort through things after your order arrives. You need to be patient!! They will get back to you with pictures of your order, trust me. When this happens you need to look at the pics and if everything is okay, you can reply to them to proceed. You will then be presented with shipping quotes. Usually they offer more than one shipping method and some are tracked, others are untracked, some will take only a week or two until they arrive at your doorstep, others will take 6 weeks or up to two months. Choose wisely which method you want and consider what is in your budget. (Obviously fast shipping with tracking is more expensive than slow shipping without it, however personally I'd always recommend a tracked service.) Just to give you an estimate on what to expect when it comes to international shipping - parcels with that amount of merch and weight, will always cost me about 50 USD or more to ship from China to the UK, where I live. (So keep that in mind before you order. International shipping is very expensive!) But once you picked a shipping method, you pay for it (that's your 2nd payment) and once they have processed that - your goodies will be on the way to you within a few days. And that's it. Sit down, eat your food and wait patiently for it to arrive. If you have further questions, just plop them into the comments and I'll try to answer them.

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Remember to clean your sewing machine between projects. The reason you may be dealing with things like pinched seams and skipped stitches is your sewing machine needs some attention. Do not blow into the machine!!! You will only push lint deeper into the gears.

Remember to change your sewing needles. The seams may be messy because of this, as well as torn threads. Seeing needles are very inexpensive unless you buy them at a fabric store.i purchase mine from Organ Neddles Co, in packs of 100, for less than $20 USD online.

Remember to sharpen your scissors and change your rotary cutter blades. There are scissor sharpeners sold at fabric and craft stores, and they are very inexpensive. If you're unable to acquire one, take some aluminum foil, about 18 inches, fold it in half, and cut down the middle. Put the layers on top of each other and cut again. Do this one more time and cut it into thin strips. Voila, your blade is sharpened. There are rotary blade sharpeners as well, but they're more expensive. Save your used blades for sharpening you can do at a later date.

Your machine will thank you by not breaking and requiring parts be replaced.

Oh, and you do need to get your machine into a shop for full maintenance at least once a year. Folks who specialize in this may even be willing to do this in your home, especially for antique machines. Shops that are approved by retailers will cost significantly more than independent specialists. The only place approved by retailers here charges $150 USD per machine, regardless of whether it's manual or computerized. I went on the NextDoor app and asked for references for finding an independent specialist. It was $89 USD per machine, and he had them back to me in less than two weeks whereas the retailer approved shop gave me an ETA of four months. Give your machine the spa treatment it deserves. When it's returned to you, you will discover it's suddenly quieter, running smoothly, and working significantly better because these were things that built up so gradually, you didn't even notice.

You're welcome.

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Season 2, Poll #30

Character 88: A British lady who stepped up in the time of greatest need! This of course meant she grabbed someone else's story, but she did much better with it. Mostly because she's out there subverting gender stereotypes at the same time.

Character 89: This woman! This woman! What can be said about this woman? She is a rarity indeed. She has been lucky enough to be cocooned in love. Even if the cost of losing someone you share such a bond with can be so overwhelming, she would never choose a different life. She truly deeply loves her family and understands each of them. She is able to reach out to them in their times of need and if not provide them answers, at least be able to just exist with them. She has means, yes, and all of it is put in pursuit of ensuring the love she was blessed to find continues for those she holds most dear. While she may have her own social prejudices, she puts them all aside simply at the request of love. Not many women will find themselves in similar positions as she is in, but of those that do, so few could handle it so well.

Character 90:

She has physic powers

She can get overwhelmed by her powers

She is and/or was socially anxious around others

She loves reading and studying

She is and/or can be kind and/or empathetic towards others

[godmybackhurts]

Finis Kale was surrounded by troopers of the Zura Empire. Outnumbered, outgunned, and almost certainly outmatched. But he would get out alive. He always did. Was it luck? Perhaps. Was it skill? Maybe. But he would survive- not unharmed, of course, but alive nevertheless. They always managed to outnumber him, but he always got away.

Click.

He heard them bring their blasters to bear, ready to shoot the moment he came out of cover. Three. Two. One. He jumped out of cover, his bright orange lightsaber blazing in his right hand, and his 8-E4 blaster pistol in his left, blocking and shooting in tandem. He didn't know what guided his blade, for he certainly wasn't force-sensitive as far as he knew, but every bolt that got too close, he blocked with extreme precision. Sometimes, bolts seemed to curve away from him just before hitting; others seemed not to go in the correct direction at all.

Finis didn't care, though. He was surviving, and that's all that mattered. He began running to his ship, vaulting over railings and off of rooftops. Eventually, he reached his AE-89 Skyrunner, and started it up. He had precious little time to escape, because the Zura Empire would soon have a fleet in-system, and no amount of luck or skill would be able to save him then.

—-------------------------------------------------

Corde Kale watched her great-great-grandson fondly, watching as he blasted off the dusty rock they called Bellia-6, swearing at his ship to fly faster and for his luck to hold. Though of course, he may not know it, but the Jadeii Master had been the one protecting him, using his inherent, yet unknown to him, trust in the force to guide the lightsaber she built as a Padawan, as well as making the blaster bolts miss their marks. He was the last of her line, and while he didn't know it, the strongest in the Force.

