#Allen Tree Service

[allentreeservicetx]

Allen Tree Service

Address- 1175 Montgomery Blvd #59, Allen, TX, USA 75013

Phone- +1 972-752-6887

Email- info@allentxtreeservice.com

Website- http://allentxtreeservice.com

If you are nearby Allen, TX, and need a company to provide you with a tree service, you do not have to worry. We at Allen Tree Service will help you with tree trimming, tree cutting and stump grinding services, and more. We can also aid you in removing stumps and trees from your home and/or commercial building. You will need someone to take care of your trees, and our experienced team of hard-working people is the best of the best. Get in touch with our business for more information about our services. We offer affordable prices for everybody, and many people are satisfied with our work.You can be another happy customer too. Please do not hesitate to contact Allen Tree Service if you have any questions.

Business Hours- Mon – Sun: 7AM - 7PM.

Payment Methods- Cash, Check, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, Visa.

Employee- 6

Year est.- 1997

Spoken Language- English

[rotandguts]

✶ ┄ YOU WEREN’T MINE TO LOSE

danny (evil dead rise) x fem!reader, 

part one of the ‘august’ series. 

camp map

summary: the first week back at camp is never easy, but it definitely doesn’t help matters that your lifelong rival and ‘mortal enemy’ is there. both picked as camp counsellors, you’re forced to work together for the good of the camp, but that doesn’t mean you have to like each other.

word count: 10k+

content: SUMMER CAMP AU, rivals/enemies to lovers, implications of transphobia, mentions of bullying, slowburn, angst, mentions of alcohol/intoxication/underaged drinking, mentions of sex, mentions of divorce and abandonment, hints of david allen (evil dead 2013) x fem!reader, some people may be quite OOC?

A/N: EEEEEEK, this is going to be a long one but will be split up into chapters. btw i have no clue what danny’s actual last name is so for the sake of this story its bixler bc that's what beth’s confirmed name is okay? I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG LMAO part 2 and 3 will take very long also okay okay i’m so sorry pls enjoyyyyyy xoxo

publishing date ―  july 21st 2023 |  © rotandguts

✶

The winding road on the way to camp was claustrophobic, your first year driving there yourself. You prayed you were still on the right route, your phone’s GPS struggling to update after losing service a while back.

The sight of the endless rows of green trees was becoming redundant, the charm of the wilderness already wearing off on you upon the second hour of your journey. Eyes on the road, you slurped on the blue raspberry Slusho you picked up at a gas stop mid-journey. Savouring the cool syrup induced taste in the summer heat, windows down and car speakers blaring.

A large wooden sign came into view, confirming your path and indicating the end of the long journey. Engraved on the sign was:

CAMP KANDAR

est. 1959

You have gone past this sign every year since you were 8 years old. Initially reluctant to attend, you grew to truly love the place. You giggled at the thought that they almost had to pull you kicking and screaming from the car when you realised you would be remaining there for a little over a month the first ever time you arrived. How times had changed seeing as you were now willingly returning as an adult.

Camp Kandar was just outside Los Angeles, a safe hub to send your kids away to learn what the outside world was like at a reasonable price.

If you imagine what your ideal slasher sleepaway camp would look like from a 70s horror film, Kandar probably looked exactly like it. You were surprised that in all the years of running it no one had actually died there, as far as you were aware anyway.

There were rumours and myths of the camp being built over an ancient castle. Or maybe it was a burial ground? It changed every few years when new counselors got to tell their own version of the myth to the young campers.

This actually would be your first year as a counselor at the camp, it was either this or spending more time slaving away at your job in the local Henrietta’s pizza. You could no longer bare the daily heat and stench of the pizza kitchen, especially during summer.

Hands from distant figures you couldn’t make out waved at you on arrival. Your car finishes its journey in the parking lot beside a Buick Roadsmaster at the child and parent drop off point. You furrow your brows, the campers weren’t meant to arrive for another 2 days.

Exiting the car, you take a moment to breathe in and embrace your new home for the next few weeks, your summer sanctuary for over the past decade greeting you like an old friend. Thick, moist summer sweetness so rife in the air that it makes you feel almost sick to your stomach.

The first thing on your itinerary was to collect your uniform from the camp reception, which you were sure you’d be manning at some point during your time working there. You thought of all the things you’d be able to do now as a counselor, buzzing around the prospect of sneaking out late to whatever party they’d always throw near the old cabin. None of the younger campers were invited, only hearing fabled tales of wild goings on from the distant music and laughter in the night.

Camp director Williams definitely knew about the extracurricular goings on at the camp, and while he took no nonsense, he knew that kids just want to have fun. It’s what made him such a great leader, although the shotgun on the wall above his desk definitely kept campers on edge.

With your case trailing behind you and your backpack hanging casually from your shoulder, you set off towards the camp reception. The building clearly needed a refresher, certain letters in the sign slightly faded due to time and the wood of the steps creaking to a cautious extent under your feet.

Doors swing open, eyes flicker to you. A woman with long red hair stands at the desk with her back to you, obviously in distress talking to director Williams, her arms flailing with hushed whispers.

“Oh great. And you’re here, now. My day just gets better.”

And him.

You turn around and there he is, bags slung on the floor, leaning against the wall with a Nintendo Switch in hand.

Danny Bixler-Sutherland, your worst nightmare.

You had met him that first ever year at camp, becoming close friends after you were assigned to share a bunk. But something shifted in both of you, you were unsure when it all really started. You were both naturally competitive at the group activities from a young age and usually always sorted onto different teams, you always wondered if your competitive playing style drove a wedge in between you both.

Director Williams places a hand on her arm in comfort, “Please, we’ve known each other for how many years now? You know you can call me Ash, Ellie. We can just get bunks sorted for them until moving in day and then sort out proper accommodation. Means they’re not alone in the cabin.” He began to walk towards you, shifting the woman to face you. It was Danny’s mother, Ellie with a striking hair dye job.

Danny had always been in your dormitory growing up, until he came out and his mom fought tooth and nail to get him transferred to the boys dorm. He was popular around camp and people adjusted to the news quickly. But, there were of course a handful of dickheads that treated him like shit because of it. Director Williams put great measures in place to ensure none of them bothered Danny again, some of them being kicked out of camp. You had always wondered if that shotgun had been involved in Williams’ interrogation of them, you hoped it had.

Ever since the summer when the championship was determined to be a tie after you and Danny broke into a fight during the last challenge, you’d been at each other’s necks at almost every possible second.

However, deep down you had an inkling that it all really had something to do with a night that same year, around five or six years ago when a small group of the pre-teen campers, including the both of you, snuck out to camp in the woods.

It had been a largely uneventful night, the excitement in the moment mainly fuelled by the breaking of rules. By the end of the night it had become apparent that despite the bunks in their dorms not being the comfiest, they sure beat the makeshift tents and dusty forest floor.

But the shift in the air was clear. You went into those woods that night, hoping for a last chance of that closeness so present in your youth. By the time you left in the morning and returned to your respective dorms, you barely spoke.

Both of you may have been at each other's necks at the best of times, but insulting each other's appearances or anything personal was a line you both silently agreed to never ever cross. You remembered overhearing bitchy whispers from some of the girls in the cafeteria about him when he first appeared with short hair pre-transition, and you took great pleasure in cutting their hair that night when they were sleeping.

When the girls reported you to the director he had simply shrugged and said, “Talk shit, get hit girls. First rule in the book.”

And it’s not like he wouldn’t do the same for you. Some of the boys had been teasing you, more specifically teasing your figure, behind your back. Low and behold, you had heard that Danny took the charge when standing up for you. It was little things like that that meant you could never truly hate him, and same for him about you.

It was kind of like, the only people that could be mean to you both were the two of you. It was endearing in a way that you would rather die than to admit outloud, a sign of respect from your former friendship.

“Is this a bad time?” You question Danny, feeling like you’ve walked in on something you shouldn’t have but not wanting to pester director Williams until he ends his conversation. “Every place you exist in is a bad time.” Danny remarks, concentration still fully on the games console in front of him.

“That’s a low blow even for you, someone woke up on the wrong side of bed today, Mr Crankypants?” You retaliate, readjusting the weight of your backpack.

“You’re a little too old for camp, scout.” That was his nickname for you ever since you were younger. Without context it seemed almost endearing, but the reality of it drove you crazy.

In an attempt to impress an older counselor years ago, you had told a little white lie that you were a scout with all the training. This was a lie you kept up for almost the full time at camp, and doubled down on it on most days. On a hike, one kid began to have an asthma attack and the responsibility of helping them was promptly put on you by the panicking teen counselor.

Luckily, the kid was completely fine but it became apparent to everyone that you not only were not a scout but had zero knowledge in first aid training. No one had really cared, the counselor got in trouble for their negligence and own lack of first aid knowledge. Everyone went back to their normal jokes the next week after a spot of light torment from your fellow campers.

But you cared. It was just one of those borderline traumatic cringe moments in your life that you wish you could forget. And Danny, who was on the hike that day, knew that.

“Yeah I could say the same to you, DJ Dan.” He grimaced, slamming the console down on the reception desk.

“Jesus H Christ, how many years now with you both and you’re still doing this shit?” Ash wiped his brow of sweat, Ellie’s eyes fluttering between the two of you.

“Hey, Y/N. Good summer?” She smiled. You’d known the woman in passing for the same time you’d known Danny. She had definitely been on the receiving end of many phone calls about your behaviour towards each other, and your perhaps even worse behaviour towards others while acting in defence of one another.

Smiling and nodding back to her, “Yeah great so far, thanks - yours?” Despite trying to keep her smile, for a second her face flickered with something unreadable, Danny nervously shifted, eyes bouncing to his sisters in the corner of the room. They were so quiet you had failed to notice them sitting there.

“Same old, I guess.” Her hands clutching her car keys tighter. “How are your parents?”

If you were being honest, you didn’t know the answer to that.

“They’re fine. Same old, I guess.” You gripped the strap of your backpack a little tighter too. Your parents, while not mega rich, had a good bit of money. Most of your life, you’d spent much of your time without them or with a nanny. Summer was great because it meant going on holiday with them somewhere, anywhere. Until they realised they could hire a nanny in the form of Camp Kandar for the entire summer that was far cheaper and even further away from them.

Ellie politely nodded, before approaching the girls. “It’s just two days extra, right? I’ll be there to pick you all up the first second I can and bring you home.” Bridget nods, the older of the two. Kassie looked pained for a moment. Danny began to walk over, finally leaving his haunt, sitting beside Kassie and holding her small hand in his own.

“But what’s gonna happen? Are we even gonna have a home?” The youngest Bixler sibling clung to a pole with a doll's head stuck on top of it, you elected to ignore it as Ash pulled you to the side.

“Here’s the uniform, good thing you got here when you did ‘cause you and Danny took the last of that size.” Your eyes widened at his statement as Ash continued on. Danny, still holding Kass’ hand, glared at you with a twisted smile.

This confirmed the worst, he wasn’t here for a brief visit to drop off his sisters like you’d prayed, he would be a camp counselor too.

“Rota will get sorted by tonight, but all that’s really needed is some clean up jobs around camp before we open. You’re sharing with Mia in Cabin 13.” Your face lit up. Like Danny, Mia and her older brother David had been attending the camp since you were young. David, being two years older than her, became a counselor when he turned 18. You didn’t know if she would be returning this summer to do the same, the last time you’d texted she seemed reluctant to return.

“Great. Happy to do that.” Danny rolled his eyes at your enthusiasm. “Suck up.” He muttered. You chose to ignore him.

You set off towards Cabin 13, ensuring you got the first pick of the beds.

The cabin itself was small and pokey, compared to some of the other larger counselor cabins which resembled camper quarters with bunks. Considering the added privacy that came with having only one roommate, especially a roommate you were close with, the size of the cabin was fine with you.

When you arrived, you found the cabin cork board already decorated with pictures and the left bed claimed with a sports bag emptied out on the sheets. You couldn’t even waste time being dismayed that you got there second, not when you could hear Mia singing in the shower. You began unpacking everything you could and changing into your new uniform, the faster you got settled in the quicker you could get on with the fun activities.

When Mia had eventually got out of the bathroom, dark long hair damp with her new uniform on (a green and white t-shirt with the camp logo on it), she squealed as soon as she saw you.

Mia Allen was 5’2 and looked probably around 7 pounds soaking wet, give or take. Ever since she was little she’d been much smaller than the others, but what she lacked in size she made up for in her quick wit and snappy attitude.

And plus, it certainly helped that she had an older brother that could only be described as totally swoon worthy.

While at times sardonic and off putting, she was your best friend at the camp and had been for many years. Both of you being placed in the same dorm each year led to a sense of familiarity with you both. You knew each other’s habits better than anyone.

Others viewed her as troubled, with rumours of past years involving her using drugs on camp grounds or going apeshit on other campers - but you knew better. She had experienced her fair share of bad times in her life, mostly as a way of dealing with her sick mom, should she be punished for them forever? You definitely didn’t think so.

“Thank GOD Williams listened to my roomie request, I almost thought I was gonna get stuck with Olivia.” She bounces on you and embraces you within a death grip.

“I thought you and Olivia were friends?” The older girl was a medical student now but still returned each summer to help, she’d hung around you both growing up. She loved to follow the rules, with no exception or nuance to them. However, Olivia was without a doubt the most responsible of all the counselors and it meant the staff didn’t need to train her in first-aid every year.

“Um, yeah, of course we are. But I’d rather choke on my own vomit than have little miss campus police as my bunkmate. She does her own room inspections every week, David says no one even asks her to do them.” Mia rolls her eyes, going over to her bedside cabinet to put some perfume on.

“Fair enough, I’m so happy to see you. I seriously thought I’d be the only one coming back this year.” Running a hand through your hair, you watched her lean into your shared mirror and put on her earrings.

“I know, you need to tell me everything that’s happened since I last saw you. Oh my god, so much shit has happened with my mom it’s fuckin crazy, man.” She began to apply lipgloss. “Tell me about it on the way to initiation, I didn’t realise the time already!” You grab her wrist, pulling her from the cabin.

“Slow the fuck down! Listen, they won’t start without us, and we’re like two minutes away.” Mia halted your speed, wrapping an arm around your shoulder.

In the distance you could see Danny and some of the others heading towards the campfire area, or as the campers called it, The Pavilion. His head flew back with laughter at something a girl you didn’t recognise said.

“Not you literally gawking at your boy-toy.” Mia murmured, making you turn to look at her with furrowed brows. “What?”

