#Dog Subscription Box

[luulapants]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people

[theglowsociety]

30 Low to No-Cost Business Startup Ideas to Invest in This Year

Starting a business doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are 30 ideas to get you started:

1. Virtual assistant

2. Social media management

3. Freelance writing

4. Blogging or vlogging

5. Coaching or consulting

6. Event planning

7. Dropshipping

8. Print-on-demand products

9. Handmade crafts

10. Pet sitting or dog walking

11. Online tutoring

12. Personal training

13. Meal prep services

14. Resume writing

15. E-book publishing

16. Cleaning services

17. Personal shopping

18. Photography

19. Makeup artistry

20. Podcasting

21. Subscription boxes

22. Content creation

23. Home organization

24. Affiliate marketing

25. Language translation

26. Babysitting

27. Fitness boot camps

28. Voiceover work

29. Gardening services

30. Eco-friendly products

Every idea is an opportunity waiting for you to take it. What will you choose to pursue this year?

[omochi-freedom]

"Let's play again when spring comes"

I created illustrations for Doggy Box, a dog subscription box🐶📦

These illustrations are used in the leaflet included in the products delivered in November, on the website, and on Instagram.

”Doggy Box” is a service that delivers monthly themed boxes containing dog toys, treats, and care products.

The November box theme is "Forest Friends Sleep."

This illustration depicts a heartwarming scene of a dachshund sharing an acorn with hedgehogs as they prepare for hibernation on a cozy autumn day🪵🦔🐕🍂

[charliegyrth]

Alex Gets Soft - Part 22 (FINAL)

Our Big, Fat Epilogue

Read Part 21 here.

Twelve months later, Alex and I returned to the beach where it all started. We walked down the same path, though our pace was much slower now.

We hadn’t been here since that fateful day when our lives changed forever. I’d really wanted to return, but I knew that all the walking would be difficult, so we agreed to save it for a special occasion: the day Alex passed 350.

Well, that day finally arrived, and here we were. The breeze stroked my skin. The sun shined off the sweat streaks that ran down Alex’s bare chest.

Once again, everyone stared as we passed, but this time, they weren’t just staring at Alex. They were staring at us both. The muscle god and the double-belly blob.

Throughout the year, I’d continued pushing myself further in the gym. A month after my Chicago trip, I got a subscription to LA Fitness because I needed something more than the equipment and weights that we had at home. This was a big game-changer for me, mostly because I made a new group of friends who gave me both pointers and encouragement.

For a few months, I got a bit obsessive. (I even considered steroids, but Alex thankfully talked me out of it.) I’ve calmed down since then, but I still lift weights as often as my body allows. Because of my increased size, I’ve sacrificed some flexibility in favor of strength. This affected us a bit in the bedroom, but as always, we were able to adapt.

Now, I’m 230 pounds of solid muscle. I’ve developed a lumbering walk, my arms constantly spread to my sides. I can no longer lift my arms straight up, either, because my shoulder muscles get in the way. My neck has completely disappeared and my abs jut out into what looks like a belly but is really just muscle over muscle. Ropey veins cover my arms and legs. It took a lot of time (and a lot of pep talks from Alex) to get me to accept those.

And my shortness is no longer something that embarrasses me. In fact, it feels like a secret weapon. Muscles grow faster on short guys. And I enjoy my overall stumpy look. I feel compact.

“I… need another break,” Alex wheezed. He leaned against me as I took him to a bench. The wood creaked as he flopped down. While he gasped for air, I pulled a thermos out of my backpack. He’d gone five minutes without stopping, so he deserved a treat.

I jogged in place, waiting for his breathing to slow down. Once it finally did, he downed the thermos in a single gulp.

He expected me to give him another, but we were just a block away from the ice cream shop.

But when he looked at me with his puppy-dog eyes, I couldn’t resist. I swapped his empty thermos for a full one. We still had plenty more in my backpack.

Those shakes had become an addiction for him. I lost count of how many he finished in a day. I did 100% of the cooking and food-prep myself, so I liked to surprise him with different flavors. This batch was weight gain powder, butter, heavy cream, and rocky road. He usually drank them too fast to notice the flavor, though.

As you can imagine, those shakes were a huge factor is his journey to 350. So were all the boxes of snacks. For a while there, he was eating more of those than we could afford, even with my higher salary. To slow things down without losing calories, he started dipping each one in either syrup or cream. This left the couch and table constantly sticky, but it worked.

And of course, he continued with at least three massive meals each day. After I returned from Chicago, he stopped making the same dinner every night. (He stopped cooking entirely.) Instead, we tried to switch things up each day. Sometimes, I encouraged him to scarf things down as usual. But usually at dinner, I made him go slower. I worked hard to please him, and I needed to know that he tasted at least some of my food.

Other than that, we hadn’t changed our food strategy too much. I just made sure to slowly increase the amounts.

Oh, and I stopped feeding him while he slept. It was fun while it lasted, but we discussed it and decided that it was better if he knew everything that went inside him.