Finis Kale would not die, not under her watchful gaze. At least, not until he was old. He was young still, only 20 years of age. And despite his arrogance, he was still destined to live a long life. So she would not, no, could not let him die before his time. He would be safe. That she could guarantee.

—-------------------------------------------------

After approximately 12 hours of flight in hyperspace, Finis arrived at Drisi. He instinctively looked over to the copilot's seat, feeling like someone was there, watching him, but as usual, he saw nobody.

“Drisi port authority, this is AE-89 Skyrunner-variant Wanderer requesting permission to land,” Finis said over the comms; it was always a good idea to contact the planetary port authorities before they contacted you.

“AE-89 Wanderer, you have permission to land. Proceed to docking bay dorn-12.”

“Understood, proceeding now.”

Finis landed his ship in the specified docking bay before opening the main hatch to exit. Drisi had always been cold, but never enough before to seep through his armor and undersuit. His helmet’s built-in thermometer told him it was -40, which was significantly colder than normal. He began heading to the nearest cantina, sure that he'd be able to find at least one job. It was the outer rim, after all. There was scarcely a cantina without any this far from the core.

He entered with a sweep of his cloak, before going to sit at the bar. The bartender was always the person to ask first.

“I'll take some dragonjuice, thanks. And some information. Any jobs around here? Anybody in particular I should ask?”

“Yeah, there's a board over to your right, and in the corner behind you to your left is someone seeking passage to Naboo. Didn't say why.” With that he was given his drink, and he tipped his helmet up to slug it back.

Finis then went over to the booth in the corner, where he sat across from his prospective customer.

“I heard you need a ride. And I'd be willing to give you one, at a cost.”

“What's it to you?” the ride-seeker answered, her face hidden by her hood.

“I need money. And Naboo's a fairly difficult route these days, with the Zura Empire and Cygnus Hive fighting over the Enarc Run. So that means there's something important there for you. Which means you're willing to pay good money.”

“Sure. Let's say you're right. Maybe there is something there. Maybe I will pay well. How can I be assured that you'll actually take me there, instead of being a coward and taking me somewhere like New Alderaan, or drugging me and dumping me on Tatooine?” She had a fast mouth and mind, both of which were things that made for either a good passenger or a terrible one.

“Firstly, I'm not a coward, and frankly I'm insulted you would even suggest that. Secondly, I have no interest in that sort of osik. I'm assuming you won't pay until arrival. Which means that in order for me to get paid, you'd need to arrive.”

The fact she had even insinuated he would do something unscrupulous was an insult. He may be a murderer, and a bounty hunter, and all other sorts of unsavory things, but he was not a backstabber. Going against his word was not something his mother had taught him.

“And, besides, you seem like you've been here for awhile already. So either you've told everyone no, or I'm your first offer,” he stated. Now or never to reel this job in.

“Fine. I'm willing to pay 5,000 credits up front. I'll pay-”

“Only 5,000? Typically it's half up front, half upon completion. So that'll only be 10,000. That's barely enough to get me to the closest system,” he butted in, quite unhappy.

“You didn't let me finish. I'll be paying 5,000 up front, and 60,000 upon arrival,” she finished, sounding quite annoyed. If this man was going to be like this the whole time, she would consider getting someone else.

“65 thousand? Yeah… I can work with that. I can definitely work with that. I'm guessing it's easier to avoid getting tossed out an airlock when you can pay good money upon completion?” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Something like that. It isn't important, though. What's important is that I get there.” Her voice had evened out, and he could see a hint of a smirk on her lips.

“When will you be ready to go? I want to pick up a few off-planet jobs before heading out.”

---------------------------------------------------

And that's Will Of The Force so far! Beta-read by the excellent @legally-a-bastard and (hopefully) @athena-cat-wizard-official!

As well, @musewrangler wanted a tag, so here you go!

(And for those wondering when it takes place, about 2,000 ABY)

[darkmaga-retard]

https://www.globalresearch.ca/american-healthcare-corrupt-broken-lethal/5865983

American Healthcare: Corrupt, Broken and Lethal. “Politically and Morally Wrong, Health Care is A Human Right”

By Richard Gale and Dr. Gary Null

Global Research, August 22, 2024

For a nation that prides itself on being the world’s wealthiest, most innovative and technologically advanced, the US’ healthcare system is nothing less than a disaster and disgrace. Not only are Americans the least healthy among the most developed nations, but the US’ health system ranks dead last among high-income countries. Despite rising costs and our unshakeable faith in American medical exceptionalism, average life expectancy in the US has remained lower than other OECD nations for many years and continues to decline. The United Nations recognizes healthcare as a human right. In 2018, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the American healthcare system as “politically and morally wrong.”

During the pandemic it is estimated that two to three years was lost on average life expectancy. On the other hand, before the Covid-19 pandemic, countries with universal healthcare coverage found their average life expectancy stable or slowly increasing. The fundamental problem in the U.S. is that politics have been far too beholden to the pharmaceutical, HMO and private insurance industries. Neither party has made any concerted effort to reign in the corruption of corporate campaign funding and do what is sensible, financially feasible and morally correct to improve Americans’ quality of health and well-being.

