#but after school she started working for some jewish organization and has been super active there

[pears-trinkets]

.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Dueling versions of reality define 1st week of fall campaign (AP) On the campaign trail with President Donald Trump, the pandemic is largely over, the economy is roaring back, and murderous mobs are infiltrating America’s suburbs. With Democrat Joe Biden, the pandemic is raging, the economy isn’t lifting the working class, and systemic racism threatens Black lives across America. The first week of the fall sprint to Election Day crystallized dizzyingly different versions of reality as the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger trekked from Washington and Delaware to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and back, each man on an urgent mission to sell his particular message to anxious voters. All the conflicting messages carry at least a sliver of truth, some much more than others, as the candidates fight to navigate one of the most turbulent election seasons in modern history.

Love or hate them, pandemic learning pods are here to stay (Washington Post) Some love them. Some hate them. But nobody working in education today can escape pandemic learning pods: the increasingly popular phenomenon in which families band together and hire a private tutor to offer in-person learning to a small group of children. Teachers throughout the nation are sketching out schedules and pondering whether they can squeeze in pod tutoring after virtual school. They are weighing health risks, deciding on ground rules—should all pod students wear masks?—and asking parents how much they will pay. (A lot, it turns out.) Sometimes, they are quitting their jobs to lead pods instead. That is what Kendra Newton is doing: The 24-year-old first-grade teacher resigned from her job with Orange County Public Schools in Florida after learning she would have to teach in-person this fall. She is moving across the country to Oregon, where she will lead a pod of eight students—for a higher salary than she earned in Florida. “It gave me a way to feel safe working,” Newton said. “I will have guaranteed money coming in and a stable idea of what my life will be like because there won’t be a school district changing its mind every two seconds. For my mental health, it’s just a better option.”

Americans see skepticism of news media as healthy, say public trust in the institution can improve (Pew Research Center) Many Americans remain skeptical toward the news media, questioning not only the quality of journalists’ work but the intentions behind it. For instance, no more than half of U.S. adults have confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public, and Americans are more likely than not to say that news organizations do not care about the people they report on. Yet three-quarters also are open to the possibility that Americans’ trust in the media could improve.

With office life dormant, white-collar Washington is adrift (Washington Post) Greg Crist is a D.C. lobbyist who used to wear suits, and go to lunch, and spend his days taking meetings on the Hill, or in his nicely appointed office at 701 Pennsylvania Ave. Now that his office is closed because of the pandemic, Crist is a man who commutes a few hundred feet from his Alexandria, Va., home to his silver Audi, where he spends much of the day taking calls in the only place where the important people on the other end of the line cannot hear his toddler son scream. Much of white-collar Washington has accepted the reality that it may be a long time before it returns to the office, or the office-adjacent customs of the city’s glad-handing classes: the power lunches, the networking receptions, the comped sports tickets and day trips to New York on the Acela. “Initially I thought, ‘Well, I’ll be back at work by Easter,’ ” says Crist, the chief advocacy officer and head of external affairs at AdvaMed, a medical technology trade association. Easter turned into June, which turned into Labor Day, which turned into a big question mark. The politicos and super-connecters are achy, stuck at home, stranded on the other side of the work-life divide. The lobbyists are without their lobbies. The conference denizens haven’t donned a lanyard in months. That infamous D.C. conversation-starter, “What do you do?,” has a new answer: I sit at home, stare at my screen, fend off my kids, try to keep it together. You?

Mexico states run out of death certificates (AP) The coronavirus pandemic has hit Mexico so hard that the governments of several states ran out of death certificates. Officials said Friday the federal forms started running out about 15 to 20 days ago in at least three states—Baja California, the State of Mexico and Mexico City. Authorities say a million new forms have been printed and are being distributed. The certificates are printed with special characteristics because falsification has been a problem in the past. Mexico has suffered the fourth-highest level of COVID-19 deaths in the world.

Washington firm ran fake Facebook accounts in Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico, report finds (Washington Post) When Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the nation’s legitimate president in January 2019, an Instagram account, @FrenteLibreVzla, posted a video declaring him a “new leader” who would bring freedom to the embattled nation, according to a research report published Friday. Those watching the video had no way of knowing the account was based not in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, but downtown Washington, managed by a strategic communications firm with clients across Latin America. The firm, CLS Strategies, this week became the latest communications company to be chastised by Facebook for using fake accounts—including on Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary—to secretly manipulate politics in another country, in violation of Facebook’s prohibition on foreign interference. Facebook announced Tuesday it had closed 55 accounts, 42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts linked to CLS Strategies that targeted politics in Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico. The effort spent $3.6 million in advertising across all three countries, a sum that Facebook executives said was notable for its size and reflective of what happens when actors with deep pockets mount a disinformation operation. The pages had amassed more than 500,000 followers. The operation by the public relations company is an example, the report says, of how Americans sow disinformation in foreign countries.

Coronavirus Crisis Shatters India’s Big Dreams (NYT) The hit that India’s dreams have taken from the coronavirus pandemic can be found in the hushed streets of Surat’s industrial zone. You can see it in textile mills that took generations to build but are now sputtering, eking out about a tenth of the fabric they used to make. You can see it in the lean faces of the families who used to sew the finishing touches on saris but, with so little business, are now cutting back on vegetables and milk. Not so long ago, India’s future looked entirely different. It boasted a sizzling economy that was lifting millions out of poverty, building modern megacities and amassing serious geopolitical firepower. It aimed to give its people a middle-class lifestyle, update its woefully vintage military and become a regional political and economic superpower that could someday rival China, Asia’s biggest success story. But the economic devastation in Surat and across the country is imperiling many of India’s aspirations. The Indian economy has shrunk faster than any other major nation’s. As many as 200 million people could slip back into poverty, according to some estimates. Many of its normally vibrant streets are empty, with people too frightened of the outbreak to venture far.

