#my culinary skills would be next level if I had these resources to work with 💖

[naneki-maid]

[autumnslance]

would you be willing to make a masterpost of all your sharlayan research and headcanons? please please please and THANK YOU if you do

I can certainly try! A lot of my info is from what little we have so far, and my own fics are where a lot of my headcanons go to live, with little snippets about various characters here and there in my scattered lore posts, as well as stuff I’ve collected from other players.

Other Resources In Louisoix’s Wake - The twins’ official Calamity short story on the Lodestone. One Name, One Promise - Thancred’s backstory, from Limsa to Sharlayan training to his early assignment in Ul’dah and then early Shadowbringers. Mirke’s Menagerie - A compilation of lore info from in game, lorebooks, panels, interviews, short stories, etc. There are about 4 or 5 Sharlayan-specific posts @mirkemenagerie has made.

Encyclopaedia Eorzea - If you can get your hands on copies (physical officially; digitally is Unofficial so far as I know), I recommend it! They’re both good reads, though EE 1 is the one with a blurb on Sharlayan as a nation.

Posts by Other People - that I have collected Leveva Comment About Archon Loaf - Keeping in mind Sharlayan’s bad cuisine has been canonical for years per lorebook 1. They care more about ease of eating while studying, also seeing culinary arts as an academic field, not a practical daily exercise. Lorebook 1 Astrologian Lore - screencaps from the lorebook. Phaedra’s Teen Scion Sharlayan Antics fic - I am happy to take responsibility for inspiring @phaedra-mero to write this delightful scene.

My Own Posts Red Mage Research - Includes books from Gubal Library. Scion Ages - Pointing out the ages of the Scions, particularly the Archons.

My Fics - Sometimes there’s more HC musings in the Notes and Comments. I try to stay close to canon, at least as it is when the fic was written. Rogue’s Prelude - Multichapter, teen Thancred meets Louisoix, Yda, and Papalymo. Written a year prior to Thancred’s official ShB story above. Aetherology & Skulking Boots-Beginnings - Y’shtola agrees to tutor Thancred in how to speak properly as teenagers in the colony. Chin Up - Yda gives Thancred advice as youths in the colony. Dreams of Home-Lucubration - Yda, Lyse, and Thancred in the colony. Younger Sister - Thancred’s relationships with the Hext sisters over time. In Violet’s Wake-Louisoix’s Children - A Master Matoya PoV from StB patches. There’s a brief chapter with her and Y’mhitra in Dreams of Home, too. Excerpts from other posts - things that ended up as commentary on other threads, with some editing since.

From a thread that started off as about Thancred’s Gear from ARR to HW:

Sharlayan is a nation on an island NW of Eorzea proper; the Sharlayan everyone we know hails from was a colony that became a city-state a few hundred years back and part of the Eorzean Alliance, in the Dravanian Hinterlands, where Idyllshire is now. After the fall of Ala Mhigo and then the Battle of Silvertear Skies, the Forum (their ruling body) decided to abandon the city and return to the motherland, a process that took 5 years before they all just teleported out in a day. Except Matoya, and those archons that worked for Louisoix and that he asked to stay and go to the remaining 3 Alliance cities. This would have been 15 years before ARR/Heavensward.

The Students of Baldesion are also Sharlayan; the Isle of Val, their headquarters, being under that nation’s banner. Sons of St Coinach are another offshoot; Rammbroes (Crystal Tower raid story) was originally part of Louisoix’s Circle of Knowing (who eventually became the Scions), and Y’shtola’s sister Y’mhitra is one of the Sons and part of the Summoner storyline.

Thancred got involved as a youth–by trying to pick Louisoix’s pocket, and impressing the old man with his skills, and so Louisoix brought Thancred back with him to give the kid an opportunity for study. Yda and Lyse escaped Ala Mhigo, and with help from Papalymo, who was part of an effort to help refugees seeking shelter in Sharlayan, they ended up there, and Yda is the one who actually became an archon.

Most of the other senior Scions, so far as I know, are native to Sharlayan, either the motherland or the colony. The Leveilleur twins were born in the Hinterlands Sharlayan, but raised in the motherland, as they were less than a year old when the exodus happened. The university they and Krile attended is the Studium. Becoming an Archon seems to be a separate process not everyone goes through, and is a demonstration of mastery in chosen field(s) of study. That’s the significance of the tattoos some of the Scions have on their necks or faces.

Sharlayan is basically a nation particularly focused on academia; the trouble is, for the last couple decades, it’s been controlled by a faction of isolationists who would rather hoard knowledge and sit in the proverbial ivory tower looking down on non-Sharlayans, claiming others would abuse their knowledge, and that they should simply observe history and not try to affect it. Louisoix, Matoya, and the organizations they associate with (the Circle of Knowing/Scions; Sons of St Coinach, the Students of Baldesion, etc), think that viewpoint is stupid and go against it. A big part of the Astrologian storyline is dealing with Sharlayans who dislike Leveva’s family sharing Sharlayan astrology with outsiders, for example.

What sort of relationship Sharlayan and Ishgard had before the exodus isn’t really detailed much; both were pretty insular and focused on their own issues (like many of Eorzea’s city-states outside of crises), and the Dravanian threat at the time might have kept them pretty separated by land. Sharlayan was responsible for Eorzea’s aetherytes and keeping the aethernets working, though, and it’s suggested they still handle that post-Calamity to some degree. We pay fees for teleports because reconstruction and upkeep is pricey for all of the city-states.

Next post:

The Isle of Val was the headquarters of the Students of Baldesion, Krile’s family and order, and was a Sharlayan institution. It’s destruction/missing status happened during the ARR patches, and Krile was saved by Hydaelyn as she has the Echo (as an aside: you can hear Minfilia talking to Krile via linkpearl in the background on the Enterprise after rescuing the Scions from Castrum Centri before Ultima, and she constantly refers to and worries about Krile after the Isle of Val goes missing, but then plot happened to Minfilia so we never see them together as friends). The Ascians seemed to have a hand in the Isle’s disappearance…but there’s story about the fate of the Isle of Val and the Students of Baldesion in Stormblood’s Eureka plotline.

As for the Archon Marks, if they do confer social benefits, aside from being an easily seen status symbol for some highly skilled & educated folks, it hasn’t been mentioned yet in concrete terms, though we know the rank has benefits (like access to forbidden lore). Mostly they are a way to tell at a glance who has obtained the rank. It’s like if people with doctorates had a tattoo of their degree symbol on them so you knew just by looking.

As of Shadowbringers 5.4, we know that to become an Archon a thesis is required, and it’s a great deal more work than a Studium graduate’s final thesis. It strikes me that Studium (which some of the Scion Archons also attended) is like undergrad or Masters studies, while Archon is a Doctorate level.

I personally headcanon that the arcane marks confer some minor, slowed visible aging and other vague magical benefits befitting their rank in Sharlayan society. Really, that’s a way for the devs to avoid new models and add to the confusion in 1.0′s intros and the running joke about Y’shtola’s age, BUT let’s come up with an in-world thing, too. There has to be some explanation for Thancred’s perpetual baby face when he’s not RPing a Mountain Hobo ;) Also we really don’t know for sure how old Matoya is. Just old.

Lorebook 2 Notes:

Mikoto Jinba (Return to Ivalice, Save the Queen storylines) worked on aetheric siphon research with Moenbryda, and at 29 is the youngest Raen with the rank of Archon in recent history. It was Jessie’s connections that brought her to Cid’s attention and got her involved in the Return to Ivalice story.

Ejika Tsunjika (Eureka storyline) went to school at the same time as Krile and Leveilleur twins, endorsed by Galuf Baldesion, who Ejika later chose to work under. He’s resentful of Krile and the twins as Ejika himself is of humble origins and had to struggle to get to where he is, yet hides his Archon brands with high collars as he refuses to believe himself unique or exceptional.

[promptsforthestrugglingauthor]

Alright, well...

Vote and you shall receive, I suppose. Underneath this read more, you’ll find the first chapter of my first draft of The Left Behind. This is incredibly embarrassing for me, ‘cuz I wrote this about three years ago with very little plan of what I was doing (hell, I didn’t even actually make an outline until about chapter ten). But hopefully this will encourage you all and prove that growth simply comes with time and effort! And, of course, I’m going to leave the link to chapter one of draft two so that you can compare the two, if you’d like! Without further ado...enjoy, I guess?

