#like i know there are probably some food fb groups to post in but not sure which ones

[stardust-swan]

Hi babe! Do you have any examples on how Lalla Malika has helped you since you are working with her? Also, if can't have a real altar for her do you think e offerings are ok? Thank you!

Well, I've only been working with her for a few months, but I've definitely noticed I receive more material gifts now.

One example (which is honestly kind of weird) is that someone went to my Amazon holiday registry and bought a bunch of things? Now I've never shared this wishlist with my family or on social media or anything, I just have a list to keep track of things I might want to buy in the future because unlike a regular shopping list you can organise a holiday registry into different sections which makes them way easier to navigate. I've been doing this for years but this is the first time someone actually found it and bought from it? A couple weeks back someone bought like 12-15 things from it. A few Burt's Bees things, some books, candles, some makeup, a pair of earrings I'd liked but debated about getting. I looked up the name of the person and they're a lawyer/ex-lawyer (?) in another country who I don't know. I wondered if it was a mistake, but they never cancelled any of the gifts and then today they came back and bought a couple more things off my list. I think she attracted someone who likes being a kind of secret Santa at Christmas time to my list. There have been a couple more incidents like that but not as interesting, just my family giving me gifts or money unprompted.

I also think I've gotten more compliments than normal. When I wear makeup people compliment the colours and application. When I don't I still get compliments but on the quality of my skin and my freckles instead. Usually I'll get compliments occasionally but now it seems more frequent, and I know I don't actually look better than I did before (I probably look worse tbh because I gained weight at Halloween and then again during Xmas season).

I personally think it's perfectly fine to make e-offerings if you can't make a physical altar. If you wish to work with her, it's better to do something than nothing. Plenty of people in the FB group post pictures that remind them of her which is virtually the same thing. If you'd like to make physical offerings but don't have a space for a permanent altar, the official belief is that you should take a tray and place incense, an offering of food, and a piece of jewellery on it, as the tray acts as an altar.

[rederiswrites]

Posted this on FB, and I suppose I can post it pretty much unaltered here, as well:

A lot of you are probably thinking, "Why would you do this to yourself? Do you even have fun at Pennsic?" and like…that's fair. I have a complex relationship with Pennsic, and it's certainly not all positive. I have to evaluate every year whether it's worth putting myself through what I know will be a grueling experience, definitely physically but also mentally. I whine about prep, and I whine while I'm there (just ask Jacob). But I still almost always decide to go.

I do it for the music, I do it for the colorful joy of the whole site, for everyone's willingness to make the best of what they have. I do it a little bit for the shopping, a little for the food, but overwhelmingly, I actually do it for other people. Not, like, selflessly--I want to see those people, and I do want the aforementioned things--but really, mostly, for other people.

For my kids, who always benefit so tremendously from the expanded social opportunities, from overcoming the challenges, from all the chances to spread their wings, for all the immediate reinforcements for good behavior. Who see music and dancing, try new food, see people striving for the heights of their respective crafts. They get concrete ways to help, a smoother transition into the adult world than modern life offers--every year, my kids leap forward during Pennsic. I would hate to lose that.

And for my campmates, who are my family, and a more important part of my life than much of my blood family. To be with them, of course, and also because we all know how hard it is to overcome the loss of even some of our members, in a small group. I would never voluntarily do that to my dear ones. I share the group's dreams for the future, and losing more members just isn't an option.

Yeah, it was too much. Collapsing is about the definition of it was too much. I was physically uncomfortable pretty much the entire time, and in significant pain for most of it. That's actually--well, at least at home relief is more easily accessible. Every year, we look for ways to make things easier, we make changes that we hope will help. And every year, new challenges arise. Some of this year's challenges were pretty awful. Next year, we'll probably do the same-- make some changes, try to arrange things better in advance, do our best, and keep hoping for the best. Because my loved ones are always worth it, still.

[goatdays]

Hello spinning tumblr! Does anyone know if there are any good places to resale used spinning equipment? (Other than craigslist and fb marketplace). My elderly friend is down sizing her spinning equipment and so I'm trying to help her sale her Jensen Ashley wheel and her Louet carder. I'm just wondering if anyone has advice on places to post them?

Pictures attached for reference:

[blackrabbittwst]

Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You

A/N: So I was talking to a friend about this Facebook post I saw on a Twst FB group:

So I’m actually vegetarian myself and I thought of some funny headcanons for a Leona x vegetarian reader relationship.

Most of them have some dumb side comments from my point of view, as someone who is a vegetarian, but I hope you like my silly crack pairing hcs (and it does get fluffy at the end).

Characters: Leona Kingscholar

Pairings: Leona Kingscholar x Reader

Gender/Pronouns: Gender Neutral

When you both first meet and he calls you “herbivore”, you just stare at him. You don’t know if you should comment that you really are a vegetarian or just let it slide. He might feel a little guilty later about it, but probably not too bothered if you never correct him about it.

The moment you tell him you’re actually vegetarian, he’d give a narrowed eye look to see if you were kidding. The moment he realizes you are indeed not joking, he’d probably ask why you would deny yourself meat when it is literally the best thing in the world and it’s weird. Also he’d be a little disgusted by the food you eat since he hates his veggies so much (maybe you could influence him to eat them a little more with the help of Ruggie kekeke)

If you did tell him it was for either ethical reasons or even religious reasons, he wouldn’t really comment and just shrug. None of it was any of his business anyways so it’s not a big deal. But he wouldn’t be the type to judge either.

Imagine trying to feed him, holding up a fork with some cooked green beans. He would be giving the biggest disgusted face and looking at you as if you were crazy. He’d probably smack the utensil out of his face, much to your sadness. Maybe if you give him big enough puppy eyes, he’ll have ONE bite. ONLY ONE.

While you both chill out on in the court yard, Leona would casually ask, “Hey, are you hungry?” If you reply, “Yeah, I guess I could go for a snack”, he’d give you a smug smile and say “Well there’s some grass right there, herbivore.” Then you will proceed to playfully smack him while he laughs loudly.

He’d comment one day that he made you food for lunch, much to your happiness and suspicion. Leona… making food?? Doing something domestic???? Are you sure it wasn’t Ruggie? You would open the lunch box to see it filled with tree leaves and you would hear him doubling over laughing on the ground. (Throw the box at him, I won’t judge)

He’d constantly be doing small harmless pranks here and there. Like for Valentines Day, giving you flowers and if you mention there are no chocolate he comments that you are supposed to eat the flowers too (go ahead and kick his shin, he deserves it. Chocolate doesn’t even have meat and if you’re not vegan it shouldn’t matter, so rude lol)

He might make those dumb jokes like “Ah, since you’re not eating the cow, I guess I can eat your portion for you, heh” and you’d give him a deadpan look and he’d realize it probably wasn’t that funny.

He’d even offer you a hamburger once or twice just to be snide and then be like “Oh, I guess the herbivore can’t eat this~” (just slap it to the floor and watch him cry at the wasted food)

If you were enjoying watching an animal like a deer roam around, he might say “Oh, those taste pretty good, ya know? They aren’t too gamey” and you would just stare at him with a horrified face. Like… I’m enjoying myself watching this cute creature and you have the audacity to comment to me that this thing taste good?!

Granted if you tell him some jokes are not funny, he’d feel guilty and stop. (Personally me I’ve heard enough of them that sometimes they bother me since they’re a tad insensitive. Like… don’t hate on my diet because I decided to follow something I’m passionate about. But some people just don’t know that, so communication is the key)

He wouldn’t make you change your diet but he also isn’t going to change his diet for you either. So as long as you’re okay with that, you both should be all snazzy.

He might even give you an endearing nickname like bunny or another plant eating animal you might like. (Call him kitten back in a private setting 😂 he’d get upset but I mean it is his s/o so maybe he’ll give you a pass and think it’s cute)

Despite all his teasing, he’d respect your choices and decisions and even try things for you here and there. He’d also consider going places with you having the meal plan already accounted for your diet. So like if you both go to a movie and then eat dinner, he’d make sure if he was making the plans to go to a place with vegetarian options. He likes the determination and passion you have that then shapes how you live your life. It’s something he would feel a tinge of envy even and maybe even get some motivation to try things.

He also wouldn’t allow anyone else to make fun of you for your diet either. The moment a dumb freshie points it out and tries to make a shifty joke, their blood would run cold seeing Leona’s glare.

Let’s be glad his vice housewarden is Ruggie too. He can whip any kind of dish up for you and actually have it taste good when visiting Savanaclaw. (Some people don’t understand that we don’t just eat salads 🙃 i don’t even like salads that much….) I mean he even tries to get Leona to eat his vegetables on a daily basis by cutting them up so small that he can’t see them (he’s probably be thankful if you could get him to eat more veggies too).

Endnote: I might make another post of this one day but I had to get this out of my brain rot head

[radio-charlie]

Have to take it easier this morning, esp since i got crisis hotline shift from 8 am until noon anyway, so i have time to tell u guys how things went for the kampung aka village that really needed help, and Walaa’s food project

The kampung:

Things are now going awesomely. Colleague brought them food and drinking water 3 days ago, yesterday a friend bought them baby formula, diapers and sanitary pads with money they raised thru FB and drove the stuff over, and Parti Sosialis Malaysia sent a team who brought stoves, masks, LPG (gas cylinders for cooking), clothes, food... u name it. What the DAP team aka Ong Kian Ming’s team brought - I dont know yet, I haven’t been able to contact him yet and probably won’t be to for sometime. Some of my friends have collected household items and have arranged for delivery today. PSM is going to bring sanitary pads, carpets and more cooking stuff over this afternoon as well.

This community really lost everything and they’re part of a demographic many Malaysians are prejudiced against, so frankly, even if they get “surplus” I’m glad. Not like they will be getting that much help from federal govt in the long run...................

Walaa’s food project:

Walaa is a Palestinian home caterer here who has offered to cook 200 sponsored meals (nasi arab) for flood survivors. She just needed someone to coordinate, organise and fundraise for her so I was like ok sure. After approaching Parti Sosialis Malaysia for help identifying communities in need + arranging delivery transportation, and working out logistics w Walaa thru two translators, and then fundraising on socmed/in private group conversations, we met the RM2000 sponsorship target yesterday evening. Especial shoutouts to the angel who stepped in at the eleventh hour and donated a humongous sum to us (you quite literally saved 200 hungry ppl from huge disappointment lol), the three Arabic<->English translators who generously volunteered their hard work all day for free, and Arveent of PSM, who helped us arrange so much all the way from Penang on top of his grueling office job.

So yea now we’re just hoping Walaa and family can get the ingredients and prepare the meals in time coz the 200 packs of nasi arab are due... tomorrow 11.30 am LOL. but they’ve done like 400 meals in two days before so hey you know what, if anybody can pull it off, it’s them.

Ok that’s about it I think. We’re not in the clear yet but at least good progress has been made and everything is moving in the right direction. My most heartfelt thanks to everybody who offered moral support and shared the posts I made about these things even though some of you are many miles away and don’t even know who I am.

[dappersheep]

Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (2/3)

Welcome back. Before we get started, disclaimers again! I do not own the game or its characters, nor do I claim to know the history and future of the game. What I am entitled to are the thoughts and opinions written within this post. You may or may not agree with the points spoken of here. This post also remains untagged from the main foofan tag. Only my followers will see this.

We are now on the second part, so let's go forward under the cut!

Elex

And here we have our beloved global publisher that most of seem to have Stockholm Syndrome for. Don't lie, at least half of us are still playing this damned game due to sunken cost fallacy, sunken time fallacy and the cute/hot jpegs.

In 2018, everything started out fine. Sure, maybe we had some translation mishaps here and there -coughwe'llgettothatwreckagelatercough- but overall, Elex was running the game fairly well. Rewards were on time, we had active social media and support, and a discord was set up!

Hint: Please note I use quite a bit of sarcasm in most everything I say.

And then somewhere along that road, things got derailed. And I mean it like, we're in the midst of a trainwreck in slow motion and we've only cleared the initial collision and still hurtling forward or backward into a steel wreckage ticking inferno.

