#houston professional organizer

[severesoulavenue]

Revitalize Your Home: A Deep Dive into Residential Professional Organizing

In the ebb and flow of our daily lives, our homes often bear the brunt of our hectic schedules, accumulating clutter and chaos. This reality prompts a vital question: How can we revitalize our living spaces to foster a sense of order, calm, and purpose? The answer lies in the transformative realm of Residential professional organizer in houston—a journey that goes beyond surface-level tidying to breathe new life into your home.

The Art of Assessment

The journey to revitalize your home begins with a meticulous assessment. Professional home organizer houston bring a discerning eye to every nook and cranny, understanding not just the physical layout but also the nuances of your lifestyle. This deep dive allows them to grasp the unique challenges posed by your space, paving the way for a tailored approach to organization and revitalization.

Tailoring Solutions to Your Lifestyle

One size does not fit all in the world of residential organizing. Recognizing the individuality of each home and its inhabitants, professional organizers near me tailor solutions that seamlessly align with your lifestyle. Whether you are a busy professional, a parent juggling multiple responsibilities, or someone with specific spatial constraints, the deep dive into your unique circumstances ensures that the solutions implemented resonate with your daily routines and habits.

Decluttering as a Transformative Process

The core of residential organizing lies in decluttering, but it is more than just a physical act. It's a transformative process that extends beyond the tangible removal of items. Professional organizers guide you through the emotional journey of letting go, helping you detach from possessions that no longer serve a purpose. This intentional approach to decluttering lays the groundwork for a revitalized home and a renewed mindset.

Optimizing Layouts for Functionality

Revitalizing your home involves more than just decluttering; it's about optimizing layouts for enhanced functionality. Professional organizers strategically arrange furniture, storage solutions, and other elements to create spaces that look appealing and serve their intended purpose. The result is a seamless home that supports your daily activities and contributes to your overall well-being.

Creating Zones of Purpose

A revitalized home is one where each space has a purpose and is organized accordingly. Professional organizers excel in creating purposeful zones within your home—a dedicated workspace that fosters productivity, a cozy reading nook that encourages relaxation, or a streamlined kitchen that makes meal preparation a joy. These purpose-driven zones contribute to an environment where you can thrive and find joy in your daily routines.

The Psychological Impact

Beyond the aesthetic and functional improvements, the revitalization of your home has a profound psychological impact. Removing clutter and intentionally organizing spaces contribute to mental clarity and calm. Your home becomes a haven—a retreat from external demands and an area where you can recharge, relax, and find inspiration.

Embracing a Sustainable Lifestyle

Revitalizing your home through professional organizing is not a temporary fix; it's a commitment to a sustainable lifestyle. Professional organizers impart valuable insights and organizational strategies that empower you to maintain their established order. This shift towards conscious living ensures that your revitalized home remains a sanctuary of order and tranquility over the long term.

Conclusion

The deep dive into residential professional organizing is a journey of revitalization—a transformative process that breathes new life into your home. It's a commitment to intentional living, where every element of your living space is purposefully arranged to support your well-being. As you embark on this journey, you are not just revitalizing your home; you are rediscovering the joy of living in a space that reflects and enhances the best aspects of your life.

[passionneat]

Moving Made Manageable: How to Organize and Simplify Your Move

Moving to a new home can be both exciting and stressful. The thought of a fresh start in a new space is invigorating, but packing, transporting, and unpacking your belongings can be overwhelming. The key to a successful and stress-free move lies in organizing company near me. In this article, we'll share valuable tips and strategies to help you organize and simplify your move, making the transition to your new home a breeze.

Create a Moving Checklist:

Creating a comprehensive moving checklist is one of the most effective ways to ensure a smooth move. Start early and list all the tasks you must complete before, during, and after the move. This will serve as your roadmap, helping you stay organized and on track.

Sort and Declutter:

Before packing, go through your belongings and decide what you want to keep, donate, or discard. Downsizing can significantly reduce the amount of stuff you need to move, making the process more manageable. It's an excellent opportunity to declutter and start fresh in your new professional organizer houston.

Gather Packing Supplies:

Collect all the packing supplies you'll need in advance. This includes sturdy boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, paper, and markers. Having these items readily available will save you time and frustration as you start packing.

Pack Room by Room:

To stay organized, pack one room at a time. Label each box with its contents and the room it belongs to. This will make unpacking a breeze, as you'll know exactly where everything should go in your new home.

Use a Color-Coding System:

Consider using a color-coding system for your boxes. Assign a specific color to each room and mark the corresponding boxes with that color. This visual cue will help you and your movers quickly identify where each box belongs.

Pack an Essentials Box:

Pack a separate essentials box with items you'll need immediately upon arrival at your new home. Include things like toiletries, a change of clothes, houston professional organizer important documents, and basic kitchen supplies. Having this box easily accessible will make your first day in your new home more comfortable.

Hire Professional Movers:

If your budget allows, consider hiring professional movers. They have the experience and equipment to handle your belongings carefully, saving you time and potential injury from heavy lifting.

Notify Important Parties:

Remember to notify essential parties about your move. This includes updating your address with the post office, advising utility companies, and changing your address with banks, subscriptions, and other services.

Take Inventory:

Before you seal up your boxes, create an inventory list. Note the contents of each box, and keep this list in a safe place. It will come in handy when unpacking and looking for specific items.

Unpack Strategically:

When you arrive at your new home, unpack strategically. Start with essential items and gradually work through the rest of your boxes. Take your time to set up each room the way you want it.

Conclusion:

Moving doesn't have to be a chaotic experience. By following these organized steps, you can simplify your move and enjoy the excitement of your new home. With careful planning, decluttering, and strategic packing, you'll be well-prepared for a stress-free transition to your new space. Happy moving!

[xtruss]

A police officer and a security guard stand outside of a boutique in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, on April 11, 2022. Along with other parts of the city, SoHo witnessed a surge of shoplifting incidents compared to the prior year. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

United States 🇺🇸: How Organized Shoplifting Became a Billion-Dollar Industry

— By Aleks Phillips | Newsweek | Sunday August 20, 2023

Organized retail crime is on the rise, turbocharged by the pandemic and now costing the retail industry billions of dollars a year.

"Professional" gangs that are able to take large quantities of items are responsible for the biggest losses, experts say.

Consumers not only face higher prices but also localized shortages of certain products and potential store closures.

One industry insider explained the increased volume of theft as driven by higher margins available for stolen goods online.

In a May earnings report, Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, said that a loss of inventory is expected to reduce the company's profits by more than $500 million compared to the previous year. While he said there were "many potential sources," theft and organized retail crime were becoming "increasingly important drivers."

The corporate disclosure was a rare public recognition of the already large and increasing issue that theft is posing for retailers since the coronavirus pandemic. Industry insiders say that Target's figure is just the tip of the iceberg, and that shrink—a word for inventory loss—any chain stores were experiencing was largely attributable to retail crime.

"[Target is] saying it's $500 million worse than it was the year before, in 2022, and it seems like it was already bad in 2022," Jeremy Bowman, a contributing analyst at investment and consumer advice firm The Motley Fool, told Newsweek.

"It does seem like an issue that's come up in other earnings calls and commentary, certainly with drug stores," he said, citing Walgreens.

While one might think that the issue had arisen due to inflationary pressures pushing more people to shoplift, experts say that petty theft usually accounted for a small proportion of inventory loss. Large sums were being lost through organized retail crime (ORC)—something every consumer has likely experienced the effects of.

They portrayed a vicious cycle in which the pandemic had turbocharged a move towards online shopping, which itself incentivized a greater amount of retail crime, but that retail crime was now also incentivizing more consumers to shop online.

Newsweek reached out to several large retailers about the issue, including Target, Costco, Best Buy and T.J. Maxx, the latter of which declined to comment. Those that responded—Walgreens and Home Depot—confirmed it was a key issue for their companies but declined to offer figures on the scale of the losses they were experiencing.

'Professional' Gangs Stealing in Bulk

In May, a Lululemon store in Georgia made headlines after footage of staff confronting a group of three young men attempting to rob the store of bundles of clothing emerged. Two of the workers were later fired by the company over the incident; many retailers discourage staff from becoming physically involved with shoplifters.

As recently as last Sunday, a video of a "mob" raiding what was purported to be a Nordstrom in Los Angeles, grabbing clothes, handbags and suitcases went viral, earning millions of views.

These may be obvious incidents of ORC in its simplest sense, but not the costliest to retailers, according to Tony Sheppard, a Houston-based loss prevention consultant who spent 25 years working in security and organized retail crime units for several large retailers.

