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mariacallous · 11 months ago

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On Boxing Day pro-Palestine demonstrators met customers at the Zara sale in the Westfield shopping centre, in Stratford, east London. They were not there to wish them the compliments of the season.

‘Bombs are dropping while you’re shopping,’ they chanted, as police stood by to make sure the protests did not turn violent. ‘Zara is enabling genocide,’ their placards read.

Quite what they wanted bargain hunters to do about the Israeli forces bombing the Gaza Strip, they never said. Lobby their MPs? Politicians are on their Christmas holidays. Join the Palestinian armed struggle? It was unclear whether the shopping centre had a Hamas recruitment office.

But on one point the demonstrators were certain: no one should be buying from Zara. Even though the fashion chain has not encouraged Israel’s war against Hamas, earned income from it, or supported Israel in any material way, it was nevertheless “exploiting a genocide and commodifying Palestine's pain for profit”.

Zara, in short, has become the object of a paranoid fantasy: a QAnon conspiracy theory for the postcolonial left.

The Zara conspiracy is an entirely modern phenomenon. It has no original author. Antisemitic Russians sat down and wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the early 20th century. There was an actual “Q” behind the QAnon conspiracy: a far-right activist who first appeared on 4chan message boards in 2017 to claim that a cabal of child abusers was conspiring against Donald Trump.

The Zara conspiracy was mass produced by social media users: an example of the madness of crowds rather than their supposed wisdom. The cause of the descent into hysteria was bizarre.

In early December Zara launched an advertising campaign featuring the model Kristen McMenamy wearing its latest collection in a sculptor’s studio. It clearly was a studio, by the way, and not a war zone in southern Israel or Gaza. McMenamy carried a mannequin wrapped in white fabric. The cry went up that the Spanish company was exploiting the suffering of Palestinians and that the mannequin was meant to represent a victim of Israeli aggression wrapped in a shroud.

The accusation was insane. No one in the photo shoot resembled a soldier or a casualty of war. Anyone who thought for 30 seconds before resorting to social media would have known that global brands plan their advertising campaigns months in advance.

Zara said the campaign presented “a series of images of unfinished sculptures in a sculptor’s studio and was created with the sole purpose of showcasing craft-made garments in an artistic context”. The idea for the studio setting was conceived in July. The photo shoot was in September, weeks before the Hamas assault on Israel on 7 October.

No one cared. Melanie Elturk, the CEO of fashion brand Haute Hijab, said of the campaign, ‘this is sick. What kind of sick, twisted, and sadistic images am I looking at?’ #BoycottZara trended on Twitter, as users said that Zara was ‘utterly shameful and disgraceful”’.

To justify their condemnations, activists developed ever-weirder theories. A piece of cardboard in the photoshoot was meant to be a map of Israel/Palestine turned upside down. Because a Zara executive had once invited an extreme right-wing Israeli politician to a meeting, the whole company was damned.

Astonishingly, or maybe not so astonishingly to anyone who follows online manias, the fake accusations worked. Zara stores in Glasgow, Toronto. Hanover, Melbourne and Amsterdam were targeted.

What on earth could Zara do? PR specialists normally say that the worst type of apology is the non-apology apology, when a public figure or institution shows no remorse, but instead says that they are sorry that people are offended. Yet Zara had not sought to trivialize or profit from the war so what else could it do but offer a non-apology apology? The company duly said it was sorry that people were upset.

“Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw in them something far from what was intended when they were created,” it said on 13 December, and pulled the advertising campaign

That was two-weeks ago and yet still the protests in Zara stores continue. On 23 December activists targeted Zara on Oxford Street chanting , 'Zara, Zara, you can't hide, stop supporting genocide', even though Zara was not, in fact, supporting genocide. On Boxing Day, they were at the Stratford shopping centre.

Zara has apologised for an offence it did not commit. There is no way that any serious person can believe the charges against it. And yet believe them the protestors do. Or at the very least they pretend to believe for the sake of keeping in with their allies.

Maybe nothing will come of the protests. One could have argued in 2017, after all, that QAnon was essentially simple-minded people living out their fantasies online. Certainly, every sane American knew that there was no clique of paedophiles running the Democrat party, but where was the harm in the conspiracy theory?

Then QAnon supporters stormed the US capitol in January 2021. Will the same story play out from the Gaza protests? As far as I can tell, no one on the left is challenging the paranoia. I have yet to see the fact-checkers of the BBC and Channel 4 warning about the fake news on the left with anything like the gusto with which they treat its counterparts on the right.

To be fair, the scale of disinformation around the Gaza war is off the charts, and it is impossible to chase down every lie. But when fake news goes from online fantasies to real world protests, from 4chan to the Capitol, from Twitter to the Westfield shopping centre, it’s worth taking notice.

Sensible supporters of a Palestinian state ought to be the most concerned. No one apart from fascists, Islamists and far leftists believes that Israel should not defend itself. And yet the scale of its military action in Gaza is outraging world opinion. Mainstream politicians, who might one day put pressure on Israel, remain very wary about reflecting the anger on the streets.

They look at the insane conspiracy theories on the western left and see them as no different from the insane conspiracy theories that motivate Hamas, and they back away.

The Palestinians need many things: an end to the Netanyahu government, and an end to Hamas. But they could also use allies in the West who do not discredit their cause with dark, gibbering fantasies.

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leah-yasmin-writes · 5 years ago

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Character Profile: Tess Lorien

Tess from The Circular Centuries

Excerpt

(Ava’s perspective)

A walking mess of contradictions, Tess could be at one moment the gentlest and most loving person Ava knew, soft, graceful and poised like a woman walking right out of an old Hollywood movie. Then the next moment, she would become a raging hellstorm of loud emotion, ready to pick out all of your flaws and mistakes and lay them at your feet like trophies of her righteous anger.

Basic Info

Name: Tess Lorien

Age: 47

Ethnicity: Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Malay, White

Gender: Woman

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

Home Planet: Earth

Occupation: CEO of a company that buys and runs hotels

Current Home: Her house in Toronto that she bought with her husband and lives in with her children

Plot Info

Situation: Struggling to cope with her grief over her long dead husband that she still hasn't dealt with, while overworking herself at her job and raising her children, one of whom is constantly putting herself in danger. Accidentally travels back in time and reunites with her dead husband

Motivation: Wants to keep her family safe and happy, wants to distract herself from her grief, wants to see her husband again

Personality and Qualities

Greatest Strengths: Loving, moral, hard-working, intelligent, generous

Biggest Issues: Smothering, judgemental, emotionally neglects her children because of her grief and workaholic tendencies, severely anxious, short-tempered

Greatest Fear: Her children getting hurt, being a bad person/not loving enough

Talents/Skills: Persuasiveness, bargaining, excellent memory, providing comfort, giving advice

Family

Husband (deceased): Jack Lorien

Eldest Daughter: Ava Lorien

Middle Daughter: Dani Lorien

Youngest Daughter: Lucy Lorien

Son-in-Law: Michael

Father-in-law: Adam Lorien

Friends

Best Friend: Elle Taylor

Close Friend: Dae Man

Close Friend: Sua Man

Close Friend: Athena

Interests and Lifestyle

Finances: Wealthy

Education: Bachelor's Degree majoring in Business and Accounting, Law Degree

Religion: Devout Catholic

Interests/Hobbies: Cooking, religion, fashion, business, literature

Appearance

Height: 5'0

Body Type: Curvy

Skin Tone: Light brown

Eye Colour: Greyish-green

Hair Colour: Black

Facial Features: Big eyes, small nose, full lips, high cheekbones, curly hair (3a)

Style: Classy, extremely expensive, luxurious and South Asian

Songs

Two - Sleeping at Last

She's Always a Woman - Billy Joel

I Got You - Leona Lewis

Stand by You - The Pretenders

Time After Time cover - P!nk (originally by Cyndi Lauper)

Taglist: @aelenko @bleedingccity

#writeblr #writing #urban fantasy #science fiction #character profiles #original writing #creative writing #writblr #wip #writing wip #leah yasmin writes #the circular centuries #writeblr community #writers on tumblr #writers #writers of tumblr #tess lorien

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shes-soparticular · 6 years ago

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Darling, So it Goes

You take Shawn home for an American Thanksgiving. Your childhood bedroom gets more than it bargained for.

