#i participated in a remembrance day event and i was standing for like 2 hours and im exhausted

[dailyaventurinedoodles]

90 - not really sure what to call this

[livinginlandmarketing]

When you’re a writer, you spend thousands of hours alone with whatever you choose to use for your stories: notebook and pencil, typewriter and ribbon of ink (old school!) or laptop and keyboard. Voices and landscapes and memories fill the pages, while the writer lives inside an imaginary world, seeing what no one else is seeing at that moment, trying to make sure readers see the people and places we’re creating.

But then your book of stories or poems, or your novel or memoir, is published, and you enter the world of readers, the people who matter most. I always tell my students and readers, around the world, that writers sometimes lead secretive, private lives, wherein they hide their work in a drawer in an attic, like Emily Dickinson, or never send that computer file to anyone. But most of us write because we want people to see our worlds, hear our voices and those of our characters – as Ernest J. Gaines, one of my favorite writers said, “I wrote because I didn’t see my people on the shelves at the library.” That quote kept me going for four years while I wrote my last book, a memoir about six generations of women who found their dreams in Southern California, and one of the first people I saw in the audience of the book launch, in Riverside, was CelenaDiana Bumpus, whose radiant brown eyes and perfect spiral curls and big smile greeted me, as she always did, when we talked about writing and mothers.

Author Susan Straight, a Riverside native, has a new memoir, “In the Country of Women.” (Courtesy of Felisha Carrasco)

Ms. Bumpus was my dream person to run into at Ralph’s every week, where she would be shopping for her beloved mother, with whom she lived until both passed away in February, in Riverside. I would be shopping for my beloved father, and we’d stand in the aisles – in 2019 and early 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic – and chat for a long time about how we handled life, caring for family and writing in the time we had. Ms. Bumpus came to every event I did in Riverside, and we talked about poetry, voice, form, and always, always, about how we loved to pass on craft and imagination to people who wanted to write.

Some writers lead solitary lives because that feeds their souls. Some writers, like Ms. Bumpus and like me, love to teach, love to tell stories to new readers and students, and love to hear other people’s tales.

CelenaDiana Bumpus taught hundreds of people in Southern California how to love their own words and images and stories. She was a participant in Inlandia’s workshops for many years, at the Riverside Public Library. For the last 10 years, CelenaDiana led an Inlandia workshop, Poets in Motion, through the Janet Goeske Senior Center. She was a member of Inlandia’s Black Voices Steering Committee. A survivor of metastatic breast cancer, she heard her students’ voices.

Mary-Lynne Monroe remembers, “Finding CelenaDiana’s online class was a magnificent stroke of luck. My participation began after completing cancer treatments last June. CelenaDiana spoke candidly of our shared journey. Her support was palpable. Her caring open invitation to simply be there kept me returning. She fashioned her Zoom classes as a welcoming place for everyone, so much so that our group included people from across the US and the UK. Her laughter was infectious and her critiques of participants’ work were always upbeat.”

CelenaDiana was also the author of the poetry collection, “Confessions” (1998, The Inevitable Press), with work included in “Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape” (2014, Scarecrow Press), “Verse/Chorus: A Call and Response Anthology” (2013, Scarecrow Press), “San Bernardino, Singing” (2020, Inlandia Books), “Orangelandia: The Literature of California Citrus” (2014, Inlandia Books), and multiple issues of the Writing from Inlandia anthologies.

Another former student, Constance Jameson, recalls, “Her attributes of caring, kindness and patience were especially important in helping the older individuals in the writing groups held at the Goeske Center. I learned much about writing and poetry in Celena’s workshops — from her writing prompts, information presented, and sharing done by our many interesting, talented class members.”

Writers love the perfect phrase, and I can’t think of a better way to pay tribute to a beloved reader and writer like CelenaDiana than this, from author Gayle Brandeis: “On January 21, less than a month before her death, CelenaDiana posted her final tweet: You either die a simile or live long enough to become a metaphor. CelenaDiana was and will remain a beautiful metaphor.”

Related Articles

Remembering the ‘always smiling’ CelenaDiana Bumpus

Writing workshop for Black women builds words, community

Balancing a creative life takes discipline and organization

Writing rejuvenates the brain as much as pumping iron rejuvenates the body

At 2 p.m. on April 11, Inlandia will be hosting a virtual remembrance of CelenaDiana. To RSVP, please visit: tinyurl.com/RememberingCelenaDiana.