Instead, the incidents that hurt shops the most are the more complex crimes carried out by professional criminal gangs who "steal in bulk," he told Newsweek.

Sheppard said the proportions of the sources of shrink had changed drastically over the last 10 years, going from "internal theft"—employees taking items—being the most predominant cause of inventory loss to external theft by organized criminal gangs.

"External theft...was a small chunk; it was always there, but it was a smaller piece of the pie," Sheppard said. "What's happened is, is that with the increase in organized retail crime, the sheer volume of product that an individual or group can take in any given day has just gone crazy."

He added: "But then you see on the news, you have all these groups that are come in and they're haphazard. They're very unorganized. A lot of younger folks just coming in grabbing stuff running out and all that stuff.

"That's certainly an impact and no doubt about it—and those are the ones that potentially, unfortunately, can become violent, which is obviously the biggest concern. But they're a sliver of that [pie]," he said.

Shoplifting Drug Store NY! A man is escorted out of a drugstore by a police officer on October 26, 2021, in New York City. The National Retail Federation estimated the total cost of shrink in the United States to be $94.5 billion in 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The senior director of loss prevention at ThinkLP estimated that established criminals can steal up to $10,000 in products from a store in some cases, and can often do so without customers noticing.

The established gangs are even able to get stolen products back into the supply chain, he said, and those operating at the highest levels usually knew in advance the quantity of a specific product that needed stealing and the price they would receive for it.

"There're fences that have cleaners, and they clean the product, or they remove stickers or stamps—anything that identifies it as being from a specific retailer—and then they repackage it," Sheppard said. "Then it gets mixed in with legitimate product and sometimes ends up back in the supply chain."

In September, the National Retail Federation estimated the total cost of shrink in the United States to be $94.5 billion in 2021, with the organization's Vice President Mark Mathews noting the "burgeoning threat" of ORC. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the Centre for Retail Research put the total shrink at $43.3 billion, of which it said just over $4.8 billion was due to organized crime.

In its first-quarter earnings call on May 16, Richard McPhail, chief financial officer of Home Depot, revealed that the company's gross margin had decreased by eight basis points compared to the same time last year, which he said was "primarily driven by increased pressure from shrink."

Evelyn Fornes, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsweek she could not divulge financial details, but said that ORC was "an ongoing issue, and it has been on the rise over the last several years for many retailers."

She added that among the "most targeted items" by criminal gangs that the home improvement chain stocked were power tools, home automation products and wiring devices.

"Retail crime is one of the top challenges facing our industry today," Marty Maloney, a Walgreens spokesperson, told Newsweek. "We are focused on the safety of our patients, customers and team members. We continue to take preventative measures to safely deter theft and aim to deliver the best patient and customer experience."

Consumers Paying the Price

With margins being eaten away by theft, among other factors, it is only natural that some businesses may increase their prices. Bowman said rising costs were certainly an impact on consumers who were "already in an inflationary environment" following the pandemic.

But there are other, obvious signs of the effects of ORC on consumers. Both Bowman and Sheppard noted the various anti-theft devices shops employed to make stealing harder, such as security cases and "pushers," which allow only one product to be removed at a time, making stealing large quantities of items more difficult.

"A lot of these stores, you walk into them and buy something like razors or a popular item," Bowman said. "You see it behind plexiglass and it's locked up, and you've got to go find an employee to unlock it."

Sheppard said retailers aim to "make it difficult for the thief, but still convenient for the legitimate consumer" as using anti-theft devices made shopping harder and therefore "obviously has a detrimental impact to sales," especially when stores are short-staffed.

Target Ehelves Pushers! Empty shelves with "pushers," devices that allow only one product to be dispensed at a time, at a Target in San Ramon, California, on March 12, 2020. The security devices make it more difficult for people to shoplift. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

As well as some customers being witness to or potentially caught up in instances of shoplifting, Sheppard explained that ORC gangs would usually hit several shops of the same type in the same area to increase the number of items they could steal in a single day, causing localized shortages of specific products.

In areas where ORC activity was high, he said, companies may choose to close stores, posing a "significant impact" on the convenience of going shopping, citing Walgreens' 2021 decision to shut five shops in San Francisco, California, due to shoplifting.

All three of these factors pushed more consumers to shop online.

In response to the mention of chain stores that had recently gone into administration, such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Sheppard said ORC was not the sole reason such companies were folding but "it's certainly a factor" in their collapse.

Generally, though, "it definitely does impact the retailer's bottom line...and they wouldn't be talking about it on the stock calls if it wasn't a significant problem," he added.

The Vicious Cycle

As is borne out by the apparent more-than-doubling of shrink between 2019 and 2022, ORC has surged during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. While Sheppard expected there to be more petty theft as a consequence of a rising cost of living, he said the predominant effect of the global crisis on the crime that retailers are subject to was pushing more sales online.

"Covid caused a significant spike in ORC in the U.S., and not necessarily for the reasons you may think as far as people being out of work," he explained. "A lot of customers that would normally never shop online, were forced to shop online, because they wouldn't leave their house...or they wanted something that wasn't non-essential."

"So you had a massive uptick in people making online purchases, which is where a lot of the stolen product ends up," Sheppard added. "So, therefore, the activity skyrocketed to meet the demand from the consumer."

He said ORC had been "steadily increasing prior to that," but that a "perfect storm" of online demand and concerns over liability for injuries sustained during shoplifting encounters had made it go "off the rails."

Walgreens Closing San Francisco! A man walks by a Walgreens store on October 13, 2021, in San Francisco, California. Walgreens closed five of its San Francisco stores due to organized retail shoplifting. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Whereas in the past someone stealing items for resale would have to do so in person and likely for a significant markdown on the label price, criminals can sell their stolen wares online much closer to the original price—and will often be taken up on the offer by consumers looking for a bargain.

"Your return on investment for being a shoplifter—especially a professional shoplifter who does it all the time—is way more lucrative than it used to be," Sheppard said. "It's much easier to resell the product, and the profit margin you're getting per item has just skyrocketed because of online platforms."

To make matters worse, ORC drives more consumers to shop online through the impacts on in-store shoppers it causes—localized stock issues, in particular—in turn giving resellers of stolen goods even more customers.

"It kind of feeds itself," Sheppard said.

"In the longer term, broader sense I think this will just push more businesses to the online channel," Bowman said. "If you think of a company like Amazon, they don't really have stores. I imagine there are some instances of employee theft, but you're not going to have an organized crime ring with exposure to the public in the way brick-and-mortar stores do."

He added, though, that stolen goods being sold online was "a hard thing for individual consumers to fight [with] their own hands" as "even a company the size of Amazon has problems with counterfeit goods on their site" that prompted it in April to set up a program to combat instances on its platform.

Fornes called on Congress and individual states to properly enforce the INFORM Consumers Act, which came into effect in late June and gives online transactions greater transparency, and create "capacity for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cases through funding federal, state and local task forces."

[carterahealth]

Effective Chronic Pain Treatment in Texas for Long-Term Relief

Nearly everybody feels pain periodically. Your body uses pain to alert you to a problem when you cut a finger or tear a muscle. As soon as the wound has healed, the pain is eliminated. Chronic pain is a different story. Your body still endures pain years after the damage. According to experts, chronic pain is any suffering that lasts for three to six months or more. It is mainly related to headaches, back pain, and arthritis.

It may impact your daily life activities and you won't be able to do your day-to-day tasks. But now there are various Chronic Pain Treatment in Texas that can help you to recover fast. You can learn from them how to treat it. It can help you relieve these pains quickly and effectively so you can go about your everyday activities. As with pain, you can't carry out any work and also you need to depend on others. So, after taking treatment you can do your work by yourself.

Ph no.     (833) 735-2273 Mail us      info@carterahealth.com Address 1449 Hwy 6 Suite 320, Sugar Land, TX 77478

[covid-safer-hotties]

Living with Long COVID: What it’s Like to be Diagnosed with the Debilitating Disease - Published Sept 3, 2024

By: Nicole Pajer

Even mild cases of COVID-19 are linked to potential long-term repercussions — some of them deadly serious

Chrissy Bernal has caught COVID-19 three times, most recently in ­October 2023. “My symptoms were always pretty mild,” she says. But after her third round of the virus, she ­developed extreme allergies to foods she used to eat all the time: oats, dairy, gluten, sesame seeds and peanuts.

“I literally have some level of anaphylaxis every single day,” she says. In May, Bernal, 46, a public relations professional in Houston, went into anaphylactic shock during a virtual meeting. “I had to inject myself with an Epi while everyone watched in horror on Zoom,” she says.

