#we were talking about how socialization has been difficult for dogs since Covid

[blackbackedjackal]

I love meeting dog people out in the wild. Met these two ladies with their dogs and they asked if they could see Blue. They had their dogs chill out and allowed Blue to come over and sniff and play a bit. She was unsure and a bit nervous but interested and by the end was trying to kiss and play with the other dogs ;o;

[prettyinlimegreenboots]

"Is it too much to ask for something great?" For whoever you'd like :)

There’s cursing in here. This is the continuation of my Newsies Life in the ER Series. You can catch up here. We check in on Albert and Finch in this one. There’s some swearing in this one.

January 19, 2021

It had been a hell of a year, since the first COVID case was discovered in the United States. It had been eight months since he saw his first case at the hospital. He was ready for a solid week off with no plans, other than a road trip, catching up on Netflix shows and hanging out with his husband.

He pushed back from the computer with a sigh, giving Spot a look. “Need anything before I leave?”

Spot grinned, shaking his head. “No, but enjoy your time off. I’m insanely jealous, by the way.”

“Your time is coming - two weeks then I’ll be the jealous one.” Albert grinned, watching a chart fly by on the desk. Looking up, he grinned at Plums who maneuvered into a chair. “How’s that baby girl of yours? Has she figured out what sleep is?”

Her and Jack had welcomed Adelin Charlotte Kelly back in July. She was welcomed by many honorary aunts and uncles. Her birth was one the ER wouldn’t forget for a really long time.

Plums sighed. “She loves to throw ragers between 1 and 3 am. She’s got the lungs of her father. Jack was up with her while I got to sleep blissfully while she screamed her head off.”

“Racer and I told you we would take her for a weekend if you want.” Spot reminded her, giving her a big grin. “All you have to do is say yes.”

Plums grinned, pursing her lips. “Let me talk with Jack and I’ll let you know. Just make sure you don’t work the next day after you have her. She loves her ragers.”

“Duly noted.” Spot grinned. “We love her and she will be fine. Al, what are you going to be doing on your vacation?”

Albert leaned back in the chair. “Finch and I are going on a road trip up to Cold Springs for a few days before lazily lying on the couch catching up on Netflix and trying out a few recipes Finch wants to try.”

“What’s up in Cold Springs? I’ve heard it’s gorgeous in the summer but won’t it be colder than here.” Plums looked over at him with an eyebrow raised.

Albert laughed, raising his own eyebrows, grinning. “Finch spent his childhood up in Cold Springs - he always talks about the cute town and little shops along with some great skiing. And, yes it’s cold up there but that’s what they make fireplaces and cozy blankets.”

Spot and Plums both rolled their eyes and laughed at Albert’s expression. “Thanks but we didn’t need to know that.”

“You asked.” Albert grinned. “Now if you don’t have anything for me, I’m heading out.”

They both yelled for him to have a great vacation before he headed to the locker room before clocking out. With a final wave, he headed out of the Emergency Room, heading to his Subaru. Unlocking the car, he threw his bag in the back before getting in.

The car ride home was quiet, him relaxing, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. Pulling into the driveway, he sighed, getting out of the car, walking into the house. He heard the familiar jingle of Rex’s collar, kicking off his shoes before letting the black Lab out of his crate. The dog danced at his feet as he made his way over to the backdoor to let him out.

Making his way to the bedroom, he quickly changed out of the scrubs and into sweatpants and a hoodie. Making his way out to the living room, he let Rex back in, quickly changing his water bowl before collapsing onto the couch. Digging his phone out of his sweatpants, he aimlessly scrolled through his social media.

He felt Rex jump off the couch before starting to bark, causing Albert to look up, realizing that two hours had already passed. He heard the door open as Rex’s excited paws pad on the floor as Finch’s bag hit the hit. Albert smiled hearing Finch talk to Rex, reassuring him he was home for the night. “Hey you.”

Albert pushed himself off the couch, grinning at Finch as he made his way over to him. “Hey yourself. How was your day?”

“Good. It was good to wrap some things up before vacation.” Finch grinned, kissing him again. “How was yours?”

Albert shrugged, sitting back down on the couch. “Two gunshot wounds and a few stitches. Just an average day in life.”

“That’s your average day . . . not most Americans.” Finch grinned, laughing. “Have you been home long?”

He nodded. “Like two hours. Spot and Plums pushed me out telling me they’re jealous of us having a vacation.”

“Have you thought of dinner?” Finch asked, loosening his tie, giving his husband a look while cocking his eyebrow.

Albert had the decency to look a bit guilty. “No . . . I got caught up in a game with Racer and lost track of time.”

“Feel like anything in particular?” Finch asked, heading to the bedroom as he unbuttoned his shirt, giving Albert another look.

Albert threw his head back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling as he flipped through the possibilities for their dinner. Nothing sounds amazingly great to him so he figured he’d leave it up to Finch to decide. “Babe?”

Looking up, a wolfish smile crossed Albert’s face at how utterly gorgeous his husband was. Finch was dressed in ratty sweatpants and an old hoodie from their college days. “What’s up?”

“What do you want for dinner?” Finch joined him on the couch, lacing his fingers with his. “You alright, something seems off?”

Albert shrugged. “I don’t care what we do for dinner - nothing really sounds good. And all is good.”

“Uh huh . . .” Finch gave him a long look, squeezing his hand. “I’m ordering pizza for dinner then we’re going to have a long talk.”

Albert watched Finch pull out his phone, call their favorite pizza place before ordering their usual - a pepperoni pizza with breadsticks and a two liter of Pepsi. Hanging up the phone, Finch dropped it on the coffee table, looking at Finch. “I’m not going to bug you but what’s going on Albert?”

“What do you mean?” Al looked at Finch, biting his lip.

Finch sighed. “You’ve been quiet for the last couple of days and distant for a bit. I have been waiting for you to come to me but you haven’t said much outside of good morning, goodnight, and a text here and there. What’s bugging you, Albert?”

“I’ve been doing some thinking.” Albert started, biting his lip. “Have you thought about where you want our life to go and what you want out of it?”

“I want you and I want the life that we talked about in college.” Finch smiled. “The one that we were going to go on vacation with the destination picked by throwing a dart at a map. The one that we adopted a dog, hours spent on debating which one we wanted, only to go to the shelter to pick out Rex. The one that you come home and tell me about your hospital days and try to gross me out by talking about the goriness of the job. And the one that you're completely and utterly head over heels in love with me.”

Albert grinned, thinking back on the times they would sit under the stars and talk. He looked over at Finch, biting his lip. "Is it too much to ask for something great?"

The words were quiet as they left Albert’s mouth that it was difficult for Finch to hear. “Wanna say that again?”

“Is it too much to ask for something great?” Albert said louder as he looked down at their linked hands.

Finch faltered for a moment, not expecting those words to come out of his husband’s mouth. His mouth opened and closed for a second, not sure what to say to him. “You don’t have to say anything . . . just voicing the question.”

He looked at Albert, hurt across his face. “When did you stop telling me about your thoughts and ideas? One thing I’ve always prided myself in our relationship is how much you and I always talk and work things out that are bugging us.”

“We were talking about greatness at work. One of our docs is retiring and they were talking about how great his career was and how great he is walking away.” Albert started. “I’ve been thinking about how I can have something great. I love you and I love the life we’ve built. All I want is something great.”

“Babe.” Finch paused, shifting in the couch, squeezing his hand. “I think the life we have together is pretty great. I think it’s great that I get to come home to you, to Rex, and tell you about my day. I think it’s great that I can call you my husband and I know that you’re always going to be by my side and be there for me. What isn’t so great about what we have?”

Biting his lip, Albert shook his head. “Do you feel like there’s something we’re missing?”

“At this moment, no. I love our comfortable lifestyle, our jobs are great and we’re in a good spot.” Finch raised an eyebrow. “How long have you been thinking about adding kids to our life?”

A gasp escaped Albert’s mouth as a smile crossed his lips. “Only a few weeks. I see what Jack and Kat have with Addie and I’ve started thinking about us. We always talked about having kids but it didn’t become real until a few weeks ago.”

“We’ve been married for six months, Al. Do you want to add kids to our life so quickly?” Finch asked. “We can spoil Addie rotten for a bit longer . . .”

Sighing, Albert threw his head back against the couch. “I want kids but at times I feel like we’re being left behind. Race and Spot have been talking about kids as have Romeo and Specs. We’re not even at that point yet.”

“We’re also 26 years old.” Finch bit back, giving him a look. “Since when do we set our lives based on our friend’s lives and what they’re doing? I am starting to get the feeling that there’s something deeper going on Albert. Please just tell me.”

Unlacing his fingers from Finch’s, Albert tapped his knee. “Okay . . . don’t kill me when I tell you . . .”

“You can’t start a sentence like that, Albert.” Finch raised an eyebrow at him. He slid closer to Albert, pulling him into his arms. “Just tell me Albert, I’m really starting to worry.”

The doorbell interrupted them as Finch dropped a kiss on Albert’s head. Pushing off the couch, he retrieved the pizza, breadsticks, and the soda pop before dropping them on the coffee table. Finch took a deep breath, going into the kitchen to get two glasses of ice, paper plates, and napkins before dropping back onto the couch beside Albert. “Alright snugs, talk to me.”

Grabbing a slice of pizza and a breadstick, Albert relaxed on the couch with a sigh. “I had a doctor’s appointment a few days ago - just the annual physical. But there was something in my blood work that has my doctor concerned.”

“Concerned? What is it?” Dropping his plate onto the coffee table, shifting to look at Albert, Finch pursed his lips in concern.

“My white blood cell count was high.” Albert sighed, tears crowding his eyes. “But I feel fine and haven’t been sick lately. My doctor is running additional tests and I’m in a waiting period. What if it’s more serious?”

Pulling Albert into his arms, he ran his hand through his hair. “Thank you for telling me. What do you always tell your patients - don’t jump to conclusions. It could be that there’s something going on with your white blood cells that isn’t related to an illness.”

Pressing a kiss to Albert’s head, Finch sighed. “So you decided to bring up thinking about everything that you haven’t achieved yet to cover the fact that you’re potentially sick? Albert, I promised you, in sickness and in health that I will love you always. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yeah that wasn’t very smart of me.” Albert agreed, with a sad smile. “I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

Finch ran his hand through his hair, chuckling. “How about next time you have news to deliver you just tell me? Yes, it may scare me but I’m not going to run; those vows and you mean too much to me.”