When I finish my next book, and I read in an auditorium somewhere in Riverside, I will look out into the crowd and miss seeing the brilliant smile and mobile face of CelenaDiana Bumpus, lover of words, the kind of reader we dream about. But every few days, when I’m in Ralph’s buying groceries for my family and my parents, I will think of her, finding joy and stories amid the shelves with me.

Susan Straight’s memoir, “In the Country of Women”, was a national bestseller.  Her new novel, “Mecca”, will be published in March 2022.

-on March 05, 2021 at 12:00AM by Susan Straight

[dinafbrownil]

Prayers and Grief Counseling After COVID: Trying to Aid Healing in Long-Term Care

A tidal wave of grief and loss has rolled through long-term care facilities as the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 91,000 residents and staffers — nearly 40% of recorded COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.

And it’s not over: Facilities are bracing for further shocks as coronavirus cases rise across the country.

Workers are already emotionally drained and exhausted after staffing the front lines — and putting themselves at significant risk — since March, when the pandemic took hold. And residents are suffering deeply from losing people they once saw daily, the disruption of routines and being cut off from friends and family.

In response, nursing homes and assisted living centers are holding memorials for people who’ve died, having chaplains and social workers help residents and staff, and bringing in hospice providers to offer grief counseling, among other strategies. More than 2 million vulnerable older adults live in these facilities.

“Everyone is aware that this is a stressful, traumatic time, with no end in sight, and there needs to be some sort of intervention,” said Barbara Speedling, a long-term care consultant working on these issues with the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, an industry organization.

Connie Graham, 65, is corporate chaplain at Community Health Services of Georgia, which operates 56 nursing homes. For months, he’s been holding socially distant prayer services in the homes’ parking lots for residents and staff members.

“People want prayers for friends in the facilities who’ve passed away, for relatives and friends who’ve passed away, for the safety of their families, for the loss of visitation, for healing, for the strength and perseverance to hold on,” Graham said.

Central Baptist Village, a Norridge, Illinois, nursing home, held a socially distanced garden ceremony to honor a beloved nurse who had died of COVID-19. “Our social service director made a wonderful collage of photos and left Post-its so everyone could write a memory” before delivering it to the nurse’s wife, said Dawn Mondschein, the nursing home’s chief executive officer.

“There’s a steady level of anxiety, with spikes of frustration and depression,” Mondschein said of staff members and residents.

Vitas Healthcare, a hospice provider in 14 states and the District of Columbia, has created occasional “virtual blessing services” on Zoom for staffers at nursing homes and assisted living centers. “We thank them for their service and a chaplain gives words of encouragement,” said Robin Fiorelli, Vitas’ senior director of bereavement and volunteers.

Vitas has also been holding virtual memorials via Zoom to recognize residents who’ve died of COVID-19. “A big part of that service is giving other residents an opportunity to share their memories and honor those they’ve lost,” Fiorelli said.

On Dec. 6, Hospice Savannah is going one step further and planning an online broadcast of its annual national “Tree of Light” memorial, with grief counselors who will offer healing strategies. During the service, candles will be lit and a moment of silence observed in remembrance of people who’ve died.

“Grief has become an urgent mental health issue, and we hope this will help begin the healing process for people who haven’t been able to participate in rituals or receive the comfort and support they’d normally have gotten prior to COVID-19,” said Kathleen Benton, Hospice Savannah’s president and chief executive officer.

But these and other attempts are hardly equal to the extent of anguish, which has only grown as the pandemic stretches on, fueling a mental health crisis in long-term care.

“There is a desperate need for psychological services,” said Toni Miles, a professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health and an expert on grief and bereavement in long-term care settings. She’s created two guides to help grieving staffers and residents and is distributing them digitally to more than 400 nursing homes and 1,000 assisted living centers in the state.

A recent survey by Altarum, a nonprofit research and consulting firm, highlights the hopelessness of many nursing home residents. The survey asked 365 people living in nursing homes about their experiences in July and August.

“I am completely isolated. I might as well be buried already,” one resident wrote. “There is no hope,” another said. “I feel like giving up. … No emotional support nor mental health support is available to me,” another complained.