Natalie Nichols, 53, has been struggling with debilitating asthma and severe food allergies since she first caught COVID more than three years ago. “Last fall, I spent ­two-and-a-half months confined to bed, ­motionless, because moving, including holding a cellphone, made me too short of breath,” she says.

She’s also experienced brain fog, high blood pressure, hyper­glycemia, fatigue and gastrointestinal symptoms. Nichols, the founder of a nonprofit in Nacogdoches, Texas, recently underwent surgery to repair joint damage caused by COVID-induced inflammation.

Lorraine W., of Clarence Center, New York, was looking forward to an active retirement when she was diagnosed with COVID in March 2020. “I’ve never returned to my pre-COVID self,” says Lorraine, 65.

She’s on medication to treat small blood vessel damage to her heart and continues to battle a lingering cough, fatigue and breathlessness, as well as kidney disease. Neurological changes have made her legs unsteady when she walks, requiring her to use balance poles. “None of these conditions were present before COVID,” Lorraine says.

In June, the National Academies of ­Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a comprehensive definition of long COVID: “an infection-­associated chronic condition that occurs after COVID-19 infection and is present for at least three months as a continuous, relapsing and remitting, or progressive disease state that affects one or more organ systems.” According to that definition, 18 million Americans have experienced long COVID; currently, more than 1 in 20 of us are living with its symptoms. Researchers have begun to link long-term COVID with another recent phenomenon: our shrinking life expectancy.

The disease we’re forgetting COVID doesn’t seem that scary anymore. More than 98 percent of the U.S. population has some degree of immunity — from vaccination, prior infection or both — and Paxlovid and other medications are available to counteract acute symptoms. For many of us, contracting COVID is like having a bad ­upper respiratory infection.

But “COVID isn’t gone,” says Ryan Hurt, M.D., director of the Long COVID Research and Clinical Program at the Mayo Clinic. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that COVID still kills at least 1,000 people every week around the globe — but “we only have data from about 40 countries,” says Maria Van Kerkhove, M.D., director of WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention.

Older adults and those with preexisting conditions remain among the most at-risk populations for severe, acute COVID. ­People 65 and older accounted for 63 percent of COVID-related hospitalizations and 88 percent of in-hospital deaths during the first seven months of 2023, according to CDC data.

Although the dangers of acute COVID ­infection may have ebbed for many, the ­reality of long COVID is coming into view. Of those who contracted COVID-19 within the past four years, 10 to 20 percent have experienced long COVID.

“With every new case of acute COVID [the initial phase of infection when diagnosed or symptoms first appear], there is risk for developing long COVID,” says Caitlin McAuley, D.O., a family physician at the Keck COVID Recovery Clinic in Los Angeles. She’s had patients who developed long COVID fully recover, get reinfected several times with no lingering effects, then develop another case that leads to a new bout of long COVID. She’s also seen patients who got COVID twice with no lingering effects, and the third time they ended up with prolonged symptoms.

“We still have a number of individuals who had the first wave of COVID who are suffering from long COVID symptoms now, several of them many years out,” says Jerrold Kaplan, M.D., medical director of the COVID Rehabilitation and Recovery Program at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in New York.

Having escaped long COVID previously doesn’t mean you won’t face it in the future. Indeed, some research has suggested that catching multiple COVID-19 strains puts you at increased risk. A study published in 2022 found that reinfection can increase the risk of complications in major organ systems, and these risks persist at least six months beyond the initial infection.

We don’t yet know the true impact of catching COVID. “Many chronic disease processes, such as cardiovascular disease, dementia and cancer, take years to develop. And whether acute COVID-19 puts people at risk for some of these issues? Time will tell,” Hurt says. What doctors do know is that patients are flocking to their offices complaining of symptoms they never had before COVID.

Is long COVID boosting our death rate? In July, COVID accounted for less than 1 ­percent of all deaths in the U.S. Life expectancy in the U.S. is 77.5 years, reflecting an uptick over the past two years but still lower than prepandemic levels. Many factors contribute to that statistic, but it’s clear that the long-term effects of COVID have played a role.

For example, a study in the journal Nature Medicine found that those hospitalized with COVID had a 29 percent greater risk of death in the three years after their infection.

“But what was also alarming is that in people who weren’t hospitalized, there was also an increased risk of a variety of medical issues,” says John Baratta, founder and codirector of the COVID Recovery Clinic at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Even patients who’d had mild bouts of COVID-19 had an increased risk of respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological issues lingering for three years after the initial infection. Long COVID patients had a significantly increased risk of severe health issues affecting the brain, lungs and heart.

We have long known that an acute case of COVID can compromise heart health: Compared with those who didn’t contract COVID, people who caught the virus were 81 percent more likely to die of a cardiovascular complication in the ensuing three weeks, according to a study of 160,000 patients published by the European Society of Cardiology. But the risk lingers long after the symptoms abate. Those who caught the virus were five times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease as long as 18 months after infection, the same study found. Heart disease deaths, which had been on a downward trend for decades, began to spike in 2020 and remained high through 2022, the last year for which data is available.

Stroke, blood clots in the legs leading to clots in the lungs, abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) and inflammation of the heart are among the challenges COVID poses, says Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, M.D., professor and chair of internal medicine at the Burnett School of Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas. In long COVID, this collection of cardiovascular disruptions can present as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), in which patients’ heart rates increase abnormally when they go from sitting or ­lying down to standing up.

One theory to explain COVID’s long-term effect on the heart — and the body in general — centers on inflammation. “Every time you get infected with COVID, there is a possible increased risk of long COVID, and some cardiac disorders can occur — especially if you have a history of heart disease, including stroke, heart disease and heart attacks,” says Pragna Patel, M.D., senior adviser for long COVID at the CDC. All of these problems can be exacerbated by the virus entering coronary tissue and triggering inflammatory responses that can damage the heart.

Researchers say COVID may also alter the gut microbiome, a primary controller of inflammation, thereby triggering the immune system to rev up the condition. “There is no single agreed-upon mechanism that’s causing the issues,” Baratta says. “An individual may have multiple factors going on in their body, and not everyone will have the same underlying mechanism causing their symptoms,” which increases the complexity of both research and treatment.

One factor that seems to matter: vaccination status. “Several studies show that vaccination can decrease the risk of developing long COVID,” Patel says. Vaccination rates tend to increase with age, with people 75 and older being the most well vaccinated — hence the most well protected from long COVID, Patel theorizes. That may explain why long COVID most commonly affects people ages 35 to 64; the risk seems to drop for those 65-plus, according to CDC data.

From long covid diagnosis to treatment No single test can determine whether a ­person has long COVID. Doctors typically diagnose long COVID by reviewing the ­patient’s health history and current symptoms and trying to rule out other causes. A positive COVID test is not required, as someone could have been infected without knowing it, then experience strange symptoms later, Patel says.

Though there are many ongoing clinical trials on long COVID, there is no umbrella treatment. Primary care physicians address what they can, then call in specialists — such as a cardiologist to handle arrhythmia or a therapist to treat anxiety — for more targeted care. There are long COVID centers around the country where teams of professionals work to help patients through their unique symptoms.

“Because the effects of COVID are so wide throughout the body and mind, there will not be a single treatment for all long COVID issues,” Baratta says. “This is ­going to be treated by many different types of providers and specialists, and it will be treated, often, symptom by symptom.”

Long COVID is recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act if it substantially limits one or more major life activities. About 200 symptoms fall ­under that umbrella, Patel says. Here are some of the conditions we’re learning can linger months and, in some cases, years beyond an acute COVID infection. If these or other health changes seem familiar, consult your primary care physician.

1. Extreme fatigue It’s common to experience fatigue when your body is busy fighting off an illness. But some people still struggle with fatigue long after their initial COVID infection. In fact, a lack of energy is the number one symptom reported by long COVID patients. In some, this can be diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome, which has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, Baratta says. He defines this as “a disabling level of fatigue that severely limits daily activities.”

This lingering fatigue may be due to limited production of energy within the muscles caused by damage to the mitochondria from a COVID infection. It can happen to anyone — no matter their level of fitness before infection. “I’ve treated patients who have been triathletes and now may only be able to do 15 or 20 minutes of exercise a day, when they’re used to running and swimming miles at a time,” Kaplan says.

He recommends starting slow and pacing yourself with everything you do around the house, “doing shorter intervals several times throughout the day, rather than trying to do everything at once.” Whether it gets better depends on the individual. Some people’s symptoms clear, and some people may battle them indefinitely.

2. Shortness of breath An analysis of chest CT scans from 144 patients ages 27 to 80 found that more than one-third of people hospitalized with a previous COVID infection had lung scarring and thickening two years after coming into contact with the virus. Even patients with milder cases who walked away without scarring can experience changes in their breathing.