Problems started cropping up as early as late 2018, just a few months after the game was launched in July.

⦁ Art contest mishaps. You know when you hold an art contest on Facebook out of all places with its shitty tagging system, you're bound to have entries lost to the void, people forced to register an FB account just to participate (seriously, who even has an FB account that isn't just there to appease family members?) and having to wrestle with figuring out how FB's tagging system works. Add to that the panel of judges happen to be Elex staff who don't have a good eye for good artwork (we actually had a kiddy figure drawing win over a well drawn one during the last contest!) and that they ALSO weren't very good at organizing such contests on FB... well, we had several grievances over that.

⦁ Region blocked FB announcements. Strangely enough, I stopped getting announcements around Father's Day of 2019 while everyone else outside of SEA kept getting updates. Turns out that someone on Elex's staff really didn't like SEA players or was just really bad at fixing the settings for the group and never bothered to revert it back. It didn't matter in the long run though, because...

⦁ Abandoned social media platforms. FooFan Twitter, FooFan Facebook... they all floated slowly into the void and was never heard from again. And this was before the 2020 pandemic.

⦁ Remember what I said about Discord? Yeah, apparently, they opened one up a little too early and the staff in charge of it knew zero about how to setup and mod a discord community, and didn't even have the manpower needed to mod the influx of members that came in! Suffice to say, they had to get help from top players and mods from the FB groups to come in and sort things out because someone kept pinging @ everyone every few seconds other than the usual chaos that comes from a server with no filters and people trying to turn the discord into Global Chat 2.0, minus Russian hours.

⦁ Also in line with the point about abandoned social media platforms, they've also mostly abandoned the discord too and only pop in once in a while to check the bug reports or lost accounts. You have a slightly better chance of response with the in-game support. Only slightly. And there's a running joke with several variations on the main discord that the Owner account of the discord server was manned by an intern-kun who never bothered to pass it on to the next unfortunate soul left to maintain this game.

⦁ Favoritism. Funtoy is also guilty of this but they don't publish the game for Global. If you're a top spender the likes of maxing out your cash rebates within the three months or so and you kept spending even beyond that, Elex could possibly invite you to a funky little club where your voice is more important than say... 99% of the playerbase. On top of that, if you keep spending, you could technically also ask for stuff like getting this frame over that frame, or well.... delay certain features from coming to Global for over a year. Now you can simp AND be heard! (Note: In 2021, it's possible that that club may be dead too, as all things shall be)

⦁ SJW Friendly. I don't know if Funtoy themselves have anything to also do with this particular decision... but it's saying something that after a certain little tiddy tantrum from the community side, Elex decided not to announce anything about a certain event's fate and when asked by it by other parties (not me) they either lie through their teeth, or beat around the bush with a non-answer.

⦁ Partial translations, mistranslations. Now, I understand that a lot of Chinese grammar and semantics are confusing to translate properly into several other languages, but you'd think Elex would have given their translators more context to the character or the mechanic to avoid such mistranslations that later set off gender debates or worded the skill/artifact description a little clearer. That is... unless Elex really is hands-off trying to get to know this IP from the start and only gave it the most bare minimum of English where they can cut costs for it, so people can understand it 'well enough' to throw money at an obviously not beta-read quality game.

⦁ No translations. Yes we do have certain parts of the game that are in Chinese since forever since xx patch. Some characters' voiceline texts are still in chinese, especially during the Pledge scenes. More recent artifacts are also in chinese with no announced translation in sight. And don't get me started on the Food Soul bios, or lack thereof.

⦁ Delayed events. Prime example? We had weeks of minor events/no events and still Elex managed to eff everything up for our second Anniversary in July 2020. We ended up getting the Croissant event in late August with barely any apologies and compensation for the delay... and this likely would have never arrived as 'early' as it did if people hadn't been railing about where our Anniversary event was. As it stands, we are several minor events behind CN, at least a year and a half's worth behind. I know Global had requested heavily for more spaced out events (to save resources, not that it actually worked with all the nerfed rewards we get) compared to CN but this is extremely ridiculous.

⦁ Delayed permanent features. Hm... Guild Wars, Sky Tower, Bar, that Wuchang Fish Showdown... several Quality of Life updates.... that new permanent pool update... Food Souls still missing their JP voice packs... Food Soul Bios... *slowly ticking off more than I have fingers and toes*

⦁ Customer Support is whack. You'd be lucky if you got someone who understood your problem/inquiry right off the bat AND did something about it efficiently. You'd be luckier if they answered you honestly if you were inquiring about event updates or other buggy features or reporting hackers.

⦁ The Great Turkey and Apple Incident of 2020. Well, if you were around for that little SNAFU during the Turkey re-run event, you'd know a percentage of people suddenly got logged out of their accounts and had a baller of a time trying to get their accounts back. You were especially unfortunate if you were playing on an iOS account because even if you did bind it (like a responsible player should be doing), you probably still wouldn't get it back in time to rank properly during Turkey. Some Android players also experienced this, but it wasn't as bad as what the iOS players experienced. And then there was the compensation mishap for that too.

⦁ Hacker-chan and not-so-uwu Hacker-teme. Hacker-chan is a meme. Hacker-chan was a harmless player who regularly topped in Top Showdown every week for a time to send a message to Elex just how easy it is to hack the game in certain rankings and invited Elex to ban them every time, just to test how competent Elex is. In the end, Elex has proven to be incompetent and also glaringly stupid about how their published game works. Hacker-teme is a collective of individuals over time who have cheated the game during important ranking events or in somewhat important permanent battles. If you tried to report a Hacker-teme with evidence to prove it -and trust me, people repeatedly have-, Elex would tell you that they're not cheating and/or lie through their teeth that they're 'investigating the case' and then not do anything about it and let them keep their event ranking and thus get the rewards while someone who actually worked hard/whaled hard to get the spot gets denied. In one case, they believe that if an account has rebate points and the player level is at least around level 80, then the hacker-teme is obviously playing the game fairly. Never mind that their units happened to have low to no artifact nodes opened, and not high in ascension.

And that is the end of the Elex saga. I'm aware there's likely more things about Elex that I've missed, but feel free to add on to this analysis post with your own thoughts.

The last part of this trilogy is probably what many of us are waiting for, for obvious reasons.

[spiritualgateway]

The Next Wave

written by Steven Black:

We seem to be experiencing a boom of old conspiracy theories. Sometimes woven into a new coat, but at the core they are the same old black and white stories. Is it also true that all the conjecture, relativization, fake news and various conspiracy theories that are currently surfacing annoy the hell out of you? I have to be very careful about the sarcastic part of myself and therefore I keep myself from commenting. Not always, but mostly.

Whenever I open my FB Stream lately, I notice a real war being waged by the self-proclaimed awakened against the alleged sleeping sheep. One „have to know“ after the other is posted and „THE Truth About“ is announced – daily. I know this all too well.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Yes, I went through a phase myself where I believed a lot of bullshit or at least thought it was possible. It started in the late 90’s and ended in 2012, and during that time I probably inhaled every existing conspiracy theory and read all the authors who spread it with a fervor of conviction. Starting with David Icke, Jan van Helsing, Robin de Ruiter and countless others, up to Alex Jones. Hell, I myself have contributed to the spread of such stories. The subjects they dealt with back then were not really different from what they are today.  

Me and many other people, we thought we were „awakened“ then, because we believed we could understand the world more and better, like everyone else. Critical comments were countered with „inform yourself properly“ and immediately some links of „alternative points of view“ were thrown behind, which confirmed our own statement. And one could be sure that other participants who took the same bubble would shout down the critic as „mainstream sleep sheep“. No matter what argument came up – it did not reach anyone. In this phase one is not accessible to criticism, one fends it off. But if the criticism is so valid that it cannot be negated, one still had the recourse to some whataboutism.

It was a time when it was all about „the rise“ and all the political or economic daily news was seen as „there is light coming into the darkness“. We knew that the „end of the matrix“ was near and that a worldwide recalibration of consciousness was coming. We thought of ourselves as light warriors, critics of the system, rebels for the good and enlighteners. Fervently inspired by the conviction that we had all taken the „red pill“ and would now be the only ones to see clearly, we wanted to wake up and enlighten „the sleeping sheep“. In doing so, we constantly reminded them that it was absolutely (!) necessary to do research, think for oneself and question everything! Only WE knew, all others were of course stupid, brainwashed or sleeping. We were the judges, jurors and executioners of the worldly realities – self-proclaimed world policemen and smartass activists. We alone knew how the rabbit had to hop and how it „should be right“.

Pffff. When I look back on it now, I can laugh about it heartily. God, what a wonderful mindfuck.  

Yes, if we had done it like that.. If we had heeded this „winged advice“ that we had thrown at everyone, we would have taken it to heart ourselves. If we had questioned the sources we referred to and believed. Instead, our own thinking, research and questioning was limited to almost everything that came from alternative media and supported our views. Official facts, whether political, economic or otherwise, were „mainstream“ and thus fundamentally untrustworthy. It was all just propaganda … (yes no, that’s clear).

This made us susceptible to believe people and media that had either a political or other agenda. Starting with racist Jew haters, religiously dressed up ideologues, political muddle-heads, esoteric concepts without any grounding, up to „doomsday fanatics“.

But we had heard a call from the universe that the time had come for an expansion of consciousness. It felt like a kind of magical awakening. And I, as well as everyone else in that time who was like that, we were not the first. There have been recurring, rather small movements since the 1950s. But there was a really big, concentrated shift of consciousness in 1986, at the time of the so-called „Harmonic Convergence“. One can certainly call this the first great wave of lightworkers and truth seekers that the world has perceived.      

They did not fare much better either. These people, too, had to rummage through various horror scenarios, actual and imagined injustices, as well as their own overflowing imagination. But the basic themes were the same as they still are today. They are power topics (power and powerlessness), money topics, resistance to living, dying and all kinds of heavy, undigested emotional burdens. At that time, all of this was going on a little more quietly, at least in the eyes of the public. These topics were only discussed in small forums on the early Internet.

And today?

Today, the „social media“ are full of them and various shit storms are spilling over into the media mainstream.

Today the exact same process is taking place, in a new wave of people who have come in the beginning of their own awakening process. Awakened can not be spoken of, it is a slow awakening and it usually takes years.

One „wakes up“ from years of unconscious dwelling within one’s own personality structure, which has usually become quite rigid. One gradually enters into a new process of self-discovery, where many things are simply thrown over, which were normal and acceptable until then. The sense behind this is a broadening of perspective and a restructuring of mental expression.

Yeah, right. They got a call from the universe.

And at first you are thrown into confusion and disorientation. You will also have the feeling of stumbling around in a seemingly endless labyrinth. Individually varying degrees of identity loss can occur, which additionally creates fear. Many things seem to make no sense anymore, you part with friends, views and previously held beliefs, while at the same time you have the feeling that you can no longer find a secure hold anywhere. A well known, often observable reaction to this is a devaluation of the human being, the body, the mind or the human identity itself. In the course of this process one stumbles from one conspiracy theory to the next, constantly stepping on a bullshit cookie and sometimes not knowing whether one is male or female.

Can you prevent this? No idea. Most probably not.

That doesn’t mean that everyone who gets into this process is clinging to conspiracy theories and thinking they are THE thing or the only and pure truth. But a lot of people do just that. In a time of great personal uncertainty, the one-dimensional black and white images of conspiracy theories seem to simulate an unpleasant but seemingly stable reality.

Basically, an essential scenario is happening here – your consciousness is being twisted through the wringer and a kind of battle is taking place inside you. A battle between your old consciousness and the new, unknown. The old consciousness knows only defense and projection, but the new one wants to reflect and express itself mainly through self-reflection.

This inner fight has nothing to do with any Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Bill Gates, vaccinations, cash bans, paedophile satanists, mind control or whatever. In reality, „the universe“ is fucking your old consciousness to break you open and dissolve old encrusted structures. And the first, basic reaction is mostly projection and defense.

