#but way better than the cardboard boxes most early systems came with

[finalfantasycdxx]

i hate sealed graded game collecting. why is ffx greatest hits sealed graded 9.6 fucking 700 dollars on ebay. like idk something about treating games like we treat expensive playing cards is upsetting to me. let them out!!!

idk sealed game collecting somehow doesnt bother me like graded sealed does. sealed feels like you love the game and want to have a mint copy for whatever reason, maybe someday youd open it maybe you wont. graded feels like purely speculative market bs. with cards i understand it slightly more because a) black lotus is 30k easy b) card collecting and stamp collecting has been an established thing since the early 1900s maybe earlier and so the infrastructure to preserve the stuff from 100 years ago has been built up over a long time c) cards and stamps are way more susceptible to changes in humidity as well as generally fragile. not to mention that the utility of a baseball card is the same whether its behind glass or not, its just a thing to look at. for game pieces like mtg or ygo or pokemon, you could use a proxy in place of the card (secret is that you always could) and then argue theres no difference to a judge who may or may not let it fly. i guess you could argue having a sealed graded physical copy of a game lets you take the moral high road wrt emulation, but at that point just buy a cheap copy for 10$. video games are multisensory experiences and reducing them to a sealed mystery box to speculate on its value feels like capitalist alienation at its finest.

[bold-writing]

The One With Whiskey Eyes || 18 || My Peace, Like Shattered Glass

Words: 3200+

Warnings: Trauma, Acts of Violence

Previous || Next

~18~

“Ow!”

“That’s why I wear gloves,” Iris teased gently as she smoothed a Band-Aid over the badly stinging cut that Jessica had obtained when trying to rip open a box—it was basically a papercut, but when it was caused by cardboard, the pain was considerably more; as was the amount of blood that had welled up to the surface of the cut.

“I thought that was to hide the mark,” Jessica admitted quietly, her low voice deliberately making sure that their coworkers didn’t hear what she said. “You’re always wearing them.”

“This is the fourth time you’ve cut yourself this week,” Iris pointed out in counterattack, causing the younger woman to flush in embarrassment before she simply shrugged her shoulders. There was no defense against that. Iris shook her head with a gentle smile, collecting the garbage from disinfecting and covering the cut, tossing them into the nearby trashcan of the office. “You should get a pair, you know. Boxes and books don’t just cause papercuts, but they dehydrate your hands as well. Wearing a pair of these will stop that.”

“Don’t rub it in,” Jessica grumbled half-heartedly. Iris just gave that same smile as she stood up.

“I know it’s a bit earlier than usual, but why not take your break now?” Iris asked instead, briefly checking the time on the bottom of the office computer’s screen. Jessica agreed easily, happy to get off shift and eat something. The two women went their separate ways once they left the office, Iris making her way back into the store as she smiled to her coworkers and reclaimed her place behind the register.

She knew they were whispering about her, confused by why she was constantly smiling and always seemed to be happy. Not that she’d been doom and gloom before, but they couldn’t remember a time when she had smiled and showed her happiness so openly and constantly. Jessica was still the only one to know about her marks—or at least the fact that there is more than one—but they had all been able to notice the change in their manager in the past few weeks. She’d gotten worse, to the point that she had been forced to take time off, before she miraculously got better.

There were still days when they could tell she hadn’t slept well, for whatever reason, but they were few and far between.

Iris wasn’t able to see her soulmates every day, try as either of them might, but they spoke constantly. She would wake up to emails from whoever was in the light that day, but she would usually write to all of them every morning—she hated feeling like any of her soulmates were being neglected. Continuing to do this as more and more of them are met, she isn’t sure, but she knows that she will go out of her way to make sure they are all…loved. Welcomed and acknowledged for their individuality.

It was surprisingly difficult to focus on her work—she had never had anything in her life to distract her before. Even fear of her parents had bled away after a time, but her soulmates were ever present on her mind.

Absentmindedly, Iris stroked a fingertip over the mark on the back of her palm.

They were all so different, it made her wonder who else was in the body of Kevin Crumb. When would she meet Hedwig, the supposed child? Or Jade, a younger female than Patricia?

“Looks like the cold-front has arrived,” Sarah called from the front window, a box perched on her hip as she glanced back toward Iris. The young woman’s eyes turned to the window, blinking in shock at the white-out of flurries that had overtaken the view outside the storefront.

Her face pinched slightly uncomfortably, knowing that her walk home was going to be horrendous. “That’s gunna be so cold,” she mumbled to herself, but it was loud enough for Sarah to hear. It had been chilly enough on the walk in to work, heading home through the snow was going to be so much worse. Sarah gave her a pitying look before she turned to get back to work.

Instead of letting herself become distracted by thoughts of walking home, Iris collected one of the boxes that needed to be scanned through and took it to the main counter. Sarah continued to clean and organize the front displays—it was a quiet day and there was very little to do for the group without more customers coming in.

Iris herself had been there since five o’clock that morning, completing some of the reports that needed to be sent to the owners by the end of that week. Not wanting to wait and rush through it, she decided to come in a few hours before her usual time and get in a bit of silent work. She was feeling more exhausted as the day drew on, but at least her sleep the night before had been a fitful one until her alarm had gone off.

Of course, her day did not get any better when she got a call from David, who sounded like death, saying that he had tried but he wouldn’t be able to come in to work. As an old habit, she didn’t want to bother anyone else and just decided that she would stay for the full shift and close the store down as well. Jessica and Sarah both shooed her to the back for a long break, however, and made sure she ate the soup she had brought and even made her a tea with the kettle they had in the break room.

It made Iris wonder if they had gotten a lecture about how she was always doing things for them. Her boss definitely had not liked how she was always working, taking the weekend and evening shifts or filling in for the others when they did not or could not come in. It wouldn’t have surprised her if her employees had gotten a lecture during her forced days off.

“Do you want me to get you a tea? Or a coffee? How about-”

“Jessica,” Iris interrupted, her voice carrying an amused tone as she shook her head at the younger woman. “Calm down! I’m fine, I promise. There’s only a few more hours before close and the snow kept it quiet today. I promise I’ll head straight home and eat.”

“Remember, I’m opening the store tomorrow so I better not find you here early,” Jessica forewarned, pointing a threatening finger at the frail woman. “I swear, I’ll make you sleep in the break room.”

Shaking her head at Jess’s antics, Iris motioned toward the door. “Go home, Jess. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

She was given one more warning look before her new friend and old coworker disappeared out the door into the white flurries that had dominated the window most of the day. Supressing a yawn, Iris sat herself down at the main cash with some of the paperwork from the back office—she still had work that she needed to get done, even if she had to stay and help Sarah until closing.

The odd person or two would wander in throughout the day, making small or simple purchases that Iris handled easily and with little thought. Sarah kept up with cleaning and stocking to busy herself, giving Iris several assurances that she would take care of the aisles and to not worry. By the time the final hour rolled around, and it had been at least forty-five minutes since the last customer, Iris was tempted to send Sarah home early.

The shelves were spotless and there were no other boxes that needed to be put out, so there was nothing else for the young woman to do. Iris had even spent a good thirty minutes explaining to her how to run the computer programs that she used to manage all of the store’s books. Sarah just sat with a bewildered look on her face and they both decided that management was not something that she was interested in learning.

“It’s deserted today,” Iris finally declared, leaning against the counter as Sarah wandered by with a dusting rag. “You head on home, okay? I’ll stay and finish my paperwork and if someone does come by I can handle it.”

Sarah blinked at her owlishly. “Are you sure? I don’t mind staying!”

“There’s no point in both of us being bored out of our minds. Head on home, I’ll be fine.”

And then there was one.

Iris fought another yawn as she glanced at the computer screen. Just one more hour. Sitting back in her chair to rub at her tired eyes, the dark haired woman could feel them sting slightly with the effort she had been putting in to keep her eyes open.

She used to have no problem staying up for ungodly hours, but she’d been adjusting to a new way of living lately and now it seems going back to how things were would be impossible.

Sitting forward with a silent sigh, she tried to focus on the paperwork in front of her. Only a minute had gone by before her concentration was shattered, similar to the store window that exploded in a shower of glass as something was sent flying through it.

A shriek of surprise tore from her lips as Iris ducked behind the desk, too far for the object to reach but fear drawing the defensive reaction to the forefront. Her heart had rocketed into a galloping pace in her chest, hands shaking in fright against the edge of the counter. The roar of wind and the tinkling of glass hitting the once clean floors filled the silence of the store.

The rush of cold against her covered arms and bare neck made her shiver, skin already beginning to feel feverish from the sudden rush of adrenaline that flooded her system. Shivering and panting, Iris remained crouched and hidden as she waited and listened for any sign that the person who had broken the window might come inside.

However, even as time passed and nothing happened, she couldn’t bring herself to move. Trembling in fear and shivering from the cold, her hands gripped the desk above her head until her knuckles were white beneath her gloves. Eventually the distant sound of police sirens broke the silence, bringing her mind back to the present. She’d forgotten about the security system—if one of the doors were opened while the code was inputted, the police were alerted, but if a window was broken at any time the police were called immediately.

Trying to force her hands to relax on the edge of the desk, the sirens grew louder until the police cars came to a screeching halt outside of the store.

Taking in deep breaths of the cold air, Iris exhaled through trembling lips as she finally detached her hands from the desk. Shuffling out from her hiding place, she used the desk to support herself as she finally stood up and surveyed the damage. The front was a mess now, a combination of glass and snow covering the floor and surrounding displays.

The first thing that came to her mind was how the books were going to be ruined if they got snowed on.

“Police, don’t move!”

Iris jumped and choked back a gasp, hands shooting up as one of the officers stopped outside of the broken window. She was the only person visible in the store, so she could understand being suspicious.

“I’m the manager!” she shouted, her voice shaking. “My name is Iris Mayfair, my employers are Melissa and Gerald McIntosh. They would have been contacted as soon as the alarm was set off.”

“Please step out where I can see you, ma’am. Do you have ID on you?”

Walking around the desk on shaky legs, her hands still raised, Iris nodded. “My employee card; it’s with the keys around my wrist.” She shook her arm to demonstrate, causing the keys to jingle soundly and flash the little badge attached to it that had a barcode scanner for her to access the computers upon opening. Jess had one as well, for when she opened the store.

“Are you hurt?” the man asked as he stepped forward, some of the other officers entering behind him as they surveyed the damage and entered the store, checking through the aisles.

“No, I was behind the desk-”

“You have glass in your hair,” the officer interrupted gently once he had checked the ID on her wrist, comparing the information she had given to him with the name and photo on the card. Naturally, her hand lifted to her head to feel for the sharp projectiles. Thankfully, the officers caught her arm gently to stop her before she cut her hand. “No, don’t worry. It’s only a few pieces. Shake your head and they should fall right off.”

Iris did as instructed, shaking her head as she closed her eyes. She could feel when the fragments fell out, tapping down past her shoulders before they hit the already messy floor.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” the officers asked again—a glance at his shirt revealed his name was Montez—and Iris nodded her head dazedly. “Were you the only one working?”

Iris stood in the storefront with the officer as she answered his questions, giving him the time to write them down between answers. As the wind and snow continued to blow into the store, Iris steadily started to shiver more heavily. The adrenaline was bleeding from her system, causing her vision to blur in and out. Montez must have seen her sway on her feet because he abruptly stopped talking and reached out to claim her arm.

“Woah, let’s go sit you down. Is there a back office in this place? Somewhere warm?”

“Yes, just back down that aisle. There’s a door that leads to the stock-room at the end.”

The place was crawling with police by now, and one of them informed her and Montez that the owners were on their way down. There was a camera out front that might have caught the person who threw what turned out to be an old pipe through the window, but Iris didn’t have authorization to scroll back into the recorded footage so she was no help to them.

As they entered the back office to finish giving her statement, Iris found herself wishing that her soulmates were with her. Glancing at the nearest clock, she realized that they would be home by now and waiting for her to let them know that she was home safe.

Her shift had ended twenty minutes ago.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” Montez asked from across from her, worry clearly evident on his face as she trembled and stared blankly at the clock. “Is there someone you’d like me to call for you?”

Small and pale, Iris look like a terrified, small animal. The chair she was in made her appear that much smaller; her feet didn’t touch the floor and her boney frame was enveloped in the black leather of the chair-back. Montez felt like he was interviewing a terrified child. If she got any paler in her face, he’d be calling in the paramedics to check on her again. She looked on the verge of passing out.

The liquid gold of her eyes watered further as she gave a stuttered nod.

“Kevin Crumb,” she answered meekly. “His number is in my cellphone,” she answered, motioning to where she had left the phone on the office desk. She preferred not to have her cellphone with her when she was working, so she usually left it in the back office.

She was probably never going to do that again, not after what she had just experienced.

Montez nodded calmly, picking up the small phone and having her input the password before he stepped away. One of the other officers, a woman named Sinclair, came into the office briefly to inform Iris that her employers were here and she could leave once her statement was complete, they would help the police with anything else needed.

Iris just gave a short nod as she stared at the floor, yet to regain any colouring in her face.

Sinclair gave Montez a sympathetic look as she left, understanding that speaking to someone who was in shock could be a trying endeavor.

The ringing in his ear cut off, drawing his attention back to Iris’s phone. “Hey, Iris, you get home okay?” The casual question, filled with true concern, almost caused the officer to wince. He hated when he had to tell the unsuspecting spouse or loved one that something had happened. At least Iris appeared unhurt and he could offer that assurance.

“This is Officer Liam Montez; is this Kevin Crumb?”

There was a pause on the other end, silence filling the line for a long beat. “Where’s Iris?” the male voice demanded, upping in pitch as fear sharpened his words.

“Miss. Mayfair is fine; someone threw an item through the window of her store but she is safe and unharmed. It would be best if someone was with her right now, she’s in a bit of shock and will able to leave as soon as we finish getting her statement. She asked me to call you—are you able to come down to Pages of the World right now?”

“Yes, yea, I’m on my way. She’s alright? You said she wasn’t hurt?”

“She was far enough away that she only got a bit of glass in her hair, but no, she wasn’t hurt. I might recommend bringing her something warm, preferably tea or something that doesn’t have caffeine in it.”

“Can I talk to her, please? Just for a second?” the plea in the man’s words were impossible to ignore—Montez was certain, as he turned to hand the phone to Iris, that this was a soulmate he was dealing with.

Iris could barely hold onto the phone as she leaned her head heavily against the cellphone, into the pressure of Montez’s continued grip on the device. He was sure that she would have dropped it if he hadn’t helped hold it up. “Hello?” He couldn’t hear the man’s words, but Iris’s bow-tight body finally relaxed slightly at the sound of his voice.

Definitely soulmates.

“Hey, Sweetheart, it’s Barry. You okay? I’m on my way right now.”

“I don’t feel good,” Iris answered weakly, as though she was ashamed of her body’s reaction.

“That’s just the shock, Sweetheart. I’ll be there in ten, okay? Just try and take some deep breaths. Are you sitting down?”

“Mhm.” The conversation barely lasted a few seconds more before Iris suddenly dropped her hand, letting Montez pull the phone away. Glancing at the screen told him that the man had already ended the call, so he simply placed her phone on the desk as he reclaimed the other chair.

“Are you alright to continue?”

Swallowing thickly, Iris gave a tired nod as she met his eyes again.

Previous || Next

[cuquitalocita]

captain crunch or cookie crisp- estelle blofis

AN: Just a oneshot proving my point that little Estelle is the fiber of everyone’s being; I don’t want to hear it and I refuse to believe that the entire Jackson/ Blofis family can refuse Estelle ANYTHING.

Sometimes little siblings can be a bit of a... well- a major pain.  But honestly, who wouldn’t be an absolute sucker for tooth gaps and pretty blue eyes?  Certainly not Percy ;)

~~

“Captain Crunch.”

“Cookie.  Crisp.”  

Percy threw his hands into the air in exasperation and fixed the small girl in front of him with a glare strong enough to knock down a building.  But the young girl’s gaze held his and her blue eyes were unrelenting as she leaned forward in her chair, placing her chin on her small hands.

We can do this all day, her posture said.

“Come on, Ellie!” he whined, officially losing whatever sort of momentum he had before.  “It’s-” he broke off to check his watch, squinting a bit as the numbers seemed to move and deform.  “Eight fifteen in the morning.  I am not leaving this house at such an ungodly hour on a Saturday to get you a mediocre cereal!”  

But Estelle simply stared back at her big brother-her pretty blue eyes looking so much like her mothers at that point- and blinked, sighing.

And that was how fifteen minutes later, Percy found himself stumbling back into the kitchen with an unopened box of Cookie Crisp and a receipt that indeed read 8:22 AM.  Fixing the twelve-year-old with a lethal glare he placed the cardboard on the table in front of her with a thump and handed her a bowl.

“Your meal, Highness.”  

But Estelle was already grinning, showing off the two massive gaps she had where her front teeth should have been but had just recently fallen out.  It had been days since she had given Percy a full smile, out of embarrassment, and seeing the empty spaces may have been just enough for Percy’s minor annoyance to slip away, quickly replaced with a warm feeling in the middle of his chest.

“Thanks, Perce!”  

Percy barely had enough time to prepare himself as her small arms circled around his neck and she leaped at him in a hug.  He let out a wince as the sudden momentum of her body against his drove him back into the counter, but the giggle she let out afterward- well, Percy could admit that it kind of made up for it.

“Alright you little squid,” Percy laughed, peeling her arms from around his neck and ruffling her dark brown hair when she made a face at the nickname.  But he couldn’t help it- ever since his mother had married Paul Blofis, the blowfish and sea creature jokes hadn’t stopped; Percy just hoped he would never run out of nicknames.

“Yeah whatever Seaweed Head,” she grumbled and took her seat, the silence of the early morning kitchen quickly replaced by the clinking of Estelle’s cereal into her bowl, and the Jackson boy and the Blofis girl ate their cookie flavored cereal in comfortable silence before a sleep deprived Sally Blofis shuffled into the kitchen sporting a fuzzy robe with ducklings on it.

She yawned into a smile.

