#for 8000$ per month; I will stop

[zytes]

sorry. yeah, this is continue to happen as long as my homies keep having funny ideas.

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[reactionimagearchive]

[disengaged]

got banned from tinder for being trans #girlpower

[nihilistvet]

How To Keep Productivity And Motivation During The War?

It is my first post on Medium this year. And it has nothing to do with Vue.js. That doesn’t mean I suddenly quit programming. I have a full-time job, which regularly provides me with coding challenges. Recently I was writing the E2E tests for the first time, which was painful. Also, I am currently working on a small pet project, where I’m trying to implement new features more flexibly and less stressful. I have a project board on GitHub, but no sprint goals or strict deadlines. Besides, I am a participant in the WWCode Kyiv Mentoring Program, where I met a talented and motivated mentee. I’ve been consulting her on her way to becoming a web developer, and I hope the process is insightful for both of us. Today I want to talk about mental health and motivation during the war. It is hard to believe and accept, but more than a year has passed since the russian troops invaded Ukraine. Over this time, Ukrainians learned what russian people were capable of: while their propaganda machine was spreading lies, the opposition kept silent, and the whole world was watching how their ordinary young men were looting, raping, and mutilating innocent civilians. But it isn’t a movie — we cannot press a stop button or leave a cinema anytime we want.

I’ve been staying in Kyiv for half a year now. The winter here was severe: the residents faced and courageously endured frequent shelling, several total blackouts, and the risk of potential evacuation. As for me, for the last couple of months, I mostly stayed at home, suffering from fear and apathy. Every time I went shopping, I couldn’t get rid of the thought: what if the russian missiles target my building next time? That affected my productivity and daily routine. After doing some work, I spent the rest of the day in bed. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t read books or watch movies. I couldn’t even use social media to distract myself. My feeds on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even Linkedin are full of messages about someone’s death on the battlefield. When I look at their pictures, those brave women and men, lots of them were younger than me, my heart clenches in pain.

The human body reacts differently to stress. I’ve read an article where Ukrainian IT specialists describe how the war affected their productivity. Most of them say that they experience difficulties focusing on tasks. Many people had to leave their homes and look for new places to live and work. That caused a loss of a favorable working environment and a general worsening of working conditions. Some people complain about problems with concentration and memory. They procrastinate, continuously read the news, and worry about the safety of their family. Some specialists lost their jobs. Admitting a problem At the same time, fewer people claim their productivity, on the contrary, increased. Work helped them to distract from the news; they felt enough energy and motivation to earn more money to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I wanted to be one of them, but how? The first and hardest step was to admit the problem. I spent day after day trying not to think about the future, eating sweets to reduce stress, until one day, I weight myself. The number I saw shocked me. All at once I realized I needed to change my way of life. Creating a plan I asked myself: what can I do besides working and sleeping? The first thing that came to my mind was to increase physical activity. I set myself a goal to spend more time outside walking and running. On the 1st of March, I went for my first run this season. 2 km for 14 minutes — that was the result. I used to run 10km+ daily a few years ago. Now I had to start from the beginning. So I tried to be patient. Two weeks later, I was able to run 4 km. On the days free of running, I go to the gym or walk. I plan to get 8000 steps per day no matter what. Sharing tiniest progress Daniel Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist best known for his research on the evolution of the human head and body, wrote a book about physical activity. He claims that sharing information about what you do can help to save motivation and not give up. So, I posted a thread on Twitter about my progress and got a lot of positive feedback. Also, I use apps to visualize my work and get some stats. I loved Avocation: you can plant a tree and watch how it grows after you do a planned activity. Awesome. Asking for help This week I am having a short vacation. I have a job where management cares about the wellness of employees, but not everyone is so lucky. Many people in my country cannot afford a break during the war. They have to make for living and support their families. That is why the advice to quit a job and go to Peru does not make sense. At the same time, physical exhaustion and permanent fear of your life cause anxiety, sleep disorder, and other mental health issues. It seems like a blind corner, and the only one who can help is a psychotherapist. War experiences for soldiers and civilians are different, but there is one thing we have in common — we all are traumatized. I did not mean to write a positive article. The honest answer to the question in the title is: there is no way to keep productivity and motivation while your nation suffers from violence you cannot imagine. I described a personal attempt to preserve the remains of mental health. I gained weight, and that was a signal for me to change my habits. I accept the possibility that my plan may not work. But I will enjoy the process, as long as I can, and that is what matters.