Warning(s): Heavy Smut.

A/N: A little fluff, a little smut. SlightlyOlder!Reader.

Words: 4440

It took months of begging, but you finally succumbed to your mother’s plea to make a trip home for Thanksgiving. You hadn’t been back to your hometown since your move to Toronto at the beginning of the year and you had to admit the nostalgia of an old-fashioned American holiday had gotten the best of you. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to see your family, it was your apprehension about bringing your boyfriend home. They’d met Shawn before, sure, but always on your terms and while on their best behavior. You knew the atmosphere wouldn’t be quite the same once everyone was wine drunk around the dinner table, delving into political arguments and dredging up stories of your youthful fuckups. Not to mention, you’d never really brought anyone home before despite being well into your mid-twenties. There was no telling what kind of awkward, prying questions your mom might ask, what offensive jokes your dad would inflict, or the droning on of your older brother and dead stares from your sister-in-law. You chastised yourself internally for thinking of your family so negatively, but you just really, REALLY needed this holiday to go off without a hitch. Mostly for your own sanity. You knew deep down you had nothing to worry about – Shawn’s Canadian manners would dazzle everyone and he’d be a good sport about their neurotic behavior. But you still held your breath all the way through the pumpkin pie, until you could finally sneak off to your childhood bedroom with Shawn in tow.

You’d tried your hardest to book a hotel room for the weekend but after receiving the catholic guilt trip of the century from your mother, you begrudgingly agreed to stay with them. As you flipped on the light, you instantly felt regret churning in your stomach along with the turkey. The bright lavender walls, the stuffed animals arranged meticulously on your canopy bed, the numerous photos of every awkward stage you ever went through tacked to the walls. Jesus, the plastic glow in the dark stars were even still stuck to the ceiling after twenty plus years. Without needing to look at him, you already knew Shawn had the biggest smirk on his face. He was going to eat this up.

“So…this is…words escape me.” He brushes past you to pick up a Care Bear off your bed, taunting you with it. ShareBear looked so strange in Shawn’s tattooed grip, an odd juxtaposition of two things that brought you the most comfort. Granted, ShareBear really didn’t succeed at keeping you warm late at night.

“Give me that,” You say with a huff, reaching out to wrangle the bear away from him, tossing it unceremoniously on the floor. Throwing yourself on to your bed, you grimace at the squeaking of the springs. This was certainly mid-western “roughing it” at its most cliché. At some point you had become accustomed to the plush beds and obscenely high thread counts of high-end hotels. You’d become so spoiled that just the sight of your pill-y Beauty and the Beast sheets and bleach stained bath towels made you cringe. It also crossed your mind that you DEFINITELY weren’t sleeping in Disney sheets in high school and that your mother specifically chose those as a very rude, but very creative cockblocking measure. While you got to work kicking all of your stuffed animals off the bed, Shawn wandered about your room on his own. Quietly studying the photos of your middle school birthday parties, the saved movie stubs and concert tickets still stuck to your mirror, the participation trophies from JV volleyball. Suddenly, you felt a little vulnerable. When Shawn was in high school, he was already playing stadium tours with the likes of Taylor Swift. In your high school days, you were mostly consumed with binge watching Gossip Girl and eating raw cookie dough with your girlfriends. You had an exceedingly mediocre high school career and it felt glaringly evident as you saw your bedroom through Shawn’s eyes. “You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

“Knowing you, it’s not what I was expecting. You were so…innocent.” He turns so that you can see his bemused expression. “I mean who is this girl? I don’t think I know her.”

“Open the closet. Back right corner. Cardboard box marked “books”.” You point him in the right direction, already grinning to yourself knowing what he’ll find there. Shawn quickly unearths the box, carrying it to your bed to dump out the contents. As you expected, a half empty bottle of Sailor Jerry’s rolls out, along with several ancient, unsmoked joints, and a few other odds and ends you’d stashed away. While you reach for one of the joints, his fingers snatch something else out of the pile.

“Is this a cherry flavored condom? You hate cherry.” If he looked bemused before, he looks downright delighted now.

“Hence it being in the pile, my love. Who in the world wants a dick to taste like cough medicine?” You hop off the bed, a joint and matchbook in hand, headed for your window. “All of the strawberry ones, on the other hand, are long gone.”

His eyebrows raise comically high and you can only imagine what he’s picturing in that moment. You know you shouldn’t be leading him to believe you were some unapologetic slut in high school, considering that’s fairly far from the truth, but messing with his head is your all-time favorite hobby. Considering there’s nothing else to do with the rest of the night, he won’t be getting a break from your mind games. Lighting up the joint, you take a long, satisfying drag, blowing the smoke out into the black night sky. You pass it to him while he continues to absent mindedly tour your room like it’s an ancient antiquities gallery at the Met.

“Who’s this loser?” You glance over to see Shawn holding a polaroid of you and a short-lived high school boyfriend. A guy you’re pretty sure still works the concession stand at the local movie theater and never stopped scamming on underage chicks.

“Ohhhh, Chad, what a blast from the past.” You snatch the photo from his hand, giving it a faux adoring look. “He fingerbanged me in a McDonald’s parking lot, it was the worst.”

“You’re telling me you were a freak even back then, eh?” His smirk is growing by the second, pulling open your underwear drawer to peruse all of the embarrassing cotton panties plastered with Victoria’s Secret Pink logos and phrases. The way the joint is dangling from his lips causes a familiar stir between your legs, but you quickly remind yourself that your parents room is right across the hall.

“It was prom. Everyone gets romantic on prom night.” You shrug your shoulders with an eyeroll, plucking the joint from his lips. Looking him in the eyes while you inhale, you rise on to your tip toes and pull his face towards yours to bridge the absurd height difference. Holding the smoke in your mouth momentarily, you press your lips to his softly, letting the smoke drift from your tongue to his. Shawn groans into your mouth, deepening the kiss and casually backing you towards your double bed. But the night is young and you wriggle out of his grasp before your back can hit those Beauty and the Beast sheets. “A guy pays for your limo, you throw him a fingerbang.”

“I’ve been in several limos with you and there have been zero parking lot fingerbangs.” He looks genuinely disappointed, as if you haven’t straight up fucked him in one of said limos. However, his expression changes as he holds up a pair of green panties with the words “Irish Boys Only” written across the ass. “Oh really? I beg to differ.” Balling them up in his hands, he tosses them overhand into the small waste basket across the room. “That’s where those belong.”

“Hey! I could have worn those to Niall’s next show.” You’re already laughing before you can finish the sentence, knowing you’re playing with fire by making such a statement. Shawn pretends not to hear you, but conveniently steps over to the waste basket to ash the spent joint over the discarded panties. Throwing you a heated glance in the process, eyes narrowed but still bright. He turns his attention back to your closet, thumbing through all of the old clothes that still hadn’t made it to Goodwill. When his fingers stop on a mass of pale pink tulle, you pray he’ll keep moving right along. Instead, he hands the joint back to you once more and reaches in to liberate the dress from the depths of your closet. You swear that monstrosity hasn’t seen the light of day since that McDonald’s parking lot.

“Oh god, I DARE you to put this on.” A deep chuckle escapes him, thanks in part to the weed, and he reaches out to grab your hip. “I can’t explain it, but I need to see you in this dress. It just. I can’t. Look at this thing!” No, you don’t know what you were thinking when you bought that dress. The strapless, fitted bodice has far, far too many rhinestones and the tulle skirt is obnoxiously large. It almost has a “Cinderella dressed by a Drag Queen” vibe and your cheeks go a little red just looking at it. Normally you’d refuse, but you’re just high enough, just content enough, that you’re willing to put on that hideous dress just to let your boyfriend have a laugh. He made it through an American Thanksgiving with your family, so if this is the least you can do to make his night, it’s worth it.