“Yeah, you heard me. And don’t think I’m talking about Eric or Pablo, ‘cause I’m not.” She pulled out a carton of cigarettes from the pocket of her shorts, offering you one. You politely turn it down with a shake of the hand, “Maybe later.”

“This whole uhhhh I hate you so much uhhhhh I hate you too charade is so 2018. Like I wish you’d just give it a rest already and fuck it out.” Mia struggles to keep the cigarette in her mouth as she acts out her impressions of you both before lighting it. You almost choke on her words.

“What the fuck, Mia! Not cool!“

“I am literally right! Don’t think I’ve forgotten that whole truth or dare bullshit from last year.” The smaller girl took a long drag and shifted her weight on her feet, hand resting on a tree beside her.

“You shouldn’t be smoking out in the open like this - at least do it in the cabin with the shower on.” You roll your eyes and begin to power ahead to the Pavilion. “A-HA, don’t try and change the subject with me missy because you know I am not that bitch to be messed with.” Mia begins to chase after you, almost tripping while stealing glances around to make sure no one actually catches her in the act.

“Mia, I think you should quit while you’re ahead. You know my feelings towards that boy and you know none of them are pleasant.” Halting and turning to face her, she does the same with slightly more unbalanced, disjointed movements.

She takes a puff, “Yeah, I thought I knew your feelings. And then you said what you said.” She wasn’t giving up easily.

“I don’t remember what I said.”

“Bull-fucking-shit, this is like pathological liar level. You’re gaslighting me, man!” She waves her arms around manically with wide eyes, obviously trying to tease you. Giving her one last begging look, she stubs the cigarette out. “Fine. But we’re talking about this later.”

With that, she powers on in front of you. It’s as if the nicotine has given her enough energy to run a marathon as she determinedly stomps towards the campfire.

That game of truth or dare had been a drunken mishap at the secret end of year party. You had both managed to score an invite thanks to David, and by association Danny had been invited by Eric. Olivia was too buzzed on wine coolers to feel the need to kick you out, so you managed to spend most of the night there. Mia’s drunk alter-ego ‘the Abomination’ eventually appeared which led to you and David escorting her back to the girls dorm in the early hours.

You had been asked by a drunken Mia, the absolute fucking menace that she was, if you had to spend a night in bed with any of the boys who would it be? Immediately without thinking, in your own intoxicated state, you answered Danny.

Before you could even realise the deeper implications of the question, you immediately attempted to justify your answer by stating that you had shared a bunk for years and didn’t kill each other during that time.

She had teased you in front of the entire group, in your own state of embarrassment you had failed to notice Danny’s wide eyes and rosy cheeks.

But the teasing was over quickly with Mia throwing her entire guts up in front of everyone, leading David to jump back onto his feet and promptly drag her from the scene, requesting that you help carry her legs.

What you’d failed to tell Mia, tell anyone for that matter, is that despite your answer to her question, you and David shared a kiss.

It was behind the cabin after you both dragged her back in her drunken state, you hoped all its occupants would be sound asleep. He’d looked at you with a glimmer in his eye, his testing patience, seeing who would make the first move.

Both of you had been dangerously towing a flirtatious line all summer, a line that you’d been tiptoeing on for probably the past nine years prior.

It had never ever been a possibility before, you were his kid sister’s best friend. You were just you. But here he was looking at you like that.

Do you regret it in hindsight? Sure, but you hardly remember it. Your heart was beating so fast you thought it might break out of your chest like that little creature from Alien. The moist summer air of the early morning clinging to your skin, a strong hand on the low of your back. Pressed tight chest to chest, a forbidden taste.

You jumped apart at the sound of the snapping of sticks by god knows what.

You parted with wide eyes and uncertainty rising in your chest. He placed a gentle hand on your cheek.

“I’ll speak to you tomorrow, yeah?” You nodded, a smile growing. The start of something new blossoming.

David and Mia were gone by the time you woke up, you had assumed David had driven them off specifically so you both didn’t need to address any drunken awkwardness from the previous night. Mia wouldn’t have opposed, with her hangover probably kicking in tenfold.

All that was left in his departure was a letter saying that he’d see you next summer and that you should call him when you got home if you wanted to pick up where you left off, with a phone number left under the statement. You text the number, leaving him with a message.

hey david,

last night was a mistake. it was a plain and simple heat of the moment mistake - as much as I’d like to start again, i can’t do that to mia.

You sent ‘i’m sorry.’ when you didn’t receive a reply after a month.

Quite frankly, you were dreading seeing him far more than Danny. With Danny at least, you knew that whatever you had said last year had gone right past his head (or atleast you thought it had). Danny wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to make you squirm, surely?

Honestly, now that you had been able to think it through - you wouldn’t be opposed to starting where you left off with David, the whole him being your friend’s brother thing aside. He was handsome, kind, and popular around camp. He’d looked out for you since, like, forever and you trusted him. If you were searching for a summer fling David would certainly be your go-to.

But whatever. If nothing happened, nothing happened, especially after the text you sent him. You could play this totally cool, right? It was just David. Stupidly hot David, with his constant tan and his almost annoyingly unwavering warm demeanour. You still remembered the first time you saw that smile. You were eight and he was ten, you fell down and scraped your knee during a group activity. He ran to you before any counsellors could even get to you.

“You’re okay.” A hand reached out, you grabbed it. And there was that smile. A smile you could trust. Yeah, maybe you were gonna be okay.

It was undeniable how he made you feel. Your legs turned to jelly everytime you laid eyes on him, you felt like such a ditz. But the presence of Mia complicated everything. You couldn’t do that to her. It would be too weird. Unless, you kept it a secret? A secret summer fling could be exactly what you need. Why did you have to send that damn text?

But then ultimately, he was just safe. Despite his attractiveness, all of the passion of the fling would be mostly fuelled by his relation to Mia, and if you’re being honest that was a line you did not want to cross with her. If she even found out that you both had kissed it’d be game over.

You’re snapped out of your thoughts by Mia calling your name.

“Are you even listening? Wait up, I have little legs!” She was significantly behind you now, struggling to keep up with your pace as you unconsciously powered ahead in front of her. “Sorry Mia, my inner volume was too loud, I guess.”

She squints, smirks before tapping your arm. “Yeah and we all know exactly who you’re thinking about.” Your eyes widen.

“Dann-”

“No.”

Barging past her again, the Pavilion now in sight, both of you being the only two left to arrive.

While the overall area has rows of structured seating comparable to wooden bleachers facing a stage, for more intimate occasions such as this there were stools placed closer to the stage.

“Fashionably late as always, you too. First strike.” Ash attempted to chase away flies with his prosthetic hand, shooting her a stern look. “Hey- what the hell? What happened to a friendly camper hello?” She resigned herself to the first tree stump available in front of you, beside her brother. You could only see his back and still you could feel the butterflies going wild inside you.

“You forfeit that when you come back here as a counselor. You’re being paid for this, this is a job. Stay. On. Time.” You swallow, taking the seat near Danny. He’s whispering something to Eric, but your eyes still meet.

Neither of you break but both of you wonder who will be the first to.

You pick up on things that have changed since last summer. His hair, chestnut again after a brief bleach blonde stint. You didn’t know what he suited more, you liked both.

You almost mentally slapped yourself for thinking that. But it was hard to not think how actually kinda attractive Danny was in staring competition moments like this. His eyes had such a mischievous glint in them that begged you for more, egged you on like what you were doing was so, so wrong.

Your cheeks grow heated and you can’t bare to stare any longer, losing the silent game.

“Okay, Bridget and Kassie will be staying here with us a few days early. That’s okay. Just make sure you’re on best behaviour at all time big kids, make sure you’re doing your job and looking after the little ones.” Bridget rolls her eyes at his words. She’s fifteen and thinks she can take on the world single handedly. Kassie looks a little less sure, resigning herself to staring at the ground and kicking some wood chippings at her feet.

“Cheryl, you wanna take it from here?” Director Williams turns to his sister, who appears by his side. “Sure thing, I’ve sorted the camp rota.”

You glance back at Danny, his eyes still on you. He smirks. You feel like you’re on fire. Turning away from him again to look where you had been so desperately avoiding, you see David glance at you. He smiles softly when he realises you’ve caught him, sending a slight wave. You don’t hesitate to return it, hearing a Danny sounding scoff coming from the opposite direction.

Cheryl goes over your duties for the next few weeks, you’re placed in arts and crafts with Mia and Danny. And a new girl who’d never attended this camp prior, Natalie. You assumed it was the girl walking with Danny earlier, now sitting timidly beside Eric.

Great.

Mia you could handle, and you could probably even handle Danny alone too. But Mia’s unrelenting urge to tease you for your misspoken words and Danny’s eyes that seemingly bore into your soul at every chance was going to be a challenge in combination.

Your face must’ve immediately read your exasperation, as Cheryl reassured “Don’t worry, usually it’ll just be two of you in for activities. You guys will be mixed and matched.” Your shoulders sunk in relief, not even realising how tense you had suddenly become.

Your ear is met with the soft whisper of Danny. “Don’t look too excited.”

“Bite me.” You hiss back, he grins with wild eyes, like he enjoys the way you’re speaking to him.

“Hey assholes! And I can call you that now because you’re adults. I better see no fighting, no nothing, or else this year - got it?” More Ash than director Williams warns, you nod.

“I’ll try sir, but she’s the issue.” The boy points at you, false sincerity in his voice. You bite your tongue, giving Ash a look that portrays your frustration.

“Whatever. Seriously, I’m watching you two.” Ash points at the both of you, Danny rolls his eyes. Eric and Mia make a quiet ‘ooooooooh’ noise and then laugh at their accidental timing.

Eric was the same age as David, and his childhood best friend, although you had noticed that they had drifted apart. He was as sarcastic as they come, but knew when to shut up and be serious. He’d been growing out his hair for the past few summers, it now resting just at his collarbone.

He’d taken Danny under his wing when he got moved to the boy’s dorm, it was common that one would be seen the other around camp.

After a few more ground rules were laid out, Ash reminded you that you are now the adults in charge and that any responsibility will be put on you.

“Oh and by the way. This is Natalie, she’s new. I know you all grew up together but please make her feel welcome, yeah?” Cheryl put her hand on the girl’s shoulder, Natalie waving timidly.

She was so effortlessly pretty you didn’t know if you wanted to cry or roll your eyes.

With that, you were free to spend the last night free before your jobs started the next day. As everyone was departing, you notice David eyeing the new girl, who stands like a spare prick as Cheryl inaudibly talks to her. He leaves with Pablo and Olivia after taking a second glance.

There’s those damn butterflies again.

Mia wraps an arm around you and drags you in the opposite direction, heading to your own cabin. You pass Danny, who winks before sending you a sarcastic kiss. You respond with a middle finger.

—

The first few days go smoothly, managing to stay out of any drama. Everyone is seemingly too tired to really interact with each other outside of your shared meals in the mess hall, all of you still adjusting to being in a foreign home.

Drop off day was longer and more tedious than the previous days, an earlier rise than the already early mornings at Camp Kandar. Buses filling the parking lot, hurried parents ushering kids out of cars, kisses goodbye. A floury of campers old and new dragging their luggage behind them in the chaos of sorting cabins. Camp reception was even more packed than before with parents handing off medication and bus drivers piling up all the forgotten items from their respective vehicles.

When the kids arrived, you were kind of ecstatic, seeing everybody arrive from a different angle than you ever had before, remembering how nervous you had been each year on drop-off day.

The camp entrance itself, aside from the parking lot and reception, welcomed campers in with a large arch that displayed the camp’s name proudly. From here, past the reception, led to a large open ground shaped in a circle.

If you kept walking straight, the mess hall was in front with extra benches set up outside for the good weather. To the left, through the trees were the camper dorms. Scattered throughout the many acres, it was common for the little ones to get lost.

Just beyond that were the staff and counselor cabins, with Ash’s being the furthest out of them all. On the opposite end of the camp was the activity field and the lake. It was pretty simple to get around, but the prospect of getting lost in the surrounding woods was intimidating.

Bridget ran towards a group of teens, who welcomed her with open arms. It was odd to think that in a few years they potentially would be the camp counsellors, and you and your peers would be off in the world doing all types of grown up shit. Goodbye adolescence forever.

Your heart dropped when you saw Kassie standing to the side awkwardly, clutching her stick with the doll head on it. For the past few days she had kind of kept to herself while Bridget had helped with the bigger jobs setting up camp. Slowly approaching her, you decided to strike up a conversation.

“Cool doll, what’s it’s name?” You gently poked it, her face lighting up at someone talking to her. Because she was little, it was hard for her to be included like her older sister aside from odd jobs Ash would send her on. Things like sending her to the Pavilion to find the biggest pine cone, or seeing how many laps she could do around the activity grounds.

“Staffanie. I made her, so she can protect me, and scare off anything scary in the woods. Danny says there’s monsters here.” Kassie explains timidly, a shy smile growing slowly.

“She’s cool, hiya Staffanie.” You return the smile, she waves the doll head as if to make her say hello.

“She says hello back.” After a nice lull, she turns to watch a group of kids her own age stand and talk to each other, obviously knowing each other outside of camp.

“I was really scared my first year here too.” You bend down to get to her level. “Really?”

“Yeah, really, it was super hard at first. But then I met Mia and it was all okay.” The little girl looks doubtful. “I don’t know, I think people think I’m weird.”

“Well that makes two of us kiddo. Listen, you’ve got Danny and Bridget to help you out,” Before you can finish she interjects. “That doesn’t count, they're related to me.”

She was right technically. “Yeah, but they’re not required to be nice to you, are they? David and Mia are related and they barely hang out.” You point towards them, on opposite sides of the area, David calming down a crying mother clutching onto her uninterested child. Mia was poking the ground with a stick.

“I guess.” Kassie was still hesitant, head racing with thoughts of what was really going on back home. Her mom thought she’d done enough to protect her from the startling reality of the impending divorce, and in a way she had. Kassie was sure that everything would be fine between her parents, only really worrying about losing their family home.

But even the thought of being at this camp, making no friends and then coming back to nothing was terrifying to the young girl. And it was a reality that a girl her age shouldn’t have to face.

“Kassie, I’m gonna be brutally honest with you. I think you’re gonna have the best summer ever.”

After a moment, Kassie turned with a smile. “You really think so?” You couldn’t help but return it. “I know so, pal.”