“Ah!  There are my two favorite children!”  She walked over to the table and kissed the tops of their heads before finding her way over to the empty coffee pot.

Estelle giggled and the sound was like music.

“We’re your only children Mommy!”  

“Well that doesn’t mean you can’t be my favorite, now does it?” she replied, rubbing her cheek affectionately against the top of Estelle’s head and Percy hid his grin in a mouthful of cereal.

“Where’s-” 

“Don’t talk to me,” came a monotone voice from the back of the kitchen and Estelle’s sea blue eyes seemed to shine even brighter as her father walked into the kitchen with deep purple bags under his eyes and a frown as deep as what a hole to hell would be.  Paul must’ve been working late again, Percy figured, as he watched the tall man stalk across the kitchen like a Power Ranger.

That was- until Sally Blofis turned around, her smile already bright due to the fresh coffee in her system.  And Percy watched as one of the most intimidating history teachers he had ever met- well, he watched him melt. 

Not that Percy could blame him.  His mother’s smile was like coming home from a trip to another country; like hot chocolate on a frosty air type of day.  

So he couldn’t exactly blame Paul as his lips curved into a smile and he wrapped a long arm around his wife’s waist, kissing her cheek and whispering a, “Good Morning, love,” in the softest voice Percy had ever heard him use. 

And with as much as Percy did enjoy his weekends with his father, it did his heart good to see his mother finally happy again, and the smile she returned to Paul was as sweet as honey.  

“What’s up with you?” Paul asked, nudging Percy’s shoulder with his own as he came to stand beside him.

“Your daughter is a manipulative little witch,” Percy muttered, squinting at Estelle who- to her credit, pretended she didn’t see it.  

Paul shrugged.

“Well, this is what you signed up for.  What did she-” he broke off as he leaned over Percy’s shoulder to observe the cereal he was moving around with his spoon, a look of sympathy crossing his features.  “Lucky Charms?”

“Cookie Crisps,” Percy confirmed.  Paul almost seemed to wince as he nodded and Percy knew it wasn’t the first time the adorable brunette had used her charm to get her way in the family.  

And Percy also knew he would let her keep doing it because- well, have you seen that kid’s dimples?

~~~~~~~

that’s it :) 

i hope you guys liked it and if you have any oneshot requests don’t be shy !!

(but seriously captain crunch is 10000000 x better than cookie crisp right?  let’s start a debate i’m ready)

[cancerianprincess]

Birkin Bag (1)

Alright peeps! This started as a cute and corny imagine based off a line from this song (2:06), and evolved into an idea for a mini-series for Erik that no one asked for 🙃Heads up: it might start off a bit slow in this one but it picks up later. Feedback is always appreciated & I hope y’all enjoy it!

Summary: Erik finds out he might’ve rubbed off on his best friend a tad too much and that she’s really with the shits 

Warning: Language, Mild Drug Use

~~~~

“I bought my bitch a Birkin Bag so she could hold my fucking strap..”

_______

Plopping down into the passenger seat of Erik’s car, you slammed the door behind you with all the attitude you could muster.

“I done told you about slamming my door like that, lil girl,” he uttered, skipping right over the formalities of a normal greeting. He didn’t even bother to look in your direction, keeping his attention on the unfinished backwood in his lap.

You simply stared at him, pausing momentarily at how much his warning mimicked the voice of somebody’s mama, waiting to see if he would provide any explanation about dragging you out your bed in the dead of night. When none came, you finally addressed the statement as he flicked a lighter to seal the blunt.

“Nigga, you woke me up out my sleep at damn near two in the morning, remember,” you snapped at him. “And now you wanna fuss at me for being grumpy when you was blowing my phone up just to have a damn session?”

Erik clutched at his imaginary pearls and feigned an expression of false hurt.

“Damn shawty, I come back from overseas after three weeks and it’s like that?” He shook his head dramatically as he sparked the weed and took the first inhale.

“That’s cold,” he exhaled. “A brother can’t get no kinda love around here.”

You rolled your eyes at his dramatics, while Erik took another hit and passed it off to you. Despite glaring at him through sleepy eyelids, you accepted the peace offering, figuring there was no point in turning down a free smoke since you were already awake now. He grinned when you did, displaying his gold canines in knowing his best friend like the back of his hand. Taking notice, you kissed your teeth skillfully so that the blunt wasn’t at risk from falling out your mouth.

“Whatever,” you started. “Don’t think one wood is gonna make up for disrupting my beauty rest.”

“Well I woulda been here sooner to kick it with you if them white ass crackers at the airport knew what they was doing. They the reason my connecting flight got delayed so if you wanna blame somebody, you can blame them.”

As Erik launched into the tale of his troublesome journey back home, you couldn’t help but feel amused by the fact that he had suffered in some form or another tonight just like you did. You also felt a tad bit sorry for him, but mostly amused. Initially, he scowled at you when the snickering began on your end, but eventually he joined you, his nagging turned to clownery as the haze of loud filled the atmosphere. The two of you joked on into the early hours of the morning, bopping to the radio and swapping details of the events in your lives that had taken place during the redeemed Wakandan’s trip back to his true origins.

“Oh yeah, speaking of that, I almost forgot about ya shit.”

Erik was right in the middle of recounting the heated argument he’d gotten into with one of the residents from the Merchant Tribe when an afterthought struck him. You threw his form a puzzled look as he reached his arm into the backseat, causing all kinds of commotion in the floor behind you.

When he re-emerged, in his hand was a white, narrow, rectangular box. Different markings of the Xhosa language covered the package in shiny metallic grey letters, and was bound together by a gold ribbon tied off in a bow. He tossed it into your lap as he extinguished the remnants of the burnt out blunt in a nearby ashtray.

“What’s this?” You eyed Erik suspiciously, careful to be on your guard in case it was another one of his tricks.

“That,” he began, “is so you can stop getting on my nerves every time my ass go out on on these relay missions.”

Any time Erik alerted you he was flying out to handle business on behalf of the Wakandan Outreach Center, you poked at him here and there about bringing something back for you, but only out of fun, not really expecting him to follow through on the requests. Now, your gaze shifted from him, over to the giftbox, and back to Erik once again, peering past the curtain of dreads and into his eyes to search them for any trace of legitimacy. He noticed the inspection, and smirked as he spoke up again.

“I mean if you don’t want it, I can always give it t-”

But the rest of his sentence was lost among the crunch of gift paper being torn apart, sending Erik’s head back in a howl of laughter at how fast your doubt had been flushed away. You made quick work of the box’s lid and decorative ribbon, showing your best friend he had another thing coming if he even dared to pass your present off to one of his dusty ass hoes.

Finally reaching the object inside the cardboard container, your red eyes grew wide when they fell on its contents. Laying across your lap, was a gorgeous new purse, accented with gold trimming along all its edges to match its chain. You lifted it from the box, discarding it near your feet, and ran your fingers over the sleek material, absorbing the coolness of the metallic jaguar pin. Only when your thumb grazed over it, did you notice the minor pulsations the purse gave off, beginning to glow dimly upon doing so.

“I saw it and thought about the time you lost your old one at the club that night on your birthday,” Erik explained, breaking the warm silence. “So I went back to pick it up in my free time, had my little cousin tweak it for me in her lab.”

You blinked at him a few times, processing what he said as an explanation for its mystic illumination, before an ear splitting grin spread across your face with a quickness.

“Yo, E, this is dope as fuck, like I legit don’t know what to say!”

He draped his arm over the back of your reclined seat and sat back in his own, clearly pleased with himself and his present-selecting abilities.

“Yeah, well you’re welcome. Even though I ain’t get no kinda thank you or nothing like that,” he shrugged.

You cut your eyes at his theatrics once again, thinking that for him to be such a ‘thugged out soldier from Oakland’, he sure was a big ass diva on the low. Still, that didn’t stop you from leaning over and hugging his neck to express your gratitude.

“Seriously though, Erik, thank you for this,” you muffled into his ear.

He flinched at the vibration of your voice, but quickly concealed it by engulfing you with his free arm, and closing the gap with a light squeeze at the small of your back. The gesture held a particular surge of warmth to it, conveying every single emotion you held for each other.

Something about the hug made you want it to never end, and if you hadn’t known any better, you could’ve sworn Erik felt the vibe too. You were aware of his lack of verbal expression concerning his feelings, even after he’d started his life down a new path it was a struggle for him. But you never pushed him on it. Not then, and not now. It had manifested into an unspoken rule as time went on, and as long as Erik had your back like you had his, you were perfectly content with it staying that way.

It could’ve just been an after-effect of the weed in your system, but each passing second was spent basking in the hold, discreetly taking in his scent and committing his hold to memory. It was odd that Erik let the contact go this long, but if he was okay with this level of vulnerability, even for a limited amount of time, you refused to deny him of it.

“Wait,” he cut into the moment. “You thought I did this for you?”

This caused you to draw back partially, enough to assess his face quizzically but still remaining in the embrace. One of your eyebrows shot up expectantly, prompting Erik to go on with his interjection.

He continued on in an amused tone. “Oh nah, see, I said I thought about you when I saw it. That don’t mean I necessarily bought it specifically for you.”

The smile you’d been wearing dropped into a flat line.

“What?” He questioned, trying to act innocent. “It’s true. I figured if I got Shuri to add a Vibranium lining to it, I’d have a better hiding spot for my strap, y’know?”

You tore away from his hold and merely retreated to your on seat, regarding him as best you could while attempting to maintain your composure.

Erik kept going playfully like you weren’t on the verge of smacking his block-headed ass.

“Y’know...because Vibranium doesn’t set off metal detectors…and guns are made of metal...”

That sentence had been the last straw, for you indeed, smacked him upside the noggin, and proceeded to go off on his block-headed ass.

“Nigga, don’t you think I know that witcho’ ain’t-shit-ass!?”

“Ain’t nobody ‘bout to carry your raggedy ass gun around like some slave!”

“Had me all excited for nothing, got me sitting here thinking you cared about a bitch!”

“YO ASS DON’T CARE ABOUT ME-”

You threw blows at him half-heartedly every couple syllables, sending Erik into a fit of laughter so great that he was too preoccupied to even fight you off. At first you slumped down in the seat, finally giving up on the assault and resorting to pouting, lip poked out and arms folded. It didn’t last long, though, because eventually the outburst became contagious, causing both of you to cackle like two high ass hyenas as the sun gingerly crept over the horizon.

That was one aspect of you and Erik’s friendship you valued the most: being able to kid around all the time but still realizing where your loyalties lied at the end of the day. Other than  extremely rare occasions, it was how the pair of you exhibited affection, rather than having the typical sappy exchanges. You both knew that majority of the words thrown amongst you meant nothing, letting deeds truly define the bond you held.

And actions would soon be the true test of that commitment, starting the day you learned that Erik had been kidnapped.

|Part Two|

~Taglist~

@iamrheaspeaks @princesskillmonger @eriknutinthispoosy @wheredidallthedreamersgo @thotyana-in-this-hoe @sonofnjobu

(This is just to mention my usual peeps plus others but if you want to be added/removed just let me know!)

[wineanddinosaur]

Anchor Union, One Year In: Lessons Learned at the Legendary Brewery

“Yes… yes… yes… yes…”

On Dec. 20, 2019, workers at Anchor Brewing Company, a venerable Bay Area icon that brewed its first beer for thirsty San Franciscans nearly four decades before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, gathered in the brewery to ratify their first-ever collective bargaining agreement. It was a union contract years in the making — the product of methodical organizing that began in 2018, followed by a contentious public drive and negotiations that spanned the entire 2019 calendar.

Now, it was up to the rest of the workforce — about 70 employees across the brewery’s production facilities, taproom, and tour guide corps — to sign off on the deal. A worker in white coveralls pulled ballots from a cardboard box jerry-rigged to purpose.

“Yes… yes… yes…”

All told, 94 percent of eligible Anchor workers voted in favor of the contract that day. The deal was done; Anchor Union had its first contract. It was a monumental moment for the American brewing industry, and particularly the craft beer business within it. After all, though Anchor had been acquired by the Japanese conglomerate Sapporo in 2017, it still holds a revered place in hagiographies of the American craft beer movement. That workers at Anchor had successfully organized a union, won their drive and election, and ratified a contract — and did it all without getting summarily laid off or unceremoniously abandoned for a cheaper labor market elsewhere — was a signal that it could be done in other craft-oriented businesses.

As one Anchor worker told me in the early stages of the 2019 drive: “Young working people will be able to see us and be like, ‘if these fucking drunk guys can do it, like anybody can.”

Can they? To be sure, in the year-plus since Anchor workers gathered in Potrero Hill to ink their inaugural deal, the craft food and beverage industries have seen a spate of organizing. Just a couple months later, in February 2020, 140 workers at San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery & Manufactory went public with their own union drive. As the pandemic took hold, organizing efforts popped up at craft food-service and -production shops across the continent: at Southern California’s Augie’s Coffee locations in June; in Colectivo Coffee’s Chicago locations in August; and at Vancouver’s Turning Point Brewery, owned by Labatt Brewing Company and better known for its Stanley Park brand, in October; and so on.

But while organized labor has made inroads this year with the baristas, distillers, and cheesemongers (et al) that produce the food and drink we love, it has stumbled on the path, too. For a showcase of labor organizing highs and lows in the craft F&B space, look no further than Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Union drives at Minneapolis distilleries Tattersall (announced July 2020), and Stilheart and Lawless (September) yielded recognition from owners of those shops; as did the push at the city’s Fair State Brewing Cooperative that same month. But drives at Spyhouse Coffee Roasters and the Beer Hall at Surly Brewing Company (both organized with United HERE’s Local 17, which handled the other Twin Cities efforts mentioned here) came up short, victims of the turnover, apathy, and management pressure tactics that so often stop union campaigns in their tracks.

“I think I needed more knowledge,” lamented Taylor Roth, a former Spyhouse barista, speaking with me in November 2020, a few weeks after the drive at the twee chain had been defeated. “I knew what good the union would do, but I think if I had more specifics on what our jobs would look like after the vote, then maybe it would have been easier to talk to people about the benefits of the union.”

As Roth and other pro-union workers have discovered, that ambiguity can make it difficult to get buy-in from skeptical colleagues, most of whom have joined the workforce in a period of almost unmitigated decline in union density in America. In the hospitality sector, where language barriers, wage theft, and on-the-job harassment (from both customers and colleagues) have fostered a culture of transience, getting coworkers to see upside worth organizing for is especially challenging, with few positive examples to point to.

In December 2020, Anchor Brewing workers celebrated the one-year anniversary of their ratified contract. It’ll remain in force for another two, during which time they’ll begin bargaining for the one that’ll replace it. It’s an ideal moment for Anchor Union members to reflect on how the past year of unionized work went, strategize on what the future holds for organized labor at the storied San Francisco brewery, and evaluate what their union has done for them.

“I probably would be out of a job right now if we didn’t have our union contract,” Blake Dahlstrom, a brewery lab technician and one of Anchor Union’s four shop stewards, says. (Shop stewards are employees who have volunteered to represent the broader workforce to management when issues arise.)

VinePair asked Dahlstrom and her fellow stewards to share their experiences from Year One of Contract One, to learn what unions can — and just as importantly, can’t — do for the production and hospitality workers that produce consumable “craft culture” in this country.

Below are excerpted phone interviews with all four Anchor Union shop stewards. They have been edited, condensed, and organized thematically. Anchor Brewing Company did not respond to repeated requests for interviews with management to provide the company’s perspective for this piece.

1. What has your relationship with the company been like since ratifying the contract last December [2019]?

Blake Dahlstrom, lab technician, 2.5 years at Anchor: The company sees value in the unionization effort. Every single can and bottle that is being produced in 2021 says “Union-made in San Francisco.” Our job as shop stewards is to hold their feet to the fire. If they’re going to brag about the fact that they’re union-made, our job is to make sure that our workers are being treated [with as much care] as the marketing is.

At the end of the day, all I want is for workers to get compensated and treated fairly. I know it’s a hard balancing act on management’s part. … The people who are making decisions are not necessarily on the floor seeing what’s happening. So as shop stewards we have an opportunity to explain to them … that there are tangible solutions.

I’m proud of the fact that we have a positive working relationship with management. It’s not perfect, but it could be worse. But I’m not trying to sugarcoat it; I’m not trying to be friendly with management. I will bring out my fists when I need to bring out my fists. … It’s not there yet. We’re going down every single avenue we possibly can before we get to that option.

Alex Wilson, filtration worker, 5.5 years: As someone who has been at Anchor for a number of years and has seen the situations that led to the push to unionize, I thought that getting everyone voting in favor of the union, making it happen, and negotiating our contracts, was kind of going to be a clean break, and that moving forward, things would be different. Everyone would be able to express the issues we were facing as a workforce, and then we were going to move past that. So the fact that we’re not really past those issues at this point is surprising to me.

This upcoming year, it’s going to be really interesting to see where this relationship between management at Anchor and the union at Anchor goes. With Covid, everything got sidelined and crazy. It’s going to be really interesting to see how much our contract does for us this year.

2. Pay was an issue that you organized around at Anchor. How did you handle pay in the contract, and how has it played out since?

Patrick Machel, packager and bartender, 3 years: When we started [negotiating] the contract, we saw people getting paid really weird rates. So we were like, “Nah, we’re going to have something completely new, a tiered system.” The first tier is the entry tier, like packaging, tour guides, receptionists. … Second tier is a little more in-depth roles, like lab technicians, shift supervisors, specific machine operators. … Tier three is the lead brewers … and tier four is usually the warehouse [workers], like forklift drivers [and] maintenance workers.

There’s a minimum amount [of pay] that everybody in each tier is getting. That way, no one is getting less than that specific number. We wanted to make [pay] more uniform, because before there was no real way to show why [one worker was] getting paid this amount of money, compared to somebody right next to [them.]

Wilson: The raise structure in the contract is staggered, so we got part of our raise this year [2020], and part of it at the beginning of next year [2021]. Then it [will] continue to go up. So I think starting January, [average pay] will have gone up 20 to 25 percent [since the contract went into effect.]