Inadequate mental health services in nursing homes have been a problem for years. Instead of counseling, residents are typically given medications to ease symptoms of distress, said David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School who has published several studies on this topic.

The situation has worsened during the pandemic as psychologists and social workers have been unable to enter facilities that limited outsiders to minimize the risk of viral transmission.

“Several facilities didn’t consider mental health professionals ‘essential’ health care providers, and many of us weren’t able to get in,” said Lisa Lind, president of Psychologists in Long-Term Care. Although some facilities switched to tele-mental health services, staff shortages have made those hard to arrange, she noted.

Fewer than half of nursing home staffers have health insurance, and those who do typically don’t have “minimal” access to mental health services, Grabowski said. That’s a problem because “there’s a real fragility right now on the part of the workforce.”

Colleen Frankenfield, president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey, said what staffers need most of all is “the ability to vent and to have someone comfort them.” She recalls a horrible day in April, when four residents died in less than 24 hours at her organization’s continuing care retirement community in northern New Jersey, which includes an assisted living facility and a nursing home.

“The phone rang at 1 a.m. and all I heard on the other end was an administrator, sobbing,” she remembered. “She said she felt she was emotionally falling apart. She felt like she was responsible for the residents who had died, like she had let them down. She just had to talk about what she was experiencing and cry it out.”

Although Lutheran Social Ministries has been free of COVID-19 since the end of April, “our employees are tired — always on edge, always worried,” Frankenfield said. “I think people are afraid and they need time to heal. At the end of the day, all we can really do is stand with them, listen to them and support them in whatever way we can.”

Coming Monday: The Navigating Aging column will look at the grief faced by long-term care workers as COVID-19 cases and deaths mount.

Join Judith Graham for a Facebook Live event on grief and bereavement during the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the conversation here and submit questions in advance here.

We’re eager to hear from readers about questions you’d like answered, problems you’ve been having with your care and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit khn.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/pandemic-healing-grief-counseling-nursing-homes-assisted-living/

[actionfigureinsider]

Below is a column/editorial that I wrote 10 years ago after the sudden passing of my dear friend, prototype painter and pop culture enthusiast Eddie Wires.  I’ve tweaked a few things here and there for clarity, and added some additional pictures.   Eddie was such a force in the industry.  If you own any toys from Toy Biz, Palisades, early DC Direct and countless others then you probably have a little piece of Eddie in your collection.   He was self-taught and built his business from the ground up and he ran it with love, passion and integrity.  There were several in the industry that screwed him and didn’t pay or shorted him for his work, but he always gave them a second chance to do the right thing.   I’ve never met anyone that didn’t LOVE and adore Eddie after meeting him.   And even after 10 years I miss him every day.

This is a blog that I started over a month ago, that I keep putting off, because it was just too painful and finishing it would make it all the more real. Tonight at a Dave & Busters in Georgia and in a few weeks at New York Comic Con there will be gatherings of friends and family to celebrate the life of Eddie Wires. I’m not able to attend these because of other family obligations, but still wanted to participate by posting this blog:

THE FIRST AND LAST TIME I SAW EDDIE WIRES

There’s a lot of great stuff in the middle of these events with my friendship to Eddie Wires, but in this blog I’d like to talk about the very first time I met Eddie and the last time I saw Eddie.

I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but it was roughly 10 or 11 years ago, and it was in June. It was Eddie’s birthday. These days there’s always an easy way that I remember when Eddie’s birthday falls. The pants tell me so. You see there’s a little “Easter Egg” on one the Marvel Legends/Hulk Classics figures that Eddie painted. In wave 2 of Hulk classics, if you were one of the people fortunate enough to find one of the Absorbing Man figures in that wave, on his prison pants there are a string of letter and a string of numbers that are supposed to be his prison ID. The letters are “PRJFEW” That stands for “Jesse Falcon, Phil Ramirez and Eddie Wires.” The numbers are “060572” That’s Eddie’s birthday. June 5th, 1972. It’s the day before my youngest daughter’s birthday.

