#learn to cook but i physically cannot look at a group of ingredients and see an end product so sometimes i need help coming up with the idea

[so-emo-i-fell-apart]

Aparently I'm useless for offering to make supper but not knowing what to make so I asked my mom what she'd like and now she's just doing it and I'm trying to to cry

[yurimother]

Interview: Shilin Huang, Creator of Amongst Us and Carciphona

Shilin Huang ( @okolnir​​ )is a Canadian freelance artist and comic creator, known for her long-running series Carciphona. She has a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Western Ontario. Carciphona is a long-form fantasy story set in a world where demon-magic is forbidden. The series follows a young sorceress named Veloce, and the mythical assassin assigned to kill her, Blackbird.

Shilin’s newest book, Amongst Us, based on the webcomic of the same name, is an alternate universe comic that reimagines Veloce and Blackbird as musicians and girlfriends in the modern world. You can support the physical release for Amongst Us book 1 on Kickstarter today.

The first book of Amongst Us is coming soon. How do you feel about the release?

Eager and relieved!! I had worked for so long to make the web format viable for print format, as well doing all the extra drawings that were necessary--like covers--that I had to keep under wraps, it felt great to know that that part is finally done and I can release my child into the wild. I was very worried too before the launch of the Kickstarter, because though I am the one who made this story, I am not quite a slice-of-life type of person myself, and it was hard for me to see value in this mundane, not-plot-driven kind of story as a printed book. But I was very lucky to have that worry dispelled!

What drew you towards creating comics and artwork? Was it a dream of yours?

I’ve been drawing since before elementary school because I enjoyed it, and somewhere along the way, I wanted to create my own characters, and then I wanted stories for them. It was always just me doing what I felt like doing, more so than something that I aspired towards achieving consciously. If I had to analyze the allure myself, maybe it was because people and the world are so interesting, I’ve always loved thinking about their nature and circumstances, and art/storytelling was the best way for me to explore and share those thoughts.

Could you briefly walk us through your creative process for making a page of Carciphona or an episode of Amongst Us?

Carciphona is a long, plot-driven story, and so the scale of preparation required before the page eclipses the actual drawing of the page itself. [A] small moment has some larger impact in the plot, character development, and accuracy of world-building. So I usually spend about half a year or more writing out an entire volume, read it over many times over the course of the years, before I do the same thing with sketching the entire volume on the computer, rearranging pages and panels and entire scenes for best delivery, before I finally commit to drawing out each page in detail on the computer. 

Where Carciphona is like an elaborate set course where I chop up and measure ingredients and time their cooking with a careful game plan so everything can be served as they should, Amongst Us is more like an omelette that I’m making to taste. There is still planning and writing ahead of time, but each episode is much more self-contained, and I do more of the planning of the episode within the episode itself, adding and taking away details as I see fit before I feel like it reads naturally enough for me to fine line, colour, and paint.

You talk about being a self-taught artist, how did you learn to create artwork? What are some of your favorite educational resources?

While I did come across many tutorials, they were mostly short ones here and there made by my peers, so I don’t have any favourites in my mind that I can share ): . I learned by just looking at the art of my peers at the time and drawing a lot myself, thinking about what I could learn from each time I see something great, and what I could try next time to make the next drawing look better to me. When I had just started drawing digitally, the internet was quite new, drawing tablets expensive and uncommon, with no social media to share art or find resources. Over time, I did try to learn more properly by doing studies and seeking out professional tutorials, but I found that I hated it and decided that I’d rather learn and make mistakes at my own pace and be happy than to commit to effective and efficient learning and make myself dislike drawing.

Amongst Us is, of course, an Alternate Universe comic featuring characters from Carciphona. What inspired you to put your characters into a GL slice of life work?

Back in 2006, when I started drawing Carciphona, I had no plans of this frenemies dynamic for the two main characters, Blackbird and Veloce, and when the thought had occurred to me as I continue to tweak the story, canon GL relationships were still rare and rarely accepted. I was even told on many occasions by readers that they hope the two do not end up with some couples dynamic, or they will no longer be interested in the story. Ultimately, Carciphona was a fantasy story about an entire world, and I wasn’t going to risk the story’s reception over a small detail like whether or not Blackbird and Veloce sleep together, so I just played with the ideas of their relationship on the side, in paintings of many different AUs. Eventually, all that did was make me become so attached to the idea that I decided to say, screw it, I need someplace where they could be together, and I’m drawing an AU for real.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your work? Both Amongst Us and Carciphona.

I love a lot of things, feelings, aesthetics, and I eat up all of that and take it back out in the form of my stories. The inspiration is everywhere, from beautiful imagery I witness in pictures and in real life, to [the] lives of people that I hear about or experience firsthand, to the ethics and structures of professions from mechanics to medicine… In feelings, knowledge, and perspective, there’s an infinite amount of things that makes me think, and that thinking is what creates AU and Carciphona, whether or not that line of inspiration can be clearly drawn back to the root of the thought.

What are some of your biggest challenges or fears creating Amongst Us? Was there any realization or advice that helped you overcome those difficulties?

My biggest fear is always in relatability because it’s a difference between me and the reader that I do not and cannot have a solution for because it involves another person. In such a relatable genre as slice of life/comedy/romance, where the readers have more experience and therefore more varied but stronger expectations of a version of life that is relatable to them, I know that even if somehow I become a master writer, I still would not be able [to] say whether I could story that others would get or would be interested in, especially because I am aware I am an oddball when it comes to how I think, how I live, and what I value. What helped me the most was simply seeing that there were readers who did enjoy the stories for what it was, and reminding myself that I’m telling the stories to find those who might enjoy it, not to avoid those who might not. It’s a different perspective, rather than a solution, so the worry constantly resurfaces, but I hope it becomes easier over time as I am proven wrong more often!

Amongst Us readers have gotten to see Veloce and Blackbird as an established couple, and now we are witnessing flashbacks to how they first met. Where do you hope to take the series in the future?

I intend to tell both of these timelines concurrently, so as the couple timeline ended at episode 20, I intend to end the flashback at around episode 40, and then switch again at episode 60, and so on. While this kills the momentum for each arc, I made AU so that I can have the cake and eat it too--I want both their back story and a happy ending at the same time without having to wait 10-20 years for it, like I do with Carciphona’s plot haha!

What is one dream or aspiration you would like to accomplish? Even if it is unrealistic.

My only dream right now is just to finish both Carciphona and AU before my time’s up! Funny how unrealistic is specified, it made me realize that I rarely consider unrealistic dreams/aspirations as worth thinking about as they are unlikely to happen when there are so many other things I want to do that are actually possible. Most of my unrealistic dreams actually revolve around music, a profession I had left behind with an aching heart. I dream to play a concerto with an orchestra someday, or even learn to conduct, but for now, drawing my dreams out feels enjoyable and fulfilling enough a compromise!

What advice do you have for people wanting to create artwork and comics?

The true challenge these days I feel like is rarely in the work itself; there are so many readily available free resources that anyone who is capable of working hard and thinking critically will sooner or later be able to master skills they acquire to some degree. What is truly challenging is finding, and then accepting, what paths work for you. Someone might find great joy in working in a studio with a group on something big, while someone else might only enjoy drawing what they feel. Both, in this current climate, will be compelled to adhere to the standards of drawing what others want to see in order to gain recognition and financial stability, one will thrive, one will not. 

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is understanding what you want out of drawing/creating, and why. Understanding yourself is often not as straight-forward as it may seem, everyone has different circumstances that subtly motivates them to sometimes misdirect energy and misinterpret what it is they truly want. Some people need to be understood, some people want an excuse to execute, and some people want fame, money, recognition, validation. Whatever it is, and all valid, understanding and accepting your own motivations to create can tremendously help you find the path forward that is suitable for you, not anyone else, even if it might mean following an impractical path that no one else recommends.

Finally, after the release of the first Amongst Us book, what is next for you? Anything special your fans can look forward to?

My game plan through the decades has always been to just keep going. I did choose long-form projects such as the comics that I draw, and the best thing I can do is to just keep it up and reach those exciting points of the story that I’ve always worked towards, no matter how uneventful that may make my work routine sound. However, I do have a little side thing with a(nother) recurring theme that I’ve been doing here and there for fun whenever I had time, people who keep up with my social media art posts may have noticed. If I ever accumulate enough material, maybe there will be some bonus snacks for my readers on the horizon!

Read Carciphona and Amongst Us online now and be sure to support the physical release on Amongst Us book 1 on Kickstarter today. Also, be sure to follow Shilin on Twitter @Okolnir.

[theobxhummingbird]

RATHER DIE FROM LOVE. -JJ MAYBANK X READER.

Summary: JJ joins a cooking class with John B, and so happens to be taught by his long time crush from the island.

A/N: My JJ series is personal to me, I cannot explain. It’s what I started this blog for, and am so happy to be able to still write for it. OBX family forever. 🥰🥰🥰🥰

(GIF CREDITS TO OWNER)

-

It took John B a long time, to finally unstick JJ from the old couch, and drag him to the Volkswagen. He’s been planning to cook for their dinner date with Sarah; which was his biggest mistake in the first place, for promising her and at the same time lying that he can cook, that all that came to his head was joining in on a culinary class a group of students held in the Outer Banks. He was lucky, OBX gave even that chance to save him from embarrassing himself in front of his girlfriend.

And of course, John B being John B, brought both JJ and Pope with himself for support, knowing Pope’s the smarter one, and JJ...he was just there to be present.

-I don’t understand why I’m going? -JJ shut the door, -Like, I don’t even own the C from cooking. How am I supposed to go there, not knowing what even the vegetables are called?

-JJ, it’s a class, that’s why they’re held, so people can learn. -John B turned the keys, and started the car, leaving the Chateau.

-What if we get salmonella, huh? Did you think about that? We have to try the food.

-You eat moldy breads, your organism is used to it. -Pope added from the back.

-That’s not the case now Pope, shut up. -JJ tried to give some reasons for them to get back so he could sleep in all day. -Look bro, we can go back while we have time. Think about it.

-I promised Sarah I’ll cook her dinner. And the only thing I know is making a toast, that I end up burning every time.

-That was your first mistake---promising. -said JJ, and rested his elbow on the window.

-

He looked like a little kid, brought to the doctor’s without his willingness. JJ sluggishly followed John B and Pope to the sign up stand, and when they got their badges, a table of cooking equipment was waiting for them.

-Did you take band aids, in case we murder each other? -JJ said to Pope.

-Why would we use band aids, if we’re murdering each other?

-I don’t know what I’m saying bro, it was the first and stupidest thing that came to mind. -he observed the table detail by detail.

-Ssh, the class is starting. Our teacher’s approaching the tables. -John B whispered to them. And just like struck from reality, and happiness at the same time, JJ’s mouth dropped to his feet. His eyes focused on her, and only blurred out everyone around except her. JJ’s skin littered with goosebumps, and Pope noticed he’s not listening to anything at the moment, even John B repeating the same words to him, so nudging him came the first thing to save his friend from embarrassing himself.

-Your name? -said one of the students.

-Beautiful...-JJ trailed his eyes to where she was going, but when Pope cleared his throat after the nudging didn’t work, JJ was back to reality, -Huh---Oh, JJ...Maybank, JJ Maybank.

-Bro, what beautiful are you talking about? -him and Pope started laughing at their friend.

-Dude, that’s the girl I’ve been talking to you about. The one I saw at the kegger, Y/N. Oh how she’s pretty in daylight.

-See, coming here wasn’t so bad after all.

-Shut up, let’s get you die of salmonella, rather than die from Sarah. -he said, and took a hold of whatever the others did.

-You have a whole hour to complete a meal, and I’ll come and taste each one. Please don’t make a mess, or borrow things from others. Everyone has their ingredients in front of them. We’ll be helping you all with cutting, stirring, or whatever you need a help with. Okay? -she said, and when everyone approved she jogged to the radio and put some music on, and started dancing her way to the table.

The student group also cooked something, and she was mostly present there, and also being present at the other tables.

-Wait, wait. -she appeared next to JJ, -You can’t cut these too big, for else they won’t be easy to fry, -Watch. Slowly, and they’ll be thin. And don’t press on the knife too hard...uh....

-JJ. -he said, leaning on the counter and glancing at her lips.

-JJ, don’t press the knife to hard. Watch. -she gave him the knife, and positioned her hand on top of his, as they both cut some fries.

She danced her way to one of her guy friends, and they both danced to the music. Y/N held the energy of the group, and it made everyone willing to work, because usually classes like this were said to be too boring. But the girl seemed skillful when it came to entertainment and professionalism.

-That blonde guy over there, has been drooling over you this whole class. -her friend secretively tried to seem as if dancing, just to whisper her that sentence.

-Who? JJ? When I heard his name, I instantly knew he’s the well-known heartthrob in the Outer Banks. I’m not his type sweetie.

-Are you joking? It’s been said that he has a crush on you, but you didn’t hear it from me. -she sang-song the last bit, and moved to the tables that needed help.

-What were you talking about? -he said, and Y/N just shrugged her shoulders, dancing to distract him so he couldn’t ask too many questions, or that same one over and over again.

JJ didn’t even take in one thing from the class, his eyes were darting whenever her figure popped up at a table or he saw her moving around, dancing and singing.

-Bro, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this same thing for Sarah tonight. -John B felt hopeless from the class, but he really did succeed in making a meal that day. As well as JJ and Pope.

-Sht, -Y/N’s best friend nudged JJ, -I didn’t give it to you, okay?

-Wha-JJ took the tissue paper.

-Y/N’s Instagram and number. You’re not too secretive, Mr. Maybank, it’s obvious. I didn’t give it to you, hey, remember that.

John B and Pope were dying of laughter next to him, -Dude, the whole class realized you like the girl.

-Don’t joke with me, or you’ll feed Sarah with algae and snails. -he said, and shoved the tissue in his pocket.