“Some research shows that people ­after COVID start to take shorter, shallower breaths,” Baratta says. “This essentially causes a type of hyperventilation they are doing without even recognizing it, not getting good fresh air deep into the lungs, and [this] can lead to shortness of breath.” ​

Doctors have found success using respiratory exercises to help patients relearn slow, deep breathing.

3. Cognitive changes Difficulty concentrating, spaciness and forgetfulness are just a few of the brain challenges COVID can bring on. These can last for weeks or months or — in some with long COVID — become an everyday occurrence that lasts indefinitely. COVID may linger in a person’s gut long after an infection, altering their microbiome and hindering the body’s ability to produce serotonin, leading to cognitive disturbances.

COVID may also disrupt the blood-brain barrier, allowing chemicals or molecules in the rest of the body to enter the brain blood circulation and potentially lead to brain fog, Baratta says.

One study found that 30 days after testing positive for COVID-19, people were at greater risk for cognitive decline, as well as for mental health disorders including anxiety, depression and stress. Another study found inflammation in the brains of people with mild to moderate COVID-19 was similar to the effects of seven years of aging. Doctors are leading neurologically affected patients through cognitive rehabilitation exercises that show promise in reducing symptoms.

4. Depression and anxiety “Mood-related disorders are one of the top five issues that happen to people after COVID,” Baratta says. There may be a direct relationship between the virus’s effect on the brain and mood issues. A 2021 review of eight studies found that 12 weeks after a COVID infection, 11 to 28 ­percent of people had depression symptoms, and 3 to 12 percent of those individuals reported their symptoms as severe. If you’re feeling more stressed or down after catching COVID, tell your primary care physician, who can refer you to a therapist. Or visit the American Psychological Association’s search tool at locator.apa.org to find a qualified therapist in your area.

5. Sleep disturbances Nearly 40 percent of people with long COVID have reported major changes to their sleep patterns. One study looked at 1,056 COVID-19 patients who did not have a severe enough infection to require hospitalization. Of that population, 76.1 percent reported having insomnia and 22.8 percent severe insomnia. Sleep ­apnea may also appear post-COVID, another way the disease affects the respiratory system.

Talk to your doctor if you’re having sleep issues. A CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine can help with sleep ­apnea. Lifestyle habits that prioritize healthy sleep, such as keeping consistent sleep and wake times and avoiding large meals before bed, may also help. “Post-COVID sleep has literally been a nightmare! We saw a 23 percent increase in sleeping-pill prescription during and post-COVID,” says Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and clinical sleep specialist in Los Angeles.

6. Digestive upset Diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, bloating and gas: These symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome can be by-products of an encounter with COVID. A survey of 729 COVID survivors found that 29 percent experienced at least one new chronic GI symptom six months after their infection. “There is evidence that parts of the COVID virus linger in the GI tract for many months after the initial illness, and it’s been suggested that the presence of these ongoing viral fragments causes dysfunction or problems with the GI tract, leading to mostly symptoms of diarrhea and gastric distress and discomfort,” Baratta says.

Talk to your doctor about any new digestive symptoms or seek help from a gastro­enterologist. You can keep a food journal and note if your condition flares after eating certain foods. Try cutting out those foods, then reintroducing them one by one to see what you react to, Kaplan advises.

7. New or worsened allergies Some people who develop COVID experience allergies they never had before. One study found the risk of ­developing allergic diseases, such as asthma and allergic rhinitis, rose significantly within the first 30 days after a COVID diagnosis. This may be because one’s immune system stays hypervigilant after fighting the virus, McAuley says.

In severe cases, like Chrissy Bernal’s, this can lead to mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), a disease that can behave like a series of severe allergies: The body’s cells become hypersensitive, causing strong ­reactions to everything from food and pollen to even a hot shower or exercise. Antihistamines and other medications may help, so talk to your doctor if you experience skin itching, a rapid pulse, wheezing or gastro­intestinal symptoms.

8. Pain Some COVID survivors battle chronic pain, everything from aching joints to testicular pain. There is a higher risk of inflammatory arthritis, and women are at higher risk than men. One review of studies estimated that 10 percent of people who contracted COVID experienced musculo­skeletal pain at some point during the first year after infection.

Reducing stress, eating a healthy diet and exercising may ease some post-COVID ­discomfort. Massage therapy, movement therapy, acupuncture and over-the-counter pain medications may also offer relief. Your doctor can refer you to a specialist, such as a rheumatologist, who can help manage symptoms including joint pain.

Fast-moving research means new hope If your symptoms last after a bout of COVID, start with your primary care physician, who can help treat your symptoms or refer you to a specialist. Despite previous dismissals, long COVID is more recognized these days, Patel says, and the CDC is doing its part to educate both patients and providers. And initiatives such as the National Institutes of Health’s Recover program are researching treatment options.

“In a year, things will look different, because research is moving so quickly,” says Sara F. Martin, M.D., medical director of the Adult Post-Acute COVID Clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The CDC, for instance, is funding a series of clinical trials that the NIH has in the works. This new information, Martin says, may guide doctors, including herself, who treat long COVID ­patients to better ease their symptoms.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Victoria Spivey

Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and record company founder. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie "Sweet Peas" (or "Sweet Pease") Spivey (August 22, 1910 – 1943). also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are "Black Snake Blues" (1926), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and "Organ Grinder Blues" (1928). In 1961, she co-founded Spivey Records with one of her husbands, Len Kunstadt.

Born in Houston, Texas, she was the daughter of Grant and Addie (Smith) Spivey. Her father was a part-time musician and a flagman for the railroad; her mother was a nurse. She had three sisters, all three of whom also sang professionally: Leona, Elton "Za Zu", and Addie "Sweet Peas" (or "Sweet Pease") Spivey (August 22, 1910 – 1943), who recorded for several major record labels between 1929 and 1937, and Elton Island Spivey Harris (1900–1971). She married four times; her husbands included Ruben Floyd, Billy Adams, and Len Kunstadt, with whom she co-founded Spivey Records in 1961.

Spivey's first professional experience was in a family string band led by her father in Houston. After he died, the seven-year-old Victoria played on her own at local parties. In 1918, she was hired to accompany films at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. As a teenager, she worked in local bars, nightclubs, and buffet flats, mostly alone, but occasionally with singer-guitarists, including Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1926 she moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was signed by Okeh Records. Her first recording, "Black Snake Blues" (1926), sold well, and her association with the label continued. She recorded numerous sides for Okeh in New York City until 1929, when she switched to the Victor label. Between 1931 and 1937, more recordings followed for Vocalion Records and Decca Records, and, working out of New York, she maintained an active performance schedule. Her recorded accompanists included King Oliver, Charles Avery, Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, and Red Allen.

The Depression did not put an end to Spivey's musical career. She found a new outlet for her talent in 1929, when the film director King Vidor cast her to play Missy Rose in his first sound film, Hallelujah!. Through the 1930s and 1940s Spivey continued to work in musical films and stage shows, including the hit musical Hellzapoppin (1938), often with her husband, the vaudeville dancer Billy Adams.

In 1951, Spivey retired from show business to play the pipe organ and lead a church choir, but she returned to secular music in 1961, when she was reunited with an old singing partner, Lonnie Johnson, to appear on four tracks on his Prestige Bluesville album Idle Hours.

The folk music revival of the 1960s gave her further opportunities to make a comeback. She recorded again for Prestige Bluesville, sharing an album, Songs We Taught Your Mother, with fellow veterans Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin, and began making personal appearances at festivals and clubs, including the 1963 European tour of the American Folk Blues Festival.

In 1961, Spivey and the jazz and blues historian Len Kunstadt launched Spivey Records, a low-budget label dedicated to blues, jazz, and related music.

In March 1962, Spivey and Big Joe Williams recorded for Spivey Records, with harmonica accompaniment and backup vocals by Bob Dylan. The recordings were released on Three Kings and the Queen and Kings and the Queen Volume Two. Dylan was listed under his own name on the record covers. A picture of her and Dylan from this period is shown on the back cover of the Dylan album, New Morning. In 1964, Spivey made her only recording with an all-white band, the Connecticut-based Easy Riders Jazz Band, led by the trombonist Big Bill Bissonnette. It was released first on an LP and later re-released on compact disc.

Spivey married four times; her husbands included Ruben Floyd, Billy Adams, and Len Kunstadt.

Spivey died in New York on October 3, 1976, at the age of 69, from an internal hemorrhage.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana at ProPublica:

Josseli Barnica grieved the news as she lay in a Houston hospital bed on Sept. 3, 2021: The sibling she’d dreamt of giving her daughter would not survive this pregnancy. The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records. At that point, they should have offered to speed up the delivery or empty her uterus to stave off a deadly infection, more than a dozen medical experts told ProPublica.