Back to the first time I met Eddie. This was still pretty early in my “toy journalism” career. I was a new friends with Jesse Falcon of Toy Biz (Now Marvel/Disney) and he was in LA for some meetings. I was working for Disney Animation at the time so I had free access to Disneyland for me and 3 friends. I wanted to introduce Jesse to another friend of mine, Chris Tallman, who, like Jesse, was into improvisational comedy. At that time Chris was working for Disneyland as “the Mayor of FrontierLand.” Jesse, Phil Ramirez and I headed out to Anaheim to the“Happiest Place on Earth”.

Fast forwarding past spending the day at the park riding rides, talking nerd-stuff and then having several drinks at the Anaheim House of Blues. Jesse invited Chris and I out that night to celebrate the birthday of one of their friends, who was also a painter for Toy Biz… Mr. Eddie Wires.

Before working in toys, Eddie was a bartender at “Dave &Busters” in several cities. For those of you that might not be familiar with “Dave & Buster’s” it’s like the adult version of Chuck E. Cheese; great food, lots of video games and some VR stuff thrown in.

That’s where he met the love of his life, Jennifer, who would later become his wife. Jennifer still worked for “Dave & Busters,” as a manger and helping new locations open all over the country. That’s where Eddie’s party was, at the “Dave & Busters” in the Block at Orange. That was our night; meeting Eddie and his friends, hanging out with Toy Biz guys, free food and free video games all night long. It was like we had died and gone to heaven. To this day that night is still in my top 5 greatest days of my life. Chris and I couldn’t stop grinning that night.

At the amazing center of it all was Eddie Wires. There was no weirdness about these two goons crashing his party. Any friend of Jess and Phil’s was a friend of his, and he was more than happy to talk toys and shoot the digital undead with these strangers until the sun came up. After 10 minutes it was already like we had known each other 10 years.

At the end of the night he hugged us and we exchanged emails. That was just Eddie. If he knew you, he hugged you. I think all of us have been the recipients of voice mails or emails from Eddie informing us that the next time we saw him that we could expect to have his arms around us. And he was always a man of his word.

That was the first time I saw Eddie Wires.

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Now for the last time….

This past July Eddie asked Abby and I if we wanted to share a hotel room with him at Comic Con 2010. Eddie always stayed at the Marriott next door to the con and for the past 5 years he’s always allowed the AFi team to use his room as a hub for dropping stuff off, checking email, uploading stuff or just taking a break. This year he suggested “why not just stay together?” He already had the room booked and it had 2 beds. It would be great to spend the time together. The idea made a lot of sense to us so we did, and it was great. We loved being able to spend 5 days with him, catching up, and talking about what was cool at the show, just being with Eddie for 5 days. This was the year that “The Walking Dead” trailer debuted at the con. Eddie, was a fan of ALL things Zombies, he was already a fan of the comic and he was OVER THE MOON, that it was going to be a weekly TV show. We joked about calling each other after each episode and discussing it… except I don’t think either of us were joking. We would have loved to have done a weekly “watch party” together. I’ve really missed him since he moved to the other side of the country.

We had 5 amazing days, and went out a few nights. Then it was time for the show to end. Anyone that has been to all, 5 days of the con knows that by the end of the show you are ready to go home! It’s fun, but covering the show, the late nights, the early mornings, the crowds, the walking… ugh.

Danny Neuman took this picture. This was sitting on the top of the toilet in our hotel room. This image has hung in my house for the past 10 years.

Eddie had mentioned several times in the last 2 days of the con that he really wanted to have diner with us before we got back on the road to drive back to LA. We wanted to as well, but we were tired, we still had to pack the car and unpack when we got home, and we wanted to beat the traffic of the thousands of people leaving the show. We kept debating weather to stay or go. Eddie said he was going to help the guys from Diamond Select break down their booth, so that was going to add even more time before we could go eat. But we had a lot of stuff to pack in the car… and then we came to the decision that it was Eddie. We love Eddie, we miss Eddie and we love spending time with Eddie, so we would stay. We loaded the car. He packed up DST, and then we went to eat… and we had such a lovely time. We were just in the Marriott pub in the south tower,but there was just something so… nice about that dinner. We even commented on it several times on the drive how great that was and how glad we were that we stayed.

