#i want to take a class of children and organize them into a computer

[scarcelyodd]

"On the ground below, colors in the phalanx began to shift and move. Complicated and detailed circuit patterns appeared and gradually filled the entire formation. Ten minutes later the army had made a thirty-six kilometer square computer motherboard.

Von Neumann pointed to the gigantic human circuit below the pyramid and began to explain, 'Your Imperial Majesty, we have named this computer Qin I. Look, there in the center is the CPU, the core computing component, formed from your five best divisions. By referencing this diagram, you can locate the adders, registers, and stack memory. The part around it that looks highly regular is the memory. When we built that part, we found that we didn't have enough soldiers. But luckily, the work done by the elements in this component is the simplest, so we trained each soldier to hold more colored flags. Each man can now complete the work that initially required twenty men. This allowed us to increase the memory capacity to meet the minimum requirements for running the Qin 1.0 operating system. Observe also the open passage that runs through the entire formation, and the light cavalry waiting for orders in that passage. That's the system bus, responsible for transmitting information between the components of the whole system.

'The bus architecture is a great invention. New plug-in components, which can be made from up to ten divisions, can quickly be added to the main operation bus. This allows Qin I's hardware to be easily expanded and upgraded. Look further still - you might have to use the telescope for this - and there's the external storage, which we call the 'hard drive' at Copernicus's suggestion. It's formed by three million soldiers with more education than most. When you buried all those scholars alive after you unified China, it's a good thing you saved these ones! Each of them holds a pen and a notepad, and they're responsible for recording the results of the calculations. Of course, the bulk of their work is to act as virtual memory and store intermediate calculation results. They're the bottleneck for the speed of computation. And, finally, the part that's closest to us is the display. It's capable of showing us in real time the most important parameters of the computation.'"

- from Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, translated by Ken Liu

[toychest321]

While I was looking into Fulla dolls, I found out another Muslim fashion doll was released around the same time!

Meet Razanne! (And be prepared for a loooooong deep dive under the Keep Reading lol)

From what I've been able to piece together from various sources, she was created by Palestinian-American Ammar Saadeh and his wife Noor in 1996, being initially launched through the internet before more publicly advertised to Middle-Eastern and American audiences in 2004. Their goal was to show Muslim girls that "what matters is what's inside you, not how you look" (quoted from an interview with Greensoboro News and Record). They wanted to give them a role model with an emphasis on education and religion, while also having a career! To reflect the diversity of the global Muslim ummah, each of her dolls came in three variants: Pakistani-Indian (olive skin w/ dark hair), Black (dark skin w/ dark hair), and Caucasian (fair skin w/ fair hair).

While unfortunately she's no longer in production, the WayBack machine has a record of all her dolls released through the Noorart website! Each doll listing also includes additional information to educate on Islamic culture!

First there's Schoolgirl Razanne, whose listing reads:

"Razanne loves school and is all ready with her bright red book bag to join her friends in class. For your information…Traditional uniforms are worn by schoolgirls in Islamic schools. In addition to the usual subjects, students also study the Arabic language and the Qur'an - the Muslim Holy Book."

Next we have Teacher Razanne, whose listing reads:

"What is a more honorable and specialized career than education? Our teacher Razanne comes full equipped with lap top computer, briefcase and all the necessary items for school. For your information... Many Muslim girls study to become educators. Two-piece suits with jacket and skirt are popular styles for Muslim women who work outside the home as teachers or other professionals."

There's Playday Razanne, who unlike the prior two came with no accessories, her listing reads:

"Dressing modestly doesn't keep Razanne from having fun! On the playground, Razanne plays in her scarf and a loose fitting jumper that gives her lots of room to run and jump. For your information... Dressing modestly doesn't prevent Muslim girls from having fun outdoors! Whether biking, skating, on the playground or at the park children manage to have fun no matter where they are!"

We also have a Muslim Scout Razanne, who came with a free audiotape of Muslim Scout Cheers and a preview of We Love Muhammad! Her listing reads:

"'I'm honest, kind and trustworthy.' Muslim Scouts' organizations all over the world help build character and skills for success in this life and the next. Razanne wears her merit badges and awards earned for community service, Islamic behavior and Qur'an memorization. Respect for Allah, parents and all members of the community are a top priority with Razanne. For your information…like all Scout troops, Muslim Scouts are encouraged to excel in personal attributes such as honesty, cooperation and leadership as well as taking an active part in community service and environmental protection."

Next up there's Eid Mubarak Razanne, which came two different color variants for her outfit, her listing reading:

"Razanne is all ready to celebrate the Muslim holiday. Dressed in her new floral fashions of pink or blue, Razanne has Eid cards addressed to all her friends and is ready to deocorate the party with balloons. The perfect Eid gift for any girl! For your information… Muslims celebrate two major festivals each year. One is the Eid Al Fitr following the month-long fast of Ramadan. A second holiday occurs during the annual Pilgrimage to Makkah. Children and adults look forward to these two special days with great anticipation. Before the Eid the entire family goes out shopping for new clothes to wear for Eid Day. Early Eid morning the family meets with other members of the community for an Eid Prayer then disperse to family gatherings and other celebrations. Children are often given gifts of toys or money and families exchange delectable sweets that differ according to the region in which they live. Muslims exchange greetings of Eid Mubarak,"Eid Congratulations", Eid Saeed, "Happy Eid" and wish each other a coming year full of God's blessings. Kul 'am wa anta bi khair!"

I wasn't able to find any other images for Prayer Razanne like the others unfortunately, and apparently she came with accessories too! Her listing reads:

"Allahu Akbar! God is the Greatest! It's time to pray and Razanne is ready! When it's time for prayer, many Muslim girls cover their everyday clothes with these traditional two-piece garments and stand to pray on colorful prayer rugs. We receive so many letters from customers that tell us that Razanne usually joins the family for salah! For your information… when it's time for prayer, many Muslim girls cover their everyday clothes with these traditional two-piece garments and stand to pray on colorful prayer rugs. Muslim women may pray in congregation at the Mosque but it is often more convenient to pray the five daily prayers at home."

And finally we have In And Out Razanne, whose listing reads:

"In and Out Razanne comes with a two-piece fashion set for wear inside and outside the home. At home Razanne loves to dress in all the latest fashions. In a minute she can be ready to go out with this traditional jilbaab coat. Razanne helps Muslim girls understand that in the home they can be the ultimate fashion statement yet still have attractive attire while dressing modestly outside the home. For your information…Razanne helps Muslim girls understand that in the home they can be the ultimate fashion statement yet still have attractive attire while dressing modestly outside the home."

I'm honestly so glad I found this, because doing research into this doll has been a blast! I love the vintage vibes of her outfits with the patterns and color choices, and it makes me really happy seeing this doll being used as an educational tool for Islamic culture and practices!

Thank you to limbedolls.blogspot.com, emel.com, Greensboro News and Record, and "Framing Muslims" by Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin for the information that went into this long-ass post!

Ramadan Kareem!

[undercover-ballerina]

Hermione Granger and the Dramione Shippers - Chapter 5 - the first chapter with some smut

Christmas break came and Hermione left the school to visit her parents. Before leaving she had left a small package on Draco’s desk, nothing fancy, just a few sugar quills, which she knew he loved, and a pair of protective gloves for potion brewing, because she’d had to heal his hands on multiple occasions when he’d had to intervene quickly before a student could blow up the classroom or kill everyone with toxic fumes. 

Malfoy would stay in the castle over the holidays, using the excuse of having to watch over the children who didn’t have families, to avoid returning to his own Manor, where the stench of death and the gloom of black magic still hung in the air. He walked with her to the three broomsticks, casting a warming charm over both of them and an impervious charm to protect them from the snow that was slowly falling over the school grounds.

“Have a nice holiday, Hermione.” He said, tucking a lose strand of her hair behind her ear as they reached the pub.

“You too, Draco. Feel free to take books from my room if you want something to read.” She held out her hand to shake his, but instead, he used her hand to pull her into a hug. Hermione felt awkward at first, but then relaxed into the warmth of his chest and lightly kissed his cheek before stepping away to enter the pub to access the floo.

The sky was incredibly blue and the air was extremely cold when she appeared in the backyard of her parents’ house. She was surprised at first, but then remembered that Scotland was very much further up north, sometimes she forgot that. She had flooed from the three broomsticks to the leaky cauldron and apparated from there, it had taken less than two minutes to travel more than 900km.

Her parents were both happy to see her, but, on a closer look, her mother seemed tense. Hermione told them about her job, about Andrew Chapman and how he was now top of his class; she told them about how strange it felt to be working with her own professors but that having a colleague who was her own classmate helped.

“Who is this classmate you work with? Do we know him?” Asked her father.

“You’ve met him once, but he was a nightmare back then. Luckily, now he has changed. We read together, I’m teaching him about muggle literature.” She said with a big smile on her face.

“What’s his name? Is he in the books?” Her mother asked with a clouded expression.

“He is in the books, but he’s not the same anymore, I promise. Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”

Her mother scoffed. “I guess we’ll find out when we get to read them. They were sold out when we went to buy them.”

Her father wanted to talk about the books and the upcoming movies. He was curious about how the news had been received in the Wizarding World. He then proceeded to update Hermione on the teeth of each of their patients. 

When Hermione wished them goodnight, her mother followed her. Before she could step on the stairs, her mother pulled her into their home office.

“Come here, Hermione. I need to talk to you.” She went towards the desk, turned on her computer and showed her a website, it was called AO3. The website itself was rather unimpressive. Hermione didn’t understand what the problem could be with such an innocent-looking website.

“When you asked us to look on the internet to see what came out, we started googling your name and other keywords every day. When we saw that nothing serious appeared, we reduced to once a week.” 

She had a strange expression, something in between conspiratorial and ashamed. “Well, two weeks ago I googled your name and some… stuff came up. I have since told your father not to do any more research on you. But after what you said before… what is your relationship with this Malfoy boy?” 

“We’re friends, colleagues. Why?” Hermione didn’t understand where this conversation was headed and felt uncomfortable.

“Well, you should read some of this, privately. I don’t know what you can do about it though. I got you a laptop, it’s in your room. You’ll find the links in the browser history.”

“I will mum, thank you.” Her mother left and Hermione went upstairs, washed, put on her pajamas and sat on her bed with the laptop. She opened the browser and searched the history. All links brought to the same website her mother had shown her, AO3. Before reading anything, she decided to find out more about the website itself. AO3 was the acronym for Archive of Our Own. A website, run by volunteers, where people could post fanfiction. She googled the definition of fanfiction first, then started reading the first link in the browser history. It was a short story, ten thousand-ish words. The title was, honestly, rather lame “The Library”.

[annah-kitathryne]

6 and 17 for the ask game :]

6. What are dome of the best and worst parts about being online/ a creator?

Some of the best parts are the communities I have found myself in. The friends that I have made, and the safe spaces that have been made. Honestly, it was access to so many different ideas and opinions that allowed me to find out some of who I am. Some of the worst parts are that it really has only been recently that people are truly concerned about children being online. Sure, there were computers that were the devil and ads back when I was really small, but it's only recently that people talk about just how bad online spaces were even a couple of years ago. Not that it's gotten truely better, but more people talk about it and take it seriously.

Best parts about being a creator? It's how I can create whatever I want. It's how my brain makes an idea, and I can do whatever I want with it. It's how I'm able to share it with so many different people. However, some of the worst parts is because of online spaces can become a sort of telephone. A game of misinformation about media and characters and warp spaces into unrecognizable things. It makes it hard to engage when you know just how much has been changed.

17. Name 3 things that make you happy.

1. Reading. Reading was the first window into something bigger than me. Books for the longest time were the only consistent escape from the confinement of right in front of me. I love reading for fun, but I also love reading to analyze what I'm being shown. Is it good? Is it bad? What's being presented to me? Does it have an agenda? I love reading a pass time but also as a goal to understand.

2. I actually really like teaching people. Giving someone new information or ways to get new information or challenge the information they have. It's also teaching me. How I consume and learn isn't the same as others. How can I find a way to present the information I have in a way that someone else understands. I was part of a buddy system at my first school where, from 4th to 8th grade, I spent an hour with the kindergartebers and helped them with different things. Reading, math, art, sometimes we would be asked to give a lesson. I taught a couple of different kindergarten classes on different bugs, how to use water color paints, and organized a story time. I could never see myself as a full-time teacher, though.

