#cleanest he’s been was volume 1

[gas-station-chai]

Rosa and Jerry on a phone looking up a pic of a rat king. They lower the phone to see Jack behind the register and start comparing it to his hair

[repining-seamonster]

Forgot What It Feels Like 1/3

SoundStar Transformers (a mix of G1/IDW/whatever else) Rating: teen+

Chapter One: Something Like Luck

     The first time Soundwave saw him was in dirty alleyway in Kaon in the dead of night. He was being thrown out the back door of a busy bar by two mechs twice his bulk, both of them scowling nastily; but they weren’t simply tossing out an unruly drunk.

     Soundwave has been watching the streets from the shadows of the alley, senses carefully opened just a fraction to get a feel for the mechs shambling by, searching, when the door had slammed out with a sudden cacophony of noise from inside.

     They didn’t notice him, too busy trying to wrangle a mech who was kicking them viciously and swiping at them with sharply pointed digits. Curses spewing from his intake, calling them all manner of creative insults so colorful that Soundwave couldn’t help but stare. Though their frame mass was larger by far, even the two of them seemed to struggle tossing the mech to the ground.

     He was very clearly over-charged. Despite this, he was doing an impressive job at clinging to their kibble whilst simultaneously trying to inflict as much damage as he could.

     With a final shout of,  “Don’t you fragging dare–!”, one of the mechs managed to pry him off the other with a screech of metal and throw him bodily against the wall of the adjacent building. Where his helm cracked against the weathered metal with a reverberating clang and he finally slumped, unmoving.

     Soundwave waited until the bar’s bouncers went back inside, sporting numerous scratches and dents, and the door slammed shut again. Relative quiet returned to the alley immediately.

     No one from the street even glanced over during the whole scene, no one caring to notice the mech except for him. And the first thing he noticed were wings.

     It was, after all, the entire reason he was out here.

     The second thing he took in, as he slowly and quietly approached, was exactly how out of place this mech looked. Flight frames weren’t terribly common in Kaon, a  seeker  even less so; and if that wasn’t enough, he was undoubtedly the cleanest mech in the city. Even slouched in a filthy back alley.

     The view in Kaon was dull, it’s populace included. This seeker, however, looked polished and bright. From sky-blue servos and thrusters, to his red and white bodywork. Not even the sickly yellow lighting from the street could make him look dull. 

     Though it might if he stayed for too long. There was no doubt in Soundwave’s mind that this mech was from somewhere else. Somewhere with well-kept infrastructure and easy access both basic needs and luxuries alike.

     What he was doing slag-faced in a decrepit bar in central Kaon, was a complete mystery. For now.

     He kneeled next to the unmoving frame, placing a careful hand on his helm and gingerly tilting it back to see if the mech was still functioning or if the blow had knocked his processor loose.

      In hindsight, after what he’d just witnessed, he should have taken more care to be cautious. For, while he prided himself on having a well-tuned reaction time, he barely managed to catch the servo of sharp digits as they struck out quickly for his neck cables.

     He was far more prepared for the second attempt with the other servo, and soon found himself being stared down by a pair of fiercely bright optics; holding both servos in a firm grip. He struggled, of course, Soundwave would have been more surprised had he not.

     Over-charged and still dizzy from the blow, the mech could only growl in frustration at first. Not seeming to remember how to work his glossa again quite yet. So Soundwave spoke first.

     “Cease.” He kept his tone flat, volume even, trying to convey in a single word that the seeker had nothing to fight him over. “Intention: not to harm.”

     “Like sla-a-a-a-ag, creep!”

     His voice box glitched profoundly. Though Soundwave made no comment on it, he felt a wash of humiliation trickle through the mech’s field. His expression morphed into something complicated,  a look of horror twisting into an indignant scowl.

     Soundwave had to in-vent deeply to keep himself centered, not letting the mech’s over-charged emotions overwhelm him.

     “Suggestion: reboot voice box.” This time, he even softened his tone, trying to convey an air of peace, hoping it would somewhat soothe the incensed seeker. “Intention: not to harm, true.”

     The seeker was still glaring at him, still trying to pull from his grasp. But Soundwave recognized the soft shutter and click of the reboot. He was hesitant, but this mech was clearly what Megatron would refer to as “scrappy”. He needed a way to calm him.

     It went against Soundwave’s better judgment, but he was lacking in options. So he looked the mech in his vibrant optics and gently reached out with his own field. Brushing it oh-so-carefully against the prickly field of the other, projecting his sincere will to simply help, not harm.

     The seeker’s expressional capabilities were as colorful as his insults, because his scowl vanished in a nano-second to be replaced but a stunned look of confusion.

     For a fraction of a second, his tightly guarded field shuddered, revealing a crack of unguarded emotion. Almost without meaning to, Soundwave found himself slipping through that crack.

     And what he felt on the other side wasn’t altogether unfamiliar to him. 

     There was agony in the seeker’s spark and mind. A deep hole of loss and fury swirling like a tornado born from the violent winds of a life spent being cast aside and trod on simply for being sparked as who he was.

     Soundwave wouldn’t pretend to understand the details of this mech’s unfortunate life; but he could, at the very least, empathize with his pain.

     The seeker had stopped struggling against his hold, Soundwave realized; staring at him with wide optics and a churning processor, trying to understand the strange sensation that had invaded him for just a moment.

     For an over-charged mech he was… surprisingly sharp. Had Soundwave been a less pragmatic mech, he’d almost think this meeting was fate.

     But he  was  a pragmatic mech, and he simply thanked his good fortune for finding exactly what Megatron had asked for so quickly.

     Now he need only to recruit him.

     However, Soundwave didn’t get the chance to even begin to introduce himself. For, as soon as he opened his intake, he was paused by a strange sensation himself. A tickle of electricity  growing in the air behind him, sparks of purple coalescing quickly into a crackle.

     A crackle that became a pop of spacial displacement. Again, Soundwave found himself quickly ducking to avoid the fist swinging hard for his helm.

     “Hands off!!”

     It was a moot command, Soundwave had already released the first seeker, rolling a few feet away and allowing the second seeker to overbalance himself with the force of his punch and land in his friend’s lap in a heap.

     He recovered quickly enough, turning around to raise his fists again in defense. Wings flared behind him in a clear threat display, hiding his friend from Soundwave’s view. Over-charge had him wobbling but still valiantly defiant, ready for a fight.

     Soundwave raised both servos slowly in a clear display of peace. Though he hated repeating himself to this degree, he was willing to do it once more.

     “Intention:  not  to harm.”

     To his surprise, the purple seeker snorted loudly in disbelief, voice derisive. “I know what your  intentions  are, fragger. You’ll get to him over over my deactivated frame!”

     Behind the furious seeker, Soundwave heard a faint (but pleased?) utterance of: “Skywarp...”

     “Negative.” Soundwave shook his helm, taking another deep in-vent. He’d had no idea seekers had such chaotically overwhelming E.M. fields. “Intention: to assist only.”

     Despite his protests, this  Skywarp  still growled threateningly, looking ready throw-down regardless of Soundwave’s intentions. Pointlessly protective of a mech who had been in no danger from him to begin with.

     From behind him, Soundwave could hear the other seeker pushing up from the ground.

     “Skywarp,” he said again, and the purple seeker’s wings lowered a fraction. Not his fists though. And though he didn’t take his optics off of Soundwave, Skywarp tilted his helm enough to ask his friend, “He hurt you?”

     “As if he could.”

     A blue hand appeared under a purple wing, touching Skywarp’s waist gently. Red optics peered out at Soundwave from over the top edge of that same wing, sharp and contemplative. Portraying no pain in regards to the blow his helm had received. 

     “I do believe he wants something, though.”

     “A broken intake?” Skywarp quipped, making that sharp gaze shine with amusement.

     “Why don’t we ask him?”

      “Negative.”

     Soundwave tried to shake off the feeling that he was losing control of the situation. Despite that, he couldn’t help feeling doubly fortunate.  Two  seekers in Kaon, he almost couldn’t believe his luck.

     Charged up and confrontational aside, they were everything Megatron had asked for and  then some  . Everything the Decepticons needed right now. He  needed  to do this right.

     “What do you want, creep?” Skywarp asked, stubbornly keeping his defensive position.

     Over his wing, the other seeker watched him closely.

     There was something about the edge in his gaze that gave Soundwave the impression the  he  was the one to appeal to. “Intention: to assist. To… talk.”

     “Whatever about?”

     “Justice–”

     Skywarp made a constipated face of confusion. “Justice?”

     “--and equality.”

     “Politics?” His voice drawled the word with all the contempt of a privileged mecha, but his unrelenting gaze did not match his tone. Soundwave knew he was being measured silently by the other, knew that he’d taken notice of the insignia Soundwave wore proudly on his chest.

     “Orrr, perhaps you’re referring to… something else?”

     “Affirmative. Query.”

     “Go on.”

     “Reason for being in Kaon?”

     It was hardly a sight-seeing city, especially on the cusp of revolution.

     They were both silent a moment. Despite not communicating in a way Soundwave could hear, he could feel that they were conferring with one another through other means.

     Not a comm link, but something more. 

     Eventually, Skywarp answered. “We’re here for the fights.”

     “Query: the gladiatorial arena?”

     “Yeah, the pits or whatever. Whatsit to you?”

     Skywarp was the one talking, but Soundwave was certain the other was calling the shots. So he addressed him.

     “Query: true reason for visiting the gladiatorial arena?”

     “You got a rock for a processor? I just told you–”

     “Reason: not to view the fights.”

     Skywarp’s faceplates went nearly as purple as his armor, but before he could he could attempt to lay into Soundwave, the servo on his waist snaked around into a firmer hold as the other seeker stepped closer.

     The tone of his voice was… carefully nonchalant.

     “Whatever other reason would there be?”

     “And whatsit to you?”  Skywarp repeated himself forcefully.

     Without breaking the seeker’s gaze, Soundwave laid a servo over his own chest. “Designation: Soundwave. Purpose: seeking capable warriors.”

     “This is your coliseum’s idea of a recruitment tactic?" The seeker behind finally sauntered around to stand in front of his friend, frame shorter by a matter of inches.

     Skywarp dropped his fists at last, but instead wrapped protective arms around his friend's shoulders and waist, watching Soundwave for any funny business. Their positions effectively switched.

     "Unless…" Those sharp optics traced his insignia purposefully, tips of his wings flicking minutely against Skywarp’s chest. "Unless it isn't the coliseum you work for,  Soundwave."

     The way he let Soundwave’s designation roll off of his glossa was not a way most mecha addressed him. He was accustomed to being either disregarded or somewhat feared.

     He wasn’t sure he’d ever  heard anyone murmur it in the low, playful tone the seeker in front of him was using. 

     "Affirmative."

     The seeker looked smug, though Soundwave couldn’t fathom why. He was also more than happy to keep talking, however.

     “I’ve heard… rumors. Chitters on the wind telling me of some ambitious  freedom fighters out here in this Primus-forsaken, backwater town who’ve been stirring up quite a fair bit of excitement. Making things, dare I say,  difficult  for a certain functionalist tyrant?”

     Had Soundwave not witnessed it himself, he’d never know this mech had just taken such a hard blow to the back of the helm. He shifted in Skywarp’s arms with a sultry smile, sharp optics still bright and calculating.

     The way he spoke was somehow flippant and careful simultaneously. Everything about the seeker oozed confidence, control,  contradiction . 

     He placed a blue servo over the black one on his waist, tilting his helm to hum, “now what were they calling themselves again, Skywarp?”

     “Deadicons?”

     “Decepticons,” Soundwave corrected, never taking his optics off of the shorter of the two, who hummed thoughtfully.

     “No, I rather think Skywarp is on to something. Only mechs with a wish for a swift deactivation would dare cross the  might  of Sentinel Prime. Judging by the state of this pit of a city, I’m starting to think they may be nothing more than a band of thugs fated to be rounded up and eradicated in a public display of what happens when the will of a Prime is disobeyed.”

     Skywarp snickered and Soundwave could tell what was happening. This seeker clearly already had an interest, which did half of Soundwave’s job for him, but he was fishing for more. It was reasonable. No sensible mech would throw themselves into a revolution without knowing the strength of the side they were choosing to fight for.

     “Negative,” he repeated. “Decepticons are growing in number, and in strength.”

     “Is that why you’re lurking in back alleys for over-charged recruits?”

     “Soundwave: searching for capable flight frames to expand our capabilities.”

     Red eyes widened. “Ohoho, flight frames, hm?”

     “Affirmative.”

     “Let me guess, your hapless leader is looking for a new advantage in combat over the Prime and sent you out to find someone who can fill that gap, hm?”

     “Affirmative.”

     “Well then,” he waved a servo magnanimously, making himself ever more comfortable in the hold of Skywarp, whom Soundwave was beginning to suspect was more than simply a friend.

     Both of them were eyeing him expectantly, their fields mingling and pushing against Soundwave’s own with practiced intimidation. 

     He in-vented to center himself once more. They were waiting for him to win them over. Not for the first time, Soundwave wished he was as gifted in oral diction as Megatron was. He could appeal to the common rabble, but the mechs before him were clearly anything but.

     “Query.”

     “Yes?”

     “Designation?”

     The seeker looked surprised, lips quirking up into half of a smirk.

     “My  designation?”

     “Affirmative.”

     “You mean my reputation hasn’t proceeded me in this dirtball town?” He pouted playfully, despite Soundwave’s immunity to whatever manipulative flirting he was trying to engage in. “Clearly no one here has taste.”

     “Or half a processor,” Skywarp chimed in.

     “I suppose I’ll just have to make an impression, then. Starting now.” 

     Skywarp loosened his hold, allowing the other seeker to take a single step forward and stand tall, wings held proudly high.

     “Senator Starscream of Vos. The handsome seeker behind me is Skywarp, a member of my trine.”

     Soundwave didn’t react the way Starscream had been expecting, clearly.

     He hardly reacted at all to the news that he was standing in the presence of the senator of the great city-state known for turning out the best flyers on Cybertron. Not on the outside. And Starscream’s smirk fell into a displeased frown.

     For his part, Soundwave was thinking quickly, taking in the realization that a senator was taking an interest in their side of the revolution. A senator from a city-state in good standing with Iacon was there in Kaon, looking  with interest  for the rebels responsible for upsetting the status quo.

     This… this could change everything. Megatron needed to know.

     The annoyed flick of wings brought Soundwave from his thoughts, not that he cared if the seeker was annoyed. But he  did  care to arrange an introduction.

     Before he could form the words, the universe insisted on derailing him just one more time. Their collective attention was drawn to the sudden heavy footfalls of someone quickly approaching from the street, before a larger frame came skidding into the mouth of the alley.