Hiking through your own darkness

There is a spiritual metaphor that says: „The dark night of the soul. This term goes back to the Spanish Carmelite and mystic John of the Cross. It is a poem written in the 15th century – in prison. For John of the Cross it was about the mystical union of the soul with God. Nowadays this metaphor is used to describe the difficult period of a spiritual development process, where the human personality has to struggle with disorientation, depression and confusion. Its purpose is actually to achieve a continuous, increasing and lasting reconnection with one’s own soul consciousness. This is a time when many things that once seemed normal and safe for the human personality simply seem to break away. Where instead depressive states are experienced, where crises, insecurity and loss of orientation prevail.

I actually believe that we are all in some kind of global dark night – the entire human species, the entire human family. And, of course, that means a process that will last for several years and probably decades. We are going through personal and global, very individual crises and we are coming into contact with our own darkness. With many things that we have been carrying for a long time, but which we are very often simply not really aware of. And a whole lot of situations and emotions are being washed up inside of us, so that we have the opportunity to check if it still fits for us. Yes, in the end it is years of trials …  

It takes a while to understand that expanding consciousness has little to do with any external enemies, but rather with what is going on inside and how to deal with it. Nevertheless, it is apparently unavoidable that you first shoot yourself on everything you find in the world of Scheixxe and what you judge to be „that shouldn’t be like that“. And so one wades for a while through all kinds of dirt, horror ideas, laments about injustice and deals with horror scenarios. Starting with worldwide mind control, up to some omnipotent enemies of mankind. As an antipole you read channelings or inform yourself about natural food.

Basically, projections are a defense mechanism of the psyche. The term projection describes the transfer and shifting of one or more inner psychological conflicts to other persons, groups of people, living beings or various objects of the outside world.

Relatively harmless projections are when we ascribe characteristics, deficiencies or problems to other people, which we ourselves carry openly or hidden within ourselves. A far more serious form of transference is when I believe that the whole world is conspiring against me (or humanity, the whole earth, health, freedom, morality, faith, etc.).

Whatever the case may be, when we project, we thus transfer our own issues, fears or worries, to other people, organizations or groups of people, so that we do not have to feel it with ourselves. And then link these fears to certain events or circumstances that we do not like, which is then considered „proof“. The point is – what we project and transfer to other people are either unrecognized, personal qualities or unprocessed, emotional problems from our past, which we transfer to the present. And often, both variants intermingle. Projection allows us to transfer self-experienced situations or predominant emotional states, in our own consciousness, that are perceived as unbearable, to ward off these emotions from ourselves by transferring them to x-any situation, people and organizations.

And this, whether we want it or not, is unavoidable in a real wake-up process.

We push away what is inside of us and project it onto politicians, Illuminati, cabal, deep state mind control or whatever. To explain to us why we have certain feelings or thoughts. In this way we can continue to fool ourselves that everything is okay with US – only with THOSE out there, there is something wrong with them.

Talmud: „We do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are“.

You can of course now despise all this fear porn of various conspiracy theories and call it bullshit – which of course is a good 99% (in my opinion) of all conspiracy theories. But in the end, they seem to fulfill a need that is not quite visible on the surface.

When you get into such a wake-up process – process, mind you – your entire identity structure is „attacked“. All the things and experiences that we hid from ourselves and that we repressed will be flushed up from our inner self over time and our protective and defensive shields will become porous. Most of the time, we have buried them so deeply that we can no longer feel or perceive many things. Deep, formative experiences that reach far back into childhood. All our deep fears, the inner insecurity, the doubts or our real self-esteem will gradually creep to the surface and say hello. Everything that has been quietly there all along will suddenly start screaming very loudly inside us.

Conspiracy theories are theories, not facts. They are extremely simplified black-and-white images and, moreover, highly exaggerated descriptions of a seemingly alternative reality. Mixed and connected with actual, clearly criticizable, political, social or economic processes. Whereby, however, the really criticizable things are completely lost, because the context with which they are interpreted is completely far-fetched.

BUT …

Now, if a Xavier Naidoo in a video cries because allegedly thousands of children are being freed from an underground torture prison where they were abused as human lab rats to obtain an alleged super drug called Adrenochrome and you react emotionally to it, it is because this extremely shocking horror show is arguing with certain experiences of your own past. Maybe from a past life, maybe in this life – does not matter in the end.

But you can suddenly feel THAT. It breaks down your protective shields and your emotional numbness. You can feel this nameless horror inside you, what it must mean to be tortured, abused and trapped. Powerless, to be exposed innocently and helplessly to something. But at the moment you can’t realize that this might have something to do with yourself. And you do not want to feel all the unpleasant things that have to do with you personally. You do not want to feel your personal powerlessness, helplessness or fears. You want to get rid of that.

I’m not saying that conspiracy theories are good. But everyone has to go through his own processes, even if that means having to go through a nonsense of denial of reality. If you bought into it, then you have to go through it. Okay, whatever makes you descend into your own darkness is good.

Of course, there is no such underground bunker and no tortured children to produce adrenochromes. And of course, „St. Donald Trump“ has not freed anyone. This Q Anon story is completely free of meaning and serves nothing else but to secure Donald Trump’s re-election and keep his conservative voters happy. Apart from the fact that there is child trafficking, that there is organized sexual and also ritual abuse of children, there is no truth in the story itself.

These and other conspiracy theories, however, bring you in touch with your own feelings and emotions that are buried deep inside you. The stronger you react to it, the more outraged and angry your reaction is, the more emotional charge you have built up.

The dark and heavy energy, such formatted information, docks fundamentally to the inner parts of the person that are in pain, traumatized or disoriented. This inner pain is often so well hidden and suppressed, so great and unspeakable – because never processed or admitted by us that only a supermonstrous, absolutely malignant source can explain it, who must be behind it. This kind of milkmaid’s calculation, of an omnipotent conspiracy feeds and triggers the fragmented inner child within us, which then becomes angry and projects its hatred, its rage and despair onto the world.

What do you think it does to you when you wallow in assertions and views that the eternal sacrificial existence enshrines? What does it do to you when you think the world is in the iron grip of a global conspiracy, a supposed elite, with the aim of undermining moral principles and ultimately reducing humanity? If you believe that some malevolent aliens have allied themselves with various leaders or secret organizations to rule the earth? And you yourself are completely powerless in this?

Does it make life much more fun? Does it create meaning, love or harmony for yourself and more connection to the world? Does it produce improvements in your personal life? You will have to admit that this is not the case. On the contrary – you clearly feel worse. If you roll around in dirt, you don’t get cleaner, but naturally dirtier.

If you go through this phase, the day will come when you are „done with the world“. Where you feel so weakened, depressed and trapped in your own darkness that you will experience a kind of inner breakdown. You will approach a state where you give up. Which, as weird as this may sound, is a good thing. When your inner resistance and your defense strategies no longer work and collapse, there is only one way out – to work through your emotional burdens. In reality, this is not a breakdown, even if it feels that way – it is a breakthrough.

This is the moment when the real challenge begins and you are so „backed up“ that you are ready to face your own personal issues. And in the end it’s all about that and nothing else. It is about you, not about politics, economics, Illuminati, cabal, Donald Trump, Rothschilds, Soros, Bill Gates or Rockefeller. It is about you personally, in this process. How you feel with yourself, your body and your life.

The Rothschilds are not responsible for how you feel or whether you have too little money in your pocket. Donald Trump is not coming to save you, Germany or the world. God or the universe will not transport you to a light-filled 5 D world where you don’t have to feel all the pain anymore. George Soros is not to blame if you do not take responsibility for yourself. The pharmaceutical industry is not to blame if you are sick. The slaughterhouses are not to blame if you are meat. Reptilian shape-shifters have nothing to do with it if you don’t feel comfortable with yourself or your body. Illuminati or Kabale are not responsible if your relationship breaks down or you are no longer satisfied with it. No one is responsible for whether you can accept yourself, with all your apparent faults or inadequacies. No one, except ourselves …

All these are deeply personal issues and conflicts that should be looked at. No one will come to save you miraculously. You are the one you are waiting for. You are the one who can „save“ yourself.

It is about making new friends with yourself and life. It is about self-acceptance and self-acceptance, exactly as you are. And you will only achieve this if you really deal deeply with yourself. Everything else is just an attempt to avoid yourself. To avoid the pain, loneliness, loss, anger and many other conditions that have accumulated in you for years. And it takes a lot of courage to venture into a therapeutic reappraisal process and to face your personal stories mercilessly.

This is a very critical time when you are extremely vulnerable and unfortunately some people do not manage to take the necessary step and get stuck in the old stories. They get stuck in conspiracy theories and cling to them desperately. And bullet through one wave of outrage into the next. If you don’t do transformation work and don’t integrate all the unpleasant emotions into yourself, you can get stuck in it for a very long time.

I recommend to everyone who wants to hear it, an examination of the Inner Person Model. And I strongly recommend feeling work. Get professional help if you are in this process. You will find it very difficult to get through on your own and if so, you will have to spend much more time with it. So take care of yourself and your consciousness …

Man is basically not a prisoner of fate, Illuminati, Freemasons, aliens, etc., but of his own consciousness, which he does not care about. When you deal with your inner conflicts, your emotional nebulas and diffuse mental states, you regain clarity – above all clarity about yourself. If you are clear with yourself again, many strange convictions you had about x – any external processes will also be cleared. You will then realize that you don’t need conspiracy theories to criticize various processes or states in our society. There are enough factual, fact-based and also technically competent arguments for this.  

For those of us who have been through it for a long time, for those who find it a bit annoying to see all this old stuff reappearing so massively in the social media. But we should remember that we once experienced a similar phase and had to go through it. No, of course these people are not stupid, even if a part of me has the perception that the concentrated stupidity seems to take over the power at the moment. They are merely in a process of transition and one can only wish them good luck and good luck with it. They are not the first and will not be the last. In fact, I believe that this will intensify.

I have a part of me that thinks it could save people from their own experience if they only had enough information. This part of me thinks he would abandon his tribe if he didn’t say anything about it. And so I sometimes make comments to some people when I feel it would make sense to correct the statement. Most of the time it doesn’t take 2 minutes of googling to find out the facts. Meanwhile I make such comments only once, sometimes even twice. But if I constantly get answers to them, which my 20 years younger self has known for a long time, because he himself answered criticism like this, then I stop.

Because the adult in me knows that it makes no further sense and the person has to go through this experience until the end. Once you are in it, there is no other way out than to go all the way through it. Then I just keep my mouth shut and sometimes I unfriend or put people on „sleep“. Especially those who share particularly annoying „alternative theories“. This is pure self-protection. I just try to keep some distance to the experiences of others that don’t fit (anymore) to mine.

It took me a lot of persuasion to make this part of me understand that it cannot protect or prevent anyone from their personal experience. And to feel all the sadness and regret, at the thought that in this process some will „fall under the table“ and may not be able to rise from there. This part of my personality has now understood that his tribe has to do its own personal, very individual work to come to terms with the situation and that this is entirely his responsibility. Or he will get stuck in his experience.

I am also aware that the term conspiracy theorist is considered offensive by many who are in it. Well, they should thank those people who, by mixing up thoroughly criticizable topics with phobias, paranoia, hysteria and pure fantasy, led to a huge accumulation of absurd theories that no clear-thinking person can take seriously. And no, the term conspiracist was not invented by the CIA to silence critics of the Kennedy assassination. It goes back to the Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper, who coined the term conspiracy theory as early as 1948.

From where I stand today, conspiracy theories make no sense at all. They are packed with emotional dramas and personal imbalances, cause doubt, create fear and feed the hysterical inner child. Never have conspiracy theories led to anything constructive. They simply invite you to let your hatred, resistance, lack of empathy and inner drama queen out and let the proverbial sow run free. To understand this, just look through the commentary columns under some VT Post.