“Deal.” Holding out his hand, Albert smiled. “Do you want to continue our discussion of kids?”

Finch sighed. “How about we get through this hiccup in our lives first before we circle back to the kids front? We both know we want kids, that’s not even a question but the timing, we’re going to need to discuss that in more detail.”

Nodding, Albert smiled. “That sounds like a plan. We make a pretty good team.”

“We sure do.” Finch leaned over and kissed Albert. “I love you, snugs.”

“Love you too Finchie.”

Four Days Later

The door closed behind him as he kicked off his shoes. Walking into the kitchen, he placed the vase of flowers on the counter before looking around. The house was quiet as he peeked his head into the living room. Albert and Rex were curled up on the couch, both sound asleep causing Finch to grin brightly.

He walked into the bedroom, changing into sweats and a hoodie before walking out and kneeling next to the couch. He ran his hand through Rex’s fur as the dog looked up at Finch as his tail started thumping. Moving to run his hair through Albert’s hair, Finch grinned listening to Albert’s breath hitch as he peeked an eye open. “Hey.”

Finch’s smile widened at the grogginess of Albert’s voice. “Hey yourself. Long day?”

“Tough day. We lost a patient today.” Albert sighed. “I came home and cuddled with Rex and must’ve fallen asleep.”

Pressing a kiss to his forehead, Finch lightly scratched Albert’s scalp, smiling hearing him sigh in contentment. “How was your day, Finchie?”

“I got an embarrassing bouquet of flowers but glad you got some good news about your tests.” Finch grinned. “Did you really need to send the flowers?”

Albert laughed, pushing himself into a seated position. “Yes, I could’ve called you and told you the news but thought you might like the flowers. I would’ve loved to see your face when they got delivered.”

Fishing his phone from his back pocket, Finch opened it tilting it for Albert to look at. “Ask and you shall receive. Amelia took a photo and sent it to me after the fact. Hey, Albie?”

“Yeah Finchie?” Albert looked up from the photo with a smile on his face.

“I’m really glad you’re going to be okay.” Finch smiled. “You just have to take an antibiotic, right? Nothing else?”

Albert smiled. “Just an antibiotic for a few days and a check up in three months. I’m okay, Finchie. But if you want, I’ll give Katherine the report and she can talk to you about it.”

“You’d let Katherine do that?” Finch asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Albie smiled and nodded. “If it gives you peace of mind, then yes, I’d let our friend do that. She’d tell you the same thing that I just told you. I’m going to be just fine, Finchie.”

Pulling him off the couch, Finch pulled him into his arms with a laugh before kissing him. “I love you Albie.”

“I love you too Finchie.” Albert laughed, pushing himself on his tiptoes to kiss Finch. “Now can we talk about kids?”

Laughing, Finch nodded, stilling Albert in their awkward dance. “We have all the time in the world but yes we can talk about kids, assuming you want to be a dad.”

“I was thinking a papa more like it but yes, I want to raise kids with you Patrick Cortes-DaSilva.” Albert kissed him with a passionate furish.

Finch chuckled. “And I want to raise kids with you too, Albert Cortes-DaSilva. I love you Albie.”

“And I you, Finchie forever and always.”

Thanks @cutesiewooren for sending this in!! Feedback will be amazing!

[nobetterthansheshouldbe]

7 great ways to support your friends and neighbours through covid-19 financial crisis. (without referring them to foodbanks)

Tried and tested great ways to support your friends through covid-19 related financial difficulties that they will really appreciate.

We all know someone who financially struggling at the moment. Even if you’re not aware, chances are you do, and that they’re too embarrassed to say. I have spent the majority of my adult life working, making a good life, providing for my family and their future. For me and so many others so many this is in jeopardy. 

There have been over 3 million claims for Universal credit since lockdown. Thousands of small business owners, freelancers, newly self employed, limited company directors and contractors have been left out of government support schemes and their incomes have gone down to £409.89 a month. 

These are people who’ve worked hard in their careers, they’ve got mortgages and car payments and families depending on them. You know them, they live on your street, your kids play together, you’ve been enjoying Friday night zoom quizzes together. They’re me.

Its hard to know how to help without risking damage to an already crippled ego.   Its actually much harder to accept charity than to give it. UK mental health charity SANE has reported a 200% increase in calls to its helpline since lockdown. Its put many of us into a state of limbo, we can’t get a job in a supermarket, they’re all full, and the UK’s fruit farms have been inundated with applications from Brits (I’ve checked) and of course theres the childcare, with no school, who looks after the kids?

So… if you’re doing OK, and you're still got your job,  here are are ways you can support your friends and neighbours. 

COMMUNICATE:  It sounds obvious but a face to face conversation is a good start. Questions like “How are you?” And “How can I help” will make a world of difference. Mostly people don’t feel comfortable sharing their worries with those closest to them, especially if they’re cooped up in a house together, so bending the ear off a friend can be a huge release. It helps you to determine an appropriate way to help. Don’t just talk about finances though, your beard growing skills deserve a conversation too. 

MONEY: yeh sure money would make a difference but you can’t just post wads of cash through your friends letterbox, that would be weird. Besides, who has money to spare when the world faces the worst recession since the great depression? There are other ways to be supportive, but if you think you might be able to help financially then ask if they would accept it. A good friend of mine knew that my fridge freezer broke last month, and they asked if they could give me some money towards a new one. They didn’t make it weird or go on about how they were doing a good deed, they just gave me and envelope, I thanked them and nothing more was said. 

SUPPORTING THEIR IDEAS: It is highly likely that your friend has had many sleepless nights trying to think of ways to make ends meet. Ideas are born and they can see a glimmer of a silver lining to a very dark cloud. Please support them! Maybe its a total career change like writing online content (ahem..). They could be mowing lawns or renting out a spare room, maybe they’re making the ugliest jewellery you’ve ever seen. Buy it! Hire them! Share their social media page! 

BE MINDFUL OF PERSONAL STRUGGLES: This one really applies to everyone regardless of their financial situation. Adults and children with special needs and mental health issues have had little respite. Again its a difficult subject, as talking about our mental health is as taboo as talking about our finances, but I guarantee that there is someone close to you silently struggling with their mental health.  Take your neighbours kids out for ice cream, ask the single man next door if he would be interested in taking your dog for a walk around the block, play socially distanced frisbee. Make each other laugh.

FEED THEM: Food, it’s a tricky one. Nobody wants to admit they can’t feed their family, but its a harsh reality for many. New figures show that last month demand for food banks was greater than ever – an 89 per cent rise for The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest food bank network, while the Independent Food Aid Network, which has around 350 food banks, saw a 175 per cent increase in requests for emergency parcels. Believe me when I say that if someone is struggling to feed their family, then they know all about the local food bank, and that if they haven’t used it already, its up to them to decide when they’re ready to do so. What you can do is take them a good old fashioned lasagne, a shepherds pie, share a socially distanced BBQ once a week. Ask them to sample your bread making attempts or the courgettes you’ve grown in the garden or make room in your freezer by giving them 3 pints of milk you’ve been hoarding in there since March. 

BRIGHTEN THEIR DAY: Treats are great, they’re a bit naughty and self indulgent and they make us happy. Every now and then my neighbour leaves a bottle of beer on my doorstep, its a luxury I can’t afford and today an anonymous giant bar of dairy milk arrived in the post much to my children's (any my) delight. Its the little things that we used to take for granted that are missed the most. They don’t cost much but if your friend is cutting costs then treats are the first things to go. 

DO SOME RESEARCH: Charities that have emergency relief funds but their resources are running low, so they’re a great place to donate to. A lot of local charities aren’t brilliant at online marketing so they take a bit of searching for. Ask at your local council and citizens advice or tourist information, its easier to ask for someone else than it is for yourself. However, and I say this from experience, don’t give them your friends name, its not your place, just gather the information and then hand it over. Also, and I can’t believe this needs to be said but, don’t talk about it in front of their children. “Mummy are we poor?” is a heartbreaking thing to hear.

Writing this has made be realise how lucky I am to have such a great community of friends. I feel supported and valued and best of all I know we can get through this together. Listen to your friends, find out what you can do to support them and do it discretely. They’re your friend, and thats why you’re trying to help. It makes you a good friend too.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Hostile school board meetings have members calling it quits (AP) A Nevada school board member said he had thoughts of suicide before stepping down amid threats and harassment. In Virginia, a board member resigned over what she saw as politics driving decisions on masks. The vitriol at board meetings in Wisconsin had one member fearing he would find his tires slashed. School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, traditionally former educators and parents who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget. But a growing number are resigning or questioning their willingness to serve as meetings have devolved into shouting contests between deeply political constituencies over how racial issues are taught, masks in schools, and COVID-19 vaccines and testing requirements. In his letter of resignation from Wisconsin’s Oconomowoc Area School Board, Rick Grothaus said its work had become “toxic and impossible to do.” “When I got on, I knew it would be difficult,” Grothaus, a retired educator, said by phone. “But I wasn’t ready or prepared for the vitriolic response that would occur, especially now that the pandemic seemed to just bring everything out in a very, very harsh way. It made it impossible to really do any kind of meaningful work.”

California fire approaches Lake Tahoe after mass evacuation (AP) A ferocious wildfire swept toward Lake Tahoe on Tuesday just hours after roads were clogged with fleeing cars when the entire California resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to evacuate and communities just across the state line in Nevada were warned to get ready to leave. The popular vacation haven normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists emptied out Monday as the massive Caldor Fire rapidly expanded. Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were in gridlock traffic, stalled in hazy, brown air that smelled like a campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles whizzed by. “It’s more out of control than I thought,” evacuee Glen Naasz said of the fire that by late Monday had been pushed by strong winds across California highways 50 and 89, burning mountain cabins as it swept down slopes into the Tahoe Basin.

Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid (AP) Rescuers set out in hundreds of boats and helicopters to reach people trapped by floodwaters Monday, and utility repair crews rushed in, after a furious Hurricane Ida swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the sticky, late-summer heat. People living amid the maze of rivers and bayous along the state’s Gulf Coast retreated desperately to their attics or roofs and posted their addresses on social media with instructions for search-and-rescue teams on where to find them. More than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi—including all of New Orleans—were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland, pushed through on Sunday and early Monday before weakening into a tropical storm. As it continued to make its way inland with torrential rain and shrieking winds, it was blamed for at least two deaths. But with many roads impassable and cellphone service knocked out in places, the full extent of its fury was still coming into focus. The governor’s office said damage to the power grid appeared “catastrophic.” And local officials warned it could be weeks before power is fully restored, leaving multitudes without refrigeration or air conditioning during the dog days of summer, with highs forecast in the mid-80s to close to 90 by midweek.

