#but just like the old order Mennonites

[spann-stann]

Setting Blurb: The Reserves

It was easy to ship enemy urbanites and POWs out of CorpEmp territory and into the Cordons Sanitaire. But not everyone actively opposed CorpEmp. For every five communities that welcomed the warlords, there was one that was...apathetic. But not hostile. That was the thing. They just didn't want to join, and wanted to be left alone. CorpEmps founding warlords, not wanting a demographic influx of "people pissed at being made CorpEmp subjects" collectively shrugged their shoulders, and said as one "leave 'em be I guess".

Surveyors (armed in case the locals felt like doing more than shooting stern looks) would drive up to these communities, plop down a fence or whatever means of demarcation that was available, and bam! A Reserve was created. The Reserves (CorpEmp's word them) refers to the many, many, many little rural populations centers that are not part of CorpEmp. Unlike the Cordons Sanitaire, which had heavily policed borders, a Reserve only needed a little guard post (and gift shop for tourists) to watch the country road between it and the closest CorpEmp community. Trade and immigration, in and out of the Reserves, is unrestricted (again, these people were never activity opposed to CorpEmp). The closest CorpEmp and the Reserves ever get to diplomatic crises is cross-border brawls at the nearest pub.

Because of CorpEmp's lax security with the Reserves' borders, there are times were malign actors take advantage for their own gain. Some CPC gangbanger looking to make his bones will try setting up a "honest enterprise" within a Reserve. Days later, some Imperial constable will end up finding their body dangling from a telephone pole by the border.

Reserves are very insular (in case you couldn't already tell), contact with the outside world usually depends on if a particular reserve has internet, and how far the nearest non-Reserve is. Cooperation between Reserves is rare, emphasizing their desire to be self-reliant and not involved with the outside world. Cooperation with the Big Three is even rarer, for the exact same emphases. Although littered across CorpEmp territory, Reserves also form on the border between CorpEmp and U.M. territory.

The following is an incomplete list of Reserves in the 29th century:

Amish Countries: The Amish (the term now includes all strains of Mennonite) have continued their policy of remaining separate from the outside world. A few fellowships have taken this to the level of buying old orbital habitats (even building a few of their own).

Anti-Imperial Tribals: Not every member of the New Tribal Movement in pre-WW3 America was as warlike as the Hispano-Gaels. Some tribes decided to ignore the goings-on in Texas, and wall themselves up. A few still exist on the North American continent.

Bunker Dwellers: In some parts of the world, just before WW3 raged, some affluent individuals renovated old bunkers and missile silos to house themselves, families, and friends. A lot of them decided to remain underground after riding out the war and making contact with the many warlords fighting over the remains. Some complexes have become quite expansive by the 2800s, a few became underground arcologies.

Frontiersman: Some people don't like living in the core of human-settled space, and prefer to live on the fringes. Many communities were established in the Outer Solar System after the Big Three staked their many claims in the Inner, and now that all the good real estate inside the Oort is being developed a few expeditions into the Extrasolar territories (and beyond) were planned.

Hiders: There's not a lot to say about these Reserves. As the name (given to them) suggests, these guys just want to be left alone. In order to do so, they cut themselves off completely from the outside world. Hiders have been making moves to the Solar System's Oort Cloud (expect turf wars with the W.C.O.F.).

Leavealones: The bog standard Reserve. Quaint little village, standard of living a century-ish behind CorpEmp's. Usually a dirt country road connecting it to a CorpEmp community.

Nomads: The descendants of traveling folk, Nomads move up and down the many roads of the world. Some rely on horse-drawn carriages, others make do with the latest and greatest RVs. A few affluent Nomad groups own their own private roads. An even fewer number of the most affluent own their own boats to travel from continent to continent.

Peregrini: "Dwellers around", this Reserve takes the form of an enclave within an urban environ. Usually a walled-off, gated city block.

Prims: Sure, Reserves can be considered luddite by the other (technological) factions, but Prims take it to extremes. Eschewing technology altogether, Prims desire to return to state they only refer to as "monke". Uncontacted peoples, under the jurisdiction of the Green Consensus, are often erroneously placed in this category.

San Marino: Somehow, this small republic inside the Italian Peninsula not only survived the Third World War, but also the Warlords' Wars and creation of CorpEmp. When asked why it was never integrated into the West Latin Macrocommunity, locals just shrug their shoulders and say (in their own language) "I dunno".

Schismatics: Despite being a pro-religious empire, not many religious communities are pro-CorpEmp. Fundamentalist Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Sedevacantists, Orthodox Old Believers, and that's just from the Christian family of faiths. Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Animist, Scientologist (and other UFO-cults), and other religious schismatics dot the Earth (and the rest of the Solar System).

Spelunkers: These guys are a variant of Bunker Dwellers. What's different from Bunker Dwellers is that Spelunkers (as the name suggests) went to live inside complex cave systems. A bit like Hiders, in that they really want to be left alone.

Steaders: Steaders decided, once the technology was good enough, to strike out on their own on the open seas. Steader Reserves can vary in size, from single family platforms to a whole neighborhood floating on the ocean's surface. Or on the ocean floor.

Survivalists: Hiders, but packing heat. Wait. More heat than Hiders. These guys are playing the long game, waiting out in wherever they hunker down until another cataclysmic conflict destroys the Big Three. Then, them and their vision for humanity will become dominant. Given the recent discovery of multiple objects blueshifitng to the Solar System, they're beginning to be quite popular.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

I can't find the post where I said Mennonites were a cult like the Amish, but I remember someone replied with, "Hey, that's not correct" but with a bit more explanation.

Anyway, I can't find the original post to reblog and correct myself, so I just wanna say somewhere that I was wrong about Mennonites shunning and threatening shunning to anyone who is going to leave. It does happen, but it's not absolutely universal the way it is with the Amish, the Mormons, or with the Fundamentalist Christians.

When speaking of cults vs. religions, I think it's very important to double check these things because understanding if someone is going through a cult experience vs. a shitty church experience can be very, very different.