[americachavez]

for $9.99 a month I will block you so you cannot engage with my content and if you lapse in your subscription I will unblock you and subject you once again to my terrible posts

[beggars-opera]

How am I not on the catwalk of a lighthouse right now, in a big warm coat, long dress blowing behind me in the salt spray, tin cup of hot tea in hand, as I watch a clipper ship heading out to the horizon, the sound of a halyard shanty slowly fading into the distance and replaced by the steady sound of the waves

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

related to this long passage I transcribed, assuming he's not joking (and it feels like he's not) the implication that Schmitty will do "absolutely, positively, anything" for money is so much. like how far can you test his limits. could I pay for him to stop the nonsense. how long would it last.

[sasukesun]

You should stop saying that Naruto and Sasuke love each other, that's not true. Just because Kishimoto has made covers of them with the red thread of fate, wearing necklaces with each other's faces, art with them epresenting gods, yin and yang and in his own words they can't exist without each other. Just because the entire Naruto story focuses on both characters and how deep their bond is. Only because Naruto decided to chase for Sasuke because he wouldn't leave him face his pain on his own, that was determined to die with him, giving up his dream of being Hokage. That Sasuke is his driving force and the idea someone could kill him makes him panic attack or the fact that he tosses and turns in his bed without falling asleep thinking about Sasuke and wishes for Sasuke looking at a shooting star.

Just because Sasuke considers Naruto his one and only, because he protected him putting his life in danger even if that meant dying breaking the promise to avenge his family or that his sharingan woke up twice only because for Naruto. Only because he knows that as long as Naruto exists in the world he can never be truly alone and that is why he has to kill him or Sasuke claims that Naruto saved him.

Bella, they're just really good friends, just bros being bros.

i saw the notification and i was ready to post that “buy my silence 8000 per month” and then i opened it and… i guess this one is more appropriate

[oh-boy-me]

I'm a Mammon stan and literally had to stay up till 2 am to get my AP deal reset + plus carefully manage each of my dp for his bd UR 😭 I went into the event with 70+ DP thinking it'd be okay but as soon as I reached that 8000 pts I had no AP and only 2 DP left. I didn't even miss a day and used all my D-energy too :(( If you're going to increase the goal PLEASE JUST ALSO INCREASE THE PTS PER BATTLE.

Dealing with both the underwhelming story of the event (the conclusion was adorable that it was Luke's gift but a lot was also just not fun at all??) and grinding to get a UR was so tiring and I'm pretty sure I spent more time on the app these few days than the last month.

I actually think I know why the bday UR got harder to get!

It's because D-Energy exists now! That's a horrible reason but OM likes to add new rewards and then instead of condensing pt requirements to accommodate for those new rewards, they insert the new rewards and push everything else down. It happened when the addition of UR character cards made it harder to get the SSR, and now it's happened with the D-Energy pushing the UR birthday card back.

(The SSR requirements being harder too honestly makes even less sense tbh but like I've said at least that's doable and they kind of evened it out by making the SR easier to get. Actually wait if they made the SR easier why is the UR harder--)

Anyway, yeah the UR was already literally impossible to complete without spending 70-ish DP, and then they made that not be enough?? I didn't make the best use of my AP and missed some battles but I checked and you had to do 96 battles per day to get the UR. I don't remember how many battles came each day but that's 768 AP per day, when we only get a max of 438 free AP per day for free players (not counting the 200 AP sales). And considering that you miss out on most of that AP on day 1 because it starts at like 10 pm

You're also right when you say the event had some really great moments but also some really boring ones lol. I personally think the locked story had a better conclusion, but the bottom route was better overall.

OM please stop making very slight changes without adjusting things to match

Edit: I realize I was very inconsistent with my opinions on this event story lol.  I guess it’s best to say that I really appreciated the different direction it made, but it fluctuated between a really nice story and a considerably boring story depending on the chapter.

[lesbemums]

Honestly, the amount of time I spend talking and stressing about sperm is ridiculous, especially for a lesbian!!! Straight people, and especially the majority that don’t have fertility issues, have no idea how good they’ve got it.

My wife and I have both always wanted 3 children. However, making our son cost us around £8000. We both work full time and our jobs pay enough to live on, enough to put a way a bit of money each month, we’re comfortable! But it’s just not cutting it when it comes to saving for a second child. We’re worse off now than when we didn’t have a kid, our outgoings are higher having an extra person to feed and clothe and entertain. We’re running a second car and had to take a loan out to buy that second decent car when my old one broke down suddenly. I worked out that at the rate we can save, we can only do IUI twice a year. And it has a success rate of max 20%. How depressing is that? If we wanted to do IVF, it would take us YEARS to save for it. We really hoped we could have a two year age gap between our first two. And the third? We’ve pretty much had to give up on the idea of a third.

We’re in the UK so we don’t have things like insurance, all of our costs are out of pocket. The NHS won’t help in our area until we have 6 failed IUIs under our belts, that will cost us roughly £18,000. Whereas a straight couple has to try via the conventional method for 1 year and fail to get pregnant. Which is FREE. I get that they can’t automatically help us just because we lack sperm but it’s very frustrating.

