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tfw-no-tennis · 4 years ago

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hxh movie....2!

ruth and i watched the second hxh movie and that certainly was a movie

the title is already cracking me up lmao ‘the last mission’ THATS SO DRAMATIC.

the first like 3 scenes feel totally disconnected like theyre from different movies vnjskdfnsdkflk

‘many decades ago’ vbhjdsfbajsdf that phrasing is hilarious somehow

damn young netero just killed jeb bush

ah look its our movie villains, starting their villain stuff

so i guess this is set around where we are in the series now - like, somewhere in this beginning part of the chimera ant arc where gon and killua are hanging w/kite. which is kinda funny bc they dont explain AT ALL how and why gon and killua are in this city suddenly hvbajdsfjskdjan

killua skateboarding makes me smile :’) love it

IS THAT ZUSHI??????? AHHHHHHH MY BOY!!!!!!!!!! BABY BOY!!!!!!!!!!! LOOK AT HIMMMM HES A LIL BUFF 7 YR OLD NOW OUGHHHH HES GROWN SO MUCH...POWERFUL BABY....IM SO PROUD

omg wing and bisky are here too!!! nen fam

im so proud of zushi being a floor master omg....i love how the side characters progress and grow offscreen, separate of the protags, kinda like seeing pokkle again (rip tho, i think)

LEORIOOOOO MY MAN!!!!!!! he really showed up for like 3 seconds then gets KOd and dumped in a sewer....STOP DOING MY MAN SO DIRTY GIVE HIM SCREENTIME..

ohhh so we’re doing anime die hard. kinda like the first macadamia movie

that lady rlly just stabbed herself huh.

these antags look like theyre from naruto. main antag dude looks like about 7 different anime guys fused

oh man netero got dunked on immediately Ls. gotta take him out so the protags can do the fighting

gon and killua are so good. and also in love. epic 12 yr old romance

KURAPIKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lookin sharp in a suit. also just looking depressed as hell in general. KURAPIKA ARE YOU...GOOD....ARE YOU STAYING HYDRATED??? TAKING UR VITAMINS?? I DONT THINK YOU ARE.

also i still cant believe kp is working for neon still...it rlly feels like they just gave up on life and just figured that staying there was fine or w/e

now the 3 protags are goin full die hard thru the tower...WHERE is leorio i cant believe they rlly threw my mans in a sewer like that smh

these guys r rlly called ‘the shadow’ thats so edgy

also i watched this like a few hours ago but im a dumb bitch so im reading thru the wiki article for the movie to remind me what happened, and apparently The Shadow(tm) was the black ops division of the hunter association, and they were later rekkt once they started w/the On...i so didnt get that while actually watching the movie vhdakjfhbskdfn thanks hunterpedia for explaining that one to me

wooowww so the HA rlly just committed massive, morally reprehensible war crimes and then just sealed it all in a book or st and moved on. yikes id be mad too, generic anime dude villain

so these three rlly just resurrected a dude by going into the desert and saying ‘hey we r emo can you give us some power and maybe anime jeb bush’ and that Worked

now kurapika is fighting the dude in the control room and gon&killua are fighting Big Dude WHO BEAT UP ZUSHI!!!!!!!!! get his ass boys

LEORIOOOOOO MMY MAN IS BACK FROM HIS SEWER ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!! ILY SIRRRRR

and then he immediately gets yoinked by hisoka, who is for some reason in this movie. i feel like they were like oh yeah hisoka is like, the 5th main character/antagonistic force of the story so i guess he should be here. its hilarious tho bc he spends 90% of his already limited screentime in this movie just playing w/his playing cards and smirking. bastard man you just gooo awayyyyy

seeing beans again omggggg green dude u r great

also who the FUCK is that smarmy looking blonde at the HA HQ...i hate him already based on 1) his atrocious pattern-clashing fashion sense, and 2) his smarmy aura. he looks like hes never thought a thought in his life. ruth says he might be buddies w/ging which makes me hate him even more

gon and killua....r dating. ty

when gon and the bad guy start fighting in the elevator shaft and killua just kinda watches hvbajddfhbsjf hes like ‘oh the narrative demands that gon fights solo for a bit so i guess ill stay here’ lmao

but then he saves gon with his physics-heavy electromagnet elevator clamp plan....smart baby

then after they defeat the guy they just start chatting lol i love them

ohhh shit the guy exploded, thats fucked up

poor gon :( more trauma for the poor kid

meanwhile kurapika fights an evil clone of themself. wow

tbh kurapika could totally one-up these guys by being like ‘well ok at least you have each other, im the VERY LAST kurta’

its strange to see kurapika fighting w/the sticks instead of the chains tbh

WHO THREW THAT KNIFE AT THE GUY IT HAS TO BE LEORIO HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

LEORIO AND KURAPIKA REUNION HHHHH THEYYYYY

they are married tyvm

kurapika is soooo not doin well like...please get some rest

kurapika referring to their ‘new friends’ hmmmm thats probably an actual canon reference since this doesnt get brought up again in the movie. probs referring to w/e kp is doing in canon at this point

LEORIO USING NEN LMAOOO hes like pshhhh that was easy but internally hes like owww....sir ily sm

damn kurapika rlly stabbed that guy w/a stick huh. rip dude

ohhh shit its those drug capsule things

KURAPIKA RLLY TOOK A BULLET FOR LEORIO HUH. I HATE IT HEREEEEEE

leorio best dude

wow so kp has to make an On covenant OR DIE...yeah i think theyll choose the die option

squad reunion :’) even tho kp is like, dying

gon is such a good boy :( ily baby

leorio and kurapika are str8 up married ty

final battle timeee

love how at this point in the story gon only has one attack so he has no choice but to keep doing that same attack (well, the 3 variations) over and over til st happens lmao

lmao gon and kurapika are rlly on the opposite ends of the ‘On’ scale here w/kp willing to die rather than accept using On, and gon seeking out On for POWER and also VENGEANCE

the themes of gon’s righteous anger on behalf of others continues...

the boys are rlly getting tossed around a lot this movie geez

hh boy gon is now...PURPLE-BLUE

oooh killua convincing the lady to chill out was cool - tho ngl i didnt realize she was still alive

now netero can go ham. i wonder if he’ll finish the fight or if gon will

uh oh gon is Extra Feral now

gon: IM EVIL NOW

killua: NOT ON MY FUCKING WATCH

oughhh they love each other so much bro. fuck this

gon banging his head on the ground and then killua jumping in between him and the ground....true love bro

gon snapped out of it WITH THE POWER OF LOVE!!!!!!!!!! im emo and gay. thanks

love how even when netero was younger he was still like, an old guy lmao

and then the next day theyre all just back in heavans arena hbvhdahdfbjsakf who cares that the building just got hijacked? whatevs

kurapika smiling a little and melody then smiling knowingly....melody is like Bitch I Know Youre In Love

still kurapika seems like. not Right. pls get some therepy

im glad zushi got to fight that guy like he was supposed to....and w/the nen fam cheering him on :’)

THOUGHTS

its wild how they didnt really delve into the whole ‘war crimes’ thing w/the hunter association lmao. idk if this movie is canon so that might be why....they just brushed over the fact that the HA was like, running concentration camps and murdering entire groups of people. wild

this movie was fun!! it felt more like hxh than the last movie, which v much felt like a generic anime movie. this one felt more in character. it did fall into typical anime movie tropes sometimes but the characters felt more like themselves here, espec w/the point of the story this seems to be set at

like gons anger and all that - while it obvs comes from a place of love and kindness, he can get carried away sometimes...i feel like we’re gonna rlly delve into the negative impact of this in the CA arc and i am both so ready and not ready at all

this movie was hella gay which i appreciate. love the gays

all in all this was fun!! i wish there were more hxh movies lmao i love anime movies. well at least theres the musical LMAOOO im gonna watch that soon

#the watching continues #i havent posted a lot of my other recaps bc theyre p incomplete lmao #im workin on it tho #not that anybody cares lmao. thats ok tho im posting these for my own reference #hxh #lj watches hxh

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karmanticmoved · 5 years ago

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1-85 uwu

j esus okay

1. describe yourself.

uh,, emotional ig, dumbass, quiet, exhausted all of the time, v queer, healthy mix of feminine and masculine, insecure, and not tha t great tbh. kinda a pussy ass b itch

2. if you could go anywhere for a week all expenses paid where would it be?

idrk. maybe somewhere like a hella nice beach in another country, maybe somewhere in europe. i like travelling but i hate the travel to get there and have no money so i havent put thought into it. maybe hawaii or somewhere like that.

3. do you have siblings?

the one thats still alive is my half brother

4. what is your favorite constellation, why?

orion maybe bc i don't know a lot but i can see that one from my bedroom window even in the city n idk. its comforting. or scorpius cause i'm a scorpio

5. favorite color.

yellow, pink, or blue.

6. what kind of music do you listen to?

almost anything. whatever catches my interest.

7. favorite flower. (you can name as many as you want cause flowers are awesome)

forgot what i said last time but those

yellow carnations i think?

8. if you could do magic, what is the first spell you would learn?

maybe smth to put myself to sleep immediately bc f uCk

9. favorite childhood memory.

my summer camp memories are pretty great. also memories of my dad and i going fishing are good.

10. have you ever been cheated on?

i mean in theory i couldve been bc online relationships but no. n im polyam and have identified as such for a majority of my relationships so no.

11. if you could describe your perfect room, what would it be?

big but not too big, yknow? like big enough that it can be filled and have room to walk around and lay on the ground or whatever but not Empty. and a pretty big bed to stretch out on, n a closet in the room. multiple windows w blackout curtains so theres light but it can be blocked out. n fluffy rugs or carpeting but preferably rugs in case smth spills so we can get it out of at least Remove the rug. and probably a cat tree thing in corner for dipper. n a computer desk and actual lights that light up the whole room. but probably,, fairy lights too bc full lights too bright. and i kinda want a pink room but blue or yellow work also. a nd pride flags on the walls + posters and various other stuff bc plain walls are boring. and tons n tons of b ooks too.

12. favorite animal.

river otter

13. what was the last photo you took of?

cat

14. do you believe in soul mates?

i'm not sure. i do kinda think there are people who you will like. really really click with and who become so important in your life that they're like. apart of u yknow? but i don't think that anyone as an individual needs to keep those people in their life forever. they arent destined to stay with them, and they shouldnt force that relationship (platonic, familial, romantic, or whatever) even if they were close for years and years. screw destiny. youll have people you care about, and sometimes you have to break that bond to save yourself, and thats okay. there will be other people who can and will be just as important. that got kinda off topic skbsks. i don't think theres really like Destiny soulmates. but there could be like. soulmates in the sense of for however long we're together, we're soul bonded. even if its not forever. does that even make se nse skbsns

15. do you hang toilet paper over or under?

over is the one thats socially acceptable right

16. your go to place to eat & your favorite thing to get there.

idk theres a place near a movie theater closeish to my house and its a nice little cafe and i dont eat there bc i dont eat much in general but i get their bubble tea and i love. raspberry bubble tea w rose popping bubbles. its comfort drink.

17. do you believe everything happens for a reason?

no. sometimes shit happens for no reason, and its bullshit, but you can't reverse it, so you gotta figure out how to move on from it.

18. guilty pressures?

im assuming thats meant to be pleasures

umm,, idrk. i don't know what exactly i like that would count as a guilty pleasure so,,

19. favorite mythical creature, why?

merpeople are s o cool i fuckin. love funky aquatic pals hell yeah. maybe im just Water babey but. they're rad. dragons are also hella cool bc like dragons???? theyre scaly and prett y and can breathe fire or have wings and kill u?? also like selkies bc again. water. but i used to hear a lot of stories abt them and theyre so nea t

20. something most people don’t know about you.

i have the potential to be a huge asshole and also kinda Wish to fuckin murder someone sometimes but. i act nice most of the time anyway.

not murder murder but i can get angr y enough that i just wanna Stab smth

21. where did you grow up, what was it like?

grew up kinda near the edge of the city, still in it but not like the main city area. in western washington. it was kinda rly boring, i used to spend a lot more time outside or just by myself playing with leaves or toys or whatever. when i had friends i played make believe w them even when outside of school. so yeah. boring id say.

22. do you believe aliens exist?

sure.

23. what was your last google search?

other than names for some actors n stuff, i was looking up various star wars things

24. what did your last relationship teach you?

the one that like. ended? i guess thatd be. be careful with your own feelings and try to figure them out before jumping into anything, and also don't try to force smth that in reality isnt really working.

25. would you relocate for love?

honestly yeah

26. do you hold grudges or forgive easy?

both. it just depends on how badly i or someone i care about was hurt by it. more likely to hold a grudge if a friend was hurt by someone d eep enough to leave a lasting impact or if they don't get a genuine apology i will be 🔫🔫. or if the person keeps hurting them. even if that person is also my friend.

27. favorite book.

favorite graphic novel is bloom by kevin panetta

favorite books in general are autoboyography, more happy than not, and what if its us. all gay. i know. its okay. im a kinnie.

28. do you consider yourself an extrovert or introvert?

introvert by far

29. have you ever kept a journal, do you now?

i tried once. i probably will have to once i go see a therapist, or at least one for my Bad Thoughts

30. top 5 favorite movies.

in no particular order

little shop of horrors, love simon, coco, it (2017 and 1990), and shazam! ig? maybe others but i definitely Forgot all the shit ive watched

31. do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

32. what is your greatest fear?

definitely gotta be all of the people i love hating me and abandoning me or secretly hating me and then leaving me without saying anything. and the worst part is im always afraid its gonna happen babeyy

33. favorite alcoholic beverage.

im baby

34. most embarrassing thing you’ve done.

im embarrassed by my own existence. i don't remember the Most embarrassing thing

35. do you believe in ghosts?

not until i have proof that i can actually trust and believe in

36. what is the best and worst part of your personality?

idk ig im nice. but im also. very easily set off on certain emotions especially the bad ones which sucks like especially jealousy bc i dont wanna!! feel jealous!! tho i think that ties into my greatest fear bc my brain immediately tells me im useless to everyone and they hate me. but. sometimes i get jealous and then feel bad for that and then hate myself for all of it. bc my friends deserve to hang out w other people and care about other people im just fucking stupid babey !!

37. should you split the dinner bill?

i rly don't get why you wouldnt tbh like if u both wanna be there u should both pay. but if one person gonna pay it should be the person that asked.

38. are you a good liar?

most of the time. when it comes to my mental health i can either lie great or im literally breaking down in front of the person so

39. what keeps you up at night?

depressing thoughts. anxiety about everything. wishing i could cuddle and fall asleep w jay. sometimes i just cant sleep bc im too restless.

40. would you rather go without your phone or music?

music. i need my phone to text my friends and i Need my friends

41. do you believe in god?

what god would let the world get to the point its at. what god would allow people to do such fucked up shit.

no. i don't.

42. how do you relax when frustrated?

cry, take a nap, take a shower, listen to music, cuddle dipper

43. what’s something that offends you?

when people go "oh yeah i support gay rights but im still gonna eat at chick fil a bc its good" like i get so fucking. pissed off by that. youre not gonna fucking s ta rv e without their goddamn chicken. i know a bi person who goes there and says its okay bc they dont Directly Give Their money to Specifically anti gay organisations but im just. ugh. fucking pissed bc there are other places to get food just avoid the one place for fucks sake. their food is good it doesnt matter. its like saying yeah pewdiepie is a bad person and nazi and a racist asshole but his videos r funni haha so im gonna watch him anyway

44. favorite food

i hate myself whenever i eat food

45. if you were on a 10 hour flight and could sit and talk to any person the entire time, who would it be?

@destinedformuchmore or @pinaplelee

46. when do you feel the most confident?

never? but ig i feel confident when working on tech construction during theater tech. as long as i know what im doing.

47. what do you do in your free time?

sleep. draw. cry. play video games. talk to my friends.

48. is there anyone who has completely lost your respect

matpat did for being a dick abt neopronouns and making a transphobic joke and only apologizing when a cis person told him to. not when hundreds of trans people did. and also other jokes that are inherently offensive to various groups. a n d for making extremely not Child friendly jokes in his videos which are very much targeted towards kids. say what you will about the target audience, there are a lot of children who watch them. please stop making creepy nsfw jokes if you won't even swear, sir.

49. have you ever broken someone’s heart?

i guess so yeah. but she also broke mine first.