3. Friends. I didn't exactly have people lining up to be my friend for the majority of my life, and I have only recently met people both IRL and online that I like to call friends. Friends push me to try new things and get out of my comfort zone, and provide the sort of net I need if something goes wrong. I've gotten a bit more confrontational as I've made friends because I trust that someone will be behind me or reach out a hand to help me back up. In a way, friends have allowed me to be a bit more of myself. Along the same path, I would do anything for my friends. I would go up to bat for them or try to find a way to help even if I can't do much. I try to remain present in people's lives so that they can have someone to rely on. [Even if I need to be poked every once in a while to remember to message back.]

[sassypotatoe1]

I've always been like this too when I was 11 and 12 I worked in the school library, and only 12/13 year olds were technically allowed to work the computer, and covering and labeling new books as well as collection rounds and laminating files were the teacher's responsibility because children can not be trusted typically, except I was a crazy perfectionist and since the first grade my mom and I have been covering and labeling my school books and folders together at the start of the year, every year.

So one day the teacher asks me, 11 at the time and the only "staff" available in that moment, to laminate a few posters for her class while she graded some tests. She wasn't worried about me fucking it up because it didn't have to be perfectly straight, just all within the laminate sheet and not crumpled, but then it was perfectly straight. All 16 sheets. And so laminating became my responsibility at 11 years old for 2 years, because I could do it neater than the teacher herself. She charged R2 (like 10% of a Usd) per sheet and I got 30c of that for my labor. I had like 80 bucks by the end of the two years and learned a lot about basic debtors and creditors sheets keeping track of the payments from teachers and students laminating their shit and the cost of new orders of pockets.

Given how neat my laminating was, when I was 12 and the book fair came to the school, and the teacher acquired about 50 new books, I was responsible for covering and labeling them, because at that point I also had the Dewey decimal system down pat and knew exactly, without having to be told, how to label the books. I've forgotten it completely since but I suspect if I just scanned through it again I'd remember it all. I also figured out the electronic checking system in like an instant, by watching the teacher use it, so I was given early access to the system and checking books out and in.

So little preteen me was basically a fully qualified librarian at that point, and I rode that high all throughout my teens, taking jobs with school admin during school holidays, doing graphic design, printing, laminating, filing and organizing. All unpaid of course but I didn't care I LOVED it and I was GOOD at it, and if my disabilities ever catch up to me I would be perfectly happy and content working in the local library at the checkout counter or as a secretary.

I also got involved in office drama really young imagine a 13 year old student at your school is there for the holidays because their parents couldn't get off work or a babysitter and got bored and asked if they could help you in the office, and you're like yeah whatever I'm swamped, and this kid just whips up the design for the next prestige evening's certificates in between tasks, and the school uses it, and then you're bitching about Susan in accounting refusing to release budget for an order of printing paper and said 13 year old goes "oh I know right? One time I had to ask her for" and continues with an insane story about Susan from accounting and suddenly you have a gossip buddy... In a 13 year old student from your school who got bored and wanted to help out.

I ended up becoming a journalist for, hopefully, obvious reasons but teacher or librarian were top contenders at one point, and I think I'd make a great one of either of those if journalism doesn't work out for me.

[swagwinnerslime]

The equation, theo pt. 2

I said I would show you the brilliance of a technique in the case I’ve shown you what helps mentally block what is going on with my family into the point in return it’s evilent is proven. So, I was wondering about one of my spouses. I forgot, a few things, I gave it a number, I gave it to odd, first, he said let even touch it first, then I discovered that that gave me space enough to understand how many things , numerically I would struggle with, considerably, I had to ground and out a number and separate my significant others with me, I put my kids between us, I had to put them closer to them, I had to put the organization under them, I had to ground that, I had to put their work under them, I had to put history under my children, inunant, I had to put my memory, that’s the workings in which they’re considerate of things to my comfortability which makes for our times of commonality. That’s gangsta, I put memes under that, I literally html it with noises, consents, around me, yes I did the year meme challenge after spending what felt like 7 years, 2 years on the computer like yes I’m a dick head. Lol, I put cool typt under that, that’s graphing, graphic, under that, I HIGHLIGHTED UNDER THAT TO FORMAT A GROUND, Wouldbe the cultural cultivance, in which this would associate different techniques, as a TECH, yk, so much to make for this. But specifically, one of my kids wants to be a producer, ok, so I gave them room to choose down time or free time, they have split that up, she better/ he better take a class (s) to assure they are understanding the formation of ideas. Thank you clay! Under that, approthesis X, is the association for me, you say you do not have to embed this, wt is the “” in which I was slapped for not remembering that is a huge fucking problem for computer development and further more why I got fired from Mac. Lol ty, I’m going to go eat today and hope that we understand .wtf. that was about. Pink and purple. Okay. •••, password, ok. ^^^ someone was bugging about my login and my boss at the time was a relative. So essentially yes I was working for Mac and had to send in a team to requit it. Because yeah, they wanted my mans brain for fucking fat techniques, even after we went to class year after year. Every 7 years, whatev. Yes we loved their ribs, food, we never switched a technique as to say you have a grade for distributing. For safety, give this a run and ground. This the physical setup to release your anger chemically *. I could use a jail break ~-✌🏻

[seniords]

TOP 5 PLAYSCHOOL IN HOWRAH

There are several parents in search of playschools in Howrah, and for good reason. Playschools can provide a great foundation for children's education and development. They can help children learn important social and cognitive skills, and can also be a lot of fun!

However, it's important to choose the right playschool for your child. There are a few things you should keep in mind when making your decision. First, make sure the playschool is accredited and has a good reputation. You should also tour the school and meet with the teachers to get a feel for the program and the environment.

Read this article at the end because we have shortlisted some of the Top 5 Playschool in Howrah.

Top 5 Playschool in Howrah

1. Junior Delhi School Howrah

As a parent, you always want what is best for your child. When it comes to their education, you want to make sure they are getting the best possible start in life.

One of the best ways to ensure your child gets a great education is to send them to a top-rated school. Junior Delhi School at Howrah is one of the best playschools in the area.

The school has a strong focus on academics and provides a well-rounded education. Additionally, the school has a great reputation and is highly respected by parents and educators.

The staff is experienced and caring, and they'll make sure your child is getting the best possible education. I highly recommend Junior Delhi School! If you are looking for a top-quality playschool for your child, Junior Delhi School at Howrah should be at the top of your list. Also Learn About : Top 10 Preschool In India

2. Little Wits

The Little Wits school offers a well-rounded curriculum that includes all the essential subjects, like reading, writing, and math. But Little Wits also goes above and beyond, offering enrichment classes in art, music, and dance.

The teachers at Little Wits are passionate about their jobs and truly care about their students. They're always willing to go the extra mile to help each child reach their full potential. The facilities at Little Wits are top-notch, and the school is always clean and well-organized.

The school curriculum is designed to prepare kids for success in kindergarten and beyond. And, the school also offers extracurricular activities like music and dance to help kids develop their talents and interests. If you're looking for a top-quality playschool in Howrah, Little Wits is the perfect choice.

3. Wonder Play School

Wonder Play School is one of the best Playschool in Howrah. The school has a very talented and experienced team of teachers who have been trained to handle young children with care and compassion. The school provides a safe and secure environment for the children to play and learn.

The school has a spacious and well-equipped play area which is very clean and well-maintained. The school also has a library and a computer lab which the children can use to improve their skills.

The school offers a wide range of activities and facilities that help children develop physically, mentally and emotionally. Wonder Play School is committed to providing each child with the best possible start in life. Read More About Best play school in Delhi

4. London Kids Preschool

If you are looking for a playschool in Howrah, then you should definitely check out London Kids Preschool. It is one of the best playschools in the area and your child will definitely love it here. The staff is extremely friendly and caring, and they will make sure that your child is well taken care of.

The curriculum is designed to promote social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. It is also aligned with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. This means that your child will be prepared for Kindergarten and beyond.

One of the things that sets London Kids Preschool apart is the attention to individualized instruction. The teachers take the time to get to know each child and his or her unique needs. This allows them to provide the best possible education for each individual student.

5. Little Ann's Preschool

There are many factors to consider when choosing a preschool for your child. However, if you're looking for the best preschool in Howrah, you should definitely check out Little Ann's Preschool.

The school has an excellent reputation, and parents who have sent their children there have been very happy with the results. The staff is experienced and caring, and they have a great curriculum that helps children learn and grow.

If you're looking for a safe, nurturing environment for your child to learn and grow in, Little Ann's Preschool is definitely the place to go.

Conclusion

There are several Top Playschool in Howrah but Junior Delhi School is best in Howrah. This is because the school has a number of facilities that are not available in other schools. These facilities include a library, a computer lab, and a playground. The school also has a number of experienced teachers who are able to provide quality education to the students. Read More Top 10 Playschool in Delhi

[delphinidin4]

I was migrating a public library website this week at work, and this is a reminder of the kind of cool stuff your library might do:

--library of things, where you can borrow objects (cameras, power washers, cricuts) for FREE

--makerspace, where you can go in and do crafts and projects and so forth and they have all the equipment for you to use free of charge

--free test proctoring. Need to take a test and it has to be proctored officially? ask your library.

--meeting rooms for local organizations. free study rooms.

--a "third place" to hang out when you don't want to be at work OR at home. And you don't have to buy anything to use their bathroom!

--the one I was working on (Gaston County, NC) has a program where they guide you through self-publishing your own writing!!

--you can borrow free passes to local sites like aquariums, museums, galleries, living history sites, etc!

--By the way, did you know that if the public library does not have a book in their collection, you can usually still borrow it through interlibrary loan? The libraries all have this big network, and if somebody wants to read a book and your library or library system doesn't have it, they will find the closest library that does and ask them to ship the book to them so you can get your grubby little hands on it!!

--TONS of ebooks and audiobooks these days, and free music and movie streaming! possibly tv shows; i haven't looked into it. This has come to replace their big physical DVD/CD collections.

--some libraries have a program where you can fill out a form (often online) and send it to them telling them what kinds of books/music/movies/etc you enjoy and they'll recommend a list to you!

--free tax forms to do your own taxes

--early literacy programs for children

--fun programs like dance classes, DnD groups, tech/computer groups, lego groups for kids!

--homeschooling help

--and so much more. honestly, go explore your local library's website and see what kinds of things they're offering!

Spooky season is upon us! To celebrate I put together a few designs promoting books and libraries. If you like them, feel free to use them! These are four of my poster designs! Again, these posters are absolutely free for you to print and use!

Schools and public libraries are under attack and need your support. They are facing quiet defunding, book bans, and acts of hate. Please consider contacting your local representative to ask that these institutions remain funded and protected, and show your support by stopping by your local library.

For additional Halloween freebies celebrating libraries and reading, click the link here!

If you would like to see more of my library/activism designs or would like to get these designs on a T-shirt, book bag, or sticker, you can visit my shop here.

[juniordelhishool]

TOP 5 PLAYSCHOOL IN HOWRAH

There are several parents in search of playschools in Howrah, and for good reason. Playschools can provide a great foundation for children's education and development. They can help children learn important social and cognitive skills, and can also be a lot of fun!

However, it's important to choose the right playschool for your child. There are a few things you should keep in mind when making your decision. First, make sure the playschool is accredited and has a good reputation. You should also tour the school and meet with the teachers to get a feel for the program and the environment.

Read this article at the end because we have shortlisted some of the Top 5 Playschool in Howrah.

Top 5 Playschool in Howrah

1. Junior Delhi School Howrah

As a parent, you always want what is best for your child. When it comes to their education, you want to make sure they are getting the best possible start in life.

One of the best ways to ensure your child gets a great education is to send them to a top-rated school. Junior Delhi School at Howrah is one of the best playschools in the area.

The school has a strong focus on academics and provides a well-rounded education. Additionally, the school has a great reputation and is highly respected by parents and educators.

The staff is experienced and caring, and they'll make sure your child is getting the best possible education. I highly recommend Junior Delhi School! If you are looking for a top-quality playschool for your child, Junior Delhi School at Howrah should be at the top of your list. Also Learn About : Top 10 Preschool In India

2. Little Wits

The Little Wits school offers a well-rounded curriculum that includes all the essential subjects, like reading, writing, and math. But Little Wits also goes above and beyond, offering enrichment classes in art, music, and dance.

The teachers at Little Wits are passionate about their jobs and truly care about their students. They're always willing to go the extra mile to help each child reach their full potential. The facilities at Little Wits are top-notch, and the school is always clean and well-organized.

The school curriculum is designed to prepare kids for success in kindergarten and beyond. And, the school also offers extracurricular activities like music and dance to help kids develop their talents and interests. If you're looking for a top-quality playschool in Howrah, Little Wits is the perfect choice.