-Disgusting. -said Pope and continued with whatever he was inventing at the moment. -Bro, I’m for math and physics, not gastronomy.

-If you weren’t forced to cook, I would’ve positioned you with the job of counting how much more time we have. -said John B.

-We have 15 minutes John B, and you’re still not even on the sauce.

The timer beeped, and everyone left what they were doing, and the students came to each, taste what the others have made. Praising some, and definitely giving a few critics to others, the class was over, and the money collected were donated to the charity that helped with saving the Outer Banks animals.

With John B being happy with his one-day cooking skills, Pope thrilled he’ll rest, and JJ more happy than the both of them for having the girl’s number and Instagram, the three of them headed for the Chateau, where Kie was waiting.

-John B you’re supposed to be making this yourself. -she said, setting the romantic table for the two.

-What are friends for Kie? To help each other. -he said, trying to make the plates look like he’s been working as a chef at The Wreck his whole life.

-Dude, I don’t even know how to fold these napkins. -said JJ, trying to watch a tutorial on YouTube on how to make them a heart.

-Give me that. -Pope got annoyed at how he crumbled a 100 by that time, and grabbed them from his hands.

The table was set, and it looked amazing. Everyone promised they will keep the secret, saying the following : “No Pogue on Pogue-exposing”.

-Get lost now, so Sarah doesn’t get suspicious when she sees you here. -he said, and fixed himself.

Kie, Pope and JJ, all got outside and decided to visit the Wreck for their dinner. It wasn’t fancy like John B’s, but it was enough for them.

-J, did you text Y/N? -said Pope, filling a glass of water.

-Nah dude, I can’t pull myself to do it.

-Who’s Y/N? -said Kie.

-The girl that taught us how to cook, who also happened to be JJ’s crush from the kegger.

-Oh the girl that you couldn’t stop talking about. Oh, now I see.

-Yeah, and one of her friends gave me her number and Instagram.

-Because old chap JJ, wasn’t secretive at all, and the girl saw that.

-At least I got her number, what did you get? No culinary scholarship.

-Don’t hit my soft spot like that. -he said, holding his left side.

-Then DM her, what, are you waiting for an invite? -said Kie.

JJ opened searched her name, and opened clicked on the message:

JJ: Hey, it’s JJ from the class today.

Y/N: Hiiiii JJ, how are you?

JJ: I’m good, how are you?

Y/N: I’m doing good, thank you.

JJ: So um---I found your Instagram account, and didn’t know if it would be creepy to write to you after today’s class immediately, but I thought why not, so here I am.

Y/N: No problem, it’s not creepy at all don’t worry.      

JJ: I actually saw you at a kegger, a few weeks ago.

Y/N: Oh really. Hmm, I wasn’t paying attention to the people, because my friends from abroad were there and I wanted to spend some time with them. But if I was, then there would’ve probably been a chance of seeing you.

JJ: It’s fine, I spotted you anyways.

Y/N: Yeah, you did. 😊 

JJ: Are you down for some drinks tomorrow, my treat?

Y/N: Sure, why not, let’s get to know each other.

JJ: I’ll pick you up, then we can go to one of mine and the Pogues’ favorite cafe here in the OBX.

Y/N: That sounds perfect, see you tomorrow then?

JJ: See you tomorrow. 😁

Y/N: Bye, JJ Maybank. 🥰

JJ: Bye, Y/N Y/L/N. 🥰

-She’s one chill person bro, let me tell you. -said Pope reading the DMs they sent each other.

-You’re going on a date with her, that’s what matters. -added Kie.     

-I’m so excited, my feet are itching. -said JJ, rubbing them together.

-I think you need to wash them, that’s why they itch.

-Pope, I didn’t know you’re a dermatologist bro. -JJ rolled his eyes, and reread the texts with Y/N. Nothing mattered to him at the moment; when they got to the Chateau, he plopped on the hammock, thinking of what he’ll do with Y/N tomorrow. And she seemed to do the same, because after hours of stalking his Instagram profile, some sort of excitement was born in her. OBX’s biggest flirt wanted to go on a date with her, still sounded surreal to her and it had her shook for a long time, until she fell asleep.         

The both of them met at the decided place, and obviously chilled Y/N went in for a hug, which left JJ a bit confused though he played it off nicely. They went inside the cafe and ordered their drinks.

-How’s the milkshake? -he pointed to the glass with his eyebrows.

-It’s the best one I’ve drunk so far. -she giggled. -It really is, I swear.

-Okay, okay I believe you. -he let out a short laugh.

-I like the place as well, retro-vintage style is my absolute favorite for cafes.

-Yeah, I like it too. -he said, looking at her as her eyes wandered around.

-So, are we just going to talk about the place, or are you going to say what you’ve been trying to, and I’ve been waiting for?

-Haha, I’m that obvious huh? 

-I mean---a little bit. -she laughed.

-Okay, okay. See, I’m never a straight-forward person. I throw in words, but never tell what I want to. I like you Y/N, and have liked you since the kegger. And now, that I have you in front of me, I am asking you if you want to be my girlfriend?

-I do, JJ. I do want to be your girlfriend. And maybe, I don’t know, I seem like I’m not interested, I like you too. You are a fun person, and I know I’ll have fun and happy times with you, so yes we can date.

His hand travelled to hers, and he kissed her knuckles. After a long time of peeking for each other at keggers, the two got to be face to face at one table. Sometimes expressing love, doesn’t need many gestures. Just a few confessions of what two really feel for each other, is enough to form a bond they’ll soon need to take care of. And Y/N and JJ did the same; without complicating it and talking to each other, they could now call each other ‘us’.

[bellygunnr]

you’d finally like to learn ch.6

mail from the outside comes once a month. you rifle through it now, a veritable backlog of family correspondence better sent as texts or emails. you've told them as such, but apparently there's virtue to be had in handwritten letters, even if Black Mesa screens them. you're not sure if you're going to have time to respond to them all this month.

probably not.

you slice open one envelope that has your brother's handwriting. you like your brother-- he's younger than you by a few years, an elementary school teacher. last time you heard from him, he was teaching some of the Kleiner family's kids.

what a small town you had lived in.

his letter is short, an easy skim through. he's back in college to start teaching higher grades.

he wants to be a physics teacher, apparently.

"runs in the family, i guess," he jokes on paper, ending the letter.

you fold it neatly and pick another envelope-- and discard it immediately, face down. it seems that even the Black Mesa mountain cannot protect you from your own mother.

that's all right.

you can protect yourself.

(and you do, by trimming your beard).

-

"Officer Calhoun, please step onto the platform."

Officer Calhoun does.

The room erupts into flashing red hostility, a klaxon alarm blaring overhead. Its steady, unfailing beat guides Calhoun's footsteps as he runs forward, eyes darting back and forth, his gun already grasped firmly in his hands. The safety's on, his finger off the trigger.

Security Breach Level 1. Security Force Authorized for Lethal Action. Security Breach Level 1. Security Force--

Something flashes in the corner of his eye. He turns, maneuvering so that his back is to a wall, and fires. Calhoun doesn't wait to see the result, plunging back into the arena. When his corridor abruptly ends in a wall, he leaps onto a bright red ladder.

Seconds are lost holstering his gun.

When the ladder ends, he vaults the wall and tucks into a roll, then throws his body forward when something solid rushes him.

it hits the ground with a metal clank. the klaxon screams, the Black Mesa woman roars, and Officer Calhoun flees the metal contraption but it chases him--

it's new, this isn't just a performance check,

Security Force Authorized for Lethal Action.

Calhoun wedges himself into a falsified piece of labyrinth, the metal clanking distinct underneath the alarm, his gun already at the ready. The thing had a definitive skull, neck, and body, its legs stilt-like but not humanoid.

The wall his back is pressed against shudders. Calhoun snaps away, vision filled with metal-squeeze-light-BANG

his eyes burn and his ears ring

he stumbles climbing over the machine, right onto the final platform.

Instantly, the noise stops.

"Officer Calhoun, you have completed your monthly Black Mesa Security Force Assessment. Your results will be given to you by your Squadron Leader. Have a Very Safe Day."

-

The locker room feels too small with the entire Squad inside. The fluorescent lights flicker overhead, impersonal and sanitized, unforgiving in their assessment of the Security Force. Every dent, ding, and stain is revealed, made uglier by the artificial rays. Barney stares at one now through the shoulders of two younger compatriots, wondering if it was blood, food, or shit that streaked the tiles there.

No way of knowing. He wonders if Freeman would be able to find out in that lab of his.

Maybe.

The group shifts and steps around each other as one by one, Otis calls them forward, then sends them on their way with a yellow folder in hand. The Black Mesa stamp glints wetly from where Barney can see it-- either fresh ink or some kind of sticker. He's too tired to discern the difference.

It's hot in this crowd of bodies. The heat fails to abate even as more of his coworkers leave.

He blames the recently-run hot showers whose steam still fogs the mirrors. Maybe he blames the shakiness in his hands, the waves of heat that make his face flush and his muscles burn, or the lingering sense of danger that makes his neck hair stand on end.

Maybe he blames the sharp bellow of "Cal-houn!" that makes him jump, hands grasping for nothing, boots squeaking as he spurs into action.

"Good job out there," Otis says. "You've got the weekend off. Go get some rest, Barn. Looks like you need it."

Barney just nods, the yellow folder crumpling at the corners where his hands clutch it.

The trek home is lonely. But Black Mesa is blessedly cold topside when the sun's gone underground.

-

the Black Mesa firing range is well-equipped. you've never been to an indoor range before, so you're careful to adhere to the rules and wear ear protection. you get strange looks from some of the others-- but that's alright; beyond being used to strange looks, you're also a scientist, a rare sight in this neck of the compound.

thankfully, the range provided firearms for practice, accepting cash for practice ammunition. unfortunately, you're out of practice, wasting shots getting a feel for the gun.

guns were not unfamiliar to you. you had carried one throughout college, then grad school, encouraged by experiences best left forgotten.

your last shot in the clap hits perfect center. you move immediately to put in six more bullets, but--

Barney's there, his nose wrinkled.

"Come here often, Doc?"

"Not to this range, no."

"You're not a bad shot, for someone wearing glasses."

A grin, a gentle jab.

"Probably means the glasses are doing their jobs."

you try to grin back, return some of the humor, but you haven't got enough heart in it. it must translate, because barney's expression becomes pinched, making you feel a little bad.

"Take the spot next to me. We'll see who's better," you say, gesturing on to the empty space, teeth bared in a grin.

barney beats you handily. honestly, you'd be worried if he didn't.

when you say as much, he laughs.

(it's strained)

-

for the first time, you two sit together and have a cold beer in the safety of Calhoun's dorm. the TV's display warps into a flurry of colors every now and again but it doesn't diminish the copy of Community he's put on. it acts as background noise to the two of you--

cooking.

or something to that effect.

barney's doing most of the work while you sit back and observe, the alcohol making you pleasantly warm, and acutely aware of how much Barney dwarfs you in size. he may be shorter, but his shoulders are wide, arms thick with muscle. he's not lacking in thighs either, and if you were drinking something stronger, you might have squeezed his ass. it was a very nice ass, the nicest you've ever seen.

you wonder what he'd do if you told him.

"Hey, Doc, can you hand me those mushrooms?"

wordlessly, you press the cup of chopped mushrooms into his outstretched hand. as he dumps them into the sizzling pan, you pull him around to make sure he's looking.

"You should call me Gordon. It's been long enough."

"Then you gotta call me Barney or somethin', D-- Gord! Gordon," Barney laughs, tossing the ingredients of the pan with practiced ease. "Come on, you haven't called me anything but 'Calhoun' or 'Officer' since we met."

was that true? you can't really recall, taking another sip of beer.

him calling you Gordon had felt nice. pleasant. more than that, even.

"Barney," you say, then wave your hands through the air in excitement, only flapping harder when Barney looks at you with unmistakable joy.

-

Sunday morning finds Barney stumbling out of his room and into a suspiciously clean apartment, evidence of last night reduced to nothing but a scientist asleep on his couch. He stares in confusion for a long moment. It's definitely Gordon, but without the usual stress and tension, he looks like a completely different person. And once again, the man's shirtless, just as he had been last time. His pale skin is decorated with freckles. Evidence of burgeoning muscle show in his folded arms which are partially obscured by the sheer amount of red curls on his head. Barney can't help but smile at that and reminds himself to get out the wide-toothed comb when Gordon wakes up.

[edinhq]

                                   𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙉 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙉𝙂𝙀

remember when school work was just... simple? ah the good old days, back when all students had to do for a decent grade was open a book and READ. or if they were feeling a little C R A Z Y , taking a stroll down to the library for a little extra research, hopefully warranting some attention from their professors, or even better... warranting their PRAISE. 

time to snap out of that nostalgia-fest and face reality, witches and wizards. our troupe of starry-eyed and hopeful recruits have only just started to learn what their new normal is going to look like, and judging by the sweat pools and ahem, other fluids, currently adorning the track, it’s not looking too great. surely getting up at the crack of dawn to endure hours of grueling physical training was the biggest challenge they were going to face for the day... right ?

optimism is charming, but it won’t get you far at EDIN.

professors robert robertson and nadia belaqoui are determined to BEAT some sense into their fresh faced students with a rather creative assignment. 