That was the other aspect of this past year, probably the most important one: Our constant communication. It’s hard at times, but we try to be mindful that our lives are more than just eating and working out. We have friends and hobbies and jobs (though Alex works exclusively from his bed now). We go to the movies once a month. We watch reality shows. We even visit the community swimming pool (the one physical activity that Alex could still do without struggling).

We’re happy.

And throughout this journey, Alex has grown into the sexiest man I could ever imagine. I know that 350 really isn't a lot for someone of his height, but trust me, it is. The raw numbers have never accurately reflected how he looks.

His arms are decorated with hanging flab that sways at the slightest movement. His thighs are the texture of the moon with the softness of a pillow. His ass slopes outward and down (mostly down), a victim of both gravity and constant sitting. His cock has been swallowed up by a fat pad that is so much fun to bury my face in.

And his belly is unlike any you’ve ever seen. His belly bottom is covered by his upper fold, creating an oven-hot crevice that I can’t stop exploring. His lower belly drapes into two dangling lumps that meet directly under where his belly button used to be. That’s the softest, most grabbable part of his whole body, the area he’s most proud of. They merge with his side flab. Not quite love handles anymore, just a continuation of his overhang. And all the skin from his glorious tits to his waist is decorated with wide, pale stretchmarks.

All these changes have piled onto him in quick succession, and I expect more rolls and dimples to develop in the near future. What I don’t expect is for his face to ever change. His cheeks are a bit rounder now and his jawline has softened, but he still has the face of a skinny guy. (Well, at least the face of a chubby guy.)

No other 350-pound person looks quite like him.

I looked down at my work of art, my soulmate, and help him back to his feet. We both knew that more people were staring at us. At about 300 pounds, Alex noticed that people had become more obvious with their stares. They didn’t even bother glancing away or pretending to be looking at something else. He liked that.

We continued all the way to the ice cream shop. Alex wanted to stop one more time, but I made him keep going. By the time he collapsed onto the two chairs I had positioned for him, he was back to gasping.

“What should we get?”

“Ice… cream,” he panted.

So I got twelve different flavors. All larges, except for a medium strawberry for me. The worker helped me carry them all to the table outside. She obviously expected me to have a whole group of people waiting for me, rather than one huffing mountain of draping flesh. Her smile disappeared as she placed the tray onto the table. Then she scurried back inside.

I think she was the one who served us over a year ago.

Alex, who hadn’t used a spoon for a while, scooped up his first bite.

“Remember, Alex. Slowly. We’re savoring this.”

He gobbled it down and scooped again. To him, that was slow.

“Syrup, please.”

I emptied our syrup bottle onto the ice creams.

Three bowls later, a familiar voice shouted at us from the distance. “Alex! Jake!”

It was Rob, rushing over with his four-year-old trailing behind. The kid shook my hand like a tiny businessman. I don’t know. I’m still not a kid person, but this one was growing on me.

“I didn’t expect to see you guys here!” Rob said. He still had his mustache, but now he’d gone bald. His buzzed hair only covered the sides and back of his head. “Terry! Look who I found!”

Terry lumbered toward us, tanned and proudly shirtless. He’d only grown a little since we saw him last month, but this was my first time seeing him shirtless since his twink days. I hadn’t realized how prominent his beer gut had gotten. Packed tight. Not a single bit of jiggle.

He’d beaten Alex to 350 by a few weeks. (They had a barbecue to celebrate.)

Alex looked up from his ice cream, his eyes wide. “You look just like him.”

“Who? Oh, him.” Alex had told them many times about the guy at the beach, the man who had changed our lives completely without ever knowing it. “Thank you. And I mean that. All your advice, you helped me get reach my goal.”

Rob patted his husband’s gut. That was about as affectionate as they got in front of their kid. (Though Braxton was already inside, picking out ice cream flavors for his dad.) “So what do you think?” he asked Alex. “Isn’t he the perfect man?”

I waited anxiously for my boyfriend’s answer.

Alex reflexively grabbed his belly hang and molded it under his ice-cream-coated fingers. “He’s solid. But I prefer something a little different.”

The End.

Thank you all so much for reading! This was the very first gainer story that I had the courage to publish, and I'm stoked that so many of you stuck it out to the end. It was an absolute joy to write, and it went in a much different direction than I had planned. (The narrator's body transformation kind of surprised me as I wrote it.)

Like everything I write, this story will always be free on Tumblr, but you can also buy the full ebook (with a bonus story) if you're interested.

And you can find all my stories here.

[differenteagletragedy]

Our Life headcannons

-- Cove has at least one child who is autistic and nonverbal. He becomes a master at communicating with this baby, and whenever they are able to use their words he absolutely loses his mind. The first time he hears an "I love you"? Crying, screaming, flat on the ground, bawling his eyes out. Let someone in public try to make any kind of remark if the kid has a meltdown. They will not survive.