Like, the Catholic church on paper (and on twitter) is just a pile of shitbags. But there's also a lot of Catholics who loudly speak out about fucked up church doctrine and other fucked up church practices. That's not a cult. That's a bad church experience. You get me?

Looking at the wiki article, which is wonderfully detailed, I see the reason I thought all Mennonites practiced excommunication is because I grew up near Old Order Mennonites, who DO practice excommunication. But they are just one of many variations on the practices. Lots of schisms went down over time.

So, I was wrong. Old Order Mennonites? They use excommunication and shunning. Those are cult behaviors. But many Mennonites do NOT do that. It's an important distinction.

[sayhowdycountrycritters]

Was being a gay man in the Amish community a problem?

Are there alot of gay Amish men?

Will you share your coming out story?

The answer to these questions could be rather lengthy and involved, but I’ll try to be concise.

Firstly, I was not raised in a conservative Old Order Amish community. My faith background is Mennonite (Swiss Brethren) & Pentecostal. I do have Amish ancestry as well. But in any of those churches, being homosexual would be an issue. It is taboo, and I have seen in the Amish community, you either leave or stay “ in the closet “ in a kind of “don’t ask , don’t tell” situation.

I have never met any openly gay Amish folk, but do know several gay ex-Amish men and a couple of gay Mennonites. It is my understanding that only the most modern/less conservative Mennonite Church is “gay affirming”. I worked with and still do business with Old Order Amish businesses and as a heteronormative gay man, have never had an issue. Only when asked about my wife or children, does it get a bit awkward for a moment, but Amish bachelors or unmarried women are not unheard of.

My “coming out” was rather tumultuous and traumatic. My life was my family, my church, and school. I do know that I had an attraction to men from an early age of about 5 yrs. of age. I always thought that one day I would meet the girl I was supposed to marry, it would be like getting hit with a lightning bolt, and I would finally feel the way I was supposed to feel sexually toward women.

When I was either 21 or 22 , I was working myself through college, but living at home. A guy I worked with had just gotten out of the Navy, and he invited me to go out. I thought ‘Oh boy, I bet he wants to go out and pick up girls’! But he came out to me , I told him I had thoughts about sex with men , and he pretty much showed me about gay life and sex.

I lived at home closeted for a couple of years, ( I was the baby in the family and last one to leave home), and had lots of guilt. One day my snooping stepmother found a novel in my room about “coming out”. ( my mother had died when I was 15) . She and my dad confronted me , I admitted that I thought I was gay, there was lots of yelling and crying , and I was basically kicked out, and physically kicked by my stepmother.

Anyway, I was away from my family for about a year, but my sister called and said they wanted me home for the holidays. So I went home and we reconciled with that “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation.

My husband thinks I have some PTSD from my coming out situation and I suppose that’s true as it is for many gay youth from my generation.

I would like to say that I have never lost my faith in Jesus Christ, and consider myself His follower. I had a most wonderful mother for fifteen years and she taught me about Him. About love, patience, empathy, forgiveness, and non-violence.

Sorry, once again I am not brief!

[micamicster]

omg you're mennonite me too! if you feel like saying anything more abt your relationship to being mennonite i'd love to hear it, i feel like it's been a weird identity for me to navigate as i've gotten older and there are so few of us out there to hear ppl's experiences from

Hi there! Yeah me and my family are mennonites 💜 we’re not old order (some of my relatives are but not my immediate family) as you can probably tell seeing as I’m. Posting lol 🙃

I’m happy to talk about it—while i obviously don’t agree with every stance of the Mennonite church, their teachings are important to me. They’ve had a big impact on my values! And it is a community and culture that have a great deal of meaning in my life. That said if you want to talk more I’d rather we move to dms. Partly because it really is such a small community, and partly just because it’s hard to have an in-depth discussion of anything via tumblr asks haha

[darkrubymoon]

Food Auction and Shady Maple trip

Yesterday I went with my middle sister, my father, my attendant and a sweet lady named Lucy who helps me cook to a food auction at a place called Root's Country Market & Auction in Manheim, PA not far from Lancaster.  They have a huge Amish food market, food stands, craft stands and every Tuesday a food auction.  If you have never been to a food auction before, it is quite something to see.  Generally, if the farmers grow too much of something and they can’t move it to market fast enough, they will send it to these auctions just to get whatever they can so it’s not a total loss.  Likewise, some smaller grocers that have large quantities of food that is nearing the expiration date but is still good will sell at auctions’.  Lots of small restaurants go to these, buy large quantities of fresh produce very cheap to add to their menus the next day.  Frequently it is like an entire pallet of food, but they sometimes break it down into smaller bundles.  So for example, might bid on peppers.  The auction price is by the bag.  Bids might be for a quantity of 3, so if win a bid at a dollar you pay three dollars in cash only for three bags.  Any leftover go for same price or get added to essentially a grab bag at end of auction.  Can get food crazy cheap but bidding is crazy fast and if not careful could be paying cash for a giant pallet of turnips.  It is not just vegetables that are sold but also store goods and day old pastry from the adjoining food market.  By the way…if ever go to this…you must buy 1 fresh cream filled donut from the farmer’s market.  You might be able to buy the day old donuts cheaper at the auction …but for one of those fresh donuts it is well worth the splurge. We bought so many items we could barely fit in the van…I was precariously in danger of being crushed by a couple of pallets of strawberries my sister bought at auction.

From there we went to Shady Maple Smorgasbord 129 Toddy Dr, East Earl, PA 17519 .   My eldest sister who could not go with us had given everyone a gift card to this restaurant.  The restaurant was really quite an experience.  It was expensive and where it not for the generous gift from my elder sister and her husband, we would have probably never gone as it is an all-you-can-eat restaurant and I could never eat that much food.  It was worth it however just to check out the place.  When we pulled up, I honestly thought GPS accidently took us to a church with a huge school attached.  It wasn't easy to find, not many signs, and it didn't look anything like a restaurant.  We couldn't believe how packed the huge parking lot was with it being Tuesday.  Seeing all the Mennonite and Amish with their unique clothing entering and others in their Sunday best outfits, was really worried we were entering a church on some special occasion. 

