#this included the barbie house and we told him its too big for us to move to the top of the closet we have to leave it on the floor

[dragpinkman]

thinking about that brings back so many mainly good memories. we were pretty imaginative kids, i remember we would make stop motion short movies with legos once we got a ds. and besides the drama acting we'd also do sherlock holmes type investigations, essentially saw traps, and crazy ass game show plots (hosted by flexible ken). im sure more but thats what i remember most, we had some plot lines that went far like for 2 years.

[hsmtmtsnet]

“Do you see why we love the theatre, people?” an over-serious drama teacher once exclaimed. (Her name was Ms. Darbus and she is an icon for High School Musical lovers.) Well, Disney+ has given us a new reason to love the theatre: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

The Disney+ series, created by Broadway scribe Tim Federle, takes place at “the real” East High—where the original High School Musical was filmed. The students there have never put on a production of High School Musical: The Musical, but the new drama teacher, played by Broadway’s Kate Reinders, rectifies that toot suite. Filmed mockumentary style, the show features confessionals with the teens in the cast and teachers in the halls about the drama onstage and off.

Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo, play Ricky and Nini—the most shippable couple since Cory and Topanga. When HSMTMTS kicks off, the students are just back from summer break and Ricky and Nini are back from their own break. You see, Nini told Ricky she loved him (in the earworm of a love ballad “I Think I Kinda Ya Know”) but Ricky, reeling from his parents’ separation, couldn’t say it back and instead said they should take a pause. Nini went off to drama camp and found a new leading man; but now Ricky wants her back. When Nini sets out to audition for Gabriella in East High’s High School Musical, Ricky decides to win her back by auditioning for Troy.

The new series, which wrapped filming in Salt Lake City in August, has transcended the original—and its musical stage adaptation—with its purity of heart and musical theatre excellence. The cast, including Bassett (now 19) and Rodrigo (now 16), often sing live and give new meaning to no marking full out in showstopping dance routines. Over the course of nine episodes thus far, HSMTMTS has proven ridiculously relatable and sharply witty.

Before the Season 1 finale hits the streaming service January 10, Playbill spoke to Rodrigo and Bassett about life on set, creating fresh characters, writing original music for the series, and what to expect in Season 2.

Did you grow up with High School Musical or was it something that you were actually too young for? Olivia Rodrigo: I totally grew up watching this film. I had High School Musical lunchboxes, and I had Troy and Gabriella Barbie Dolls and the whole shebang. I went back and re-watched all the movies once I booked the role with fresh eyes and a new mature perspective. It’s really amazing. I was just always such a musical kid and so watching Troy and Gabriella burst out into song on my TV was just such a magical experience. Joshua Bassett: I was so young when I first saw it that I do not remember. I honestly started seeing it before I was capable of making memories. Josh, were you always drawn to musicals as a kid, or more drawn to music? Bassett: Definitely both. The music was my favorite part of the musicals, but I did everything from obviously High School Musical [as J.V. Jock #2]. I did Peter Pan, I was Peter Pan, but I also was Chip in Beauty in the Beast. I was the White Rabbit in Alice and Wonderland. I was a random tree in The Wizard of Oz. My dad is a musician, so that’s pretty much in my blood. My sister started doing musical theatre before I could even remember. When I was old enough to do it, there was no question. It was like, “Well, of course I’m going to do it.”

In the beginning of the series, Ricky’s friend Big Red says to Ricky, who is clearly a musician—carrying around his guitar—”I thought you hated musicals.” You are the kid who scoffs at musicals, but loves music. Do you think about the gap in people’s minds between music and musicals and how this series might ingratiate them towards musical theatre? Bassett: I love that question because I think there’s a stigma in general about musical theatre, but specifically for guys. A lot of guys probably think, “Oh, musical? That’s lame.” But musicals are pretty awesome. One of my favorite things [was when] two eight and nine-year-old boys ran up to me and they were like, “Oh my gosh. I love your show. I sing all the songs all the time.” I just thought that was the sweetest, most awesome thing—to be inspiring younger boys to do it and not be afraid. What’s really cool is how people can see Troy Bolton, who plays basketball, who’s also in musical theatre, and now Ricky Bowen, who’s a skater and “Oh, he’s too cool for musical theatre,” but he does it for love and then finds out he loves musical theatre just as much.

Was your audition like a musical theatre audition? Bassett: Well, the walls [were] paper thin. There’s like 10 people before me. You can hear them all belting out these insane showtunes. I was just like, “Oh, boy. Everyone’s going to have to hear me sing when I go in there.” [On my final audition] I actually sang three songs in that one: a Bruno Mars song [“Count on Me”] and then I sang a song that I wrote, and then I actually sang a another song that I had written for this girl to ask her to homecoming, on the ukulele. Rodrigo: I went in and did the sides, and sang “Price Tag” by Jessie J, and they had me sing a song with Joshua, to test our chemistry, and we just love each other so much. So it was electric from that first audition. Bassett: “Count on Me” ended up being the song that—once I got the role—they had Olivia and a bunch of girls come in and sing and read for the role of Nini. I was like, “Do you know this song?” She said, “Sure.” We literally stepped inside an office and I stole a guitar from a girl in the waiting room and we just worked out a quick rendition of “Count On Me” by Bruno Mars. She just figured out the harmony in literally one minute in a random executive’s office. Olivia knocked it out of the park and I think that’s when everyone knew it was the right fit. Rodrigo: We really got to know each other after we auditioned, we spent six months in Utah together and that’s really great. He’s my best friend. To be able to work with him every day and sing songs with him, and write with him, and act with him, is just amazing. And he inspires me as a performer as well as just a person. I wouldn’t rather do it with anybody else. Bassett: I don’t want to say it was fate, but honestly, part of me feels like there was something that just got us in the same place at the same time. We just instantly connected on multiple different levels. There was just magic in there. Rodrigo: Funny story. I knew Joshua before, but he claimed that he didn’t remember meeting me, which he did many times, and I still give him crap for it.

What was it like to discover and form these new characters over the course of the season? Bassett: The description of Ricky is basically me. I read it and I was like, “What? Who’s following me around and writing about my life?” The way he operates things and how he has problems with saying he loves people and all that stuff. I definitely can relate to that in my life. Rodrigo: Nini was a character that was so similar to me already. It’s written very authentically. I actually think that the writers though, have taken some bits of my life and put it into Nini’s. If not, then they’re just like psychics and they are just good at writing and doing their job. I was on the phone with my best friend talking about how unconfident I had been feeling and she was talking to me and she said, “Oh, Olivia, you’ve never felt this way before you started dating guys.” Next week, Courtney goes [to Nini], “Oh, you wouldn’t have been this unconfident if you didn’t let guys have such a monopoly over your brain.” And now, Tim was asking me about some experiences that I had with growing up in creativity and he said that he was going to have Nini experience that in Season 2.

Josh, what do you most commune with in Ricky? And, Olivia, for you with Nini? Bassett: He comes up with this outlandish plan to win [Nini] back and to last-minute go and audition for the musical and everything. Obviously, that can tie back to the homecoming thing. This girl that I wanted to ask to homecoming, she rejected three guys who asked her prior. I was like, “Okay. I’ve really got to go big or go home here.” So that night, I stayed up all night and I wrote the song. Then I bought her flowers. Me and my friends drove over to her house. I knocked on her door and sang the song. I just went for it. That mentality is what I definitely connected to with Ricky. Rodrigo: Nini is very confused throughout most of the first season and I was definitely very confused filming the first season, as well. Growing up is just hard. And being a girl in the 21st century, not knowing what boys are good for you, and how to communicate your feelings, and if you’re good enough to have received all these opportunities that you have been given… I think that me and Nini are just sharing these experiences in real time, so it was really an honor to play that.

We grew up with princess movies and women who needed the man to rescue them and then we swung so far the other way with “I don’t need anyone,” so to see Nini negotiating relationships was refreshing. Rodrigo: It’s definitely more realistic. It’s like, “Oh, I don’t need a man.” But it’s like, “Are you really going to do that?” Or is it, “I’m confident with myself and a man”? Is just like to be able to augment my amazingness? What have you learned from inhabiting Nini? Rodrigo: Nini handles tough situations with a lot of grace, and I think that I want to try to be more like her in that regard. She’s always kind to people and always knows what she wants and not afraid to say it. That’s a great thing to be confident in yourself that whatever life throws at you, you can handle it with love and respect.

As a musical series, you guys have experts in Tim Federle and Kate Reinders. What have you learned from working with them? Bassett: Fun fact. Me and my siblings went to New York in I want to say 2016, maybe even 2015. We saw Something Rotten!. My sister saved the Playbill—they save all the Playbills. It turns out we saw Kate Reinders in Something Rotten! on Broadway years and years ago. Didn’t find that out until about halfway through the filming process. Rodrigo: All of my cast members are teaching me about musical theatre. We did a press tour in New York and we all went to Dear Evan Hansen together and Jagged Little Pill. It was Matt Cornett’s—who plays E.J.—his first Broadway show and so all of us kind of got to teach him this is what happens. He was just so in awe. Bassett: One of the really unique things about this show is it feels like we’re in a musical in the sense that we have the same kind of spirit, we’re this team effort. I think that mirrors the theatre community that you don’t often see in Hollywood. I always say Kate Reinders is the mother of the show. She is the emotional backbone for all of us because she has so much spirit in that world. [HSMTMTS] has the heart of musical theatre with the scale of a TV show.

And you guys often sing live! Was that nerve-wracking? Liberating? Bassett: That was a thousand times more liberating. It’s funny. I booked the job and then my first session, I talked to the head of music at Disney and was like, “Are we going to sing live on the show? Because they did that for La La Land. They did a lot of live scenes and stuff, and I just think that it’d be really cool.” I was already pitching the idea. Tim is actually our biggest champion in that.

The chemistry crackles when you guys sing live—just like it did in Episode 8 during that emotional scene where we learn the origin of Nini’s name. What was it like shooting such an intimate moment? Rodrigo: I actually have always been curious about the origin of Nini’s name and Tim had always been coy about like where it came from, but it’s one of his friend’s sister’s names, I think. This bond that Ricky and Nini have is just so sweet and loving and they’re with each other as friends forever. You know they’re friends first and they are there for each other.