“Fine.” You throw him a pout as a last-ditch effort, but he stands firm. As the slightest bit of vengeance, you take your time peeling off your sweater and shimmying out of your jeans. “You’re going to have to help me with this demon, you know.” You reach out to unzip the back of the dress and then stand up straight in just your bra and panties, arms held up in the air, motioning for him to lower the dress on top of you. He obliges, despite a bit of difficulty, and your arms and head eventually clear the mess of tulle. You pull the bodice in place, adjusting your breasts into the right placement and then turn around. “Zip me up, please.” His fingertips are tentative against the zipper, his thumb brushing over the exposed skin at the small of your back and sending shivers up your spine. It seems to take an achingly long time, but he finally drags the zipper all the way up, hands dropping to your waist to slowly turn you around.

“Let me see you, baby.” You’re not sure exactly how or why, but the energy in the room has markedly changed. It’s like by osmosis this dress delivered all of the nervous, tentative feelings you associated with being a teenage girl. Despite the yards of fabric, you felt naked under his gaze. His deep brown eyes traveled the length of you, his lips parted ever so slightly. Clearly, you’re not the only one being oddly affected by this dress. “You look…damn, I don’t know. This is making me weirdly soft?” He runs a hand through his hair, blowing out a deep breath as if you’re standing in front of him clad in dirty French lingerie rather than a Quinceañera reject. “Come here.” His strong hands pull you against him, moving up your sides and lifting your arms to bring them up over his shoulders. “Dance with me?”

You’re about to comment on the fact that there’s no music and maybe move to grab your phone and find a song, but before you can give it a moment’s thought, his hands are back on your waist, his forehead pressed against yours. Ever so softly, he starts humming the familiar tune of Can’t Help Falling in Love, knowing full well what that song does to you. Your body just about melts into him as he starts singing the words into your ear, the two of you swaying in the middle of your lavender walled bedroom. All at once your heart feels as though it’s going to burst out of your chest, your rib cage incapable of suppressing the unnatural amount of love you have for this man. You must have been a saint in a past life, there’s no other way of explaining how you could be so fucking lucky. It’s nearly impossible for you to let him finish the song, your lips making a trail across his jaw before you finally rest your head in the crook of his neck. You would have never pictured this moment, would have never considered doing anything with that dress other than burning it, but here you are. And you swear you’ve never been more in love.

As he finishes the song, you can’t decide whether you’re desperate to hear more of that beautiful voice or desperate to have his lips on yours. Instead, you leave it up to him to decide and aren’t entirely shocked when his lips meet yours. His kiss is balanced between tenderness and urgency, deeply reminiscent of the first kiss you two shared what feels like a lifetime ago. That’s what’s so surreal about standing in this bedroom, in this dress, talking about a time before Shawn. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, it’s hard for you to feel connected to a time in your life before he was a part of it. You certainly weren’t the type of woman to judge your entire existence by a man, but you could at least admit to yourself (and to the entire world, if they really wanted to know) that you weren’t fully yourself until you had him by your side. The way he’s cradling you in his arms now, you know the feeling is mutual. Barely breaking the kiss, he sighs against your lips, “You really do look gorgeous in this dress.” Your cheeks blush a deep red, as if you’re hearing this from your middle school crush rather than a man that’s seen every inch of your body a few thousand times. “And you know what else?”

You finally pull away to look up into his eyes, that signature curl falling forward onto his forehead. “Hmmm?”

He raises his hands to tuck your hair behind your ears, thumbs brushing against your cheeks. “You deserved to have been made love to that night.” You don’t break your gaze, but you’re pretty fucking surprised your knees haven’t totally given out. It’s hard to believe that these words, these delicate touches, are coming from the same man that made you listen to him burp the alphabet the day before and sometimes insisted on doggy style so he could watch the Maple Leafs highlights. You almost don’t notice one hand dropping from your face to linger on the zipper to your dress. “May I?”

You’re absolutely speechless, so a nod must suffice. He unzips the dress almost as slowly as he’d zipped it up not long before, taking his time, making you wait. As soon as the dress has fallen into a pink pool at your feet, he picks you up in one fell swoop, laying you gently on the bed that had been covered in stuffed animals not long before. He’s not far behind, hovering over you carefully, the springs of your bed whining in protest at the combined weight of your bodies. You ignore the sound and pull his face to yours anyways, alternating between slow, lingering kisses and the needier, hungrier variety. Oddly, as though you really have regressed to being teenaged again, you could absolutely settle for just an all-night makeout session. There’s something so intoxicating about the taste of his mouth and the feeling of his solid chest pressing against yours, you just never want that feeling to end. Of course, the fire between your legs vehemently disagrees with that sentiment, aching to be touched and filled in every possible way. As always, he manages to read your body (i.e. the way your hips keep arching into his seeking friction) and he responds in kind. His lips start making their descent down your throat, grazing across your collarbone, only stopping briefly at the top of the cups of your bra to rid you of the offending garment. Just as he’s about to take a nipple into his mouth, you stop him. “Your shirt. Can you take it off?” You’re itching for skin to skin contact, the pleading tone evident in your voice. Sitting up briefly, he pulls the henley over his head, your eyes immediately glued to his abs as they appear before you. Instinctively, your right hand slips down your stomach to touch yourself at the sight of him, but he catches your hand at the last possible second.

“Let me take care of you, honey,” He chuckles, knowing all too well how impatient you get. Kissing the back of your hand, he pins it above your head, resuming his pathway down your body. The warmth of his tongue encases your nipple, followed by the grazing of his teeth. It elicits a moan out of you, loud enough that you can barely hear his hushed voice. “Babe, you can’t be loud.” There’s a severity in his voice but you can see the smile pulling at the corner of his lips. He lives to drive you wild, and even if he doesn’t want to clue your family in on what he’s doing to you, he can’t help but be satisfied with drawing those noises out of you. Seemingly in direct opposition to his warning, his fingers find their way under your panties, pulling them aside and running up and down your already slick folds and teasing your clit. It’s nearly impossible for you to keep your mouth shut, but somehow you manage, keeping it to a quiet gasp as his first finger enters you. You’re already wondering how the hell you’re going to stay quiet as his finger curls upwards inside of you, when you feel his tongue begin to trace your clit, adding insult to injury. Gritting your teeth, you swear you can feel him smiling against your pussy, already smug with how you’re coming undone before he’s really gotten started. You’re about to protest when he removes his finger, but he quickly replaces it with two, pumping them into you slowly, stretching you in preparation of what’s to come. His mouth continues its assault on your clit, alternating between gentle licks and sucking until your eyes roll back in your head. You’ve never talked about it, but you’re fairly certain he has a habit of tracing his name on your clit. His full name. Over and over. It isn’t long before you can feel your orgasm building, your throat almost burning as you try to stifle your moans. He holds your hips to the bed, his biceps bulging with the effort to keep your bucking at bay. While he may be able to squat 300lbs, he’s almost no match for your hips when his tongue is ravaging your clit that way. When it’s clear you can’t hold on any longer, he presses his fingers against that sacred place inside of you and ruthlessly sucks your clit, hard, until you come so hard your legs spasm and you have to bury your face into your pillow to stop from screaming out. Deviously, he flattens his tongue with one last lick as you start to come back down, causing a shudder to run through your entire body. Chest heaving, you glance down at him, shaking your head. “You’re such an asshole.” But the enormous, satisfied grin on your face contradicts your admonishment. “Get up here.” You crook your finger in a come-hither motion, already pulling at his arms to coax him back up your body. Ready to roll him over so that you can return the favor, he stops and pins your hands behind your head once more.