The entry area too was somewhat formal.   I can't quite express how big this place was other than to say they had a you are here map as we went in search of the restaurant portion.  They also must have a couple of banquet rooms, one of which was holding an auction.  As we walked around the outer parameter, all along the walls were these beautiful works of art shown.  It is difficult to get an idea of these 3D works of art from a flat 2D picture nor get the scale, but most were at least 4 feet wide.

The smorgasbord was humongous.  The food area was much less formal...more like a typical smorgasbord with the exception of size and quantity of food and number of people.  You sort of enter a mass migration of people like are in a busy train station and the afternoon train has just arrived and find row after row after row of food.  We went on their seafood night, so i never got past the shrimp isle...it just went on forever.  They apparently also grill steaks to order, but never made it that far. 

After becoming totally stuffed... I went with my sister and Lucy to take an elevator down to walk around the gift shop.  I have been to many gift shops before, and I wasn't quite prepared for this one.  It spanned the entire length of the restaurant...imagine if you will a gift shop packed to the brim the size of a Super Walmart.  We lost Lucy a couple of times, so we tried to stay close.  My attendant apparently came down later to get us as we disappeared for so long and immediately gave up the search upon seeing the size of the place.

Copyright © Eric Ovelgone DarkRubyMoon Be sure to check out my artwork on all sorts of fantastic items from T-shirts and prints to clocks and more at my DarkRubyMoon stores following web locations. Main Website: http://DarkRubyMoon.com * DarkRubyMoon Store CafePress: http://www.cafepress.com/darkrubymoon * DarkRubyMoon Store Zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/darkrubymoon * DarkRubyMoon Store I DO NOT GIVE ANY COMPANY, PROGRAMMERS, OR PROGRAMS INCLUDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT DATA COLLECTION DEVICES THE RIGHT TO GATHER, USE, TRAIN FROM OR SOURCE ANY OF MY IMAGES, TEXT, OR USE ANY OF MY WORKS OUTSIDE OF MY EXPLICIT CONSENT. ANY USE WITHOUT MY CONSENT AND COMPENSATION IS THEFT AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH.

[danonrealestate]

Real estate strategy and its history

Developing a plan to take a piece of land and develop on it takes a lot of strategy. What exactly do you want to accomplish? Is it a higher revenue or is it to create a community or is it to advance a goal? You know it’s one of those things, I just got done with my capstone in murals and I really learned a lot about the importance of a certain project and why people do it. Companies, investors and city governments will not spend 50,000$ on a mural for no reason, it has to serve a purpose and when you develop a piece of land it is creating a project that you would see come out over time. So it all depends on what exactly you want to accomplish and how to accomplish it.

Mennonite communities for example want to accomplish building a community of other mennonites to live in peace and away from the rest of the public, so as to be able to control the community, have them pay rent for living there and creating a community that is purely mennonites. Similar to other communities like for example Amish as well where they develop for the sole purpose of creating a homogenous society that is far away from a heterogenous big city. The Old ways of “Mormonism” a term that should be long gone now used to have a very similar situation in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and eventually the church became the church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints and became more of a religious non profit organization similar to baptist churches and 7th day adventists. So there really was an evolution that took place in the Mormon church that went from being exclusive to being inclusive. The church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints has churches and temples all over the world and to this day serves a church similar to the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City, so it’s really not a cult although in the beginning it had cult like methods of building on real estate and trying to do what communities today do.

So coming into it in a lot of ways though real estate can also be for political gains and other kinds of ways. So really it’s important to understand. Discussing more of an ideological gain, George Lincoln Rockwell was an American who tried to spread the ideas of national socialism to the public of America during the 1950’s. He was eventually assassinated but his followers went on to start communities throughout America where the goal was creating an “all white” community on the idea that eventually it would lead to a white “ethno-state”. So to understand a bit more into this idea groups that have similar goals, especially in New England, tend to be Blood Tribe who the leader recently bought land in Maine for around 25,000$ in order to create a commune that focuses on paramilitary activity.

So to understand a bit more about its history both recent and non recent we also have to look at strategies. What needs to be understood is that Black Lives Matter is not in any way like this nor is the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. There might be private members of those groups who may be thinking like that but the agendas of these parties are more about spreading a message. So really you have to understand the difference between an organized and thought out strategic accumulation of land that creates a purpose and for example more of a group of people with a message that looks to spread it. So before reading more upon my blog please understand that this focus is purely on methodology and strategy and not about ideology. Although we may go over ideology the only reason why we would is to understand and create an example of how they use methods to build their goals.

Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash

[berezina]

Burgess had an easy, unpretentious sophistication that I admired. Unlike me, he was no stranger to the avant-garde. He had made his Broadway début in Eva Le Gallienne's 'Romeo and Juliet,' in 1930, and through the years had worked with everyone—Kurt Weill, John Steinbeck, James Baldwin, Otto Preminger, Jean Renoir. Still, Burgess found it disconcerting that he would prepare the lines Godard had given him the night before and then arrive on set to find that Godard had thrown them all out. Burgess didn't mind the experimental—he only wanted to be let in on the process. These kinds of games can feel infantilizing to an actor, and it was only thanks to his good humor that he didn't abandon the production the way Mailer had.

Over dinners at the hotel's white-tablecloth restaurant, which overlooked Lake Geneva, Burgess and I speculated about what our inscrutable director was up to. Burgess, a wine aficionado, would order the best bottles on the menu—a Château Petrus '82, say—which greatly impressed the staff. We were joined often by my friend Angie, sometimes by Julie, and at least once by Sellars (whom I'd since forgiven). Burgess wore a variety of jaunty caps over his shock of white hair and regaled us with stories about his life. His light-blue eyes were sharp, and twinkled the way I had once imagined Santa Claus's did. At the time, he was planning on writing a memoir disguised as a book of wines he'd enjoyed through the years. My favorite anecdote was when, as a young man, he was 'summoned' by Tallulah Bankhead to her suite at the Gotham Hotel, in Manhattan. 'That's when you really knew you'd arrived!' he told us with a roguish grin. He wore his nicest suit, thinking that he was going to have a tête-à-tête with Bankhead. She greeted him at the door completely naked, a champagne glass in hand and a bacchanal raging behind her. 'Burgess, dahling!' she cried. He said that one thing led to another, until eventually he found himself with her in flagrante in one of the bedrooms.