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Silverware colliding with glass plates was the only sound to fill the mauve dining room, despite the three person family inside it. Natalia Klysov brushed back a chunk of frizzy amber brown hair behind her ear, looking down at a plate of steamed vegetables and chicken rather than the faces of her parents. Not like she had made any serious eye contact with them for the past month. After all, her time was running out.

Next Tuesday, Natalia would be sixteen. And unless she managed to make a miracle happen, that would be the last birthday she would ever have. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been aware of this her whole life; even before she went to preschool, Natalia and the other kids in a vast majority of the world were told that if they didn’t find a Coterie, they weren’t worth it. With the lack of resources, overpopulation, and difficulty finding work, the government didn’t need to bother with those without a skill or talent. The girl agreed with the policies that had been established nearly a century ago when President Hawke had taken over the office (and afterwards his ideals slowly consumed most of the free world, too). She just had never expected it would take this long to get herself to first base was all.

The brunette still hadn’t lost faith in herself. Perhaps she was cutting it very close to the deadline, and, yes, she couldn’t think of a single talent or skill that would let her test into any of the Coteries back at her old school (or any Coterie for that matter), but she was certain that something had to be there down somewhere. Maybe deep, deep down somewhere, but her mother had always said everyone had a skill, it just depended on how long it took the individual to find it. She just needed to do so quickly was all.

Otherwise, she’d be dead.

 “Um, Mom? Dad?” She started slowly, flickering her eyes up suddenly. Guilt pounded at her ribcage as soon as she looked at her mother’s sullen, darkened eyes and the worry-lines that now permanently stained her father’s forehead.

“Yes, Honey Comb?” Her mother croaked softly. Natalia’s heart shattered further. For the past year, her childhood nickname had been used in more and more frequency. She was surprised to ever even hear her actual name anymore.

           She swallowed the growing lump in her throat. So, sure, her parents didn’t believe her constant reassurance that she would make it, but they at least must have had some inkling of trust. After all, they moved her four hours away at the drop of a hat, just to let her find a Coterie at another school. They wouldn’t have done that without believing her. Unless were just playing along in a last ditch attempt, hoping to whatever deity would listen that their daughter wouldn’t have to be executed.

“Um, I-I wanted to say thanks…” Noticing the tears that quickly flooded her mother’s hazel eyes, Natalia knew she couldn’t finish her sentence the way she had intended. She quickly changed its reasoning. “For dinner. You know, I love myself some grilled chicken.”

           A faked smile and a half-hearted chicken noise came from her father, who reached for his wife’s hand. A choked out ‘you’re welcome’ escaped her mother’s throat and Natalia shoved a bite of food down her own to keep from crying.

           All of their problems are always because of me. She thought to herself miserably, staying silent for the rest of the meal.

             Vibrant shades of salmon and violet painted the sky as the golden sun set. Natalia let out a sigh, closing her blinds. Sunsets used to be just about her favorite thing in the world. They were all so different and created things more beautiful than the Classical Artists ever could with their paintbrushes and canvases. By the time she was eight, it became a nightly routine to watch the magnificent light show and she never failed to be brought to awe by how just a planet rotating caused such a sight.

           By now, the event had just become a low battery, constantly draining her parents’ happiness and her security.

           Natalia pulled out a dark blue skirt from a box, laying it at the foot of her bed. Tomorrow would be her first day at her new school. It would be a hectic day from the very beginning—that was for certain. Her mother would drive her to school early, so even when she inevitably got lost, she wouldn’t be late. She’d stumble through a whirlwind of classes and spend her free periods looking into as many Coteries as she could. And then spend as much time after school looking into even more.

           Of course, at this point, Natalia knew there were a few certain Coteries she would never be in. For example, Pin-Ups and Fashioneers, Athletics, and Agriculturals would never take her. She wasn’t beautiful, or even above average, with her muddy brown eyes, too thin lips, and the scar on her right cheekbone from the treehouse she had fallen out of when she was a kid, so she couldn’t be a Pin-Up. Her hand-eye coordination left too much to be desired to be a Jock. Every plant she had ever come in contact with always ended up dead, so no Aggies.

           For the Intellects, she knew she would have to be a low level ‘lect, probably teaching kindergartners at best, or maybe being an assistant nurse. Classical and Modern Artists weren’t her worst possibility, aside from CAs and Mods were very picky about the kind of people they let in. She had been so close with that one three years back, but Natalia found herself being told that her work either needed ‘a bit more originality or higher level skills.’ Literary was possible, but about only if she could write small articles for a magazine with a long enough deadline that her procrastination wouldn’t kill her. As for Culinaries, she did well enough with any recipe off a box or in a book, but if she had to make something up herself, there was no way she could make it as a Cookie for life.

           Natalia looked all the things she had set out for the morning. Uniform? Check. Shoes? Check. Messenger bag? Check. The monotonous run through helped calm her down a bit. At least she knew that she wouldn’t forget anything. Or, at least was a lot less likely to this way. Somehow, she would probably manage it somehow.

           With a final nod, she flicked off her lamp and crawled under the covers. Tomorrow could be the day, she reminded herself.

But the nagging little voice in her head just chirped it was more likely not to be.

[nraeducationalfoundation]

The National Restaurant Association Education Foundation’s 2019 Summer Institutes

The new school year is officially here and we’re reflecting back on the wonderful summer we had! 

In case you missed it, the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation ran 15 Summer Institute programs across the country from June to July. The Summer Institutes program allows educators the opportunity to work towards earning the NRAEF Certified Secondary Foodservice Educator certification, network among peers, tour restaurant and foodservice facilities, and learn from faculty composed of nationally-recognized content experts. 

There are three levels of our Summer Institutes: beginner, advanced, and mastery. You can read more about the curriculum at each level here: http://bit.ly/NRAEFSI2019

Here are a few of our favorite quotes and photos from this year’s attendees: 

St. Paul College – Level 1

“I LOVED St. Paul college WOW! I hope they can do the level 2 training next summer. Beautiful facility and it was easy to get to. They offered free parking passes for us so parking was never an issue. Our instructor Chef Johannes was easy to relate to. She gave us hands-on tips AND gave us teaching tips for the culinary classroom. She had a TON of knowledge and I overall thought this experience was the best professional development I have ever attended.”

Madison College – Level 3

“I value the teaching tips for culinary techniques that my students should know. The demonstrations helped a lot!”

Northern Arizona University – Level 1

“I have taught for 22 years. This is THE BEST professional development I've ever attended. Chef Mark was amazing!!! I learned so much. His enthusiasm was contagious, and his knowledge was impressive. Just. Awesome.”

Brightwater – Level 3

“I have attended Brightwater for levels 1-3 of the summer institute in the past 3 years. I can't say enough good things about the hospitality of Chef Phil and Chef Vince. They do their jobs of providing us the information, but in a non-intimidating manner. I truly appreciate the opportunity to experience all levels of this curriculum under their expertise.”

Daytona State College – Level 1

“I loved the diversity of the participants. Talking with them outside of class was invaluable. Providing delicious and abundant breakfasts and lunches and ample time to enjoy them gave us all time to pick each other’s brains and see how Prostart plays out in our incredibly varied settings.”

University of South Carolina – Level 1

“Every segment included in the week was quite beneficial. As an educator not from the industry, being in the commercial kitchen and honing culinary skills was very helpful to me particularly. As well, every lecture was relevant and informative. I do not want to take away from either segment by saying that what was most valuable to me was the fact that both elements (lecture and kitchen) were taught by true industry professionals. Becky, Chef Robby, and Chef George could not have been more professional, informative, courteous, or welcoming. Their ability to make us as participants feel "at home" truly enabled us to receive the maximum benefit from all of the training segments. I could not say enough about this location! Fabulous training!”

“I had a wonderful time meeting other educators. We were able to share different teaching ideas and talk about the best practices in the classroom. It was amazing to see what other educators do in their classrooms in other states. I felt that the staff was very informative and a great host.”