India and China agree to ease tension on border (Reuters) India and China said on Saturday they had agreed to work towards reducing tensions along their contested border, following a meeting of the defense ministers of the nuclear-armed Asian giants. Both sides deployed additional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand fighting. China has not released casualty figures for its troops. In the highest level face-to-face political contact between India and China since tensions first flared along the border in May, defense ministers Rajnath Singh of India and General Wei Fenghe of China met late on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow. Both countries agreed that “neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas,” India’s defense ministry said in a statement.

Super Typhoon Haishen aims for calamitous strike on Japan, S. Korea (Washington Post) Super Typhoon Haishen is roiling the unusually warm waters of the Western Pacific Ocean. The storm rapidly intensified on Thursday Eastern time, vaulting from Category 2 to super typhoon status with sustained winds of 150 mph or greater in about 24 hours. Super Typhoon Haishen is poised to strike the same areas as Typhoon Maysak, which hit South Korea early Thursday local time, to become the second typhoon to make landfall there and in southwestern Japan in just one week. The back-to-back typhoon strikes may worsen the damage, since infrastructure has been weakened by strong winds, heavy rains and storm-surge flooding, only to be hit again.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with secular Israeli officials over coronavirus measures (Washington Post) Israel’s rapidly escalating coronavirus crisis is aggravating a religious divide in the Jewish state, with ultra-Orthodox leaders accusing mostly secular health officials of discrimination and fostering anti-Semitism by focusing on outbreaks in highly observant communities. As the government struggles to contain the outbreak, ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis, cabinet ministers and parliament members have resisted attempts to curtail activities in ultra-Orthodox areas, including many that have emerged as covid-19 hot spots. Facing particular ire has been Ronni Gamzu, the pugnacious former hospital administrator appointed last month as the government’s “corona czar.” Gamzu has clashed with religious leaders over his efforts to impose targeted lockdowns on neighborhoods with high infection rates, block a yearly pilgrimage to the grave of a revered Hasidic rabbi in Ukraine and compel virus testing for thousands of foreign students who have recently arrived to attend religious schools, or yeshivas. Gamzu said last week that 80 percent of the most recent coronavirus cases occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. The government expects to enact targeted restrictions Monday in 10 hot spot communities, many of them ultra-Orthodox. The tensions have riven Israel’s coronavirus cabinet, the government body that sets policy. On Friday, one day after Israel recorded 3,141 new cases—the largest single day per capita increase in any country since the pandemic began—cabinet discussions grew heated over proposed lockdowns during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur later this month.

Sudan declares state of emergency over deadly floods (AP) Sudanese authorities declared their country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after rising floodwaters and heavy rainfall killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses since late July. Flooding caused by seasonal heavy rainfall, mostly in neighboring Ethiopia, led the Nile River to rise about 17.5 meters late in August, the highest level it has reached in about a century according to the Sudanese Irrigation Ministry.

[thelazyeye]

oh okay, internet famous Losers, like they're all youtubers and insta famous kids doing really different stuff around the nation, what do each of them do? who connects with who and how?

Ooff I love this idea. I used to be moderately into youtube people. Mamrie Hart anyone? She cracks me the fuck UP. Anyway this got super long so its under the cut. I hope you enjoy anon! Thanks for sending something it!!

Okay. Here we go. 

Richie 

is a youtube personality. Duh. He started out vlogging and his Voices and somehow his channel picked up. He writes comedy bits, does personal blogging, and tests his voices. 

When he was starting out he had a bit where he was a weatherman that had multiple personalities (Voices) and it got insanely popular. He received some backlash due to the offensiveness of the bit and has since retired it, but references it from time to time to credit his fame. 

Now he focuses a lot on his comedy routines and improv acting with other members of the community. He does challenges from time to time as collabs as well

People are super invested in his personal life (bc people seriously get like that with youtube people) and started speculating about his sexuality. It took him a few years to address all the rumors that he wasn’t straight and how he was probably dating this youtuber or that youtuber. 

Eddie 

is an LGBT Activist that has a youtube channel as well (think Laci Green but LGBT and not sex ed, though he does do sex ed work)

He got his start when he was in college. He became the president of the LGBT club. He wanted to reach a large number of students and he figured the best way to do that would be youtube

The entire club helped him out. Every week he would have another club member on the channel to talk about their sexuality and experiences

It didn’t get big at the school but he got lowkey noticed by the HRC after about 6 or 7 videos. He was contacted by a social media manager on the team to commend him on his work

From then on out he started to work harder on his videos, including more in depth information and he included links to more resources

Eventually, his videos started to rack up views from young LGBT kids thanking him for his channel

He started to collab with famous LGBT youtubers (troye sivan, hannah hart) and that’s when he really blew up 

Bill 

actually got his start on Vine. He mastered the art of the 6 second story and when the platform went down he migrated to youtube, snapchat, and twitter. He’s got profiles on almost every social media platform and he’s written a couple of webseries, as well. 

His first webseries (pre-vine) focused on comedy. He and some college friends got together and wrote the script/acted it out. It wasn’t very big but the following for it had a cultish feel. 

It blew up after he became famous on vine

After that, he started writing more webseries and partnering with other youtube actors

He wrote and completed two successful comedy webseries before he got bored of it. He decided to make the jump to horror work 

Think Marble Hornets

He ended up getting a scholarship to a film school and has been working on becoming a movie director ever since

His youtube work is on a hiatus but he still posts blogs and updates of his life. He’s active on Snapchat and Twitter the most. He still does dumb, funny shit from time to time and tweets out very random jokes

Stan 

is an adventure youtuber. He travels all over the world, seeking thrills and exploring nature. His videos usually have some kind of educational component but they’re always entertaining. Stan has explored the Savanah and Rain Forrests, he’s sky dived and scuba dived. He’s done a lot

He has a side channel for his love of birds because how can I not throw this in here?