3. Wonder Play School

Wonder Play School is one of the best Playschool in Howrah. The school has a very talented and experienced team of teachers who have been trained to handle young children with care and compassion. The school provides a safe and secure environment for the children to play and learn.

The school has a spacious and well-equipped play area which is very clean and well-maintained. The school also has a library and a computer lab which the children can use to improve their skills.

The school offers a wide range of activities and facilities that help children develop physically, mentally and emotionally. Wonder Play School is committed to providing each child with the best possible start in life. Read More About Best play school in Delhi

4. London Kids Preschool

If you are looking for a playschool in Howrah, then you should definitely check out London Kids Preschool. It is one of the best playschools in the area and your child will definitely love it here. The staff is extremely friendly and caring, and they will make sure that your child is well taken care of.

The curriculum is designed to promote social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. It is also aligned with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. This means that your child will be prepared for Kindergarten and beyond.

One of the things that sets London Kids Preschool apart is the attention to individualized instruction. The teachers take the time to get to know each child and his or her unique needs. This allows them to provide the best possible education for each individual student.

5. Little Ann's Preschool

There are many factors to consider when choosing a preschool for your child. However, if you're looking for the best preschool in Howrah, you should definitely check out Little Ann's Preschool.

The school has an excellent reputation, and parents who have sent their children there have been very happy with the results. The staff is experienced and caring, and they have a great curriculum that helps children learn and grow.

If you're looking for a safe, nurturing environment for your child to learn and grow in, Little Ann's Preschool is definitely the place to go.

Conclusion

There are several Top Playschool in Howrah but Junior Delhi School is best in Howrah. This is because the school has a number of facilities that are not available in otheaaaA

[twilightfansofcolor]

CH. 2

February 2005

It was a cold and cloudy Wednesday morning as you got ready for school, but for some reason you had a bad feeling about today. At first you just brushed it to the side, thinking yourself paranoid, but by third period, that feeling came back, this time settling into the pit of your stomach and it was hard to focus in French as you kept reading the same sentence in your textbook. The class was quiet as everyone finished the assignment on the board with a few minutes left in class. You found yourself drifting off all day; teachers had to call on you more than once to pay attention to lessons and you couldn’t focus on your work. Mrs. Goff looked up from the computer and looked at the clock and stood up. 

“There’s five minutes left of class, so go ahead and start packing your things. For those of you who are finished with the assignment, go ahead and put it on my desk and make sure your name and class period is on it. We’re in the middle of the school year, I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you. For those of you not yet finished, take it home and do it for homework. We will be going over this first thing tomorrow when you walk in.” You looked down at your paper, thinking you were done with your work but you had only done two questions and you had eight left; you’d spent the entire period drifting off, a new record for you. You packed your things slowly, putting your paper in the assigned folder and using the folder to mark your page. “Y/N, can I see you for a minute?” The last of the students were shuffling out of the room when she called you to her desk. 

“You’re not in trouble, I just want to talk to you for a second.” Mrs. Goff had a round face with kind brown eyes with shoulder length brown hair, and she always had natural looking makeup. When you stepped in her class on your first day, you liked her automatically. Now she gestured for you to sit in the desk in front of her and she sat on her desk, swinging her feet. “Is everything okay? Are you adjusting okay?” 

You had been in Forks for exactly one month, and it has been peaceful; you were able to actually do normal things a girl your age should be doing. It was very refreshing. You had no idea how long this moment of bliss and peacefulness would last, so you just enjoyed the time you had, taking one day at a time, though you knew it was bound to end sooner or later. You were still jittery every time you heard a branch snap or the bushes shake in the backyard, thinking someone was able to see into your bedroom window. You wanted to tell her that you still feel on edge every time you hear a small animal in the bushes or a branch snap in your backyard thinking someone finally found you and was watching you through your bedroom window. 

But you didn’t tell her, she doesn’t need to be burdened with your paranoia, so you told her a sugar coated lie, which technically wasn’t a lie at all. “Pretty good. Everyone’s been really nice so far, but I still feel pretty lost without my causes. I think that’s been the most challenging.” As much as you loved having weekends to sleep in and have time to yourself, you missed your charities. Back home, you worked with several organizations that helped the UK’s most vulnerable citizens. You spent time playing with sick children, helping out at food banks and animal shelters and accompanied your parents when they spoke on panels. 

You missed it. “Y/N, if you want to get involved, there are some great charities in the area you can help with. There are some food banks and animal shelters that can really use the help. I think you might be perfect for it.” Mrs. Goff went back behind her desk and pulled out some flyers printed on brightly colored paper and handed them to you. A flyer for an animal shelter in Port Angeles, a flyer looking for volunteers to help with a food bank in Seattle, and a beach clean-up in a place called La Push. “Thank you so much! I’ll let my parents know!” 

The teacher smiled as you gathered your bag and left the room, the papers gripped in your hand. The hallways were thinning out as kids met up with friends, made their way to various sports practices and club meetings as you grabbed some things from your locker. You noticed there was some commotion at the front door, with people shouting but you just assumed that a fight had broken out between students until you saw Coach Clapp and Mr. Varner headed toward you, but you ignored it as you grabbed your Algebra and English books along with some folders. The two men stopped in your direction and they looked pretty grim. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” 

“We have to escort you out of the building. There’s a bunch of reporters in front of the school, someone must’ve leaked your location. If we’re careful, maybe we can sneek you out the back, behind the auditorium. Grab what you need and hurry up.” You dumped the books in your bag and grabbed your jacket, not even bothering to put it on even though it was thirty-six degrees outside. There weren’t any students on this side of the school; you guessed everyone was either in their after school clubs or on their way home to get away from the cold. Coach Clapp and Mr. Varner stood in front of you in case there was someone with a camera, but the coast was clear. The auditorium was a no parking zone, but there was a nondescript black car with tinted windows, and the backseat door opened. 

You climbed in and the door slammed behind you; there was a man who you didn’t know in the driver’s seat and next to him, your dad. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry about this. They found your mum first earlier today. Someone from the Palace must’ve told someone in the press. I just know it was your uncle but I wouldn’t be surprised if your grandfather also had a hand in it.” You haven’t seen your father this angry since last year when you snuck out of bed one night to get a snack. He had his back to you as he whispered harshly into his cellphone; you had snuck back to your room before he could even turn around. “Is mum okay?” 

“She’s fine. At home waiting for us.” You buckle your seatbelt as the car pulls around to the front of the school and you can see the reporters and photographers standing in the drop-off zone. The principal and other male teachers and faculty members tried to keep them at bay, and they were even trying to get answers out of your teachers and classmates as they made their way out of the school. You briefly wondered how long it would take them to realize that you weren’t even in the building; it was quiet the rest of the way home and you started to relax as soon as you reached your house at the edge of town, bordered by the woods. You felt safe as the car went up the drive and pulled into the garage and you got out of the car.

When you reached the kitchen, your mom was sitting at the kitchen island with her laptop open and one of her former palace aides, Claire sitting next to her. “Mum! Are you okay? Did they get you?” “I got out through a back exit, they dropped me off at home and then went to get you.” You told her about your escape route, wondering aloud as to who could’ve leaked your information. “It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if it was your uncle. Probably to take the heat away from Olivia.” 

For months now, everyone in the aristocratic circle has known that your cousin is known to engage in underage drinking and partaking in drugs, and you’re pretty sure the same people who publish articles about how your skirt is too short or how your favorite clothing brand is somehow linked Muslim terrorists had been told not to report on it. Later that evening at dinner, your parents were coming up with plans on how to move forward now that your location is known. “We might as well release a statement and get it over with. Mum, Dad, we had to have known that this was going to happen sooner or later and the longer we keep silent, the more time the press has to create more lies and more drama.” You were never one to lose your temper often, so you took your parents by surprise by your outburst; you could see them considering your plan, and your dad scooped another helping of mixed vegetables on his plate. “So Y/N, what do you propose we do?” he asked you.

“We release a statement confirming that we live here and thank the people that have helped us adjust and supported us through this. Clearly, not saying anything is doing more harm than good.” After dinner was over, you finished your homework in your room and got ready for bed soon after, then picked out your outfit for tomorrow. You hoped you knew what you’re doing.

[teddy06writes]

Can I request a Karl x Alex x Nick x Reader fic in which the reader is a teacher and they bring their boyfriends in for career day? I just thought it’d be so cute to see them interact with little kids.

sapnap x karl x quackity x reader

trigger warnings: none

premise: pretty much everything from the ask, although I know nothing about children so..., sorry lol

requested by the person above as well as @eliasxxk who asked for more karlnapity x reader

(y/n/n)- your nickname

(y/l/n)- your last name

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Career day?” Nick asked.

You nodded, quickly packing up the last of the assignments you had finished grading and tucking them into your bag, “Yeah, remember how I was planning the different stations and stuff for the kids?”

“Oh yeah, I thought you had all that stuff sorted?” Karl handed you your laptop from across the table.

“We did,” You sighed, “But someone backed out and now we have a slot to fill. So, one of you, all of you, I don’t care, we still need someone to do it.”

Alex frowned, “What would we have to do for that?”

You ran a hand through your hair, “Make a presentation on what you do? We were looking for a broad spectrum and the guy who backed out was someone’s cousin who did like, animation or something.”

As you gathered the rest of your things you explained that one group or person would be set up in each classroom, and that kids would rotate through, not just the fifth graders you taught, but the whole of the elementary school.

Karl grinned, “What time would we have to be there?”

“The welcome thing for the speakers is it 9 ish on Friday, so I can bring back the forms you’d need to fill out today to get them in on time.”

Your boyfriends agreed, and with a smile you pecked them all on the lips, “Alright, I gotta go. I’ll see you later.”

“Love you!” Karl called as you started out the door.

“Love you too!”

~~

After practically zooming through your first three units, ELA, Math and History, and sending your kids off to PE, you headed down to the admin offices to make copies and grab the forms.

“Hey Sadie!” You greeted cheerfully.

The secretary smiled, “Hey mx. (y/l/n).”

You moved over to the copier, starting your copies, “Do you have any of those forms? For the people giving the presentations on career day?”

“You found someone?” Adam, the sixth grade teacher who had been organizing the career day asked as he entered the office.

“Three someones actually,” You smiled, “Alex, Karl and Nick said they could.”

“Oh, that’ll be interesting.”  Sadie laughed.

“Minecraft youtubers,” Adam mused unenthusiastically, “I’m sure the kids will love to hear about people without real jobs.”

You rolled your eyes, “They pull just as much if not more than me every year, plus Nicky and Alex are still in college.”

Adam cocked an eyebrow as you grabbed your copies, and then the forms from Sadie, “Well at least I can’t complain, your saving my ass.”

“Damn right I am,” You scoffed starting out of the office, “You owe me.”

Heading back down the hall and then up the stairs to the fifth grade hallway you pulled out your phone, sending a text to the ‘loves <3′ group chat, ‘the files have been secured’

Back in your classroom you began to set out the Novels your class had been reading, and set up the last of the things you would need for the mini science lab that would happen later in the after noon.

~~ The next few days passed quickly, and soon you were pointing your boyfriends in the direction of the library, where the volunteers were supposed to be meeting before heading up to your classroom, greeting the kids who were already inside.

“Hey guys! Are you excited for today?”

A few kids nodded.

“Which presentation are you most excited to see?”

“Probably the actor!” Damien exclaimed.

“The actor? Any reason why or you just think they’d be cool?”

“I wanna be an actor.” He said.

“Yeah?” You chuckled, “What about you Sam?”

The girl through for a moment, tapping at her desk absently, “Probably the firefighter, I want to save people like them some day.”

You nodded, “Calum? Any your excited for?”

“Well I was excited to Ricky, he’s my cousin and an animator but he couldn’t come.” The boy pouted.

“Aw, well I’m sorry about that, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of interesting people for you to see.” You looked over the schedule again, answering a messege from Adam, willingly surrendering yourself to running around and helping wherever needed during the day, instead of watching the presentations with your kids.

The morning announcements came and went, and the teaching aid who would be taking your place, touring the kids around came in, “Alright guys! We’r~~e going down to the auditorium so that the principal and Mr. Alderton can explain the plan for today, and so that the people who are going to be in these rooms have time to set up!”

She herded the kids out of the room, smiling at you as you grabbed your phone, following them out, but turning down a different hall to the library.

Adam breathed a sigh of relief as soon as you got inside, “Oh thank god! Okay, I need you to get these lovely people to there rooms, Adda is already going around to set up projectors.”