Heavily armed criminal group ties hostages to getaway cars after storming Brazilian city (Washington Post) A heavily armed group of bank robbers wreaked havoc across a southeastern Brazilian city early Monday, striking several banks, setting fire to vehicles and tying hostages to their getaway cars, in an assault that left at least three people dead, officials say. Even in a country long accustomed to random spasms of violence, Brazilians reacted with shock and fear. The group stormed Araçatuba, a city of 200,000 in São Paulo state, around midnight to strike several city banking agencies. Gunshots punctured the early-morning quiet. Authorities asked residents to stay inside. Images on social media and local news reports showed at least 10 people clinging to getaway cars, apparently strapped there to deter fire from police. The hostages were reportedly released after the group escaped. The raid bore the characteristics of what criminologists have called a growing pattern: nighttime assaults on midsize Brazilian cities—often elaborate bank heists, intricately planned, well choreographed and executed by well-financed criminal groups equipped with the weaponry and gadgetry of war. The group flew a drone over Araçatuba during the raid, according to local reports, to track movements throughout the city.

EU travel restrictions (AP) The European Union recommended Monday that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infections there, but member countries will keep the option of allowing fully vaccinated U.S. travelers in. The EU’s decision reflects growing anxiety that the rampant spread of the virus in the U.S. could jump to Europe at a time when Americans are allowed to travel to the continent. Both the EU and the U.S. have faced rising infections this summer, driven by the more contagious delta variant. The guidance issued Monday is nonbinding, however. American tourists should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent since the EU has no unified COVID-19 tourism policy and national EU governments have the authority to decide whether or how they keep their borders open during the pandemic.

Italy’s record droughts (La Stampa) The earth is cracking in Italy’s northwest region of Piedmont: the crops and the animals suffer. Italy has been ravaged by fires and storms, like Greece, Turkey and much of Southern Europe. Italy has recorded 1,200 “extreme” meteorological events—a 56% increase from last year. Wildfires ravaged the southern regions of Sardinia, Calabria and Sicily. The town of Florida, in Sicily, is thought to have recorded the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe: 48.8 °C. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall devastated other parts of the country. Coldiretti, Italy’s largest agricultural association, has just summed up the bill for this Italian summer: The damages to agriculture, it says, amount to €1 billion. Wheat yields have fallen 10%; cherries 30%, nectarines 40%. Tomato and corn crops have also suffered heavy losses. Giovanni Bedino, a 59-year-old Italian farmer, has been working the land since he was 15. “I love this job, but a year like this takes away your love,” he told Turin daily La Stampa. “We couldn’t water the fields and nothing came down from the sky. I remember, the summer of 2003 was a very difficult one—but it wasn’t even close to this year. I have never seen such a drought.”

In India, a debate over population control turns explosive (Washington Post) Yogi Adityanath, a star of India’s political right wing, stood before television cameras in his trademark saffron tunic and dramatically introduced a bill pushing for smaller families—two children at most. In previous decades, this measure by the leader of the country’s most populous state might have been uncontroversial. Over the past month, it’s been explosive. Critics saw a veiled attempt to mobilize Hindu voters by tapping into an age-old trope about India’s Muslim population ballooning out of control. As India barrels toward a pivotal election in Uttar Pradesh early next year, population bills introduced by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have become a new flash point in the national debate, vividly illustrating how the issues of religion and identity, spoken or implied, form the most powerful undercurrent in the country’s politics. Since 2011, when official census figures emerged showing Hindus dipping to 80 percent of India’s population compared to 84 percent in 1951—Muslims increased from 10 percent to 14.2 percent during that same period—the question of how to maintain “demographic balance” has gained urgency for the Hindu movement’s leaders. A 2016 national survey finding that Indian Muslim women had, on average, 2.6 children compared to 2.1 for Hindus provoked more concern.

North Korea appears to have restarted Yongbyon nuclear reactor, U.N. body says (Washington Post) North Korea appears to have restarted its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in July, a “deeply troubling” sign that the country may be on track to expand its nuclear program, according to a new report by the United Nations’ atomic agency. The finding adds another challenge to the Biden administration’s goal of denuclearizing North Korea. Although Yongbyon is not the only site where North Korea has produced highly enriched uranium, its role at the heart of Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions made the facility a bargaining chip in previous negotiations. In 2008, North Korea ceremoniously blew up the reactor’s cooling tower in a largely made-for-TV event amid nuclear talks between the United States and former leader Kim Jong Il. (A new cooling tower was built after the negotiations fell through.)

Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war (AP) The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war. Hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline for shutting down a final airlift, and thus ending the U.S. war, Air Force transport planes carried a remaining contingent of troops from Kabul airport. Thousands of troops had spent a harrowing two weeks protecting a hurried and risky airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans and others seeking to escape a country once again ruled by Taliban militants. In announcing the completion of the evacuation and war effort. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said the last planes took off from Kabul airport at 3:29 p.m. Washington time, or one minute before midnight in Kabul. He said a number of American citizens, likely numbering in “the very low hundreds,” were left behind, and that he believes they will still be able to leave the country. The final pullout fulfilled Biden’s pledge to end what he called a “forever war” that began in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.

Afghanistan’s ‘Gen Z’ fears for future and hard-won freedoms (Reuters) Almost two third of Afghans are under the age of 25, and an entire generation cannot even remember the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until it was toppled by Western-backed militia in 2001. During that time they enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law, banning girls from school, women from work and carrying out public executions. Since 2001, the militants fought an insurgency in which thousands of Afghans died. Since re-taking power, the group has been quick to reassure students that their education would not be disrupted, also saying it would respect the rights of women and urging talented professionals not to leave the country. But used to a life with cellphones, pop music and mixing of genders, Afghanistan’s “Generation Z”—born roughly in the decade around the turn of the millennium—now fears some freedoms will be taken away, according to interviews with half a dozen Afghan students and young professionals. “I made such big plans, I had all these high reaching goals for myself that stretched to the next 10 years,” said Sosan Nabi, a 21-year-old graduate. “We had a hope for life, a hope for change. But in just one week, they took over the country and in 24 hours they took all our hopes, dreams snatched from in front of our eyes. It was all for nothing.”

They made it out of Afghanistan. But their path ahead is uncertain. (Washington Post) As the United States winds down its evacuation operation in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is accelerating efforts to resettle Afghans on U.S. soil, where they will be expected to apply for visas or humanitarian protection that could put them on a path to legal residency and citizenship. But the chaotic nature of the enormous airlift means that much is unknown: Officials have not said precisely how many Afghan evacuees have made it into the United States or whether all will be allowed to stay. More than 117,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan on U.S. and other flights as of Saturday, and Pentagon officials said the vast majority are Afghan citizens. Thousands have arrived in the United States, while thousands more are waiting in “transit hubs” in Europe and the Middle East. They are a mix of brand-new refugees and families with existing immigration applications that have been pending for months or years. Where the evacuees will end up is “a hard question to answer,” said Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, one of the refugee resettlement agencies operating in the United States. “I don’t really know where they stand,” Hetfield said in an interview. “It’s chaos.”

[purplesurveys]

1159

survey by -egocentricity-

Describe the last time you...

Went swimming: It was in Nasugbu with Angela, Sofie, and Gab nearly a couple of years ago. We wanted to go to a nearby beach before the semester started, so we planned the trip at the last minute and literally just right after we enrolled for our classes.

Went on a date: It was at BGC at this nice, romantic French restaurant. Then as we headed back to the car we spotted a jazz bar that had a live band performing, so we took a detour there to have drinks and nachos.

Were hurt by someone you love: My mom says a lot of hurtful things all the time I’ve stopped keeping track of them and letting them affect me too much, but I’m sure she’s done it recently.

Did something nice for yourself: I got myself a night lamp to improve the ambience in my room and make it feel even more homey. The lamp I had before it was just something I borrowed from my parents and it had white light, so it didn’t feel the most calming. The one I have right now emits this soft yellow shade that makes me feel infinitely more relaxed.

Did something nice for someone else: I ordered KFC at like 1 AM last Wednesday because I was feeling hungry and there was nothing at home that could meet my cravings, and aside from getting orders for my parents I also got a Zinger for my delivery driver as a way to thank him and lift his spirits for working that late into the night.

Were injured: I always sport some sort of scratch or gash somewhere on my body these days from playing with Cooper. This morning I got a new wound on one of my knuckles since he was pulling on his leash way too hard when I was walking him.

Went to the hospital: I had to take blood and urine tests last May to figure out what was wrong with me since I had been sick for a week by that point. That was also during the peak of the pandemic, so there was a lot of anxiety about me catching Covid. It turned out to be a UTI, and even though that technically sucks the whole family was relieved it wasn’t Covid.

Understood something that previously confused you: I had my dad explain to me how buying and bidding for houses works. Hahaha I am sooooo not equipped to be a fully-functioning adult.

Faked sick to get out of going to class: I don’t think I ever did this. If I had wanted to skip class, I just skipped it.

Hung out with your friends: I went to Perfy’s with 7 friends shortly before it shut down for good as a result of the pandemic. We had some beer and bar chow, and to be completely frank it felt quite nice to have that one night where things felt normal again, as ignorant as it was. We vaped until we were dizzy and some of them smoked too much that the smell ended up clinging to me and my clothes, but luckily I got home when my whole family was already in their rooms so no one was able to smell me.

Met someone new: There’s this girl who recently got onboarded to one of our client brands and we started working with her about a week or two ago. She’s honestly been a bit over the place, but I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt because she’s fairly new at a particularly hectic time in her workplace. My first impression of her was that she gave such a strong UP vibe so I looked her up on Facebook, and it turns out we went to the same college and the same high school.

Did something that you were afraid to do: A couple of months ago I had a one-on-one video call organized by the CEO of my employer so that she could get to know me better. She was super nice and listened attentively to my answers to all her questions, but it was easy to tell she wanted to see what I could bring to the table and how well I could mesh with the team especially since I’ve never met her and everyone else in person, so I made sure my social game was maxed out for those 15 minutes haha.

Did something you promised you would never do: I vaped literally half an hour ago. I never expected to form a habit out of it especially after being vehemently against any form of smoking for most of my life. Not particularly proud of it but then again I’m here for a good time and not a long time lmao.