And it is not at all about the fact that there have been or are actual conspiracies throughout human history. But all the things that are manufactured and suspected about it today, so bizarre and excessive, can’t be put on any cow skin anymore. Conspiracies are by definition top secret – they are so secret that any fool with computer access can find them neatly listed on the Internet. Michael from Recklinghausen knows them all, maybe the CIA should hire him …

Makes totally sense, right?

But okay, it’s just basic personal issues that are transported in this way. Apparently, for some of us it is necessary to exaggerate things so much that we are capable of an emotional reaction. Because no matter which horror story is given for the best – it is always MY personal fear that is then triggered. My anxiety, my paranoia, my hysteria – all kinds of emotional instability that exists within myself is reflected.    

And when you are in there, you believe that it is all real. That some reptiles rule the world, that George Soros is using refugees to destroy Christianity, that Angela Merkel, Barack Obama and white-vultures are still reptiles in human form, that the Corona crisis is a hoax, that it’s the pretext for establishing a dictatorship, that all the famous Hollywood actors or politicians are pedophiles and that Donald Trump is liberating Germany. That the Corona crisis would be the final wake-up call for the rise to 5D or would be used by the elite to initiate a system crash and abolish cash or put all of humanity under mind control … etc., etc., etc.

It’s like a huge buffet where you can eat according to your personal taste. You can buy into any of these narratives – but a real danger is that they will swallow and eat you.

Ironically, it doesn’t really matter if things actually have any truth to them. The only criterion is whether or not we believe the narrated things. And what we believe is in turn related to a certain kind of identity. If there is already a deep conviction in our identity structure that we are victims, helplessly exposed to things and life, then it is not very difficult to convince ourselves of a world in which ALL people are victims of a huge conspiracy.

We all know, the world can sometimes be a terrible, unfeeling and cold place. But it can also be a beautiful, uplifting place, full of beautiful people and experiences. Everything this world holds in store is always an expression of people, of dynamics and personal, national and global processes and the consequences of these. If you look at the world in general with a sober view, you can see what a long way we as humanity still have to go.

It is a war that is raging inside us and that reflects its expression on the outside. The war between all the unredeemed and burdensome emotional content, the mental beliefs built around it and the painful attempts to control it and keep it away from us – but which we always lose because the elaborate stories we tell ourselves about it to rationalize and explain the pain away collapse sooner or later and the pain comes back to us with all its force. We can’t run away from it, because we can’t run away from ourselves.

None of us can „save“ the world, but we can „save“ ourselves and do our inner processing work. Imagine that everyone would do this? In no time we would see a completely different world. But since we refuse most of it and think that we ourselves do not need it – it will probably take some time. Nevertheless, this is the path we must take.

Until next time same station …

DISCLAIMER: Nothing you read here is THE truth. It is my truth, my perception and how I see things – now, in this moment.

THE INFORMATION SPACE

[badfey]

is there anything u wish u had known pre-top surgery? I’m trying to schedule mine next yr and I’m worried I rushed into picking my surgeon even tho I looked at a Lot. I’ve got a list of questions to ask but curious if there’s anything you can think of! Thanks, if u get a chance to reply 🥺

firstly congrats and good luck with your top surgery, i hope the wait goes quickly!!

There were a lot of things i wasn’t expecting about top surgery - not necessarily that i wish i’d known in advance, just that i didn’t anticipate. I wrote a document of them not long after surgery which ill post soon and link back to here :) right now ill go through the main stuff i wish i had known, and any questions i had (under a cut because it got long)

Stuff I Wish I’d Known

Some of this depends on how your surgeon does things. I had 6 days before my post-op appointment w chest reveal. 

That first week is tough. Ymmv, but for me it was really hard. I knew that post-op depression was a thing, i didn’t realise what it would feel like. For me it was a lot of being tired and not being able to sleep because of not being able to get comfortable (having to sleep elevated for a few days & pain), so getting more tired and bored but too fatigued to do anything in that classic frustrating cycle. Once i slept decently for the first time i felt human again (nytol is a lifesaver). It’s also tough bc ur sweaty n uncomfortable and u haven’t showered or taken off the post-op binder for a week, and with the dressings and swelling it doesn’t feel like its really happened yet? After chest reveal thats a lot easier

Sometimes moving around you’ll feel something like pull or pop and you get so so paranoid about pulling a stitch i seriously thought id pulled a stitch but its usually like the dressings adhesion or something, you don’t need to freak out. My best friend here was this uk trans fb group because i could search and find years of posts with ppl having the same problems, or ask and ppl would give advice and calm me down, so it’s good to join a community like that ready for if you inevitably get stressed about something (also good for post-op boredom)

You cant use your arms to move. Sounds obvious but like i never realised how much i reflexively rely on using arms to move sitting positions on a bed, and how you need to pay attention to override that impulse. 

Peeing after anesthetic is weirdly hard. It really helps if you practise consciously releasing the specific muscles to pee beforehand 

I was so hungry. I got fed sure (great food too) but i wish i had taken snacks. 

Questions to ask

Im gonna list some stuff that you may already know/have on your list but it might help fill any gaps :) 

When are your post-ops? Are they included in the surgery price? Mine were at 6 days (chest reveal) and 8 weeks (normally 6 weeks but my surgeon was on holiday lol) and both included in the price of surgery (which is standard for here i think). Its good to have rough timeframes in advance so you can plan around it.

Ask about revisions - are they included in the price, what is the timeframe you can get revisions for, how you would start the revision process if you need it? Hopefully you won’t need it but its important to know just in case & so you don’t need to worry about it. I think my surgeon got a bit touchy when I brought up revisions but i was just clear that if I’m getting this surgery and paying a lot of money for it i need to know this stuff in advance which as a professional he should be fine with.

Can you have a say in scar shape and/or nipple size? Usually you can, and this is often at the pre-op when they draw all over your chest before surgery. Don’t feel like you can't weigh in - this is your chest. Also even at consultation they might be able to give you an idea of what your scar/s will look like. 

If you’re getting nipple grafts, ask about their graft success rate!! I was super stressed about my nipples falling off, but my surgeon said that even though stats say about 10% of nipple grafts r unsuccessful, in practise he sees a much smaller percentage than that, and even ones that do reject often grow back (lmk if u wanna know more what i mean) or can just be easily touched up with tattooing. Also if theres anything they recommend for graft success.

Does your surgeon recommend using arnica? Arnica is a homeopathic remedy for bruising, swelling, and wound healing. There’s differing views on whether it actually works, but in my case i took arnica tablets 1 week before and 2 weeks post-op and i think it really helped. They also tasted nice. Some people use arnica gel to aid healing once you can start massaging. 

Where will you be for overnight recovery? Will you be on a ward or in a room? Do you have access to a TV? Do you have access to a plug socket or charging point? Do you get wifi? Chances are you’ll be bored at some point over the time you’re in there, especially if you struggle sleeping. It’s good to know whats available in advance so you can come with things to keep you entertained. 

Does your surgeon use drains? You probably already know/have an idea of this bc its something a lot of ppl consider when choosing surgeons, buts its good to know if you don’t. Also, it can change - I chose my surgeon partially because he only uses overnight drains so you don’t have to deal with them in recovery. When i was there i found out he has stopped using drains altogether for smaller guys so i never actually had them (pleasant surprise). 

Does your surgeon want you to wear a post-op binder? Do they supply the binder? Post-op binders r a good idea they stop swelling soo much, so even if your surgeon doesn’t recommend it i’d definitely ask if it’d be safe for you to wear one. You can't wear regular binders. If you’re sourcing your own, again trans groups r great bc they can give local recs and lots of people sell/pass on their old ones. I am happy to give anyone recs, but they’re all uk based. 

How will you communicate with nurses post-op? Most people don’t live too near their top surgeon, so you’ll probably check-up remotely. I just sent nurses emails of my nips and incisions and anything i was worried about the healing of and they’d let me know if it looked okay. 

If you have any conditions/disabilities/illnesses, ask if they’ve ever operated on someone with them/similar before. I have fibro + hypermobility and tbh it was reassuring to hear him talk about experiences other patients with chronic pain had had before and how they coped.

Okay sorry that was really long, but its pretty much everything i could think of question wise! I hope it helps! Let me know if there’s any other questions you have at all :)

[bloomingtea]

Tine thinks he won the roommate lottery  — a college au ↓

Tine has been noticing it since he was like 16: his eyes sometimes linger a way too much on guys, he thinks it must be normal, you know, teen hormones and all that. He still dates girls

“Normal, my ass!” Fong says when Tine comments about it, and the very next moment he regrets and adds “that’s normal actually, maybe just means you are not only into girls.” And gives Tine things to think and overthink about

So maybe he’s bi?

People say that college is the best place to experiment and good thing he’s going soon, moving from his hometown to Bangkok

Bad thing he’s going to college soon because his parent tell him they don’t have money to rent another dorm room, but maybe they could afford an apartment for him and his older brother, Type, who’s already in Bangkok

Bad thing because Type is a clean freak where Tine is kind of your usual teen messy, plus has a tendency to break things, which trigger Type’s tendency to get annoyed over messes

Also bad thing because he’s pretty sure that Type isn’t very fond of queer people

So he talks about it with his one-braincell-group of friends, and Ohm suggests him to look on FB. “There’s tons of posts of people looking for roommates”

So he connects with a dude. A political science student. He has a room free because his friend ditched him last minute and the only requirement is to pay his share before the first week

He seems quite a good dude, almost laid-back, so Tine goes to check the apartment. It’s small but comfortable, near to the campus and to bar&clubs area. So he starts to ask:

“what about the food?”  “we can pay 50/50 and if there’s something you don’t want me to touch, put a sticker on it or something”

“what about study?” “huh….i don’t study, but text me if you need space or quiet, I’ll leave or something”

“what about the bathroom?” “yeah, we’ll need to set some rules. I don’t shave a lot, but I hate to see hairs in the floor”

“and what about….queer people?” the dude shrugs. “love is love, dude. Wait, don’t tell me you’re homoph-bic, because that I won’t stand” “nonono” “great. Also, if you’re gonna bring someone, a heads up will be nice.”

This is too good, Tine thinks. Then the guy says: “oh, also, my friends tend to come here often, hope you don’t mind?” And Tine says no, because he likes to be around people and also it’s his right 

And that’s how Tine and Man become roommates

It goes fine, really. Because Man is friendly and likes to repair things in order to not study, so he doesn’t mind when Tine breaks those things. And takes him to different places to grab food and booze, because Man loves to drink, but never goes really overboard because he’s used to have to drive that old motorbike of his and so he holds himself back unconsciously even if he’s not driving  tonight (except he also never offers a ride bc “sorry Tine, that place is reserved for the future loml”)

And Man even passes the not-really-well-disguised living conditions inspection of Type

(because he’s mostly quiet, for once) 

and when Type leaves, Man says “Tine, I think I like your brother” and, huh, Tine wishes him good luck with that and promises him to ask Type later what does he think about Man-like romantically (Tine doesn’t do it)

Also!!!!! Man is totally fine with Tine listening to Scrubb all day long,  he even invites him to go watch his friend’s band live tonight at the bar, because they’ll cover Scrubb songs!!!

(they don’t, Man is a liar)

But!!, huh, wait, hold on????

Tine had been thinking all his overthinking was in vain because apparently there wasn’t any guy that picked his attention in the month he’s been in college, and maybe it was hormones and curiosity and he only likes girls. But the guitarist.

Handsome, beautiful, freaking stunning. Michelangelo worthy

Tine can’t stop looking at him, the way he plays the guitar?? Give him an award already

Too bad guitarist doesn’t introduce himself at the end of their gig. Now Tine will never know how to refer to his first guy crush

(not that he’ll ever do something like get closer to the guy (that is already circled by lots of girls) and ask him. or his number. Tine is new to this and, you know, kind of shy.)