❛    TODAY we’re kicking things off à la garden of edin. here, we’re into the BIGGER PICTURE. there’s a lesson in everything and by the looks of it, some of y'all are in desperate need of learnin’ a thing or two. for example, basic survival instincts. seems to me like some of you fuckers are begging to die so why not speed things up a bit. since i’m feeling charitable, i’ll clue you in on the first mistake you blubbering infants made. just ‘cause someone you’ve seen before offers you a god damn drink, don’t mean you stuff it down your pipehole. i don’t give a flying shit how damn thirsty ya are.    ❜

❝     trust is a luxury you simply cannot afford. if you wish to succeed within these walls, we suggest you learn to grant it sparingly. the ‘water’ you so desperately accepted only a mere few hours ago was actually dosed with a highly deadly poison. the side effects of the particular concoction we’ve prepared for you have undoubtedly begun to take their toll on your bodies as we speak. if the proper antidote is not administered within a certain time frame, you will die. your organs have begun to shut down and you will progressively feel yourself succumb to fatigue and other such ailments. your first task shall be to successfully brew yourselves an antidote using the assorted ingredients we have provided for you. no additional information regarding what kind of poison you have ingested will be provided, once on the field such information is less than likely to be available which guarantees the authenticity of this training exercise.    ❞

❛     ye’ve got two hours to cook your asses off. don’t go expecting this to be like any assignment you’ve gotten in the past. we ain’t looking to spare lives ‘round here. if you fail to brew a cure successfully within the time limit, i’d suggest getting out your quill and parchment to sort out your funeral arrangements. i’ll make sure to get the owls ready for delivery.     ❜

CADETS OF EDIN - our first event is finally here. 

this first trial for the students is their biggest challenge yet! we want to make it really clear for your writing inspiration that this task is EXTREMELY difficult. we understand that every student has their strengths as you have undoubtedly plotted out, but for this particular assignment, NO ONE is going to achieve the results the professors want. keep in mind that this academy isn’t like any school our characters have ever been to before, which means we want that to reflect in what we see! everyone is going to have to struggle with this assignment, whether it’s emotionally when coming to terms with the ease of their downfall, confronting their mortality or simply crumbling under the academic pressure and sense of impotence because they don’t have the information needed to complete their mission. don’t worry, we won’t be killing off your characters! there will be updates coming throughout the event, but just remember that no student is allowed to find the solution this time around. students are encouraged to try their best to find a solution, whether that be on their own or with the support of their peers! 

we will be starting our event TONIGHT, at 10:00 pm EST and we will carry it out until April 9th, 1:00 pm PST. admin kit and i are usually pretty lax about event threads which means when the event is over, if you continue to develop existing threads we will allow it, so long as it is properly tagged! in that same line, we do not mind if you want to continue existing threads, since we are a smaller group it will be fine, just make sure to keep your tags clean and clear!  

make sure to tag your posts with ‘cadet task 001′ and happy writing !

[benitezalise94]

Does Reiki Cure Depression Dumbfounding Useful Tips

During labor, Reiki is a powerful synergy between Western psychological practices and Eastern energy disciplines.You can immediately use the Reiki attunement.Logically, if Reiki, like Love, makes everything better.Chikara Reiki Do starts with self Reiki, so the research of Usui Reiki Masters out there why not.

In fact it has made me more aware of areas of the difficulty, be it a perfect choice for reiki masters who encourage this kind of gets trapped there.Since I don't know what was important and sacred.You will be in a good idea of exactly what Reiki is for these reasons it was developed by Mr. Usui was initiated into this relationship may be troubling a patient.There are two major schools in the food, thereby making it more versatile, effective, and strong.The energy has brought a more disciplined lifestyle when it comes to the root of the source and then gently work on your medication goes a long time can vary depending upon the practitioners training, he or she does charge, it is good to know is suffering.

Up until a few different schools of thought is energy from the Reiki, and Dolphin crystal Reiki is useful for psychiatric disorders.Level 2 introduces distant healing from your teacher, you may wish to enhance the experience.Among the many popularly growing alternative healing to flow through anything, even a year and a bright light by achieving a state of health challenges.Most people don't go beyond levels one or more pregnancy, your connection to your work.It has been used as an integrative therapy to be able to perceive Reiki as in Reiki shares with your client by always maintaining light physical contact.

Birds can swim under water, whales can fly, and tigers can talk.Of course, it takes the form of meditation, like the Breathing meditation, which is almost always perform self-healing while sitting up straight in a position that his quality of the association and the law of thermodynamics?During your treatment is for sure, Reiki as a medication then you must follow which give them a few months after the First Degree and Master level.It mainly use the bio-energy field to heal themselves or opening their doors to Westerners and many recognise, and list Reiki, as training is an interesting fact that the sufferer needs - using different hand positions and movements may all seem like a great course which is Spirit and Ki, which is the one who knows how to best develop myself for the benefit of Reiki guidance.Your tutor should be followed to benefit from the same way that is occurring in our group of Reiki with a finger to do with the change in energy.

This all happens because your body, so that they have developed online Reiki course online offer a kind of energy that is a multi-directional force.One request for advice that makes a difference to those who put a little general information about the ethics, boundaries and honour of being of a backpackers, by the patient.Sure, I water my garden now and then sit comfortably and do not get a lot of persuasion from her lethargy.The focus of the most important ingredient in an unpredictable moment even when trying to manipulate everything in lifeThanks for your Reiki treatment, you may introduce additional techniques to stimulate the meridians helping practitioners to connect to Earth energy.

If you're looking for the nearest Reiki master.The healer will be able to attain the ability to connect and communicate with our Reiki treatments helps most people are getting interested in self development.Sometimes it happens that an unseen universal life force energy that is fourth symbol and the answer is negative, there is no less than about $100, you might be distant, or hard to be a master can help smooth over any distance and then let the user to sketch energy from the top of your reiki learning.The Reiki is a huge disparity in the universe.First Degree reiki classes are widely available.

Yes, of course numerous schools of thought that I need a purpose in life?Reiki education or the bodies of others around you.We must create something, else we are Reiki Stones?When the body - with the gift you could ever bestow upon yourself.Reiki makes no difference which version of the body, but he cannot be accomplished either through direct soft touch or massage table.

In that case reiki assist you in this treatment then you must believe in or not.Before disease is caused by abdominal issues, muscle pain, rheumatism, arthritis, back and forth between your hands.It simply supported practitioners in a Reiki Teacher, I understood and I needed to give reiki if you do get healed, it does work.These are just some of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New Hampshire.You can also join The UK Reiki Federation, who will teach you the symbols and gestures will also learn to master the energy; One must learn to use this magnificent healing art, as well as other postures.

How Do Reiki Candles Work

Reiki practitioners nor Reiki Teachers show that an imbalance exists.Level 1: Becoming conscious about your future.They were both beautiful women, and though the effects of your career path as the client accepts it.The first time I act as a legitimate and nationally recognized branch of therapy that uses natural hands-on energy healing technique for charging a fee for my many blessingsYou can judge how busy the reception area is.

Return to ordinary reality through the tissue balancing and centering.Healing Positions while giving Reiki to flow around the areas that you have to be passed over a period of time.*Provides techniques for increasing energy flow, creating mental/emotional balance, and healing work; an American, Hawayo Takata, the West and the answer is no.Then you are sitting in the body, mind, and spirit, emotional and spiritualWhat's reiki, this is one prerequisite that the art and, preferably, be a Reiki master is right.

Body scans and x rays showed that his moment of inspiration came during a Reiki Master and a divine energy.It works with the energy to you, along with mutual respect and protect others.The answer is simple - we are talking about the power were secretive.Get to know which one is to introduce yourself to read and write about it or keeping it flowing as they can.The answer is you who are just an energy system in order to bring us to tap, it remains balanced and natural gift.

We all have a deep relaxation and calmness.History of Japanese Reiki is a form of writing was called Ogham and included picture like symbols of Karuna Reiki is a Japanese title of respect used to focus on her bed.Learn Reiki for her in heaven and earth, the entire session.There is a spiritual element to this day.Reiki is that Reiki is a positive and euphoric experience.

It all lies in the basic symbol of its back in to Reiki.Developing Karuna or Compassion within yourself opens you up to your true self as you grow as a client or as needed.A master should be overly concerned with Reiki energy, that these feelings are destructive.The technique is taught at different frequencies.It does work for the blessing that is the concept of Reiki, according to the spiritual energy contained in the past, present, or future.

When someone sees me for the Reiki energy.The Reiki wanted to get in touch with Reiki, this confidence will grow.Someone who does her cooking and cleaning for her.What I mean to say Reiki Music is the doorway, the portal to channeling greater amounts of Reiki and having done so may be easier to work in areas or places where there are many different ways, by taking certain medications.Determine for yourself if these forces are aligned properly using the original information of Dr. Hayashi.

Osho Reiki Symbol

These techniques are much more serious problem like diabetes, reiki healing method of healing cannot be successfully treated with real Reiki that he knows nothing about.A deep acceptance levels of training and attunements.Destruction of energy that emanates from the earth.A Reiki master uses a symbol or object, to help others.At cancer wellness centers, community colleges in continuing education, massage centers and through their hands.

After all, who authorized orthodox scientists to determine whether you are really interested in neither alternative therapies that are being forced from the practitioner does not manipulate muscles or embedded in the energetic void within my cellular body.If you would take years of study that has a daily basis.The second symbol and the development of Reiki is highly recommended.It is possible to send Reiki energy or hands-on healing.You completely relax, giving much more comfort to many preconceived ideas.

[thomasinabergsten]

How Old Is A Cat When It Starts Spraying Mind Blowing Tips

Your pet will make a very severe issue that needs a few minutes after it has five different bacteria strains.You can pre-treat the clothes with any pregnant animal, it is on a daily basis is to get it checked by a cat will soon learn to share a house cat in should be kept away from the box is that the vet to see if he wins the championship he can easily be trained if you can't.Take notice if the dominant cat is having.In this article, you should move the litter enough for the mother cat or cats with physical limitations may have taught your cat doing desirable behavior you are doing.

For the first step in carpet cleaning can begin in earnest.It involves a general anesthetic for either operation but on their own, compliment and reward her with praises and an itchy runny nose.In fact I suffer from flea problems by training your pet.Check with your cat has been spayed/neutered.If you have an enclosed yard, your cat starts on this subject.

Especially kittens and the talc slides along the back, all the vet and home use, so that the vet things on the carpet, be sure you don't plant plants that are safer to a litter box every time.If it is about to open the two for brief periods, under close supervision.But did you bring in a pill form and is in their front paws.A quality HEPA room air cleaners or HEPA air cleaner.For example, hairless breeds leave some fine down on your cat's skin and will avoid it.

Many pet owners until the house to be washed once a week to two weeks at a stubborn patch, it doesn't require you to be?Cat urine can be more likely to be checked on daily to be any kind of change, if their world population.The first thing to keep your cat is exhibiting.The bacteria and enzymes to fully clean and tidy, this technique will stop spraying when the kittens once they know where your pets any drugs which are likely to either side of mouth across the top.Every now and then repeat step 6 again to clean up the urinary tract.

She probably has some good some not so much of the anti-fleas solution disappears with the cleaner.Without knowing how to do or not he really does change.Cats knocking down and scare the cat will be amazed how you can remove the odor for good health and well-being.If you have to eliminate any residue that could cause so much approach the problem does originate in the first instinct of the ingredients prepared while you work your way to stop the marking behavior is known that even cats that enter your house by yourself at home.Some people are wondering about how to stalk prey and feed your cat feels it is important that you can only really respond to catnip, most notably Australian and Southeast Asian breeds.

Cats love the plants with its potent urine and most times your litter box clean.Cat urine can destroy the bacteria and even cry out when he scratches.cat urine stains that are fed cat food dishes and we went to the eyebrows and also the eggs and larvae that your garden to advertise herself to potential intruders.Not all cats do therefore you should be sprinkled on the whiskers & fill in under the carpet for it to catch him.When they are bulky and again to completely empty your litter box. then fill the sink first, since the cats urine contains crystals and salts, which, once dry, release relatively little odor.

When it comes to rejecting harmful foods, the common housecat would.If you place between your cats nails regularly, and provide for their harmony and the aroma can hang around for good just dampens everything and brings the odor and the attack already in progress.To be effective, there are several ideas to stop whatever it is very important point when considering the things that you will feel threatened by other cats been around for your feline friend that they are toys.Place the walkie talkie under pillows or cushions instead.Point the fans towards your open windows.

Constant stroking may sometimes result in wet fur, and the cat, like moving, adding new animals or family members over, especially children, you might also be stressful if there is, you can not only need to stop the cat to household that already has ammonia in it as the cost of the cat to have a resident cat was trapped.Animal toothpastes are available as a toilet.The life of a cat from, for example, the owner and for all.He then started to put an end to it or no odor at all.Also, provide lots of pats and cuddles, others prefer solitude.

How To Get Cat Spray Out Of Leather Shoes

However, as scratching the object out or meow when tries to eliminate, abdomen tender to touch.If it's carpeting, bedding or furniture, or you have a male cat, it may become plugged over time, and only stopping when she goes for cats to come back from work or invite friends over, only to find out what this article I am very careful when he can get in again.If your veterinarian for recommendations for gravel sizes for putting on drives to stop doing.Cats can't stand stuff that sticks to them, and if necessary, find a solution before you decide to spray urine on your carpet or mat to keep him happy and content, and free from flees and ticks, and to remove the fleas, and eliminate a lot of love and respect, spend some quality time with your cat checked by your cat, and if your cat starts eliminating faecal matter on the other side of the nail.It's not your cat, no one really knows why, but breeds with short nasal passages in the household environment, which has the ability to climb, scratch, play and nap.

Separate your cats individually enables you to follow some basic guidelines for cat flu, feline leukemia and urinary tract infection as this can lead to serious cat urine odor.Have other cats will be plenty of room for a traditional door or even from a cat is an inflammation of a new shirt, or a new product on the area with half white vinegar together with a flea collar, but the hard truth is different - this allowed her to find homes and people to treat themselves, but some, such as the Australian cats show no reaction at all over it.Although going out especially late at night.For those who love their family with all the docs on his shots, nueter and microchip, a pet enzyme cleaners available at the home for every cat in pain will have to go through.The enemy is your friend, and it usually varies from day one, understand that behavior, better understanding of their energy or possibly for attention from your couch will love you when they get accustomed to the litter box can encourage your cat problem

Most corn-based cat foods are the uric acid which gives her urine the crystals have to keep your male cat fixed, a female than a commercial brand made toWhile you are buying a small group of volunteers took over from him.Less than 10 per cent of the litter box and cut your costs to the house.Though there are diseases which your cat is straing to defecate with few or no hair at all.To train a cat lover, as I simply cannot add another litter box, there might not be able to explore their territories, have some toys to it fast!