Regretted something: Lazada had this huge app-wide sale last week and their Hydro Flasks were like ₱600 cheaper, but I didn’t buy it because I was feeling stingy that day haha. Now the products are back to their normal price and they’ll probably never get to be that cheap again :( There’s another sale happening tomorrow but the discounts aren’t as big, but I’ll probably place an order this time.

Went shopping: I went to H&M last January to get Andi a late Christmas present. I asked Leigh what they would appreciate as a gift, and she told me they’d wanted to start experimenting with feminine clothes so I got them a nice black skirt and this really elegant dress (that I honestly wanted for myself). I heard they cried once they opened the paper bag, and making people cry with the gifts you get them will always be one of the best feelings ever haha.

Asked someone out/were asked out: Idk, it was 5 years ago and nothing I want to remember anymore.

Broke up with someone: I’ve never broken up with someone.

Had someone break up with you: It was terrible and the stuff of all my nightmares combined, and it happened in the middle of an already-shitty month to boot so I had little hope for myself to come out of it alive. I had everything planned and ironed out and all that was left was for me to leave. 

It’s been 7 months and I’ve never felt emotionally and mentally better and healthier.

Were heartbroken: I follow this animal rescue NGO on Facebook and they regularly post about dogs who’ve lived through awful situations and need urgent care and forever homes to live in. Fortunately the page has a wide reach and regularly gets support, and I try to donate to their bank account as often as I can.

You were angry with someone: Haven’t directed my anger towards anyone in a while.

You felt "in love" with someone: It was during the time I was still reeling over the breakup and was caught in an endless loop of still being in love with them and forcing myself to finally detach.

You wanted something unrealistic: I was at the rooftop this morning and I could feel the temperature getting warmer every hour, and when I finally couldn’t tolerate the heat and was forced to go back indoors I felt super annoyed because all I want is to live somewhere with a chilly climate all-year round hahaha UGH

You made someone angry: It was when I spilled a tiny drop of soup onto the dining table and my mom had a complete meltdown about it. After 89457843957 years of her getting mad at First World Problems I wasn’t intimidated by her anymore, but it still irked me at how something so little can piss her off so I just decided not to speak a word for the rest of the night.

You made someone's day: I hope I made my delivery driver’s night when I got him his burger as a surprise. I hold so much respect and appreciation for them considering they’ve been working very hard to get people’s goods to their doorsteps in the midst of a global pandemic.

Tried something new: When I bought my lamp it was the first time I got something to decorate my room. I usually spend all my money on food, so that was a nice change to try out.

Tried your best: I always try my best at work and to make each day more improved than the last.

Didn't try at all: A couple of nights ago I asked my dad to light up my scented candle and he challenged me to try lighting up a matchstick by myself for once. I was all primed and ready to go, but backed out at the last second :(( I told him there was a big chance I could freak out, drop the lit matchstick. and set something in the dining room (where we were) on fire, and that’s when he gave up and just lit it up himself hahaha

Got nothing for your efforts: I’d gladly refer you to my big waste of a 6-year relationship.

Had a serious talk with someone: I always have deep conversations with Andi and they’ve been about various topics over the last few months.

Told someone how you really feel: It was when Bea scheduled a quick one-on-one catch-up call with me to check up on how I was doing with work and if I was doing okay with the everyday craziness of it all. But I didn’t say anything grave; I just told her I honestly like the work we do and that it’s nice that it keeps me excited everyday, so there’s little to complain about.

Hid what you felt from someone: One of my co-workers, Denise, is honestly a little challenging to work with. I always have to pick up after her and remind her of stuff we need to do together, and even Bea has let a few comments slide between us about how difficult she can be. But considering I’m a lot newer than her and we’ve never met each other I’ve stayed quiet for now.

Took something that didn't belong to you: I got the matchbox from my parents’ room to ask one of them to light up the aforementioned scented candle I have.

Borrowed something from someone: I borrowed one of my sister’s cords the other evening to charge my vape pen.

Lost a game: This was when my orgmates and I played a couple Jeopardy games over Zoom about a month ago and I lost to Robin.

Won a game: Not sure, I don’t really play a lot of games.

Told someone you love him/her: Jo, after she shared that she tested positive for Covid.

Went on vacation: It’s been a year and a half and the world has changed a lot since then, but my family and I went to Tagaytay and Cavite for a quick weekend getaway; it was Tagaytay on Saturday then we drove to another hotel in Cavite the next day. We played Heads Up, ate Jelly Belly jellybeans, had a lot of nice food, took some walks, but then I also had to work on a Powerpoint in between because I had a presentation that was due that Monday lol.

Went on a roadtrip: Last January we drove to Tagaytay (again) for my dad’s 50th birthday. Before heading to our accommodation we had brunch at La Creperie where we happened to be seated beside Larry Gadon – bleck – and his wife. Then we headed to the condo unit where we stayed the night at, ordered a samgyupsal set, and I watched GMM’s Let’s Talk About That into the night until I fell asleep.

Flew on a plane: That would be over two years ago and it was during our vacation to Bicol. That also marks the last time I ever spoke a word to my brother, because on our way home my family got into a heated argument and he ended up slapping me in the face. I don’t tolerate physical acts of violence, and especially not from someone younger than me, so I was more than glad to cut ties with him moving forward.

Were annoyed with a family member: My mom is politically incorrect 24/7, and it grinds my gears 24/7.

Took something too far: Idk, maybe cutting off ties with Gab. A part of me wanted to reconnect at some point, once I’ve healed; but I’ve reached a point in my life where that doesn’t seem so necessary anymore. Life just works funnily sometimes, I guess. I haven’t completely cut her off; we’re still mutuals on Twitter (though she also never uses it so it barely counts), and also still Facebook friends (though I’ve unfollowed her and I’ve also blacklisted her from seeing my posts – thank god for that feature), so now it’s really just a matter of pressing some buttons and finally disconnecting for good.

Gave up too soon: I wanted to learn riding a bike during the early days of the pandemic last year, but I gave up after like two days of being unsuccessful.

Listened to a band you had not heard before: I started exploring some of BTS’ music earlier this week after weeks of just knowing Dynamite.

Judged someone: Some of the bloggers that I regularly correspond with for work, and who’ve recently added me on Facebook, have opinions I don’t necessarily agree with.

Asked a "stupid question": I ask a lot of newbie questions at work that maybe some people would consider dumb, but I’d rather get answers to do my work correctly than take guesses and end up doing the wrong thing.

Got "a stupid answer": Not sure.

Took a picture of something/someone: I recently took a photo of my work desk setup so I could show off my new pretty lamp, hahaha.

Told a lie: I told my mom my Hydro Flask is still with Angela and that I should be getting it soon, but I really lost it a few years ago and would have to buy a new one.

Told the truth: Idk I tell the truth all the time.

[astoldbygingersnaps]

On Petco and COVID-19:

I’ve seen a lot of stories and reports about various companies and how they are treating their employees poorly in the wake of COVID-19, but to my surprise I haven’t seen anything about my company, Petco. I suppose it makes sense, given that Petco isn’t as large a company as Target, Starbucks, or Walmart, but I believe people should know what we as partners have been dealing with since the outbreak really picked up steam in the US. 

Before I detail exact what my personal struggle with the company has been, I’d like to make one thing clear: I am a hard worker. I have spent five years of my life--half a decade--dedicating myself to this company. I am both a dog trainer and a keyholder, and I take both of those duties very seriously. Nothing means more to me than taking care of pets and their people, and I pride myself on providing the best care and service to our guests as possible. So when I say that this entire situation is forcing me to abandon my job out of disgust for the way I and my fellow workers have been treated, I want you to understand how much that means. 

I love the work that I do, but that does not change the fact that I, along with many other Petco partners, have been exploited, dismissed, and outright lied to during this crisis. While I understand that we are living in a dangerous and chaotic time that is difficult to navigate, such a fact makes it all the more necessary to treat people with dignity, compassion, and respect. I do not enjoy putting an organization that I have given so much of my heart and soul to on blast, but the events of the previous month have made it clear that Petco as a company does not care whether or not its employees or even its customers are harmed or killed because of their negligence.

For almost a month our concerns have been ignored, belittled, and redirected, and the little action that has been taken has been incredibly delayed and led to even more confusion. Furthermore, we’ve had little clear guidance on what we, as partners who work in retail stores, should be doing to take care of ourselves and our guests. 

It is also worth noting that our CEO, Ron Coughlin, was sending out emails to Petco Pals Rewards members in the beginning of March claiming that stores would be instructed to disinfect and clean regularly, but no such instructions were ever given. We never received any emails or forms of internal communication telling partners on how they should be cleaning, and because of this my own store took time out of our day to develop a cleaning schedule and shared our template throughout the district. Again, this is something we did OURSELVES, NOT something we were explicitly told to do. So, if you don’t care about how retail workers have been treated, at least care that you, as a customer, have been lied to. 

From the beginning, there has been a very clear divide in how store partners have been treated compared to corporate/office workers. While corporate/office workers have the luxury of working from home with full benefits and are allowed to perform social distancing to the CDC’s guidelines, we are not so lucky. Again, I understand this, to a point: because of their positions they are able to perform their jobs from home while we are not. But such a decision was consistently framed as “difficult” and “emotional,” which, frankly, is bogus. What’s so hard about giving your employees access to work from their personal computer? And what’s so difficult for them anyway considering they’re not the ones who have to come in contact with the public day after day?

Through the second week in March, numerous communications were spread throughout the company on our internal Workplace service, each one more inadequate and inefficient than the last. The worst was a ten minute long video where our CEO repeatedly stated that “pets are our main priority” and described over and over again how we simply MUST stay open for our customers. It wasn’t until the very end of the video that any mention was given to partners at all. The entire post was incredibly off-putting and made me, as a partner, feel incredibly undervalued. 

What made things worse, however, were the comments under the video. Floods of partners shared their concerns and disappointments. Many of them cited having young children or older relatives at home, or were immunocompromised themselves, and worried about the danger that working in a retail environment put themselves and their loved ones in. And what was the company’s response? To tell these people over and over to simply “partner with their district manager if they were worried.” That’s it. No direction, no guidance, no words of comfort. Nothing. One person was even accused of simply not having a desire to work rather than, I dunno, A FEAR OF CONTRACTING AND SPREADING A DEADLY ILLNESS. 