     A  third  seeker, breathless and blue; taller than the other two with wings wide enough to block out the yellow light of the street beyond him. His pale faceplates held a look of panic.

     “What happened?? You both just disappeared!”

     Skywarp, for his part, looked unrepentant; answering simply. “Star picked a fight with the bouncer and got tossed out on his aft.”

     “Excellent timing, Thundercracker,” Starscream interjected with a smile that spelled trouble. “This grounder we found lurking in the alley is looking for flight frames, and I do believe he was just about to  proposition  us.”

     At first, Soundwave saw little issue with the manner in which Starscream stated this; until the words sank into Thundercracker’s processor and his panicked look flipped to protective fury. Aimed  directly  at Soundwave.

     There was already a processor ache budding in behind his optics, and Soundwave wondered. He really and truly wondered if his luck at finding what Megatron had tasked of him in  threefold  was truly luck at all.

     The sadistically amused expression on Starscream’s face as their larger friend wedged himself firmly between Soundwave and the seekers sank an odd feeling into his tanks. A feeling he’d not had since he’d agreed to work under the servo of the likes of Ratbat.

     Maybe, just maybe, this was a decision he’d come to regret.

[witchhazelevesque]

the side missing from the circle (pt 1)

He was fine playing along with the punch line. It reminds him of his abusive foster mother Teresa, and the one psychology class he took where they talked about what love bombing is, because many of the campers have been pairing punches with hugs and cheek kisses.

He was fine to smile through it, because obviously, this wasn't a situation where he could reason his way out. They aren't in the mood to listen to his explanations, and the quickest way out, the cleanest way out is to pretend that he finds it funny too.

And he was fine with that. He was fine with helping Apollo figure out his next steps and getting out of camp, because most of the people he wanted to see weren't even here. It was good to see Percy and Buford and his siblings, but he has to find the rest of his family, Jason and Piper, Hazel and Frank. So, he was perfectly content to just smile and then leave.

But then one of the kids takes his turn hitting him and then… goes to get back in line. Leo jokingly complains about this, because he's good at turning grievances into jokes. He thinks maybe Nico and all his organizational skills and take no bullshit attitude that's kept the line running so smoothly this far would do something about this breach of conduct, but no, he doesn't.

Across the picnic table from him, Apollo asks, "Do you even know Damien?"

Leo shakes his head with an exaggerated expression of 'can you believe this guy?’

Apollo, ever polite, says, "Damien White, son of Nemesis. I think he showed up this fall."

Oh, he showed up at camp after the Argo II had sailed.

Leo jumps up from the table and catches Damien before he can reach the end of the line. He lightly places a hand on Damien's shoulder to get his attention and when he turns around Leo stands on his toes to whisper something in his ear. Leo's hands cup Damien's ear, so no one can see what he's saying, but the expression on Damien's face speaks volumes. His smile stiffens then drops and he turns pale, his eyes wide and unfocused.

When Leo's finished with whatever it is he had to say, he rests back on his heels, looking up at the other boy with a smile that looks completely benign, playful and lighthearted. Damien just turns his head to look at him with those wide eyes then pushes through the crowd to leave the central green.

Everyone has been watching, the humorous, edgy mood bleeding into discomfort and unease. It only gets worse when Leo just watches Damien go without a change of expression. Then turns back to the rest of the assembled campers and seeing that most have stepped out of line, he asks, "So, who was next?"

His smile looks more like the kind he used to have when doing something wild, the kind that unnerves people and prickles at their latent danger instinct.

The rest of the campers exchange looks with each other, the mood completely gone, and kind of mutter about how they're glad he's okay and that he's a real jerk for doing that to them, but they all disperse.

Leo turns his smile to Nico then, still standing there holding the number dispenser. He doesn't look cowed, just annoyed and suspicious.

"What did you say to Damien?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Leo says, as he passes by on his way back to the picnic table.

Nico's not going to admit it, but yeah, Leo's right.

Pt 2

[weirdcat1213]

volume 12 already? damn that went fast. just yesterday we were crying about vash drinking in a church

anyway :D volume 12 thoughts time

chap 1:

-chronicaaaaaaaaa :3

-AW NO MY BABY

-these quiet panels are the fucking best/worst thing that have ever happened to me

-too many memories :c

-YES LINA IS THERE THANK GOD (at the same time this is heartbreaking as fuck)

-all the enemies after all the people he has ever loved/helped

-HIS MOM AND HIS BF

-THATS IT THATS THE ONE THATS THE PANEL OH GOD WE ARE *HERE*

-im gonna go cry now

-i wonder what "anti plant" entails...is it a special material?

-ok fine, chronica can call knives a terrorist. she gets a pass

-oh sweet geesus

-eh?

-oohhhhhh.....ok fuck

-nothing can stop the hatred of this man. kinda admirable but as the song says "your misery and hate will kill us all"

chap 2:

-"corrosive thunder", love the title

-OH SHIT DOMINA NO, pls dont let him get to you

-DOMINA NOOOOOO

-the plants kinda look in pain there....

-MY GIRLSSSSSSSSSS

-for pain purposes, i choose to believe that when they resonate they hum like vash did in stampede

-aaand shes gone

-oh god, the end of evangelion flashbacks

-OH NIGHTOW YOU SON OF A BISCUIT- THOSE EYES IN THE BACKGROUND-

-tbh everything in your ship just being consumed by someone else so quickly must be scary af. nothing belongs to them anymore and soon, chronica could even loose herself

chap 3:

-oh shit oh fuck oh shit

-oh shit not thors hammer

-omg look! the laws of physics!

-noooo :c we dont get to know domina too much but its still sad

-OH?

-MAGIC BULLETS TIME BABYYYYYYYYYYY

-ohhhhhhh okok i get it

chap 4:

-THATS MY BOIIIIIIIIIII

-AH SHIT IVE JUST NOTICED THE HAIR

-ALSO PLS DONT SMILE LIKE THAT-

-childish is a good word for it cuz knives just doesnt want to accept hes wrong and scared

-THE POWER OF LOVE AND PEACE BITCH

-is vash pausing cuz even though his plan was to kill knives hes kinda sad that knives wants to kill him? i may never know

-let him use his fucking gun ok? hes an expert. also i like to think he uses it to stay grounded. like to stay with the people hes fighting with. hes not superior or anything

-TO YOUR KNEES BITCH TO YOUR FUCKING KNEES

-THATS MY FUCKING GUNMAN THATS MY SON RIGHT THERE

chap 5:

-FLASHBACK TIME LETS GO

-omg right it hated this. hes just a baby :c

-so vash left with a stranger? i forgot about that

-honey just be glad YOU ARE ALIVE

-BECAUSE HES VASH THE STAMPEDE- i should rewatch that episode huh

-GEESUS BRO

-tbh vash, you should have. then and now

-YEAH TELL HIM VASH >:D YOU ARENT NAIVE

-tbh i would also think thats enough to break the chain. hmm

-"stay with me" vash pls i cant jump into the void rn

-GEESUS CHRIST, the cleanest cut in the west

-also you think vash made that face cuz the last time he made someone bleed was rem-

-THE CLOSEUP TO THE MOUTHS AHHHHHHHHHHH

-"we dont belong in the future of this planet" dont fucking say that

chap 6:

-actually wanting to humans to talk with plants is a great step for improving their relationship but sure knives, whatever

-THATS SO TRUE VASH LETS GO, LET THE PLANTS HAVE A SAY IN IT

-ive said this before but as someone who was mocked by wanting context before judging people, vash is so...reassuring. like it wasnt wrong of me to want to know all the sides of one story. im glad

-also i completely forgot about that town and radiation. how tf radiation happens in that planet, what am i missing

-oh nvm, thanks nightow

-HES NOT EXCUSING, HES EXPLAINING OMFG YOU IDIOT

-YEAH FUCKING TELL HIM >:D POP OFF VASH >:D

-WHY IS IT THEN? HUH KNIVES?- oh shit what

-yknow what, ill give knives the fact that humans are ignorant and we are repeating history etc etc, but im done. finish him vash

-for some reason this reminds me to that scene with the soldiers in ep 12. my man really cant catch a break

-YEAH THE GIRLSSSSSSSSSSSS :D

-"you've been abandoned" maybe by some but not by everyone. and thats the whole point

-YEAH YOU ARENT BABY ILY

-HOLD UP IS THAT HER FACE?????

-awww :c

chap 7:

-IS IT LIVIO TIME????

-YO WTF, WHO SHOT MY GIRL

-ofc the military would be like this

-i literally cant say whos bleeding

-ah fuck ok

-ugh no...pls dont tell me hes fucking bleeding through his eyes...pls dont (if i see stampede vash bleeding like that i will eat my pc piece by piece)

-chronica :c

-LIVIOOOOOOOOO :0

-OMG YES, YES, IM SO HAPPY. quoting 98 "and i know in my heart he would have done the same"

-MR. VASH, MR. LIVIO AWWW :3

-OH HES SPINNING THOSE FUCKERS :D

-oh well thats not fair, hes too cool

-wait why is knives not wanting to kill vash bad?

chap 8:

-considering the blockers chronica has, entering a fused entity must be scary but also exciting

-ngl i dont get the spikes on the screen thing

-geesus

-WTF YOU DID TO HIM???

-wait no i want to see whats happening with vash- and its livio time

-oh hes alive thank god (this is my 2nd read why am i surprised)

-OH NO ITS THAT MOMENT OH NNONONONO STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME

-i hate seeing his eyes like that if im being honest, its scary

-ESO MAMONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GET UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP

-LIVIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-OH SHIT its my wife

-OH WAIT MY OTHER WIFE IS HERE TOO

-VASH WHY ARE YOU MAKING THAT FACE

-OH GOD NOT LEGATO AND THE RUSSIAN DOLL

-CAN SHIT STOP HAPPENING FOR A MINUTE

-THERES TOO MANY PEOPLE HERE CAN YALL CALM THE FUCK DOWN

chap 9:

-omg its the legato episode

-what is happening, what am i looking at

-oh oh shit

-RIGHT IN HIS MF EYE

-what is happening?

-ok flashback time

-yeap. its that time. shit

-geesus fucking christ. tbh ofc legato would think knives is right. there was nothing to prove him wrong

-yeap. i would do the same actually. stomp on his head

-oh honey...honey thats gay-

-is that why he has short hair...cuz knives gave him a name AND A HAIR STYLE??

-damn son

-also i may be wrong but where do people get the idea he inserted metal in his own brain to have those powers?/gen

[paperweight-jellyfish]

going to tryand do a weekly journal type thing for 2024. i forget a lot of stuff so this is my new years resolution ok here we go

1/7/24

been cleaning out my bedroom at my parents house over break. lots of old stuff there i’d forgotten about. found a bunch of old sketchbooks (which i sorted by year and put away) and it really put in perspective how long i’ve been drawing. i’ve got sketchbooks from before i had a tumblr in that pile (making them impossible to get an exact year on) kinda want to go back and redraw some realllly old stuff of mine. maybe something of eggs since i’ve been working on her story lately.

also in the Cleaning i have found a crochet project i completely forgot about. i made like 60% of a sweater two years ago (i hand dyed the wool and everything). luckily i still had the pattern downloaded so i just yesterday finished the arms. now all i gotta do is block it and add the ribbing and i’m done. its a nice wool, one that is actually cozy rather than being itchy so i’m excited.

done some mending also. fixed some rips in my dad’s pants with some sashiko. not my cleanest work but it holds it together and fixes the problem. he was really excited about it :)

got in the case for a keyboard i’m building. my first custom keyboard!! the switches are pre-lubed so i’m debating if i want to get some and re-do it or if i’m satisfied as is.

i’ve started recording cassettes!!! its super easy to do right from my laptop and i’ve been having lots of fun making the j cards. very happy that i bought that recorder its so cool. so far i’ve done some The Unicorns stuff and i plan on doing Burnout Beautiful next. probably the demos on the a side and the one live performance recording on youtube on the b side (maybe after that i should do mook?)

in that vein, i’ve also been editing lyrics on genius. i needed lyrics to put on the little insert i made but some lyrics are wrong and now i’ve made it a mission to transcribe. made it to 300 IQ this week. transcribing is fun if hard.

started a stardew valley co-op farm with gort. we played for like 5 hours straight yesterday and got almost all the way through spring. sal is making our farm so cute and its so nice to hang out and just work together. need to make this a regular thing. overall not a super eventful week but a nice one. very chill.

some goals for next weekish

block the sweater

try on all the clothes in my bedroom and decide what can stay and what can be donated

start the drawing my boyfriends commissioning me for

set up my capture card so i can stream ghost trick to gort

pick out an eggs drawing from my old sketchbooks to redraw

record burnout beautiful to cassette

start crossposting things from twitter. i refuse to abandon this blog even if my brain is awful at remembering to post

songofthe week

pics below cut because this is long enough as it is

>eggs (from one of said sketchbooks)

> sweater (pre-finishing off the arms)

> mending on my dads jeans (ft. the INCREDIBLE scissors he got me for christmas. holy shit these things feels so good to cut with)

> bespoke the unicorns cassette (it says volume 1 because i put multiple albums on there so i dont waste tape)

> stardew valley fun (i’m the one in the straw hat)

> the keyboardddddd (i'm typing on it right now and WOW i love this thing already)

[wheresmypencil]

Quick Q&A

I received a couple of art related questions on my Instagram, I thought I would share my answers with everyone in here so I don’t repeat myself so much!

Alright ! So I won't go too deep into details, not because I don't want to share but unfortunately I can't dedicate too much time to replying to every single question I get (I wish I could). Your questions have probably been already asked many times and there are countless amazing Art Resources available on the internet nowadays, so keep googling things, exploring Youtube and blogs ! I’m also personally a big fan of paid streaming services such as New Masters Academy (personal favorite), Skillshare, Schoolism,  Udemy, Pluralsigh or other educational content such as Creature Art Teacher , Gumroad, Patreon, Pinterest ...and much more, these are all so worth it. I would always recommend on putting your money into these affordable art education resources rather than expensive art supplies...but that’s just me!

Anyways, for the specific questions, and from my own experience that's what I can say to help out a bit.