You nodded, taking the papers from him, “Okay people! If you’d follow me, we’ll get you into these classrooms on time!”

The group of various adults followed you out of the library as you started calling out names at each floor, in between the intersection of grade level hallways, pointing out room numbers.

By the time you had made it to the cross roads between the fifth and sixth grade, Adam was already frantically messaging you about being late so quickly you called out the last of the room numbers, pointing various directions and telling the people to let themselves in.

You turned to your boyfriends, “Right you guys are in my room, it’s at the end of the hall, my computer should be unlocked.”

“You’re not like, staying to hang out or anything?” Karl asked.

“I’ve been roped into over seeing this thing. I might be in and out at various times through out the day,” You pressed a kiss to each of there cheeks before starting back towards the stairs, “Have fun!”

~~

You spent your day running around, delivering different things to various classrooms and basically doing Adam’s bidding.

A little way into the last rotation of kids around the building you finally got the chance to take a break and head back up to your room, slipping in and sitting in the back as Karl tried his best to explain streaming to a group of kindergarteners.

They may not have fully understood what he was talking about, but they sure did find him funny.

You watched quietly as your boyfriends interacted with the kids, opening up for questions sooner than they had with the older kids, and patently answering each one.

“What are you going to college to learn how to do?” A young girl asked.

Alex smiled, “Well I’m going to get real smart to be a lawyer, and Mr. Sapnap here is learning about computers.”

“What’s a lawyer?” Another kid asked.

“My uncle’s a lawyer,” someone two desks away offered, “My mom says it’s someone who works in a court!”

Alex chuckled, “You are absolutely right Big Man, lawyers defend people who go to court.”

“If you and you are goin to college,” A boy near the front pointed at Nick and then Alex, “Then what’s he learning at college?” He pointed at Karl.

“Karl isn’t in college anymore.” Nick said simply.

“Not honking smart enough.” Karl grinned as kids laughed at his use of the word honk.

They continued to joke around for a while, until the pa crackled that it was time for everyone to head back to there normal classrooms, and you moved back to the front of the room, “That was entertaining.”

“(y/n/n)! This was awesome!” Karl exclaimed.

You nodded, glancing at the clock as you began to re arrange your desk, “Theres like, maybe ten minutes to the bell, you guys want to hang out in here?”

“Sure.” Your class began to file back in as Alex spoke.

“Mx. (y/l/n)! Why didn’t you tell us you were dating famous youtubers?” Damien asked.

You groaned, looking at a shrugging Nick, “Why have you done this?”

You class laughed at your displeasure, and you were about to start asking everyone how there days had gone when Karl beat you too it.

“Who was your favorite?”

“It better have been us!” Alex stage whispered.

The kids laughed, and you sat back, content to watch your boyfriends entertain the class.

[torrilin]

Very technically, I had a home ec class that involved cooking.

Do you know what we cooked?

A can of soup.

No, I’m not joking. That was it. That was the ENTIRE cooking unit. The whole thing.

It was a gender integrated class at least. But that was it, out of 12 years of American education.

I did also have a gender integrated shop class, however that had… other problems. A lot of other problems.

I do think that these sorts of life skills should be taught in school. I think they should be required for all students, regardless of gender, just as much as gym class and typing or computer skills and handwriting skills and art class. But the classes in all those areas as they were actually taught to me were… bad. And I don’t want kids to get shuffled off with classes on the level of badness that I got.

Handwriting classes the badness was pretty solvable. I was in the first 10-15 years of organized instruction for left handed students not being forced to be right handed. The textbook material was incredibly bad on the subject, and the teachers knew next to nothing. It would be pretty easy to improve this (and there are textbooks that do improve on this now!). Handwriting skills take time to develop, and students don’t develop the necessary fine motor skills at the same rate. My teachers knew it was odd that I didn’t have the fine motor skills, but they didn’t know that the mismatch between my drawing skills and my writing skills was a marker that I was probably neurodivergent. Instead, it was blamed on being left handed. (Matters not helped by the fact that my year had a large statistical anomaly in terms of lefties, neurodivergent kids, and it was a trial year for what is now considered mainstreaming, so even if my teachers had had the best education, had stayed up to date, and were all dual specialized in the right things… that year would have messed with them hard)

Art classes were actually fairly not bad. I would have done better with encouragement to draw from photos and life happening earlier, and in a more coherent way. There were a lot of copying types of projects that I didn’t enjoy, and I’m not really sure 8 year olds benefit from a steady diet of masters’ studies. But a lot of it was more exploration oriented so that helped.

Typing class… that didn’t go so well. Typing education software would have done better AT THE TIME and it’s not like it was super advanced in the 80s.

My gym classes that failed all failed in the standard way. The US Presidential fitness tests were not intended to be used on small children, the goals weren’t explained well, the exercises weren’t taught properly, and the end result was a lot of checked out kids. Team sports units did not teach the rules effectively, did not teach basic drills, did not explain why on anything and… yeah. If you’re trying to get kids interested in physical activity, it helps to teach them and not make it a popularity contest.

Shop class had many failings. One, students were not given a budget for their projects, or any introduction to the available materials. Two, students were not introduced to hand tools (and most of the students needed the introduction to safe tool use). Three, the classroom had most of the space devoted to power tools, and students were not allowed to touch any power tools. There was no appropriate work space for hand work, and many students wound up working on the floor. The shop was not kept clean, and students were not taught how to clean up after themselves. Students were expected to make their own assignments, and were not given guidance so that the projects would be achievable within the time allowed. In short, it was a set up for failure.

Compared to that, home ec actually did fairly well. The teacher was expected to teach both cooking and sewing, and she clearly felt that of the two, sewing actually could be taught with the materials, equipment and budget she had available. And the sewing instruction she provided was pretty decent. She wouldn’t have been allowed to teach any cooking project that involved knife skills, a hot oven, or complicated washing up, so she just… didn’t really try to teach it. I’m not sure why sewing machines were allowed and knives and shop tools were not. It doesn’t make sense. But a lot of the time school rules and policies don’t make sense.

keep seeing posts saying kids should learn to cook at school...I assumed home ec was compulsory everywhere

feel free to put in the tags how much specifically. we did cooking classes between ages 12 and 14, and learnt a range of stuff from basic meals, cooking skills like chopping veggies, baking, etc

[shirophantomvox]

Leorio, Hisoka, Illumi, and Chrollo Head Canons #2

What’s up y’all! Thank you so much to the people who have given me feedback about what posts you all would like to see! This post will be about the “Adult Trio” and Leorio about how they would help their significant other with a subject in college. This one is a good suggestion! I’m going to incorporate fluff in this, as I am a sucker for fluff. I hope you all enjoy this! I most certainly do. This post is about 2687 words but don't worry, it's worth the read! These head canons came from my mind its a coincidence that some of these pictures match the thoughts. Portentous (old English) means wonderful or marvelous (in modern English) FYI: I am thinking about creating a discord server for both Voltron and Hunter x Hunter fans. I don’t know how to use the fancy perks of discord yet, so if you know how to and can help me out, send me a message! Alright, let’s get to it! Obviously these images are from Pinterest.

Discord Server for Voltron and HxH fans!

Leorio

“Mr. Leorio”, as we all know, is a sharp guy. He dresses in a suit, carries a suitcase, and wants to be a doctor. This man knows everything about academics, especially math and science. He will need to know these subjects to be a successful medical doctor.

Leorio received an A- in Calculus II and a B+ in Organic Chemistry. He was the only one that passed with flying colors while everyone else barely made it. He didn’t gloat in their faces but as soon as he got into the hallway he jumped for joy.

He was extremely happy about his progress and counted the days until graduation even though that was in 5 years. Wow! Don’t we love graduate school?!

He deserved the high grades because he spent countless nights studying missing parties, football games, and being with you just to make sure he was on the right track to graduating on time.

As we all know, Leorio wanted to pursue this career because he witnessed his best friend dying in front of him powerless to save him. The care for his friend would have been too expensive. Obtaining his degree was in honor of his friend; he’d save countless children, women, and men who’d all thank him for his hard work.

Leorio didn’t socialize much, but he did find himself hanging around a group of classmates that were a part of a co-ed fraternity that provided information on scholarship money for graduate school and job opportunities. This is where he met you. You didn’t want to be a doctor but instead wanted to be a computer scientist and decided to volunteer for this fraternity job fair.

As he rejoiced, his smile faded when he saw you walking down the hallway; tears falling from your face not caring who stared at you. He quickly walked up to you, put his arm around your back, and gave you a soft hug.

“What’s the matter,” he asks.

You were failing Calculus, a class you’ve been taking since the 12th grade but for some reason, you couldn’t pass it. Everyone else had A’s and B’s, while you had a D. D’s aren't accaetable in college; most make you retake the class.

“Don’t worry. I’ve just passed my midterm. I can help you study. You’ll pass; trust me.”

Later on that evening, he kept his promise but gave it a unique twist. He kept the lights off and lit 4 Yankee-sized candles in the room that smelled like Lavender. In the background, he had piano jazz playing on his speaker. You felt confused for a moment. You and Leorio weren’t necessarily dating but you both flirted with each other here and there. He wasn’t a social butterfly, but he felt comfortable talking to you.

“Um...what’s the music for?”

“It helps me concentrate. Believe it or not, it helps my brain flow. You like it don’t you?”

“No, actually I don’t.” Truth be told you loved it but you wanted to pull his strings a little. He looked up with a confused look.

“Ok. I’ll turn it off.”

“I'm kidding! It’s great!”

Whenever he cannot solve a Calculus question, he reviews similar problems from Algebra II. He applies this knowledge to your problem.

“Perform the indicated function evaluations for f(x)=3−5x−2x^2 . I’ll solve the first part for an example: f(6+t) simply means you will exchange “x” for 6+t. It will look like f(6+t)=3-5(6+t)-2(6+t)^2=-49 . You’d distribute -5 and -2 to the numbers inside of the brackets in which they are next to.”

Wow, that was easy! Wait, not he must think you’re stupid.

“You must think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“Of course not! It took me a while to understand it too. You’ll apply the same knowledge for the rest.”

After what seemed like 4 hours (which was 2), you finally finished your homework! It was probably wrong but at least you made it past the 1st question! As you blew out the candles and turned on your LED lights instead, you see Leorio sleeping on your couch. Something about his soft face made you smile and place your hand over your heart.

“My little doctor,” you whispered to yourself.

“Well, come give this doctor some company then. I’m freezing over here!”

The throw blanket was large enough for you both. Snuggling on the couch was a great end to a stressful day.

Chrollo

To everyone else Chrollo was “Boss” or “Boss Man” but to you, he was Chrollo. Big C was known for his love for poetry and language.

He read poetry any chance he had at lunch and even dinner. It had gotten so bad that you had to tell him for the millionth time “No books at the table!”

Given his past, he always read at least 2 hours a day or one book a week. Reading is what got him through the day.

He was staying in your dorm for the day to relax because he had taken and passed his midterms to. The young thief thought about hiding in the closet but he didn’t because he sensed that you’d be tense because of midterms.

As you walked through the door, you looked angry, so angry that you could punch a wall. He immediately rose to his feet, threw his arms straight out in front of him, and motioned for you to stop. You just stared at him blankly.

“Come here,” he said like you, on cue, melted in his arms. He was warm and the deepness of his cooing voice vibrated against your neck. “What’s the problem?”

“I’m failing this stupid Shakespeare class!”

“Really?”

“Yes and if I don’t pass this midterm I’m going to fail the class for the 3rd time. I want to drop out! Who needs this scam anyway?!”

Chrollo held you a bit longer until you were ready to sit down and get to business. You pulled out your college’s book about Shakespeare plays and how he used Old English. Chrollo was the perfect man for the job! He’s read Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet several times!

Chrollo read a few stanzas and explained them. He then had you read some on your own and explain them...still you can’t.

He notices the problem immediately. He catches you snuggling comfortably against his toned arm, nearly falling asleep.

Chrollo laid at the very corner of the couch as you lay horizontally placing your head against his chest. You were comfortable but you weren’t able to focus. He notices this and slightly demands that you go sit at the table. When it came to academics, he was serious.

For as long as he had been reading, he has an arsenal of vocabulary words ready to be of use. He created flashcards for you and had you flip them over for nearly an hour. You start to memorize the words!

But you’re not done yet.

“Say the word ‘portentous’.”

“Por-ten-trious…?”

“No. Por-ten-tas.”

“Tias…?”