-- Derek asked you to prom "as friends." He asked you what you were wearing so his tux could match you, and he got you a corsage too, "as friends." Did it seem kind of like a date? Of course it did, he'd had a crush on you for years. But he was very insistent on the "as friends" part and even if you had a crush on him too, it kind of made you think he couldn't ever see you that way at all.

-- Going to watch a movie with Baxter? Lol, no you're not. Boy runs his mouth trying to be cute and you can never follow the plot because he's sitting beside you with that little smirk, trying to make you laugh and look all adorable. If you really want to see something, leave him home or at least learn how to tune him out -- even if you do he'll keep going.

-- Cove doesn't like to drink but when he does he will not. Shut. Up. He's not like Movie Baxter, he just keeps saying whatever comes to mind, no filter. No real memory on how to properly structure sentences either. He just really needs you to know literally every single thought that pops into his head so please just listen to him, hey, are you listening?

-- Do you want a dog? You better if you end up with Derek, because y'all are getting a dog. It doesn't matter what kind it is, he'll be taking that dog on runs with him, he'll be doing research to get it the best kind of food and to figure out what kind of environment it thrives in. Did he just get another subscription box for the dog even though he already gets one? Yup. That's his dog.

-- Do you like makeup? Cool, Baxter likes you to put makeup on him too, thanks. Not to go out, that's not really his thing, but it's a nice relaxing activity to do at home. He gets you all close to him (once you get back together he's not gonna let you go lol), and he gets to feel pretty. Don't skimp on the mascara, he likes his lashes, and be sure to play up his best features. Maybe try a dark lipstick this time, he'd like to see how that looks. And when you're done having fun, you better get to thoroughly removing everything and then following up with his skincare routine.

-- Sorry, let's double up on Baxter while we're here -- do you have a skin routine too? Because that's a shared interest and he's gonna want to talk about it. What's your favorite cleanser? Do you want to do face masks together? There's this new moisturizer he's interested in that's stupid expensive but he still wants to try it, want to split it? You share a Sephora rewards account so you can get more points. Oops, you accidentally put on too much of your lip mask and your lips are all goofy -- just give him a kiss, he hasn't put his on yet. It's weird how much I could go on about this.

-- You can also put makeup on Cove, but maybe stick to powders so he can rinse it all off easy after. And you can do whatever to Derek, he doesn't care, he's just happy to be there.

-- Everybody makes a big deal about Baxter's dancing, but this is actually another case of Derek Erasure, because he can do stuff too. His dad taught him and his brothers how to properly dance with a partner, and he was too shy to do it if you took him to the Summer Soiree, but if you end up with him? He can hold his own for sure.

-- If Cove doesn't end up with you, he ends up with Xavier. That's it. That's how it goes.

-- Not one of the main boys, but if you and Cove have babies then Cliff absolutely thrives on his GILF status. He tells everyone that he's a grandfather, literally every single person, and he's def proud of Cove and loves his grandbaby to bits, but also, like, look at him. Crazy hot grandpa, right?

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

I'm confused, what is her brand suppose to sell exactly? Is it products she "makes" or is it other brands that she gets a commission on?

That is the big question - it's not clear and no one is sure.

There have been several rumors about Meghan's intention with her lifestyle brand that I think are worth reviewing:

Subscription box with Hilaria Baldwin

Luxury lifestyle brand like Flamingo Estate, where it's mostly Meghan's own product and a few collaborations. (I think Flamingo Estate is mostly their own products? I don't really follow them so I'm not sure.)

Luxury lifestyle brand like Goop, where it's mostly other brands' products that she makes a commission on and some of her own product.

Sexual wellness products with the Kardashians. (Don't shoot the messenger.)

Personal endorsements like Oprah's Favorite Things that Meghan sells on her website and she takes a commission from sales (aka the 'Royal Warrant' option).

I think it's going to be #3 - she sells other brands' products along with her own jam, honey, dog biscuits, and calligraphy/stationery sets. I feel like whatever she features in the Netflix show will be the products/brands she sells on 'As Ever' (as the Queen of Lifestyle Television, Martha Stewart, does).

#5 also has very strong potential, but I think that's what Netflix and her Instagram is for (mostly Netflix). If she didn't have Netflix to make her endorsements with, then I'd expect to see her launch a new blog sooner rather than later, maybe in tandem with the website. But since she has the Netflix show, the blog might still be a ways off.

Anyway, my $0.02 is on #3. A Goop rip-off with the aesthetics of Flamingo Estate.

[leighskarz]

I'm ngl, I LOVE New Years.

For the ultimate diet perfectionist and lifestyle dreamer, it is one of my favorite holidays. Every year I would make an insanely long list of all the ways I was going to change my life. All the new habits and hobbies. And then I would maybe do SOME of them. But it felt like a clean slate and a fresh start.

This year we're trying something different. No specific pounds to lose. No crazy list of new habits, new app subscriptions, etc.

