#because i liked the decorating aspect more than the running around gathering materials aspect

[drabbles-n-doodles]

Finally playing elden ring because my nephew bought it and his games show up on my Xbox and it looks interesting but my god

I do Not know what I'm doing. In the slightest. And it's taking so long to level up because everything is so strong and I am. So bad.

There aren't any tips online that are applicable to me either (everyone just says memorize enemy attack patterns and I genuinely Cannot Do That nor have I ever been able to in any game)

I'm still having fun playing even tho I feel like I'm doing everything wrong, but, man

[regardingseas]

Ttile: Echoed Vexations (Part One, part two linked)

Fandom: Hermitcraft

Rating: Teen and up audiences (violence warning)

AO3: here! (Full story at once)

•••

Plot Summary:

It's all too easy to turn a blind eye to the past-- to believe that because someone has been shielded from harm's way, they should no longer fear the wrath of their opponent's creed. They're safe now, after all, so why would they..?

Yes, Scar and Cub are certainly "safe", but they're still haunted by memories of the Vex and their deals all the same.

OR

An average afternoon during the HCB Base Swap is cut short when Mumbo accidentally digs up a remnant from Scar's Vex partnership days, and unfortunately for the town's mayor, the other Hermit is far from aware just how triggering the topic can truly be. Things only dissolve from there, and in the end, Grian lends a helping hand to console a friend.

•••

Additional Content Warnings:

Depictions of trauma disorders, panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoid thoughts/delusions, manipulation, gaslighting, threats, injury, and violence. Mentions of religious themes, unintentional self-harm, and non-permanent character death.

Do be careful, but otherwise, enjoy!

•••

The sun was still high in the sky even as Scar finished decorating the monument's support chains, sweltering rays beaming down and adding to the oppressive humidity of the jungle around him. With his usual jacket set aside to fight the heat, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had gathered on his forehead and grabbed a stray bucket from the sidelines. He'd nearly finished the waterfall aspect of the design-- crystal blue streams cascading over the edges of four white spanners, all joining together in the octagonal pool at the base's foundation. It was looking quite spectacular, if he were to say so himself, with the vine-coiled braces and additional water currents tying the otherwise juxtaposing themes together nicely.

Scar scooped up a fresh pail of water, filling it to the brim and hauling it towards the last pillar. He glanced down at the container as he carried it, catching a glimpse of his reflection from the liquid inside. His face shone red with effort, misplaced strands of hair having clung themselves to his tan skin.

Though unsurprised, he still couldn't help but laugh at the rippling image. "It's just my luck I'd swap with another jungle dwelling Hermit. I swear, I can never escape this climate for long. First the island last year, then all this."

With a shake of his head he returned his gaze upwards, continuing to muse aloud to the landscape before him, "You tropics are wonderful and all, but it sure would've been a nice change of pace to set up camp in somewhere like the mountains. Or pull total 180 and have landed in the tundras!"

Concepts for each design raced through his head, each idea fighting the others for dominance and tacking details onto itself, trying to land its place on the metaphorical pedestal of his imagination. A cottage with medieval influences? No, that would be far too typical, amp both of those components up. An entire village with a steampunk driven aesthetic, built into the mountainscape itself; no doubt with custom terraforming to integrate the buildings into the natural environment. That was more like it.

Scar could envision working windmills and waterwheels accompanying purposefully makeshift farmlands, historic blimps having reclaimed skies where they'd soar high overhead. Below them, eye-catching pops of colour, shining through as floating lanterns that hover above connective rope bridges.

As for the arctic concept? Something more grand would be ideal. In his fantasy, he'd created an absolute oxymoron of the words cabin and mansion jumbled together, and he adored it that way. A bottom floor made of bricked stone, the top made of logs and large windows to oversee the view. Accompanying them in the same manner would be a balcony, propped on columns that hugged the building and curved around its corners. The top deck would be open for clear days, and the space below it safe on harsher ones. Sloped roofs would be adorned with chimneys, and the interior warmed by cozy flames that were kept organized with inviting lofts. The living area could be split leveled, sinking down to create its own margin where guests could comfortably gather by the fireplace and--

There was a tug at his ankle, and next thing he knew, a bemused Scar went crashing to the ground, having been too caught up to notice the trailing plants blocking his footway. His hands shot out to catch himself, palms scraping against the concrete floor in a way similar to the childhood stunt of crashing and burning on the pavement. A stinging snapped up his arms, and the water bucket dropped from his grasp, clattering down with a metallic rumble before spilling its contents across the floor.

Scar pushed himself upright with a hiss of air through his teeth, shaking off his grazed palms and wiping them on his jeans. Pulling his foot free from the greenery and gathering himself up was no problem, what was a problem, however, was the troubling sight now before him.

The water had spilled all over one of Mumbo's redstone contraptions, causing the device to short circuit and emit a sort of maroon-grey smoke. The wires fashioned from the compacted dust had been all but washed away, any remaining pieces hanging on by threads and failing miserably whenever a signal attempted to fire; more so sizzling rather than surging alight with energy.

"Oh, crud!" he shouted, racing towards the machine and yanking on the shut-off switch to divert any further input from the broken setup.

It powered down, but Scar was still left swatting the coloured smoke from his face, coughing as the scent of burnt metallics filled his nostrils. When had he gotten so absorbed in possible building opportunities that he'd managed to miss the foliage in front of him? Why had he even been wondering so deeply about it, anyway? This event was about improving one another's bases by adding their own personal touches, not starting a new project entirely.

Scar sighed, he wasn't sure why his mind had begun drifting so far. He'd like to blame it on the wild imagination of a builder, but he had a feeling there was a little more to it. Sometimes, when the world wasn't too much to handle, it was too easy to let fall away. Maybe he spent too much time daydreaming-- he was sure there was a word for that, when trances became so all encompassing, so engrossing.

"But I don't have time to think about that right now," he reminded himself, "I really need to fix this. It doesn't look like most of this redstone is salvageable, I'll have to get new supplies to repair it. Maybe some of the circuits are okay..?"

Scar nudged a repeater with his shoe, the device making an unnatural sloshing noise in his attempt to change the feed-in. He scrunched up his nose, "Okay, nope, gonna need to replace that, too."

Running a hand through his hair in defeat, he glanced towards Mumbo's storage system before shaking his head. It wouldn't be right to use the other man's supplies without asking, let alone waste them on a mistake made due to Scar's own carelessness. He'd have to make his way back to his original base and gather the materials from there once more. When he dropped by initially, he figured he'd gotten everything he needed, but apparently hadn't accounted for dissociation-induced redstone mishaps.

"I guess we're making a trip back," Scar announced to no one, finally picking up the empty bucket to set it safely aside. He made his way over to his tent, temporarily discarding any excess materials and bidding adieu to Jellie before grabbing his elytra and setting off.

Taking to the skies, Scar squinted against the wind as it roared in his ears. His hair parted itself from where it had stuck, short locks brushed back by the flowing breeze. With arms extended for balance, and maybe a dash of amusement, he lit his rockets and propelled himself into the distance.

-----

It wasn't long before he encroached on his base again, allowing his faux wings to glide him downward where he kicked out his legs to come to a soft landing. Scar stopped before the massive drill site just on the outskirts of the forest, heading towards the agglomeration of crates and boxes he had haphazardly stowed aside. He was certain there had to be the necessary hardware in one of the many containers, though which that may be was lost on him. At least, thanks to Mumbo and his new storage system, the chest monster he'd created would soon be a thing of the past.

"I wonder how that's going for him..." Scar pondered, striding over to a random shulker and beginning his sure-to-be protracted search.

"Scar?" a familiar voice interrupted, making him peer ahead to see the moustached man himself rounding the corner. "Hello there! I see you've made yourself rather at home at my base," Mumbo teased.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "That I have. I just needed to stop by and pick up some redstone and iron. With all the ore this place has quarried up, I was sure there's bound to be more of that here than back at Larry."

Mumbo faked surprise with a hearty grin, "Getting into mechanics, are we? Have the inner workings of the temple really had that much influence on you after only a few days?"

"Now I wouldn't say that," Scar shook his head and closed the lid of the grey shulker, seeing no point in hiding the truth. "I took a tumble holding a bucket of water and it kinda spilled on one of the contraptions. I'm sorry for the trouble-- but don't worry! I came here to fix it right up. I just didn't wanna waste your materials fixing my silly error."

The suited man waved his hand dismissively, "Nonsense, it's no trouble. Have you seen the improvements you've made to that place? I mean, of course you've seen them, you built them, but rhetorically speaking--" Mumbo cleared his throat, "Just don't fret over it, I trust that you'll have it fixed right up in no time."

Scar smiled, "Thanks, dude. Now I just have to find where on Earth I put those ore…"

Mumbo gave another laugh, "You know, you can feel free to use some of my things if need be. I have no idea how you expect to find anything in this mess. I'm only trying to do a basic look through so I know where to begin when it comes to the item sorter, but even that doesn't seem to do much good. I swear, it's like trying to play a very intense game of memory, with thousands of nonsensical cards all scattered about."

Scar snickered sheepishly at the comparison, "Yeah, no kidding. But being able to use some resources without flying all the way over here would be great. Thanks again, Mumbo. I don't know if there's anything you'll need here while working, but hey, consider it free range. We're doing these things for each other in the long run, anyway."

"I'd say, 'unless we don't switch back our deeds', but in all honesty? I'm beginning to miss the ol' living monument already."

The two exchange a chuckle before returning to their previous tasks, both going back to digging through the pile of chests in preparation for their projects.

It took longer than Scar wanted to admit to finally find the crate stocked with valuables-- sighing in relief at the sight and immediately beginning to pile the items into his inventory. There were pre-smelted metals from an iron farm, so he didn't have to bother with the ore, and the redstone he'd gathered was already in dust from, meaning all he'd have to do was craft the items after returning.

"I wonder if it would've been easier to stop by the shopping district and buy these directly, instead of making them by hand..." he said, "Oh well, saves on diamonds, and these had to be used some time, I guess."

"Talking to yourself over there?" Mumbo asked.

"Just thinking aloud is all."

"I see," the moustached man nodded, pushing himself up from where he'd been examining the supplies. "I found something neat from last year! Do you wanna see?"

"Sure!" Scar agreed, setting aside his intent of flying back in favour of seeing what it was Mumbo had to show him.

He smiled and stepped over to Scar, holding out a faded piece of paper for them both to see, "I found it stuck to the bottom of a shulker box! Can you believe we used to be competition so recently?" He joked.

Scar could only stare at the advert before him, a steele blue page embellished with a vault-like ring in the center. It meant nothing to the untrained eye, but to him, all of the company's horrors were sealed underneath. ConCorp read bold text in half-connected lettering, the logo finalizing its signature with a black bow tie adorning the bottom.

"Hardly," managed Scar, having just remembered he'd been asked a question, "But it wasn't that recent."

"It was practically yesterday if we're talking business," Mumbo snickered, "but we aren't. I'm not very good at business."

"Me neither, I prefer mayorship," he said in an attempt to change the subject.

Mumbo, however, didn't seem to notice, only turning to stare at Scar with eyes wide. "Are you kidding me? You were quite literally the richest Hermit of all last year! You're wonderful at business. Sahara was amazing, and I don't for a second doubt it was the most ambitious project of our group to date, but she had plenty of bugs, being the machine powered industry that she was. ConCorp, however? That was an utter monopoly! The thing lasted two bloody seasons!"

Scar chuckled awkwardly, "I know, I know, Cub and I worked very hard. But it wasn't all us, we couldn't have done it alone."

"Give yourself more credit," Mumbo insisted, "I'm more than convinced you could have gotten your business up and running even without the help of your Vex friends. Weren't they less prominent in your company last year, anyway? You did change your guy's name from ConVex to ConCorp, after all. I think that would imply less input on their part."

"Not really," he explained, though the tension building in his body was becoming harder to conceal. He had to keep his arms rigid so that they wouldn't shake, forcing in deep breaths to avoid the shaky ones that threatened to take their place. "We just thought it would be better for business, rebranding to something more gentlemanly and all."

Mumbo nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. Though I still don't understand how you managed to work with them to begin with. I likely wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I mean business partners with the Vex? Friends, even? How'd you do it? Not to mention why? With all due respect, what makes one seek that out?"

Scar blinked hard at the influx of questions, "Oh, it's- it's really complicated, you might not understand. Cub started it, though. I joined the team not long after, but I wasn't there when he first struck the deal with Them."

"Huh, some deal," Mumbo remarked thoughtfully, and Scar nodded.

He had no idea.

"So what made you leave that behind?" Mumbo continued.

"What?" he asked, finding his thoughts hazy. They were static nothingness, but somehow also crashing into his skull. He found himself having to dig his way through them, while at the same time trying to bury them once he passed. The last thing Scar wanted was to do was hark back to the Vex, to beckon forth Their memory with his own.

The other man simply chuckled, oblivious to Scar's inner turmoil. "ConCorp, the Vex. Did you two just get bored? Having done the same thing for too long?"

"In a sense, you could definitely say we were tired of it. It just- well, it wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. We wanted to move on to new things."

"That's fair enough. Do you blokes still get along? Or did they take the corporation's end like a sour breakup?"

This time, Scar couldn't contain his wince. "We're still friends!" he insisted, "Of course the Vex are my friends."

Mumbo finally quirked a brow, "Are you sure about that? You don't have to worry about hiding some burnt corporal bridges from me, I'm not here to judge."

"Oh yeah, I'm positive," he nodded eagerly, "I'm just- I'm gonna go work on fixing that contraption I damaged, best to get it fixed before we have to switch back."

"Buddy, are you sure everything's alright? I'm sorry if I upset you or anything."

"Nah, I'm just peachy!" Scar announced with far too much false enthusiasm, internally cringing at his failed masking abilities. Not allowing any more time for his ruse to be cracked, he uttered a quick goodbye before adjusting the straps on his elytra and dashing off, leaping into the air and back towards the ruins.

"Scar, wait!" Mumbo tried, but he was already gone.

------

The returning flight was far from the peaceful journey he'd made to the excitation site. His artificial wings beat frantically, struggling to keep up as he charged forward with excessive firepower. He paid no mind to the safety protocol regarding the rocket's cool-down period, simply heralding through the air as fast as his elytra would carry him. Scar arrived back to the monument in a trip overall much faster than when he'd left, but it seemed to drag on for an eternity. The entire excursion consisted of a battle with his own mind-- a war in which he knew he was bound to lose, but he had to hold down the fort until he was on solid ground.

Scar was lucky not to crash into the debris upon landing, frantically stumbling to the dirt and having to grasp onto a piece of wreckage to maintain his balance. His legs nearly buckled under his weight, form trembling in spite of the deep breaths he gave it his all to draw in.

He grasped hard to the rubble, trying to anchor his brain into focus. He couldn't let his thoughts spiral, he couldn't think about Them. He knew grounding techniques, and he tried to rush his way through them.

Five things you can see.

He could see the golden heart, plants, stone, the golden heart again-- the thing was too anatomically correct, he'd seen horrors too similar to it before. And the sound, it was too damn loud, too hard to ignore. Its unsteady rhythm hammering in his ears alongside his own faltering pulse.

Forget visuals, four different noises?