50. did/do you play sports in school?

i did. i don't anymore bc highschool sports are bullshit but. basketball, ultimate, and soccer.

51. when are you happiest?

talkin 2 jay prolly

52. coffee or tea?

tea

53. what is one possession you own you wouldn’t want to live without?

my binder. or my stuffed cat puppet thing ive had since i was 7

54. what is the first thing you notice about a person?

their general emotions, mostly. like if theyre in a good mood or if theyre bored or distracted or whatever. or if they seem interested in actually talking to me

55. what is your favorite season, why?

fall. my birthday, the atmosphere is nice, it's pretty, its hoodie weather.

56. what makes you laugh?

stupid little comments or jokes my friends make tend to make me laugh a lot harder than i should but jabdn

57. are you a clean or messy person?

a mix. i Cannot have some things messy or i will ksjqkd. Die but i don't make my bed too often bc its ha rd when its against 3 walls.

58. what is important for a successful relationship?

communication communication communicati

talk about ur goddamn problems n keep talking to each other.

59. what was your upcoming like?

if thats supposed to be upbringing

idk, very relaxed. pretty easygoing and kinda boring.

60. favorite holiday?

any holiday in december rly. i don't celebrate a Lot but the atmosphere and others celebrating is nice to see. i kinda wish my parents did more to embrace the jewish part in our family blike. whatever. christmas is fun.

61. what is the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery?

give half of it to my parents. and then probably use it for plane ticket

62. what’s the best pizza topping combination?

hawaiian pizza. pinapple n canadian bacon ty

63. favorite outdoor activity.

frisbee

64. how are you? honestly.

not great. i want highschool to end.

65. would you rather go camping in the woods or stay at a beach resort?

idk. camping is fun but if i get to stay at the resort for free i would rly love 2 stay at a resort tbh ive never done that

66. what is the most beautiful thing in nature?

waterfalls. or rivers or just. water in nature. and very green forests. aNd snow.

67. favorite type of candy?

none

68. if your life was a book, what would be the title?

i can and will do arson, an autobiography

69. what movie quotes do you use of a regular bases?

i quote john mulaney and whatever my obsessions are pretty regularly

70. what was cool when you were young but not cool now?

silly bandz. pokemon cards. these weird unicorn figures i collected

71. what’s the craziest conversation you have ever eves dropped on?

im mostly the one having the weird conversations

72. what’s the most interesting documentary you’ve ever watched?

i watched one about dogs and cats and their evolution which was lit

73. what’s the worst hairstyle you’ve had?

when i let the lady just go fuckin ham on my hair bc i was watching spirit that horse movie and didnt wanna stop so it was. rly bad bangs and hella short in back but not the sides

74. what do you like to cook?

whatever im hungry for. i don't have the energy to cook a lot

75. what’s the coolest animal you’ve seen in the wild?

really pretty tropical fish

76. what’s the funniest tv show you’ve ever seen?

idk. i rly like schitts creek its pretty amusing

77. do you usually follow your heart or your head?

heart at first but my head if things get bad

78. what is your favorite quote?

"i have a splitting headache and i think i'm dying. how are you?"

or a character just saying "try harder" when another failed to do smth.

this is supposed to be deep or whatever but im in a Mood

79. what’s the weirdest crush you have ever had?

once had a crush on a character in a minecraft parody lmao

80. what’s your love language?

sending shit that makes me think of them. n just. making tons of stuff for them both online and irl like bracelets.

81. do you ever feel alone?

oh yeah. all the time. im not but it feels like i am which sucks

82. ever been bullied?

yeah

83. are you usually early or late?

late bc of my parents rip

84. what kind of art do you enjoy most?

drawing, or writing. also theater.

85. what do you wish you knew more about?

i just wish i could remember everything ive learned more about. i know a lot i just forget all.

id like to know more about forensics tho

#asks #long post #friends

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smtraxler · 6 years ago

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Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada!

We didn’t sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

After some Internet searching, I was unable to find anything about the camp and I have to assume it has closed. I attended Camp Granada for 2 weeks every summer for 4 years; from the time I was 12 to 16. I was fortunate to have a family who was able to send me to horse camp. My brother attended one year, but it really wasn’t his thing.

Two weeks out of the year, doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but those 8 weeks of my life gave me some of my best memories.

Our day would start out with mucking stalls in the morning, then breakfast, then our morning ride. The ride included going to the pasture to get our horses, then taking them to the arena to properly groom and saddle them. We would generally ride around the arena, learning the proper way to work the horse from walk to trot to canter. They would teach us formations and would practice a routine that would be shown to the parents on the last day of camp (I think I still have the VHS, yes VHS tapes of these rides from those sessions). My favorite was when we would go out on trail rides and get outside.

Ghazid is the horse on the bottom left side of the picture.

The first year, I rode a horse whose nickname was Beans (you can imagine why, he was quite gassy), I can’t remember what his real name was but It was entertaining to a group of young girls trotting along and a horse letting out loud farts. Beans was a gentle, tubby bay for a girl who didn’t have a lot of horse experience. The second year I rode a horse named Ghazid, his main feature was that his tail was extremely short, for an unknown reason and when he would trot he would lift his tail and it would look like a streamer.

The third year, I started out with a pretty paint named Moon Beam, she was a mean tempered bitch, and that is the only description for her. Needless to say, she bit me in the shoulder while I was grooming her before one of our morning rides. Like I said, mean tempered bitch. Moon Beam was then replaced with Khalid, who was the exact opposite. He was a very mild tempered horse, and I ended up riding him for my 4th year as well. My final year, I tried an English saddle and wound up flying over Khalid’s head and onto my butt on the ground and switching back to a Western saddle.

The camp had a bunk house where the campers would sleep. A boys side and a girls side, but there was rarely any boys. In my 3rd year, the camp hosted a group of Japanese girls; we got to spend time learning about them and ended up making friends. At the end of camp we exchanged gifts from our home lands; I received a pretty pair of chopsticks, which I still have. That year we also signed t-shirts for each other and the girls signed them in Japanese, again, I still have mine.

Each year we would go on field trips. One year we went to Rogue Community College Amphitheater, where each summer they put on 2 musicals throughout the summer. That year had been Oklahoma and at the beginning of the performance they had a stagecoach with horses come from the hill behind the grass seating down to the stage. I thought it was amazing. The other interesting part of this particular performance was that Kevin Hagen, the actor that played Doc Baker on Little House on the Prairie played Ado Annie’s father. He had moved to the area and began acting in the local theatre.

Another year, we went to Historic Jacksonville and to the Britt Festival. I can’t remember what we saw but I recall that the owner, Carmen, and my best camp friends and I had one of the Old Time photos done. We did so many other things, but these are the one the have stuck in my mind over the years.

Top Left to Right: Michelle, Me, Andy & Kara Bottom: Dan (counselor) & Mari Carmen (camp owner)

A wooden mask hung in the dining room of the bunkhouse and legend was that it was cursed and the ‘witch doctor’ would get you if you touched the mask. Of course, we all dared each other to touch it. The closest we would get would be to put a hand in its open mouth (without touch the teeth, of course) and making faces.

There was swimming in the pond on the property or pool (which was closer), bonfires, story telling, sitting in the bunkhouse playing cards (we generally played one called Speed) and listening to music. We also watched movies…

I’ve never been a fan of scary movies, and one year we watched Poltergeist. Probably wouldn’t have been a big deal except one thing, when we had to go to the bathroom that night. The scene where the clouds are roiling over the house just before all Hell breaks loose…. (I will come back to this after a short explanation).

The bathrooms for the campers were in the barn. At night, the barn doors were open for the paddock horses to run back and forth into the arena and the paddock and we had to go through one side of the barn around the back and down the other side of the barn. During the day we were able to cut across between the paddock and the barn. The night we watched Poltergeist, we walked out of the bunkhouse and down one side of the barn, when we got to the other side of the barn we looked across the yard and the sky above looked just like the one we had just seen in the movie. Of course, as girls will do we squealed and ran to the other side and walked quickly (no running in the barn!) down to the bathroom and did the same on the return trip, all the while giggling and freaking each other out more.

The first year I was there, Carmen’s mother, had just moved to the U.S. from Spain. She was sadly unable to participate in the following years, due to age and health. However, that year, she cooked a traditional Spanish meal, which I have searched for, for 30 years now and have not been able to find anything like it. All I remember was that it contained chicken and a Spanish rice, sounds pretty simple but there was much more to it and for the life of me I haven’t been able to duplicate it.

Finally, there were my camp friends, I made quite a few over the years, but there are 2 that were my camp besties. I lost track of them after I went to college and started moving around but due to the invention of Social Media, I was able to find them again, and even got to meet up with Andy about 5 years ago and introduce her to my children.

Andy & the Witch Doctor

Kara & Amy

Khalid

Flame (watched his gelding my first year…)

Camp Granada Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada! We didn't sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

#Fun #girly #horses #summer camp

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

Text

Did Trump Say Republicans Were Dumb

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-trump-say-republicans-were-dumb/

Did Trump Say Republicans Were Dumb

Ben Carson: March 4 2016

Donald Trump Tells Oprah in 1988 What He Would Do as President

You would be forgiven for forgetting that at one point last fall, Dr. Ben Carson was tied with Trump for first place in national Republican presidential preference polls. They were two different versions of the “outsider” candidate Trump, the brash billionaire and reality TV star; and Carson the quiet doctor propelled by faith. ;In;November, Trump went on the attack. He turned to Carson’s own autobiography for ammunition, noting with skepticism Carson’s story of how his religious conversion began when he attempted to stab a friend only to have the knife blade break on the friend’s belt buckle. “How stupid are the people of Iowa?” Trump asked. “How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” At the time it seemed a direct challenge to evangelicals that could only hurt Trump, but it was Carson who began to slip in the polls. The doctor did poorly in the early primaries and dropped out after Super Tuesday. A week later he endorsed Trump, saying the two had “buried the hatchet” and that he believed there are “two Donald Trumps” the bombastic public figure and the private man who is “cerebral” and willing to consider other views.

Trump Secretly Mocks His Christian Supporters

Former aides say that in private, the president has spoken with cynicism and contempt about believers.

One day in 2015, Donald Trump beckoned Michael Cohen, his longtime confidant and personal attorney, into his office. Trump was brandishing a printout of an article about an Atlanta-based megachurch pastor trying to raise $60 million from his flock to buy a private jet. Trump knew the preacher personallyCreflo Dollar had been among a group of evangelical figures who visited him in 2011 while he was first exploring a presidential bid. During the meeting, Trump had reverently bowed his head in prayer while the pastors laid hands on him. Now he was gleefully reciting the impious details of Dollars quest for a Gulfstream G650.

Trump seemed delighted by the scam, Cohen recalled to me, and eager to highlight that the pastor was full of shit. Theyre all hustlers, Trump said.

The presidents alliance with religious conservatives has long been premised on the contention that he takes them seriously, while Democrats hold them in disdain. In speeches and interviews, Trump routinely lavishes praise on conservative Christians, casting himself as their champion. My administration will never stop fighting for Americans of faith, he declared at a rally for evangelicals earlier this year. Its a message his campaign will seek to amplify in the coming weeks as Republicans work to confirm Amy Coney Barretta devout, conservative Catholicto the Supreme Court.

So If None Of This Counts What’s The Point

According to those conducting the recount, the purpose of this project is to address a prevailing concern among some voters that the 2020 election was illegitimate. And if the final result is that there was no fraud? That’s fine, too.

“This is not about calling into question the results of the November election,” Ken Bennett, spokesman for the audit, told the Washington Post. “This is about identifying if there are any areas of our elections that need to be improved going forward.”

Few Democrats believe this, of course. They fear that the point of the audit is to simply sow further doubt about Biden’s victory – and pave the way for Republican state-level efforts to enact new voting restrictions that disadvantage their candidates and voters in the name of “ballot security”.

Also Check: What Is Difference Between Democrats And Republicans

Trump Slashes At Mcconnell As He Reiterates Election Falsehoods At Republican Event

Former president Donald Trump called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a dumb son of a bitch as he used a Saturday night speech to Republicans to blame the senator for not helping overturn the 2020 election and reiterated false assertions that he won the November contest.

Trump, speaking at a Republican National Committee gathering at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., excoriated a number of Republicans even as he publicly called for party unity focusing on those who voted to convict him in impeachment proceedings. But he saved his sharpest vitriol for the Kentucky Republican.

If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a bitch Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it, he said of the election certification on Jan. 6, the day his supporters led an insurrection on the Capitol to block President Bidens formal victory.

Trump spent much of the speech, with many senators in the room, lashing into his former ally in personal terms, often to cheers from the partys top donors. He falsely claimed that he won the Senate election for McConnell in Kentucky and attacked his wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trumps transportation secretary.

I hired his wife. Did he ever say thank you? Trump said. He then mocked Chao for resigning in response to the Jan. 6 events and Trumps behavior that day.

Some attendees left the private event early, with the speech getting mixed reviews.

Bette Midler Apologizes For Sharing Fake Trump Quote: But It Sounds So Much Like Him

Singer/actress refuses to take down the fictitious meme after her apology

Bette Midler apologized on Monday after posting a fake quote attributed to Donald Trump where he purportedly disparaged Republican voters in a 1998 People Magazine interview.

I apologize; this quote turns out to be a fake from way back in 15-16. Dont know how I missed it, but it sounds SO much like him that I believed it was true!, the singer/actress

I apologize; this quote turns out to be a fake from way back in 15-16. Dont know how I missed it, but it sounds SO much like him that I believed it was true! Fact Check: Did Trump say in 98 Republicans are dumb? via

Bette Midler

In addition to her apology, Midler also included a link to the Reno Gazette Journal debunking the quote. It read, If I were to run, Id run as a Republican. Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.

The photo accompanying the quote shows a younger Trump around the time he was a real estate developer in New York City and long before he became a political candidate.

Dumb and Dumber @GOP, he said in a tweet before deleting. Narisetti is also an alum of the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and News Corp.

The memes providence dates back to at least 2015 when Snopes, a liberal-leaning fact-checking website, fact-checked the quote and proved it was false.

Don’t Miss: What Is The Definition Of Republicanism

Wait A Minute Bamboo Fibre

Yes. According to one volunteer, John Brakey, they’re investigating whether fake ballots may have been snuck in from overseas.

“They use bamboo in their paper processing, people in southeast Asia,” he told a local CBS television station.

Brakey is quick to say he doubts such fraud is real, but the investigators apparently want to leave no stone unturned, untested and unsubjected to ultraviolet light.

As mail-in Arizona ballots are matched against registered voters, multiple votes cast by the same individual would have been flagged.

Donald Trump’s Most Controversial Quotes

On America:

GETTY

Guns

He also praised the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment, describing his sons as serious NRA. His praise of the Second Amendment comes just days after an Uber driver went on a deadly shooting spree in Michigan, killing killed six people.

I want to begin by thanking my boys, Eric has been all over the place making speeches. Hes getting better than me so Im a little jealous. And Don went to , you were all over, right?

He loves the rifle stuff. This is serious rifle. This is serious NRA, both of them, both of them. We love the Second Amendment folks, nobody loves it more than us, so just remember that.

Guantanamo

Trump is promising to keep the controversial detention camp open after President Obama’s repeated pledges to close it, something he reiterated in his victory speech.

Were going to keep as you know Gitmo, were keeping that open, and were going to load it up with bad dudes. Were going to load it up w a lot of bad dudes out there.

Walls

Finally, he repeated his most familiar campaign promise: to build that big beautiful wall, and make Mexico pay for it.

Were going to have our borders nice and strong. Were going to build the wall, you know that. Were going to build the wall. And I have a lot of respect from Mexico and you just heard we won Hispanics. But let me tell you Mexico is going to pay for the wall, right? Its going to happen.

Recommended Reading: Who Has More Billionaires Democrats Or Republicans

Jeb Bush: Feb 20 2016

A year ago, Jeb Bush was at the forefront of an historic fundraising juggernaut, with a super PAC that raised more than $100 million by June. But Bush could never generate the passion and enthusiasm of Trump. The billionaire branded Bush a “low energy” candidate;and proceeded to tie George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq around Jeb Bush’s neck like a lead weight. During a , Trump said President Bush had lied about the pretext for the Iraq War.;Jeb rose to his brother’s defense. ;”While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe and Im proud of what he did,” he said. But Trump fired back: “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that. That’s not keeping us safe.” A;week later Trump won the winner-take-all Palmetto State primary and Bush dropped out of the race.