“You know how much I love that smart mouth of yours, but right now? I’m dying to be inside you.” Part of you wants to argue, wants the opportunity to showcase your own oral talents, but you can’t exactly deny that you’re equally as anxious to have him buried deep in your core. So instead, you nod a little too enthusiastically and frantically reach for his jeans. It’s a bit difficult to get rid of them, considering he’s already grinding into you and not allowing you much room to work with, but somehow you’re able to free him from all clothing. He manages to kick off his jeans and Calvins on to the pile of your discarded stuffed animals, quickly pulling your panties down to join them. Once again, you shamefully feel like a horny teenager, unable to keep your hormones in check. Surprisingly, he manages the restraint to slow down for a moment, one hand coming up to rest under your head. He gives you a long look, as though he’s trying to memorize your face in that moment, the placement of every freckle, the shape of your swollen lips, the dazed, post-orgasm look in your eyes. Pressing his forehead against yours, your lips barely brush. “I’m so in love with you. In case you didn’t know.” As you lift your chin to kiss him, you feel the slow, satisfying burn of him entering you. You have to swallow a moan as he inches his way inside, stopping only when he’d bottomed out. He stills for a moment, allowing you to adjust, before setting a slow and steady pace.

Raising your legs to wrap around him, you let one hand tangle in his hair while whispering sweet words of admiration and encouragement in his ear. “God, you make me feel so good. So, so, so good.” These words urge him to increase his pace ever so slightly, but your childhood bed immediately objects, squeaking with all of its might. He freezes on top of you, using every ounce of strength not to return right back to his thrusts. “It’s okay, it’s okay. We just have to go slow.” He takes a deep breath and nods in agreement, returning to his former pace, trying to be as slow and deliberate as he can to appease your mattress. Several minutes pass as you grind into one another carefully, the friction still immensely gratifying. Regardless, you need more, you need to feel him pounding into you the way only he can. “Fuck this. Carpet?”

“Oh god, thank you,” He sighs in relief, picking you up without pulling out of you. Placing you carefully on the carpeted floor, he instantly plunges into you with the speed you’re both craving. Not expecting this, you cry out his name without thinking. This time he doesn’t stop his movements, but he does bring up a hand to cover your mouth. “If you do that, it defeats the purpose of us being on the floor.” Nevertheless, he thrusts directly into your g spot, knowing full well you’re not going to be able to keep your composure when he does that. Rather than letting out another cry, you stop yourself by sinking your teeth right into the swallow tattoo on the hand covering your mouth. Not hard enough to draw blood or leave a lasting mark, just enough to teach him a lesson. However, the joke is on you as the bite only spurs him on, his hips driving into yours with renewed energy.

Incidentally, you’ve reached a point of such reckless abandon that you don’t care who hears you. You couldn’t care less whether your screams woke up the entire family, or the entire neighborhood for that matter. Your parents could have easily let you stay in a hotel as you’d begged to. So truthfully, they were getting what they bargained for. What did they expect from their adult daughter and her fucking underwear model boyfriend? There was no way a noisy mattress and Beauty and the Beast sheets were ever going to stop you two from finding an opportunity to bang. Chanting Shawn’s name, quietly at first but growing louder, you dig your nails into his back hoping that will somehow stop you from full on shouting. You can tell by the way the veins in his biceps are pulsing and the set of his jaw that he’s not going to be able to hold out much longer. Needing release for both of you, he brings his thumb to your clit, massaging it in quick circles until he feels the telltale sign of your orgasm as your walls contract violently around him. That’s more than enough to bring his release, as your name falls from his lips with one long moan as he fills you. Weak, he lets himself collapse on top of you, still twitching inside of you as your sweaty chests heave together, desperate for air. Once you’ve both had a chance to breathe, you pull him in for a long, appreciative kiss. “I’m so in love with you too, in case you didn’t know.” He smiles against your lips, returning the kiss until you both hear someone shutting the bathroom door down the hallway.

“I’m not going to be invited back after this, am I?” He laughs quietly, reluctantly moving off of you and breaking your connection. Carefully, he pulls you up off the floor, taking a minute to inspect the rug burns on your back. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry, does it hurt?” As he gingerly runs his fingers down your reddened back, you try to hide a wince.

“It was worth it, trust me.” You reassure him with one more loving kiss before taking his hand to pull him back into bed with you. “And yes, you’ll be invited back. They know we’re a package deal now. They can’t deny that you make me very, very happy.” Curling up together in those old, scratchy sheets and looking upwards to the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, you can’t help but feel overwhelmingly thankful. Completely exhausted, you snuggle into his chest, letting out one last yawn as you prepare for sleep to overtake you.

“Babe?” You assumed he’d already fallen asleep, but you manage to let out a hum to let him know you’re still listening. “I think I love American Thanksgiving.” You can’t help but giggle softly into his chest, giving him a soft love bite.

“Oh yeah? Just wait until Fourth of July…”

tagging @fourtristattoos for boyfriend!week

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes fic #warning: smut #fourtristattoosspring

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

Audio

Podcast: DRM Broke Its Promise

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my new Locus column, DRM Broke Its Promise, which recalls the days when digital rights management was pitched to us as a way to enable exciting new markets where we’d all save big by only buying the rights we needed (like the low-cost right to read a book for an hour-long plane ride), but instead (unsurprisingly) everything got more expensive and less capable.

The established religion of markets once told us that we must abandon the idea of owning things, that this was an old fashioned idea from the world of grubby atoms. In the futuristic digital realm, no one would own things, we would only license them, and thus be relieved of the terrible burden of ownership.

They were telling the truth. We don’t own things anymore. This summer, Microsoft shut down its ebook store, and in so doing, deactivated its DRM servers, rendering every book the company had sold inert, unreadable. To make up for this, Microsoft sent refunds to the customers it could find, but obviously this is a poor replacement for the books themselves. When I was a bookseller in Toronto, nothing that happened would ever result in me breaking into your house to take back the books I’d sold you, and if I did, the fact that I left you a refund wouldn’t have made up for the theft. Not all the books Microsoft is confiscating are even for sale any longer, and some of the people whose books they’re stealing made extensive annotations that will go up in smoke.

What’s more, this isn’t even the first time an electronic bookseller has done this. Walmart announced that it was shutting off its DRM ebooks in 2008 (but stopped after a threat from the FTC). It’s not even the first time Microsoft has done this: in 2004, Microsoft created a line of music players tied to its music store that it called (I’m not making this up) “Plays for Sure.” In 2008, it shut the DRM servers down, and the Plays for Sure titles its customers had bought became Never Plays Ever Again titles.

We gave up on owning things – property now being the exclusive purview of transhuman immortal colony organisms called corporations – and we were promised flexibility and bargains. We got price-gouging and brittleness.

MP3

https://craphound.com/podcast/2019/09/09/podcast-drm-broke-its-promise/

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bubbleray57-blog · 5 years ago

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#Mac makeup #Mac cosmetics

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abunayeem · 3 years ago

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Sinhala Fonts – Intellectual Property Rights

As of late, a Toronto craftsman known as Dreeem has earned consideration for their COVID-enlivened “All of us are in the same boat” signs. Duplicates of Dreeem’s sign currently show up in numerous customer facing facades across downtown Toronto and were offered free for download through their Instagram account. The striking component of this sign isn’t just the now omnipresent articulation, however the unmistakable style of the lettering made well known by the past Honest Ed’s bargain shop that is natural to numerous Torontonians. The first Honest Ed’s signs were manually written in brilliant, striking tones and radiate wistfulness, beholding back to days when nobody had known about the expression “social separating”. Dreeem’s signs imitate this style and saddle that feeling of wistfulness to additional their message of cooperation and compassion.