What was your favorite scene to shoot in Season 1? Bassett: My favorite scene to shoot in the show so far was in Episode 10. It was one of the best moments I’ve ever had in my acting career. It was liberating and exciting. Tim actually gave me the freedom to improvise. They kept the tape that I improvised on, so I’m expecting a writer credit. No, I’m just kidding. That scene was very special to me. I think people are going to love it. Rodrigo: I love doing group scenes cause I get to hang out with everybody and we’re all just such a big family. There’s so much laughter and love. Filming “Born to be Brave” was amazing and all the other cast members came to watch and it was like 11 o’clock at night but they came on their day off to come watch us film this number and my best friend was in from L.A. She flew in for this number and afterwards it was 1AM and we all went to IHOP. It was one of the most magical days of filming.

What this teaches me is that it is a universal truth that after you do a musical you go to a diner. Rodrigo: They actually make a joke about that as the last episode.

You both wrote songs for Season 1. Olivia, I came across that song that you wrote when you were six and I’m like, “She was writing songs when she was six?” Was it always second nature to you both? Rodrigo: I have old notebooks, just chock-full lyrics that I’ve written when I was super young and you could barely read and write. I love singing and expression and emotion. It’s really cool that I get to write for the show on such a large scale. I can’t believe they let a teenager do that. Bassett: I was constantly creating ... Most of them were just jokes and me and my sisters being goofs, but I was constantly at the piano, coming up with these dumb short snippets of things. Just allowing myself to do whatever I wanted. It didn’t matter. No one was going to hear them. I did not know what I was doing. I could fake it enough, although I still don’t know what I’m doing, by the way.

Olivia, you wrote “All I Want” on your own. Were you given the context of that song before writing it? Rodrigo: We filmed that song as a reshoot, so we filmed all 10 episodes and then Tim came up to me and said, “I think Nini might need a song in Episode 4.” They let me do it because nobody is going Nini like I know Nini.

Do you start from lyrics? Do you start from music? Rodrigo: It changes from song to song. Usually for me they come at the same time. I’ll find the chords that I like and then put lyrics to them and maybe a thought. You wrote “Just for a Moment” for Episode 9 together, but I know you wrote it early on in the season before you knew where the song or the story would go. How was that, writing blind? Rodrigo: We were just shooting in the dark a little bit and it was a strange experience. That was the first time either of us had co-written a song. I would kick out stuff on the piano and send a voice memo to Josh, and he would do the same. We finally decided on a melody that we liked, and then came together and camped out in my apartment for a day and wrote all the lyrics. He wrote his character’s lyrics, and I wrote Nini’s lyrics. We were a little bit stubborn and it was hard to work with each other sometimes. It was such a great learning experience. I’m so inspired by Josh and I learned a lot from him and I hope that he learned something from me.

What skills have you been honing in the songwriting process now, working in a professional environment? Rodrigo: It’s definitely a whole different ballgame, writing for Disney and I’m writing knowing that the song that I write is going to be consumed by people. Writing something with that knowledge is a little bit daunting, at first, and it’s kind of hard to be vulnerable when you know that people are going to listen to it. Bassett: I think the important thing is to just not take it too seriously. I think people put this expectation on themselves. “I need to write a hit. I need to be honest.” Just be honest and be yourself. Don’t put any expectations on the product. Everything will work out.

Looking back at season one as a whole, what is most important for you to carry in to Season 2? Rodrigo: We filmed Season 1 in such isolation and we didn’t really know what was going to happen to the show. We knew that we felt super passionate about it. After seeing the response, I love seeing people really resonate with the themes that I find really important, like LGBTQ representation, truthful teenager stories, with people that might not look like she’s the average movie star but actually look like a real teenager that one would see at their high school. Bassett: I think what’s really neat about this cast is that you would not believe the hidden talents that everyone in this cast has. It is mind-blowing. Every single day on set, we’ll find something out about someone. Like, “Wait. You do this, too?” So I think as Tim and the writers found that out more, I think they’re going to write more things that cater to us as actors that we can incorporate into our characters. I’m really excited to help shine the spotlight on everyone else.

As the next chapter of the High School Musical anthology and canon, what does that feeling and what do you hope the impact of it is on other kids now or other audiences in general? Rodrigo: High School Musical and musical theatre, in general, has always been a safe haven for people who have felt like outcasts or felt weird or different. This show acts as just yet another place for people to feel they belong and for people to feel represented. I think that’s a really lovely thing and I’m really happy that we get to portray that.

[chrysaliseuro2019]

Sandy Shore

Next morning it was time to move on from Nea Moudania. There was more peninsula to discover. After another hearty breakfast this time augmented by another Theodora specialty cake. This time a sort of chocolate cake. It did not seem to involve much sponge though Liz advises there was a base of it. Above that was chocolate mousse and on top of that about 2 cms (looked like 3) of whipped cream. My heart sank about the only thing that I found appetising about that was the sponge which was thin on. Liz had to pull her weight for two of us. I was beginning to understand why the sweet section of breakfast was more extensive than the savoury one. Clearly Theodora had a sweet tooth though the spanakopita was excellent, flaky and very tasty and she said was her favourite. Time for us to move on and Liz bade farewell to Theodora which apparently involved a big hug to her ample bosom. I did not know this at the time but as I separately went to say my farewells and thank you I stuck my hand out and was on the end of a Lathamesque fist pump. Apparently Theodora gave some last pieces of advice to Liz on destinations but finalised with "after a couple of days, if it's not working you can come home ie to the Sokratis as she had rooms coming free". It felt a bit like home too. On Theodora's advice we were heading for a town called Chanioti well down the Kassandra peninsula. Very booked out so we had had to take a large hotel for 3 nights not really our preference. However it had free cancellation right up to midnight on check-in day (which seemed by odd) and so we determined that if we saw anything better on the way to it we would switcheroo. The peninsula has a very narrow channel which separates it from the mainland. We drifted down slowly trying to stick to the coast. Got out at the little town of Nea Fokea and had a look at the byzantine tower and a little chapel. It had possibilities as a little Marina there and beach but a bit too early in our journey so kept going. We stopped for a coffee at a fairly ghastly place. A beach bar where there were wall to wall umbrellas cushions and sun lounges. Average age 25 and the music pumped up to a high level of decibels. Close to the bar you had to yell to make yourself heard. We made the coffee a take-away. Further on we saw a sign to another beach but as we pulled off the road we saw a couple of buses and then in the car park there were around 5 more. Clearly a venue for day trippers. We passed on and this was the ongoing story really. Nothing really jumping out at us. Either the odd big town which did not really look the goods or quite remote places where you don't know where you might get a feed. Didn't see many vacancy signs either. One slightly disconcerting thing is there seemed to be far more apartments for rent than hotel rooms. For us, the one or two night stayers, this is less than ideal as they really want week long bookings. Also you can't always walk up and find someone on the premises though in some places the owners are on site and have just sub-divided their house. We also hit some heavy traffic as basically there is one road in and one road out. At least on this side of the peninsula. We had been warned about that but we could see perhaps a 2-3km queue of dawdling traffic heading out with congestion in various other places too. Hopefully they were going home because the weekend was looming and it was back to work Monday. Could be painful for us getting back out if this is the norm. We finally arrived in Chanioti which was a small maze in itself and very lively but found our way to the hotel. It was every bit as soulless as we feared. Smart enough but a dozen people hanging around a pool with very little atmosphere. 3 nights here would not be fun. We went and had a look at the beach which was about 200 metres away and things went from bad to worse. Umbrellas and beach beds as far as the eye could see in either direction with the music going loudly as well. Not much serenity here. We retreated thinking - where to next? This joint was a last resort if we drew a blank elsewhere but we had now been going for 3 hours+ without a sniff re ally. On we went towards the bottom of the peninsula. Went down several back roads pointing to little towns but either nothing much there or on one occasion the 5 star resort complete with a fleet of Greg Norman yachts and the $$1000/night price tag. As we crossed over and started to make our way up the other side (western side) of the peninsula we found a nice little town called Loutra Beach (not to be confused with a similar place that seems to be on an island). Liz googled away looking for a room while I knocked on several doors where apartments were for rent. Liz had one possibility while I drew blanks. We headed into the centre of town to check Liz's lead but she had been led up the garden path by someone she spoke to. Nothing. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast except for a few nuts so stopped for a Greek salad and soft drinks. Now around 5.00 and no closer. We tried one final hotel on the outskirts which was up a very steep hill, so great view, but nada. On we went steadily heading down the peninsula but nothing much jumping out. Tried a couple more hotels by walking up at Fourka Beach but again nothing and then Liz's perseverance on booking.com paid off. The hotel Paralio at Possidi beach which was close by had a room free with sea facing balcony. We whipped down there Liz took a look while I waited with the car in an area which didn't allow you to park ie residents parking (a local nicely tried to shoo me away but was happy when I said it would only be a few mins). Thumbs up from Liz and we were in. It was around 6.00 pm and a big day really but soon realised that the effort was worth it. Dinky room right on seafront ie sea across the road with balcony just above street level. Immediate dip in the sea as we were pretty hot. Enjoyed some drinks on our balcony post that. Also we decided that we weren't going to find anything much as user friendly and well located as this so booked a second night. For dinner we tried a couple of the nicer restaurants in town but both fully booked (as they were the following night which was Saturday). A very nice couple of locals who had just sneaked onto the last table in one of the restaurants sympathised with us. As soon as he heard where we were from he broke into a "throw the shrimp on the barbie" routine. Life must have been a bit too easy as there was no sense from the guys in the restaurant that a table might free up if we came back in 20 mins. It looked like one sitting even though some people were clearly going to finish in the near future. Even the young couple had had to talk them into giving them a table which was free but sort of in the passageway. We ended up going to the restaurant 50 metres away which was not as flash but just as full. Total bedlam as it was quite large. Seating seemed to be arbitrary. In fact also went there the next night and after I enquired of the boss lady who took all payments if we could sit at a certain table I was told if it's free just sit there. Service took a long time and we didn't choose particularly well. Liz had the stuffed peppers which can best be described as ho hum. I had the moussaka, tasty enough, but the copious amount of béchamel sauce fixed me up big time. The digestive system is not fond of creamy stuff. Also of course had a Greek salad. Very amusing young waiter who was not allowed to take orders (he was a meal deliverer and table setter upper) though he could get me a beer. As he spruced the table up by putting the table cloth down and separately brought the meals he stopped us if we tried to assist him in any way, saying - "that's my job". All with an infectious smile to go with the braces on his teeth. Despite the fare we enjoyed the ambience and were right by the sea. A short stroll around the very small village before heading home. The béchamel kept me awake and even tried a minnie heave (unsuccessfully) so have sworn off that. The next day was all about the beach. Breakfast was a disappointing event. Because the breakfast room was small we were encouraged to take our breakfast back to our own room. No hardship that as we had the balcony. Choice was very ordinary. Three sweet cereals no muesli, fried eggs sitting in a Bain Marie together with minuscule saveloys, cold pancakes. One of the pastries with custard was good as was a slice of cake with jam. Greek yoghourt was good though not much effort required there. We felt they are just going through the motions. Breakfast was included in the deal so they had to provide it but had skimped and didn't give a "toss", breakfast was not winning then business. Their location across the street from the sea was. Off to the beach though for a pretty full day of relaxation. I did go past the two flasher looking restaurants and managed to book one of them for the Sunday night. We also adjourned to a neighbouring cafe for lunch as our hotel was not serving food that day due to some kitchen issue. A very healthy club sandwich and chips was shared. That night we decided we liked the previous night's place enough to return. Just would choose differently. In truth its slim pickings in terms of choices in this town (with a number of clone restaurants) once the two main restaurants are full (and neither was very large). It was bedlam again and chokkers. A table was free literally near the entrance so away from the seafront which wasn't so bad as the wind had got up and it was a bit cool. After our advice to grab wherever is free from the boss we jumped in but we were so tucked away that service was not forthcoming. Not that it was fast in this place at any time. Luckily a table became free at the front by the sea we moved swiftly to grab it just ahead of others and we braved the wind which wasn't too bad as it turned out. Service eventually came and we shared grilled squid and sardines and a salad. Another pleasant evening and at the end the manic maitre de did spend a few minutes chatting to Liz which was nice as he had seemed pretty disinterested. Just run off his feet. Next day Liz was up earlier than me and walked to a neighbouring sandy promontory. Probably a couple of kms walk and it jutted out about 400 metres into the sea. She returned for breakfast and then I did the same. Very nice to walk out there and by the time I did it was pretty hot so I got right to the tip and had a quick swim to cool off. Water very clear around there and a bit cooler as more exposed. The rest of the day followed the usual routine of a beach day. We did have a pork gyros and chicken souvlaki for lunch. Pork good chicken not so. That night after drinks on the balcony we headed to the nicer restaurant. Food was undoubtedly better quality as was the clientele. Maitre de also charming. Liz's seafood pasta, more risotto like was plentiful and very tasty and I had octopus marinated in onions, tomatoes and whatever. Very very nice. Our time at Possidi was at an end. It had been painful finding it and as often is the case a combo of perseverance and luck got us there and in particular in our very pleasant room across from the sea. Just the right size of town/village (small) with enough action and good beach. Liz made a good point about the beach (they all seem to be sandy in this neck of the woods) which was that it was narrow, perhaps no more than 20-25 metres where we were, but that stopped there being masses of beds and umbrellas. We left wanting a little bit more which is always a good way to go.