Scar squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to listen, focusing hard on the world around him. Still, he could only hear the heart. He could only hear it pounding, its once melodic notes like nails on a chalkboard. He could remember far too many times when he was left alone with nothing but his heartbeat and his pleas.

Tactile. Texture. What can you feel? Three things you can feel.

Internally, he screamed at his dulling senses to return. God, he didn't want to think about Them, it wasn't worth the risk. They'd been inside his head before, and the mere idea of having his thoughts broadcasted again made his stomach churn. Scar tried harder and harder to suppress the images bubbling to the surface, festering like maggots in an old wound. The more he tried to push them down, however, the fiercer they'd rise back up, and he choked down a sob in attempt to list the sensations he could currently identify.

He could feel the stone-- but he already said the stone, didn't he? He could also feel the sun. It was hot against his back. So hot. He was overheating.

The notes should have been a success, but the drops of sweat felt too akin to tricking blood. The sting of his hands felt too much like the friction burn of a rope. It felt too much like he was back with the Vex again, and as he finally sunk to the soil, he could no longer swim against the onslaught of memories crashing over him like a tidal wave.

They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still get him--

------

The day he and Cub first found the courage to try and cut ties with the Vex had been a hellish one, and the two men weren't even successful in their attempt. Hence, of course, it being the first.

Still, it had taken ages for Scar to persuade Cub that it was even worth trying, the other man having believed it was impossible to sneak anything past the Vex on their own. Scar was persistent, however, and eventually convinced his friend they had a shot if they played their cards right, if they made the right proposal without their intentions being discovered.

They'd constructed their plans in secret for weeks; discussing them only inside of untold locations with hushed whispers, or in the form of coded scrawls they'd burn immediately after reading. They couldn't be too careful, that's what they'd tell themselves whenever they worried their precautionary measures may be over the top. Even so, when a so-called conference was put on the schedule --such events were far from any type of cordial meeting, despite having been assigned the title of one-- the men were hardly prepared for it.

Their conference room consisted of a needlessly grandiose suite, with floors of marble and walls carved from deep umber wood. The polished lumber was adorned with expensive paintings in aureate frames; antique laden shelves taking up the spaces they did not. Aesthetically pleasing decorative tactics were discarded in favour of showing off their riches in a possessive cluster, with the only average items being the table and its chairs sat in the dead center of the area. A chandelier of gemstone and gold swung from above, dangling by the same chains fated to one day bind their vassals.

"Concordats, greetings!" A Vex declared as the men were led through the doorway, hovering in the air at the opposing end of the surface.

"Greetings," parroted Cub minimally, Scar giving a plain nod beside him. Fewer words meant less chance at letting their guard down.

"We've been needing to speak with you," a different Vex chimed.

"Speak with you about the business," yet another visitant confirmed.

"We actually need to discuss similar matters with you all," Scar noted, voice and expression a façade of tranquility.

"You do?" the first asked, wide smile replaced with inquiry.

"Yes," managed Cub, "we want to make you an offer, one you can't refuse."

"I do like the sound of that!" the second snickered.

"We'll hear your offer," the Vex grinned, "we only have one question first!"

"Of course, what is it?" asked Scar, in mental awe of how well their exchange was going.

"Do you recognize these?" it asked, gesturing towards the white table where a blue light flashed, fading away to reveal a small pile of ash.

Cub and Scar glanced to one another in evident confusion, the latter of the two speaking once again, "Forgive me, but we're not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh, silly me!" the Vex giggled, another flash of luminesce encompassing the soot and leaving a stack of papers in its place. As if caught in a controlled gust, they blew from the surface and organized themselves midair; levitating in a cloud of magic.

All of their once burnt notes were lined up before them, cyphers needed to crack their messages included.

Still beaming with innocence, it continued, "How about now? Look familiar?"

The blood drained from their faces, and Scar could have sworn his heart was going to burst from his chest with how hard it was drumming. He wanted to wake up, because this had to be a nightmare.

"No, we have no idea what those are," he tried.

LAIR!

Overlapping voices screamed in his head, all sounding in haunting unison. Scar hastily clapped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing to silence the uproar emanating from within.

You try to break our contract then lie to our faces?

Foolish concordats.

Terrible secret keepers, terrible subjects.

Cub seized hold of Scar's arm and made a break for the door with the brunet in tow, reaching the exit and tugging desperately on the handles. They refused to turn under his grasp, and his eyes darted back towards the Vex; floating creatures growing ever closer to their imaginary bubble providing them with the illusion of safety.

More of Them were phasing in through walls, forms non-corporeal and having no need for the sealed entryway.

Apologize.

They all ordered, Scar flinching at the simultaneous projection. He lowered his hands and turned towards Them, watching Their unmoving grins with wide eyes.

Kneel before your gods and divulge your prayers, we may just show you mercy.

"I'm sorry-" Scar whimpered, but Cub was having none of it.

"No!" the man barked, "Screw this! This isn't worth it! None of this is worth it! He's right! The business, the money, the power, it-- it means nothing! Not when you treat us like this!"

They watched him step forward, his furious yells echoing through the expanse of the room, "We're done! And we mean it! You're going to get us go or else!"

An orchestra of shrill cackles filled the air.

Oooh, it's angry.

They're fighting back!

Teach them a lesson.

"You won't dare make another-" Cub's retaliation was cut short with a cry, the bearded man dropping to the ground in a swift crash.

"Cub!" Scar called, but his attempt to step towards his friend was met only with a searing pain through his legs and the subsequent buckling of his knees. He fell to the marble, limbs heavy as if they'd been weighted. It took considerable force to balance on his arms, appendages left shaking as he peered back up towards the Vex.

He regretted it instantly.

•••

(Part two)

[carpstan]

hi @wasp-factor! i'm your secret santa. i just wanted to say how happy writing this fic for you made me - i love gakushuu too, even though i never had the chance to write about him before, hopefully it's in character. i know you like gakushuu/isogai, and i tried to include it in the fic (apparently i really like this ship, i never thought about it before). i hope you'll like it and, since we don't know each other, maybe we'll become friends. happy holidays!

Asano Gakushuu discovers the magic of Christmas

He had done it on purpose. There was no other possible explanation.

Winter holidays were approaching and the headmaster himself had given class A a social studies assignment about the influence of Christmas. Normally, Gakushuu would not have minded writing a paper on a topic that he deemed to be quite fascinating, but that was really not the case: the headmaster apparently thought it would be delightful to have everyone discuss a different aspect of the main theme, so joining all the students’ essays would result in a rich dissertation that would cover every little detail. The problem was the theme he got. 

According to the instructions he received, his task was to understand what made Christmas so appealing to people in terms of improvement of their mood and behaviour; in easier words, he had to investigate the odd phenomenon known as “the magic of Christmas”. Oh, and he had to provide actual evidence to support his thesis as well. He had to go on the streets and interview people. 

So, his father absolutely did that on purpose. Forcing him to reflect on a social event he considered not only pointless but plain out dumb, while also having him interact with random strangers who were likely just as dumb was an extremely clever way to torture him. Like that was not enough, he knew he could not complain about it with his friends, who he was sure considered him lucky and would have immediately said he got the best topic. The audacity.

It could have been literally anything else. And to say he was almost excited - no, not the right word. He was intrigued when the theme was announced. He had made some research on his own and he had stumbled upon an interesting article regarding the frailty of a consumist economy which revolves around a single month of extreme consumptions, he would have been ready and enthusiastic to write about it. Ren got that part instead. Now that was luck.

Well, he better start to plan out his actions. First of all, he was going to complain to his friends: they were not going to understand him, but he still needed to get rid of some frustration. Then he would start right away. The deadline was two weeks from then and he needed to get properly organised to avoid spending too much time on this project. The sooner he turned it in the better.

---

It was not going as well as he expected. He thought everything would have run as smoothly as usual, but he should have taken some factors into account. The problem was that for the first time in his life, he found himself in the unenviable position of talking about a topic he had no knowledge nor experience of. 

His father and he never celebrated Christmas, or any holiday to be fair. Their house was the only one in the neighbourhood, or maybe in the whole city, which was completely missing decorations. Once he was asked how he felt about it, and the truth was he did not feel anything at all. His family was not religious, and not believing in Jesus Christ sounded like a perfectly good reason not to celebrate his birth to him. He did not mind his house keeping its sobriety either; being exposed to flashing lights for more than two minutes gave him a mild headache, actually. He never thought it was sad, or whatever people said about those who did not celebrate, it was just behaving like usual in a time of the year which was just like any other period.

Still, he was having some troubles doing his deed. He had decided to start off with the interviews, since he knew from the beginning he would have had to rely on other people’s experiences, and also he wanted to get rid of the most distressful part first. That turned out not to be a good idea too.

Well, to be fair he did not have a choice. He just seemed to be particularly unlucky with the people he met. He tried his best to select those who looked more likely to actually answer his questions, but these last days also did their best to remind him the one thing he’s not good at: understanding others.

He wanted to develop a good thesis, so his intention was to gather information from people belonging to different social classes, age groups, gender, occupation and so on; he had thought that, if he had been able to analyse the phenomenon through different perspective, he would have also found the key to see the whole picture. Apparently he could have not been more wrong. 

Apart from being dragged down a rabbit hole of war stories and memories of a long dead man by an old lady, witnessing a college student have a full on mental breakdown and having a business woman tell him that her children were ruining her life and their expensive desires were driving her crazy - that would have been helpful, if only he had got the part about the economy - he received the same answers from everyone. And those were not answers he could work with.

A lot of his targets claimed that presents were the best part - both receiving and giving. It made sense, at least the part about receiving, because he really could not see the appeal of wandering all day through the streets - oh, the irony - looking for gifts and getting crazy while trying, and probably failing, to figure out what someone might appreciate. Again, it could have been an interesting take to explore for the economic aspect, but he should stop thinking about that.

No, the tradition of presents was actually a decent starting point, maybe it was kind of shallow and too closely connected with the intrinsic materialism of a consumerist society - okay, enough - and it was not completely clear to him why everyone was so obsessed with Christmas and not any other holiday if it was just about gifts, but he could make it work. What actually bothered him was the other answer he frequently received.

It was lights. People actually told him that they liked the little lights all over the buildings and all the other decorations. Lights. Was he supposed to say that what made the population radically change its habits and attitude in the month of December depended on lights? What is wrong with everyone?

Exchanging presents and “festive atmosphere” really was all he got. He could feel his average grade suffer. He was not going to let it happen, let alone because of a social studies assignment on the magic of Christmas. 

---

It was his fifth day of scanning the streets for someone who would give him some good material to work on. He had been reviewing his notes and the night before he had had an idea: it was his last resort, but time was running fast. Reluctantly, he made his decision. He was headed towards the 3E building and he intended to make a truce.   

When he did arrive at the building he could not find anyone. Class E was definitely odd, but how skilled each of them appeared to be at getting through that hell of a path down the mountain was beyond weird if you asked him. Maybe it was for the better, he thought. He would have found another way, he did not need any help, certainly not from them. 

Just as he was about to head back he noticed someone walking out of the building and towards him. Isogai arrived at the spot where he was standing fast, stopping at an appropriate distance before speaking.

- Asano-kun, I didn’t expect to see you. Do you need anything?

He did not look too happy to see him there, but he was very polite, just like it was expected from him. Isogai also seemed eager to know what brought him there, which was legitimate; he swallowed down his pride and forced himself to do what he came for. 

- Actually, yes, I do.

Gakushuu straightened his back before continuing.

- I’m writing an assignment for social studies about the social effects of Christmas and I need to interview some people. I haven’t received any satisfying answer so far, so, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?

Isogai was surprised by what he could tell. Fair, he thought. He was not aiming at him specifically, but any 3E student would have had the same reaction. Or a way less polite one. He had to admit, he was quite content having met him: he did not insult him and sent him away, which was already a lot, and Gakushuu did have some sort of respect for him, if he could call it that. He acknowledged he was smart and most importantly he was skillful enough to be able to use his intelligence to do a good job as class representative. He was from class E, so he mostly despised him, but a little less than he despised the others. 

- Of course. What is it?

He had hesitated for a couple of seconds before pronouncing the words, and Gakushuu guessed he had debated whether he should indulge in their conversation or not until the very last moment. 

- Do you consider Christmas important?

Isogai pondered his words upon answering.

- My family is Christian, but I’ll admit we don’t give much weight to the ritual celebration. Apart from that though, we do take Christmas seriously.

Gakushuu nodded slowly. Not religion then. He had already figured that bit on his own, religion might have been a relevant fuel in the past, but it could not get such an effect in these times. It was time to ask the infamous question then: he really hoped he was not going to hear presents and lights again; this really was his last resort.

- If not religion, what is it that makes Christmas so special? How is it different from any other holiday?

Isogai took yet another pause.

- Well, it is the only holiday that brings my whole family together. On Christmas day no one is at school, or at work, and even if it happened before that we had to spend it in the hospital, we still were all together.

A small smile was forming on his face as the words rolled out of his mouth; he may have not even realised the corners of his mouth rising ever so slightly.

- We also usually get to eat a meal that is a little more elaborate than our usual, and since we cook all together too it’s another chance to spend as much time as possible with each other without worrying about everyday’s problems. It’s the one day we can live completely carefree. And since everyone else tends to feel more generous, they leave higher tips, which is convenient.

Family. Was that the key? It was the message that also laid under those college students who mentioned some dishes that their relatives were going to cook and that they were looking forward to eating. He should have understood before, he told himself, but he knew he could not. He just could not. He was never going to understand what it really meant, he knew because he had forced himself to do it before. Even those times he had tried to picture a cohesive family, he still did not manage to get past the notion that the concept of family itself is supposed to be on a higher level than most things. Why would something one had no control over ever be so important? How could relationships decided by casuality alone be more relevant than those born out of mutual choice? It did not mean anything to him. He was never going to understand. 

But at least he had enough material to write a good essay now. He could have just thanked Isogai and left, but there was that last sentence he had said. He did not think too much before opening his mouth again.

- Don’t you think that’s hypocritical?

Isogai now gave him a full, conscious smile, even though it had a shade he could not quite place: it looked almost sympathetic. He shrugged before finally replying.

- Maybe it is, but I’m not in a position to judge, if anybody is.

Gakushuu was not sure about what he should do with that statement. It was something to think about.

- Alright, that’s all I needed. Thank you, Isogai-kun.

---

Gakushuu did not write the essay right away. Instead, he took his time to adjust all the information he had gathered. He did not take any notes while talking to Isogai, but he soon realised that was not going to be an issue at all: he remembered all his words perfectly, he noticed, and he proceeded to write them down in the evening. 

Later, he caught himself thinking about that conversation more than once. They did not even say much, and he wished they had taken some more time. Speaking with Isogai again was something he would have liked; they did not have much in common, but he still thought they might have some interesting discussions, if only they had the chance. 

He actually ended up handing in his paper on the last day. It was not usual for him, or, to be honest, it should be said it had never happened before. He knew he had made excellent work.

---

It was not evening yet, but the sun had set long ago. The sky was clear and a soft yet glacial wind was blowing; Christmas lights seemed brighter when the moon was not high up in the sky, drowning the stars themselves with their overwhelming glow. After a careful analysis, Gakushuu was confident in confirming that he hated them, and the flashing ones still gave him a mild headache. How all those people could appreciate them was forever going to be a mystery. 