1. How to draw so clean? One word : practise! Again, and again and again. Pen confidence is something that you will build over years of daily practise, picking up the pen when you can and just keep drawing. Something that really helped me was to do warm-up line exercises every morning before starting to actually draw. I've been doing these a lot, until this day, I have accumulated over several pounds/kg of line practise copy paper sheets. I used to keep them but I started throwing them away recently as there were just too many. I still keep doing these regulary. I suggest having a peek at Peter Han free lesson video from Dynamic Sketching on Youtube where he explains how to do these. In my case it consists of drawing a lot of straight lines in multiple direction, circles, ellipses, curves and  cubes to strenghten my sense of perspective. See some examples from my Instagram stories :

Aside from that, I don't usually sketch in a very clean way, I'm actually a very messy and clumsy person, but i'm trying to control myself a bit ! I noticed that the more I was confident with my subject, the cleanest my lines and drawing would be (less erasing, fiddling around, scratchy/hairy lines etc...), so go study your subject!

2. Do you have highlighting tips?  I don't think I'm very advanced on this topic, I think if you want to be accurate with your light in general you have to make sure you understand the volumes of your subject. Try to be coherent with your light source (ie : the highlights in your character's eyes/nose/mouth are placed on the same side of the face). Also having a darker area behind your highlight will add contrast and make it pop out more, so I would say don't be afraid to go dark with eyes/noses/lips before adding that little shiny sparkle.

3. How to find and Art Style? I feel like this topic has been covered countlessly through videos, tutorials and podcasts but here's how I would approach it. Like many artists, I'm actually unable to point my own art style or to know if I even have one, so I guess that's a pretty subjective thing. I would say, according to what I've heard so far, don't try to look for it, or at least in the very beginning of your art journey. I highly recommend learning some fundamentals of drawing before anything else, even if you're aiming for a very loose, expressive, cartoony or anime style in the end. This will help tremendously and get rid of a lot of frustrations, trust me I've been there. Until recently, I couldn't undersand why I was so bad at drawing faces in any kind of style. Guess what, it was just a matter of nailing the basics of perspective and understanding the volumes, which are covered by the fundamentals. I would also recommend to do studies and copies of all your favorite artists (don't claim them as your own obviously), that way you art will turn into a big unique melting pot of all your art influences. I think these videos sum up this Art Style topic pretty well :  “Stop Trying to Find Your ART STYLE!!” by Kesh and “Finding your Art Style” by Mattias Plhede 

And voila, I hope this was a bit helpful for someone, I have a lot to learn myself so take everything with a grain on salt of course :)

[phroyd]

HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN—The view from the control room of the Filborna waste-to-energy plant is a dizzying one.

In a cavern ten stories below the glass-bottomed observation deck, a sea of stringy, gray and brown trash is in a state of constant settling as garbage trucks dump fresh loads into the massive pit.

A pair of giant orange cranes take turns scooping and scattering the debris, mixing it to an even moisture content before feeding it onto a slow moving metal grate that will carry it into an incinerator.

It looks like dirty business, but in Sweden this is viewed as one of the country’s great green achievements.

While waste-to-energy incinerators remain a controversial topic among U.S. environmentalists, there’s been little such debate in Sweden as the country increased its waste burning capacity over the past decade.

“I have not heard any complaints, I don’t think — ever,” said Björn Palm, head of the energy technology department at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Importing garbage for energy

Sweden now imports about 700,000 tons of garbage per year to help produce electricity and heating for cities such as Helsingborg, a historic coastal hub of about 100,000 people in southwestern Sweden.

The Filborna plant is among several new waste-to-energy facilities built in Sweden since 2002, when the country adopted a ban on putting biodegradable waste in landfills.

Unable to landfill its own waste, Helsingborg had been paying to transport its garbage to other cities’ incinerators. Meanwhile, it had an aging wood-fired power plant that was getting less economical to operate.

The city’s municipal energy utility, Öresundskraft, received unanimous support to build the waste-to-energy plant from all five political parties represented in the city’s government.

That’s a stark contrast to what it would have likely encountered in many U.S. cities, where environmentalists have blocked or delayed projects on the grounds that they may hurt recycling efforts and worsen urban air pollution.

In Minneapolis, for example, a proposed expansion of a downtown energy recovery facility has become a subject of debate in the city’s mayoral race.

Why the political differences?

“I think the Swedes are more practical,” said Carl Michaud, environmental manager for Hennepin County, which operates the Minneapolis waste-to-energy facility.

That may be part of it, but there are also bigger factors to explain why the U.S. hasn’t fully embraced waste-to-energy, namely an abundance of cheap energy and cheap land.

Sweden doesn’t sit on a wealth of fossil fuels, so it depends on importing those energy sources. As a smaller country, it also has fewer wide open spaces for stashing garbage in landfills.

The country also recognized that landfills have a major climate impact. When materials break down in landfills, they emit methane — a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon.

“When combining the resource issue along with the climate issue, it’s very easy to come to the conclusion that landfilling is very bad for the environment and for the society, because you get nothing out of it — except problems,” said Weine Wiqvist, director of Avfall Sverige, Sweden’s waste-to-energy association.

Recycling rates remain high

Today, only 1 percent of Sweden’s waste winds up in landfills. Half of it is recycled and 49 percent is burned in waste-to-energy facilities, up from 39 percent in 1999.

In Helsingborg, about 50 trucks per day pay to dump their trash at the Filborna plant, which is permitted to receive up to 160,000 tons of trash per year. The trash is burned to create steam, which turns a steam turbine to produce up to 18 megawatts of electricity. The waste heat from that process is captured and funneled into the city’s district heating system, supplying about 40 percent of the city’s heating needs.

Other byproducts include bottom ash, which is sorted for metals and then recycled as fill for road construction or other projects, and fly ash, which is toxic and deposited in a landfill certified to handle hazardous materials.

Air emissions are cleaned through a series of scrubbers and filters and come out “far under what’s actually permitted,” said Göran Skoglund, Öresundskraft’s press officer.

Öresundskraft claims the waste-to-energy plant, which began operating in late 2012, is the cleanest and most efficient of its kind in Sweden. It isn’t fundamentally different from the technology available in the United States, however.

“The same manufacturers are supplying both continents. This means that the emission levels are comparable,” said Matt Kasper, a special assistant for energy policy at the Center for American Progress.

Kasper has written about America’s largely untapped opportunity to curb greenhouse gas emissions through greater use of garbage-burning power plants. Among his report’s conclusions: it doesn’t need to hurt recycling rates.

“Waste-to-energy and recycling are compatible with one another,” Kasper said. “Countries in Europe that utilize waste-to-energy have some of the highest recycling rates in the world.”

Sweden’s 50 percent recycling rate, for example, is more than double the U.S. rate of 24 percent. Even as Sweden imports waste, demand for fuel hasn’t cut into recycling rates.

Avfall Sverige, the waste-to-energy association, projects that within a decade Sweden’s recycling rate will approach 60 percent, but it also expects the volume of waste generated to increase, too.

Skoglund isn’t worried about Filborna running out of fuel supply. In fact, he’s more worried about what that means for the planet’s future.

“This sounds strange, but I hope the fuel disappears,” Skoglund said. “That would be great for this planet. It’s not sustainable producing the amounts of garbage that we do.”

Phroyd

[orbemnews]

5 Things We Know About Flying This Summer If the start of spring break is any indication — when an average of more than a million fliers a day passed through security at U.S. airports — domestic summer travel is poised to pop. Airlines have been expanding their route networks, especially in vacation destinations, as competition for leisure travelers heats up. Leisure travelers are expected to lead the recovery as business travel continues to lag. Here are five things we know about flying this summer. The skies will be busier, the planes fuller According to the airline industry group Airlines for America, passenger volume on U.S. carriers was down 53 percent in mid-March compared to pre-Covid-19 levels, but up from the darkest days of the pandemic, when it bottomed out below 90 percent. With the soft bounce, only Delta Air Lines has continued to block middle seats through April. It would not comment on an extension. (Alaska Airlines is keeping middle seats open in its Premium Class through May 31). “My expectation is that Delta is going to get rid of the blocked middle seat policy,” said Henry Harteveldt, president of the travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, citing continuing vaccinations for building traveler confidence and competition from other airlines. “Delta realizes it will have to compete more on price than in the past.” Though the average plane in recent weeks has been about 64 percent full, summer is looking busier. The airfare app Hopper found searches for domestic travel rose nearly 60 percent for summer travel since Feb. 20, comparable to searches in Jan. 2020, before the pandemic. Helane Becker, an airline analyst at the investment bank Cowen, forecast domestic leisure travel this summer to grow to within five percent of prepandemic levels, while business and international travel will remain 80 to 90 percent off. “People are sick of this paradise prison in their homes,” Ms. Becker said. “I think we’ll see what I call a jailbreak this summer.” Higher airfares are headed into low-cost headwinds With more people traveling, airfares will go up, according to Peter Belobaba, who researches the global airline industry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But travelers can expect prices to yo-yo as airlines carefully manage seat pricing. “It’s difficult to get a cheap fare to Honolulu on a Friday, but it’s pretty easy to get a low fare to Boise on a Tuesday morning,” he said. Hopper predicts summer airfares to increase by about 12 percent in May, but to stay low, with the average domestic round-trip flight estimated to top out around $257 in midsummer, compared to about $230 now. But without business travelers who tend to spend more and fly more, airlines will lack the power to raise fares significantly. The trade organization Global Business Travel Association doesn’t expect a full business travel recovery before 2025. The expansion of low-cost carriers during the pandemic is likely to keep prices down. “Leisure low-cost carriers will be back to 2019 levels this summer, maybe even a little bit higher,” said Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst at Raymond James & Associates. Southwest Airlines plans to begin service to Myrtle Beach, S.C., this summer, one of 17 destinations it has added or announced in the pandemic, including Palm Springs, Calif., and Bozeman, Mont. Spirit Airlines is adding St. Louis, Mo., and Milwaukee. Shortly after Feb. 23, when Spirit announced it would serve Louisville, Ky., a Hopper survey found competing fares from Louisville to Las Vegas went from $330 to $225 round-trip. “By the end of the year, there will likely be six budget airlines battling for travelers,” Mr. Harteveldt said, citing two low-cost carriers, Breeze Airways and Avelo Airlines, expected to launch this year. “The more low-fare airlines, the more low-fare seats available to the public, not just on these airlines, but on carriers that compete with them.” Flexible terms will tighten, as voucher dates loosen During the pandemic, most airlines eliminated their cancellation and change fees (though Southwest never charged them), but the rules are changing for some of the cheapest fares. By April, basic economy tickets at American and Delta will become nonrefundable and nonchangeable, as they were before the pandemic. United said it hasn’t decided whether to extend the waiver on basic fares past March 31. Beginning April 1, JetBlue passengers buying the carrier’s basic fare will be subject to change and cancellation fees. Ultra-low-cost carriers are also ditching waivers. Spirit is suspending fees on tickets booked only through the end of March. After March 31, change fees at Frontier Airlines will range from zero to $59, depending on when a ticket is changed. Many travelers who had to cancel their plans since the pandemic have received vouchers for use on future flights that normally expire after a year. A study by TripActions, a business travel management company, found that 55 percent of vouchers for unused tickets will expire in 2021, and 45 percent in 2022. The fight for refunds from pandemic-related cancellations continues. This month, Consumer Reports and U.S. Public Interest Research Group sent a letter to 10 airlines demanding refunds if requested — citing the nearly 90,000 refund complaints received by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2020, representing 87 percent of all complaints about airlines — and an extension of voucher expirations to the end of 2022. While several airlines have extended the expiration dates through 2021 or 2022, it’s important to read the fine print on the form of credit issued by an airline as terms vary. “Even in extending vouchers, airlines are trying to do anything they can to engender good will among travelers, but also to try to hold onto travelers’ money,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights. Passengers will still be masking between bites Move over, Biscoff cookies. Chicken wraps and Coca-Cola are poised to make a comeback. During the pandemic, many airlines reduced or eliminated food service, but this summer, Frontier Airlines plans to resume food sales. United said it will adjust its policies in the coming weeks. Southwest plans to add soft drinks in addition to cups of water with its snacks. Delta implemented a new touchless paying system on March 16 for onboard sales, currently limited to earbuds, but expected to expand to food and drink. “This is one of the biggest gripes passengers have about flying right now,” Mr. Harteveldt said, noting that in many airports, concessions remain closed, making it hard for travelers to bring their own food on board. “If health considerations are improving to where restaurants can reopen and if industry-funded research shows airplanes are one of the cleanest and safest places to be, and you layer in vaccinations, I think airlines have no choice than to plan to resume cabin service.” Most observers say the protocols airlines put in place to make the public feel safe about flying again — especially deep cleaning and mask mandates — will continue. Airlines had mask mandates before the Biden administration’s executive order went into effect Feb. 1. Implementing the order, the Transportation Security Administration requires masks in airports and on planes until May 11. A T.S.A. spokeswoman said it was too soon to say what will happen after that date, but given airline support, masks are likely to be required going forward. “Airlines for America carriers have been requiring face-coverings for all passengers and customer-facing employees since last April, and this policy will remain in place for the duration of the pandemic,” wrote Katherine Estep, a spokeswoman for group, in an email. A recent J.D. Power survey of more than 1,500 travelers in airports found 58 percent said requiring masks was the most important safety measure for airports to adopt; 42 percent said they would likely continue mask-wearing and social distancing through 2021 and beyond. Even if you can eat in the air, don’t expect to remove the masks for prolonged periods. “Masks must be worn between bites and sips,” United says on its website. There will be easier access to the great outdoors The lack of international and business travel has scrambled the airline route map. Flights to international business destinations like London and Frankfurt were trimmed in favor of more flights to vacation destinations, particularly in Florida and Mountain States like Montana. Comparing March 2021 to March 2019, nearly all states saw declines in scheduled flights. Only traffic to South Dakota and Montana grew. Most carriers are announcing new service to leisure destinations in time for summer and in many cases are offering convenient point-to-point service, modeled on low-cost carriers, rather than routing fliers through hubs. There are new flights to Honolulu from Austin, Texas, coming in April on Hawaiian Airlines. With partners JetBlue and Alaska, American is adding 10 routes from Austin. Southwest plans to extend its original winter service to Telluride and Steamboat Springs, Colo., through the summer. JetBlue recently added Miami and Key West, Fla., and Allegiant is new to Key West, Jackson, Wyo., and Portland, Ore. While the trend may be rural, bargains remain in cities. “U.S. cities are very affordable this summer, and appear poised to make a comeback,” wrote Mel Dohmen, a spokeswoman at the online travel agency Orbitz in an email, noting flights to Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle are all cheaper this July compared to July 2019. Source link Orbem News #flying #summer

[iamanhonestmess]

When Darkness Falls, Haylijah fanfiction

Link to the story on FF in case you missed the first few chapters or want to read ahead (reviews are always appreciated); https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12125374/1/When-Darkness-Falls

Chapter 5 - Family Above All

It was a much welcome and very appreciated surprise for Hayley when Elijah pulled the car into her apartment complex parking lot. Elijah had been right when he told her that she'd like this surprise. This was officially the weirdest kidnapping/hostage situation ever, but Hayley wasn't going to complain about how it was going down. After all, Elijah had said a time or two before that it wasn't exactly a kidnapping/hostage situation where he was concerned. He was proving himself to mean it so far, or at least he was proving that he thought he was proving himself right.