Time really seemed to stand still that night. While it was only 2 hours at the restaurant, it seemed like we were there all night. We talked about the con, our families, TV, movies, life, his band, and friends… everything. I’ve known Eddie for about 11 years, but it’s really been the past two years that he has really opened up with Abby and I and really gone beyond “nerdy talk” into a lot of meaty stuff and this dinner continued in that vein.

It really was the perfect evening. Anyone that has ever gone out with Eddie knows that it’s damn near impossible to pay for your own drinks or a meal. Picking up the check was one of Eddie’s superpowers. That night Abby had a plan and she snuck her card to the waitress before she came over to the table so we had the last laugh and did the near impossible… we picked up HIS check!

With the news of Eddie’s passing just a few weeks later,that evening is priceless to us. Thank God we stayed. We wouldn’t trade that for time anything… anything except for the chance to see him and talk to him just one more time.

Eddie really was the nicest person I have ever met. It’s easy to give lip service to a phrase like that, but searching the cobwebs of my mind I really can’t think of a nicer person that I have encountered in my almost 40 years of life. He would give you the shirt off of his back, literally. And then he would secretly sneak away and buy you 10 more shirts.

Like everyone that interacted with him with any frequency we miss him like crazy every day. He’ll never be forgotten.

  Call your friends.  Chat about the stuff you love.  Celebrate your past.  And tell them that you love them.

I hope you are all safe and healthy in these trying times.

Thank you for reading this.  I love you guys.

  The First and Last Time I Met Eddie Wires – Remembrance of Eddie on the 10th Anniversary of his Passing Below is a column/editorial that I wrote 10 years ago after the sudden passing of my dear friend, prototype painter and pop culture enthusiast Eddie Wires. 

[twatkcox]

[The Keihancarl Diaries: June 2-3, 2018]

All right, this is going to be an awesome weekend! And best of all, it's right near my place.

Of course, there are some things I wanted to do first before proceeding to the main part of a really awesome weekend, the Pinoy Otaku Festival: Ai 2018.

To be honest, I'm still nervous about going to an otaku event all by myself, just like the last time. Being the shy, introverted person I was, I somehow managed to check most of the event happenings as well as missing some of them.

June 2nd

I decided on my favorite black fleece coat, my brown polo shirt, black fingerless gloves, and a pair of red socks. As much as I wanted to wear an anime shirt to an otaku event, I resist the urge since I'm not really keen on wearing all-black like the last time (all of my anime shirts are in black).

I left home early, but I decided to come to the otaku event later. For the next few hours, I’m dealing with a light to moderate rainfall, but luckily I didn't get wet.

Anyway, let's start with the usual mall-hopping fare and a sip of caramel frappe at my favorite milk tea shop in Lagro. I'll definitely need to calm down first since I tend to get overexcited at the thought of going to an otaku event for the second time.

I arrived at Fairview Terraces at exactly 2:00 PM. By the time I got there, a panel discussion Anime vs. Manga vs. Visual Novel vs. Light Novel is about to start. The panelists are asked about the first anime series they watched, as well as the first manga series/visual novel/light novel they read. They discussed the pros and cons of manga series adapted into anime and debating whether an anime adaptation is better than the original manga and vice versa (if I recall correctly).

There was a cute intermission number with OO-kun and Chu Chu, plus highlights of some upcoming anime shows on Animax (POF: Ai 2018’s official media partner), some performances and other intermission numbers, another panel discussion May Forever Ba Sa Cosplay (English: Is There Love In Cosplay) and a game show Anime Game Challenge. As for the latter, there were groups of contestants who answer the questions from three categories: guessing the anime character, what title of an anime theme song being played, and guessing who's the seiyū (Japanese voice actors) of the characters featured in a series of different anime clips.

There was also a singing game show The Otaku Singing Bee and another panel discussion about the issues within the cosplay community (Issues In Coscom).

The Otaku Singing Bee features the theme songs from old anime shows like DNAngel, Yu Yu Hakusho (Ghost Fighter), Fushigi Yuugi, Inuyasha, and Full Metal Alchemist.

For the first part of the game show, the contestants must rearrange the words that appear on the screen, that is actually part of the lyrics that will follow soon afterward. The second part of the game show, they must guess the missing part of the song's lyrics. One guy really nailed the last part of Ghost Fighter's theme song, too bad I never got to record it on video. It was really fun, and some of the audience/event-goers couldn't resist singing the lyrics to the opening theme songs, even if they are about to sing the correct answer.