I was really hoping to be able to afford to try twice more before the end of the year but the costs just keep adding up and making it less likely. Thanks to Brexit, there’s an extra 20% VAT on all things imported into the UK from Europe. Our sperm is shipped from Denmark due to the UK’s shortage, which means roughly an extra £200 per vial of sperm we ship over (we already pay 20% VAT on the sperm when we buy it as well!!!). (I totally voted against Brexit btw and feel even more justified in doing so now.) It also costs €300 for shipping. My wife’s blood test checks ran out in June so we’ve got to fork out for those to be done before our clinic will do my IUIs. Once we get the sperm shipped to our clinic, they will charge us £400 to store it. Currently they’re still charging £100 per COVID test as a precaution (over-cautious in my opinion), so if they don’t get rid of those by the time we try again, it’ll cost us £200 per cycle as they require 2 each time. So it’s not just the £1000 per vial of sperm and £1500 per IUI cycle. It’s mounting up.

My mum and step dad have been really great through all this. They gave us money to help out before we made our first, that bought my wife’s first properly reliable car (and a bit extra when we couldn’t quite swing it), they bought our travel system for kiddo #1 which was pricey! And they’ve already given us £2000 to make #2 which is gone already after the first attempt and all pre-testing that I needed. They’re going to help out again in a few months by paying for a round of IUI too, which I’m so grateful for. But still I’m not sure we can afford the 2 rounds by the end of the year! I’m now even at the point of considering asking for help from other family members. I’ve literally never asked for money my whole life.

I’m really reluctant to have to do any fertility stuff January - March because of the sporadic but often quite bad snow that we’ve got the last few years. It’s a 60 mile drive to our clinic and I had a car accident due to the snow in 2018 so I have major anxiety about driving in the snow. And my wife has major anxiety about motorway driving after a lorry knocked her off the road shortly after my accident. So driving around that time is not ideal. But can we afford the tries we’re hoping for before that? I don’t know.

The next stress is our sperm donor’s stock is running out. Every time I look it’s gone down, and in fact since I last looked, it’s gone down by about 30 vials. There’s only 60ish left total, 23 left of the MOT20 that we buy. The other vials are an extra €400 as they’re MOT30. We’re buying 2 vials for our 2 attempts, but will have to keep a check on them and buy more if we can if it gets crazy low. We really want to use the same donor if we can, so our kids can at least be genetic half siblings. Our donor has no quotas left for UK, which means that there are 10 families that have bought sperm from him in this country. That’s not counting how many from Europe where they don’t have a cap in most countries. So the remaining sperm could sell out FAST with that many people using it!

With the sperm stock being so low, we’ve decided only 2 more IUI attempts and then it’s time for IVF. We’re hoping to avoid having to do something so invasive but we can’t afford to keep trying IUI if the sperm is going to run out. We can’t afford to buy that many vials. The only hope we have of doing IVF is taking out a loan. This stresses me out further since we already have a loan for our car and our outgoings are high. When I’m off on maternity leave, most of that time I’ll only be paid statutory maternity pay which is about £150 a week. It’s good that we get paid, I know a lot of countries don’t get that, but with that much of a pay cut, we’ll be living pay check to pay check, and if we take out loans, I don’t know if we’ll even be able to get by.

If I could live my life without ever having to hear about straight people getting knocked up by accident, that would be great, thanks! It’s so hard to not have access to sperm. Also, if people would stop telling us that there’s ‘no good time to have a kid’ and that everyone thinks they won’t be able to afford it (when they’re clearly not thinking about the fact that we’re concerned about the cost of MAKING a child, not keeping one alive).

All I want is another child, my body knows it’s time, I’m yearning for a baby that doesn’t even exist yet. Waiting is killing me, and not knowing how much time it will take is the worst. And the ultimate agony is knowing that we can’t just keep trying. It feels like we’re in the process of trying since our first failed IUI in May, but each month there’s no chance of success. Every month when I start getting PMS symptoms, the very same symptoms as you might get in early pregnancy, I get sad because I know it’s just PMS. There’s no chance of a baby.

I just want my baby.

[frances-baby-houseman]

This series is very good, but like... what does it matter if the only people paying attention are moms sharing it back and forth? Stop calling working moms fucking superheroes and give us 4000 Biden bucks a month per child. That’s what I want. 8000 dollars a month.

[simoncardonefishes]

River Baits

By Simon Cardone

Soaking a bait in the Murray River and its tributaries would have to be one of the most relaxing methods of fishing that I regularly participate in. Not only can you expect to tangle with a range of species, but the rigs and techniques used are simple, and the surrounding environment is stunning.  