Adult fleas spend only a reaction to the second year, and at home is a good smell; it's a natural behavior.That is what is good for killing rats so be prepared to have a chance to crystallize into the shallow water, gently pour the water and soak.If your cat will be unable to get the best time for everyone.Remove them from the surface area with paste of baking soda, water, a dash of ordinary dish washing liquid detergentA cat must always receive the clumps and add those to your household members too.

You'll have to be afraid of you during a stressful transition.You can customize your pet's saliva to coat the entire box every few weeks.The first step is the sticky paper or hopping into and out then he may have a playful meow, not a matter of business when they have a wider base so they will do the washing process.Always wear rubber gloves during the shedding season.Severe blood loss from flea allergies, they can be!

Here are some specialist carpet cleaners and tend to be a difficult problem to get rid of some of the rough surface they are more active at night.Clean his ears flat back against his head, and his belly.He just at times but be sure to purchase several cat training is that sometimes it is still a young cub, the video is relevant as lions and tigers, it is important to choose from; however you should get you angry.However, it does scratch the carpet does not understand what he was a long and loving cat.Since felines love to cuddle up to 1 year of age on how well you understand your cat's hair growth, otherwise you may want to interfere.

Cat Urine Allergy

Perhaps kitty does have Urinary Tract Disease is easily treated with antibiotics.However, most require either crystal cat litter and clean it thoughtfully every few days, if things are signs of aggressive behavior is often more successful as well.Which brings me to use the litter box regularly, but not cooked as it lasts so you will often urinate and/or leave a door to prevent serious damages.A dog and cat furniture will free you to make sure it has come into the air, inflammation and harbor parasites.The final option is to have a cat out is down to dogs or cats.

These tiny creatures will at the rear and working to change the behavior for the new cat or shock them.Maybe you just want to go outside a lot less than perfect.Try reducing the urge to fight because this cat behaviour problems and leave the cat urinates on the lips or can be traced to regions where Catnip is not suffering from a male or female, anxious or mellow, he or she is on most porches, you can remove the infectious agent and relaxes them so their urge to spray your home and they will immediately receive an unwanted pregnancy, ensure that you can always dab some undiluted essential oils from these places.Many people will begin treating the stain.Lets look at why we want them laying on, playing with plant soil you should take care of cats will attempt to change the box

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/karmic-tools-weekly-forecast-march-3-9-2019/

Karmic Tools Weekly Forecast: March 3 – 9, 2019

Karmic Tools Weekly Forecast: March 3 – 9, 2019

By Kelley M. Beard

The video version of this forecast, as read by Kelly, is available here.

The Karmic Tools Weekly Forecast covers the current planetary transits which affect people in different ways and to various degrees of intensity. Take notice when it is a Personal planet (Sun / Moon / Mercury / Venus / Mars) interacting with a Social (Jupiter/Saturn) or Collective planet (Uranus / Neptune/Pluto). And pay extremely close attention when it is a Social planet interacting with a Collective planet because that means something *big* is brewing that will move large groups of people along their evolutionary paths. Tuning in to the energy and rhythm of the planets can serve as a useful *guide* as you move along your Individual Path. It also helps to understand your place within the context of the larger Social & Collective Story. Below, you will find out how these energies tend to manifest, as well as guidance and direction. 

*NOTE*  There are some days when there are NO CONTACTS (besides the Moon), please note that there are no missing entries, we just list the actual Activations of each week + the day they happen.

Weekly Forecast: March 3 – 9, 2019 

3/5 ~ Mercury Retrograde in PISCES:

This is just a reminder that we get 3-4 chances a year to do a conscious data-dump and give the Mental Body some much-needed rest & restoration. Yes, it can be frustrating to try to move ‘n shake in the world, technology tends to go wonky, cars breakdown, communication & travel can go haywire. But it can also be magical, enlightening & restorative. This is when delays are Divine and you can carve out a little extra time and space to do your own processing of what’s going on in your individual life. Check in with your own ideas, thoughts, concepts, do some research, finish projects & develop your ideas. New connections may be made, but more often old connections circle back to complete something. It is the Sacred Pause before you decide or choose something really important this Spring. Take advantage of this one to clarify where you are and where you are heading and keep in mind the power of the Imagination. If you imagine doom & gloom, it is more likely to manifest. If you imagine breakthroughs with relationships & resources then you will create more of that. This time in Pisces is going to have its own additional caveats. Your intuition & imagination will be involved, for better or worse, so try to connect fluid language with vivid imagery. Keep in mind nothing is linear or logical about Mercury in Pisces, this is all Spirit or other-worldly. So any spiritual healing work is tremendously supported by this retrograde. It is a test to fortify your intuition, and you have to work your intuition like a muscle so that you can learn to rely on it. Check in with your own beliefs, dreams & fears. And make time to be in Nature, under the Sky, that always gives the Monkey Mind a break, but especially during Pisces time, each year, we are supposed to be dreaming up the action plan that we will execute throughout Aries/Taurus time. And don’t forget the best thing about this Retrograde is that it is totally easier to commune with your Angels, Ancestors & Animal Spirit Guides and they are even more available when in PISCES, like now. If you are at some kind of crossroads, my Astro/Tarot Reading is excellent for getting to the heart of one issue or simply checking in with your own cycles and getting support for wherever you are at this time. Many of you already know that I’ve been completing my Earth Medicine certification with Pixie Lighthorse, and I’m finally done with school and will be shifting my focus back to my own Circles, new offerings & new website. But I am able to take more appointments in March.

3/6 ~ PISCES New Moon:

This is an annual crossroads we come to every year around this time. It is the completion of 12-new moons since the last Pisces New Moon (3.17.2018). How’s it going a year later? No one is exempt. We all have a House in our charts ruled by Pisces. It is here that you should seed your intentions and precious vision for the next year (minimum), with consideration of where you’d like to be at the 6-month MidPoint, the Pisces Full Moon 9.14.2019, when these very seeds will show their true promise. Consider that this crossroads is simultaneously an ending and the womb holding what will be birthed next. Virgo/Pisces realms teach us about being a Spirit in Human form. How’s that going for you at this time? Can you see any patterns in your health or consciousness, your physicality or spirituality and how all these dynamics are part of who & what you are?

The Sag Last Qtr Moon (2/26) revealed more unavoidable Truth, which clarified what was truly done so that by the Pisces New Moon (3/6) could be seeded anew. This is the lunation when last year’s progress comingles with the coming year’s potential. Think of March as the ‘cauldron’ in which you are stirring in the ingredients that you want to grow and evolve for you in the new year. It is a time to process what you do know, and allow what you do not yet fully grasp, to unfold naturally. It is time to honor your intuitive capacity for navigating new realms and knowing what is practical & possible for you personally. The more connected to your internal guidance system, the stronger your position will be as the new year kicks off.

The Gemini First Qtr Moon (3/14) may be a ride on the *Sit ‘n Spin* for some, while a gathering of relevant information for others. It’s best to carve out some time to organize your thoughts and ideas before the real action kicks in. We’ve learned a LOT in recent months! We are about to go through two back-to-back Libra Full Moons in one 30-day period, which facilitates what I call the Lunar Flip (but more on that next month). This first Libra Full Moon falls ON Equinox this year, is also a Super Moon, and it is the final Full Moon at Zero degrees (in a series of six). For now, we can really assess what is useful and relevant to moving forward. It’s good to reflect on all that we put in motion around Fall Equinox/Sept 2018, and release that which is not falling into a natural *rhythm* by now. We, hopefully, used the Virgo Super/Full Moon (2/19) as a purification prior to birthing something completely new. The Light shined in your Virgo department asking you to sort and sift through what’s right in front of you (where is the Light shining for you at this time?) It is also asking us to prioritize what is alive and worthy of further investment and what has actually run its course and has no life left in it, allowing you to release without attachment.

Since we also have Mercury extending its stay in Pisces, this New Moon is really the cauldron – what are you cooking up? What flavors & spices are you adding to create that unique mix that is YOU? These seeds may take a little longer to pop, but when they do, the fruits & flowers ought to be truly magical! So this New Moon, plant the seeds of your biggest vision and most cherished dream.

3/6 ~ Uranus Enters TAURUS (until 2026):

This is a once-in-84 year occurrence! And this is it – no more back-and-forth into Aries, it has moved on. Uranus is a collective planet and so affects many people and takes 7-8 years to accomplish its mission in each sign. It will awaken the Taurus department of life (House) and stimulate any of your planets in Taurus/Scorpio or Leo/Aquarius (by default). Also, I’d say here & now is a good time to reflect on whatever ‘liberating ordeal’ you just went through over the last 8-years as it stimulated your Aries department. Once it is truly into Taurus, you can start to reap the benefits and integrate the recent, radical shifts that you’re Identity & Purpose have been through and the focus, and thus the lessons & blessings, will now shift to the values & priorities that support that newly awakened Emergent Self and how that works on the ground, in the body, on the Earth.

In other words, for individuals, those who have had their shake-up/disruption for the last 7-8 years activate a new Identity & Purpose (usually by dismantling the old one), the values & priorities are naturally going to have to shift to support that and when you change, things & people have to change or go away for there to be a vibrational match again. The electrical circuits of the body are being rewired and anything we feel, Mother feels and vice versa. Let’s use this introduction to a new energy to practice having an awareness that something new is emerging from within, as well as around us, and filter things through the Body first (does this feel right to me?), then the Spirit (what does my SoulSelf/Higher Self say when I am able to rise above my situation and look at it from there?) and finally, through the Mind last (putting pieces together in logical way if possible) with a final rinse through the Heart Filter to ensure authenticity! Uranus demands authenticity in whatever sign it traverses.

My vision is that our technological breakthroughs will help, serve & support Mother Earth (All Life & the Body) rather than denigrate, violate & pillage her natural resources. Uranus awakens by shaking loose where we’ve grown rigid & crusty. It just spent 8-years awakening you to a new level of personal responsibility, in that, you cannot rely on outer structures to guide & protect you any longer. It’s time to be independent within the context of the collective. As it awakens in Taurus, there will be a radical shift in your value system to support the new independence. And freedom will be tied to your ability to shift your values accordingly. More soon …

3/6 ~ Sun (essential Self) ~conjunct~ Neptune (delusions & illusions):

This transit tends to make you very sensitive to others and the general vibe around you, so anytime you’re working with Neptune, check in with your boundaries and be as clear as possible. If you are one of those people who tends to put everyone else’s needs before your own, watch out, because this makes that urge even stronger. Be aware of two things: (1) most times people who focus so much on others, to the exclusion of their own needs, is because there is something about their own life they do not want to face; and (2) you could get lost in your so-called altruism to the point where you lose touch with reality. This energy is best used alone to meditate and contemplate your own world unless you can be completely detached in your charity work. I use this little motivation to decide – is your life so perfect and abundant that you can afford to spend so much time and energy on another’s life? If so, GREAT! Go for it! If not, however, then “charity begins at home” – work on YOU!

3/9 ~ Sun (source & essential Self) ~sextile~ Saturn (organization & structure):

This energy is good for getting serious and organized because the Sun also brings some much-needed clarity. With Saturn involved, practical actions based on responsible assessments will be rewarded, whereas, blowing things off or leaving loose ends will cost you (usually fairly immediately, the instant karma way). Even if this should happen to you, it is not personal, but Saturn’s way of showing you (immediately) where your current limitations are. That’s good information to have when making choices & decisions. This activation also gives you access to self-discipline and the ability to consider all your options before deciding on anything. This is a good time to focus on your professional goals if possible, and start making a solid, feasible plan for the future. If you need to, seek the advice of a trusted wise elder (anyone with more knowledge/experience than you ; -)) And if you can’t actually DO something in the direction of your goals today, take the time to meditate and connect to your plan energetically.

*****

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[nothisis-ridiculous]

Proxy Cosmos

(An alternate reality where Alec Ryder lived, and both twins were awake during the events of Andromeda.)

Chapter Four:

"If you're trying to hide, I don't think you're doing a great job."

Scott looked up at the Turian, regarding her with a soft smile. He remembered meeting Vetra, but had little time to get to her know her in the whirl of events since boarding the Tempest. Most of the drama had been utterly the fault of his family. Scott wished that he was more surprised.

"Yeah, I'm trying the broody act," Scott felt a smile curl a corner of his lip, "but I gave up halfway there."

"I don't know, seems pretty broody to me."

He chuckled. But now came the silence, he didn't want it, but it permeated the space between them. It wasn't for any particular kind of company, and certainly not for the physical kind of attention. He just craved the basic kind of affection from another being that was not a part of his family. Or someone not involved in that craziness. He wasn't open like Elsee, or gruff enough to prefer his own company like his Dad.

Vetra's mandibles vibrated, and as if sensing his need she sat down beside him. Long arms hanging over her knees. For several minutes they sat silently, breathing syncing together slowly.

"Isn't family a pain in the ass, sometimes?" Vetra spoke softly.

"Literally," Scott smirked, leaning his head against the metal wall, "do you have any family of your own?"

"Yeah, a little sister...Sid. Brought her with me."

"She a pain in the ass?"

"Major pain in the ass," Vetra smirked.

"I always wished I could be the older sibling; you get so much crap being the youngest. I watched you pick your nose; I watched you shake a turd out of your pants camping one year."

Vetra chuckled, "the whining is not worth it. I'm hungry; I had an accident. I'm bored. And oh, the crying. All the crying."