The post in question (all names have been blacked out to respect privacy): 

It was some of the most vile behavior I have ever witnessed, both from upper management and lower-level employees like myself who were displaying an almost slavish devotion to a company that was so ready and willing to dispose of them. Multiple people stated they were proud to work for our company in this moment, which was utterly baffling to me, as I had never felt more worthless to Petco than I did seeing those messages.

So! Let’s talk about partnering with your local leader! (Spoiler alert: it’s fucking useless)

On March 15th, my direct supervisor and I made a call to our district leader to “discuss our concerns.” What followed was thirty minutes of our life wasted where we were told the exact same thing as we had been told via the Workplace post: no partner would lose their job for taking time off if they displayed symptoms or came into contact with a person who had COVID-19 (the absolute bare minimum, in my opinion), but they would be required to either take a fourteen day unpaid medical leave or use their personal PTO and sick time to cover the cost. Around this time I was both showing symptoms (dry cough, fatigue, shortness of breath) and learned that my fiancee, whom I live with, came into direct contact with someone with the illness via her work. The possibility of contracting COVID-19 was especially worrying for us, as my fiancee has severe asthma and I have scarring on my lungs from chronic bronchitis; were we to get sick, the consequences could be severe. It’s even more concerning given that the state we live in, Massachusetts, has one of the highest rates of infection in the US and hospitals are in danger of becoming overwhelmed. Therefore, I decided to make what I believed was the most responsible and ethical decision, and went on leave. 

Fortunately, I am lucky; as a full-time worker who has been with the company for many years, I have accrued enough PTO and sick time to cover the weeks that I would be gone for. But many people who work for this company are not so lucky. Many are part-time workers who are not entitled to benefits, and some are full-timers who may have already burned through their paid time off as it resets on the anniversary of your hire date. So now these workers, like many other workers across the country, are being asked to choose between taking care of themselves and their community or putting food on the table. It is absolutely inhumane, especially given that last time I checked our CEO is worth more than two million dollars--yet the rest of us are forced to worry about paying our rent and feeding our families while we do the dirty work on the front lines. 

Since I initially took leave, this has been amended, and employees who have been affected by COVID-19 have been given access to 40 hours of sick time, regardless of their status as full or part-time. But that only covers one week of the mandatory self-isolation period, meaning partners are still at risk of losing money. 

Time and time again we have been told how much our overlords value us. We have been thanked, we have been praised, and we have had so many meaningless words and tiny gestures thrown at us. Sure, our store hours have been cut and we’re offering curbside pick-up to reduce foot traffic in certain stores (my store, a smaller Unleashed location, doesn’t qualify for curbside pick-up, because of our size). Sure, changes have been made to the dog training program to freeze classes and puppy playtime for the time being. And sure, there has been a partner assistance fund opened to support partners in these ~trying times. I applaud the company for making these necessary changes and for putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to donating directly to us.

But in a lot of ways, it’s too little, too late, and so many of these services remain inaccessible to all partners. Hell, partners have even been policed about when they can actually utilize their own personal sick time even though we are in the middle of a global health crisis. 

Even for those of us who have done everything exactly as we were supposed to, we are still getting screwed. Currently, I’m battling with Petco HR to get paid for the first week of my self-isolation as, even though I submitted all my time off requests accurately, none of it was reflected in my paycheck; because we get paid by-weekly, I have yet to see whether my second week will be covered, but I suspect I will have to battle for that as well. As a person who lives paycheck to paycheck in one of the most expensive cities in the country, I quite literally can’t afford this right now. But, of course, the HR team is off work right now because of COVID-19, because unlike us they have that luxury. 

In addition to this, I’ve also been prevented from coming back to work because our Leaves Coordinator now claims I need a doctor’s note to return to work even though I have it in writing, from paperwork directly from the Leaves Department, that I do not, as evidenced here:

I would also like to note that I confirmed that I would be returning to work on the afternoon of March 27th and received an automatic reply that I would hear from a representative in 24 to 48 hours. I did not, in fact, hear back from a representative until March 30st at 11:59pm EST, ten hours before I was scheduled to return to work, as you can see here (again, I am hiding my personal information as much as possible to try and avoid retaliation from my employer): 

While I understand delays given that our HR and Leaves Departments are no doubt bogged down given how many employees are currently in the same boat as me, it does not change the fact that I am suffering because of their lack of action. 

It would be one thing if the facts had been clearly communicated from the very beginning, but as you can see that’s very much not the case. Instead, I’ve been jerked around, lied to, and, again, had my pay withheld. Every day I spend at home fighting with these people is another day of pay I lose and cannot get back. Words cannot express how terrible this whole experience has been. I’ve cried nearly every day and been so anxious and depressed I’ve literally vomited from the stress. All the years I’ve spent building my career and taking care of clients while earning money for this company and this is the thanks I get in return. It is quite literally sickening. 

Throughout this entire process I and many of the Petco employees in my area have been treated like absolute garbage. The stores in our district are running on fumes because so many partners are sick and/or on leave. Employees are running entire stores on their own and not getting breaks because we’re so short-staffed. One store in our district even closed down because a groomer tested positive for COVID-19 leading to the entire store shutting down and being professionally cleaned... and then re-opened almost immediately, causing even more of a burden on the remaining employees scrambling to cover all these near-empty locations. Our technology is over-loaded and crashing because it can’t bear the weight of our increased Buy Online, Pick Up In Stores (BOPUS) and curbside pick-up orders. It’s absolute insanity and it needs to stop. 

I am not the first person to say this, nor will I be the last, but the crisis we are currently experiencing has starkly exposed how broken our economic and social structures truly are. Along with doctors, nurses, and medical care professionals working in hideous conditions to keep the rest of us healthy and safe, the people who contribute the most to our communities are those that have traditionally been looked upon as unskilled and overall less-than: janitors, housekeepers, garbagemen, cashiers, shelf-stockers, etc. Very quickly public perception has turned, and now society as a whole knows what those of us who work these types of jobs have always known: we are essential. We have the power in society. And we should use that power to defend ourselves and each other, which is why I’m writing to you now. By shining a light on the flaws and failings of this company, I believe we can hold them and others like them accountable and demand better, because we absolutely deserve it. 

The bottom line is this: if you care about workers’ rights, if you value the safety and lives of your fellow humans, and if want to slow the spread of this disease that has upended everything we hold dear, don’t go to Petco. Don’t reward this company’s bad behavior with your money because they have proven they do not deserve it. 

[collectablecorner]

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity supports the entire Armed Forces family. It is a UK non-profit charity that provides long life support to individuals who are currently serving or have served within the British Armed Forces and their families. This impressive organization has been operating since 1885 and was founded by Major James Gildea. Today SSAFA boasts of 5,000 volunteers to help upwards of   people every year and is the UK's oldest national tri-service Armed Forces charity.



Why is Collectable Corner choosing to support SSAFA?

The problem people tend to have when it comes to charitable donations and fundraising is not knowing how much of the donors funds are reaching the desired goal of helping someone in need. While we can't speak for the charities themselves, we (myself and my family) can talk about our experience with SSAFA and why we're confident that the money gets exactly to where it is needed the most.

Brian Cook, a loving husband, father, great grandfather and (my) grandad served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was a part of the Christmas Island nuclear bomb tests in the 1950's which exposed the soldiers to radiation due to being closer to the bombs than any human should ever be. Today only a handful of the Suicide Squad Veterans are still alive. Almost (if not all) of the soldiers involved died through multiple various cancers and ill health such as chronic arthritis and heart, lung, liver diseases. There is evidence to support the fact that these health conditions can be directly related to what the soldiers were made to do. But not only has it affected the veterans themselves but their families genetics has also caused numerous health problems generation after generation. This will carry on for generations to come also and the UK is one of the only countries involved to not accept these findings and therefore the support for these individuals and families has been lacking. Unfortunately Brian (grandad) was no different, neither is his family.

In January 2018, Brian fell ill and was taken to hospital where within three days of admittance was diagnosed with late stage liver and lung cancer, all that could be done was to make him as comfortable as possible. Over the course of the following four days we prepared for his return home. We gave a sofa away from our living room to make room for the hospital bed due to Brian losing the use of his legs, and we turned a downstairs room into a bathroom. Monday came round and Brian had been in hospital for 7 days, Monday to Monday. He arrived home via hospital transport and we got him settled in as best we could. Grandad always wanted to die at home my grandmother tells me. At 3am tuesday morning, after being home for around 10 hours Brian, my grandmother's husband, my mother's father, and my very special grandad passed away. It was, as anyone who has lost a loved one will know, devastating. It all happened so fast.

During the period between Brian's death and his funeral service SSAFA actually offered us money towards the cost, which we refused based on the fact we would rather it had gone to someone more in need than ourselves, but it stuck with us in our hearts and minds. What we learned is that SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, gets the money and help to the people who really need it. We didn't expect nor ask for it either. At this period in Collectable Corner  didn't exist, what existed was another hobby project that never worked out but a vow was made by myself to use the public platform to raise donations for SSAFA in loving memory of RAF Veteran Brian Cook. Now after a couple of years of hard work, dedication and grind, Collectable Corner, i am elated to tell you is working out and in a position to honour that vow and may he rest in peace.

Who does SSAFA help? And how does it help?

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity helps people in a variety of ways.

For currently serving personnel and their families provides:

Support in service communities

SSAFA has a network of volunteers on Army, RAF, and Naval bases in the UK and around the world who give local support.

Housing

Housing for wounded, injured, and sick serving personnel and their famiies SSAFA Norton House, Stanford Hall provide home-from-home accommodation for families visiting wounded, injured, sick service or ex-service personnel and outpatients. SSAFA also provides day-to-day management of Fisher House UK at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (QEHB).

Mentoring for service leavers

SSAFA's mentoring scheme was set up in 2011 and supports those transitioning out of the Forces. SSAFA's volunteer mentors provide support to wounded, injured, and sick leavers through a long-term 'one-to-one' relationship that underpins the transition from the military. SSAFA Mentoring is nationally accredited by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation.

Adoption for military families

SSAFA is a registered adoption agency dedicated to helping military families through the adoption process.

Additional need and disabilities support

SSAFA provide specialised support to military families with additional needs including their Forces Additional Needs and Disability Forum (FANDF).

Short breaks for children and young people with additional needs from Forces families

SSAFA coordinates holidays and events that focus on offering new experiences and activities for children and young people from services families.