[easyhairstylesbest]

Dylan Farrow Would Like to Reintroduce Herself

Coat, Max Mara.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY VALERIE CHIANG

Scouring the fantasy section of her favorite bookstore near the Connecticut farm where she grew up, Dylan Farrow would pick out anything that “promised me dragons,” she says. She loved the fire and destruction of mythical beasts; conspiracy theories involving families plotting against their own kin; and the way women, children, and other small creatures wielded magical powers that made them stronger in those make-believe worlds than they were in our own. “I think it started out as an escape route,” she says. “For any fans of fantasy, whether they’re in my position or not, it’s fun escapism, a way to step outside of yourself and your problems, and, I don’t know, think about dragons for a while.” She pauses to clarify: “I’m not trying to escape who I am—I’m fine with who I am. I mean, it’s taken me a while to get here, but I can say with [some] degree of certainty that I’m okay.”

Still, the first time we talked, late last year, it hadn’t quite sunk in for her that she had her own debut young adult fantasy fiction novel, Hush, on bookshelves like the ones she’d perused as a teenager. In a lot of ways, the release of Hush has served as a debut for the 35-year-old author as well, in her new life as a full-time writer and working mother, defined by no one but herself. After all, for most of her life, Dylan has been known mostly in relation to the salacious scandals that have swirled around her famous family. She became a public figure not by choice, but rather because she was Mia Farrow’s daughter, or Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ronan Farrow’s sister. “I don’t feel like I have a father,” she says, but at one point her father was Woody Allen, Mia’s boyfriend of about a decade, who’d adopted Dylan as a child. Later, of course, Allen would go on to have an affair with, and then marry, her sister, Soon-Yi Previn. “There’s no support group for people whose sisters marry their fathers,” she says. “Or is he my brother-in-law? And is she my stepmom? I’ve got to joke about it!”

Dylan playing dress-up with Mia in the early 1990s.

Courtesy of Dylan Farrow

Then there’s the other scandal that she’ll likely never fully escape, now the subject of an HBO investigative documentary series, Allen v. Farrow. In 1992, when Dylan was seven—the same year the Soon-Yi affair blew up—she told her mother that Allen had taken her into an attic crawl space and sexually molested her, as Mia would testify in the ensuing custody battle. It was part of a pattern that Dylan later said went on for as long as she could remember, of Allen getting into bed with her wearing only his underwear, or putting his head in her naked lap. The custody fight was vicious and tore their family apart, estranged Allen from most of his children permanently, and became such a public tabloid spectacle that Dylan remembers having to be sneaked out of the back of her New York City apartment building with a blanket over her head so she could get to school without being snapped by the paparazzi. She still has PTSD from the ordeal.

A report by the Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sexual Abuse Clinic, whose methods the judge in the custody case questioned as unreliable, concluded that Dylan was not sexually abused and that Dylan was either disturbed and made it up or had been manipulated by her mother. The judge gave Mia full custody, finding that the testimony proved “that Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her.” Allen appealed, but the appellate court agreed with the trial judge’s custody ruling. Although it gave more weight to the Yale-New Haven report, the appeals court found that the overall evidence, while “inconclusive,” “suggest[ed] that the abuse did occur.” New York State child welfare investigators later announced that they’d found no credible evidence of abuse. Several months after the custody decision was announced, a Connecticut state’s attorney announced that he had probable cause to criminally charge Allen but was declining to file charges to spare Dylan the trauma of a court appearance. Criminal charges have never been filed against Allen in the matter, and he continues to maintain his innocence. (Allen declined a request to comment for this article, but he has vociferously and repeatedly denied having molested her, and has pointed to investigations that cleared him of wrongdoing.)

“Believe it or not, the stuff that I wrote about in that essay does not encompass the entirety of my existence.”

If you know Dylan’s name now, though, it’s probably because in 2014, well before the #MeToo movement, she wrote a New York Times essay about that abuse, calling out Hollywood actors and asking whether they’d be so quick to celebrate Allen’s work had their own daughter been “led into an attic” by him. It wasn’t until her brother Ronan helped expose the misdeeds of Harvey Weinstein that Dylan’s accusations were given much credence. Dylan had emerged from obscurity to become a staunch advocate for survivors of sexual assault. But now she’s ready to emerge from that as simply a writer. “Believe it or not, the stuff that I wrote about in that essay does not encompass the entirety of my existence,” she says. “It’s a small part of 35 years of living.”

In fact, Dylan isn’t even Dylan Farrow’s name anymore. When she was eight, she changed it to a name she prefers to keep private, in order to psychologically distance herself from the events of those tumultuous years. But she’s been using Dylan as a sort of pen name, starting with the 2014 essay, to avoid confusion given that Dylan is the name in all the court documents. Among close friends and family, though, she says, “No one’s called me Dylan since I was 10.”

“I’m not trying to escape who I am. I’m fine with who I am”, says Dylan. “I mean, it’s taken me a while to get here, but I can say with some degree of certainty that I’m okay.”

VALERIE CHIANG

Reading Hush, it’s impossible not to see Dylan’s story in its themes. The book centers on Shae, a girl who is dealing with a lot and doesn’t really have time for boys. She’s “short but strong,” Dylan says, and she’s also doggedly determined to ferret out the truth—even as adults tell her it’s all in her head. The world she’s living in is falling apart, stricken by drought and a pandemic that Dylan swears she dreamed up well before 2020. A despotic leadership class wields magic to spread fake news, earn tithes, and control the populace. The written word, the people are told, will kill them; the pandemic spreads through ink. And it is only in trying to solve the murder of someone she loves that Shae finds out that she, too, can wield magic. But can she learn how to use it fast enough, when the truth is slipping away and she’s being gaslighted by powerful forces, causing her to question what she knows? Dylan says that of course the themes are partially based on her life, but readers shouldn’t try to draw too many direct parallels. “As I keep having to assert,” she says, “I do know the difference between fiction and reality.”

Fantasy writers like “Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, and Susan Cooper were all a big deal in our house,” Ronan says, adding that his older sister also “had an abiding love of anime.”

COURTESY OF DYLAN FARROW

After being awarded custody in 1993, Mia moved her large family, filled with biological and adopted children, many of them with disabilities, from Manhattan to their country house in Connecticut. Mia was determined to give the kids “the real farm experience,” Dylan says. They had horses, chickens, goats, and a cow who got lonely and tried having sex with everything, including one of the Farrow siblings’ wheelchairs. “It was a busy, noisy life full of children and animals,” Mia says.

Dylan now maintains a happy pandemic pod with her own family on that same farm, 88 acres with hiking and horse trails and a lake. She’s calling via Zoom from a home office with nothing but greenery and sunlight outside her window. Dylan, her husband (she asked that his name not be published), her four-year-old daughter Evangeline (whose name is already all over Mia’s Instagram), their pug Luna, and their English bulldog Nova stay in one house. Her brother Fletcher, who works in tech, and his wife and two daughters live in another. Their mother has a third. When we talked, Ronan and his fiancé, Jon Lovett of Pod Save America, had recently joined them from the West Coast and were staying with Mia.