But when Barnica’s husband rushed to her side from his job on a construction site, she relayed what she said the medical team had told her: “They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” he told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.” For 40 hours, the anguished 28-year-old mother prayed for doctors to help her get home to her daughter; all the while, her uterus remained exposed to bacteria. Three days after she delivered, Barnica died of an infection. Barnica is one of at least two Texas women who ProPublica found lost their lives after doctors delayed treating miscarriages, which fall into a gray area under the state’s strict abortion laws that prohibit doctors from ending the heartbeat of a fetus. Neither had wanted an abortion, but that didn’t matter. Though proponents insist that the laws protect both the life of the fetus and the person carrying it, in practice, doctors have hesitated to provide care under threat of prosecution, prison time and professional ruin.

ProPublica is telling these women’s stories this week, starting with Barnica’s. Her death was “preventable,” according to more than a dozen medical experts who reviewed a summary of her hospital and autopsy records at ProPublica’s request; they called her case “horrific,” “astounding” and “egregious.”

The doctors involved in Barnica’s care at HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest did not respond to multiple requests for comment on her case. In a statement, HCA Healthcare said “our responsibility is to be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations” and said that physicians exercise their independent judgment. The company did not respond to a detailed list of questions about Barnica’s care. Like all states, Texas has a committee of maternal health experts who review such deaths to recommend ways to prevent them, but the committee’s reports on individual cases are not public and members said they have not finished examining cases from 2021, the year Barnica died. ProPublica is working to fill gaps in knowledge about the consequences of abortion bans. Reporters scoured death data, flagging Barnica’s case for its concerning cause of death: “sepsis” involving “products of conception.” We tracked down her family, obtained autopsy and hospital records and enlisted a range of experts to review a summary of her care that ProPublica created in consultation with two doctors.

Among those experts were more than a dozen OB-GYNs and maternal-fetal medicine specialists from across the country, including researchers at prestigious institutions, doctors who regularly handle miscarriages and experts who have served on state maternal mortality review committees or held posts at national professional medical organizations. After reviewing the four-page summary, which included the timeline of care noted in hospital records, all agreed that requiring Barnica to wait to deliver until after there was no detectable fetal heartbeat violated professional medical standards because it could allow time for an aggressive infection to take hold. They said there was a good chance she would have survived if she was offered an intervention earlier.

“If this was Massachusetts or Ohio, she would have had that delivery within a couple hours,” said Dr. Susan Mann, a national patient safety expert in obstetric care who teaches at Harvard University. Many noted a striking similarity to the case of Savita Halappavanar, a 31-year-old woman who died of septic shock in 2012 after providers in Ireland refused to empty her uterus while she was miscarrying at 17 weeks. When she begged for care, a midwife told her, “This is a Catholic country.” The resulting investigation and public outcry galvanized the country to change its strict ban on abortion. But in the wake of deaths related to abortion access in the United States, leaders who support restricting the right have not called for any reforms.

[...]

“They Should Vote With Their Feet”

Texas has been on the forefront of fighting abortion access. At the time of Barnica’s miscarriage in 2021, the Supreme Court had not yet overturned the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. But Texas lawmakers, intent on being the first to enact a ban with teeth, had already passed a harsh civil law using a novel legal strategy that circumvented Roe v. Wade: It prohibited doctors from performing an abortion after six weeks by giving members of the public incentives to sue doctors for $10,000 judgments. The bounty also applied to anyone who “aided and abetted” an abortion.

A year later, after the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling was handed down, an even stricter criminal law went into effect, threatening doctors with up to 99 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. Soon after the ruling, the Biden administration issued federal guidance reminding doctors in hospital emergency rooms they have a duty to treat pregnant patients who need to be stabilized, including by providing abortions for miscarriages. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fought against that, arguing that following the guidance would force doctors to “commit crimes” under state law and make every hospital a “walk-in abortion clinic.” When a Dallas woman asked a court for approval to end her pregnancy because her fetus was not viable and she faced health risks if she carried it to term, Paxton fought to keep her pregnant. He argued her doctor hadn’t proved it was an emergency and threatened to prosecute anyone who helped her. “Nothing can restore the unborn child’s life that will be lost as a result,” he wrote to the court.

No doctor in Texas, or the 20 other states that criminalize abortion, has been prosecuted for violating a state ban. But the possibility looms over their every decision, dozens of doctors in those states told ProPublica, forcing them to consider their own legal risks as they navigate their patient’s health emergencies. The lack of clarity has resulted in many patients being denied care. In 2023, Texas lawmakers made a small concession to the outcry over the uncertainty the ban was creating in hospitals. They created a new exception for ectopic pregnancies, a potentially fatal condition where the embryo attaches outside the uterine cavity, and for cases where a patient’s membranes rupture prematurely before viability, which introduces a high risk of infection. Doctors can still face prosecution, but are allowed to make the case to a judge or jury that their actions were protected, not unlike self-defense arguments after homicides. Barnica’s condition would not have clearly fit this exception.

This year, after being directed to do so by the state Supreme Court, the Texas Medical Board released new guidance telling doctors that an emergency didn’t need to be “imminent” in order to intervene and advising them to provide extra documentation regarding risks. But in a recent interview, the board’s president, Dr. Sherif Zaafran, acknowledged that these efforts only go so far and the group has no power over criminal law: “There’s nothing we can do to stop a prosecutor from filing charges against the physicians.” Asked what he would tell Texas patients who are miscarrying and unable to get treatment, he said they should get a second opinion: “They should vote with their feet and go and seek guidance from somebody else.”

The consequences of strict abortion bans are being felt, as Josseli Barnica died as a result of delayed miscarriage treatments in Texas.

[fiftysevenacademics]

April 12, 2024

Bennett Braun, a Chicago psychiatrist whose diagnoses of repressed memories involving horrific abuse by devil worshipers helped to fuel what became known as the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and ’90s, died on March 20 in Lauderhill, Fla., north of Miami. He was 83.

Jane Braun, one of his ex-wives, said the death, in a hospital, was from complications of a fall. Dr. Braun lived in Butte, Mont., but had been in Lauderhill on vacation.

Dr. Braun gained renown in the early 1980s as an expert in two of the most popular and controversial areas of psychiatric treatment: repressed memories and multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder.

He claimed that he could help patients uncover memories of childhood trauma — the existence of which, he and others said, were responsible for the splintering of a person’s self into many distinct personalities.

He created a unit dedicated to dissociative disorders at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago (now Rush University Medical Center); became a frequently quoted expert in the news media; and helped to found what is now the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, a professional organization of over 2,000 members today.

It was from that sizable platform that Dr. Braun publicized his most explosive findings: that in dozens of cases, his patients discovered memories of being tortured by satanic cults and, in some cases, of having participated in the torture themselves.

He was not the only psychiatrist to make such a claim, and his supposed revelations keyed into a growing national panic.

The 1980s saw a vertiginous rise in the number of people, both children and adults, who claimed to have been abused by devil worshipers. It began in 1980 with the book “Michelle Remembers,” by a Canadian woman who said she had recovered memories of ritual abuse, and spiked following allegations of abuse at day care centers in California and North Carolina.

Elements of pop culture, such as heavy metal music and the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, were looped in as supposed entry points for cult activity.

Such stories were fodder for popular TV formats that reveled in the salacious, including talk shows like “Geraldo” and newsmagazines like “Dateline,” which broadcast segments that promoted such claims uncritically.

The psychiatric profession bore some responsibility for the growing panic, with respected researchers like Dr. Braun giving it a gloss of authority. He and others ran seminars and distributed research papers; they even gave the phenomenon a quasi-medical abbreviation, S.R.A., for satanic ritual abuse.

Dr. Braun’s inpatient unit at Rush became a magnet for referrals and a warehouse for patients, some of whom he kept medicated and under supervision for years

Among them was a woman from Iowa named Patricia Burgus. After interviewing her, Dr. Braun and a colleague, Roberta Sachs, claimed not only that she was the victim of satanic ritual abuse, but also that she herself was a “high priestess” of a cult that had raped, tortured and cannibalized thousands of children, including her two young sons.

Dr. Braun and Dr. Sachs sent Mrs. Burgus and her children to a mental health facility in Houston, where they were held apart for nearly three years with minimal contact with the outside world.

By then Mrs. Burgus, heavily medicated, had come to believe the doctors, telling them she recalled torches, live burials and eating the body parts of up to 2,000 people a year. After her parents served her husband meatloaf, she had him get it tested for human tissue. The tests came back negative, but Dr. Braun was not convinced.