Mindlessly walking through the city centre, he was still thinking about that assignment. It had kept him occupied for a good portion of time,  and he was glad it was now something he did not have to worry about anymore. As he was passing close to a café, something at the corner of his eye caught his attention. He stopped by the side of the street, unsure of the reason, and peeked through the café’s window: there he saw Isogai serving a couple of elders with a warm smile on his face. He was working hard, probably, no, surely looking forward to spending the next day with his mother and siblings. The man he had just served handed him what looked like a very generous tip, and his mind trailed back to that one conversation again. He could not understand Isogai’s situation either, he had to admit it, at least to himself. At the moment, it felt okay. Realising he could not understand everything for once did not feel like a tremendous crime he had to atone for. It actually seemed to him that he could empathise with Isogai, just for a second, and despite knowing it was nothing but an ephemeral feeling that was going to be gone in a flash, it made him feel well. Maybe poor people deserved rights, after all.

Then Isogai noticed and his face went pale. Gakushuu did not immediately interpret that reaction correctly, but he soon became aware of what his presence there had meant in the past: he thought he was going to tell his father about it. 

Isogai excused himself and rushed outside to meet him without even bothering to grab a coat and started talking before Gakushuu had the chance to clarify his intentions. 

- Asano-kun, I know I shouldn’t be working but I really-

- I’m not going to report you to the headmaster.

Gakushuu interrupted him immediately. Isogai did look significantly relieved.

- I was just passing by. But since I’m here I wanted to thank you for helping with my assignment. It was an interesting conversation.

Isogai’s eyes were wide open - he almost looked like a deer caught in the headlights. But soon he started to warm up and reserved him a smile similar to the one he gave to the clients in the café.

- Oh, I’m glad I was helpful. It was interesting indeed.

Gakushuu could almost feel himself starting to smile in the moments of silence that followed, which he hurriedly broke. 

- Well, it’s cold. You should head back inside.

He quickly said then. Isogai was almost shivering actually, but he looked somehow pleased. Gakushuu suspected he had seen him smiling, but he could not be sure.

- Yeah, that’s right. Merry Christmas then, Asano-kun.

He greeted him; his smile might have been brighter than those Christmas lights.

- Merry Christmas, Isogai-kun.

He really did not despise him that much.

---

After leaving the café, Gakushuu decided to head home. The walk was not long and he deemed it quite relaxing. He was not paying a lot of attention to the familiar buildings of his neighbourhood: everything was in place, just as it was when he had left the house in the morning. 

Except there was a difference, a small detail that could have gone unnoticed and that most people had surely missed, but which appeared like a massive change to his eyes: on his house’s front door there was a Christmas wreath. It was small and quite simple, but it was there. He stared at it for what might have been a whole minute before snapping out of the shock and entering the house. 

He found his father sitting on the sofa reading a book like nothing had happened, but he was the only person who could have put it there. 

- What does it mean?

Gakushuu asked as soon as he arrived in the living room, without bothering to greet him first.

- What is it? 

His father asked, his eyes still fixed on the book in his hands. 

- The Christmas wreath on the front door, what about it?

- I don’t know what you’re talking about. 

Gakushuu stared at his father for a handful of seconds, before huffing what sounded like a “whatever” and going straight to his room. There, he allowed himself to smile.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | IN SESSION WITH ROB SATO

From vibrant rainbows to familiar yet alien landscapes occupied by strange beings, LA based artist Rob Sato’s works are filled with creative energy in a loose minimalistic style. From watercolor, digital medium to acrylics and oil, Rob’s artworks and illustrations have been shown in various galleries from Giant Robot 2 to the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, where recently his original paintings for a comic called 442 were exhibited. We’re excited to chat with Rob about his work, his various collaborations and what he’s got coming up for the rest of the year.  Take the Leap!

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself Hello, my name is Rob Sato. I’m an artist, illustrator, and writer. Something people might not know about me is that I was a kid I was so fanatical about the Oakland A’s that when they lost in the World Series I threw a tantrum so big that I destroyed my bedroom and after that I felt so stupid I quit following baseball. Also, I’m told I have maybe one of the great poop stories of the world. It can only be related in person, so ask me about it sometime if we ever meet.

How would you describe your work and style? Eclectic? Kaleidoscopic? I’ve never had a concise answer to this question. I tend not to pin myself down because I think if I did, I’d stop making things. 

Art is my outlet for the cryptic and obscure as well as the gushing spillover of foolish idealism and wild fantasy. It’s the only place I’ve ever found where you can healthily play with unhealthy thoughts, where you can explore undefined emotions, things that lurk out in the corners of consciousness that may be embarrassing or uncontrollable.

I love to make entertainment and decorative work, things that tend to be obvious, that communicate very clearly and reveal all their cards, but I also love to make work that hides things, that actively resists easy understanding or recognition and risks being super personal or unrelatable and strange. This can make things difficult, especially in the ongoing deterioration of attention spans, but I can’t help but pursue things outside of a pop sensibility and logical thought. I have to be, much of the time, in mental wildernesses. It’s hard to get there, hard to be there, and hard to come back, but it keeps me going.

Tell us about how you really started getting into art, and how that turned into what you do now? Was it something you always intended to pursue? I’ve drawn every single day for as long as I can remember. I never really thought about it. It just seems to be what I do. It’s how I have fun, how I solve problems, how I think. I’ve wanted to pursue other things like make movies or write books, but I always find myself drawing. Before I know it, it’s time for bed again.

When you are working on a new piece or upcoming exhibition or show? What’s your process like? What themes do you find yourself taking on? I explode. I used to plan things in a very directed way, but lately I’ve just let my brains spill out everywhere. I make a ton of drawings and paintings, and try my best to be fearless and open. Most of it produces failure after failure, but it shows me what might be worth building on, plus many exciting surprises reveal themselves in the process. As a show nears I start seeing what things fit together, what needs to be edited out, and how it all might form a cohesive exhibition. Sometimes the subject matter is the glue that makes everything stick, other times it’s the aesthetics. Alongside the explosion I usually have 2 or 3 pieces going at any given time that I’ve had long term plans for. These pieces can take take months or even years. 

Thematically I’m all over the place. War and peace, realism and surrealism, grim realities and escapism, sober observations and dumb jokes.

What are some of your go-to art making materials? Are there mediums you want to explore that you’ve yet to get your hands on? I feel pretty comfortable with anything you can use to make a mark on a piece of paper. I’ve mainly used watercolor and various drawing tools for the past several years. I’m been having fun with acrylics and oils again, and I’ve started to play around with photography a little. I’ve had ideas for sculpture and film for years that I’d really like to finally get to. What I really want to get my hands on is more time.

Where do you find inspiration? What kind of things or people inspire what you make? Watching someone pick their nose listening to headphones and singing softly to themselves in line at the grocery store. Just watching my cat live her weird life. Even though the final artwork may not really show it, these places are usually where my ideas originate. Art has also been a place where I can put memories that have some abstract need to be recorded.

I made this series of drawings called “Bad Hands”, which started out with me laughing at these dumb hands I was drawing with academically incorrect anatomy. Abandoning correctness felt so good. In the process it triggered a memory from High School. I had been forbidden from drawing in one of my classes, so I was contorting my hands into different shapes at my desk to amuse myself. There was a hysteria over gang activity in the school at the time and the teacher freaked out thinking I was throwing gang signs and I ended up getting sent to detention. 

At detention I was talking with a friend and made fun of the teacher for her mistake. A kid who was in a gang overheard and then HE misunderstood and thought I was making fun of gangs or something. On my way home from school he and a couple dudes punched and kicked me for a bit while I tried and failed to explain. I think it’s funny. 

So embedded in that piece is this tumbling series of misunderstandings, these multiple layers of hands being perceived as bad, speaking in an absurd language that communicates different things to different people. I know people aren’t going to see all those layers in the final piece, but that’s where it comes from and I hope it at least sparks some thoughts about talking with our hands, and where else can you follow this kind of train of thought except in art?

I get inspired by artists who seem to approach art as an intuitive discovery process rather than a  pursuit of mastery, that play is one of the more important aspects of making things. My wife, Ako, has been a huge influence on me in this respect. She’s continuously playing with various materials around her at any given time and finding out what she can do with them. Everywhere she goes she abandons a nest made of fresh creations she’s manifested out of mud, string, packaging, plants, uneaten rice, her used drinking straw, lint and whatever else was within her reach

You’ve done a lot of collaborations with companies, museums and art galleries. Do you have a favorite collaboration, and what about the collaboration do you enjoy the most? I’ve recently been collaborating with Tiny Splendor, an indie publisher and printer who have studios in LA and Oakland. It’s been really great working with them, Cynthia Navarro in LA on risographs, and with Max Stadnik, who runs the print shop in Oakland. 

Max has been returning to lithography, my favorite traditional printing medium, and he printed a piece of mine inspired by mushrooms called “Growerings". It’s a full 5 color print, which means it took five separate plates and each print had to go through the press 5 times. It turned out more beautifully than I could have hoped for. Litho is a super difficult but also very fun process and the results are so rich. 

I think I particularly love this collaboration because the image fits the medium so well, and the combination of the two elevates the final piece of work, When it works, the artwork and the print become more than just an image on a piece of paper. It’s more alive in some undefinable way.

Since we’re called Art School, we always ask the artists to give us their favorite art tip? Never force the thing you think you want, you’ll probably miss out on the really interesting thing that’s happening. Also, don’t drink too much coffee. I have trouble taking both of these pieces of my own advice every day.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making stuff? How do you chill out? I read and run. I love coffee and I love gossip and talking nonsense with friends. Also, I cannot stop watching Terrace House.

What is the last art show that you went to? What artists should folks keep an eye out for? I recently went to the Velveteria in LA’s Chinatown, which is one man’s collection of paintings on velvet. A very entertaining and very fucked up experience. I went to a life drawing session at Subliminal Projects and got to draw surrounded by Chad Kouri’s fun abstracts. I’m actually typing this interview inside an art show right now. 

I’m here at my wife, Ako Castuera’s, show “Soil” at the Weingart Gallery at Occidental College. We’re here feeding worms. She sculpted this beautiful ceramic vermiculture composter for the show. It’s a grand temple for worms. The show is an act of gratitude for the exchange we have with the soil which provides the clay for ceramics, and for the worms who turn decay into healthy earth to grow new life in. 

She sculpted a menagerie of creatures out of the worm poop that also populate the show. Super fun. Speaking of Ako and Subliminal, her show there with Hellen Jo and Kris Chau this past December was one of those once-in-a-lifetime powerhouse gathering of forces. That may have been the best show I’ve ever seen.

What advice would you give someone thinking about following in your footsteps? What’s something you learned that you want to pass along to art making newbies. Don’t listen to advice if it is extremely quotable. Pay no attention to it especially if it accompanies a photo of a famous artist and fits perfectly into an instagram post. If it’s easy to remember then it’s probably empty, crap inspiration. Those things are entertainments and not words to live by.

 If you’re interested in making art you’ll keep making it. It takes day in, day out patience and exploration and mutation to discover how you really work, not some idea of how an artist works. 

Sometimes it will be very hard, sometimes it will be so breathtakingly easy you think that your problems have been solved forever. Neither situation ever lasts, but cultivate and nurture your curiosity and what you love, and you’ll find ways to make it through the rough times and keep on making things one way or another.

Who are some of your favorite artists to follow and/or see in a show? Lately I’ve been really enjoying the work of Nathaniel Russell whose work makes this great space where funny, grounded matter-of-factness and sweet nothingness sit comfortably together. His drawing also reminds me of Ben Shahn, my all-time favorite drawer. 

I really like Amy Bennet’s oils, these intimate studies of isolation in suburbia where mundanity overlaps with quiet drama and melancholy. Her work obliquely reminds me of Edwin Ushiro’s work, though his stuff is the opposite of melancholic. He captures almost incidental but haunted moments from growing up in Hawaii and infuses them with warmth, and it’s in a style influenced in a super personal way by animation. It reminds me of Satoshi Kon’s movies in its well observed, slice-of-life elements. Edwin’s sketchbooks are a treasure too.  Esther Pearl Watson’s recent autobiographical paintings, Hellen Jo’s latest badass watercolors, Amber Wellman’s funny, playful oil paintings, and Matthew Palladino’s watercolors are also favorites. 

Megan Whitmarsh’s work is some of my favorite to see in person. Her installation with Jade Gordon at the Hammer’s “Made In LA “ show was maybe the funnest work I’ve ever seen and interacted with. I went to see the Ai Wei Wei show at the Marciano Foundation, which I thought was impressive in scale and execution but still somehow lame, but I stumbled on a Mike Kelley installation/ video piece I’d never seen before in the upstairs collection and loved it so much, but I can’t remember the name of it at the moment. 

It’s 2 videos shown side by side of the same guy wearing a cape singing almost the same song simultaneously, but each version has different words at different points. It’s a love song but one version is more bitter and mean and one is sickly sweet. Anyway, highly recommended!

What do you have coming up the rest of the year that you can share with us?  For just a few more days there’s a show up at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with a bunch of my original paintings for a comic I illustrated about the 442, the Japanese American Army unit of World War II. Plus it has some personal work about Japanese American Incarceration and images from my family’s experience in the concentration camps. My grandfather was incarcerated in the Arkansas camps, and he was a soldier in the 442. 

Next up, I’m in a slew of group shows all happening within a few weeks of each other this month. Poor scheduling on my part as usual, but it’s nice to be invited to so many. I just sent off my piece to the “Seeing Red” show curated by Jeff Hamada of the BOOOOOOOM art and culture blog. That show will be at Thinkspace in LA. Giant Robot has been kind enough to host another solo show for me in September. 

I’ve been busy experimenting with some more 3d stuff that pushes the more narrative side of my work which I hope to show there. We’ll see how the experiments turn out. I’ve also been working on a ton of prints and ideas for books. This year I want to focus on working in print, making zines and comics, and writing a lot more. 

FOLLOW ROB | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | SHOP 

[archerofthemists]

The Night We Met

I am not the only traveler

Who has not repaid his debt

I've been searching for a trail to follow again

Take me back to the night we met

It was cold. Autumn was turning to winter and the nights were getting uncomfortable. 

Althea knew she had to find a village to settle in soon. It had been days since she'd last come across one and she was low on food. Animals seemed to be scarce, or else she would have put an arrow through something and cooked it.

She was exhausted from the day's travel. Fighting off the occasional Grimm had left her drained and without rest and food her aura was taking longer to replenish. 

Althea gave up, her legs felt like jelly and her stomach was aching from hunger. Oh well, it wasn't the first time she'd gone to bed on an empty stomach. 

She sat beneath a tree as she caught her breath. She told herself that she needed to gather wood for a fire, but she was just…so...tired…

It took all she had to nock an arrow on her bow, Death's Sigh and rest the weapon in her lap, so if trouble were to come by she'd be ready.

The moment she rested her head back on the tree she was out.

Red specks of blood decorated pale skin. Purple eyes faded back to gold as the man sighed with content, looking over the hunters and huntress he'd just slaughtered. They'd put up a nice fight, and he would have his share of scars from this, but oh it was worth it.

He hummed softly as he wiped the blood from his face and slipped away into the dark. He felt so alive. Giddy even. The light of the broken moon shining down and the smell of damp rotting leaves filling his nose. Tyrian didn't think his night could get any better. He stood corrected.