When Anti semites started showing back up in the world Stan started to dedicate more of his channel, and his other platforms, to Judaism. He’s uses his popularity and fame to educate people and create awareness around the issues Jews face

As a result, he blogged his Birthright to Israel. It was a weeks worth of videos, some candids that he just uploaded on the whim, and some he took the time to edit. They were adventurous, educational, and full of his personal journey

Stan has also faced a lot of backlash for his involvement with the jewish community. He voices this in his videos. To combat the threats against him, he recruits other members of the youtube community to collab with and talk about issues. He makes it fun. He’s cooked Jewish foods, celebrated Jewish holidays, and had fun discussions with other personalities. 

Bev 

is a famous fashion designer and makeup artist. She got her start on Instagram, posting her designs and outfits that she created. Sh started young. Like 15 years old. As she grew up and went to school, her fashion instagram grew. People got to see her skills improve and they watched as she turned into a teenager designing clothes in her bedroom to a design student to a professional

She gives fashion tips to people and her favorite hobby is making posts that help girls and boys create fun, new, and exciting clothes out of what they already have in their closet

She firmly believes that you don’t need to have money and status to dress well. She wants fashion to be accessible. 

She started a youtube channel out of request from her followers. She got a lot of comments about her makeup and she started to do makeup tutorials there (Think Sailor J)

People really started to see how funny she was, then. She would always throw little bullshit videos onto her story but this was the first time she posted video content that didn’t disappear after 24h

Her youtube is not nearly as active as her instagram. That’s where you can find all of her content

She is also a vocal activist against child abuse on her insta. She frequently donates to various organizations and she does it very publicly. She runs clothing drives for those in need and has even hosted makeover days for young girls whose families can’t afford good clothes/makeup. 

She has recently expanded her fashion designs to male clothing, promoting Non Binary, Trans, and other identities in her lines. She says “Clothing has no gender” and pushes that despite advice to lay low on the issue. 

Mike

is a super unlikely case of internet fame. His instagram is composed almost entirely of his farm animals. He really didn’t think he was going to get famous from it. He just loves his farm so fucking much

The first half of his internet fame just consisted of pictures and videos of his animals. Namely, his dog Mr. Chips and his cow, Barely. They were best friends and Mike posted pictures of them napping together, playing together, and helping him run the farm

Once he started to gain an unreasonable about of followers he would pepper in posts that were educational. He talked about the importance of farmers, the work that he does, and how he maintains his animals. He worked to debunk a lot of myths about farming and really promote the work that he does. 

He still posts a lot of videos of him with his animals being all cute, but he uses his activism to reach large numbers of people at a single time. 

He also promotes healthy eating on his instagram. He talks about balanced diets and how to moderate sweets intake. 

Eventually he talks about working out (because Mike Hanlon is ripped sorry I don’t make the rules) and helps build an all around healthy lifestyle for his following. He kind of accidentally becomes a life coach of sorts. Motivation, healthy living, and cute animals. 

He has no idea how it happened but he doesn’t regret a single minute of it

Ben

is a singer! This sweet old mother fucker started out on youtube when he was 16. He bought a Ukulele and started writing love songs for the girl he was pining after

We all know that one mother fucker who owed a Ukulele in high school

His voice was like velvet, though. He wasn’t popular enough for anyone to really see it so he didn’t get teased in high school for it. His first couple videos got only a handful of views

What kick started his fame is a cover video. When he decided he wanted to do an acoustic cover of Lady Gaga’s Love Game

He did it on Ukulele

It ended up being such a fun and unique cover of such a popular song that he got noticed. Like. The video fucking blew up. He ended up getting over 5 thousand views overnight and the number just kept growing

Ben ran with it. He covered other popular songs (I Kissed a Girl, Viva La Vida, So What, etc) 

He blew up so hard and fast that people started to notice his original works

He got noticed by a label and signed the summer after he graduated high school

His first album was a love album because it’s Ben come on

He doesn’t have much of a social media presence after his youtube channel. He has the mandatory instagram and twitter that all famous people seem to have but they’re fairly inactive

Collabs

Richie and Bill

Richie and Bill were the first to collab with each other. Richie acted in Bill’s first webseries and it built a friendship that lasts a lifetime. 

The two of them do stupid youtube challenges with each other whenever they’re in the same city

Bill used to guest on Richie’s channels and play improv games to help both of them work on their comedy. They always turn out ridiculously funny and normally involve some level of alcohol

When Bill lost his younger brother in a car accident (sorry georgie dies in like every single universe) Richie flew out to see Bill and spend time with him. The two of them filmed a vlog together where they talked about the loss and then they both donated to anti drunk driving campaigns and urged their followers to do the same and never drive drunk

Richie and Eddie

They met for the first time at vidcon when they were first starting out. Richie was already pretty big but Eddie was working on his following. They hit it off immediately and they filmed a video for Eddie’s channel that focused on Eddie debunking stereotypes surrounding the LGBT community. Richie added a tasteful comedic flair that brought in views and he taught Eddie that things don’t always need to be serious 100% of the time

They kept in loose contact after that, always meeting up at vidcon and filming a ridiculous video for Eddie’s channel

2 years later, Richie reached out to Eddie and asked him to film a video for Richie’s channel

He wouldn’t tell Eddie what it was until they were in front of the camera, but Eddie readily agreed. He loved working with Richie. He thought he was fun and witty

When they got in front of the camera Richie revealed that he was bisexual and that Eddie’s videos helped him learn about bisexuality and come to terms with it

They spent the video talking about Richie’s journey to self acceptance, why he decided to come out, and Eddie’s knowledge surrounding sexual identity development. The video ended up being 15 minutes long and had the highest comment numbers Richie had ever seen. Not every comment was positive, but he took the experience in stride and started doing little bits of advocacy here and there for his and other channels 

Richie and Eddie end up dating, but not for a long, long time after that video when they’re both living in LA and well established in their youtube careers. 