"Remember that we're only here for you to pick up some of your belongings to last you until everything is sorted out," Elijah spoke up, breaking Hayley from her thoughts.

Hayley rolled her eyes as she turned to glance at him. "Okay, dad," she joked not missing the sudden flash of something in Elijah's eyes...distaste at her joke, maybe.

Before she could even think about saying something else, Elijah was out of the car with the door slamming shut behind him.

"What was that about?" Hayley asked herself as she was confused by his sudden, seemingly uncharacteristic from what she'd gathered about him so far, actions.

Pushing her current confusion and curiosity to know what was up with Elijah all of a sudden to the back of her mind, Hayley opened the door and got out of the car. A smile lit up her face as she stared at her apartment building. It had only been a few days or so since she'd last been here, but it sure felt like it had been an eternity.

"Home sweet home," Hayley whispered to herself.

"I don't suppose you have your key on you," Elijah spoke for the first time since in the car.

Hayley turned around to look in the direction of where Elijah currently was. He was standing in front of the car, looking from her to the security lock on the front door of the apartment building and then back to her. In her happiness to be home now, even if just for a little while, Hayley hadn't been thinking about the fact that the apartment building door was always locked for extra security.

Shaking her head, she answered as she shrugged her shoulders, "Nope, no key."

"How do you plan on getting in?" Elijah asked, giving her a curious expression.

Hayley laughed briefly, walking up to the front door with him trailing close behind her. "This is luckily not my first rodeo," she told him, pressing the intercom button for her neighbor's apartment.

A few moments of silence passed before her neighbor's voice came over the intercom.

"Who is it?"

"Hey, it's Hayley," she spoke into the intercom. "I forgot my key again."

"I keep telling you that you need to get a spare," her neighbor said, voice sounding partially annoyed but mostly amused.

Hayley shook her head and rolled her eyes. "And I keep telling you that I will get around to it," she replied. "Will you let me in?"

"Yeah, sure. Come on in."

At the sound of the door buzzing, Hayley backed away from the intercom and opened the door.

Turning her head and grinning at Elijah, Hayley said, "That's how."

Elijah had an amused expression on his face. "You forget your key often?"

Hayley mock glared at him. "No," she answered. "Forgetting my key is often times code for, "I'm too drunk to find my key."

Not waiting for a response from Elijah, Hayley entered the apartment building and headed for the stairs. When she didn't hear Elijah walking behind her, she frowned and stopped walking. Turning around, she gave him a confused look as she took in the sight of him just standing outside the door.

"Are you coming in?" Hayley asked him.

"I can not enter the building without the landlords permission," he informed her.

Hayley laughed briefly.

"Why are you laughing?" Elijah asked curiously.

"Because that was the landlord on the intercom," Hayley answered, crossing her arms. "And she said to come in and you heard it so technically, you were invited in," she explained. "After all, technicalities often times do win," she said as an afterthought. "Now come on."

With that said, she turned back around and continued to the stairs. She smiled once she could hear Elijah's footsteps suddenly following her very closely. It wasn't long before they'd made it to the fourth floor. Hayley walked down to the end of the hall where her apartment was located. Arriving at her door, she stopped and turned back to Elijah.

"I should check and see if my roommate is home," she told him. "He's a werewolf, too, and I'm sure he's aware of what's going on." Hayley chuckled. "Wouldn't want you getting bit now, would we?"

Elijah shook his head. "No, not at all."

With a teasing smile, Hayley turned back and reached up into the light above the door. Feeling around, she soon felt her hand make contact with the spare hideaway key. She grabbed the key and took it out of the light, putting it into the keyhole and turning it. She walked inside the apartment after pushing the door open, frowning at how dark it was inside with all the curtains closed. Turning on the lamp next to the couch, Hayley looked around frowning even more at the sight of the messy apartment. To think that Hayley had actually thought that having a gay roommate would mean a clean apartment. Stupid stereotypes, always getting people's hopes up.

"Aidan!" she exclaimed as she looked in each of the four other rooms in the apartment. "Are you home?!" she called out, getting no reply back.

When she didn't get a response or find him in any of the rooms, Hayley went back to the front door.

"The coast is clear," she said, smiling briefly. "No need to worry about whether you'll get bit or not." Hayley grinned mischievously as a sudden thought entered her mind. "That is unless you manage to piss me off," she said teasingly.

Elijah grinned back, playing along for a moment. "We would not want that."

"No, not at all," Hayley agreed, still grinning.

"Are you going to invite me in?"

"No sister's spell to let you in?" She answered him with her own question since she was still feeling in a teasing mood.

"You must mistake me for my brother."

Hayley shrugged. "Can't be too careful," she replied, leaning against the frame of the door. "I've only known you for a few days or so. I barely know anything at all about you."

Elijah stood there in silence, thinking for a little while before propositioning, "Invite me in, and I'll tell you what you want to know as long as its within my comfort zone of what I'm willing to reveal to you."

Giving it a little thought, Hayley finally nodded her head. "I think that sounds fair." She moved out of the way so he could get by. "Please do come in. And please forgive the mess as well. My roommate isn't the cleanest person in the world."

Once Elijah was inside, Hayley closed the door. She watched as Elijah walked around the living room, checking things out. Her eyes widened in slight embarrassment when she noticed a certain cabinet was open just enough to reveal the names of a few specific DVDs that she did not want Elijah catching sight of. In a flash, she was across the room and slamming the cabinet door shut.

"Is everything okay?" Elijah asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hayley nodded her head and shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back against the cabinet. "Yeah, everything is fine."

Elijah gave her a disbelieving look but said nothing.

Pushing herself away from the video cabinet, Hayley made her way to the kitchen to get a soda from the fridge.

"I should go pack," she said, unscrewing the bottle cap and taking a sip of it. "Then you can tell me a little bit about yourself per our deal."

Something on the coffee table suddenly caught her eye.

"Or better yet..." She started to say, exiting the kitchen and walking back into the living room. "You can tell me about yourself while I pack," she finished, grabbing his arm and steering him towards her bedroom. "Kill two birds with one stone so that we don't waste time."

When she was sure he wouldn't see what she was about to do, Hayley ran over to the coffee table. Reaching down, she picked up her cellphone and silently prayed that it had a good amount of charge still on it. Pressing the button on top, a wave of relief washed over her when she saw that the battery bar was most of the way full.

"Oh, thank god!" she exclaimed to herself, jumping up and down in excitement in her mind.

Quickly turning the volume down completely and setting the ringer to silent, just to be safe, Hayley put her phone into her bra and turned back around to make her way to her bedroom. She couldn't help but laugh when she entered her room to find Elijah standing there looking around awkwardly.

"What? You never been in a woman's bedroom before?" Hayley asked, teasing him; he just made it so easy at times.

"Not like this," he answered, his eyes immediately widening like he hadn't meant to answer the question like that; his response was an obvious slip of the tongue.

Reaching a hand up to her mouth, Hayley tried her best to stifle her laugh. He looked so uncomfortable. It was as clear as day that he was the type who preferred to keep his personal life personal. Hayley would've normally kept teasing a guy in this situation because she didn't usually care about hurting the guy's ego or pride, but this time was not like most times. And Elijah was not like most guys she came into contact with either.

"So I've heard stories about you and your brother not having the best relationship," Hayley said, changing the subject as she walked over to her closet and pulled out her suitcase. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit curious about whether those stories are true or not and why."

Happy and relieved about the change of subject, Elijah replied, "There's a chance that some or parts of those stories are true."

"I'm all ears," Hayley said, looking around the room and trying to think of what she thought she'd need for the next few days (hopefully, fingers crossed) or so. "I'm probably the closest thing you'll ever get to therapy."

Her response gained a chuckle from Elijah.

"You just might be right about that."

"Probably so."

Elijah sighed. "It's a rather long and boring tale that takes place over centuries."

Glancing at him from over her shoulder as she picked up her suitcase and placed it on her bed, Hayley smiled and said, "Well, you're a really good story teller and I'm a really good listener."

"You may come to regret saying that."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I won't," Hayley assured him with a small smile before turning her attention back to packing.

Elijah didn't speak up for a bit; Hayley assumed that he was trying to decide what parts of the story to tell her. From what she knew of him so far and the stories she'd heard, he wasn't much for opening up to strangers. She was happy to be one of the exceptions because her curiosity of the relationship between Klaus and Elijah was borderline about to drive her crazy.

"You don't have to go into details," Hayley offered, turning around to look at him, crossing her arms loosely over her chest. "The short story will suffice."

She was given a hint of a smile in response. Despite how small it was, it was an obviously contagious smile because Hayley couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Just enough to drown out the curious fire blazing within me." She laughed.

"That sounds fair," he replied, using her words from earlier, his smile growing into a full blown one now.

It was her turn to smile in response to him. Not to sound corny or anything like that, but it felt as if their were suddenly butterflies flying around in her stomach. Hayley had to turn away quickly because she was suddenly getting ideas in her head that would not be polite to act out. Elijah certainly didn't seem like the type of guy who would approve of her sudden ideas. She was not about to chance accidentally ruining whatever it was that was between them.

Elijah then proceeded to tell her the parts that he was comfortable telling of the tale of why he and Klaus were not on the best of terms these days. By the time Elijah was finished with his centuries and centuries long tale, Hayley wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to that. The main thing she took away from the tale was that for Elijah it was family above all. Even after all the shit that Klaus put him and their siblings through, Elijah stood by him.

Klaus daggering all of his siblings at one point or another throughout the years and carting them around in coffins...Hayley had heard stories and was aware that Klaus was sadistic, but she had never thought he would actually be that sadistic. But she surely did now. Even despite that and everything else that happened at the hands of Klaus to him and his siblings, Elijah still stood by his brother when it came down to it. If that wasn't the actions of someone who was family above all, then Hayley didn't know anything at all.

"You stood by him despite all of that?" Hayley said as more of a statement than a question.

Elijah nodded. "It's family above all."

Hayley had to commend him for such a motto and actually living by it. After all he'd told her about the past, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to keep that motto up if she'd been in Elijah's position. Family above all is one thing if the family member in question is deserving of it. But it's a whole different thing when that family member is someone like Klaus. There's no way she would've been able to do what Elijah had done, standing by Klaus like he had for centuries.

"Oh, god," Hayley thought to herself, biting her lower lip. "What will he do if he finds out what I did?"

"Are you okay?" Elijah asked, breaking Hayley from her thoughts.

Hayley nodded and put on a fake smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, hoping that he would buy her lie even though she didn't even believe it herself.

Elijah's face gave away the fact that he didn't believe her. Lucky for Hayley, he did not try to press the issue. She was almost completely sure that she would've come clean right then and there if he'd pressed any further. There was just so much guilt that she could take before it became too much for her to handle for any longer than she already had. She was extremely close to her wits end already.

"I think I have everything that I need now," Hayley said, getting off of her bed and picking up her fully packed suitcase. "Oh, wait a second. I almost forgot," she said, rushing to the bathroom once she remembered she needed her toothbrush and toothpaste. "Alright, now I have everything," she reiterated as she came out of the bathroom.

"Here, let me take this out for you," Elijah offered, reaching out to take her suitcase from her.

Their hands touched briefly and Hayley's breath caught in her throat.

"Oh, um...thank you," she replied, pulling her hand away from the suitcase quickly and hightailing it out of the room. "If you develop any feelings for Elijah and he finds out what you did, those feelings would ruin you, Hayley," she scolded herself, doing her best to push any and all feelings she may have been developing so quickly for him deep down inside her. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"It would be best to be going now," Elijah said, exiting the bedroom and walking to the living room. "We don't want Klaus finding out about Freya's loophole."

Hayley nodded her head, agreeing with him. "That is a good point."

Letting Elijah lead the way out of the apartment, Hayley returned the hideaway key to it's rightful place. She locked the apartment door and closed it behind her before following Elijah down the hallway. For the entire walk to the car, Hayley found herself in the midst of an inner battle to keep any feelings she could possibly have for Elijah, or develop in the next few days, at bay.

As if her current predicament wasn't already complicated enough with having to constantly battle her feelings of guilt. Now she would possibly have to add growing feelings for Elijah to the list. If she were to feel something for Elijah, the stakes would grow immensely. It would turn into a case of, If he found out, she could lose him, but if he didn't, she could lose herself. There was no way that this was going to end well for her. Or possibly even for anyone that was involved.

[phgq]

Village in Pangasinan town turns plastic into furniture, bricks

#PHnews: Village in Pangasinan town turns plastic into furniture, bricks

ASINGAN, Pangasinan – Residents of Barangay Ariston East here have turned plastic wastes into sofa, coffee table, plant boxes, and walls for their eco-park during the community quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 In an interview on Tuesday, barangay captain Rene Villanueva said they have been collecting plastic wastes such as shampoo sachets, sando bags, among others, from the residents in their community in exchange for rice or grocery items since 2018.

 “We were then advised to build a material recovery facility, but the volume of plastic wastes we collected was overwhelming so we thought of other ways to reduce it,” he said.

 Villanueva said during the quarantine since March this year, they had time to build different products out of the collected plastic wastes.

 Barangay Ariston East’s officials and residents were able to build a sofa and coffee table, as well as eco-bricks for their mini-park in their community.

 Some of the collected plastic wastes were cut into pieces and bottled in 1.5-liter empty plastic soda bottles, which were stocked together or placed side by side to form the base of the sofa or coffee table or eco-bricks wall.

 “We are planning to build a comfort room from these eco-bricks,” Villanueva said.

 Barangay Ariston East was the representative of Pangasinan in the national level search for the barangay with the best sanitation in 2017. 

 The barangay was awarded second runner-up in the provincial search for the cleanest, safest, and greenest barangay in 2015. (PNA)

    ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Village in Pangasinan town turns plastic into furniture, bricks." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1111103 (accessed August 05, 2020 at 09:53PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Village in Pangasinan town turns plastic into furniture, bricks." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1111103 (archived).