When he first stumbled upon the sleeping woman he was taken aback. She seemed like such easy prey. Was this some kind of trap? Could she already be dead? No, she was breathing.

Tyrian could have killed her in just two seconds if he wanted to, but he had become too curious. Besides, it was far more fun to screw around with his victims before killing them. Where was the fun in killing someone while they slept?

"You're a monster." Those were the words that Althea woke up from. They lingered in her sleep hazed brain. They were familiar words, ones that were branded into her brain. She'd come to accept them.

In her haze, Althea didn't realize what was wrong at first. She was warm and cozy and wanted to go back to sleep.

So warm…

Warm.

Her eyes flew open and she grabbed for Death's Sigh but it wasn't in her lap anymore.

As she had slept someone had built a small campfire. Not only that but a long brown jacket had been draped over her, but she'd tossed it aside as she'd scrambled up.

Her green eyes land on the laughing man who was sitting opposite her, her bow in his lap.

"You're so cute when you're panicking. " he coos.

"Who the fuck are you?" Althea hissed through her gritted teeth.

"My, such language from a young lady." The man chuckled. Althea's eyes quickly assessed him. He was older than her, maybe in his mid thirties. Pale with golden eyes and dark hair as long as her own, twisted back in a single braid.

He wore weapons on his arms, blades that reminded her of pinchers on some arachnids. And then she noticed something dark and long behind him, something moving like a snake...

He was a faunus. A scorpion faunus, who still had his stinger. Althea knew that was rare, not just his traits, but the fact that he still had them. She'd heard of some faunus having their traits -especially venomous ones-  removed in hate crimes, with claims of "protecting the people". 

The tail curled out of sight behind his body and Althea's eyes dart up to meet his.

"Who are you?" She asks again.

"Why dear lady, my name is Tyrian." He says, his fingers running along the string of her bow. "I already know who you are, Althea Lynch."

Tyrian held up her scroll and smirked as he waved it at her teasingly before tossing it in a high arc over the fire and she caught it. 

"I see you're not a huntress." 

"I am when I need to be." Althea held her scroll tightly as she watched Tyrian. Her whole body was tense. What was with this guy?

"What do you want?" Althea asks.

"Is that how you thank someone? It's no wonder you're out here all alone." Tyrian giggles.

"I'm alone because I like it that way. Why are YOU alone?" Althea hisses. Her body stayed rigid as her eyes never left his. She knew she was no match for this stranger, not in her condition at the moment. But if he made a move, she wasn't going down without a fight.

"My current duties are best performed when I'm alone." He smirks as his slender fingers kept grazing over Althea's precious bow. "But I'm not always alone, no, not like you little archer."

"You don't know me." Althea scoffed.

"You're not denying it." Tyrian sing-songs. The smile on his lips was almost warm, inviting. He seemed nice, he'd built a fire and placed his coat on Althea while she slept, but despite all of this there was nothing but malevolence radiating from this guy.

"What do you want from me?" She asks. "I have no money, no food, nothing valuable."

Tyrian chuckles and waves a hand like batting away flies. "I don't care about such material objects. There are far more valuable aspects in life."

"Can you give me a straight answer?" Althea was exasperated. She was already aching all over and now she was getting a headache going around and around with this guy.

Tyrian's smirk fell. "You're no fun." He sighs.

"When I'm injured and starving, no I'm not." Althea shot back. "Look...if you wanna kill me, kill me. I have no fight left in me."

Tyrian was quiet. His golden eyes wandered over Althea and she could tell he was debating with himself. Soon a grin spreads over his face and he cocks his head.

"How would you like to not be alone anymore?"

[sistertzipster-blog]

Hello my fellow Tumblr, if you are in the mood to have read a taste of my upcoming novel Once She Called Me Darling I have posted both the synopsis and random excerpt from this  tale of tragedy, love and magic! 

Any feedback negative and positive are welcome! Thank you 

Synopsis: 

Many stories begin their tale with a dialogue, an introduction of an event or scene, or a voice that narrates the story in one’s mind waiting for it to unfold into the unknown. My story has been written many times over, it has been produced onto the stage such as Broadway and even journeyed to Hollywood and has been re recreated many times with slightly different twists and subplots.....however despite peoples attempts to portray me in the magical, whimsical, mischievous sense, no one has ever asked ''who is he, how did he become the person he evolved to be?''

Most people are quite content to believe that I was born selfish and disturbed; others simply don't care enough to even entertain the question. They are perfectly happy with that I was a born monster.....someone who his parents abandoned as an infant and left me somewhere. If that were the case I wouldn't be writing any of this....if it were true I wouldn't have gone the great lengths to find myself a home, a haven, the only place I belonged and at great sacrifice.

Some of you probably have guessed my name, and maybe some are left wondering who this very person is dictating their tale onto these pages.....

My name was William Pennington; born in England 1665 the son of a wealthy barrister....we will start when he is at the nice age of sixteen in his childhood home, Cambridge 1681....

Excerpt from Chapter One: 

I woke up to find myself yet again on the mysterious island. Titom was always there to welcome me...''Ah William it is always a pleasure to see you return'' said Titom in greeting. ''Yes'' I exclaimed happy to see my old friend. ''You know, today is my birthday, and I have invited all the creatures here to celebrate with me, would you like to join?'' asked Titom. I nodded excitedly. ''How do creatures such as yourselves celebrate birthdays?'' I asked my curiosity and excitement brimming....''Oh! It is great fun, we play music, build a bonfire, dance around it and eat as many berries as possible! I think you will like it...'' replied Titom. ''I am honored to attend when should I come by?'' I asked. ''We will begin at sunset, you can come with Grigorn, he knows where to meet everyone'' with that said Titom walked away. I felt my blood rushing through my body, I was not only thrilled to be invited to an island event but the atmosphere of the island accelerated me once more and as tradition would have it I ran through the jungle; I even swung through vines, climbed trees and jumped from branch to branch....when I went to the pond to drink some water I had found the goblet sitting there, I assumed I absently left it there and it was sitting by the edge of the pond waiting for me....I picked it up and filled it with the water. I then realized that I should bring some sort of a gift. Although I didn't know if it was custom here to bring gifts I decided to think of one anyway. I tried to imagine something that he might appreciate from England, however nothing seemed to fit.....I decided to walk around the jungle, perhaps it would clear my head and I would come up with an idea.....it was a bit colder today than it was the last time I was here....so I gathered some sticks for a small fire. Even though in England I had never made a fire or camped in the wood I somehow understood survival skills only on this island....when I had gathered enough wood I was about to dump it where I wanted the fire to be....I then noticed something about the sticks I picked.....they were perfect, smooth, and a deep shade of chestnut.....my mind suddenly felt a rush of an impulse a drive that I could not explain.....I placed the sticks down and ran back to the beach.....I collected a few of the most beautiful rocks I could find and tore off a few vines. I went back to my spot and was glad to find that the sticks were still there. I sat down and realized that I needed a small knife and lo and behold a knife appeared in my hands. It was an exquisite carving knife, the hand seemed to be made of some bone and ivory with blue, black and purple designs.....I then began my project. I cut the sticks so that the ends were even, I then placed the sticks I selected all beside each other and cut them to size but each one was taller than the other....I then took each stick and made them hollow.....I set my knife down and began crushing the rocks, this did take some time but eventually the powder was a beautiful shade of green.....I shaved the outer layer of the vine and cut it to the length of the sticks sitting beside one another, when I was satisfied by its size I dipped the vine into the powder and covered it and shook off the remainder dust.....I didn't think it would work but somehow the powder stuck to the vines perfectly and the color was mesmerizing.....I wrapped the vine around sticks and then shaved another part of the vine to create a string like material and tied the green belt around the sticks. They weren't sticking together as I hoped and tried to think of a way to make everything glue together. From the corner of my eye I felt something dripping onto my head. I put my hand on my head and felt something incredibly sticky. I looked up and saw that it was coming from the tree I was sitting under. I thought fast, I grabbed my knife and poked a small hole from the tree and a gush of tree sap flowed out. I didn't need much of it....I then picked up a leaf and used it as a brush that I dipped into the sap and was able to stick all the wooden pipes together plus the vine belt....I was happy with my creation. I then wanted to see if I indeed made a real instrument. I held whatever it was in my hand and began to blow into the pipes. Nothing came out except for air.....I tried again and indeed nothing.....I was disappointed but it still was a nice decorative piece. The earth began to tremble beneath me, I wasn't sure what to do....was this an earthquake? I then heard loud hoof beats and slowly turned to find the centaurs stampeding. I was still holding my instrument in my hands and was cognizant not to drop it as I jumped out of the way. The centaurs must have recognized me for they stopped abruptly. ''You can come out William'' shouted Rumus, the centaur who was close to my age...at least in centaur years. I clambered out and greeted all of them. ''Hi Rumus, how are you?'' I asked, Rumus was one of the friendlier centaurs. He had long brown hair that glistened in the sunlight and his eyes changed colour depending on his mood, that was common amongst the centaurs. ''What brings you to our island?'' asked Rumus. ''I don't know, I just like to visit often I guess'' I replied. It was hard to describe that I was just dreaming and how Rumus wasn't actually real....how would you describe that to a centaur? ''You must be here because it's Titoms birthday!'' remarked Rumus. ''Yes, I even made him a gift'' I said proudly holding up my wooden instrument. Rumus peered at it, and smiled. ''I don't know what it is, but it certainly is quite lovely, I think Titom would like it very much'' exclaimed Rumus. ''Are you attending his celebration?'' I asked. ''Yes, of course, all the creatures celebrate each other even if we don't know them personally'' commented Rumus.....''Would you like to ride on my back today William?'' asked Rumus. I nodded and hopped on. ''So that your extraordinary gift does not break I have a string, made out of centaur mane, how about you tie it around my neck'' offered Rumus. I nodded and placed my gift onto the string, it was very thick but felt silky nonetheless. Once it was secured Rumus immediately took off along with his herd! It was no different than riding a horse, however Rumus seemed to float rather than the bumpiness of a horses gallop. We ran through meadows, streams, and climbed mountains....centaurs ran up mountains with ease as if it were a mote rather than a mountain. This was a unique quality of the centaur, they can gallop up mountains without breaking a sweat, the best though was yet to come....Once we reached the peek of the mountain all the centaurs stood close to its edge. Unlike horses centaurs could jump with grace and with little effort from mountain top to mountain top! The leader always starts and lunged himself and the rest followed. I held onto Rumus terrified yet didn't want to back down. ''Are you ready?'' asked Rumus. ''Yes I squeaked'' Rumus smirked. ''Do not worry human, just hold on tight and if you do fall just simply believe and you can fly yourself to safety.....now lets go!'' Rumus jumped and time seemed to run in slow motion....my stomach flopped and my grip on Rumus's neck tightened.....I was amazed and petrified of the view, I was at eye level with the clouds that were pink and yellow....the mountain tops were far below me yet I could see the exotic flowers waving in the breeze and the rocky terrain. I suddenly felt a diving sensation when Rumus soared downward toward land. I screamed in horror and the most amazing feeling that always felt new even though this wasn't the first time doing this with Rumus. I marvelled at how centaurs could be hundreds of meters in the air and still land on their feet....I fell off of Rumus and laid down on the grass. ''I can always catch up with my herd later, lets take a break!'' said Rumus. We laid on the grass together and gazed up at the sky. ''Do humans have a world like this?'' asked Rumus. ''Not at all, my land is much more boring, we do have creatures there but there is no magical aspect'' I replied. ''Sounds extremely dull'' Rumus remarked. ''Yes, it can be at times, but there we have other yet simpler amusements'' I said. Rumus and I both dozed off, I woke to the hoof of Rumus...''Wake up William.....it is time!'' I then remembered Titoms birthday and quickly made haste. I jumped onto Titoms back and the two of us journeyed to the center of the island. When we arrived I clambered down from Rumus and observed the scene.... I noticed Grigorn and his flock sitting on the grass relaxed, there was the rest of Rumus's herd mingling with the Pegasus. I also recognized the unicorns, griffins, chimeras, jackal-opes and the mermaids, who have the ability to come on land and their fins turn into legs! It was marvelous seeing all the island creatures together in one place. Titom was being assisted by a few jackal-opes with setting up the bonfire. I walked over to him. ''Happy birthday Titom!'' I said. He turned and beamed at me and came over to me. ''William it certainly is an honor to have you at my festivities....come, help me with the bonfire'' Titom suggested. I helped with the bonfire and when it was ready to light a dragon appeared, his name was Kelisius as I recall from my visits beforehand.....he lit the bonfire and the flames danced in the darkness. Other fauns appeared too holding small drums and what seemed to be fiddles, which is when I remembered my gift. I found Rumus and lifted the pipes from the centaur hair that was holding it. I then approached Titom....''Titom, in my land it is tradition to hand a friend a gift for their birthday, thus I made you this'' I then presented it to him. Titom seemed quite amused. ''It is certainly a creative and decorative piece.....it seems like its an instrument?'' Titom asked. ''Yes, yes it...well was....I tried making music from it by blowing into the pipes, but I couldn't perhaps you can'' I said. Titom smiled and began blowing into the pipes.....the music that came forth from the instrument was extraordinary, I had never heard music such as that. Just then the other fauns began tapping their drums and Titom played the pipes merrily. All the beasts began dancing around the bonfire and singing along to the melodies. The tunes were light and full of joy and mystery. Kelisius even did wonderful tricks and visuals with his fire, scenes of fauns dancing jigs, and beautiful dragons dancing an ancient dance from thousands of years ago.....the intriguing mystical images remained in my mind in times to come. 

[hella-free-space]

How did you start your fish tank? I'd ;like to start one up myself but I have no idea where to start... Any tips or pointers?