Stepping Stone Homes for women and their children with a service connection

Stepping Stone Homes provides short-term supported accommodation, help, and advice during difficult times. Female spouses and partners of serving or ex-service personnal, along with their dependent children are all eligible to stay there.

Professional health care

SSAFA's professional health care staff provide patient-focussed care to military families worldwide.

Personal support and social work for the RAF

Working alongside the RAF, but outside the Chain of Command, SSAFA staff provide support for RAF personnel and their families worldwide. 

Independent Service Custody Visiting

SSAFA provides independent oversight of Army Service Custody facilities.

 

Support available to veterans and their families:

Housing advice

SSAFA offers practical housing advice and support to Armed Forces veterans and their dependents including guidance around housing benefits and accessing social housing.

Debt advice

SSAFA can help veterans to get advice on dealing with debt when they have fallen behind on their bills or repayments to credit cards and are struggling to get by or at risk of losing their home.

Mobility assistance

SSAFA volunteers seek financial assistance for veterans to help maintain mobility and independence at home. Trained volunteers can help veterans get mobility equipment such as Electronically Powered Vehicles (EPV) or mobility scooters, stair lifts, riser and recliner chairs.

Providing household goods

SSAFA can provide veterans with essential household items, including white and brown goods.

Support for homeless veterans

SSAFA has a range of specialist services to support veterans who are homeless or facing homelessness.

Joining Forces

SSAFA's partnership with Age UK to improve the lives of veterans born before 1950.

Gurkha services

Providing tailored support for Gurkhas and their families who live in the UK.

Glasgow's Helping Heroes

Glasgow's Helping Heroes' is an award-winning service provided by SSAFA in partnership with Glasgow City Council for current and former members of the Armed Forces and their dependants or carers who live, work, or wish to relocate there. It's dedicated team work with national and local governments and third sector providers to resolve clients employment, housing, health, financial and/or social isolation issues.

Forces helpline

SSAFA also offers Forcesline, which is a free and confidential telephone helpline, web chat, and email service that provides support for both current and ex-service men and women from the Armed Forces and their families.

As you can see, SSAFA goes above and beyond to help as many serving and veteran pesonnel and their families as possible who have sacrificed for our country and ensures the aid gets to exactly the places it is needed most. To do this requires a lot of time and money, as you can imagine.

Covid-19 and the SSAFA Emergency Response Fund

Covid-19 has had an impact on everyone regardless of if you are ill. It looks like it will remain a part of our lives for a long time to come, heck, it may be a permanent part of modern life. At SSAFA, calls and requests for help from the vulnerable people, such as the elderly, low income households, and those with serious underlying health conditions. In response to this SSAFA has an Emergency Response Fund. The strain on the organization is obviously high as more people need help with mental health, housing, and financial issues. SSAFA provides this support for the British Armed Forces, serving and veteran personnel, and their families but to do this SSAFA needs to ensure it's staff and volunteers are kept as safe as possible with PPE. Combine the huge rise in help requests and the need to protect SSAFA staff, volunteers and those they help results in a large increase in costs which is why donations are so important and critical to its operations to continue the vital work SSAFA does.

What is Collectable Corner doing to help?

We have purchased over a thousand Royal Air Force (RAF)  Dog Tags, Ball Chain Necklaces, Rubber Silencers and Packaging, which we are asking for a donation of £10 per set plus £2.29 for postage of which 100% of the £10 is being donated to SSAFA. Collectable Corner is paying any processing fees and extra postage fees that may incur. Essentially, the Dog Tags are a token of gratitude from us to you for making your donation and helping us to support and help as many people as we can together. In total we have 504 sets of Dog Tags available so that equates to £5,040 in funds to generate. We also have the ability to purchase more should we require them.

How are the donations being made and how often?

We will deposit the donations directly to SSAFA at the end of each month via bank transfer to an account SAFFA has provided to us*.

How will donors know that donations were made?

We understand how important it is to be absolutely transparent with charity work to ensure that everyone knows when and how much is being donated and it is just as important to us at Collectable Corner as to donors and customers. Collectable Corner will of course be publishing monthly updates on our blog and in our newsletter which we urge you to sign up for, along with publishing the donation receipts and sales records minus people's private data such as names and addresses etc. We also have a backend application running on our website which allows visitors to CollectableCorner.shop to view in real time exactly how many sets of dog tags have been claimed.

Share your experiences of SSAFA

Collectable Corner is welcoming you to share your stories with visitors to our website. On each product page is a review section where anyone can make use of by letting others know your story. Maybe it is about how SSAFA has helped you or someone close to you, or maybe you have fundraised and donated in the past. Maybe you are someone who works or have worked with and volunteered for SSAFA who wants to share with us all, or maybe you simply want to say hello.

Thank you... 

We, at Collectable Corner, want to thank SSAFA for the amazing work the staff and volunteers have, will and do do. The impact this charity has had on so many lives truly is something to be marvelled at.

Thank you to anyone who helps us to make some real world differences by ordering a set of RAF dog tags with the knowledge that you are donating to a truly awesome cause.

Thank you to all of the past, present and future British Armed Forces personnel who have sacrificed, and do sacrifice everything for our great nation. You make us proud each and every day.

Finally, thank you Brian Cook, my Grandmother's Husband, my Mothers Father, a Great Grandfather, and my Grandad for being such an inspiration, thank you for being the best and only Father i ever had. May you sleep easy and Rest in Peace.

*Please note that the information in this article has been vetted by and in part supplied by SSAFA prior to being released to the public and is accurate at the time of this publication. Collectable Corner has the permission of SSAFA of the logo to be used and they are the copyright owner. SSAFA is a non-profit charity registered in England and Wales (210760), Scotland (SCO38056) and the Republic of Ireland (20202001). Collectable Corner is not in a partnership with nor affiliated by SSAFA, however we are in contact. Anyone who wishes to confirm that SSAFA is aware of Collectable Corner's campaign to raise donations and the methods being used can do so by emailing commercial@ssafa.org.uk or GaryDavidson-Guild@ssafa.org.uk

[xtruss]

It’s About Time for Us to Stop Wearing Masks Outside! Briefly Passing Someone on the Sidewalk Just Isn’t Risky.

— By Shannon Palus | April 17, 2021 | Slate.Com

Probably not necessary! Clay LeConey/Unsplash

One of the last times I stepped outside my Brooklyn apartment without a mask on was in early spring 2020, just before the state issued a mask mandate. I remember because as my dog peed on a tree, a neighbor asked me pointedly where my mask was. Where I live, almost everyone wears a mask when they go outside. If a person sipping from an iced coffee with their mask pulled down approaches someone else on the sidewalk coming the other way, they will usually yank the mask back up, as if they’ve been caught partially dressed. The other day I noticed a woman sitting on a hill in the middle of a field with her face covered. There was no one near her.

For a while now, this has felt a little unnecessary, if understandable, given that we were still learning things about the virus and were trying to be as careful as possible. But now, as we’ve come to know more about the virus, as vaccinations are ramping up, and as we’re trying to figure out how to live with some level of COVID in a sustainable way, masking up outside when you’re at most briefly crossing paths with people is starting to feel barely understandable. Look: I believe masks (and even shaming) are indispensable in controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Despite early waffling, public health experts are virtually unanimously in support of them and have remained so even as our early dedication to scrubbing surfaces and Cloroxing veggies wound down.

In other words, as the pandemic has progressed, so has our understanding of what safety measures are truly most useful, and which aren’t worth the alcohol wipes. And I would like to calmly suggest that now is the time we should consider no longer wearing masks when we walk around outside.

“You’re talking about a probability of getting hit by a car, and being struck by lightning.” — Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician

I am not suggesting this simply because I am very sick of wearing a mask at all times outside my home. When it comes to coronavirus spread, evidence shows that being outdoors is very, very safe. A paper published in Indoor Air looked at 1,245 cases in China and found just one instance of outdoor transmission, which involved people having a conversation, which means they had to be close to one another for some period of time and face to face. According to data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, shared earlier this month with the Irish Times, of 232,164 cases in Ireland, just 262 were associated with “locations which are primarily associated with outdoor activities.” That is, about 0.1 percent. A meta-analysis published online in November in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggests it’s possible the upper bound of cases potentially contracted outdoors is higher; it estimates that the total is less than 10 percent. When I called Nooshin Razani, an author on that report and an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, she emphasized that the real number of instances of outdoor transmission was “probably lower” than 10 percent, since the cases she and her team counted were sometimes murky: cases that occurred at construction sites, or summer camps where people were sharing bunks. That is, these scenarios likely involved some indoor time as well. They also tended to involve people who were spending time together over a period of days. “Most of the cases that happened outdoors had something about the circumstances you could point to and say, ‘That was a risk,’ ” says Razani. Just one case involved joggers—who were jogging together. Still, Razani said she couldn’t comment on whether it was OK to go maskless on a sidewalk where you’re able to mostly, but not perfectly, stay distanced from others. In an article in National Geographic by science writer Tara Haelle, other experts note that yes, we have data that the outdoors is very safe, and yet, if you can’t distance, even briefly, you might want to pull up your mask, partly out of respect, and also just to be safe.

I have to say: I don’t agree! It’s true that nothing is 100 percent safe. But because little particles floating through the air are a main concern with COVID, the outdoors is very, very safe. Anything you exhale will just be diluted very quickly, especially if you’re moving around. Yes, the coronavirus can spread in other ways. As Razani said, “If you’re right next to someone and you spit on them outdoors, it’s not going to magically protect you from their spit.” But that comment illustrates that the risk of getting COVID while briefly coming within 6 feet of someone outside is so small that your exchange of fluids would almost have to be purposeful. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician with McMaster University, recently wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Star noting that last summer’s outdoor gatherings coincided with an all-time low of cases in the city. While it’s important to mask in outdoor crowds or if you’re hanging out close to someone in a park, Chagla explains, the main message should be that the outdoors is a safe place to be. He gave me a rough sense of how unlikely outdoor transmission is in the scenario where you’re walking unmasked on the sidewalk and briefly pass someone. First, you or the person you’re passing would have to happen to have an asymptomatic infection, he explained, and then everyone would have to be exhaling and inhaling at just the right moment, and also, exchanging enough particles to actually seed another infection: “You’re talking about a probability of getting hit by a car, and being struck by lightning.”