[supersportsnewsblog]

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT VIDEO SHOWS: INTERVIEW WITH U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, FILE FOOTAGE OF IOC DOPING LABORATORY SHOWS: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, UNITED STATES (MARCH 25, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, SAYING: "It hall hinges on the determination of the organisations that have a job to do who have committed to putting in a testing programme that ensures, as best as possible, that only clean athletes are participating. And we've now bought, while we're in an unfortunate time and a time that necessarily would call into question because testing is not happening around the world right now, we will buy ourselves, hopefully six months where full programmes can operate at the fullest capacity, and those programmes will do the job that they're expected to do. So yeah, I think absolutely we have an opportunity for this to be one of the cleanest Games we've ever seen." 2. WHITE FLASH 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, SAYING: (EXPLAINING HOW THE POSTPONEMENT OF TOKYO 2020 GAMES COULD MAKE IT ONE OF THE CLEANEST GAMES EVER) "Well, I think one the Russia decision will be final, and hopefully a consequence will be put in place to deal with the ongoing manipulation and fraud that we see out of the state of Russia around anti-doping efforts. I think the embarrassment to the Rio Games, the London 2012 Games, the Sochi 2014 Games, with the lack of testing, the number of positive tests based on retests has forced the hand of those in sport to say 'we can't possibly tolerate this anymore'. The IOC did take the step of setting up a pre-Games task force in which we are fortunate enough to play a role. On that task force and recommendations have been sent out to organisations around the world to ensure that, particularly in the high-risk sports, that we don't have a repeat of what happened in Rio. And so the spotlight is on this issue and that forces the organisations that have control, to ensure clean sport, it forces their hand to ensure that they actually do the job that they are supposed to be doing. That's a good outcome." 4. WHITE FLASH 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, SAYING: (TALKING ABOUT THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE TOKYO GAMES ALLOWING THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT TO RESOLVE RUSSIA'S FOUR-YEAR BAN FROM GLOBAL SPORTS COMPETITIONS) "Most importantly, there's no excuse for it not to be resolved and we'll have some finality from the legal court on what the consequence of Russia's continued manipulation and attempt to circumvent the anti-doping system is going to be. And I think that brings a whole lot of relief to a lot of people who are waiting on that finality, whatever it may ultimately be. The worst case would have been we go to Tokyo in July and that case is still pending, and that would've been not unlike what happened at the FINA world championships with Sun Yang where he had a pending case, and you saw athletes who were outraged and refused to take the stand and protested. So hopefully that goes away and we have a good, firm decision that can be put in place and gives a lot of closure at this point to some of the Russia continued manipulation that we have seen." 6. WHITE FLASH 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, SAYING: (TALKING ABOUT SOME ATHLETES TAKING ADVANTAGE OF LESS OUT-OF-COMPETITION DOPE TESTING) "Yeah, listen, I'm hopeful clean athletes are going to remain clean and just because there maybe a new opportunity to break the rules, athletes know that if you cheat to attempt to win, you're not really a winner and so I'm very hopeful that clean athletes will continue on the path that they are on. Now obviously, and it would be naive to think otherwise, it does present an opportunity for those who may want to exploit it, to gain an advantage. A couple of weeks doesn't bother me a whole lot, because I think we can catch up and find, and detect, if someone does attempt to exploit that opportunity, that's starts dragging on three, four, five, six weeks, then it becomes a different question and we're going to have to do a lot to ensure once things do reopen, that testing is robust and sufficient volume to ensure that if anyone did try to take advantage of this sort of reduced time period, that they can't get away with it." 8. WHITE FLASH 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ANTI-DOPING AGENCY CEO, TRAVIS TYGART, SAYING: (TALKING ABOUT ATHLETES WHO ARE SERVING DOPING BANS WHO COULD NOW COMPETE IN THE RESCHEDULED OLYMPICS NEXT YEAR) "I think the rules are the rules. In legal terms, it's ex post facto, you can't increase a penalty or change the law after someone has committed the violation. So, I think it's pretty straightforward. It's an unfortunate outcome but look, there's a ton of upside, right - we will have a Russian decision or we should. It literally takes the excuse away from WADA and the IOC, that the CAS decision isn't final. So, we've got an extension of however many months it is, to get a final decision on Russia. It also gives us time to make up for any reduced testing period or dead period that happens right now, so while it's a little bit of an issue, I think it's pretty clear what the outcome is, and overall, it's not that worrisome given the upside with the other benefits of the postponement." SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (FILE - FEBRUARY 3, 2018) (IOC VNR - ACCESS ALL) 10. VARIOUS OF TEST TUBE BLOOD SAMPLE BEING TESTED IN WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY (WADA) ANTI-DOPING LAB 11. KOREAN LAB TECHNICIANS ORGANISING SAMPLES NEAR STORAGE FRIDGES 12. LAB TECHNICIAN SCANNING URINE SAMPLES 13. URINE SAMPLES BEING TESTED BY MACHINE 14. TECHNICIAN WORKING ON COMPUTER IN WADA ANTI DOPING LABORATORY 15. MACHINES AT WORK 16. LAB TECHNICIAN TESTING SAMPLES STORY: The one-year postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could make it one of the cleanest Games ever, according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Travis Tygart. Tygart told Reuters on Wednesday (March 25) that the postponement gives the opportunity for the anti-doping community to be able to carry out all their tests if given six months before the rescheduled Games begin. Should the coronavirus pandemic not disrupt their testing regime for too long, Tygart was optimistic that the anti-doping community could carry out all the testing needed to ensure the Games could be as clean as possible. It also gives the Court of Arbitration for Sport the time to decide on Russia's appeal against a four-year ban from the Olympics and other major sporting events. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last December barred Russians from competing under their country's flag at major international events, including the Tokyo Olympics, after it found that Moscow had provided it with doctored laboratory data. Tygart said it was a positive that there would now definitely be a resolution to this case instead of it possibly hanging over Tokyo 2020 had the Games gone ahead as scheduled this July. Tygart likened it to last year's Swimming World Championships when Chinese swimmer Sun Yang won two gold medals despite being in the middle of an appeal process for a doping ban. Other swimmers refused to stand on the podium with him and Sun was subsequently banned for eight years for a dope-test violation. The fact a similar scenario in Tokyo can now be avoided is only a good thing according to the head of USADA. However, Tygart did acknowledge that if the pandemic goes on for too long there is a danger that some athletes would take advantage of there being less out-of-competition testing by doping during their training in the coming months. What is more the postponement would open the door for athletes currently serving doping bans to compete at the rescheduled Olympics should they be able to qualify. Currently, there is no exception for extending an anti-doping sanction for postponed events if the athlete or coach has served their ban when the competition takes place. There are now new questions that some athletes, whose bans prevented them from competing in the Tokyo Olympics, will have the opportunity to do so due to the change in dates. If an athlete has served his or her ban and is denied a chance to qualify for an Olympic spot it is almost certain that such a ruling could be challenged in court. With no precedent, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may have to consider a structure like that used by Major League Baseball, where a player suspended during the season for a performance-enhancing drug violation is not eligible for that year's post-season. For Tygart the rules are clear and he said that athletes who are currently serving bans shouldn't be penalised for a pandemic postponing various competitions. WADA will implement an updated Code in January 2021 but told Reuters that even under new rules there are no provisions to prevent a banned athlete from participating at the Tokyo Games next year if they have completed their suspension. (Production: Tim Hart)

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8260652 https://ift.tt/2WHrqzB

[outfittrends]

The Psychology of Dressing Well- How Clothes Affect Behavior Outfit Trends - Ideas How to Wear & What to Wear

New Post has been published on https://www.outfittrends.com/psychology-of-dressing-well/

The Psychology of Dressing Well- How Clothes Affect Behavior

The psychology of dressing well. How we dress says more about us than we might think. In fact, scientists have proven in multiple studies that there is actual psychology behind the age-old adage, “Look good, feel good,” and the even more popular, “Dress for success.” What does this tell us? It tells us that what we wear affects not only how others view us, but how we view ourselves.

Take for an example the last time you were walking down the street and you saw a sharply dressed gentleman coming your way. What ran through your mind? What were your immediate assumptions? I can tell you what mine would be. “Man, that guy looks like he’s got his life together. He seems really successful. There is something about him that commands respect.”  The same holds true for a really well-dressed woman. “Wow, she seems so put-together. I bet she’s really organized. I would love to look that classy and elegant.”  While none of us wants to think we are so superficial as to make these kinds of snap judgments of people based on their clothing, think back to that time you went to the gym wearing a brand new outfit. How did you feel? Did you notice a difference in your confidence levels? Did you maybe push harder in your workout or feel a sense of pride when you caught a glimpse of yourself in the gym mirror? If what we wear carries so much power, don’t you think we should be figuring out how best to maximize that?

What do your clothes say about you?

“Dressing well is a form of good manners.”

Tom Ford

You can definitely bet that your clothing choices have a direct impact on how people perceive you. You might be seen as grubby and unkempt because you keep wearing that old stained tee you don’t want to get rid of. Or maybe as someone who is very minimalistic and methodical because you wear the same four outfits over and over again.

And hey, maybe that doesn’t bother you. After all, how much stock should we really be putting in other people’s opinions of us? Not too much, we could probably all agree on that. But it might surprise you how much your daily life could shift if you learned how to optimize this seemingly superficial tool that we all have at our disposal.

So, maybe it’s time for some self-reflection. Start by taking an honest look at your current wardrobe and ask yourself these questions:

What types of clothing do I own?

What do I find myself gravitating towards the most?

Am I holding onto old clothing because it holds sentimental value?

Do I take the time to think out outfits and plan what I am going to wear?

Does my wardrobe need an overhaul?

After asking yourself these questions, you may find yourself learning some things about yourself you never knew before!

You might realize that you’re unorganized and scatter-brained and that’s why your clothing is all over the place and you never know which end is up when it comes to the latest trends or styles. Or maybe you realize you have been stuck in the past for the last few years, holding onto clothing from ten years ago, simply because you don’t want to let it go. Maybe you realize it’s time to upgrade and put some more thought into your daily attire.

Tips On Dressing For Success

“Looking good isn’t self-importance; it’s self-respect.”

Charles Hix

Your clothing is a tool that can be used to represent who you are. Do you want to come across as confident and sophisticated, somebody who looks like they know what they are talking about? Maybe you want to showcase your warmth and charisma. Maybe you are vying for a promotion and want your boss to know that you mean business. If you’re looking for some outfit ideas for yourself (or your man), here are the Essential Men’s Fashion Pieces for Both Business and Casual Wear.

Whatever your motivation, dressing well is a hallmark of elegance, so why not take advantage?

Via

Start by defining your vision of what a successful person in your sphere would look like, act like, dress like. Would they be dressed in streamlined, tailored suits? Would their clothing complement their particular line of work? Would they always look put-together and organized in well-matched attire?

Purge your closet of whatever is outdated, has holes, doesn’t fit, or doesn’t represent that vision of success you have. Chuck the holey jeans or the stretched out blazer you’ve been wearing for five years. You don’t need it anymore!

Shop the classics. There’s a reason The Little Black Dress will never go out of style. It’s a tried-and-true article that works for almost any occasion, is not dependent on your age, and anyone can wear it. What other classic items could you integrate into your wardrobe? How about a tailored pair of trousers? A well-fitting suit? A streamlined blouse? A fitted button-down?

Choose colors that complement your skin tone. Avoid garish colors or obnoxious patterns. Make sure you have a few basic neutral-toned items in your wardrobe that you can mix-and-match to create multiple outfits.

Have your clothing tailored or custom-made. While not everyone can afford custom-made clothing, finding an affordable tailor is not so difficult. You can get away with buying a slightly ill-fitting article of clothing for sale and have it tailored to fit you perfectly and save money that way. The point is, make sure your clothing fits you well. Nothing screams unprofessionalism than badly fitting clothes. By the same token, make sure you have properly fitting undergarments. A too-tight bra will show through your clothing, as will a badly seamed pair of underwear.

Press, iron, or dry-clean your clothing. Don’t wear wrinkled clothing. An ironed shirt automatically ups your professionalism by ten points.

Polish and shine your shoes. A dying art, this practice brings an immediate sense of cleanliness and sheen to any outfit.

Quality over quantity. It’s worth investing in slightly more expensive clothing than having a whole closet full of cheap-looking clothing. (But if you have to buy cheap, go for dark colors. It’s easier to conceal the quality of the fabric.) Quality clothing fits better, looks better, and instantly gives you a more sophisticated, respectable air.

Via

Structured Wool Blend Coat £85

Brera Boots

Baguette Croc-Effect Leather Shoulder Bag £375

Waterlilly Dress $338

↓ Does Your Clothing Reflect Your Personality?

“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress. Dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

Coco Chanel

Via

You may be the girl that never cared much about what you wore, and so you grabbed whatever was cleanest from your bedroom floor before dashing out the door. Or maybe you’re the guy that can’t break free from the oversized tee shirt and baggy jeans rut, despite trying to for the last five years.

The simple truth is (and studies confirm this), our clothing speaks volumes about our personalities. If you tend to be lazy and undisciplined, you may find yourself wearing yesterday’s clothing a lot, or raggy tee shirts you have had since you were a teenager. If you are a trend-follower, of course, your wardrobe is going to reflect all the latest styles and fashions. If you are methodical and routine-oriented, you probably stick to very basic, functional pieces.

But what we wear has a huge impact on how we think about ourselves and even how we behave. It’s extremely likely that you’ll find you walk with more poise and confidence when you are dressed smartly. You may experience a surge of motivation when you are dressed in cute, matching activewear at the gym. You may find yourself interacting more and being more assertive at a work event when your clothing is sharp and sophisticated. When you are down and glum, putting on a brightly colored clothing may lift your mood, whereas wearing grungy, worn-out sweats and dark colors might contribute to you feeling more depressed.

The more you think about it, the more fascinating this whole clothing thing becomes. Of course, your shoes are as important as your outfit when you want to dress well so do check out our earlier posts on Men’s Business Casual Shoes Guide and Best Business Casual Shoes For Women.

 ↓ The Benefits of Dressing Well

“Character. Intelligence. Strength. Style. That makes beauty.”

Diane Von Furstenberg

Via

1. Develop Confidence

Dressing well inevitably leads to increased levels of confidence. When you look good, you’ll feel good. You stand a little taller; you walk with a little bit more pep in your step. When you enter a room, people can’t help but notice you. This will all translate to how you view yourself.

Ever heard the saying, “You got to fake it till you make it?” Dressing well is like putting fuel into the engine of your confidence levels. Once that engine is going (the “fake it” stage) you may start noticing that confidence is coming more naturally to you; you develop more respect for yourself; you treat yourself with a little bit more respect…

2. Gain Respect

“Dress how you wish to be dealt with.”

E. Jean

… which leads to other people treating you with more respect. People respect those who respect themselves. If you carry a sense of self-confidence, you will inevitably find that other people view you differently.