Bev and Mike

An unlikely combo for an unlikely youtube star! Bev and Mike do a collab that focuses on self esteem and loving yourself!

Mike gives health tips and Bev gives fashion advice, but both of them talk about the importance of self worth and how external image means nothing if you don’t love yourself first. They both talk about their own journeys. 

The collab starts because Bev finds out about Mike through insta and she ends up contacting him about wool. They partner up business wise and Mike helps provide wool for her fashion line while Bev promotes his farm work. 

They don’t do many intentional collabs after they one, but they do show up on each others stories and in pictures together very frequently. The two become best friends

Ben and Bev

They don’t collab. But they do get married. 

They meet through the fame and bustle of L.A. Ben’s music career makes him end up at the same Gala as Bev, where they’re introduced to each other. They hit it off immediately, connecting with their childhoods and such. 

They date for 3 years before Ben proposes via Flash Mob and song written just for Bev

Bev loves the song so much she insists Ben release it. It becomes a Billboard hit

Eddie and Stan

Stan finds himself in NYC where Eddie lives and he reaches out to do an educational collab on LGBT politics in the Jewish community. 

He takes Eddie rock climbing and the two film the video with go pros. 

Eddie is terrified at first and it makes for a funny introduction but he eventually gets his bearings and the two of them scale a cliff together, talking about issues and getting to know each other. 

Stan and Richie

Eddie introduces them after the Coming Out Video. 

They collab as frequently as they can

They do ridiculous shit and Stan films Richie’s commentary. Its hilarious

They have a natural chemistry and they feed off of each other. Stan didn’t know he was a funny guy until he met Richie. Then it just kind of came out of the woodwork. Richie really highlighted Stan’s eccentric sense of humor. 

Everyone

Richie and Bev are childhood best friends

Eventually, they all end up meeting. They don’t really film videos with each other. Sometimes there’s a vlog that includes more than two of them but very rarely are they all in the same video at the same time. 

It happened intentionally once. It was chaos. Everyone was drunk. The video had to be edited so severely that it was only 1 minute and 30 seconds

They do however show up in snapchats, insta stories, and pictures as a group. By the time they’re all 30 they’re very, very good friends

[ja9doeswhole30]

Whole30 Hurdles

Welp. I’m up to the part in the Whole30 book where they suggest that you write down any events or special occasions that will occur during the 30 days and present a challenge to staying on the plan. So here’s my list:

3/6: Cookie-making fundraiser event at my son’s school. It’s baking and decorating the cookies, and not necessarily eating them, but there will inevitably be snacks and booze off to the side for the before-and-after socializing sessions. Then again, it’s in the evening, so I will have eaten dinner and won’t be hungry. And if I feel like partaking in the snacks they usually have a vegetable tray, and I can bring something compliant just in case.  

3/9: Hubs’s fantasy baseball draft at our house, during which the guys will inevitably order Turkish food. But, it’s at our house, so I’ll have my own food available. I’ll make sure to have something super tasty ready 

3/21: Purim (Jewish holiday involving carnivals for kids, debauchery for adults, & cookies for all). My kids will inevitably want to make hamantaschen, and I’m going to have to help them do so without eating the finished product. There really isn’t a Whole30-based substitute for a soft sugar cookie shaped like a triangle with jelly in the middle, but that’s also kind of the point. And at least I’ll get to spend time with them doing something they enjoy, and get to experience the deliciousness of the cookies vicariously. 

3/22: My sister-in-law is due to give birth to my niece sometime around this date, which will likely lead to meals out with the rest of the family after going to see the baby. I know there’s a section of the Whole30 book about eating in restaurants, so I’ll apply some advice from there once I read it. 

That’s not so bad, right? Still, I’m less worried about the “special occasions” challenges so much as the “frantic pace of every day” challenges. Unfortunately, the more I read about Whole30 the more I realize that it’s destined to be more challenging for people with small children. 

Allow me to explain my household in particular. 

I am a one-woman kitchen brigade. I’ve always been a grazer, but this is exacerbated out the wazoo because 90% of the time I’m home, I’m in the kitchen. The kids can’t even reach the snack cabinet or produce shelf in the fridge, much less cook for themselves. On any given day, I make breakfast for at least 2 people, lunch for 3 people, and dinner for 4 people... and everyone is usually eating something slightly different.

On the one hand, doing Whole30 won’t be that much of a departure from usual. For breakfast, the kids get cereal with milk (or sometimes a scrambled egg for the 5-year-old) while I make something more balanced for myself. For lunches, I’ll still pack their slew of cut fruit and crackers and cheese and mini bagels and make mine out of leftovers and other pre-cooked, Whole30-compliant ingredients. And for dinner, I’ll still be making one set of “healthy grown-up food” for me and another of “passably nutritious kids’ food” (with Hubs partaking in each menu).

The difference, obviously, is that I won’t be allowed to so much as lick errant cream cheese off my finger when spreading it on their bagels. The Whole30 materials make a big deal about “no slips or cheats!” and uses the analogy of falling face-first into a pizza as the only true “accidental” way one could fall off the wagon. But what about the distracted mom who’s doing a million things at once and forgets that she’s not supposed to lick the peanut butter off the knife after making her kid a sandwich? I’ve been trying to train myself not to take these little liberties, to break the habit before Whole30 starts, but it’s not easy when it’s been so automatic and (seemingly) innocuous for so long. 

There are also certain other practicalities. What if we’re not sure if the milk is still good, and smelling alone isn’t enough to determine that? Hubs doesn’t drink milk so he isn’t a reliable taste-tester, so I may need to explain it to 5yo  and have her take a small sip to check it out. I realize that there’s always some solution to these sorts of obstacles, but my point is that with food in our house the buck always stops with me, and it’ll be a struggle to sidestep these usual incidental tastes of food for 30 days. 