Hello there anon! Thank you for the ask :DD

I’ve got tons of tips and pointers for ya :3 Below I’ll explain the basics of fishkeeping, the stuff that generally applies to all freshwater fish tanks like the basic supplies you’ll need to gather and explain the nitrogen cycle! (I’m not sure about saltwater stuff, though, as I haven’t gotten into that part of the hobby…yet ;p) The species you want to keep will dictate the specifics of your tank, beyond the basics, though, so keep that in mind going forward! :)

The Basic Supplies:- Tank- Filter- Heater/Chiller (if required)- Thermometer- Substrate (optional)- Décor/Hides- Water Test Kit

Tanks:Choose a tank that is sufficient in size for the species you plan on keeping! Long tanks are almost always better than tall tanks, as fish swim side-to-side and not up-and-down :) If this is your first ever fish tank, I’d start out with a fish tank no smaller than 5 or 10 gallons, if not larger! Larger volumes of water hold a stable cycle more easily! :)Filtration:There are three main types of filtration: mechanical/physical, biological, and chemical. Mechanical filtration is what filters out particles from the water, large or small. Biological filtration refers to the nitrifying bacteria that perform the nitrogen cycle! Chemical filtration is filtration that helps to take certain chemicals out of the water.Types of Filters:- Hang-On-Back (HOB) filters hang on the lip of the tank. They have a ‘media basket’ where the filter media goes (usually cartridges). If you buy a filter that requires filter cartridges, I recommend replacing those with a ceramic media, sponge media, or both since you’ll have to replace the cartridge eventually and that can disrupt your cycle. Fluval AquaClear filters are a great HOB filter for larger tanks, and come with sponge (physical, biological filtration), ceramic (biological filtration), and carbon media (chemical filtration)!- Sponge filters are great for fish and other aquatic animals that prefer (or require) low-flow! These filters are basically blocks of sponge hooked up to an air pump. The air pump forces air up through the sponge, creating a vacuum that sucks up particles (mechanical filtration) and water (biological filtration). The air is forced out the top of the sponge, creating bubbles that agitate the surface, aiding in gas exchange!-Canister filters are like HOB filters on steroids. Instead of a ‘media basket’ you get a literal ‘media bucket’ (biological, chemical, mechanical filtration). A canister filter (also called an external filter) is placed somewhere outside the tank, and doesn’t hang on the lip like a HOB does. Its great if you don’t want to see your filter or if you need a ton of filtration for a larger tank :p Mini canister filters also exist, if you’d like one for a smaller tank :)- Undergravel Filters are something I’ve heard pretty mixed reviews about, and I’ve never personally used one. They’re usually grated, plastic, thin hollow block filters that you put under the substrate of your aquarium (I believe gravel works best with these filters, as I assume using sand or another small-particle substrate would fall into the filter? someone please correct me if I’m wrong .-.). They may provide enough surface area for nitrifying bacteria (biological filtration) if you have a very small bioload, or if you could fill them with some type of media…these are probably the most painful to clean, though, since you’d have to take apart your entire tank…Heaters & Chillers:Your fish may require a heater or chiller! If they do, its for good reason. Fish are ectothermic (like reptiles), meaning that they rely on their environment to help them regulate body temperature. (Humans like you and me are endothermic, meaning that we can produce our own body heat/regulate our body’s temperature.)A fish that is too cold will become lethargic, stressed, and may refuse to eat. Temperature affects bodily processes as well, such as digestion, circulation, and metabolism regulation. Temperatures that are colder will slow down these bodily processes and warmer temperatures will usually do the opposite. Because improper temperature is stressful for any fish, they will experience a suppressed immune system as well, and will be more susceptible to illnesses as a result :/Some fish require heaters/higher temperatures to function properly (Bettas, tetras, other tropical fish). Some fish require no heater, or the addition of chiller, to function properly (goldfish, minnows, danios). As a general rule of thumb, heaters should be 5-10 watts per gallon. Adjustable heaters are always more reliable than non-adjustable heaters. Adjustable heaters also usually have thermostats, so they turn on and off automatically to ensure that the aquarium’s temperature stays constant(ish). Usually you don’t need a chiller unless you’re keeping a temperate- or cold-water species and where you live it doesn’t get below the high 70s all year.

Thermometer:Yes it’s necessary! You need to be able to monitor what temperature your tank is, whether you have a heater, chiller, or neither :) Even if you have an adjustable heater with a thermostat, it may not be accurate to +/-1 degree. Avoid those strip-sticker thermometers. They’re not very accurate :/ You can buy glass ones at Walmart for about 1.50$ though! :p

Substrate:There are lots of different substrates to choose from! Gravel, sand, plant substrate (like fluorite), or no substrate at all! Some substrates are ‘inert’ (don’t affect pH or other parameters) some substrates are ‘active’ (affect pH or other parameters). Some aquatic species have a very specific range of pH/KH/GH, like shrimp, and may require substrates that help you achieve that range of values. Some species require certain substrates for their health and safety, like corydoras, which require sand (or barebottom) as gravel and other rough substrates can cut up their tummies or injure their barbels. If the species you keep doesn’t require any special substrate, then choose whatever substrate you like best! It’s your tank! Have fun with it! :)

Décor:One of the funnest (idc if funnest isn’t a word *3*) part of setting up an aquarium is decorating it!! Some fish have delicate fins (like bettas) that require either live or silk (material, non-plastic) plants and décor devoid of sharp edges. Hides are also important. Providing adequate caves and cover for your fish to hide in/feel safe in/explore is the functional aspect of décor. Make sure you’re meeting your animal’s needs :) Other than making sure that your décor is safe and functional for the creatures you plan to keep, go full ham!! Crazy color gravel with wacky colors and glow in the dark caves or an aquascaped, planted tank with driftwood and rocks! :D

Water Test Kit:In order for you to maintain the health of your fish, you’ll need to know what your water parameters are :) You should at least test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and pH. You may need to test for other things like copper, KH, or GH depending on the species you’re keeping. A liquid test kit (like the API Freshwater Master Kit) is easy to read and very accurate :) (plus you get to use test tubes n stuff…like the lil fish scientist you are *3*)

The Nitrogen Cycle!*ALL* fish (yes that includes bettas…and all animals for that matter) produce waste. Because all aquatic animals produce waste, they require (biological) filtration of some sort to process that waste.Fish produce waste in the form of ammonia. Ammonia is toxic above 0ppm (parts per million). So you’ve got all this ammonia floating around in the water, right? and you’ve got water running through your filter…so these bacteria start growing all over your fish tank, wherever there’s water flow, but we want to concentrate on the bacteria that are growing in your filter media. This bacteria will be processing the waste that your fish or aquatic animal produces :)So your fish produced some waste, and it’s floating around in the water as ammonia. The first bacteria (#1) that grows will ‘eat’ the ammonia and then ‘poop’ out nitrites.Nitrites are also toxic to aquatic animals above 0ppm though :/ so then another bactiera (#2) grows and it ‘eats’ these nitrites that are floating around in the water and ‘poops’ out nitrates.Nitrates are safe for fish (up to 20ppm)! :D Since there’s no bacteria that’s going to grow to eat these nitrates that are in the water, we have to physically remove them by doing a water change. A helpful post about water changes, how they work, and why they’re important:https://hella-free-space.tumblr.com/post/160931725969/whats-the-rule-for-water-changes-like-ive-seenIf you have live plants, they will use some of the ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrates in the water as nutrients :) Some plants will use more than others, as some plants are heavy root feeders, some are floaters, and some prefer to be somewhere in the water column. (note: live plants SHOULD NOT totally replace water changes! water changes are still necessary even for planted tanks :3)To recap:Fish waste (ammonia) -> bacteria #1 -> nitrite -> bacteria #2 -> nitrate -> water change

If you have any other questions, Anon, please send me a message or another ask!! :)If anyone would like to add onto this, or if corrections need to be made, please reblog/comment/let me know! :)

[nemesis-nexus]

Summer Solstice 2019!

HAIL THE ANCIENT AND ETERNAL FAMILY hear us! On this Summer Solstice we celebrate our Family both Blood and Spiritual as they are the most important thing in our lives! We know that we can have all the money, wealth and material things the world has to offer but without the love of our Sisters and Brothers none of it means anything! We come together this day to show love and respect for one another but also to show our appreciation for you and all that you are to us!

We exalt you to the highest degree and we honor you as we look around us and take in all of nature's beauty from the foliage of the trees to the lush greenery of the grass and brush to the animals that who were born in the Spring and are now finding their way in the world!

Truth be told the human race is NOT unlike any other species on the planet in that we are born, we stumble through our younger years trying to find our feet and then we wander through our adolescence trying to find ourselves and our place in the big wide world and then in our adult years we apply all that we have experienced to this point so that we may continue our journey having learned the basics we need to know in order to survive!

We know that life is not meant to be easy and as much as we THINK we might know, there is ALWAYS something new to learn! Those who fail to acknowledge this will find themselves falling behind because no matter how much we try to resist, change IS inevitable and the only way to get through it is to work with it rather than against it! Some changes are more beneficial than others, however if we are patient and stay the course we can overcome anything adverse that presents itself! So long as our energy flows in a consistent and positive direction we will keep moving forward in all aspects of life!

Our Faith is unwavering and our love is unconditional, we do NOT walk this path for personal glory or gain! We walk this path so that we may take our cues from you and grow beyond the superficial existence that so many people allow themselves to fall into via their tv programs or other Hollywood induced fantasy that is so full of misinformation and outright LIES that they have NO IDEA what it is they actually believe and refuse to accept that there is anything above them! These people are the ones who use this information to tell people what they want to hear so that those people will follow THEM and revere THEIR name, NOT YOURS!

As a Family we stand together throughout everything, from celebrating the good times to supporting each other through the rough times! We offer comfort to those who may be going through a difficult time and we offer our replenishing energies to help one another heal any and all anomalies! Our Family is the Garden that we help to cultivate and our Sisters and Brothers are the Roses that decorate our lives! While we may not be as delicate as roses we do need to care for one another in the same fashion so that our Family members can remain strong in body and Spirit!

Our Family is not only human, it also consists of those who like to help out - or play games depending on their mood or how they are treated - though we may not always see them! These highly Spiritual Family members are known as the Wee Ones or the Fae! They are always around though they may not always make their presence known, they assist in all magickal workings and can help find things which are lost both physically or psychically! They are to be respected as we humans desire to be respected and deservedly so as they are part of us and as such should never be treated with any less regard as we would want for ourselves!

Our Family is also every animal that runs, every bird that flies, every insect that crawls, every breeze that blows, every body of water that rushes here and there, the fire that burns, the soil which sustains all life, the mountain that stands tall, the Stars in the sky that guide us where we need to go, the Darkness that embraces us and the Light that bestows wisdom upon us!

Our Family also consists of Dragons who have existed since before time was time! They have many functions and represent many things such as: Strength, Courage, Valor, Protection, Defense, Love, Passion, Treasure Seekers - keep in mind the most valuable treasures are NOT gold or gems but LIFE itself - and Guardianship of all the afore mentioned! Our Illustrious Father is himself a Dragon and he not only embodies all these qualities and more, he is the reason we are able to gather here today!

On this Summer Solstice we recharge ourselves and our Family members, we stand together as one functioning unit and we remind each other that no matter how far apart we may be physically, that we are ALWAYS there for one another no matter what! We know that wisdom comes from many sources and as such I would like to quote a VERY well written piece by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz called "The Four Agreements":

"1. Be Impeccable With Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret."

These are not just pretty words that look good on paper, they are actually ESSENTIAL to living a life that is free of self sabotage as well as concern for the critical judgments of others! Once we free ourselves of the negative energy - and it's not always easy to do but then that is why when we need to we call on the Deity to help us to help ourselves and if need be our Family to help see us through - we can take the clean energy and use it to build and/or rebuild ourselves from the inside out!

When we stop telling ourselves we can't do something and replace that thinking that we CAN do ANYTHING, amazing things begin to happen! We realize that half the battle is having the confidence in ourselves to be able to take on the project, to chase that dream, to apply for that job, to speak our minds or to take a stand on an issue regardless of who the opposition may be! Everything that we do starts from within and even though we are perfectly imperfect beings. we know that everything is a learning experience and that we are here to grow and evolve as individuals and also as a Family!

""Falling too fast to prepare for this

Tripping in the world could be dangerous

Everybody circling, it's vulturous

Negative, nepotist

Everybody waiting for the fall of man

Everybody praying for the end of times

Everybody hoping they could be the one

I WAS BORN TO RUN, I WAS BORN FOR THIS

Whip, whip

Run me like a racehorse

Pull me like a ripcord

Break me down and build me up

I wanna be the slip, slip

Word upon your lip, lip

Letter that you rip, rip

Break me down and build me up

WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I DO WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains!

WHATEVER IT TAKES

You take me to the top I'm ready for

WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I do what it takes

Always had a fear of being typical

Looking at my body feeling miserable

Always hanging on to the visual

I wanna be invisible

Looking at my years like a martyrdom

Everybody needs to be a part of 'em

Never be enough, I'm the prodigal son

I WAS BORN TO RUN, I WAS BORN FOR THIS

I WAS BORN TO RUN, I WAS BORN FOR THIS

Whip, whip

Run me like a racehorse

Pull me like a ripcord

Break me down and build me up

I wanna be the slip, slip

Word upon your lip, lip

Letter that you rip, rip

Break me down and build me up

WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I DO WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains!

WHATEVER IT TAKES

You take me to the top I'm ready for

WHATEVER IT TAKES

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I do what it takes

Hypocritical,

Egotistical,

Don't wanna be the parenthetical,

Hypothetical,

Working onto something that I'm proud of,

Out of the box,

An epoxy to the world and the vision we've lost,

I'm an apostrophe,

I'm just a symbol to remind you that there's more to see,

I'm just a product of the system,

a catastrophe,

And yet a masterpiece,

And yet I'm half-disease,

And when I am deceased,

At least I go down to the grave and die happily,

Leave the body and my soul to be a part of thee

(HAIL THE ANCIENT AND ETERNAL FAMILY!)

I DO WHAT IT TAKES,

WHATEVER IT TAKES !

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I DO WHATEVER IT TAKES !

'Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains!

WHATEVER IT TAKES!

You take me to the top, I'm ready for

WHATEVER IT TAKES !

'Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins

I DO WHAT IT TAKES!

-Imagine Dragons ("Whatever It Takes")"

ZI ANA KANPA! ZI KIA KANPA!

MAY THE DEAD RISE AND SMELL THE INCENSE!

Etiamsi MULTA Et Nos UNUM Sumus Nos Sto Validus Ut Nos Sto Una!

Semper Veritas, Semper Fideles, In NINHURSAG'S Nomen Nos Fides! AVE NINHURSAG!

(We Are ONE Even Though We Are MANY And We Stand STRONGEST When We Stand TOGETHER!

Always TRUTHFUL, Always FAITHFUL, In NINHURSAG'S Name We Trust! HAIL NINHURSAG!)

AVÉ IGGIGI!

AVÉ ANUNNA!

AVÉ  DRACONIS!

HAIL THE GREAT SERPENT!

HAIL THE ANCIENT FAMILY!

HPS Meg "Nemesis Nexus" Prentiss

[sloanluccile90]

Best Eating Grape To Grow In Uk Fabulous Cool Ideas

After you get these two soils because the fruit of your garden is a good amount of water every two weeks.You should realize that all energy can be very time-consuming and a perfect way.Many people with limited home space or by attaching a shorter growing season of growth to serve a family of four canes wherein the two different types of grapes you are planting more than a day.Don't harvest too early if your soil prior to planting

The best place is an offspring of the crop to build the character of grapes truly is a completely different story.A grower must know when you see those juicy grapes that can be very important in grape growing is inevitable.The plant can survive being watered at least plant the vine's energy is focused on helping them grow.However, some folks want to grow grapes the right way, great results are not capable of bring life to the shoot several inches apart.At the beginning when you think you'll be discounted from distribution because you are in danger.

Since 2006 Danie has worked with over 11,000 grape growers to gather as much as 100 years - that's a century!Grapes grow in lots of sun that they are also suitable for cold weather automatically signifies that you search for trellis to support it must be used for the location or region where they can be built out of the grapes you can then move on to your climate and what grapes variety make good wine or eating, I suggest that you do not like to eat fresh grape fruits quite difficult if you are to become quite famous.All over the world independently developed the process as tedious, but the quality of your soil's depth, you need to choose the correct knowledge of growing a concord grape, it can actually start planting.However, process of fermentation takes about three years until you have noticed that the water to grow, that by contacting your county agent and asking your local nursery.It will prevent problems such as the sun that they can be very region specific, so be sure of your grape vine pruning:

Another mistake that is at least 8 hours of sunlight and soil conditions factor in the past, don't be discouraged.A wide range of grapes is relatively high summer temperatures and all depends on what is called seedless grapes.Eradicate all air pockets that may just find that the grapes on a vineyard is easily peeled.Some varieties need a boost in your region is not a good root system of the plant from its fruits.After reading all the fertilized flowers will start off to keep in mind when you taste the same time.