Bait fishing can be done all year round in the river, however when the surface water temperature is greater than 18c native fish such as callop, silver perch and catfish will all be in feeding mode , particularly in the shallow margins hunting down shrimp, yabbies and small baitfish. This means shore based fishers can get good numbers as well as the boaties.

So let’s take a species by species look at how to get the most out of your next bait fishing session on the mighty Murray River.

Golden Perch (Callop/Yellowbelly)

Golden Perch are the most widely distributed and plentiful native fish in the Murray-Darling Basin. Minimum legal length in South Australia is 33cm and the daily bag limit is five per person. The flesh is white and has a very mild flavour, suited to steaming or baking whole, or shallow frying the fillets. A camp favourite recipe of ours is the cut the boneless and skinned fillets into fish fingers, lightly dust with flour, salt, pepper and cook in a frying pan with butter and olive oil over coals from the fire until crispy on the outside. Washed down with a cold beverage of your choice – a perfect entrée out in the bush!

Live baits will generally produce the best results when fishing for callop, with shrimp, small yabbies and big worms such as scrub worms being the pick. If you can’t source live bait, frozen peeled prawns will also work.

I prefer a simple running sinker straight to the hook for shore based fishing. When there is no current to contend with a ball sinker of 5-15g will be plenty. Hook size is governed by bait size, so long shanked or bait keeper hooks sizes 2 to 6 for worms, and octopus or circle patterns sized 4 to 2/0 for shrimps and yabbies. 2500-4000 sized spin reels spooled with 10-15lb braid and fluorocarbon or mono leader of the same breaking strain will be ample.  Rods with a 3-6kg rating and 7ft in length are ideal.

Fish with two rods if possible, with one cast deep and the other shallow. Target any nearby structure as this is where you will find the perch. Fishing with two different bait types will also help you ascertain the fish’s particular preference on the day. Please do not leave rods unattended. This will help prevent fish swallowing baits deep and aid the successful release of our precious native fish if you are not keeping one for a feed.

Once you have cast your bait into a likely looking area wind in just enough slack line to leave a slight belly in the line and set your rod in a rod holder angled as close as possible to the water. Goldens will hit your bait two ways. Method one is a very soft “fumbly’ take – watch your rod tip closely and if it is moving erratically for more than a few seconds try and set the hook with a swift upright strike of the rod. This seems to be their preferred method for eating worm baits. Bite number two will leave you in no doubt as the perch hoovers in a shrimp or small yabby with gusto.

When bait fishing for callop from a boat, this is best done vertically amongst the snags. “Bobbing” your presentation slowly up and down at regular intervals will soon attract any nearby fish. A standard paternoster style rig will work, but I still prefer a small running sinker straight to the hook. The best snags will be those with many branches that are submerged and cover a range of depths – see accompanying picture. The beauty about the large red gum snags is that you can reposition your boat and therefore your bait periodically to find a hungry native before moving onto your next location. On a good day, you will get your bag off the one tree!

Callop bait fishing hotspots to try are Morgan, Swan Reach and Walker Flat.

Murray Cod

Given that murray cod are a catch and release option only in South Australian waters I don’t see much point in bait fishing for this species. However if you do travel over the border into New South Wales and Victorian waters where you are allowed to keep a legal sized fish for a feed in season then it’s game on.

Cod are the river’s definition of a “greedy guts” and nothing is off the menu when it comes to bait. We have caught them on raw chicken, mozzarella and tasty cheeses, cooked chicken nuggets, dim sims, shrimp, worms, bardi and wood grubs, and yabbies.

You can readily catch small cod in most places that have suitable habitat upstream from Renmark all the way through to the upper Murray. Fishing along weed lines and undercut clay banks is always a good bet for a slot sized cod (55-75cm in season). But if you are after a murray monster on bait you need to fish big baits in tight to old snags positioned in deep water. Your tackle needs to be tough for this sort of close quarter combat as once hooked up to a big murray there will be no second chances, you win or they win – very quickly! 50lb main line whether it be mono or braid as a minimum, and traces up to 100lb. If you use a swivel make sure it is rated to at least 50kg, and only high quality heavy gauge hooks in octopus or circle patterns 4/0 to 8/0 should be used. I prefer to snell my hooks about 10cm apart regardless of the bait I’m using. I find that I get a better hook-up rate by having two baited hooks together.

Rods rated in the 10 -24kg range and around 6ft in length matched to 4000-8000 sized spin reels or 200 size or larger bait cast/overhead reels with drags of 10kg + should give you enough stopping power for most fish.

As with lure fishing for cod, make sure you have all your tools laid out and ready to go particularly if you plan on releasing your fish; glove, lip grips, landing net, bragmat, pliers, bolt cutters and of course a camera.