The fact that our healthcare system is horribly broken is proof that moneyed interests have become so powerful to keep single-payer debate out of the media spotlight and censored. Poll after poll shows that the American public favors the expansion of public health coverage. Other incremental proposals, including Medicare and Medicaid buy-in plans, are also widely preferred to the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare mess we are currently stuck with.

It is not difficult to understand how the dismal state of American medicine is the result of a system that has been sold out to the free-market and the bottom line interests of drug makers and an inflated private insurance industry. How advanced and ethically sound can a healthcare system be if tens of millions of people have no access to medical care because it is financially out of their reach? 

The figures speak for themselves. The U.S. is burdened with a $41 trillion Medicare liability. The number of uninsured has declined during the past several years but still lingers around 25 million. An additional 30-35 million are underinsured. There are currently 65 million Medicare enrollees and 89 million Medicaid recipients. This is an extremely unhealthy snapshot of the country’s ability to provide affordable healthcare and it is certainly unsustainable. The system is a public economic failure, benefiting no one except the large and increasingly consolidated insurance and pharmaceutical firms at the top that supervise the racket.

Our political parties have wrestled with single-payer or universal healthcare for decades. Obama ran his first 2008 presidential campaign on a single-payer platform. Since 1985, his campaign health adviser, the late Dr. Quentin Young from the University of Illinois Medical School, was one of the nation’s leading voices calling for universal health coverage. 

[mariacallous]

A week after the Moscow Exchange was hit by U.S. sanctions, the ruble is experiencing unusual swings. In just two days, from June 18 to June 20, the dollar’s official exchange rate against the ruble dropped from 89 to 82.6 rubles, while the euro fell from 95.4 to 89 rubles. However, the very next day, Russia’s Central Bank raised the dollar exchange rate by nearly three rubles to 85.4, and the euro to 91.4 rubles. Meduza breaks down the factors behind this volatility and explains how to track the ruble’s fluctuations going forward.

On June 12, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest stock exchange, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), and its subsidiaries, the National Clearing Center and the National Settlement Depository — effectively cutting off the Moscow Exchange from the dollar. That same day, the exchange announced that it would halt trading in the U.S. dollar and the euro, starting June 13. (Trading in the Hong Kong dollar also stopped.)

As a result, currency trading shifted to the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Even before the sanctions, 60 percent of currency transactions in Russia occurred off-exchange. Importers and exporters, the primary players on the Moscow Exchange, had the most influence on the ruble’s exchange rate in recent years. Now, they’ve also had to transition to the OTC market, leading to higher costs for buying and selling currency, as well as increased volatility in the ruble’s exchange rate.

These sanctions against the Moscow Exchange are another step towards making the ruble non-convertible and a new blow to importers and exporters, noted Alexander Kolyandr, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), in a column for The Bell.

A faux phoenix

The sharp fluctuations in the ruble’s exchange rate this week are the direct result of U.S. sanctions, which have caused demand for foreign currency to drop. This, in turn, has driven up the ruble.

U.S. sanctions have already been impeding Russian imports, with fewer and fewer banks in China, India, and Turkey offering their services to Russian companies out of fear of secondary sanctions. According to SberCIB analysts, imports in May were about 30 percent lower than they could have been with a normally functioning payment infrastructure. The Central Bank also noted that the expected seasonal spring increase in imports didn’t occur.

Now, this payment issue has been compounded by the sanctions against the Moscow Exchange. The halt in trading of the dollar and euro could affect at least 22 percent of imports, estimated Pavel Biryukov, an economist at Gazprombank. Promsvyazbank analysts believe that the new restrictions could reduce foreign goods deliveries by 15-20 percent.

Meanwhile, exporters continue to sell foreign currency earnings in compliance with a mandatory decree. Each day, the Central Bank sells yuan worth 8.1 billion rubles (over $90 billion) as part of budgetary operations, and exports and the current account surplus remain strong thanks to high prices for oil and other raw materials, Mikhail Vasilyev, the chief analyst at Sovcombank, told Vedomosti.

The Central Bank confirmed this. According to its preliminary data, the surplus in the foreign trade balance of goods from January to May increased to $56 billion, up from $47.6 billion in the same period last year, “due to a more significant drop in imports compared to exports.”

This situation is reminiscent of 2022, when the ruble sharply appreciated due to the withdrawal of foreign companies and the collapse of imports. “In fact, we’re now seeing a classic situation with a pool and two pipes: currency flows into the country in a stable stream through one pipe, and almost none flows out through the other,” explained Alexander Potavin, an analyst at the Finam financial group. According to him, this has led to an “unwanted strengthening of the ruble for the government.”

At the same time, sanctions against the Moscow Exchange are also impacting exporters. The sharp appreciation of the ruble may be due to their reluctance to sell currency at an unfavorable rate. On June 20, Reuters, citing market participants, reported a sharp decline in the sale of export earnings in yuan. The outlet’s sources believe this is because corporate sellers are unwilling to sell at a low rate. It’s also likely that the Russian authorities intervened: the Kremlin might have persuaded exporters to hold on to the currency to prevent the ruble from strengthening too much.