It was harrowing, it was like seeing your younger self in a way. Coming here was no easy feat. Sure, the activities were nice and you settled in eventually, but that scary feeling doesn’t really go away even after all these years.

“I’m Kassie, by the way.”

“I’m Y/N.”

Her face lit up. “Wait, I know who you are!”

“Well we have spent the last few days together so I did hope that you would have known my name by now honestly-”

“You’re the girl Danny always talks about! You’re his friend!” Kassie kind of bounces around, her new found enthusiasm infectious but her statement alarming. Not wanting to burst her bubble after seeing her so gloom for the past few days, with a stiff smile you offer a nod.

“I remember all the stories from when you used to share a bunk! Wow, I hope I get a bunk mate just like you!” You aren’t quite sure what she’s talking about, as most of your time bunking with Danny involved arguing about his snoring and your constant shifting above him.

“Yeah, fingers crossed.” You mimicked your own words, she copied you.

“And I can teach them the secret bunk code that you taught Danny, ‘cause Danny taught me!” A stab in the heart. You’d forgotten about that.

You developed a quiet knocking, humming and scraping system to have conversations with each other. It’d been one of those silly kid things you just stop thinking about when you have your first kiss or learn to drive. You can’t really even remember what you used to talk about in the quiet moments of the night when you weren’t bickering.

“We taught each other, just like you and your bunk mate will make up new words. Just go with the flow and you’ll have a great time.”

Kassie nods, more than cheered up from the conversation. “I’ll remember that. Gosh, I hope I get put on your team for the games!”

“Yeah, me too kiddo.” A girl around Kassie’s age stands alone at the drop off point just beyond the arch of Camp Kandar. Her eyes scan the scene in front of her, campers overwhelmingly conversing in their individual cliques. Nudging Kassie, you point in her direction.

“Why not go say hi to her? I think it might be her first day too.” The youngest Bixler-Sutherland sibling nods, and takes a deep breath.

“Kass, if it doesn’t go well I’m right here.” You crouch to her level, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. You knew exactly what she was thinking right now, as if this one interaction would determine her ability to make friends this summer.

With one last optimistic look, she trots off with Staffanie in tow.

“You givin’ my sister your shitty advice?” Danny’s voice catches you off guard, him appearing behind you as you watch Kassie from afar.

“Better than anything you’ve offered her the past few days clearly.” You don’t bother to turn to look at him, but you can feel his chin almost hovering in the crook of your left shoulder. His body, while not at all touching yours, feels close.

“Ouch, scout. And here I thought you were giving me flirty eyes at the first meeting the other day.”

“You fucking wish, Bixler.” He seems unfazed at your use of only one of his last names. In the distance, Kassie seemed to be explaining Staffanie to the other girl, who giggled and pet the doll head awkwardly.

Turning your head to face him, you’re almost caught off guard at how close he is.

“Kassie was talking about all the stories you’ve been telling about me.” His eyes flash with alarm for a moment, you have to stop yourself from laughing at the sight. Danny’s attempt to catch you off guard disrupted by your own secret weapon.

“Just the shit from when we were kids, before you become an intolerable bitch.” He stepped back, strutting in front of you.

“Well atleast I’m a bitch and not a complete moron, like you.” He sucks in a breath and scoffs. “This moron’s gonna beat your ass in the challenge teams this year.”

“Not if we’re on the same team, dipshit.”

“Pablo told Eric who told me that you’re in red team. I’m blue team, scout.” He circles you like a shark smelling blood for the first time, your eyes stay trained on him.

“How the fuck does Pablo know? Why would director Williams or Cheryl put us on opposite teams? Isn’t that just begging for trouble?” Your hands raise to rest on your hips, fists clenching.

“‘Cause maybe Pablo’s tight with Ash and Ash sorts the teams ‘cause Cheryl does rota. I was in red team but Eric asked to swap places and I said yes so I could be on the opposite team from you.” This bastard, always testing you. Always looking for a fight. Always needing to win.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” Knuckles white, this was all going to backfire on you specifically.

His taunting grin begged you to lose your temper.

“‘Cause it makes us better. Why be just good at working together when we could be even better tearing each other apart?” There was that closeness thing again, him getting up in your personal space. This was all a stupid intimidation tactic and you weren’t going to let it slide.

“When director Williams calls it out he won’t let you switch, even if Eric asks.” Something was going on here, more than what he was letting on. His eyes take a dangerous glance at your lips, he was playing dirty.

It wasn’t like you thought of him in that way anyway, nor he with you surely. Ultimately, he infuriated you.

Though, anyone would admit he was in great shape. Chiselled jawline and soft blue eyes that would make anyone swoon. He was attractive and you had shared a bunk with him, it was inevitable you would potentially form a deep attachment to him, you supposed. It’s definitely not like you had thought about him in the heat of the night in the safety of your own room, miles and miles away from camp. It was a hundred percent not like you had ever, ever replayed your most heated debates in your head, thinking about how breathless he could make you feel.

Fuck Danny Bixler-Sutherland.

“Don’t be so sure, they can’t reject a team transfer as long as someone on the other team volunteers a switch, it's against camp rules.” He backed away, hands held up in surrender. That stupid fuckin grin still on his mouth.

“Plus, Mia would be a far better teammate than you.” And with that he leaves you.

You couldn’t get his words out of your head.

What the fuck was he planning? Would Eric stoop so low to be involved in some stupid plot to have you guys in prime fighting positions? What was he getting out of this?

Stumbling across the sea of new campers to get to Mia, a plan quickly trying to form in your head.

“Mia, I need to call in a favour.” She dropped the stick at the mention of her name, pretending that she had actually been busy the full time.

“Fuck no, baby.”

“Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?” Mia crossed her arms. “What is it?”

“You need to swap teams with me.”

“How do you know we’re on opposite teams?” Her position unchanging, eyes burning into your soul as if you were breaking the rules somehow.

“Danny might’ve let something slip, he’s in my team and wants to change with Eric so we can be competing, but I don’t wanna do that.” She glances over your shoulder at Danny’s current location, beginning to guide the campers to their assigned cabins.

“How does he know this?” You roll your eyes, scratching your forehead. “It’s a long story, but please Mia, I’m begging you - I need to beat him at his own game.”

Mia stands for a moment, watching the boy, before smiling and looking back at you.

“This is ‘cause you wanna spend more time with him isn’t it?”

“Whatever the fuck helps you sleep at night.” You cannot let her win this foolish debate she’s created in her head.

“Sure thing, I’ll swap I guess.”

—

You had completely zoned out of the induction campfire ceremony. It’s mandatory every year anyway, aimed at the campers specifically. You weren’t missing much. This team shit was driving you crazy, as soon as Ash coughed up that it was time for the counselor sorting ceremony you shot upright. Across the seating area you could see Eric nudge Danny, who barely acknowledged him.

“Okay guys, team red. Okay people here we go. Olivia, Y/N-”

“I wanna swap teams.” You stood up.

Some of the campers ooooooed at your exclamation, Olivia scoffed. “What’s so bad about my team?” You turned to her, apology written all over your face.

You couldn’t swap if you didn’t have someone to swap with, you knew this. But if Mia came in clutch then you also knew that Eric wanted to be on the red team for some reason, so no matter what he would swap with Danny.

“We’ve not even finished reading out the rest of your teammates.” Director Williams answers with an irritated tone, and honestly, rightfully so. You were being difficult.

“Blue is usually my team, c’mon Williams we know this.” Much to his chagrin, you are right. “Well, seeing as we’ve not even called out blue team members, how is anyone gonna swap with you?” All eyes on you, intimidating you more than you cared to admit.

Luckily, Mia came right to your rescue.

“I’ll swap with her.” She stands proud, like she’s testifying to the court.

The fingers on his prosthetic hand scratch his nose, for a second you wonder how it would feel to have such an appendage. His hand had been gone longer than you’d been alive apparently, the camp legend was that it got torn off by a bear in the camp outskirts when Ash was a counselor here himself.

“How the hell did you know you were on the other team?”

“Last year you warned us we spoke too much when we’re together at these things, I thought this year you’d want to keep us separated.” Mia’s excuse didn’t really make any sense, seeing as he had allowed them to share a cabin, but she was right in saying that when they were partnered up they did not shut the fuck up. “Red’s more my color anyway.”

The older man shrugged. “Swap accepted, I suppose.

That was that.

“Shall we continue? Okay, red team. Olivia, Mia, Danny, Sheila and Eric. C’mere.”

Your heart dropped.

What the actual fuck.

Even Mia turned to you in confusion as she began to walk down to the stage with the rest of her team.

Danny must have known all along that Eric wasn’t actually going to swap, he’d done this to throw you off his trail. If anything happens between you two it’s your fault for the switch over now.

But why? Why was he so desperate to manipulate you like that? If it had gone wrong at any point, if you had chosen to stay on the team, who would he have swapped with? Maybe Pedro was in on it too, but looking at him now he seemed even more zoned out than you were.

Danny’s eyes found yours in the crowd, you were instantly reminded of all the other types of shit like this he’d pulled in the years prior. You felt like a total idiot for causing a scene, tears threatening to fall.

“Blue team, let’s go! David, Y/N, Pedro, Natalie and Kelly.”

David. He’d completely slipped your mind.

Fuck this shit.

You couldn’t even turn to look at Danny through the rest of the sorting of the teams, not able to face his stupid smug face that you knew would be looking at you. Why did he have to be such a headfuck all the time?

The full thing kept playing on your mind even when you were back in your cabin with Mia. She was smoking a cigarette, leaning out of the bathroom window. Head in your hands, you sat on the closed lid of the toilet.

“Thank fuck we have our own toilets now, jesus, could you imagine only being able to use the fuckin shared one?”

“We still have to clean all the cubicles when it’s our shift, a private toilet just adds one more toilet onto that.”

She inhales the cigarette for a moment, letting it hit her lungs. Even with the window open it still stunk.

“Yeah, but like atleast it’s our toilet. I’d happily clean your piss on the daily over the combined piss of like 60 something kids.” Mia looks different with the moonlight on her face. Her eyes, kind of buggish normally, seem even bigger. Sometimes she looks like a different person, you think.

“From everything I know, I really thought he liked you.” She murmured, flicking the butt out the window when she finished. “I tried to warn you.” You look at her through your hands. She sinks down onto the tiled floor of the shower.

“Just so weird, right? Like what could he have gotten out of that?” Mia stares off to a point in the corner of the room, in contemplation. “I don’t even get why you don’t like each other. You both used to get along so well.”

You’d heard it all before, and your constant avoidance of the question came from the fact that quite honestly you didn’t even know how to answer it.

“All I know is that I’m gonna get him back tenfold.”

She smirks at you. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

—

For your arts and crafts block that week, you’d been assigned with Natalie. She was nice enough, kind of quiet but sweet with the kids. She’d spent most of her time asking you where things were. As far as you could tell, she was older. Probably not by much, at least around the same age as Olivia, David and Eric. She was from Salt Lake City, which you thought was a little far to come all the way to camp, but you didn’t judge her too much for it. It’s good to get away from home sometimes.

Kassie had indeed been placed on your team. Telling her that you were confident that with her and Staffanie on the team, you’d beat anything her brother threw at you both earned a giggle from her.

Another surprise was Bridget being placed on your team. She kept to herself or her friends mostly, but was more outspoken than a lot of the other teens.

Bridget had been attending camp the past few years since she turned 8, so you were more familiar with her than Kassie. In saying that, the age gap did mean that neither of you had really spoken to each other, especially as you weren’t a counselor before.

Each week, the teams would participate in challenges. Kids would file into the pavilion in their respective team colours, carrying makeshift posters and signs they had made during arts and crafts.

Waves of red and blue lining the wooden bleachers, allowing you to zone out while Danny lingered in your line of vision.

A soft hand to the low of your back, you jump. David waits with a smile and a water bottle on offer.

“Hey.” You soften, tucking a loose hair behind your ear.

“Hey, barely got a chance to catch up with you

since we got here. How you doing, kiddo?” The hand moves to your shoulder, a tinge of disappointment rushing through you. Another nickname, albeit a well meaning one, but one you still held in disdain.

“Not too bad, I've been busy keeping your sister out of trouble.” He chuckles, the famous David Allen smile appears. “I don’t know what she’d do without you.”

An earnest pause, but also a dangerous one.

“Listen David-“

“About last summer-“ Interrupting each other before either could make their point, and yet both so obviously on the same wavelength. The kiss.

“You go first.” His arms fold in a polite defeat. God, the bastard just oozed charm.

“Just wanted to address what happened last summer, between us. Just incase you felt uneasy or something it doesn’t have to be anything big if you don’t want it to be.” Heat rising in your chest, you felt like a stupid idiot with a school girl crush.

As if he could read your own thoughts, David placed his hand on your forearm. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Danny lingered from afar, no stranger to the occasional glance your way. He almost scowled when he saw your company.

You wanted to mention the text, you wanted to ask why he never said anything. Why he didn’t reply. But David simply rubbed your arm, “We don’t need to talk about it.”

A sigh escapes your lips, one you hadn’t even realised you were holding in. “Cool.”

The first challenge passes by fairly simply, despite Danny’s obvious attempts to wind you up. He was a competitive fucker, that’s for sure.

Team Blue manages to take the win for the night, with the kids chanting David’s name. He runs up to you, sweating profusely and yet managing to effortlessly appear like he was a vampire from Twilight instead of someone who just won a game of dodgeball.

“Great work kiddo, my second in command.” A grin appears, one that you can’t help but mimic knowing finewell that you spent the full game preoccupied with Danny.

From the corner of your eye, you could see Eric nudge Mia with a smug smile and whispered in her ear. She looked at you immediately and grinned, the worried pit immediately returned in your stomach.

She skips towards you, with Eric retreating to Danny who stands on the sidelines looking a bit misplaced.

“Guess who’s going to a party tonight?” Mia offers you two thumbs up and does a shuffling dance, that only manages to kick up dirt and makes you cough.

“The Abomination?”

“Okay, fuck you. Us! They’re having a party outside the woods. Dude, our own counselor party!” It had been something you’d spoken about for years, but you felt the effect had been lessened after last year's antics.

“I don’t know, Mia. I want to take this next challenge seriously and-”

“And what? All the tension from today will mean nothing when we’ll all be hungover tomorrow, group bonding?” You tried to find another excuse. “What about the kids?”

“Girl, fuck the kids! I want to party.” All you could do was answer with an awkward shrug, which she took for total defeat.