So, what does it mean to be shown respect? Well, maybe it’s new tones of deference in people’s voices; maybe it is new shades of admiration in their eyes. Maybe people start asking you for your opinion more often. Maybe your boss looks twice at you when he walks past your office. However it manifests in your life, we can guarantee that you’ll start noticing it sooner or later.

3. Feel Better About Yourself

It may seem obvious but when you dress better, you feel better about yourself.

Maybe you have always been insecure. Maybe you dislike the way certain clothes fit. Maybe you’ve been down in the dumps about your appearance lately and need a makeover.

Whatever the case, you can bet your bottom dollar that you will notice an immediate difference in how you feel about yourself the minute you start to dress better. Because your perception of yourself is changing, the way you feel about yourself changes, too. You’ll feel more hopeful and motivated to take care of yourself (self-care, baby!) and treat yourself just a little bit kinder.

And hey, we could all use some of that.

4. Showcase Your Personality

“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.”

Rachel Zoe

Dressing well provides the optimal opportunity to really let your best self shine forth. Whether that means letting your playful and feminine side show or letting your love for neutral colors shine, how you dress makes a statement about the kind of person you are. So what kind of statement are you making?

Don’t feel limited by the clothing you put on your body. How you dress is an incredible means to let yourself be who you really are. Are you poised and put-together? Are you elegant and classy? Are you organized and professional?

Take some time today to decide how your wardrobe is going to best represent you from here on out.

Via

Shop this look for under $150

Faux Faur Hairclip $25.99

Fluorescent Pocket Shirt $79.99

Conclusion

“Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing, and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.”

Vivienne Westwood

At the end of the day, what we wear says a lot more about us than what we might have thought. It affects how we feel, how we view ourselves, and even how others view us.

If we want to feel better about ourselves… if we want to have more confidence and command more respect… then it behoves us to put a little more thought into this whole “dressing well” thing. Because dressing well, as we have learned, is a hallmark of self-respect. It creates opportunities to be noticed in a more positive light. It opens up doors that we may have once thought were closed.

Don’t forget that dressing well goes hand in hand with success. So, if you are looking to become a more rounded, successful, put-together individual, it just might be that your first step is to take a little look in that closet of yours. What have you been wearing and what can you change?

All it takes is one little step to change your life.

[theresawelchy]

DeepLearning.AI Convolutional Neural Networks Deep Learning Specialization Course (Review)

Andrew Ng is famous for his Stanford machine learning course provided on Coursera.

In 2017, he released a five-part course on deep learning also on Coursera titled “Deep Learning Specialization” that included one module on deep learning for computer vision titled “Convolutional Neural Networks.”

This course provides an excellent introduction to deep learning methods for computer vision applications for those practitioners that are already familiar with the basics of deep learning. It does not focus on too much math and does not include any code. Instead, it is designed to develop intuitions for the main techniques used in the field.

In this post, you will discover a breakdown and review of the convolutional neural networks course taught by Andrew Ng on deep learning for computer vision.

After reading this post, you will know:

The course is actually a sub-course in a broader course on deep learning provided by deeplearning.ai.

The course is not free, and requires subscription and enrollment on Coursera, although all of the videos are available for free on YouTube.

The course provides an excellent introduction to deep learning for computer vision for developers familiar with the basics of deep learning.

Let’s get started.

Overview

This tutorial is divided into five parts; they are:

Deep Learning Specialization Overview

Convolutional Neural Networks Course Breakdown

Course Videos on YouTube

Discussion and Review

Deep Learning Specialization Overview

Andrew Ng is a machine learning researcher famous for making his Stanford machine learning course publicly available and later tailored to general practitioners and made available on Coursera.

He is also the Cofounder of Coursera and formerly Director of Google Brain and Chief Scientist at Baidu.

In 2017, he launched a new website called deeplearning.ai that provides deep learning training for general practitioners (e.g. developers) with courses available via his Coursera platform (that requires a subscription).

The complete course is divided into five sub-courses; they are:

Course 1: Neural Networks and Deep Learning

Course 2: Improving Deep Neural Networks

Course 3: Structuring Machine Learning Projects

Course 4: Convolutional Neural Networks (our focus)

Course 5: Sequence Models

The courses are in video tutorial format and are presented by Andrew with the same hands-on style as his famous Machine Learning course.

The course is designed for developers who are beginners in the field of deep learning.

Convolutional Neural Networks Course Breakdown

Of note is the deep learning for computer vision sub-course, titled “Convolutional Neural Networks.”

Convolutional Neural Networks – Computer Vision

This course is designed to teach developers how convolutional neural networks work and how to use them for standard computer vision tasks.

This course will teach you how to build convolutional neural networks and apply it to image data. Thanks to deep learning, computer vision is working far better than just two years ago, and this is enabling numerous exciting applications ranging from safe autonomous driving, to accurate face recognition, to automatic reading of radiology images.

— About this Course, Coursera.

It is divided into four weeks; they are:

Week 1: Foundations of Convolutional Neural Networks

Week 2: Deep convolutional models: case studies

Week 3: Object detection

Week 4: Special applications: Face recognition & Neural style transfer

Each week is divided into 10-to-12 topics, each covered in a short video lasting a few minutes to no more than about 15 minutes.

Most topics are presented in a practical manner with very little math. What little math that is included is focused on topics such as calculating loss functions or calculating the number of parameters (weights) in the model.

In addition to the lack of math, the course also does not present code, and instead focuses on helping the viewer develop an intuition for the techniques discussed.

Week 1. The first week is dedicated to introducing the main type of neural network used for computer vision problems: the convolutional neural network or CNN. Topics focus on how convolutional layers work, filters, padding, strides, as well as the related pooling layer.

Week 2. The second week focuses on important milestones in developing effective CNN models, such as LeNet for digit recognition and a suite of models developed for ImageNet, such as AlexNet, ResNet, and Inception. As each milestone is discussed, the innovation of the model design is described in a way that explains why the model is effective and how the technique can be used more generally. The week ends with data preparation, including data augmentation and transfer learning.

Week 3. The third week focuses on object detection, introducing the simpler problems of image classification, image localization, and landmark detection. These are the ‘killer-apps‘ of deep learning for computer vision and the important sub-techniques of the YOLO method are introduced step-by-step and built up into a complete working system.

Week 4. Finally, the last week ends with face detection and recognition, building up the techniques required for such a system, including one shot learning, siamese networks, and a suitable loss function. The week is divided into two parts and the second part focuses on neural style transfer, a technique that although is purely aesthetic, is a lot of fun.

Course Videos on YouTube

The complete breakdown of the course topics is provided below.

Week 1: Foundations of Convolutional Neural Networks

Computer Vision

Edge Detection Example

More Edge Detection

Padding

Strided Convolutions

Convolutions Over Volume

One Layer of a Convolutional Network

Simple Convolutional Network Example

Pooling Layers

CNN Example

Why Convolutions?

Yann LeCun Interview

Week 2: Deep convolutional models: case studies

Why look at case studies?

Classic Networks

ResNets

Why ResNets Work

Networks in Networks and 1×1 Convolutions

Inception Network Motivation

Inception Network

Using Open-Source Implementation

Transfer Learning

Data Augmentation

State of Computer Vision

Week 3: Object detection

Object Localization

Landmark Detection

Object Detection

Convolutional Implementation of Sliding Windows

Bounding Box Predictions

Intersection Over Union

Non-max Suppression

Anchor Boxes

YOLO Algorithm

(Optional) Region Proposals

Week 4: Special applications: Face recognition & Neural style transfer

What is face recognition?

One Shot Learning

Siamese Network

Triplet Loss

Face Verification and Binary Classification

What is neural style transfer?

What are deep ConvNets learning?

Cost Function

Content Cost Function

Style Cost Function

1D and 3D Generalizations

Kindly, the videos for this course have also been made available via YouTube.

Convolutional Neural Networks Taught by Andrew Ng

A YouTube playlist of the course is also available, although some of the videos for Week 3 are out of order:

Convolutional Neural Networks (Course 4 of the Deep Learning Specialization), YouTube PlayList.

The videos have a naming convention of C4WnLnn, where Wn refers to the week number (1-4) and Lnn refers to the lecture number (e.g. 01 to 12). Take note of the order of the videos in Week 3; you may need to jump around in the playlist manually.

Two videos are missing from the playlist; they are:

Week 3: Bounding Box Predictions

Yann LeCun Interview

Note that Week 1 includes a video interview with Yann LeCun, the inventor of Convolutional Neural Networks. This is part of a video series titled “Heroes of Deep Learning Interviews” that is also available on YouTube.

Heroes of Deep Learning Interviews, YouTube PlayList.

You can easily watch all of the videos in a few hours.

Discussion and Review

I watched all of the videos via YouTube (on double speed) and took extensive notes.

It’s a great course and I think it does an excellent job of developing intuitions for the topics covered, including CNNs, milestone models, object detection, face recognition, and style transfer.

The introduction to convolutional layers and related topics of padding, stride, etc, is perhaps one of the cleanest presentations I have seen. I also found Week 2 and Week 3 on milestone CNN models and object detection very clear. Week 4 was fine, starting well, but got very messy as we dove into neural style transfer.

If you are already familiar with the basics of CNNs, as many deep learning practitioners are, then I would recommend focusing on Week 3 and Week 4. Week 3 is especially great, diving into the elements of the killer-app of object detection and the challenging YOLO method to address it.

YOLO is an important topic to cover, but it might have been simplified if the focus was on a simpler (easier to implement method) such as Fast or Faster R-CNN.

I found myself watching almost every minute of the course, skipping only over some of the messy mathematical descriptions. In fact, diving into explanations of loss functions was perhaps the least interesting and perhaps not-required parts of the course.

I have never found video an effective medium for teaching math. It needs to be taken slowly, with clear (LaTeX) equations, explanation, and working code.

If you are new to deep learning for computer vision but are familiar with the basics of deep learning, then I recommend the course, specifically watching the videos. You can easily complete them in one or two sittings.

Further Reading

This section provides more resources on the topic if you are looking to go deeper.

Deep Learning Specialization, deeplearning.ai.

Convolutional Neural Networks, Deep Learning Specialization, Coursera.

Convolutional Neural Networks (Course 4 of the Deep Learning Specialization), YouTube PlayList.

Heroes of Deep Learning Interviews, YouTube PlayList.

Summary

In this post, you discovered a breakdown and review of the convolutional neural networks course taught by Andrew Ng on deep learning for computer vision.

Specifically, you learned:

The course is actually a sub-course in a broader course on deep learning provided by deeplearning.ai.

The course is not free, and requires subscription and enrollment on Coursera, although all of the videos are available for free on YouTube.

The course provides an excellent introduction to deep learning for computer vision for developers familiar with the basics of deep learning.

Do you have any questions? Ask your questions in the comments below and I will do my best to answer.

The post DeepLearning.AI Convolutional Neural Networks Deep Learning Specialization Course (Review) appeared first on Machine Learning Mastery.

Machine Learning Mastery published first on Machine Learning Mastery

[leslielash4450-blog]

Ch. 25.

JBL's Legend CP100 is actually a compelling reason to improve your cars and truck stereo system with Android Car and also Apple CarPlay for certainly not excessive loan. Revision: Jonathan reviewed the business site as well as posts concerning the company before his meeting; consequently, he managed to inquire terrific concerns during his meeting. BMW's Furse points out the potential won't be 'one measurements suits all', like the age from ignition automobiles. Convenience, protection as well as intelligence will definitely gone on provide in also the most rudimentary from autos by the opportunity we are actually an one-fourth of the way by means of this century. There is actually a fair bit from interior talk and seemed sluggish and also repetitive in some components. As a measure when you rent a cars and truck online, select suppliers which lie near to your residence so you can easily contact all of them should car or documents issues come up. Automotive market sales numbers can be as knowledgeably sliced, diced and presented for usage as easily as my favored TV pitchman, Vince, demonstrates his latest home kitchen device. For instance, there are actually no bodily switches for the heater, so to change the temp in the auto you have to go through the onscreen menus, one thing that very soon becomes tedious. The good news is for individuals, rental companies and also OTAs usually feature all-up broad fees along with the bogus lowball base costs, therefore you know when you first publication what your real cost will definitely be actually. Along with cars and trucks' CARBON DIOXIDE discharges coming to be increasingly a factor in motoring life, specifically for brand-new much higher cars and truck tax bands, possessing a regular auto solution can easily aid feed intake be at its own cleanest and CARBON DIOXIDE discharges at its own most competitive. Due to the fact that this would certainly allow very most people to provide to national initiatives and also care about the end result, America's anti-pollution attempts must focus on privately had autos. That would certainly be actually great if anyone else has tips concerning how to make a vehicle steer (while certainly not increasing). 2 from the absolute most generally talked to questions regarding the Apple Car are actually whether it is going to be actually (1) electrical, and (2) driverless. The addition from a vocal awareness button, which partners with Google.com Now and also Siri, is actually a wonderful add-on for cars and trucks that are without a dedicated button for vocal demands on the steering tire. If you have any queries about wherever and how to use Highly recommended Site, you can call us at our page. Consider a made use of automobile as an auto you may discover available for sale positioned on the road corner or even specified by an exclusive party on a website like Autotrader or Craigslist. An additional element is actually the firm vehicle market, which is actually abnormally huge in Britain as well as make up fifty percent of all new vehicle sales. In Great, which is additionally about identification, he stashes his attraction in the taken out, troubled Halder as well as progressively our team find this excellent man improved. In Dishonored 2 our company lastly come to listen to Corvo and also Emily talk for the very first time, and this's not good-- at least for Corvo. VW reach claiming that autonomous cars will conserve a million lifestyles each year. Unusual noises on your car might be a sign that something is wrong, and because of this you need to check out the manager's guide to identify what is actually standard and exactly what is actually unusual. Regardless of all the concern observing the Volkswagen discharges rumor, there's actually been actually little result on the recurring market values of diesel vehicles as a whole. For youngsters or even first time customers with little credit rating this could be actually hard to get approved for the volume from purchase such as a cars and truck. Auto maintenance likewise makes certain that your automobile is actually preserved to the best criterion, and also conducts at its optimum degree, which your car will run as easily, safely and securely, properly and dependably as feasible for a lengthy opportunity. If you want to quit bothering with vehicle rental price each time you take a trip, I recommend to participate in some company. If you wish to learn effective ways to correctly maintain your vehicle, you should first be familiar with your cars and truck. You will after that should situate the suitable documentation online to finish the types needed to have your car got. The last and very most pleasurable step is that you will acquire a fantastic automobile contribution deduction along with your taxes. No information feeds on just what that set you back to insure all the autos that were ruined in its own making, yet one may simply assume a huge part of the film's budget was actually taken by that. However there is one sunny location: Smudge Connelly, her extremely charming, really out-of-bounds Tempo Miller is actually a really good gal. The UK is just one of the European countries not to have validated the 1968 Vienna meeting on street web traffic that designates a vehicle driver needs to be in the front seat of a cars and truck. This resembles dirt is restricted to ever before touch the auto or move over the monitor in anyway (bounding package clipping etc). It is actually incredible to observe the various methods to connecting with full throttle through various car suppliers and also receivers identical. The organization, most ideal recognized for its graphics memory cards, has a variety of partners in the automobile area, consisting of Audi, BMW, and Daimler. Streaming companies like Spotify have taken off with your PC or even phone, as well as they can be equally effortlessly appreciated through your vehicle. To ensure that you obtain the best info concerning the automobile you want to acquire, receive the past history document from the motor vehicle or even obtain the VIN from the cars and truck and also have this verified.