This years goals are about adding to my life.

More movement. More walks. More time playing with my dog.

More mindfulness (maybe I do have a meditation app on standby).

More fresh foods, more colorful foods, more water.

More time outside.

I am so tired of putting myself in a constraining box every year only to disappoint myself. This time it's different.

[digitalcockroach]

my dog is so fucking spoiled what do you mean he had an advent calendar of treats and toys all month followed by 2 big treat and toy boxes and an upgrade to his subscription treat and toy boxes for another year

[modestbirdwizard]

How to Steal Youtube like your Dad Stole Cable: A non-comprehensive guide.

Piracy is cool and you should do it.

I mean it, I fully condone the theft of copyrighted material online for the masses. You should consider the relative prices of a sturdy VPN to the cost of all your monthly streaming subscriptions and see what I mean: The mere fact that so many of these services trade the same movies back and forth on a bi-monthly basis only proves one thing, They don't respect you or your hard earned money. The prices go up, the services offered get more narrow and ill-defined, and worse to boot, but the torrent sites still exist and they still have everything I could ever want.

There are other guides on how to get any movie or album you want online, and maybe I'll write another, but today I want to talk you through something different. Piracy for the modern age, stealing something that would make the eyes of any tin-foil antenna wielding cable pirate misty with pride.

Let's get around youtube's bullshit under the jump:

We're going for the big dog. We're going… for youtube premium. I'm writing this guide with Firefox and Android in mind, but as far as I'm aware this will work more or less on chromium based browsers as well.

The two web extensions you'll need for your desktop:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/

If you're like me and find yourself in a youtube death spiral more often than you wish, you might want this one too:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-youtube-shorts/

Now, we address the app on your phone. Real heads have known about this trick for years, but it recently came to my attention.

ReVanced is a revival of the original Vanced app modding tool, and what it lets us do is very simple: bypass restrictions in many of our favorite apps like youtube, duolingo and others, so that we can get back essential features that have been paywalled. Specifically for youtube, we can now access off-screen playback, windowed playback, ad-free viewing, and we even GAIN a feature for our trouble, sponsor block, which uses crowdsourced data to find and skip embedded sponsor spots in videos. Think Squarespace and raid:shadow legends.

When you're installing revanced, you need to be careful not to install a pre-made hacked .apk, you really need to apply them yourself because nefarious users are everywhere and WILL send you malware. The ReVanced Manager app makes it very easy anyway, so you shouldn't need to rely on pre-hacked apks anyway.

You can get revanced from their page. Make sure it's the real deal, because there ARE fakes around.

You can find a current or slightly out-of-date youtube app around online very easily if you search. A slightly out of date apk is preferable here, as it means more of the hacks will work out of the box. If you've already downloaded the ReVanced app, then it will suggest a version for you to download.

"What about my TV?!" I haven't done this one personally, though I do intend to soon. My understanding is that you can use the command line on your fireTV stick to download a hacked app there as well! It's not an Enter The Matrix-tier operation, you just have to type a couple lines into a console. Super simple!

"Why aren't there more links in this post?" The companies have the internet too, and you probably know how to use it a bit more than they do. Posting links is like handing info to the enemy.

[vnewyorku]

WALDORF ROOM AT THE NEWSBOYS' LODGING HOUSE

Some Picturesque Characteristics of the Little Fellows Who Sell "Uxtrys" in the Streets of New-York.

Whatever the newsboy may lack in appearance, he has at bottom all the instincts of an aristocrat. Let the sunshine of prosperity beam on him even for a moment, and he buds with the true flower of a patrician. If he makes a couple of dollars by the help of the Japanese fleet, whose latest manœuvres has furnished him with a startling bit of news, he spends his money with a lavish hand. Instead of a box at the opera, he buys tickets for the "gang" just beneath the grimy roof of some Bowery theatre.

A striking illustration of the "newsie's" latent gentility is furnished by a new feature of the Newsboys' Lodging House, near Chatham Square, which has been called the "Waldorf Room." Although plenty of white, clean beds were to be had in the two big halls for 5 and 10 cents a night, yet an exclusive circle of newsboy society demanded apartments of great privacy. Some of them had obtained work in nearby business houses, where they were enjoying incomes of $10 and $15 a week; and as "Dutch Pete," who is now loading delivery wagons across the alley from the lodging house, put it:

"W'en you'se got de wad, you'se might as well lif' like a gent. An' yer can't be a gent widdout piracy. Yer can't mix up wid de bunch and perserve yer rights as a gent."

A room was accordingly set apart, in which were put eight beds, each one with a private locker at its head. Fifteen cents a night was charged for sleeping in this apartment, which soon came to be known as the "Waldorf Room," and, by reason of the exalted social standing of the eight youths who became its inmates, they were honored with the title of the "Waldorf Gang."