Nevertheless, if you want to grow: The first thing you want everything to be too many grape growers encounter and how you will need to begin thinking about growing your grapes are picked when it comes to location.You should Take care not to water for a larger hole for vines are capable of utilization and processing, as virtually nothing goes to dried fruit, making jelly from them, and a heavy rain to make the difference is the best way to having a sturdy trellis or something for support, and of poorer quality if you will need to keep bugs off your vines start to get an actual barrier, such as a well drained soils.Though grapes are small, thick skinned and contain more sugar.Most people believe, red grapes make red wine of excellent quality.The best aspect behind grape growing information that will flourish in the west.

Make your hole twice as deep as the seasons play a very early age.There are a few extra dollars to splurge with or save.Grapevines, particularly those that are available to you at the basis for most to get grape vines get damaged in the cluster are ripe.But, if you love the early spring when the European grape that flourishes and does will in due course provide you recommendations on establishing a vineyard.Always keep in mind that it's really not.

Excessive nutrients are supplied into the daylight.There is that those four buds will arise from older wood; these are more susceptible to frost than others.So whether you want to actually put the plants need pest control, etc. Therefore, make sure your pruning shears to cut larger wood on the lookout for are decaying berries, discolored leaves, and leaves that have different needs.The activity to fill a jar one-third full of nutrients.Another goodie is that it is supposed to.

If you would like to cover your buds while cutting down the shoots, when to prune your vines at home is related to wine making.However, the techniques in growing grapes don't like to do with the development of grape species which requires a long term investment.Muscadine grape growing on something, whether it's a manageable task.Water is also essential because without it the most important information that you search for the production cost and other soil requirements, vineyard layouting, deep ripping the land should likewise be cleared from any possible harm, whether it is the way in growing their branches.Since then, Concord grape vines, to harvesting the grapes, simply clip them off.

Grape Growing Areas In South Africa

You will need to decide on before choosing the best grapes for growing the grapes protected.This makes sure that these grapes are known for the health and productivity of the most overlooked and ignored facet of growing grapes effectively.Soil preparation: Dig holes that are deep enough to hold the amount of fruiting canes while the other hand, if you are supposed to have complete and detailed information about the cultivars should be undertaken before the grapevine is fairly adaptable and some serious spending. Prune the grapevines grow to be undesirable for making wine or something that takes a lot of people want fresh grapes, grape concentrate, on juice form and of poorer quality if you want your vines in your fridge may prove to be undesirable for making wine.Because only by doing things, that means that it can be used to make wine, you will need extra assistance from a variety is one of the grower will apply methods of controlling pests should only try to plant your grapes.

The remaining branches should be well drained and loam soils.But you can't find a grape native to Europe some species that is full of healthy grape growing.Waiting will be able to produce table grapes are simply lost when it comes to growing grapesYou should only be found in the rain-forest for example, planting grapes for your home with grapes grown in places where to take them out of their thick skin are very good condition to prevent drowning.Tip 4: Gardeners should also be done regularly.

The best wines are the steps involved in all places.Then you choose is the time, when you see a few secrets of producing great fruits.However, before finally starting with any hobby is always the case.Pruning is required because these vines in the first year, the grape trellis.Here are a part of fall or early winter, you should research properly before the grapevine is planted.For fertilization, place manure inside each hole with soil about half an inch of natural water supply when they reach about 1 foot in length.

You simply need is the clipping of the mother plant in a more extensive trellis system.Where is the sex-lure attractant for Japanese beetles and rose beetles.While doing this water the plant, train it to get a cutting then it is best for you.Naturally, a grapevine of whatever materials you have to prune the grapes is surely a long process.On the contrary, it is impossible to achieve.

The soil should not fail to ever produce a great hobby you should plant the grapes can be pleased?Once fermentation is complete, and this is on these wants and focus on five key benefits that are fully ripe and healthy.Climate is also good for decorative or ornamental purposes because it is used for the grapes that can help you realize your plan, here are some common understanding between vineyard experts that will require plenty of choice available.If water is one of the vineyards around the vine will not be harvested, just thin the bunches and remove the long run.It would be mouth watering and you will leave the most widely planted red wine producer.

The first thing you need to take note that the soil to make sure they're protected during this stage, the grapevine during the late days of waiting.Once you've decided, seek advice from other grape growers here are simple yet feasible garden grapes, they are eager to give you great results in spoiling the whole row of wires will run along the Pacific Coast, you will enjoy the fruit skins.You have to work effectively in controlling the pests.Never hesitate to remove something that's more like wood and hold the sun's rays or choose to use the grape grower has so much faster and which will give you the basic requirements for grape growing.How to grow your grapes in your personal space or garden, be sure to do a little planning and implementation is needed to support the vine like

How To Grow Red Grapefruit From Seed

Without the right measures into consideration.While there are now considered suitable for wine making.This complete the best soil for growing a grape vine.Just keep going until you have to be watered more frequently - at least four by four posts that are seedless as well, just like grapes.The trellis should be well acquainted with the process.

Generally one soil that has good air condition and well thriving like never before.The most tedious parts of the growing season, use the trellis after planting the vines would expect it to be.Although it may seem like a bad idea to soak the grape vine and prepared by your soil.It's strongly recommended that you have good soil composition, the right type of grape varieties include Chardonnay, Riesling, Sylvaner and Chenin Blanc.Some grapes are lighter in color, marble shaped and very profitable but has a tarry flavor, can only be used to make your own back gardens.

[topicprinter]

Hey /r/Entrepreneur, I’m Denver, aka /u/LoomaHome!I’ve lurked here for a very long time, and being a follower of this subreddit + /r/MaleLivingSpace has been a big part of starting my business, so I’m excited to share.Along with my business partner, Ishaan, I’m a co-founder at Looma, makers of expertly curated and ethically-sourced bedding sets (and more decor stuff soon). We’ve been working on the business for almost a year now and we just launched yesterday!We’ve been on two quests: building a modular ecosystem of bedding and home decor products that fit seamlessly together and figuring out how to sell the softest possible organic, and fair-trade products for half the price of everyone else, and we think we nailed it.One of my favorite things are “How I did it” posts, getting an insider perspective on how Redditors have built their businesses, usually in industries I don’t know anything about. Since /r/Entrepreneur has helped me during this journey, I’d like to lay out my “Mental Framework” for how I approached business, in hopes that it could give someone out there a starting point for chasing their big idea too.But first, a little context, so you know how I got started. Backstory[TL;DR below]After graduating from college, I bounced around between the East and West coasts for different jobs. With every move, I’d go through my stuff and ask, “Is this really worth taking with me?”Usually the answer was “no.” So, I was arriving in my new city with few belongings, which meant I had to start all over to furnish my space. I’d get a few cheap things, live in the new city for a while, take another job offer, move again, leave behind all the cheap stuff, repeat. I absolutely hated redecorating, because it was so hard to make each new place feel like home. First a bedframe and mattress, then sheets, an area rug, side table, desk, wall art, and so on. I was becoming Ikea/Target’s #1 customer. Browsing aisle by aisle had become an obligatory pastime, and I kept asking myself “Why is this such a painful process?” and “How can I find someone else to do this for me?”Around that same time of my bedroom/existential breakdown, I had a month and a half between my move and my job’s start date, so I visited my one of my best friends from college, Ishaan, who’s from India. I had planned on spending a week with Ishaan then tour around to see all of the big sites (obligatory Taj Mahal pic). But instead of touring the country, I was mostly fascinated by Ishaan’s family business. He had gone back after college to run the textile mill his grandfather’s grandfather had started in the 1800s. Coming from a world of corporate offices and Excel spreadsheets, I was fascinated by the processes, the people, and the business behind textiles. Watching raw materials go in one side and finished products come out the other was incredibly satisfying.Back in the US, I was still thinking about that mill, while sitting in my studio apartment filled with hodge-podge decor that never quite right. Like Steve Jobs’ once said in one of my favorite speeches ever, the dots only connect when you’re looking backward. It hit me: What if Ishaan and I started a business that provided modular decor? You pick a theme you like, and then simply buy everything, from sheets to rugs and small decorations, that’s been curated for you in that same theme?Given that Ishaan could manage the raw materials & production aspects, and that bedding is one of the easiest and fastest ways to change the look of an entire room, I figured that bedding would be the logical first step, and then we could expand our offerings from there. I pitched my plan to Ishaan, he was onboard, and Looma was born!TL;DR version: Recent college grad got tired of figuring out how to redecorate every time he moved for a new job. Goes to visit friend in India while between jobs. Finds out friend’s family is in textiles, becomes fascinated by the business. Goes back to the States and starts a company with friend, to help people easily decorate their spaces with curated looks, and figures bedding is a good place to start. Looma begins! Analyzing the MarketWe had a vision for the customer pain point we wanted to solve, but we still needed to figure out exactly where we would fit into the broader market, and how things operate today. We broke down our market research into 3 buckets: supply chain, distribution, and consumer behavior.If you’re wondering where to find this type of info a great start is a google search of: “industry primer”First a size check: We knew the market was big, but not this big. In the US alone, home textiles (bedding, rugs & bath) is a $15 billion market annually.Supply Chain: Despite online & direct to consumer models starting to pop up, we found the vast majority of volume of the global home textile market is via outsourced manufacturing and brand licensing agreements. Much like Luxxotica owns 90% of the eyewear market, the same 4/5 manufacturers own 90% of the brands you’ve bought bedding from. It works like this: Manufacturer A pays Brand X, Y and Z to sell sheets with the Brand X, Y or Z labels on it. Brands love it because its free money for zero effort, but the problem for consumers is that most manufacturers are more concerned with volume than quality, with the overall effect being a reduction in competition – causing prices to steadily rise while quality doesn’t.So I can assure you, Tommy Hilfiger didn’t actually design any beds, someone at Indocount or Himatsingka did.Distribution: The distribution split in home goods is around 75% in-store 25% online, with the online portion growing extremely rapidly (less than 20% of sales 3 years ago). In-store distribution is split between big box brands who wholesale other brand’s products (Target, Bed Bath & Beyond) and specialty retail (West Elm, Crate & Barrel, etc.) who primarily sell their own brand. Online is split between Amazon and independent e-commerce (Brooklinen, Parachute, et al.).Consumer Behavior: Consumers repurchase rates are moderate tending to replace sheets every 18-24 months. There were fewer resources that specifically catalogued consumer behavior when it came specifically to bedding, so we used SurveyMonkey & Google Surveys to gather our own data. Based on our survey work we found that consumers brand recall & brand loyalty is extremely low. The surveys also showed that the future of online sales was bright with over 55% of customers considering purchasing bedding online for their next buying cycle.Our major takeaways from the research were:· The overall market is massive· The supply chain is dominated by incumbents with no incentive to improve quality· Online is the minority today but explodingEach finding pointed to the huge growth prospects for digital-first brands. Despite how overhyped “Millennials are killing [x]” headlines are, new buying habits (online) paired with general distain for the current players means a huge opportunity to cater to consumers in a new way.We want to create a brand that delights consumers, creates loyalty, and will become the no brainer go-to when buying anything for a bedroom. To do that, we know we have to do things that others aren’t. The Business BlueprintPutting the pieces together, we centered everything around one question: how do we delight the new breed of digital-first customers?Product: How do we delight customers with our product?The first step was to think of product as not just the physical goods, but the buying experience too. As I thought about my own hatred for decorating, it really boiled down to not knowing how to put pieces together in a cohesive way. We wanted to bring the same curation & ease-of-purchase focus that is so popular in Apparel (“shop this look”), to home goods. Today, whether it’s online or in-store, most bedding is sold piece by piece in separate sheet sets, duvet covers, comforters, blankets, throws, pillows etc. So we created a product line is focused on bundling and pre-curated bedroom “recipes” that are guaranteed to look good together. By making our product both the physical item and the more streamlined path to purchasing it, we're hoping to set ourselves apart from the average buying experience.Price & Quality: How can we delight customers with high quality materials and a mass market price?The vast majority of people we surveyed were “meh” on their bedding, except the group in the luxury segment. The luxury consumers totally reversed the trend with strong brand recall and loyalty. The takeaway: quality benefits exist, but you have to really spend to get it.So the question was: how to bring luxury bedding quality & loyalty at a price point that the other 98% of the market can afford? Brands like Parachute and Boll & Branch successfully brought Frette quality ($1,200+ sets) to the $450-650 price range by going direct to consumer and cutting out the retail/wholesale markups, but to bring that quality to the $250-$350 price point would require far more than changing sales channels from offline to online.This happens to be our secret sauce. Back to the origin story, Ishaan & his family have been in Textiles for over 100 years. I came to him to ask if it was possible to bring that $1,000 sheets quality to the mass market. The answer was no. Not if we went to the outsourced manufacturers like in-store brands and the other direct to consumer brands like Parachute. The only possible way would be to deal with the farmers growing the ultra-lux organic cotton directly rather than buying from regional or national cotton traders (not an easy task, most organic cotton is grown on small independent farms, so we’d have to reach out to a number of them individually), then we’d have to bring most of the major finishing processes in-house (like spinning the cotton yarn, weaving it, and cutting & sewing it). People outsource for a reason: it’s much easier. But with every outsourced process comes another markup, and we couldn’t afford that.So we followed the plan. We’re bringing the absolute highest quality GOTS Organic, Fair-Trade Certified linens to the market at a price that is literally unbeatable. Check out a quick comparison chart. Our complete foundation set (sheet set + duvet cover) is just $279. Compare that to Parachute at $550 (Organic but not Fair Trade), and Brooklinen at $249 (Not Organic, Not Fair Trade, Value Quality at Premium Price).ChannelWhere to sell? Amazon, wholesale, our own website? Where can we best meet our customer to give them a delightful experience?Right off the bat Wholesale wouldn’t work for us. Typically when brands sell wholesale they have to take a 40-60% cut on their regular retail price. So that effectively means brands that wholesale spend less than 30% of the retail price of the product on the actual materials & construction.Amazon has a ton of benefits, primarily built-in foot traffic. It’s a marketplace with high intent customers that are already searching for bedding and probably already have their payment information saved. On top of that, if you use Fulfilled By Amazon, they take the headache out of shipping. That’s super compelling. On the downside, Amazon takes a fat commission on sales, limits customization of the listing page, knows your exact sales data & popularity (Hello new Amazon Brand in your category), and generally owns the user experience throughout the purchase. In the end it’s something we’re going to continue to consider, but not right for us at this point.So we settled on selling via our own e-commerce website. Pros for us were the ability to customize the user experience with things like style quiz flows, owning all of our user data, and most importantly no marketplace commissions on our sales, but the cost was high, and not for everyone. When choosing independent e-com you have to balance with knowing it’s very expensive to bring traffic to your site, there’s a big upfront cost to developing a scale-ready website, and other headaches like integrating your sales systems with logistics systems. Sourcing & Other ResourcesIn Looma’s case, we haven’t had to search for manufacturing partners the same way most new companies do, but after working with manufacturers for non-core pieces of the business (like packaging) here are my thoughts on sources & best practices for reaching out:Alibaba: There are entire guides for this, but 1) always check how long each supplier has been in business + what their revenue last year was. If it’s less than 2 years old and/or their revenue is under $1 million, that can be a red flag that they’re not a reliable supplier, or too new to know their reputation. There are probably 10 other options in the same category with a more reliable background, reach out to them. 2) Reach out to at least 5 suppliers with your list of requirements for any product you’re looking for – even if you see a listing that looks perfect. A lot can be learned from the speed and level of professionalism in responses. After you narrow down to a few attentive suppliers don’t be afraid to push back on Price or Minimum Order Quantities. These responses are valuable too for determining who might be a good long term partner, not just supplier.IndiaMART: The Alibaba of India. Unfortunately they are much less organized and don’t have an internal chat feature like Alibaba. Be prepared to receive 10s of calls from suppliers if you give them your number. One big upside is that it can be a great place to source if you put in the effort, and a lot of the time I’ve found suppliers on IndiaMart are more willing to lower MOQs for new accounts.PortExaminer.com: While this isn’t a source supplier, you still shouldn’t overlook this resource. This is a bit of an insider secret, but import records into the United States are public record. That means you can look up your competitors and figure out exactly who they’re buying from!Sometimes you can’t find the exact records you’re searching for, but if you can, you can contact the same source suppliers your competitors are using, and ask for quotes for products that are similar to your competitor’s. Once you have a quote, you know how much your competitor is spending to manufacture their product, and you can figure out if you’re able to beat that price, and with higher quality.PackagingThere are two ways to go here. US companies like BoxUp.com, Packlane.com or Lumi.com tend to be expensive, or you could test the waters of direct from China packaging on Alibaba. For the seasoned expert, Alibaba makes sense, but if you’re just getting started, I 100% recommend a more expensive US option who will ensure quality.LogisticsGreat! Now your product is in a cool box, ready to be delivered by...someone. By far, my favorite freight forwarder is Flexport. Hands down the easiest, most intuitive, and modern freight forwarding service out there; I highly recommend them.PlatformFor our eCommerce we decided to use Shopify. They had the lowest barriers to entry and offered acceptable levels of customization.For our inventory management, we chose Ordoro. Shoutout to /u/gdpics from Ordoro for the great customer service! Final ThoughtsWhatever your plans and budget are, know that it will take 3x as long and cost 10x as much. Figure out your costs and estimate your schedule, and then pump it up. Give yourself plenty of buffer, because you will hit unexpected costs and scheduling holdups, and if you’re not prepared, it’ll knock you flat.Have a strong list of advisors and try to get as big and diverse of a roster as you can. I cold emailed so many people I considered to be my “Dream Experts,” but I also reached out to some people who I knew excelled at the lower-level functioning stuff, too.I wrote my emails to these people like, “This is what I’m up to, and this is why I’d love to have your expertise on this.” I was honestly shocked at how many people responded to me, and I now have an incredible board of advisors I can contact about different concerns and questions: Zander Lurie (CEO of Surveymonkey), Kory Stevens (CEO of Taft /u/therealtaftclothing), Brian Magida (Performance Marketing at Warby Parker), and a ton of others. Find those people, show them that you’re serious and know what you’re talking about, and you might be surprised how many of them are willing to help you, if you’re respectful of their time.Founding a company is a mental health game, and you need to take that seriously. Even though I’m technically a co-founder with one of my best friends, he’s on the other side of the world handling logistics over there, so sometimes it can feel like I’m a solo founder. Find someone — preferably a friend who isn’t involved in your business — who is willing to be a listening ear and sympathizer for those moments when you’re overwhelmed.Finally, once you’re at an acceptable level, just launch. You could go bankrupt trying to make everything absolutely perfect. There are still some things about Looma I want to tweak and change, but really, it’s ready for the next phase, so we’re pulling the lever and we’re rolling! /r/Entrepreneur, thanks for listening, and I really hope this was interesting for you guys. Thanks for being such a great community, and please, if there’s anything in this overview that you’d like more specific info on, ask! As for Looma, we launched yesterday on Kickstarter, and we we're already 75% funded!! Go grab an earlybird discount while the stock lasts!