“YAAAAY. Okay, quick, we have like 2 hours to get ready-” Mia grabs your wrist and pulls you in the direction of your cabin, Danny standing on the hill watching you as you go by. If you weren’t so nervous about the prospect of being at the party with David and trying to listen to Mia, you’d think he was checking you out.

“You better be there, Scout!” Eric calls after you both as you pass, Danny’s head dipping beside him seemingly finding the ground extremely interesting right now. “Suck my ass, Eric!” He howled in response, earning a fit of laughter from you and Mia.

—

The winding path, illuminated with random lanterns left by partying campers long ago, seemed to go on forever. The prospect of getting absolutely shit faced at the end of the trail after a long week of ensuring the safety of screaming kids, patching up old equiptment and cleaning up actual shit was what kept the counsellors of Camp Kandar going.

The transition between the July weather and August’s own was usually indistinguishable, but tonight was particularly breezy. Regardless, the blazing campfire your colleagues crowded around gave a small amount of relief.

Cheap bottles of liquor and red solo cups, firebright light and wine coolers left discarded on the forest floor in favour of roaming hands on dancing teens. There was almost something melancholic about it all, one day they’d well and truly grow out of this forever. The fleeting fun of camp summer, the spontaneity of beers in the woods on a lukewarm summer night.

David strummed lazily on a dark cherry coloured guitar, you almost wanted to roll your eyes at how it looked like he’d stepped right out of a young adult rom com.

“I don’t get what you see in him.” Danny appears, housing a beer you can’t quite decipher the brand name of. You can feel his judgement despite his eyes also watching the older boy at the other side of the fire, unaware to his dueling voyeurs.

“What are you talking about?” He licked his lips, letting out a scoffing almost laugh at your reply.

“You never suited acting stupid, Scout. But then again, are as predictable as a Chainsmokers song.”

Fingers clenching around your cup filled with god knows what, how dare he? It took everything you had in you to show restraint and now throw its contains over his loose fitting tank top and cargo shorts. He was dressed like every female gaze dream skater boy forever immortalised on countless Pinterest boards - and yet you were the predictable one apparently.

“Why do you have to be such a fucking dick all of the goddamned time? You’re insane.”

“I’m not the one sleeping with my best friend’s brother.” Wide eyes snap to his, still burning holes into David’s skull across the fire with a tinge of unnoticed envy.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” The clench around the red cup switches from anger to fear. He could always read her better than anyone. He finally looks at you, his blue eyes somehow welcome despite the venom you shot at each other. A pit in your stomach started to burn as if someone was inside digging it themself.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be getting this reaction. All I’ll say is don’t waste your time on him.” You could feel your eyes roll back, here he was backtracking trying to act like he was helping you again. No way were you falling for it again.

“I can spend time with whoever I want to. You’re just jealous that without alcohol I can’t hang around you without social distancing myself at all times.” You down the rest of your cup, just trying to keep your shaking hands preoccupied.

He shrugs. “Maybe I am.” His gaze shifts back to the rim of the beer. He contemplates copying your action and downing it as well. “Or maybe I just don’t give a shit ‘cuz I won’t even be around to see the fallout when you fuck it all up next year.”

Your turn to look at the boy again, taking in his frame for a moment. His hunched demeanour doesn’t read like he’s telling a joke or trying to wind you up.

“W-what?”

“Yeah, this is my last year. My parents are getting a divorce and my mom can’t afford to take us here anymore. And everything that was saved for my collage fund is getting put into the divorce. Surprise!” Danny uncannily laughs, clearly highlighting just how rotten the situation is.

“And it’s so fucked because we’re moving away and Bridge and Kass are leaving their entire lives behind and they’ll never get to experience this and they barely even know that we’re never going home again and it’s all just so so fucked-”

“Danny…. I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, why the fuck would you I don’t even know why I’m telling you this-” He starts to dab at his eyes and make a hurried exit before you reach out and grab his wrist.

When you look into his eyes you see that same boy from the first year you bunked together. The boy that was scared of the dark, the boy that was chatty and so eager to be outdoors yet scared of the wilderness. You see little Danny, all alone in the big bad scary world with no parents to really protect him, as much as his mom was trying. You felt like you couldn’t breathe. You never knew he was going through anything this serious.

“Wanna go on a walk right now?”

You expect him to tell you to fuck off and storm away, or cast some snarky remark about David. He just nods slowly. “Let me just tell Eric where I’m going.”

“Cool, I’ll get you at the carving tree.” He kind of fumbles a nod and scurries to find the older boy.

You turn and David is behind you like a jumpscare, you’re unable to hide a yelp. He laughs and places a hand on your forearm, you grow tense - mind too preoccupied with Danny. “Everything okay? I know you and Bixler are kind of neck and neck, I’d hate for him to spoil the party for you.”

Glancing back at the blonde boy as he searches for Eric, a tinge of guilt pierces through. “It’s fine, I can handle him.

“Well if you ever wanted me to say anything to him, let me know.” He shrugged, guitar still resting over him.

“I actually had something to ask you.” The liquid courage was saying it was now or never, and if it all went wrong you could escape into the woods with Danny who would probably be feeling even worse than you.

“Uh-huh?”

Here goes nothing.

“Today, when you said we shouldn’t talk about the kiss or whatever. I just wanted to ask what changed your mind after you left that note on my pillow?” David’s face is unreadable.

“What?”

“And yeah, I’m sorry if the text I sent was brutal and I won’t lie and say I’ve not thought about the kiss a lot. But I don’t know man, just help me here.” It almost sounds like a rant as the words escape your mouth, David raising an eyebrow in retaliation.

“Well I’ll try and help you out, I don’t know what you’re speaking about.” He seems dumbfounded, an expression you’ve never seen cross him.

“The text. The note. You left me a note, did you not?” Hands trembling, you wish you had it with you in the chance it would somehow completely restart his memory.

“I left with Mia. I needed to get out of there, it was crazy and intense, and kinda good, but like totally wrong.” He moves you to the side, speaking in hushed tones as if it was an affair on par with JFK and Marilyn and not a stupid drunken kiss.

“And then I texted you.”

“No you didn’t, I don’t even have your number. Show me your phone.” The device feels like a brick from the Great Wall of China when you pull it out of your pocket. You try your best to hide your uneasy fingers when you scroll to the conversation, a silent prayer that you didn’t delete it.

There it was plain as day. It was a real conversation. He lightly grabs the phone off you, still holding it at a level that you can both see it. He taps on the contact and stares for a moment.

“Kiddo, I am so sorry. I don’t know who the hell this could be ‘cause that’s not my number.” David peels his own phone out his back pocket and shows his own contact. He was right, the number was completely different.

“I promise I don’t have a second phone as well, and I’ve never changed it. Not since I was like 13 and you still had a Motorola Razr, remember those?” He smiles, going back into a personality mode similar to a dad or grandfather. You weren’t going to lie and say it wasn’t giving you the ick.

All you could do was nod.

“Nevermind, I guess.” He parts with a pat on the shoulder like he was your sports teammate. And technically that’s all he was. A teammate, a friend's brother.

You turn in the direction of the carving tree, Danny stands in the distance. The stomach pit returns, you wish the digger would just go on strike.

All you can do is collect your thoughts for a moment and prepare yourself for the trip ahead, ensuring to grab a bottle of vodka from the ground as you approach him.

[theunderestimator-2]

"See you later, Joe…": On this day, Dec. 30th, 2002, the Punk Rock Warlord Joe Strummer’s funeral was held in private at West London Crematorium where he was cremated (from a Los Angeles Times clipping dated January 1, 2003).

The funeral was held on a dark and grey Monday with rain belting down in bucketfuls and the service was attended by his widow Lucinda and two daughters, the rest of the Clash, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon, Chrissie Hynde and Jeannette Lee (formerly of PIL, then co-managing director of Rough Trade), Jim Jarmusch, Bob Gruen, Rat Scabies, Pearl Harbour, Joe Ely, Don Letts, the Clash road manager Johnny Greene, some more close friends and relatives, according to Chris Salewicz, who wrote 'Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer'.

He remembers that he heard about Joe’s death after Don Letts called him and when he called up Mick Jones, who in between sobs was his usual funny self, he told him

"… how glad he was he’d played with Joe at the benefit for the Fire Brigades Union five weeks before. -���I don’t even know what religion he was,’ Mick said. -‘Some kind of Scottish low-church Presbyterian, I imagine,’ I suggested. -‘Church of Beer, probably,’ laughed Mick, tearfully. "…Joe’s coffin slowly comes in, held aloft by half a dozen pallbearers. It is placed down at the far end of the chapel. Keith Allen, the actor and comedian, steps forward and positions a cowboy hat on top of it. There’s a big sticker on the nearest end: ‘Question Authority’, it reads, then in smaller letters: ‘Ask Me Anything’. Next to it is a smaller sticker: ‘Vinyl Rules’. On the sides of the coffin are more messages: ‘Get In, Hold On, Sit Down, Shut Up’ and ‘Musicians Can’t Dance’. Around the end wall of the chapel are flags of all nations. More people are ushered in, like the kids Joe would make sure got through the stage-door at Clash gigs, until the place is crammed. …‘Wandering Star’ [by Lee Marvin] begins to play. ‘See you later, Joe,’ someone says. Yeah, see you later, Joe…" (from Chris Salewicz's 'Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer'.)

Soundtrack of the day: ‘Wandering Star’ - Lee Marvin (1969) "When I get to heaven, tie me to a tree/ Or I'll begin to roam, and soon you know where I will be/ I was born under a wandrin' star/ A wandrin' wandrin' star…"

A detailed rundown of Joe's funeral from Chris Salewicz's book: https://www.litres.ru/book/chris-salewicz/redemption-song-the-definitive-biography-of-joe-strummer-39768017/chitat-onlayn/

[beardedmrbean]

Self-described “super mayor” Tiffany Henyard vetoed a resolution seeking to investigate her spending following allegations that she misused taxpayer money on lavish trips and her own $1 million police detail.

The Dolton, Illinois, village board unanimously voted to open a probe into Henyard, calling on her to submit the village’s financial records and inviting the FBI to conduct its own investigation.

Henyard, however, issued a veto on Monday, claiming the resolution was the result of personal attacks against her and stemmed from one-sided narratives.

“As you can see, our village, our community, myself, we are under attack,” Henyard said at the village board meeting. “It’s a shame that people can come to meetings and just tell one side of the stories and not get the entire side of both stories.”

She claimed that the village board was “a boys club” that doesn’t want women like her leading, with Henyard vowing to “fight back” against the alleged smear campaign against her.

“I’m going to always fight for what’s right, and I always stay the course. And I will be victorious when all the dust clears,” she added.

During the village board meeting, the embattled mayor also admitted to a $2 million deficit, with Dolton owing more than $427,000 for street paving and another $400,000 for tree-trimming services, local WGN 9 reports.

Members of the village board, who vowed to override her veto during next month’s meeting, claimed that the deficit was millions more than Henyard’s estimates.

“The mayor can blame everybody for what’s going on, but she has to look at herself,” former trustee Edward Steave said during Monday’s heated meeting.

Vivian Allen was among the residents who came out to criticize the mayor, echoing calls from the village board for her to step down to save Dolton’s finances.

“You lied to us as residents. You do not, you do not stand for me,” she said. “And I want you to step down as mayor today and save our village from this deficit you have caused.”

While the village has yet to formally invite the FBI to investigate Henyard, federal investigators are allegedly already in Dolton questioning the mayor’s alleged victims.

Last month, resident Lawrence Gardner, 57, told The Post he visited an FBI office after Henyard shuttered his trucking business because he refused to renew a $3,500 political contribution.

The FBI told Gardner it received scores of complaints against Henyard.

Henyard has been accused of spending taxpayer money on lavish and unnecessary trips and forking over $1 million for a police detail, then using its members to retaliate against her perceived enemies. 

The former burger joint owner-turned-local politician also is known to attend meetings dressed as a movie gangster to intimidate her critics.

Henyard once channeled drug kingpin Nino Brown from the 1991 gangster movie “New Jack City” at a 2023 gathering.

“People look at politics like a joke, it’s like a mockery right now because of all this stuff,” Village of Dolton Trustee Kiana Belcher told The Post. “She comes to board meetings dressed like Nino Brown.”

[neon-kazoo]

Former Hero Gets a Wheelchair

Today was the day.

After months of hardly getting out of bed, months of fighting the agency’s insurance plan, months of insisting that the hero’s condition was, in fact, service related, they were finally getting a custom wheelchair delivered.

Today, they got their independence back.

The doorbell rang and Hero had never moved faster on their cane, rubber tip taps and accompanying footsteps echoing through their entryway as they reached the door. Opening it, they were greeted with a beautiful sight. A smiling worker stood behind their brand new chair.

The rigid frame was coated in a metallic blue, with shining push rims to match. Black metal completed the footrest and backrest support, blending into the black wheels and side guards. It looked sleek; It looked perfect.

Waved in by the former hero, the worker lifted the caster wheels over the door frame, pushing the chair up and inside before locking the small silver brakes.

“You ready to take her for a spin?” They asked, and the hero grinned from ear to ear. They took a seat, sliding back till their hips were settled. The worker pointed out the buckle and Hero clicked it shut.

“Safety first,” they nodded and the worker chuckled in response.

Brakes unlocked, they pushed, and they glided like they were on a cloud.

They sighed at the ease of movement, moving down the hallway with little pain. It had been so long since they could just move. They missed moving just for the fun of it, for the rush of wind in their hair and adrenaline coursing through their veins. They missed jumping across rooftops, turning their feet on a dime, climbing walls, and starting fights that they could actually win.

Overwhelmed with the return of that feeling, they found themselves increasing their speed more than what may have been advisable around the house. Consequently, when they tried to turn around, they clipped the doorframe, leaving a scuff mark on the plaster and a slight damper on their confidence.

“Takes a little getting used to,” the worker assured.

Hero continued, slightly abashed at their excitement. The worker watched, then suggested they raise the footplate a little to accommodate Hero’s thin soled shoes. After a moment with an Allen wrench, Hero was properly fitted into their new wheelchair.

Now, it just needed a name.

In their time as a Hero, they had practiced restraint when fighting countless villains. They never aimed to maim or hurt more than necessary, even if the villains pointedly did not return the favor. Ever since being forced to retire, Hero carried that sentiment into their civilian life too. However, there were times when they wished to be a little petty. Sometimes, when people blocked ramps or stared at them a little too judgingly, they wished warm pillows and bad hair days upon them. Their prayers for minor inconveniences rose especially when they saw news of a certain villain, who Hero suspected to have a set of very crushable toes.