But Man is not—shy, of course. So he rises his hand and screams a “Wat!!” and you know what? Stunning guitarist dude looks over to them. And comes closer to their table. And smirks

The name’s Sarawat —no nickname

And upfront he’s not that perfect. He has some scars above his eyebrow and upper lip, but that makes him even more charming. Also it attracts the attention to his lips—the fullest lips Tine has ever seen, the fullest lips of Bangkok and the whole Thailand

Tine doesn’t even want to think what it must feel to be kissed by those lips

(freaking awesome, for sure)

And maybe Tine is dreaming or overthinking again, but Sarawat is being flirty???

And Man jokes: “Dude, right in front of my salad?” but he only has a glass of beer and it’s kind of awkward but not really, because they laugh it off and Man then changes the subject asking about band practices, and Tine is a bit confused

They all get drunk and Sarawat drives them home. Because of course the handsome dude has a nice car. And honestly is kind of embarrassing to know he’s wealthy and still invite him to their small apartment

But he’s used to it, apparently. He’s Man’s friend and has been there before

And then he starts to be there. A LOT.

Tine thought that when Man said his friends go often, he meant only Boss. But not. Now is Boss and Sarawat. Mostly Sarawat, with his acoustic guitar.

“The band’s taking a break from practice,” he explains and sits next to Tine, a grin dancing in his lips

Those damn lips

And okay, Tine is not dreaming (but still overthinking), Sarawat is being flirty. He even learnt Scrubb songs to entertain Tine. “I like it when you sing along. Our voices go well together.”

You don’t know how much that means to Tine. Sing Scrubb song together??? That’s the equivalent to be in the same page, to share emotions, to oh mygod

Then Type announces he’ll be passing over and Tine panics

Yeah, another gay panic, thanks Man, but not because of Sarawat. (he’s implied tho)

And when Type comes and squints at them, Sarawat is total and completely unfazed. “Hey. I’m a friend of Man.”

And Type nods back, suspicious. “Hey, Type, why are you here??” Tine asks. “I just came to bring back something,” Type says and from his backpack he takes out a helmet

Man’s old motorbike spare helmet

And what.

(apparently Man roped Type into a date or two. Apparently Man and Type are dating) (when did that happen???)

(right, while Sarawat was at their apartment, monopolizing Tine’s whole attention)

(he still is, damn those full lips)

So, at the end, is not like Type is homoph-bic, he’s just overprotective of Tine (because his brother is precious and no one is good enough for him, not even handsome stunning dudes, yes, talking about you Sarawat) and he has very strong opinions about how queer people are sometimes represented in media, especially on those series where looks like consent is non-existent

Tine finally kisses Sarawat at the end of a band practice or a gig where he plays no Scrubb songs, because that’s not the style of the band, but Tine likes it nevertheless and even learn a few songs (the ones Man said were Sarawat’s favourites) to sing along

“Normal, my ass!” Fong says after Phuak asked “all that in the span of two months??” when Tine tells them everything. And well, yeah, Normal, Fong’s ass.

Tine still is very happy, especially when Man texts him that he has the apartment for himself the whole weekend because he’ll be staying at Type’s, probably banging. And that’s more information that Tine will ever want, but as he replies an emoji and texts to Sarawat, he thinks: best roommate ever. 

 i don’t have time to write it, so i’ll it here ;;

[nifflersgelt]

ok i know this discourse is years old and that it was never even really discourse so much as me ranting at everyone, but

yknow how people are like “the goldsteins aren’t portrayed as jewish bc there’s no religion in hp” i’m not going to unpack all of that bc i already have, but what i will say is, there is such a thing as nonreligious jewishness! jews in 1920s nyc would have spoken yiddish. they would have had jewish friends. they would have lived in jewish neighborhoods and eaten jewish foods. picture old lower east side, pickle stands, etc. 

also, while i don’t know enough about the history of judaica (jewish ritual objects) in america to say, it seems reasonable to me that they would have some? as orphans they would have inherited their parents’ stuff, so if their parents were even given, say, a kiddush cup as a wedding gift, the girls would have it.

i’m not even gonna get into the whole thing with the dinner scene being on chanukah bc i truly don’t believe jkr can keep track of dates well enough for that even to have been an oversight.

“but they’re witches so it’s totally different.” like, maybe! clearly the goldsteins are more integrated into non-jewish society than other jews were at the time -- they have jobs at macusa rather than at a jewish business, for instance. but liiiiike tbh, that’s more of a factor of the author not even having thought about this question, yknow? 

and what does magic use look like in within an ethnic neighborhood? do we assume that every magic user from any minority ethnic background leaves their neighborhood and culture and community to assimilate into white goyish wizarding culture? like maybe we do assume that! but that’s problematic on its own, you?

the goldsteins are most likely immigrants or the kids of immigrants. possible that they’re from an older group of german jews who got to the US in the 1860s, but there was such a huge Jewish immigration wave at the turn of the century that it’s way more likely they’re part of that. to take a brief detour into OP’s family history, here’s a real quick breakdown of how my folks on my dad’s side closest in age to the Goldsteins were vibing in 1926 (based on 1920 and 1930 census data, immigration records, birth records, family memory, etc) Grandpa Samuel (40), having immigrated alone as a young adult in 1905, was living in Brooklyn with Grandma Irene (36), having immigrated with her parents as a toddler in 1891. They had two kids by then, both born in America (in 1915 and 1920).

Grandpa Bill (28), having immigrated as young child with his mom and siblings in 1901, was living in Philadelphia with Grandma Sadie (28), who was born in America in 1898 but whose parents immigrated in 1887. They had one kid by then (born in 1923).

obviously the plural of anecdote is not data, but this is a pretty normal. sooooo they goldstein girls (born 1901 and unclear but maybe 1903ish?) could reasonably have been born in either america in the old country. their parents, though, probably were immigrants.

whiiiiiiich leads us to: what does it mean to be a jewish magic user in a small town in eastern europe? how does the assumption that you’ll assimilate into the non-jewish norm hold up? maybe your town is half-jewish, in which case there is really is no non-jewish norm. but let’s say it’s mostly, idk, ukrainian. or polish. do you assimilate into that, when your community has its own set of customs and vibes? why would you? and even if you do... when you get to america, you still would be bringing some other cultural situation with you -- maybe polish or ukrainian or russian. do we assume that polish wizards who come to america immediately assimilate too? if so, why? like, i’m not saying they wouldn’t, but what’s the mechanism by which this happens? forced isolation from their communities because of Rappoport’s Law? that feels solid (if traumatic - let’s explore that!) - but that assumes that there aren’t enough people from your country to have a little mini-community of polish wizards or jewish wizards or whatever.  side note, it’s fascinating how jacob actually bucks the trend of everyone-assimilates-into-british-or-american-whiteness with his pazckis! this could lend evidence to the wizards-assimilate-and-no-majs don’t theory, or it could just be a coincidence. i suspect the latter.

anyway. what’s my point? i forgot already. but i think it’s worth noting that there isn’t a pan-wizarding culture because there do actually seem to be differences between american and british wizards. buuuuut it’s sure ~fascinating~ that those cultures are allowed not to assimilate into each other, but cultures like jewish are. which... is really reading too much into it. the truth is that jkr just didn’t bother or care about this. or she thinks judaism is a “faith” and doesn’t know jewishness is a culture. oh, right, that was the point of this post. 

anyway, a post-script. there was an article before the first fb movie came out about the fb team going to the tenement museum in NY. having been, i know one of the apartments they show is that of a jewish family, and the docents talk about it. actually, in the cover pic *of that article* there’s a set of shabbos candlesticks on the mantel. but then in the goldstein dinner scene there’s... candlesticks... but they’re mismatched, not next to each, and being used as dinner lighting. oh and it’s the middle of the week. clearly not shabbos candles. so like. they looked at them, heard the docents talking about jewishness, and just decided “meh let’s edit that out but candles are a nice aesthetic.” like, they did make a choice on purpose to de-jewish-ify these characters. and like, it’s not like i expect better. but i do have the right to critique the impulse to assimilate everybody into what’s comfortable for you.

[struwwelzeter]

About the possibility of vaccination passes at the door to cultural events

This is completely off topic to what I usually post here but I wrote it on fb and what the hell, I guess. I’m too mad to shut up.

First of all:

Being Anti Vaccination in general means you are uninformed and missguided and should educate yourself better.

That being said ...

The amount of perfectly sane, nice and conscious of human rights, people, especially in the gig/events economy, who suddenly think it’s completely ok to ask for vaccination passes and who say shit like “people who aren’t vaccinating shouldn’t be allowed in, I don’t give a shit” is staggering to me.

We get it. The prospect of having to rely on the willingness of idiots to be vaccinated for being able to work again is scary, and staggering. Still, it is not how this is gonna work. The problem isn’t that some people won’t be vaccinated. It shouldn’t be. The only indicator for events being possible should be the overall incident inside of the population. That’s it. Events can happen when incidence is so low, the risk of a big event becoming a superspreader that will overwhelm the health care system and lets alot of people die is basically non existent. Yes, that will depend on a lot of people being vaccinated. No, that does not give you the right to ask for personal health data at the door.

Trying to fast track the opening of events with vaccination passes will always include discrimination (more on that later) and that is why it’s not an option. If you think discrimination is ok in order for you to be able to work, I don’t know what to tell you. If you really think it’s better to descriminate against people who want to attend an event and making them responsible for your ability to work, rather than holding a system responsible that has downgraded culture to a profit orientated amusement park for decades, I really do not know what to tell you. I guess you can leave here, we won’t agree.

The events industry has spend an entire year not working - in order to protect the collective health of our society. It’s our duty as a society to protect them back and make sure they still have food and a roof over their head by the end of this. That ist the real problem. If we did that, we wouldn’t even have this discussion, you could stay home in peace and wait until we have herd immunity. It is very shitty that we, as a society, have failed you. However, just because you have been wronged, you don’t get to wrong people in return, especially because the overlap between the people that wronged you, and those you are now planning to wrong, will be relatively small. Again, if you don’t see how descrimnation against people that haven’t caused your predicament just elevate your situation is wrong, I do not know what to tell you.

Now. Here is why no access without vaccination passes will always open the door for descrimination:

1. For the forseeable future, not everybody will have acces to the vaccine. Depending on country, that will mean your great plan will automatically exclude people of a certain age, financial standing, profession or even location.

2. Some people aren’t recommended to get the vaccine by no fault of their own. This includes:

- Pregnant people (which haven’t been included in the studies with the vaccine yet and are therefore not recommended to get it yet)

- Children and youths under a certain age (which haven’t been included in the studies with the vaccine yet and are therefore not recommended to get it yet)

- Immunocompromised people for exemple through cancer treatments (who should be careful regardless but which haven’t been included in the studies with the vaccine yet and are therefore not recommended to get it yet).

- People with a history of analphylaxis (the allergic reactions to the proteins that serve as a carrier for the mRNA that have been observed in rare cases are mostly patients like this. Risk assessment is individual and down to several factors. This group in particular is interesting in this discussion because while some might be recommended to get the vaccine, they have a good reason to chose not to risk it.)

- People who are very prone to auto immune reactions. The stories you hear about the serious side effects of vaccination and that are used to scaremonger people away from vaccination mostly are stories about a triggered auto immune disease. auto immune things can be triggered by a big variety of things, and it is very rare that it does get triggered by a vaccination. However, in most cases of people actually being at risk for this, there are indicators, such as it running in the family or it already having been triggered by something else. Like with people with analphylaxis, the risk varies from patient to patient.

3. Phobias. This will be very few people but some people do have panic and fear issues surrounding needles tnat you can’t even imagine, you know. Mental Health factors are still health factors.

4. Bodily autonomy. Some people simply do not want to be vaccinated and that’s their right. Are their reasons probably missguided? Yeah. Are many of them stupid? Yup. Is it still the right of every person to decide what happens to their body without having to fear exile from social community? Yes. (This one is tricky because on the case of vaccination of course this only holds up when herd immunity is reached and the refusal to be vaccinated isn’t risking the health of others to an unreasonable degree. Still. People do have the right to not get vaccinated on personal grounds because it’s their body, and the information about that isn’t something anyone should have access to.)