As soon as the newsboy obtains a sufficient income he yearns for a bed in the "Waldorf Room" as ardently as a successful banker aspires to a marble front house in Millionaire's Row. He becomes discontented with the 10-cent bed, in which he hitherto slept so soundly. He looks around the big room, with its rows of beds, whose white iron frames look as if they had been turned out of the same factory by the same pair of hands. He takes a peep into the adjoining locker room, where he just now undressed with a crowd of other boys, and stowed his clothes away in a sort of pigeonhole in a great wire cage and then scampered off to his bunk. He recalls, too, the time when he slept in a 5-cent bed in the great hall downstairs, where there was a still bigger crowd. And although he has risen from a 5-cent to a 10-cent bed, this Young America now feels he will never be satisfied until he can rest within the exclusive sheets of a "fifteen center."

The obstacles, however, which beset his ambition seem almost insurmountable. Like Mr. Got-Rich-Quick, who moves to New-York from Petroleum Creek, and who is surprised to find the doors of Gotham's best society closed against him, his aspirations suffer many a rebuff. The tenants of "de ate swell deckers" guard the dignity of their social rank with jealous circumspection, and even when a bed becomes vacant and Superintendent Heig sends in a new boy, the other seven at first regard him as a upstart.

Although some of the "Waldorf Gang" are earning enough money to hire a furnished room uptown, they find the attractions of their present life too potent. "We'd rather be the main guys here," as one of them expressed it, "than be an under dog at a cheap boarding house." Nevertheless, when the superintendent finds that a youth has prospered sufficiently to make his home elsewhere and let some other lad rise to take his place, he transplants the graduate into a good home, where, under the right influences, he can strive for still higher ideals.

It was just half a century ago that the Chatham Square Newsboys' Lodging House was founded by Charles Loring Brace. It was the first institution of its kind in the United States. The building was erected by private subscription, and was managed by Mr. Brace for some time before it was accepted by the Children's Aid Society, of which Mr. Brace was the executive officer. Since then other lodging houses have been established by the society, and in its last report, which covers fifty years of work, this organization tells of having rescued and placed in family homes 23,061 orphans or abandoned children, provided places in the country for 25,000 older boys and girls, and restored 5,551 runaway children to parents. The vast majority of those sent to family homes in the West have become farmers, and not a few have risen to stations of high responsibility. John G. Brady, Governor of Alaska, for instance, was once a lodging house boy, and others whose careers are known to the society include two Congressmen, four members of State legislatures, twenty-seven bankers, thirty-four lawyers, twenty-two merchants, seventeen physicians, fifteen journalists, eighty-one teachers, twenty-one clergymen and more than a thousand soldiers and sailors.

Between two and three hundred lads make their home in the Chatham Square Lodging House every night. As they file into the assembly hall, in the half hour before 6 o'clock, each reports to the superintendent. If a lad is working, he hands 15, 20 or 25 cents to the superintendent for three brass checks and a key. The checks for breakfast and supper cost only a nickel apiece, and the bed check varies from 5 to 15 cents. The minimum amount for a week's board and lodging is $1.05.

Near the superintendent's desk, as if to invite the attention of every one that enters, is a shallow, black box, the top of which is cut with rows of slots, each labelled with a number. As the lads pass by nearly every one goes down into his pocket and drops a few coins into a certain slot. Whenever a lad wants his savings, Mr. Heig opens the bank, and sometimes he takes out as much as $30. In the last year 139 depositors saved $500 74. Not infrequently the money is transferred to a savings bank, and Mr. Heig has one bankbook in his possession which has just reached the thousand dollar mark.

Cleanliness is one of the first rules of the lodging house. After registering, the lads go to the washrooms, which have just been equipped with an elaborate new set of bowls, tubs and shower baths. At the supper tables the "Waldorf Gang" dines on a perfect equality with the "Five Cent Blokes."

In every way the boys are made to understand that the lodging house is not an institution of charity. They pay or work for all they get. If a lad comes in penniless he is put to work cleaning windows or scrubbing floors. But his pride soon drives him to get employment. The lads earning money call him a "bum," and he jumps at the first job which is offered to him. He need not wait long. Every day some one applies for a boy.

There are many gifts of clothes to the lodging house, but the boys who want a new coat or pair of trousers must pay for them, even though it is a nominal price. The other day a friend of the Children's Aid Society sent in fifty suits from a Broadway clothier. They were offered for $1 a suit. There was then a run on the savings banks, and the suits were soon distributed, and on the following Sunday, as "Collars," the Chesterfield of the "Waldorf Gang," expressed it: "Dere wuz the swellest bunch of guys as ever et lodgin' house grub." Several of the boys had been fascinated with summer suits of rather startling hues for the sombre days of early spring. One youth, for instance, appeared in a suit of light straw color, with a bizarre check, and, costumed as if for the racetrack in midsummer, he sauntered up the Bowery, totally oblivious to such catcalls from his associates as: "Hello, dere, Reggie from Paris!" "Can't cher hear dose clothes?" "Say, is dat suit made of asbustus?"