Tale Of The Tape: The 16 Contenders Trump Has Knocked Out

Oprah asks a 42-year-old Trump if he’d run for president

Donald Trump clobbered his opponents in Indiana, knocking out Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ;and;Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Cruz whom Trump labeled “Lyin’ Ted” acknowledged Tuesday that he had no path left to the nomination and suspended his campaign, and;Kasich threw in the towel;Wednesday. Even RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has called the fight for Trump, declaring the billionaire the presumptive nominee.

Heres how Trump has dispatched the contenders who stepped into the ring with him during this years presidential contest:

You May Like: When Did The Republicans And Democrats Switch Platforms

Jeb’s Campaign Releases Video Of ‘the Real Donald Trump’

Jeb Bush’s campaign is ratcheting up its attacks on Donald Trump, releasing a video that paints the Republican presidential candidate as an unabashed liberal. And Trump is firing right back.

The spot, titled “The Real Donald Trump,” plays on two separate occasions a clip of the billionaire candidate saying that he “lived in New York and Manhattan my whole life” and that “my views are a little bit different than if I had lived in Iowa.”

“Liberal Things That Trump Says,” the text on screen reads before flipping to “Liberal Things That Trump Believes.” Trump has made a point of embracing his eclectic policy views in the past, something that Bush’s campaign is seizing upon in the latest spot.

Trump is shown in a 1999 “Meet the Press” interview telling Tim Russert that he is “very pro-choice,” though a dozen years later, Trump announced that he opposed abortion in most instances, except in cases of rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother.

The spot also highlights Trump’s praise of single-payer health care systems in Canada and in Scotland during last month’s GOP debate, though it does not include his qualifying statement that although he thought it was a good idea for the U.S. in the late 1990s, he does not believe that to now be the case.

Im Getting The Word Out: Inside The Feverish Mind Of Donald Trump Two Months After Leaving The White House

I Alone Can Fix It

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Seventy days had passed since Donald Trump left Washington against his will. On March 31, 2021, we ventured to Mar-a-Lago, where he still reigned as king of Republican politics. We arrived late that afternoon for our audience with the man who used to be president and were ushered into an ornate sixty-foot-long room that functioned as a kind of lobby leading to the clubs patio. A model of Air Force One painted in Trumps proposed redesigna flat red stripe across the middle, a navy belly, a white top, and a giant American flag on the tailwas proudly displayed on the coffee table facing the entrance. It was a prop disconnected from reality.; Trumps vision never came to be; the fleet now in use by President Biden still bears the iconic baby blue-and-white livery designed by Jacqueline Kennedy.

Trump had invited us to Mar-a-Lago to interview him for this book. He had declined an interview for our first book about his presidency, and when A Very Stable Genius was published in January 2020, attacked us personally and branded our reporting a work of fiction. But Trump was quick to agree to our request this time. He sought to curate history.

But future elections were not front and center in his mind. A past election was. Trump was fixated on his loss in 2020, returning to this wound repeatedly throughout the interview.;

Also Check: How Do Republicans Feel About Climate Change

Wisconsin Gop Wrestles With Just How Much To Indulge Trump

The former president set off infighting among state Republicans by saying they were not working hard enough to challenge the 2020 results, accusing them of covering up election corruption.

By Reid J. Epstein

Wisconsin Republicans were already going to great lengths to challenge the 2020 election results. They ordered a monthslong government audit of votes in the state. They made a pilgrimage to Arizona to observe the G.O.P. review of votes there. They hired former police officers to investigate Wisconsins election and its results.

But for Donald J. Trump, it wasnt enough.

In a blistering statement last week on the eve of the state partys convention, the former president accused top Republican state lawmakers of working hard to cover up election corruption and actively trying to prevent a Forensic Audit of the election results.

Wisconsin Republicans were alarmed and confused. Some circulated a resolution at the convention calling for the resignation of the top Republican in the State Assembly, Speaker Robin Vos, who in turn announced the appointment of a hard-line conservative former State Supreme Court justice to oversee the investigation. The Republican State Senate president released a two-page letter addressed to Mr. Trump that said his claims about Republicans were false but that made sure to clarify in fawning language the state partys allegiance to the former president.

Fact Check: Trump Did Not Call Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters

5 Min Read

An old quote falsely attributed to Donald Trump has recently resurfaced online. The viral meme alleges Trump told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are the dumbest group of voters in the country. This is false.

While the quote has been debunked several times since it apparently surfaced in 2015, users have recently been resharing it on social media. Examples can be seen here , here , here , here

The meme reads: If I were to run, Id run as a Republican. Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific. – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998

Snopes first wrote about the false quote here in October 2015 . Since then, the quote has been debunked multiple times .

People magazine has confirmed in the past that its archive has no register of this alleged exchange.

People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. . We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldnt find anything remotely like this quoteand no interview at all in 1998., a magazine spokesperson told Factcheck.org that year .

In December 1987, People published a profile on Donald Trump titled Too Darn Rich. The article quoted him saying he was too busy to run for president .

Read Also: How Many Registered Republicans In Texas

Donald Trump Quotes That Should Horrify His Evangelical Supporters

After months of campaigning, flip-flopping on important issues,;and generally wreaking havoc on the party that for decades has presented itself as defenders of Christian America, Donald Trump took to the stage at the Republican National Convention and thanked the evangelicals who helped him get there.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community because Ill tell you what. Because the support theyve given me, and Im not sure I totally deserve it, has been so amazing. And has had such a big reason for me being here tonight. True. So true.

So true, its cringeworthy.

White evangelical Protestants are a considerable force in the elections making up one-fifth of all registered voters.;While a number of evangelical leaders have pointed out that Trumps policies and actions are decidedly un-Christian, rank-and-file white evangelical Americans have in fact thrown their support behind the candidate. According to the Pew Research Center, 78 percent of white evangelical voters;say they would vote for Trump if the election were held today.;

But if you place Trumps quotes, principles and policies next to the ideals set forth by Christianitys founder, the gap is startling. Trump has little regard for some of the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ showing love for your neighbor, welcoming the stranger, and asking for Gods forgiveness.;

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haectemporasunt · 7 years ago

Text

wiratomkinder Shall do!

You have any good dreams lately? haectemporasunt hmm well the desperate gray clown monster this morning

was i telling you about the curse one?

i d have mentioned a play wiratomkinder That wasnt a dream that was an omen wiratomkinder And no u did not! haectemporasunt heheh haectemporasunt well! at this stage i m not sure i ll remember quite as much but

speaking of stephen king and joe hill and my crush on the girl from the ring

one of the things i ve always been into is the idea of kids banding together to defeat a supernatural evil and then later, (usually as teens), they have to go back and deal with it once and for all wiratomkinder Ooooooo haectemporasunt yeah it sounds cool but is kind of embarrassing bc you Know i m self inserting myself as one of those kids

snort ok anyway, this

dream followed that same sort of typical line haectemporasunt there was a play being performed at school and i had some bad presentiment about it, there was something i couldnt remember and i didnt want it performed, but since i cldnt articulate my fears couldnt convince the school to stop the play, nor cld i convince my younger brother not to star in it wiratomkinder Aughh that sounds stress inducing haectemporasunt so i m fiddling w my car and it s raining heavily and i m outside the auditorium, and the radio starts emitting static, and i stop fiddling w the light.... and i can distantly hear one of the play's (it was a musical i guess?) songs starting

and i Remembered haectemporasunt In my dream i just clenched up bc i remembered Her the Bad Thing and i remebered --and the memories were dizzying and made me feel ill, like waves of sickness that hit you inescapably and you know youre gonna vomit but there s no bathroom near wiratomkinder Hooooogh thats strong haectemporasunt when i was in school and my friends and i put on a play, and --i couldnt remember it all, but i rmemebered my friends and i in red coats [apparently doing the play but not in the auditorium, somewhere underground and filled with tree roots], standing around a big hole in stony ground, and stairs leading down , curving around the side into darkness, and i remember holding sheets of musical notes and old books, and i remember us saying things, and something going wrong

and whatever our goal was w our play, we must have gotten it, but we also got Her haectemporasunt you wld think she d have crawled up out of the dark but now

no*

i dont remember how she appeared but it wasnt from below, she was a symptom, not the source wiratomkinder Hooooly shit haectemporasunt and all of this is flashing in my head like how in my head i imagine epilepsy is like, and i m still in my car clutching at the air and whimpering but i m overcome with fear bc i m remembering and it s terrifying bc it means something happened to make me forget

and that s when i realize, firstly, that my friends, the others that performed the play with me in the underground room, most of them were no longer around and i didnt remember why or how but no one else remembered them either, there was just me and one other friend, and we didnt talk anymore,

and secondlly, i realized that it was almost pitch dark in my car even tho it was light outside the window, and the darkness was centered behind me wiratomkinder Jeeeeeeeeez haectemporasunt and you know that slow turn that ppl do in horror movies? and they see the Thing grinning at them? and then they die?

this is the cool part of my dream--or it was cool for me anyway bc , again, i m a sucker for these tropes

bc i imagined that happening, and i could feel Her behind me and i cld hear her teeth

but ... i had dealt with this before even tho i cldnt remember the details, and i knew looking behind me wld be Death

worse than death haectemporasunt bc death ends wiratomkinder hyoley shit haectemporasunt but i d dealt with her so i knew first , she would talk to me. because of our intense history [fuck you max and your fetish for killer undead women], she wld want to play w me a little, so i had an opening where she wldnt kill me outright wiratomkinder GGHFGHFFHH haectemporasunt so i was pretending i was still remembering , and i was slowly moving my hand towards the door handle haectemporasunt and i felt her hair brush against my ear and she whispered "i missed you, max. you have to look at me now"

and i grabbed the door handle and slammed against the car door to get out...but it was locked. wiratomkinder YEEEESH haectemporasunt so,

i have enough time to think, Shit haectemporasunt and then her arms are around my neck and she is twisting me so i will look at her back behind me in the back seat

her hands make me ache

(btw wtf was happening to me that i was feeling this? i can only think it was the tinge of a body part going numb, or i was sleeping on my neck wrong)

but in my hands i now had the , whatchamacallit, the program for jake's play,

and i kept getting flashes of what i wld look like from the outside as i died, but i Knew now that bc the program had words from the play on it, i cld use that paper as a barrier , albeit small , against her

but i had to look at her to hold the paper up against her wiratomkinder hyooooof like fighting a medusa riding a basilisk haectemporasunt hehehe

so i turn around and i m trying to look only at the paper as i shove it hard against her bedraggled ripped up chest as she s scratching at me, but in the corner of my eye i can see her face and it is.... nightmarish

ha, literally wiratomkinder OH NOO haectemporasunt she is grinnig impossibly wide--and her head is so big, it s bigger than her body or that's how it feels--like, it s normal sized, but ,,,,, it feels really close up against you even when she s separated from you by a chair...it s hard to describe but you can feel something is immense and monstrous inside and 'beyond' her

she s bigger than this corpse she s using wiratomkinder Yess like a weird perception thing

Your field of vision zooms tf in haectemporasunt i m nost sure how to describe her face in a way that actuall y evokes the terror

especially when, ha, you cld summarize her homicidal glee as 'Dead and Loving It'

but her face was smashed

like porcelain wiratomkinder Yee gotcha gotcha wiratomkinder Oof haectemporasunt black cracks, red meat, and her eyes were really horrible and big, and her mouth was too wide, inhumanly wide, and cracked too haectemporasunt and she was very happy and furious to see me

we apparently had unfinished business that involved me being brutally broken

and then worst than killed

ha sorry i m taking too long wiratomkinder No ur good!

I wanna know whats up with ms. Corpse bride over here haectemporasunt i pushed the paper aginst her and she was trying to throttle me and she was laughing in this quiet whispery way that was...super creepy bc it was like immense passion whistling out of cracks haectemporasunt and w my free hand i m scrabbling at the door lock, and finally it comes freen but now the paper is basically being sandwiched btw me and Her, we re pressed against each other and that sbad bc she s making me hallucinate that i m already dead and broken , like, i can see that my neck got broken when the car's tires somehow rolled over my neck haectemporasunt (i guess that was a power of hers, remembering deaths and then they become real?)

but the door gets free and i tumble backwards out of the car and slam it shut!!!!! wiratomkinder FREEDOM!!!! haectemporasunt yeah!!! haectemporasunt god it felt so good, id outwitted ( """"outwitted"""") her once again, and she cldnt leave the car for some reason--in waking hours i think, maybe bc it was still daylight even tho rain? or bc it was open sky? but in the dream i just Knew she cldnt follow me . i was safe until i went back indoors

which i wld have to do in order to enter the auditorium and stop the play haectemporasunt but i was remembering this wasnt the first time i d outwitted her! i cld remember dank school corridors and a blue tiled pool and other situations where i d managed to evade her,e ven as she crawled into other people and burst them apart from the inside

knowledge...with knowledge you cld survive against her, but there was something you needed to forget too, and i was starting to remember that too haectemporasunt in fact i cld remember the last time, the time the third to last of our friend group died, and friend (the one i didnt speak to anymore) and i had agreed that we needed to forget wiratomkinder Hyoooooooogh wiratomkinder Tactical amnesia haectemporasunt it was camping, we were desperate and trying to escape the play's consequences (which went beyond Her bc she was a mere symptom rmemeber) , we d made a sacrifice, done a ritual, and we were trying to isolate ourselves, and i remember watching my friend die in that campsite, i cant remember what happened now, i think their tent collapsed, and then something was in the collapsed tent with them, and we cld just see their squirming body and hear this ... sink disposal unit sound

and i nearly died in my tent with Her on top of me, squeezing my throat and slamming me rhythmically with one of the tomes we d used in the play ritual, just smashing me in the face and her horrible smile

and the remaining friend had intervened, and she dug her fingernail under my eye and then she was gone

and that was when we decided we had to forget wiratomkinder Holy shit haectemporasunt sadly that was getting near the end

i remember the auditorium being very red and i remember my brother and his friends looking up as i approached

i remember the terrible importance of what i d chosen to forget

and i dont know what She was except she was partly a Force ie a force of (super)nature and that she d also once been a girl with feelings and perhaps love in her heart haectemporasunt but sadly i cant really remember anything else

just me and my papers trying to convince others not to commit the same mistakes i did i guess? wiratomkinder Holy shit

Thats really somethin!!! haectemporasunt i m kinda sad bc if i were to copy paste this for tumblr to enjoy someone s gonna be like Lol gravity falls forgetting plot

or something wiratomkinder Awww naw i dunno haectemporasunt but i really liked it! and not just bc i felt important and knowledgable wiratomkinder Dreams is dreams they happen as they happen

And hell yeah! That was an adventure!

3 notes · View notes

j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

Photo

Dear Michael,

Thank you for such a comprehensive site. It is a joy to read and inspires so many travel dreams! I was pouring over all your stories on Glacier but I have a question. A friend and I just decided to go to Glacier in mid-September and would like to do a backpacking trip for two or three nights. We would appreciate something beautiful, somewhat challenging, but most of all, solitude. It seems we are late to get a reservation on top trails, and it seems like a good opportunity to take less-traveled trails. Do you have any suggestions?

We are both fairly fit and have done overnights in the Pacific NW. I live in Berlin, though I am originally from Seattle.

Thank you very much!

All the best, Leah Berlin, Germany

Mark Fenton at Dawn Mist Falls in Glacier National Park. Click photo for my e-guide.

Hi Leah,

Congrats on planning a trip to Glacier, definitely one of my favorite parks. I was there just last September, backpacking the Continental Divide Trail through the park.

As you probably know, Glacier National Park, like most national parks, limits the number of people in the backcountry, and many available permits do get snapped up for the summer by spring; it’s best to submit a permit reservation application by March 15 for up to eight people, or by March 1 for a group of nine to 12 people. You should read my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”

It’s not too late to submit an application for a permit reservation, though. Given there’s only two of you, you could also possibly get a walk-in permit for a variety of areas of the park the day before you want to start hiking. This page at the park’s website provides a non-topographic map of backcountry campgrounds and trails in the park, and by clicking on a specific backcountry campground, you can access a calendar showing current campsite availability (updated frequently). My story “How to Get a Last-Minute, National Park Backcountry Permit” offers tips on doing that. Find more information at nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/backcountry-reservations.htm.

Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Join The Big Outside to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

Complete solitude is somewhat rare because most available permits get used, but you can walk for hours, even on some popular trails (that are farther from trailheads) and see few or no people. Going in mid-September means you’ll probably see fewer people than in July or August, too.

Accessible, very scenic areas like Lake McDonald, Many Glacier, Logan Pass, St. Mary, and Two Medicine attract the most hikers, including dayhikers.

Get my expert e-guides to the best backpacking trip in Glacier and backpacking the Continental Divide Trail through Glacier.

Jerry Hapgood backpacking past Ptarmigan Lake on the Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail in Glacier.

My suggestions below all make solitude a priority; every one of these hikes will have Glacier-caliber natural beauty and a high likelihood of seeing wildlife.

1. The first backpacking trip I did in Glacier was a 39-mile, point-to-point hike from Bowman Lake to Kintla Lake in the park’s northwest corner, via Brown Pass and Boulder Pass. I rode my mountain bike between the trailheads instead of arranging a vehicle shuttle; I recall it being less than an hour from Kintla downhill to Bowman. It’s a beautiful hike in a less-accessible corner of the park, going from forest and lakes to alpine terrain with views of peaks and glaciers and likely sightings of mountain goats.

2. Arrange a shuttle from Many Glacier to the Chief Mountain customs station on the Canadian border, and hike from there up the Belly River Trail and Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail back to Many Glacier; an awesome 20-mile trip over two to three days. If you can, add the 8.6 miles (but not much elevation gain) out-and-back to Helen Lake, and camp there; the trail ends there, so you could have the place to yourself, and the lake sits in a deep mountain cirque below the soaring cliffs of Ahern Peak. Even though Iceberg Lake is a popular dayhike, make the short side trip out to it, it’s well worth the time and putting up with the crowds (although there should be fewer people in September). See photos from these areas in my feature story “Wildness All Around You: Backpacking the CDT Through Glacier” (which requires a paid subscription to read).

I can help you plan any trip you read about at my blog. Find out more here.

Jeff Wilhelm backpacking the Continental Divide Trail in Glacier. Click photo for my e-guide.

3. The Continental Divide Trail traverses Glacier from north to south (you can hike it in either direction), and explores some of the richest scenery and loneliest corners of the park (as well as, to be sure, a few popular areas where you’ll see more hikers). My downloadable e-guide “Backpacking the Continental Divide Trail Through Glacier National Park” explains all you need to know to plan and execute that trip—and it describes several shorter alternative itineraries that hit parts of Glacier that provide the best opportunities for solitude.

. . .

Keep in mind that you could certainly see a snowstorm in mid-September. Check the forecast before you head out, and have warm clothes, waterproof boots, a warm bag, and a good tent. Snow at that time of year tends to melt away as soon as the sun comes out again, but be ready for any weather. And certainly carry pepper spray in grizzly country.

After Glacier National Park, hike the other nine of “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips.”

See all of my stories about Glacier National Park and my feature stories about my family’s three-day backpacking trip on Glacier’s Gunsight Pass Trail, a 90-mile backpacking trip in northern Glacier, and a 94-mile traverse of Glacier mostly on the Continental Divide Trail. The last two trips also are among “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips.” See also my favorite, long dayhikes in Glacier. Note that most of those stories require having a paid subscription to read.

Thanks for following The Big Outside and have a great trip. Thanks for writing, let me know how it goes.

Best, Michael

Hi Michael,

Thank you so much for your email! I really appreciate it. You are putting so much good energy out in the world! I was just doing a backpacking trip in the Carpathians in Romania. It was so very beautiful, and I am even more excited for Glacier!

Leah

—Michael Lanza

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bigwheelblading · 6 years ago

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“I’m 19 forever with my skates on,” is how old Matt Mickey responded when I asked him his age. This is the exact same age I feel when I’m cruising through urban landscapes, distance skating down country roads or hitting the skatepark with some friends. For many of us seasoned skaters, blading is the fountain of youth… the DMV however may not agree. At 38-years-old Matt has been on his skates for the past 24 of those years, primarily as an aggressive street and park skater. And for the last 18 years, he has been running Intuition Skate Shop in Bakersfield, California.

Back when I lived in San Diego in the 2000s, my friends and I would stop by Intuition anytime we went on tour or were on our way to skate Woodward West. I was always impressed by Matt’s hard work, love and dedication to blading. Not only to help foster the scene in his hometown, but to help blading shine and grow around the world. Both Matt and Intuition have been a valuable asset and blessing to our sport for almost two decades. So it was due time that I reached out for an interview to discuss Intuition’s longevity, Matt’s involvement in blading and what the future holds for Intuition Skate Shop.

How did Intuition start?

Intuition started because my great friend Ray Tolentino’s Dad was a property owner and had a storefront available. He heard Ray and I talking about wanting to start a skate shop, so he offered to lease us our first location with two months of free rent!

How many locations have you had?

Intuition is in its third and largest space, which opened in 2006. Like all of our past locations, the current store is in downtown Bakersfield.

What keeps your going?

Rollerblading took a hold of my heart back when I was 16, and hasn’t let go. I still have so much fun skating. Hell, I learned a new line at the last Thursday Night Skate and it felt so damn good!

A candy shop for bladers.

What is your favorite part of running a shop?

My favorite part of running a shop is seeing the fire ignite in someone when they put on skates for the first time. I also love when I see a person return to skating from a long absence. Knowing that they have unlocked the route to the ultimate adventure and form of creativity. I have found that path again, after straying off it.

What ways are you involved in the blading community outside of Intuition?

I announce and commentate for the Blading Cup and other contests and events. Intuition also hosts an annual week at Woodward West skate camp, where some of the team riders and myself will skate with and help teach the campers. This is supported by many brands in the industry, which allows us to ensure all campers go home juiced on skating and equipped to stay active on blades. The 12th Annual Woodward Intuition Week will take place from July 14th-20th, 2019. Save $100 when you sign up by Jan 31st via WoodwardWest.com.

I also write for ONE Magazine from time to time.

How have you managed to adapt with the time and stay in business when so many other retailers have shut down?

For me, it was never a question of “Is Intuition going to survive?” Many people come into the shop and ask if I’m the owner. Often I will say to them, “I’m usually here six days a week, but the shop belongs to whoever comes in here and needs skating gear.”

Intuition will continue to be a mainstay because inline skating is still the biggest thing to me! It is disheartening that other retailers have closed up. However, several new inline storefronts have opened up in America within the last couple of years and I know that they can succeed too!

Have you had to re-invent your business model?

We have not had to re-invent our business model, so to speak. But for the last 5-6 years, we have also carried roller skates, in addition to inline skates.

The emergence of Big Wheel Blading and Tri-Skates has brought a whole new demographic through the doors here at Intuition. This has helped us gain recognition and sales, and also been a catalyst to broadening our product selection. Big Wheel Blading has definitely helped Intuition grow over the last 2-3 years.

Have you noticed any significant change in the numbers of people participating in recreational skating vs. aggressive skating in the US in the past several years?

Yes. There are clearly more people (men, women, and kids) participating in skating, whether it be cruising the bike trail, at roller rinks or at the skate park. Additionally, the last 2-3 years has seen a sustained surge in guys coming “Back to Blading” after years away from the aggressive scene. This is fantastic! Almost every day we receive a call or a walk-in, that begins their conversation by saying “I haven’t bladed in years…”

Sometimes they have been away from the game two decades! And often times they have a kid (or kids) who they get on skates for the first time, while they get back in the saddle. Rollerblading is old enough now to be generational, and it is inspiring to see so many Dads (and Moms) re-embrace what they had fun doing growing up and sharing that with their kids.

How important was picking your location to the success of the business?

Living and running a business in Bakersfield is relatively cheap, compared with anywhere else in California. And luckily for Intuition, Bakersfield is strategically located 1.5 hours north of Los Angeles, and 4 hours south of San Francisco. So we are pretty much smack dab in the middle of California, which is the nucleus for the worldwide skate scene. That happened out of pure fate, as I was born and raised here in the town that Buck Owens built, and God forgot.

Do you offer skate lessons?

We do not offer skate lessons. However, we have printed info from our three local roller rinks (Skateland, Rollerama, and Rollerama West) that includes lesson times, and their open session schedules. We definitely support our local roller rinks!

Do you sell quads?

Yes, we do sell quads. Intuition is a proud dealer for Sure Grip, Riedell, Moxi, and Chaya. We also sell Triple 8, 187 Killer Pads, Smith Scabs, Ennui, Lux Armor, and Sisu protective gear.

Intution carries a nice selection of quads and safety equipment.

What can someone do in their hometown to help inline skating grow?

I still feel the most powerful thing you can do to promote skating in your hometown is to simply continue skating. If you’re out rolling on the bike path, at the skate park or in your neighborhood, people will naturally see that. You cannot help but meet other skaters and peak future and fellow skaters’ interest at the same time.

Scheduled frequent sessions, and online groups (Facebook, group texts, etc.) are a great way to maintain a healthy scene. And that doesn’t cost a dime! We have a weekly Thursday Night Skate (TNS) session from 6-10pm at the Taft, CA skate park, located 30 minutes west of Bakersfield. Many times, we’ll have skaters from out of town roll through and occasionally international skaters will drop in on their holidays. Our TNS sessions are promoted through Intuition’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and anyone on wheels is welcome.

Are most of your sales online or in-store?

We are still brick and mortar first, with people driving from all over, just to be able to try on and compare skates. However, half of our sales are from walk-in clients and half are from phone and online orders. During the Christmas season (Black Friday through mid – January), that percentage skews towards online sales being the lion share.

What other countries do you sell to?

Intuition ships internationally, and has done so for over 15 years. Essentially, if you come to us for skates, and the payment is secured, we’ve got you covered!

How many people come into you store on average during the week and then on the weekend?

During an average week, Intuition will see 15 – 40 walk-in clients. Some are just browsing, some mistakenly think we sell skateboards, and a good deal of them make purchases. On Saturdays, we usually get 5-15 people throughout the day. Intuition is closed Sundays for skating, church, combing the yard, and inner tubing the KILLER KERN RIVER in the summer.

What do you think would help skating be more successful?

I think that making a collective and consorted effort to keep blading kid and family friendly will only help our numbers grow.

Would you ever consider carrying speed skating products?

Yes. Intuition actually offers special order services to any inquiring clients for speed skating brands like Powerslide, Matter, Hyper, etc.

Some of the boots and skates available at Intution.

What sets your store apart from others?

Intuition prides itself on being brick and mortar first. That serves two main purposes. First allowing clients to try on and compare skates to get the right fit. And we all know comfort is Rule #1 when it comes to skates. Secondly creating a scene where you can meet other bladers, check out and purchase skate gear from actual bladers, and maintain a physical hub that gives skaters the world over a place to call home.

What achievement are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the fact that no matter where I go, people are always asking if I have any of my Mom’s World Famous Homemade Intuition Cookies. Thanks, Mom! (Note: You can always pick up a fresh bag at the Blading Cup every year!) Her support is herculean!

Did you ever have any periods where you thought you might not make it?

Yes, after a fire on October 22, 2004 burned down the adjacent Mexican restaurant and nail salon at Intuition’s original location. It was devastating for us. But after cleaning out the old shop, and sifting through what the flames had torched and what we could keep, my senses came to me. I soon found it wasn’t up to me to quit or continue on. Rollerblading needed Intuition. That was a tough year though…

What was the most successful period for you?

The most successful period for Intuition is no doubt the time from Blading Cup through Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday until mid January. Although this past February, when Jon Julio launched pre-orders for his new Them Skates brand, we had our single most successful day in the history of Intuition – by 12 noon!

Are there a significant amount of aggressive skaters switching over to big wheel aggressive frame set-ups?

Yes. The Oysius frames are especially rising in popularity.

Do you think inline retailers need to sell items outside of inline skating to stay afloat?

I think that is absolutely worth considering selling ‘complimentary’ products. And by that I mean, products and brands that don’t detract from your inline base. Intuition started selling roller skates, quad skates and related accessories 5-6 years ago in response to increasing requests for those products. Even the local roller rinks pro shops don’t have what quad skaters are looking for.

So to nurture their scene, and strengthen our business model, Intuition proudly caters to roller skaters and inline skaters alike. A lot of kids start out on quads as they find them more stable. And many veteran skaters prefer quads, as that is what they have skated for decades on end. When it comes down to it, we use the same bearings, and all the protective gear translates over, so it’s really a win-win.

Polaroid portrait shot by Jonathan Labez

Matt lacing a soul grind at the skatepark.

Does Bakersfield have any recreational social skates?

We did just participate in the Holiday Lights Roll Out, in conjunction with Bike Bakersfield, which is an “active transportation” organization here in Bakersfield. Intuition partnered with Chicks in Bowls Bakersfield, Skateland Roller Rink, and the Bakersfield Diamond Divas Roller Derby Team, to participate in the event. It was a success, and Bike Bakersfield contacted us to express interest in continuing to work together in the future! Stay tuned…

How is the aggressive scene in the Bakersfield area?

The aggressive inline scene in Bakersfield and Central California is as healthy as it’s ever been!

What are your most popular selling products?

Our best selling products are Them Skates, Razors, Roces, K2 kids skates (adjustable Boys and Girls skates), all types of wheels and bearings, and Intuition apparel. (Especially the Chris Haffey t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts)

How many recreational skates do you sell compared to aggressive?

We probably sell one pair of recreational, fitness and Tri-Skates for every three to five pairs of aggressive skates that roll out the door.

Where do you see Intuition Skate Shop in the future?

In the future, I see Intuition Skate Shop helping inline skating grow by getting the retail (think try on!) experience into more densely populated areas and major cities. Whether that is through brick and mortar, pop up shops or mobile shops. The biggest hurdle in buying skates is finding the right fit (read: comfort!). If we can overcome the public’s access to trying on skates, the sky is the limit! We all know how amazingly fun skating is, now let’s get more people into comfortable skates and involved in active skating lifestyles!

What are you current personal setups?

My current set up is as classic as a pitcher of sun tea! Razors Cream skates (Cults) with stock liners, Ground Control Featherlite 3 frames, Ground control 64mm outside wheels, Bones Reds bearings (Thanks Green Eyes!), and Dyna B Smith anti rockers. Simple, clean, and dependable.

Intution’s storefront in downtown Bakersfield, California.

Links

Visit intuitionskate.com to browse their selection.

To keep up to date with everything happening at Intuition, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Contact Information

Brick and Mortar Address Intuition Skate Shop 705 18th Street Bakersfield, CA 93301

Phone Number 661-323-6293

Email Address [email protected]

Store Hours 10am-6pm Monday – Saturday (Closed Sundays)

Eighteen Years and Going: An Interview with Intuition Skate Shop’s Matt Mickey "I'm 19 forever with my skates on," is how old Matt Mickey responded when I asked him his age.

#Bakersfield #california #Intuition #Intuition Skate Shop #Jon Julio #Jonathan Labez #Matt Mickey #Skate shop #skateshop

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amelngo · 6 years ago

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It is the 31st of October. While other children around the world are getting ready for Halloween, twenty four Syrian street-based children will be going to Swings camp, a picnic, camping and activity park in El Metn, Mount Lebanon. At 08:30 in Beirut the sun is shining bright, there are no clouds in the sky. The weather is an agreeable 20 degrees. Eight staff from Amel Association International and a country representative from French NGO Samusocial International (Amel’s partner) meet at the Haret Hreik centre to wait for the children, who have been picked up by the bus we will later use to get to El Metn. A while later excited children from the capital’s southern neighbourhoods fill the ground floor of the centre. Many of them live in Informal Tented Settlements (ITSs) on the outskirts of Beirut. Most of them do not go to school.

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What being a street-based child means

A street-based child is a child who is either living and sleeping on the streets, or who is exposed to the streets through working, begging, or garbage-searching to sell items. Deprived of a decent childhood and basic opportunities, street-based children are amongst the most vulnerable in Lebanon. They are exposed to exploitation, physical and psychological abuse, and sometimes even sexual abuse. Not only do they work in dangerous conditions – lifting heavy objects, or at risk of road and traffic accidents – but their life on the streets has scorching impacts on their physical health and mental well-being. Furthermore, working out on the streets vastly reduces children’s educational and schooling prospects and increases child marriage rates. 27% of Syrian teenagers in Lebanon between the ages of 14 and 19 are married, meaning more than one in every four Syrian girls in the country are in unions that are unlikely to let them go to school, and more likely to force them into early labour.