Madison College – Level 2

“I LOVE LOVE LOVE Madison College, John Johnson, and Kevin McGuinnis. I have attended Madison for both level 1 and level 2, and am very hopeful to be able to attend level 3 there next summer. John and Kevin go above and beyond to make us feel like a family while we are there, provide us with resources beyond what ProStart requires of them, and make sure we have amazing experiences while we are with them.”

“The lab experiences were most valuable to me. I have been teaching for 10 years, so I mostly know the content. Because I have an academic background, I often find myself struggling to provide the most effective lab experiences for my students. The lab experiences at Summer Institutes are wonderful in helping me with ideas, experience, and feeling more comfortable in the kitchen with my ProStart students.”

“John Johnson and Kevin were amazing. I really felt welcome there. They are very patient, fun and knowledgeable. It was a very long week, but definitely well planned and worth my time. I have now had two great experiences at Summer Institute and I hope my district will send me to Level 3 in the next several years.”

 University of Alaska, Anchorage – Level 2

“Overall my experience in Level 2 in Alaska was amazing. Chef Naomi was outstanding and truly provided us with great information, demonstrations, and hands-on experiences. She was very positive with her critiques but also provided ways to improve. I would highly recommend her!”

“I was so impressed with Chef Naomi. She is an excellent teacher. She gave us thorough instructions without being tedious. She also gives positive feedback that is useful. When I would make a mistake she would give gentle reminders about what to do differently. Chef was conscientious of time and moved at a great pace.”

Big Sky Culinary Institute – Level 3

“The staff at Big Sky were very knowledgeable, welcoming, helpful, kind and giving. The sessions (lecture and labs) were organized and well thought out/put together. I recommend these instructors and this facility with high regards. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time, and the use of time was used well. They worked hard to accommodate our needs and truly went over the top. Thanks, Big Sky!”

Until next year, Summer Institutes! If you’re interested in joining us for the 2020 program, stay tuned on our social media pages for more information. 

[labourpress]

Carwyn Jones speech to Labour Party Conference

Carwyn Jones AM, Leader of Welsh Labour, First Minister of Wales, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

 ***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

 I want to begin by extending my thanks to Christina Rees, our Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. Sadly she can’t be with us this week as she’s nursing a broken foot.

 I don’t think there’s any truth in the rumour that she broke it kicking Alun Cairns around Parliament in the first week back, but we’ll ask her when we see her.

 We all wish you a speedy recovery, Chris.

 Secondly, let me say thank you to Jeremy for his continuing friendship and leadership.

Thank you, Jeremy for the dignity you showed in a tough general election campaign.

The Tories came after you in a personal and offensive manner, and you stood up to that onslaught and led the party with great determination and defied the odds.

 This time last year, the Tories thought they were marching to a 100-seat majority. Right now, they’re scared of their own shadows, let alone another general election. What a turn around that is.

 Conference, when I heard Theresa May was giving a speech in Florence, I thought how apt. Not so much in relation to the Renaissance, but more with a thought to the works of that great medieval poet, Dante. It has been clear to me for some time that the Department for Exiting the European Union regard the “Divine Comedy” as some sort of instruction manual. That masterpiece imagines in glorious detail the dark and terrifying journey through the nine circles of hell.

 Well, we’ve been going on our own journey for 15 months and still remain in the first circle of hell – limbo – a remarkable achievement. But, then Dante did have Virgil as his spiritual guide.

 David Davis has got Nigel Farage. The book really is worth a read as Brexit re-interpreted.  At one point, at the close of chapter XXI, Dante witnesses a demon mobilising his troops by using “an ass as a trumpet.”  Which goes to show that every century has its own Boris.

 Conference, this week in Wales we marked the 20th anniversary of the vote to establish devolution in our country.  It was a turning point for Wales, and a turning point for our Party. The list of achievements is one of which we can be proud – and it belongs not just to Welsh Labour, but to the whole Party and movement who made devolution possible.

 ·         Unemployment in Wales - routinely lower than the UK average. More jobs, better jobs – Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

·         Wales, the first country to move to a deemed consent model for organ donation in the UK. People owe their lives to that change in the law. Better laws, saving lives, Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

·         Free school breakfasts in primary schools. Giving children the best start to the day, giving parents a helping hand, giving teachers the attention they deserve in the classroom. Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

·         The attainment gap between better off and poorer pupils in England and Scotland continues to grow – in Wales it continues to shrink. A fair start to everyone in Wales, no matter where you’re born – that is Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

·         Our university students in Wales getting the best deal anywhere in the UK.

·         And who gets the best deal of all? Those students who can least afford university – that is Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

 But, it isn’t just about policy. It’s also about having a voice and someone to fight your corner. This week I gave a cautious welcome to the news that Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp entered the first stage of a merger deal.  A deal that should safeguard sites and thousands of jobs in Wales.

 Does anyone honestly think that without devolution, without a Welsh Labour Government determined to take measures to save that industry, putting money on the table when others looked away, that those steel jobs would still be in Wales today?

Would the Tories have knocked down walls for the people of Port Talbot, Shotton, Newport or Llanelli? We all know the answer to that.

 With our colleagues in the trades unions, our MPs, our AMs and local councillors, Welsh Labour stood up for the steel industry – and we did what those banners and badges asked us to do – we saved our steel.

 Conference, we are proud to work with our trades union colleagues in Government.

Together we have built a genuine social partnership and together we are making Wales a Fair Work Nation.

 And Conference, earlier this month our Trades Union Act received Royal Assent.

That means that the pernicious attempts of the Tory Government to attack workers’ rights in Wales have been dis-applied, and, once again, workers in Wales have the protections we fought so hard to achieve. Protections everyone deserves.

That’s Welsh Labour delivering in Government.

 Devolution has given Wales a voice. And with Welsh Labour that voice speaks the language of social justice, fairness, good work, decent pay and thriving communities.

 Devolution has given us something else. A new-found confidence. It is something I see every day in young people in work, and in our schools and colleges. So where has that confidence come from? If you could personalise it, you’d have to give credit to my predecessor, Rhodri Morgan. As you know, Rhodri passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a fantastic roller coaster of a political career, a wonderful family and an ocean of anecdotes.  In May the Welsh Parliament held the closest thing Wales will ever have to a state funeral, and we gave Rhodri the perfect send off.

 It started late. It finished even later. In between there was a fantastic mix of poetry, politics, sport, laughter and tears. And at the end, no-one really thought about Rhodri the politician, but Rhodri as a big-hearted, intelligent and inquisitive man who loved his family above all else. A fine role model, who we all miss.

 Rhodri always said that Labour did best when it managed to mix together the mushy peas of old Labour with the guacamole of New Labour. Now, I’ve been in Rhodri’s kitchen and I can tell you that when it came to culinary combinations, Rhodri was not always the person you would go to – but on the politics, he, as so often, was absolutely right.  He was absolutely right about the need for our Party to reflect all sections of our membership, and all parts of this country.

 That was the key to our success in Wales in the last three elections.

 When the Party at UK level was under serious pressure, our unique and united Welsh Labour identity meant we remained relevant and competitive in the Assembly and local elections, when sadly others struggled. It was the unity that gave us success against the odds. And when in the last days of the general election the whole party surged, it meant we, in Wales, were starting from a higher base-line and, as a result, achieved 50% of the vote for the first time in 16 years.

 Our identity as a Party is robust, authentic and complementary to the UK Party as a whole. And, just as a country we will not countenance a roll-back of our devolution settlement; there can be no question of Welsh Labour’s long fought for, and hard won voice being diluted as we look to the future of our Party. I know that both Jeremy and Tom understand this, and I welcome their unwavering support for Wales. Thank you, both.

 Because Conference, we know Labour works best when we work together. Together, we fought a hugely successful general election campaign – not just holding on to what we had, but winning back seats for Labour.

 Vale of Clwyd – according to the bookmakers, Tories were 1/5 on to win. Result? Labour Gain. Gower – according to the bookies, Tories were 1/9 on to win. Result? Labour Gain. Cardiff North – Tories were 1/9 on. Result? Labour Gain.