Maybe, Hero would have to pay them a little visit, with the help of the brand new Metatarsal Muncher.

They couldn’t wait to get out of the house, to be able to function on a daily basis. They were going to get groceries, get out to retirement-events, go outside with a sense of focus not being spent on trying to stay upright, shop without a mind clouded with pain.

If only it hadn’t taken them this long to accept what they needed.

The worker showed them how to disassemble the chair. The ultra-light wheels came off with a button press in the middle, the cushion was removed so the back could fold down. Hero got to assemble it back themselves and, satisfied, the worker bid them goodbye with some maintenance and care instructions.

Far too excited to wait, the former Hero loaded their chair into the car and headed for the park, thrilled to go watch the robins and blue jays hop between the trees. Once, the former hero had envied their freedom, the ease with which they traveled and lived their lives. They had wished they could soar above the sky and dive down back to the ground. Now, as they followed the smooth concrete path through the oaks and the birches, they made peace with their own kind of freedom.

It may not look the same as it once did, but life moved on.

If they had earned nothing else in their time as a hero, it was the right to live their life in the least amount of pain possible. Despite any reservations, they would use this tool to help them, and if anyone had a problem with that, they would meet the wrath of the Metatarsal Muncher.

[veronicaleighauthor]

The Gliders

Note: I wrote this five years ago for a blog and it was even published in The Prairie Times in the September 2019 issue. Since today is the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, I thought this would be the perfect article to post in honor of it. God Bless the Greatest Generation!

~*~

Growing up, I heard my grandfather fought in WWII, but as a kid I really didn’t know in what capacity. My family knew the basics: he was in the ETO; at various points he was in Iceland, England, France, and Germany. He had medals and he was involved with the gliders. He rarely spoke of his service and on the off-chance he did, he was vague. On the 50th anniversary of June 6th (June 6, 1994) my grandfather was in the nursing home and his younger brother Allen came to visit him. The whole family was there.

Allen made an off-handed comment to him saying, “Well, Bud, you know where we were fifty years ago today.”

“Yeah, D-Day.” And my grandfather began to cry.

Nothing more was said.

Everyone knew better than to pry too much. He avoided flying and planes, and later in life, he suffered PTSD. When he passed, his secrets and experiences died with him. A couple of years later, the miniseries “Band of Brothers” was released and it renewed my family’s interest in Grandpa’s service in WWII. We went through his papers with a fine-tooth comb, rediscovered the medals and patches, and that he had both paratrooper and glider wings. Uncle Allen filled us on a few things. We were able to piece together a little of his story. Then, thanks to the internet, we were able to learn exactly what the gliders were and what their function during the war.

            The Germans were the first to use the gliders, in their invasion of France. In response to the German’s success, both America and British created their own versions. Nicknamed the “Flying Coffins,” a high-wind cabin aircraft, the gliders’ framing consisted of plywood and sometimes aluminum, and they were covered in canvas fabric. The glider would be connected to a C-47 aircraft, via a cable, and when both were air borne, the glider would be towed behind, “gliding” along. Without an engine and propellers, it flew silently and undetected by the enemy. The men, the “glider riders,” on the other hand, insisted it was extremely loud inside.

Depending on the type of glider, it would either be transporting fifteen men, or supplies, jeeps, and other equipment. When the glider was near its LZ (Landing Zone), it would be detached from the C-47 and it would crash land. Yes, you read that correctly: crash land. The survival rate wasn’t promising. It was suicidal, really. The glider pilots would have to navigate the engineless aircraft best they could, avoiding trees and stakes that had been erected by the enemy. Hopefully they’d land somewhere near the LZ. The gliders would also be under assault from the Germans. One testimony I heard was of a glider rider awaiting the glider’s detachment from the C-47, he was stunned when the laces on his boots suddenly stood on end. Numb from the adrenalin coursing through his veins, he later learned he had been shot in the foot. Following the crash landing, if the men survived, they would climb out of the glider and immediately enter into combat. Uncle Allen once told us that he had considered joining the airborne and asked my grandfather about it. Grandpa dissuaded him from it. He thought it was too dangerous for his younger brother.

The gliders were used in many major airborne operations throughout WWII: the invasion of Sicily, D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Operation Varsity, and in Operation Thursday in the Far East. In the various operations, the causalities were heavy. The gliders were instrumental during the war, and the glider riders proved themselves over and over again.

            After WWII, the gliders were discontinued in favor of the helicopter. In comparison with the paratroopers, the glider riders involved were largely forgotten. There are books out there for those who want to do more in depth research, but more often than naught, the gliders are relegated to a footnote in the history books. Or a small mention on a documentary.

Looked down by many, including the paratroopers, they weren’t issued jump boots, and it wasn’t until July 1944 that they “earned” their right to wear glider wings and receive hazard-duty pay. During WWII, eventually most men were drafted into the military, but to be a “glider rider,” it was voluntary. The strongest and the best persevered against all odds. Why and how could these young men – including my grandfather – do such a dangerous, and in many cases, thankless job?

            In my opinion, only the deepest and strongest patriotism could have emboldened them…Along with the fact that they were young and away from their homes for the first times in their lives. The gliders were something relatively new, untested, and risky. It was an adventure like no other and in the end the young men played their part in fighting against evil.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Eight thousand years.

That’s roughly how long it takes for snowmelt from Mount Charleston, north of Las Vegas, to reach the aquifer in the Amargosa Basin and Death Valley—the hottest and driest corner of the United States. The temperatures are among the hottest on Earth, with Death Valley potentially setting a world record of over 130 degrees Fahrenheit this summer. Rain is scarce, just a few inches a year in the basin. Its namesake river largely runs dry on the surface, the water hidden underground. The only sign of life across much of the valley adjacent to Death Valley National Park is the sea of creosote bushes, but islands of mesquite and cottonwood trees hide pools of water bluer than the sky above. 

And despite the harsh conditions, those scattered springs, streams and seeps have made this place—Ash Meadows—one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Often called the “Galapagos of the Mojave,” at least 26 endemic species here are found nowhere else, including the rarest fish in the world, the Devil’s Hole pupfish, which lives in a water-filled cavern where the temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many species here have long teetered on the brink of extinction. Human activity in the later half of the 20th century nearly dried up the water supply vital to the area’s plants and animals until the Endangered Species Act, a Supreme Court decision and conservationists saved Ash Meadows by limiting groundwater pumping by local ranchers to maintain water levels critical to the endangered pupfish, eventually designating Ash Meadows as a wildlife refuge in the 1980s. 

That turned the pupfish into a hated pest for many area residents, as protecting it and other wildlife stopped development and economic opportunities faded away. But this past year, a new threat emerging just outside Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge transformed the fish from a villain to a hero.

Pickets across the valley mark mining claims to explore for lithium, the mineral critical to batteries for electricity vehicles and storage of the energy from wind and solar projects. Now, a broad coalition of residents, environmentalists, tribes and local leaders are counting on the Endangered Species Act, the refuge and the pupfish to save them from a proposed mine that they fear will further deplete their scarce water resources, threatening the life that has found a way to thrive in the hottest place in the world.

“We want to save Ash Meadows, but Ash Meadows is going save us,” said Carolyn Allen, chair of the Amargosa Valley Town Board, who is helping lead the fight against proposed mining activity.

Water has always been a priority, she said. Already, the aquifer is seeing too much groundwater pumping, putting the endangered species and community here at risk of extinction. Residents’ wells are running dry, spitting out nothing but sand, and a fix would cost tens of thousands of dollars. 

“It’s the desert,” she said. “Water is the lifeblood of everything.”

Exploratory Drilling and Endangered Species

No more than 1,500 feet away from the refuge’s northernmost spring, where on a hot summer day, schools of the colorful endangered Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish and Ash Meadows Amargosa speckled dace swam, is a playa with a butte filled with lithium that’s attracted the attention of Rover Critical Minerals. The exploratory mining company is looking to drill in the area to research the potential for a mine here. But a study commissioned by the Nature Conservancy—which led the push in the ‘70s and ‘80s to create the refuge by buying up the land around Ash Meadows and transferring it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—found a mine in the area would cause the aquifer to drop 50 feet at the site of the dig, and between two and 30 feet throughout the entire refuge.

Rover was supposed to begin its exploratory drilling last summer, but the Bureau of Land Management, which controls roughly 95 percent of the land in the Amargosa Valley, approved the work without conducting an environmental review, leading the Amargosa Conservancy and Center for Biological Diversity to sue. The BLM pulled its approval of the project and began the review. But in May, locals awoke to claims staked right outside their homes. Rover also proposed exploring the mining potential farther from the refuge but closer to the town and Death Valley National Park.

The project is the latest in a series of environmental battles between mines seeking to dig minerals deemed critical for the renewable energy transition and communities and environmentalists opposing the projects due to their impacts on natural and cultural resources. But unlike many of those disputes, which typically pit mining companies, federal agencies and some local leaders against environmentalists and tribes, the Ash Meadows project has nearly zero local support.

[maxarat]

Happy Valentines Day!

I'm using today to talk about my original series because I can! Also I've been tagging the characters a bit. The series is called Flowers and Forests, and the books follow the naming convention of "[a flower chosen with flower language] and [an alliterative tree]." It follows a Jewish German family during the World Wars so you can probably guess the content warnings but I'll go over them book by book. Details under the cut, as always.

Instead of the order I plan to write them or the order they were concieved, I'm going to go chronological, just to keep everything straight.

Poppies and Poplars

The only warning I can think of is war. Also any similarities to Im Western Nicht Neues are purely an accident I swear

Poppies and Poplars follows 23 year old newly wed Karl Bohmer, who is called on to fight in the trenches of the Great War right after he returns home from his mandatory military service. His regiment is optimistic that the war will be short, that the governments of Europe will get their heads of their asses. But then Germany invades France. Snow falls. The new year passes. Karl's son is born. His friends, those from home and those from the regiment, die. And they realize, the war will not end. The theme of the story is loss of innocence.

For the characters, I'm starting with Karl. He's optimistic and cheerful, almost naïve, and constantly cracks jokes, especially as things get darker and darker. He's quick to love and quicker to care, which causes trouble. Other main characters are Helmut Loritz, an stubborn and serious man, and Benedikt Rothbauer, his laid-back friend. They're in their early 40s, and went to university together. Last is Richard Holzknecht, a 20 year old Prussian man from a wealthy merchant family. He starts out as tempermental and full of himself, but has an arc about chilling out- as much as you can in the trenches.

Irises and Ivy

Xenophobia, queerphobia, and British imperialism will be discussed

Irises and Ivy is about Karl's nephew, 20 year old Welshman Friedrich Pugh. He mans the telegraph on an English Battle Ship in the second half of the war. It isn't very developed plot wise, but the characters are, and theme is going to be about guilt.

Fritz went to Naval school because he was bullied a lot as a kid. Most of it was for being effeminate, but there was also some xenophobia there, and he thought that if he could serve their country, his classmates would stop. Other than that, he's a very intelligent man, knowing many languages, and malicious compliance is his bread and butter. He often gets in trouble with higher ranking officers for this and speaking Cymreag. He works primarily with Christian Beirne, an Irishman who is incredibly anxious and draws to distract himself. They're both friends with Peter Allen, a doctor working in the ship's infirmary. He's a witty and sarcastic fella, and honestly the best way I can describe him is if Hobie Brown were a white Scottish adult. Also he's Fritz's love interest.

Wisteria and Willows

Again, this is under developed, and xenophobia is going to be even more a theme here.

Lisa Boemer was ten when the war started, 13 when her story starts. Her father is a German immigrant, and her mother is from the Dominican Republic. There was a lot of anti-German sentiment during World War I, and the original idea for this one came from my Gigi telling me about how her parents and grandparents wouldn't let her experience their culture because of their experiences during the war.

Lisa is a natural born leader. She's very creative and always has an idea. She will defend almost anyone to the death and is great at making it so that doesn't need to happen. Her main friend group includes Thomas Abrahms, who is transfemme genderfluid, an oldest child, and the straight man of the group, to use a comedy term. Polina Cahana and Vida Pasternack are both very random, Polina in a spaced out way, and Vida in an extremely hyperactive way. I'm still working on them both, to be honest.

Lisa and Friedrich's parents are both Karl's older siblings. The next few stories are about Karl's wife's niece, Ada Zingel.

Myrtle and Mapels

This starts after Kristallnacht, and going forward Nazism, fascism, antisemitism, and racism will be present.

Ada's oldest brothers, David and Model, are arrested, and the rest of her family is beaten. Three months later, they are released, and their family is determined to leave Germany for their safety. Josef, 14, and Ada, 11, are sure that if they wait things out it will get better, and because tickets are so expensive, it's agreed the two of them will stay with family friends for a while, but soon it isn't safe there, and they have to stay on the move. They soon meet Sinti grandmother and granddaughter pair Deana and Tsura, 12, and decide to stick with them.

Ada is a trans girl and comes out to Josef during this book. She's extremely curious and loves talking to people, but becomes a lot more cautious as the story goes on. She is very independent, and wants to be seen as capable of caring for herself more than anything. Josef is stubborn and idealistic, thinking the best of everyone. Tsura is a quiet observer, quick to trust, and quicker to assist. Deana is extremely worried, as she should be having to live in the woods with a bunch of kids. She's like the quintessential grandmother, and honestly that's the only way I can describe her.

Erikas and Evergreens

Deana and Josef die towards the end of M&M. Between the books, Tsura and Ada are joined by a Sorbian boy, Jurij, who ran away from his abusive father. During Erikas and Evergreens, which starts in 1940, they meet cousins Eduard Jundt and Bernhard Loritz, who are about to turn 18, while they hike across Germany to see Bernhard's friend, Margreta Rothbauer. Bernhard and Margreta are the grandchildren of Helmut and Benedikt, but that isn't important. They're also travelling with Greta's cousin, Christel Klein. From Greta's, the group plans to go to Switzerland to wait out Nazis.

Jurij is very temperamental, careless, and slow to trust, and his arc is about healing from his trauma. Also he's trans. Eduard acts wears his emotions on his sleave and has a pattern of taking drastic action, catastrophizing the bad and idolizing the good, basically. Bernhard is easily worried and usually closed off, but he hides this by being a happy-go-lucky nerd. He is very caring, and sort of takes in the younger kids. Greta is incredibly sarcastic and intelligent, but she usually hides it behind an oblivious demeanor. Christel has ADHD, POTS, and "pastel autism" as Summer would call it, very cheery and friendly. She latches onto the grumpier characters especially, and hyperfixates on medicine and botany.