As for the latter, the panel discussion tackles about the issues cosplayers faced in the industry, like bullying/cyberbullying and crab mentality within the cosplay community.

There was the announcement of those who will advance to the final round, and the first day of POF: Ai 2018 is over. I managed to upload some of the pics and videos, including selfies with some of the cosplayers.

June 3rd

Same outfit, but with a yellow shirt and striped white/black/yellow socks. I arrived at around 2:00 PM, around the same time as yesterday.

The second day of the event had singing competitions, cosplay competitions and the battle of the bands, with some performances, games, stand-up comedy, auctions, and panel discussions. I did have some additional selfies with the cosplayers too, some of the pics are uploaded to the event's FB page as comments to the cosplayers' posts.

I did catch Who Wants To Be An Otaku, an anime-oriented quiz game, and the panel discussion on seiyūs or Japanese voice actors. There’s also the Cosplay Idol Finals, but I didn’t get to see much of it since I decided to take some time off from the event for a nice stroll in the adjacent malls and check out some of the shops as well. I then head back to the activity center an hour and a half later.

It was already 6:00 PM and I'm starting to feel hungry so I immediately head to Yoshinoya at the mall's second level. I decided on a beef and mushroom bowl, which actually tasted like corned beef with mushrooms. It was okay. Cosplay Xtra already started by the time I head back to the activity center.

I then decided to have a sip of fruit tea. Come to think of it, CoCo already has branches in SM Fairview and Fairview Terraces a long time ago, but I've yet to try out their drinks. And so I did, and I had a Passion Fruit Tea Burst. I have to wait for about 20-30 minutes before my drink is served since the line was pretty long and there were a lot of drinks to be served to the waiting customers.

It was worth the wait, though I was wondering if the crunchy, tarty seeds from the passion fruit are edible. I eventually researched all about it, and it is indeed edible. I finished the drink inside the mall area.

And there's the final part of the event, the Battle Of The Bands. Eleven bands participated in the event, each performing a cover of their chosen anime theme song and either a cover of an OPM song or their own composition. In between the performance, there was an auction of stuffed plushies and other items while waiting for the next band to perform. By the time the eighth or ninth band was about to perform, it was already near the mall's closing time (about fifteen minutes to 10:00 PM).

Despite this, the competition continued until about a quarter past 10:00. The event finished at exactly 10:30 PM. By then, most of the mall's lights are dimmed and only a few restaurants and cafés are open. I got home at around 11:00 PM.

During the two-day event, I only bought a few souvenirs at the event (a couple of button pins on the first day, and a handmade keychain on the second day) since I don’t feel like spending too much, considering the fact that I have a limited budget for the entire weekend.

Regarding my outfit... well, there's a possibility that I might get mistaken for a cosplayer (I wish I was one of them, but...) since my outfits often include black fingerless gloves and the black fleece coat. Some cosplayers wear gauntlets and gloves as part of the [character’s] costume like in the case of Noctis Lucis Caelum of Final Fantasy XV, so there’s no surprise that wearing my black fingerless gloves alone will make them assume that I was actually one of them. A couple of guys asked if they can have a selfie with me, but I politely told them that I’m not a cosplayer... with an awkward smile, of course. Maybe I might reconsider the thought of wearing them again in my future otaku event visits.

They have the photo printing booth where you can have your photos from the event printed for free (I think you have to sign up first), though I never had any of the photos printed, which is a total shame on my part since that would serve as a wonderful remembrance of the event. Aside from that, there were stalls selling various merchandises, mostly anime-related stuff, and some food stalls as well.

There are also workshops too, one of them is the Baybayin Writing Workshop, where one can learn the ancient Filipino writing system. If you notice the unusual writing below the word Ai on the poster, that’s how the Baybayin script looks like.

The event is also helping out charities, mainly Hands Of GOD Charity Works.

That concludes the two-day otaku event, and just like the last time (POF: Danketsu 2017), it was really fun. I had a lot of selfies with the cosplayers and it was really awesome! I’m definitely looking forward to the next POF event, in a larger venue. I’m hoping for the event to be held in either Vertis Tent or The Elements at Eton Centris, but then I wouldn’t mind going as far as MOA Complex just to experience the otaku vibe.