The ruble runaround

Before the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Moscow Exchange, Russia’s Central Bank set the official ruble exchange rate based on currency trading on the exchange. This rate could be tracked in real time on the exchange’s website.

Now that dollars are no longer traded on the exchange, the Central Bank is determining the rate of the U.S. currency against the ruble based on bank reports and information from over-the-counter trades as of 3:30 p.m. Moscow time on the current business day. (This rate is then published at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time.)

There’s nothing unusual about this method of determining the exchange rate, noted Alexandra Prokopenko, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and co-host of Meduza’s Russian-language podcast View of the Kremlin:

In general, exchange-based currency trading is fairly rare in the modern world. Most currency transactions take place on the interbank over-the-counter market, where participants report to the regulator. The regulator then determines the exchange rate based on these reports. Now, the same thing will happen in Russia.

The absence of trading in dollars and euros on the exchange has also created another problem: investors and ordinary citizens lack a reference point throughout the day. The Central Bank sets the official rate once a day, but with the current level of volatility, actual values can change significantly.

One way to estimate the ruble’s rate against foreign currencies is through the yuan, which is still traded on the Moscow Exchange. Using the yuan-to-ruble exchange rate, the ruble’s value against other currencies can be calculated using data from foreign central banks. Generally, the stronger the ruble is against the yuan, the stronger it will be against other currencies.

According to the Central Bank, the Chinese currency accounted for 54 percent of trading on the Moscow Exchange in May, making it the “primary currency in exchange trading.” “The yuan/ruble exchange rate will set the trajectory for other currency pairs and serve as a benchmark for market participants,” the bank said. 

Non-deliverable forward contracts for dollars and euros are also still traded on MOEX and can also serve as indicators of the ruble’s value against Western currencies. Additionally, dollar futures contracts can be used to track the ruble’s exchange rate, although their prices have always differed slightly from the actual dollar-to-ruble exchange rate, Natalia Pyryeva, an analyst at the Moscow-based investment company Tsifra Broker, told Forbes. Contracts with earlier settlement dates provide a more accurate picture, explained Vladimir Bragin, head of research at Alfa Capital, as those with later dates are less liquid and may not accurately reflect current market conditions.

Although it’s possible to track the ruble’s current value through futures contracts and the yuan exchange rate, there’s no guarantee that Russians will actually be able to buy currency at these rates. The final price is now set by the seller and the platform where the transaction occurs.

Previously, the Moscow Exchange guaranteed that buying and selling dollars and euros was transparent and safe. Now, sellers can essentially set their own prices. As a result, the cost of exchanging currency — the spread between buying and selling rates — has increased, and these rates must be constantly checked. Additionally, the currency might not even be available at a given location. In the first few days following the new U.S. sanctions, many bank branches visited by journalists didn’t have any physical dollars or euros.

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #4:

Emmylou Harris's Angel Band

I visited four different Iowa record stores while dropping my second born off at college last week and I have much to report. 

Yes, there are at least four record stores in the state.  The mystery is how they stay open. 

Emerson, Lake and Palmer records are deemed worthy of plastic protection in Iowa, and $25 Yes records come with handwritten stickers that say things like "Side 1 Skips!" followed by a frownie face.  These stores are convinced - convinced! - that newly printed Guns and Roses records deserve places of high honor up on the wall and that Jerry Jeff Walker belongs in folk rock. After all, the Country section is behind a wall of dangling beads and George Jones fills an entire crate. 

A rotund, nose-ringed salesdude nods when you enter, drops the store's diamond needle on Bad to the Bone, then ambles over to offer you a tour "of their whole set up" while bragging about the minty, clear vinyl, limited edition Blink 52 record they just scored for $75 even though it's worth $300, easy.

I was happy for the dude, I really was, but I shook them off, strode past a pickle barrel of still cellophaned tapes (4 for $5!) and found that their Neil Young section was - I swear to god - entirely empty.  

Is that even legal? I mean can you really own a record store and not have a single Neil Young record? And how, you ask, are such stores even in business?

I'll tell you how: at one of them I found, after 30 years of earnest hunting, my first ever copy of Henry the Human Fly (it was an original Reprise print no less, and even though I could really give a flying turd about such things - this is the Dollar Bin after all, not Nathan's VGG++ Nerd World - I was still pretty damn fired up and almost hugged the salesdude). Anyway, I snapped up that little blue number for the very non-Dollar Bin price of 37 bucks, thereby keeping that store in business long enough for them to blast George Thorogood for another glorious day. B-B-B-B-Bad!

All kidding aside, the people of Iowa are amazing. At stop signs drivers wave to one another! Please pack up all spare copies of your favorite records, drive to Iowa, and donate them to those lovely people.

I don't know about you, but every time I enter a new record store for the first time I head straight to Young, Neil and start judging the place.  I don't really expect to find anything by Neil that I don't already have - but please, God, please help me find a copy of Ragged Glory someday, and please make it cost less than $50; I don't ask for too much God but this one favor I do of you most humbly implore - but Neil's section is an easy and effective way to find out if the store is worth my time. Or yours. 