Herd immunity does not mean that every person has to be vaccinated. It means that enough people are vaccinated to ensure that if a virus bounces around he will not find enough to cling to and can’t multiply. It means that the immunity of many will protect the few that aren’t able to get immunity. And that’s why herd immunity should be the indicator for the possibility of events, and not the status of personal health data.

Does that mean we are dependent on every person who can get vaccinated to have the sense to do so? Yes.

Is that scary as hell because people are stupid? Also yes.

Should we therefore descriminate against the herd members that can’t get it and pry into deeply personal reasons and health information for not getting vaccinated (such as being pregnant for exemple) instead of holding society as a whole responsible for the survival of cultural events? God, I hope not.

Please just ... don’t be like that. Be better.

Btw: I am 100% pro vaccination and can’t wait to get mine. Vaccination is sexy. Vaccination means we can all go back to concerts, and if we all do it, we can even go back to concerts while being ethical about it. Isn’t that nice.

[whencallstheheart]

Thank you all so much for the questions.  They were fun to answer.  There were some repeats so I skipped over them when they came up again.  If there’s more you’d like to know don’t hesitate to ask!  😀

It’s a little long so I’ll put it under the cut. 

I love a “ask me anything”!! what made you such a fan of the show that you started this blog??

I think I initially saw a tweet from John Stamos congratulating Lori on her new show and that was the first I had heard of it.  I think a couple episodes had already aired.  I hadn’t ever watched anything on Hallmark prior.  I'm a huge Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman fan (which was the first fandom blog I started) and when I watched the first episode it felt sort of reminiscent of that.  There wasn't really anything on Tumblr about it at that time so I started the blog and now here we are.

Are you a fan of historical dramas in general? If yes, have you seen Outlander?

I don't watch many historical dramas but, yes, I have seen Outlander. I'm behind but I do really enjoy that show and plan to catch up eventually.  Another one I liked a lot was Jamestown.  I also enjoy The Alienist.  And Dr. Quinn, of course.  

Where do you live (city) and what do you do to pay the bills?

I live outside Portland, Oregon and I work for a large bank in operations.  Currently working from home.

Were you ever a member of the crazy fanatical hearties group on FB?? Are they really that deluded about the show’s shortcomings?

I am a member of the Facebook group but don't participate or really look at anything but I like to be able to see if someone important posts something.  I just see whatever happens to end up on my feed when I'm scrolling.  Yes, but they're also not allowed to comment anything negative.  It's highly policed so fans can't really have discussions even if they wanted to.

What is your favourite food of all time? The food you would want as your last meal, the food that makes you glad to be alive.

These are hard questions.  Maybe a cheeseburger and fries.  I also really love Mexican food.  One of my favorite meals is something my mom makes which is porcupine meatballs.  It's basically a beef meatball with rice in it with a tomato soup sauce served over mashed potatoes.  Throw some peas on top and I'm a happy camper.

How do you stay so positive about the show when it disappoints you? Like the disaster of season 5!

There were some good things about season 5.  It's definitely just a mindset.  I was sick of people being so negative and dragging me down that hole with them.  I still enjoyed a lot of aspects about the show.  I still cared about the characters.  I wanted to focus on those good, positive things and be happy that we still had a show to watch.  And even now, I don't have many expectations.  I just want to watch and enjoy it and not pick everything apart to the point where I hate it.  It's not a perfect show but it's fun to watch and that's all that matters at the end of the day.  There’s plenty of other things in the world to be mad at and a Hallmark show doesn’t need to be one of them, you know?

What's your favorite pastime and favorite non-Hallmark show? Also, have a lovely day :)

I basically have no hobbies.  Tumblr is my second job.  I watch a lot of TV (too much these days) and I like listening to podcasts as well.  I play games on my phone.  That's honestly about it.  I'm super interesting, obviously.  My favorite show right now would have to be Yellowstone which just ended its third season.  I'm pretty obsessed.  Otherwise, The Killing is high up there.  ER.  Dr. Quinn.

If you could a character on WCTH to hang out with for a day, who would it be? If you could pick an actor on WCTH to hang with for a day, who would it be?

Rosemary/Pascale for sure.

What is your fav color? Music? Other TV shows? Books? What type of job do you have? What State or Country are you from?

Probably blue but it depends on what I'm picking the color for.  

I'm not huge into music or have anyone in particular I really love.  I've listened to The Chicks a lot lately.  I recently watched The Greatest Showman for the first time and promptly downloaded that soundtrack. I don't know.  I just listen to whatever suits my mood. If I'm listening to the radio, it's usually Top 40 stations or sometimes I'll throw a Russian pop station into the mix which is fun.

I watch a lot of shows.  I watch General Hospital and have for like 15 years at least.  Grey's Anatomy, Station 19, Roswell, all the Bachelor nation stuff including some foreign series, Love Island UK, a bunch of ghost hunting and adventure shows lately on the Travel Channel, random shows on Netflix, A Million Little Things, 911 and 911: Lone Star, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, 90 Day Fiance and all its shows, The Rookie, Prodigal Son, New Amsterdam.  I could go on.

I don't read as much as I would like to.  I enjoy the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr a lot (also a Netflix show now but the books are much better).  I mostly just read the trashy free ebooks in the Apple bookstore.

Realistically, could this show run for as long as Heartland has?? Does it have that kind of staying power with the fandom and l do wonder - is it growing it’s audience in any way? Cos that would help it stick around for longer.

Of course.  I think it'll be around for a long time.  We're at 8 seasons and with the reset, we're basically starting over with Elizabeth which is really exciting.  The audience certainly isn't shrinking.  I think the ratings generally stay about the same but more and more people find the show on Netflix all the time.

This is a very girly question but whose wedding dress is closest to your style - Rosemary’s , Elizabeth’s or Clara’s?

Rosemary's was my favorite.

Do you have a favourite colour?? And a favourite brand of make up?

I only wear mascara now because of masks and I honestly might not go back to wearing makeup.  I don't have a brand in particular that is my go-to but I just stick with drugstore makeup.  It works good enough for me since I don’t really care or spend much time on that stuff.

hi! I have some questions for ya! How did you get into watching WCTH? Do you enjoy period dramas in general? If you do, would you recommend any? Is anyone in your family or friends fans of WCTH? Do you like to read? Those are kind of a lot but I’d love to hear from you! Really enjoy your blog and fellow WCTH fans! Thanks for all you do!

No one I know personally watches it.  Or at least I don't know if they do.

[orionnquartzwater]

In a local witches group on my personal FB page, an admin I look up to asked us what our current altars looked like at the moment to spark up a discussion. I had an offhand picture of recently showing and explaining my faith to a friend of mine, but as I began to reflect on the items, my reply grew longer and longer until Facebook just gave up on allowing me to post it. Still wanting to share, I figured I would host my answer here.

This is my current set-up. Please excuse some of the mess, I'm currently in the process of clearing out the old for the new calender year. I don't work at my altar very often at the moment as life has been a little hectic, but it's right above my fireplace in my living room! ♡

PHOTO DESCRIPTION WITH DETAILS AND PERSONAL HISTORIES BEHIND THE OBJECTS PICTURED: On white shelf above the fireplace in my living room is my altar, lit by a ceiling light that brings the eye to the center of the image where a wall-hanging of the elemental symbols I hand-crafted in branches and black twine covers a large portion of the white wall in the back. In the middle on the top of the hanging decor is a clear hand-crafted witch ball I made several years back when my coven was still meeting and I was teaching some of the history behind them and what they are today filled with many different herbs and a large cinnamon stick. Several natural pieces of twine hang from some of the twigs that make up the elemental symbols, used for tying and drying herb bunches above my altar, currently sitting empty. On both sides framing the mantle on the wall, there two metallic swirling candle holders, one of which has a recently gifted antique bell from my once-ignorant and oppressive grandmother about what my faith truly had meant to me on twine hanging from it. In the dead center of the altar, a large glass candle holder sits containing a layered orange and red candle, burned most of the way down with ash on the insise of the glass as it hasn't been in use for some time. Currently displayed on top of the candle is my own hand-crafted wand that sits perfectly balanced in my hand with the natural curve of the branch. It felt made for my hand as I whittled the top down and used copper and quartz to charge it, wrapping the handle and charging the energy forward with the small point I've had for years until I found why I had clung to it.

Two alabaster statuette busts of the Greek deities Artemis (to the left), and Apollo (to the right) also frame the large glass candleholder. The statues are of the deities who I worked faithfully worked with to recieve my service dog Andromeda, and thank constantly trying to honor, as everything in my life had said I couldn't receive her from time to money to circumstance to lack of outside help, even though everything else about it was said that it was truly meant for me, and I believe to this day it was due to them watching me working tirelessly to do everything on my end including my rituals and asking for their assistance that they granted me a medically healing (Apollo's side) & faithful canine (Artemis's side). I had the statues shipped to me from Greece, and the golden accents on the alabaster textiles and laurel on them are probably my favorite part of them. They're one of my most prized possessions. The two godly siblings face each other with their heads cast in different directions. Behind Artemis, slightly to her right is a black and white painting I did of the forested coast and night sky with a prominent moon bouncing off the waves and a comet in the stars above (Ironically, my dog Andromeda (Andi) was listed as Comit in the breeders list as well, something I hadn't even considered when painting and adding it to my altar). To Artemis' left is a small antler chew we took from my service dog when she was too big to use it safely any longer, as well as a small clay torso of the human form I crafted some time ago. In front of the mini painting is where I currently sit a chakra bracelet gifted to me years ago, and sitting in front of those not too far from the edge is an incense holder depicting a skeleton with roses around it as a memento mori, a circle of life as the ash falls and the incense is burned. To the left of that are some pieces of geodes and petrified woods I have that my grandmother also gifted me, two unused candles in front of those, and a petrified wood piece laying flat that holds two tiny pinecones connected by a stem and two coins for abundance beside a ceramic acorn bowl holding many gemstones collected through the years, including the labradorite my grandmother also gifted me when I was a small child and found myself connecting to the stone as I connected to the faith alone on my own. To the left of that is a tall decorative triple goddess wooden box box my dad's girlfriend bought for me, a small black and white moon phase & elemental symbol zentangle art piece sitting above it that I drew in pen in high school, and in front of them on the altar is an antique taxidermied dog-paw letter opener made of Mother of Pearl, dating the beloved Print's death as Sept 15th, 1867 that I use for directing energy, connecting to the love we hold for those in our lives, and also with connecting to the centuries past in my own hands.

To Apollo's right sits a massive pinecone, and behind him somewhat obscured is a small wax burner currently holding the remnants of the ritual work I had been using to call forth my service dog to me as a variety of herbs, green wax for abundance and coins. To the right of that are a variety of candles, currently perching a bird's nest that had fallen out of and was sitting abandoned from the tree in front of my apartments two years ago that would have been tossed by maintainence or mowed over but found a renewed life in my practice after it sat abandoned for some time. Beside that is a squared lantern of black metal framinh with frosted glass and metallic fir tree silhouettes. Also the right of that, leaning over the edge of the mantle from a small end table not pictured is a twig broom with the bristles up. (On the very edge of the mantle also sits a large bottle of hand-sanitizer constantly in use as I live with a hospital worker, and both cleanliness and healthcare are just as important in our faith, lest we forget to take care of ourselves with the modern knowledge passed down to us now, nor forget to do our part wherever we go.)