Cod bait fishing hotspots to try are Cadell, Wentworth (NSW) & Robinvale (NSW).

Silver Perch and catfish

“Silvers” and “catties” are both classified as endangered by fisheries in both SA and NSW and must be returned to the water unharmed. Both these species suffered greatly from overfishing and habitat degradation for many years due to the fact that unlike cod and callop they tend to have a limited range and thus populations can get wiped out quickly.

Thanks now to fisheries management, stocking and habitat restoration works across the murray-darling basin for the past two decades it is now possible to tangle with both of these remarkable fish when bait fishing for callop, especially in the warmer months in shallow water.  We have had bait fishing sessions where we have caught more silvers and catties than callop and carp, which is a good sign for the future.

Those who are old enough to remember will tell you both of these fish are superb on the plate, but for now it’s strictly catch, photograph and release in the Murray river.

Carp

It is estimated by the Australian government Department of Environment that carp make up 90% of fish biomass in some areas of the river murray. This is a frightening statistic, but if you look at carp populations across the basin it becomes clear that you will find carp favour areas of degraded habitat and shallow lakes/lagoons. On the other hand, healthy sections of the river with plenty of snags, riparian vegetation, rock bars and good flow will see native fish proliferate.

From an angling perspective, this makes it easy to pick locations to tangle with “mud marlin”. Many public access areas along the SA section of the lower murray are what I would call badly degraded in terms of habitat, i.e. devoid of native vegetation, a silted or sandy bottom and banks choked with invasive willow trees – carp paradise!

Given that carp grow to enormous sizes and can be found in great numbers year round in shallow water equals great fun for anglers of all abilities. In my opinion they are the best fish for kids to learn how to use fishing gear correctly and safely and also how to play the fish correctly and into the waiting net.

In terms of gear to use I prefer to fish with lighter lines and outfits than I would normally use for callop so I can experience the thrill of the fight of these powerful fish, however using the same gear is fine if you don’t have a big fishing budget or if space is at a premium when you travel.

For me a typical backwater carp setup is a 7ft graphite rod with a parabolic action rated at 2-4kg matched to a 2500 sized reel loaded with 10lb braid and a rod length of 6 pound fluorocarbon leader. If I can see plenty of carp cruising around I will just put a tiny ball sinker on to assist with casting and bait either a size 4 circle hook or size 8 bait holder hook with maggots, corn or worms. You can literally cast towards cruising fish and expect them to belt your offering almost immediately when they are active.

When the weather is cooler and the fish are deeper I substitute the sinker for a sliding berley spring packed with pre mixed berley or bread to draw the fish towards my bait. Periodically throwing out handfuls of berley pellets will also help when the bite is tough.

I’ve said it many times before, but for the benefit of newcomers to this style of fishing; please don’t leave your rod unattended with a tight drag – this is a recipe for disaster and will result in you losing your outfit into the drink. Even a moderate sized carp can make your favourite combo disappear in the blink of an eye!

Carp is a noxious species and must not be returned to the water alive, so please dispose of them thoughtfully and don’t leave them rotting on the bank. Bury them in you your garden for fertilizer, or freeze them and utilize for carp/cray baits. At the very least bag them up and bin them. I know there are many people who actually regard them highly as table fish as they do in Europe and Asia, but for my money I’ll eat a golden perch any day!

Redfin (English Perch)

Definitely the tastiest fish in the river is the reddie aka “inland whiting”. When I was growing up they used to be a regular catch, but are harder to find these days. I seem to catch more reddies from Bowhill right down to Lake Alexandrina these days.

Fishing methods and locations are exactly the same as fishing for callop. Redfin are also classified as noxious, so they are only to be released directly into your esky. Beer battered skinned redfin and chips is match made in heaven.

One Percenters

You never stop learning when it comes to fishing, and this certainly applies to bait fishing in the river. Little things can make a big difference, so some additional points to consider;

-        When a river is rising, try using grub baits and worms. When a river is steady or falling use yabby and shrimp baits.

-        Bait fishing at night during summer is very effective for native species, if fishing from the bank a glow stick attached to your rod tip will help with bite detection.

-        Check hooks for sharpness before and during each fishing session. Replace as necessary.

-        Check leaders and traces for any signs of wear. Replace as necessary

-        Practice knot tying at home. Be confident in your ability to tie good knots. Some good knots I recommend you master are: locked blood knot, uni knot, Albright knot, spider hitch, dropper loop and the perfection loop.

-        Pre tying traces at home and putting into labelled sandwich bags in your tacklebox/bag will save you time on the water and ensure you don’t miss out on fish feeding windows.