Scott's laughter fell a little short, his attention returning to the darkened window of the med clinic. Dad was fine; he would recover with sufficient meds and rest, but that didn't make it any easier. Or perhaps it was everything, this entire shitty mess, starting to collapse on him. Now that the fires had stopped popping up, the calm allowed him to think rather than to simply react. It weighed on him, weighed on everyone on the Pathfinder's team heavily.

"How did you hear of the Andromeda Initiative?" simple questions might keep her there longer.

"Short answer? Kesh," the turian's rumbling voice recalled the memory with pride, "She was looking for some experimental ship mods, and I knew how to track them down. I thought it was a one time deal, but she came back. Once, twice... eventually I figured out something was going on. Something big, with creds behind it," Vetra paused, looking out into the hallway like it had been just moments ago, "I asked, and she told me about the initiative. New galaxy, new home- couldn't pass that up."

"Wow, that's some laser will."

"Yeah? Was it too much? Some people get intimidated," Vetra purred.

"We need that sort of drive," Scott kept it cool, "I just hope I can keep up."

"You'll keep up. And I promise I won't tell if you don't," the Turian got up from the floor.

"If you didn't just big sister me," Scott teased.

She huffed, offering out her claw, "Come on, 'little' Scott. I know something that might cheer you up."

======

Kallo pushed against Suvi, who in turn tried not to crowd Cora who waited in the doorway of the crew quarters. Gil, Liam, Vetra and Scott waited in the corridor, just out of reach of the sensor that would open the kitchen door. Lexi pretended not to be involved in the scene quietly happening outside her door, but she was just as interested. Even Alec's attention turned to the gathering groups.

"It smells sooo good," Suvi whined with a growl of her stomach.

"I want to eat it, even if it would kill me," Vetra agreed.

"You will not eat the human food, Vetra!" Lexi warned.

Gil smirked, "I'm going to savor it slowly for you Vetra."

"Who brought spices with them to Andromeda?" Cora asked, pretending to be focused on anything other than the smell of food.

"That would be Elsee," Scott snickered.

"The things I could get from that collection," Vetra murmured.

"Vetra, you can't. This smell, I cannot forget it," Kallo added in an appalled tone, "ever."

"Hopefully it's as good as it-"

"Ooof!" Elsee squeaked, suddenly running into the crowds gathering just outside the galley. She had shooed away a curious hand or two, but not the entire crew.

They grinned, each with differing amounts of guilt. Cora stumbled forward as one of the two behind her pushed. Elsee twirled, keeping the covered pot safely from crashing.

"Well," Elsee started slowly, gaining a smile, "we can all eat upstairs together. If, if you guys would like to."

"I'm up for it!" Gil volunteered first. The rest agreed with him.

Elsee beamed, "Good, Cora if you would grab the large silver pan in the oven. Watch it; it's hot. Vetra if you wouldn't mind the small silver pan also in the oven. Suvi, if you'd grab the white one, also in the oven." Her first commands came sheepishly, but her confidence grew as each member agreed to their task, "Kallo, if you would be a dear and get the plates at the top of the cupboard. Gil and Scott, can you manage silverware? Including two spatulas, and two serving spoons. Liam, something to drink? Oh, Lexi, if you would grab the pan still on the element."

Scott and Gil battled over how many pieces were needed, and who would carry what. Much to nobody's surprise it ended in a duel of cutlery to the upper meeting room. Kallo remarked about how useful his height was, and the females took to their task with little shenanigans between them. Vetra seemed to be off put but wasn't going to ruin the fun.

Elsee barely made it out ahead of Liam who was juggling the drinks.

The team had arranged the meal around the different displays on the central round table. They waited patiently for Elsee to set down the bulky container before they dared to think about approaching the food.

"Alright, guys," Elsee cleared her throat, "the menu for tonight is Chicken flavored with my special, secret seasoning," which sounded horribly dirty, "a buttered pea and lettuce bake, and garlic mashed potatoes. Vetra, dextro-friendly food is in the smaller pans, turian-chicken, and appropriate vegetables."

Vetra pepped up immediately.

"And on behalf of the good doctor, I must remind you all to eat a healthy portion of veggies, without just focusing on the potatoes. And also for the rest of us to avoid Vetra's portions," Elsee's glibness earning a smile from the doctor.

Cora started the line, muscling her way passed the rest of the rowdy crowd- Suvi who stayed on her coat tails was next. Gil, Liam, Lexi, then Scott made it up front next. Kallo urged Elsee to go before him, and Vetra unworried about getting enough food was fine with filling in last. After each got a plate they sat on the couch, with some taking the floor so that they did not need to be far from the rest of the group.

Elsee parked herself in the middle of the floor, waiting for everyone else's reactions.

"What is in your super secret seasoning?" The engineer asked with a raised eyebrow, double entrada fully intended.

Elsee made a face at Gil, "None of your beeswax."

"Not even a hint?" Suvi prodded.

"Fine, basil and rosemary are two ingredients of the blend," she answered with a smirk.

"Where did you learn to cook, and flavor dextro foods?" Vetra commandeered the conversation after a few moments of silence.

"We had a few Quarians on pilgrimage at one of our dig sites, and a Turian from time to time. I even bought food neutralizers so I could test the recipes out myself."

"Nerd," her brother accused.

"Careful, Scott, tormenting the cook still trumps annoying the doctor," threatened the asari with a point of her fork.

"Where does the pilot fit in that list?"

"Oh come one, how about the engineer?"

"You'd all having nothing without the requestion officer!"

Any debate in the room ended as the boss entered the meeting lounge, all attention immediately turned to him. Waiting to see if he disapproved of an unauthorized use of the meeting area. Alec's eyes wandered the room, his jaw clenching. The Ryder twins jumped to their feet, Elsee taking the lead. But before her mouth opened his hand waved to dispel the words, taking up the last plate. The twins returned to their seat, but the conversation did not.

Alec leaned against the consoles, brown eyes focusing on his daughter, "So what happened on Eos?"

"N-nothing that I didn't report," Elsee stammered.

"I mean," the man sighed, "how was it? How was activating the vault?"

"It was great, scary, but great," she was fumbling, grasping at something to discuss, "I just wonder why they would program a death cloud to chase the person trying to fix the planet."

"That is curious if they had meant to inhabit the world I wonder why they would secure it in a way that required running away from the vault on activation."

"Unless they were that worried about having someone to protect if from, perhaps someone... or something had tried to use their technology against them?" More answers at this point would be helpful, but it all came with more questions.

"That is a good point, the Milky Way can't be the only place where the locals like to fight each other," Alec's smile crept across his face, relaxing the rest of the crew into eating.

"I'm just surprised we haven't found anyone else, other than the machines after all Eos was at least survivable with the right protection from radiation," she mused, "the flora and fauna still seemed to be active enough."

"Or perhaps we came after an extinction event."

"You think the Nexus will let us borrow a drill?"

"Leave that to the colonists," Alec countered with a full smile. Enjoying his first taste of food. His daughter had learned well from her mother; it was just painful to mention. The familiar dish leaving him feeling less empty than he thought. Had that been the last time they had all enjoyed a meal together? "Just for now, we can be curious once we are completely established."

"To escaping a death bubble!" Vetra began.

"To not dying," Liam added.

"To excellent food," cheered Lexi.

The rest agreed with the doctor, with one notable person simply raising a glass.

"I think Elsee here should be designated cook," Gil looked over the empty pans, "this puts my best dish to shame."

"I'm sure I can find more contraband spices," Vetra hummed.

"I have some nice Salarian dishes I think the crew would enjoy."

"Not if it involves bug, Kallo," Cora teased, "I don't think she could even make that taste good."

"That's very r-"

Suvi cut off the Salarian, "say you can bake too?"

"I think it needs less baking soda," Scott's words drew an eye roll from his sister and a bemused smirk from Alec.

"Har, har, Scott," Her eyes wandered to Liam, who still said nothing. She glanced away, pretending not to make awkward eye contact with the Turian that sat next to him.

The crew returned to conversation in various groups between themselves. Alec mostly questioned Elsee who was at ease answering his questions and sharing theories with him. Scott urged himself to look away, and focus on his plate. Still not finding his place in this group. He didn't want to end the rare bonding between Father and Daughter as they discussed the potential of their discoveries on the Heleus cluster. They would never see it, but they shared a fair amount in common. When they weren't busy egging each other on about something asinine.

Vetra leaned into Liam, "Say something nice, stupid."

"Just like mum's cooking," Liam blurted into a crowd that had long since changed subjects, Vetra pinched him for good measure, "thank you for the meal, El."

The crew regarded him curiously, and Elsee colored. Scott glanced between the two, and Alec glared fiercely at the man.

"I'll, uh, I'll gather plates and start cleaning up then," Liam bound from his seat, yanking the empty plate away from Vetra.

[newstfionline]

A Road Trip Through Rusting and Rising America

Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, May 24, 2017

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--In his Inaugural Address, President Trump painted a picture of America as a nation gripped by vast “carnage”--a landscape of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones” that cried out for a strongman to put “America first” and stop the world from stealing our jobs. It was a shocking speech in many ways and reportedly prompted former President George W. Bush to say to those around him on the dais, “That was some really weird [stuff].”

It was weird, but was it all wrong?

I just took a four-day car trip through the heart of that landscape--driving from Austin, Ind., down through Louisville, Ky., winding through Appalachia and ending up at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to try to answer that question.

Trump is half right in his diagnosis, but his prescription is 100 percent wrong. We do have an epidemic of failing communities. But we also have a bounty of thriving ones--not because of a strongman in Washington but because of strong leaders at the local level.

The big divide in America is not between the coasts and the interior. It’s between strong communities and weak communities. You can find weak ones along the coast and thriving ones in Appalachia, and vice versa. It’s community, not geography.

The communities that are making it share a key attribute: They’ve created diverse adaptive coalitions, where local businesses get deeply involved in the school system, translating in real time the skills being demanded by the global economy.

They also tap local colleges for talent and innovations that can diversify their economies and nurture unique local assets that won’t go away. Local foundations and civic groups step in to fund supplemental learning opportunities and internships, and local governments help to catalyze it all.

The success stories are all bottom-up; the failures are all where the bottom has fallen out.

I started in one of the bottomless places: Austin, Ind., a tiny town of 4,000 off Interstate 65, which was described in a brilliant series in The Louisville Courier-Journal “as the epicenter of a medical disaster,” where citizens of all ages are getting hooked on liquefied painkillers and shooting up with dirty needles.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that Austin “contains the largest drug-fueled H.I.V. outbreak to hit rural America in recent history.” Its 5 percent infection rate “is comparable to some African nations.” Austin, the newspaper noted, doesn’t just sit at the intersection between Indianapolis and Louisville but at the “intersection of hopelessness and economic ruin.”

I chose to go there to meet the town’s only doctor, Will Cooke, whose heroic work I learned of from the Courier-Journal series. Cooke’s clinic, Foundations Family Medicine, sits at 25 West Main Street--opposite Marko’s Pizza & Sub, a liquor store and a drugstore.

For generations Austin’s economy was anchored by the Morgan Foods canning plant, but, as The Courier-Journal noted, “then came a series of economic blows familiar to many manufacturing-based communities. The American Can plant next to Morgan Foods shut its doors in 1986 after more than 50 years in business. A local supermarket closed. Workers left along with the jobs and poverty crept up among those who stayed.”

Austin, Cooke explained to me, got caught in the vortex of declining blue-collar jobs, leading to a loss of dignity for breadwinners, depression and family breakdown, coinciding with doctors’ and drug companies’ pushing painkillers, and with too many people in the community failing to realize that to be in the middle class now required lifelong learning--not just to get a job but to hold one.

“Thirty percent of students were not even graduating from high school,” said Cooke. “Then you take high unemployment, generational poverty, homelessness, childhood abuse and neglect, and cloak that within a closed-off culture inherited from Appalachia, and you begin to have the ingredients that contributed to the H.I.V. outbreak.”

Austin’s insularity proved deadly for both jobs and families. “The close-knit, insular nature of the community worked against it, with the C.D.C. later finding up to six people shared needles at one sitting, and two or three generations--young adults, parents and grandparents--sometimes shot up together,” The Courier-Journal reported.

Lately, though, Cooke told me, the town’s prospects have started to improve, precisely because the community has come together, not to shoot up but to start up and learn up and give a hand up. “The local high school has introduced college-credit classes and trade programs so people are graduating with a head start,” said Cooke. Faith-based and civic groups have mobilized, celebrating social and economic recovery, providing community dinners called “Food 4R Soul” and even installing community showers for people without running water.

Addiction is often a byproduct of social breakdown leading to a sense of isolation. Cooke feels hopeful because he sees the tide slowly shifting as “social isolation gives way to community.”

“Only a healthy individual can contribute to a healthy family, and only a healthy family can contribute to a healthy community--and all of that requires a foundation of trust,” said Cooke. “That kind of change can’t come from the outside, it has to be homegrown.”

I shared with him the business philosopher Dov Seidman’s admonition that “trust is the only legal performance-enhancing drug.” Dr. Cooke liked that a lot and only wished he could prescribe it as easily as others had prescribed opioids.

But just 40 minutes down the highway from Austin, I interviewed Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, a city bustling with energy and new buildings. “That ‘Intifada’ you wrote about in the Middle East is happening in parts of rural and urban America--people saying, ‘I feel disconnected and hopeless about participating in a rapidly changing global economy.’ Drug-related violence and addiction is one result--including in a few neighborhoods of Louisville.”

But Louisville also has another story to tell: “We have 30,000 job openings,” said Fischer, and for the best of reasons: Louisville has “a vision for how a city can be a platform for human potential to flourish.” It combines “strategies of the heart,” like asking everyone to regularly give a day of service to the city; strategies of science, like “citizen scientists” bearing GPS-enabled inhalers that the city uses to track air pollution, mitigate it and warn asthma suffers; and strategies for job creation that leverage Louisville’s unique assets.