On rainy days, when the street crowds are too busy struggling with the storm to buy papers, the newsboy finds the lodging house a veritable haven. Here he may obtain a dry and sheltered corner, and in the evening when his legs ache from tramping the pavements he can play checkers or pool or listen to comrades as they sing to accompaniment of the big, square piano. And if "Paddy the Pug," the leader of the lodging house chorus, lifts his voice, as he can when he wants to, till it sounds as clear and sweet as that of a vested chorister, and sings that favorite of all newsboy songs, "The Man Behind," he will join in the refrain. Then he forgets all about the fight he had in a back street an hour ago, and the blow that made his temple bleed.

He knows the words of "The Man Behind," and he loves the song, not so much for its melody as the worldly truthfulness of its lines. The last stanza in particular appeals to him:

There's the man behind the club, behind the uniform in blue; Behind him are the wardmen and the wise old roundsmen, too. The captain they report to is behind the lamps of green, But the man who gets the money is the man behind the green.

And he joins the refrain by singing:

The man behind, the man behind, He's the wisest man that you will ever find. At reformers he has laughed, He's the man behind the graft, So always try to be the man behind.

At the lodging house the "newsie" is safe from gambling resorts, which have a particular charm for him. In Broome-st., Henry-st., at Sixth-ave. and Twenty-eighth-st., Forty-second-st. and Third-ave., Fifty-ninth-st. and Third-ave., and many other places near the best newspaper routes, there are places where the newsboy may buy policy tickets, shoot craps or play poker. There are pool tables at a cent a cue, where the lads bet five cents or more on each game, and where in a few hours a boy who has earned $1 in the day may lose everything he has. And when such a lad does not find a poolroom convenient he uses the sidewalk for a gambling place. He carries all the necessary paraphernalia for a crap game in his pocket, and it takes only a minute to summon the "bunch" around the corner into a less frequented street, where the dice are soon rattling over the asphalt.

There is a certain professional pride in the newsboy of this city. He realizes that he lives in the biggest and wealthiest community of the New World, and that he must use his brains to get ahead.

"De New-York newsboy," said one of them, "is the keenest ever, but he ain't got t'e edication t'at the Boston kids has. I wuz up ter t'e Hub not long ago, studyin' t'e organization dere. Dey's got a bang up union in Boston; an', say, de grammar dose bloats used would put out yer lamps. W'y, dey can spiel off words as crooked as Pearl-st. an' as long as Broadway, an' w'en yer get ter t'e end of 'em you're blowed to know w'ere yer started in at."

In order to succeed the newsboy must be a fighter. He must guard the particular piece of sidewalk where he sells his "papes" against all comers. "An' dere's only one way ter do it," as a Park Row "newsie" expressed it. "You'se got ter scrap fer it. If a kid tries ter butt inter your route, you'se got ter knock 'im out, or he'll knock yer out. Only de womens we don't bother. Dere's a bunch of womens 'round t'e bridge dats been dere since it wuz built; an' dey can stay, too. We'se got nothin' comin' agin them."

[New York Tribune, April 17, 1904]

[sunshinedottv]

I did do this picture of my dog though. She passed away recently 💔

Mixed media plus cardboard from a subscription box

[chanrizard]

do you happen to know if there is an updated guide on bubble? i want to get it to try but im intimidated ;-;

hi anon! not that i know of, i'm sorry

what i can tell you is that you can have the bubble app on one device only, and then once you've signed up/in, in the STORE section you can pick which artist(s) you want to subscribe to:

it can be various members from diff groups or just one person, like for example i only have 1 active ticket rn (chan's) and for me that's €4,49/month

+ you can always change your subscription in the "my bubble section" tho idk if that will mean losing your days streak (can't remember the exact tiers but the longer you've had bubble the more characters you can type when sending a message)

oh and you can send 3 messages max in the chat, then you'll have to wait for the artist to reply to you or for a week to pass before you can send another!

artists can reply to single messages from fans, but in the chat you'll see only the texts between you & the idol, kinda like a """'private""""" chat

and some words are banned which makes for some hilarious workarounds cause i can't send "title" cause it has "tit" in it or carpet because the dyslexic intern modding the chat misspelled crap < thank you anna for this fantastic discovery but somehow boobs is allowed????????? and ass too. ask me how i know. anyway have a thesaurus at the ready you'll have to look up some synonyms trust me

also the automatic translation kor > eng has given us some great classics like now it's time to fuck (thank you lino) now he's looking at my fucking beef wellington (again thank you lino) am i a shit dog? 🥺 (thank you seungmin) truly app of all time lmfao

some members are definitely more active than others and if you subscribe to lix's chat be warned the man likes to use our phones like his personal cloud storage you'll have a billion ULTRA HD photos invading your phone lakfmsndjs

I FORGOT now you can star messages too and archive them in a section called "our box"

[echodrops]

The Promises I’m Making (2024)

Sheesh, this year it was even harder than last year to make promises. In particular, I really wanted to focus on promises that wouldn't cost as much money as in prior years, so I tried to steer clear of too many promises that would cost above the basic spending amounts... But it turns out it is really hard to make resolutions if you're broke. 😂

So here's what I'm going with:

2024 Promises

1) Step down from my administrative position and return to being a full-time faculty member. I literally cannot take the clown show that is admin at my work anymore. It is actually killing me.