Other stories that don't have enough to fit the rest of the formatting are Orchids and Oaks, which follows these kids through the rest of the war, and Cornflowers and Cedars, which has Ada, Eduard, Christel, and Tsura reuniting with their families after the war.

[poupeesdecirque]

Travel Blog - Lübeck & Travemünde (15.-17. December 2023)

Last little weekend vacation before the holidays. It was mainly a trip to attend the last concert for the year and we went on the plenty of christmas markets in Lübeck and briefly visited Travemünde on our way back on sunday.

Mainly some cozy traveling, some rants, lots of foods and impressions here.

Friday - 15. December

After avoiding the demonstration of the farmers against the newest political discourse we arrived in Lübeck, Mom had another figth with the navigation system as she was like "I knew the place" but in the end I basically had to tell her to FORGET what she think she knows and just trust me as navigator. We eventually arrived at our hotel.

In before I had a bit of a trouble with the booking process... we had booked another hotel but the service contacted me in June that we can't go there we had to change the hotel. It was a back and forth with the customer service as the callcenter agents can't access the e-mail customer service and vice versa and both sides tried to contact me and told me over and over again I have to change everything. As stuff was settled the old hotel contacted me a month later that I HAVE TO CHANGE THE HOTEL. It was super stressfull.

Well as we arrived Mom went in to check in as my anxious ass hates that and I needed to calm down after the little discourse about the route. Then she came and said "They don't accept me you have to as you booked the hotel", fine. We were able to check in but then... Mom's card was declined. First I thought it was just because it's her EC and not her CC. ... her EC got declined. Because she thought it was smart to keep her invalid one while she got a newer one (AND ALREADY USED THAT) and ... in the end I had to pay for the super expensive hotel she wanted as the old one got canceled OTL what a way to start the weekend. She luckily transfered me the money back but being her piggy bank for cash the whole weekend truly got on my nerves.

Anyways I needed comfort food, we headed out to Café Niederegger and enjoyed some cake, shopped a bit at their store and then went to the christmas markets.

Lübeck has several markets and while I am not a christmas person I somehow love the markets there, they have a certain vibe. The main market is in the historical centre, then you have a medieval themed one, some booths around the shopping district, a fairytale themed one, international, little elf houses, a martime one and one at the harbour along some more.

We also went to a few stores as I wanted to get some ornaments for my christmas tree as I want to decorate it rather traditional this time with more natural material, candy and just things that have a memorial value for me.

And I finally got my crepe filled with Kinderschokolade and the waffle as plate, I love that idea still. Here you can see the tiny elf village and the ferris wheel of the maritime market. Last year I took photos with Allen here but I decided against bringing Red along this day as I was quite done and didn't want to stress myself with doll photos.

We had dinner at a burger place (I had one with oat based patty, fig chutney and walnuts), we decided to have dinner at a restaurant for friday and then just snack on stuff the next one. It was quite dark as we went back. Oh and I had a chocolate covered apple for dessert as I somehow wanted something fresh but that was .. as fresh as it got. You can see my little haul from that day on the last photo.

Saturday - 16. December

The day started early for me, I'm an early bird. I went out for photos with Red, but was a bit miffed as this year they turned off the lights in the morning, the last years they still had them on for quite a while. I took a little walk with Red but the lightning was really awful... and I lost the reflector, went back the whole way, and back again and then finally found it.

I have to say Mom is truly not trying to compromise with some things, I was super hangry as she finally got up (I was awake for over 3 hours by then and usually I have breakfast 1 1/2 hours after I get up the LATEST), and pissed at the world and the overpriced buffet but it was food at least.

We then headed out again but the markets were still closed, we took a turn through the city to check some of the smaller streets and met a man who told us a bit about the street he lives in.

We went on a little shopping spree but the stores were badly ventilated I felt the overstimulation coming with a terrible headache, as Mom wanted to go into H&M I just told her 'nope' and waited outside.

Funny enough she said the store was super horrible and we continued to sightsee the other markets like the fairytale themed one and the handcrafter market (that one was inside a church and you had to pay a small fee), the stuff there was amazing but also super expensive, we didn't buy anything there but it was interesting to see.

Weirdly I still had a super hard headache going on .... until I noticed it was 12 already my body was like "hey gimme food", I'm so into my eating routine its horrible. Anyways I got a Baumstriezel with nuts, which resulted in Mom not wanting any as she was like "I want cinnamon&sugar!" but my brain was like "NUTS"... way to keep her off my food, lol.

As told in before Saturday was to be snack day and we had a lot of snacks while going back and forth the markets, we visited some other Marzipan stores and had some relax time at the hotel before fetching more food. And I got new tree ornaments at the tourists information store and my first ever Cinnamonroll! It was a gingerbread one and I am not sure if I like them, maybe a normal cinnamon roll will more my thing but I have to say it was .. too much cinnamon in the centre for me.

After cooling down a bit we got dinner-ish which was .. a lot. But as we walked around almost the whole day I felt I needed just more. And I got more, a flammkuchen (the toppings weren't much, so little mushrooms T_T), Mutzen (a fried pastry) and a falafel wrap. Back to the hotel we went for sitting down a bit before heading out for the concert.

To our surprise we ... walked into the christmas farmer's parade. It's not a usual thing here, and I researched it they do this for the children in the hospitals in Lübeck, to bring them something joyful during this time, I think that's really cute.

For the concert I can tell it was a blast, I had a super nice talk with some of the regulars there and the whole band was so thankful for everyone being there, it was like coming home. I just adore this band and I am glad I already have two tickets to see them next year again :)

I will post more pics from the concert in a seperate entry later on!

Sunday 17 December

Sunday started early for me as well, but as I had little sleep after the concert and my left ear being half deaf I was really done for. Mom decided to sleep even longer, she had promised me to get to breakfast earlier but... it didn't happen. I went on a little walk to let the time pass and she was still asleep as I got back ... sigh. Took the time and took some pics of the stuff I bought the day prior.

I was quite pissed and even was miffed at everything in the hotel at this point, don't mess with me when I lack sleep and am hungry.

As we checked out we went to Travemünde where I took some photos with Nachti & Red.

Then we went onto the small christmas market there. It truly is just a small one but cute anways. Lunch was at the Café Niederegger where I had waffles and ice cream, I bought some more smoll things to bring with me for christmas and then we headed home. The drive back home was long but no happenings this time, that was .. nice for a change.

After dinner (I had Udon soup, noms) and unpacking a bit we went to see our local christmas parade. The parade was more a demonstration against... yep, the current political discourse. The whole thing was created during the pandemic to bring some light into the dark while everything was cancelled but now it all has a different meaning. The kids in the village enjoyed it though.

For me the trip was overall positive but I got an ear infection from not wearing a beanie on saturday (that's why my ear acted up) and I needed some time to regain. I'm working through my todolist but am trying to not to do everything at once. There is a lot I have to edit and put into the queue still, but I aim to have it all done soon that I can start on new things.

[mushi-shield]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who authorities say fatally stabbed her partner at their Los Angeles apartment Monday then threw her two children from a moving SUV onto the freeway, killing her infant daughter, was an astrologer who called the impending solar eclipse “the epitome of spiritual warfare” in an online post days earlier.

Los Angeles police believe Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34, posted on X as an astrology influencer and recording artist with the moniker “ Ayoka,” in the days leading up to the violence, which began hours before the eclipse peaked in Southern California, said Lt. Guy Golan.

While detectives have reviewed Johnson’s posts, police are not considering the eclipse to be a precipitating or contributing factor to the slayings “because we just don’t know why she did what she did,” Golan told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“We’ve taken all the facts we can, but without being able to interview her and without having something more tangible than a post on X, I don’t know how much weight you can give to somebody (saying) there’s an apocalypse and attribute it to one of the most horrific murders we’ve had in LA,” Golan, who is head of the homicide unit investigating the case, said.

Authorities say Johnson and her partner, 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney, had an argument around 3:40 a.m. Monday in their apartment in Woodland Hills, about 25 miles (42 km) northwest of downtown LA. Johnson stabbed Chaney and fled with her kids, an 8-month-old girl and her 9-year-old sister, in a Porsche Cayenne.

Johnson then drove along Interstate 405 in Culver City and threw her daughters out of the moving SUV around 4:30 a.m., police said. The baby was pronounced dead on the road, but the older daughter — who witnessed the stabbing — survived with moderate injuries.

Johnson traveled southwest to Redondo Beach, where a half-hour later she was driving over 100 miles per hour (160 kph) and crashed into a tree. The LAPD is investigating whether the solo crash was an apparent suicide.

The Los Angeles Times first reported on Johnson’s social media activities in connection with the killings.

“Get your protection on and your heart in the right place,” she posted April 4 to more than 105,000 followers on X. “The world is very obviously changing right now and if you ever needed to pick a side, the time to do right in your life is now. Stay strong you got this.”

On April 5, she posted in all caps, “Wake up wake up the apocalypse is here. Everyone who has ears listen. Your time to choose what you believe is now.”

Her social media also included a mix of antisemitic screeds, conspiracy theories about vaccines and warnings about the end of the world alongside astrological predictions and positive affirmations. Also on April 5, she posted the word “LOVE” dozens of times. Her personal website offers a variety of services including “zodiac healing work,” “alcohol balancing system” and an “aura cleanse.”

Johnson’s internet presence and online following dates back years. The Fader, a music magazine, interviewed her in 2016 as an astrology personality.

“She was very standoffish,” said Norman Linder, a Woodland Hills neighbor. He only saw Johnson and her daughters a few times before in the apartment complex.

Another neighbor, Anita Mazer, told the AP that when she saw the family, “I just said ‘hello.’ The baby was really cute,” she said Wednesday. “It’s horrible.”

Golan said there were no calls for police to respond to the couple’s apartment prior to Monday’s killing, when neighbors called 911 after seeing the door open. Johnson did not have a felony criminal record in California and there were no indications of reported domestic violence.

Detectives did not immediately link the Woodland Hills slaying to the daughters, Golan said. He was in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood when he started getting push alerts from news organizations on his cellphone about the infant’s death on the roadway in Culver City. Investigators realized there might be a connection between two missing children from the family’s apartment and the tragedy on the interstate.

“I was like ‘Oh, there’s two young girls who were stranded on the 405 Freeway.’ That is such a random and terrible thing to hear about. And we knew there were two young children,” Golan continued. “We were setting up an Amber Alert.”

Golan said detectives discovered candles and cards inside the apartment, but he was not sure whether they were tarot cards.

“They didn’t look like your standard deck of cards that you would play poker with,” he said.

The solar eclipse’s path of totality stretched from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Newfoundland, Canada, a swath approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide. Revelers were engulfed in darkness at state parks, on city rooftops and in small towns when the moon blocked out the sun, though Southern California only saw a partial eclipse that peaked at 11:12 a.m.

Across the globe, the celestial event spawned fears of the apocalypse and other suspicions rooted in religion and spirituality. But Golan noted that others who posted online about their eclipse-related worries did not commit violence like Johnson.

“How many people wrote about it,” he said, “and didn’t go out and murder somebody?”

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week # 150 (Year 3/Week 46):

We All Loved Each Other So Much, only my second by Ettore Scola (after 'A special day'), a sprawling saga of post-World War II Italian life and politics, dedicated to and with a cameo of Vittorio de Sica. Strangely episodic and focused on friendship and the cinema. At one point he's recreating the shooting of the Fontana di Trevi scene of La Dolce Vita, with both Fellini and Mastroianni re-playing themselves - very uncanny!

🍿

The four times is a wordless, award-winning slow-poem from 2010. Philosophically, it follows the Pythagorean notion about the four transmigrations of the soul, as exemplified in the lives of a human, an animal, a plant and a mineral. Visually, it follows a dying goatherd in a small southern Italian village, who mixes the dust from the local church floor with water to drink as medicine. Just as he dies, a baby goat is being born, then the story turns to a fir tree under which that lost goat had died, and finally into a pile of charcoal. The smoke from the burning coal turns into dust, which is what the old shepherd drank. It’s the cycle of life and death. It's a fragile and contemplative viewing, quiet and spiritual.

The trailer. 9/10.

🍿  

“Raise ravens, and they'll gouge your eyes out”…

Raise Ravens (Cría Cuervos) by renown Spanish director Carlos Saura. A mystical psychological drama about painful childhood memories. With the same little actress who starred in ‘The spirit of the beehive’. She watches her dying mother suffering in pain, fantasises about poisoning her father, relives her sad upbringing in a villa with an empty swimming pool in the back. That kind of story.

🍿

"Pi-Kan Pai!"

Another frequent re-watch: Best (?) modern romantic comedy, When Harry met Sally. Sweet Sally (Photo Above) and Woody Allen-lite Harry, the original obnoxious mansplainer, and "human affront to all women". How they fall in love in 12 short years. His deeply cynical misogyny is an unpleasant hindrance, but eventually even he changes, becomes softer, even nice.

With a shout-out to Mallomas, the American version of the Danish flødeboller (קרמבו). Still 10/10.

🍿

L’enfer (Torment), my 7th film by Claude Chabrol, a low-rent version of 'The Shining', about a husband who descends into madness. A paranoiac hotel owner starts suspecting that his wife is cheating on him, and his obsessive jealousy turns this whole story into an ugly, unpleasant trip. 3/10.

🍿

Wikipedia has a list of all movies with 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and # 6 with the highest number of unanimous reviews (129) is Minding the gap, a 2018 Oscar nominee. The debut documentary from one Bing Liu is the tremendous chronicles of himself and his two blue-collar friends. Three young skaters from Rockford, IL, from their teens until much older and sadder, they look back at their disappointed, broken lives. Rockford, IL, a dying rust belt city with 100% empty streets. 9/10.

🍿

All inclusive, a lovely Danish comedy, made by an all-women team, about a 60-year-old mother and her two adult daughters on a Southern vacation to Malta. The one freewheeling daughter wants her mother to have some fun, so she pays a local bartender to flirt with her. My 3rd film with Danica Curcic. 6/10.