-        If you can time your bait fishing missions with a sharply rising or falling barometer, you will be more likely to encounter a hot bite.

While bait fishing in the river is a relaxing pastime and generally will produce fish regularly for even a novice angler, I hope that some of the species specific tips and techniques I have outlined here will help improve your catch rate this Easter period and well into the future. Enjoy your time on the river and make some memories!

[theculturedmarxist]

The state of California has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

On New Year’s Eve, 585 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state, making up more than one seventh of all deaths from the virus reported in the United States that day. More than 2.4 million people, in a state of 39 million, have been infected, with nearly 39,000 more diagnosed Sunday.

In Los Angeles, San Diego, and the entirety of Southern and Central Valley California, hospital intensive care units have entirely run out of space. On January 1, there were over 20,000 people hospitalized throughout the state, by comparison at the height of the spike on July 8 only 8000 were hospitalized.

The flood of coronavirus cases has exposed the underfunded, unprepared health care system in the richest state in the country. The Los Angeles Times reports that “hospitals are scrambling to find staff” and that there is a “chronic shortage of oxygen tanks.” The paper quoted Christina Ghaly, the Los Angeles County director of health services, who described non-COVID outpatient services as down to a “skeleton crew.” She said the county was on the “brink of catastrophe.”

Ambulances in Los Angeles county are waiting up to eight hours to offload their patients at hospitals, according to Cathy Chidester, director of Los Angeles County’s Emergency Medical Services. In some instances, ambulances are being redirected, or potential patients simply sent home.

A nurse in Southern California sent the World Socialist Web Site a photo of a refrigerated semi-truck that had just arrived at the hospital they work east of Los Angeles. Hospitals and mortuaries across the state are placing rental orders for similar units to handle the mounting casualties as they overwhelm the healthcare system.

Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles told ABC 7 news that itself and every other funeral home they know are past their capacity to handle bodies. The owner reports that it is removing bodies at six times its normal rate.

The Southern California nurse spoke to the WSWS about how the lack of staffing is a critical issue in the unfolding catastrophe.

“We are stretched so thin, the more patients we take care of the less we can safely take care of,” she said. Continuing, “I hate to say it but when you’re exhausted maybe you miss things, maybe doctors will miss things.”

“The other morning, I had three deaths by 9 a.m. and my shift started at 6 a.m.… Recently we had a 25-year-old who died and his only comorbidity was obesity. He was crying and scared to be intubated. He was a little boy. His heart gave out and he died. Another nurse was there holding his hand because his mom wasn’t there.”

“When you are in the moment you do everything you can, you are numb to things, but after I heard [another patient] was doing better I sat in the car and cried for an hour. It doesn’t mean she is out of the woods yet but after so much death, we take these victories.”

There is a large outbreak of the virus among the tens of thousands of homeless people living in Los Angeles. In the fall, recorded cases among the homeless were at 60 a week in the city. It has since risen in the last week to almost 550 a week. Rev. Andrew Bales, director of Union Rescue Mission, told the Los Angeles Times, “all of skid row and many agencies/missions are hot spots. All are overwhelmed.”

Because of the lag between infection and symptoms, the impact of both Christmas and New Year’s activities and shopping are only beginning to result in hospitalizations. Because of these, epidemiologists predict January may easily be a more deadly month than December.

Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center, warned CNN of a “total collapse of the health care system” if case numbers continue to rise.

Because of the inadequacy of medical services, including insufficient medical workers, emergency medical workers have deployed to various parts of the state. The Army Core of Engineers have now been deployed to Los Angeles County to supplement the inadequate oxygen supplies of the area. In the Central Valley region, a poorer area dominated by agriculture, 1200 emergency medical workers were sent last week to treat patients as hospitalization from the pandemic more than doubled in several counties last month.

In statements made over the weekend, Los Angeles’ Democratic mayor Eric Garcetti sought to blame the pandemic on the population, remarking, “It’s so critical we change our behavior. Everybody’s doing something but everybody can do more.” The hypocrisy of this statement is staggering. In Los Angeles, major malls are open, with thousands of people inside. Factories are open. The film industry is open.

Garcetti, alongside other California Democrats have sought to place the blame of the pandemic on workers and small business owners, while insisting that the major operations of money making remain open throughout the state. Lockdown measures that do nothing to halt the major public spreads of the virus, while leaving workers and small business owners penniless, are hypocritical and fully inadequate to stop the virus.

Last Wednesday, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom even announced plans for the reopening of California’s schools, which includes a significant, $450 per student, financial incentive to school districts that achieve reopening. A financial incentive like this could pressure officials to fudge infection numbers like they have in Florida.

[olliya]

Self-stats

So, I made time-course graphs of readership parameters overlayed with my fandom activity.

Data is only from ff.net because AO3 is useless in this aspect.