 Working together we have exposed the Tories on broken promise after broken promise. On rail electrification in the north and the south – and we know what’s coming next – they’ll axe Swansea’s Tidal Lagoon.

 But, because Welsh Labour is in Government – there are things we can do. We are already delivering on our manifesto promises.

 ·         100,000 new good quality, all-age apprenticeships.

 ·         The most generous childcare offer for working parents anywhere in the UK.

 ·         And 20,000 more affordable homes.

 We can also deliver on priorities for the future of our NHS.

 There is no privatisation of the NHS in Wales – and whilst we have a Welsh Labour Government there will be no privatisation of the NHS in Wales. Only in Wales are ambulance crews hitting their targets – because we’ve worked with the service and designed a better way of working. And next week, the Welsh Government will publish new guidance for our pioneering legislation on safe nurse staffing levels in Wales.  

 Conference, Wales is the first country in Europe to legislate on nurse staffing levels. I am proud that Wales has taken the lead in this area, empowering nurses and ensuring the resources are there to care sensitively for patients. Legislation that the Party promised in the UK manifesto in May, already being delivered by a Labour Government in Wales.

 And working together we are making our communities better, fairer places to live.

When Carolyn Harris MP began her brave and dignified campaign to end child burial charges in the UK, we in Wales did not wait for the Tory Government to act. We said, yes, that is the right thing to do, and, as a result, the Welsh Labour Government has announced the abolition of all child burial charges in our country. That is what we can do when we work together.

 And the country needs us to work together more than ever before, as we fight the fundamentalists pursuing a hard Brexit. We are fighting tooth and nail against the Tory power grab, dressed up as the EU Withdrawal Bill. It shows up their Government as simply incapable of listening to other people’s views, or respecting their legitimate interests – in other words, as lacking the basic skills needed to negotiate successfully.

And looking at the way in which they are failing the country in their negotiations with the EU, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.

 I’m delighted at the support we are receiving from Labour colleagues in Parliament at fighting this real threat to devolution as we have known it for the past 20 years.

I’m also incredibly proud of the work we have done together already – our team in Cardiff Bay has worked hand in glove with Keir Starmer and the front bench in developing our Brexit policies. As a result of that work, in Labour we now have a sensible, evidence-based, economically sound set of principles and ideas that can see this country through Brexit in an orderly manner.  

 Contrast that with the spectacle of the Tory approach. Sorry, correction – the various Tory approaches. Does anyone really know who speaks for them on Brexit anymore?

Where has the Prime Minister of this country gone? If,  before the general election, the country felt as though it had a robot for Prime Minister, we’d now be forgiven for thinking we have a hologram.

 She went to the country and asked for the support of our communities for a hard Brexit, the country said no. The country said no to some other things as well – our older people said no to being taken for granted. Wales said no to being short-changed. Scotland said no to independence. And crucially, our young people said no to being ignored. They said, through their votes, what we all feel - Britain deserves better than this. This country deserves a Labour Government in Westminster.

A Government that actually cares about the future.

 I know that the people of Wales need that more than ever. Under the Tories, we have had to take £1billion out of our public services in Wales. That’s the annual budget of the entire North Wales health board. Our communities are resilient, but they’re being unfairly punished. And with Theresa May and the Tories they will be asked to give yet more. To give up. To give up their livelihoods, their libraries, their leisure centres, and their right to a fair deal. To give up hope. Enough is enough. It is time for hope.  

 It is time for Labour, in Wales and in Westminster.  Standing up for Wales. Working for fairness. Working, together. Winning, together. That’s a future the country hopes for and that’s the country we can deliver. Together for Wales.  Together for Britain.

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 22/1/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Happy Errol Barrow Day! Here is your daily news cap for Wednesday January 22nd , 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Midweek Nation Newspaper (MWN).

DEMS: WE’RE A GOVERNMENT IN WAITING – Democratic Labour Party (DLP) members and supporters went down memory lane yesterday. The party remembered its founder, the island’s first Prime Minister, Errol Walton Barrow on his birthday with a special tour that started at DLP headquarters at George Street, St Michael, and ended in St Lucy, the birth parish of the National Hero. Along the way, stops were made at Barrow’s bust at Independence Square, the old National Insurance Scheme building on Fairchild Street which will soon be demolished to make way for a national park, and the rural parish of St John, which Barrow represented with distinction from 1958 until he died in 1987. Stops were also made at Codrington College, Gall Hill and Wilson Hill Community Park. DLP president Verla De Peiza, and third vice-president Andre Worrell said yesterday’s event could be just what was needed for the Dems to circle in the wagons in an attempt to regain the government. (MWN)

THREE ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIPS TO MARK ERROL BARROW DAY – Students from this country’s newer secondary schools have been given three new reasons to look forward to the annual celebrations of Errol Barrow Day, as Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced this afternoon that her Government will be providing three annual scholarships to mark the occasion, for which only they are eligible Speaking at the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the centennial of Barbados’ father of independence at his birthplace in St Lucy, Mottley announced that the scholarships will be in the areas of maritime studies, aeronautics and culinary arts, areas which were passions of the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow. The Prime Minister also revealed that Government was willing to play its part in any public-private partnership for the restoration of Barrow’s original home, Nessfield, at The Garden. Mottley declared: “It is easy to build monuments to our heroes, but I believe in living our heroes. “I believe in not only doing credit to our nation but credit to them by our living. “My Government therefore as of next year’s Errol Walton Barrow Day has agreed to the issuance of three scholarships every year on this day. “They must be in areas associated with Mr Barrow’s interest. “These scholarships would be reserved for students from the newer secondary schools in Barbados. “They must be in the areas of air transport and I am sure that Mr Barrow will smile from wherever he is if he knew that this initiative would produce a pilot or an aeronautical engineer. “The other areas are maritime because he was a lover of the ocean and of course culinary.” Mottley contended this was an opportunity for ordinary young Barbadians to walk the path of one of the country’s legends. “By the living of these scholarship winners in years to come, we will be living our heroes and the examples brought to us by them,” the Prime Minister said. (BT)

PARENTS STAND BY ST. ALBANS – Despite a few calls for increased security, parents of children attending St Alban’s Primary School are standing firm behind the school. Yesterday ( Monday) was the first day of classes after the Weston, St James school was closed last Thursday following the daring morning shooting death of Marlon Holder as he was dropping off his son. “I feel comfortable still as I know security does a good job and the perpetrator knew who they wanted, so I’m not scared. It’s possible it might happen again, but the children got to come to school. “There’s no sense in thinking about moving to another school because it could happen there too. All I can do is put God first and ask for His protection,” said Mary Worrell. (MWN)

EDUCATION FOR ALL IN BARBADOS – A new study by the UN children��s fund, UNICEF, has found that Barbados ensures that education is funded equally between the richest and poorest households. The study titled, “Addressing the learning crisis: an urgent need to better finance education for the poorest children”, was published on Monday to coincide with a meeting of education ministers, gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. UNICEF is urging world leaders to address ‘shameful’ disparities in public education spending.According to the study, only five of the 42 countries involved in the survey ensured that education is funded equally between the richest and poorest households. They are Barbados, the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country in the survey, as well as Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. The study calls for all countries to follow this example, prioritize public funding for lower levels of education, and provide at least one year of universal pre-primary education for every child. “We are at a critical juncture. If we invest wisely and equitably in children’s education, we have the best possible chance of lifting children out of poverty by empowering them with the skills they need to access opportunities, and create new ones for themselves,” said UNICEF executive director, Henrietta Fore.The study warns that no country can achieve the goal of inclusive and quality education for all unless it makes quality education a reality for all segments of the population. “But, in too many countries, governments spent the least in education resources on the poorest children. The most disadvantaged children, who face the strongest barriers to learning opportunities, will be the ones acutely facing the amplifying nature of shortfalls in education” It noted for example, school-to-work transitions are considerably longer for those with low levels of education and skills. “They are also more likely to transition to low-paying, low-skilled jobs. For them, the full promise of education will remain unrealised unless we start moving towards a more equitable path.”. The study warns excluding the poorest children from education perpetuates poverty and is a key driver of the global learning crisis. Obstacles they face include discrimination due to gender, disability, ethnic origin, and poor infrastructure. It said that those who do make it to school may then find themselves faced with large class sizes, poorly trained teachers, a lack of education materials and poor school infrastructure. UNICEF said that this has an adverse impact on attendance, enrolment and learning “Countries everywhere are failing the world’s poorest children and, in doing so, failing themselves. As long as public education spending is disproportionately skewed towards children from the richest households, the poorest will have little hope of escaping poverty,” Fore warned. (MWN)