If there's nothing to be found other than a $22 copy of Comes a Time, or even worse, nothing but an already dusty, year-old copy of Noise and Flowers for $65, I know I'm better off at Chili's eating a bloomin onion alone; if they have nothing but copy after copy of Re-ac-tor, Time Fades Away and Journey Through the Past, I stay open minded - maybe ten minutes earlier they sold a crunchy old copy of On The Beach; and if they have Old Ways or Trans for $8-10 it's time to get excited and explore the store.

Stop #2 for me in any new record store is always Emmylou Harris. I submit for your consideration the following thesis: a good record store should have on stock most, if not all, of her records between Gliding Bird (1970) and Bluebird (89). We're talking about something like 15 titles between those bookends, and all of them should be in any good record store for under 8 bucks a piece.

Don't get me wrong: these records should not be cheap given their quality. I am hear to tell you that Emmylou Harris does not make bad, or even mediocre records. Like Paul Simon (well, there is Songs from The Capeman...), she only releases good albums. The same cannot be said for Neil or Bob, though I love them dearly. I defy even my famous brother to find an argument for Down in the Groove or The Monsanto Years.

(For those at home taking notes: I did indeed make the statement in an earlier post that Neil can do no wrong. I stand by that statement! Dylan and Young alike put out crap intentionally. It's what genius's do, people! Come to think of it, that's why some (maybe all!) of my posts are gonna suck. Neil, Bob and I are simply shaking off any fair weather fans.)

But back to Emmylou: why, you ask, should every record store worth its salt have all her records cheaply in stock?

Consider:

A) between 75 and 89 she put out a record a year, all of them good, and sold them consistently to my mother and all my mother's friends and all my mother's friends' friends and... you get the idea: that's a lot of records;

B) all those women have, since they made those purchases, got a life. Unlike me. They don't need their records anymore and they've told their loser sons to put down their bongs and go out and do something with all their old vinyl in the hopes that the sons will learn entrepreneurship and decency in the process. Those loser sons have, in turn, not ignored their mother and listened to the Emmylou Harris records (like they should have!) but instead taken them to their local Treasured Vinyl and exchanged them for autographed copies of Roll the Bones, or some other comparable crap;

C) unlike her friend Dolly Parton, Emmylou has no amusement park to call home, nor any lifetime movies made in her honor; and, finally,

D) unlike Fleetwood Mac, no boyband applicant on a skateboard drinking juice has destroyed the internet with one of her songs as a soundtrack, thereby unleashing hoards of hipster kids to demand of all the local rotund record store dudes copies of Rumors.

Put all that together friends, apply a little supply and demand, and what do you get? Record stores should be full of cheap and outstanding Emmylou Harris records.

So let's focus in on one of my favorites and one that I bet none of you have ever listen to, Angel Band.

There's no getting around it, I have to tell you: Angel Band is a Jesus record.

Don't panic! You haven't been lured in here to be told that He Gets You. Instead, it's time for this entry's second thesis: Angel Band is The Best Jesus Record (by a white person, anyway).

That's right, it's better than Saved, Jesus Was a Capricorn, My Mother's Hymn Book and everything Van the 80's Jesus man ever put out. By far! Indeed, I'd even go so far as to argue that while listening to Angel Band you will forget altogether that the man from Galalee is even involved.

Before I preach the word of Emmylou, let's listen to the opening track.

I kinda feel like I could just end this entry right here. What can anyone possibly say other than Jesus Christ! The barely there but perfect band creates simple and delicious space around Harris' aching goddess of a voice. If some jerk doctor ever tells me I need to stop drinking beer (dear God, I'm back! Never mind my earnest appeal for Ragged Glory. Rather, God, please avert that hateful beerless future!), then I'm gonna have to listen to this album every day just to calm the hell down.

My prime hobby in life (good news everyone: as of this morning this blog is my day job because, thanks to my famous brother, I now have like 16 followers and surely that means cash money is coming my way, yes? Isn't that how the world wide web works? Siri, where's my paycheck?!) is teaching High School English and History; in that role I teach a four week block each year on The Holy Books.

The class is easy to teach even though I'm not a regular church goer; tell cool teens about Muhammad getting seized by the Angel Gabriel, back that up by showing them that Abraham is everyone's mythical great-grandad and they are all in. But, given the fact that Donald Trump and Samuel Alito continue to exist and threaten all our lives, Jesus is a tough sell to teens. (See that? Right there I'm not shaking off any new fair weather fans; I'm telling any Trump people reading this to go away and stop acting like shitheads.)

I do what I can in my Holy Books course to salvage Christianity: we get to the good stuff within the Sermon on Mount and St. John's Prelude and we separate St. Augustine's hateful nonsense from the essence of Christ. But the turning point, the moment when smart, open-minded kids realize that Jesus is about love without exception, not hate, often comes not through the texts or through my earnest lectures, but instead when I play them them The Stanley Brothers Angel Band or The Louvin Brothers I See A Bridge. No spiritual teaching that leads to such beauty could be altogether with merit, and kids get that.