[In a follow-up message, Machel provided more specific figures: The contract provides Anchor’s brewery workers with an across-the-board average raise of 21 percent over three years. For workers at the Public Taps, the bump is 28 percent.]

Robert Salgado, taproom supervisor, 3 years: In my position, I don’t receive tips. So I just get paid an hourly wage. Sometimes, that would be a little discouraging, watching [tipped employees] do less work and make more money. So for me it was more beneficial, because I got a pay raise. … I think it helped out a lot of my coworkers too, because a lot of them were making $15 to 16 an hour. [San Francisco’s minimum wage is $15.] Now they actually have a little bit more money in their pockets. I was making $22 [per hour, before the contract], and then it got raised to $23, and it will be ending at $25 by the end of the contract.

I think it helps. It’s on its way to being enough, With future contracts in the years to come, it will get to being enough. I can say [the pay increase] has made life easier, and more and more attainable.

3. What happened when the pandemic hit? Did the contract’s provisions have an affect on your day-to-day work at Anchor?

Machel: None of us would have a job, I’ll tell you that. We actually did layoffs, but way later [than many other companies in pandemic]. And we bargained with management over that, and actually [won] a pretty decent severance package for everybody [who’d been laid off]. Just having that kind of protection in there [allows us to say], “We’re not gonna back down, we’re gonna get our workers paid.”

Also, half of those people that [were] laid off are working there now because we have something called callback rights, where if you lose a job, and you’re in good standing, you have about two years to get back into that same position before they hire anybody else [if that worker wants to return]. So whenever things started opening back up again and more production was happening, they brought back people based on company seniority through those callback rights.

Dahlstrom: I probably would be out of a job right now if we didn’t have our union contract. It’s been a rough battle because, you know, nobody has a pandemic clause in their contracts. So we’ve had to roll with the punches, work with management, and push where we can push. Our No. 1 thing is we want to make sure our workers are safe, and that they don’t have an onerous workload.

I think the most fascinating news that can be reported is the fact that we had our first and only [pandemic-related] layoff in August: We laid off eight people, almost all of which have either been brought back, or have been offered to be brought back.

Wilson: I continued to work at reduced hours through most of the last number of months, and I recently returned to work full time. There are people who got laid off, for example, and for them, the union contract was a much, much bigger deal, because that situation was [governed] by the contract.

But I mean, there’s no question in my mind that having our contract has been a benefit in every way. There’s no drawback.

4. A typical critique of unions is that they’ll implement a layer of bureaucracy that will hamper innovation and communication. Have you seen that happen at Anchor?

Wilson: Management is now acknowledging that they are bound by the contract in certain ways so they can’t just do anything they want at any time. So in a sense that has improved communication. Now if there is something that’s not going the way it should be, [workers] have a venue to actually express that to management and expect to get a reply. Whereas before, you could complain, but that was gonna fall on deaf ears. That being said, I don’t think that communication has improved to the extent that I had expected that it would.

Having that third party [the ILWU] has only improved things. The company can say “that’s going to make it harder for us to get stuff done, we won’t be able to just come to agreement between the two sides because there’s going to have to be this extra barrier.” But if they were interested in fixing the problems that led to this situation they would have.

Dahlstrom: I think if you asked management, they would say [the union has hindered communication]. But I think the union has offered more solutions than problems for management. The reason why we unionized is because we had X amount of problems for X amount of years, and now with the union, we have a seat at the table. We meet with management every two weeks. There’s been a long-term disconnect between the fourth floor [management], and the first, second, and third floors [production]. That’s been an ongoing issue, and one of the reasons why we unionized. At the end of the day it’s all about communication. And that’s something that we’re fighting for every single day.

5. How much of the gains you’ve made this year do you attribute to your contract, as opposed to the company just being decent?

Machel: We were gearing up to actually open up the bar [when restrictions were lifted in San Francisco], and one of the questions I was bringing up to my manager was, “Are guys going to give us a little bit of backup if we get people that don’t want to wear masks and stuff like that?” She basically was like, “we would much rather our workplace be as strict as possible, so that nobody gets Covid and everybody’s safe, versus getting money from people.”

I want to say that [this] was out of the goodness of their hearts. But in my mind, the contract solidified that — [especially] because we also had a lot of vocal interactions with management. If I worked at another restaurant or another bar that wasn’t unionized, I highly doubt that they would [take those concerns seriously]. They’d be like, “Eh, this is how it is.”

Wilson: The “bureaucracy” that I’m involved in right now is trying to resolve an issue that, if we didn’t have this system in place, wouldn’t get resolved. So [the contract] is just an overall good thing from my perspective.

Salgado: Because we worked hard [on management], we were able to get hazard pay. Anchor wasn’t going to do that naturally, but because we were able to bring it up [to management through the union], we were able to get this because it was in our contract.

We still had to fight with them to get them to [re]hire people. They would try to have a skeleton crew do production on stuff that a normal crew [would be] doing. So because of that, we fought with them: “Look, you need to hire people back, we’re getting complaints from people who are getting way too much of a workload.”

It’s one of those things where they [might] have done it anyway, but we were able to bring it up several times, so they did it before it was too little, too late.

6. What would you tell workers at other craft breweries who are thinking about unionizing?

Dahlstrom: Open up your mind, and be imaginative. You can break the status quo, that’s what that’s what did it for me. If you imagine a world where you can solidify the benefits that you like from your job, whether it’s meal periods, shift beers, “safety doughnuts …” whatever you like about your job you can solidify, and whatever you don’t like you can bargain over and change.

Would you like healthcare? Would you like higher wages? Would you like paid holidays? I mean, when you’re bargaining, you’re gonna have to give up some of those things, but just imagine a world where you could potentially have some of these things.

Salgado: People need to believe in the power of the contract. Believe in the power. For those who believe in it, it does change. If people work hard and they talk to each other, you know, things will change. I think it does work for people who are willing to give a union a shot.

Wilson: It was an unfamiliar situation and we went for it. It’s a learning experience for everyone. But, I mean, frankly, we’re better off now than we were before. I think it was worth it, for sure.

Machel: For a lot of people, this is their first-ever experience with the union, and with this specific union [ILWU Local 6], it’s a little bit hands-off. … It’s mostly based on the workers figuring out what to do next. That can be scary, and it was scary for a lot of us. But we’ve learned through mistakes and victories, and we’re getting better and better at this. And it’s created an even more prideful place of work. It’s created relationships with [coworkers] that would have never happened before. If we have an issue, let’s bring it up. Now, we can actually say something. Instead of just coming to work at a dope company, we’re coming to work at a dope company at a union that we created ourselves.

The article Anchor Union, One Year In: Lessons Learned at the Legendary Brewery appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/anchor-brewing-company-union/

[johnboothus]

Anchor Union One Year In: Lessons Learned at the Legendary Brewery

“Yes… yes… yes… yes…”

On Dec. 20, 2019, workers at Anchor Brewing Company, a venerable Bay Area icon that brewed its first beer for thirsty San Franciscans nearly four decades before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, gathered in the brewery to ratify their first-ever collective bargaining agreement. It was a union contract years in the making — the product of methodical organizing that began in 2018, followed by a contentious public drive and negotiations that spanned the entire 2019 calendar.

Now, it was up to the rest of the workforce — about 70 employees across the brewery’s production facilities, taproom, and tour guide corps — to sign off on the deal. A worker in white coveralls pulled ballots from a cardboard box jerry-rigged to purpose.

“Yes… yes… yes…”

All told, 94 percent of eligible Anchor workers voted in favor of the contract that day. The deal was done; Anchor Union had its first contract. It was a monumental moment for the American brewing industry, and particularly the craft beer business within it. After all, though Anchor had been acquired by the Japanese conglomerate Sapporo in 2017, it still holds a revered place in hagiographies of the American craft beer movement. That workers at Anchor had successfully organized a union, won their drive and election, and ratified a contract — and did it all without getting summarily laid off or unceremoniously abandoned for a cheaper labor market elsewhere — was a signal that it could be done in other craft-oriented businesses.

As one Anchor worker told me in the early stages of the 2019 drive: “Young working people will be able to see us and be like, ‘if these fucking drunk guys can do it, like anybody can.”

Can they? To be sure, in the year-plus since Anchor workers gathered in Potrero Hill to ink their inaugural deal, the craft food and beverage industries have seen a spate of organizing. Just a couple months later, in February 2020, 140 workers at San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery & Manufactory went public with their own union drive. As the pandemic took hold, organizing efforts popped up at craft food-service and -production shops across the continent: at Southern California’s Augie’s Coffee locations in June; in Colectivo Coffee’s Chicago locations in August; and at Vancouver’s Turning Point Brewery, owned by Labatt Brewing Company and better known for its Stanley Park brand, in October; and so on.

But while organized labor has made inroads this year with the baristas, distillers, and cheesemongers (et al) that produce the food and drink we love, it has stumbled on the path, too. For a showcase of labor organizing highs and lows in the craft F&B space, look no further than Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Union drives at Minneapolis distilleries Tattersall (announced July 2020), and Stilheart and Lawless (September) yielded recognition from owners of those shops; as did the push at the city’s Fair State Brewing Cooperative that same month. But drives at Spyhouse Coffee Roasters and the Beer Hall at Surly Brewing Company (both organized with United HERE’s Local 17, which handled the other Twin Cities efforts mentioned here) came up short, victims of the turnover, apathy, and management pressure tactics that so often stop union campaigns in their tracks.

“I think I needed more knowledge,” lamented Taylor Roth, a former Spyhouse barista, speaking with me in November 2020, a few weeks after the drive at the twee chain had been defeated. “I knew what good the union would do, but I think if I had more specifics on what our jobs would look like after the vote, then maybe it would have been easier to talk to people about the benefits of the union.”

As Roth and other pro-union workers have discovered, that ambiguity can make it difficult to get buy-in from skeptical colleagues, most of whom have joined the workforce in a period of almost unmitigated decline in union density in America. In the hospitality sector, where language barriers, wage theft, and on-the-job harassment (from both customers and colleagues) have fostered a culture of transience, getting coworkers to see upside worth organizing for is especially challenging, with few positive examples to point to.

In December 2020, Anchor Brewing workers celebrated the one-year anniversary of their ratified contract. It’ll remain in force for another two, during which time they’ll begin bargaining for the one that’ll replace it. It’s an ideal moment for Anchor Union members to reflect on how the past year of unionized work went, strategize on what the future holds for organized labor at the storied San Francisco brewery, and evaluate what their union has done for them.

“I probably would be out of a job right now if we didn’t have our union contract,” Blake Dahlstrom, a brewery lab technician and one of Anchor Union’s four shop stewards, says. (Shop stewards are employees who have volunteered to represent the broader workforce to management when issues arise.)

VinePair asked Dahlstrom and her fellow stewards to share their experiences from Year One of Contract One, to learn what unions can — and just as importantly, can’t — do for the production and hospitality workers that produce consumable “craft culture” in this country.

Below are excerpted phone interviews with all four Anchor Union shop stewards. They have been edited, condensed, and organized thematically. Anchor Brewing Company did not respond to repeated requests for interviews with management to provide the company’s perspective for this piece.

1. What has your relationship with the company been like since ratifying the contract last December [2019]?

Blake Dahlstrom, lab technician, 2.5 years at Anchor: The company sees value in the unionization effort. Every single can and bottle that is being produced in 2021 says “Union-made in San Francisco.” Our job as shop stewards is to hold their feet to the fire. If they’re going to brag about the fact that they’re union-made, our job is to make sure that our workers are being treated [with as much care] as the marketing is.

At the end of the day, all I want is for workers to get compensated and treated fairly. I know it’s a hard balancing act on management’s part. … The people who are making decisions are not necessarily on the floor seeing what’s happening. So as shop stewards we have an opportunity to explain to them … that there are tangible solutions.

I’m proud of the fact that we have a positive working relationship with management. It’s not perfect, but it could be worse. But I’m not trying to sugarcoat it; I’m not trying to be friendly with management. I will bring out my fists when I need to bring out my fists. … It’s not there yet. We’re going down every single avenue we possibly can before we get to that option.

Alex Wilson, filtration worker, 5.5 years: As someone who has been at Anchor for a number of years and has seen the situations that led to the push to unionize, I thought that getting everyone voting in favor of the union, making it happen, and negotiating our contracts, was kind of going to be a clean break, and that moving forward, things would be different. Everyone would be able to express the issues we were facing as a workforce, and then we were going to move past that. So the fact that we’re not really past those issues at this point is surprising to me.

This upcoming year, it’s going to be really interesting to see where this relationship between management at Anchor and the union at Anchor goes. With Covid, everything got sidelined and crazy. It’s going to be really interesting to see how much our contract does for us this year.

2. Pay was an issue that you organized around at Anchor. How did you handle pay in the contract, and how has it played out since?

Patrick Machel, packager and bartender, 3 years: When we started [negotiating] the contract, we saw people getting paid really weird rates. So we were like, “Nah, we’re going to have something completely new, a tiered system.” The first tier is the entry tier, like packaging, tour guides, receptionists. … Second tier is a little more in-depth roles, like lab technicians, shift supervisors, specific machine operators. … Tier three is the lead brewers … and tier four is usually the warehouse [workers], like forklift drivers [and] maintenance workers.

There’s a minimum amount [of pay] that everybody in each tier is getting. That way, no one is getting less than that specific number. We wanted to make [pay] more uniform, because before there was no real way to show why [one worker was] getting paid this amount of money, compared to somebody right next to [them.]

Wilson: The raise structure in the contract is staggered, so we got part of our raise this year [2020], and part of it at the beginning of next year [2021]. Then it [will] continue to go up. So I think starting January, [average pay] will have gone up 20 to 25 percent [since the contract went into effect.]

[In a follow-up message, Machel provided more specific figures: The contract provides Anchor’s brewery workers with an across-the-board average raise of 21 percent over three years. For workers at the Public Taps, the bump is 28 percent.]

Robert Salgado, taproom supervisor, 3 years: In my position, I don’t receive tips. So I just get paid an hourly wage. Sometimes, that would be a little discouraging, watching [tipped employees] do less work and make more money. So for me it was more beneficial, because I got a pay raise. … I think it helped out a lot of my coworkers too, because a lot of them were making $15 to 16 an hour. [San Francisco’s minimum wage is $15.] Now they actually have a little bit more money in their pockets. I was making $22 [per hour, before the contract], and then it got raised to $23, and it will be ending at $25 by the end of the contract.

I think it helps. It’s on its way to being enough, With future contracts in the years to come, it will get to being enough. I can say [the pay increase] has made life easier, and more and more attainable.

3. What happened when the pandemic hit? Did the contract’s provisions have an affect on your day-to-day work at Anchor?

Machel: None of us would have a job, I’ll tell you that. We actually did layoffs, but way later [than many other companies in pandemic]. And we bargained with management over that, and actually [won] a pretty decent severance package for everybody [who’d been laid off]. Just having that kind of protection in there [allows us to say], “We’re not gonna back down, we’re gonna get our workers paid.”

Also, half of those people that [were] laid off are working there now because we have something called callback rights, where if you lose a job, and you’re in good standing, you have about two years to get back into that same position before they hire anybody else [if that worker wants to return]. So whenever things started opening back up again and more production was happening, they brought back people based on company seniority through those callback rights.

Dahlstrom: I probably would be out of a job right now if we didn’t have our union contract. It’s been a rough battle because, you know, nobody has a pandemic clause in their contracts. So we’ve had to roll with the punches, work with management, and push where we can push. Our No. 1 thing is we want to make sure our workers are safe, and that they don’t have an onerous workload.

I think the most fascinating news that can be reported is the fact that we had our first and only [pandemic-related] layoff in August: We laid off eight people, almost all of which have either been brought back, or have been offered to be brought back.

Wilson: I continued to work at reduced hours through most of the last number of months, and I recently returned to work full time. There are people who got laid off, for example, and for them, the union contract was a much, much bigger deal, because that situation was [governed] by the contract.

But I mean, there’s no question in my mind that having our contract has been a benefit in every way. There’s no drawback.

4. A typical critique of unions is that they’ll implement a layer of bureaucracy that will hamper innovation and communication. Have you seen that happen at Anchor?

Wilson: Management is now acknowledging that they are bound by the contract in certain ways so they can’t just do anything they want at any time. So in a sense that has improved communication. Now if there is something that’s not going the way it should be, [workers] have a venue to actually express that to management and expect to get a reply. Whereas before, you could complain, but that was gonna fall on deaf ears. That being said, I don’t think that communication has improved to the extent that I had expected that it would.

Having that third party [the ILWU] has only improved things. The company can say “that’s going to make it harder for us to get stuff done, we won’t be able to just come to agreement between the two sides because there’s going to have to be this extra barrier.” But if they were interested in fixing the problems that led to this situation they would have.

Dahlstrom: I think if you asked management, they would say [the union has hindered communication]. But I think the union has offered more solutions than problems for management. The reason why we unionized is because we had X amount of problems for X amount of years, and now with the union, we have a seat at the table. We meet with management every two weeks. There’s been a long-term disconnect between the fourth floor [management], and the first, second, and third floors [production]. That’s been an ongoing issue, and one of the reasons why we unionized. At the end of the day it’s all about communication. And that’s something that we’re fighting for every single day.

5. How much of the gains you’ve made this year do you attribute to your contract, as opposed to the company just being decent?

Machel: We were gearing up to actually open up the bar [when restrictions were lifted in San Francisco], and one of the questions I was bringing up to my manager was, “Are guys going to give us a little bit of backup if we get people that don’t want to wear masks and stuff like that?” She basically was like, “we would much rather our workplace be as strict as possible, so that nobody gets Covid and everybody’s safe, versus getting money from people.”

I want to say that [this] was out of the goodness of their hearts. But in my mind, the contract solidified that — [especially] because we also had a lot of vocal interactions with management. If I worked at another restaurant or another bar that wasn’t unionized, I highly doubt that they would [take those concerns seriously]. They’d be like, “Eh, this is how it is.”

Wilson: The “bureaucracy” that I’m involved in right now is trying to resolve an issue that, if we didn’t have this system in place, wouldn’t get resolved. So [the contract] is just an overall good thing from my perspective.