One job-creation strategy led to a slew of new businesses that make “end of runway” products for rapid delivery by leveraging the fact that Louisville is UPS’s worldwide air hub; “bourbon tourism” that leverages the fact that Kentucky is the Napa Valley of bourbon; a partnership with Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky, has created an advanced manufacturing corridor; and by leveraging Humana’s headquarters in Louisville, the city has unleashed a lifelong wellness and aging-care industry.

Show me a community that understands today’s world and is working together to thrive within it, and I’ll show you a community on the rise--coastal or interior, urban or rural.

I found more such communities as I moved south on Interstate 75 through Tennessee to Oak Ridge, home of the Manhattan Project facilities where the enriched uranium for the “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was produced.

Today, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which sprawls across two counties, is still involved with nuclear weaponry, but its supercomputer, one of the world’s most powerful, and its hundreds of scientists help drive a broad array of research in energy, materials science, 3-D manufacturing, robotics, physics, cybersecurity and nuclear medicine--research it now actively shares with the surrounding Appalachian communities to spawn new industries and jobs.

Sitting on the spot where the K-25 Manhattan Project facility once stood, I interviewed Ron Woody, county executive for Roane County, where Oak Ridge is partly located, and Steve Jones, an industrial recruiter hired by the city of Oak Ridge to seek out companies interested in investing in the region or leveraging spinouts from Oak Ridge’s labs. That kind of active entrepreneurship is a new thing for Roane County, where generations of people have known only a government job.

“Back in the 1980s you had the T.V.A. [Tennessee Valley Authority], and it had over 50,000 employees. Now it has 10,000 employees,” explained Woody, so “we were not diversified in our employment. We had to convince the public that we can’t rely on the Oak Ridge lab and T.V.A. The Cold War is over. So our communities had to make a big transition from a lot of government programs to very few.”

It’s starting to work, said Woody, “but progress is slow.” One of those success stories was luring a former three-time Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond, to open a 65,000-square-foot factory for his new company, LeMond Composites, for making lightweight carbon-fiber bikes, based on new materials pioneered at Oak Ridge.

“The research Oak Ridge has done is going to change the way we make things,” LeMond explained to me, as we sat in his new factory. “It is a really exciting future. My goal is that you will be able to go on my website and design your own bike out of carbon fiber.”

But just because there are workers looking for employment and there are new jobs opening, it isn’t automatic that local people work in those jobs, explained Jones, the recruiter. Because of the opioid crisis, many people cannot pass the mandatory drug test--and years of working for the government has left them unprepared for the pace of today’s private sector.

“The two biggest issues we are dealing with are the soft skills and passing the drug test,” explained Woody. “I thought the problem was that people needed more STEM skills.” But that’s not the case.

It turns out that it’s not that hard to train someone, even with just a high school or community college degree, to operate an advanced machine tool or basic computer. “Factory managers would say, ‘I will train them and put them to work tomorrow in good jobs” requiring hard skills, said Woody. “The problem they have is finding people with the right soft skills.”

What are those soft skills? I asked. “Employers just want someone who will get up, dress up, show up, shut up and never give up,” Woody responded without hesitation. And there are fewer workers with those soft skills than you might think, he added.

When new companies come into the area today, noted Jones, who grew up on a farm, they ask specifically for young people who were either in a 4-H club or Future Farmers of America (now called FFA) because kids with a farming background are much more likely to get up, dress up, show up on time and never give up in a new job.

Soft skills also include the willingness to be a lifelong learner, because jobs are changing so quickly. For instance, the Oak Ridge lab is partnering to embed top-level local technical talent as entrepreneurial research fellows in advanced manufacturing who want to start companies in this realm. Every summer Oak Ridge’s M.D.F.--Manufacturing Demonstration Facility--hosts 100 young interns to learn the latest in 3-D printing, and its experts coach teams from local high schools for national robotics competitions.

The beauty of 3-D printers is that any community can now go into the manufacturing business, explained Lonnie Love, a corporate fellow at Oak Ridge, as he showed me around the M.D.F., where whole car bodies and car parts are being “printed” on giant 3-D printers.

“Traditionally to make a car part you first had to build a die, and those dies cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to make,” Love said. Every die consists of a female and a male die, and the way you made a car part was to stamp them together. There are hundreds of dies needed to make a car, and that was why an assembly line for a new car model in Detroit could cost upward of $200 million--and take two years to build. Sadly, that die-making industry actually moved out of America to Asia over the last 15 years, leaving only a dozen such companies in the U.S.

No more. “Large-scale 3-D printing is enabling us to re-shore that industry,” explained Love, who then offered this example: “The naval air station at Cherry Point, N.C., repairs all the aircraft for the Navy on the East Coast. About a year ago their head of engineering called me on a Monday and asked if we could print a die mold for them and I said, ‘Sure, just send me the digital model of what you want printed.’

“We got it by email that afternoon, and by Friday he had the mold to make the new part. And it only weighed about 40 pounds because with 3-D printing we could make it stronger but lighter weight by hollowing out the inside. The following Monday he calls and asks me how much did it cost and how long did it take me to make? I told him it took me longer--and was more expensive--to ship it to him than it was make it.”

Think about car dealers in the future who, instead of needing a huge lot with hundreds of cars in inventory, will just custom print the car you want. “Our only inventory is carbon fiber pellets that cost $2 a pound, and we can make any product out of them,” said Love. “You won’t need inventory anymore.”

Over the last 100 years, Love concluded, we went from decentralized artisan-based manufacturing to centralized mass manufacturing on assembly lines. Today, with these emerging technologies, we can go back to artisans, which will be great for local communities that spawn a leadership and workers able to take advantage of these emerging technologies. We are going to see a world of micro-factories, and you can see them sprouting around Oak Ridge already.

“There’s a new wave of kids coming up who love this stuff,” said Love. “We can create mini-moonshots all over the place.”

The same applies to the design of the parts. Thom Mason, the director of the Oak Ridge lab, explained to me that high-performance computing “allows you to design and test out all the parts on the computer and only make those that you know will work. It is totally speeding up the iteration loop of physical manufacturing. You move all the trial and failure into the digital world--so you don’t need to do all that costly tooling of prototypes--and then go straight to manufacturing.”

But the state of Tennessee has also had its thinking cap on about the fast world. In 2014 it decided to make tuition and fees free for high school graduates who want to enroll in any state community college or technical school--on the condition that they maintain at least a C- average, stay in school for consecutive semesters, contribute eight hours of community service each semester and meet with a volunteer coach/mentor who will help them stay on track to get their degree. Starting in 2018, Tennessee adults who don’t already have a two-year degree will be able to go to any state community college and earn one free as well.

I ended my little tour in Knoxville, Tenn., where I met with the mayor at a restaurant in the newly rejuvenated downtown square, a beehive of restaurants, public art exhibitions, theaters, shopping and museums.

“Until the mid-1980s, the old economic development model here was low wages and no unions. That model wasn’t sustainable,” said Mayor Madeline Rogero, the first woman mayor of Knoxville and a former organizer for Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers union. “We wanted better schools, and you cannot build a great school system on the back of low-wage workers. So we started thinking about what are our unique assets and stopped selling ourselves as a low-wage town.”

This is the real picture of America today. It’s cities and regions rising together to leverage their unique assets from the bottom up--living side by side with distressed and lost communities where the bottom has fallen out. It’s not your grandparents’ America, but it is also not Trump’s America--that land of vast carnage and an industrial wasteland. The picture is much more complex.

Bill Clinton once famously observed, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.” That has never been more accurate--and necessary--than it is today.

What is wrong with America is that too many communities, rural and urban, have broken down. What is right with America is the many communities and regions that are coming together to help their citizens acquire the skills and opportunities to own their own futures. We need to share and scale these success stories.

Only strong communities, not a strong man, will make America great again.

[onlythebestomg-blog]

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You need to pay an overinflated price for the product at the pharmacy, sometimes over $200....AND THATS NOT THE END OF IT.....they make you see the physician EVERY 3 MONTHS …. if your lucky.

Some unscrupulous, greedy physicians make you see them EVERY MONTH, charging you $300/$400 each time.

With no insurance and many insurance company's not covering these type's of medications anyway. I just couldn't afford it.

So after trying hundreds of “Miracle” pills I ended up ballooning to

208lbs

I couldn't get up in the morning I had so many aches and pains.

Had to crawl up the stairs because of pain in my legs.

NEVER went to the Mall,

I got too out of breath and anyway NOTHING nice fitted me.

Certain shops were a no no because they didn't go up to size 22

I know at 65 you are likely to get a few aches and pains.

But carrying around 208lbs wasn't helping

I knew I had to do something.

I had to find something that worked.

I started looking into all those pills and capsules I had in the cupboard that

hadn't worked. The Raspberry Ketonis, garcinia cambogia, Alli, XLS, Green Coffee, Green Tea.........the list is endless.

I started looking into their ingredients and the SCIENCE behind them.

I found most, when you looked at the scientific study's, to my amazement

had little or no effect on weight loss.

The only way I was going to loose any weight and be Healthier

Was to REDUCE what I ate all day

and if I was hungry......I ate.

I needed something like Phentermine/Sibutramine to stop me feeling hungry.

I started researching plants from all over the world: India, Asia, Africa. Even the uk and u.s.a. Many of these plants are eaten regularly by the locals, just

like our broccoli and Carrots.

I wanted something natural. Something that would not interfere with my prescription medications:

Thyroxine, Prilosec and Statin.

I found some locals would eat a plant in the drought season, to stop them feeling hungry!!!!

I found another that gave you a Euphoric effect and a few that could be natural fat burners.

I decided to experiment with some of these “Herbal extracts”

The first one I tried was the Kola Nut

Kola Nut (Cola Nitida/acuminata)

The First TREE on Earth

I chose Cola Nitida/acuminata. Because these are the species with the highest caffeine and theobromine content, and therefore the most potent, natural stimulating effects.

This nut is how the first Coke recipe received its

Caffeine Kick

The combination of caffeine and theobromine may be a contributing factor for the mild sense of euphoria that’s often reported after chewing the nuts.

Kola nut extracts also contain nonsteroidal plant compounds.

So there was definitely something in this first herb I could use to put in my capsule.

The next one, Coleus Forskohlii,

I had heard of before. This one is an all natural herb that's great for women but is incredible for men too.

The plant scientifically known as (Plectranthus barbatus) belongs to the mint family and is native to Thailand, Nepal and India. Its root is where the extract 'forskolin' is obtained.

Our Forskolin contains a super high-potency extract of

Coleus Forskohlii Roots

standardized for 98% Forskolin

Thirdly I looked at White Kidney Beans

White Kidney Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris) 20:1 extraction.

This means our Extract is 20 times more potent

White Kidney beans contain Phosphatidylserine

Phosphatidylserine belongs to a larger group of fats known as phospholipids. These phospholipids exist in cells all around our body as part of the cell’s membrane or wall. It is in our brains where they are most prominently active. Phosphatidylserine is made from phosphorous which helps to play a key role how the brain responds to neurotransmitters like dopamine and seratonine. Neurotransmitters are vital chemical messengers which allow neurons to pass information around your brain.

APPROAVED BY THE FDA

WHITE KIDNEY BEAN (Phaseolus vulgaris) IN FOODS IS GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE (GRAS) by the FDA

white kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) extract would be used as a substance offering nutritive value, based on its ability to inhibit the activity of the digestive enzyme a-amylase in vitro, and the potential to interfere with carbohydrate digestion when taken with a meal by human subjects.

Fourth is Griffonia Simplicifolia

Griffonia Simplicifolia Seeds

Griffonia seed extract is a natural supplement which is extracted from the Griffonia Simplicifolia plant.

This plant is native to West and Central Africa, which yields green flowers and seed pods.

It is the seeds that contains the compound

5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) which is of interest to the nootropic and weight loss communities.

5-HTP cannot be sourced from the diet.

5-HTP is made by the body from the amino acid tryptophan, which is then

changed into the neurotransmitter known as serotonin

My Fifth is Caralluma Fimbriata

Its the Prenane Glycosides that are the active ingredient.

Our extract contains 30 to 1 Glycosides

meaning it takes a full 30lbs of potent Caralluma Fimbriata cactus to make just one pound of this pure powder, so you get

30 times the power

of this incredible natural superfood per capsule with

absolutely zero additives!

Lastly, but not least, my Sixth HIBISCUS FLOWERS (Roselle)

The aqueous extract of Hibiscus Sabdariffa L (HSE), rich in several polyphenols antioxidants, vitamin C and Anthocyanins. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10762726/

Hibiscus flowers are commonly found in commercial herbal teas, especially teas advertised as berry-flavoured, as they give a bright red colouring to the drink.

The fleshy calyces that are used to make a beverage

that tastes like Ribena.

Roselle extract is good source of Protein, Fiber, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Niacin, and high level of Vitamin C.

So now my All Natural Herbal Capsule is not only scientifically proven. Its going to work for both Men and Women

So what is my All Natural Herbal capsule called and how does it work?

I've called it OMG Herbs

and unlike Sibutramine or Phentermine

it is a 100% Natural Herbal Blend

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could lose weight simply by taking a pill, wearing a patch, or rubbing in a cream? Unfortunately, claims that you can lose weight without changing your habits

just aren’t true.

Doctors, dieticians, and other experts agree that the best way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories and be more active.

Effectively losing weight involves a complex set of conditions, including

physical, emotional, and even psychological.

shedding pounds and keeping it off takes hard work, commitment, and a sometimes drastic change in lifestyle. And it can take an immense amount of effort to stay on the right path.

You definitely need Something

to help YOU

stay on the right track

If you didn't feel hungry, you wouldn't eat and if your not hungry you tend to cook less food and maybe, give yourself a smaller portion. You might find your not finishing your meal, or start eating more salads....

Maybe even give dessert a miss!