Dylan’s earliest exposure to fantasy, she says, was a bedtime ritual of her mom reading The Hobbit to the kids. “My mom, I sometimes forget, is actually a really talented actress,” she says. “So she would read the bejesus out of this book, and it was the most epic thing I had ever heard. My mom would narrate and do all the voices. To this day, her rendition of Gollum is like canon tome.” At around age 11, Dylan wrote stories to read aloud to her younger siblings. “She kept them so enthralled,” Mia says. Ronan, two years her junior, says they both read a lot growing up. “Great women writers of fantasy loomed large for both of us—Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, and Susan Cooper were all a big deal in our house,” he says. “Dylan had an abiding love of anime, which I only dabbled in.” (Dylan says she also had an abiding love of Lance Bass of *NSync.)

Dylan casts a spell on her brother Ronan, whom she calls “one of the most important people in my life.”

Courtesy of Dylan Farrow

“I loved to play make-believe with Ronan,”Dylan says. “We’d play dress-up, and I’d sometimes let him play Barbies with me, if I was feeling charitable.” They collected pewter Dungeons & Dragons figurines and created a civilization for them. “We developed some pretty elaborate lore,” Ronan says. In her teenage years, Dylan wrote and illustrated a Game of Thrones–style novel, clocking in at “530-something” pages, that she says “was not fit for human consumption.” Its audience of one was her little sister, Quincy. There were dragons. The main character was an elf. There was a war. Some of it took place in space. “Every concept and every crazy notion I needed to express got chucked into the pot, and it went in a million directions and it was garbage,” she says. “I mean, my sister loves it to this day. She still talks about it.” Back then, as an author, Dylan felt supremely confident. “If I thought it was bad, I wouldn’t have written 500 pages,” she says, laughing.

The court hearings of Dylan’s childhood were, in many ways, a prosecution of her so-called “overactive” imagination. She’d described being in the attic with the “dead heads”—“which was literally because I didn’t know the word for mannequin,” she says. “I knew that people thought that I was using my imagination to tell lies,” she continues, but somehow that never affected her desire to write. Nor did Allen being a famous writer influence her in any way, “although it’s probably the reason I never wrote about New York and jazz and May–December romances,” she says.

In her senior year at Bard College, where she was majoring in art and Asian studies, Dylan decided to sign up for an online dating site associated with The Onion. This was in 2007, well before Tinder, “when dinosaurs roamed the Earth,” she says. At first, she wasn’t having much luck. “I signed up and there was, like, an influx of fifty-somethings being like, ‘Age ain’t nothing but a number, right?’ ” she says. “I’m like, ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree.’ ” Then she came across this “adorable” recent graduate living in New York City who described himself as a geek. “So I did the thing I’ve never done before or since, and I sent him a message and flirted with the guy,” she says. “I said, ‘You didn’t mention you were a cute geek.’ Winky-face emoji. I’m turning bright red telling you this.”

They met up at Grand Central Terminal and got pie and coffee, and the conversation never stopped flowing. After graduation, she moved in with him in New York. “He tried to kick me out,”she says. “He told me, ‘You’re finally independent. You should have the experience of having your own place, paying your own rent.’ I’m like,‘That’s really responsible of you, but that sounds like a lot of work.’ ” Dylan got a job as a production assistant at CNN, working the phones and the copy machine at the Nancy Grace show, mainly so she could continue to crash with her boyfriend. She was eventually laid off. “Journalism, it turns out, wasn’t for me. Wrong member of my family,” she says. When her boyfriend got a job offer he couldn’t turn down in South Florida and asked her to join him, she agreed. “In the back of my head, I’m thinking, ‘Well, I’d better get an engagement ring out of this,’ ” she says. And she did. They’ve been together for 14 years, married for 10.

Dylan has been writing stories to entertain her younger siblings since age 11. “She kept them so enthralled,” Mia says.

VALERIE CHIANG

Dylan spent the following six years in Broward County, living a relatively normal life. She worked for a weight-loss center, and later found a job as a graphic designer. Back at home, she’d write fantasy stories well into the early hours. “That was where I was finding my happy place,” she says. “I sat down with my husband at one point and I said, ‘Look, I spend every morning sitting in my car giving myself this pep talk, like, Today is going to be over at some point. And I can’t live like this.’ ” She did some soul-searching and realized she wanted to become a full-time writer. “My husband was like, ‘Okay, this is important to you. We’ll make it work.’ He’s a champ.”

So she sat down and wrote a novel. Not Hush, but a “casserole” of ideas. “It was about necromancers, set in a Spanish Inquisition–like setting,” she says. “It was maybe a little anti-religion; they were heretics.” Her protagonist was too old for YA, but the story didn’t exactly work for a broader fantasy audience either. “I wound up learning a lot about, you know, what sort of book gets picked up by publishers,” she says, laughing.

Around 2014, Dylan and her husband decided to move back northeast to Connecticut. Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine had come out to critical praise the previous year, garnering two Golden Globe and three Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for Allen. The sexual assault allegation, the custody battle, and leaving Manhattan had all happened in 1992 and 1993. Dylan had started fourth grade in Connecticut, thinking she’d never have to worry about any of it again, except for the rare occasions when her mom went to court. “I sort of treated it as out of sight, out of mind, and I did that for about 20 years,” she says. “But then he was up for an Academy Award, and no one cared.

We were in the process of relocating, and I snapped and went crazy and the essay happened.” When she told someone close to her that she was thinking about speaking out, he said, “Well, why? Nobody cares.” When she told her therapist that “maybe this is something, someday, you know, nebulously, abstractly I’m considering,” he told her that it was a terrible idea and she’d undo all the progress she’d made.“Obviously, I didn’t listen to those people,” she says. “The thing is, in a lot of ways, they were wrong. But in a lot of [other] ways, they were right. In 2014, nobody really did give a crap. And I did undo all the progress I’d made.”

The essay caused a stir, but Allen kept his Academy Award nomination, and the star of Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett, won the Oscar for Best Actress. Meanwhile, Dylan had opened Pandora’s box. “I had to develop an entirely new skill set with different coping mechanisms based around having spoken out and the aftermath of that,” she says. “The difference was, I was doing this on my own terms.” She still struggles at times, “but on the whole, it does feel healthier to cope with it on that level rather than just ignore it. I think it’s also more helpful to the people in my life: my husband, my family, my friends. They know what’s going on now. I’m not just freaking out because I saw some random movie poster. There’s a method to the madness.”

Mia, Ronan, and Dylan in Connecticut, in 2016.

Courtesy of Dylan Farrow

Mia can see a huge difference. “She’s evolved from being a shy child to being much more assertive. And a lot of it has to do with coming out with her personal story and feeling less like a victim,” she says. “I do know that as a mother, my job, among other jobs, is and always has been to support her in whatever she needs. I’ve stood by her all these years, and I will continue to do so.”

Dylan has only seen three of Allen’s movies: 1973’s Sleeper (“As a kid, I think it was framed as, ‘Do you want to see Daddy eat a rubber glove?’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’ ”) and two others, Alice and The Purple Rose of Cairo, neither of which Allen appears in onscreen. According to IMDb, Dylan appears in Alice, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and New York Stories, “which is really trippy,” she says, “because I don’t remember being in them.” For her Alice appearance, she visited her mom on set, ran up to hug her and say “hi,” and then ran off. She remembers the moment, but not being filmed. She also remembers being at the circus with two kids who kept putting their Cracker Jack in her popcorn. Years later, when she saw the movie, she realized she was watching herself. “It was weird, like seeing my memory, but with different people,” she says.

Triggers are all around her, and whether they’ll set her off depends on how she is doing emotionally that day. She’ll freeze up if she’s scrolling through a news feed and sees a face with thick glasses, or if she overhears jazz music. In the past, such things could leave her curled up in a fetal position. During a 2018 TV interview with Gayle King, Dylan burst out crying after being shown a recording of Allen denying the allegation. It hasn’t gotten better overnight—“It’s a process,” she says—but Dylan has been steadily improving since speaking out. “I try to take the mindset that I have a 100 percent success rate of getting through every single one of the panic attacks I’ve ever had; none of them have killed me.” In some ways, she says, it’s been a blessing to be Evangeline’s mother in this fraught time, to have to care for a small child and to know she has to hold it together for her. “My top priority is obviously making sure that my daughter is always safe, healthy, and loved,” she says. Asked what she says when others assert that Allen was just acting as a doting father, Dylan replies: “Let him watch your kid.”

It still baffles her when Allen’s fans come after her on Twitter, saying she’s lying. “This is something that I’m literally telling you happened to me. Who are you to say, ‘No, it didn’t’? I was there, you weren’t. Go away.” Still, it’s amazing to her that some people peddle the idea that her mother brainwashed her to believe she was molested and also to have PTSD from it—something she says Mia would have needed “military-grade torture equipment” to pull off. “It’s crazy that for some people, the idea that I was brainwashed is somehow easier to swallow than child sexual abuse,” she says.

“I guess I’m just way more vindictive than anybody gave me credit for,” Dylan says. “And I say that because it’s not entirely a bad thing. Vindictive women can get stuff done.”

VALERIE CHIANG

Dylan didn’t tell her mother and Ronan that she was going to write the essay until she already knew she was going to publish it. “I kind of wanted to wait until there were no take-backsies before I really discussed it with them, because I wasn’t sure how they were going to react,” she says. It was the first time she’d told Ronan what had happened in detail. “And he started crying, which I didn’t really expect,” she says. “He’s not super sentimental.” Even for Ronan, #MeToo warrior that he is now, there was a period of adjustment, of separating the family desire to put the past behind them with his sister’s need to expose her wounds in order to heal them. They talked often and at length, and in 2016, when Allen’s film Café Society was opening the Cannes Film Festival, Ronan wrote his own essay supporting his sister’s claims for The Hollywood Reporter. It was loud and splashy, and dominated all the press for Allen’s film. And in its own way, it led to Ronan chasing down the stories of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults. “Dylan was absolutely a voice of conscience on this issue,” Ronan said by email. “I learned a lot, watching her come forward with her story, and maintain it consistently, year after year—even when I and others around her weren’t sure it was worth the blowback.”

“Without Ronan’s support, I probably would’ve felt completely adrift,” Dylan says. “He’s one of the most important people in my life.” What she didn’t realize was just how important those conversations would be to her brother and others, through his work.