'And then, just before the petite mort, she whispers in my ear, ‘Don't come inside me, Burgess dahling—I'm engaged to Jock Whitney!' ' he said. 'And the champagne she was drinking was . . .' Honestly, he made the Brat Pack seem like a bunch of Mennonites.

Godard never dined with us. It's a shame that he sequestered himself from everyone, because, considering how much he revered cinema and old Hollywood, I have a feeling he would have loved Burgess's stories. Looking back on it now, I think he was actually a bit shy, trapped in his mind. Perhaps the only way he could make sense of anything was to film and edit it.

~Molly Ringwald [source]

[ghostlycroissantpainterdrea-blog]

It's a strange thing when you're invited to a different church sect, and come away from the invitation, not feeling like an asshole.

I had a family of Mennonite women come in to donate today. Kind, sweet. Amazing women.

In the full conservative clothing as well. I took one back to do her mini-physical. You know, vitals and all such as that.

She and I chatted, we talked about one of the members of her church, being someone who I always looked up to as a child. He used to sell this amazing milk out at our Farmer's market, and I adored him. He had the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. His daughters were gorgeous too.

She shared and experience of how her baby brother had to stay in the hospital, with tubes coming out of him. And she had to learn how to change all of them, and still comfort and love him. I said "That would be something very new, to adjust to. I don't know that I could even do that with a baby that doesn't have all that going on." She asked if I had grown up in a big family and I said "No. I'm the only. But, my best friend is the oldest of 10, and he and his baby brother are the only boys. I always felt like I got lost in the sea of little girls around the house." Somehow we got on the topic of how I had never worked with infants, and I primarily worked with the elderly, and hospice when I was a CNA.

She said "Wow, I would prefer to work with babies, I don't know that I could be with people as they died."

I said "It's a very spiritual experience. But, I like to think of it, as they're just going on up to the house."

She said"Goodness, you're just talented."

We talked longer than I really should have, in terms of getting a mini-physical done. But, she invited me to her church, and I didn't feel shame or pressure to go. Instead she talked to me about, how she really enjoyed it, and the traditional service. I told her "I prefer a traditional service as well, and it to be in a liturgical calendar, and to follow the book of order."

She looked at my tattoos on my wrist, and told me how beautiful they were, but said she didn't know if she could do that, saying you're not supposed to decorate a temple. I agreed with her, on the temple part. I told her I was raised to believe that, there should not be a lot of pomp and circumstance, during a worship service, and it was not to be a spectacle, and it took away from the actual worship of God. She and I were on the same page, about my puritan beliefs. She said, "Why would you get a tattoo if you do not believe in the ornate decoration of a House of God."

I said "Well, I don't necessarily know that my body is a house of God. I don't know that I will ever be pure until I reach the heavenly kingdom. I know that I was born of sin, and it's not a matter of being perfect it's about slowly progressing over time, and learning about what your purpose is at that time and place and learning the hard lesson of trusting God, and letting God take on those battles that you can't fight."

She said "I've never met a Gentile who spoke so much of the Lord, and knew the Lord, as I have."

I said to her "Well, just as you are unique in the creation of the Lord, so am I. But, yes I hear that a lot. I tend to get told that I am an old soul, for some odd reason, everything feels new to me." We laughed. She told me about where the church was and the service times. I told her I would think about it, but I tend to dress a little bit riske even at my own church. She smiled and said "You are fine exactly as you are."

We spoke about community, and how it truly took a village, to raise children in the church. I said "You know when we have infant baptisms, in my church, I take those vows to raise and guide them, seriously. I may not look like the "Sunday, go-to meetin'" type, but I feel like even the Jesus, would have sat with me at dinner, and we could have a lovely conversation."

She smiled even bigger. She was kind and non-judgemental. She said "You know, Jesus was an outcast. But, he saved me. And for me to look at you with tattoos, and your hair uncovered, and call you undesirable, that would be taking the Lord's name in vain."

I agreed with her. I said "Quiet evangelism, is more effective than the loud boisterous singing and shouting in the streets."

We talked way too long. She said "How, do you feel about female pastor's?"

I said "You know, they have wonderful faith. I wish they didn't have to take over for the men, in the church so much. I wish the supposed men of God, were safe to be around, and were actual leaders, and taught agape. Unfortunately, most of the male Pastors whom I've met, are not safe to be around. And a lot of women have had to take over, instead."

She said "Oh, so it's not about the woman pushing the man out of leadership? The men, are just not safe?"

I said "Well, there are dangerous people everywhere, including men and women. But, I've never felt like I wouldn't make it home to my family when there is a woman elder or pastor, guiding me."

She spoke about my disappointment, of some of the leaders of the the universal church, and how many times I have left, because I was traumatized. But, felt grateful to be alive. She asked how I come I kept coming back, and I said "Because, I know who Jesus is. And I know that Lucifer was the most beautiful and bright angel, and how he takes many forms."

She asked "Has any leader of the church told you to harm yourself, to be apart of the kingdom."

I said "Unfortunately, I have been told many things along those lines. I have been told that, I was not good, and I was just a whore, so I might as well, just unalive myself, and speed up the flames of hell."

She asked if she could pray for me. And I said "Most certainly. I will joyfully accept prayers on my behalf by anyone, who feels called by the Lord to do so."

She was quite literally the only person I had ever met, who told me that my faith was strong, and my discernment to know who Jesus was, was a gift.

She said "I don't know that I would be as strong as you are."