— I haven't had the mind to do much traditional work, even here, and this doesn't include the dresser I plan on doing a fuller altar for so I can have a place to be alone, in my space, and wholly enter the circle once more as I haven't been able to do that in a very, very long time, but this one houses most of my items of power, is displayed prominently, and is curated to allow me to remember to honor my faith more and never stop working on it, taking time to stand in front of it and reflect on me, my faith, where I came from and where I'm going as well as spending a moment with the deities I honor. After my birthday later this year growing up in a household of agnostics and the faith and discomfort of my oppressive grandparents, I'll actually have been in the faith for more than half my life as I was only 11 when I stumbled into it alone, celebrated my first Imbolc all by myself by making crafts out of ribbons and buying and lighting candles, meditating reading books. I ran around with my bell wand shaking it at nature to reawaken it for spring, and I knew I would always be in the faith, and want to raise a future family in it, and grow a community of like-minded folks. I'm still always learning, and it makes me equally immensely proud and insanely humbled when I can teach others what I've learned since the faith found me. I can actually remember crying to my grandma about whether or not magic(k) could truly exist in the world and she told me if I believed in it, it DID at that age, and the feelings of finding power in my faith after growing up so alone have been unlike any other. Finding other witches was one of the most impactful moments of my life, especially growing up in a heavily Christian town of just over 1,000. Nothing has made me ever feel more fulfilled than people who know me and know I have been in the faith since childhood coming up to me to timidly ask them to teach them some things and where they could start to learn more, asking questions and finding me with a million resources for them, only to come back at a later date and truly thank me for helping them find their path to deity, to nature, to being one with the energies around us and finding power in their experiences and newfound budding faith and community. I've since found a true passion for anthropology and folklore, and I never feel more whole than working with others who share that with me. I think that my coven was one of the best things I experienced in high school, a mix of young witches learning and finding our paths and bringing our passions to life with each other and what we knew over good food, good friends and good faith wasn't something I got to experience often until then.

I'm still hoping to one day build an establishment where witches and aspiring witches can come, talk, read, ask for recommendations, be taught by local witches, take community crafting classes with history lessons, and be able to continue to provide that feeling to other folks. One of the people I ended up mentoring after they were asking me questions and for book recommendations, for clarifications and good conversation, also reaffirmed my childhood last name of faith that came to me by expressing their gratitude of my mentorship referring to me as "a willow tree I was providing wisdom, knowledge and needed shade to the growing saplings around them," and I actually broke down crying as Willow was the last name I ended up with as child, and Willowtree was the last name I had settled on after my transition. I hate the feeling of buying myself mass-produced items used for making a quick buck off a community rather than fostering the Craft, and the power that's within our tools created by hand or when they're gifted by people who impacted us with the knowledge of what they mean and the things they hold are just so much different than not knowing the ethical conditions of who made the materials, or the companies behind them pandering for money, and it's a bit of a passion project as my physical health keeps me from being able to work much on my own. I often wish I could go back and tell a young me how much I would learn and do, how many amazing people I would meet, and communities I would find, even in the areas directly around me. I think I would have been amazed. After writing all of this, I looked back and realized that my current set-up is actually doing it's EXACT job right now. As I described the objects and what they meant to me when I got them, I got caught up in it the same way I do IRL when I pass by and take a moment to think about what my faith holds for me, where I'm coming from and where I really want to take things from here. I guess it's REALLY just that effective on me that even trying to answer a question about it off-hand in a post really ends up in me really taking a minute to address who I am and the power it all holds to me, especially standing where I stand today.

Blessed Be! I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

— 12.9.2020

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Do you have any advice for greek people in diaspora who want to de-assimilate? My family immigrated to america when my great grandparents came over, and im kinda struggling to reconnect with my heritage when everyone in my family likes to pretend it doesnt exist. I grew up speaking some greek but even my parents admitted they want to forget all their greek and its really heartbreaking to see

I am sorry your parents treat Greek culture like a secret in the family. :/ It breaks my heart as well. But I am actually amazed that some Greek has stayed in the family from the time of your great grandparents!

To begin, assimilating isn’t exactly bad. Many people through the centuries have moved to other countries and became citizens of the new place in every way. Sure, you leave your old customs behind but you get new ones and you become part of a new community. It’s a natural process, happening since the beginning of humanity. Of course, it comes down to personal choice. Your parents want to not stand out. You want to keep the best of the new culture and the old culture. 

I don’t want to assume things about you. Ι am saying this just in case you feel this way: please do not scorn the culture of the place where you live. Every culture is different and interesting, even if it seems mundane to you. The new culture is most likely the bigger part of you and it needs some care, too.

For example, I have spoken to many immigrants in the US and most of them dislike the US. At the same time, through our dicussions, they show me - and tell me - they couldn’t be less American. They had a very different upbringing than the people from their parents’ motherland. 

I think it would be best if you got comfortable with both sides of you, the Greek one and the assimilated one. If your children and your children’s children live away from Greece, they will get more and more assimilated. It’s impossible to de-assimilate completely and forever. As many other Greeks, I am planning to leave Greece in a very short time. It’s sad to think my traditions won’t continue to the next generations. But it’s a reality we must face - and we should probably try to be positive about it. 

That being said, it’s perfectly fine to have the desire to know more about your roots for whatever reason. So here is my advice to you:

1) You may want to read the history of Greece. All of it, not just from 300 BC to 100 AC as most foreigners do. Preferably, find works that have someone Greek as a writer or supervisor (because Greeks usually try to depict accurately what happened), or writers who truly feel Greece, like Richard Clogg. Our history and pain has shaped the way we look at the world and it’s a perspective you should be familiar with, since you are driving in! (Yes, more depression for everyone!)

2) Learn where your family comes from. Maybe by asking your grandparents or your parents you can learn the exact place/town or the geographical compartment of your family. Look for the specific dances and traditional costume of that area from YouTube videos or a Greek community in your area! See if the people there were great warriors, great merchants, great wine producers. See if there are any Greek heroes of the 1821 revolution coming from your place! 

That may need lots of Google searching but I think you will get somewhere. I am also availiable if you want me to give you more information about a specific place.

For every Greek tribe there is a tag on my blog, like #macedonia, #epirus, #thrace and more. I have tags for most of the towns, too! You can also search for the different Greek “tribes” (Pontiacs, Kappadokians, Thracians and so on) which are often named after the place they lived. Everyone falls into some of them and you probably come from one (or two) as well! 

3) Learn some more Greek. I suggest that because learning Greek means learning how Greeks think. I suppose you know the basics but how about the 20+ weird phrases we have to playfully say someone is gay, like “he flogs the dolphin”, “he shakes the pear tree” etc. What about the Greek phrases which stem from war and pirate raids and… hating the Turks?? How about the Mediterranean expressions like calling a mole “olive” or saying “I am in an open sea” when we feel lost, or saying “he pressed my oil out” when someone tires us?

Greekpod101 on YouTube will help you learn the basics and a little more! They also have a site. But basically going on Youtube and typing “learn Greek” will do the trick. For more weird or advanced stuff you can look at my tag #learn greek and #greek language.

4) Greek memes - Greek diaspora social media. They are surprisingly educational! @hooplagreeks on instagram is one of my fave meme profiles! Watch youtubers of Greek diaspora as “Greek in the City” or the Greek comedian Basile! On instagram you may want to follow @greekfestvictoria (videos of Greek dances and people, and photos of the community) and @newdiaspora (“a digital storytelling platform, focusing on the new generation of Greeks living abroad during the crisis in their homeland”) and @ greek_diaspora (some things for Greek culture).

On my tag #greek diaspora you may find more people like you! Some have asked me similar stuff so I may be repeating stuff in those posts as well.

5) Cook/eat Greek food. If your grandparents and mum know recipes, take them as if they are gold. It’s a great way to get familiar with the local Greek ingredients and the Greek palette. Heck, look for Greek recipes on the internet and cook them! If you don’t know where to start, my tag #greek cuisine may be helpful.

6) Read Greek classic literature (in Greek if you can, but you can also find works translated in English). Elitis, Sahtouris, Seferis, Venezis, Papadiamantis, Mirivilis, Delta, Empirikos, Zei, Kazantzakis are only a few of the literary gems Greeks have to offer. Enjoy good writing, the Greek perspective, and get to know the newer Greek society in a unique and authentic way. Here is a list with more of them (link).

7) Meet more Greeks! Through groups on insta or fb, through Tumblr blogs etc. Watch youtubers of Greek diaspora as “Greek in Town” or the comedian Basile! Maybe there is one Greek community near you area and you can pay a visit for festivals! (No day, Independence Day, 1st of March, Easter meal, Dance festivals etc). Don’t be shy to go there. From what I have seen, people from all backgrounds are welcome there. Plus, Greeks LOVE showing their culture so you are going to learn a lot of things from them. 

8) Be proud. I know it may sound kind of weird but I feel being proud is one key element of being Greek. In every anniversary wars we won, in our schools we sing prideful songs and hang posters with our war heroes, always standing proud. The students and the army parade in the streets the small children wearing traditional costumes (parade is kinda of a facist remnant - ew - but it shows that we want to instill pride even in our children. It has a few positive elements I guess :P). To sum up, be proud of a people who endured natural catastrophes, wars, genocide, famine, occupation, slaughters and slavery and can still stand!

9) Travel to Greece? I don’t know how affortable it is for you and how easy it is but I recommend it. Your tickets don’t need to be for summer. (Honestly, you may want to avoid summer. It’s too hot and too crowdy in tourist areas. Spring is our best season ;). You can come off season and just see the place and meet the people. See the species Grecus Hellenicus in its narutal habitat! Maybe you’ll make some new friends to discuss about Greek culture!

10) Search the tags on this blog. In #greek people you will see Greeks of every era, in  #vintage you will find old towns and traditional settings. In #paradosiaki foresia await some of the Greek traditional clothes. #greek language, #greek culture and #greek tradition, #greek festival, #greek music are self explanatory. 

I think that’s all I’ve got! Good luck in your journey and I am here if you need anything else :D You can dm me and ask stuff, anything you want! I would be happy to help you get in touch with your roots!

[animalworld]

JAFFA The Pheasant Saga Indian Ringneck x Golden Pheasant Hybrid ©Laura Quick

Okay, so some guy named “Robbie” came by our house on Friday. It was in the afternoon so we were out giving snacks to the flock. He admired the peafowl lounging around in the trees, then offered us a pair of pheasants as he was moving and needed a home for them. I had mixed feeling about taking on a new species, but my farm hand, not so much, he jumped at the opportunity. We’ve had quail of all sorts, small parrots, and currently run chickens mostly but also, turkeys and a feral flock of India Blue peafowl on our property.

We’ve never had pheasants, until now.

Robbie regaled us with stories about his birds, then came back 10 minutes later and dropped a box off at our front door. Bang, we're suddenly pheasant owners. Robbie left  a little weepy and we felt bad. To be honest, I love pheasants, I think that they’re they're some of the most beautiful birds in nature, but I don’t know anything about giving them a good life and at this point, I didn’t even know what these looked like.

I set up a pen, put the box in a dark room and fished them out one at a time. First a female emerged, she’s a mottled brown, and then the red/rust male. I think he’s beautiful, but I couldn’t find a bird species online that he resembled.

So, I joined a FB group of Pheasant breeders to find out what breed I'd been gifted. Wow! The top comments I got were “Jaffa” (an infertile cross breed). “Hideous hybrid.” “Eat them.” “Only good for taxidermy.” “Better off dead than alive.” “They aren’t alive, right?” I was a little taken aback by these responses to be honest. Someone offered $200 to buy him for taxidermy purposes. I understand people who want to preserve species, I do get it, but wow. This was a whole ‘nother level of I’m not sure what exactly, contempt?

I gave it 24 hours to play out then I re-posted to the group asking how we can give them a good life? That elicited more measured and accommodating responses. I got the information I needed to move forward in setting these guys up with a forever home.

It’s a little weird for me to own caged birds again, as all the animals living here, except the pheasants, will free-range during the day and retire to pens only for laying or at night. These guys will need a pen built for them which will be their home until they pass away.

I remembered I still have the bones of an old greenhouse someone gave me years ago, and am planning for a cross between a greenhouse for me and a pen for them, that I think will work for both purposes. Fingers crossed.

So for now, the hideous hybrids, which we’ve taken to calling Mr. and Mrs. Jaffa are residing in our kitchen. They make weird noises and we’re discovering what those noises indicate. He’s more curious and unafraid, while she’s skittish and retiring. She may lay eggs which I’m told are infertile. Both have clipped beaks which I hate, We will not continue that trend. We’re still checking each other out, which is okay. I’m giving them an assortment of new foods to see what they like. They’re under quarantine for now and won’t be in their own pen for probably a month or so, just in case we have time to hang out together and get to know one another.