Dr. Braun kept other patients under similar conditions at Rush or elsewhere. He persuaded one woman to have an abortion because, he convinced her, she was the product of ritualistic incest; he persuaded another to undergo tubal ligation to prevent having more children within her supposed cult.

The satanic panic began to wane in the early 1990s. A 1992 F.B.I. investigation found no evidence of coordinated cult activity in the United States, and a 1994 report by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect surveyed over 12,000 accusations of satanic ritual abuse and found that not a single one held up under scrutiny.

“The biggest thing was the lack of corroborating evidence,” Kenneth Lanning, a retired F.B.I. agent who wrote the 1992 report, said in a phone interview. “It’s the kind of crime where evidence would have been left behind.”

Many people distanced themselves from their earlier enthusiasms; in 1995, Geraldo Rivera apologized for an episode of his show that covered the falsehood. However, even in 1998, the NBC series “Dateline” ran an episode claiming to show widespread satanic activity in Mississippi.

Mrs. Burgus sued Rush, Dr. Braun and her insurance company over claims that he and Dr. Sachs had implanted false memories in her head. They settled out of court in 1997 for $10.6 million.

“I began to add a few things up and realized there was no way I could come from a little town in Iowa, be eating 2,000 people a year, and nobody said anything about it,” Mrs. Burgus told The Chicago Tribune in 1997.

A year later Dr. Braun’s unit at Rush was shut down, and the Illinois medical licensing board opened an investigation into his practices. In 1999, he received a two-year suspension of his license — though he did not admit wrongdoing.

Bennett George Braun was born on Aug. 7, 1940, in Chicago, to Thelma (Gimbel) and Milton Braun. His father was a professor of orthodontics at Loyola University. He graduated from Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1963 and earned a master’s in the same subject in 1964. He received his medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1968.

Dr. Braun was married three times. His marriages to Renate Deutsch and Mrs. Braun both ended in divorce. His third, to Joanne Arriola, ended in her death. He is survived by five children and five grandchildren.

After temporarily losing his medical license in Illinois, Dr. Braun moved to Montana, where he received a new state license and opened a private practice.

But in 2019, one of his patients, Ciara Rehbein, sued him for overprescribing medication that left her with a permanent facial tic. She also filed a complaint against the Montana Board of Medical Examiners for allowing him a license, despite knowing his past.

Dr. Braun lost his license to practice medicine in Montana in 2020.

[sicknessbysalem]

The Masterlist of Salem's Masterlists

Why so many Masterlists?

A few reasons. One, I write a lot. And Tumblr limits how many links you can put on a single post. Totally understandable, but definitely inconvenient. Secondly, I'm a big sucker for organization and this is easier for my little crow brain to handle. Third, a handful of the series are connected enough where characters appear in each others works.

What does that connection mean?

All of my stories have their own distinct collections of characters. For example, Curtain Call follows the direct lives of Cassius and Calypso Delacroix, in the same way Endzone, Endgame follows the direct life of Novak, his mother, his daughter, his girlfriend, and his teammates. But, with Endzone, Endgame we have seen Vanessa and Willow of Ruat Caelum (which follows their direct lives) have appeared with Novak and his family. All the 'series' on each masterlist have characters that can, will, and do interact with each other, while also being disconnected from other works (Curtain Call has no connection to Kaleidoscope or Invisible String)

Where do these titles come from?

These titles are planned/potential novellas or novels or short story collections that I often use sickfic writing to keep the spark alive/kill time/flesh out characters I'm still testing. Not all of these novel/novella WIPs will see the light of day, but they are still possible.

If you have any further questions, comments, concerns, or requests, my ask box is always open and is open for anonymous requests! Just send them my way!

Masterlists

The Portland Serpents Masterlist

The Portland Serpents series started with the story of Novak Daskalov. A professional linebacker and single father moving back to his hometown of Portland, Maine to play for the football team in his hometown. This series features several subgroups that are connected to where it all started, Endzone, Endgame, while also standing contained within their respective cast of characters.

Characters I Will Write For: Novak Daskalov, Evangeline Vyachekova, Vanessa McAllister, Willow Atkinson, Milan Kovalev-Wang, Houston Robinson, Meadow Huston, River Tran

The Secret Life of White Oak Ridge Masterlist

The Secret Life of White Oak Ridge is a series with several small groups that co-exist in the beautiful, busy town of White Oak Ridge somewhere in the Pacific Northwest of the United States (state unspecified). With the busy lives of the students at White Oak Ridge University, down to the restaurant nightlife of fancy cuisine and everything in between, there's no shortage of excitement and happenings.

Characters I Will Write For: Saylor Thompson, Julian Avery, Keagan McMasters, Mercury Williams, Emiliene LaHaye

I Think I'm Lost Again Masterlist

This series was created by @simplysickness before life took them in a totally different direction and these characters/this work in progress were passed to me via Sparrow for several reasons.

I Think I'm Lost Again canon lore goes after suffering a near death experience, twenty six year old Lex Millington dropped out of the world of music to pursue other passions, while his talented boyfriend, Soren Castellan, and their best friend Ksenia Khilemenetskaya, continue to tour and make movies with their bandmate Avan. Per Sparrow in the ITILA early days: I Think I'm Lost Again at its core is a story of recovery and redemption against all odds and showing the world that stardom isn't always the solution to every problem and there is life beyond the glitz and glamor of the stage.

Characters I Will Write For: Soren Castellan, Lex Millington, Ksenia Khilmenetskaya

Memento Vivere Masterlist

Memento Vivere tells the story of Hemlock Robinson adjusting to his new life, or rather his new afterlife, after a hunting accident. Raised by some of the most feared and renowned supernatural hunters of the modern age, when a family hunt goes sideways, Hemlock discovers he's much more than just a human raised by supernatural hunters. Now, forced with the task of protecting himself from his bloodthirsty (metaphorically, of course) parents and sister while grasping with his newfound identity as a half human half ghost species known as a wraithling, Hemlock finds himself thrown into the world of Amancio and Seraphina Sabilline, two vampires married for convenience and survival, who spend their modern days teaching new supernaturals how to handle their abilities and seasoned species how to master them.

Characters I Will Write For: Hemlock Robinson (not related to Ballad of the Wildflowers's Houston Robinson), Amancio Sabilline, Seraphina Sabilline, Cassius Delacroix, Calypso Delacroix

Monthly Writing Challenge Masterlist

This masterlist holds all my monthly writing challenge fills, such as Novemetober, Sicktember, etc.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Ryan Ruffaner

Published: May 21, 2024

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has taken America by storm. It’s in almost every public school, college, corporation, and organization you can imagine, including pharmaceutical companies, entertainment companies, and even the United States Department of Defense.

To its critics, DEI represents an insidious Neo-Marxist virus infecting the culture of the West, one that could spell the doom of democracy, critical thinking, and Enlightenment values, leading to the death of the West and America with it.

To its advocates, it is a clarion call to fight what they believe is the greatest struggle of our era—racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, along with all other forms of identity-based injustice. It is sword, shield, and holy book in the fight for so-called social justice.

Those less zealous yet still supportive of DEI believe that surface-level diversity, particularly of race, ethnicity, and gender, can lead to positive workplace outcomes, such as better leadership. For example, HR consulting company Zenefits recommends that companies “prioritize hiring executives, directors, managers, and other senior leaders from diverse backgrounds,” which includes factors like “gender, gender identities, ages, abilities and special needs, races, sexual orientations, religious backgrounds and beliefs, cultures, and nationalities.”

But even this more moderate brand of DEI falsely correlates leadership ability with diversity status and runs the risk violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Rather than treating each person as an individual with unique attributes, this brand of DEI relies on dubious claims that a person brings benefits to an organization merely by virtue of possessing certain identity-based characteristics. Supporters of diversity-based initiatives therefore often embrace the same kind of broad generalizations about race, sex, and other identity characteristics that civil rights laws were meant to counteract.   

Diversity researchers Alice H. Eagly and Jean Lau Chin are typical of scholars who attempt to justify DEI initiatives based on broad assumptions about identity. In arguing that surface-level diversity leads to better leadership, they say that “leaders and followers from diverse identity groups generally face some degree of pressure to behave like leaders from the majority group” while continuing to “express their own cultures to some extent” and this increases their multicultural competence while explaining some of the challenges that hold minorities back.