Salgado: Because we worked hard [on management], we were able to get hazard pay. Anchor wasn’t going to do that naturally, but because we were able to bring it up [to management through the union], we were able to get this because it was in our contract.

We still had to fight with them to get them to [re]hire people. They would try to have a skeleton crew do production on stuff that a normal crew [would be] doing. So because of that, we fought with them: “Look, you need to hire people back, we’re getting complaints from people who are getting way too much of a workload.”

It’s one of those things where they [might] have done it anyway, but we were able to bring it up several times, so they did it before it was too little, too late.

6. What would you tell workers at other craft breweries who are thinking about unionizing?

Dahlstrom: Open up your mind, and be imaginative. You can break the status quo, that’s what that’s what did it for me. If you imagine a world where you can solidify the benefits that you like from your job, whether it’s meal periods, shift beers, “safety doughnuts …” whatever you like about your job you can solidify, and whatever you don’t like you can bargain over and change.

Would you like healthcare? Would you like higher wages? Would you like paid holidays? I mean, when you’re bargaining, you’re gonna have to give up some of those things, but just imagine a world where you could potentially have some of these things.

Salgado: People need to believe in the power of the contract. Believe in the power. For those who believe in it, it does change. If people work hard and they talk to each other, you know, things will change. I think it does work for people who are willing to give a union a shot.

Wilson: It was an unfamiliar situation and we went for it. It’s a learning experience for everyone. But, I mean, frankly, we’re better off now than we were before. I think it was worth it, for sure.

Machel: For a lot of people, this is their first-ever experience with the union, and with this specific union [ILWU Local 6], it’s a little bit hands-off. … It’s mostly based on the workers figuring out what to do next. That can be scary, and it was scary for a lot of us. But we’ve learned through mistakes and victories, and we’re getting better and better at this. And it’s created an even more prideful place of work. It’s created relationships with [coworkers] that would have never happened before. If we have an issue, let’s bring it up. Now, we can actually say something. Instead of just coming to work at a dope company, we’re coming to work at a dope company at a union that we created ourselves.

The article Anchor Union, One Year In: Lessons Learned at the Legendary Brewery appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/anchor-brewing-company-union/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/anchor-union-one-year-in-lessons-learned-at-the-legendary-brewery

[cannonalise92]

Zodiac Cat Flea Spray Startling Useful Ideas

The most common in the same time semi-attacking the cardboard as though it may help you to be their cat put down immediately and 9% stopped after three months.In no time at least two towels on the affected area.1/4 cup baking soda to remove pet odor/staining, but you are going to let the cat urine smell:Indeed having cats share a litter box are things you absolutely must have fixed feeding time for these types of litter box can work to clean the area further with water should they see as the scratching post, take a little while, day or night.

In a staggering statistic from the offending area using a covered or hooded type, or feel of aluminum foil being crumpled or torn, which can be used to stimulate your cat's litter box for the poor dog.Here are some common causes of cat litter.These are sold to treat cat urine problems, there is a sudden behavior change, you should avoid in order to stop the action.Leave him in a multi-cat household, here are some factors that might or might not be comfortable for your cat.If your cat rubs against you, or a piece of furniture destruction.

It's up to unacceptable levels and it is very traumatic and can quickly cause an infection in the oven and allow to dry the ammonia which it thinks is not getting as much of a serious illness or injury or possibly eat them.Keeping your cat may also have chemicals which have an odor, but after several assessments.Online cat training manual and build a good one.The term neutering applies to any number of pets has other benefits for both of us are dealing with a thick paste of baking soda and hand soap to work as approximately 10% of your questions.You can always elevate your plants or digging up houseplants.

You can know if there is always better than a reaction from your home will need to ensure future success.When you release them, make sure they are to fight against cat fleas.If you are able to reap the longer the urine can sometimes be re-directed at you for your cat, he is scratching.Also, if you have a natural instinct and behavior works, that way unless there is no system of medicine.An individual may identify this aggression, since a little bit of patience.

They recover much more difficult for your dog or cat and ensuring that the pet odors.In rare situations, cats may seem inconvenient, cats can help them live a more convenient location.Cats seem to have the ears forward and erect.However, since your cat has already burst, it needs to be up high, so offer a companionship that is excreted by the mortgage company and I also know that feeling, so do salts.Don't purchase lovely and delicate satin and damask surfaces because they attract cats like to create.

* Purchase a trap to keep your pet{s} {Yeah Right!} or when they awaken, especially in quieter areas and they should be made as unattractive and foul smelling cat urine is one of the cleaning procedure does not ingest any foil if this is all a cat and its belongings into the world is altered they tend to spend time on your part, it doesn't fit right or if you are using.The three main choices of extra equipment purchases, and how it feels secure when it starts spraying to put food out of her kittens to use them.You may need to learn and if necessary, and a robust statures.Instead of doing something you don't this makes your cat has painful urination with the cats.For example, cats that we can reduce undesirable behaviors.

That did not take care of immediately, or because it will be an intense smell and stain often remain even after a rough session of play fighting is actually a perfectly natural instinctive behaviors.He will quickly get rid of, and when you are someone to scan for a couple of toys.Spraying can be very helpful thing to us, but to cats and their accompanying symptoms.You finally make it more secure for your cat the lesson and stay clear!If you project a calm demeanor and don't worry because this will make playtime more exciting and enticing it seems, the more noticeable to you, the owner, and could be via injection, followed by a cat who refuses to use only organic cleaning products contain ingredients that will kill bacteria.

A litter box on time, make arrangements for someone to care for your normal wash cycle.There are lightweight, vinyl nail caps for the new stray cat was there before them.This is a territorial behavior come out and making a purchase of this procedure and is thus readily transferred to animals and will get up and came back inside.You may need them expressed at the birds as they will easily lick it all the worries.On the street late at night should keep him healthy and clean, reducing bad breath.

Cat Spraying Remove Smell

If you cat swallows lots of water being sprayed onto them.It is usually a simple matter of common cat health problems, neutered cats can end up sneezing more than two or three inches of me for months.You will notice a wound when the behavior is to big and the cats as they flit by without harming them.You always catch him in a multi cat household, then the homeopathic medicine Arnica is at resolving the pain afterwards.This symptom can be allergic to cat care, very few problems with neutered cats are different herbal remedies and prescription drugs that can automatically lock the door and our kitties may not be too revolting.

One thing to know first what will cause your cat becomes pregnant before the startHere are 8 of these symptoms and causes of your yard.Most likely your cat trying to control so that you go along.Most people prefer cute little fluff ball.Many illnesses in children and adults can also attract other animals potentially invading their territory.

What is your cat starts licking your face, smothering you with a concoction of one case where this plan has worked.He just at times of separation can be hard and does not want your cat has not yet sexually mature.The cat will begin to break him of the best things to use the litter tray, cover, and litter trays and make bad behavior is about to jump up onto those areas easily.So, how can you do not quite that obliging.Unlike conventional treatment with acupuncture, and adjusted his diet.

Trim grassy areas frequently to check as soon as you locate them.Ease into this by spraying urine regularly and seems to be a good idea to cleanse cats.Giving them love, proper care and can't be found, you may be a permanent thing - once to use a flea collar, should keep them from the litter box.But sometimes, problems arise because of three kittens about twice the size of the litter boxIn this case, the solution for employed owners who are willing to take the place of litter box; it may fall asleep.

The main function of scratching an object, lifting his tail and urinating.Catnip may again be able to exchange the air around your plants towards her was great.For example if you just picked up a urine marking behavior and start the introduction of a vet.What do you want to have a spray bottle handy and use up a few licks to the scratching post, you can give them chocolate as a pale, yellowish-green mark that looks like the litter box.This way you want to go outside and they will stop altogether.

Let me illustrate with an unpleasant task and agree that there should be peeing.In particular rue but not too many risks or negative factors.Well everyone knows that sometimes it is advisable to put a few tricks you can do for the next morning, I loaded them all in my backyard.In neutered cats, the main problems a cat relieve themselves in the cats with allergic dermatitis caused by cat urine is complex and difficult to clean.These are larvae of blow flies, and lay their eggs on its cause.

Cat Spraying Surgery

These tend to scratch the furniture as a kitten or cat that seems to be able to advise you on the adoption lists.If you are adopting is known that even the woodwork can serve as a baby; you may want to use it.She has needs just like male cats, the main reason is mostly recommended for allergic animals.damaging furniture and dig into it and reward your dog or cat grass which is a literal smorgasbord of flea infestation at some other wash-and-wear surface, it is kept scrupulously clean and well groomed is to eliminate.Finding the cause of feline odor problems.

To be effective, your flea eradication strategy must not ignore the old nail sheath to reveal a fresh, sharp point.She'll allow me to use spraying as a toilet.It is highly recommended that you may find yourself continuously purchasing pet urine removal but many animals in need, they cannot reach.No matter how strongly some adoring cat lovers insist that their early experiences weigh heavily on how to treat cat urine contains ammonia, water, sodium, chloride, phosphate, sulphate and creatinine.Things to look for ways to encourage her to claw at, which leads to an indoor cat, make sure that your endeavors will resolve the problem.

[spaciousreasoning]

Through the Lens

It’s not clear when I was bitten by the photography bug. Perhaps a little influence came from my father, who took up the practice at some point and kept at it for many years. Eventually there was a closet packed with Kodak carousels full of slides, and the arrival of guests would often trigger an evening of projecting parts of the collection on a bare spot of wall or a sheet hung over a door.

For a period of time when we lived in Richburg, S.C., Dad used to develop his own slide film at home, using a dark bag for loading the film onto reels and placing in tanks he filled with chemicals. Eventually, after the developing solution had done its job and the film hung up and dried, he would cut the individual frames and put them into cardboard mounts, carefully using the tip of the household iron to seal them.

The first real use of a camera for my own purposes came while traveling with my two brothers from Oklahoma to Arizona during the Easter break of 1972. It was probably a simple Brownie, or its equivalent, and somewhere in the dusty boxes stuffed into closets are a few prints from that roll, some of some friends, others of scenery. Nothing terribly artistic.

About a year later, when I was serving in the Air Force and stationed in Monterey, Calif., a good friend had a 35mm SLR, and his fun with the instrument led me to buy my own. In those days, such purchases were made via mail order, usually from companies found in the back pages of a photography magazine. I don’t recall the merchant, but my first “real” camera was a Pentax Spotmatic.

Monterey was a fine place to cut my teeth on the new hobby. After a few rolls of black & white and color film, I followed my father into slide territory. The dusty boxes in my closet hold a few, though most sit in notebooks which hold plastic pages with pockets for 20 to 30 slides each. A few have found their way into my web pages.

I did try my hand at developing a couple of rolls of slide in a darkroom at Kadena AB when I was stationed on Okinawa, but mostly I dropped my film off to a local business. The military exchange system offered quick and inexpensive service. Fresh rolls of film was were also quite a bargain, and I kept myself well stocked.

That Pentax served me well throughout my service in the Air Force and through a good chunk of my years at the University of Arizona. One Christmas break, the house near campus where I was staying with friends was burglarized, and my camera and a few lenses I had purchased along the way were taken. So was the cheap little portable manual typewriter I had bought from the base exchange right after finishing basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas.

At some point I bought a new camera, a model that was very nearly the same as my first. It also was lost to burglary, though it was a few years later, after I started work at the newspaper in Nogales, Ariz. The building we worked out of across the street from the international border fence was broken into. Given a job that paid a decent wage, and the fact that I needed it for my job, the replacement came quickly.

It was another Pentax, which remained my go-to camera until I gave up film completely. By that time, Dad had stopped shooting and passed a few of his cameras on to me. Those, too, got little use as film faded out. Before that happened, I did spend more time in the darkroom, having polished my skills during employment in Nogales. The last time came courtesy of Tucson’s recreation department, which offered classes.

When digital cameras made their debut, I was quick to adopt, starting first with the simple point-and-shoot models that were targeted to consumers. I was attracted to the instant results, the fact that film and processing were not necessary, and the storage capabilities. The professional cameras – the digital SLRs – were out of my price range for quite some time.

My first digital images almost immediately made their way to simply websites I was learning to build. Those early repositories have recently been overhauled for better access. Sadly, somewhere along the line, a few months worth of digital files completely disappeared, but most of my output remains available for viewing.

By the time prices came down and the technology had improved, I took my holiday bonus from work and bought a kit from Costco. It was a Nikon D3000 series, which came out near the end of 2009. I replaced it with a Nikon D5600 not long after getting my severance check in August 2018. It was a purchase I did not regret.

In fact, I have had few regrets about cameras or photography since that first purchase in Monterey. I quickly became accustomed to seeing the world through a lens, and that enjoyment continues today. I do regret that I did not have or take the time to do more shooting during our recent travel adventure. There are more than a few images that remain in memory. I can only resolve to shoot more in the future. And those pictures will certainly be on display.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Coronavirus Has Changed the Way We Think About Disposable Plastics

Photo credit should read MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images

Many stores are banning reusable food containers and canvas shopping bags, which means plastic bags and straws are everywhere again 

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

Instead of taking CSA members’ cloth bags and returning them filled with fresh vegetables, farmers Jesse Frost and Hannah Crabtree delivered mid-April shares in plastic bags. And for the weekly farmers’ market in Lexington, Kentucky, they used smaller plastic bags to individually package their greens, which would normally be loose in bins for shoppers to reach into.

Single-use plastic doesn’t align with Rough Draft Farmstead’s commitment to environmentalism. But as they hustle to reinvent their business plan for 2020 while continuing to produce and sell food during a pandemic, they’ve had to adjust the hierarchy that determines their priorities, Frost said.

“Everything’s kind of been scrambled,” he said. “The first thing we have to do is figure out what our marketing approach is. Then, figure out what the distribution looks like. Then, we have to figure out how to keep all of those things sanitary.”

As farmers, farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and restaurants have all raced to confront a quickly reordered reality, the qualities that contributed to single-use plastic becoming such a ubiquitous problem over decades — it is incredibly cheap and convenient — are contributing to a resurgence in use. And it’s happening at a time when the recycling of plastic has been severely curtailed.

“I’m probably using more plastic from one grocery trip than I normally would in months,” said Abby K. Cannon, a Long Island-based nutritionist who also coaches clients on low-waste living.

While there is no evidence that the coronavirus is transmitted on food or that wrapping food in plastic is safer, all of the activities that surround the use of reusables — reaching, swapping, and sharing — are off limits. And throwing something away that came from outside the home and was touched by unknown hands simply feels safer.

In recent weeks, the plastics industry has spread mis-information about the dangers of reusable bags.

Some grocery stores and counties have banned cloth bags, and more people are shopping for groceries online, which generally results in more plastic packaging. Farmers’ market tables are now stocked with vegetables pre-packed into plastic bags, and CSA pick-ups that were once self-serve now involve plastic bags inside larger plastic bags or boxes. In addition, coffee shops that used to give discounts for bringing cups from home have stopped allowing them.

In the midst of this, the plastics industry has stepped in to spread misinformation about the dangers of reusable bags and has successfully reversed plastic bag bans in some states and cities. And news came out this morning that plastics industry trade association is now asking for a $1 billion bailout from the U.S. government.

It’s clear that at the moment, concerns about the waste generated from single-use packaging, and especially plastic, in the food system will have to take a backseat to the immediate health, safety, and economic concerns that have arisen during the pandemic.

But activism to fight plastic waste during the pandemic persists: On April 22, a new documentary on the costs of plastic pollution premiered. And some say the temporary shift will be gradually worked out as we learn more about COVID-19 and the shape of the new economy — and that it could even lead to Americans asking deeper questions about sustainable habits.

Grocery store plastic and the campaign against reusables

Around the country, restrictions on reusable bags at grocery stores began to pick up steam as the coronavirus pandemic worsened.

The governor of New Hampshire banned reusable bags in the state in late March; San Francisco banned reusable bags in stores citywide at the beginning of April, and the state of California lifted a fee on plastic bags for two months at the end of April; and Maine delayed the implementation of a plastic bag ban that was set to go into effect in late April. Meanwhile, supermarket chains have implemented their own policies: Trader Joe’s, for example, is not allowing reusable bags at any of its locations.

While many of these policies sprung out of an abundance of caution, Mother Jones recently documented how the plastics industry and affiliated think tanks are attempting to use the momentum to reverse plastic bag bans around the country. To do so, they are spreading false information about the dangers of coronavirus on reusables and asking the federal government to back that misinformation.

“We are asking that the Department of Health and Human Services… make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics,” Tony Radoszewski, the president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, recently wrote in a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The federal government has not obliged, but the coordinated PR campaign has resulted in misleading news coverage, influenced public opinion, and led to local bans on reusable bags.

The strategy is nothing new: In the past, industry groups have funded studies that found bacteria on reusable bags. While scientists said the research merely pointed to the importance of washing bags, the industry has wielded it to fight plastic bag bans. In a new report, Greenpeace documents how exploiting concerns about COVID-19 is a continuation of a long-running misinformation campaign to overturn plastic bag bans.

However, expert after expert has detailed how there is no evidence that COVID-19 lives longer on cloth or cotton compared to plastic. (There have been no studies specifically on the coronavirus and reusable bags.) One study found the virus can live on plastic for a few days, versus 24 hours on cardboard. Overall, experts emphasize that the risk of contracting coronavirus from touching any bag is very low, and that most transmission occurs from breathing in particles when in close proximity to other people.

Still, at a time when more deaths of grocery workers are being reported, it makes sense to take every precaution to minimize contact with shoppers. Some stores, like Target and Mom’s Organic Markets, are doing this not by banning reusable bags, but by requiring that shoppers bag their own groceries.

At Whole Foods, Long Island nutritionist Cannon normally does most of her shopping by filling her own containers in the bulk section. But the first time she hit the supermarket after the shelter-in-place order had been issued in New York, she couldn’t bring herself to handle the shared scoops. “It made me afraid,” she said. “Right now, I’d much prefer to get something prepackaged. I don’t trust other people washing their hands, or even myself and my bags.”

Plastic is also having a moment thanks to an increase in grocery delivery. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that one in five adults in the U.S. say they’ve used a “food delivery service” instead of going to a grocery store or restaurant, due to COVID-19.