He moved his chair next to you, just an inch away from your face. He cups your mouth and moves it as he speaks again. This wasn’t a hard clutch, it was soft and he wasn’t irritated but he could sense that you were becoming irritated.

“Por-ten-tas,” he said again.

Instead of letting your cheeks go, his eyes diverted to your lips. They were moist and plump, ready to be met by his.

“Your lips are gorgeous. Kisseth me quite quaint.”

Oh no. Look at the monster you’ve created.

Chrollo created a reward system. Whenever he did things right as a child, he was rewarded with money and jewels. For every word you pronounced and defined correctly, he kissed you once. For each word you got correct in a row, he’d kiss you twice.

Soon enough he had kissed you so much that you couldn’t see straight!

The kisses worked because you passed your midterm! Each kiss placed a stain in your brain that made you remember the definition and how to pronounce it.

You and Chrollo celebrated by drinking champagne and listened to him read Sonnet 23 and 57.

Hisoka

As unusual as it seems, Hisoka is gifted when it comes to Chemistry specifically. That is why you two work well together...there is some chemistry going on between you two.

His hair down and his glasses were his alter ego, it was something that made him act completely different than what you were used to.

When you all were freshmen, he would skip class, attend parties, and would be hungover almost every week but once he was called into the Dean’s office, he changed.

You slightly missed that edgy side of him, but you enjoyed having a serious beau.

Hisoka is a social butterfly and is the life of the conversation and you loved him for it but sometimes it was awkward.

While he was chatting away about Calcium (Ca) and Iron (Fe), you stood there nodding like an idiot. You had NO IDEA about what he was talking about and that is why you were going to drop your chemistry class.

“I saw an imbecile put aluminum foil in the microwave and it burst into flames. How did they not know that Microwaves are the radio waves falling under frequency around 2500 megahertz? Any metallic object detected by radio waves inside the microwave acts as a reflector of radio waves.”

You shove his arm hard. He was acting arrogant in front of his friends. You were used to this but it got on your nerves. You made mistakes, everyone does!...even those that almost burn down the entire dorm room.

You two leave the party and head to his dorm room. Once you were settled, you released a can of anger and threw it all over your boyfriend.

“Hisoka? You just humiliated me.”

“Oh? No one knows that I was talking about you, my dear.”

“Don’t ‘my dear’ me! I asked for your help and you’re ignoring me. I don’t appreciate that. I didn’t ignore you when you sprained your ankle, did I?”

“No, you didn’t, dear. I supposed I have a few hours to kill. What do you need help with?”

Hisoka’s way of studying was much different from other students. He exercises like crazy before he opens his textbook.

He listens to EDM instrumentals while on the treadmill and when he lifts weights. You weren’t standing there like a trophy, he made you lift too.

“Being healthy will help your brain flow more easily. Lift this dumbbell as heavy as you can.”

He ran a mile on the track upstairs. Sweat dripped from his face like he had been standing outside in the rain.

By the time you returned to his dorm, you were beyond tired. You laid your head on his pillow but just as you closed your eyes, he pulled you up on your feet.”

“Not on my watch,” he tutted. “It’s chemistry time.”

You were having trouble memorizing Chemical Formulas and this by far was the most difficult concept you had come across.

To make you stay awake, he turned on a bright LED light and faced it towards the table. The bright light nearly made your head fall off from the pain it reflected in your eyes.

Hisoka grabbed his book and began to write down the major chemicals on the periodic table and their charges.

“Pay attention to the following abbreviations and charges: Calcium is Ca, Chloride is Cl+2, Carbide is C+2, and Carbon Dioxide is CO+2. Read these over and I’ll test you again.”

He did just that but you still weren’t understanding. You were ready to give up.

Stupid scam. Why do I need a piece of paper to determine what I can do? You thought to yourself. Well, it’s obvious. If you can’t do the work now, what makes you think you can do it at a job? Harsh, I know.

“Let me try this,” He said. He carried you to his bedroom and gently placed you on it. He took off his shirt and removed his glasses. “Aluminum has a charge of +3 and Oxygen has -2. If there were three of me and two of my clones disappeared, how many of me are left?”

“Just you, right? One”

“Correct! Excellent.”

Wow, everything started making sense once he took his shirt off.

From then, he just inserted himself into the equation and then it started to make sense! He apologized for running his mouth earlier and promised to keep any more secrets between you two. The night ended with you sleeping in his bed wrapped in a cotton blanket just cuddling and that was it. And bam! You slept as sound.

Illumi

Dating the “hot” quiet history buff was a flex of its own. Sure Illumi didn’t talk to anyone besides you, but it didn’t matter. People swooned if he looked in their direction.

History was a popular major during your era. People were not like their grandparents; they wanted to learn about other cultures besides their own. Illumi’s specialty was in world history and civilizations. The class was very interesting to you but there was so much information, you could barely process it.

Illumi often wrote his essays in one day proofread and all! He often charged people to look their essays over.

One time he made $500 in one year!

Glancing at your transcripts, he notices that you have a C- and offers to help.

“Why are you looking through my stuff?”

Hey, he’s your boyfriend! But still, he should ask.

“Sorry. It was up on the screen,” he said, throwing his hands in the air.

You began to blush in embarrassment. The hottest smartest man in the building now knew that you were failing one of the easiest classes on campus.

Placing his thumb under your chin, he lifted your head to meet his gaze. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I can help you.”

“How? I am so behind! I zoned out after chapter 2!”

“We’ll watch a movie.”

“Oh, God! Not one from PBS is it?!”

“Yes. How else are you supposed to learn?”

He turns on the movie and allows you to lay your head on his shoulder but not too much. He is aware of your tricks and he wants you to pay attention.

Every 15 minutes, he pauses the movie and asks you checkpoint questions. If you got them wrong, you had to stand up with your underclothes on (t-shirt and shorts) in the cool room for 10 minutes. If you got the questions right, he allows you to lay more comfortably. You were already in your underclothes but you were under the blanket.

He made you write down key definitions and the embarrassment of each section.

After the movie, he blindfolds you and reads out a term. Surprisingly, you got them all correct!

As a reward for your past midterm, he takes you to dinner at a restaurant where he slips a promise ring on your finger containing your birthstone.

[the-ethereal-serpent]

Litha : Ways To Celebrate

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Host A Bonfire

Litha is all about the fiery aspect of the sun, so why not celebrate the fertility of the gods with a blazing, roaring fire in your back yard? It's the longest day of the year, so stay up late and host a bonfire for your friends and family. 

Get sparklers too, and light them after dark. Make an offering to the gods of your tradition. Be sure to follow basic Bonfire Safety Rules, so no one gets hurt at your celebration. You can even incorporate your bonfire into a Litha rite, with the Midsummer Night Fire Ritual.

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Leave An Offering Of Honey Cakes Outside

Preferably somewhere away from your house, as they will attract insects and even wildlife. Litha is said to be one of the two times of year when the “Veil Between Worlds” is the thinnest (the other being Samhain.) According to legend, the fairies and forest spirits are especially active on the night of the summer solstice, and honey is favorite treat.

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Get Back To Nature

Go for a hike in the woods with your family. Enjoy the sounds and sights of nature. Take lots of pictures, or plan a scavenger hunt—have each of the kids bring a "nature bag" to fill up. Remember, don't pick any live plants, unless you're deliberately wildcrafting.

Before you head out, grab a field guide to local plants, and turn it into a teaching exercise, learn to identify what you see out there in the woods. If you take your hike in a public park, bring along a plastic sack to help pick up garbage on your way. If you get the chance to do this alone, try a Nature Meditation in a quiet spot somewhere on your journey.

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Go Camping

If you’re feeling adventurous, but don’t want to leave luxury behind, try glamping and spend a night under the stars in style.

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Get Your Body Moving

Litha is a magical, mystical time of year. Why not host a drum circle or spiral dance? You'll need a large group for this, but it's a lot of fun once you get everyone moving. In addition to being entertaining (and a great stress reliever), a drum circle or a ritualized dance serves another purpose—that of raising energy.

The more you build, the more people will feed off of it. Invite a group of friends over, let them know there will be music and dance, and see what happens. Be sure to provide refreshments for afterwards—drumming and dancing can be draining for some people.

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Go Wildflower Picking

Identify and harvest some wildflowers to use in your summer spell work. Press them in your Book of Shadows if you have one.

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Do Something For Others

Do something for charity. Organize a yard sale and donate the proceeds to a local homeless shelter. Collect gently used summer clothing and give to a local children's hospital. Host a dog-wash for your favorite shelter, and ask customers to either donate cash or pet food. Plan a neighborhood cleanup, and trim and weed common areas in your community. If you don't have time to coordinate a big project—and not everyone does—do things on a smaller scale.

Visit an elderly neighbour and help with her housekeeping. Offer to do grocery shopping for an ill relative. If you know a mom with a brand-new baby, help out with childcare so she can get a few hours of rest. There are any number of things you can do to help others, and with the days being longer, there's plenty of time to get things done!

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Read A Good Book

Summer can be a hectic and chaotic time of year. Maybe you're someone who needs to slow down and take a break. Litha is a good time to rejuvenate, so why not sit out in the sunshine and immerse yourself in a good book. Keep reading material handy all the time, so when you need a little down time, you can work through few pages. If your local library has a summer reading program, sign up.

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Attend A Summer Festival

Litha is the week for pagan festivals. Find one. Attend it. You’ll have a blast, I promise.

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Celebrate Family

Turn off the phone, step away from the computer and television, and spend time just having fun with the people who love you most. Take the day off work if possible and spend it any way you like—go to the zoo, a museum, a ball game, etc. Make this a day that you can do anything you want, and put the schedules away just for one day.

If you're worried that money might hold you back, there's plenty of stuff you can do for free: check your local metro parks for activity schedules, go fishing at a nearby lake or river, and watch the local newspaper for free admission deals at nearby attractions. If getting away for a day isn't possible for you, spend the afternoon at home—play board games, do jigsaw puzzles, and cook a meal together.

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Make A Batch Of Sun Cakes

If you’re a kitchen witch, celebrate this Sabbat by baking! Sun cakes are perfect for the “cakes and ale” portion of a Litha ritual if you celebrate with a coven, or you can use them for offering.

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Clean Things Up

Clean your house. Take advantage of the warm weather to have a garage sale and get rid of all those things you don't want. You can also organize a swap with your friends, or donate all your stuff to charities like Goodwill or Salvation Army. You've got plenty of daylight at Litha, so you can accomplish a lot in just a short period of time.

If your house is a bit daunting, select one room to work on at a time—preferably the one that needs the most help! Wash windows, wipe down baseboards, get rid of stuff you know you'll never use. Organize as you clean, putting donatable items into one pile, and trash in another, so you don't have to sort it later. Turn the project into a ritual with a House Cleaning Rite.

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Make Herbal Candle Rings With Herbs

For the green witch : with your herb garden in full swing, it’s time to make some creative use of it.

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Host A Barbeque For Friends And Family

Have a barbecue, and invite all your family and friends over. Decorate with colors of the sun—yellows, reds, and oranges. Feast on lots of summery food, like watermelons, strawberries, and fresh green salads. Add outdoor games like horseshoes, ladder golf, and backyard volleyball.

While you're at it, set up some kind of water activities—water balloons, super soakers, a pool to splash in. All of these are great outside activities in the heat of summer, and help celebrate the balance between fire and water, as well as welcoming friends and family to celebrate the season.

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Try Cloud Scrying

Find a warm, grassy spot and look up to see what messages the sky might have for you.

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Learn & Grow

Spend some time on spiritual growth. Use this time of year to learn something new about your tradition, develop a new skill, or take a class in Tarot, Reiki, yoga, or whatever appeals to you. Create a daily plan of study to help you focus on what it is you want to do next. You've got plenty of extra hours of daylight this time of year, so there are no excuses.

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Visit A Honey Farm

If you’re not allergic to bees (or deathly afraid of them!) this is a nice activity. Be sure to stock up while you’re there.

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Honor The Season

Many ancient cultures marked the summer solstice with rites and rituals honoring the sun. Celebrate the significance of Midsummer with ritual and prayers that recognize the sun and its magnificent power. Set up your Litha altar with symbols of the season—solar symbols, candles, midsummer fruits and vegetables, and more.

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Article Sources :

https://moodymoons.com/2016/06/15/10-ways-to-celebrate-litha-2/ https://www.learnreligions.com/great-ways-to-celebrate-litha-2562249

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing A Blind/Visually Impaired Character: Canes, Guide Dogs, O&M

Wow, back in June I decided to take a few months break from blogging to recharge and focus on my mental health. About a month ago I began writing this specific post, slowly and in stages because of how demanding, detailed, and long it is.