Several people from the Pheasant group have reached out privately with great information for me which has been a huge help. The internet is a wonderful thing. Years ago, I’d have taken the birds and been in the dark on how to care for them, now that information is readily available.

We can do this. Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Other more official posts:

Silver Pheasant

Bornean Crested Fireback

Blue-eared Pheasant

Bulwer’s Pheasant

[lockdownuk]

Lockdown Diary Part 4

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online.

Day91: I can’t post photos to the sister photo diary and it’s fucking me off. Using this as a place holder- last successful pic was 21/06/2020.

Day 92: Still awaiting Tumblr re: day 91′s entry. Meanwhile looking at other blog/diary sites. Very warm today, like it was throughout May. Boris announced a further relaxation in lockdown measures which includes reducing the 2m distancing instruction which paves the way for pubs, restaurants and other places to open on 4th  . It looks like the Ship will open 6th July, George on the 4th. I await to see the measures put in place before deciding whther it’s a goer.

Day93: Typing on day 94 - I received an email from Deryn from RCI HR concerning placement online module attendance, thanking me for my participation. I was somewhat confused. Was this a mistake or was I erroneously not icluded in the initial communications? I fired off an email to HR and WhatsApp’d Jim. He replied that I should take it up with HR.

I am worried by this. Furlough ends this week and I know not what the fuck is going on.

Day 94: Had a few beers last night, ‘cos I was feeling deflated over work. Finished Homecoming S2, which was very good, and cancelled Amazon Prime before the free trial ends tomorrow. Got up @midday but haven’t done jack shit today as my right ankle is playing up - it was twinging last night - apart from press ups. No word back from RCI but there was a notification that the email from Deryn was attempted to be recalled. Had a spat in Co-Op wth two lads who were ignoring the one way system and social-distancing. It makes my blood boil and I had to say something which ended up making my blood boil even more…especially as one of them asked me to ‘crack on’. It’s a pretty cool response actually, since I had them bang to rights but, at the time, I thought I was going to bust a blood vessel. I walked away having told him to not speak to me like that again and that he was a fucking arsehole! Didn’t make me feel any better though. Fog’s chatting later so I’m going to have a few beers right now (just gone 8pm) - I feel like throwing caution to the wind for some reason (probably work more than anything else).

Day 95: Typing on Day 96. I had a lot of beers with Fog the night before last and felt like shit all day yesterday. Still managed to drag myself up to Foggy’s and have socially distanced beers in his garden with Noel and Lord Irish of Michael.

Day 96: Feeling like shit. Third day of no walking ‘cos my ankle is a little sore although I did walk back from Foggy’s last night.

Day 97: Two walks and my usual stair climb today. Felt good to get back to routine. Plus, no booze yesterday, even tho’ it was a Saturday, feel better for it. I heard from Sue Cockings from HR on Friday, btw, still furloughed until further notice.

Day 98: I discovered, yesterday, that today is actually day 99 of lockdown since it actually begun on the Sunday evening that Boris Johnson announced the measures being in place - I mistakenly thought it began on the Monday. Tumblr still haven’t got back to me regarding reviewing why this blog is deemed ‘sensitive’ and I can’t add any more pics. While I am typing, Northampton are beating Exeter 0-2 at Wembley in the L2 play-off final. It’s funny that their fans can’t be there to see it. Football, in general, on its return after lockdown, without fans in attendance, is shit - like watching women’s football - too many empty seats.

Day 100: I have decided to number the days correctly (See prev’ entry). It’s a good time as I had to export , delete and recreate this blog on Tumblr since they have been non-forthcoming in my request for info as to why they deemed it ‘sensitive’. So, this is a restart, altrough seemless to the reader. On top of all that, I am writing this on Day 101! After restarting the blog diary I forgot to add the day’s entry! Bumped into Roger on my second walk, at the top of Basset Ford Place. We chatted for an hour or so. It was really good to see him and talk. We’ve made a promise to interact more...it seems both he and I allow ourselves to get down in the dumps (easy in self-isolation) and, as such, we shall try to reach out as and when. He suggested a walk together every now and then.

Day 101: I heard back from a charitable services company that Barry Haddon (who, coincidentally, I spoke with today) told me about (Auriga)and answered their email questions. BNarry rates them and told me they got him some decent results like he no longer has to pay Council Tax. I tweeted Chris Hawkes on Radio 6 this morning...he was asking for examples of sames names (’cos he had Dave Gorman on) so I told him about The Redlion and the ad the ‘other’ Tim put in the ET. He read it out! I created a photo album of 101 pics I’ve taken in lockdown and put it on FB including the Oundle Chatter group. The comments were great. My right eyesight is worrying, I cannot make out close up detail i.e. reading is blurred. I am going to start doing 10 press ups after each exercise i.e. three times a day. I decided that during my second walk so today I’ve done 20. Lastly, I have new neighbours I do believe. Hmmm.

Day 102: Emailed dad and Rita to have a rant about what dad thought of the Leicester lockdown and to share a link to my 101 photo album. Had a long Messenger chat with Rog.

Day 103: Typing this on day 104. Dad called when I was out ona  walk so we skyped when I got back. He looks really well! Advided me on how to cutt some branches that are hanging low (I asked him in the email yesterday). I then borrowed a saw, secateurs and green bin from Karen. I walked a long way today. My second walk was 9km.I then had loads of beers! The Co-Op car park seems to be the venue for youngsters to hang out. I was gone 2am before they finished partying. I (re)watched Steve Jobs. Wow....just wow. What a film and what a man!

Day 104: It was gone 1:30pm when I got up feeling the worse for wear. A chilli, chorizo and cheese omelette really sorted me out but no beer tonight. How my Saturday frame of mind has changed from just a few years ago. Elliot and Camilla dropped off a jar of japaenos (that Mil had WhatsApp’d me about) and, among other things, we chatted about a photo Tracie Garrett circulated featuring Ell, me her and a few others who met up to have a drink at The Haycock for Ron Gambling. In it was Cath and someone called Ross (who I don’t remember) who have both passed since the pic (July ‘99). I feel strangely saddened by it all. The pic itself is such a reminder of days past - it conjours up shit loads of different feelings.

Day 105: A few beers again last night so another late one (5ish) but up before noon. Finished watching a series called Condor. Pretty good - bit of a messy ending that is the norm with telly nowadays in that it is a little bit of a cliffhanger.

Day 106: The Ship reopened today. I left a nice message on the Virtual Pub group page wishing them the best plus said thanks to Rach. I think it will be the end of the laugh we’ve had on the virtual site now. I expect to go through a bit of a miserabel time with people now venturing out down the pubs.We were once all united in lockdown - that will no longer be the case. Met Rog for a walk - did over 7km oncluding through Barnwell Picnic Park - I don’t remember it being that pretty. defo going to go there again. Got an email from RCI asking for all furlough workers to join a Zoom meeting tomorrow with Paul (MD) and Deryn (HR). Ominous! Went shopping in Asda and Farm Foods. £100 with NO BOOZE!

Day 107: The zoom call today didn’t tell me much other than we are being furloughed still, until further notice. It was susggested that we have a zoom meeting every 2 weeks and that RCI recognise we’ve be left out in the cold somewhat. I appreciate that very much.There were 30 of us on the call plus Paul and Deryn were in the office since they had to make peopel redundant today. Mark was in the office earlier to take receivership of the IT kits from those that left.

Day 108: I am well on the way to doing 1,000,000 steps in theree months (July, August & September) but at what cost. I’ve done well over 11,000 steps each day in July (actually, a lot of days in June as well) apart from one (8k) and I am feeling it. My right leg/ankle is sore! Day 109: I had another mention by Chris Hawkins on Radio 6. He asked for Brian May moments - apparently when he met Brian May he was so starstruck that all he could say was ‘thank you for the music’. I tweeted my story of telling Felicity Kendall to have a good life. Today, both my walks have resulted in me getting fucking soaked. Hanna S2 is on Amazon Prime. Time for yet another free trial (number 4 or 5).

Day 110: I have walked 144,448 steps in 10 days, well on the way to a million steps in three months. The Heist of the Century - an Argentinian film based on true events - watched it last night (well, over two nights, actually). A real life Ocean’s Eleven (but with 6). Brilliant film, brilliat story. I had issues signing up to another Amazon Prime free trial last night so I set up another gmail a/c just now and I think I’m in. I used Danny’s Gmail (which I created over 15 years ago!) and it didn’t like it - I think I must have used it before. I reckon I have probably had loads more free trials than I care to remember. Anyway, off to watch me some Hanna!

Day 111: Very tired as I type. Bed at around 5am, up at 13:30, normal exercises, cleaning kitchen cupbaords and I’m done in. It’s 10:30pm now, just cracked open a beer and about to watch a new Netflix film “The Old Guard”. I would continue with Hanna but Amazon Prime keeps fucking erroring. I will try to go to bed before it gets light (which seems to be my w/e norm nowadays!

Day 112: I have got into the habit of eating dinner far too late. It’s 10:30pm as I type and I am just about to have something eat. I’m not sure why I feel it’s wrong to eat so late but I do, I shall be trying to address it. Late night again last night (gone 4:30am) so today was a lazy day. Only on ewalk but it was 10km and I get up the above 11,000 steps needed for the 1m challenge. My stair climb, at around 9pm, fucking killed.

Day 113: Boring Monday.

Finished watching The Old Guard on Netflix. A Highlander-esque affair with Charlize Theron kicking ass like she did in Atomic Blonde. It was OK. Haven’t manage to lick the late night eating. It’s 10:05pm and tea’s still cooking.

Day 114: I have been looking at planning persmissions on the ENDC site for questions posed on the Oundle Chatter group on FB. There’s going to be two sites with 130 new houses on each and it’s causing concern. And so it should - the planning docs are very revealing. Objections are dismissed in such an off-hand way. It’s really quite insulting. I was awfully down today, during my first walk. I mean, really despondant (too difficult to describe here), which is a lower version of the norm - it’s been a good couple of weeks since anyone’s even asked how I am! A week since that post on my main blog. But, I powered through and am back to the usual depth! I ate at @9:30 pm tonight. Told ya!

Day 115: I am typing this on Day 116 - I ended up hainga  couple of beers last night and forgot to post. I had the most ridiculous toing and froing on FB and Messenger with Rachel (Harris) - it was piss funny. She is the first person in days, actually weeks, who has asked how I am! I watched ep3 of Hanna S2. Absolutely superb. She kills Marissa! Did not see that fucker coming...mind blown! Day 116: I have finally finished the thorough clean of the kitchen. Fucking drama. I am typing at just gone 10pm, about to eat (curry I made yesterday). It’s been a strange day, timings wise, last night’s drinking meant I wasn’t up until just gone noon which obviously didn’t help. I had a call from DSM group - I applied for an IT tech role, they want to see me tomorrow (Friday) for an interview (in Sibson). Interesting! (Although the contact, Helen, hasn’t sent the promised email!)

Day 117: Despite not getting a confirmation email, I attended the interview at DSM. It went OK (I was there for 90 mins). I went booze shopping in Tesco’s afterwards. Spoke to dad today also - he and Rita are well, as usual! I am feeling really knackered and achy today. I do hope it’s not anything to worry about.

Day 118: Up at 1pm. 9.79 km walk. Cooking meatballs, drinking beer, listening to The Blaze about to watch Deepwater Horizon. All good today!

Day 119: Similar to yesterday, up late, bloody long walk, watching Saving Private Ryan (which I started last night).

Day 120: Typing on day 121. Received an email from someone that works at the BBC for Shaun Keaveny’s show - they want me to do small claims court on August 5th. I’m becoming obsessed with getting my steps in - my second walk was extended to round Barnwell Country Park - over 17.5k steps - not the most I’ve done in one day but, for example, most in one day last month (June) was 14.7k. More importantly, I am finding that I can walk further (and for longer) and not have a hypo; not a great deal further, but over an hour.