PM GONSALVES BACKS MOTTLEY’S POSITION ON US MEETING IN JAMAICA – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, on Tuesday, praised the position taken by his Barbadian counterpart Mia Mottley as some regional leaders prepare to meet in Jamaica with United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Mottley, speaking at a weekend ceremony to honour the late Barbados prime minister and regionalist, Errol Barrow, said Bridgetown had not agreed to accept the invitation to the talks and warned about efforts to divide the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM. “As chairman of CARICOM, it is impossible for me to agree that my Foreign Minister should attend a meeting with anyone to which members of CARICOM are not invited. If some are invited and not all, then it is an attempt to divide this region,” she said. Gonsalves, speaking at a news conference here, said while the United States had every right to invite whoever it wanted to the talks with Pompeo, who arrives later this evening in Kingston, “I have a strong support for Mia Mottley where she said she couldn’t, as chairman of CARICOM accept an invitation to go where some countries are invited and some are not invited. “I think that’s the correct position because it would appear as though you are dividing CARICOM. Having said that it is the right of every sovereign country to invite who they want to invite and for those sovereign countries to go,” he said. Gonsalves recalled that last year, President Donald Trump had invited some regional government leaders to Miami for talks adding that he had no idea as to why Washington had adopted that position regarding the Caribbean. (BT)

JAMAICA DEFENDS TALKS WITH US – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith says talks between United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries this week should not be viewed as divisive but as an opportunity for bilateral engagement. Pompeo is to make a two-day working visit to Jamaica starting today. CARICOM Chairman and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley spoke out against the talks and revealed that her decision to spurn the invitation to dispatch her foreign minister to the meeting in Kingston was based on principle. “We don’t look to pick fights. I don’t look to pick fights, but I am conscious that if this country does not stand for something, then it will fall for anything. As chairman of CARICOM, it is impossible for me to agree that my foreign minister should attend a meeting with anyone to which members of CARICOM are not invited. … It is an attempt to divide this region,” she said. In a statement today, Johnson Smith said this week’s US engagements with Caribbean foreign ministers are being undertaken largely bilaterally and not within a CARICOM context. “There is nothing unusual or divisive about such meetings. All countries, large and small, have a sovereign right to engage bilaterally with any other country, beyond any regional or hemispheric arrangements. This happens across the world even in political unions which CARICOM, indisputably, is not,” she said. Johnson Smith argued that Jamaicans should remember that the understanding in CARICOM is that member states should work to coordinate foreign policy and therefore collaborate on issues and consider each other’s positions, but there is no obligation to harmonise policy. She added, “The fact is that since its formation, members have, as is their sovereign right, voted differently and taken differing positions on a variety of issues. Jamaica has always both exercised that right and respected it when exercised by others.” She asserted that Jamaica will continue to act in a principled manner to ensure that the region remains a “zone of peace” while engaging with partner countries in advancing the country’s development goals and economic interests. “We view the expanded context of these bilateral meetings as a welcome and positive development, since the last visit of a US Secretary of State to Jamaica in 2018.” Johnson Smith will join Prime Minister Andrew Holness and senior cabinet ministers for bilateral talks with Pompeo on Wednesday, January 22. Meetings with his Caribbean counterparts will take place thereafter. (BT)

YOUTH LEADERS DISCUSS ISSUES ADDRESSING THEM – Young people want economic empowerment, but that will not come without some sacrifice. Trinidad’s Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Shamfa Cudjoe made this point yesterday in response to youth leaders who voiced concerns about not having decision-making power in matters that affect them. During the opening ceremony of the 6th Caribbean Youth Leaders Summit at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, several young leaders, including Chair of the Caribbean Regional Youth Council (CYRC) Shaquille Knowles, and Chairperson of the Commonwealth Youth Council Tijani Christian, urged more young people to speak out against unemployment and underemployment. “I ask you to interrogate the data. Decent jobs are just beyond surviving, we are asking to be economically empowered. We want to own our own homes, we don’t want to be renting all our lives,” Christian said. “We want the opportunity not just to contribute to conversation, but we want to know that we can live in the Caribbean and we don’t have to migrate, but we can strive, build and move towards economic empowerment for every single young person.” However, Cudjoe, who is a former CARICOM Youth Ambassador and a United Nations Youth Ambassador, urged the participants to do more to influence some of their peers, who she suggested did not have their priorities in order. “You want your own home but you don’t want to save. . . while we fight the government we are responsible for some of these challenges. You have to check yourself, you can’t have party clothes and don’t have work clothes. You need to work to get the money to go in the party,” she added. In addition, she reasoned that some people would find it too hard to gain employment due to how competitive the world is. “Your five Levels are important, the university degrees are important but they are not everything. It is not your ticket to success. It sets you on a nice foundation to figuring out what you like but you still have a duty to chart your own course and remain relevant to what is taking place throughout the region and the world,” she added. The summit is being held under the theme Promoting Youth Economic Empowerment: Building synergies towards Sustainable Caribbean Development. Close to 200 participants from CARICOM member states attended the opening, including youth leaders from Barbados, Jamaica and The Bahamas. United Nations representative Marina Walter, Programme Manager at the CARICOM Secretariat Sushil Ram and Vice President of Operations at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Monica La Bennett also attended. In her address, La Bennett also pointed out that youth unemployment remained at unaccepted levels. “Our figures indicate that youth unemployment range from between 18 to 47 per cent in countries which we have data for. It is estimated that more than a third of our young people, almost 36 per cent are not in employment, studying or training.“This is a staggering statistic and unacceptable and an untenable state of affairs,” La Bennett said. She added that the conference was the perfect opportunity for the CDB to hear from the youth, which said would help shape their youth policy. The conference continues through Friday. (MWN)

UNITED STATES GETS FIRST CASE OF MYSTERIOUS NEW CHINESE ILLNESS – The United States on Tuesday reported its first case of a new and potentially deadly virus circulating in China, saying a Washington state resident who returned last week from the outbreak’s epicenter was hospitalised in good condition near Seattle. The man, identified only as a Snohomish County resident is in his 30s, was not considered a threat to medical staff or the public, health officials said. The virus has infected about 300 people, all of whom had been in China, and killed six. The newly discovered virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. Airports in the U.S. and other countries have stepped up monitoring, checking passengers from China for signs of illness. The US is the fifth country to report seeing the illness, following China, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. Late last week, US health officials began screening passengers from Wuhan in central China, where the outbreak began, at three airports — New York City’s Kennedy airport and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. On Tuesday, the CDC announced it will add Chicago’s O’Hare airport and Atlanta’s airport to the mix later this week. What’s more, officials will begin forcing all passengers that originate in Wuhan to go to one of those five airports if they wish to enter the US. (BT)

HUGHES IN TOP FORM – Champion jockey Rasheed Hughes electrified the Garrison Savannah on yesterday’s Errol Barrow Day with a sterling display in the irons to land a quintet of wins. The three-time ruler of the Barbados Turf Club’s jockey championship ran hot from the day’s fourth race, winning with Melrose Racing’s colt Zensational. The duo turned away the early threat of Filmores to make all the running in the Crane Resort Trophy Handicap over 1 800 metres. Thereafter, it was the Hughes show, which he closed out with a gem astride Bills Inc.’s nine-year-old gelding Voldemort in the Hilton Hotel Barbados Resort Trophy Handicap. Nominated for both the Tanglewood and the Spa Sprint on March 7, Voldemort sprinted from the gates before Island Cotton and Joshua swooped by him down the backstretch. (MWN)