Recently, The Globe and Mail revealed that Mr. Wayne Reuben, a craftsman who was utilized by Honest Ed’s as a sign-producer starting during the 1960s, professed to be the originator of this specific style of content. Mr Reuben was looking for an expression of remorse for the formation of these unapproved signs and was thinking about lawful plan of action. This episode brings up fascinating issues about licensed innovation with regards to something universal in our lives, however is frequently ignored. What privileges do craftsmen have in the typefaces they make? Typefaces can be secured through an assortment of licensed innovation freedoms. How these privileges play into the creation and utilization of typefaces is significant for the two originators and buyers to comprehend. Regardless of whether you are a creator hoping to permit your new fonts or a business keen on recruiting a sort fashioner to assist with characterizing your image, looking for lawful counsel and realizing what freedoms should be tended to can assist you with outclassing secure your inclinations.

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dalerwalker2 · 3 years ago

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Steven Matz's agent is being chastised by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen for his "unprofessional actions."

Steven Matz's agent is being chastised by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen for his "unprofessional actions." Steven Matz's agent was called out by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen in a tweet Wednesday morning, one day after the free-agent lefty signed with the St. Louis Cardinals instead of rejoining his old club. Cohen said in his post, "I'm not pleased this morning." "I've never seen a player's agent behave in such a disrespectful manner." Words and pledges don't seem to matter." Matz and his agent, Rob Martin, had approached the Mets about returning, according to Cohen, who said that they were his first option. I'm not in a good mood this morning. I've never seen a player's agent behave in such a dishonest manner. Words and pledges don't seem to matter. more from here Steven Matz : Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox game 2 odds, choices, and prediction I’m not happy this morning . I’ve never seen such unprofessional behavior exhibited by a player’s agent.I guess words and promises don’t matter. — Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) November 24, 2021 Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) 4 November 2021 According to ESPN, Matz and the Cardinals agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract on Tuesday. According to insiders, he may earn up to $48 million in the agreement and will get a signing bonus. Martin said they were aware of Cohen's tweet in a statement released on Wednesday. In a statement, Martin added, "It's sad that he decided to take his emotions to Twitter." "I will not follow suit; instead, I will take the high road, which is consistent with both mine and our client's personalities. Steven Matz grew up a Mets fan, enjoyed his time in the city, and continues to give back to the community by supporting New York's first responders. "As a consequence of everything, I felt compelled to return to the Mets." However, in the end, he made the choice that he believed was best for him and his family. Steven is and will always be thankful to the Mets and Mets fans, but he is now looking forward to his new chapter with the incredible St. Louis Cardinals." Last season, the left-handed Matz, who was dealt from the Mets to the Blue Jays before the 2021 season, found his stride in the American League East, finishing 14-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 29 starts. - As Toronto contended for a postseason spot late into the regular season's last week, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo referred to Matz as one of the team's "unsung heroes." - Matz, 30, played for the Mets for six seasons after being drafted in the second round in 2009. In 5792/3 innings with the club, he was 31-41 with a 4.35 ERA and 552 strikeouts. - Cohen told the New York Post, " was a good Met while he was here." "All I can do is wish him luck." This was about the agent's encounter." more from new 24 hour : - Team USA sings happy birthday to Kevin Durant Anna Nordqvist, the new Women’s British Open Champion, is having the best year of her career. The top Walmart Black Friday 2021 bargains are available today. What is the current name trend in the urban dictionary? soure : espn#instagram #happy #nature #photography #fashion #instadaily #beauty #instalike #fun #friends #me #summer #tbt #cute #beautiful #likeforlike #smile #music #ootd #family #model #follow4follow #lifestyle #design #motivation #beach #sunset #amazing #dog #makeup Read the full article

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ukdesignersale · 1 month ago

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Podcast: DRM Broke Its Promise

MP3

https://craphound.com/podcast/2019/09/09/podcast-drm-broke-its-promise/

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shelleycollinsna · 3 years ago

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10 Top Things to Do, See & Eat in Toronto, Canada

Toronto is one of Canada's most popular tourist attractions. With beautiful vistas and a bustling environment, the city provides a variety of intriguing and distinctive things to do.

There are numerous things in Toronto that you should not miss, whether you're planning a fun family holiday or a romantic getaway for two. The city is clean and safe, with a diverse population and delicious food, as well as near to the ocean. We're confident you'll enjoy your time there.

Here are some of the best things to do in Toronto that we think you should include on your schedule.

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Things to Do in Toronto that are Exciting

1. Views from the CN Tower are breathtaking.

This is without a doubt the number one tourist destination in Toronto that you should not miss. It's one of the world's highest structures, standing 1,815 feet tall and providing a breathtaking perspective over Toronto and the surrounding area.

The LookOut, which stands 1,136 feet above the earth and offers a full 360-degree view of the city, may be visited. You may snap photographs here or just soak in the scenery; whatever you do, it'll be a memorable occasion to kick off your trip to Toronto.

You can not only admire the city from the LookOut, but you can also walk on air on the glass floor and explore the city from the SkyPod, which stands at 1,465 feet and is one of the world's tallest observation platforms.

You won't want to miss out on the legendary Edgewalk — a full-circle, hands-free walk around the SkyPod's outer ridge – if you live for an adrenaline rush and extreme adventure is your thing.

Enjoy your visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hockey is ingrained in Canadian culture, so seeing a game while visiting the country is a must. A visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which houses the world's biggest collection of hockey memorabilia, is a treat for any hockey enthusiast or sports fan in general.

The Hockey Hall of Fame, which spans 65,000 square feet, is a famous tourist attraction that never fails to please. It's packed with hockey memorabilia and information, but it's also a fun place to visit, with two movie theaters, a broadcast zone, EA Sports game kiosks, and NHLPA Game Time, a virtual experience that lets you play one-on-one with real pucks and sticks against life-sized, computer-simulated versions of current NHL players.

You may also see the Stanley Cup in the dressing room of the Montreal Canadiens. The Puck Wall, which displays countless pucks acquired from various international competitions, is also on display. The Hall of Fame is located in the heart of Toronto, making it a must-see attraction.

2. Visit Kensington Market

Kensington Market is the place to go if you're searching for a hip and entertaining area to hang out in. When you need a break, there are plenty of independent stores, vintage boutiques, and artistic venues to visit, as well as fashionable pubs, cafés, and foreign restaurants.

The Market also has a diverse selection of specialized grocers, bakers, and cheese stores, making it one of the greatest venues in town for foodies. You'll be able to wander around and sample a variety of Toronto's speciality delicacies in one location.

An organized culinary tour is a fantastic opportunity to get a true sense of the location while also learning about the food. On this international cuisine tour of Toronto's Kensington Market, you'll stroll around with an expert guide, taking in the area's street art, historical landmarks, and stopping by locally-owned cafes for some very delicious food.

3. Learn about the beer scene in Toronto.

Exploring the beer scene is something we usually do when visiting a new city. Toronto is home to a plethora of excellent craft breweries. If you enjoy beer, you must take a Toronto Beer Tour.

On this trip, you'll stop at the famed Mill Street Brewery in Old Town Toronto for a beer sample. Then, after sampling a variety of Canadian dishes at the St. Lawrence Market, which has over 100 vendors, bakers, butchers, and artists, take a tour of the fashionable Distillery District, one of Canada's greatest tourist destinations.

It's a relaxed, entertaining trip that everyone will appreciate — not a drunken bar crawl. You'll get to see some very unique sites and try some fantastic craft beer.

4. Take a Bicycle Tour

A bike tour is a fantastic way to see the city. Rather than strolling about all day, go for a bike ride and take in the views.

It's a fun opportunity to learn about the history, culture, and architecture of Canada's largest city, as well as some amazing tales and facts, all while getting some exercise and having a good time.

Take a tour of the bustling downtown center as well as a few lesser-known neighborhoods. The famed CN Tower, as well as Chinatown, Kensington Market, Yonge-Dundas Square, the Financial District, and much more, are all included on this trip.