I said, "Well, God gives us all the trials and tribulations, to remind us to trust him and give it back to him. I may not know the purpose, and I may be angry, and shouting and yelling at God. But, he's big enough to handle it."

She was lovely. Her family was lovely. She said she would look for me, at service sometime, and I said "I would love to come and visit. Especially, if the congregation, was anything like her."

[yarnings]

Me:(driving through PEI) Wow, this is definitely a different mix of churches than I'm used to.

Thing One:(reflexively) What do you mean by that?

Me: Well, when was the last time you saw a Wesleyan church, or a Free Church of Scotland?

Thing One: I don't think I've EVER seen those before.

Me: Exactly. Back home it would be four different Mennonite churches instead.

[hardcockcafe]

standing in solidarity with mutuals whose friends are all getting married

[doberbutts]

People get so weird when I tell them I don't drink. They think it's for religious reasons which A: I have not been any kind of religious since I was 16 and B: Mennonites drink unless they belong to certain Old Order sects and even then some still do they just pretend they don't. Or they think it'a for moral reasons so they'll always be like 'oh well is it okay if I drink' and it's like. Listen I don't care what you do lol as long as it's not in excess because at that point it's not good for your body or your mental health to be constantly drunk.

I don't drink because:

I think alcohol tastes very bad and with the exception of one Renn Faire homebrewed mead that I had a singular sip of, all alcohol tastes this nasty sickly sweet flavor with other things hinting in. To me it tastes the way vomit smells and it's entirely offputting. I also don't like the smell for the same reason- there is this sickly sweet smell to all alcohols that turns my stomach.

The idea of being drunk or high as a recreational activity is not appealing to me. I actually cannot think of anything I'd like less.

My parents were both raised by angry drunks masquerading as fathers and they killed the dragon by banning all alcohol from the house and telling us stories about how their fathers beat the shit out of them and their siblings when they'd come home in a drunken rage. Both of my parents have anger problems and so do all of my siblings. I have relatives who have struggled with addiction their whole life. I've watched in real time how bad things can get and there's supposed to be a genetic link with alcoholism and addiction. I have zero desire to see if that monster lies in me too. I've done a lot to keep my anger under control and the last thing I need is for a chemical dependancy I can choose not to partake in to fuck that up for me.

[spurgie-cousin]

I wanted to work at JoAnn's in college SO BAD. I was in a sorority and the amount of money I spent in that store is actually unreal. We kept JoAnn coupons on the sorority house fridge. I knew the employee discount would save me hundreds. But alas, I never heard back after applying and worked at Macy's instead. Now I can't even step foot in a JoAnn's because I get flashbacks to burning my fingertips off with a hot glue gun by making hair bows en masse for rush at 3am.

It was a decent part-time gig for a recent grad! And dude the coupons...............PSA of the day, all of the big craft stores like that actually bump up prices significantly so they can *always* be advertising coupons (and then make big money off the people who don't bother to use them), so the coupons are like gold lol, after working there I don't even step *foot* in a JoAnns or Michaels without a whole arsenal of coupons (I'm assuming this doesn't apply to Hobby Lobby since they believe bar codes will possess you with demons).

So I got the discount on top of coupons and it was great, I still have so many Halloween and Christmas decorations from my time there 😂 and 99% of my job was stocking fabric with a bunch of ultra-religious gals who sewed everythiiiiinnnnngggg so they were also there for the discounts (the Mennonites I worked with were either old order or just very conservative, bc they were the kind that people often mix up with Amish, they made aaaaallllllllll of their dresses and clothes). It was super interesting talking to them really, they were just as fascinated by me, a 23 y/o who came in with hangovers all the time, as I was about them lol.

[bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise]

Can outsiders be initiated into braucherei? I’m interested in learning but don’t want to overstep any boundaries.

So that depends on the braucher, technically I’m an outsider because my great grandmother was excommunicated for petty reasons. But because my great grandmother was a braucherin and I’d still been raised beside them and participated in the culture and learned the crafts and helped watch the younger children and would help them look for cows that got out, and they wanted me to marry one of my neighbors for the aforementioned petty drama reasons, etc. I was allowed to learn- I didn’t get to finish as my Lehrer died, and I sort of continued learning by talking with my grandfather about what he remembered his mother doing when he was a kid and working at it from an oral history angle.

There aren’t a lot of Brauchers left, many of them are found in Old Order and Conservative Mennonite communities or in Amish communities, the best I could do for you would be to find such a community and reach out, say that you’re interested in learning more about their faith and their practices, if you’re genuine and respectful they might let you in on braucherei, but each community is different, I can’t speak for them. But the first step when approaching a folk magic like this is always to look at the culture first - culture informs so much of the practice that without it you won’t understand the magic, talk to people in the community, ask if you can do anything to help, take a genuine interest in their lives and art and you’re likely to see better results than just going in and asking about magic, especially since not every community even has a braucher or are open to the practice of braucherei anymore.

[alyssawritesss]

10K: HYPOTHETICALLY

Fandom: Z Nation Pairing: 10k x Reader Prompt: N/A Warnings: N/A Notes: Y/N = Your Name

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TAGS: @sxturn-stars​ (permanent tags) // @lillymueller​ @johnmurphyisbisexual​ @xxstrangegirlxxx​ (z nation tags)

It had been a few days since you and the group had reached the Mennonite Community where 10k and Addy had been poisoned by Anthrax. You had worked alongside Warren and Vasquez to take the medicine from them in order to save your people. Not a single bone in your body felt guilty for what you did - it’s about survival now, at any cost. Your people came before anyone else, and that was just the way it had to be.

Since you all had been back on the road, you had been the one tending to 10k and Addy the most. You have them their medicine, made sure they had food and water and made sure they were as comfortable in the back of Doc’s truck as possible. In doing this, you had grown closer to both of them, but more specifically 10k. While most of the others were asleep at night, you would tend to 10k and the two of you would talk for hours about the most random things. The two of you had discovered that you had a lot more in common than you ever had realized.