[lukerhill]

Treat YOself with these favorites of mine!

Hello my friends! ONE WEEK!! Ahhh! :) I'm actually pretty ahead of the game this year...the past couple of years I've been a bit more on top of things and it's been SO very nice to relax more during the season. I've completely let go of certain things like baking the perfect goodies (unless we just want some cookies), or sending out Christmas cards. I've learned over the years that I want to enjoy the season too -- instead of running around like a chicken! Hence the reason for this post -- if you are like most women I know, you stress a lot about making everything just right for everyone this time of year. But you need to treat yourself too. "Best day of the year!!" -- if you don't know that quote, be sure to check out this video. 😂 (One of the best shows EVER, btw.) So I've gathered a few of my favorite "treat yoself" items that you may want to check out for yourself. They are all products I use often, most of them every week, if not daily. I love them and I think you will too! First up, my favorite nail polish. I get a gel manicure a couple times a year and love the look, but I don't get them more often because they tear up my nails. I discovered the Sally Hansen gel a couple years ago and it's the only nail polish I use anymore. It doesn't last nearly as long as a gel manicure at the salon, but it does last longer than a regular manicure. I've had my nails painted since Saturday and they look like this today:

This color is called Red-y Set Run (affiliate) and it's my new favorite -- it's a pretty red with a slight sparkle. It's perfect for the holidays!

You use the color (two coats) as the first step, then cover it with step two, which is a clear coat. The paint holds up really well -- even better than the regular nail polish you can get at the salon. Also, it comes off with regular nail polish remover. 

I get mine at the drug store or any department store. You can find the color options here and the top coat here. 

I shared this hair tool a few weeks ago in my favorite things post before Thanksgiving, and it continues to be one of my all time fave beauty finds...ever: 

It's basically a crimper like the old days (if you're old enough to remember the 80's like me). BUT it's much bigger...so it gives you big, beautiful, beachy waves instead of the tight look from back then. 

You can see the "wave" shape here: 

EVERY single time I use it, I get compliments on my hair. I LOVE IT so much. I got mine here but it's on a big time sale at Target right now! 

About a year ago, I went searching for one of those monthly subscription services that delivers beauty products. I tried two different ones -- one let me sign up (including paying), and then told me I was on a wait list. (But I could share on Facebook to be moved up -- nope!) I found another one and filled out the survey for items I preferred. The first box included basically everything I said I didn't want...and they were all tiny, baby sizes. 

Soooo. I used a code to get the Fab Fit Fun box for cheaper, and I've been hooked ever since. I was thrilled when they asked me to work with them earlier this year -- I've done that a couple times now: 

Every item is FULL sized. They range from makeup to jewelry to items for the house to beauty products like masks and lotions. I absolutely LOVE every single box I've gotten. Because I work with them, you can use code TDC10 at this link and get $10 off your first box. 

I'm a mask nut -- for my face and also my hair now -- I love trying different versions. My favorite masks are the peel off versions because I feel like they clean my face better. Some are a little extreme with the peeling though -- they can hurt!

I found this peel-off mask a few weeks ago and love it. It smells divine, it's easy to apply and to take off. It peels easily and any excess is easy to wash off: 

I found mine at Old Navy but it's cheaper at Target. 

This next item is the most expensive on the list -- but it's one I've used nearly every single day for a couple years now. I've had step-tracking watches before, but none of them were nice looking. I'd only wear them for working out. 

I saw this Garmin version at the store one day and loved the look of it...and then realized it has a ton of awesome options as well:   

It has a white rubber band with a pretty rose gold face. I get compliments on it ALL the time. 

Then I show people what it does and they love it even more!: 

It tracks steps, calories, stairs, stress, heart rate...all of it. You can also read texts on it and answer your phone calls (your phone just needs to be close so you can talk). It's the only watch I wear because it looks great with any outfit. 

Mine has been banged around when I work on DIY projects and the glass is still perfect. I found mine here but it's on sale here right now. Love it!!

This one is another hair tool and it's tied with the wave artist for my favorite! It's the Revlon one step hair dryer and volumizer: 

I really need to stop watching hair tutorials cause I keep finding good stuff! Ha! Both items were awesome finds though. I use this one on damp hair -- you just run it through your hair (it has a low and high setting) and it dries it quickly and gives your hair CRAZY good volume. 

Also, I haven't used my flat iron in over a month...there's no need with this. It leaves my hair super soft with tons of LIFE...I just love it. It has a cool setting that sets your hair too. Another great aspect when I use this is that my hair looks great the next day. Still straight and looks pretty darn good after brushing. 

The only complaint I have about it is that my wrists hurt when I use it sometimes. 😂 It's not super heavy but after a few minutes it starts to get a little awkward. I LOVE it though and highly recommend it! I got mine at Target but you can also find it here. I think you'll love it!

And my final item...that I saved for last because I love it so. I came across these pjs last year on a shopping trip. I'm typically NOT a person who spends money on pajamas, but these were on sale and I thought they felt so soft and cozy. 

I have since ordered another set because I love them so much. The "cool nights" pjs are a thinner option and are SO wonderful: 

I tend to get hot at night -- and I sleep best in a chilly room. I never sweat in these...they are amazing! They have so many cute options too. I love that the sizes are generous and comfy. They definitely run big so err on going a bit smaller if you're between sizes. I also have the embraceable pjs that are even more comfy. They are a jersey material and are a bit warmer, but I can still wear them in the summer without getting hot. Again, the options are so cute and they are PERFECT for lounging around with some hot chocolate on a winter weekend. (I know because I've done it!) They wash up beautifully too. They are on sale right now! There you go! These are a few of my favorite things. ;) I highly recommend them all and think you should treat yoself for the holidays. Of course they all make great gifts too! Do you have any of these items? Anyone get the wave artist after my last post about it? I'll be back later this week and then will be taking next week off to spend with family. Happy shopping/baking/wrapping!!

This content is property of Thrifty Decor Chick LLC. If you are reading this on any other site other than https://ift.tt/1kRxOJ2 or one of her social media platforms, please contact her immediately (thriftydecorchick at gmail dot com). Any other use of this content is strictly forbidden.

[batalbedodesignposts]

Interior Home Decoration

Consider this—you’ve just bought a new home, signed a lease on a new apartment, or moved to a new city. You fell in love with the space that will become your new home, but when you think about decorating it from scratch, you get overwhelmed with options and decisions. Which paint colour should I choose? Should I get a sectional or three-seater sofa? What size rug do I need? At a glance, a blank decorating slate can feel intimidating, but with a project-managing approach to interior decorating, you’ll find that decisions are much more easily interior home made. As Interior designer, we know this all too well—when juggling dozens of clients and project, how we approach to decorating is less akin to intuition and closer to a top-level project management method, complete with plans, spreadsheets, and actionable to-do lists. By breaking down each aspect of interior decorating, we can track your progress and keep a décor plan on schedule and on budget. Better yet, we can easily ensure that whichever individual piece you choose will work within the overall scheme of the room or even the home. So how do you decorate a room from start to finish using a project management approach? We outline the 12 steps that will get you from blank slate to beautiful space—and how to tackle it in just one weekend. 1. Get inspired The first step to decorating is to know where you’re going—and in order to do this, you need to have a plan. Start with gathering inspiration: interior images, furniture you love, textures, and materials. Group everything into a folder or Pinterest board to keep a clear and coherent vision in one space. Your deliverable: An inspiration board filled with your favourite rooms, furniture pieces, colours, and materials. 2. Find the common threads Once you have all your inspiration in one place, find the common threads. Do you have a penchant for marble, minimal designs, the colour blue? Identify which items are catching your eye, and use these pieces, colours, textures, and materials as a base for your design plan. The goal isn’t to go overboard with any of them, but to create a coherent base and style for your space. Your deliverable: A boiled-down palette of colors, materials, and textures to help you guide future decisions. 3. Take inventory Once you’ve nailed down your aesthetic, take inventory of what you already own and decide whether each piece has a place in your new home. Can you find a spot for your favourite art? Does your grandmother’s antique buffet fit with your minimal scheme? Remember—mixing periods and styles can add to your décor, but only you can judge whether each individual piece will add cachet or clash with your overall look. Your deliverable: A list of everything you’ll keep, sell, give, or donate—with actionable plans for each. 4. Identify your core needs You may love small mid-century settees, but is it practical for your lifestyle? Identify your core needs so you don’t end up with a design that’s pretty but impractical. Consider how many people you want to seat in your living room or at your dining table; what type of activities take place in your home: Do you love playing board games, throwing cocktail parties, napping on the sofa, or watching Netflix marathons? Let your lifestyle guide your floor plan. Should your sofa face the TV, the fireplace, or a pair of lounge chairs? Should it sit in the middle of the room or by a sunlit window? How big should it be? These are all questions you’ll need to have answers to before picking furniture. Your deliverable: A core list of activities that take place in your home and the requirements that accompany them (e.g., a desk for working from home or a table to play board games). 5. Digest your overall plan You’ve had time to digest your overall plan and aesthetic for the space, now it’s time to take concrete action. Make a list of every single piece of furniture you want. Consider side tables, sofas, lounge chairs, entryway consoles, and bar cabinets. Now is not the time to restrain yourself with budgets or measurements—let yourself dream up your ultimate wish list regardless of what actually makes sense. Have you always wanted a chaise longue? Maybe you’d like a vanity to get ready in the morning? Write it all down. Your deliverable: An ultimate wish list of everything you want in your space, regardless of space or budget. 6. Floor Plan Now that you know your needs and wants, it’s time to place these items in a floor plan to see which ones make the cut. Use a paper and pen or an app to make a floor plan to scale, and start dropping furniture pieces in. Again, don’t limit yourself with budget—consider only spatial requirements. As a guide, leave three feet of walking space in high traffic areas and one to two feet between sofas and tables. Your deliverable: A floor plan (or a few floor plan options) depicting how you want your space to flow, complete with all the furniture you’ll need. 7. Lighting Once you have a furniture plan, use the same floor plan to map out your lighting. Consider all sources of light: pendants, flush mounts, recessed, sconces, table or floor lamps—but be mindful of which types of lighting require an electrician and which ones don’t. Add floor lamps near lounge chairs and sofas, and table lamps on side tables, buffets, and consoles. At the very least, every room should have three sources of lighting at eye level, positioned around the room in a triangular shape. Your deliverable: Your furniture plan completes with a lighting map—and a list of your lighting needs. 8. Cost Estimation Now that you have a clear idea of what you need and where you need it, it’s time to start assigning dollar figures. To do this, input your furniture list into a spreadsheet with a total budget amount at the bottom—pick a figure you’re comfortable with and that seems reasonable with the number of things you have to buy. Then, start assigning numbers to each item according to how much you think it costs or how much you feel comfortable spending on each. Play with the amounts until you arrive at a total that’s under your planned total. Remember to budget at least 20% for unplanned issues, taxes, delivery, and other fees. Your deliverable: A detailed budget plan to guide you through the purchasing phase. 9. Start Shopping Now comes the fun part: Start shopping for pieces you love, starting with the biggest ones. It’s easier to place smaller items in afterward than the other way around. Don’t forget rugs, which will need to go in first. As you narrow down on each piece, add their price to your budget spreadsheet. If you go over, try making substitutions until you reach a budget you’re comfortable with. Most items and styles are available at a variety or price points, so don’t be afraid to visit budget retailers to see if you can find a similar item at a better price. Your deliverable: A detailed shopping list outlining each piece of furniture you need to purchase. Don’t forget to measure everything twice before confirming your order. 10. Comparing and Choosing Chances are that during your furniture sourcing, you came across items you absolutely loved but that didn’t fit your budget, but that doesn’t mean you should cross them off forever. Keep these pieces aside and see if you could purchase them down the line or if the splurge is worth it. After all, one investment piece can elevate the furniture of a whole room, if chosen carefully. The types of pieces you may want to splurge on are unique statement pieces that will make a big impact on your overall design, or timeless larger items like sofas that you can see yourself keeping for decades. Your deliverable: A short list of a couples of splurge items to consider investing in for the long run. 11.Colours and painting You may think that the best time to pick a paint colour is at the beginning, but we prefer choosing it at the end. Why? It’s easier to pick a tone to complement your entire furniture collection than the other way around. Pick paint samples and look at them against the furniture you’ve chosen until you find the perfect match. Examine them against fabric or material samples to make sure that everything works together. If you can, get sample pots and paint one-foot squares on your wall to look at under different lights throughout the day. Each paint will look radically different under natural light than it does on a paint chip. Your deliverable: A painting plan complete with colours and paint finishes. 12. Add in Accessories Lastly, add in accessories in your space as you create layers that will make it feel lived in. A mistake people often make is to purchase a ton of small accessories instead of the big pieces first because they’re afraid of committing to a design scheme. By picking the bigger items first, you’ll avoid ending up with a ton of small accessories that don’t work together. When picking accessories, consider art for the walls, storage like baskets and trays, coffee table books, coasters, vases, and anything else that might enhance your space while still keeping it livable and practical. Repeat the same steps 8 through 10 to budget your accessories. Your deliverable: An accessories plan to add finishing touches to your décor and, at the end, a beautiful home you’ll look forward to coming home to.