CHANGES TO B-BALL SEASON – There will be no women’s league competition in the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association’s (BABA) 2020 season. This and other changes are designed to pave the way for more efficiency, says BABA president Francis Williams. “Coming out of the strategic session that we had with the ladies at the end of the year and with further discussion, one of the things that we have decided is that there would be no league season for the ladies this year,” Williams said at the opening of the new season and 2019 awards ceremony last Sunday night at the Golden Sands Hotel. “However, we will be using more frequent and shorter tournaments and rallies in an effort to maintain interest among the ladies.” (MWN)

FACING FEAR OF FAILURE – Failure is a part of learning and nothing to be afraid of, says Barbadian and West Indies cricketer Jason Holder. It is equally important to “strike a balance” and develop coping mechanisms to deal with failure and success. That, in essence, sums up his advice to teenaged boys, those between 12 and 16 years old who may be reluctant to try something new because they fear failing. Holder was speaking at last Wednesday’s We Gatherin’ 2020 Ideas Forum at the St Lucy’s Parish Church rectory in response to a member of the audience who asked him to give advice that would help the average teenage boy in secondary school “face that fear of failure and overcome it”. The woman said, “One of the things that I see most in boys at school is their fear of failure. They don’t try ’cause they don’t want to fail.” (MWN)

There are 345 days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Hollywood Food Stylists

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/14-behind-the-scenes-secrets-of-hollywood-food-stylists/

14 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Hollywood Food Stylists

Hollywood food stylists are little short of magicians—only instead of pulling rabbits out of hats, they’re turning piles of mashed potatoes into ice cream sundaes. Indeed, making food (or food-like products) appear photogenic and appetizing onscreen is a job for a true illusionist. Mental Floss spoke to a few food stylists working in TV, film, and commercials—from Game of Thrones to Taco Bell—to bring you the tricks of their magical trade.

1. MOST OF THE FOOD BEING FILMED IS REAL.

While food stylists are well-versed in the old-school swap tricks—using a pint of white glue to impersonate a glass of milk, for example—those are being phased out. Now, directors want actors to interact with their food, and high-definition camera lenses have made the fake stuff much more obvious. Plastic food props only appear in the background of scenes today, where they’re less visible and susceptible to scrutiny.

“I only deal with real food,” says Chris Oliver, who has styled food for movies including Gone Girl (2014) and TV shows such as Seinfeld and Big Little Lies. “You also have to think about how a character would cook something or put a plate together. Realistic food is not all beautiful and perfect. I make ugly food and burnt food, too.”

There’s a trend in commercial food styling to present dishes that are less-than-perfect, too. Shellie Anderson, who styles food ads for clients including Burger King and Ragù, says it’s the consumers who are demanding food look more realistic and therefore more approachable.

“People are tired of seeing something in a TV commercial and then ordering it in a restaurant and it doesn’t look the same,” she says. “You don’t want it to look staged anymore. You want a burger to look like the cheese naturally dripped off and landed on the plate.”

2. THEY GO THROUGH A LOT OF FOOD …

If a food stylist needs one sprig of parsley for a shoot, they’ll often order 10 bunches. They never know what the condition of the parsley is going to be when it arrives from the produce vendor, or if the shoot is going to require more than they originally planned for. Carving a turkey in a scene? That may require two dozen birds if an actor keeps flubbing his line.

“It really depends on how much of a story point the food is and how important the scene is for the director,” Oliver says.

Food stylists usually have relationships with produce vendors, who can look for products with the specific size, shape, and color that stylists need. No bruises or dents, and no frozen lettuce! But stylists can hide those things if they have to.

Ice cream is infamously hard to keep intact because it melts so quickly. Food stylists have been known to replace the scoops with dollops of meringue, which don’t melt, or butter rolled in sugar. Oliver makes her sundaes the day before and sticks them in the freezer, spoons and straws and all. If they freeze rock hard overnight, they can last a few hours on set the next day before being replaced with another sundae lined up in the deep-freeze. Anderson sprays her ice cream with cold spray, an aerosol can of super-chilled gas used for cooling electronics.

3. … BUT THE FOOD RARELY GOES TO WASTE.

On film and TV shoots, there are rarely leftovers. In fact, good food stylists often compete with the caterers: Actors usually have to eat the food during their scenes, and the crew finishes off the scraps. While shooting a Chinese New Year scene for the show Fresh Off the Boat recently, actress Lucille Soong told Oliver, who was styling that episode, that she was going to skip lunch because she wanted to enjoy eating her food on camera. “That was pretty freaking flattering!” Oliver says.

Because Oliver works on multiple TV shows in a single day, if an item doesn’t get used on set and never comes out of her cooler, she can just take it back to her shop and recycle it for use on another show. If something can’t be used again, she’ll take it home and make salsa or jam. “When it gets really old, I’ll just stick it in vodka,” she says.

Commercial shoots tend to have more unused food. Anderson says anything that’s still edible will be given to a food pantry. “I once donated an entire swordfish when we did a commercial for a fish restaurant,” she says. “We never even used it. So I kept it on ice and took it to a men’s homeless shelter. They were thrilled to have it.”

4. THEY VALUE FOOD SAFETY.

Another reason food stylists swap out on-camera food so much is because of safety concerns—hot and cold foods need to be kept at certain temperatures that may not be practical on-set. Sushi-grade tuna may be replaced with watermelon, for example, because the fish spoils so easily.

Oliver requires all of her employees to have a food handler’s license. She also only works out of commercial kitchens (including the one on her fully-equipped food styling truck). But not every food styling team does; some prepare food in their homes. “The reason that I get so much work is that everybody knows I’m a chef and I have a real kitchen,” Oliver says. “People trust my food. I’ve done a bunch of movies with Reese [Witherspoon] because she knows that if I’m on set, the food is safe to eat.”

5. WOMEN DOMINATE THE FIELD.

While there are a few well-known male food stylists, for the most part the key food stylists in the U.S. are women. (Both of Anderson’s daughters are food stylists, too.) The reason for this dates back decades.

Before food styling became its own career in the 1990s, it was up to network employees with home economics degrees (almost always women) to cook on-camera food. Then props departments became responsible. “But props guys can’t even make spaghetti,” Oliver says, laughing. So according to her, these guys would go home and ask their girlfriends or wives to make whatever food was required for the next day’s scene. “Eventually they would just hire their girlfriends or wives to do it; keep the money in the family,” she says. “I know five food stylists who at one time were in relationships with prop masters.”

Also in the 1990s, networks began making more multi-camera TV shows. A lot more food began appearing on screen, and actors openly discussed their dietary restrictions. They were vegan, sugar-free, and low-carb all of a sudden. Oliver trained at the Culinary Institute of America and had worked in restaurants and catering jobs before stumbling into this career. “Because I was a chef, and I understood how food works, I knew how to feed people and make food last on set,” she says. “And I could charge anything I wanted to.”

To get a job as a food stylist today, it helps to know someone already in the industry and have a culinary background. Everyone starts as an intern, and then may be able to work their way up to being an assistant and then a stylist. “Not everybody can be a food stylist,” Anderson says. “You have to be able to cook, but you still have to be creative. And you have to be able to work fast and under pressure.”

6. THEY LIVE OUTSIDE OF LOS ANGELES NOW.

Now that movies and TV shows are frequently filmed all over the world, instead of just on sets in Los Angeles, food stylists can be based anywhere. There is a concentration of stylists who live in Vancouver, British Columbia, for example, because that’s where many shows are now filmed. Labor laws also often require production crews to hire locally, so residing outside of L.A. can be a real advantage.

Some commercial food stylists, like Anderson, are flown in for shoots. “Food stylists can make or break a commercial,” she says. “And if you have trouble and you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be a real problem for production.” This is especially true on out-of-the-country shoots, when stylists don’t have the resources that they’re used to. So clients who know her and her skill level, such as Taco Bell, will fly her to wherever they’re filming.

7. THEY TALK LIKE CHEFS AND FILMMAKERS.

Food stylists use a mix of back-of-the-house kitchen lingo and film jargon. Some examples: The “hero” is the food that is written into the script, is being shot, and must appear in front of the actor. “Bite and smile” is when an actor takes a bite of food and pretends to like it. “All day” is the total number of items needed; if they needed five turkeys on a set, they would say “five all day.”

8. NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO BE IN THE MOVIES.

Food stylists usually specialize in different media: film, TV, commercials, or print editorial. Stylists often prefer one over the other. Print editorial is shot in a controlled studio and tends to have more leeway for creativity. Commercials are tied to a brand’s specifications. Film and TV shoots on location are in unpredictable settings and can be physically demanding. But everyone tends to work long, 12- to 14-hour days. For commercials, it can often take three days to shoot one 30-second spot.

When working on a movie or TV show, the actors’ demands usually take precedence over the food needs. After working on one film, Anderson had had enough and dedicated herself to commercial work. “When I do commercials, the food is the star,” she says. “So [the directors] want to make sure I have everything I need. On a movie, they could care less about you.”

9. FOOD STYLISTS DON’T JUST MAKE FOOD.

Sometimes food stylists are expected to create sci-fi props—what would a person eat in the year 3000?—or fantasy items that they have no experience with. While working on the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Oliver made gooey, edible slime from her imagination. “I also had to roll with the [actors’] different dietary needs,” she says. “I had to be able to make vegan slime, sugar-free slime, gluten-free slime, gelatin-free slime … Slime, any way you want it.”

Oliver also has to make items that you don’t really want to put in your mouth. While filming the TV show Big Little Lies, she made green-colored vomit for actress Reese Witherspoon of cucumbers and parsley. She says it was tasty, like green gazpacho. For a war film, she had to make 400 pounds of “dirt” for a group of prisoners of war to eat. She got Pakistani soil shipped to California so she could match it exactly. (Her recipe: ground-up Oreos and graham crackers, mixed with brown sugar and white sugar.)

Janice Poon, the food stylist behind the cannibal-centric TV show Hannibal, had a more challenging obstacle: how to make dishes that resembled human flesh. She refused to do research on cannibalism websites, she told HopesAndFears.com, but she studied a lot of anatomy books. “I’m just like Dr. Frankenstein,” Poon said. “I’m always stitching things, exchanging, putting one kind of meat on a different bone, patching stuff together. … The key is to let the viewer’s imagination do more of your work.” She transformed veal shanks into human legs, and used prosciutto slices to mimic slivers of a human arm.

10. THEY PACK SOME SERIOUS GEAR.

When shooting, stylists need to be prepared for anything. They carry tools including tweezers, scissors, paint brushes, knives, offset spatulas, wet wipes, syringes, rulers, Q-tips, and spritz bottles.

“Think about your kitchen: all of your mixing bowls and utensils … I have that times 10 in my kit,” Anderson says. She also has a torch on hand for quick-cooking burgers and cold spray for extending the life of ice cream. Other stylists may have glycerin for adding shine or Kitchen Bouquet sauce for adding color. Poon often uses a white ceramic knife so she can see what she’s doing on dark sets and work more quietly, so as not to disturb the acting process.

Food stylists sometimes work in erratic environments. Oliver brings her own 17-foot, cab-over truck to shoots. “It has a lift gate and everything’s on wheels, so I can take everything out and have a kitchen in the middle of the desert, if I want,” she says. Inside, she has a full commercial kitchen: a six-burner stove, refrigerator, microwave, grill, freezer, prep tables, storage, TV, and a generator.

11. THEY’RE SKILLED AT IMPROV.

When production starts, the prop team sends memos to actors or their reps asking about food allergies and dietary restrictions. As trained chefs, most food stylists are happy to accommodate such limitations, cooking convincing swap-outs. “I find out what they will eat and make it happen,” Oliver says.

For example, Poon once made a convincing vegan “raw meat” on Hannibal using only grains. “I made lamb tongues out of bulgur and water,” Poon told HopesAndFears.com. “It’s like making a Lebanese kibbeh. You mix cracked wheat with water and it makes a kind of mush that holds together. The texture is a little ‘nubbly,’ so I added a pink food coloring, made little tongues out of kibbeh dough, steamed them up, and they were my little lambs’ tongues.”

Sometimes a director changes his or her mind at the last minute, and what was supposed to be a spaghetti dinner, for example, is now a breakfast spread. So the food stylist will squish down the meatballs and turn them into sausage patties. In an interview with NPR, food stylist Melissa McSorley recalled a time when a movie director suddenly decided to cut open a birthday cake she had made. The problem: It wasn’t real.

“So we had to cut the cake that was made out of Styrofoam, and I had to use a saw in order to do it because none of my knives could get through it,” McSorley said. “And then we had to layer in cake so it did look like it was real and then we had to send people scurrying to many markets to find white layer cake so it looked like people in the background could be actually be eating the cake.”

12. THERE’S ALWAYS THE SPIT BUCKET OPTION.

Professional actors will often pick at the food in front of them, but not eat it because they know their scenes are going to require a lot of takes; they could be eating birthday cake for eight hours straight. Others dive right in. For a scene in The Guilt Trip (2012), actress Barbra Streisand had to pretend she was in a steak-eating contest. Oliver says they went through more than 300 pounds of meat for that scene’s three-day shoot and Streisand was totally game.

“But there’s a part towards the end where she has to eat really quickly and do a line without, you know, choking and dying,” Oliver says. “So I switched out the steak with seared watermelon. She took one bite and it sort of dissolved in her mouth, so she could do her line. If you watch it, and you really listen, you can hear the crunch of the watermelon.”

Sometimes, though, the spit bucket is the only option. In season one of Game of Thrones, the character Daenerys Targaryen had to eat a whole horse heart. But the actress who plays her, Emilia Clarke, actually had to eat 28. They were made of solidified jam, which tasted like “bleach and raw pasta,” she told The Mirror. “It was very helpful to be given something so truly disgusting to eat, so there wasn’t much acting required. Fortunately, they gave me a spit bucket because I was vomiting in it quite often.”

13. SOMETIMES THEY’RE SURPRISED BY THE FINAL PRODUCT.

Food stylists who work on multiple projects at a time, like Oliver, can’t always stick around to see how their food will be used. They may later find out that a gorgeous spread was relegated to the background, or worse. For a scene in Seinfeld, Oliver was once asked to prepare a perfect, glistening turkey. “Later I was home watching the episode and they had put the turkey on Kramer!” she says. “I was literally crying I was laughing so hard. Never in a million years did I think my turkey was going to end up with a guy’s head.”

14. THEY THROW EPIC DINNER PARTIES.

You’d think that being around food all day would make food stylists tired of making things look nice. But most food stylists love to cook, and on the days they aren’t working, they love to throw parties. “People always expect to have beautiful food,” Anderson says. “And I don’t disappoint.”

[eurolinguiste]

Today is an incredibly important day – it’s Little Linguist’s first birthday! This weekend we’re celebrating this big milestone, but for today, I’ve got my little one all to myself. 

July was a whirlwind month. I wrapped up the launch of Language Learning Accelerator, started Get by in Croatian, dove into my Croatian, Russian and Japanese studies, said goodbye to my grandfather alongside family I don’t get to see often, and enjoyed coordinating a cake smash for Little Linguist.

Some happy, sad, exciting and overwhelming moments. Definitely a lot to process!

If you’re new around these parts, #clearthelist is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, Lindsay of Lindsay Does Languages, Kris Broholm of Actual Fluency, and Angel Pretot of French Lover.

We’d absolutely love for you to a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram

  A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste) on Jul 31, 2017 at 10:28am PDT

Last Month’s Blog Highlights

Travel

Mount Gay Rum, Barbados // Our tour of the rum distillery in Barbados.

The Covered Market in Martinique // A culinary adventure hidden in the Fort de France covered market in Martinique.

Language Learning

How I Adapted the Goldlist Method to Fit My Vocabulary Study // How I use “distilling” to make the most of all my language learning notes.

Language Laddering // An update on my Croatian, Japanese and Russian language learning projects and a summary of how I study new languages through old ones.

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // This month, I learned a few fun words for bugs, and I’ve also refreshed how to count from one to ten on one hand (Little Linguist’s new favourite thing to do even if all the numbers sound like “da”). 

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // I did so much reading last month. This doesn’t mean I finished a lot of books, but I did make a lot of progress in those that I’m reading.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Yup! Steadily pecking away at it.

Read something in Chinese, French, and/or Spanish. // Yup! I’ve also started reading in Russian. LingQ for the win.