So why is it still officially considered best practice to do what Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor at UCSF, says “almost becomes ridiculous” as vaccinations increase? Whether we wear masks at all times outside has become a combination of politics and regional attitudes toward the virus—not science. Early on in the pandemic, wearing a mask became a symbol that you took the virus seriously and were willing to listen to public health officials; not wearing one was a symbol that you valued personal freedoms and, weirdly, the president of the United States. And maybe in the beginning of the pandemic, it made sense to mask up as much as possible—we were in an emergency, and it felt sort of appropriate to signal to one another that we all understood the seriousness of this virus. But masks shouldn’t go on being a blunt-force declaration of safety; we should embrace their nuanced use, starting with the idea that they might be overkill in some settings outdoors. This is especially true for people who have been fully vaccinated, and for whom wearing a mask in an already very-low risk setting is more of a show of participation in pandemic society than a medical necessity. “What I’m saying is really heterodoxy in San Francisco,” says Gandhi, who has authored multiple papers on just how important masks are. “Here, if you don’t wear a mask, everyone glares at you.” But she noted that on a recent trip to Austin, Texas, she saw lots of masks inside but not really outdoors. Such a world was possible. “I was so fascinated—I was like, you know what, this is consistent with biology.”

Gandhi thinks that there should be a clear threshold at which cities that have outdoor mask mandates lift them entirely. That threshold could be 10 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, she suggests, with 40 percent of people having received their first vaccine dose. (She based this in part on a piece she co-wrote for the Washington Post.) With that potential standard in mind, Gandhi wrote in a follow-up email, “many states could do this now!” To be clear, the choice of when to do this should not be based on one person’s quick calculation; her point and mine is that public health officials would do well to figure out a science-based way to ease the mask restrictions where it makes sense, without lifting them entirely. And those cautious souls living in places with no mandates at all should consider joining their neighbors going for walks without masks. Gandhi also thinks that adjusting the recommendation would help engender more trust in public health officials, by letting people know they aren’t being asked to take precautions arbitrarily. She says she has written the San Francisco Department of Public Health in her capacity as a mask researcher asking for more nuanced guidance for outdoor masking but has not heard back.

While I’m not superinterested in breaking my city’s social norms—especially while our cases are still high—our collective agreement to mask up obsessively outdoors comes at a cost. Masking can be exhausting. It makes recreation really annoying, especially as the weather warms. It makes it difficult to escape, even temporarily, from the pandemic. It deprives us of seeing one another’s smiles! I’m aware that these are also arguments deployed by those who decry all masking, even indoors. But the point is that masking shouldn’t be about signaling what side you’re on—it should be about using a tool in response to risk. Being overly vigilant about masks when they are not important makes it more difficult to keep wearing them when they are. Also, I fear that it is making us look a little ridiculous.

[nykhaela-ackerman]

QuaranThoughts: A Glimpse Into My 2020 Psyche

     It seems like it’s almost been a year since everything suddenly changed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Overall, 2020 has been filled with one tragedy after another. Starting off with the eruption of the Taal Volcano, threats of World War 3, the pandemic crisis, issues of racism, government incompetence, and many more events that shook the whole world. As someone living through such seemingly historical events, I felt anxious of what the world will come to be in the future, as long as what could happen to me. There were even times wherein I felt so anxious and restless because not only did I fear for my own safety, but also for thinking about what the point is in all this.

     I felt sad and helpless for living in such a world wherein fighting will never stop, and that it only seems like a pipe dream for governments to be competent enough to deal with certain issues. Not just in the context of the Philippines, but for the world in general, it seems as though no matter what happens, humanity will always be at war with one another, regardless of there being weapons or not. “Humanity will never stop fighting itself until it shrinks to a size of one or fewer,” said Erwin Smith, though he may be fictional, I believe that his words hold the truth. Humans will always find something to fight about, no matter how insignificant a few things might seem and vice-versa.

     This world of ours is a dog-eat-dog world, you can’t really trust anyone, not even yourself at times. So, in times of global crises, who will you turn to? The government who seems to only prioritize maintaining the positions they hold? The church with their false promises of comfort? Your school or university that even rids students of scholarship opportunities due to fears of spending too much money despite being owned by a literal billionaire? Your family who you may or may not even feel comfortable living with, depending on your relationships with them? Your friends who you don’t even know if they truly care about you? Yourself, who’s not even sure about your identity or reason for being alive? All we know is that we don’t know, after all we’re just human beings who were suddenly thrown into this world and now have to deal with the chaos that comes with existence.

     Anyway, before I end up getting way too depressing or overshare too much of my personal existential crisis, let me go back to talking about the pandemic. So first of all, I would like to share my own personal experiences and sentiments about being in quarantine, before I delve deeper unto more meaningful thoughts in terms of its effect on society. As a lazy introvert who never liked going outside nor have never experienced going anywhere without any family members, I personally do not mind the thought of just staying indoors all the time. As a matter of fact, I even feel relieved that I don’t have to actually socialize or interact with anyone because of how socially awkward I am and how I just don’t feel comfortable with dealing with social cues and all that stuff. Also, one of the reasons why I prefer online classes is also because of my personal self-image and self-esteem issues.

     During online classes, I don’t have to show the rest of my body nor wear an uncomfortable uniform whose buttons could burst anytime while worrying about the weird looks I get from people. In addition, I can express my thoughts easier during recitations or presentations during online classes because I do not have to deal with the social anxiety that comes with having to stand in front of a crowd and think about things like maintaining eye contact or monitoring bodily gestures and such. I could also sit however I want more comfortably, while also not having to worry about using the bathroom during class because I can easily do it at home while wearing Bluetooth headphones so I wouldn’t miss out on class. However, the fact that I can think about all these things is a sign that I seem to be privileged enough to actually be able to consider having to deal with online classes instead of face-to-face classes as a better situation personally. This doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge the plethora of issues that others are facing because of it, I was just sharing things from my perspective.

      Upon observing what my fellow students have been posting on social media, along with the many news articles out there, I have been dragged back into reality. Not everyone is lucky as I am to have WiFi and gadgets at home to be able to comfortably deal with online classes. Many are struggling to buy load for their cellular data so they can attend classes, others are also suffering from how the pandemic crisis affected their families financially, causing them to likely even drop out and work instead of pursuing their studies. In addition, there are also those who have to deal with balancing the already exhausting mountain-loads of schoolwork, along with helping out around the house with chores or taking care of their younger siblings or ailing relatives. I then realize that there’s more to life than academics, and that there are bigger problems out there in the world that take priority.

      Also, upon further reflection, I have realized that not everyone has access to such technologies required for online classes, especially for those who live in far-off areas; those who go to decrepit public schools, those who live in tribal communities, and those who live with a seemingly inescapable sense of poverty looming over them. As a citizen of a third-world country who has been more exposed to foreign media, there were time s that I have forgotten that the educational norm for the Philippines is way different than that of those living in first-world countries. I have remembered how there are many people in this country of ours who lack capabilities to enroll in academic institutions for high quality education, along with not even having enough finances to even survive living in the slums, and yet they are expected to have the resources to deal with online classes. Also, what about children who can barely even read or write? Do they expect them to be able to send emails at the ripe age of five?

     I think the heads of such universities or schools are forgetting that students and teachers are also human beings in need of breaks and that just because we’re at home doesn’t mean we have all the time and energy in the world to just do nothing but deal with academics. Even machines can overheat or explode due to overwork, there needs to be a time to cool down, so that we may spend even just a little bit of time to be just people, to just be ourselves and live our life beyond the confines of stressing over exams, quizzes, modules, grades, and such. There’s more to life than just slaving away and doing what you’re told to do, school shouldn’t be a medium to train people into becoming tireless slaves who will always bend to the will of those in power. As a matter of fact, because of spending almost all of my time dealing with academics, I barely have anytime to explore who I am and what I want in life; I don’t even see a future for myself beyond graduation, I can’t even see myself as not living as a student. Just because I have seemingly good grades does not mean that a bright future is automatically guaranteed for me; how am I supposed figure out how to survive in the real world while I further continue to lose the will to live as time goes by?

     While I sit comfortably at home as I pursue my other hobbies or stress over deadlines of activities, many people out there are starving and struggling to look for jobs, and many are fighting for their rights to be treated as human beings instead of yet just another number in the ever-growing mortality rate due to the pandemic or even because the government silenced them for speaking against those in power. The world is at war with itself, and yet there are many of us who act like frogs sitting in a tub of water without realizing they are slowly being boiled alive. We’re not in a sauna or in a relaxing hot spring, we’re in a living hell where of everyone is exposed to the same amount of fire. They may say that we’re all in the same boat, but we’re actually in the same ocean in midst of a storm; we’re all on different boats, some may be lucky enough to have yachts or cruise ships, while others are struggling to stay afloat on a piece of driftwood. Even if this pandemic crisis someday comes to an end, the struggles of humanity never will.

      This then begs the question, “Why do we even try so hard to survive in such a cruel world? What’s the point in living? Why even try if we’re all just going to die?” Personally, there are many times wherein I contemplated just taking the easy way out and I still do; I know I’m still young but it doesn’t invalidate how tiring it feels to be alive, and how it will just continue to get even more tiring and difficult as I continue to live. Well, as Mikasa Ackerman puts it, “the world is cruel yet beautiful at the same time,” so if we truly want to see how such a world can show such beauty, we must continue to try to survive in this world we were born into so that we may find what it means to genuinely be free.  After all, as Eren Jaeger puts it, “if we win, we live. If we lose, we die. If we don’t fight, we can’t win. So fight. Fight,” so that we may be able to see a world worth living in. Fight, so that we may be able to live someday in a world where we no longer need to fight, as illusory or delusional as it may seem.

     Before I bombard you with any more Attack on Titan references or depress you with my own personal issues, it may be time to end this essay of mine. Overall, whether it be a global pandemic crisis or any other issues surrounding human conflict, it cannot be denied that this era we’re living in will be a part of human history for future generations to read about. Even if it seems that humanity’s cycle of hatred, greed, and incompetence  will never end, we must still strive to make this world of ours somehow worth living in so that we may alleviate suffering, as we continue to grow and evolve as beings aiming to find the meaning of being. No one may know which paths we may take, nonetheless, we should still try to break down these walls, overcome these barricades, and dedicate our hearts so that we may proudly keep moving forward as we fly with our wings of freedom towards the scenery of true liberty. If we just sit here, do nothing and just wait for our corpses to start rotting, what’s the point in living?

Disclaimer: This is just an exercise for our Digital Publishing class submitted to @bertongbigtime​. Thank you for understanding!