The price includes the use of a bike and helmet, as well as a picnic lunch, snacks, and bottled water.

5. PATH – Toronto's Subway System

You might not be aware of the extensive network of subterranean pedestrian tunnels known as PATH in Downtown Toronto if you're going around above ground. It has 19 kilometers of tunnels, walkways, and commercial areas that link more than 70 structures. It is, in reality, the world's largest subterranean shopping center.

On a dreary day outdoors, take a PATH subterranean tour to escape the elements. On this 2-hour trip, you'll see Toronto City Hall, the hockey arena, several stores, and historic sites. Even if you don't want to take an official tour, you may spend a lot of time underground shopping, dining, and just roaming about.

6. Visit a store.

A vacation to Toronto is an excellent opportunity to go shopping till you drop. Kensington Market, the CF Toronto Eaton Center, Bloor-Yorkville, Leslieville, and Queen Street West are just a few of the city's retail destinations.

Go for a stroll down Bloor Street. This is Toronto's Park Avenue. This is where you'll find all of the high-end stores. Gucci, Prada, and the wonderful Holt-Renfrew department store are among them. This is the place to go if you can afford $500 for a pair of pants. Aside from the high-end shops, it's a pleasant stroll with excellent people-watching opportunities. Window shopping, as always, is free.

Visit Queen Street's eccentric stores. The word "Funky" is synonymous with this street. Hip apparel stores, indie record stores, and other unusual businesses may be found here. The iconic Horseshoe Tavern is a favorite establishment to visit on this street. Every major Canadian artist has performed there.

Toronto offers it all, no matter what you're searching for! Everything from apparel and accessories to books, artwork, housewares, vintage objects, and products for your children and pets may be found in exceptional quality and at reasonable costs.

7. One of Toronto's International Districts is a great place to eat.

Toronto is a melting pot of sorts, with a plethora of international neighborhoods offering amazing real cuisine.

Little Italy is a great place to eat. The restaurants in Little Italy are among the best in Toronto. This neighborhood has a vibrant nightlife in addition to eateries. Wonderful Italian coffee shops, gelato, music bars, and even Latin dance are all part of this.

Take a walk through Chinatown. Do you want to eat dim sum? Chinese herbs that aren't common? Teas that are really rare? You should go to Chinatown in Toronto. The conventional "North American Chinese" cuisine is avoided in Chinese restaurants. Instead, they provide a selection of genuine Chinese meals to Toronto's nearly 400,000 Chinese residents.

Don't forget about Greektown in Toronto! On a Greektown Food Tour, you may experience a variety of Greek cuisine at both well-known and lesser-known locations. Greek coffee has always been a favorite of mine, and that's where our trip begins.

8. Market on St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence Market is a must-visit for foodies. It is one among the world's top 25 marketplaces, with over 50 speciality sellers. Every Saturday from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., there is a Farmer's Market where you can buy fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, cheese, and seafood. There's also an antique market every Sunday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

During the week, you may visit the South Market, where all of the specialized sellers set up shop to offer their wares. Visit the St. Lawrence Market Juice Bar on the bottom floor. They specialize in all types of freshly squeezed juices and associated items.

9. Visit Niagara Falls for a Day

It's a terrific time to travel and see Niagara Falls, which is only 80 miles away from Toronto. Without traffic delays, it'll just take you 1 1/2 hours to get there.

The Table Rock viewpoint, which allows visitors to stand quite near to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, offers a beautiful view of the rushing water. You may also go on adventurous bike routes and self-guided cycling trips surrounding the falls.

You may even go behind the falls on the Journey Behind the Falls, where you can stand very near to the gushing water.

Plus, you can fill your stomach at one of the eateries near the raging falls, which offer an excellent view of the rushing stream. Check out all of Niagara Falls' gastronomic attractions.

From a thrilling helicopter flight over the falls to visiting the various wineries in Niagara on the Lake, there are plenty of things to do in Niagara.

10. Take a trip to the Toronto Islands.

Consider taking a ferry to the fascinating Toronto Islands, a series of 15 islands in Lake Ontario just off the coast of Toronto's city center that are all connected by trails and bridges after you've explored the city. On the islands, there is a lot to do. You may ride your bike around the island or hire one when you get there.

There are lots of paths and walkways to explore if you prefer a lengthier walk. Relax on one of the wonderful bathing beaches or take a kayak or canoe out on the ocean. There are a few cafés, restaurants, and pubs where you may have a coffee, drink, or meal if you are hungry.

CONCLUSION

With so many exciting things to do in Toronto, it's the ideal location for your next holiday. If you are a foreign national from one of the ETA-eligible countries, you should apply for an ETA as soon as possible and begin organizing a vacation to Toronto that you will remember for years!

The blog post “ 10 Top Things to Do, See & Eat in Toronto, Canada “ was published first on Savored Journey

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junker-town · 3 years ago

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Giannis Antetokounmpo represents everything great about sports

Giannis’ greatness is the only box he fits in.

Giannis Antetokounmpo always seemed too good to be true. He was the latest international mystery man in the draft when we first learned about him in 2013, a skinny Greek teenager who had seemingly blossomed out to nowhere to become a legitimate first round NBA prospect. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress wrote the first public report on Antetokounmpo while comparing his body to Nicolas Batum and Thabo Sefolosha and his game to how UCLA used Kyle Anderson.

As we learned more about Antetokounmpo, we realized just how incredible his personal story was. The son of Nigerian immigrants, Giannis and his brothers were denied citizenship by the Greek government despite being born in the country. They sold watches and sunglasses in the streets to help their parents make ends meet. Giannis and his older brother Thanasis were playing basketball in a park one day when a coach from Greek basketball academy saw them while riding his bike. He let them join the academy free of charge.

Antetokounmpo was a 6’9 forward with a reported 7’3 wingspan who showed rare comfort handling and passing the ball. He didn’t play against serious competition in the second division of the Greek league, but the outlines for a future MVP were there. The Milwaukee Bucks, with the No. 15 overall pick, took a swing for the fences by drafting him. His story could have ended up like so many other failed international first round picks — Darko Miličić, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, and Jan Veselý just to name a few — but instead Giannis kept growing, both literally and figuratively.

The Bucks were miserable in Antetokounmpo’s rookie year, finishing 15-67 overall. There were some positive signs, though. Antetokounmpo looked comfortable in 77 games after a terrific Summer League run, averaging only 6.8 points but already showing he could compete on an NBA floor. The Bucks also unearthed another pleasant surprise that season: Khris Middleton. The Bucks had acquired Middleton weeks after drafting Antetokounmpo as a throw-in in their Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight swap with the Pistons. Middleton, a former second round pick, quickly became a starter and ended the year as the team’s third leading scorer by averaging 12.1 points per game.

The Bucks were supposed to acquire their big prize the next year when Antetokounmpo’s rough rookie season landed them the No. 2 overall pick. They had their choice of Duke forward Jabari Parker and injured Kansas center Joel Embiid. The Bucks took Parker, and six weeks into his pro career he tore his ACL. He tore his ACL again two years later, and was off the team by the time his rookie contract expired. This was supposed to be the piece that took Giannis and the Bucks to the next level, but instead it was a bust.

Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo kept getting better. He averaged 12.7 points his second year and 16.9 points per game his third year as head coach Jason Kidd experimented with using him as a point guard (Giannis played point guard 40 percent of the time in his third season, according to Basketball Reference). The NBA didn’t know exactly what Giannis was supposed to be yet, but it was clear he was on his way to becoming a star.

The biggest factor in Antetokounmpo’s development was how much bigger he got: he had grown at least two inches to 6’11 and was on his way to adding over 40 pounds of muscle. Giannis put in the work to change his body and he was able to carry the extra weight without losing his quickness or explosiveness. He was starting to play with immense force on every possession — not just offensively, but defensively.