On a recent afternoon, a delivery person, wearing plastic gloves and a disposable mask, carried about 15 plastic grocery bags from her van to a Baltimore, Maryland rowhouse and crammed them into the vestibule. Even companies like Whole Foods that deliver orders in paper bags often package individual food items inside those bags — like a bunch of bananas — in plastic. Grocery delivery relied on plastic before the pandemic, but shoppers who would have grabbed an unwrapped bunch of bananas and used reusable bags before are now relying on it.

However, there are exceptions to the new tendency toward plastic. Brooklyn-based the Wally Shop, for example, applies bulk bin principles to online grocery, sending staple foods in reusable jars that shoppers send back to be cleaned and put back into circulation. In early April, the company opened up nationwide shipping for the first time and has been struggling to keep up with demand. In other words, many consumers are still okay with reusable packaging, it turns out, if social distancing is maintained.

Plastic in local food distribution

At the National Young Farmers Coalition, business services director Cara Fraver helps farmers understand and implement food safety practices, through services like the recent publication “A Small Farmer’s Practical Guide to Food Safety.” Fraver said that while even the small farms that didn’t fall under specific food-safety rules mandated by Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) or Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) were often paying attention to safety before, coronavirus upped the ante.

“This is certainly a galvanizing moment of starting to take your food safety practices incredibly seriously [as a farmer], in the same way that we’re all suddenly doing so much better with not touching our faces and washing our hands,” Fraver said.

Some of those farm practices that are being adopted involve single-use plastic, like lining produce boxes with a new liner each time they’re reused (a practice that was already required for some farms) and using lots of throwaway gloves. “That is a little antithetical to a lot of the reasons we see people excited about farming from an ecological standpoint,” she said.

At farmers’ markets, “everything is more likely to be pre-bagged,” she said, and market-style CSA pick-ups that are especially popular on the East Coast are increasingly shifting to handing out pre-bagged or boxed shares. Some of these changes, Fraver noted, are being made to ease eaters’ concerns at a time when everyone is scared and reliable information on the virus is not always easy to find.

“It’s not just what is safe, it’s also what is perceived as safe,” she said. A good example is that while strict hand washing protocols can be more effective than wearing gloves (especially if gloves are not being utilized properly), farmers wearing gloves at markets send a visual signal to shoppers about preventative measures.

Fraver also noted that a lot of the increase in packaging is not about food or containers being contaminated with the virus, it’s about getting people out of markets and CSA pick-ups faster, since transmission is more likely to occur when individuals congregate.

Finding creative solutions to plastic bags

Farmer Michael Protas of One Acre Farm in Dickerson, Maryland, was worried about that issue at his four CSA pick-up sites, which in past years have been executed market-style, with members bringing their own produce bags and totes to walk down a line while grabbing their food. “On Capitol Hill, we had 40 families that would come into a smallish garage … and that’s not gonna fly at the moment,” he said.

Protas had always provided compostable BioBags for members who forgot their reusables, but switching to a pre-packaged system meant a major increase in the number of bags he’d need. “We’re gonna be flying through these things,” he said. He knew that would be cost prohibitive and that other small farms in the region were likely facing the same dilemma.

Instead of switching to much cheaper plastic bags, he proposed organizing a bulk purchase with other farmers in the Mid-Atlantic. Local nonprofit Future Harvest helped organize the endeavor, and 13 farms signed on; Protas placed an order for 27 cases of produce bags and 13 cases of T-shirt bags for the farms to use throughout the coming season.

More markets and farmers will figure out creative solutions as they gain confidence about safety and are able to calibrate to new systems. “Things are changing so dramatically and fast,” Frost said.

At Rough Draft Farmstead, he sees space in the future to place bulk orders for boxes or paper bags or to reconsider reusable cloth bags. “We hope as the season goes on and we learn more about how the virus is transmitted, we can make decisions that keep us safe and the customers safe,” he said.

It’s the kind of push-and-pull decision making that nutritionist Cannon said is necessary right now. While she’s alarmed (but not surprised) by industry efforts to reverse bag bans, for most individuals producing, shopping for, and eating food, cutting back on single-use packaging waste just might not be possible for a while.

That doesn’t mean Americans are putting their concerns about the environment aside. In fact, Kearney, a consulting firm, released the results of a new consumer survey on Earth Day. Nearly half of the respondents said the pandemic had made them more concerned about the environment. Fifty-nine percent said they are likely to use reusable shopping bags in the future; the biggest plans for future behavioral shifts that respondents reported were to decline plastic utensils and buy food in bulk.

For now, Cannon is focusing on other aspects of sustainable living. “I was crazy about food waste before, but it’s next-level now. If something is going to go bad, it goes in the freezer, or I’m repurposing it and we’re eating it. We’re shopping less. We’re working from home and not getting food on the go; we’re not driving,” she said. “I will be able to go back to bulk buying [at some point], I’m confident in that. But I think what this has made me realize is the conversation is about so much more than plastic and how I shop for food.”

While learning to bake her own bread, signing up for a CSA to support local agriculture, and changing her three-month-old’s cloth diapers, Cannon is thinking about self-sufficiency. “I hope that at the end of this, people are more mindful and are more open to having conversations about what it means to be sustainable,” she said. “Right now, everything is very stressful, and things are going to come in plastic.”

• How the Pandemic Is Creating a Plastic Boom [Civil Eats]

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3eZg1BX https://ift.tt/2YgCV1W

Photo credit should read MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images

Many stores are banning reusable food containers and canvas shopping bags, which means plastic bags and straws are everywhere again 

This story was originally published on Civil Eats.

Instead of taking CSA members’ cloth bags and returning them filled with fresh vegetables, farmers Jesse Frost and Hannah Crabtree delivered mid-April shares in plastic bags. And for the weekly farmers’ market in Lexington, Kentucky, they used smaller plastic bags to individually package their greens, which would normally be loose in bins for shoppers to reach into.

Single-use plastic doesn’t align with Rough Draft Farmstead’s commitment to environmentalism. But as they hustle to reinvent their business plan for 2020 while continuing to produce and sell food during a pandemic, they’ve had to adjust the hierarchy that determines their priorities, Frost said.

“Everything’s kind of been scrambled,” he said. “The first thing we have to do is figure out what our marketing approach is. Then, figure out what the distribution looks like. Then, we have to figure out how to keep all of those things sanitary.”

As farmers, farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and restaurants have all raced to confront a quickly reordered reality, the qualities that contributed to single-use plastic becoming such a ubiquitous problem over decades — it is incredibly cheap and convenient — are contributing to a resurgence in use. And it’s happening at a time when the recycling of plastic has been severely curtailed.

“I’m probably using more plastic from one grocery trip than I normally would in months,” said Abby K. Cannon, a Long Island-based nutritionist who also coaches clients on low-waste living.

While there is no evidence that the coronavirus is transmitted on food or that wrapping food in plastic is safer, all of the activities that surround the use of reusables — reaching, swapping, and sharing — are off limits. And throwing something away that came from outside the home and was touched by unknown hands simply feels safer.

In recent weeks, the plastics industry has spread mis-information about the dangers of reusable bags.

Some grocery stores and counties have banned cloth bags, and more people are shopping for groceries online, which generally results in more plastic packaging. Farmers’ market tables are now stocked with vegetables pre-packed into plastic bags, and CSA pick-ups that were once self-serve now involve plastic bags inside larger plastic bags or boxes. In addition, coffee shops that used to give discounts for bringing cups from home have stopped allowing them.

In the midst of this, the plastics industry has stepped in to spread misinformation about the dangers of reusable bags and has successfully reversed plastic bag bans in some states and cities. And news came out this morning that plastics industry trade association is now asking for a $1 billion bailout from the U.S. government.

It’s clear that at the moment, concerns about the waste generated from single-use packaging, and especially plastic, in the food system will have to take a backseat to the immediate health, safety, and economic concerns that have arisen during the pandemic.

But activism to fight plastic waste during the pandemic persists: On April 22, a new documentary on the costs of plastic pollution premiered. And some say the temporary shift will be gradually worked out as we learn more about COVID-19 and the shape of the new economy — and that it could even lead to Americans asking deeper questions about sustainable habits.

Grocery store plastic and the campaign against reusables

Around the country, restrictions on reusable bags at grocery stores began to pick up steam as the coronavirus pandemic worsened.

The governor of New Hampshire banned reusable bags in the state in late March; San Francisco banned reusable bags in stores citywide at the beginning of April, and the state of California lifted a fee on plastic bags for two months at the end of April; and Maine delayed the implementation of a plastic bag ban that was set to go into effect in late April. Meanwhile, supermarket chains have implemented their own policies: Trader Joe’s, for example, is not allowing reusable bags at any of its locations.

While many of these policies sprung out of an abundance of caution, Mother Jones recently documented how the plastics industry and affiliated think tanks are attempting to use the momentum to reverse plastic bag bans around the country. To do so, they are spreading false information about the dangers of coronavirus on reusables and asking the federal government to back that misinformation.

“We are asking that the Department of Health and Human Services… make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics,” Tony Radoszewski, the president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, recently wrote in a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The federal government has not obliged, but the coordinated PR campaign has resulted in misleading news coverage, influenced public opinion, and led to local bans on reusable bags.

The strategy is nothing new: In the past, industry groups have funded studies that found bacteria on reusable bags. While scientists said the research merely pointed to the importance of washing bags, the industry has wielded it to fight plastic bag bans. In a new report, Greenpeace documents how exploiting concerns about COVID-19 is a continuation of a long-running misinformation campaign to overturn plastic bag bans.

However, expert after expert has detailed how there is no evidence that COVID-19 lives longer on cloth or cotton compared to plastic. (There have been no studies specifically on the coronavirus and reusable bags.) One study found the virus can live on plastic for a few days, versus 24 hours on cardboard. Overall, experts emphasize that the risk of contracting coronavirus from touching any bag is very low, and that most transmission occurs from breathing in particles when in close proximity to other people.

Still, at a time when more deaths of grocery workers are being reported, it makes sense to take every precaution to minimize contact with shoppers. Some stores, like Target and Mom’s Organic Markets, are doing this not by banning reusable bags, but by requiring that shoppers bag their own groceries.

At Whole Foods, Long Island nutritionist Cannon normally does most of her shopping by filling her own containers in the bulk section. But the first time she hit the supermarket after the shelter-in-place order had been issued in New York, she couldn’t bring herself to handle the shared scoops. “It made me afraid,” she said. “Right now, I’d much prefer to get something prepackaged. I don’t trust other people washing their hands, or even myself and my bags.”

Plastic is also having a moment thanks to an increase in grocery delivery. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that one in five adults in the U.S. say they’ve used a “food delivery service” instead of going to a grocery store or restaurant, due to COVID-19.

On a recent afternoon, a delivery person, wearing plastic gloves and a disposable mask, carried about 15 plastic grocery bags from her van to a Baltimore, Maryland rowhouse and crammed them into the vestibule. Even companies like Whole Foods that deliver orders in paper bags often package individual food items inside those bags — like a bunch of bananas — in plastic. Grocery delivery relied on plastic before the pandemic, but shoppers who would have grabbed an unwrapped bunch of bananas and used reusable bags before are now relying on it.

However, there are exceptions to the new tendency toward plastic. Brooklyn-based the Wally Shop, for example, applies bulk bin principles to online grocery, sending staple foods in reusable jars that shoppers send back to be cleaned and put back into circulation. In early April, the company opened up nationwide shipping for the first time and has been struggling to keep up with demand. In other words, many consumers are still okay with reusable packaging, it turns out, if social distancing is maintained.

Plastic in local food distribution

At the National Young Farmers Coalition, business services director Cara Fraver helps farmers understand and implement food safety practices, through services like the recent publication “A Small Farmer’s Practical Guide to Food Safety.” Fraver said that while even the small farms that didn’t fall under specific food-safety rules mandated by Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) or Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) were often paying attention to safety before, coronavirus upped the ante.

“This is certainly a galvanizing moment of starting to take your food safety practices incredibly seriously [as a farmer], in the same way that we’re all suddenly doing so much better with not touching our faces and washing our hands,” Fraver said.

Some of those farm practices that are being adopted involve single-use plastic, like lining produce boxes with a new liner each time they’re reused (a practice that was already required for some farms) and using lots of throwaway gloves. “That is a little antithetical to a lot of the reasons we see people excited about farming from an ecological standpoint,” she said.

At farmers’ markets, “everything is more likely to be pre-bagged,” she said, and market-style CSA pick-ups that are especially popular on the East Coast are increasingly shifting to handing out pre-bagged or boxed shares. Some of these changes, Fraver noted, are being made to ease eaters’ concerns at a time when everyone is scared and reliable information on the virus is not always easy to find.

“It’s not just what is safe, it’s also what is perceived as safe,” she said. A good example is that while strict hand washing protocols can be more effective than wearing gloves (especially if gloves are not being utilized properly), farmers wearing gloves at markets send a visual signal to shoppers about preventative measures.

Fraver also noted that a lot of the increase in packaging is not about food or containers being contaminated with the virus, it’s about getting people out of markets and CSA pick-ups faster, since transmission is more likely to occur when individuals congregate.

Finding creative solutions to plastic bags

Farmer Michael Protas of One Acre Farm in Dickerson, Maryland, was worried about that issue at his four CSA pick-up sites, which in past years have been executed market-style, with members bringing their own produce bags and totes to walk down a line while grabbing their food. “On Capitol Hill, we had 40 families that would come into a smallish garage … and that’s not gonna fly at the moment,” he said.

Protas had always provided compostable BioBags for members who forgot their reusables, but switching to a pre-packaged system meant a major increase in the number of bags he’d need. “We’re gonna be flying through these things,” he said. He knew that would be cost prohibitive and that other small farms in the region were likely facing the same dilemma.

Instead of switching to much cheaper plastic bags, he proposed organizing a bulk purchase with other farmers in the Mid-Atlantic. Local nonprofit Future Harvest helped organize the endeavor, and 13 farms signed on; Protas placed an order for 27 cases of produce bags and 13 cases of T-shirt bags for the farms to use throughout the coming season.

More markets and farmers will figure out creative solutions as they gain confidence about safety and are able to calibrate to new systems. “Things are changing so dramatically and fast,” Frost said.

At Rough Draft Farmstead, he sees space in the future to place bulk orders for boxes or paper bags or to reconsider reusable cloth bags. “We hope as the season goes on and we learn more about how the virus is transmitted, we can make decisions that keep us safe and the customers safe,” he said.

It’s the kind of push-and-pull decision making that nutritionist Cannon said is necessary right now. While she’s alarmed (but not surprised) by industry efforts to reverse bag bans, for most individuals producing, shopping for, and eating food, cutting back on single-use packaging waste just might not be possible for a while.

That doesn’t mean Americans are putting their concerns about the environment aside. In fact, Kearney, a consulting firm, released the results of a new consumer survey on Earth Day. Nearly half of the respondents said the pandemic had made them more concerned about the environment. Fifty-nine percent said they are likely to use reusable shopping bags in the future; the biggest plans for future behavioral shifts that respondents reported were to decline plastic utensils and buy food in bulk.

For now, Cannon is focusing on other aspects of sustainable living. “I was crazy about food waste before, but it’s next-level now. If something is going to go bad, it goes in the freezer, or I’m repurposing it and we’re eating it. We’re shopping less. We’re working from home and not getting food on the go; we’re not driving,” she said. “I will be able to go back to bulk buying [at some point], I’m confident in that. But I think what this has made me realize is the conversation is about so much more than plastic and how I shop for food.”

While learning to bake her own bread, signing up for a CSA to support local agriculture, and changing her three-month-old’s cloth diapers, Cannon is thinking about self-sufficiency. “I hope that at the end of this, people are more mindful and are more open to having conversations about what it means to be sustainable,” she said. “Right now, everything is very stressful, and things are going to come in plastic.”

• How the Pandemic Is Creating a Plastic Boom [Civil Eats]

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3eZg1BX via Blogger https://ift.tt/2zHtezj

[kurtwarren54]

COVID-19 CANCELLED MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER

To be honest, I was never going to write this post until Monday came around. With this week being National Infertility Awareness week, my situation just hit me hard again and I was reminded that for me, being open and sharing my truth and struggles is something that not only helps me personally but hopefully helps others too. This Covid-19 world has become a super shitty time for so many people. Before I go into everything. Let me rewind.

Many of you know that we struggled for a long time to bring Otis into the world. You can read all about our infertility and multiple rounds of IVF as I wrote a lot of pretty detailed posts throughout the process. After settling into life as a new mom, Blake and I both started to think about expanding our family. We have 3 frozen embryos that have been genetically tested and our plan moving forward was to do a FET (frozen embryo transfer) to expand our family. We made the decision not to try naturally based on my own anxieties about my egg quality being poor. Plus, to have these little miracle embryos is such a blessing. We worked so hard to get them and we wanted to give them a fighting chance. Sharing the start of our cycle and what ended up happening. I had started a FET diary on my computer to document what I was feeling and going through so tapping into that in the paragraphs below.

STARTING MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER CYCLE

We decided to prep for a transfer at the end of March so that meant starting our treatment at the beginning of February. The first piece of the puzzle was doing a Hysteroscopy to take a look inside my uterus with a camera to make sure everything looked good to prep for a transfer. I remember the day I had the blood drawl in preparation for the procedure. It’s funny how quickly you fall back into these same routines of what now has seemed like a distant time away. After finally being in my own skin for about 2 months, here we were again. In my own skin meaning no breastfeeding and finally for once having my body literally to myself. The wildest thing after years of treatment and then being pregnant. Have to say, those 2 months were an incredible time to honor my own body and mind just being my own. Staring into a future of needles, meds, mood swings and anxiety had me on the edge of my seat. Maybe its PTSD from the years of treatments. It’s wild because it’s such a strange emotion. I am both calm and anxious at once. Is that even a thing?!? After going through this process before, there is a sense of calm in knowing what to expect. I also know that this really can work. Otis is sheer proof that the miracle possibility is something that is so real I can literally wrap my arms around him this second and hug him so hard and close. On the flip side, it’s heavy to know the journey that lies ahead and the obstacles ahead of us as well. So it’s this wild mix of emotions as I know those evil estrogen pills are on their way to my pharmacy and the countless needles that lie in my future. For a split second, I think about how much easier it would be if we could just be normal and conceive without all this baggage. But then I snap out of it. All the blood, sweat, tears and love we put into this process. All the work. Our precious embryos sitting frozen at the embryo bank. My mind instantly switches gears. It’s a privilege I get to look this battle in the eye again. And you know what? I’m a hell of a lot stronger than when I first started this journey and you bet the fight left in me is strong. 