These claims rely on two fallacious assumptions that certain characteristics flow necessarily from a person’s identity. First, the authors assume that leaders and followers from “diverse identity groups” feel pressure to behave like the leaders from majority groups because these leaders are from a “majority” group, not because these leaders are in a position of authority that these “diverse” people may want to move into one day. It’s common for people to imitate the behaviors of those they want to be like or those whose benefits they wish to attain. This is why professional speakers study famous speakers and speeches, artists study great artists and art, writers study great writers and writing, and businesspeople study the entrepreneurial strategies of startup titans. We imitate that which we wish to become, and this isn’t necessarily predicated on race or gender.

The second assumption is one that we see far too often: that race and culture go together. Race can be correlated with culture in some cases, but it isn’t all the time. A black man born and raised in Houston, Texas is going to have a very different culture and “lived experience” than a black man born and raised in Ghana or London. A Hispanic woman born and raised in New York City is going to have a very different culture and “lived experience” than a Hispanic woman born and raised in Guatemala or Spain. And a white man born and raised in Nebraska or Oregon is going to have a very different cultural and “lived experience” than a white man born and raised in Sweden, South Africa, or Italy. Race doesn’t always correlate with culture.

Eagly and Chin continue with more broad and unsubstantiated assumptions about identity, saying non-white leaders “may be especially concerned about integrity and justice as they relate to the inclusion and fair treatment of individuals from diverse identity groups.” Although this may sound like a reasonable assumption on the surface, it assumes that these non-white leaders are concerned with inclusion and fairness rather than gaining competence, wealth, power, authority, prestige, or other benefits, let alone that they’ve personally experienced based exclusion and injustice that would make them uniquely sensitive to other minorities’ needs. This assumption also is blind to the fact that there are millions of non-minority people concerned with inclusion and justice for people of “diverse identity groups,” as evidenced by all the white people who fought to abolish slavery and secure civil rights for minorities and continue to fight for “racial justice” and “social justice” today. It is also blind to all the “diverse” people who have committed horrible crimes against other “diverse people,” such as Idi Amin (aka the Butcher of Uganda), Pol Pot, and Mao Zedong, as well as every Hutu who participated in the Tutsi genocide, every non-white person who owned a non-white slave, and every non-white soldier who has ever fought in a civil war against people of the same “diverse” group, to name a few.

Eagly and Chin’s claims include many other unsubstantiated generalizations about identity: that “executives from sexual minority groups might be especially adaptable and therefore embrace change;” that minority leaders may gain certain advantages from their “ability to modify and switch between minority and majority perspectives depending on their immediate cultural context”; that people from minority groups sometimes engage in a “strength-based rhetoric” which may involve “explicit claims that their group’s way of leading is better than those of the heterosexual White man who traditionally have exercised leadership;” and that “individuals belonging to diverse identity groups are often good leaders [because] the experiences that such individuals have had because of their differences from the majority group do confer special qualities.”

All of these claims rely on broad generalizations about beneficial leadership characteristics that supposedly flow from identity.  But we have evidence that the surface-level diversity that Eagly, Chin, and others like them are obsessed with does not necessarily contribute to good leadership on its own.

For example, in a rebuttal to Eagly and Chin, University of Maryland researchers Kristen M. Klein and Mo Wang provide four reasons why surface-level diversity does not equate to strong leadership.

First, we shouldn’t assume that just because someone belongs to a certain identity group they’ve automatically been a victim of discrimination. 

Second, the diversity leadership fallacy assumes that individuals who have experienced discrimination experience long-term consequences to their well-being, but this is not necessarily true either. 

Third, the diversity leadership fallacy assumes that those who have experienced discrimination have integrated these experiences into their life in positive, constructive ways—specifically in ways that improve their leadership abilities—rather than in negative, destructive ways, such as becoming bitter, resentful, or hopeless.  And finally, the diversity leadership fallacy assumes that a person’s surface-level characteristics expose them to more character-building adversity than non-surface-level characteristics, such as growing up in a low socioeconomic background or a single-parent household. But of course this mistakenly assumes that a white person from an impoverished single-parent household surrounded by drugs and crime would have faced less character-building adversity than a black woman who grew up in a safe, wealthy community with two loving, supportive parents. 

You cannot measure the adversity or discrimination a person has experienced purely by their surface-level characteristics. Further, there is no correlation between a person’s surface-level characteristics and the content of their character, or the competency of their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Those who suggest there is a connection are not destroying negative stereotypes, as they may claim. They are merely switching negative stereotypes to a different identity group and continuing the cycle of ignorance and resentment. 

As Klein and Wang point out, “a substantial body of research on deep- and surface-level diversity in the workplace has repeatedly shown that whereas the negative impacts of surface-level diversity decrease over time in workgroups, deep-level similarity (e.g., in values, goal orientations, and personality) consistently predicts positive workplace outcomes (e.g., turnover, job attitudes, team performance).”

While it’s true that some surface-level traits tend to vary with deeper-level qualities—women tend to rank higher on average in the personality trait of agreeableness than men—this doesn’t mean that these traits always vary together, that they have a strong relationship with one another, or that one causes the other. We cannot derive deep-level qualities, such as beliefs, attitudes, values, and skills, from surface-level traits and use these as proxies in employment decisions. Yet this is exactly what many DEI supporters propose.

Hiring and promoting employees, especially for leadership positions, based even in part on surface-level diversity causes enormous harm. Why should employees trust or accept the outcome of a hiring or promotion decision if they know that one of the qualities under scrutiny is an arbitrary characteristic unjustly treated as a competency? Why should people remain committed to an organization if they realize that the trajectory of their future is partially based on surface-level characteristics they can’t change?  Would you truly feel valued as a whole, multi-faceted human being if you knew or suspected that your organization assessed your qualifications based on the color of your skin or your sex? And how could you trust the people around you if you knew that they, too, may have been selected because of their surface-level qualities, not their competence?

However well-intentioned DEI initiatives may be, they rely on fundamentally flawed assumptions and broad, unfounded generalizations about identity, which reinforce old negative stereotypes and create new ones. Competence, not identity, should be the primary criteria for hiring, promotion, and leadership, not arbitrary surface-level qualities like race, ethnicity, or gender. 

Every time an organization encourages people to divide themselves by these surface-level characteristics, the organization entrenches stereotypical thinking and all but guarantees negative organizational outcomes. We shouldn’t encourage people to shackle themselves to stereotypes and call it liberation. Instead, we should hire and promote people based only on their job-relevant experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that have real value. 

We should train leaders to foster shared organizational values, goals, and attitudes among their subordinates which will contribute to deep-level similarities within their teams and the organization over time. We must look beyond the surface and stop pandering to those who would trap us in outdated thinking wrapped in a shiny new public relations pitch.

[roga-el-rojo]

Queer Brown Voices - Quesada, Gomez, and Vidal-Ortiz

Hello friends!

My final recommendation this pride month is another compilation of activist queer history, this time focusing on queer Latines personal narratives on their activism from the 70's through the 90's, continuing the legacy of our foremothers like the stunning Sylvia Rivera (a Venezuelan-Boricua!) in bringing liberation to all the people: "Queer brown voices" edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz.

Dr. Quesada is a Costa Rican writer and founded the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Loyola University in New Orleans.

Letitia Gomez has been a Latina lesbian activist since joining the Gay Chicano Caucus in Houston in 1982, founding the first national queer latine organization called LLEGÓ and others in her career.

Dr. Salvador Vidal-Ortiz is associate professor of sociology at American University in Washington, DC, producing professional and popular writing on LGBTQ issues.

"Queer Brown Voices" is a collection of fourteen essays reflecting on the diverse experiences of Latines all around the US during an incredibly important period of queer liberation struggles addressing the problem of white supremacy in queer organizations and anti-queerness in Latine ones. Coming from and having different relationships to their diasporas and origins, these writers provide lots of food for thought.

One essay I'd like to highlight is "All Identities on the Table: Power, Feminism, and LGBT Activism in Puerto Rico" by Olga Orraca Paredes.

Paredes' piece reflects on her work in defining Boricua lesbian activism since the 70's. She saw queer liberation become marginalized by the Left on the island and she fought to reclaim that space for struggle, and also had frustrations with reformist feminist elements that staved off decolonization and class analysis in lesbian organizing. While she did end up joining LLEGÓ and described challenges which do seem endemic to liberal organizations beholden to large donors, her experience is important for the Latine Left broadly.

If this essay interests you, there are a dozen others writing about stories from Texas to both coasts, so please check this collection out!

[severesoulavenue]

Navigate, Organize, Thrive: Your Blueprint for a Seamless Move

With all its promises of new beginnings and fresh starts, moving home organizers near me can be challenging and chaotic. Uprooting your life and relocating to a new space involves intricate planning, meticulous organization, and a resilient mindset. This guide explore the essential elements of a seamless move, offering you a blueprint to navigate the transition, organize your belongings, and ultimately thrive in your new environment.