Antetokounmpo became a terror in the open court, busting out Eurosteps to unsuspecting defenders as they pleaded for travel calls. Defensively, Giannis’ length and newfound strength added burgeoning rim protecting ability to an already strong perimeter defender. The Bucks snuck into the playoffs three times early in Antetokounmpo’s career, but couldn’t get past the first round.

Everything changed when Mike Budenholzer was hired ahead of the 2018-19 season. Suddenly, the Bucks went from plucky upstarts to the team with the best record in the NBA. Antetokounmpo had gone from an emerging young star to a 24-year-old MVP who now had a case as the best player in the world.

Milwaukee blitzed the league with a 60-22 record in Coach Bud’s first season by unleashing Antetokounmpo to his full potential. He became a defensive anchor near the paint who could erase any mistake on the perimeter by his teammates. Offensively, Antetokounmpo put the pedal to the floor on every possession, charging hard to the basket through contact while still having the touch and poise to finish. Middleton was coming into his own at the same time as a 6’8 forward who had developed into one of the league’s best pure shooters. Brook Lopez was signed to a bargain contract and transformed his game from post scorer to three-point shooter to give Giannis more room on his drives.

Something special was brewing in Milwaukee, but like so many other basketball deities before him, Giannis had to take his lumps in the playoffs first. The Bucks started the 2019 playoffs at 10-1 and took a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals. Game 3 went into double overtime, the Bucks lost, and Antetokounmpo finished with only 12 points in 45 minutes. Toronto would go on to win the next three games to eliminate the Bucks in shocking fashion.

Antetokounmpo won another MVP and led the Bucks to the NBA’s best record again the next year. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and when the NBA came back after a nearly five-month pause, Giannis and the Bucks found themselves in a bubble. The Bucks drew the Miami Heat in round two, an opponent uniquely equipped to matchup with them thanks to a brilliant coach and a long, strong roster. The Bucks lost the first three games, and Antetokounmpo was injured in Game 4 before Miami completed a stunning gentleman’s sweep.

At this point, the shine surrounding Giannis started to wear off. He was a great regular season player who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs. James Harden famously said he had no skill. It didn’t matter what Antetokounmpo accomplished during the regular season this year: he wasn’t winning his third straight MVP after consecutive playoff failures.

Speculation over Giannis’ impending free agency had reached a fever pitch. LeBron James and Kevin Durant both left the small market organizations that drafted them because they didn’t have enough help to win a championship. Antetokounmpo could have said the same thing about the Bucks. Instead, he signed a five-year max extension just before the season. Whether he would eventually win a title or not, he was going to try to do it on his own terms.

As a superteam formed in Brooklyn mid-season, the Bucks became something of an afterthought. They took their foot off the gas in the regular season, experimenting with different defensive strategies and integrating new guard Jrue Holiday at the expense of some regular season wins. After finishing with the league’s best record in consecutive seasons, seven teams ended up winning more games than the Bucks before the playoffs, including two teams in their own conference. Antetokounmpo finished fourth in MVP voting.

Unlike the previous two seasons, the Bucks entered this year’s playoffs without overwhelming expectations. Antetokounmpo’s extension had taken away some of the immediate urgency. Not making it out of the East wouldn’t be seen as a failure anymore, not with three veteran superstars teaming up on the Nets while the 76ers coalesced into conference power.

For once, Giannis and the Bucks had room to breathe. It might have been the best thing that ever happened to them.

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Every NBA champion needs good fortune to raise a banner. You can of course say the same about the Bucks.

After avenging their playoff loss to the Heat in the first round with a decisive sweep, the Bucks met the Nets in the second round. In the first minute of the first game, Harden went down with a hamstring injury that caused him to miss the first four games of the series. Brooklyn still went up 2-0 on their home floor and seemed to have the Bucks on their way to a second straight second round exit. Then Kyrie Irving got hurt in Game 4 and never returned.

The Bucks forced a Game 7 in Brooklyn. Durant capped an incredible game with a game-tying shot in the final seconds of regulation that would have been the game-winner if his foot wasn’t on the three-point line. The Bucks won in overtime and kept their championship dream alive.

On the other side of the Eastern Conference bracket, the Atlanta Hawks upset the Sixers. The Hawks stole Game 1 of the conference finals in Milwaukee, but the Bucks would take the next two. In Game 4, Antetokounmpo suffered a scary leg injury and immediately exited. After so many injuries to superstars in this postseason, it sure felt like the worst case scenario was on the table. The Hawks won to tie the series with Giannis sidelined, but Middleton and Holiday powered wins in the next two games. The Bucks were in the Finals.

The Phoenix Suns had their own luck on the other side of the bracket. Phoenix knocked out the defending champion Lakers in the first round after Anthony Davis suffered an injury late in the series. They swept a Jamal Murray-less Denver Nuggets team in round two. They beat the Clippers in the conference finals after Kawhi Leonard partially tore his ACL. Both the Suns and Bucks were legitimately great teams, but it’s impossible know if they would have advanced to the Finals against a fully healthy field that wasn’t set against the backdrop of a pandemic.

Antetokounmpo entered the series doubtful to play in Game 1. Hours before tip-off, he was upgraded to questionable. After suffering an injury many believed would bleed into next year, Giannis was in the starting lineup for the first game of the Finals. He didn’t look like he was 100 percent, but he still played 35 minutes and finished +1 in a game the Suns won by 13 points.

Milwaukee’s only chance was for Giannis to fully return to form and assert himself as the best player in the series. That’s exactly what happened.

Giannis’ performance in the Finals was nothing short of remarkable.

He finished with 42 points on 15-of-22 shooting in Game 2, but the Suns still won to take a 2-0 lead. As the series came to Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo was even better: he put up 41 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in a decisive Game 3 victory that gave the Bucks’ a puncher’s chance.

In Game 4, Antetokounmpo sealed the win with one of the best blocks you will ever see on an alley-oop meant for Deandre Ayton. In Game 5, he helped deliver an even more incredible play when he slammed home a lob off Holiday’s tremendous steal in the final seconds. The Bucks had won three straight games and now had a chance to end the series on their floor in Game 6 on Tuesday night. Giannis already had two defining plays and a gaudy stat line during these Finals, but he saved his best for last.

It is no exaggeration to say Giannis played one of the great games in NBA history to carry the Bucks in Game 6. On a night when Holiday couldn’t make a basket and Middleton struggled to get open, Antetokounmpo absolutely dominated the game on both offense and defense. With the Bucks trailing by seven points at halftime, Giannis put up 20 points in the third quarter while deterring so many Suns scoring opportunities with his help defense.

He brought home the win in the fourth quarter by overcoming his biggest weakness: free throw shooting. After shooting about 55 percent from the foul line throughout the playoffs, Antetokounmpo somehow made 17-of-19 free throws in the biggest game of his career.

The end result: 50 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks, and Milwaukee’s first NBA championship since 1971.

Giannis’ greatness has never fit into a box.

He was drafted as a nominal small forward, but he was always the type of player who never really had a position. While the Bucks used him to initiate offense on the perimeter from the early days of his career, his massive growth spurt after entering the league made him something closer to a big man.

We know what big men look like and we know how they score. Antetokounmpo didn’t conform to those norms. While Hakeem Olajuwon had deft footwork in the post, Giannis mastered his footwork in the open floor. While Shaq unleashed his power after planting himself deep in the paint, Giannis backed up 30-feet away from the hoop to get a running start before unfurling his force. While NBA fans pleaded with Budenholzer to use Giannis as a roll man, the Bucks preferred to put him in space and let him attack.

As it happened, it became easy to see the holes Giannis had in his game. He didn’t have a three-point shot in a league obsessed with three-pointers. He struggled to shoot free throws. His ball handling ability never fully leveled up. Instead, Giannis was said to succeed because he was simply bigger and faster than everyone. That led to jealousy from his peers and confusion from some fans who could only see greatness through the lens of how Michael Jordan and (to a lesser extent) Kobe Bryant accomplished it.