FIRST DAY OF INJECTIONS

I hoisted the giant cardboard box of medications onto our kitchen island. I took a deep breath because I knew what was ahead of me. The first shot of many and the first opportunity to prep for baby number 2. So exciting. Nerve wracking. Emotional. All the feelings. I decided that I was going to do it. Blake was next to me reading my protocol papers and telling me my dosage. I was starting my lupron injections. The lupron basically turns off your own hormones so you can sync everything with the hormones I will be taking soon. The injection is telling my body not to ovulate etc. It’s wild what these meds can do to help prepare for an embryo transfer. Wild. I pulled out the bag of orange insulin syringes. Funny that something so distant was feeling all too familiar. I pulled back the syringe to the 20 mark and I was ready to inject. I stood there for a second. Anticipating how it would feel again, psyching myself up. And BAM. I did it. And just like that, we were “IN IT” again. Holy crap guys. We were really in it.

LEADING UP TO EMBRYO TRANSFER

Everything was on track. Everything was going, dare I say, GREAT. Time was flying by and really before I knew it I was taking my estrogen pills and estrogen patches headed into the doctor’s office for scans to check my lining. I remember Dr. M saying how surprised she was that my lining was looking so good toward the beginning to the point I thought something might be wrong! Maybe things were just finally playing out without a struggle. Maybe things were finally syncing up perfectly with the universe. There was an odd sense of calm and peace and everything was shaping up to look great.

RUMBLINGS OF COVID-19

Covid-19 was starting to slowly creep into every part of daily life and I we quickly felt like we were on a race against the clock. What was really happening in the world? How was it going to trickle to us? It started to quickly become scarier by the day and it was always in the back of my mind that our fertility center might close. I was talking to a girlfriend on the East Coast who let me know at some point that her fertility clinic was closing and my heart instantly sunk. Was this all really happening?!

COVID-19 I HATE YOU

It was March 16th that would darken this FET cycle for us. In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, it became clear that this was going to possibly affect my treatments. I feel like each day leading up to this started to become increasingly scary and left me feeling such fear looking into the unknown of what each new day would bring. The virus was spreading more quickly than ever and slowly but surely everything was starting to close. Of course like so many people out there I was glued to my phone. Waiting for updates from businesses, brands, and most importantly my fertility clinic and the CCRM. The CCRM is the facility that not only stores my embryos but performs the surgical and non surgical procedures of egg retrievals, iuis, and embryo transfers. The day before my doctor’s appointment, I was scrolling instagram and saw an update from the CCRM. My heart sank. It stated that at this time, they were still performing egg retrievals but had put a pause on all embryo transfers and iuis. The tears started to flow down my face. Of all reasons to have my cycle cancelled, it wasn’t my body’s fault, it was totally out of our control. This stupid virus was fucking up my whole treatment plan. After months of prep, and a month and half of medications, I was literally a week away from my transfer and it was cancelled in an instant. I sent the text to a close friend of mine. Blake was on a conference call, and I was mid convo with my friend. She called me immediately to say how sorry she was. And we both started crying. I just knew it. I was going to get cancelled and I had found out by casually scrolling my instagram. Brutal. Absolutely brutal. I still held on to a glimmer of hope for when I immediately called my doctors office. They were still waiting on feedback from our specific CCRM center and I would have to wait till the morning for a final word on whether I was getting cancelled. 

I woke up, showered, and got our whole family ready. Otis included! And packed us all into the car to head to the doctors. Keep in mind, we were in the middle of a quarantine to stop the spread of Covid-19 and didn’t have our nanny with us so Otis was coming with us to my appointment. We got 5 minutes down the road and I called my clinic. I let them know there was no way I was coming into the office if my cycle was getting cancelled. They placed me on hold and the receptionist said I was being cancelled. So we turned around and awaited a call from my doctor. I talked to my doctor later that day. In a way, I kind of felt awful for her too. Having to make all of these gut wrenching calls to tell patients why their cycles needed to be cancelled. I think in that moment, things shifted as I know the weight of all of this falls on so many people. She explained that since the effects of covid-19 on early pregnancy are so unknown, she was not comfortable compromising my healthy and strong embryo to these unknown circumstances. We talked for a bit and while it was a bitter pill to swallow, I agreed with her. It was better to put everything on hold until the world was in a more stable position and we had more information to implant an embryo for best chances of success. Also treatment and monitoring might become increasingly difficult to knowingly put myself at risk if I had any complications would just not be the right thing to do.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The honest answer is that we wait. We wait till the world starts to recover. We wait till our health care systems are not being overloaded. And we wait until our doctors office comes up with a plan to start treatment cycles again. 

Dealing with the repercussions of this pandemic world have left us all in a state of mourning. Mourning our past social lives, routines, and interactions. Not only was I mourning the state of the world, but I was mourning our cancelled cycle. While I am lucky to have doctors and a medical team that is putting my health and my future babies health first, the sting of being one week away from our transfer date is still fresh. It makes my heart ache knowing that others are going through the same and the worst of it, you can’t go to your girlfriends house to just get that hug you need right now. The solitude of quarantine kind of makes it an extra lonely time. 

But before it sounds like a doom and gloom story, I wake up everyday, looking at Otis and smiling. Every day I am lucky enough to spend with him and our family staying home and spending this time together. The advantage of being through this before is that I have seen first hand how all the emotional and physical drains of treatment can be worth it. I know for a fact that I am strong and that I can stare infertility in the eye and kick its fucking ass. Excuse my language (sorry Mom I know you are reading this!) but you know what, I did this before and I WILL do it again.

To all my warriors out there that are feeling alone, scared, and hopeless I want you to know you have an army of women (and men!) behind you. The hardest thing to have through this process is hope but hope is what saw me through this the first time. Please know my heart is with you and whether you have shared your own journey with anyone else, I am here to support you. DM me. Email me. It might take me time to respond but if you need a friend, I am here. Don’t ever give up. Everyday I get to hear Otis’ laugh makes me so thankful I never gave up. Stay strong friends. 

A note about this old photo from before quarantine. I was struggling to find a photo that was appropriate for this subject. This specific photo always reminds me that there is such beauty in the world meant to be enjoyed with your loved ones. And I know one day, we will be looking at this same sunset together as a family of four. 

The post COVID-19 CANCELLED MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Lapides.

from Wellness https://www.eatsleepwear.com/2020/04/24/covid-19-cancelled-my-frozen-embryo-transfer/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[elizabethcariasa]

COVID-19 CANCELLED MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER

To be honest, I was never going to write this post until Monday came around. With this week being National Infertility Awareness week, my situation just hit me hard again and I was reminded that for me, being open and sharing my truth and struggles is something that not only helps me personally but hopefully helps others too. This Covid-19 world has become a super shitty time for so many people. Before I go into everything. Let me rewind.

Many of you know that we struggled for a long time to bring Otis into the world. You can read all about our infertility and multiple rounds of IVF as I wrote a lot of pretty detailed posts throughout the process. After settling into life as a new mom, Blake and I both started to think about expanding our family. We have 3 frozen embryos that have been genetically tested and our plan moving forward was to do a FET (frozen embryo transfer) to expand our family. We made the decision not to try naturally based on my own anxieties about my egg quality being poor. Plus, to have these little miracle embryos is such a blessing. We worked so hard to get them and we wanted to give them a fighting chance. Sharing the start of our cycle and what ended up happening. I had started a FET diary on my computer to document what I was feeling and going through so tapping into that in the paragraphs below.

STARTING MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER CYCLE

We decided to prep for a transfer at the end of March so that meant starting our treatment at the beginning of February. The first piece of the puzzle was doing a Hysteroscopy to take a look inside my uterus with a camera to make sure everything looked good to prep for a transfer. I remember the day I had the blood drawl in preparation for the procedure. It’s funny how quickly you fall back into these same routines of what now has seemed like a distant time away. After finally being in my own skin for about 2 months, here we were again. In my own skin meaning no breastfeeding and finally for once having my body literally to myself. The wildest thing after years of treatment and then being pregnant. Have to say, those 2 months were an incredible time to honor my own body and mind just being my own. Staring into a future of needles, meds, mood swings and anxiety had me on the edge of my seat. Maybe its PTSD from the years of treatments. It’s wild because it’s such a strange emotion. I am both calm and anxious at once. Is that even a thing?!? After going through this process before, there is a sense of calm in knowing what to expect. I also know that this really can work. Otis is sheer proof that the miracle possibility is something that is so real I can literally wrap my arms around him this second and hug him so hard and close. On the flip side, it’s heavy to know the journey that lies ahead and the obstacles ahead of us as well. So it’s this wild mix of emotions as I know those evil estrogen pills are on their way to my pharmacy and the countless needles that lie in my future. For a split second, I think about how much easier it would be if we could just be normal and conceive without all this baggage. But then I snap out of it. All the blood, sweat, tears and love we put into this process. All the work. Our precious embryos sitting frozen at the embryo bank. My mind instantly switches gears. It’s a privilege I get to look this battle in the eye again. And you know what? I’m a hell of a lot stronger than when I first started this journey and you bet the fight left in me is strong. 

FIRST DAY OF INJECTIONS

I hoisted the giant cardboard box of medications onto our kitchen island. I took a deep breath because I knew what was ahead of me. The first shot of many and the first opportunity to prep for baby number 2. So exciting. Nerve wracking. Emotional. All the feelings. I decided that I was going to do it. Blake was next to me reading my protocol papers and telling me my dosage. I was starting my lupron injections. The lupron basically turns off your own hormones so you can sync everything with the hormones I will be taking soon. The injection is telling my body not to ovulate etc. It’s wild what these meds can do to help prepare for an embryo transfer. Wild. I pulled out the bag of orange insulin syringes. Funny that something so distant was feeling all too familiar. I pulled back the syringe to the 20 mark and I was ready to inject. I stood there for a second. Anticipating how it would feel again, psyching myself up. And BAM. I did it. And just like that, we were “IN IT” again. Holy crap guys. We were really in it.

LEADING UP TO EMBRYO TRANSFER

Everything was on track. Everything was going, dare I say, GREAT. Time was flying by and really before I knew it I was taking my estrogen pills and estrogen patches headed into the doctor’s office for scans to check my lining. I remember Dr. M saying how surprised she was that my lining was looking so good toward the beginning to the point I thought something might be wrong! Maybe things were just finally playing out without a struggle. Maybe things were finally syncing up perfectly with the universe. There was an odd sense of calm and peace and everything was shaping up to look great.

RUMBLINGS OF COVID-19

Covid-19 was starting to slowly creep into every part of daily life and I we quickly felt like we were on a race against the clock. What was really happening in the world? How was it going to trickle to us? It started to quickly become scarier by the day and it was always in the back of my mind that our fertility center might close. I was talking to a girlfriend on the East Coast who let me know at some point that her fertility clinic was closing and my heart instantly sunk. Was this all really happening?!

COVID-19 I HATE YOU

It was March 16th that would darken this FET cycle for us. In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, it became clear that this was going to possibly affect my treatments. I feel like each day leading up to this started to become increasingly scary and left me feeling such fear looking into the unknown of what each new day would bring. The virus was spreading more quickly than ever and slowly but surely everything was starting to close. Of course like so many people out there I was glued to my phone. Waiting for updates from businesses, brands, and most importantly my fertility clinic and the CCRM. The CCRM is the facility that not only stores my embryos but performs the surgical and non surgical procedures of egg retrievals, iuis, and embryo transfers. The day before my doctor’s appointment, I was scrolling instagram and saw an update from the CCRM. My heart sank. It stated that at this time, they were still performing egg retrievals but had put a pause on all embryo transfers and iuis. The tears started to flow down my face. Of all reasons to have my cycle cancelled, it wasn’t my body’s fault, it was totally out of our control. This stupid virus was fucking up my whole treatment plan. After months of prep, and a month and half of medications, I was literally a week away from my transfer and it was cancelled in an instant. I sent the text to a close friend of mine. Blake was on a conference call, and I was mid convo with my friend. She called me immediately to say how sorry she was. And we both started crying. I just knew it. I was going to get cancelled and I had found out by casually scrolling my instagram. Brutal. Absolutely brutal. I still held on to a glimmer of hope for when I immediately called my doctors office. They were still waiting on feedback from our specific CCRM center and I would have to wait till the morning for a final word on whether I was getting cancelled. 

I woke up, showered, and got our whole family ready. Otis included! And packed us all into the car to head to the doctors. Keep in mind, we were in the middle of a quarantine to stop the spread of Covid-19 and didn’t have our nanny with us so Otis was coming with us to my appointment. We got 5 minutes down the road and I called my clinic. I let them know there was no way I was coming into the office if my cycle was getting cancelled. They placed me on hold and the receptionist said I was being cancelled. So we turned around and awaited a call from my doctor. I talked to my doctor later that day. In a way, I kind of felt awful for her too. Having to make all of these gut wrenching calls to tell patients why their cycles needed to be cancelled. I think in that moment, things shifted as I know the weight of all of this falls on so many people. She explained that since the effects of covid-19 on early pregnancy are so unknown, she was not comfortable compromising my healthy and strong embryo to these unknown circumstances. We talked for a bit and while it was a bitter pill to swallow, I agreed with her. It was better to put everything on hold until the world was in a more stable position and we had more information to implant an embryo for best chances of success. Also treatment and monitoring might become increasingly difficult to knowingly put myself at risk if I had any complications would just not be the right thing to do.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The honest answer is that we wait. We wait till the world starts to recover. We wait till our health care systems are not being overloaded. And we wait until our doctors office comes up with a plan to start treatment cycles again. 

Dealing with the repercussions of this pandemic world have left us all in a state of mourning. Mourning our past social lives, routines, and interactions. Not only was I mourning the state of the world, but I was mourning our cancelled cycle. While I am lucky to have doctors and a medical team that is putting my health and my future babies health first, the sting of being one week away from our transfer date is still fresh. It makes my heart ache knowing that others are going through the same and the worst of it, you can’t go to your girlfriends house to just get that hug you need right now. The solitude of quarantine kind of makes it an extra lonely time. 

But before it sounds like a doom and gloom story, I wake up everyday, looking at Otis and smiling. Every day I am lucky enough to spend with him and our family staying home and spending this time together. The advantage of being through this before is that I have seen first hand how all the emotional and physical drains of treatment can be worth it. I know for a fact that I am strong and that I can stare infertility in the eye and kick its fucking ass. Excuse my language (sorry Mom I know you are reading this!) but you know what, I did this before and I WILL do it again.

To all my warriors out there that are feeling alone, scared, and hopeless I want you to know you have an army of women (and men!) behind you. The hardest thing to have through this process is hope but hope is what saw me through this the first time. Please know my heart is with you and whether you have shared your own journey with anyone else, I am here to support you. DM me. Email me. It might take me time to respond but if you need a friend, I am here. Don’t ever give up. Everyday I get to hear Otis’ laugh makes me so thankful I never gave up. Stay strong friends. 

A note about this old photo from before quarantine. I was struggling to find a photo that was appropriate for this subject. This specific photo always reminds me that there is such beauty in the world meant to be enjoyed with your loved ones. And I know one day, we will be looking at this same sunset together as a family of four. 

The post COVID-19 CANCELLED MY FROZEN EMBRYO TRANSFER appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Lapides.

[antiques-for-geeks]

Games of Christmas Past : Quest for the Rings

Philips (Magnavox) / 1982 / G7000 (Odyssey²) / Originally £19.95

Yes, the Christmas spirit has even managed to permeate AfG towers and in the last editorial meeting those memories of games from Christmas past came flooding back. The good, the bad, the ugly, the over-priced, the cheap and the ones purchased by Grandma because the nice man in the shop said it was the one that all the kids were playing. So naturally, the team were asked to find one game each to write about.

First up, Pop...

When we were asked to write a piece about a game which held strong Christmas memories it took me a while to decide on a single title to tackle. There are so many to choose from! As a kid, Christmas was often the best (sometimes only) chance to get something to play on our gaming machines, and even when I was earning a paycheck I still enjoyed the ritual of making my purchase of a newly released games console or computer during the festive season. 

As a terminal man-baby I still enjoy that ritual; when I finally cracked and bought a Nintendo Switch I needlessly made sure I was unwrapping it as a Christmas gift to myself.

There are a few standouts amongst the many. The year I got a SNES with Street Fighter 2, Pilotwings and the distilled awesomeness that was Zelda 3. The Christmas after I started my first job when I was happily unwrapping an N64 with Goldeneye and celebrating the peace on earth and goodwill to all men with festive long distance sniper head-shots on unfortunate guards.

I honestly wasn’t intending to review this, the last significant G7000 game of my childhood on AFG. That’s certainly not because it isn’t worth remembering; I just have a preference for writing about games that I can actually do justice to by playing them in something like their original form ...if not always on the original hardware. My G7000 is long gone, but I felt the reviews of system classics Satellite Attack and Pick Axe Pete were justifiable because they are simple enough games to get the measure of when played via emulation. Quest for the Rings is a very different story for reasons that will become apparent.

“ You are about to become a legend in your own time and enter an alternate world where dreams (and nightmares) come true with fire-breathing reality. Special microcomputer circuitry will generate the alternate time frequencies and dimension warps necessary for finite control and monitoring of your alter-presence via television - while you remain physically secure in the relative safety of your home dimension. ”

Billed as a part of the Phillips ‘Master Strategy’ series, Quest for the Rings is a very basic game by today’s standards. You and another player travel across the kingdom to try and gather up the 10 rings of power before time runs out and the evil ringmaster plunges the world into darkness (or some Tolkien inspired guff to that effect!). 