Arriving at the picnic and activity camp

Arriving at the camping and activity park in El Metn, Mount Lebanon. ©sonia grieco/amel

The one hour bus ride to Swings is filled with singing and laughter. To get away from the endless noise and the pollution in the capital is a treat, even if it is just for one day. When we arrive we see just how idyllic this place is. Tall trees stretch into a cloudless sky. The sun beats down but the temperature remains perfect. The air is clean and crisp. All that can be heard are the children’s chatter and teachers’ instructions for the activities. As the children clamber out of the bus they are placed in two different groups according to their age. They are handed out red and blue caps that they will later get to keep.

The older group starts with the rodeo bull. Each child takes a turn, encouraged by their friends. Some of them manage to hold on to the bull. Others fall off onto the inflatable floor below in a matter of seconds, laughing. Leila* (11) is the first girl who challenges the bull, an example to other girls in the group who may have been slightly apprehensive at first but who are now motivated to try it for themselves.

On the other side of the camp the younger group is tree-climbing, guided by two dedicated Swings staff. The children find it tricky to begin with, after all tree-climbing is not an easy task, but as they learn how to navigate the moving steps, slings and ropes connecting the trees they begin to feel more comfortable. In the end it becomes many childrens’ most memorable activity. Zeinab* (9), who is dressed in pink from head to toe says: “I love tree-climbing because I had never done it before and now I know how to!” At 11:30 it is time for a morning break. The delicious scent of warm za’atar manoushe fills the air and each child is given a bottle of water. Once they have finished wet wipes are handed out.

The activities that follow are equally thrilling. The small children are taken to do bungee jumping and they absolutely love it. Sami* (7) jumps up and down while his friends cheer him on. When he finishes he grins. “I made the most jumps!” he says. Amira* (6) is very keen to try. One of Amel’s instructors says she has a strong personality, for she is brave and strong-willed and is not fearful. It comes across. She cheers in delight every time she drops back down to the ground. Later on we see her enjoying chasing a chicken around the camp.

Some children are guided to a lone 15m tree and are challenged to climb it. Rami* (6 and half) is the first one to attempt it. He makes his way up with relative ease, stopping at times to decide where to next place his feet. When he makes it to the top he smiles down at his cheering crowd. “It was very beautiful” he says, back on the ground. “This is my favourite activity”.

Meanwhile, the older group is taken to a neighbouring giant swing, dubbed ‘the mother of all swings’ by the camp itself. Grouped in pairs, the children quite literally fly through the air when the swing drops. Ali* (10) loves it. “My heart sunk in my chest!” he says. Hassan* (13) and Wissam* (14) are talking enthusiastically when they get off. When asked if they are enjoying themselves today they say they are very happy. “The swing has been the best part so far” they add.

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Amel’s Protection Mobile Unit

Today is a big day for the children. They are not used to being out in nature or interacting with other children in fun educational activities that have nothing to do with the daily struggle of being out on the streets. A full-day outing like today’s is an important component of Amel’s Protection Mobile Unit (PMU) project, implemented in partnership with Samusocial International and currently funded by the French Agency for Development. The latter responds to the needs of street-based children in 15 countries.

Amel’s Mobile Protection Unit. © george zahm/amel

The aim of the PMU project is to reconnect children and by extent their families with basic services that include psycho-social support, health, education, food security and legal support, by following Samusocial International’s methodology of street intervention and social care. They are identified directly by the Protection Mobile Unit – one nurse, one social worker and one driver social assistant, – who assess their individual needs before referring them or accompanying them to Amel’s centres (or other organisations if their needs cannot be catered for by Amel). Working with these children is extremely sensitive, given the many vulnerabilities they are exposed to. Often times social workers are met with understandable fear and distrust from the children themselves, or with resistance from parents. However, home visits and the distribution of small goods, like items of food, clothing or diapers allow the team to build a “link of trust” with the children and their families. Since the launch of the project in July 2017, 514 children have been identified.

A day to remember

As we wait for lunch, the children spend some time at the camp’s playground, covered in orange autumn leaves. The girls love the trampoline. They are counting how many times they can jump up and down in a row. They are breathless, laughing as they topple over each other. At 13:30 it is time for a well-deserved lunch at the picnic area. Today the children are getting shish tawook (marinated chicken), French fries with ketchup and a choice of either apple, pineapple or orange juice.

We catch up with Zeinab* (9) before we head back to Beirut to ask her about today’s experience. She has borne a smile from ear to ear all day. She used to sell tissues in the streets two years ago, but thanks to Amel’s support she is now fully-enrolled in school. When asked what her daily routine now looks like she says: “I wake up in the morning, get ready, make my bed, help my mother with some house chores, do some homework, have breakfast with my dad when he comes back home from his night-shift job and then my mother takes me and my younger brother to school. I do not work anymore”. She really likes going to school. She is learning a lot and has many friends.

It is Halloween, and while the sun sets Amel staff hand out small pumpkin buckets. Inside there is a pumpkin mask, some biscuits and a Halloween-themed water bottle. The children are delighted with their gifts, a souvenir of today’s memorable experience. As we head to the bus, Hassan* (13) says that he really did not think the outing was going to be so much fun – it was much better than he expected. He has loved the activities and has made new friends. “I hope there are more days like this in the future” he adds, “far from the streets”.

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The scale of the street-children issue

Lebanon hosts close to 500,000 Syrian children, many of whom are street-based. A UNICEF report in 2015 found that there were 1,510 children across 18 districts in Lebanon who were living or working on the streets. 73% of them were Syrian, and two thirds were male. The first access to the labour market was happening between the ages of 7 and 14, and the average working day was close to 8.5 hours. Things have not improved. A report by UN Lebanon in 2016 as part of ‘Lebanon’s Crisis Response Plan 2017-2020’ estimated that male child labour amongst Syrian refugee children had increased from 4% to 7%. Outdoor activities like today’s are crucial to give street-based children a chance to enjoy their childhood in a safe environment. For one day they have lived and played like children are supposed to, as they deserve.

*Names have been changed for anonymity purposes.

Amel's street-based children enjoy a day in the mountains It is the 31st of October. While other children around the world are getting ready for Halloween, …

#Amel #Amel Association #Amel Association International #child labor #Child Protection #early marriage #Haret Hreik #mobile protection unit #park #Samusocial International #SSI #Street Based Child #street children #Swings #Syrian refugees

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jeffmccoll · 6 years ago

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Lots of images this time! 🙂

The weather was changing for the better real quick. We took off the helmets and got ready for the first G7 location of the day.

I have been aware of J. E. H. MacDonald’s “Morning, Algoma, Agawa Canyon” and had planned to stop at the end of a short easy Class I when I realized that the higher water would stop us from doing that and stopping further downstream the view would have been blocked by forest growth, so we quickly beached ourselves in the shallows.

Link to Painting. http://m.paintedland.ca/painting/4/

You can tell by the water the area from where JEH painted from was a little wet today. We managed to park ourselves just about upstream of the little piece of land where it juts out in the painting on the left in the painting.

Safely landed and getting ready to compare images of the painting to our location.

Jim’s pic of Sue and Sandi checking out the location.

Next on our agenda was another JEH at the top of Canyon Station. “Agawa River, Algoma”

http://m.paintedland.ca/painting/2/

Sue was real excited to see the ACR Mile 114 mileage marker from the river. So with a little B & W fun and take her back in time.

Sue & Sandi In JEH’s painting, then Jim and I.

We made a quick stop at Canyon station when we saw the “Moments of Algoma” interpretation G7 signs. It just so happens that one of my pictures from one of my past trips is on it so it was time for some selfie pics!

What was funny is that when we did Sue and Jim’s pic he wanted the hills in the back ground.

When we got home that is when we realized that one of the scenes we were looking for could have been right there. https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.103907

With the sun now out, it would make for some great viewing of the G7 locations in the Canyon Station section. Once out on the water we encountered a natural phenomena, the wind tunnel effect. The wind was blowing straight up the river so hard there was whitecaps and paddling into the wind was difficult. We hugged the shore lines for a bit of protection but we made a couple of ferries to cross the river for different views. This is Jim’s pic of South Black Beaver falls from the eastern bank. I had to hold on to the brush along the shore to stabilize the boat.

We then Crossed back over to get the views of two G7 locations of Bridal Veil Falls. The little side falls on the left of the paintings only runs in High water now.

JEH’s Painting https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.103889

I believe another JEH painting. http://m.paintedland.ca/painting/19/

Lawren Harris http://groupofsevenart.com/algoma-waterfall

Jim’s Photo from the Canoe.

Sue and Sandi paddling in to another painting. Notice the wind generated waves, once we were closer to the falls it was really quite pleasant.

Jim heading into the scene.

Once here you just have to paddle up close and personal to the falls and the way the wind was blowing the mist towards the falls you could get much closer without getting wet on a cool day.

We then tucked ourselves into a little protected area on the south side of the falls and discussed several other locations here.

Link to J E H painting “Falls on the Algoma River” This is a view of Bridal Veil Falls from the south side where it joins with the Agawa river. Again the little ribbon of falls only flows in high water.

https://weblogtheworld.com/countries/northern-america/ontarios-algoma-and-canadas-group-of-seven

Our View.

Sue & Jim taking the view in.

Sue was really interested in a Frank Johnston painting location, even though it is named “Batchawana Falls” it is the top end of this falls. The reason for her interest is she did a rug hooking of this painting. http://m.paintedland.ca/painting/22/

We did not do the hike to where the painting was done but this shot from the north side of the falls shows just how the water flies off the canyon wall.

We were able to get this shot because the wind kept the mists away!

We got Jim up close and personal too!

We left our little protected zone and head down stream to an AY and JEH location. It is also of Bridal Veil falls, just from a different angle. Sue was happy that she could see the location where Frank Johnston painted from, but I don’t think her and Sandi were happy the extreme wind tunnel effect that was taking place. We heard the tree breaking in the wind on the canyon wall, Sandi and Sue got to watch it. Make no mistake, it was a very tough paddle against the wind.

A Y’s painting. http://www.artvalue.com/image.aspx?PHOTO_ID=1660329

Sue and Sandi going against the wind. We were able to tuck in behind a large boulder in the river to act as a wind break. Judging from the painting this would have been a fairly recent rock fall when they painted it, which makes it a great recording on how the vegetation grows back after an event.

The position that they most likely painted their view from is now obscured by trees, but this is equally impressive!

Against the wind the short paddle to the next rapid seemed a lot longer than it was. But just before the spot we dropped Sue and Jim off to walk the rapid the wind became a gentle breeze. Such is the weird way winds can happen in the canyon. The rapid is a Class III known as “Good hope” it is only 450 m long but the difficulty is all in the last 100m. At this level there is a move through a narrow gap on river left and then having to move very quickly to river right to avoid an almost river wide sieve of boulders.

We then stopped at the rail way trestle at Mile 112 for a snack. The flood from Sept. 5th made the sandbar much smaller than last year.

We were supposed to try to meet my friend Shaun Parent of North of Superior Climbing Company at his ice climbing, heated Bakers Tent, but the extra long morning portage put us way behind, and there is no way we could shortchange the painting locations. So I took a selfie to prove we made it there. I posted the mask pic on his page when I got home with the caption ” Hmmmmmm, maybe I was there all along 🙂 ” If you’re not up to paddling through, Shaun is the guy to talk to. https://www.facebook.com/northofsuperior.climbingcompany/

He does have access to some great views. Looking north from the bridge.

Once on our way Jim was intrigued by this view and asked me to take him into the rocks.

The next rapid is only about 180m long with the first 2/3 Class II but then ends in a Class III boulder garden where wrapping your boat is a real possibility. After we ran it this is the view from the bottom, it also happens to have a cliff face that is in a AY painting. After Sue and Jim got back in the canoes, this would be the best views of the cliff faces we would have on this trip.

Photographs really don’t do justice to the size of the cliffs here, but it really is wonderful eye candy as you paddle through.

There is a good size of pool and then a long 700m long Class II, what makes this rapid “interesting” is except in even higher flows than what we had is there is a lot of maneuvering and it is very easy to get stuck. Paddling rock garden rapids is a little different from paddling rivers with easy to recognize channels. Sue and Sandy, were both were very cool through the whole thing. Thanks to Jim we had the whole episode photographed. We actually were paddling fairly close together and when I saw them getting stuck it took about 50m to get to a spot where I could the canoe to fit through the rocks, get out and leave Jim secure. Even though it looks shallow there are some pretty deep holes in there but the river here is much wider than it looks in the pics. In lower flows I get stuck in this rock maze all the time.

It was these holes that made it tough to push-off the rocks to get off. They were wedged on 3 rocks but nothing close to shallow enough to push off. The big rock that looks close to her paddle is not, it is just how it looks in the image. They got wedged and it was my job to get wet. (but I really didn’t want to.)

In the featured image at the start of this episode Sandi has attached the throw rope and tossed it to me on my perch, which while trying to get there, fell into one of those holes which was chest deep. All I had to do was pull the boat backwards. Once free of the rocks and just let the canoe swing into a better place. We were starting to run late into the day so Sandi rock hopped down to Jim and I re-bagged the throw rope and bounced the rest of the way down with Sue.

As for Jim He got a great pic of one of the biggest cliff faces in the canyon, which is over 200m tall. It also just happens to be the back drop to several G7 locations, some that can no longer been seen from where they were painted but the cliff face is always impressive. The image also shows just how rock strewn this rapid is.

Here is the link to JEH MacDonald’s “Cliffs” https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.103891

Here is my image when we were right underneath what we thought was in the painting.

But the Day is not over yet, there was a long Class I rapid then a long pool as we enter Lake Superior Provincial Park and the campsite where the Little Agawa River joins the main Agawa.

We worked on getting the tents up so they could dry a little bit since they were still wet from breaking camp in the morning. It was really fun watching Sue and JIm getting really excited about this spot and what made it even more special was even before we were completely set up we got near perfect lighting and photo conditions and water levels to match Lawren Harris’s paintings. No special filters, no processing tricks, just as it was and still is!

https://ago.ca/collection/object/agoid.103946

Lawren Harris https://www.heffel.com/auction/details_e.aspx?ID=42689

Sue, Jim & Sandi.

All in all it was a great day 3, the forecast from the morning was reasonably correct as it did get warmer all day and was quite pleasant this evening.

This time we were much faster in getting the tarp up…. but there was no magic in getting it up early.

Next up Part IV 🙂

Sue & Jim’s Agawa Adventure (Part III) Lots of images this time! 🙂 The weather was changing for the better real quick. We took off the helmets and got ready for the first G7 location of the day.

#boxcar trips

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theglobetrottergp-blog · 6 years ago

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One of my favourite activities, when I travel, is meeting the locals. And I don’t always mean the two-legged variety!

Baby sea lion in The Galapagos

I am a nature girl. I love nothing more than escaping the big smoke and getting lost somewhere remote and beautiful. Fortunately those beautiful and remote destinations, often come hand in hand with some amazing wild animal encounters – my very favourite type of adventure!

The Wildebeest migration in Kenya

This time 5 years ago, I was embarking on my very first safari trip, just in time to see the wildebeest migration. That incredible wildlife spectacle had me hooked and since then I have had many more wildlife experiences and wild animal encounters. So I decided to share those with you today.

In this article I will share with you;

1/ My personal funniest and most humbling wild animal encounters,

2/ The benefits you will get from a wildlife holiday

3/ How you can make a wildlife trip a reality too! We’ll talk about how to book a safari, see tigers in India, visit the Antarctica and book and affordable trip to The Galapagos Islands.

** Pssst, this article may contain affiliate links. If you have no idea what this means, click here and everything will be explained!**

I have entered this post into a competition to try and win a safari with Audley Travel. If you want to enter as well, see the details at the bottom of this post. Of course, if I win, I will be letting you know how I get on in a future post so watch this space…

Reasons why you Should book a wildlife holiday!

Credit @SanderWehkamp

Firstly it is the most amazing privilege to encounter wild animals in their natural habitat. They are not kept in small enclosures or encouraged to ‘entertain’ tourists. They are free to roam and you can have the privilege of witnessing seeing them going about daily life in their home environments. If they are not comfortable, they are free to leave but most will have a natural curiosity for humans and so you are likely to have some incredible wild animal experiences.