Study my dang Chinese Memrise deck! Sheesh. // Yup! I’ve finally decided to cap my decks where they’re at and really get to it. It required me changing the settings of my deck and duplicating to really make the most of what I had.

Finish distilling my old Russian notes. // I made decent progress with this, but I didn’t realize how much I already had down, so I still have some to do.

Record my first video(s) in Japanese. // Nope.

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // Like I keep saying, this will be a never ending project. And it’s wonderful. He’s starting to get interested in specific things, so this is definitely going to help me build the right vocabulary.

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // If you haven’t already, you can join us on Goodreads!

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // I still have a long way to go. Like 900+ videos to go. 

Read something in Chinese, French, and/or Spanish and Russian. // I’ve been reading too much in English lately and this needs to change.

Keep studying my Chinese Memrise deck. // There is so much useful stuff in there for Little Linguist.

Finish distilling my old Russian notes and my Croatian notes. // Almost there!

Record my first video(s) in Japanese and Russian. // One is super new and the other I need to get used to speaking again.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap on the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese

LingQ – my new favourite tool, I kid you not

iTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessons

Memrise – I do 18,000 points minimum per day 

ChineseClass101

FluentU 

DramaFever

Chinese version of the Nintendo 64

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQ

Immersion (we speak franglais at home)

Reading books written by French authors

Listening to French radio/podcasts

Chatting with family

Watching movies and other videos in French

Playing Skyrim (well, all my PS4 games) in French (I plan on swapping the language to Chinese once I’ve completed my first play through)

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

LingQ

Perfectionnement Russe

RussianPod101

iTalki Lessons

Memrise

Pimsleur

What I am Using to Learn Korean:

I am on a break from Korean

What I am Using to Learn Spanish:

LingQ

Lingoda (use code FM2J6Y )

Coffee Break Spanish

Schaum’s Spanish Grammar

News in Slow Spanish

Baselang

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

The One Minute Japanese podcast from the Radio Lingua network

JapanesePod101

Memrise

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Pooh Bear and Baby Bear

Little Pim

Finding Dory

YouTube

Day-to-day interaction

His Chinese lullaby is from Mantou Riji, I also sing him “You are my Sunshine” in Chinese, and his French is Une Souris Verte

Flashcards from Tuttle

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

None

The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

It was something I already knew, but launching Get by in Croatian only reinforced it… What is it? Teaching your language helps you better understand it. Plus, I love planning the lessons and putting them together.

This month, I released the first two episodes:

Season One Episode One // Saying Hello and Introducing Yourself

Season One Episode Two // How are you?

I’m really enjoying it and it’s helping me improve my Croatian language skills. I highly recommend teaching your target language, even if you’re still starting out. You can even pretend to teach it to someone else if you’re nervous passing on what you know to another person. All you have to do is explain what you’re working on as though you’re teaching someone at a lower level than you. It really helps to instill what you’re working on!

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month! Please join us by adding your post to the linkup below! 

Clear The List Linkup Rules:

1. Share your goal post whether it includes your aspirations for the month or year. Submissions unrelated to the theme or links to your homepage will be deleted.

2. Link back to this post. You can use our button if you wish.

3. Follow the hosts: Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages, Shannon from Eurolinguiste, Kris from Actual Fluency, and Angel from French Lover.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Please visit the site of the person who linked up immediately before you and leave them an encouraging comment! By hosting this linkup, we’re hoping to create a positive community where we can all share our goals. If you do not do this, you will be removed from the linkup.

5. Share on social media using #ClearTheList

An InLinkz Link-up

apntag.anq.push(function() { apntag.showTag('ga_os_8544222'); });

The post Language Learning Strategies | #CleartheList August 2017 appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

[cstesttaken]

Shockingly Awesome Wendy Williams TV Weight Loss Secret

Wendy Williams is a bit of a Swiss army knife. She has so many skills, including , television host, disc jockey, and actress. Known for her bombastic attitude and curvy figure, Wendy has had quite the career for the last quarter century.

Williams got her career off to a rocking start as a disc jockey, and she traveled around the East Coast spreading her sound. She eventually wound up back in New York where she had a widely syndicated show. In 2008 she took the leap to the small screen with her daytime talk show The Wendy Williams Show, where she showcases a lot of gossip and hot talk. That show has proven to be a hit, and with all the time in front of the camera, Wendy needed something to help with her figure. Some say she’s used Garcinia (just liked it’s rumored that Chelsea Houska and Gabby Sidibe), as the results closely mirror what we see from the supplement.

Keep in Shape Like Wendy

Wendy Wiliams has a bunch of resources at her disposal, including dieticians and doctors. Fortunately, you can get some of her body success by mixing in diet, exercise, and a dietary supplement like Garcinia Cambogia, which is all natural and a great way to keep trim.

What is Garcinia and How Does it Work?

Garcinia Cambogia hails from the fruit of the same name, which ironically, grows on the tree of the same name. The fruit comes from Indonesia, and residents have long used it for both dietary and culinary purposes. Some of the purported benefits of the fruit include:

Concentrated weight loss- The chemical makeup of this supplement sees Hydroxycitric acid in the ingredient list, which has been shown to chew up fat cells, with little to no effort from users. As a bonus, the supplement has also been shown to boost the metabolism of users, meaning that less food in your system will be transferred over to fat than if you didn’t take the pill at all.

Energy boost- The makeup of this supplement show that’s it gives users a prolonged energy boost that is better than coffee or other energy products out there, which makes it cost effective as you don’t have to ingest nearly as much of this substance to keep your energy up. Even better is the fact that the supplement is 100% natural, and it doesn’t have any harmful side effects.

Appetite suppression- If you want to lose weight, you need to be able to control what foods you’re putting into your body, and that is hard when you have to constantly fight hunger urges. The supplement does a great job of making users feel full, negating the urges that cause so many dieters to fail at their goal of losing weight because they want to indulge in unhealthy foods.

Metabolism booster- As you get older, your metabolism seems to slow down, which makes your body take longer to break down food and causes you to put on weight faster. The pill has been shown to speed down the metabolism process in users, which is fantastic for those whose system has slowed down due to age or other factors.

These are just some of the benefits, and the good news is that new ways to use the substance are being found regularly!

What Others Have to Say

I understand why some of you may be skeptical about our claims. There are countless other websites out there peddling junk, and those substances have no real benefit to users, and can prove to be dangerous! What we’re telling you though is that Garcinia is 100% natural and that thousands of verified users have hailed their results. On Amazon, more than 8,800 people have reviewed the pill, and users have given it a four-and-a-half star review. Some of those users say:

“I bought 5 days ago and started using it the next day and I was shocked with the results. In 5 days I lost 7 pounds and I felt great. I’m not tired anymore! I’m so happy cause I get full faster. No, I don’t exercise but I to walk and clean the house play with my son I’m happier so I recommend this to all the people that trying to loose pounds my friend already bought it. I have more people that are interested in buying it because of my use.”

“I received this product the next day after my purchase! I took the Garcinia pills the same day I received the order and my energy level change within the same day!”

I love this product and the way it makes my body feel. This pill has helped my lose over 30 lbs. It reduces hunger pains and provides enough energy to get in those workouts every week! Do not miss a monthly order! Get yours today and be happy with your body from the inside out.”

“I would highly recommend this product. Too early to tell if weight loss will actually happen, but what I can tell about this product it definitely suppresses your appetite. I no longer want to snack all day, or consume large amounts when I do eat. Remember with this pill you have to take it 30-1hr before eating, it will make you feel like you don’t want to eat but please try to at least put SOMETHING on your stomach. Will be updating my review in a couple weeks only been taking the pill for about 5 days now.”

Get Your Free Bottle Today!

We have partnered with a supplier of Garcinia, who manufactures the pills in an FDA-certified facility. This company has graciously given us the ability to offer free bottles to our readers. They know that if you use the pill as instructed that you’ll lose weight, feel great, and tell your friends about your success. They also know that this is the best form of marketing, and know that their brand will take off once everyone is happy.

So don’t wait, as supplies are limited. Click the link and get your free trial bottle today!

Source

http://www.fatfighterblogs.com/shockingly-awesome-wendy-williams-tv-weight-loss-secret/