2) Related to this, redecorate my new office as soon as they decide where they are going to move me.

3) Apply for new jobs!! APPLY FOR NEW JOBS!!!

4) Train my replacement in the chair position well so they are super prepared to take over in fall.

5) Put a new sink/vanity in the downstairs bathroom of the Utah house.

6) Get both bedroom floors sanded in the Utah house upstairs.

7) Finally get rid of the dirt pile in front of the Utah house.

8) Take down the remains of the wooden fence posts at the Utah house.

9) Fully clean out and prepare the Utah house to be rented out to new renters. Hopefully the next people won’t sneak in a parrot that poops all over the floor… RIP…

10) Clean off my back patio/car port area so I can park my car there again.

11) Call the plumber and replace the faucets. Even if I end up having to do it myself.

12) Get the dead tree removed from the Texas house yard and call the internet company to see about the cable around the tree root.

13) Plant roses where the old ones died in front of the Texas house. 

14) Replace my CPU fan; the bearings are going out and it’s making an annoying noise.

15) Organize my documents (especially student papers)—my desktop and documents folders give me nightmares just looking at them. 

16) Related to that, lose at least 20 pounds. 2020-2023 was not kind to me and the stress eating was real.

17) Do at least one artwork to actually use that paint program I bought. 

18) Pay my credit debt down by at least $2000. I’m still paying off the hell year, but I hope I can make progress on this.

19) Buy all the Noragami volumes I am missing and do a complete re-read of Noragami now that the series is finishing up.

20) This is super nerdy, but my bro got me the FFXIV cookbook and made me promise to actually use it, so I guess I’d better at least try to make something from it.

21) Finish at least five books this year.

22) Update HaaH at least once. Please, Echo???

23) Reach the new level cap with all jobs in FFXIV!

24) Go to the graduation ceremony for my family friend.

25) Catch up with hanging up all the charms/pins I’ve gotten recently on my corkboards; these are just sitting in boxes/bags around the house. D;

26) Fully deep clean and vacuum/detail my own car at home. No more of the “It doesn’t make sense to clean it out now; the dog is just going to go back in it.” The dog is always going to go back in it. Clean it, Echo.

27) Help my parents tear out the carpet in my old childhood bedroom.

28) See at least three new species of birds. Doesn’t matter where, just three new ones!

29) Reach 3500 followers. Can I do it? You should follow me if you’re not already; I’m pretty cool. Just sayin’!

30) Cancel all the subscriptions I don’t need. There’s literally no reason to sit around letting companies passively profit off me when I don’t even really use the services/the services keep getting worse while the costs keep going up.

31) Go out on at least a day trip to take pictures with my friend. We haven’t done this in quite some time. I need to touch grass.

32) Repair the lovely one-of-kind ceramic plate that my dog broke with kintsugi. I want to try it at least once!

33) Really look hard for my passport in my house. It’s been missing for like a year and a half now, and I don’t want to have to pay for a new one.

34) Put all the small prints, postcards, and stickers I have collected in my new mini-print books. I can even use up washi tape to decorate too. (Finally, a purpose for the washi tape…)

35) Shred the million pieces of old mail I have lying around the house. I finally got the shredder so it just makes sense to use it.

36) Have more follow-through with chores. It’s not enough to wash the clothes or do the dishes if I then procrastinate on folding the clean laundry and putting the dried dishes back in the cabinets…

37) Put reminders for birthdays and major events in my phone as well as set a monthly reminder to check these promises. Maybe I’ll be able to keep more promises if I look at the list more often throughout the year!

38) Since I can’t afford to go to the salon, spa, etc. too much this year, I should at least do some self-care days at home. Will this be the year I finally manage to use all the fancy scrubs and face masks and bath salts I keep getting from people?

39) Use up one whole notebook. It doesn’t matter what goes in the notebook, but I gotta use the whole thing from cover to cover. I have so many pretty notebooks that never get used just because they’re pretty.

40) Change the burned-out lightbulbs in the recessed lighting in the Texas house ceiling. It’s like twelve feet high and the lightbulb charger stick I bought didn’t work, so I’m going to have to find someone with a ladder. Save me, handyman. Save me.

41) Build the pretty koi paper lantern my brother got me, or the Korean temple model my coworker gave me after his trip to Korea.

42) Actually use the yoga mat I bought forever ago. At least a few times, please???

43) Finish watching the Fruits Basket remake with Kacchan. I think we stopped in the second season, RIP.

44) Spend more time with coworkers—go out to lunch more often.