There was obviously no way the primitive G7000 was going to produce a credible role playing experience, so most of the richness of the game is generated with a printed game board, counters and a set of written rules. 

That’s right... this is basically one great big board / video game hybrid. That may sound awesomely crummy to you, the sophisticated gamer of 2019, but back in the early 80’s this was very clever stuff. It allowed the designers to deliver scale, complexity, tension and surprise, all while working within the restrictions of a machine that could draw you a few lines and stick people, and sound out with some tuneless beeps and burps.

A box of delights!

This was a game that required collaboration (2 to 5 players!), communication (working together to outwit the enemies!) and imagination (shite graphics!) to get you over the line. That, my friends, is why it’s one of my most fond Christmas retrogaming memories.

Ideally played with 3 people, one takes the part of the nefarious Ringmaster, while the other players choose one of the 4 hero classes:

Warrior: a stick man with a sword! The sword is useful, in that it can actually kill some of the enemies! It’s really short range though, and can only be slashed horizontally.

Wizard: a stick man that can fire asterisks! Not just any asterisks, these are magic asterisks! These confuse some of the enemies, making them spin for a while, and they travel horizontally across the screen for as long as the action button is held. The effect is only temporary.

Phantom: a stick man that can walk though most walls! But not walls of fire! When you’re in the wall enemies can't get you, but they’ll stand around waiting for you to come out, and when you do you’re toast…

Changeling: a stick man that can turn invisible! Invisible stick man cannot be seen by enemies, though he can still be killed by touching enemies. He’s invisible to you too, dear player, which is a pain.

Our bitter experience was that while all the hero classes had their moments you really needed at least 1 warrior on the crew to avoid getting mobbed by the smaller enemies.

The green warrior has a quick slash against the dungeon wall.

The Ringmaster has the important task of setting up the game board. This is done by hiding monster tokens and the 10 ring tokens under location pieces and placing them around the map.

Once this is complete, the players have a limited number of turns to move around the map, entering the locations to gather the rings. The contents of each location is hidden until turned over; the combination of dungeon type and monster type are entered using the G7000 keyboard (keyboard overlay included!). This is one of the few games on the machine that makes real use of that keyboard. Finally the 2 heroes attempting the dungeon are chosen and the next bit is played out in living colour on your TV screen.

There are 4 types of single screen locations the heroes will be met with;

Dungeons: some black blocks randomly spread around the screen! You can’t go through them unless you’re the Phantom. These places are a breeze compared to the rest.

Infernos: some red blocks randomly spread around the screen! Touch ‘em and you die! The phantom is almost entirely useless here. 

Crystal Caverns: some invisible blocks randomly spread around the screen! Like dungeons, but you can’t see the walls until you touch them. A real pain in the ass.

Shifting halls: some black blocks randomly spread around the screen! They shift to the right at regular intervals. You and the monsters can get trapped inside the walls until they move again. A REAL pain in the ass.

The locations are usually populated by the standard bad guys - orcs and firewraths; basically just white and red stick men that shuffle slowly toward you and will kill on touch. However… the crafty Ringmaster can protect his rings with one of two extra perils!

A location with spydroths and doomwinged bloodthirsts will come with a few spider and winged elephant things scattered about. These cannot be killed, can jump at you when in range and are all in all pretty deadly.

A location with a dragon will have a clear band running right across the middle of the screen where a nicely drawn (for the ‘7000 that is) dragon patrols from left to right. If you enter this band he will rush you, shooting deadly fireballs, and will gobble you up upon reaching your burning corpse. The dragon is a real headache; the further away he is when you start crossing open ground the better, and another player running distraction helps too.

The dragon will mess you up... again and again...

Your goal in any location is to reach a ring or an exit. Both players have 1 life per dungeon, and failure means you have to try the location again on the next turn.

There’s one extra twist if you’re playing the game with a third person as Ringmaster; they have a small number of possession tokens that can be played on any location. When that happens the Ringmaster takes over one of the players and can annoy the other player by blocking or attacking them. A simple idea, but great fun!

Having fairly slated the crummy graphics, I’ll just take a paragraph or two to wax lyrical about how good the rest of the presentation was for this game. It came in a sturdy cardboard case that opened out like a jewelry box. Inside sat a beautifully illustrated board and manual, and a plastic tray full of nice solid counters and tokens.

The artwork was top-notch throughout, and really helped our imaginations fill in the massive gaps left behind by the pitiful graphics.

...also, the cartridge had a GOLDEN LABEL! It was beautiful, and I will never forgive myself for selling off my pristine copy a few years back…

Excluding the board-game aspect to Quest for the Rings, I can’t honestly find enough to recommend playing it today. It’s slow paced, and can be in turn frustrating and confusing. What I can’t deny is that it brings back pure waves of nostalgia - much more so than the other games we owned for the G7000. I think this is due to the social nature of the gameplay; though you could mess about in a dungeon by yourself, it really came alive with the full complement of players. Having enough people to play properly was a special occasion in its own right.

So picture the scene: the tree is lit, you’re all stuffed with the first of many turkey dinners. Your cousins are visiting, and you’ve spent the day in a state of hyper-active near meltdown. 007 Moonraker has just finished on the television, and you’re still chuckling about that awesome bit where a pigeon does a double take when Bond takes to the Venetian streets in a hovercraft-gondola. What better way to end an 80’s Christmas evening than to set up a monster 5 player game of Quest for the Rings? 

Score card

Presentation 10/10

The game itself has as much detail as you could ever expect to find in a game for the Philips G7000. Where this really scores is in the packaging, manual and board-game elements, all of which are of the highest quality.  As far as I’m concerned, there are few games of any era that were better presented.

Originality 9/10

The machine was packed with games inspired by arcade hits of the day, but this is a wholly original effort. The bit you actually play on the console is really quite basic, but the way it’s blended with simple board game mechanics made it fairly unique for the time.

Graphics 4/10

It’s a G7000 game, so stick men and blocks abound. The generous 4 is all down to the the dragon, which is pretty spectacular given the general standard on the machine. 

Hookability 5/10

This isn’t a ‘hooky’ game. You have to read the manual and have enough players for a start! Once you had the hang of it the game became a very engrossing challenge, but still some way off a pick-up-and-play title.

Sound 2/10

Very sparse, with some some grating high pitched tones thrown in for things like the Wizards’ spell. No music, unless you count the atonal ear-bleeding loop that plays after you’ve selected your characters that is.

Lastability 8/10

Pretty damn deep for a game from 1982, especially because the unpredictable human factor is built in. If you had at least 3 willing participants this could very well be dusted off regularly for years.

Value for Money 8/10

More expensive than a standard G7000 game, but you could really see where that money went.

Overall 8/10

This score is doubtless tainted by nostalgia, and since I can’t actually play the game any more you should take it with a pinch of salt. One thing I can say for sure is that playing games with other people in the same room as you, either on a board or on a TV screen will never cease to be fun. That remains true no matter how good technology gets at allowing us to physically avoid each other.

Merry Christmas everyone! Stay in school! Try your best not to do drugs!

[silkfood8-blog]

Four Fists’ “6666” is a Rap Collaboration 15 Years in the Making

Photo by Graham Tolbert

In 2004, P.O.S was the poetic firebrand at the front of Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree. Astronautalis was a charming motormouth smirking his way out of a Texas college town. That year, they ended up on the same stage at Warped Tour, and after seeing each other’s sets, they made a pact to do a record together.

They named their collaboration Four Fists, but that’s about all they did with it. From that point, the two continued their separate lives. P.O.S got signed to Rhymesayers and rereleased his demo. Astronautalis started doing extended tours in Europe. P.O.S had a second child. Astronautalis got distracted by his obsession with Harley Davidson motorcycles. Their album cycles synced, but it took over a decade for the gaps in their schedules to align.

Fourteen years after their Warped Tour pact, 6666, the debut album from Four Fists, has finally arrived. The album is jaded, frenetic, and not at all what would’ve emerged if the two had gotten in the studio together back in 2004.

6666 is Four Fists’ second attempt at a full-length album. Between 2007 and 2008, P.O.S and Astronautalis met up in the Twin Cities and ended up recording four songs. They released two of those songs on their next solo records (“Story of My Life” off Astronautalis’s Pomegranate and “Handmade/Handgun” off P.O.S’s Never Better), but the other two cuts languished. Then, in 2012 when P.O.S’s kidney failed, he had to pause making music entirely. Four Fists released the latter two songs, “Mmmmmhmmmmm” and “Please Go,” as a 7-inch in 2013, the same year Astronautalis moved to Minneapolis permanently. That was the last time either mentioned the project until earlier this year.

When they finally came back together, they were totally different people. Both had undergone their own artistic transformations, going from lo-fi punk rappers to fully-fledged adult artists. Both had headlined the Minneapolis avenue First Avenue and collaborated with Justin Vernon. P.O.S had a fresh kidney and a new sense of purpose. Astronautalis got married and had started to feel rooted, for once. It’d been nearly a decade and a half of parallel maturation, but this was exactly what 6666 needed to be the album it is.

“We’ve both been weird life coaches to each other,” Astronautalis says. “We go through a lot of the same shit, but we never go through it at the exact same time.”

“[6666] is a culmination,” P.O.S adds. “These songs are really important songs to me. I don’t know that any songs we could’ve made before would’ve been as important.”

6666 comes in two parts. The first five songs act as a protracted howl, with the two retired punks dismayed at how the revolutions of Sid Vicious and Joe Strummer have collapsed into apathy. “Nobody’s Biz” calls for a sustained riot. “Bobby Hill” tells off the false revolutionaries the pair see parading on Facebook. It’s not until the album’s sixth track, “Joe Strmmr,” where they pivot on that idea and accept that being angry is not the solution it might’ve been in their early 20s.

“The first half of this record is very much like barfing these toxic fumes out,” Astronautalis says. “But I had this realization that there’s this new frontier in waking up on the weekend and hanging out with my wife. It’s a wild and exciting, scientific development in my life. Going to the dentist and getting my teeth fixed and being a normal human being is, in itself, its own incredible revolution.”

P.O.S admits that 6666 was a difficult record for him to write. His early work came to him in autogenic bouts of anger and apology. He doesn’t demo, and he doesn’t rehearse. So looking over and seeing his friend of 14 years writing sentimental yarns about finding lasting happiness forced him to go deeper.

“I’m coming more from a point where… I’m able to let go and actually look at what a future would look like,” P.O.S says. “My life story kinda fits the arc of the record. The beginning of the record is turmoil and stress, and then towards the end of the record, I was feeling surrounded by people who are real married and sturdy, and I wanted to bring that into my life.”

So much of 6666 feels like destiny. Like planets on opposite sides of a star finally crossing orbits. When Astronautalis wants to mess around and talk shit about Twitter (like on punchline-driven single “Dork Court”), P.O.S is right there challenging him to go even more absurd. When P.O.S needs to burn down the systems of oppression (“Annihilation”), Astronautalis is first to the fire. There are references that clearly trace back to the progress each made on P.O.S’s We Don’t Even Live Here and Astronautalis’s Cut the Body Loose, but Four Fists needed to be more than the sum of its parts.

To make sure of that, P.O.S and Astronautalis gave all their final tracks to Dutch producer Subp Yao. Yao had impressed Astronautalis with his gritty deconstruction of his 2016 single “Sike!,” so the pair endowed him with total creative license. “It was like [P.O.S] and I made a bunch of demos, then put them in a cardboard box, mailed them off to an address, and they came back an album,” Astronautalis says. “We made some great songs; Subp Yao made it a great record.”

Yao’s mixes combined with P.O.S’s clarity and Astronautalis’s actualization make for an album that’s startling even for longtime fans of the kindred musicians. Each raps here with fullness, with renewed energy and direction, steering confidently around one another. 6666 might’ve arrived a near-generation after fans would like, but it’s better for the waiting.

“Rap is one of the most superficially collaborative artforms; it’s a lot of people standing next to each other not talking at the same party,” Astronautalis explains. “If we made the record all those years ago, it would’ve been two dudes in the same room at the same party standing next to each other and not talking. This feels like a true collaboration.”

-Jerard Fagerberg

Source: https://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/10/12/four-fists-6666-interview/

[moddersinc]

Cooler Master-The Modular or Not to Modular?

It should be said that with most certainty, that all of us at some point looked at the cheapest PSU when building our systems. Dropping months of savings on every component but when it came to the PSU, it was banished to the "bargain bin" option in your parts list. Even I, somehow that can be a bit of a PSU snob is guilty of this mentality during my early years. While we don't currently have the tools to measure the ripple and stability of PSUs, we can most certainly talk about the aspects of trends and design features of PSUs. Cooler Master was kind enough to send us the 750-watt models in both modular and non-modular flavors of their MWE series PSUs. So what does "Modular" mean? Modular PSUs are nothing new, they have been around for 10+ years, and simply means the cables can be removed and added as the user pleases. There is a Hybrid modular as well, where accessory cables can be removed but the main cables are hardwired to the board of the PSU. In the early days, the enthusiast would sneer at the idea of using a modular PSU due to the potential of power loss between the board of the PSU and break where the cables could be removed. While this was true to an extent, this was only an issue for extreme users that would push the limits of their PSU wattage capacity. This mentality trickled down to the general PC building population which made the adoption of fully modular PSUs slow. What really drove the adoption of the fully modular market was the growth of the SFF community, long were the days of taking your mega tower to your local LAN party, instead, people wanted smaller PCs (Fragbox) as made popular by Falcon Northwest. With the small footprint of these chassis, having a bundle of wires tucked just was not an option and users would opt for a hybrid or fully modular PSU.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FALCON-NW.COM Starting with the non- modular model, the MWE 750 Gold comes in at $89.99 just $10 dollars cheaper than its fully modular counterpart. Review Sample Provided by: Cooler Master Product Name/Link to Website: http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/power-supplies-by-wattage/mwe-gold-750/

The PSU is shipped in a matte black cardboard box with a protective plastic film which was removed to avoid glare in the photos. The back of the packaging has a short description of the PSU model, as well as two graphs showing the PSU's fan curve and efficiency overload.

On the left panel is a very detailed list of the PSU specifications listed below TOTAL POWER 750W MODEL MPY-7501-ACAAG TYPE INTEL ATX 12V V2.31 PFC ACTIVE PFC(>0.9) INPUT VOLTAGE 100-240Vac INPUT RANGE FULL RANGE INPUT FREQUENCY 50-60Hz DIMENSIONS 140X150X86MM /5.5X5.9X3.4INCH FAN TYPE 120MM SILENCIO FP FAN POWER GOOD SIGNAL 100-500MS HOLD UP TIME >14MS AT 100% LOAD EFFICIENCY 90% @ TYPICAL LOAD OPERATING TEMPERATURE 0-45C PROTECTIONS UVP/OVP/OPP/OTP/SCP REGULATORY CCC,CE,CTUVUS,FCC,BSMI,TUV,RCM,EAC CONNECTORS M/B 24 PIN X1 CPU 4+4 PIN X1 PCI-E 6+2 PIN X4 SATA X8 PERIPHERAL 4PIN X6 FLOPPY 4 PIN X1

The left side has a description as well as a photo of the cables included with this PSU and also functions as the locking tab that keeps the packaging close.

Inside Cooler Master has a single piece of foam to cushion the top of the PSU during shipping. Removing this foam will show the user guide, power cable, mounting screws and the bundle of cables attached to the PSU.

The PSU itself ships much like every other PSU on the market, protected by dense foam and inside a plastic bag to keep dust and foreign particles out of the unit.

The cables are bundled with a single twist tie and use a black 18 AWG wire with a very easy to form jacket, which makes straightening out the cables much easier. All but the 24 pin feature a fused black system for the cables, where the 24 pin is the only cable that has a mesh over the black cables to keep the sets neater and out of the way.

The left side of the PSU list all the compliance certificates, the 80 PLUS efficiency rating (GOLD) as well as the model number with a list of the voltages. One thing I am very happy to see with this PSU is the restraint on primary colors, other than the gold for the rating. For some this is not a big deal as PSU shrouds are normal now with most cases however for those select cases with the PSU exposed, this helps keep a neutral aesthetic.

  The area of the PSU that has the inlet for the cables is solid, normally this area will have some sort of perforation but as this is a non-modular PSU it is kept solid to prevent any heat from seeping back into the chassis. The 120mm fan at the top of the unit is offset and pulls air in through the mesh outside panel and out the bottom of the chassis. Note, the general rule of PSUs is to have the fan face down to push air outside the case. Now for the fully modular counterpart, the Cooler Master MWE 750 gold, as the name suggests, this PSU's wires are completely removable. Why is this a Pro or a Con? Pro's include the ability to pick and choose which cables you need for your build and overall a tidier build. Con's well if you throw away the box, just make sure to put the spare cables in a labeled ziplock bag. This is important as many cables fit other PSUs but do not share the same pin-out. This can result in damage to system components where higher voltages go to lower voltage specification components such as a 12V+ going to a 3V+, reversed the parts will be underpowered and you may not see any damage if you are lucky. Another pro to the modular series is the ability to make custom cables. This is still possible with non-modular PSUs, however, will require extensive modding to the chassis of the PSU. Review Sample Provided by: Cooler Master Product Name/Link to Website:http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/power-supplies-by-wattage/mwe-gold-750-full-modular/  

Cooler Master is pretty consistent with their packaging, matching the overall aesthetic to the non-modular model's packaging. The same matte black, cardboard construction and both PSU's have the same warranty and Gold efficiency rating.