Just about any song on Angel Band could win that same argument, including Harris' version of the title track. Covering a song that is perfect to begin with is either a brilliant move (see Dark End of the Street, originally by James Carr, and the versions by Linda Ronstadt and Richard and Linda Thompson), shrugable (Neil Young singing If You Could Read My Mind) or intolerable and gross (Stephen Stills' version of The Loner - I curse thee Stephen Stills!). But as far as I'm concerned Emmylou Harris could cover anything, from Will to Love to Love Shack, and make it great.

So get over your fear of Jesus, dive into your local dollar bin and relax while listening to Angel Band. God, if we are lucky, exists. And she sings just like Emmylou Harris.

[toxic-potions-productions]

Finally waking up, but at what cost?

Zoey: ...................

Dorky: *Exhales* Poor kid. *Looking around* Hmm.

Zoey: .............. *Pries eyes open*

Dorky: *Didn't notice*

Zoey: *Sits up* ...............Holy crap, I'm fucking starving.

Dorky: !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Zoey?!

Zoey: Uuugh. Yeah, that's my name. How long was I out?

Dorky: Uhh.......'bout a week. But, it's great to see you're okay, doll.

Zoey: Aheh. Thanks. But.......Do I know you?

Dorky: !!!!! (Ohh, right. I forgot about the amnesia she might get.) You don't remember me at all?

Zoey: Well, you look familiar. You sound familiar. *Squishes her cheeks* & you even feel familiar, so......maybe?? I don't know.

Dorky: Hmm. It's me, Dorky. Or, uhh, Octavia I guess.

Zoey: Awww, that's such a pretty name! & that nickname is adorable. It's nice to meet you, Octavia, I'm Zoey! ^^

Dorky: Uhh, that's not really what I mea-- y'know what, nevermind.

Zoey: Is something wrong?

Dorky: Uhh......not really? I mean, you remember everything that happened last month? & am I the only one you don't remember??

Zoey: Yeah, I do remember the puberty. & I also remember 39 & Plushie! I just don't remember you or anyone else that I might've known & only have a sense of familiarity to you. I'm sorry.

Dorky: No no, it's uh.....it's okay. Just some post-puberty amnesia, not a big deal. I'm sure I'll find a way to get those memories back. You even want them back, though??

Zoey: ........Hmm. I guess I could.

Dorky: Good enough for me. Let's get to it.

Zoey: Wait, I can't leave yet.

Dorky: Huh??

Zoey: I overheard that doctor lady say that I have to be on bedrest for a few days when I wake up.

Dorky: You mean Cindi?

Zoey: Yeah, her! Besides, my body hurts & I just don't feel like walking around right now.

Dorky: Hm. Alright, I get that.

Zoey: Heh. Thanks. .........I like your cheek heart, by the way. It looks really cool!

Dorky: Ehehe. Thanks, doll. You need anything?

Zoey: Something to eat, I'm hungry as fuck.

Dorky: Ehehehehe. Fair enough. I suppose anything would work, right?

Zoey: Just as long as it's edible, I don't care.

Dorky: Heh. You got it.

Zoey: Thank you! ^w^

Dorky: (Well, at least her personality & sense of humor didn't disappear like her memories.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoey Johnson is baaaaaaaaaaack!!

As she said, nothing can keep her down

@dorkygurl-89

[saintartemis]

“National survey data from the Association of Art Museum Directors and the PMA's own financial disclosure forms reveal some enlightening facts about pay at the PMA. While executive positions are compensated at rates close to 50% more than the executive positions at other art museums, unionized staff make on average about 30% less than staff doing comparable jobs at other museums. 50% higher vs. 30% lower. On top of that, most PMA workers haven't received a raise in more than 3 years. Nevertheless, management continues to reject reasonable pay proposals that would help to correct these imbalances.”

The employees at the PMA are striking for improved wages and health care benefits and yet the management at the PMA refuses to meet with the Union to negotiate for fair contract. These are the employees that greet visitors, care for the collections and educate the public, these are vital positions and they deserve to be treated fairly and compensated for their time and effort.  Please stand in solidarity with the staff and write to the PMA  demanding change!

You can also support the PMA Union here.

[avaantares]

This is your semi-regular reminder that Etsy ads are HORRIBLE for sellers, and you should never click on one.

This is a screenshot from my January Offsite Ads performance report. It's a little misleading, as the $100.15 includes revenue from the sale that I wasn't charged for (meaning someone clicked on an ad another seller paid for, and also bought something from me in the same transaction. At least Etsy isn't double-dipping in that nefarious way. Yet.). The actual revenue from the Offsite Ads I paid for was likely around $89 (I don't know the exact amount, because Etsy doesn't actually tell me which transaction it was).

Even though Etsy claims to charge only 12-15% on orders from Offsite Ads, after the transaction fees and other hidden charges that stack with it, the actual percentage Etsy takes is over 20% of the total transaction amount. That's over 20% of total revenue, not profit, meaning that I still have to pay for shipping the item to the buyer, raw materials, etc. out of the less-than-80% I receive -- to say nothing of my time and labor. (Yes, Etsy charges the same percentage on shipping, which means I have actually ended up with a negative balance on a few orders where a buyer clicked on an ad and then selected some ridiculously expensive shipping option. When the international shipping label for a $15 item costs $78 and Etsy charges me $19 in fees, I'm $4 in the hole before we even account for what it cost me to make the item.)