45) See about removing the PMI from at least one of my house loans to try to save money. I’ve been paying on these loans long enough I shouldn’t need PMI anymore.

46) Practice my German skills (or I guess other language skills?) by translating something at least once a month.

47) Get a new bookshelf. The current ones in both my office and foyer are already overflowing. @_@

48) Make more time to call people and talk on the phone. Texting is not the same. D;

49) Get the new COVID vaccine to stay healthy.

50) I will keep my promises! 

Good luck, 2024’s me!

[horrificbooks]

Get To Know Me

~ 𐙚🧸ྀི ~

Name: Sam

Age: 27

Location: UK

~ 𐙚🧸ྀི ~

Why am I here:

I wanted to have a Tumblr account where I could interact with and participate in the bookish/booklr community (communities). I’ve decided I want to make a career for myself focusing around books and reading. I grew up reading, as many of us did and was obsessed with primary school book fairs and the library buses. I loved analysing books (Through my own ideas, not through forced thought) and annotating them. It felt as though every pocket of my life held capacity for books. I plan on creating my own space of community across various social platforms and, in time, bring forth my own book subscription box.

~ 𐙚🧸ྀི ~

Questions! 𓂂 𓇼˚｡ •

1. “What is the first book you remember reading that had a significant impact on you?”

𓂂 𓇼˚｡ • Whilst I recall reading many books growing up, I remember picking up a book with a white puppy on the cover titled “Alfie”. I assume I picked this one up to read as, at the time, I had a dog who was my best friend in the entire world (🥰💖🕊️) called Alfie. However, this book was heartbreaking to me. I remember reading it in class during one of my primary school classes and I ended up crying. One of the other kids pointed it out to the teacher in which I had to explain I was saddened by my book not by anything a fellow student had said or done to me.

2. “If you could live in any fictional world from a book, which would it be?”

𓂂 𓇼˚｡ • I’m going to choose a world from my favourite books as I feel I know them better than worlds taken from blurbs on the backs of my TBRs. With this being said, I’d firmly say the GrishaVerse world 💓

3. “Which format do you enjoy best to consume your books?”

𓂂 𓇼˚｡ • I love a physical book. It’s the only way I can enjoy a book. I don’t know if it’s because that’s how I grew up engaging with literature or if I find it too easy to zone-out when listening to audiobooks and e-reading. This also goes for any type of adult picture book like comics, graphics novels and manga.

4. “Who is your favourite author? What do you love about their writing style?”

𓂂 𓇼˚｡ • Chloe Walsh. I love(!!!) how she writes her characters and how they’re all so uniquely memorable and there’s no chance of mixing them up even if they enjoy similar hobbies. I also love how as a non-romance-(for the most part now)-reader she had me giggling, sobbing, shocked, and laughing in the span of a few pages. I love that she makes me so invested in her characters and in their stories that their tragedies make me cry when 99.9% of the time I don’t get physical reactions from reading.

5. “What book do you think everyone should read once in their lifetime?”

𓂂 𓇼˚｡ • As much as I’d love to have answer, I don’t have one. Reading is such a personal and unique experience it’s not worth trying to tell someone they should read something. I feel with books because they can be all consuming, life-changing and of course, take hours or more to get through, I believe it’s best for people to reach for a book when they want as the pressure of knowing somebody is waiting for you to read the book and/or the expectations for how the book will be enjoyed can easily be discouraging or make for the book to be less than what it could have been had the person chosen it for themselves.

~ 𐙚🧸ྀི ~

Bye for now ִ ࣪𖤐.ᐟ

https://www.instagram.com/horrific.books?igsh=MWE5N3o3aDdjbXRmZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

[pastelsailorr]

Wild email I got from this dog toy subscription box

[letsgethaunted]

Listener Stories #26

Welcome to Episode 175.5: Listener Stories #26! This is the episode where our Haunties (aka listeners) write in with their first-person spooky tales of cryptids, ghosts, curses, and aliens AND where Nat & Aly unbox fan mail sent by listeners just like YOU. This week, we unbox mail from: Lily, Elizabeth P., Michelle W., Hannah M., Lexi L. & Jesse S., Chrissy & Aly & Flighty, and Nicole S.! Listener stories from this week’s episode include: the mysterious reappearance of a long missing wallet at a movie theater, shared paranormal nightmares between a mother and child, cursed NC highway 64/ someone’s haunted mother takes the Reikon Test, a family’s cellar is plagued by dogs who obsessively dig in the corner, and someone tries to kill Nat and Aly by forcing them to read the longest/most boring letter we have ever read. Some of the listeners whose stories are featured in this episode include: John P., Shannon W., Tarryn G., Queen, Jordan D., Bianca, Jonna, Matt C., James D., and Abigail S.

This episode is sponsored by Factor! Head to https://www.factormeals.com/letsgethaunted50 and use code “letsgethaunted50” to get 50% off your first box and 2 free wellness shots per box while subscription is active.