Navigating the Terrain

Moving professional organizer near me begins with a mental map – understanding where you are and where you're headed. Before diving into the logistics of packing and transporting, take the time to research your new location thoroughly. Familiarize yourself with the local amenities, services, and community aspects shaping your daily life. This proactive approach sets the stage for a smoother transition, helping you navigate the unfamiliar terrain with confidence.

Create a Moving Timeline

Time is valuable during a move houston professional organizer, and a well-structured timeline can be your greatest ally. Establish a moving schedule encompassing critical milestones, such as sorting belongings, notifying utility companies, and hiring movers. Having a clear timeline helps manage tasks efficiently and reduces the last-minute rush, minimizing stress and ensuring a more organized move.

Organize Your Belongings

The heart of a seamless move lies in the organization of your possessions. Start by decluttering your living space and making conscious decisions about what to keep, donate, or discard. Professional organizers can be invaluable allies during this process, providing expert guidance on maximizing space and creating efficient packing strategies. As you pack, label boxes systematically to simplify the unpacking process at your new home.

Strategic Packing and Unpacking

Packing is both an art and a science. Consider the layout of your new home as you pack, and prioritize items you'll need immediately upon arrival. Fragile items require extra care, and labeling boxes with a detailed inventory ensures everything gets noticed in transit. Upon reaching your destination, follow your carefully crafted plan to unpack methodically, transforming your new space into a well-organized and functional environment.

Embrace Change and Thrive

A move is not merely a change of address; it's an opportunity to embrace a new chapter in your life. As you settle into your new home, create routines promoting well-being and connection. Explore your surroundings, engage with your community, and establish a sense of belonging. Thriving in your new environment involves adapting to change and actively seeking opportunities for growth and fulfillment.

Conclusion

Navigating, organizing, and thriving are the pillars of a seamless move. By approaching the process with a strategic mindset, embracing the art of organization, and cultivating a positive outlook, you can turn the challenges of moving into a transformative experience. Your blueprint for a seamless move goes beyond the logistics; it encompasses a holistic approach to ensure that every aspect of your transition contributes to a thriving and fulfilling new chapter in your life.

[passionneat]

Organize for Success: How Home Organizers Boost Productivity

In today's fast-paced world, our homes have become more than just places to rest and recharge. They have also become offices, classrooms, and creative spaces, demanding efficiency and productivity. However, achieving peak productivity in a cluttered or disorganized home can take time and effort. This is where professional home neat organizer step in, offering a path to success through organization.

In this blog post, we will explore how home organizers can boost your productivity and transform your living space into a hub of efficiency.

The Productivity-Clutter Connection

Before delving into the role of home organizer houston, let's first understand the relationship between clutter and productivity.

Distractions: Clutter can be a significant source of distraction. When your physical space is cluttered, your mind is often cluttered, too, making it difficult to concentrate on tasks.

Wasted Time: Searching for misplaced items or dealing with disorganized spaces can consume valuable time better spent on productive activities.

Stress and Overwhelm: A cluttered environment can lead to stress and overwhelm, negatively impacting your ability to focus and work efficiently.

Reduced Creativity: Clutter can stifle creativity and hinder the flow of ideas, making it challenging to tackle creative projects or problem-solving tasks.

The Role of Home Organizers in Boosting Productivity

Home organizer near me are experts in decluttering, organizing, and optimizing living spaces to enhance functionality and efficiency. Here's how they can play a pivotal role in boosting your productivity:

Decluttering and StreamliningThe first step to an organized and productive space is decluttering. Home organizers help you identify items to keep, donate, or discard. This process frees up physical space and clears mental space, allowing you to focus on essential tasks.

Creating Functional Workspaces

Having a dedicated and organized workspace is crucial in an age of remote work and telecommuting. Home organizers can design a home office that suits your needs, ensuring that it's aesthetically pleasing and optimized for productivity.

Time Efficiency

With everything in its place, you'll spend less time searching for things and more time doing what matters most. Home organizers create efficient systems for storing and accessing your belongings.

Stress Reduction

A clutter-free and organized home can significantly reduce stress and overwhelm, creating an environment where you can think clearly and work productively.

Improved Focus

A well-organized environment minimizes distractions, allowing you to concentrate on your tasks. This is especially beneficial for students and professionals working from home.

Goal-Oriented Organization

Home organizers work with you to set organizational goals that align with your productivity objectives. They provide guidance and support to help you achieve these goals.

Long-Term Sustainability

Professional organizers transform your space and teach you valuable organizational skills you can apply in the long run. This ensures that your home remains a productive haven.

Choosing the Right Home Organizer

To reap the benefits of increased productivity through home organization, choosing the right home organizer for your needs is essential. Consider the following factors:

Experience: Look for organizers with a proven track record in home organization projects.

References: Check client testimonials and reviews to gauge their reputation.

Communication: Ensure the organizer understands your goals and preferences and can effectively communicate their plan.

Budget: Discuss pricing and any additional costs for materials or tools.

Conclusion

A clutter-free and well-organized home can be a game-changer for your productivity. Home organizers are the secret weapons that can help you achieve this transformation. By decluttering, creating functional spaces, and reducing stress, they empower you to work more efficiently and effectively in your home environment. Remember to consider the positive impact that an organized home can have on your success. Consider working with a professional home organizer today and unlock your full productivity potential. Your path to success starts with organization.

[lboogie1906]

Horace Tapscott (April 6, 1934 - February 27, 1999) pianist, bandleader, and social activist committed his life to the empowerment of his South Central Los Angeles community. He founded the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and its umbrella organization, the Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension, both of which were at the forefront of the vibrant community arts movement in Black Los Angeles.

He was born in Houston. His mother, Mary Malone Tapscott, was a professional singer and pianist. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1943. He spent his childhood learning piano and trombone, immersed in the richly diverse Central Avenue nightclub scene. After attending Jefferson High School and Los Angeles City College, he served in the Air Force, playing trombone in a service band. He found that the LAPD, operating had dismantled the Central Avenue arts scene. While on tour with the Lionel Hampton orchestra, he was hoping to reforge the communicative link between Black artists and the community.

He envisioned an orchestra that could preserve Black culture, perform original music, and foster community involvement. With local musicians, he formed the Underground Musicians Association, which established the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The Arkestra engaged the youth through musical instruction, revised history courses, and remedial reading and math classes. The Arkestra performed in public schools, parks, community centers, churches, hospitals, and prisons.

Although the Arkestra played in support of diverse political groups, internally it stressed only the importance of self-expression. The Arkestra developed a key relationship with the Black Panther Party. He and Elaine Brown composed “The Meeting,” which became the Panthers’ anthem, and the Arkestra performed original musical arrangements to back Elaine Brown on her albums Seize the Time and Elaine Brown.

He continued to encourage any community member with an artistic spirit to perform in the Arkestra, embracing poets, dancers, and improvisational martial artists. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[carterahealth]

Experience the Healing Touch: Professional Physical Therapy Clinic in Houston

When you are facing issues like sports injuries, chronic pain, or neurological issues, you need to undergo physical therapy. It will help you in speedy recovery and you can do your daily task without any disturbance. With this therapy, you can improve your physical function and quality of life. For each individual, there are different treatment plans. To assist patients widen their range of motion and lessen discomfort, physical therapists employ several methods and exercises. But you need to look at Professional Physical Therapy Clinic in Houston, for better outcomes. Patients who receive this have said they are feeling more confident and self-assured as they regain their physical abilities. When you are fit and healthy then you can work more and be able to show your talent. So, to get well you should go for therapy. And people who ignore these types of injuries, need to face bad consequences in the long term. Ph no.     (833) 735-2273 Mail us      info@carterahealth.com Address 1449 Hwy 6 Suite 320, Sugar Land, TX 77478

[toadyinghorizon]

Hello!

So nice to meet you all,

My name is Li. I'm a junior at the University of Houston and I am currently pursuing my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Media.

I recently was given the amazing opportunity to do a ten-week summer internship in Tokyo, Japan, where I would get to work under professional photographers and gallery owners and learn everything I can about the art world in East Asia. I'd also get to count this amazing experience as a sort of independent study and be able to get class credit for it.

Here's where I need help.

While I did receive a scholarship, it unfortunately only covers about half of the program tuition, with the rest I have to come up with myself.

I'm a broke college student without a job and I have less than 3 months to cough this up.

The funds I'm asking for would be used to pay for the remaining program tuition, as well as cover a round-trip flight.

I'd appreciate the help, I want to work as a photojournalist after I graduate and this would give me some great experience.

Thank you.