If you spot an Etsy ad in the wild, don't click on it. Instead, navigate to Etsy by typing etsy.com into your browser window, then search for the thing you want to look at using the search bar at the top of the page. Sellers only pay the usual 12% (-ish) in total fees for sales made from the Etsy home page, which can make the difference between a positive and negative balance.

[musiquesduciel]

First Impressions: As someone with dry skin, having a hyaluronic acid serum in my skincare drawer is a must. I ran out of my TO hyaluronic acid serum a few weeks (months?) ago and had another hyaluronic acid serum in my wishlist which was inaccessible to purchase to say the least. I knew about this product but something about either the packaging, colours or name of the brand threw me off from trying it.

Discovery: A tiktok impressed me with an ~aesthetic~ usage of this product after which I looked up dermatologists' reviews of this on YouTube (as I usually do before buying skincare, or anything for that matter). With just 11 ingredients, it's perfect to use while on adapalene if you're looking for a gentle serum to use during the day, which was what I had in mind while purchasing it. A morning serum.

Purchase: I was surprised to see it being sold in Shoppers Drugmart so I did a quick search on their website and found that they were selling a value package of the 50ml bottle with 2 additional travel-size products for free. Although there is a 75ml bottle for $10 more, I didn't want to commit to a bigger bottle for something I didn't yet know I would enjoy + the value package seemed like a good deal for beginners to try the brand. I picked up one of the two boxes in stock at the Shoppers near me.

Usage: After I wash my face in the morning, I spray Avene Spring Water all over and then some of that sweet Laneige Toner (which I bought in conjunction with this product in the same week and made a review for here). I let the toner dry and absorb well into my skin before going ahead with another spray of Avene Spring Water to dampen my face and then apply 2 pumps of Vichy Minerals 89. Not only are hyaluronic serums recommended to go on damp skin for moisture retention, it also makes the product easy to spread and absorb on your skin with a buffer like water (pro tip!!). The pump on the bottle has to be the most satisfying pump to use. The bottle has a triangular shape which gives that wine bottle effect where it seems like you've used up a lot of the liquid while it's at the brim or a few inches below it still. But once you get to the wider part of the bottle, the product seems to look like it's exhausting slower. I've been using this product for the last 1 month and it's already half empty so a 50ml bottle would last you about 2 months with generous daily use.

Thoughts: I discovered a hidden gem. This is has been the perfect way of achieving glass skin and gives your skin this dewy, healthy glow. My skin looks plump and hydrated with it on and I've been complimented on it too. It's also helped in combatting redness and dehydrated inflammation, which prior to using this product I had no idea had ties with dryness. My acne does not flare up with this serum on and it makes any marks lighter and texture non-existent.

I don't feel like I need to top it off with a moisturizer to avoid making it greasy (as it's already very hydrating) so I top it off with my La Roche Posay sunscreen which glides on it like butter. My skin feels so smooth and soft with this serum on. This product is so much better than my previous hyaluronic acid. The only downside is that the price is not drug store level even if it is sold in one. It costs me just as much as my toner from Sephora.

Final: I'm very impressed with this product. I have the Avene Hyaluron Activ B3 Concentrated Plumping Serum next in line, since it also has Niacinamide in its Hyaluronic Acid formula, to try after this gets over so I will be replacing this part of my morning routine with it. But the great thing about discovering this product is that I now have a new standard for Hyaluronic Acid above what The Ordinary had to offer. I definitely see myself putting this product in a repurchase cycle and buying the biggest bottle, 75ml, when I do.

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Season 2, Round L1, Poll #9

Character 97: Who doesn't love a handsome tall fictional blond man who drinks his respect-women juice? Add to it the fact that he's got family money to fall back on while he gets an adventures job that he makes a small fortune on anyways, so he often tips Very Well, and he's a keeper!

Character 89: This woman! This woman! What can be said about this woman? She is a rarity indeed. She has been lucky enough to be cocooned in love. Even if the cost of losing someone you share such a bond with can be so overwhelming, she would never choose a different life. She truly deeply loves her family and understands each of them. She is able to reach out to them in their times of need and if not provide them answers, at least be able to just exist with them. She has means, yes, and all of it is put in pursuit of ensuring the love she was blessed to find continues for those she holds most dear. While she may have her own social prejudices, she puts them all aside simply at the request of love. Not many women will find themselves in similar positions as she is in, but of those that do, so few could handle it so well.

[enarei]

2011

A new survey of American adults reveals that, despite the tireless efforts of the Food Network, Mark Bittman and KitchenDaily, 28% of Americans -- almost a third -- don't know how to cook. Said ignorance was the second-most-cited reason for not cooking regularly.