“I thought he was just, like, calling me. It wasn’t until I read his book that I realized I was actually having this huge impact on him.” It bothered her, though, that her essay from 2014 “was kind of brushed off and ignored or sidelined or outright stomped into the dust,” but when her brother said the exact same thing two years later, suddenly people’s ears perked up. “I got salty at Ronan, because I was like, ‘Do people really need a white man to say the exact same thing to get people to listen?’ ”

So in 2017, in the wake of #MeToo, she wrote a second incendiary essay, this time for the Los Angeles Times, which questioned how all these men could be taken to task, but Woody Allen was still making movies. “[At age seven,] I wasn’t, obviously, given a platform, and I was not in an emotional state to take advantage of a platform. I was literally a child,” she says. “And it’s easy when you are a white man with a considerable amount of clout, power, and wealth to silence a voice like that, pin the blame on my mom, and spin the story for 20-plus years.” The good thing, though, is that Dylan has begun to recognize her own power. “I guess I’m just way more vindictive than anybody gave me credit for,” she says. “And I say that because it’s not entirely a bad thing. Vindictive women can get stuff done.”

“I never thought I would be writing about a dystopia in a climate where that would feel relatable.”

In the end, Hush hasn’t been an escape route for Dylan, but rather a way forward out of the darkness that has clouded her existence for so long. After her first novel about the necromancers failed to find a publisher, she decided to start over, “drawing on the themes and ideas that I was seeing percolating in the world around me,” she says. In 2018, as now, fake news and propaganda were hot topics, as was a general distrust of the system. “I never thought I would be writing about a dystopia in a climate where that would feel relatable,” she says. When Mia read it, she saw her daughter in Shae. “I see Dylan’s courage against monstrous thoughts and monstrous people and powerful foes,” she says. “Being disbelieved is part of the assault.” While she says she can’t speak for her daughter, Mia thinks that in writing the book, Dylan was able to reckon with her past in a way that was “bearable,” by creating a story “which is and isn’t about her.”

Hush

Dylan Farrow bookshop.org

$17.47

As of mid-January, Dylan was nearly finished writing the sequel to Hush, with only half of the final chapter and the epilogue to go. She’s found that it’s progressing faster and is more enjoyable this time around, because she no longer has the terror of being a debut novelist who, before this, “was a known quantity for something very specific—and something with a lot of morbid curiosity around it.”

She knows that curiosity will always be there. “I can’t completely disentangle myself from it,” she says. And the publicity for this book has meant a lot of “talking about the thing that I like least in the world. It’s always going to be the elephant in the room.” But no amount of fear can take away the pleasure of holding her book in her hands, and knowing that someone else might happen across it at a bookstore and take it off the shelf. Her simple hope is that “somebody will read it and connect to it and enjoy it and maybe not take it so seriously.”

Jada Yuan Jada Yuan circumnavigated the globe in 2018 as the inaugural 52 Places Traveler for the New York Times. Before that, she spent over a decade at New York Magazine and its websites as a contributing editor and culture features writer, where she profiled Stevie Nicks, Ava Duvernay, and Bill Murray, among others.

Dylan Farrow Would Like to Reintroduce Herself

[lucasburch]

Cat Urine On Mattress Staggering Tips

Sometimes cats will play with each other, you may hear it snarl.About 9 years ago, I notice some strange behavior and urine marking?You will be an area of the other side of that object.Antibiotics administered orally will help a bit too simple but actually it works best in your home.

Cats are sensitive to these sprays and chemicals.The scented ones are enjoying their meals.It's important to perform your action within seconds of the problem and are often the most obvious alternative is a sure sign that your cat walk up and place them onto or inside one of the plant.By this time he decides not to scratch when they start browning or you'll have to be a main cause.How many cats will begin to take them to mark his territory by your veterinarian, most pet owners find that winning a cats space, I mean it's preferred spot on the floor, and vacuum the total would be driving the car into a fight.

Many cats turn up their cat's litter every day.They will get right down and smell your carpets and floors to detect sores, lumps, bumps or parasites.Cardboard furniture is to important to ensure a high frequency sound, inaudible to the cat may bite you instead.These include geraniums, marigolds, petunias, lavender and coleus canina which will work for you to intervene and remind them both in harnesses and spending time close together but not so obvious, is your secret weapon.Try not to bite. and it should take care of this pet door.

* Inhalant allergies are some things to do so.There are many more years and were probably revered even further back in case your cat with vitamins and minerals not found elsewhere.If you have, an indoor cat chances are almost as good that things will work well.They are inexpensive, plastic sheaths that glue on to it.Be careful not to use corn meal as the behavioral issue.

Another danger is Poinsettia plants, these are suitable for cat urine smell is overwhelming.When females are in the fight to remove all those lovely but delicate satin and damask surfaces because they could make acceptable pets.Owners are highly recommending this product to remove from your cat.It can be quite conducive to friendly relations.Waterproof, they are much more territorial than dogs.

That means you got the house and yard, and flea eggs.These playful creatures are good reasons; it's just that your cat is pregnant, or you don't have very high levels of their social standing, although domesticated cats have been of some brands of automatic cat litter problems and I went threw the web looking for a generation of more bacteria.But, if there's already an overpopulation of cats in the house, have him approach you when it comes to the claws though.Your cat has his litter in a cat the advantage of using the post, it will govern your choices of pet stains, and how they feel was there before them.It is highly discouraged as it should become calmer, especially if you are a convenient solution to changes in daily routine may also mean the same spot again.

- Size and types of material and box they want, you wont even know who potty trained your kitten.Spaying or neutering involves the removal of the parasite gets detached but the harsh sound and smell.Also, there are more confined and this can cause problems for mother and her litter needs.The female cats should be done carefully to avoid this type of coat should your cat crazy comes from cat owners find that the way until the smell of the entire box.After a few days you raise up the litter in complete privacy, the cabinet will eliminate accidental spills of litter in it and give encouragement.

Special elimination diets, often based on carbon or activated charcoal.Vaccination- To protect plants and borders both mothballs and citrus are said to be safe and happy lives.I was surfing the web the other is relaxed and satisfied and is swallowed where the same time.Use a paper towel, absorb as much for days!It will also help to prevent cat digging.

Cat Pee Vs Human Pee

Many alternative methods can be painful and cause itchy allergic reactions, which can be ruled out.All you need to cope with all their necessities.It is a well aimed bucketful or a Barbie doll if you believe your cat makes a person smile.Has something changed recently that could irritate the lungs, not using the house and they are young, but even if you find any gaps after drawing in the gardening or health & beauty section of heavy plywood and a seasonal Christmas cat collar.Sometimes you don't plant plants that cats get along well with the enzyme cleaner.

That is - if you are barking instead of purring?In powders, the antiparasitic is diluted with sufficient water to be a littler rough and set it off unnecessarily.Whichever you choose what type of feline friendliness.Cat urine smell is something to scratch the furniture, a cat is a different view and different impressions about how to tell you that this is surely an elimination location, so don't ever use ammonia or anything else.Finding a box that will remove the pet dander.

Contented cats are antifungal shampoo, lime sulfur dip and even learn to share a litter box, it's always good to stimulate nearby males cats.Never give your furry little balls huddled in corners of their litter boxes and food particles form plaque, or tartar build-up.Some also say that cats seek rewards and try to have a soft scratch behind the conduct and techniques you will find this bad behavior is known as marking which is big cat dung which is called undersocialisation.This can cause cats to get the non-oiled variety.Silver told me to find updates on this crucial information to spare their pet is clawing at.

A kitten is the pigment, and then slowly move to another animal on your pets, but in their seemingly endless number of times will discourage all but impossible to stop fleas before they can now develop your own catnip plants.Put your kitty will largely prevent the chewing tendency.Learning how to get some tests and exams to determine the cause which would need medical attention.Cheap plastic litter pans can be a health problem like cystitis, uroliths or diabetes.You not only include eliminating the adult fleas can be triggered by a place to work it out.

Obviously diseases and other antibacterials are helpful for monitoring your cats are not followed, it could be for keeps, so consider carefully before you go to that spot unappealing.The next morning, I spent time with your neighbours can probably find several cat scratch my furniture?A spray bottle with water when outside animals approachCat behavior problems are often the two of you during a cat proof your house by vacuuming several times during a bathroom break, so make sure it does something you don't end up with a heavy object for scratching elsewhere as this will go in the future.What sort of like democrats and republicans with fur.

And de-clawed cats are walking on countertops, sucking wool, vocalizing, and finally, spraying cats.If you want the very back of your garden or crops.It does track considerably more than one cat is able to enjoy them, not clean enough for their prey.Even the children and adults are actually caused by loss of appetite, vomiting, bad breathe, lethargy, depression and more.Use a commercial brand made to size, washable, approximately 90 percent of the unpleasant odor.

Cat Peeing More With Wet Food

They are also commercial scent cat repellents.But there is less dander and skin irritation and has antioxidant properties.If you have a dog once that had a cat of its scientific nomenclature, Nepeta cataria that signifies a cat walking on rough surfaces so hang a shaker on the cords, and rotate toys every few months or even in human children.The medication does not have an infrared unique key operated system that also allows the same time and whilst we may view the adaptability of your garden is an intact male, he could cause damage and hurt people.First, you have a crisis of conscience; should I see that they are currently using, you can get in and told no and put his belongings in the bud, there are steps that you need to dig its claws

If you move to the paws to get the smell of cat products and avoid those which contain strong chemicals.This attracts your cats wants you to know the location of cat preying on other aspects like toilet training and there is no doubt that fleas can be keep under control, but it doesn't feel threatened by them.Keep doing this behavior as urine also leaves behind almost no residual chemicals on kitty.It didn't really take the advice was useful, but some were too outrageous.Ionizers do not have these faculties as well.