As you sat between 10k and Addy’s sleeping bodies in the back of the truck, you watched the night sky above you, stars shining bright. It was beautiful. It amazed you that even in the apocalypse, something could be so perfect.

“What are you thinking about?” A hushed voice filled your ears.

You turned your gaze to 10k, his eyes squinting as he attempted to sit up. You assisted him, before letting out a sigh. “Just… the stars.”

“The stars?”

“Yeah… They’re perfect. Even after everything, there’s still something left in this world that’s pure. It’s beautiful.” You responded, looking back to the sky.

10k kept his eyes on you, a small smile spreading to his face. “There is still a lot of beauty in the world… Not just the stars.”

“I guess you’re right.” You responded, looking back to him. “Anyways, how are you feeling? Any better?”

“A lot better, actually.” He nodded.

“That’s good.” You smiled. “You’ll be back to zombie killing in no-time.”

10k nodded. “I can’t wait for that.”

The two of you remained silent for a few moments, once again staring at the sky. Each second that passed, 10k didn’t only think of the sky’s beauty - he thought about yours. Not only your external beauty, which he believed you had an indescribable amount of, but he also thought of your internal beauty. You were one of the kindest people he had met during all of this. Even when he was the quiet new kid, you had accepting him and really tried to make him apart of the group as best as you could. He appreciated it, more than he thought he could ever really tell you.

“Can I ask you something?” He spoke, his voice quiet again.

You looked to him, nodding. “Of course you can.”

“Hypothetically,” he started, taking a deep breath. “if-if I asked you out, would you say yes?”

Your eyes widened. “Hypothetically?”

“Hypothetically.” He responded, his cheeks turning pink. You knew it wouldn’t be as noticeable had he not been still so pale from the sickness, so you tried to ignore it as best as possible.

“Well,” you spoke. “hypothetically, I would say yes.”

His eyes widened for a moment before he cleared his throat. “R-really?”

“Why not?” You responded, a small smile coming to your face.

He nodded, his smile returning. “Interesting…”

You let out a small chuckle, turning your eyes back to the sky before bringing yourself closer to 10k’s level. He placed his arm around you, allowing you to place your head on his shoulder. The two of you sat in blissful silence until finally drifting off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

Another one from my old blog... I think I’m going to start transferring most of my decent fics from there onto here for you all to view! I am currently ONLY accepting Christmas-y requests! You can send those HERE if you’d like. Please remember to note and/or reblog if you enjoyed!!

[newstfionline]

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West (AP) Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. The consequences of the intense dry periods that pummeled areas of the West in recent years were severe—more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation to support livestock and wildlife. The study comes with almost two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. beset by abnormally dry conditions. Warm temperatures forecast for the next several months could make it the worst spring drought in almost a decade, affecting roughly 74 million people across the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Survey: Even as schools reopen, many students learn remotely (AP) Large numbers of students are not returning to the classroom even as more schools reopen for full-time, in-person learning, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Biden administration. The findings reflect a nation that has been locked in debate over the safety of reopening schools. Even as national COVID-19 rates continued to ebb in February, key measures around reopening schools barely budged. Nearly 46% of public schools offered five days a week of in-person to all students in February, according to the survey, but just 34% of students were learning full-time in the classroom. The gap was most pronounced among older K-12 students, with just 29% of eighth graders getting five days a week of learning at school. With the new findings, President Joe Biden came no closer to meeting his goal of having most elementary schools open five days a week in his first 100 days. Just shy of half the nation’s schools offered full-time learning in February, roughly the same share as the previous month.

Off Grid (Pew Research Center) Despite increasing access across the country, still 7 percent of U.S. adults say they do not use the internet, according to the latest survey from the Pew Research Center. This includes about 25 percent of people aged 65 and up, about 14 percent of people in households earning less than $30,000 per year and about 10 percent of rural households. In 2000, 48 percent of Americans said they didn’t use the internet, which fell to 32 percent in 2005, 24 percent in 2010 and 15 percent by 2015.

Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 3 million amid new infections resurgence (Reuters) Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe. Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, along with public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions.

Devastation From Storms Fuels Migration in Honduras (NYT) Children pry at the dirt with sticks, trying to dig out parts of homes that have sunk below ground. Their parents, unable to feed them, scavenge the rubble for remnants of roofs to sell for scrap metal. They live on top of the mud that swallowed fridges, stoves, beds—their entire lives buried beneath them. “We are doomed here,” said Magdalena Flores, a mother of seven, standing on a mattress that peeked out from the dirt where her house used to be. “The desperation, the sadness, that’s what makes you migrate.” People have long left Honduras for the United States, fleeing gang violence, economic misery and the indifference of a government run by a president accused of ties to drug traffickers. Then last fall, two hurricanes hit impoverished areas of Honduras in rapid succession, striking more than four million people across the nation—nearly half the population—and leveling entire neighborhoods. “People aren’t migrating; they’re fleeing,” said César Ramos, of the Mennonite Social Action Commission, a group providing aid to people affected by the storms. “These people have lost everything, even their hope.”

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips (AP) They’re not leaders for life—not technically, at least. But in political reality, the powerful tenures of China’s Xi Jinping and, as of this week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century—even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year. What’s more, as they consolidate political control at home, sometimes with harsh measures, they’re working together more substantively than ever in a growing challenge to the West and the world’s other superpower, the United States. This week, Putin signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades—longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin—pushed through a constitutional vote last year allowing him to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends. He has overseen a systematic crackdown on dissent. In China, Xi, who came to power in 2012, has imposed even tighter controls on the already repressive political scene, emerging as one of his nation’s most powerful leaders in the seven decades of Communist Party rule that began with Mao Zedong’s often-brutal regime. Under Xi, the government has rounded up, imprisoned or silenced intellectuals, legal activists and other voices, cracked down on Hong Kong’s opposition and used security forces to suppress calls for minority rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

US military cites rising risk of Chinese move against Taiwan (AP) The American military is warning that China is probably accelerating its timetable for capturing control of Taiwan, the island democracy that has been the chief source of tension between Washington and Beijing for decades and is widely seen as the most likely trigger for a potentially catastrophic U.S.-China war. The worry about Taiwan comes as China wields new strength from years of military buildup. It has become more aggressive with Taiwan and more assertive in sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea. Beijing also has become more confrontational with Washington; senior Chinese officials traded sharp and unusually public barbs with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in talks in Alaska last month. A military move against Taiwan, however, would be a test of U.S. support for the island that Beijing views as a breakaway province. For the Biden administration, it could present the choice of abandoning a friendly, democratic entity or risking what could become an all-out war over a cause that is not on the radar of most Americans. The United States has long pledged to help Taiwan defend itself, but it has deliberately left unclear how far it would go in response to a Chinese attack.