2019

Twenty percent of respondents said that they cook every single day and 50% of respondents said that they cook four or more times per week. Cooking is also considered a desirable quality amongst singles as 86% of men and 89% of women find the skill attractive in a date.

while I understand having relatively less time to cook compared to previous generations, I don't understand how this is such an astonishingly low figure. does takeout not cost a lot more? how can it be that 4 out of 5 people don't cook at least one meal from scratch every single day?

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Danger Street #1 - Enjoyable! Not sure if King can handle all these characters, he's not a writer who is the best at giving everyone their own voice, but I liked the first issue. Haven't seen anyone offer a guess who the villain that traumatized Lady Cop is, must be a deep cut.

Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1 - An entire issue devoted to Waid indulging his Silver Age fanboy, but in a manner I don't enjoy compared to World's Finest. What the hell is the point of bringing back all these obscure worlds from Pre-Crisis that no one except Waid and a few other boomers know or care about? Why do we need two official vampire worlds? Or the Justice Lords and Injustice? Or the Crime Syndicate and apparently a Pre-Crisis Earth where the names stayed the same but the moralities flipped? Yippee I guess, must make sure that every evil Superman has their own official Earth. Morrison wanted to make sure that the Multiverse was more than just "hey here's Superman and Batman but this time they're Egyptian", they wanted the Multiverse to support different characters as being equal to the usual A-Listers. This new Multiverse is regressing back to the old status quo of there being a million Earths and Superman and Batman are the stars on every one. Weird that they left off the Arkhamverse, Tomorrowverse, and YJverse but included Injustice and DCSG. No films or TV Earths besides the Reeve/Keaton one, and even that is just meant to stand in for the Superman '78/Batman '89 comics. If this aimed to get me excited about the Multiverse it failed, I just want the damn thing to go away for a while and let DC focus on Earth 0 for a bit.

WildC.A.T.S. #2 - Breezy read but fun. Didn't expect Mr. Majestic to make his return so soon. Lot of Superman analogues, and actual Supermen, running around the DCU, somebody should do something with all of them.

Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 - Well this issue encapsulated this entire run in a nutshell: some interesting ideas that are failed by terrible execution resulting in a bland book. At least I can finally hop off Taylor's ride, won't be letting sunk cost tricking me into reading the next miniseries. A recent interview by Taylor made it sound like AoS will indeed be the finale for his time with the character, he was talking about how other people will be writing Jon after him and how Jon will be a big player in what's coming up. Until Taylor finishes writing Jon I've got zero interest in Jon anymore. Let his era be over soon please, this issue was clearly not meant to be the end of the series which tells me this was a sudden change, likely caused by editorial losing faith in Taylor as Jon's caretaker.

I Am Batman #16 - Huh. Didn't see that coming but I am intrigued where it goes. Ridley also gave an interview recently where he talked about other people writing Jace after him. Maybe Jace will be getting his own follow up mini just like Jon is, but by someone else.

Batman Incorporated #3 - Ghost-Maker is a total asshole and I'm not sure how long I'll keep reading if he remains the star. Dude needs to get humbled fast.

Invincible Iron Man #1 - Fine. About the same level of quality as Duggan's X-Men for what that's worth. Should have gotten Hickman on this, it's insane that Iron Man was the breakout star of the MCU and Marvel cannot seem to get him that modern day epic run he desperately needs.

Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #2 - Pak is sleepwalking through this it feels like. Either that or it's decompressed for the trade, because not much is actually happening issue to issue. Jen's fate reminds me of the 40k God-Emperor.

[daringdearanddarling]

I posted 2,633 times in 2022

That's 812 more posts than 2021!

9 posts created (0%)

2,624 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@olderthannetfic

@lindstrom2020

@layzeal

@witchy--mama

@rosethornewrites

I tagged 2,631 of my posts in 2022

#fan art - 554 posts

#funny - 329 posts

#mdzs - 254 posts

#the untamed - 187 posts

#wei wuxian - 168 posts

#cute animals - 145 posts

#lan wangji - 131 posts

#mo dao zu shi - 103 posts

#cats - 89 posts

#ao3 - 88 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#my partner’s and my family (who live in vastly different areas for us and each other) all saw it or were showed it by someone

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In denial that it’s time for bed and that it is Sunday.

0 notes - Posted May 22, 2022

#4

For anyone that finds this helpful!

1 note - Posted November 17, 2022

#3

Few days ago I saw the anti-ao3 stuff being all like “it looks so bad” and i just had to go look at ff.net and wattpad to see what the alternatives were.

Like… have people seen those sites?? I can’t open multiple tabs on wattpad?? And ads everywhere on ff.net and the same design since the early 2000s?? (At least on their mobile sites, didn’t try desktop)

And they’re telling me it’s a problem that ao3 “LoOks LikE That????” 😂🤣😂🤣 It seems like such a nonsensical knitpick.

1 note - Posted April 13, 2022

#2

Me: brainstorming whumpy gross fan fic about my faves

Also Me but singing in my head: I’ll write under a pseudonym; you’ll see what I can do to him.

2 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Saw a post calling ao3 a scam bc of it’s donation drive.

Can’t be any bigger of a scam than advertisement funded websites surviving by parasitically using your data.

Things aren’t free, even if it doesn’t cost you money.

3 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

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