Someone is always eating. The Whole30 meal plan says simply “try not to snack”. Good luck to me with all the constant temptations. 

Most afternoons, starting at about 3 PM, I’m home with the kids and their constant stream of requests for snacks. By the time I negotiate a compromise whereby they can each have a serving of Awful Processed Snack Food if they also have fruit, and produce said items for one of them, the other one changes his/her mind and I quickly prepare something else, at which point the first eater has finished and wants additional food. Sometimes I’m able to get out in front of it and produce a slew of things that they share with minimal fuss, but they inevitably find something to fuss over. Yesterday I scored a huge victory when my daughter had a friend over and they each had a yogurt, some cashews, and craisins. 

Anyway, during these intervals it’s hard not to pick at whatever it is they’re snacking on - popcorn or cheesy corn puffs and sliced apples/oranges/pears. During particularly tense or stressful moments I indulge in spoonfuls of peanut butter or other nonsense we happen to have around. 

But at least the afternoons are only a few hours long. The real killer is the weekends, when the kids wake up at 6 AM, eat two breakfasts (one at 6:30-7ish and another around 8:30-9) and then around 10:30 ask if it’s almost lunchtime. My instinct thus far has been to leave the weekends free of organized extracurricular activities, so that we can enjoy the free time together and/or make plans with extended family and friends, but I’m starting to understand the appeal of getting the kids out of the damn house and to an activity of some kind so they stop asking for food. 

Hopefully the weather will warm up a big so I can engage Spring Play Outside mode more often than the Winter Hibernation setting. 

Four meals? Sitting down? I know I’m not the only person in the world with this problem, but a related part of the equation is that it’s hard for me to sit down to eat a meal without being completely distracted. Lately I find I’ll nibble on some fruit while getting the kids ready, then eat a larger “real” breakfast later in the morning once they’re off at school. Most days lunch is easier, and I’ll sit down to something at home or at my desk at work. Still, during these meals I’m usually checking emails, reading a document, or writing something. 

Dinner, though, is a totally different situation. I’m usually the last to sit down, on account of scrambling to get everything cooked and warmed up and prepared according to everyone’s specifications. And, of course, as soon as I do get my butt in a chair and start eating, someone 

Something I didn’t think about until reading up on Whole30 is the logic that if you eat wholesome, appropriately sized meals, you don’t need to snack. There’s no reason I can’t have my post-workout meal around 7-8 AM, breakfast at 10-11ish, lunch around 2, and then dinner at 6:30. That lunchtime may be tricky on some days given when I need to pick up my kids, but regardless I can see now how snacking will be easier to avoid if I make meals a calm and fulfilling eating experience. 

[occupyscifi]

The Partisan Generation

This generation

It was the morning that his daughter airily declared the moon landing a fake news Jewish plot to let liberal scientists run the government that Lenton Ayre realised things had gone a bit far with this generation.

“and, you know its because gun control libtards in the Hollywood elite that we lost the Iraq war” she added, gazing into her eglasses at the endless stream of retweets, status updates and weather pattern like emojis swept over her “because, you know. There were WMD’s  - that’s the truth. Only the cultural Marxists wanna cover it up. There’s like a whole thread on ReddChan about it and all the instagram influencers are saying…”

“honey, I just asked what you were gonna be studying in school today” he replied, cutting her off before she could do the whole ten minute screed on the snowflake liberals that then could segway into a whole monolog that took in every conspiracy theory from JFK to flat earth. Instead he would rather talk about their real education. As someone who was assiduous in his working habits and concerned for his children’s future he had of course taken them out of the local state school and put them into the Musk-Bezos academy that had opened in a refurbished mall just out of town. This was less a matter really of intellectual choice, more that since his own employer was a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Amazon he could either send his kids to the Inspire! Academy or he could find himself a new job.  

That Lenton would not have minded quite so much, but all his rivals could only offer him the Netflix online-ed course for his two teenagers. That would hardly have been good fathering, he had figured. Although considering his two children’s current subjects of conversation he wondered if it might just have been better to join one of the local Trump Revival churches and get them home schooled. At least he wouldn’t have had to worry about exams, and they would  have a willing audience to talk conspiracy theories with.

“Rani, dude. What is that libtard bullshit?” Ayre’s son retorted, his own smartglasses reflecting the latest news from the hardcore manosphere where he spent most of his time. Since he was wearing his ‘science is my superpower’ tshirt his sister was clearly in a trolling mood “you’ve been sucking down that stupid crap your latest gaywad lametoob boyband crush soyboy has been saying, right? Everyone knows that they’re just a front for Kremlin. Those pretty commie boys want to turn you Stacy’s into their harem so that honest patriots like me can’t get what we’re owed….”

“Kev, you can’t get a girl cause you’re a fucking misogynist incel loser” said his sister quickly “don’t start blaming other people for your problems”

“okay, kids please” said Lenton raising both his hands in what his NLP Yoga teacher had assured him was a calming pose that leant him an air of kindly authority “can we have some calm? You know something a little less partisan at the breakfast table?” lenton scrolled through his own smartglasses looking for non controversial content. It was surprisingly hard “now, can we all agree that congress are a bunch of assholes? Or that kittens are super cute?”

His son opened his mouth to argue

“okay, how about dogs in cars, with their heads out the window?”

Kevin shut his mouth and nodded.