If you are a fan of photography, you will have amazing opportunities to improve your photography skills and take some impressive photos to show everyone back home. It’s not always easy capturing wildlife in photos but that makes it all the sweeter when you do take an amazing photo of a wild animal. See here for tips on wildlife photography!

It’s a great way to escape the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. There will be plenty to keep you entertained but at the same time, you will leave feeling rested.

You may be supporting conservation. If you are visiting National Parks then there will be a number of conservation projects going on which by supporting tourism in that area, you will also be contributing to the costs of running these projects.

You will learn loads. Usually, on these sort of wildlife vacations, you will be accompanied by a safari guide or a naturalist who will be a fountain of knowledge about the flora and fauna around you. Make sure you pick their brains!

Usually, wildlife holidays involve travelling in small groups be it in a safari vehicle or in an inflatable boat! So you are very likely to make friends. And travel friends make the best friends!

The Galapagos Hawk

My Amusing Wild Animal Encounter Stories in Africa

Getting Slapped in the face by a wild eagle…

One of the best places I’ve stopped for a picnic was in the Tanzanian savannah. There was the element of thrill – what or who might join us?! (With any luck we’d avoid becoming lunch…) Then there was the scenery; golden savannah grasses stretching for miles dotted with acacia trees and snow-capped mountains in the far distance.

So there we were tucking into our picnics with the blazing sun on our backs feeling like we were the luckiest people in the world when someone spotted an eagle. I watched it soaring above us a while then turned my attention back to my lunch. In the next split second, everything went black.

Confused, I looked up to find all my travel friends rolling around in tears of laughter. “Leanne, you just got slapped in the face by a wild eagle!”

Turns out the eagle had taken a liking for my friends chicken drumstick (really, who packs chicken drumsticks for a safari picnic?!) My face had gotten in its way on the way back up and he’d taken me out with his huge wingspan!

It all happened so fast, I cannot recall much other than everything turning black and an oily sensation on my face! But Its a story I love telling over a drink or two. I mean how many people can say they’ve been slapped by an eagle?!!

Wild Eagle

Becoming easy prey whilst camping in Kenya.

Where is the coolest place you’ve ever camped?

Mine was definitely right in the middle of the African Savannah. Yep, no fences. Baboons and elephants looked on as we set up our tents. At night we heard distant noises of nocturnal animals about their business.

Baby elephant in Kenya

Camping here left me in a state of nervous excitement. The wild animals were completely free to roam as they liked, we were in THEIR environment. Toilet trips had to be taken in pairs. If you needed the toilet in the night you had to shine your torch and if eyes glinted back at you, it was best you crossed your legs until the morning!

I found out after we left (thankfully) that on a previous visit, the chef had been trapped in his tent by a lion devouring his prey right in front of his tent door! No one got brekkie that morning!

So whilst it was one of the most thrilling exciting places we could set up camp, it was not without certain risks.

So what did I go and do?

Sprain my ankle an hour before we arrived at camp, that’s what!

Suddenly no one wanted to be my toilet buddy as it took me 20 minutes to make the short trip to the toilet block. Personally, I think I should have been everyone’s top choice! I mean it’s not like I could outrun them if a lion stumbled across us right?! Risk halved.

I’m glad to inform you that I saw no hungry lions and I lived to tell the tale!

Wild lion I spotted on my safari

My Favourite Wild Animal Encounter in Africa

Witnessing the wildebeest migration in Kenya.

I was beyond lucky that my last trip to East Africa was timed perfectly with the wildebeest migration. We saw trails of wildebeest as far as your eye could see, often in what appeared to be a single line. I learnt that there is a top boss wildebeest who makes all the decisions. If he goes, the rest will follow.

At one point we ALMOST got to see them cross the river. They debated it for 2 hours whilst we patiently sat in our safari vehicle hoping to get to see one of the best wild animal spectacles known to man. Below them, the hippos and crocodiles seemed to sense the fuss and were quietly gathering, eagerly anticipating a feed.

The head wildebeest, undecided, started moving towards the cliff on several occasions only to change his mind and return to the pack. They may have debated it for 2 hours before turning away, but it was the most gripping 2 hours we had on safari! More exciting than a Christmas episode of Eastenders!

Wildebeest migration in Kenya

How to book a safari

You are almost guaranteed to see a huge variety of wildlife on a safari especially if you choose a big national park. Things to consider are the weather (Africa is not always boiling hot contrary to popular belief!) wildlife migration paths and always check up to date safety recommendations for the country you are visiting!

There are 3 main types of African Safari you can take

Self-drive safari. Usually the cheapest way but bare in mind you may not see as much without a safari guide to show you the best spots. Safari guides will also contact each other and alert others to good wildlife spots so don’t expect to see as much driving solo around a game park! There are some safari parks close to cities so you can stay in a hotel nearby. If the idea of organising your safari yourself seems daunting, check out Audley Travel who can help you organise the whole thing from car hire to accommodation.

Luxury resort/glamping safaris. Usually, all your meals and sometimes your drinks too are included. There will usually be a pool to relax in and your accommodation will likely be beautiful. Safari drives will be frequent and included in your packages. Sounds great, whats the catch?! The price! Prepare to shell out a lot for these sorts of trips! Don’t be surprised if you are paying £300/night per person!

A great midway solution is a camping group safari. Travel with a small group in a truck and stop at campsites with facilities along the way. Sometimes you will transfer to separate 4X4’s for this and other trips will be done in the truck with all your group.

Giraffe in the Masai Mara

Here are some great safari trips I found:

Cape Town to Victoria Falls – a really comprehensive 18-day trip which takes you to highlights in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwee. From cosmopolitan Cape Town to the deserts of Namibia, the Okavango Delta and ending with one of the worlds largest waterfalls.

Kenya and Tanzania Safari – There are so many amazing places for wild animal encounters here. The beautiful Ngorongoro Crater, the huge Masai Mara and The stunning Serrengetti. You will be spoilt for choice when it comes to wildlife spotting here!

My Favourite Wild Animal Encounters in The Galapagos Islands

Snorkelling with wild sea lions

I’ve never seen the appeal of swimming with performing animals in a tiny pool within a zoo or water park. Not when you can do it in the wild where the wild animals choose to be with you. Now THAT is a privilege!

Curious sea lion underwater

There was nothing more exhilarating than getting to play with a group of young wild sea lions in The Galapagos. They were so curious swimming up to us, ducking and diving and spinning around us. A friend of mine had his go pro on a long selfie stick. He has incredible footage of the sea lion playfully putting his mouth around the camera several times.

At no point did I feel threatened by their behaviour. They were curious and were enjoying interacting with us. But you always need to take care when interacting with wild animals – they will always be unpredictable!

If you get the opportunity to swim with sea lions, do it. Without a doubt, it was one of my top 5 travel experiences EVER!

A playful sea lion swimming with us

I’ve written several posts about my experiences in The Galapagos Islands, you can check them out here.

A surprise Orca performance

Whilst on the search for the more elusive and well-camouflaged land iguana at Cerro Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz Island in The Galapagos, we had a radio message that made us stop in our tracks. Our boat crew had spotted orcas not far from where our boat was.

Having seen a few marine iguanas, we didn’t take much convincing to race back to the boat in hope of catching our first glimpse of a wild orca.

On the way back, our extremely excited naturalist was telling us that killer whale sightings are actually pretty uncommon in the Galapagos as there is only a small pod and they are usually found near the west islands so we were extremely lucky to get this opportunity.

Our panga ride out to the Orcas was nailbiting – we weren’t even sure we had enough fuel to make the journey, in which case our boat would have to come and pick us up!

We headed for the flock of birds circling above the ocean knowing they were hanging out opportunistically hoping to get a feed as the Killer whales rounded up shoals of fish.

We got there eventually and enjoyed an Orca performance 50 metres or so away, the Killer Whale breaching and showing off. We lost sighting of the whale for a moment and waited patiently for him to pop up in the distance on the right side of the boat. We all heard a huge splash as it had somersaulted right behind us on the left side of the boat whilst we all had our backs turned! Literally, we had been a few metres away!

Fortunately, it wasn’t finished showing off. It actually dove straight beneath our flimsy panga popping up right in front of us. It was definitely a ‘wow’ moment!

Orca (Killer whale) in the Galapagos

How to see wildlife in The Galapagos

Sea lions in the Galapagos

The Galapagos is on many a bucket list and it’s little wonder why. There are few places where you can get so close to wild animals without them fleeing. The wildlife on the Galapagos has never had reason to fear humans and therefore appear a lot more comfortable in your space than you’d expect.

It’s important to always keep a few metres away to allow them space, however, this can get tricky as the animals will often voluntarily come a lot closer! I had birds hopping over and peering up my camera lens – too close to actually get a clear photo!

That said, The Galapagos is not exactly a cheap holiday destination! There are, however, more affordable ways to see the Galapagos. The 3 main ways to see the Galapagos are

The Galapagos Island by Land. Stay at a local guest house, eat with the locals and keep costs pretty low. You can then arrange day trips which will help keep your costs low. Best for the bank balance but you may not see as much as a lot of your time will be spent travelling out to the best spots whereas the boats will sail overnight, therefore, maximising time spent at the destination.

The Galapagos Islands on a Luxury Cruise. You can easily spend more than £10000 on a luxury Galapagos with a smart cabin and an onboard jacuzzi. If you’ve got the cash to splash then go for it! But for most of us regular folk, these luxury cruises are unachievable!

Budget Galapagos cruise or Sailing Trip. Using a company like G Adventures and Intrepid will cut the cost substantially. For a fraction of the price of a luxury cruise, take a smaller group trip with like-minded adventurers. The standard of accommodation is still really good and there are plenty of activities on offer! After months of research, I decided G Adventures offered the best value for money – check out this post about my budget Galapagos cruise experience!

Land-based Galapagos group adventure trip. If you think you might get cabin fever on a cruise, consider an activity land-based trip such as this one which involves a mixture of hiking, kayaking, snorkelling and surfing!

Marine Iguanas keeping warm by huddling together

Wild Animal Encounters still on my bucket list

Snorkelling with whale sharks – gentle giants that are guaranteed to make you feel tiny!

A Tiger safari in India – already scheduled for March 2019!

Visiting South Georgia to see millions of king penguins followed by a trip to Antarctica to spot whales and polar bears!

Seeing Lemurs in Madagascar

See Gorillas in Rwanda and Orangutans in Borneo.

Credit @ Fabrizio Frigeni

Silver back gorilla in rwanda

Other Ways to Have a Wild Animal Encounter!

How to get to Antarctica to see Polar Bears

This isn’t the sort of trip you can organise by yourself independently. You don’t have much choice – you’re going to have to go by boat if you want to see the Antarctic. However, there are cheaper ways to do it other than taking a £10K trip! (Yes the Antarctic is even more pricey than The Galapagos Islands!)

A Wild Polar Bear

The 2 best ways to see the Antarctic without breaking the bank are:

Book a flight to Ushuaia allowing yourself plenty of time and go door to door from boat companies to get the best last minute price. You may get a bargain trip by doing this. Check out this guide I found for booking a last-minute Antarctic trip from Ushuaia.

Book a fairly priced trip with G Adventures or Intrepid. Yeah, you’re right, I bang on about these companies a lot but only because I love them so much and have taken about 7 trips with them. If you’re interested to know more, I’ve compared the two companies in this article G Adventures Vs Intrepid. That’s not to say they are the only companies offering good quality affordable wildlife holidays. I will always keep my eyes peeled for other companies that I think are great and will keep you continually updated as I find them!

A cheaper option for seeing polar bears in their natural environment is to visit Svalbard, a Norweigan archipelago near the Arctic. You can fly to Longyearbyen and arrange day trips from there. Read more about that here. It still won’t be cheap – Norway is notoriously expensive! But it won’t be anywhere near as expensive as a cruise. If you are desperate to do a cruise, I found this great trip which includes lots of stops along the Norweigan Fjords before arriving in Svalbard, it looks incredible and is most definitely on my travel wish list!

Both companies often offer great discounts for certain departure dates so check here for up to date prices!

G Adventures Antarctica Prices

Intrepid Antarctica Prices

Credit @ Ian Parker

How to See Tigers in India

I’m hoping to tick this one off my bucket list next March so I have been doing plenty of research about how to increase your chances of seeing a Tiger in the wild.

Credit @BlakeMeyer

The good news is that India is probably one of the cheapest places you can go on Safari anywhere. The bad news is that tigers are notoriously hard to spot! So I’d suggest allowing at least a few days in a National Park to increase your chances.

To keep costs down, I’d advise avoiding going with an organised tour but booking directly with a safari lodge who will arrange your safari trips for you. Book early to avoid disappointment! Remember it’s hot in India so you may want to consider choosing somewhere with a pool to cool off in between safari trips! I certainly will be!

Ranthambore and Bandhavgarh National Parks seem to have the highest rate of success for seeing tigers in India! Ranthambore National Park is probably the easiest to get to as it is so close to The Golden Triangle so can be easily combined with a trip to the Taj Mahal!

Here’s a beautiful glamping style fairly priced safari lodge I found in Ramthambore. Check out up to date prices here.

For all out luxury at Bandhavgarh National Park, see prices here.

Credit @SanderWehkamp

Other Wildlife Encounter Trips that are on my bucket list and you may want to look at too:

An Amazon River Boat Experience

Seeing wild Gorillas in Rwanda

Seeing wild Orangutans in Borneo.

Or how about trying to win yourself an African Safari with Audley Travel?

Win an African safari with Audley Travel by sharing your best wildlife photograph or video on your social media channels. To enter write #AudleySafari and @AudleyTravel on your Instagram or Twitter post or share directly on the Audley Travel Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/audleytravel/. To find out more or enter via the website, visit http://www.audleytravel.com/social. Entries must be posted between 20th August – 23rd September.

As always, I LOVE hearing from you! Whats your best wild animal encounter story? Do you have a funny wildlife story to share? If so, tell us all about it in the comments below! And if you’re feeling super generous, I would love any social shares for this article! How about pinning it for later with these pins below?! Thanks a million!

Pin me for later!

Slapped in the face by an eagle & other wild animal encounters! One of my favourite activities, when I travel, is meeting the locals. And I don't always mean the two-legged variety!

#africa #galapagos #wild animals #wildlife

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republicstandard · 6 years ago

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9 Top Tips For Surviving Twitter As A Right Wing Thought Criminal

Should you decide to enlist in the culture war hosted on the Twitter-dot-com hellscape (where every day is Hamburger Hill), there are some things that you need to learn and apply in order to survive to tweet another day. Welcome to boot camp, you scrubs and noobs.

1. Choose Your Fighter

You, dear-never-ever-before-user of Twitter should take the time to read the Terms of Service. There are a plethora of words and behaviors that can get you booted from the platform and all of them are vaguely explained with the broadest interpretation possible. Once you've read Twitters soul sucking list of obligatory rules that severely limit your speech while protecting it for the people you cross intellectual swords with in the idea war, you are ready to build your player.

As Twitter is becoming pretty censorious, I'm also on: Gab: https://t.co/TrQ2JW4sAI YouTube: https://t.co/1NfMOYwkbF FB: https://t.co/zeAtcHTDcf WT: https://t.co/xs18l5Tpkc pic.twitter.com/EkVtklMN10

— Orwell & Goode 🇨🇱 (@OrwellNGoode) May 14, 2018

The limits are on the far end of infinity. You may choose to be a cute doggo, or perhaps an ms-paint frog or toad, an oft overlooked historical figure, a painting, or a parody of a living or dead celebrity with a morbidly hilarious twist. Your creativity in creating your avatar and name has a moment to really shine here but whatever you do, don't choose your own face and name because some of the people you talk to want to kill you. Or, at least completely ruin your life so that you will do it yourself. This is not an exaggeration. Rest in peace, Andrew.

2. Your first tweet

Oh good. You decided to stick around.

For the love all that is holy do not tweet using the hashtag #MyFirstTweet. It's very tempting, I know, but as it's your very first tweet, everyone you run across will already know it's your very first ever tweet on account of there being no previous tweets preceding it. The new friends that you make today will use this tweet to let their friends know that you have taken the monumental step of becoming a brand new Twitter user; so do make it snappy and full of wit, let your personality shine. For goodness sake understand that the monsters that want you dead use the search feature and the hashtag #MyFirstTweet to hunt down brand new baby right wing accounts to have them aborted. Much like they screech about needing the "freedom" to do to actual humans in the streets, wearing nothing but pink knit double peak hats and their own undercoat of rapist-repellent blubber.