🍿

“Call me” X 2:

🍿 Call me Chihiro is a wistful feel-good slow-cinema fairy tale, about a 29-year-old free spirit in a small seaside Japanese town. She's a former sex worker but now she services as a cashier at a Bento shop. Kind and friendly to anyone she meets, she spreads good will to anyone who crosses her path. Always smiling, but nurturing a sad heart, it's a leisurely-told story that eventually meanders over 2 hours with heartfelt snippets of the various characters she touches, but with no resolutions. 7/10.

It made me realize how purely escapist are the all movies I watch. I am satisfied walking with her at sunset on the docks of this pretty, far away town.

🍿 Re-watch: Luca Guadagnino's sensuous Call Me by Your Name. Beautifully-shot, romantic love story of an upper-class Italian summer. Great acting by two hetero(?) players, and the irritating Jewish father.

You know what things... The incredible one-shot at the plaza.

🍿

Pull my daisy, an experimental "Beat Generation" movie, made by photographer Robert Frank in 1959. Written and narrated by Jack Kerouac, and featuring Allen Ginsburg, Gregory Corso and Delphine Seyrig (!), it's a jazzy, free-form poem with an improvisational Joycean flair. A bohemian group crash a party. Nice!

🍿

Apocalypse Clown, an absurdist apocalyptic Irish slapstick comedy about a troupe of washed out clowns, trying to find meaning after a freak solar flare wipes out electricity in the world. Silly and off-beat. 7/10.

The trailer.

🍿

3 by Mabel Normand, silent screen director and actress:

🍿 Mabel Norman was a major female director and star who collaborated with Mack Sennet, and directed Charlie Chaplin's first films.

Mabel's Strange Predicament was Chaplin's first film where he used the tramp persona and costume. It was 1914, and he was slightly less polished: It was obvious he was a drunk, a lecher, a big tipper, his make up had his mouth in a permanent frown. Her predicament was being locked out of her room wearing pajamas!

🍿 Caught in a Cabaret, another 1914 Chaplin 2-reeler. Here he's a waiter who fakes being the Prime Minister of Greenland. There's also a real giantess, maybe a 6'5 foot extra dancing in the background.

🍿 Mabel's Blunder is a gender-bender comedy, with a secretary being hit by both her boss and his father. This short was added to the National Film Registry.

🍿

Etgar Keret is an absurdist, postmodern Israeli poet. More that 100 of his existentialist plays were adapted to short international movies. I discovered him after reading a painful NYT essay ‘I Feel a Human Deterioration’ about the massacre in Gaza.

Wristcutters: A Love Story, based on a story of his, was a bizarre black-comedy experiment about the after-life station where people who had committed suicide find themselves. It opens with a tremendous surprising suicide, but all of its young actors are especially un-charismatic, the directing by some Croatian dude is distinctively mediocre, and even Tom Waits cannot save it. 4/10

🍿

David Cross's 2021 stand-up I'm from the future opens with a stark and powerful story, a woman’s journey to, and experience in, the gas chamber in Auschwitz. It's an angry, scathing criticism of right wing ideology, delivered remorselessly and without pity. 6/10.

🍿

Edgar Wright directed a fake trailer for a fictitious 1970’s exploitation horror film called Don’t. It was included in Tarantino & Rodriguez’s ‘Grindhouse’.

🍿

Oh, how I hated Scorsese’s cult comedy After Hours! The appalling, affected yuppy character, the typecasted Soho artists, the unfunny twists and turns of the journey to ‘get back home’. 1/10.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[shadows-for-breakfast]

River Landscape with Large Tree at

Left, 1546

River Landscape with Five Bare Spruce

Trees in the Foreground, 1549

River Landscape with Three Bare Willow Trees at Right and a Long Winding Wooden Bridge at Center

Leading to a Village, 1546

River Landscape with Rocks at Left and

Right, 1546

Etching

Augustin Hirschvogel

German, 1503-1555)

Within a decade, Augustin Hirschvogel and Hanns Lautensack (nearby) were aware of the landscapes by Wolfgang Huber and Albrecht Altdorfer and began to expand their artistic vocabulary. Hirschvogel probably made the group of etchings on view here after traveling down the Danube from Nuremberg, through Regensburg and Passau, to his residence in Vienna. The many buildings, cultivated fields, and roads emphasize human activity and its mark on the landscape but always in the service of articulating a particular topography.

Hirschvogel's etchings found an international audience, informing the development of the landscape genre as far away as Italy and the Netherlands.

Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland 1923.745; John L. Severance Fund 1951.491; Dudley P. Allen Fund 1953.157; John L.

Severance Fund 1963.471

[oaresearchpaper]

Biophysical Factors Affecting Height and Diameter Structures of Falcata (Falcataria falcata) in Agusan del Norte, Philippines

Abstract

This study aims to support private tree farmers in making knowledgeable management decisions in their falcata plantation. The effect of biophysical factors on the height and diameter structures of 6-year-old Falcata (Falcataria falcata) at various elevations (0-200 m asl, 201-400 m asl, and 401-600 m asl) in Agusan was investigated in this study. Fifteen (15) 20 m x 20 m plots were created at each sampling site a total of 45 plots were established. In this study, the height and diameter structures of 6-year-old falcata were measured and analyzed. Results indicate that elevation, temperature, relative humidity, and soil potassium are key factors influencing the height and diameter structures of 6-year-old falcata trees. The mean height and diameter were highest in the middle elevation, or within 201-400 m asl, and lowest in the higher elevation, or 401-600 m asl. The temperature has a negative and significant relationship with the height and diameter structures of 6-year-old falcata, and tree spacing had a negative relationship with height.

Introduction

Falcataria falcata (L.) Greuter & R. Rankin) is a huge tree with a first branch reaching a height of up to 20 meters. Falcata trees can reach 100 cm in diameter, have a spreading flat crown, and form a wide umbrella-shaped canopy when growing in the open, with the buttress being tiny or absent (Krisnawati et al., 2011). Tree growth patterns in forest stands vary between locations and individual trees due to both internal and external variables. Environmental variables vary concerning elevation within a species geographical range, resulting in regional diversity in site conditions that may limit growth (Barry, 1992). A higher growth rate boosts a species competitive ability and survival in favorable conditions (Vitasse, 2009).

The elevational gradient plays an important role in a tree or stands growth since trees have different ecological and physiological requirements for survival. Understanding how tree growth responds to environmental gradients is crucial for comprehending the ecology of species distribution and forest ecosystems, as well as for predicting future ecosystem services, as stated by Rapp et al. (2012). The growth and mortality rates of trees can be influenced by the elevation, as each species has an optimal altitude level for planting suitability. Some authors suggest that tree growth may decline with elevation (Coomes and Allen, 2007; Leigh, 1975; Bruijnzeel and Veneklaas, 1998; Girardin et al., 2010)

Pathogens (Mallett and Volney, 1999), insects (Rhoades and Stipes, 1999), competition with other trees (Nowak and McBride, 1991; Rhoades and Stipes, 1999), and competition with other vegetation are all biotic variables linked to lower tree growth rates in ecosystems (Close et al., 1996). Gall rust appears to be more common in falcata species at higher elevations. Anino (1991) emphasizes that minor infections occur at lower elevations of 250 meters above sea level, while major infections occur at elevations of 275 to 500 meters above sea level. Severe instances were discovered at elevations ranging from 400 to 600 meters above sea level (Lacandula et al., 2017).

There is a need to investigate the influence of biophysical factors on the height and diameter structures of the falcata at different elevation because the knowledge of how this plant responds are of paramount significance in understanding its ability to respond to climate change. In the Philippines, falcata is one of the most important species for industrial tree plantations (ITPs). Despite the importance of the species, there is no empirical data about its height and diameter structures concerning different elevations.

The study hypothesized that the height and diameter structures of 6-year-old falcata will decline with elevation. More specifically, the hypothesis suggests that the height and diameter structures of the species will reduce at higher elevations due to their vulnerability under such conditions.

Source : Biophysical Factors Affecting Height and Diameter Structures of Falcata (Falcataria falcata) in Agusan del Norte, Philippines | InformativeBD

[b2bcybersecurity]

Ransomware-Bedrohungen oder auch aktive Angriffe sind für Unternehmen längst Bestandteil ihres Alltags. Viele Attacken auf Identity-Systeme und allen voran Active Directory sind weiterhin die höchsten Bedrohungen. Dabei nutzen Cyberangreifer etwa durch Phishing gestohlene Anmeldedaten. Active Directory-Sicherung und -Wiederherstellung bewahren das Unternehmen. Je mehr betriebliche Prozesse Unternehmen digitalisieren, umso größer wird die Notwendigkeit von operativer und Cyber-Resilienz. Auf Identity-Systemen aufgebaute Angriffe in Verbindung mit Ransomware stellen vor diesem Hintergrund eine kritische Bedrohung dar, da sie die Geschäftstätigkeit von Organisationen vollständig zum Erliegen bringen können. Um selbst im Falle eines Angriffs den Betrieb aufrecht erhalten oder schnell und vertrauenswürdig wiederherstellen zu können, spielen die Sicherung und Wiederherstellung von Microsoft Active Directory (AD) eine zentrale Rolle. Ransomware bleibt die Gefahr Nr. 1 Die Bedrohung durch Ransomware ist für Unternehmen längst Bestandteil ihres Alltags geworden. Allerdings hat diese durch Angriffe auf Identity-Systeme und allen voran Active Directory eine neue Qualität erreicht. Dabei nutzen Cyberangreifer gestohlene Anmeldedaten – beispielsweise durch Phishing- oder Pass-the-Hash-Taktiken erbeutet – um sich legitimen Systemzugang zu verschaffen. Zunehmend zielen sie auf Active Directory-Dienstkonten ab. Schaltzentrale Active Directory Active Directory fungiert als Schaltzentrale für die Verwaltung aller digitalen Unternehmensidentitäten mit ihren Berechtigungen, Zugriffs- und Authentifizierungsrechten auf diversen Serversystemen. Eine AD-Implementierung ist folgendermaßen aufgebaut: - Domains bezeichnen eine Sammlung von Objekten, die Ressourcen wie Benutzer oder Geräte im Netzwerk repräsentieren. - AD-Trees: Sie werden geschaffen, indem man zwischen Domänen durch Vertrauensstellungen Verbindungen herstellt. - Ein AD-Forest umfasst eine Gruppe an AD-Trees und stellt die oberste Organisationsebene des AD dar. Je nach Organisation kann es nur einen oder auch mehrere Forests geben. - Domain-Controller bezeichnet den Server, der die Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) hostet. Er speichert die Informationen über alle einzelnen Objekte, wie Namen und Passwörter und ermöglicht autorisierten Benutzern den Zugriff auf diese Informationen. Durch verschiedene Gruppen entsteht ein Berechtigungskonzept für den Zugriff auf die Daten des Unternehmens. Erst die Mitgliedschaft in solchen Gruppen gewährt Nutzern den Zugriff auf entsprechende Daten und Applikationen. Ist es Angreifern gelungen, in einer IT-Umgebung Fuß zu fassen, versuchen sie, unter anderem über AD-Gruppenrichtlinien, ihre Zugriffsrechte zu erweitern (Privilege Escalation), um Ransomware möglichst breit ausrollen zu können. Active Directory und seine Relevanz Cyber-Resilienz – die Fähigkeit, auch während oder in Folge eines Angriffs Geschäftskontinuität aufrechtzuerhalten – entwickelt sich im Zuge der digitalen Transformation zu einer Priorität in der IT-Sicherheitsstrategie von Unternehmen. Active Directory, welches Unternehmen oft in Kombination mit Entra ID, Okta oder einem anderen Cloud-basierten Verzeichnisdienst nutzen, übt in zweierlei Hinsicht darauf Einfluss aus: 1) Als primäres Angriffsziel Über lange Zeit seines fast 25-jährigen Bestehens war Sicherheit der Benutzerfreundlichkeit von Active Directory untergeordnet. Die Liste an bekannten Schwachstellen ist entsprechend lang. Hinzu kommt die oft unzulängliche Verwaltung durch Unternehmen, zum Beispiel durch Fehlkonfigurationen wie AD-Lesezugriff für alle Benutzer oder die Vergabe von überdimensionierten Zugriffsrechten. All diese Faktoren machen Active Directory für Cyberkriminelle äußerst attraktiv, da sie die Erfolgschancen für Ransomware-Angriffe erhöhen. 2) Für die Wiederherstellung von Systemen Ist es Cyberkriminellen gelungen, ein Unternehmen mit Ransomware teilweise oder vollständig zu infiltrieren und infizieren, ist AD die entscheidende Grundlage zur Wiederherstellung des normalen Betriebes. Da jegliche Benutzer- und Geräteidentitäten sowie deren Zugriffsrechte dort angelegt sind, können IT-Teams in der Regel die Wiederherstellung von Applikationen oder Daten erst beginnen, wenn AD wieder läuft. Grundlagen der Active Directory-Sicherung und -Wiederherstellung Falls ein gesamter AD Forest neu aufgebaut werden muss, kann dies für Unternehmen eine Downtime von mehreren Wochen oder gar Monaten bedeuten, sofern keine brauchbaren und spezifischen AD-Backups vorhanden sind. Gewöhnliche Backup-Routinen greifen für AD allerdings zu kurz, da einerseits die Gefahr besteht, Malware infizierte Systeme erneut zu installieren und andererseits traditionelle Backup-Systeme nicht für die vertrauenswürdige Wiederherstellung von einem gesamten Forest geschaffen sind. Um dies vertrauenswürdig zu gestalten und die Wiederherstellungsdauer auf ein Minimum zu beschränken, sollten Unternehmen folgende Grundlagen beachten: - Ein separates AD-Backup nutzen: Active Directory sollte unabhängig von Server Backups und Bare Metal Recovery gesichert werden, da diese im Falle der Wiederherstellung das Risiko einer erneuten Malware-Infektion bergen. Eine spezielle Lösung für AD-Backups kann diesen Prozess vereinfachen. - Mehrere Domain Controller sichern: Das Sichern von mindestens zwei Domänencontrollern pro Domäne in der Active-Directory-Gesamtstruktur sorgt für Redundanz. AD-Backups sollten abgesichert offline oder als Image-Kopien auf Azure- oder AWS-Blob-Storage gespeichert werden. - Wiederherstellung ohne Snapshots: Snapshots des Domänencontrollers sind für eine Wiederherstellung des Active Directory unzureichend, und zwar aus mehreren Gründen: Ein Forest, der aus Snapshots wiederhergestellt wurde, wird wahrscheinlich Probleme mit der Datenkonsistenz verursachen. Wenn zum Zeitpunkt der Erstellung des Snapshots Malware auf einem Domänencontroller vorhanden ist, wird die Malware zusammen mit dem Domänencontroller wiederhergestellt. (Dies gilt für jedes klassische Backup.) - Ein AD-Backup ist noch keine Forest Wiederherstellung: Der offizielle und korrekte Ablauf einer Forest-Wiederherstellung ist von Microsoft beschrieben und umfasst viele Schritte, die bei einem klassischen Backup-Tool manuell gegangen werden müssen und leicht zu Fehlern und Zeitverzögerungen führen. Für eine erfolgreiche und vertrauenswürdige Wiederherstellung eines Forests sollte ein spezifisches auf AD Forest Wiederherstellung ausgelegtes Tool angewandt werden und dies mindestens einmal pro Jahr auch konkret geübt werden. - Regelmäßige Sicherung: Abhängig von den Geschäftsprozessen sollte ein geeignetes Wiederherstellungsziel (Recovery Point Objective, RPO) festgelegt werden, das sicherstellt, dass zwischen den Back-up-Intervallen keine kritische Menge an Geschäftsdaten verloren gehen kann. - Testen: Regelmäßige Tests des AD-Backup- und Wiederherstellungsprozesses sollten Bestandteil des Notfallplanes sein, vor allem, wenn dieser eine manuelle AD-Wiederherstellung vorsieht, welche überaus kompliziert und zeitaufwändig ist. Ergänzend zu zuverlässigen Wiederherstellungsprozessen sollten Unternehmen ITDR-Lösungen (Identity Threat Detection and Response) implementieren, die Unregelmäßigkeiten in AD-Umgebungen erkennen und helfen können, Angriffe frühzeitig zu bekämpfen. Cyber-Resilienz basiert auf sicheren Identitäten Je mehr Geschäftsprozesse digital vollzogen werden, umso empfindlichere Auswirkungen können Lücken in der Cybersicherheit nach sich ziehen. Dies erschafft die Notwendigkeit, die Cyber-Resilienz zu erhöhen, um die Geschäftsabläufe möglichst nicht zu beeinträchtigen. Die Entwicklung von IT-Infrastrukturen und die sich wandelnde Bedrohungslage haben Identitäten für Unternehmen zu einer bedeutenden Verteidigungslinie gemacht. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist Active Directory, das von Unternehmen am häufigsten eingesetzte Identitätsverzeichnis, sowohl eine Achillesferse als auch eine tragende Säule und verlangt besondere Aufmerksamkeit bei Sicherung und Wiederherstellung.   Über Semperis Für Sicherheitsteams, die mit der Verteidigung von hybriden und Multi-Cloud-Umgebungen betraut sind, stellt Semperis die Integrität und Verfügbarkeit von kritischen Enterprise-Directory-Diensten bei jedem Schritt in der Cyber-Kill-Chain sicher und verkürzt die Wiederherstellungszeit um 90 Prozent. Semperis hat seinen Hauptsitz in Hoboken, New Jersey, und ist international tätig, wobei das Forschungs- und Entwicklungsteam über die USA, Kanada und Israel verteilt ist.   Passende Artikel zum Thema Read the full article