“I mean, I don’t know where it comes from” moaned lenton later at the popup office where he spent his days in online content creation “my daughter spouts anything that comes from the Kremlin via whatever hot youtube boy she’s currently hard crushing on, and my son says anything that some rock hard libertarian science guy says. Neither of them give it a second thought. I don’t know why, cause whenever I say anything they’re on me with laser sight scepticism”

“eh, I blame the technology” complained his colleague as she thumbed through mentions in her livefeed, feeling the desperate need for validation more than the caffeine hit in the cup in her hand “these kids, they wanna be spoonfed everything. I remember when we was their age. We hadda actually google search stuff. If you wanted to throw shade you hadda go to the effort of writing a livejournal about it. Now these kids just get a bunch of recommendations straight into their eyeballs. No thought required”

“too right, Tina. Its about hard work” said Lenton, looking at the day’s workload “it’s the attitude that’s the problem. They’re just too lazy to challenge anything” he scanned the list of hot button to do items “so, what talking points are we monetising for cultural leaders today?”

“we got a contract in from Russia. They want to see the latest round of the Israel Iranian conflict spun as being caused by Jewish bankers. Was thinking we can feed that one in via the Foxosphere. They love a bit of Jew baiting so long as we call em progressive liberal internationalists”

“good call” said Lenton, paging through the various socially destructive ideas and fake news he was being paid a hefty commission to inject into public discourse “we’ve got our screaming mob on retainer. Can get them with placards and slogans anywhere we need them. Although the RNC still hasn’t paid them for that last job. Something about how they weren’t violent enough against those BLM people…”

“they’re actors” sighed Tina as she refilled her mug from the genuine organic roast machine. Her mug bore the cheery slogan ‘world’s greatest stripper’ always reminding her of her grandmother, whose gift it had been “if they want proper violence then they have to get the real white supremacists, but they’re all booked up defending the Canadian border from UN one world government liberal invasion, or whatever we told them was the problem”

“thought it was LGBTQ infiltrators?” replied Lenton. It was hard to keep up. They were after all paid to shape the news and the information that influenced people, the consequences were not really in his pay grade.

“whatever” sighed Tina as she took another high protein cookie from the stack. They were super moreish but were almost physically indigestible. The resulting diarrhoea was always good for the waist line “and we got another Koch brothers contract up. Top dollar to get the key 18-25 demographic thinking that renewable energy is a problem”

“simple. Thread through the manosphere as being that renewable energy is unmanly and feminising. We can to nostalgia stuff around the petrol engine. The far right will love a bit of Tesla bashing….”

“and Tesla will pay us double to spread the counter message” said Tina, finishing her coffee “cool” she paused “look, don’t worry about your kids. They go through phases. Shit, I was tumblrd out when I was their age, woulda cut my best friends head off if she’d said a word against my fandom. They grow out of it”

“yeah” said lenton, already downloading the days false news and astroturf memes ready to infect the information stream of the western world with “but, you know they just seem so extreme. I don’t get why” he added as he pumped a thread blaming vaccinations for causing sexual inadequacy into a mainstream news forum where it would have an active effect on roughly forty five percent of the readership “I just don’t see where they get those ideas from”

[kitemist]

switched at birth season 5 episode 7 / Episode 100 thoughts with spoilers

live reactions included.

Overall, worth watching. Sweet.

Before I start, I’ve seen enough previews already. What is with this girl? What are her intentions? And something lied in the process so that Angelo is permanently dead, because something supernatural cannot happen in this show, besides the flawless lipreading. Why did the switchsters and regina ever get their hopes up. Regina didn’t want any part of it.

And now with this preview, this girl never mentioned Angelo’s name. Daphne jumped to this conclusion, and this girl knew, “looked you up a while ago.” But what is there to gain from this? Daphne’s medical career has been endangered more than once. She almost got arrested. She almost became an addict, and she almost had two of her closest friends die.

Angelo is here without a question, Bay doesn’t question it but Daphne does. Even though Daphne talked to this girl first.

And now Regina doesn’t question it! This is a daydream isn’t it. And this is what definitely what Angelo would have done if that accident never happened. He would have continued his restaurant and cooking career, bonding with Daphne over it just like the night before Regina almost shot her own daughter.

We are all Daphne now. Confused as FUCK. Carlton Kennish is still a thing and Angelo is seemingly real to Daphne and Regina. No amount of previews can make up for our confusion. Of course Gilles would be here, he announced it himself in multiple previews and on instagram, much like every other actor/actress did in their own clips. But...Angelo...what the FUCK.

So Daphne just assimilates into this mental consensus that Angelo is real, because...no choice.

Officially, the entire Kennish and Vasquez family accept that Angelo is real and seamless, all conversing with him.

Angelo’s cute italian. ;v;

“I just wish you were here.”

Fuckin CALLED IT.

Why must Daphne be the traumatized one in bed? She is already gone through this before. “This is all your fault.”

And you two are gonna have sex huh. The coat worries me after Mom did that trick.

Yeahp.

How is Bay supposed to read that sign without a mirror on the ceiling.

Is this your first time having sex after you got raped? After talking with tank himself?

“Better than Emmett?” HOW FUCKING INSECURE ABOUT YOURSELF ARE YOU, TRAVIS?

“How could you ask me that?!” Yeah, fucking hell.

Also, what even led you to having sex in the first place? Were you just super horny, Bay? Like everyone who gets into a relationship is?

“Let me run it by the wife.” THE wife. pfffffff.

“To thank us?” For....what???

“God, this is strange, isn’t it?” You just made this more awkward. I already don’t like you.

“Feels kinda like a blind date.” And in this situation, we’re both dating our dad.

Okay, so they were the ones who did the donation. But did Angelo ever consent to be an organ donor? It’s the law! Or have you two broken it enough already to not care. Or was it a ruling by the majority of the remaining family? Or was it just...fuck it.

34 people? Blood saves 3 per pint. 10 pints per average person is 30 people. But that can’t be perfectly 10. 30 for blood and 4 for organs. Blood is technically an organ, but even with this, if some were more split toward blood and more than 4 organs, I still do not believe this number, but that’s just me.

Okay, she mentioned his FULL NAME. But she never directly mentioned that she got angelo’s heart. She only confirmed that she got a heart form a man who died in a car accident the same day that angelo died in a car accident.