I’m not sure when I planned to come back. I have about 200 posts with tags and image description in my drafts folder, waiting to be queued, but I wanted to finish this guide before I fully came back.

Come back with a bang, right?

But this blog, and specifically, my Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character  guide, has gotten so much traffic and support that I felt incredibly motivated to come back now.

So I finished the guide, and now here it is. It’s been a year+ in the making. Since the very beginning of this writing advice series about writing blind characters, I’ve promised to write a guide specifically about canes, guide dogs, O&M, and other accessibility measures the blind community relies on. 

In fact, if you look at my master post for this guide (now pinned at the first post on my blog) you’ll find that it was reserved as Part Four, even as other guides and additions were added over the last year.

In this post I’ll be explaining 

What Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is

How one learns O&M

About canes, from different types of canes and their parts, as well as how to use a cane. 

I will be explaining the sensory experiences of using a cane and how to describe it in narrative. 

I will include small mannerisms long-time cane uses might develop. 

At the very end will be a section on guide dogs, but this will be limited to research because I have no personal experience with guide dogs, being a cane user.

Disclaimer: I am an actual visually impaired person who has been using a cane for nearly three years and has been experiencing vision loss symptoms for a few years longer than that. This guide is based on both my experiences and my research. My experiences are not universal however because every blind person has a unique experience with their blindness

What Is Orientation & Mobility

Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is the specific skill of understanding and navigating the world safely and confidently with vision loss.

I’m going to quote Vision Aware’s specific definition [link]

"Orientation" refers to the ability to know where you are and where you want to go, whether you're moving from one room to another or walking downtown for a shopping trip.

"Mobility" refers to the ability to move safely, efficiently, and effectively from one place to another, such as being able to walk without tripping or falling on steps or elevation changes, crossing streets, and using public transportation

O&M can involve :

-learning how to use a cane, as well as what cane works best for you

-safely navigating obstacles with your cane, including stairs, ramps, elevators, uneven or curved sidewalks, through crowds, around furniture

-learning safe strategies for crossing the street

-planning routes to new or recurring locations

-using technology enroute, including GPS and apps like Uber and Lyft

-safely accessing public transportation

-how to ask for help when needed

-working with human sighted guides

A Note on the Blind Community and Their Relationship with Canes

The Perkins School for the Blind estimates that only 2-8% of the blind community rely on canes for navigation. The rest rely on remaining vision, guide dogs, and sighted guides. Only about 2% of the blind community relies on guide dogs however, and to get a guide dog in the first place, a person must go through O&M classes and use a cane for six months before they can sign up for a guide dog.

What this means is that 90% of the blind community don’t use a cane.

I didn’t know this fact until I begun research for this guide, and that number astounds me. 

Truth be told, while I have navigated my life without a cane before, I can’t imagine going back to the way it was before I got it. Even if I only need my cane some of the time, I can’t bear to not use it in the situations I need it. Having a cane made my life a lot easier, a lot safer.

I don’t know what to attribute this number to.

I might attribute it to the concepts of invisible vs. visible disability, internalized ableism, or the feeling of ‘not being blind enough’ for a cane, as well as accessibility to the blind community and knowledge, and access to buying a cane in the first place. I could write a thing about it, but if I try it’s gonna be its own post.

Onward~

How Do You Learn O&M? How Will My Character Learn?

You will have to find an Orientation and Mobility instructor and have them personally teach you O&M skills.

The O&M Instructor is a sighted adult who has gone to school for a bachelor’s degree and gone through O&M training themselves while blindfolded, usually fulfilling a certain requirement of hours (one program required 400 hours of O&M practice blindfolded before you could become certified), and apply for certification to teach O&M.

(Or, as is the process to become an instructor in the United States, where I am from. Becoming an instructor would vary in other countries, I’m sure)

To find an O&M instructor, you would reach out to your local school or foundation for the blind. Finding your nearest school for the blind could be done through…

Google search

Your Ophthalmologist (eye doctor) referring you to a school for the blind

A Social Service Worker reaching out to you and helping you contact the school

Possibly your school (as in grade/primary school, high school, university) reaching out to the nearest school for the blind on your behalf.

Unfortunately, there is not an abundance of schools and foundations, so your nearest might still be a far travel distance. My local school is a 45 minute drive away. For some it might a few hours away. 

This is, again, a U.S. experience, because our land mass is spaced out, and something like a six hour drive feels like nothing to most people (although is highly impractical and very difficult to a blind person who cannot drive themselves), but in other countries a six hour drive would mean crossing several borders, and other countries have different social programs.

There is not a full and complete database of every available school for the blind either, no one website to find every possible option. For example, the school I went to wasn’t listed in most of the website resources I found, even though it has seven branches and locations. 

This is more a complaint at the real life struggle to find disabled services, that there are few comprehensive resources out there. If you ask me, it should be made significantly easier to find and access your local blind communities. Accessibility and disabled services should be easily available everywhere.

If your story is based in a real world location, googling ‘school for the blind (city/county/country)’ should suffice in finding the one most local to your setting.

What might a school for the blind provide for your character?

Well, on top of helping your character connect to an O&M instructor, a school for the blind might provide other rehabilitation classes and access to additional resources.

Those rehabilitation classes could include lessons on:

-Reading/Writing Braille & using brailling machines

-Technology classes for screen readers, magnifiers, etc on your computer and smart phone.

My local school has separate classes specific to Andriod, iOS, JAWS, Zoomtext Fusion

-Independent Living skills (cooking, cleaning, organizing, planning how to get groceries and medications)

-Self Improvement (dancing, art, music, self defense. These were classes my school taught)

The additional resources form these schools might include- 

Referrals to counselors for coping with vision loss

Access to their audio-book and braille library

Access to magnifier devices, brailler machines (think of a typewriter for writing braille)

Some schools also offer grade-school or high-school education, meaning blind children/teens learn there instead of a mainstream school.

Some schools have lodgings for clients to stay at while going through rehabilitation, especially if the vision loss is sudden and severe. They live on-campus and take part in classes. Other schools only have day classes offered and you need to find transportation for every visit. Many schools might have a rehabilitation specialist or O&M instructor visit you in your home.

My local school did the last two. They had on site classes, but the school is a 45 minute drive from me, so I only visited a few times. They were able to send an O&M instructor to me. 

On Wednesdays at 3 pm she would drive to my house and give me lessons on using my cane. Those included her driving me to different locations to practice certain skills (like using stairs and escalators at the mall, or crossing a moderately busy intersection, or visiting a bus station to practice boarding a bus safely and communication with a bus driver where my stop was).

She also brought multiple different types of canes for new students to try out and determine which felt best for them.

The Many Types of Canes

Long Canes are used to sweep the immediate area in front of the cane user as they’re walking. This is the cane type that the general public is most familiar with seeing. There are several sub-types of long canes. They can also be called white canes or probing canes.

[Image Description: Man in business clothes traveling on the side walk with a white and red cane. End Image Description]

White cane can be a misnomer for two reasons: One, the concept of the standard cane for the blind can look different in different countries. In America, the standard is white with a red tip. In some countries the standard is an all-white cane. In some countries an all white cane might mean the user is blind while a white cane with a red tip means the user is deaf-blind.

Two, some companies like Ambutech allow customers to customize their cane colors and tips. Example: Molly Burke’s hot pink cane. My white cane with a purple tip. An all black or all sky blue or all red or all purple cane. A black cane with a blue or purple tip. Ambutech also allows customers to request neon-colored reflective tape to make their canes more visible at night.

Probing cane is not a term I’ve personally heard before, but it is a term Vision Aware uses on their website.

There are three main types of long canes:

Non-folding Canes: a cane that has no sections, cannot be folded or collapsed.

[Image Description: stock photo of man in business suit with a non-folding all white cane. End Image Description]

Folding Canes: The cane has 3-6 sections depending on its height. The taller the cane, the more sections it has. The sections are separate pieces that are made to snap together and are held together by a strong elastic rope inside the sections.

[Image Description: a folding cane with four sections, white with a red tip, and a rolling marshmallow tip. End Image Description]

Telescopic Canes: in which the sections slide into each other, similar to a telescope/spyglass, rather than pulling apart and folding. The handle is the widest section, and the tip section is the thinnest.

[Image Description: Three stacked images of a blue telescopic cane. First is of the cane completely collapsed. Second is of the sections partially sliding out. Third is the cane sections completely out and locked.]

Beyond that is also the Identification Cane. The function of this cane is to visibly identify the user as blind. It’s not used for O&M the way long canes are, there is no sweeping out the next two steps. It can be used as a support cane, however. 

It’s appeals most to the elderly who not only make up a huge percentage of the blind community, but might also benefit most from having both a support cane and an identifier for their blindness, in case they need assistance. 

[Image Description: identification cane with curved handle. All white with red tip. End Image Description]

A note: From what I’ve heard in the blind community, some people prefer solid/non-folding canes over folding or telescopic canes. The reason for this is that solid canes transfer vibration better than folding or telescopic canes. It’s said that the more sections a cane has, the less precise the vibrations are. 

Some cane users train themselves to understand the vibrations of the surfaces their canes are touching. It tells them what kind of surface they’re on (wood vs. marble vs. concrete), if there are nearby objects to their cane. While I rely somewhat on cane vibrations to tell me what surface I’m walking on (more on that later), it is beyond my current O&M abilities to use cane vibrations to sense nearby walls or objects.

Cane vibrations are just an additional information-sense to add to the others in use, and extra bit of data input.

Parts of the Cane: Materials, Handle, Tips, Sections, Elastic Band

Material

The three most common types of materials used to make canes are aluminum, carbon-fiber, and fiberglass. Each material has some drawbacks and benefits.

The ideal cane is lightweight and durable. It should be strong enough to withstand hitting something solid without bending or splintering.

Aluminum is strong and durable, but heavy. If it’s damage, it’s more likely to bend than break entirely. A bend can be straightened out, but it takes considerable strength.

Carbon-fiber is lightweight and durable. It’s stronger than fiberglass, and it can bend out of shape rather than splintering.

Fiberglass is lightweight but a bit rigid. If it breaks, it splinters.

Handles and Elastic Bands

While some canes can have specialized grips (plastic, wood, corkboard) the most common handle material is a black rubber handle that is about ten inches long, give or take. In the previous photos you’ve seen, the canes have had black rubber handles.

Here is an example of a cane with a wood-mesh material used as the handle.

[Image Description: a four section white cane with a red tip and a orange wood mesh handle, with black elastic band attached. End Image Description]

The benefits of black rubber handles over others are that it’s easier to hold onto, especially if your palms are wet or sweaty, than a plastic or polished wood handle. It also wouldn’t show the indents or scratches from wear and tear daily use. I’m guessing that is cheaper to make on the manufacturing standpoint, and thus is conveniently the standard.

Pay attention to the black elastic band attached to the handle in the above photo. Notice how it has a tied off loop? That is so that when the cane is folded, that loop can be stretched over the folded sections to hold it together.

[Image Description: a four section folding cane folded up with the black band around them. End Image Description]

Additional benefits or functions of the elastic could be to use it as a wrist strap while using the cane, or hanging it up on a hook while not in use. I tend to have my cane folded up and tuck my wrist under the strap to hold it more securely while carrying it. Images of that ahead in my cane-isms section.

Cane Height

Ideal cane heights depend on the user. For most users, you want your cane height to be to your shoulder, give or take a few inches. You might need a longer cane if you are a fast walker with long strides, or a shorter cane if you prefer to hold your cane at a lower angle than is traditional.

What I mean when I talk about holding your cane at a certain angle is that the standard is to hold your cane handle in your dominant hand and position it in front of your belly button, moving it side to side with each step. Traditional grip methods are holding your hand palm side up with your cane in hand, or to hold the cane at the section joint closest to the handle with what is called the pencil grip, holding the cane like a fat pencil.

Depending on the height, a cane can have anywhere between three and six sections. Longer canes have more sections. The top section includes the handle, and the last section includes the stripe color (traditionally red, unless customized) and the tip. 

The sections of the cane are generally slightly reflective, regardless of color. If you hold a cane up to the light you’ll see tiny specks of light reflected back, almost like very fine, tiny particle glitter paint. This detail is important in cane production because it makes the cane more visible at night, especially if something like car headlights reflect off it while someone is crossing.

Additional visibility at night can be added by wrapping stripes of reflective tape along the shaft.

Cane Tips

There are several different tip options for canes.

[Image Description: four different types of cane tips on a blue background with labels. From left to right: marshmallow tip, ball tip, pencil tip, glide tip.]