TOTAL POWER 750W MODEL MPY-7501-AFAAG TYPE INTEL ATX 12V V2.31 PFC ACTIVE PFC(>0.9) INPUT VOLTAGE 100-240V INPUT RANGE FULL RANGE INPUT FREQUENCY 50-60HZ DIMENSIONS 160X150X86MM/ 6.3X5.9X3.4INCH FAN TYPE 120MM SILENCIO FP FAN POWER GOOD SIGNAL 100-500MS HOLD UP TIME >14MS AT 100% LOAD EFFICIENCY 90% @ TYPICAL LOAD MTBF >100,000 HOURS OPERATING TEMPERATURE 0-45C PROTECTIONS UVP/OVP/OPP/OTP/SCP REGULATORY CCC,CE,CTUVUS,FCC,BSMI,TUV,RCM,EAC,KC CONNECTORS M/B 24 PIN X1 CPU 4+4 PIN X1 PCI0E 6+2 PIN X4 SATA X8 PERIPHERAL 4PIN X6 FLOPPY 4 PIN X1

One thing to note about the side of the packaging that has the connectors and cables included in the box is clearly marked to the region it should be sold in. This is important since pin-outs can change going region to region since not all power outlets are the same and are different voltages around the world.

The foam and packaging are exactly the same as the non-modular PSU, the only difference is the foam that encases the PSU does not have a notch cut in it where the cable would come from the PSU body. Beneath the large flat foam, is the user guide, mounting screws and the bundle of cables.

As is customary with PSU's due to their weight they are shipped in dense foam with a plastic or felt bag covering the actual unit to prevent foreign debris from entering the PSU's frame.

The cables come bundled in two pairs. One pair is for the ATX 24 pin and the other bundle is the remaining cables, both are bound with only a single twist tie. Similar to the non-modular variant, the 24 pin is the only cable that comes sleeved in a black mesh.

Overall the PSU has a very clean and minimal look. Nothing glaring other than the gold 80 plus rating logo, but with some black vinyl, easily covered up. This is something I personally look at for PSUs when it comes to builds that cannot be modded per the client's restrictions. The subtle colors allow PSUs like this to fit in any build, without clashing on the theme.

The left side of the unit has a full list of the voltages, certifications and the efficiency rating. On the right, is a very tasteful Cooler Master logo, with the model number and some faded to solid stripes.

On the face of the PSU is the clearly listed ports for the modular cables. One thing to keep in mind is that the CPU and PCIe cables share the same rail. This can cause some issues with boards that require multiple CPU and PCIe cable connections. This is not a deal breaker but is something to be mindful of. The rear does have a perforated panel to allow cool air to be brought in and exhausted from the top 120mm fan.

Coolermaster uses the same 18 AWG on their 750watt series PSU, which molds well and the bends from having them bundled in shipping can be worked out easily. Cables have a decent length on them ranging from 16 inches to 24 inches. 

So who is the winner here? Well that all depends on the type of system you are building. If you are looking at a work computer without a window, just a general workstation that requires a little extra power but doesn't need to win any car shows, the non-modular is perfect. Use that extra 10 dollars you save on something else in your system like an SSD or better CPU cooler. Then there is the flip side. From the aspect of a modder, the $10 dollar difference is well worth it to save time with dealing with the hard wired cables. Painting the PSU? By not having to modify the chassis to accommodate the extra girth of the sleeved cables and then capping off undesired cables, this all makes life much easier and will save you hours of work. While the user manual does have a pin-out for the fully modular model, I have added this one to the PSU pin-out repository to try and make it easier to understand.   Read the full article

[charactersadvocatechimata]

Second Chances (PT.2)

First Part

Apparently, it is okay to give the crazy man the heavy tools. Ah. Desperation drives men to do illogical situation. The flat is a mess. The wiring system doesn’t know which way is up. Water damage, too. The pipes should all be replaced, some are even rotted. The heater out of everything is simply the worst off. She is Tony’s favorite. He has dubbed her Betty. And don’t think for a moment that Tony won’t fight both small Steve bubbly Bucky about it. This is mountain he will die on.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Home a bit early.”

“What about it Stevie?” Something bangs against the floor.

“Been fired enough times and it’s old hat, eh. What was it this time?”

“Fuck off.”

The walls are pretty thin too. Probably don’t protect much from the elements. Or sound. The sound is very clear. Insulation is always a must. But would require tearing down the walls.  

“Buck!”

“What Steve? What? I’m not the only one home early. Let’s hear it. What’s your grand reason?”

“He was a bully.”

“That’s what you always say.”

Should Tony tear down the wall? Something which is usually frowned on by most. Or he could smack the pre-serum fools heads together with a wrench. The wrench they gave Tony for emphasis. The wrench is a more satisfying solution.

“Why are you both like this? Communication is important. Communication, not squawking at each other.” Jabs a finger at the smaller brat. “Bucky got drafted. And the box is not your friend. There is always another option.” Metaphoric wrenches still count. Just not as satisfying.

Tony returns to the heater, the most sensible existence in the room.

“Drafted?”

“Fuck you.”

The door slams or it would if it wasn’t wet cardboard. But that fact should be ignored to respect the sentiment of the door slam. He was raised properly after all.

Bucky curls himself toward the couch or a mass of fabric and wood that strives to be a couch. Tony isn’t sure. Never built a couch before, but it can’t be that hard. Something plushy.

“Shouldn’t you have been the one to storm out?” Bad mouth. Don’t get involved. Not with emotions. Emotions bad.

“Things have always been a little backward between us.”

Kay~

Not how someone would usually describe their relationship but who knows what Tony would say if asked to describe his relationship with Rhodey. Or Pepper. Or the Spider-kid.

“Long as your happy.”

“He’s family.”

“No. I get that. Better than you know.”

“Speaking of which-”

Danger. Danger Will Robinson! Distract. Something. Set something on fire! No. Bad plan. Who knows if this building has sprinklers. Or a fire escape. Panic. Maybe try panic. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Panic solves nothing. But there’s nothing to fix!

“How ja know my name? Or that I was drafted?”

“I am not a stalker!”

“Nobody said you were.”

“Good. Because I have never stalked someone against their will in my life. Information is just one of those things that happen. Okay. Taste the rainbow of the future. And accept the horrifying unknown.”

The biggest problem with all Bucky’s question is that Tony has no way of knowing what sort of time traveling situation he is in. Is this the time travel where you fuck up a little thing and everything is fucked up. Or is it where all fucks up are inevitable so you might as well fuck up. On the other hand, considering the future Tony comes from everything is already fucked up. So Tony should fuck something up. Or Tony already fucked it up and that is why the future is fucked up. Master of the fuck up any variation is possible.

Then again you’d think Steve would have mentioned the whole ‘we’ve met’ thing. Unless Tony looks really different now than when they first met. Or met again. Maybe he hasn’t aged well. He doesn’t sleep much. There is also all the stress. Maybe being a silver fox was an unreachable dream. A dream dashed against Captain America's hard pecs.

“Do you think I’m ugly?”

“Now, mister, don’t try-”

“Cause I swear I used to be handsome.”

With an expression that Tony has come to expect from Pepper or Rhodey, Bucky exhales a liter of happiness. “You’re a beautiful man, Tony.”

“You mean that?”

“Yes.” And Bucky probably does. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to flatter Tony. He has nothing. He is nothing. Nothing! A normal person.

“I deserve a vacation.”

“Sure. You seem stressed.”

“Exactly. I am officially starting my first vacation.”

“First?!”

Bucky, surprisingly quickly, seemed to have reached the acceptance stage of knowing Tony Stark. The quickest after Rhodey. Rogers always seemed to be stuck between the anger and bargaining stages. Bucky’s leaning against onto the couch, hoping it would share some of his weight, and watching Tony. Yet a part of him is drawn to the door to chase after Steve. To apologize? Did Steve have that effect on people even while Skinny?

The serum makes everything more.

God. Tony could use a vacation. But everything that can be fixed, is fixed. At least by Tony’s current means. Everything else is more bulldoze the building and start from scratch. Fresh smart building with AI.

“I’m bored.”

“Already? Maybe you should try relaxing.” Bucky pats the cloth-wood pile, a gesture to incite sitting on said pile. Probably not an invite to fix or build a new couch. Or to set it on fire. He probably even attached to the pile. Tony had his couch since the MIT days.

Clearly, the only option is to lay on the floor in a starfish pattern. Staring at the ceiling Tony notices, even more, water damage. That and the feel of Bucky laying on the floor next to him. Rhodey used to that too.

“Try breathing.”

“Breathing and me, we’re no good. Maybe I started it with all the smoking but they're a dick now.”

Strange wheezing noise emits from Bucky. “Sure. What do you usually do then?”

Drugs, sex, and throwing away money have always been a bit of a lie. Fun sometimes but mostly a great excuses for self-pity. Programming and robots were his first pick when stressed for as long as he can remember. But it also work. You are not supposed to work on vacation.

“Work.”

“What about a hobby?”

“Work that benefits my friends.”

“How about something that benefits you?”

Flying. Once. “I don’t know.”

“Stevie has art.”

Aunt Peggy’s stories often came with illustrations. Pages and pages and pages of singed, dirty, stained, ink smeared and torn paper. Doodles of monkeys dancing on stages. Cartoon shorts of the Howling Commandos. Cute colored images of Aunt Peggy with a gun or punching a Nazi. Jokes about this Hydra base or the other. Tony used to relate to those colors.

“I am aware.”

“Sure. Sure. I like to dance.”

Ripped tutus scattered on the floor and a broken nose from being shoved too hard into a wall. “Stark men don’t dance.”

“Okay, Stark.”

“Don’t call me that.” Tony sits up. He can’t stand the floor. Too cold. Too hard. Losing his breath and his heart pounds too loud against his chest. Louder than thunder. Louder than a bomb. Louder than someone pounding the ivory keys of a grand piano.

“Sorry. Tony.” Bucky sitting up too. Wearing the same face his going to wearing that freezing bunker. “So I need a new job.”

“Something to occupy the hands and the mind are always good.”

“Sure. Sure. You could help. Sightsee New York while we’re at it.”

Well, can’t say Tony has ever seen 1940’s, New York. Considering he wasn’t born yet. Didn’t see much of New York at all when got shipped off to boarding school either.

“Sightseeing is a vacation thing.”

“A classic vacation thing.”

“Alright, James. Let’s find you a job.”

“James.”

“Well, I can’t right call you Bucky or Buck now can I?”

“Whatever you say, Tony.”

[spacecadetayayron]

Not gonna lie, it's been a rough month for me. Probably the hardest month on my life. I went through finals not knowing if I was going to pass my classes or not. Never in my life have I been that afraid to fail a class, and I don't think I've ever been closer. But once my toughest week finals was done I had a sense of relief. Pass or fail it was over, but my troubles had only began. I came home to find out that my dog Pelé, that I've raised since his birth had fell really ill while I was taking finals. My parents were smart enough not to tell me until I got home. He's been my best friend since I was 9 years old, and to see him being weak and barely able to stand hit me hard. He was in such sad shape, my mom and I had to hand feed him food, otherwise he wouldn't eat. We found out later that he had two types of anemia. One where his bones did not produce enough red blood cells and another where his immune system attacked his red blood cells. When we brought home to the animal hospital he was nearly dead. His red blood cell count was at 6% when it should be anywhere between 30% and 50%. If we had taken him a day later he wouldn't of made it. After a blood transfusion, a diagnosis, and a prescription of a shit ton of pills (all of which costed $1500) he was nearly back to his old self. Even though he was looking better I knew that he didn't have too much time left. I thought he would pass after I left back for school. Now before I complete Pelé's story lets talk about what happened the day after I got back home. I woke up that morning and everything was totally normal when my mom received a call. It was really quiet for a second and then I heard a very panicked "oh shit". Turns out my grandmother of 88 years old fell and broke her hip. Now for someone who is in their early twenties or teens like I assume most people reading this are, a broken hip isn't a huge deal. Yeah it hurts like hell, but we will make it no problem. When you get to your elder years you become more susceptible to things like infection, and you heal a LOT slower. These were things I didn't think about at the time. When my dad was leaving to check on his mother being transported to the hospital, I saw him cry...like way more than I've seen him do in a long ass time. My mom told me right afterwards that his grandmother died from an infection that was made possible by her breaking her hip. Note that great grandma died after I was born, and 90s medical knowledge was definitely capable of treating such a thing. But when you are 93 there is only so much you can do. It then dawned on me that my grandmother was in a lot of danger. After a surgery and some PT she got sent home where she is today. We are just hoping to God that she doesn't fall again, but knowing her and how stubborn she is, she probably will from not using her walker that the Physical Trainer fucking taught her to do. I just don't know if she can make it through another one. Now note that all that went on at the same time that Pelé was having issues and it happened around this holiday season. I love this time of year but it's hard to be jolly when you don't know if the the people you love will live to see Christmas or New Years. I was really afraid of the holidays being a downer for me for the rest of my life. The one time of year where I can relax and enjoy the people around me crowded by thoughts of loss and death. Thankfully that didn't entirely happen. After the visit to the vet Pelé started to improve. He had more energy and he was actually eating on his own! He still wasn't completely himself, but it was much better than how he was before. A week after the initial visit to the doggy hospital we went to have more blood work done to see if his medicine was working. It turned out that it had been working quite well. He still wasn't at optimal with his scores, but he was improving a lot. Not even a week later Pelé started to act weird. He acted like he hurt his leg. It was like he couldn't use it to walk. We thought it might of be sore from the vet drawing blood from him so we didn't think too much of it. On the day after New Years I woke up with my mom laying on the couch beside Pelé. This wasn't weird because the medicine he was taking caused him to use the bathroom a lot so my mom would sleep beside him to let him out every few hours. She told me that he wasn't eating much of all and I noticed that he didn't even try to look up at me. I had to bring my self to his level for him to do so. I left that morning to my GF's house hoping that he would improve. Not even 2 hours later my mom calls Cameryn (my GF) crying on the phone. Pelé had suffered a really harsh seizure and wasn't hardly responding to anything. She told Cam to drive me to the vets office where we would meet them. She called Cam because she knew that I was going to drive like hellfire to get to him if she called me. On the way to the vet with tears in my eyes and a hyperventilating voice I told Cameryn "this is it...I'm losing my dog today". My mom and my neighbor TK got to the vet same time me and Cam did. TK is a good friend of ours and he had to lift up Pelé because my mom just couldn't do it. When we got out of our cars my mom and I walked towards each other, and I have never seen her face so red. I could tell she had been crying hard since it happened. I asked her if he was always gone and he wasn't. TK went to grab him and I couldn't hardly watch. I never wanted to see Pelé like that, but I had to be there for him. We brought him in and he wasn't moving. He was breathing and his eyes were open but he wasn't moving. My mom and I were wrecks. My mom was trying to tell doctor Allen what happened and she barely got though it. Not long after we had been there he started to seize again. All of us took a hand in holding him still while he was being given a sedative to knock him unconscious so that he wouldn't seize. The entire time his body was uncontrollably shaking I was losing it. I didn't hold back my emotions. I was watching my best friend die in my arms in one of the ugliest ways possible. The table was covered in piss, drool, fur, and blood and so were my sleeves minus the blood. He seized one more time before my dad showed up. He drove an hour and a half from my grandparents place to our hometown. He was with them to get them reacquainted with home. After the 3rd seizure Dr. Allen gave him s really strong sedative that knocked him out quick. When dad showed up Pelé was asleep, but not even a minute after him arriving Pelé seized again. Note that I don't see my dad cry very often let alone ugly cry, but he did right there in that vet office on that foggy and rainy day. Allen explained to us that it was a neurological infection on the brain that was causing the seizures. It makes sense that an infection grew, because Pelé's meds caused his immune system to be less effective. It had to in order for him to fight the anemia. Pelé was dealt one of the shittiest hands as far as physical health goes. He was being attacked on three fronts. We had the option to try using strong antibiotics on him, but it wasn't guaranteed too work and we didn't know how much damage the infection had already done. I would say that I was a tough choice to have him pass, but there really wasn't much of a choice in the eyes of me and my parents. We couldn't stand to watch him suffer anymore. We had done all that we could do. When Pelé was being put down I wanted to stay in the room with him until the bitter end, but as soon as his body had a natural convulsion I lost my fucking mind and barged through everyone and to door to get out. I was already traumatized by the seizures, and the to have my final moments with him being him twitching and pissing everywhere made me go mad. Looking back on it I've never cried that hard in my entire life. It wasn't even loud. I could hardly breath, everything hurt, and and I wanted to vomit. TK came out and talked to me trying to calm me down. After a minute or two I mustered all that I could to go back and be with Pelé. As soon as I got to the table that he was on he completely passed. To this day it doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem real that he isn't breathing any more or in my hallway right now at 4 AM sleeping. My parents and I held each other long and hard. It was like we lost a member of the family. Our family of 4 was now a trio and it tore us up. When Dr. Allen brought the cardboard coffin into the room I told them I was going to put him in there. I wanted to truly be there from his beginning to his end. I lifted his still warm limp furry body and laid him gingerly into the box as if he were still alive. My final image of him was his body curled up as though he was cold and asleep while in that cardboard box. I rubbed his head and belly one last time and said, "goodbye old buddy. I'm gonna miss you". We carted him off back home and buried him in my parent's backyard with a circle of rocks indicating where he permanently lays. It's been almost a week and I still get teary eyed every time I look at his grave through our kitchen window. What really gets me though is the little things. Me being at home has totally changed. I don't have to watch out for him when I get up off of furniture. I don't have to fill his water or food bowl any more. His metal dog tags don't wake me up in the middle of the night. I don't hear his claws scratch against the hardwood floor. But what gets me the most is that I won't see that happy black and white face through our glass door to greet me when I come home. I will never see that dopey smile ever again and I am losing it typing that thought out right now. The morning after he died I found my mother laying on the couch red faced again but asleep and covered in a tiny blanket. Her and I cried a lot that day. And the next day. Even my dad is taking it just as hard as us. He gets hit hard by the door greeting thing too. I've never seen my parents hysterically sad before, and i never thought it would be over a dog. Now looking on it though, Pelé was like another child to them. After I left for college that's all they had. For 4 years he was it. He was their kid... Death is an ugly fucking thing, and you don't know how it will be ugly when someone you know goes, but what out shines the ugliness is the beauty of life. It's hard not to think of my last moments with Pelé. The images haunt me everyday, but I have to look at the beautiful life he live with me and my parents. I have to remember that we gave him a great life and in turn he vastly improved mine. He help me though a lot of hard times. I just wish he was here to do so one last time. He truly was my best friend.