Why am I not believing her to be Angelo’s heart’s receiver? Not only because of spoilers, but because nothing THAT GOOD can ever happen to anyone on this show. And besides the supernatural lipreading, nothing super cool or supernatural can ever happen in this show, which is supposed to be based on reality and how the deaf and hearing people interact in an audio centric world, with a side show for a race issue and for some questioning of sexuality.

I wonder if she is just telling a story of her dead parent to have bay and daphne bond with her. Her face isn’t helping. Or I just can’t read it.

“Never take anything for granted.” I still don’t believe you.

You JUST got a new heart and you already pushing it to its limits with all these crazy activities sounds horrifying to me. There’s the syncing of a new pacemaker. Or is she just not mentioning the physical therapy and getting used to things because it’s boring to hear.

New...cravings, for everything Angelo used to like. Memories are all stored in the brain. Which died permanently.

A tattoo over your chest scar. Sure your ribcage will protect you. But it’s still sensitive skin. Or artificial skin which isn’t as tough. But...really?

Daphne raises her brow because this girl already knows Regina. Or just knows the name. She did “look her up” but how much?

Daphne is as unsure as I am. But we’re thinking about different things.

“Of turning him into a christian.” Baptism does not turn you into a christian. It just makes you, in a way, live according to not your will. They just do this to babies so that they can live “the right way”. Being assimilated into a religion is of the individual’s own volition. Which Carlton doesn’t have yet!

Lily is jewish. And then there’s this christian talk. And then toby said because of the mixed wedding we can just throw it out the window? “Carlton can be both.” What.

I understand Lily. Baptism is really much deeper than appearances. Toby wants to please his mom more than his wife. And why is Toby on board with this? Nicole being religious overseas is what caused his first marriage to fall apart. And the weird question of only coming to God for something you need when Angelo died.

“I just didn’t want to impose my religion on you.” Why can’t you do the same, Toby?

Good thing you realized this.

Cellular memory. If memory is in the DNA (which i doubt, since it only contains stuff AT BIRTH, not later) and that has spread to this girl, that would make them believe in it. “Science is amazing” after all.

Cells containing a full set of genetic material is basic bio and cell construction. It’s in the nucleolus. As string, not chromosomes joined at the centromere. Why does cellular memory theory contain a fact all biologists know?

Inheriting DNA. After the commotion of whether the body would reject it or not, it would fit like a puzzle. But wouldn’t all those cells be dead, besides the ones that are holding up the structure of the organ? It makes sense to have those structure cells contain Angelo info, but the cell is specialized to just hold up the heart’s structure. If anything, this girl’s info would sort of hide Angelo info much like a dominant over a recessive gene, not slowly turn her into Angelo, which is what everyone is starting to believe right now!

Regina is so over this conversation. She wants to get way past him and Daphne wants to dive into the past again after that commotion with Iris and the BSU because...reasons and this girl coming up to her and just leading her into making a huge inductive leap. Regina is already over Angelo...wasn’t this made clear earlier when she wanted to adopt this Skylanders fanatic?

And Regina has completely solid reasoning.

“But those people have a piece of him inside of them.” Sigh. Doesn’t mean they ARE him. Why not track down EVERYONE who received a smidge of Angelo, try to combine them all together much like a human transmutation! This isn’t Inuyasha and Angelo is not the jewel!

Bay’s text message suddenly has incoming messages on the right, while her previous text conversation with Emmett was on the left.

“Forgive me yet?” why not just send a dick pic and ask her if she misses it.

Okay, she’s cute. But I don’t trust her with this.

“You wanna see?” Just turn this into a porno.

“You wanna feel it?” If you’re this frank why not make out with her on the spot? Worked for Travis.

And this does not contain a heartbeat sfx.

“That’s your dad’s heart.” Okay, you admitted it. But I’m sure this isn’t true one way or another.

Also, the heart is not directly dead center.

Also, you wouldn’t be able to feel it. You would have to use your whole palm and press gently. Not just a few fingers.

Now Bay brings up the question of fragile skin. NOW she does?!

After Bay tattoos a gang sign and does a coverup on the spot for free, she offers a job on a tattoo that may need repeating for free. How are you ever going to get that $300 to stay here?

“My car.” She is just...too casual about all this. What if you were making it up as she went along? She wasn’t making eye contact whenever she exposed some of her story.

“I know all the good parts to park so I don’t get busted or bothered.” Okay. you claim to not have cash. but this is your 3rd different outfit. Do you keep a closet in your car, and is all your money going toward tuition and gas? And this is a gangster neighborhood. Where is safe??

“You could stay with me and daphne!” Where do you have room?? Daphne and bay live together so only Regina is in the guest house and doesn’t want to meet her, which bay doesn’t know about. And not to mention toby, lily, and carlton. You are overloaded.

The way bay is talking leads me into thinking she is more bisexual than I thought, after Zarya.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARLEE <3

Please get along just for today.

Okay thanks Travis.

Instantly bonding and the random conversation we hear is about...a guy. Ugh.

You went to prom with a high school kid over a van. really.

And it worked..

Traveling again right after you were just about settled after that China trip and timeskip.

To meet his family...really...

And knowing someone who just happens to know cheap flights. Too convenient.

So she’s staying at Daphne and bay’s place. And Daphne is not happy.

Yeah, you should have asked her first. It’s Daphne’s place too.

“She has angelo’s heart. That practically makes her family.” Why not be-family the rest of those 34 people then?

Okay, good job telling her what you were slamming your hands about. But Regina said she didn’t want to meet any of them altogether.

Daphne’s face.

Baptism is not foreign to lily, you ass. She knows what it is, she just doesn’t want it! And of course, as Mom said, “men always think they have a good reason to lie.”

you’re only liking baptism as an obligation because of tradition. not because of your beliefs. which is what lily didn’t like as someone who was jewish. come on.