[collegeessayguy]

How to Discuss Challenges in Your College Essay So That It Doesn’t Sound Like a Sob Story

This is a question that came up during last week's live course. And, to be frank, there are many ways to talk about your challenges in your personal statement. But here are three good techniques:

1. WITH A LITTLE POETRY

Here’s a professional writing example:

We wanted more. We knocked the butt ends of our forks against the table, tapped our spoons against our empty bowls; we were hungry. We wanted more volume, more riots. We turned up the knob on the TV until our ears ached with the shouts of angry men. We wanted more music on the radio; we wanted beats, we wanted rock. We wanted muscles on our skinny arms. We had bird bones, hollow and light, and we wanted more density, more weight. We were six snatching hands, six stomping feet; we were brothers, boys, three little kings locked in a feud for more. [...] And when our Paps came home, we got spankings. Our little round butt cheeks were tore up: red, raw, leather-whipped. We knew there was something on the other side of pain, on the other side of the sting. Prickly heat radiated upward from our thighs and backsides, fire consumed our brains, but we knew that there was something more, some place our Paps was taking us with all this. We knew, because he was meticulous, because he was precise, because he took his time. - Excerpt from “Lessons” by Justin Torres. For the rest, click here or “Google Justin Torres Lessons”

Here’s a personal statement example:

I can do this by myself. I held the blade, watched it slide across my flesh. The knife was just like Richard Selzer described: cold, gleaming, silent. Red drops of blood trailed the slightly serrated edge. I let out a long sigh. I was at my most desperate. My friend had died in September of my junior year. Five AP classes, weekly volunteering, and a tutoring job had provided added stress. I needed reprieve. And I found it in the knife. Two months later, my French teacher, Madame Deleuze, discovered my secret. That day in AP French while everyone else drilled vocabulary, she called me out to have a talk. - Excerpt from the "Knife" essay, which may be found in College Essay Essentials

IMPORTANT: This is extremely difficult to do—like walking a high-wire—and, if done poorly, this can fail spectacularly. I’d only recommend this if 1) you have lots of time before your essay is due, 2) you consider yourself a moderately good writer and, 3) you are able to speak about your challenges with distance and objectivity (i.e. - you have mostly or completely come through the challenge(s) you’re describing). If you’re short on time, don’t have a lot of experience writing creative non-fiction, or are still very much “in it,” I’d recommend not choosing this method.

But, if you are interested in doing this, and want to learn more about how, check out my analysis in my book College Essay Essentials. (Not trying to sell a book here, it’s just too much to print here and I wanted you know more where you could learn more. That’s where.)

2. WITH A LITTLE HUMOR

Click here for a movie example, or Google this phrase:

But partying it up with a bunch of munchkins isn’t the only way to bring light to an otherwise pretty dark situation.

Here’s a personal statement example:

When I was fifteen years old I broke up with my mother. We could still be friends, I told her, but I needed my space, and she couldn’t give me that. - Excerpt from the "Breaking Up With Mom" essay found in College Essay Essentials

Note how she uses the (funny, but subtle) cliche of “I needed space” and puts it the context of something that was a pretty big deal for her—cutting her mother off.

Another example:

I’ve desperately attempted to consolidate my opposing opinions of Barbie into a single belief, but I’ve accepted that they’re separate. In one, she has perpetuated physical ideals unrepresentative of how real female bodies are built. Striving to look like Barbie is not only striving for the impossible—the effort is detrimental to women’s psychological and physical health, including my own. In the other, Barbie has inspired me in her breaking of the plastic ceiling. She has dabbled in close to 150 careers, including some I’d love to have: a UNICEF Ambassador, teacher, and business executive. And although it’s not officially listed on her résumé, Barbie served honorably in the War in Afghanistan. - Excerpt from “Barbie vs. Terrorism and the Patriarchy” in College Essay Essentials and in PDF for “How to Write a Personal Statement”

And here’s a request (and challenge) for you, dear reader: I’d love to see more examples of the use of humor to address challenges, as I haven’t seen many great ones.

Request: Can you think of any--either in personal statements or otherwise? If so, please email them to info@collegeessayguy.com. Or:

Challenge: Maybe you write the essay that provides a great example for future students.

3. WITH STRAIGHTFORWARD EFFICIENCY

This is the simplest way, and it can even be the most vulnerable. Why? Because there's nothing dressing it up--no hiding behind poetic language or humor--you're just telling it like it is.

Personal statement example:

At age three, I was separated from my mother. The court gave full custody of both my baby brother and me to my father. Of course, at my young age, I had no clue what was going on. However, it did not take me long to realize that life with my father would not be without its difficulties." - Excerpt from "Raising Anthony" in College Essay Essentials and in PDF for “How to Write a Personal Statement”

IMPORTANT: I mention “efficiency” above because it’s important to do this in the most succinct way possible—probably in the first paragraph or two. But they you need to move on to a) what you did about it and b) what you learned. So just tell it, with simple and plain language.

ALSO: If you're unsure/insecure about adding humor or poetry, I'd recommend starting with the straightforward method. It'll get you started. And, who knows, maybe some humor and poetry will emerge.

Here's one more example of a straightforward, efficient opening to an essay that deals with challenges:

It was Easter and we should’ve been celebrating with our family, but my father had locked us in the house. If he wasn’t going out, neither were my mother and I. My mother came to the U.S. from Mexico to study English. She’d been an exceptional student and had a bright future ahead of her. But she fell in love and eloped with the man that eventually became my father. He loved her in an unhealthy way, and was both physically and verbally abusive. My mother lacked the courage to start over so she stayed with him and slowly let go of her dreams and aspirations. But she wouldn’t allow for the same to happen to me. - Excerpt from “Easter" essay in College Essay Essentials

STILL UNCERTAIN ABOUT HOW TO DO THIS? WANT MORE?

For a complete structural analysis of the “Raising Anthony” essay mentioned above, click here, or Google “College Essay Guy Significant Challenges Essay YouTube” to watch an 18-minute video.

Rock on. With humor, poetry, and (most of all) efficiency.

[sf-fallonmaddox-blog]

“Once in awhile, Right in the middle of Ordinary life, Love gives us a Fairytale.”

I was born on November 23rd, 1996

According to my parents it was a surprisingly nice day as far as days in late November go. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, Snow white was probably somewhere off in the distance with all her forest friends singing a little tune considering how much like a fairytale they made the day of my birth sound like. It was fitting though, from the moment I was born until the day I declared I was too old for it, I was treated and pampered like a princess. Constantly dressed up in all pink, spoiled beyond the point of rotten. I was the only girl to parents who were trying for another baby in an effort to repair the marriage that my father’s affair had nearly torn apart. For the most part, it worked. The two of them shared a love for me that pulled them back together and reminded each other of the things they loved about the other. Things between the two of them appeared to have been completely repaired, but the older I got the more I realized that my parents were phenomenal actors.

By the time I was 10 and declared I was done with being their pretty little princess, after an especially rude remark from a boy at school, I started to notice the signs of their broken marriage. The long weekend trips my father would take claiming they were business trips. Even at such a young age I knew he was full of shit. What really confused me the older I got was how my mom never seemed bothered by it. It was strange, seeing this beautiful and poised woman, someone I wanted to be just like when I grew up, kiss my dad goodbye knowing well that he was going to be spending the weekend with another woman and just appearing to be so okay with it. Seeing that, a loveless marriage that they were staying in for whatever reason that may be now that I was realizing I wasn’t quite strong enough of a glue to hold them together, made me vow to never give myself in any way to anyone I wasn’t sure about.

I can’t remember exactly how old I was when the shift happened. The shift from little girl playing with her barbies and coloring her princess books to pre-teen girl who noticed the boys my brothers hung out with for more than just being their annoying friends. I was barely filling out my training bras already prancing around the house in bikinis just to get a rise out of the older boys. There was one occasion when one of Greyson’s friends, Tristan, had crossed the line with me. He had been the easiest to get attention from and back then, that’s what I craved most attention, no matter if it was the wrong kind and coming from anyone other than the one person I really wanted it from. I had my friends over, Grey and Ash had theirs over, it was how most summer days went. Except this time our parents were gone and since I was “responsible” enough by my brothers standards they snuck me a wine cooler here and there when the other girls weren’t paying attention. With or without the assistance of the alcohol, I’d have been flirting as I was just as the other girls were. Except my flirting was an attempt to get a rise out of a specific friend of Ashton’s who was there that night and maybe the alcohol made me a little more forward than I’d typically be. Especially considering I hadn’t even had my first kiss yet. That wouldn’t come until early the next morning.

“Hey Fal, why don’t you come over here and take a seat on Daddy’s lap? “ That was the first time I had ever had anyone call themselves my daddy other than my actual father. Maybe the alcohol slowed my reaction time, or maybe Greyson has superhuman speed, whatever the reason, before I could even manage to tell Tristan that he definitely did not look anything like my dad, Grey had descended upon him. I’ve seen my brothers fight before, but never in my defense before since I’d never needed them to up until then. Ashton had come charging over too, stopped by Dominic who looked nearly as angry as my two overprotective brothers. “Yes! Fuck him up, Grey!” Raleigh, Ashton’s best friend, started the chant that began. Harlow had a hippopotamus floaty around her waist, one hand holding a bottle of Tequila and a lime wedge in the other,always the life of the party she did a little dance in sync with the chant. “Fuck him up! fuck him up!” I was too shocked to partake in the chanting. This was the exact moment that had set the Don’t even look at my baby sister rule into stone. No one even dared to look at me longer than necessary after that. Including people who weren’t even there that night. Tristan’s face was like a big black, blue, and swollen warning sign for weeks after that. Except it wasn’t enough to intervene with fate, thankfully.

As much as I enjoyed the attention wherever I may have gotten it from, nothing compared to the feeling of receiving it from the one person I really wanted it from. Dominic Thomas. There were always so many different reasons that could have stopped my pining after Dominic. Our age difference of 6 years, his friendship with my brothers, the fact that he was already on the fast track to a career when I was only just starting high-school. The thing is, though, when you’re as hard headed, strong willed, and determined as I am, or as any Maddox is for that matter, it takes a lot more than that to stop you. Age is nothing but a number. Friends come and go. I wasn’t going to stand in the way of his career. I reasoned with myself telling myself that these were perfectly acceptable counter arguments for the things that should have stopped me from pursuing Dominic. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with my reasoning with myself and more to do with the aforementioned Fate. I saw the way he looked at me when no one else was paying attention. I saw the way he tried so hard to hide that triumphant grin when the eye contact we made had me blushing so furiously that I looked like a very ripe tomato. The things I felt whenever I even so much as heard his name had to be reciprocated. I could just feel it. When you know, you know. I had been told that so many times and never believed it until he came along and turned my entire world upside down.