Myanmar teeters toward state collapse and civil war (Washington Post) On Tuesday, protesters spilled metaphorical blood on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. They sprayed and splashed red paint on roads, pavement and bus stops across town to mark the death toll exacted by security forces on demonstrators standing against the Feb. 1 coup carried out by the country’s junta. At least 570 people, including more than 40 children, have been killed in two months of unrest. More than 2,720 politicians, activists and civil society figures have been detained by authorities. At least 25 journalists are in detention, while others covering protests have been brutalized by state forces. On Tuesday, police and soldiers in Yangon carted off Zarganar, the country’s most well-known comedian, in an army vehicle on unspecified charges.      Last week, authorities further tightened curbs on broadband access, ordering private providers to suspend wireless data services. According to one research firm, Internet shutdowns over recent months in Myanmar may have already cost the local economy close to $1 billion. That’s a price the regime appears happy to pay to deter protesters from coordinating their actions and disseminating further information. Undaunted, dissidents have taken to older forms of communication, launching rogue radio stations and spreading leaflets urging a national boycott of next week’s official state celebration of Thingyan, Myanmar’s traditional new year.      Still, the resilience and determination of the protesters “is not unambiguously good news, because the military junta also will not give up, no matter the cost, leaving little hope of salvaging Myanmar’s political liberalization, economic reform, and development progress during a decade of civilian rule,” wrote Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an esteemed political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Instead, the country faces the imminent threat of economic collapse, state implosion, and internal strife—perhaps even full-fledged civil war.”

A Murky, Violent Limbo in Syria (NYT) Among the millions of Syrians who fled as the government bombed their towns, destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones are 150 families squatting in a soccer stadium in the northwestern city of Idlib, sheltering in rickety tents under the stands or in the rocky courtyard. More than 1,300 similar camps dot Syria’s last bastions under rebel control, eating up farmland, stretching along irrigation canals and filling lots next to apartment buildings where refugee families squat in damaged units with no windows. On a rare visit to Idlib Province, examples abounded of shocked and impoverished people trapped in a murky and often violent limbo. Stuck between a wall to prevent them from fleeing across the nearby border with Turkey and a hostile government that could attack at any moment, they struggle to secure basic needs in a territory controlled by a militant group formerly linked to Al Qaeda. Few of them are likely to return as long as Assad remains in power, making the fate of the displaced one of the thorniest pieces of the war’s unfinished business. “The question is: What is the future for these people?” said Mark Cutts, the United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria. “They can’t continue living forever in muddy fields under olive trees by the side of the road.”

Israel hits Iranian ship (Foreign Policy) An Iranian military vessel in the Red Sea was damaged by an Israeli mine on Tuesday in the latest naval confrontation involving the two countries. The incident follows a number of attacks against Iranian vessels suspected of shipping oil to Syria. Iran has responded with strikes of its own, hitting an Israeli container ship in March. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the ship struck in Tuesday’s attack had been stationed in the Red Sea to combat pirates in the area.

[dark-and-twisty-01]

'Nice Guy' Glenn kept bodies in barrels

We can imagine the scene. Andrew Cherewka, 24, sat in front of his probation officer. It was was shortly before Christmas, 2015, in Waterloo, west of Toronto. The officer had marked the holiday with a bent six-inch plastic tree on her desk and a few scattered cards. Outside, it was snowing. The wan light of early winter crept through the cracks in the blind. 'Good to be outside?' Andrew smiled. He was free, free, free at least in the psychical sense. He'd served 30 months for a road traffic accident in which his friend, a passenger in his car, died - something he could never be free. He carried the chains of remorse with him wherever he went. 'Just some formalities,' the officer said. She ruffled the pages of a form.

'Next of kin?' 'My mother and sister, I guess.' 'Address?' 'I don't know' 'You don't know?' Andrew explained that he'd last seen his mother, Linda Daniel, 48, and sister Cheyanne, 13, in July 2011, when he called on the home they shared with Linda's boyfriend, Glenn Beauman, 37, a truck driver, in rural St. Clements. Bauman told him Linda and Cheyanne, a keen horse rider, had cleared out his savings and maxed his credit card, just like that. Andrew never heard from them again.

'You didn't report it?' The probation officer leaned in her chair. Andrew shrugged.

'Mom kept very much to herself. She had few friends and hardly liked anyone. I was surprised but wasn't, if you know what I mean. I thought mom took Cheyanne to start a new life somewhere.'

'You tried to contact them?' 'You bet, I sent texts and messages but they never replied.' The officer considered what he said. 'You should report it, in case.' 'In case?' 'This Bauman character, you know?' 'Glenn? God, no he's the nicest guy you could meet. I've never seen him raise his voice or lose his temper. He treated Cheyanne like his own daughter.' He so, keen to keep in with his probation officer, Andrew reported the pair missing - four years after they disappeared. And then all hell broke lose.