[josephkitchen0]

Homesteading For a Living Through a CSA

The Spickermans realized the American dream on homesteading land by making money through a CSA.

“Our original goal was to produce as much of our own food as possible,” Landis Spickerman, 53, of High Bridge, Wisconsin, says. She and her husband Steven, 56, began living on the farm part-time during the summer months of 1989, while they were building their home. They moved to the farm full-time in 1991.

They planted fruit trees and started a garden before they lived on the farm. As the garden grew, they simply got to a point where they had more food during the growing season than they could eat. At first, their sales were small — a few heads of lettuce and other produce to the local food cooperatives in 1993 — and then it slowly snowballed.

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“It went slowly and ‘full-scale’ production didn’t happen until many years into this venture,” Landis says. As the homestead became more developed they read many books, used common sense, and grew the farm in a steady but sustainable fashion. Landis tells me that they made mistakes and learned from them, reinvested everything they made in better equipment, learned the value of good record keeping and quality control and began to really look at themselves as a business. Today Hermit Creek Farm is a full-scale produce farm grossing six figures and employing four to five folks during the growing season.

Investment

“To scale up, we needed to infuse more capital than we could generate,” Landis explains. “Since that decision point, we have used several loans including from family, a local bank, from our local food cooperative, and from FSA (USDA Farm Service Agency).” They used the loans to purchase equipment, build a heated greenhouse and packing buildings, and purchase additional farmland. Today, they still reinvest nearly 100 percent of their farm earnings back into the farm after 22 years of commercial operation.

Steven learned early on how much work running a farm was. Growing up, he watched his neighbors take a couple of long-handled hoes and walk their soybean fields in the summer after dinner. As they walked, they hoed the fields. Steven says, “They had the cleanest bean fields in the county.”

What his childhood neighbor’s dedication resulted in was immeasurable. “Their keen understanding of their land and what it and they could produce through their daily habits and personal attention to detail was the path to success,” Steven said.

For those who want to make the shift from homesteader to entrepreneur, the Spickermans have several suggestions. When they started they self-proclaim that they were young and naïve enough to not really have concerns. “We were physically fit, strong—both of body and will—and were used to hard work and simple living,” Landis says. For their first five years on the farm they lived without electricity, for a decade without refrigeration, and they still don’t have running water in the house—they have an outdoor shower, water in the packing building, and a sauna for winter bathing.

Another important decision that they made in the beginning was to be an organic farm. In 2001, they became officially certified.

They have been teaching various aspects of farming for a number of years now including as part of the Land Stewardship Project “Farm Beginnings” program. They serve as mentors in the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES) “Farmer-to-Farmer” mentorship program. They also teach workshops and classes on their farm.

Since they keep accurate records, they know exactly how much it costs and how much they earn by the square foot of growing space for each crop grown inside a high tunnel. This informs them of the payback on a tunnel purchase and dictates if they should purchase additional tunnels. The same goes for field crops.

Community Supported Agriculture

“We started marketing our produce as a CSA agriculture (Community Supported Agriculture) during the first few years of our farm as a business, which means we have been a CSA for 21 or 22 years now,” Landis says. This year they have about 175 CSA members, which generate 60 percent of their farm income.

“CSA is what we like to call ‘relationship farming,’ in that everything you do and grow on the farm is done directly for a person who has joined as a CSA member,” Landis explains. “As part of that, we liken ourselves to the same concept as say a family having a ‘family doctor’ or ‘family dentist’ but in our case, we’re your family farmer.”

They want to be the farmers whom customers think of when they’re thinking about what to make for dinner. “We want you, the customer, to know where your food is coming from, to have a direct link or tie to the land and people responsible for growing your food, to have trust in the food system and to feel good about helping support a family farmer,” she says.

The Workings

“Customers join our farm as a member by purchasing one or more of our share options,” Landis says. Some CSA agriculture is simple with one share type option—traditionally a mix of in-season produce for a set number of weeks. As the Spickerman homestead has matured, so has the types of shares and length of their season, which now runs from late May to the following March. Shares are on a weekly or every-other-week schedule, and each share or veggie box contains seven to 12 separate items of what is in season. Since the shares follow the changes of their northern season, what costumers find in their box changes, as well.

Typically less than one percent of the total volume of what goes into their CSA agriculture share on an annual basis is from resources outside of their farm. Items include local honey, foraged wild rice, locally or regionally grown certified organic blueberries and cranberries. In addition to CSA garden produce, some shares include local certified organic eggs and artisanal goat and sheep cheeses. The Spickermans say that they feel synergy gained by partnering with other small, local farms. Diversifying what their customers get is a large part of their success they believe. They say that social capital should not be underestimated.

One of the hardest parts of managing a CSA is producing enough food for all the shares. With money taken up front, the farmer is responsible to grow the food and meet the demands of their members. “This leads to a certain amount of stress and anxiety as the growing season progresses, as even with the most seasoned grower, there are just so many variables that are largely out of your control,” Landis says. She mentions that weather, disease, and pests are additional concerns.

Having sold unproduced food is not all bad. The benefit of getting paid first is having the essential funds at a time of year where farmers are buying most of their annual inputs and bringing on employees. “Most farms use short-term operating loans to do this, and in a way, it’s our members who are giving us that loan and they are paid back in product,” Landis says. Having the money at this time of year also gives CSA agriculture farmers a good idea of exactly what they need to produce.

Sound Advice from Landis

Essential questions for those interested in starting a farm

What is your passion? “For us, we have both always grown plants, so a produce farm was a given.” Your passion has to carry you through the initial stresses of starting a business.

Based on your location, what can you market? “We live in a very rural area and we simply do not have enough people willing to buy fresh, local, organic produce close enough to us to really sustain a farm large enough to truly call ourselves successful.” They make 29 deliveries for their CSA.

What will become of your hiccups? “Learn from your mistakes. One mistake that we made was where we chose to live. We figure perhaps only about 1% of the overall population really ‘gets’ the local, fresh, organic food scene and if you are in a rural area, you have severely limited your potential market.”

How will you track spending? “Track all calculable activity and cost for your farm.” This will allow you to better set the price of your products and inform you of whether a given product is even worth growing, and if you need to invest in a tool to help reduce cost or calculate the ROI.

Would you personally pay money for it? “Keep what you want to do simple, at least at first.” Don’t invest in something that you wouldn’t want. It’s hard to sell something you are not interested in.

If you don’t already have land, think about where and how you will be marketing your products? “In reality, it is easy to grow food (veggies, fruit, and animals); the hard part is selling it at a profit.”

Season Extension

The use of high tunnels and a heated greenhouse allows them to push the seasons a bit, which is how they can have certain crops much later into the fall or even winter, such as kale and spinach in January. “We also have a root cellar and cold storage capacity that we fill with crops such as carrots, potatoes, parsnips, beets, rutabaga, onions, winter squash, cabbage, celeriac, and kohlrabi,” Landis says. In addition to that, they grow shelf stable crops like dry beans and produce maple syrup that is included in their CSA agriculture share.

By having multiple high tunnels, this allows them to rotate crops and have substantial indoor growing space and product volume. Their heated greenhouse produces vegetable transplants for spring and early summer transplanting. They transplant most of their vegetables instead of direct seeding, because this is another way to push the season. In a typical season, they transplant more than 70,000 seedlings! Later in the year, one or more of the high tunnels becomes an onion curing facility. They store winter crops in their 100-year-old root cellar, which they rebuilt about 20 years ago. The root cellar maintains a steady temperature of 36°F. Since a few crops, such as winter squash and onions, prefer it a bit warmer and dryer, those go in their own separate storage location.

Due to their latitude and mid-continental location, which is too cold and cloudy for actively growing during the winter months, the Spickermans focus on preserving their food in holding areas. “Kale, Napa cabbage, spinach, bok choi, and a number of other cold hardy veggies can be started late summer and grown to maturity in the fall, then held and harvested through at least early to mid-January (in a mild year, maybe even February) before desiccation gets the better of them,” Landis explains. “Spinach grown the same way will look dead and gone all winter in a high tunnel only to spring back to life come the lengthening and warming days of March,” she adds. “Areas further south or closer to one of the coasts than our Lake Superior location will have better success with winter production.”

Carrying on the Mission

“Our core mission as a farm is to create positive change,” Landis says. She tells me that their mission statement is fairly nebulous for a reason. “A diverse farm operates in many realms and we wanted a mission statement that reflected all of those realms and spoke to our own values of environmental advocacy, social justice, and organic food production among many others.” For them, creating positive change means improving soil health and water quality, creating a healthy work environment for both their employees and them and increasing on-farm biological diversity. They also aim at providing healthy, nourishing, affordable food for their family, friends, and neighbors. Being good stewards of the land and working toward a future that includes small farms and healthy communities are also important to them.

For more information on Hermit Creek Farm and the Spickermans, check out hermitcreekfarm.com.

Do you participate in CSA agriculture? Do you buy or sell? We want to hear about it!

Kenny Coogan, CPBT-KA, is a regular pet and garden columnist and has authored an ecological themed children’s book titled “A Tenrec Named Trey (And other odd lettered animals that like to play).” He has a B.S. in animal behavior and is a certified bird trainer through the International Avian Trainers Certification Board. 

Originally published in Countryside September/October 2015 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

Homesteading For a Living Through a CSA was originally posted by All About Chickens

[weglitterystrangercollector-blog]

A Hoarder and His Friend Finn: This Is Their Story The shrill wail of my alarm clock echoes and beats against the walls before my hand flies out from the fleece blankets, smacking hard until my fingers are lucky enough to find the OFF button.  My eyes are still closed when my breath comes out in deep sighs of exhaustion and annoyance. I look around my dorm in unfortunate familiarity, the reality of stacks on stacks of coffee mugs littering my side of the room explains how most of my nights are being spent, and I chuckle in spite of myself, knowing if I were to ever mysteriously disappear, a private investigator would entirely find his answers in my cramped, “Buried Alive” kind of college dorm room. My roommate shifts in his bed, but the snores don’t decrease in any sort of volume. If I wasn’t already used to the loud, exasperatingly irritating Alroy Murphy I would have assumed he was choking or suffocating on something in his sleep, I also would have debated saving his life, at least for the desperate satisfaction of waking up in complete silence. “Al!” I say throwing my pillow at his obviously vibrant red hair sticking out from the bed sheets. He doesn’t even flinch.

The snores are louder now, and I can’t help but thinks he’s subconsciously aware of how unbearable it is for me to sleep in the same room as him. I fling my sheets off my bare legs and my feet quickly hit the hardwood floor, they carry me passed Al’s collection of meditation crystals, yoga mats, a concerningly weird number of wooden clocks and other little trinkets that contribute to most of my friends thinking I live with an extreme hoarder. “you got to get the man some help, or just make some profit off exposing him to a sort of addictions show!” Gale, my good friend would spout in laughter when Al wasn’t in the room.

“Sush, I’m not the cleanest either trust me,” I laugh pointing towards my dirty dishes and gym shorts that hang off the side of my dresser.

I sigh, thinking back on how my friends mess with Al, rearranging his stuff in every which way and occasionally pocketing something they think could be worth a few dollars. It’s not that I hated Al, I just found him flashy and his meditation sessions sometimes made me uncomfortable. Alas, me and Al surprisingly did share one thing in common, and that’s irresponsibility. When I applied to college, I applied right on the deadline, no time to spare. So instead of getting a room all to myself, Al and I were graciously granted the gift of each others company, and at least he was excited about it, even though he knew the feeling wasn’t mutual. My phone dinged, the screen seemingly bright in the dimly lit resident shared bathroom, it pulled me out of my thoughts as I spit out the mouth wash and watched it whirl around the sink, disappearing down the drain. I look towards the light and read the text I just received: “going to the party tonight?” it read, from Gale.

“I am, not much to do,” I type quickly, wiping my mouth a couple times with my shirt sleeve.

“starts at 10!” She texts me one more time before I turn my phone off, watching the screen as it fades to black. I walk sluggishly back into my dorm room to get changed. Throwing a hoody on over my tee shirt, my short hair gets ruffled and messy when my head comes out through the hood. I swipe my keys up from my desk, looking back one more time at Al sleeping peacefully as his alarm blares “Come Together” by the Beatles practically right beside his face. I shut the door, shaking my head in shock. That guy is a heavy sleeper.                                                              *****                                                Alroy’s Point of View

Let your muscles relax…. You are in control of your own mind…. This feeling of relaxation is yours, it’s in your grasp…. Let your body *KNOCK* guide *KNOCK* *KNOCK* My eyes spring open, narrowing them in annoyance at my door.

“Finn’s not home!” I yell, uncrossing my legs and turning off one of my favourites from the guided mediation set Granddad got me for Christmas. Love that man. “Yeah that’s pretty clear!” Peter, one of Finn’s friends shot back with sarcasm, muffled by the wooden door separating us. I get up with a huff, making my way to the door and turning the knob. “why are you knocking then?” I ask when our faces meet, my head tilting slightly upward, Peter being a little on the tall side, me on the other hand, not so lucky. As our eyes meet, Peter rolls his, opening the door wider and inviting himself in.

“are you busy right now?” He asked, frowning at my wooden clock collection, picking up a small, hand painted one and eyeing it, as if he were a clockologist, attempting to decipher what clock class it’s in on the clock kingdom.