So those are unique visitors of all my stories per month. (A visitor is counted as unique in intervals of 24 hours. I.e. no matter how many times you open or refresh the story within 24 hours, you will be still counted as one visitor).

In the upper section I noted “promotional events” - participation in 3 fandom events, and this wonderful fanart that I got from @yomi-gaeru​ that skyrocketed Dreamt’s views (gone in the purge, available on yomi-gaeru’s Pixiv).

The fics with longer names are abbreviated for the sake on convenience, but I believe the abbreviations are self-explanatory enough.

Long-running multichapter fics are marked with horizontal arrows in the lower section of the graph. One shots (and one two-shot) are marked above the multichapters with small arrows pointing to the timepoint of publication.

The total views for all stories (graph below) are not much different in terms of the shape of the curve, but this graph describes more realistically the amount of reading that was done by the public, because every chapter is counted as a separate “view”. The numbers on the axis reflect how many “chapter units” (chapters or oneshots) were read. However, refreshing, or opening the fic/chapter multiple times generates additional, false “views”.

So, now I could see really clearly that for a veeery long time “Dreamt” was my only popular story. Not that I didn’t know it before, but it’s nice to see the graphs. (Btw, what luck did I have that my first ever story turned out to be a hit!). “Dreamt” generated lots of views during its publication, and during its revision. After I completed it, the readership dropped very quickly, and “Gen to Yume” (a sequel to “Dreamt”) very quickly lost interest of the readers. And then there was almost two years when none of my stories (except “Dreamt” revision) didn’t really catch up with the readers.

“Dreamt” was read ca. 8000 times per month during its publication and revision. (though there should be a correction factor for the ‘false’ views, but I don’t have an idea yet how to correct for those)

And then, in summer 2019, my stories gain momentum. Or maybe it was the effect of me publishing more, because now that I look at this graph, I’m pretty damn impressed about the number of fics I produced...

The impact of participation in Fandom Events is clearly visible in the both graphs above, and even better when one looks at Profile Visitors (graph below). So, as expected participation in the events indeed pays off.

The sharp peak in Profile Visitors in September 2017 is people finishing “Dreamt” and going through my profile to open the freshly published “Gen to Yume”. The peak in December 2017 correlates with completion of “Gen to Yume”, but I don’t really understand it.

Nevertheless, I looked for a common denominator that would distinguish my popular stories from those less popular... The choice was pretty obvious: MadaSaku or not-MadaSaku (graph below):

I categorized my fics into: MadaSaku, Background MadaSaku and Other. And it’s pretty clear now: the more MadaSaku I write, the more momentum my readership gains.

Why is it? Is it because there is a niche that is not quite filled, that the readers are hungry for MadaSaku fics? Or is it something that I write particularly well? Or was I categorized as MadaSaku writer because of “Dreamt” and this is how my following is oriented?

Not gonna complain, Madara is my favourite character, and MadaSaku is my OTP. But it would be nice to know. Anyone care to share their opinion?

Also, as a tangent observation - regular updates seem to be very important. When there is a break, the readership starts more less from the level on which it stopped by the previous update. When the updates come in quick succession - the readership is larger for every chapter.

Wow, that was really self-indulgent. But so fun. And I like having some documentation. Also, maybe publishing my readership data can contribute somehow to the feedback debate. On this note, I'd like to state that throughout those “best” months I was receiving 40-60 reviews per month.

[okruee]

buy my silence

Buy My Silence. Permanently.

$8000 per month

For $8000 a month, I will stop

[agentpeggicarter]

Animal Crossing Guide

I’ve seen a lot of posts in the animal crossing fandom asking similar questions so I thought I would make a guide to clear the air and help everyone. I will update and add information as I experiment with the game, and new information comes to light. 

To start off with you should download this app if you can because it can help you keep track of bugs, and fish you can catch during the month as well as the various times. It also keeps track of your fossils for you, once you put them in of course, and shows you how close you are to completion. 

Now! On to the Q and A!

Tips:

Your island spawns 6 rocks that you can hit for clay, and stone; if you use the flimsy axe, and iron if you use the stone axe, ax, and shovel. 1 rock will be the money rock and give you 100 to up to 8000 bells. If hit 8 times your bells are as followed: 100, 200, 300, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 for a grand total of 16,100 bells 

Your island randomly spawns 4 fossils that you have to dig up to give to Blathers for the fossil section of your museum 

There will always be a message in a bottle when you start a new day so be sure to check your beach.

There is always one glowing section on your island per day, it’s for your money tree. You dig up 1000 bells and if planted get 3000 bells. once picked of the bells the tree will not grow more, so don’t worry abt checking them everyday.