As a matter of routine, police searched Bauman's old home on Hessen Strasse in Wellesley Township. There they found two 45 gallon steel barrels in the backyard that contained ash - about two person's worth. Worse, one of the barrels contained human teeth and what was believed to be human bone fragments. Inside the home, blood was observed to have seeped through two layers of flooring in the master bedroom that was once shared by Linda Daniel and Glenn Bauman. In the meantime, Bauman had moved from Ontario to Alberta. Alerted to the concerns of their colleagues, the RCMP in Alberta sent two officers undercover to find out what they could. The first played the role of a private investigator looking into the disappearance of the mother and daughter, He approached Bauman full on and accused him of killing the pair: 'I don't know what to tell you, man, cause you're a killer.' 'I didn't do anything to them, other than provide a roof over their heads and a life,' Bauman replied. He climbed into his truck. The officer heard Bauman talking out loud to himself - weird. Bauman was rattled and turned to his new friend, not knowing the new friend was also an undercover cop. Their conversation was recorded. Bauman talked about killing the private detective and burning his body in a barrel. Was he serious? 'He gets cooked in a fucking barrel, and then you keep burning and burning and burning and burning and burning until there's nothing left,' Bauman said. That was pretty serious. 'Won't that leave bone behind?' the new friend asked. 'Naw,' Bauman replied with a strange confidence. 'The heat's strong enough to get rid of the bones. The only thing that won't burn is teeth.; The undercover officer drove around with Bauman in his truck as they looked for a place to purchase a suitable barrel. 'We can transport him somewhere else in that,' Bauman said. Yeah, he was serious.

It was enough for Bauman to be picked up on August 19th 2016, in Valleyview on Highway 43, north-west of Edmonton. There was a barrel in the back of his pickup truck. It was a shock to one of Glenn Bauman's old friends, Jonas Martin. He said Bauman was raised in an Old Order Mennonite farm family - no smoking, drinking or sex before marriage - a really nice guy. He met Linda through a dating site in 2003 and loved her daughter, Cheyanne. 'He loved her, absolutely loved her.' If it meant doing extra runs or working extra hours so that he could pay to do something for her, that wasn't even a question.' Like the Amish, Old Order Mennonites, of Swiss-German origin, follow a strict code that focuses on a traditional way of life although vary from group to group. Three thousand five hundred OOMs remain in Ontario. Membership is voluntary, and Bauman had left the order when he was 19. Bauman was brought before a seven-man, seven-woman jury in April 2019 for a four-month trial. Crown Prosecutor Ashley Warne told the court that for years Bauman 'gave explanations for the whereabouts of Linda and Cheyanne Daniel.' He was so plausible, no one questioned it. Bauman had told Andrew he'd reported the pair's absence to the police in Elmira but the police had said, 'Don't go looking for them.' This was untrue, although Bauman did approach police earlier to say his relationship was on the rocks. 'He was seeking help about how to get out of his domestic situation,' a police sergeant confirmed. It was unclear what he thought the police could do about it. Bank records from the period showed Bauman struggled with money. He was unemployed and under pressure at the time Linda and Cheyanne disappeared. Andrew repeated the tale of how his interview with his probation officer produced a 'light-bulb moment' in his head that led to him reporting the disappearance. 'She asked me if I had ever reported them to the police and I said 'no' and she was very surprised by that.I guess I was surprised at how surprised she was.' After he removed Linda and Cheyanne from his life, Crown Prosecutor Warne said, Bauman 'began making efforts to start a new life with a woman.' He met the woman, a Nigerian, on the internet. He wanted to send her $3,000 but Western Union stopped the international transfer to Nigeria as part of a clampdown on scams. Bauman complained to the police. 'I've sent her a plane ticket,' he said plaintively. Two days later after Linda and Cheyanne disappeared, Bauman cashed in Cheyanne's education savings plan. A few months later, he received the $3,100 that rested in the plan. When Bauman was arrested, his current partner asked him point-blank if Linda and Cheyanne were still alive. 'He gritted his teeth,' she told the court. 'With a tear in his eye, he shook his head and said, 'No, and I don't want to talk about it anymore.' A friend of Cheyanne's from Linwood Public School had posted a message on Cheyanne's social media page. 'Why were you not at the first day of school?' There was no reply. The defence argued that Bauman had no case to answer because Linda and Cheyanne were still alive, having started a new life somewhere else - abroad maybe.

Bauman didn't take the stand in his own defence but a witness was called - Roxanne Ratthe, another friend of Cheyanne. She claimed Cheyanne had called her after they left Bauman's home - something the prosecution claimed never happened because Bauman killed them at home and burned their remains in a barrel.

'She called me a while after and just said, 'Hey,' I was like, 'Hey, How's it going? Where are you?' She said, 'I can't tell you.' I was like, 'Well, seriously, where are you?' She just kept saying that she couldn't tell me. I asked her once more - 'Where are you?' - and she just hung up and I never heard from her ever again.'

Defence lawyer Terence Luscombe asked how Cheyanne sounded. 'She sounded normal. She always had kind of a bubbly personality. She sounded excited. She was happy, or it seemed that she was happy. Crown prosecutor Dominique Kennedy said she was confused.

'So your understanding is that your conversation with Cheyanne was not after she is alleged to have been killed?' 'Yeah. She did not call me after she had been allegedly killed. It was before all this happened..' 'Because if Cheyanne called you and you were the only person in the whole universe to hear from Cheyanne after the day that she is alleged to have been killed, that would be very bizarre, right?' 'Yeah.' 'Like unbelievable, right?' 'Yeah.'

In closing arguments, Dominique Kennedy rejected the notion that the pair were still alive elsewhere. 'They had no passports or other travel documents. They didn't change their name. They aren't in the witness protection program. They never crossed into the U.S. Linda and Cheyanne always lived in southern Ontario. It's not reasonable to suggest that Linda and Cheyanne stowed away to a foreign country unbeknownst to all.' After deliberating for a day, the jury found Glenn Beauman guilty of first-degree murder even though nobody could explain how or why he did it - was it really because of financial pressure? Don't all families suffer like that?

In August 2019, Bauman was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years for each murder. The sentences will run concurrently as the deaths occurred months before a change in Canadian law that allowed for consecutive sentences in multiple deaths. Asked if he had anything to say before he was taken away, Bauman politely replied. 'No, Sir.'