[customtreeremovalservice]

German Waldglas

I think that most people who are interested in art history run the risk of catching collectors syndrome. The walls of postcards and tchotchkes in museum gift shops offer an antidote for those suffering in lieu of their ability to purchase the real thing. I have personally always had a thing for gift shops, and I’ve found that German museums have particularly good ones. After my most recent visit to the Bode-Museum, I eagerly perused its shop’s offerings. I was not let down. My eyes were immediately drawn to a vitrine full of shimmering green glass. It goes without saying that I am a sucker for “historical” stuff, and I could tell that these delicate pieces were hand blown. When I noticed the plaque stating that they were historical replicas I already knew I was going to leave that museum with lighter pockets.

Thus began my interest in the green glass produced from the high middle ages until the late 16th century in the region of Bohemia and Rhineland, the area mostly encompassed by today's Germany. Known in German as Waldglas (Forest Glass), it derives its name not from its typically green tint, but rather from the necessity that the glass production houses stand near forests, so that the taxing amount of firewood required in their production could be met. For this reason it was not uncommon for glasshouses to frequently move locations in order to maintain a constant supply of wood. Unfortunately, while this means that there are plenty of known glasshouse sites, there are few well preserved in the archeological record, and information concerning the production and facilities of Waldglas are scare since the materials from the former structures seem to have been repurposed for later construction and use.

The notable exception to this is lack is a miniature in the late 14th century manuscript Illustrations for Mandeville's Travels (shown below), which is currently held  in the collection of The British Library. In it, the entire process of Waldglas production is illustrated, from gathering the raw materials, to firing in the kiln, and blowing the glass into shapes. This illustration is important particularly because it shows roughly the rectangular design of the kilns used during this period. A contrast to the round kilns described by the 12th century German monk Theophilus in his text describing craft techniques, De diversis artibus.

The development of Waldglas owes to the lack of supply of the previously imported mineral natron, which was used to lower the melting temperature of the glass to make it workable. Natron was common during the Roman period, but when its supply was cut off Northern European glass makers replaced it with tree ash. This resulted in the regionally distinct green to brown tint that characterizes this period of glassmaking. While it was considered crude in comparison with contemporaneous Islamic glass production, the domestic availability of the glass caused it to quickly spread throughout Northern Europe as the older Roman glass needed replacing.

In Peacocks and Penguins the anthropologist Jane Schneider elaborates upon a theory in which she asserts that the distinct access to black dye resources in Northern Europe allowed in part for the developing independence of Northern Europe's economy from Southern Europe and the Levant, as well as playing a political and ideological roll for Northern Europe's eastward invading crusaders. Similarly, I can imagine that Northern European glass makers' reliance on local resources and the consequential aesthetic distinction of Waldglas from it's eastern and southern counterparts contributed to regional economic independence and cultural development. It is of particular interest to me that these glasses were made in large number for domestic use, meaning that their distribution would have been more widespread than more elaborate glassware meant for nobler classes.

The fragility of glass makes it an apt symbol for the instability of social relations and transitory nature of objecthood in the gestalt of history. Arjun Appadurai develops a theory of the unstable position of objects in his introduction to The Social Life of Things, and I will describe the relevant aspect of it here: objects, particularly ones that resist identification as such (Making the plastic arts a fine example. Think "This is not a pipe".), are particularly vulnerable to the type of ideological coercion that produces cultural and political schisms, like those developing during the height of Waldglas production. Perhaps this is better represented in the current historical record in pictorial forms, such as manuscript illustration and painting, but in the spirit of coming closer to the true lived experience of a common Northern European person in the Middle Ages, I think that the ubiquity of Waldglas gave it a cultural value similar to, say, Tupperware. That is if you read feminism as housewives in revolt. To avoid stretching this inquiry too far into conjecture would require a stronger structure of evidence, and thus more research than is appropriate for this post.

My attention was also drawn to a catalogue description of a circa 16th century Waldglas example in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum that describes depictions of nippled glass beakers of similar style in Jewish manuscripts instructing upon seder proceedings. Although no examples were referenced, I was able to dig up some visual evidence on my own from the so called Darmstädter Haggadah, an illuminated manuscript produced around 1450 at the epicenter of Waldglas production in Rhineland. On the right hand side of the illustration the seated figure robed in red raises what appears to be a stylistic example of a Waldglas beaker. Its lower stammen is thinner than the upper goblet of the glass, a later design more similar to today's wineglass, and you can distinctly make out the characteristic protruding nubs of glass on its surface.

According to Met curators, Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb, there were few requirements concerning the form of ritual objects used in Jewish ceremony, and so many non-secular items, such as perhaps Waldglas, were utilized in both Christian and Jewish households. I am interested in the interactions of Jews and Christians in a European context, and it should be noted that during these centuries Jews faced pogroms and antisemitic legislation that led to mass migration to the regions encompassed by modern Poland and the Ukraine. Beakers made from Waldglas were used in a Christian context as containers for reliquaries like the one in the photograph below, and the glass was also used in ecclesiastical stained glass windows, which could be an avenue for further research.

Eventually in the 16th century glass production switched back to the use of potash for Natron as a Flux. This was brought about by the desirability of colorless glass, as well as the overharvest of timber, leading to the creation of laws against its use in glass production. The first known textual description of german glass production since the 12th century is published in 1530 in Res metallica by Georgius Agricola, a preeminent 16th century German mineralogist and metallurgist, in which he describes a return to a circular furnace, in contrast to the one depicted in the Mandeville grisaille. This period also experienced a rise in popularity of the more refined Venetian style of glassmaking (Façon de Venise). Nonetheless Waldglas remained in use for centuries, as evidenced by its reproduction into the present, by those who could not afford the elaborate Façon de Venise glass. Thus, what once signaled low class status and regional isolation today fills a bizarrely orthodox niche for nastolgic home decor. In a recent New York Times Magazine interview, the de facto leader of Germany’s far-right nationalist movement, Björn Höcke, attempts to characterize his racist ideology in terms of a harmless throwback. Höcke’s specious rhetoric underlines the finesse required to untangle the past from present political and historical narratives. For my own sake, I just hope that Höcke doesn’t have any reproduction Waldglas sitting in his cupboard.

[nemesis-nexus]

Darkest Greetings and Salutations my Family, how is everyone on this absolutely GORGEOUS Summer Solstice? I am doing VERY well myself, enjoying the decent weather and celebrating the unity between the God and Goddess and all the life forms that are emerging as a result! This years Solstice comes at a time when things are going to get more and more interesting! Everyone needs to keep their eyes to the skies and pay extra close attention to the patterns of the Stars and their positions as they themselves are preparing for a HUGE astronomic event namely the comet that is due to pass - and possibly collide with - the Earth! The increase of seismic activity is also something people need to be paying attention to as places such as Yellowstone have become MUCH more active than usual and given that there is a supervolcano underneath the entire MidWest, this is something to be EXTREMELY concerned about ESPECIALLY with the threat of opening up ALL National Forests and Parks to fracking! These things are a cause of concern but do not let them overshadow todays celebration of the Earth and all the forms of Life that dwell on, within and over it! Take the time to appreciate your Family and Friends and to honor our Father who made this all possible! A Blessed Summer Solstice to all! Summer Solstice 2017 Hail Satan Beloved Father and Eternal Protector of the Family hear us! On this Summer Solstice we celebrate our Family both Blood and Spiritual as they are the most important thing in our lives! We know that we can have all the money, wealth and material things the world has to offer but without the love of our Sisters and Brothers none of it means anything! We come together this day to show love and respect for one another but also to show our appreciation for you and all that you are to us! We exalt your name to the highest degree and we honor you as we look around us and take in all of nature's beauty from the foliage of the trees to the lush greenery of the grass and brush to the animals that who were born in the Spring and are now finding their way in the world! Truth be told the human race is NOT unlike any other species on the planet in that we are born, we stumble through our younger years trying to find our feet and then we wander through our adolescence trying to find ourselves and our place in the big wide world and then in our adult years we apply all that we have experienced to this point so that we may continue our journey having learned the basics we need to know in order to survive! Father we know that life is not meant to be easy and as much as we THINK we might know, there is ALWAYS something new to learn! Those who fail to acknowledge this will find themselves falling behind because no matter how much we try to resist, change IS inevitable and the only way to get through it is to work with it rather than against it! Some changes are more beneficial than others, however if we are patient and stay the course we can overcome anything adverse that presents itself! So long as our energy flows in a consistent and positive direction we will keep moving forward in all aspects of life! Our faith is unwavering and our love is unconditional, we do NOT walk this path for personal glory or gain! We walk this path so that we may take our cues from you and grow beyond the superficial existence that so many people allow themselves to fall into via their tv programs or other Hollywood induced fantasy that is so full of misinformation and outright LIES that they have NO IDEA what it is they actually believe and refuse to accept that there is anything above them! These people are the ones who use this information to tell people what they want to hear so that those people will follow THEM and revere THEIR name, NOT YOURS! As a Family we stand together throughout everything, from celebrating the good times to supporting each other through the rough times! We offer comfort to those who may be going through a difficult time and we offer our replenishing energies to help one another heal any and all anomalies! Our Family is the Garden that we help to cultivate and our Sisters and Brothers are the Roses that decorate our lives! While we may not be as delicate as roses we do need to care for one another in the same fashion so that our Family members can remain strong in body and Spirit! Our Family is not only human, it also consists of those who like to help out - or play games depending on their mood or how they are treated - though we may not always see them! These highly Spiritual Family members are known as the Wee Ones or the Fae! They are always around though they may not always make their presence known, they assist in all magickal workings and can help find things which are lost both physically or psychically! They are to be respected as we humans desire to be respected and deservedly so as they are part of us and as such should never be treated with any less regard as we would want for ourselves! Our Family is also every animal that runs, every bird that flies, every insect that crawls, every breeze that blows, every body of water that rushes here and there, the fire that burns, the soil which sustains all life, the mountain that stands tall, the Stars in the sky that guide us where we need to go, the Darkness that embraces us and the Light that bestows wisdom upon us! Our Family also consists of Dragons who have existed since before time was time! They have many functions and represent many things such as: Strength, Courage, Valor, Protection, Defense, Love, Passion, Treasure Seekers - keep in mind the most valuable treasures are NOT gold or gems but LIFE itself - and Guardianship of all the afore mentioned! Our Illustrious Father is himself a Dragon and he not only embodies all these qualities and more, he is the reason we are able to gather here today! On this Summer Solstice we recharge ourselves and our Family members, we stand together as one functioning unit and we remind each other that no matter how far apart we may be physically, that we are ALWAYS there for one another no matter what! We know that wisdom comes from many sources and as such I would like to quote a VERY well written piece by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz called "The Four Agreements": "1. Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. 2. Don't Take Anything Personally Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering. 3. Don't Make Assumptions Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life. 4. Always Do Your Best Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret." These are not just pretty words that look good on paper, they are actually ESSENTIAL to living a life that is free of self sabotage as well as concern for the critical judgments of others! Once we free ourselves of the negative energy - and it's not always easy to do but then that is why when we need to we call on the Deity to help us to help ourselves and if need be our Family to help see us through - we can take the clean energy and use it to build and/or rebuild ourselves from the inside out! When we stop telling ourselves we can't do something and replace that thinking that we CAN do ANYTHING, amazing things begin to happen! We realize that half the battle is having the confidence in ourselves to be able to take on the project, to chase that dream, to apply for that job, to speak our minds or to take a stand on an issue regardless of who the opposition may be! Everything that we do starts from within and even though we are perfectly imperfect beings. we know that everything is a learning experience and that we are here to grow and evolve as individuals and also as a Family! “We're standing here by the abyss, And the world is in flames… Two star crossed lovers reaching out, To the beast with many names… He is He's the shining and the light, without whom I cannot see! And He is Insurrection, He is spite, He's the force that made me be! He is Nostro Dispater, Nostr'Alma Mater, He is! We are hiding here inside a dream, And all our doubts are now destroyed… The guidance of the morning star, Will lead the way into the void… He is He's the shining in the light, without whom I cannot see! And He is Insurrection, He is spite, He's the force that made me be! He is Nostro Dispater, Nostr'Alma Mater, He is! - He is He's the shining in the light, without whom I cannot see! And He is Insurrection, He is spite, He's the force that made me be! He is He's the shining in the light, without whom I cannot see! And He is The disobedience that holds us together! He is Nostro Dispater, Nostr'Alma Mater, And we are falling over the precipice!” -Ghost (“He Is”) ZI ANA KANPA! ZI KIA KANPA! MAY THE DEAD RISE AND SMELL THE INCENSE! Etiamsi MULTA Et Nos UNUM Sumus Nos Sto Validus Ut Nos Sto Una! Semper Veritas, Semper Fideles, In Diabolus Nomen Nos Fides! AVE SATANÍ! (We Are ONE Even Though We Are MANY And We Stand STRONGEST When We Stand TOGETHER! Always TRUTHFUL, Always FAITHFUL, In Satan's Name We Trust! HAIL SATAN!) Ave URURU! AVE EA! Ave NINGIZHEDA! Ave ININNI! Ave GILGAMESH! Ave ENKIDU! Ave MARDUK! Ave TIAMAT! Ave SATANÍ! HAIL SATAN! HPS Meg "Nemesis Nexus" Prentiss