Yeah. I went there. Bring it.

3. Follow carefully

Despite the disgusting urchins that lurk about bandying their rotund degeneracy on #findom, the mountain of actual pedophiles that will try to convince you they are the good guys, and the entirety of #blacktwitter, Twitter is actually a very friendly place and you are bound to make lots of wholesome friends fast; especially if you have never ever been on the platform before, not even once.

Exercise restraint in your tender first few days and resist following back your new friends too quickly as this will result in a “shadowban" or will prompt Big Brother to underhandedly investigate your phone number under the guise of checking to see if you're human, as if robots can't be programmed to use a phone. I suggest just a few follows per hour- keeping it under 100 for the first day. Apparently, according to Ze Bluebird Gestapo, having like minded friends is the same thing as terrorism and you will be gulaged for it. Yes, I'm mixing up Nazi and Communist metaphors in the same sentence. Don't @ me.

4. Personal Security

You need to download and use a VPN. The animals you will run across will pull cute little stunts, like e-drag you into an argument by calling you completely true things as if they are an insult, and acting as if per capita is a flavor of snow cone only people who hate communism can taste. and then drop a link as if they are proving a point, but in reality is an IP address snatcher which is used to find out who and where you are, instead of just answering the question about why 13% of the population commits over 54% of all violent crime.

Next you will want to turn on the double authentication feature, because as soon as you say something true, some cyber-SJW is going to start jaw-jacking from the monumental sugar rush from powdered donuts and 17 cases of orange flavored Mountain Dew and try to hack your account. In the same vein, make certain your email address is hidden and that you aren't using @YourRealEmailAddress as your handle. For your password, use a ridiculous combination of letters and numbers that have no connection to your actual life- which the hideous banshees and their he-minions are trying to end. Am I hammering that point home enough?

Remember to self care today. And be kind. And always punch Nazis.

— Emma Evans (@TrancewithMe) June 28, 2018

Finally, delete the phone number you used to set up your account. You may need it later and it would be sad if it were already occupied.

5. Get a Thesaurus

I've said it before but it bears repeating; get a thesaurus. Contrary to popular belief, you are in fact allowed to talk about objective biological realities, religion, the various systems of government in the world, criticize certain groups of rootless manipulative cabals of wandering tribal people without getting suspended if you follow three simple rules.

Frame and maintain the conversation.

Use uncommon synonyms.

Subtlety can be volatile.

It goes without saying that a debate isn't won until it changes someone's mind. Minds can't be won if the conversation gets deleted. Since mein feind maintains control of the flow of information via control of the media, what you say on twitter could be the final straw that bends the balance of someone's mind to the right. We want that, we need that, especially as the left gets more unhinged.

Understand that the globo-tech complex is happy to assist in the restriction of speech through the creation of algorithms and databases in which words are input and some alert dings off in some rainbow diversity cheeto cheese powder crusted dungeon sticky with sips drips where some slack eyed Gollum pushes the ban button; and you're suddenly on the other side of a suspension. One such word is “retard” and there are many more. Aside from minority reporting, there are particular words and phrases searched just to report wrong-thinking accounts. A small price to pay to cleanse the universe of criticism that may mean people have to self-reflect and experience personal growth and take responsibility for their lives, the horror.

Take what you want to say, leave off the slurs, play around with synonyms and you can take a blatant violation of ToS and turn it into poetic philosophy. If you're intent on low brow trolling, I don't blame you, but I'll miss you when you're gone.

6. Engaging the Enemy

Never engage a hostile. There I said it, my legal obligations have been met. You cannot blame me for what you do with the following entirely hypothetical thought experiment. This article is satire and not for use by anyone, ever. I warned you.

If have attracted a swarm of busy-body detractors through the use of hashtags, do yourself a solid and check their bio and follower count. If their bio contains and reference to #resist just block them, they are there for one purpose and it's to bait you into a violation of ToS. Similarly, if they have 0 or 1 followers it is a sock account of a #resist account. If they have less than 50 followers they have nothing to say, no one likes them anyway, and they just want your attention.

Doxxxing is officially endorsed by Twitter dot comhttps://t.co/aPr8KZAO65

— These tweets are endorsed by this site. (@EndorsedTweets) June 21, 2018

To engage a hostile blue check mark I recommend to avoid placing your extra-spicy tweet on the thread under their tweet. Instead, drop a teaser; then quote tweet the azure-ticked parasite and drop your main show, curtain call, and encore onto your own wall. Most of the people who sit around deriving sexual pleasure from the fantasy of Nazi scalp-hunting haunt the timelines of these verified whine bags, just waiting for you to show up to report your ‘spouts of hate’. Or, as I like to call them, incontrovertible but inconvenient truths.

7. Types of bans and what to do

You are going to get banned at some point. Deal with it.

Shadowban: this is triggered by following too fast, liking too much, retweeting too often, being too active when new, using too many hashtags, using popular hashtags in multiple tweets, and just for the random inconvenience because you're found to be guilty by association. Your options are to take a break, or power through it. There is some theory that these shadowbans are on timers of 1, 3, 5, 12, and 24 hours and that tweeting resets the timer and extends the discomfort. If you have triggered one you will experience a sudden drop in interaction and may think that your friends are ignoring you. They likely just aren't getting your notifications. If you want to check, DM a friend and ask them to tell you if your notifications are coming through. DO NOT use a shadowban checker website, it's believed that these are run by la resistance, and may put your account at risk; or at least in a database to be watched closely. In any case, shadowbans are usually temporary and you'll be back to normal before you know it. It's worth noting that more shadowbanning occurs during certain news cycles like mass casualty events, terror attacks, and when the President does something noteworthy.

Permanent Shadowban: On rare occasions the shadowban never goes away. I don't know what to do about it but if you have some verifiable information regarding this, please contact me or Republic Standard.

12 hour, 24 hour, and 7 day temporary restrictions: Oooh you bad bad boy! Looks like you broke ToS and had to delete some tweets. You should have followed my advice. Tsk tsk. You can DM your mutual followers, participate in DM groups and you can share tweets from the timeline to the DMs, and block accounts. You cannot like, retweet, or share pictures nor can you follow anyone. There's nothing you can do about this; you're stuck like Chuck, whoever he is. There's no use getting your panties in a twist over it though, it's a good time to get to know your friends a little better one on one and perhaps even explore the possibility of meeting in person. It's an isolating online experience but you do have a little time to reflect on what you can do to refine your technique.

Suspension: Sadly, anything after 7 days and you're gone. Finished. Never to be seen from ever again. No coming back from this, George. It's over. Finito. Buh bye. Later gator. Basically dead. Sayonara. Ciao.

Aren't you glad you remembered to delete your phone number?

8. Opsec

I wish I didn't have to go there, but I have to go there. Even if you have a pure, hate-free, friendly account that never runs the risk of crossing ToS, you still aren't out of the frying pan.

Being right wing has painted a big old target on your back and some of the people aiming arrows at you are going to look a lot like friends, and potential lovers.

Infiltration isn't a new tactic. On anonymous Twitter it's not even particularly hard. Despite the fact that most people who try are hilariously bad at it, some aren't. Despite all the accurate memes about the left being dumb and useless, when it comes to operational security the left is a decade ahead of the right. Whether you agree with the ideas of real-world rallies or not, we have to come to the understanding that social media platforms are not secure places to organize such things. Unite the Right organizers just managed to doxx themselves because they could not get this very simple idea into their skulls. If it isn't on a website you control from the code up and you are operating military grade hardware, it's not even remotely close to secret. Stop thinking that it is.

Hey hey hey time to get doxxed by antifa from using discord YEEEEAAAA BOIIIII https://t.co/zZ3kO54Wmg

— Pikawubz (@pikawubz) May 8, 2018

Don't share your photos, too much detail about your location, or too much detail about your life. If you choose to trust someone, make sure it's mutual. As difficult as it is to imagine loyalties do change. Ideological commitment under certain conditions like bribery, threats of doxxing, or a broken heart, can be overcome. Don't forget that this is an ideological war and the stakes are high.

9. You are not alone

You've made it this far, and this following section truly is the most important part. You have found a warm community of the brightest minds, kindest hearts and most determined people I have ever known to exist. Yeah, we have our in-fights and squabbles; what family doesn't? Helping one another to discover truths that have been hidden from us, fight for a future we want and need, through tough times, and sharing laughter, anger, fears and frustrations bonds us together. If you are ever in a situation where you feel isolated, reach out. If you feel despondent, reach out. If you are being threatened, reach out. We are here for each other. You never have to be alone again.

Happy tweeting. See you in the trenches.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine https://ift.tt/2lK24gP via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine

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jessestoddard · 7 years ago

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Today’s interview with Karen Marie Chase is part of my ongoing blog-to-book project: Life After High School: Secrets To A Successful Life By Those Who Have Had Twenty Years To Think About It (or) What They Didn’t Teach Us Gen Xers In High School. If you missed the last post, click here, otherwise, you can start at the beginning here.

Karen Marie Chase

(Formerly Karen Marie La Mesa)

Beverly, MA

My Life In High School

Who were you in High School and how did you feel about it?

Who was I in high school? I was a nice girl who didn’t really fit into a group. I was athletic but wasn’t a “jock.” I got good grades but wasn’t a “nerd.” I wasn’t a “stoner,” yet I had friends who smoked and did drugs. In fact, I’ve never had even a single drag off a cigarette or tried a drug in my life. I had lots of friends but wasn’t one of the “popular” girls. A girl who had nothing—but everything.

I am a child from a single parent family—the girl who would help anyone and expected nothing in return. I was an independent, hard working kid, (started babysitting when I was 9, got a paper route (delivering the Skagit Valley Herald) when I was 11, started bussing tables when I was 15 and moved into working in a kitchen when I was 16 and have been working ever since.

How did it make me feel? Honestly, I never really thought about it before, but as I write this I am feeling really proud. I never caved to peer pressure or did anything I didn’t want to do just because other people were doing it or tried to talk me into it. My mom taught me to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated. A motto I lived by then and one I still do my best to live by today.

What did you think your life would become when you graduated?

What do any of us think our lives are going to become after graduation?

I thought I’d graduate from college, get a job, get married, have kids and live happily ever after. Who doesn’t picture some version of that grandeur?

My Life After High School

What happened in your life to you, for you, and by you in the last twenty years (how have you used your time and who have you become)?

As mentioned I come from a single parent family. My mom was proud and didn’t have help from anyone, which meant, we (me, my mom and younger brother) moved… A LOT.

I went to five different first grades alone.

Born in Torrington, CT, we landed on the West coast fairly early. On our way to the west, we lived in South Dakota and Colorado before landing in Reno, NV. We spent time in California, and Oregon as well. When I had just four weeks of 6th grade left we moved to Anacortes.

My brother and I were in shock. We had two aunts there and had visited but never thought we’d live there. My mom sent us ahead of her because she thought it would be helpful for us to make friends for the summer.

The Anacortes School District separated my brother and I. They sent him to Island View and me to Mt. Erie. The week after we got to Anacortes we both got the Chickenpox. Then I got to go to Camp Orkila. Met some great friends at Mt. Erie. Friends I keep in touch with today.

The move to Anacortes wasn’t easy. I’d come from a big busy, 24-hour city with huge overcrowded schools to a small “island” that rolled up the sidewalks at 8:00 every night. We spent four years in Anacortes.

I struggled at first; most kids who lived there had lived there their whole lives. They already had their groups. It took me a long time, but I was beginning to find my way, and then it was time to move again.

I was so ANGRY with my mom for moving us again. It was the summer of 9th grade. I had friends, a boyfriend, was doing well in school and sports, a paper route. I didn’t want to move! I sat in the U-Haul with my arms crossed and didn’t speak to my mom the whole way. How could she be doing this to us again?

I started 10th grade in utter shock. I thought Anacortes was small! We moved to a town called Wilton and in 11th grade the next town over, Lyndeborough. These are truly TINY towns. The junior high and high school were combined, Wilton—Lyndeborough Junior Senior Co-Operative High School and only had 350 kids total for grades 7-12! I learned the definition of tiny. My graduating class had 43 kids and 40 of us graduated!

I started dating a guy who lived up the street from us. I dated him all through the remainder of high school and college. We broke up for a period of time when I was in college. I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts with a Graphic Design concentration. After graduation, I got an apartment with that boyfriend. We broke up about a year later.

Finding a job after graduation was shockingly hard. No one will hire anyone without experience, but no one wanted to give experience. I finally got a job in a business card print shop making $11 an hour.

I was so upset at this. I did everything I was supposed to; I went to college and got a degree… And for what? To rack up $80k in student loans to make $11 an hour?! What a freaking joke! I could have skipped school and got a job that paid me $8 an hour and have no student loans.

A woman I was working with sort of put things into perspective for me. She said, “Karen, I’ve been working here 10 years and I bet your starting pay is very close to what I make.” It really made me think.

I stayed at that job for two months because as luck would have it, the job I really wanted called me. The person they’d hired didn’t work out and I was choice number two. I left the BC job and took a design position in Concord, NH. I replaced two designers and they had a temp in to help me but I ended up being the sole designer. I was doing the work of two people but only getting paid for one.

At this job, I learned Life Lesson #1: It was a small family company. One of the guys who worked there gave me the best professional advice I’d gotten to date, “Just remember kid, this is a family business and you ain’t family.”

I worked my ass off at that company. Doing the work of two people and it got me nowhere. I still worked my butt off though. If there is one thing my mom instilled in my brother and me, it was a strong work and moral ethic.

Because student loans were so expensive I needed to find another job to help pay for them. My aunt got me a job bartending at a small bar. From there I went to bigger bars, some a bit nicer, some a bit seedy. But I made good money no matter where I was. On a Wednesday night, I’d make what I made in a whole week at my design job.

I’d been a waitress through college but not a bartender. I LOVED it. It was a natural fit for me. I have never been someone who required much sleep and I love people, so two jobs didn’t effect me in any way other than making it easier to pay my bills. I had a great time bartending.

At the same time, I’d convinced my best friend from High School (Wilton) to get an apartment with me in Manchester, NH, aka MachVegas.

Boy did we have a blast! We had so much fun the cops showed up more than once. Let’s see… They came to our Halloween Party, our Pimp N’ Ho party, our Toga party. Heck, they showed up at our not-even-a-party card playing Saturday night…. Yep, we gave the Manchester police some funny stories to tell!

During this time I learned my second life lesson…

Life Lesson #2: Don’t date a guy you meet in a bar.

Working behind a bar you get hit on all the time and it’s very easy to turn these advances down. I decided to give one guy I met a chance. He seemed different. He was the nicest guy on the planet until you added alcohol!

Early on I disclosed that drugs (even weed) were not something I wanted in my life (this was the main difference between my high school sweetheart and me). Unfortunately, he smoked a lot of it. To his credit, he tried to give it up but that translated to more drinking. He got so bad that my friends and family didn’t want him around. Friends would tell me I was invited to things but that I couldn’t bring him.

I finally had enough when on a really bad snowy night he was being nasty and I said I was going home. It was a bad storm but I ran to leave anyway. I jumped in my car and went to back up and hit my breaks abruptly to his mom screaming to stop. He had thrown himself under my car and I nearly ran him over! Once he got out from underneath he ended up on the hood screaming at me to drive because he was going to die tonight. His parents came out and his father and I ended up wrestling him to the ground and pinning him down until he was foaming at the mouth. I didn’t even know that was real. Thought that was just some special effect you saw in the movies. The saddest part, the next morning he didn’t even remember doing any of it.

Why do guys always do too little until it’s too late then expect forgiveness? I’d been pushed to a point that I couldn’t return from.

I was trying to get away from him when I met David. It was a freak 80-degree day in the middle of February. The print shop I worked at had two buildings and I happened to notice a job sitting on the counter that was supposed to have shipped two days prior. Luckily, UPS picked up from our 2nd building later in the day. I grabbed the box and hurried down the hill.

As I was approaching the building there were two guys at the bottom the hill outside the main entrance to the building. One was on a motorcycle and said something. I didn’t know them so didn’t think they were talking to me and looked behind me. As I got closer I asked if they were talking to me and the guy on the motorcycle said, “Yes, do you need help carrying the box?”