[Image Description: a rolling marshmallow tip with a blue background. End Image Description]

[Image Description: Bandu basher tip with a white background. For anyone not familiar with the name, the long, curved cane tip that looks like a hockey stick. End Image Description]

Some of these tips are better for the tap-tap method of cane travel, as in tapping the spots where you plan to step. They can also be used to feel out the shapes of objects, stairs, etc. 

marshmallow tip, pencil tip, 

They should not be scraped over surfaces, the tips will wear down much faster than they should. There are better tips for rolling over surface

Some tips are better for the rolling method of cane travel, which is the method I use. They aren’t great for tapping, but it can be done in a pinch. 

rolling marshmallow tip, ball tip, glide tip

The Bandu Basher tip, the hockey stick shaped tip, is best for hovering an inch off the ground and lightly tapping objects. It could be tapped. It should not be scraped over the ground like a rolling tip. It hovers.

After enough use, the tips will wear down and need to be replaced. The part of the tip that has the most contact with the ground, usually the edge of the shape, gets scrapes, sands down, and eventually begins to look like it was shaved off while still having bits of plastic still gripped to it.

Never fear, cane tips can be removed and replaced when they wear out, replacing the whole cane is not necessary.

Some tips slip on or twist on. Others hook on. By hook on I mean that the elastic that keeps the cane sections together also has a loop at the tip end that a hook onto and stay held into place. Look back at the photo of the rolling marshmallow tip and you will see the hook that attaches to the black elastic.

Cane tips sell for about 5 - 10 U.S. dollars, plus shipping, so it’s advised to buy several back up tips with your cane. I replace my rolling marshmallow tips once every six to twelve months. I don’t know if that’s considered too much or too often. The last time I needed to replace mine was June 2019 (It’s July 2020 at the date of writing this, but I’ve hardly left my home for the last six months because of COVID-virus related quarantine/social distancing.)

Sensory Details/Describing What Using a Cane Feels Like

Every surface type feels and sounds different when tapping or rolling a cane over it. It’s this difference that tells us a lot about our environment.

It tells us when we stepped off the side walk onto the grass, when we’ve walked inside because the concrete changes to wood or carpet flooring. These little details become trail markers too, useful for places we anticipate traveling to a lot.

Example: A week before every semester in college, I would travel to each of the classrooms and learn necessary routes. I learned that certain paths had giant cracks in the sidewalk that would be distinct enough to use as a trail marker to where I was on a path, or that certain paths went from cement to gravel, or cement to brick.

Carpet: The sound is very soft, and if you’re rolling your cane across carpet it sounds like a quiet swish-swish-swish. Tapping sounds depend on how thick the carpet padding underneath is, the thicker the carpet the softer the sound. If there’s a lot of padding then taps don’t make much sound, but if the padding is thin or underneath the carpet is tile or concrete then you hear a louder thudding tap. It’s still pretty quiet. If you’re rolling the cane you would feel a little bit of drag, the cane moves slower over the carpet. The thicker or shaggier the carpet is, the more drag it has.

Wood floor: Cane tips make rumbling sounds when rolling over wood floors. The smoother the wood, the less it rumbles. There’s a little vibration moving from the cane tip, through the cane and into your hand as you roll over wood planks. Very small. The more sensitive you are to vibrations, the more you feel it. Tapping makes hallow, thudding sounds on the wood. Sometimes they sound a little snappish if you’re tapping harshly. You feel stronger vibrations when tapping. Older wood feels softer, with more give. New wood is stronger, more vibrations in the cane.

Tile:It depends on the size of the tiles and the wideness of the grout lines, but it’s not a pleasant feeling. Tiles have grout lines, which are little divets between the tiles. The smaller the tiles or rougher the grout lines are, the more the cane vibrates in your hands. Every bump is felt running from the cane to your hand. The sound is a little grating too. Imagine fifty sets of stiletto shoes walking on tile, that’s what it sounds like when you roll your cane over rough, small tiles. Larger tiles with smoother grout lines aren’t so bad. Tapping the tile with your cane sounds like one really loud step of a stiletto heal, one step for each tap. Tile floors are usually found in bathrooms, kitchens, and industrial locations where the room is going to have harder walls (more tile, concrete, etc) and few furniture, so the room echoes more.

Linoleum: is a smooth even surface. It feels like your cane is gliding when you roll it, barely feeling any vibrations. The rolling sounds are very soft because of the lack of bumps, however tapping sounds are a bit louder. Not as snappish as tile or marble, but almost.

Marble: is similar to linoleum in its smoothness. Your cane glides when rolling. Tapping sounds are sharp. Because marble floors are common in high end malls, luxury homes, and fancy office building entries, places that usually have high ceilings and hard walls with minimal decorations and minimalist furnishing, those sharp tapping sounds may echo. Assuming there isn’t too much noise and the environment is relatively quiet.

Concrete: (I’m referring to concrete found in parking garages and industrial buildings, not sidewalk) It depends on the age of the concrete and how it’s maintained. Old concrete with lots of cracks and mini-craters feels very different from smooth concrete that was set less than a year ago. With old concrete there’s a rattling sound as your cane tip rolls over the bumps and those vibrations travel up your cane. New concrete can feel similar to marble or linoleum. The taps are loud thuds on dull concrete and sharper on new concrete.

Sidewalks: are made of concrete, but in my experience they feel a little different than the above example. Sidewalks have a grittier surface, they’re slightly rougher, more dry. There’s a bit more rolling cane vibration with sidewalks and the taps have more of a thud sound. And because they’re outside, you’re unlikely to hear any echoes unless you’re walking in an alley or between buildings.

Asphalt: is one of the worst surfaces in my personal opinion. Asphalt is the material used in roads and it’s made to be rough and gritty so that car tires can grip onto it and not lose traction while driving. The older and more damaged it is, the rougher it is. Because it’s rough the vibrations are much stronger, sometimes irritatingly so. I can’t roll my cane over asphalt because the bones in my hand can’t handle those kinds of vibrations, so I almost always use the tapping method instead. The sounds are gritty and dull. Unfortunately, asphalt is an unavoidable surface, unless you can find a way to never need to cross a street or walk through a parking lot.

Note: the white or yellow lines that have been painted into asphalt sometimes feel smoother because of the material they’re made of and because they’re added after the asphalt has been laid down.

Note: There’s something called tarmac which is similar to asphalt, used for a similar purpose, and more common in the U.K. (I believe) but I can’t say that I’ve ever knowingly walked on it so I have no personal experience to give you.

Gravel: Another one of those evil surfaces. Gravel is just loose rocks and they’re common in rural roads, driveways, some landscaping. The looseness of them is what makes them untrustworthy. It makes a crunching sound. If you roll your cane, you’re likely to end up tossing small bits of rock and dust here and there. If you tap, you’ll hear the crunch but your brain might not translate that into “it’s gravel” until you’re walking on it and only realize when you walk over it and the sharp rocks begin digging into your shoes.

Wood Chips: I don’t have any experience with this since vision loss and getting a cane, so I’m using my memories of being on the playground in grade school because the surface on the playground was wood chips. I’d say wood ships are a love child between gravel and wood floors. The surface is loose and rolling your cane over it would kick up loose chips and dust. It would probably sound similar to walking on sand I think, because wood chips are much softer than gravel but not as consistent as wood. If it’s rained recently, then the waterlogged wood chips sound even softer.

Hard Dirt: I’m thinking dirt roads here, which are a lesser evil to asphalt and gravel. They can be rough like all roads, but the material isn’t has hard and solid. Rolling your cane will kick up dust on a dry day, but if it rained a few days ago you might hear a soft crunch as you roll over wet dirt. Tapping will have a very soft thud.

Soft Dirt: Think gardening dirt. Because it’s so soft, it makes very little sound and is easily kicked up. There’s a bit of drag, about the same or slightly more drag than grass or sand. Tapping has almost no sound but you might feel a slight give as your tip lands in the dirt, a slight resistance as it sinks in.

Mud: Yuck. I’m imagining this getting in my cane tip and how gross it would be after. Sound and feeling depend on how wet the mud is. Wet mud sounds slurpy. There’s more squish if you roll or tap your cane. Your character might not identify it right away until their shoes begin slipping as they walk over the mud. This is a personal experience. Drier mud sounds soft and feels almost solid underneath your cane. Wetter mud has more drag for a rolling cane. Muddy areas are also generally uneven because top soil has been displaced, so muddy hills and fields have unexpected but usually subtle changes in elevation.

Puddles: have both a slurpy and splash-splash sound. The slurpy sound is more common with rolling cane techniques. The splash sound is more common with tapping. The deeper the puddle, the louder is sounds and the more drag you experience. I am not fond of this texture/experience.

Snow: I have zero experience with snow since the development of blindness. So no experience of what it’s like to walk through with a cane. This is something I hope a blind reader can inform me on so I can edit this at a later date. My best guess is that it has a soft crunch, softer than the crunch of shoes in snow. A lot of drag too. Rolling through snow would probably be near impossible, especially if it’s deep snow or hard packed. Again, my best guess. The last time I experienced snow was when I was twelve.

Grass: One of my least favorites personally. Too much drag. Worse than shag carpeting. It’s very soft and doesn’t make much sound either. Like a crisp crunch you can barely hear. If the grass is wet or frosty you hear it a bit more crunch.

Surface with fallen Autumn leaves: Leaves everywhere! This is a bit dependant on whatever surface the leaves are on. It would soften the sound of cement, but there would be a louder crunch on grass. If the leaves are big and very curvy/pocketed then they’re easy to push aside. Smaller, flatter leaves don’t push as easily. The driest ones will crunch under your cane. It’s fun sometimes, if you’re the kind of person who likes stepping on leaves on purpose, but if you can’t see the leaves it might lose some of its fun and be more unexpected. 

Sand: I’ve never personally taken my cane to the beach, despite living so close to the coast. The reason is because beach sand is so squishy and loose that it’s already impossible to stay steady on your feet. The sand is always sinking under your feet, unless you’re next to the water line and the dampness has made it firmer. So a cane isn’t very useful to me at the beach. Not to mention that sand isn’t something you want inside your cane joints if you want the cane to last. Sand will erode and damage the joints, regardless of if they’re metal or plastic. If I were to take my cane to the beach, it would make the softest crunching-swishy noise of sand sliding over sand, similar to what your footsteps sound like on sand, but possibly even quieter because canes are lighter.

Side Note: My mother sarcastically asked about rolling your cane through dog poop or gum left on the floor. Can’t say I’ve ever rolled through it, so couldn’t tell you. Use your imagination I guess, Mum

The Invention of Tactile Paving

These are amazing! Tactile Paving are those yellow (or sometimes grey) bumpy squares you see on ramps leading into parking lots or when crossing the street. In 1965, Japanese engineer Seiichi Miyake used his own money to develop a tactile brick that you could feel even when walking over it with shoes, and he designed this because a friend of his was losing their vision and he wanted to help. These are amazing, and accessible to everyone, even the blind who don’t have a cane or guide dog. These are literal life savers. Before I got my cane, if I felt those bumps under my shoes I knew to immediately stop because I was about to walk into the road. Because less than 10% of the blind community uses canes or guide dogs, this is the most accessible form of blind aide available.

[Image Description: a yellow rectangle of tactile paving in front of a ramp leading into a parking lot. End Image Description]

Note: similar detail, most doors in commercial buildings (in my localized experience) have a metal plate on the threshold to hold the door in place so there are no cracks underneath. The metal scraping sound when you roll or tap your cane on it is distinct but temporary and non-repeating, so it’s a good indication that you’ve reached and passed the threshold.

Blind-isms

I have a section in this guide about blind-isms, but these ones are focused specifically on cane use.

-Do. Not. Touch. My. Cane. Don’t. Just fucking don’t.

-The above ism comes from the fact that our cane is our safety net, an extension of our body, our eyes, the one thing that makes sure we’ll get somewhere safely. For that reason, blind people hate having their canes (or their on duty guide dogs) touched by strangers, acquaintances, friends we’re not very close to, some family members.

Important Note: That is a universal thing for disabled people. Don’t. Touch. Their. Mobility Aides. It’s assault. Touching someone’s wheelchair or pushing them around without their expressed permission is assault. Moving their wheelchair while the user is currently standing is assault. (Most wheelchair users are not paralyzed, but they still need the wheelchair because of their medical condition, which is not your business to know). It doesn’t matter if the wheelchair is in the way, the disabled person needs it right there, do not touch it. Touching or grabbing someone’s support cane or their long cane is assault. Touching or moving someone’s walker is assault. Touching, poking at, or tampering with someone’s hearing aids is assault. Touching their oxygen tank or cannula is assault.