Shake your non-fruit trees with your net in hand, you can get resources from them like tree branches, but also items fall from them, as well as bells, and with your net in hand if you shake a wasp down you have better odds of catching it then getting stung.

Your villagers make 3 diys every day. The villagers who makes them will be different everyday, so be sure to check in with everyone who is home. The times also verify, but its usually one until noon, one from noon to five/six, and one from five/six to nine/ten. Your villager will craft it for awhile so be sure to share with your friends!

If you talk to Sable enough times she will start to give you custom fabric for your furniture for when you customize it. Be sure to talk to her every day after to get one to continue getting it, miss a day and you will have to start over.

Visit Resident services every day and log on to the terminal to get a streak going for nook miles, seven days in a row is 300

How do I get posters of animals to hang on my wall?

You first have to have Harvey (or Harv) visit your island and talk about the photo studio he has. Once he’s talked to you, you have to visit his island and enter a room where you start to decorate it. The last tab is residents, add them to the room and then when you leave the island and exit the airport Harv will call you and tell you about the posters you can buy which will be in nook shopping under special goods.

Can I sell to Flick or CJ on other islands?

Unfortunately you can not. You can talk with them and they will talk about bugs and fish, but it wont give you the option to sell anything to them. 

How does one get ants?

The only way I have found to get ants is from a rotten turnip on the grass. I originally had it on the stone path and I only got a flies. The other problem is you can’t put one turnip out, you will lose 10 turnips if you want an ant.

What if there is someone at my campsite that I want and my island is all full?

This happened to me and I will let you know that it’’s very stressful doing it without knowing anything. The good news is they tell you who they are going to evict and you can still say no. Before you do anything SAVE THE GAME, this is important because you can always turn off the system if you don’t like who they chose to move out.

 First you have to play a card game, basically pick a suit, with them and if you lose the camper will decide if they want to stay or not, mine said no. You can play again and they make the game easier, basically pick a color, when you win they will go ask Tom Nook if there is room, and then come back and say they are full do you still want to proceed in which case I said yes. Then they will talk about a rumor they heard of a certain villager wanting to move out. Now that is the random part. Once they give you the name there are two things you can do, you can say no and it stops the process or you can turn your game off and do it all over again until you get the name of a villager you want to leave. Thankfully i didn’t have to do this because they chose one I didn’t want any way so that worked out for me.

Why is there a random villager on my island that I did not invite?

The most annoying thing that happened to me. Two villagers set up shop on my island and I did not ask them to live here. Here is why.

Apparently when you get to the point where you are recruiting the last set of villagers for your island you are asked to buy plots from Tom Nook for 10,000 bells. I bought and placed all of mine within two days of each other but didn’t start filling them hoping that more villagers would come to my island via the campsite and I would ask them to move in. That was a mistake, cause apparently at the end of each day if you don’t have anyone in that house they will randomly assign someone there, and it will probably be someone you don’t want, which is what happened in my case. Be aware of your land and plan for a day of nookmile hunting for villagers or build plots as you need them.

How do I get different color flowers?

Each flower has 3 starter colors; red, yellow, white. From there you will have to make hybrids for the other colors. I’ve seen guides that give you various ways to get them, I’ve even done them and the standard checkerboard and they do work, but they work best when you have fellow animal crossing people help you by watering them. You have a better chance of getting the hybrids when you’re friends come over and water them. Below is the guide I use when I’m trying for hybrids and when my friends water them I get more of these hybrids. Mums is the only flower where you can get green and roses are the only ones who can give you gold. ( I have yet to figure out the gold, last I heard is you need the golden watering can, but I don’t know how accurate that is)

How do I display my designs at the Able sisters shop?

You can display 8 custom outfits you have made at the Able’s shop.

If you head to the back of the store where the sisters have two rows of outfits hanging from the wall that is where your work is displayed. Just stand in front of one of the four rows and click A, Mabel will ask you which row you are looking at, top or bottom, you select which row you are trying to change and she will tell you whats displayed there and what you want to do with it. Mabel gives you four options.

I want the design: If it’s not your design and you would like to save it to wear this is what you would click. You will have to delete a custom design to save the design there. Now you can wear this item whenever.

Display my work here: This is where you will display various outfits you have made with the pro designer.  Once you display an outfit your villagers will randomly wear them. It’s very cute.

Report: If there is a design thats offensive you can report it

Just Browsing: You just wanted to see who made the item on the wall and don’t want to save it.

I have turnips, but still want to time travel, will they spoil?

If you are moving forward in time the turnips will not spoil, it would be as if a new day had happened generically anyway, so no worries there. The two things you shouldn’t do if you have turnips is go backward in time or go farther than Saturday because once it’s Sunday it’s Daisy Mae Day and your turnips are spoiled.