I don’t trust this show’s representation of religion as much as I don’t trust its representation of deaf people.

WOW, YOU MET HER ALREADY

Daphne said it, she didn’t.

She wanted to see Daphne but then ran into Regina and stuck with her instead? Since you share names with the robot from the 100 I don’t trust you.

And why are you running away from Daphne, Regina? Daphne did nothing wrong. Just tell you.

“I just hope from now on she respects our wishes” she already violated all of them by meeting you. what other wishes?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY. <3 THANK YOU, EMMETT.

This tension is weird. And the first thing you bring up is who you two can’t be friends over: Bay. I take that back, Emmett, I still don’t like you.

What is YOUR problem, Travis, bringing up Emmett post “best sex ever”? You two need to shut up.

Sigh. Of course you can’t shut up for her birthday.

And yes, Emmett is right about Travis being a control freak. He was making SURE he was better than Emmett in Bay’s mind. And Travis was right about Bay making that decision on her own, because she KNEW that Travis would blow up around anything Emmett.

Really? In front of Marlee, you say that Travis stole her? What??

Um, yeah, you had an idea “I can’t believe we flew back home just for a misunderstanding.” travis.

But just give Marlee a break, please...

Even if Emmett is in that bad of a place, that just proves it. He DID do that tattoo thing to get back with her.

“For all we know she doesn’t even HAVE Angelo’s heart.” I am on board with this.

Reasonable to read about you, since Mom’s book is a bestseller, just like her erotic baseball novel.

Bay. Come on. And Daphne is being like Mom right now, back when the switch was realized. Regina and Daphne were complete strangers and now they’re living together.

“Because when I’m around her, I feel connected to Angelo.” Sigh. You haven’t even talked about anything that is of angelo! We walked in on you talking about some van for prom deal!

“Why don’t you?” Because...Daphne hasn’t spent that much time with her, that’s why. And we do not know enough about her.

Daphne has a good reason to believe that maybe she could be a fake, but why would she want to play them?

Regina, in this deep stage of everyone’s lives right now, isn’t this reassuring? The thought of your loved ones (angelo) watching over you?

“I think when we’re done, we’re done.” Tell that to Bemmett.

Good convo after that racist outfit thing, Regina. You’re good to talk to about these things respectively.

Daphne’s logical to make sure about this, but breaching confidentiality. After vandalism.

Okay, she is...or is she?

“You might want to do some digging into her background.” Don’t. We. All.

In my opinion, we are all in sinful bodies anyway, since it is made from the naturally anti-god earth. Nothing can erase us completely except for god’s righteousness. Which doesn’t come from baptism. But I’m not going to put it out there if any tumblr people want to chat with me about ideology.

And we are already under god’s mercy for being allowed to exist. John 3:16. Sure we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god (romans 3:23) but we are redeemed now.

Okay, just because you have a more “official” person doing it doesn’t make her feel any better. You have to have one of those “baptism sessions” to get her to understand it. Not necessarily convert her, but I think a more indepth discussion than with someone unsure about religion and a reverend would be better to explain this.

So Lily said she is raising him jewish, but toby wants to follow mom, even though toby said that he and lily said carlton will be anything he wants and not to raise him as anything, so....what. And why am I caring about this again?

Now she is asking about the accident. And this would only give her more cover as “standing in” for angelo because of knowing this pivotal moment. She is definitely covering herself. I don’t trust her one bit, at all.

HA! FUCKING KNEW YOU WERE LYING ABOUT SOMETHING!

HAHAHAHAHA KEEP EXPOSING HER DAPHNE! KEEP GOING!

“you don’t know anything about me!” she knows enough for you to confirm out of your dirty mouth everything daphne just said. shut up.

“Did you lie about everything?” I’m expecting a yes.

“What do you want me to say.” Yeah. Fucking knew it.

And this is Bay’s fault for making that mental connection. She just drove her into making that same inductive leap. Daphne just leapt over back again with that digging.

And bay, since this is a lie, that 3rd time never happened.

“I said what you wanted to hear.” Yeah. That’s enough for me.

I know 0 shit about jewish stuff so I’m gonna shut up about that. But settle on Carlton’s identity already!

And now you bring down syndrome up again. I thought you didn’t care about that, that you’ll be okay with him no matter what!

Daphne’s different from Toby in “lots of other ways” and you connected with her just. fine. Ex. wilke. sorta.

A vision of Angelo again.

“Everyone deserves a second chance.” Vision-Angelo, both of bay’s datemates screwed up all their chances.

“I’m grateful I got one with you.” </3

Hey, Ripley. Good to see you.

Emmett. Why can’t you talk with daphne then? You’re talking as if she doesn’t exist.

You at that spot doesn’t make you any more deserving.

Bay can’t handle to go to that spot and now she’s there.

Uh, yeah, you were lying about SOME PARTS. That still doesn’t excuse it.

You know I am actually preferring a lesbian kiss right now. This conversation is awkward.

Thank you for finally loosening up, Travis.

And Emmett is taking pictures of another tattoo application. Hopefully they’re better because he’s actually there focusing and stuff.

“She has angelo’s DNA” “That doesn’t mean anything.” FINALLY

“Then let her family celebrate.” Regina is so against this. From the start. Stop. Trying. To. Convert.

“What if I see her and I don’t feel anything?” Well you didn’t feel anything the first time, so...

“Mom. This is my family now.” And this is the current age, where religion is not that huge anymore. Don’t try to start another Luther vs Calvin.

Cultural awareness is good.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

Coincidence, but ;v;

And they see him at the same time. Nice effect.

“I feel him. I feel his heart.” How can you tell, but ;w;

Okay, now that you have cleared yourself, I trust you now. For now.

Nice mystery around this girl Alie. Not as pleasing as the seal of approval one, but this was beautiful.