[xtruss]

Photo: Here & Now/Co-Owner Tobly McSmith

The City’s Quiet Crackdown on Kava Bars. The Businesses Selling Kava and Kratom Have Found Themselves in a Legal No-Man’s-Land.

— By Chris Crowley, Senior Writer at Grub Street | CURBED

Tobly McSmith has had his kava bar Here & Now shuttered by Inspectors from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene twice in the year and a half since it first opened on Allen and Bowery. “We’ve been scared of everybody who walks in,” McSmith says. In addition to pour-over Coffee and Espresso and Pots of Tea, McSmith sells Kava and Kratom Teas that his employees brew themselves, both plant-derived substances that his Clientele Consider Natural Options for Anxiety and Pain Relief and The health Agency Deems “Poisonous,” “Injurious to Health,” and “Unsafe.” This difference has led to the Bureaucratic Tug of War plaguing his business — from DOH violations for selling kava to a cease-and-desist letter to closure orders, two hearings, a trial, and a denial of his application to renew his food service establishment permit. He’s not alone — the city’s other kava bar owners are by now very familiar with the bright yellow signage announcing a shutdown: “Closed By the Order of the Commissions of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

The city’s quiet kava crackdown started in November 2022, when the Health Department issued a summons to KavaSutra, a kava bar on First Street. A couple of months later, KavaSutra got hit again at its 10th Street location, when the department “Embargoed” its kava products, according to a lawsuit KavaSutra’s owners later filed against New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, and the Health Department and Its Commissioner Ashwin Vasa. Then last spring, the agency shut down two kava bars in Williamsburg: Ka-Vá Kava Bar (the space is now a cannabis club) and Kava Social, which never reopened publicly but has operated as a private club since. It’s a fairly existential moment in the New York kava and kratom scene, but the saga has gone largely unnoticed by the wider public. This may be because it’s a small-ish market to begin with, a blip compared to the unlicensed cannabis market that has taken over the city’s retail landscape and baffled the city, state, and law enforcement officials tasked with regulating it. The client base for kava and kratom bars also includes a lot of recovering addicts, who are both used to being overlooked and perhaps would prefer to avoid any extra attention. (“I would say a good 60 to 65 of our customers are sober,” McSmith says.)

Craig, one of the regulars I met at Here & Now, said he started taking kava pills in 2010 after returning from Iraq, where he worked as a reporter for human rights organizations. “I was all kinds of messed up. I couldn’t sleep,” he says. He started using kratom early last year, when he walked by a kava bar. “I was like, this is the answer,” he says. Kava bars have since become a central part of his recovery, he says. “A lot of people here have helped me out. Staying on a couch, taking a shower,” he says of Here & Now. “I come here everyday, and I know all of these people.”

Kava, which is derived from the roots of the kava shrub, has for centuries had ceremonial and medicinal uses in the Pacific Islands, and those who use it find it calming and mood-enhancing without the judgment-impairing effects of alcohol. Many kava bars also sell kratom, which is made from the dried leaves of the kratom tree, an evergreen found in Southeast Asia. It’s also sold as a potent extract or pill at stores like Hot Sauce Exotics CBD & Kratom Store in little bottles that fit right alongside 5-Hour Energy drinks and poppers. Depending on the strength of the dose, it can act as a stimulant or a sedative, and it’s marketed here as a treatment for anxiety and addiction. Both are legal in the United States, but Only Kava Has Been Approved by the FDA as a dietary supplement for personal use (the agency says it has “Inadequate Information” on whether kratom poses a risk to consumers).

Together, Kava and Kratom are in a long line of regulatory puzzles the city has tried to solve over the years: CBD, Cannabis, Chefs curing their own charcuterie in-house, bodegas selling synthetic drugs like K2, and Chinatown business owners hanging Roast Duck in their windows. “It’s kind of a unique challenge for regulators to figure out how to tackle this because it is such a gray market industry,” says one lawyer whose clients include companies in the cannabis industry and others regulated by the FDA. She pointed to Tara Flour, which is made from the legumes of the plant of the same name, as an example of a substance that federal and state agencies struggled to regulate. In 2022, Daily Harvest recalled a product made with Tara Flour — a new ingredient in the US market — as the FDA and Center for Disease Control investigated reports of serious stomach pain from those who had consumed it. 500 people became ill, and 39 of them had their gallbladders removed. This May, two years after the initial recall, the FDA finally banned its use in food. Those in the kava and kratom industry have similarly seen uneven enforcement: federal regulators tend to go after the producers, while local agencies try to shut down sellers like Here & Now. And enforcement is uneven across the country; in Hawaii, where kava is Known as ‘Awa’ and is part of the native culture, the state’s Department of Health distinguishes between the way Hawaiians have consumed it for centuries, in beverage form, and the concentrated extracts that the health studies were based on. According to a 2023 World Health Organization report, there “are very few published adverse health effects arising from the traditional consumption” in the South Pacific. This is the method Here & Now says it is using.

Tobly McSmith behind the bar at Here & Now. Photo: Here & Now/Co-Owner Tobly McSmith

When McSmith’s bar was first hit with violations for selling kava last July, a health inspector made him dump all of the bar’s product — around $1,500 worth, McSmith says. It’s a sum that KavaSutra, a chain with several stores, could eat, but Here & Now, a smaller operation, couldn’t. In addition to dumping the product, McSmith had to promise not to sell kava and kratom and take down the menus.

The cease-and-desist order came the following month, and McSmith had a hearing in November. The judge ruled in the bar’s favor, dismissing the violations because of failure “to establish that kava or kratom is an adulterant, that when added to water, is poisonous, injurious to health, or unsafe.” The charges were also dismissed in a second hearing and in a December trial before an administrative law judge. None of this seemed to matter: the city wouldn’t renew Here & Now’s food service establishment permit and had issued a petition to revoke it. When reached about the kava bar shutdowns, a representative for the Health Department responded that New York health codes “prohibit” adding kava to food because of “significant” health risks: “We are requiring restaurants serving food containing kava or kratom to stop. And, if they refuse, we are requiring them to close.”

These substances can be dangerous, is the thing. In 2002, the FDA issued an advisory warning consumers that dietary supplements containing kava might be “associated with severe liver injury,” based on studies that measured the effects of highly-concentrated extracts, and in 2020, it published a memorandum concluding that kava is not generally recognized as safe. There have been dozens of lawsuits filed over kratom products, and one Washington family was awarded $2.5 million dollars in the wrongful death lawsuit of Patrick Coyne, who had been taking Kratom Divine’s Maeng Da strain to treat chronic back pain. Unlike Kava, Kratom is also found to mimic the effect of “scheduled opioid drugs,” according to the FDA. In a Tampa Bay Times analysis of 20 kratom products, researcher Abhisheak Sharma compared one of the tablets, 7ΩHMZ, to “legal morphine,” and a one-ounce bottle of another extract contained nine times the amount of mitragynine (an alkaloid in kratom that functions like opioids) that Sharma considers safe to consume in a day. And while kratom has been adopted by some as a tool for opioid recovery, some treatment groups think it’s detrimental to that process, and even potentially addictive.

But kava and kratom’s boosters make the same arguments as other harm reductionists: They’re just as invested in safety as the city. Shuttering legitimate businesses will only reward shady manufacturers. “Let’s regulate this. Let’s not sell extracts. Let’s have good sourcing. Let’s let customers know what the effects are,” McSmith says. “We’re all pro-regulation because it should be regulated. We don’t want people to get sick.” He says that Here & Now doesn’t sell extracts for this reason, and no other kava and kratom than what they brew in-house. Bartenders go through up to 20 hours of training, depending on their experience with kavatending, and McSmith says he’s careful about sourcing from reputable businesses. One night at Here & Now, he pulled out his phone to show me a photo of what he’d seen at a CBD shop. “Look at these kratom extracts,” he said. “No label, no real education about what you’re drinking, very high dosing, very dangerous.”

For now, McSmith is waiting for a sign that his legal limbo will end. The cafe’s permit expired in December, and he was told he had to wait to renew it until after the closure order was lifted. Then in February, after a judge recommended lifting that closure order, the permit renewal was still denied. His appeal was denied, too, in early May. This week, one of the bar’s regulars launched a GoFundMe to cover costs for the business’s “next legal step.” “We are closed by the city, no longer have a permit, and have until August to try and raise funds through donations and decide to challenge the arbitrary and capricious determination made by the city in state court under an Article 78 proceeding,” McSmith says. Health Department inspectors have been back twice, and cops paid the bar a visit as well.

Here & Now is still in business, kind of. The door is papered over, and curtains are drawn over the front doors. “It’s our community coming through to support us, for sure,” McSmith says. There are enough regulars to stay afloat, but it’s unclear how long this can last. For now, it seems unlikely that the city will come around to kava. Going back to court for the fourth time seems inevitable, he says: “They really try to drown you in paperwork and fines and lawyer time until you just give up.”

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Bartlett Tree Experts expands in Tennessee with Timberline Tree & Lawn Care acquisition

If you're in the Pensacola area, then you have probably already experienced the need for having to remove a tree or stump or getting your tree's trimmed. The cost of tree removal varies depending on a few factors, such as: - The type of tree that needs to be removed - The size of the tree - The location of the tree - The condition of the tree Pensacola Tree Removal offers competitive pricing for our tree removal services. For a full list of services Tree removal services visit Tree removal company in Pensacola for a fast, friendly and reliable quote that you can count on. This will help not only beautify your property but also is the safest way to do it. Bartlett Tree Experts, No. 6 on the 2024 LM150 list, expanded in Tennessee with the acquisition of Timberline Tree and Lawn Care, resulting in a new office in Memphis. Timberline was founded by Scott Woods in 1999. For more than 25 years, the Memphis-based company has provided tree care to customers throughout Tennessee. Woods was looking for the best ways to further expand their services to Lawrence, Shelby, McCraken, Fayette, Dyer and Mississippi counties and found the right fit in Bartlett Tree Experts. “With the support of the research lab and as a leader in the industry for over 117 years, [Bartlett’s] customers can rely on local attention from highly skilled arborists and a commitment to service and safety,” Woods said. Woods joins Bartlett’s new office in Memphis as an arborist representative, along with eight employees including arborist representative John Storley and a production team of plant health care specialists, arborist groundspersons and arborist climbers. The new Memphis office adds to Bartlett’s growing presence in Tennessee, which also includes locations in Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Johnson City. Jim Ingram, president and COO said, “We see tremendous opportunities for growth in Memphis and throughout Tennessee with its deep history, abundant spaces for outdoor recreation and beautiful trees. We want to be a partner in this growth with our focus on scientific tree care to keep Memphis’ trees and landscapes healthy.” With the addition of Bartlett’s newest office location in Tennessee, local property owners in the Memphis area will benefit from the scientific plant health care services that Bartlett provides, along with the diagnostic support of the Bartlett Tree Research laboratories. Rob Allen, division manager and vice president for Bartlett’s Virginia and Tennessee operations, said opening the new Memphis office will enable Bartlett crews from existing Tennessee offices to support each other as needed, fostering further growth. “It is exciting to open our fifth Tennessee office considering that a year ago, we had two offices in the state. Expanding Bartlett’s scientific plant health care services for Memphis’ residential and commercial property owners will go a long way toward improving the health and beauty of their trees and landscapes,” Allen added. The post Bartlett Tree Experts expands in Tennessee with Timberline Tree & Lawn Care acquisition first appeared on Landscape Management.