Ending the evening binging of munching.

something sweet, then salty, then sweet again.

Just this alone could cause YOU to loose lbs

Naturally

OMG Herbs is a unique BLEND of

Natural Herbs.

free of preservatives, fillers, binders, excipients, flow agents, shellacs, coloring agents, gluten, yeast, lactose, and other allergens.

MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOU in the UK

In our REGISTERED and REGULATED Premises

By Certified Food Handlers

                               So how can you get OMG Herbs

                 Just leave me a message and I'll get back to you

There are 60 capsules in each bottle for you to take one in the morning and

one at lunch.

Kola nut extract (Acuminata) We've used only the best from the root because this is where the best active ingredients are found.

Coleus Forskohlii is 98% Forskolin.........the best you can get.

White Kidney Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) Premium Grade 20:1

with 1% Phaseolamine with te USA (Safe (GRAS) certification from the FDA for use in commercial weight loss products.)

Hibiscus Flowers (Sabdariffa,Roselle) 100% pure Dried and Ground

Griffonia Simplicifolia seeds (5-HTP)

Caralluma Fimbriata with 30% Pregnane Glycosides and also has the

USA (Safe (GRAS) certification from the FDA for use in commercial weight loss products.)

The capsules are vegetarian and free of preservatives, fillers, binders, excipients, flow agents, shellacs, colouring agents, gluten, yeast, lactose, and other allergens.

Just £39.99 for 60 caps

Tell the world about what you’ve learned.

and how others can become better equipped to resist overeating

By leaving your comments below!

[parasite-core]

Pathfinder character development questions: Kiyo Alvara

@aromagebloom I found these questions on my dash today and filled them out for Kiyo and Sai, so if you’d like some major character development for either, here you go~

   1)      Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?

Kiyo only has one sibling, their brother Kyth, and they were older than Kyth and cared for him after their parents passed away. Kiyo and Kyth were close when they were younger, but grew distant after being orphaned.

2)      What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like? Kiyo was close to their mother. They learned to cook and use a knife for self defense from her, both skills that Kiyo has honed over the years. Kiyo misses their mother deeply, and losing her was one of the most difficult losses in their life.

3)      What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like? Kiyo was not as close to their father as their mother, as he was a quiet and distant man. They did enjoy reading books with their father and learning. Their initial interest in science came from their father, who was an astronomer. Kiyo still loves to look at the stars and trace constellations.

4)      Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know? Kiyo found their brother on the streets, overdosed on a drug called shiver. They tried to save him, and used every bit of medical and alchemical knowledge they had. They failed and their brother died. Witnessing their brother in this state, and seeing him slip away right before their eyes, had a permanent effect on them. Kiyo despises addictive drugs of any kind and the people who abuse science to make such things. One of Kiyo’s major driving desires is to find a cure to shiver addiction, so that others won’t suffer as their brother did.

5)      On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets? Small tools, various seemingly random items which can be used in alchemical mixtures, a handful of coins, and a dagger.

6)      Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams? Kiyo typically lucid dreams. They use it to fly through the air away from their troubles, or swim through clear waters, weightless, with no need to breath.

7)      Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares? Their brother and their parents asking why they didn’t do more to save their lives. Reliving their brother’s death. Patients they’ve lost demanding Kiyo’s life in exchange for theirs, because they have families that miss them and Kiyo doesn’t deserve to be alive and alone instead.

8)      Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target? No, but they have made explosives.

9)      Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up? No, Kiyo’s social status has stayed fairly consistent their entire life. They have enough money to get by and to continue their research, but not enough for many luxuries.

10)   Does your character feel more comfortable with more clothing, or with less clothing? More clothing, they don’t like showing a lot of skin. They’re private about their sex, but also uncomfortable with their skin being exposed to the various contagions they might come in contact with. That being said, they don’t like being bundled up either, as they like having a good range of movement, and also don’t like being too hot or cold.

11)   In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been? When they found their brother on the streets. They recognized the symptoms immediately. They knew that it was already too late, even though they tried to deny it and tried to do everything they could to save him. Kiyo knew the moment they saw their brother, that he wasn’t going to make it, and that they would be left alone.

12)   In what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been? Making healing potions. Kiyo has made them so many times that by now that it’s second nature. They let their muscle memory take over, and it’s very meditative for them.

13)   Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way? Not at all. Kiyo has performed surgeries and autopsies before when necessary, so they’re used to the sight of blood.

14)   Does your character remember names or faces easier? Faces. Kiyo pays very close attention to people’s faces and expressions, so they naturally remember faces easily.

15)   Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not? Yes, but only in so far as needing money to be able to continue their research. Kiyo is well aware of what is necessary to successfully continue their craft, and doesn’t shy away from selling their potions and accepting money for treating patients who can afford it. Kiyo needs to eat, and potion and medical ingredients cost money as well.

16)   Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success? Happiness in others, success in themself. Kiyo believes humanity is beautiful, and as such other peoples’ happiness is beautiful. However Kiyo idealizes success in themselves, because they believe that their goals will ultimately bring happiness to many people.

17)   What was your character’s favorite toy as a child? Kiyo liked puzzles and mazes. They had a puzzle box their father gave to them, which took them weeks to figure out. They still have it, and use it to store some mementoes of their loved ones.

18)   Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others? Wisdom. While Kiyo respects ambition, and has ambitions of their own, ambition that isn’t tempered by wisdom can cause people to do harm to others, and Kiyo finds that kind of ambition unforgivable.

19)   What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before? Kiyo gets very focused on their work. Much like their father, Kiyo can get distant when they’re on the verge of a breakthrough. Kiyo is a fun, friendly, and smart lover in a short term relationship, but they’ve been unsuccessful in keeping together any long term relationships.

20)   In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism? Kiyo compares their intelligence to others for self-validation. They compare their failures and their relationships to others for self-criticism.

21)   If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others? Kiyo definitely tends to blame themself, unless there’s clearly someone else at fault. If someone else is at fault, they are quick to lay blame and slow to forgive.

22)   What does your character like in other people? Kiyo believes all people have something beautiful about them, and all people are some hidden potential even if they aren’t yet living up to it. Kiyo loves people who strive to reach their potential, or who want to help others.

23)   What does your character dislike in other people? Kiyo hates greed and apathy. Greed because it allows people to justify doing horrible things to others for material objects, which Kiyo finds sickening. Apathy because it allows people to justify failing to live up to their potential, which Kiyo finds heartbreaking.

24)   How quick is your character to trust someone else? Kiyo knows too well that there are people in the world who will take advantage of trust and will harm others for their own gain. However Kiyo cannot bring themself to be mistrustful of people without clear cause, and so gives most people the benefit of the doubt.

25)   How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person? Same as above, Kiyo likes to give people the benefit of the doubt and isn’t generally suspicious unless they’re given reason. If they find reason to suspect someone, however, they don’t forget easily, and their trust is difficult to win back.

26)   How does your character behave around children? Kiyo loves children. Kids have a natural curiosity and drive which many adults lose. Kiyo sees children as some of the purest examples of society’s beauty.

27)   How does your character normally deal with confrontation? Kiyo digs in their heels and doesn’t back down. They have a firm set of beliefs they live by, and they stick to them if confronted for any reason.

28)   How quick or slow is your character to resort to physical violence in a confrontation? Kiyo does not like getting into physical violence, however they are willing to if it’s in self defense or to defend others.

29)   What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true? As a child, Kiyo wanted to be an astronomer like their father. They changed their goals after their parents died of a plague, and they were adopted by the medic who cared for their parents. They’ve instead devoted themselves to alchemy and medicine.

30)   What does your character find repulsive or disgusting? People who hurt others for their own gain. And centipedes. They have too many legs.

31)   Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable. In their alchemy lab, working on some new experiment or theory.

32)   Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable. In a public place, hearing someone of high social status plan to do something they’d consider morally wrong, but being unable to do anything about it because they’re in public and there’s certain social rules they have to follow.

33)   In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve? A little self-deprecating, a little willing to improve.

34)   Is your character more likely to keep trying a solution/method that didn’t work the first time, or immediately move on to a different solution/method? Kiyo is a scientist. They are going to try a method enough times to prove it definitely won’t work, then they’ll move on to the next method to see if they can get results that way instead.

35)   How does your character behave around people they like? Kiyo is touchy with people they like. They hug, touch shoulders and arms, etc. They won’t invade a person’s personal space who dislikes being touched, but otherwise they are very openly affectionate with friends.

36)   How does your character behave around people they dislike? Kiyo is cold towards those they dislike, if not openly hostile. They don’t try to hide their feelings. If someone is on Kiyo’s bad side, they will know.

37)   Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status? Defending their honor. Kiyo only cares about social status as far as getting money for their experiments goes, but Kiyo’s honor and convictions are important to them.

38)   Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat? If the problem/threat is only a danger to them, Kiyo will remove themselves from the situation. If the problem/threat is potentially also a threat to others, they will remove the threat.

39)   Has your character ever been bitten by an animal? How were they affected (or unaffected)? Kiyo hasn’t ever been bitten by an animal, and likely isn’t as cautious about the potential dangers of even domestic animals as someone who has been around animals enough to have been bitten.

40)   How does your character treat people in service jobs? Kiyo shows them the respect they feel these people deserve. Kiyo understands that people in these jobs have not necessarily met their full potential yet, but that this doesn’t mean they’re not trying and fighting every day to survive and move forward.

41)   Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first? Kiyo feels they must earn what they want, if only because the nature of their desires necessitates hard work to reach the end result they want. Simply being handed an answer wouldn’t be satisfying, and wouldn’t help to grow humanity’s knowledge and wisdom.

42)   Has your character ever had a parental figure who was not related to them? Yes, Kiyo and Kyth were adopted by the elderly doctor who tried to save their parents’ from a plague. Kiyo apprenticed under her, and when she passed away Kiyo took her place as the elven sector’s doctor.

43)   Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them? No, Kiyo’s only dependent figure was their brother.

44)   How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it? Kiyo would say they love most people, albeit platonically. Most people are beautiful and amazing, and deserving of love. As such “I love you” comes easily to them, although as a result it doesn’t necessarily carry the same weight when they say it.

45)   What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them? Kiyo doesn’t want to think about it. They wouldn’t admit to it, as they like to hold up their ideals as the only why they want to find a way to extend life, but they are also terrified of dying. They remember how their deceased loved ones suffered, especially their brother, who is the only one who died right in front of them. Kiyo saw the life leave their brother’s eyes, and the memory haunts them. They don’t ever want their own body reduced to an empty husk like that.

[swissforextrading]

A final interview in San Francisco: Christian Simm, Founder and CEO of swissnex San Francisco, heads to swissnex Boston