It sure was a really awesome weekend to remember. Until next time!

All pics are taken by yours truly, Keihancarl. Most of the pics are posted to my private Instagram account, @kcox105.

[melissagarcia8]

Man in race row with woman on train is Tory councillor in charge of transport

A commuter captured up in a race row with a woman he accused of putting her muddy shoes on his train seat, is the Conservative chairman of the London Assembly transportation committee.

Keith Prince was branded a "white idiot" by an unnamed woman while he was sitting opposite her on a jam-packed carriage throughout rush hour, a video shows.Witnesses declared the

stand-off on morning Dartford to London Southeastern service ensued after the Conservative councillor took a seat in the seat where the woman had actually had her feet."She took her feet off of the chair and after that brushed

them versus his match -he wasn't pleased anyway and this pressed him overboard", a witness told the Daily Mail. Footage of the exchange was published on the Dartford Rail Travellers Association's Facebook page.At the start, the female can be heard stating:"Touch me once again and I'll slap you"The stand-off peaked when the female accused Mr Prince of touching her and then threatened

to slap him before she put her feet near his groin, saying:"I'm actually grabbing you by your balls."UK news in images reveal all UK news in images 8 December 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker address an interview at the European Commission

in Brussels AFP/Getty

Images 7 December 2017 Nick

Dunn, among the so-called Chennai Six is welcomed by his sister Lisa as he gets to Newcastle Airport after being launched from India after serving four years in prison on weapons charges.PA 6 December 2017 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (L)greets Nigeria's ambassador to the UK, George Adesola

Oguntade(C ), and his wife, Modupe Oguntade, during a personal audience at Buckingham Palace in main London AFP/Getty 5 December 2017 800 abandoned containers appear at Potters Field Park, London, in a moving homage

to

the 800 kids who pass away every day, usually, due to a lack of clean water and sanitation. Just one container in the setup, part of WaterAid's #Untapped appeal, could hold practically enough safe drinking water for one child for a week. Every ₤ 1 donated to the #Untapped appeal up until 31st January 2018 will be matched

by the UK Government.WaterAid/ Ollie Dixon 4 December 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May smiles to European Union President Donald Tusk as she participates in Brexit settlements 'meetings AFP/Getty 3 December 2017 The last Supermoon of 2017 sets over Whitley Bay, Northumberland PA 2 December 2017 The crowd reacts as England's Dawid Malan cannot stop a boundary throughout the very first day of the second Ashes test match REUTERS 1 December 2017 England supervisor, Gareth Southgate, jokes with Belgium supervisor, Roberto Martinez

, after their sides were

attracted the exact same group throughout the Last Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia Getty Images 30 November 2017 A fan of Lauri Love,

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"You're a moron,"she said, adding:"That's why you're not married you idiot since no one

can stand you. "However Mr Prince said:"No

, you're the idiot", prior to he mentioned that he is wed to Nigerian Temitayo and reveals the woman his finger where there is obviously a wedding event ring. "Your partner is where I'm from. Touch me

again and I will slap you

, the same way your wife beats you up,"the female replied.She then moved one of her shoes near Mr Prince's groin area and threatened:" You understand you can't do anything. Listen

, my feet is actually by your balls. I'm literallygrabbing you by your balls. "< p data-nid=/ news/uk/home-news/ pope-francis-racism-violence-immigration-donald-trump-a8078766. html >

Read more Pope condemns political leaders who spread racism over migration "No you're not, no you're not,"Mr Prince responds then chuckled."You're actually a moron. You're a total fool."The female then gets on her phone and, while apparently tape-recording a video of Mr Prince, stated:"So I get on the train and this white moron. ""Oh, you're racist also now," stated Mr Prince

."Racist,

I enjoy it.""I are sorry for getting associated with such a petty dispute. This is among those situations in which it is much better to simply leave," Mr Prince said told The Independent."By the end of the journey we were joking with each other and having an enjoyable conversation. That said,

I 'd like to

apologise to my fellow commuters

for the disruption our initial disagreement caused." More about: Reuse material

Source

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/keith-prince-race-row-woman-train-video-tory-councillor-in-charge-transport-dartford-london-service-a8099621.html

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