Giannis was said to have ‘no bag’ — the ultimate diss for a hooper. While some saw a lack of crossovers and pull-up jumpers, Antetokounmpo’s skill showed up in different ways. It often felt like his apparent lack of appreciation from other NBA stars was because he wasn’t from America and had no interest in running in the same cliques as they did.

The discussion about Antetokounmpo’s skill level missed several key points. For one, he had become the best defensive player in the world, someone with a length and quickness of prime Kawhi Leonard on the perimeter with the shot blocking ability of Rudy Gobert near the basket. It also discounted how hard this man played. Giannis never took off a single possession on either end of the floor and established himself one of the most competitive athletes on Earth. The questioning of his offensive game was wildly out of place, too. He just averaged 35.2 points per game on 61.1 percent shooting from the field in the NBA Finals, in a series some feared he wouldn’t even play in against a team that was favored to beat his Bucks.

Giannis’ greatness is a testament to his incredible work ethic to go from a skinny teenager to a physical freak. He should be held up on a pedestal for his motor. The fact that he committed long-term to the small market team that drafted him rather than running away to play with other superstars makes this championship even more meaningful.

Antetokounmpo’s awards cabinet is filling up. He’s two-time MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year, the winner of the Most Improved Player, a five-time All-Star, a five-time All-NBA selection, and a four-time All-Defense selection. Now he can add an NBA championship and a Finals MVP. He’s still only 26 years old.

We are watching one of the greatest athletes of this generation in any sport in the prime of his career. He is an immigrant who found a new home in Milwaukee after not even knowing where it was when he got drafted. He does it all with a humble approach that is devoid of ego. His press conferences were almost as good as his play during the games in the NBA Finals.

Basketball is now a global game, and Giannis is a global icon. He represents the dream of how sports can change anyone’s life. He plays the game the right way, giving all he’s got on every possession. He doesn’t run away from challenges.

A championship was always going to elevate Giannis into the land of legends, and the way he did it will define his career forever. What a story, and what a player. For once, something that always felt too good to be true actually lived up to the hype.

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ukdesignersale · 1 month ago

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Feel the Fall!

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#bargain fashion Toronto #bargain fashions in Toronto #Handmade fashion in Toronto #New fashion Toronto #Toronto Fashion Sales #Unique fashion toronto

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margiehasson · 4 years ago

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Fair Trade Clothing Commerce and Haute Hijab

Recently, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf delivered a speech at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference in Toronto, Canada entitled, "Fair Trade Commerce for a Better World." His lecture inspired this article and we felt it necessary to share this information not only as an apparel company but as Muslims charged with seeking justice and equality. Unfair trade extends far beyond products such as coffee, diamond and chocolate.

One of the largest industries guilty of exploitation is the fashion industry.

Think about it. How is it possible to find a top that costs less than $20 from H&M and Forever 21? It's through the use of cheap labor from third world poverty stricken countries. Although one may revel in a great bargain, we must keep in mind that it contributes to women and children's exposure to dangerous working environments for inhumane periods of time. While we have all been spoiled by low-cost outsourced products, it must be understood that one’s happiness and pleasure in a bargain is costing blood and turmoil to millions across the globe.

Instead of having a closet full of clothes made from child exploitation and deplorable working/manufacturing conditions, why not purchase fewer items of clothing at a higher price knowing everyone involved in manufacturing the item had a fair share. There is tremendous barakah, or blessing, in purchasing and wearing clothing knowing it was made by someone who was happy and justly compensated when manufacturing the item.

This barakah of your fair trade item passes on to having barakah in your overall life. The opposite is also true, which may contribute to a lack of barakah in your life. Scholars and people of righteousness have always been fastidious regarding the sources of items they purchase.

What is Fair Trade?

According to Fairtrade International, fair trade is “a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers. Fair trade organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.”

Benefits of Fair Trade

Helps producers (those who manufacture the things we buy) improve quality of their workers' lives with education, healthcare and humane and ethical processing facilities.

Allows producers to take part in the decision making that involves their future as a company and as part of a global community.

Empowers workers to participate in global trade without worrying about financial security.

Encourages production that is environmentally sustainable and organic.

What does Islam say about Fair Trade?

In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah (S) says, “Do not consume the wealth of people unjustly ... let your trade only be trade that is mutually content.” This is explained as meaning that each side of the trade should be content with the event of commerce and the event that transpired. This verse is central to understanding what is occurring globally and why we see turmoil in the markets.

Furthermore, Allah (S) states in Surah Al-Rahman, "He places a balance or scale so that you not transgress the balance." This ayah refers to all types of balance in life, including an economic and manufacturing balance.

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) was himself involved in business and it was through his business dealings he earned the title of As-Sadiq and Al-Ameen, the truthful and the trustworthy. He taught us principles of commerce and mentions in a hadith, "The truthful merchant is with the martyrs on the Day of Judgment." Scholars have commented that the reason for this is the rarity of a truthful merchant. We as a community should emulate this prophetic character through ethical business dealings.

How is Fair Trade related to Haute Hijab?

At Haute Hijab we pride ourselves in selling high quality, lasting products that will not quickly end up in the trash bin. We try our best to support local fabric suppliers, vendors, seamstresses, and manufacturers, ensuring that each person working along the way to create these products receives their fair share. We recognize that there is much we can improve in making our products more eco-friendly and lessening our carbon footprint in our work, and this is a priority for us as we continue to grow in years to come. Paying our workers fairly and running an ethical business where our employees and partners feel empowered, fairly treated and compensated and heard is extremely important to us.

What can we do as consumers to promote fair trade?

USE CASH: Try to pay in cash as often as you can. This ensures 100 percent of the money you pay goes to the local business as opposed to four percent going to the bank each time you use a credit card. Try to support local banks by moving your money. Check out www.moveyourmoneyproject.org for more information.

SHOP LOCAL: Try to shop local whenever possible. This helps boost the economy of your surrounding community. Farmers markets are a wonderful way to begin and are popular across the country. Unfortunately, many smaller businesses are losing money due to larger corporations taking over.

RESEARCH: Before purchasing anything, do your research to ensure the product you're buying is not costing any lives. A wonderful app you can download is, “Better World Shopper.” It gives a fair trade grade to over 1,000 companies including airlines, gas stations, grocery stores, and popular retail brands.

SUPPORT: The reality is companies that adhere to fair trade principles are aberrant and pricey to run. Therefore, it is imperative to support companies who believe and sell based on these principles.

Final Thoughts

We live in a society where we are all too often indifferent to people who are hurting outside our country. This apathetic attitude lends to a lifestyle that is based on the suffering of others. In reality, the roots of our “cheap lifestyle” is based on exploitative labor all over the world. Let us not forget this also affects the job market here at home as manufacturing migrates to countries where cheap labor and exploitation are prevalent.

References

"About Fairtrade/Benefits of Fairtrade." Fairtrade International (FLO). Web. 21 Jan. 2012. <http://www.fairtrade.net/benefits_of_fairtrade.html>.

"Who Benefits from Fair Trade? - Fair Trade Wholesale - Handmade Expressions." Fair Trade Wholesale - Handmade Bags, Leather Journals, Jewelry - Handmade Expressions. Web. 21 Jan. 2012. <http://www.handmadeexpressions.net/pages/who-benefits-from-fair-trade>.

Yusuf, Hamza. "Fair Trade Commerce for a Better World." Lecture. Reviving the Islamic Spirit. Canada, Toronto. 20 Jan. 2012. Halal Tube. Halal Tube, 29 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Jan. 2012. <http://www.halaltube.com/hamza-yusuf-sharing-success-fair-trade-commerce-for-a-better-world>.

Fair Trade Clothing Commerce and Haute Hijab published first on https://lenacharms.tumblr.com/

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