I thanked him for the offer and kept going. When I was heading back they were still there. As I went by, the guy on the bike asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I said sure and kept walking. I caught him so off guard that he stumbled over his response which was, well I’d take you for a ride but I just got this bike today and don’t have the passenger seat yet.

I stopped and looked at him and said well then why did you offer? He tried to give me his phone number and told him if he was serious when he got his seat I worked at Town & Country and was the only Karen there. He could call me when the seat arrived. It snowed 6 inches the next day!

A week or so later I got the call. It was snowing again and he said while he got his seat in, it was snowing so perhaps I would like to get a cup of coffee. I told him I didn’t drink coffee. Radio silence. I laughed and said, “But I do drink other things!”

I invited him to get some friends together as some of my girlfriends and I were going out that weekend. He ended up coming alone…. My aunt said, “Oh, he’s a brave soul.” We dated for a year and got engaged that Christmas. We planned a wedding and sent out invitations and everything then I called it off after he broke my trust. We tried to work on things but it was never the same.

A few months shy of our 4-year anniversary—the day after Christmas—he said his feet were feeling funny to the point that I took him to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre´ Syndrome. An autoimmune disease that causes your immune system to attack your nervous system.

David was a Desert Storm Vet and I learned a lot about autoimmune diseases and the elevated number of Desert Storm Vets to suffer from them. The good news is if you are going to get an autoimmune disease this is the one to get. Ninety percent of people recover from it 100%, but it is a long slow recovery averaging 6-plus months. He spent a couple weeks in the hospital and a month in rehab. Every morning I would go to the hospital get him in his wheelchair and do laps around the hospital. Go to work, go home, walk the dogs and go back to the hospital.

By then I wasn’t bartending anymore but was a shot girl at a local bar. It was a hell of a lot easier than bartending and to my surprise much more fun! I met one of my very best friends in this job.

A funny thing that I can say with confidence is that I never judge anyone based on appearance. When being introduced to this girl on my first night, for some strange reason I looked at her and thought to myself: Oh man she’s going to be the biggest bitch ever!

I have no idea why I thought that. I was introduced to Amanda and seriously we were instant friends and have been the best of friends ever since.

That year, I left the bar early on New Year’s Eve—ran to the CVS and bought a bottle of sparkling cider and plastic cups and ran to the hospital, jumped the gate and waited outside the employee entrance until someone came out so I could get up to David’s room for New Years.

He was moved to rehab a few days later where I continued the same routine until it was time for him to come home. Sadly it was a downhill spiral from there.

Life Lesson #3: Don’t go down with the ship.

He had a hard time getting back to norm. In fact, he never ended up going back to work. I don’t remember why but he started doing drugs—heavy drugs. I tried to help, tried to get him back on track and to being well emotionally and mentally but I just wasn’t enough and he continued to spiral. We broke up, I moved out.

For the first time since before I graduated college I moved back home. This time, unlike when I left the long time beau, I took my things, things we bought together but I paid for and packed up. I made the mistake the fist time around of letting my Ex keep anything we bought together because my new roommate had furniture and I made better money than him, and I thought I’d be able to replace it sooner. I tried my best but can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, so I said my goodbyes and moved on.

I started spending time with a guy I met in college. I’d gone back to school to see a friend graduate and bumped into him working. Eric and I became friends my junior year. I was a bank teller while in college and he came to my window.

Little did I know my whole life was about to change.

It turns out this guy worked at my college. We became pretty good friends in our senior year, but after graduation, I never expected to see him again. At my friend’s graduation, we reconnected.

We never talked again all summer then out of the blue he called me that winter and asked if I skied. I didn’t but had just learned how to snowboard. We started hanging out a lot that winter, while David didn’t.

After we broke up, I ended up doing some design work for him and he helped me build my office. I started a graphic design business and my mom lets me build an office and studio apartment in part of a building she owned. He came up on weekends to help me build it.

I got my little design shop up and running. Studio K was in operation for about 3 years. I was also working part-time at the chamber of commerce. I got my name out there, met other businesses and business owners.

I was more or less breaking even and then in May of 2006, my office and apartment were flooded in the Mother’s Day Flood. A huge portion of New Hampshire flooded when 14 inches of rain fell in a short time and flooded much of southern New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts.

We’d been close but never single at the same time. For the first time in our friendship, we were both single. I also never saw anything working out between us because he had two children. His life was in Massachusetts; my life was in New Hampshire.

At the time I also had a 17-year-old cousin in my care. I wanted him to be able to finish high school and get off to college before I made any drastic changes.

Well, the Mother’s Day Flood changed all that. My office and apartment had been flooded out. Which forced my hand to move sooner than planned. We made arrangements for him to stay with a family friend until graduation and I packed up and headed to Massachusetts to start my life with Eric.

I’m not really sure how all that happened. I never imagined I’d ever go back to Massachusetts—let alone live there.

We had some serious ups and downs and some REALLY trying times with his kids. He was working two jobs so I spent the majority of the time with his kids. At first, it was fine as the kids were really good kids.

As time wore on their mother started to cause all kinds of problems for us. Such major problems that we almost didn’t make it. Jealousy is a very unattractive quality. After years together I finally told him it was time to take things to the next level, that I wanted a family and if he didn’t want the same things as me then we were wasting each others time. I felt if he didn’t know after 5 years, he was never going to know and told him I had a time set in my mind that if he didn’t make up his mind, I’d be forced to make up mine.

His deadline was New Years. If he didn’t make a move by then, I’d be moving out. In October he surprised me with a trip to Mexico. He’d arranged my mom coming to pick up my dogs to watch them. He bought suitcases and a bathing suit for me and a couple dresses. I was floored. I tried not to get my hopes up. We’d never been on a vacation and this was a fancy one and was a gift in itself.

We arrived on the morning of Halloween. My favorite holiday! And that night, to my shock—he proposed!

To his shock, I asked him if I could think about it.

He wasn’t sure if I was serious. I was. I asked if we could have a baby? He said he was close to saying yes. I told him kids were a deal breaker for me. I wanted a family so if we could have a family and do something about the situation with the kids (things were still really rocky) then I’d be happy to be his wife.

We saved for two years to pay for our wedding. I wanted to be married before we had kids. If I had known it would take so long to get pregnant then I might not have waited. I never dreamed of how hard it would be to get pregnant. It turns out there was an issue that was standing in our way, but as luck would have it after several years of trying we were finally blessed with good news. A baby was on the way.

Life Lesson #4: A healthy baby is truly the most amazing gift anyone could ask for.

I took for granted how difficult it would be to get pregnant. Then once I was, a healthy baby became the true blessing in life. During my pregnancy, my best friend (my partner-in-crime shot girl) lost a baby to a very rare umbilical cord accident when she was 7 months along.

She too had a hard time getting pregnant and this was very traumatic for her and her husband. Also while pregnant, another close friend’s baby was diagnosed with a severe heart condition while still in the womb. My niece stopped growing and arrived a month early. I had no idea what a blessing a healthy baby is on top of having the baby in the first place.

We did not know if we’d be welcoming McKayla Marie or Alexander James but were answered when Alexander James arrived on May 30th, 2015. It was a week late but perfectly healthy!

I have never felt more blessed than I do now. Everyone told me life as I knew it would change. I didn’t expect it wouldn’t but I had no idea it was humanly possible to love someone more every day! He is truly amazing.

I know I’m biased but he’s just perfect… If only he’d sleep!

I joke that I followed a boy to Massachusetts. I figure it’s ok since I married that boy and we now have the most amazing little boy and a couple wonderful stepchildren and hopefully a daughter-in-law in the works.

So that’s where I am family-wise. Career-wise, where am I? What was my path? It’s been a little bit of a bumpy ride.

I mentioned I went to college after high school, started out working in a couple print shops, left the second to be the art director at a magazine in Manchester, NH.

I got there and had one of the less-than-awesome experiences in my career.

Life Lesson #5: It’s not lonely at the top.

I got to this art director job and walked into a girl who was acting as art director and being more or less demoted. Their director had left and one of the girls working there had stepped up and was acting as art director.

She didn’t know I was being hired until the minute I walked through the door. What a way to start out!

I should have known better. This was also a small company and also run by a husband and a wife. The husband was fine, the wife—not so much. She was nasty and would play me and the rest of the designers against each other. She told me it was lonely at the top and that I couldn’t be friendly with the girls because I had to be their boss. I do not agree with that philosophy whatsoever. I believe if you are good to people they will be good back to you and I stuck with that philosophy.

Needless to say, it didn’t work out and this was what pushed me to open Studio K Graphics. I knew I could do a good job and make money at it.

I met a friend/former customer for lunch one day shortly after leaving and he told me he had something in his car he wanted to give me. I got there and he opened the back door and in the car was a printer, a fax machine, a computer and a few other office necessities. He said I was talented and could make it running my own business. I, of course, refused the gifts. There was no way I could pay for them. We went back and forth and I only agreed to take them if he’d let me pay him back in some way, even if that meant through trade.

So it worked out and that was how I started Studio K Graphics. Once I closed it down after the floods, I kept some of my customers, I just didn’t take on any new ones. I still have a couple I do some work for today.

When I was in college I worked in the kitchen for work-study. I called the guy who runs the kitchen at Endicott and asked if they could put me to work until I could find a job. I was in luck. So I worked in the kitchen at my old Alma Mater for a couple months until I landed an art director position at a company that published trade magazines.

So here we go again, a small company, run by a guy who had his daughter working there for the summer. Well, she was as “Royal Princess” as the piece of work he was!

What a disaster that place was. This was truly the worse job I’ve ever had. The guy was the type of guy who thrived on conflict. He wasn’t happy unless there was some drama going on and if there wasn’t any he created it. His daughter was a prima donna and ended up staying when the editor left. She took over.

Everything bothered her. You couldn’t put an article in her inbox without “disturbing” her. Augh! I hated that place. The guy squashed every shred of creativity out of me and made me a paranoid nervous wreck. Every day I’d go home crying. I only stayed there a year. I couldn’t take it.

This was during the time when the economy was having a rough time. Graphic design and web design jobs were often being combined into one and I had zero web training. I had several very successful interviews and even a couple second interviews in Boston. Something happened with all of them.

McKay Healthcare had a client they were hiring another designer for but got held up indefinitely with the FDA. They assured me not to worry; it would just be a couple weeks. Several weeks went by and when I checked they said they didn’t know how long it would be held up—could be a year.

The other, NSTAR, a union job working for an energy company needed someone with web experience. They had someone they also liked and had web experience. Elder Hostel loved me and I passed the test they gave me. They didn’t mind I didn’t have web experience because they were willing the train the right person. The manager was going on vacation for two weeks so she said she’d be in touch when she got back.

As luck would have it, Murphy struck again. While she was away, their web designer gave their two-week notice and now the manager was making her hire someone with web experience as there’d be no one there to teach me. Such a bummer. I was really excited about that job.

FINALLY, I was working through the career center to find a job and get my resume in good order and take some classes. I took the Myers-Briggs Personality test that I thought was a total load of crap. A bunch of stupid multiple-choice questions that supposedly would tell you what kind of personality you had. There are only 16 different personalities.

I found out I’m an ENFP and let me tell you it kind of freaked me out a little bit. It nailed my personality to a ‘T’. Also, it tells you some jobs people with your personality types have been successful in and some to stay away from.

What was even more profound was that it gave me insight as to other personality types and traits they exhibit and I learned why this last job was such a pure hell for me. My personality doesn’t need timelines to get things done, actually, they are often counterproductive. I can multi-task and flip back and forth between more than one project and be working on them all in tandem. Quiet time isn’t needed. Music and or people don’t distract me or prohibit my productivity.

The boss’s princess was the complete opposite. She had to have timelines, schedules, could only do one thing at a time, noises, music, and people were distracting to her. Again I learned so much taking this test about others and myself.

I finally decided that I needed to take a web design course or I was never going to find a job. I found a program at the career center that would pay for me to go back to school if I could prove that I needed to be retrained to get back in the workforce. It was a lot of paperwork but I was determined and when I tell you Murphy struck again, it’s true. The day I was supposed to start my first class, I got a call from a staffing agency, I do think the ONLY staffing agency in the area I hadn’t heard of before and likely the only one I wasn’t registered with.

They found my resume online and had a job they thought I’d be a good fit for, and asked if I could come in the next day for an interview. I said sure—why not check it out?

They sent me to Salem Five (my bank) the next day for an interview. They called me later that day, said they loved me and asked if I could start on Monday! I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to work while in the program of going back to school and of course my caseworker was on vacation and no one could answer me so I accepted the job. I couldn’t imagine them telling me not to work.

It was a 3-month contract job to cover a maternity leave. I was fortunate enough to make a good impression on all the right people and 8 years later here I am.

I started out as the graphic designer and when she came back a role was created for me. Half my job was charitable foundation administrator and the other half was an event planner. I was brought on during a hiring freeze so my salary was low but I loved this company so much, I would have cleaned toilets to stay.

One of my first projects I worked on was an internal newsletter. It had a birthdays and anniversaries section. People were celebrating twenty- and thirty-year anniversaries. In this day and age that is unheard of. It spoke volumes to me about the integrity of the company. The first year I worked there I was nominated for employee of the year! Whoot Whoot. I didn’t win, but to even have been nominated after less than a year, I felt pretty good.

My career has evolved at the bank. I started out as the designer, then charitable foundation manager, event planner, to PR specialist and social media manager. Two years ago I was promoted to Assistant Vice President and I know almost all of our 574 employees. The bank has grown from 18 branches when I got there 8 years ago, to 30.

As much as I’ve had a good run and learned a ton, I will be hanging up my hat and heading to another bank where I have accepted a Marketing Manager Position equivalent to my bosses role at Salem Five. I can’t wait! Looking forward to the new role and spending more time with my kiddo. The hours and pay are much better!

My Life Lessons

What were the major life lessons and wisdom that you gained during your journey over the last 20 years?

Nuggets of wisdom I’ve learned: Mom was right.

Work hard, and be a good person and good things will happen to you.

Everything happens for a reason.

Even if we don’t understand it at the time, I have to believe there is some reason/bigger/grander plan.

Old clichés you hear as kids are true, the older you get the faster it goes! People weren’t kidding about that! Eh, what do the grown-ups know? Clearly a lot more than any kid ever thinks.

Don’t work for husband/wife companies unless you are family. As my co-worker told me, this is a family business and you ain’t family.

It’s not lonely at the top. Screw the asshole who said that (Jody).

The former president at Salem Five shared this golden nugget with me. One day when talking to him about character flaws, he said, “Karen, a person’s biggest flaw is often their greatest attribute.” I will never forget that.

Letter To My High School Self

If you could write your 18-year-old self (or however old you were when you graduated) a letter, and send it back in time, what would you say? What lessons or wisdom did you learn? What encouragement or warnings would you give yourself?

If I could leave advice for my 18-year-old self, I’d say:

#1, Mom taught me, don’t ever do anything to someone you wouldn’t want to be done to you—live by that wisdom and you can’t go wrong.

Treat people the way you want to be treated.

Be yourself—don’t let friends or family define who you are.

Believe in yourself and have confidence. If you aren’t there yet, fake it. Confidence comes with experience—it will come.

Tell the people you care about that you care.

Give someone, anyone, a hug daily.

Tell your family (particularly your children and your parents) that you are proud of them.

Live your life for yourself and no one else. You can’t please others if you aren’t pleased yourself.

The older you get the less time you’ll have for drama and bull. You don’t have to be involved. Don’t let it weigh on you, and just walk away.

Be kind and others will be kind to you.

Appreciate the little things and be true to yourself. At the end of the day, the only one you need to please is yourself.

Smile! It increases your face value.

Lastly, roll with the punches. When life serves you lemons, make lemonade and DON’T, I repeat DON’T, hang around with negative or bad influences. People tend to become what their friends are.

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In the next post, I will wrap things up with Chapter 13.

Are you from Generation X? I want to hear what you think! Please comment below and participate in the conversation about What They Didn’t Teach Us Gen Xers In High School. What do you wish someone told you when you were eighteen?

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Life After High School: Interview with Karen Marie Chase Today’s interview with Karen Marie Chase is part of my ongoing blog-to-book project: Life After High School:

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