“I guess not, I mean-““great, then can you come with me to the party? Finn’s plastered, the mans gonna need a ride home.” He cuts me off, putting the clock down and looking at me expectantly. I shift my eyes uncomfortable, Peter can be a pretty intimidating guy. I clear my throat,

“sure.”                                                               *****                                                   Finn’s Point of View

“Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” My friends cheered, I smiled sloppily, shotgunning another beer. “Woah!” “annnnnd that’s! How its done ladies and gentlemen…” I high fived Gale but I didn’t hear the *smack* sound, my hand also never reached hers. I lost my balance, and although Gale tried to pull me up, she wasn’t strong enough. “Woah…” My friends all muttered before my face hit the ground.                                                           *****

                                                Alroy’s Point of View

“so… How’d you and Finn become friends?” I asked awkwardly, genuinely curious, although I could tell Peter was annoyed I’d broken the not so comfortable silence. He looked over at me as I drove, I was glad I had an excuse not to make eye contact. “I don’t know… why you have all this shit in your van?” He answered with another question, pointing towards the back, where I kept some of my antiques… Some more clocks. “I don’t know,” I chuckled mimicking him “why do we keep answering questions in more questions?” I turned my head to look over, see if I made him laugh or anything, his face was turned to the window and he ignored me for the rest of the drive.                                                           ***** A couple wrong turns later, and a lack of directional skill from Peter, we made it to the party house. When I looked up at the brown window sills, and long walkway I knew exactly who’s house we were at. They were notorious for parties because they rented out the house with nine other students, probably because unless you were Tom Cruise, there’s no way any one person could afford living in it, no matter how much money they’ve inherited. I turned to Peter after parking my van in the driveway. “should I get him?” I wondered out loud hoping he’d say no. “I’ll get him,” He said, hand already on the door handle, I thanked the universe for granting me one spell of luck, even if it’s wasted on a situation like this. Peter got out of the car quickly, almost as if he was embarrassed to be seen coming out of my camper van, I could understand where he was coming from, but nevertheless I was doing him a favour. I waited for what seemed like forever, watching students I recognized from lectures and others I didn’t. They walked out from the house stumbling or laughing, or both. When I caught a glimpse of who I’d been waiting for, Finn was smiling while leaning on Peters shoulder. I rolled down the window and called to Peter, telling him to put Finn in the back.   Before I could say bye, Peter slammed the door and sauntered back into the party. I checked the time, the car clock flashing 1:52am, taking the van out of park and turning around, I drove off.                                                          ***** It had been a good ten minutes before I heard the clink and clank of Finn touching something in the back of the van. “hey, what you up to back there?” I ask softly, I was smarter then to think nothing would be broken after driving a drunk Finn home, I was concerned about which one of my things were the unluckiest.

“nothing...” he drawled, but the clinking didn’t stop. “I really like this pot thing, do you like, boil tea in here?” I turned briefly to see him looking around, as if in search for the nonexistent stove.

“that’s one of my nice ones, don’t break-“Finn drops the pot “it” I sigh and turn around, watching the road. As I drove, Finn mumbled things every now and again, I thought it was just drunk babbling before I took a glance into the rear-view mirror. My eyes widened in shock, I could see another figure there, sitting with him on the floor of the van

“what in the world!” I shouted but before I could process anything, a squirrel had sprinted into the road, getting caught in my headlights. If I hadn’t known of my lack of talent, I would have thought myself to be some type of multitasking god, I swerved the car in time missing the squirrel, but with the roads narrow and the absence of light that would be in the midnight hours, I made a little bit too much of a right angle. I panicked, knuckles turning white on the steering wheel until the road ahead is replaced with a big birch tree, and a branch shatters glass, shoving its way into the window shield.                                                             ***** My head is pounding when I come to, stubby fingernails picking at the small gash on the right side of my forehead.

“jesus..” I muttered, trying to remember what had happened.

“That was a close one...” someone said from beside me, my eyes squinted, before opening all the way, slowly turning my head towards the passenger seat. “who the hell are you?” I ask, pausing “and where’s Finn?” I ask, “what the fucks going on!” I ask “relax kid, I’m the guy that’s been living in that shitty lamp your friend has been messing around with.” When my vision focused on the person, all I could look at were their blindingly bright blue eyes, I was more than confused and was pretty certain I was either in the afterlife, or had entered complete nirvana, it crossed my mind I would have to somehow contact Granddad and tell him his Christmas gifts are amazing if the latter really was the case. “yeah Al, don’t even, like, worry” hiccup “this guy, he’s pretty chill,” Finn’s voice can be heard from the back of the van and I crane my injured neck to narrow my eyes at him. A wasted Finn would definitely not be here if I were in complete and blissful peace. I make to get up, but the blue-eyed man stops me with his hand. “alright, before you move let me explain a few things.” He says this like it’s been rehearsed, like he’s said it before, and times before that too. “shouldn’t we get outta the car? What if it blows up-“before I can even take another breath after my sentence Finn and I are sitting outside of the car in lawn chairs, the blue eyed man sits in some kind of Lazy Boy recliner, it looks like real leather too. “what the f-“ I’m in shock, where are the chairs coming from? Why aren’t we in the van? Who the hell is this guy? I turn to Finn, seeing him smiling lopsidedly, he doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. “My names Ebony, when you picked up that lamp from “Vintage, Hipster Thrifted Finds” I thought for sure you were gunna drop it in the parking lot, but you didn’t.” He sighs, pausing for a minute, a glass of water materializing in his hands. He takes a sip. “So, you didn’t, shockingly. But now, after a few years, this guy,” he points to Finn exaggeratedly and Finn smiles proudly “Has freed me!”  Ebony snaps his fingers and we’re standing in the middle of a baseball field, thousands of people cheering on the teams they’re rooting for, in the next second, we’re back at the unfortunate sight of my busted van, and I’m still just as confused as before. “That was for the sound effects” Ebony shrugs, turning on the massage machine built into his reclining chair. “alright let me get this straight, you’re like some sort of magical being?” I say my eyebrows still resting just below my hairline, I can’t believe that I’m even considering the impossible, but at this point, meeting a genie would probably be the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and if I’m dead, my brain’s obviously experiencing the effects of DMT and I should enjoy it while it lasts. “well yes I’m magical I guess, but usually people call me a Jinn, or, a genie.” He shrugs, acting like its no big deal, his shoulders reaching long brown hair when they lift slightly. I stare on but eventually the tension falls from my face “that’s sick.” I say and Finn nods melodramatically in agreement.                                                           ***** “c’mon Finn, the obvious first wish would be to get some money man,” I say walking around and towards Finn, still slumped in a lawn chair.

“Yeah, but that’s exactly what he wants us to do,” Finn conspires, but I can’t bring myself to take him seriously since most of his words are rushed and slurred.

After going through the acceptance stage that any normal human being would after their thrifted lamp broke, and a magic genie appeared out of thin air, we later came to learn the rules and oaths a genie swears by.

“number one,” Ebony says in a serious tone, eyes flickering between mine and Finn’s “a genie can only grant three wishes and you can’t wish for more wishes.” “oh come on” Finn whines, getting nothing but a glare in return from Ebony. “Rigged” Finn shouts, but quickly slumps back into his lawn chair.

“number two,” Ebony continues, ignoring Finn and getting up from his chair, when he stands, the chair disappears like smoke when it’s carried into the wind. “no world peace bullshit, I’ve been living in a lamp for thousands of years, that stuffs so boring,” he walks around us, his blue eyes never wavering from our stares, “world peace isn’t boring,” I challenge, knowing well I shouldn’t test my luck, arguing against the rules and beliefs of genieisum, “I think world peace would actually be one of the most fulfilling wishes of all time.” I nod to myself, as if I’m agreeing with what had been said, although it came from my own mouth. “yeah yeah whatever, don’t try me pal, I’m the one with the powers.”

And so, it goes, we listened to Ebony share his two most prized “Laws of a Genie” he claims to live and die by (even though its clear he’s immortal) and now Finn and I have spent a good twenty minutes arguing beside the road, trying to think of a good first wish.

“if he wants us to wish for money fine! Then we’re all happy.” I counter, knowing Finn is not in the right state to make any sort of rational decision, especially one involving magic and the mythological. “Ok,” a pause, “ok. So, If we do wish for like, wish for some money,” Finn talks slowly, leaning his head on his hand, elbow resting on the chair’s arm. “What are we gunna do with it?”

I look at the genie in exasperation and he rolls his eyes, snapping his fingers quickly, four trash bags full of money immediately catch my eye beside the van. “ok now we’re getting somewhere.” I say with excitement, smiling. After a beat, I turn to Finn to see him staring off into space. “one wish down, two wishes to go!” Ebony shouts, catching Finn’s attention.

“I want to, be, in like a show, but only for twenty minutes or something.” He squints, I could practically see the gears turning in his head. “like Seinfeld, I wanna be Jerry Seinfeld at least ones in my life.” He says this with clarity, like it’s on everyone’s bucket list. Ebony’s eyes flicker to me in question, I shrug. “ok, Seinfeld, have fun,” Ebony snaps his fingers again and we’re in Manhattan, Monk’s Café, sitting across from each other in a dark brown booth, exactly like the show.

“I can’t tell if this was a complete waste of a wish, or the best experience I’ll ever have,” I whisper yell to Finn who’s holding his mouth, stifling laughter, sat beside us are George and Elaine. They have a conversation amongst each other almost identical to that of the episode, when Jerry’s lines come, Finn’s mouth moves as if it has its own mind, and a voice that is definitely not Finn’s and completely Jerry’s comes out followed by queued laughter, I jump when I hear it, looking around in surprise. Finn and I’s eyes meet, and we stare at each other in shock, laugher bubbling up from how absurd this whole situation is. “dude. Say something, screw up the lines!” I say, George and Elaine don’t even hear me, I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t get to be a character. As George goes on a monologue about how his plans are to now do the opposite of anything he regularly would, explaining, he’s screwed up his life by trying to do all the right things, I turn to Finn, encouraging him to say something out of Jerry’s character. He sits there, thinking, while his mouth moves, Jerry’s original lines spouting out. Before he can say anything and change the original script, everyone turns at the same time to gape at me, “By the way, who’s this guy?” George asks frowning. My eyebrows raise, before I can respond, we are zapped back to reality and Ebony looks at us unimpressed.  

“man, we should have asked for thirty minutes,” Finn sighs, stumbling back towards his lawn chair, I nod. “that was six minutes, you guys were about to tear a hole in time and space, destroying reality as it is and everything that exists at this moment would no longer be the same.” Ebony looks at me and rolls his eyes. “what! You never said any of that when we wished for it,” I shouted in vexation. “Yeah,” Ebony says, dumbfoundedly, “I’m a genie, I’m pretty sure we’re known for deception,” Finn sighs, leaning off his chair and sitting on the grass. “whatever, that was still amazing.” “ok, one, final wish.” Ebony says with fake dramatics “make it count!”                                                          ***** “you blinked!” hollered Finn “we weren’t-““you blinked,” Finn cut Ebony off, dragging the “u” in “you” like any drunken person would with impaired speech. Ebony turned to me, eyebrows raised and crossed at the same time, the facial expression of complete and utter confusion, one I am very familiar with. “I’m staring at you,” he turns back to Finn, slowly annunciating his words, “because we’ve been standing out here for twenty minutes and both of you haven’t wished for anything since that waste of a wish on Seinfeld,” he sighs “Seinfeld is actually one of the greatest sitcoms of all time in my opinion,” I say, fist bumping Finn’s fist that has been hanging loosely off his arm rest. “yeah sure, and ‘That 70s Show’ was filmed in the seventies,” Ebony says sarcastically, “It wasn’t?” I ask, He sighs, closing his eyes tightly.                                                        ***** I turn to Finn and really look closely at his face, he is completely out of it and not at all aware that my eyes were scanning over his features, vision going in and out of focus like a camera lens not quite sure what the central object is. Then, an idea came to me. “ok, final wish,” I started, immediately catching Ebony’s attention, “I wish I could ask Finn anything and he would have to soberly and brutally be honest with me.”  The genie looks at me and then at Finn, “Okay,” he says simply and snaps his fingers.                                                        *****                                          Finn’s Point of View

The colours on Al’s van are pretty, it’s mainly a blue that’s not quite blue, or, a green that’s not quite green. I settle with breen, and I can’t seem to blink my eyes when I focus too hard on it. I hear the snap of the genie’s fingers and it echoes against my skull, as if we were all standing at the bottom of a well, and in that well, we were attending some kind of underground poetry slam, one where snapping wasn’t opted out for jazz hands yet, I remember how angry Al was about that. I see Al’s face in front of me now, blocking my view of the van, when I concentrate on his face, I notice his eyes are breen too.

“Hey Finn , mind if I ask you a few questions?” he asks this softly, insecurity and embarrassment laced in his voice. I want to say of course, or why not, or why wouldn’t I let you “sure,” I say.  

“Okay.”

And he’s quiet for a long time, my eyes attempt to waver above his head, catching a glimpse of the van when, “why do you hate me so much?” and its almost too low to hear, it takes a hold of my intoxicated brain, swimming around in my temporal lobe, before sobering me up a little too quickly.

“I don’t,” I say, frowning “I know I’m not the best roommate, but I never hated you.” His eyes are looking anywhere except my own and I can tell he’s trying to believe me. “then why’d you act like it,” he pauses, “like, the only time I hang around with you is when you need a ride somewhere,” I look down in shame at this, because I know its true. “I’m sorry,” is all I can say, literally, I tried to say, ‘of course not’ or ‘I would never�� but it got stuck in my throat like a piece of chip when it goes down sideways.

“alright, this is really touching, but you have some company,” the genie, Ebony, says with his arms crossed, uncrossing them only to point towards the police car driving down what once was a deserted back road. He puts his sirens on briefly, and I would argue, pointlessly, only to roll up beside us slowly.  

“and on that note, its been fun guys,” Ebony laughs before disappearing into the darkness, as if we were hallucinating him the whole time. The cop opens his door, grabbing a flashlight before slamming it and turning the light in the direction of our faces. I stand from my chair, squinting, and Al raises from his crouched position, we try and act natural but the branch halfway through the van’s windshield gave us away.

“you guys alright? Seems like you got into an accident,” he says, but its not really a question, its more of a ‘Law and Order’ line the cop gives you when they know you’ve been up to something. “no, no, officer, I mean yes we’ve been in an accident but, but-“Al’s voice fades out when we watch the cop point his flashlight into the trash bags. “shit.”

                                                      Epilogue

“So that’s how you became friends,” I chuckle at that, I was hanging around with Gale and Peter, Al was off somewhere, probably at an antique shop.

“yes, I thought you would quit asking, I told you all this when my mom bailed me out last month,” after the whole genie, money, van situation, it was tough explaining anything to anybody. Al and I however, stayed close, bonding over our shared experience and horrible wishing skills. Although I tried, my detailed reciting of the past events was to no avail, because as we all sat crossed legged on the floor of my dorm room, I could tell by Peter’s face he didn’t believe my story. *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

“hang on,” I say before getting up to get the door, when they think I’m out of ear shot, I catch the bed creak and then, “Man, you try acid once,”

The End.