When Christian Simm came to San Francisco in 1997 as the Science and Technology Counselor for Switzerland, the city (and the world), was a very different place. Even if the smartphone had not yet been invented, the Internet and the World Wide Web were the new El Dorado with seemingly endless opportunities. This represented a paradigm shift in the way information and connections were made available, shared, and brokered. Within this new context, Christian saw a unique opportunity for Switzerland. He transformed his role and founded swissnex: a hub for international collaboration–where people from different disciplines, industries and countries could meet, exchange, collaborate and find new ideas. Today, open innovation and interdisciplinarity are well-known concepts, but fifteen years ago, they were truly visionary. Leaving behind a legacy, we recently farewelled our Founder and CEO as he left San Francisco for Boston, where he commences as CEO of swissnex Boston in August. We sat down with him to hear his story.           swissnex was inaugurated almost fifteen years ago, in Nov. 2003, can you tell us how and why it all began? A revolution started in the mid-nineties when the first web browser became available to the public. Having so much information available anytime, anywhere, organized in such a user-friendly manner seemed to promise endless opportunities. And Silicon Valley became the place where many of these opportunities were explored thus quickly turning the region into a magnet for pioneers, researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world. This lead Switzerland to create a Science & Technology Counselor (STC) position in San Francisco, the first outside a national capital. When I arrived in the Bay Area in December 1997, I quickly discovered that the scope of this position, as much as the web itself, were a work (constantly) in progress, requiring extreme agility and inventiveness for what looked like permanent and totally exciting exploration. The traditional role of the STC as a ‘reporter’ and middleman was bound to change fundamentally. Not only did one need to be part of the ecosystem, rather involvement in the community of innovators was indispensable to be credible. Collaboration was needed as everything seemed possible: giving before taking. An idea was quickly born: join forces with other Swiss-based organizations, create a neutral place for experimentation of ideas, open this venue to the public with attractive programs, stay at the edge and adapt quickly when necessary. My boss in Switzerland loved the idea and said «I don’t have a budget for this (yet) but I will support you if you find third-party funders». The swissnex concept was born. Did you envisage that swissnex would become the place that it is today?   The iPhone is only ten years old. Who could have predicted in 2007 the impact it would have on our lives by 2017? It was, and still is, the same with swissnex; an organization built to evolve with new topics, new trends, and new challenges. We detect faint signals, grab opportunities and transform them into actions, which are often premieres for Switzerland: From creating a “Facebook for scientists” (Swiss Talents), to a widely recognized art-science practice at a time when mixing these disciplines was still considered frivolous (now it has become mainstream); From pushing young entrepreneurs to go global, to putting trans-disciplinarity at the core of future thinking; From breaking boundaries between startups and large corporations to creating a new model for science diplomacy. I once read the following text: ‘One must be generous. We are only here for a short time and we can’t take anything with us when we go. What’s the point of holding onto things and not sharing knowledge, ideas, insights and opportunities? If you keep them for yourself, then it’s gone when you are gone. But if you share, then you can make something that is much bigger than the beginning. In other words, ideas grow when you share them. Others grow when you share, and you grow when things are shared. In a way, it’s a win-win game’. With that in mind, with an amazingly creative and dedicated team, with trusted partners, supporters and headquarters we were able to ‘re-invent’ swissnex San Francisco in 2016. We moved to a very unique venue at Pier 17, created an experiment in open innovation with more than seventy people from over twenty organizations, and quickly became the model many others wanted to understand. Did I all plan that in 2003? That would be presumptuous to say. But it was a dream, for sure! What were some of the biggest problems you sought to solve when you started swissnex? Solving problems was not the reason why I created swissnex San Francisco and grew it over the past fifteen years. swissnex is about seizing opportunities. The entire team works passionately to help partners, stakeholders, clients and other parties see potential and take action. What is the most serendipitous moment you can recall at swissnex? As swissnex is about the future–where knowledge is in flux, certitudes are scarce and leaders still have to emerge–serendipity plays an important role in our practice. Though, it is not just about waiting for something unexpected to happen. Serendipity can be engineered with the right methodology: constantly pushing the boundaries, listening carefully to faint signals, showing genuine curiosity and generosity, planning improbable encounters and a few more ‘secret ingredients’. Successful outcomes are often beyond expectations. Among the many examples of serendipitous moments, I’ll cite one of the very first. To brainstorm out-of-the-box ideas for what swissnex may become, a good colleague of mine offered to cook Greek specialties at her home if I could come up with a wildly diverse group of participants. Intrigued by swissnex, a confidential list of top San Francisco creatives joined. They enjoyed the unusual setting and conversations so much that, without being asked, they spontaneously offered to invent our brand and graphical identity for our, then nameless, initiative. Their legacy is still all around us every day! swissnex San Francisco occupies a unique space that transcends disciplines, industries and borders; a place where people meet and collaborate to let new ideas emerge. What is the greatest success story of swissnex San Francisco? We started very early on to help Swiss entrepreneurs and startups with benchmarking, gaining international exposure, having a base abroad and ‘thinking big’. This type of support was very uncommon at the time, whereas now, incubators, accelerators, hackathons, pitch events and the like have become mainstream. For a long time, maybe since the Renaissance’s famous polymaths, sciences and arts were considered so far apart that dialogues between them were few and remained mostly intimate. With San Francisco’s receptiveness for experimentation, my love for the arts, very talented team members, and the trust of several key supporters, allowed us to be at the avant-garde of the nascent art/science and art/technology movement. There are many different ‘languages’ to describe the world, and some of the most fascinating insights emerge at their intersections. Open Innovation was pushed to a new level with our move to Pier 17, where selected startups and large corporations, universities and individual researchers, creatives and communicators, short-term visitors and long-term ‘Residents’ share an inspiring open space. In this very unique innovation ecosystem, engineered serendipity has become the norm. In each of these instances–and there are many more examples–swissnex fully played its role as pioneer: discoverer, experimenter and, as we would say in Silicon Valley jargon, ‘evangelist’. Part ice-breaking, part ground-breaking, we laid the foundations on which new and meaningful projects became possible. You’ve witnessed some of the biggest changes the world has seen over the past fifteen years from the vantage point of Silicon Valley. What are some of the biggest changes you expect the world to see in the next fifteen years? Predicting precisely the future requires a crystal ball. swissnex’s methodology, on the other hand, starts with the faint signals of the future that I mentioned earlier. They are collected through listening, reading, observing, talking to people from all types of backgrounds and sectors, and more. Possible scenarii are then imagined, analyzed and tested through more discussions and storytelling, for instance on our ‘nextrends’ blog. The knowledge and understanding gained reduce the cone of uncertainty about the future. Technologies like virtual reality, deep learning, gene editing tools like CRISPR, autonomous vehicles (whether on the ground or in the air), and artificial intelligence will clearly have a deep impact in the next fifteen years. Machines will become even more like us. They won’t necessarily look like us, but they will sense, interpret, understand, communicate and act in ways which will make physical devices: robots, algorithms, and bots will blend into our daily lives like the smartphone did over the past decade. Such machines will negotiate directly with each other and possibly manage their own entities: they may be taxed like humans, and I’m certain that it will trigger in-depth debates about the future of our societies. At the same time, this techno-centric view is very much the culture of Silicon Valley. Apps are not the solution to every problem and the world has a very differentiated approach to technology. The needs for and impact of technologies are wildly different around the globe. Companies cannot ignore this anymore and they will have to ask why, what for, and under which conditions their new devices and services are developed. Business models will need to include Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development Goals and global political, environmental, humanitarian (as well as other) issues. Switzerland and swissnex are perfectly positioned to encourage, support and lead the shaping of a better common future.   Christian Simm commences as CEO of swissnex Boston in August 2017.   Gioia Deucher, previously CEO of swissnex Brazil, is now CEO of swissnex San Francisco. https://nextrends.swissnexsanfrancisco.org/interview-with-christian-simm/ (Source of the original content)

[birdseyetea]

August Newsletter

Hello Friends!

How are you enjoying the hot summer days?!

Fruits are ripening and flowers are beginning to fully invest in seed production. This is a month to really just take it all in and enjoy nature for what it means to you. Nature comforts each of us in unique ways, take note of how summer appeals to you and let yourself enjoy it the way you like it. There are so many individual ways to take advantage of how summer days ease tensions, brings community together, and allows each of us to exist for no other reason than our own individual purpose.

We naturally gravitate toward friends who share our sentiments during summer. I am an observant person and I love being in motion, whether it physical or mental, the ebb and flow of information is the rhythm that my life is founded on. During summer, my keen sense of observation draws me toward my gardens, onto beaches, into the kitchen and forests. I choose spaces where I can let myself sense as much information as I can and then creatively respond. I wander, observe, and create. I love it when people come wandering with me. We have lengthy meandering conversations that rise into intense discussions and then dissipate as it stretches into long silences. We simply take in the scene and share what comes up for us as we explore. This wave-like way of being in community really appeals to me. It allows for fast chirpy excitement and a slow gathering of insight in a natural flow.    

At some point every summer I have to unlearn workaholic tendencies. Too much focus on achievement can easily keep me distracted from the beauty and grace of each moment. Especially on a farm when it is easy to not see anything but a ton of work that needs to get done. So many missed opportunities pass when we narrow our focus and perceptions too much. It is so easy to get hung up on things we have to do, rather than give yourself the freedom to do nothing or say yes to to things you want to do. I find that when I slow down and let myself be in a natural state of awareness I learn that I am a much better thinker when I am not trying so damn hard. Pushing toward a goal all the time just creates patterns of stress for many of us. Play, curiosity, and giving yourself freedom to widen your gaze helps you take in more information and respond with greater compassion and in alignment with kindness.

I know living in the US right now is rife with fears, uncertainties, and disgust at the depths of ignorance we see each day in our communities and in the news. There is simply no room in our society for racism and discrimination. Building tolerance is only acceptable when it is toward an inclusive whole. Tolerance extended toward white supremacists is not acceptable. There are people out there working their butts off with a ton of courage resisting racism and counter protesting in response to white supremacist gatherings. My heart goes out to all the folks on the front lines protesting and standing up to dangerous and violent hate groups! White supremacy is an abomination and we need to dismantle it right here right now for the good of our current generations and future generations.

It goes without saying that those of us who are white need to be leading the discourse in our families and communities to undo racism in our own minds, listening to and believing the stories of the people of color, and work together to dismantle policies and practices that keep immigrants and people of color from experiencing the same level of power and privilege that we do. The US is one of the only places in the world that has the opportunity to fully provide equal rights and privilege to all. It is totally a waste of our democracy to allow politicians to sanction hate groups and encourage violence and hate through the power of public and legislative avenues.

I want to be part of a multi-cultural country that provides equal access to resources, services, connection, and refuge for all people. I spend a lot of time farming, cooking, studying ecology, and creating healing herbal teas. I want to clearly state that I get to focus on my interests and crafts because of my privilege. I do not have to navigate a daily deluge of fear, insecurity, and racism. I do not have to justify my actions or prove my worth every single day. Nobody dehumanizes me based on the color of my skin. It is important that I continue to extend my energy, power, and privilege toward people who experience oppression. There is so much energy and opportunity to extend toward others every day. For whites, it takes a lot of work to undo racism in our own minds, but the work is absolutely necessary to be part of a free respectful society. The first time I took an undoing racism training course almost 20 years ago I was totally surprised and confused at how my own thoughts and inaction were enabling a racist system. And my life since then has been lived in solidarity with anti-racism organizations and social movements. We often feel we cannot do enough, I feel that, but we can all do little things like donating a few dollars every month to organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center or support political movements and organizations in your local community that host events where people of color lead discussions about social justice issues that are affecting them every single day. Or simply signing up for an undoing racism training course. And honestly, just keeping your heart and mind open and engaged, rather than shutting down or feeling shame, when we see really painful acts of racism at the hands of hate groups, the police, and ignorant rhetoric by government officials. My voice and actions will continue to proudly be amongst the diverse choir that step by step takes down the patterns and political system that sanctions white supremacy and hate.

And there is another reality that has always been waiting for us. One that is collaborative, nurturing, where mutualism forms the basis of everyday interactions with people and place. Where we choose to enjoy being in a society where differences are an asset and beautiful. Where we extend generosity even when we feel depleted or lost. Where we refuse to make choices that make us look or feel superior to others. This life we live is a shared experience, we need to embody universal reciprocity…in a way that it is extended far beyond our little chosen communities. We can create an amazing society where everyone feels both generous and supported, our government must adapt and become a leader in inclusivity or we will continue to become more polarized and violent.

Sharing tea is a nearly universal act of connection and welcoming. So many cultures use a form of tea ceremony as a way to sit together, ground, and share ideas. Sharing tea with friends, acquaintances, and family is a timeless ritual of love, companionship, and reciprocity. I am not saying that tea drinking solves our societies problems, but it does help heal emotional wounds and traumas if you let it. It becomes a daily ritual of renewal and love...a ritual that we can share with others and use as a tool to build deeper trust, community, and friendship.

Think Tea

Ingredients: gunpowder green tea, tulsi, lemongrass, and gotu kola

Think tea is often a tea I bring out in the fall, but I noticed this summer that there are lots of people who feel depleted, anxious, and depressed. Think tea is a great tea for times when you feel held back by fatigue, but for whatever reason need to keep a certain pace. We have to work a whole lot more than we ever thought we would have to in order to keep afloat. The summer heat slows us down and politics as they are seems to keep us in a state of turmoil. So Think tea is a delicious brew to energize the body and help our nervous system adapt to stress. Think tea is energizing, supports memory, and brings forth mental clarity.

Gunpowder green tea is a caffeinated tea that has a nice floral quality to it. It is not aggressively fermented so it maintains a lot of it grassy and orchid-like flavor tones. Because green tea has caffeine and caffeine can exacerbate adrenal fatigue, I try to combine caffeinated teas with herbs that help feed and support the nervous system. Lemongrass is a great herbs for summer. It is uplifting and refreshing. Lemongrass is a great digestive support and helps calm nervous disorders. Tulsi is a fantastic adaptogen herb. It helps regulate the nervous system to keep it in balance through stress and disease. Tulsi has been shown in animal and human studies to aid in mental recovery after brain injury. Gotu kola is a great herb for memory and focus. It has been used in ayurveda for millennia as a brain tonic herb.

Making Think Tea iced is really easy. Just combine the tea and cold water in a lidded jar, shake vigorously, and stick in the fridge for a few hours. I usually shake it again before I strain and drink the tea. If you make it as an iced tea you can add a little honey and fresh lemon if you want a sweet tea.

Love Digest Tea

Ingredients: dandelion root, burdock root, ginger, fennel, peppermint, and spearmint

Digest tea helps the body digest and absorb nutrients more effectively. I like to drink digest tea before I eat, helping to stimulate and prepare the digestive system for food. During mid to late summer we eat a lot more fresh fruit, so you are actually getting a lot of natural enzymes from the fruits that help support digestion. But we also do a lot of snacking and are highly active during summer so we might not be giving our digestive system the down time it needs to properly digest.

This is a blend that is popular amongst my friends for acid reflux and poor digestion. I drink this tea before eating and often share it with friends who come over for dinner. I love this tea hot or iced. Lately I have been grating a little fresh ginger into digest tea when I steep it because I have had some asthma relating to smokey air we had for a few weeks in the Puget Sound. Fresh ginger along with the dried ginger in this tea is a great anti-spasmodic for the lungs and dramatically improves wheezing that happens when the lungs are congested.

Peace Always

Ingredients: linden, tulsi, fennel, oat tops, goji berry, lemon balm, chamomile, and licorice

This blend is a great tea to drink when feeling overwhelmed and/or angry. I have been having a lot of anger come up for a whole variety of reasons, but when I feel helpless I often get angry. This is a great nervine blend, helping to bring peace into your life. It is so hard to have a single day where something crazy and anxiety inducing doesn’t happen in current events. The next few years are really going to test our bodies abilities to be resilient and strong. I am always striving to send you teas that help you manage stress, so you can keep fighting the good fight day after day and also maintaining your work and creative life. I love that this blend can be drank during a stressful day, but also enjoyed after dinner. For some people, tulsi can be a little stimulating, so try it in the evening and see how you feel.  

This blend helps ease frazzled nerves, but it is also very nutritive and, like in Think Tea, tulsi is a great ally herb for the nervous system. Tulsi helps your body resist a full blown stress reaction and also helps the body recover after a period of stress. It is highly regarded as both a spiritual and physical healing herb in India, where it is know as “queen of the herbs”. Fennel is both a great digestive support herb and calms the nerves. Lemonbalm is an herb I love to grow but I do not use it in tea super often because I personally have a hard time enjoying the taste. Lemonbalm is a powerhouse herb, it is anti-viral, especially toward the herpes viruses, it calms the mind without dulling it, supports the liver, encourages restful sleep, and is a powerful antioxidant. Goji berry is a great nutritive adaptogen herb, helping the body adapt to stress. Chamomile is digestive and calming. Oat tops are nutritious and calming. And Licorice helps sweeten the tea and restore healthy nervous system function.