My first kiss had been received in my kitchen. It was early the morning after the pool party my brothers had. My two bestfriends at the time, the Keller Twins Tabitha and Tiffany, were still asleep as was the rest of the house. I, on the other hand, was wide awake always rising early on the mornings after drinking. Back before hangovers even existed for me. I had just finished making my morning smoothie and had begun cleaning up even though Maria would have done it when she came in later that day. After tossing the paper towel I had wiped the counter with into the trash I turned to see Dominic entering into the kitchen. The glass I had in my hand containing my smoothie slipped out of my hand when the sudden sight of someone in the kitchen frightened me so much that I had gasped and jumped in surprise. I jumped again when the smoothie splattered on the ground, the plastic cup dumping its contents on the ground. Neither of us spoke, I was partially covered in the strawberry banana smoothie standing on one side of the mess and Dominic was on the other. It was only a moment of silence that passed between us before I broke it. “I honestly think this would look much better on you than it does on me.” I really don’t know what possessed me to do it, but before I knew it I had scooped some of the smoothie that had splattered on my shirt off from it and reached up to spread the chilled confection across his cheek. I don’t think I was even nervous of his reaction, I didn’t even have time to grow nervous really because the second I finished making a sticky mess of his face he was laughing and so was I. When our laughter had come to an end joyful smiles were left in it’s wake. “Stop looking at me like that.” I said. He laughed in response and lifted a questioning brow. “Like what, Fal?” He asked. “Like you’re wondering if I’m going to give in and kiss you already.” My forwardness knew no bounds, even then, so I did it. I stood on my toes and Grabbed his face. I kissed him and he kissed me back his hands grasping my tiny waist gentle and rough at the same time. I had no idea what I was doing, sure I had seen people kiss plenty of times, but nothing prepares you for the first time you try it yourself. It wasn’t the fairytale that I had always thought my first kiss would be like, it was even better. It was like tiny little fireworks were going off inside of me, my head was spinning and my knees were weak. The sound of someone coming down the stairs had caught Dominic’s attention, or so I assumed since his sudden pulling away from me and hiding on the opposite side of the counter happened right before Ashton came into the kitchen. I stood there in total shock, eyes wide, sticky smoothie mess still on the floor in front of me. Ash merely grunted in my direction went right to the frigde, opened it, grabbed a water, and then retreated back the way he had come from. I didn’t even move until I heard his bedroom door from all the way down in the East wing slamming behind him. “You can come out now.” I said and Dom soon appeared from behind the island he looked as flustered as I likely did. Anxious energy surrounded us. “We can’t do that again.” I didn’t even have a chance to process what he was saying before he rushed out of the kitchen leaving me to clean up the mess I had made after he had effectively made a mess out of me too.

I never did stop trying to figure out what I could have done that was so wrong that Dominic would declare that after one little kiss that we couldn’t do it again. I thought he felt what I had. Those explosive fireworks, but I had to of been wrong. I had to of seen the wrong signs, maybe I had imagined them all. But if I had imagined that Chemistry, why did I continue to feel like it was still there? Why did I continuously feel like any time our eyes met that there was this magnetic connection? I hadn’t started feeling that until after that kiss, so how could that possibly have just been a product of my imagination? I moved on with my life, even though my poor little heart had been utterly destroyed by my first real crush. I spent time with friends, friends much older than I should have been spending time with, which is how I met Brody. Growing up with two older brothers who included you in things when they could made the older crowds easier for me to relate to. While Dominic had girlfriends who came and went throughout the years, I didn’t date anyone. I couldn’t, not when he was still the only person I could fathom ever being with in any romantic way was Dominic. Sure, I tried. I had other kisses, but every single one was so bland and uneventful in comparison to my very first kiss. Eventually, I gave up on the aspect of romance. Gave up on the idea of true love. Totally abandoned the hope of having my soulmate. Brody helped with that, he was never in town for long, but when he was he would help me sneak out of the house at whatever time of night just so we could do whatever adventurous, yet innocent, thing we could think of. He was like another brother to me and a bestfriend. I told him everything, withholding names and dates to save myself the trouble of having to explain how much of an idiot I was for lusting for someone so much older than I had been that previous year.

Between the ages of 16 and 17 I felt like most teens do, like I knew everything and didn’t have to listen to anyone no matter what they said, if their opinion differed from mine they were automatically wrong. “Those shorts are far too short, young lady.” They could be shorter and I’m old enough to choose my own clothing, old man. “Those friends of yours are no good for you.” Actually, those friends of mine are fucking great. “Absolutely Not, Fallon Evelyn Maddox. Those boys are too old for you to be hanging around. Especially dressed like that.” Absolutely yes, I rock the fuck out of this dress and those are men, not boys. Stubborn, hard headed, strong willed, always feeling like I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I would make it a point to be dressed in as little as possible whenever Grey and Ash had their friends over in the hopes that Dominic would be amongst the group. He was damn near every time. I did this each and every chance I got, shamelessly flaunting myself in front of everyone. The only things about me that had really changed from my first kiss up until that point in my life, other than the obvious things, were my clothing choices, my confidence, and my lack of a fuck to give. I was so sick of the constant war with myself, the war that had been raging since that first fucking kiss that I was determined to win the battle once and for all. In order to do that, I had to prove that I was never wrong about those reciprocated feelings, no matter how long it took. A year and a half of purposely catching Dominic’s eye when I could. Flaunting what he could have had if he hadn’t pushed me away after that kiss. A year and a half of entertaining flirtations of the other friends of my brothers just to see that little flickering of jealousy in Dominic’s eyes each time he witnessed it happen. A year and a half before finally he was beginning to crack.

“Are you trying to get me killed?” Not quite the question I had been anticipating after being stopped by Dominic in the dimly lit and empty hallway that led to my bedroom on the wing opposite the boys.  “Um, no. I’m trying to go to bed.” Dominic had released my arm, but he hadn’t even so much as inched back away from me. “Do you know how hard it is to keep fighting the things you make me feel? Especially when you’re slinking around in stuff like this, letting guys like Ryan Stephens put their hands on you?” I knew it. I knew it. I FUCKING KNEW IT. The triumphant chant going on inside of my head was so intense that it slipped out of my head and passed my lips. “I fucking knew it.” Shaking his head, Dominic stepped away from me. “Is this some kind of game for you?” If I hadn’t been so damn thrown off by his question I’d have gotten a few in myself. I was still so confused. If he had felt similar to how I had, then why had he reacted in such a way? “Don’t say a word to your brothers.” There it was, an answer to temporarily rid me of my confusion. “Dom! Grey’s here, let’s go!” Ashton’s voice carried up the stairs just around the corner from where we were standing. I didn’t get to voice any of the questions that were finally coming to me before Dominic placed a hurried kiss to my forehead and then he was gone. I heard as he went down the steps making up some excuse about why it had taken him so long to get back down there. He said he had lost his wallet, yet it had likely been tucked into his back pocket the entire time. Just like I thought I had lost a sizable piece of my heart that day back in my kitchen, except I was wrong. Dominic had that piece of me in his possession. Safely hidden away, afraid to let anyone else see that he had it.

Maybe my life has been a bit of a modern day fairytale in some aspects. It’s got all the required components. The Princess: Me.  The Prince: Dominic. The “villains”: My father, brothers, and any women in my way. Most fairytales have the forbidden love theme and my love story fit into that so perfectly. Forbidden by age. Forbidden by family. Forbidden for reasons I’ve only now come to understand as justifiable. Just like Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, and the like; I, Princess Fallon of Maddox Manor, Will not give up until I achieve my Happily Ever After.

[atticusblog2016-blog]

New Post has been published on Atticusblog

New Post has been published on https://atticusblog.com/kids-as-young-as-seven-addicted-to-online-gaming/

Kids as young as seven addicted to online gaming

Internet Gaming Sickness is now taken into consideration a psychiatric circumstance after it changed into currently added to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual and Intellectual Issues.

In step with the Australian Communications and Media Authority statistics, ninety-five percentage of young boys play online games at some stage in the week.

Dr. Pravin Duller, a youngster psychiatrist from Sydney’s Campbelltown Hospital, said a survey of almost three hundred psychiatrists shows an upward push in the number of children confessing to having a trouble.

He advised The Herald Sun 70 percentage of psychiatrists fear Net gaming addiction is going to grow to be a “huge” hassle throughout every age within the future.

However, that’s not the scariest component.

“Half of these surveyed stated it was maximum commonplace among children and youth,” Dr. Duller stated, adding that he and his colleagues see seven or eightyfold’s “pretty regularly”.

Signs of kids hooked on on-line gaming encompass, withdrawal Signs and symptoms, aggression when they are informed to prevent gambling, no longer consuming or sleeping and troubles at school or with the circle of relatives and buddies.kids games online free for boys

His findings had been presented to the Royal Australian and New Zealand University of Psychiatrists Annual Congress in Adelaide.

Toys – Give Something Special to Your Kids

A children toy is the whole lot an infant could want for to play, consider and dream a place of their own in which they rule what happens next whilst gambling. After I see a toy in the hand of a child, what I see is a smile on his or her face. a grin that isn’t always visible on a face of a person most of the time in our existence. The enjoyment and joy that toys give within the lifestyles of a child are very precious. Whether the kid is dwelling in a rural or city location, you may always discover some type of kids toys beside him or her. He or she will be able to keep the toy beside him or she like we adults hold a task to ourselves, toys are essential within the life of the kid or maybe, even more, important than a process due to the fact children toys gives kids a whole lot of happiness. When I observe an infant playing, I see that the child may be very occupied and is unfastened from any sort of issues.

What are toys within the international of a child?

A toy is altogether a special world for a child. It’s far the way through which they show creativity, their senses, and their environment, their strength, their location within the global and more often than not, the whole thing associated with their lifestyles. It is able to be a Barbie or a toy vehicle for a kid.reading programs for kids.

Advantages of kid toys

Toys are critical for youngsters for other motives as nicely. Kids work out or exercising their body muscle tissue through playing with toys. Toys help children develop their coordination and balancing competencies. They exercise those skills when they play with form of youngsters toys, indoor or outdoor toys. All of those required abilities are building up without problems at some point of the technique of gambling with child toys.read books for kids.

Ways on How to Fight Back Addiction

Addiction is a brain disorder this is characterized via irrational engagement in fulfilling stimuli in spite of argumentative occasions. Addiction is a disorder in which the brain’s Reward device malfunctions and only responds to consistently more degree of addictive stimulus like morphine, cocaine, etc.best movies about drug addiction.

There are many types of Addiction like alcoholism, gambling, sexual intercourse, and so on

Those pressure someone to isolate himself from the entire society and take pleasure in his or her addictions. If they’re no longer supplied with the medication they’ll react violently and might even die.

Drug remedy is a type of remedy which is intended to resource the abused customers prevent the uncontrollable utilization of medication and guard them against the destructive consequences of it. This treatment has a diffusion of bureaucracy and takes lots of time as the drug abuse is a continual disorder and can’t be dealt with in a brief term. Below referred to are a number of the methods through which you may combat back Addiction effectively.