Back on topic-

-Idle motions with your cane while waiting in line. I often rest my chin on my cane or lean on it

-twirl my cane like a staff when I’m alone and no one can see. I would not ever do this in front of anyone because I don’t want anyone thinking it’s a toy or they can just touch or grab it. I’m just a little childish and bored sometimes and idle motions are a common thing for people with ADHD.

-When carrying my folded cane inside (like say a store) I hang it from my wrist by the strap.

-Keeping my cane within arms reach at all times, even in situations where I don’t need it currently. Example: if we’re doing a classroom assignment where I need to leave my desk, I know the classroom well enough to not use my cane, but I won’t leave it at my desk, ever. (This does not apply at home. And in the homes of a very few, very trusted friends I will leave it somewhere I deem safe.)

-Having a set, specific place in my home (living with my immediate family, who almost never have guests) for my cane. In my case, it’s the top of an antique dresser in the living room, across from the door. It has a little bowl for my sunglasses as well. If I move out and have roommates, my cane will be in my room.

-Love me a bag or backpack that has enough space to discretely store your cane, but most of my bags cannot do that.

-People with folding canes develop a muscle memory for folding and unfolding their cane, so they can do it without really thinking about it.

-Unfolding my cane: I hold the black handle between my thumb and palm with my other fingers folded over the remaining three sections, cane tip pointing up. I slide the elastic over the tip, loosen my four fingers and roll my wrist to the side. The red colored section unfolds first and snaps into place with its neighboring section. I roll my wrist in the opposite direction so the next white section can unfold and snap into place with it’s neighboring section. Roll it back in the first direction and the third section snaps into place with the handle. My four section cane is now unfolded and straight.

-Sometimes I just grab the black handle and let the sections fall and unfold as they will, but this is less controlled and risks your cane bumping into something or someone.

-Folding my cane: I start with the black handle, lifting it up so the joints unlock. I fold it down, grab both sections in my hand and lift the second section away from the third and fold it over. Wrap my hand over all three sections and unlock it from the red section.

-Because I have a four section folding cane, the cane tip and the handle are on the same side while the metal joints are on the opposite side. Those metal joints are what my elastic slips over.

-A three or five folding cane will have the head of the handle (and its elastic) on the opposite side of the cane tip, and you will be folding the elastic over the cane joints and tip.

-A six section cane has the tip and handle facing the same direction like the four section cane.

-People with non-folding canes like leaning their canes up against walls and other objects when not in use. Corners are popular, the corner of a desk up against a wall too.

-But oh god the frustration when the cane randomly rolls out of place and hits the floor, it’s a combination of “Not again” and “did that really just happen” and “you had one job. one job.”

-Sitting with our cane tucked between our legs. Picture a bit of man spreading, the cane tip leaned against the side of our foot to keep it stable and the cane leaning against our shoulder or opposite knee, possibly also held securely with our fingers too.

-The no-manspreading alternative of that is with the cane leaning against our shoulder, cane tip resting on the toe of our shoe or the outside of it, held securely with our fingers or our arm wrapped around it, elbow hooking it.

(Okay, a while back I was looking for photos of someone using a cane to use as a reference for drawing Ulric. I only found three, and two of them were Daredevil promo photos. Which, no offense to Charlie Cox, but he is not blind and he does not use a cane in his daily life, he does not have that relationship a blind person has with a cane and the concept of a fifth limb, and it shows. So the photos were stiff and unusable, so I had to like use several photo references of different poses and Frankenstein them together to get what I wanted.

And I still haven’t finished the painting... fuck)

-In a car with a non-folding cane: 

-Right passenger seat- The cane tip goes all the way into the corner of the foot well to the right of my feet, with the handle resting over my right shoulder or on the seatbelt. It pokes a bit past my headrest. The longer the cane, the harder it is to tuck into a car.

-The U.K. / Austrailian / New Zealand / Japan version of this (because they drive on the left side of the road with their drivers seats on the right side of the car) it’s like this: Cane tip in the foot well to the left of my feet, handle on my left shoulder or on the seatbelt.

Backseat: the absolute worst. There’s less foot well room, and if you’re in a sedan there is almost no room behind your shoulder for the handle. I position my cane diagonally with the handle on the shoulder closest to the door and the tip next to the foot closest to the middle. 

-For this reason, no one with a non-folding cane will want to be sitting in the backseat.

About Guide Dogs

While my knowledge of guide dogs is limited only to what I can research and not personal, I will give you some basic facts and practical knowledge from said research.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind estimates that there are 10,000 guide dog teams out there in the world. That makes up 2% of the blind and visually impaired community.

Guide Dog Training

Becoming a guide dog is the most difficult form of dog training there is. The majority of dogs who enter guide dog training wash out and either become family dogs or go into a different type of service dog training, like medical response or PTSD/anxiety response, or possibly become therapy dogs, which is a career altogether different from being a service dog.

Guide dogs go through two or three years of training, which includes puppy training, basic socialization, proper behavior when on duty and actual guide training. Most service dogs only go through a year to a year and a half of training before they are partnered with a disabled handler.

Between the cost of training, the cost of housing and feeding the dog and the cost of vet bills from birth until being partnered with a blind handler, the overall cost of a guide dog is something like 30k to 40k. While most service dog training organizations require handlers to fundraise and pay for the cost of training (usually something like 15-30k), guide dog organizations give their dogs to qualified blind clients for free. These organizations pay for the dog costs through their own fundraising and charities. Fortunately for these organizations, guide dogs are a highly respected field and have a lot more charity directed their way, while other service dog types have less public interest when it comes to charity.

Guide Dog organizations have an application process, requirements, and a wait-list before you can be partnered with a guide dog.

Requirements to get a guide dog are (usually) as follows: 

Must be legally blind (as in not visually impaired, but legally blind) and have had at least six months of O&M with a cane and demonstrate enough O&M stills to navigate by oneself. They also require you to be responsible enough to independently care for a dog, able to keep up with training and retraining of the dog, as well as financially able to handle food and vet bills (which are at least a few thousand dollars every year).

The reason for cane training before getting a guide dog is because the dog cannot do everything for you. You, the dog handler, are responsible for knowing where you are and how to get where you need to be.

The dog can’t read stop signs or tell when a light is green or red, nor do they have GPS to find a brand new location nor can they learn that route on the first try, nor will they know exactly where you want to go when you say “Starbucks” or “library” or “school” or “mom’s house” and guide you all by themselves. That falls on you, the dog handler, having enough orientation and mobility skills to know when a street is safe to cross and knowing how to learn new routes and how to keep on route and make sure you make the correct turns. A guide dog can’t communicate with bus drivers for you either, they don’t know which number bus to use or what stop to choose. That falls on the blind person’s own skill.

Other Guide Dog Resources

Molly Burke is a guide dog user and has made several videos about what kind of work guide dogs do, her personal experience being a guide dog user for over ten years, how she got a guide dog, specific commands, unique experiences with things like travel, etc. She has a playlist all about guide dogs, but here are some of my favorite videos.

How Guide Dogs Guide A Blind Person

Guide Dog User Answers the Most Googled Questions about Guide Dogs

How I Met My First Guide Dog

Final Thoughts:

There is a lot more to be said about Orientation and Mobility, such as:

How do you safely cross the street with a cane?

How do you learn new routes?

How does getting a cane significantly change your life?

How do family, friends, and strangers react to you “suddenly” having a cane?

I could also write a ton on other tools the blind community relies on so strongly, such as screen readers, magnifiers, etc. In fact, I originally promised to include those in my master post when Part Four was titled  Part Four: What Your Blind Character Needs to Survive and Not Die. However, this guide is ages long and it feels better to focus on this specific topic for here.

Did you like this guide?

Consider checking out my other guides, links of which can be found on the master post here.

Follow my blog, I write and curate writing advice guides outside of blindness, I reblog writing memes with image descriptions, reblog soothing aesthetic photos with image descriptions, talk about disability, lgbtqa+ issues, ableism, and mental health.

If you want to further support me, this is the link to my ko-fi (however there is no such requirement nor pressure to do so, and please don’t worry about it, especially if you are in a financial situation that can’t afford it)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Stories from Black women's customer service hell

The internet age has certainly transformed journalism; these days we mostly think about investigative journalism’s decline, but there are digital investigative outlets that shine like diamonds.

I’m thinking here about Propublica.

Propublica’s Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel wrote a series of blockbuster stories about the monopolist Intuit, a business organized as a cult around its then-CEO Brad Smith, engaged in decades’ worth of dirty tricks to kill free, IRS tax-prep services.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

Not only did they stay with this story for months on end, digging up incredible stories of corruption, they also shamed the IRS and spurred state AGs into investigating the company.

Then a funny thing happened: Intuit customer service whistleblower revealed another scandal, one that sprawled outside of Intuit and spilled over into the world’s largest blue-chip companies from Disney to Airbnb to Comcast and more.

That was the story of Arise, yet another cult-like business that you have almost certainly interacted with, without knowing it.

On its surface, Arise is an outsource customer service company. Other businesses pay it to staff their phones and answer customer queries.

But Arise is many other things. For one thing, it’s a pyramid scheme: the people who work for it — disproportionately Black women — are not classed as employees, but as “contractors.” They are paid for recruiting their friends to work for it.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/02/chickenized-by-arise/#arise

That might sound like a nice way to help a business staff its call-centers, but you need to understand that Arise has no call centers or staff — its workers take calls from their homes.

Those workers aren’t employees — they’re misclassified as “independent contractors.”

If you want to work for Arise, you have to pay them for the privilege. Not only do you have to buy a computer and phone, you have to pay to get trained for each firm whose calls you’ll be taking.

If you quit, you have to pay Arise for “early termination” of your contract.

Believe it or not, those are the best parts of working for Arise. When you are an Arise worker, you can be terminated without notice or cause — forfeiting the money and time you spent for training and equipment. You can get fired by Arise itself, or by any of its customers.

Reps from Arise and its customers listen in on your calls. If your children make noise in the background, you can lose everything. Same if your neighbor’s dog starts barking. Forget about running a fan or air conditioner — the noise is “unprofessional.”

The Arise story prompted outrage from the public — and it sent Propublica’s investigators deeper into the story. They documented how the Department of Labor knew about Arise’s illegal and abusive conduct, and let them get away with it for years.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/22/paperback-writer/#toothless

And here’s the most amazing part: Propublica never stopped reporting on this story. This month, Ariana Tobin, Ken Armstrong and Justin Elliott worked with Brooke Stephenson to tell Arise workers’ stories in their own words.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-women-on-the-other-end-of-the-phone

These stories reveal Arise’s lies about its working conditions, as workers describe how they were unequivocally ordered never to hang up on customers, even in the face of death and rape threats, racist abuse, and sexual harassment.

Arise may tell regulators and reporters that its workers are empowered to hang up the phone if the man on the other end is masturbating, but the women who endure this abuse tell a very different story:

https://www.propublica.org/article/not-allowed-to-hang-up-the-harsh-reality-of-working-in-customer-service

The writers connect Arise’s working conditions with the promises made by temp agencies for generations — companies like “Kelly Girl,” who promised a disposable, attractive, pliable and hardworking woman whom a company could work like a government mule and then discard.

Arise preys on the economically precarious and traps their whole families into literal conspiracies of silence, as spouses and children tiptoe around their homes to spare their mothers the economic catastrophe of being summarily fired.

The powerful words of the women answering these calls are a reminder of the human cost of systemic racism and sexism, and the willingness of the world’s largest companies to exploit it.

While this is a systemic problem, there are ways you can individually help the people you speak to, beyond being courteous and decent and understanding (this being the minimum we all owe one another).

I. Complete the end-of-call survey. Workers can get fired and lose their investment in equipment and training if the people they help don’t do this.

II. After text-based service interactions, reply “No thank you,” after the rep asks “is there anything else I can help you with?” Workers are punished if you close your browser without answering this question.

III. Be organized with all relevant information in hand before you call. Workers are penalized for calls that last too long — even if the reason for the delay is that the caller took forever looking up a key piece of information.

Yes, it’s unfair that workers are penalized if you don’t play along with Arise’s idiotic customer service metrics, but the unfairness accrues disproportionately to workers, and you can shoulder some of that burden.

I’m grateful to Propublica for continuing to bring us this story — and doubly glad to be an annual donor to this charitable nonprofit.

Image: Laila Milevski/Propublica