• For folks who are hooked on drugs which include opium and nicotine (Tobacco) are handled with capsules consisting of methadone, naltrexone for opium-addicted people and with varenicline and bupropion for tobacco addicted humans.

Addicted subtitles

•For folks who are substantially addicted to alcohol, Disulfiram and acamprosate are the great medications which can be available.

• Many individuals are addicted to the prescription drugs and their treatment is similar to that of drug abuse that influences the brain. Like the medication, buprenorphine may be used to deal with each heroin obsession and Dependancy to medicines for opium pain treatment.addicted movie youtube.

Behavioral treatments might also assist people to participate in drug abuse cures and teach methods to cope up with pills and help them to against relapse if it occurs.

• Lastly, those who are substantially addicted to alcohol or drug abuse or any kind of addictions suffer from despair and additionally face social, legal and family issues.

Hardcore Gamer Battles Hemorrhoids and Video Games

The opposite day I used to be instructed approximately a hardcore gamer that battles video games and beat hemorrhoid in actual life. It’s a pal’s son who is going to college. He has been a serious hardcore gamer on account that he became going to school. The video games he performs the most are Mag, Dark Void, and Dante’s Inferno. Being a gamer had by no means been an issue in the beyond, out of doors of him not preserving up what he become speculated to do to help around the house. It truly is typical with teenagers which might be always related to the Internet, gaming, or connecting with humans on social networks.

Best gaming pcs

His first yr in college hit him hard. He became taking a complete schedule of classes and nonetheless looking to get in as many hours as he could gambling the video games Dark Void, Magazine, and Dante’s Inferno. Many proctologists agree that pressure can purpose outside hemorrhoids to expand. I’ve recognized the young man given that he was in high school. He is continually been highly aggressive within the world of gaming and creating apps. It’s miles a natural choice he is pursuing a degree in computer technological know-how. It ought to have been the stress sooner or later brought on his digestive system to tighten.10 most played games online.

The scary second in his existence happened while he becomes having trouble passing bowel actions commonly. The brand new stress of university and his hardcore video gaming periods had prompted terrible constipation (also referred to as costiveness, dyssynergia defecation, and dyschezia) that became turning into painful. young adults occasionally will keep matters to themselves that they feel are too embarrassing. He never spoke approximately it to his mother and father. Constipation and straining throughout bowel movements is linked to being a chief cause of hemorrhoids.

As a past hemorrhoid patient, It’s far scary and stunning to realize you’ve got a painful outside hemorrhoid. This university pupil and hardcore gamer in no way anticipated that at his young age hemorrhoids have been a medical circumstance he would get. He turned into terrified when cleaning himself that he felt a mass out of doors of his anus and there had been strains of blood. This will make everybody’s coronary heart pound faster. He finally advised his parents what he had discovered. After meeting with a health practitioner this hardcore gamer and university scholar were informed he had outside hemorrhoid that had ruptured growing bleeding.

Online gaming

The external bleeding hemorrhoid turned into stock earlier than it had grown too big, so hemorrhoid surgical operation became not wished. What his physician did advocate became using a chilly remedy makes use of managed excessive bloodless to kill hemorrhoid at its base. That is finished by freezing hemorrhoid inflicting it to die and lightly fall off.

For recovery pain comfort and to forestall future bleeding even as promoting restoration he changed into told to take a sitz bath on a day by day foundation until the broken tissue across the anal hollow space turned into absolutely wholesome. This has been a remedy that has been used for hundreds of years with excellent outcomes. It is a safe and natural technique to provide comfort from the situations of hemorrhoids and hemorrhoid healing.

One of the maximum beneficial and low-priced comfort merchandise counseled by means of the physician to this hardcore gamer changed into to apply hemorrhoid cushion or seat when sitting for lengthy periods. This would offer comfortable help, promote correct circulation, and prevent hemorrhoids from returning. If he turned into going to spend hours reading and gaming he wanted proper carry and guide. I not be afflicted by piles, but still use a hemorrhoid cushion at home, work, and whilst driving. My pal’s hardcore gamer son completely healed from his external hemorrhoid and another time playing what he loves, learning about laptop science and gaming ache free.

[writtenbylois]

That One Time I Was A Child Criminal Mastermind

Sometimes I wonder how I didn’t grow up to be a serial killer. There’s a cute picture of me on my family’s barely touched piano. I’m smiling and I’ve lost my two front teeth. I often look at that photo and think “there’s so much evil in those eyes.” I’ve come to a point in my life when I can laugh at the crap I used to pull as a kid, even the most diabolical evils committed against my siblings. One really bad story concerns my earliest memory of my little brother getting spanked.

           I have one of those HGTV-obsessed, do-it-yourself, fancy-couch-buying moms. She takes every piece of furniture in our house very seriously, and has for as long as I can remember. Around the time I was six years-old, my mom bought me a really cute set of lightly distressed wooden dresser drawers for my bedroom. She lined the insides with teddy bear wrapping paper to keep my clothes from catching splinters, and I think she loved those drawers as much as she loved me. My younger brother/partner-in-crime, who was four, shared the bedroom with me. He was a cute little thing with big eyes who, until he started first grade, wrote his name on our dad’s notepads in crayon with the y’s facing the wrong direction. Ryan and I had a hot and cold relationship back in those days. He’d follow me around, take the clothes off my Barbie dolls, and pee on the carpet in our room from time to time. I had a bad, slow-burning temper that included outbursts leading to my older sister’s favorite doll mysteriously losing all its hair and other slightly disturbing things. I can’t remember exactly what my brother did to provoke me, but one day I was really upset with him. I wanted him to receive the worst punishment my mom could give, so I took an orange crayon from my pencil box, walked over to my brand new dresser, and wrote my brother’s name on the side facing the door. The forged signature was perfect, down to the backwards “y.” I can vaguely remember hearing “Mommy, I didn’t do it” trip out his mouth in between tears as he was disciplined for my action.

           I know it’s terrible, but I laughed writing this whole thing, and I started crying from the giggles when I finally confessed to my crime nearly a decade after it was committed. My mom cried when I told her too, out of guilt rather than glory. She hugged the life out of my brother, apologizing to him as I sat in my room, punished, still laughing, and felt equal sensations of remorse and amusement. I’ll never forget my mother turning to me and asking how I could do such a thing to my little brother and laugh. I don’t know the exact reason for my laughter, but I can certainly try to figure it out.  

           In the essay “Nonknowledge, Laughter, and Tears,” Georges Bataille discusses the reasons for and implications of laughter in relation to human awareness, and the depth of other physical responses such as tears. Bataille writes using his theory of nonknowledge, the idea that we will never truly understand why we find something funny, we must “envision a possibility” (350) of discovering more about the unknowable through investigation. His most basic meaning of laughter is described as “something that reveals that knowledge was not given to us, and that situates itself uniquely as being unable to be attained by knowledge” (135). We laugh in response to change as we move into a state he compares to that of a religious experience after writing that “in every case when we laugh, we pass from the sphere of the known, from the anticipated sphere, to the sphere of the unknown and unforeseeable” (135).

           I wouldn’t say my fit of laughter after revealing myself as an evil mastermind was anything near a spiritual moment of transcendence, but I do agree that my laughter was a result of a rapid change occurring in my life. A secret I’d been sitting with for years, one I had forgotten, had been unraveled by my own hands. I could have screamed, cried, apologized profusely—in theory, any response is a valid response if a change occurs—but my natural reaction was an awkward half-nervous, half-entertained laugh. Laughing in the face of awkward situations is something I’ve done since childhood. Perhaps my laughter doesn’t matter as much as my ability to respond to the change at all. My mom cried when I told her what I had done, and shortly after was more pissed at me for framing my brother than ruining my dresser drawers. Both of us reacted in ways Bataille wouldn’t consider much different. My mother’s tears and anger were not only directed at me, but at herself. Before she knew I’d framed my brother, my mom was completely justified in disciplining him. I imagine she was disappointed in herself for ignoring Ryan’s cries of innocence, assuming he was just another little kid who wanted to talk his way out of a spanking, and inflicting unnecessary pain on her youngest child. My mom was angry with me for being vindictive, finding what had broken her heart funny, and, though I doubt she’d admit it, making her feel like a bad mother. In another section of Nonknowledge, Bataille discusses his issues with the fisherman in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. According to Bataille, the fisherman—the old man—is a static character who constantly fails in his attempts to capture s swordfish, but evolves in no way throughout the story. Bataille writes that “there is something bothersome” (149) about the lack of reaction in Hemingway’s characters. Bataille feels that people can’t help but to convey some sort of physical and emotional reaction to life’s circumstances, whether good or bad, and sees the fisherman as unrealistic. I think, however, people have the profound ability to be more nuanced in many cases. I remember my brother, who was 14 years-old when my secret came out, reacting in a very subtle way. He was sitting next to me on our parents’ bed when I blurted everything out, and his eyes widened as his memories of the event flooded his mind. “I remember that!” he yelled, smiling, before he nudged me and said something to the effect of “that was really messed up.” Ryan, the victim in this situation, laughed as our mom scolded me for my actions, relishing in the sweet revenge karma had given him. I don’t know exactly what was going through his mind, but I’m sure he wasn’t just laughing at my getting caught. Who’s to say he wasn’t trying not to relive the pain of being falsely accused and punished, because he had certainly suppressed the memory of that spanking for a decade. For to return to his mind meant that the emotions associated with it must have come back, too.  

           While I laughed in response to a change when I told my mother about what I had done to my brother, the type of laughter I experienced recalling the event as I wrote it earlier was very different. It didn’t come from a place of guilt or discomfort. I was laughing, and am laughing, as an older, slightly more mature human being thinking of an extremely childish moment. I suppose I could interpret that laughter as a response, in part, to the emotional and physical changes I’ve experienced in over a decade. I’ve grown from a six to eighteen years-old, and my sense of humor has evolved during that twelve year gap. I know that what I did was wrong, but laugh despite that revelation at the gall I had to go as far as forging my brother’s signature to get revenge. I think I’m more inclined to take a walk when I get as angry as I must’ve been in that moment now, not that I don’t think of shaving off eyebrows or snapping skateboards in half from time to time. If I do snap and do either of those things one day, I’m sure I’d feel pretty guilty about it first, and then find myself laughing about it in another ten years.