[ecsundance]

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival has been amazing. I watched 7 films and a few free talks/events. I enjoyed every single one of them. The Sundance Film Festival has done amazing things during such strange times. The filmmakers and their cast and crew made amazing films during such difficult times. The New Frontier made me feel more included at the Sundance Festival even though I was hundreds of miles away. My only regret is I should have watched more films. Chuck Tyron talks about reinventing festivals in a virtual manner and its affects. 

The seven films I watched were “Censor”, “Cryptozoo”, “In the Earth”, “Coming Home in the Dark”, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”, “Wild Indian” and “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet”. The films I connected to the most were “Censor”, “Cryptozoo”, “Coming Home in the Dark” and “Wild Indian”. All of these films had a lasting effect on me. Censor made me wonder what happen if I lost one of my siblings, what mental effects it would have me and how I would act. The night after I watched “Cryptozoo” I had a dreamt that I was in the film. All I can remember from this dream is helping Lauren Gray relocate cryptids, which was a lot of fun. “Coming Home in the Dark” had a major lasting effect on me. The whole film was just a vicious cycle of suffering until the end. It made me remember how much of an impact I can have on someone’s life; I often forget that. “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” is a film that I enjoyed a lot. The deterioration of Casey’s mental state gave the film a lot of suspense. This film is extremely relevant to our society today. After watching this film, I wondered how a game like this would affect our world. Out of all the films I watched, “Wild Indian” left the biggest impact on me. It made remember how difficult life is for some people, especially for people who live on reservations. It showed how significant events in childhood are.  

The Sundance Film Festival did a great job of making people who attended virtually feel like they were physically at the festival. This festival offered a lot of different virtual experiences to attend. The streaming of the films was easy to do and I could watch the films on my TV in my living room. The free talks and events I watched made me feel like I was in Park City listening to what people had to say. Two of the events I went to virtually were Celebrating Creators and Best of Sundance from 2019: The Future of Deals with Bruna Papandrea. After watching Jay Nelson and talk about how he loves what he does I realized how important it is to find something you love. Bruna Papandrea gave me a similar message from her talk. She talked about how she enjoys making film out of books she’s read. Bruna Papandrea wants to share her image/idea of books that have a lasting effect on her. I also watched the awards ceremony hosted by Patton Oswald. Since the event was hosted over Zoom, I didn’t feel left out. After watching the awards ceremony, I realized that I have a few films that I didn’t have the opportunity to see.

The New Frontier was a great way for people that were virtual to feel included. It was an easy way to chat with other people attending Sundance. In my class we all went into one chat room and talked about films and other events that people were excited for. At some moments random people would join the chat and that helped to make it feel like we were there. There was one hiccup with the New Frontier, which is expected. One of my classmates was in the lobby but couldn’t see anyone. Overall, the New Frontier was amazing!

As technology becomes more and more significant festivals may become more virtual. Chuck Tyron brings this into his argument. He states, “Festivals have also sought to cultivate active social media profiles that allow virtually anyone, regardless of geographic location, to interact with filmmakers and others attending the festival,” (Tyron 157). If festivals were to do this more people could be involved in the festival. Due to COVID-19 festivals that wanted to continue through COVID-19 they need to have virtual accessibility. In the case of Sundance Film Festival, virtual experiences are perfect for a film festival. The Sundance Film Festival did an amazing job of having an option to experience the festival virtually. Tyron states, “In this sense, the apps appealed to discourses of personal mobility, providing festivalgoers with the ability to find out not only what’s happening but also where,” (Tyron 161). This quote doesn’t apply to watching streams of the featured films, but it still adds to the virtual aspect. If festivals were to do this people would be able to find more efficiently.

References:

Tryon, Chuck. On-Demand Culture : Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies, Rutgers University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central

-Charlie

[orbemnews]

Pregnant Women Get Conflicting Advice on Covid-19 Vaccines Pregnant women looking for guidance on Covid-19 vaccines are facing the kind of confusion that has dogged the pandemic from the start: The world’s leading public health organizations — the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization — are offering contradictory advice. Neither organization explicitly forbids or encourages immunizing pregnant women. But weighing the same limited studies, they provide different recommendations. The C.D.C.’s advisory committee urged pregnant women to consult with their doctors before rolling up their sleeves — a decision applauded by several women’s health organizations because it kept decision making in the hands of the expectant mothers. The W.H.O. recommended that pregnant women not receive the vaccine, unless they were at high risk for Covid because of work exposures or chronic conditions. It issued guidance on the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday, stirring uncertainty among women and doctors on social media. (Earlier this month, it published similar guidance on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.) Several experts expressed dismay at the W.H.O.’s stance, saying the risks to pregnant women from Covid were far greater than any theoretical harm from the vaccines. “There are no documented risks to the fetus, there’s no theoretical risks, there’s no risk in animal studies,” from the vaccines, said Dr. Anne Lyerly, a bioethicist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “The more that I think about it, the more disappointed and sad I feel about it.” The difference of opinion between the C.D.C. and the W.H.O. is not rooted in scientific evidence, but the lack of it: Pregnant women have been barred from participating in clinical trials of the vaccines, a decision in line with a long tradition of excluding pregnant women from biomedical research, but one that is now being challenged. While the rationale is ostensibly to protect women and their unborn children, barring pregnant women from studies pushes the risk out of the carefully controlled environment of a clinical trial and into the real world. The practice has forced patients and providers to weigh sensitive, worrisome issues with little hard data about safety or effectiveness. Vaccines are generally considered to be safe, and pregnant women have been urged to be immunized for influenza and other diseases since the 1960s, even in the absence of rigorous clinical trials to test them. “As obstetricians we are often faced with difficult decisions about using interventions in pregnancy that have not been properly tested in pregnancy,” said Dr. Denise Jamieson, an obstetrician at Emory University in Atlanta and a member of the Covid expert group at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists. The college strongly advocated including pregnant and breastfeeding women in the vaccine trials. “What many people miss is that there are risks to doing nothing,” Dr. Jamieson said. “Not offering pregnant women the opportunity to be vaccinated and protect themselves, where there are known and severe risks of Covid amplified by pregnancy, is not a wise strategy.” The uncertainty isn’t limited to Covid vaccines: Many if not most medications, including widely used drugs, have never been tested in pregnant women. It can take years or decades for adverse side effects to come to light in the absence of a study with a control group for comparison. “This isn’t a story about the W.H.O. or other people advising against vaccination in pregnancy,” said Carleigh Krubiner, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and a principal investigator for the Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics and New Technologies project (PREVENT). “It’s a story about the failure to timely and appropriately include pregnant women in vaccination studies.” Saying she understood the commitment of the W.H.O. and other advisory bodies to rely on scientific studies, Dr. Krubiner added: “The reality is that we don’t yet have the data on these vaccinations in pregnancy, and it’s very difficult without that data to come out and give a full-throated recommendation in support.” The C.D.C. and the W.H.O. have offered dissonant advice many times over the course of the pandemic — most notably on the usefulness of masks and the possibility of the virus traveling by air indoors. In a statement, the C.D.C. said on Thursday that based on how the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines work, “they are unlikely to pose a specific risk for pregnant women.” The C.D.C.’s recommendation may make sense for the United States, where women may easily be able to consult with their health care providers, said Joachim Hombach, a health adviser to the W.H.O. on immunizations. But the W.H.O. provides guidance to many low- and middle-income countries where women do not have access to doctors or nurses, he said. The W.H.O.’s recommendation was also made “in the context of limited supply” of the vaccines, Dr. Hombach said. “I don’t think the language is discouraging, but the language is stating the facts.” Pfizer did not include pregnant women in its initial clinical trials because it followed the policies outlined by the Food and Drug Administration to first conduct developmental and reproductive toxicity studies, said Jerica Pitts, a spokeswoman for the company. Pfizer and Moderna both provided results from toxicity studies in pregnant rats to the F.D.A. in December. Pfizer plans to begin a clinical study in pregnant women in the first half of 2021, Ms. Pitts said. Moderna is establishing a registry to record outcomes in pregnant women who receive its vaccine, according to Colleen Hussey, a spokeswoman for the company. Critics of the companies’ decisions to exclude pregnant women from trials say the reproductive toxicity studies could have been carried out much earlier — as soon as promising vaccine candidates were identified. The companies should have added a protocol to enroll pregnant women once it was clear the vaccines’ benefits outweighed potential harm, Dr. Krubiner said. “It’s hard to understand why that delay is happening and why it wasn’t initiated sooner,” she said. “The bigger issue is, we’re going to have lost months by the time they start them.” Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who has advocated immunizations for pregnant women questioned the underlying issue that prompted the W.H.O.’s decision. “Whatever it is, I wish the W.H.O. would be more transparent in their reasons behind this recommendation,” she said. “Women’s lives depend on it.” Covid-19 Vaccines › Answers to Your Vaccine Questions Am I eligible for the Covid vaccine in my state? Currently more than 150 million people — almost half the population — are eligible to be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The nation’s 21 million health care workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials urged all states to open up eligibility to everyone 65 and older and to adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the back of the line. If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, everyone 16 and older will become eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine hasn’t been approved in children, although studies are underway. It may be months before a vaccine is available for anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state health website for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area Is the vaccine free? You should not have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, although you will be asked for insurance information. If you don’t have insurance, you should still be given the vaccine at no charge. Congress passed legislation this spring that bars insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as a co-payment or deductible. It layered on additional protections barring pharmacies, doctors and hospitals from billing patients, including those who are uninsured. Even so, health experts do worry that patients might stumble into loopholes that leave them vulnerable to surprise bills. This could happen to those who are charged a doctor visit fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get your vaccine from a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, talk to them about potential hidden charges. To be sure you won’t get a surprise bill, the best bet is to get your vaccine at a health department vaccination site or a local pharmacy once the shots become more widely available. Can I choose which vaccine I get? How long will the vaccine last? Will I need another one next year? That is to be determined. It’s possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event, just like the flu shot. Or it may be that the benefits of the vaccine last longer than a year. We have to wait to see how durable the protection from the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers are going to be tracking vaccinated people to look for “breakthrough cases” — those people who get sick with Covid-19 despite vaccination. That is a sign of weakening protection and will give researchers clues about how long the vaccine lasts. They will also be monitoring levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccinated people to determine whether and when a booster shot might be needed. It’s conceivable that people may need boosters every few months, once a year or only every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data. Will my employer require vaccinations? Where can I find out more? The toxicity data released by Pfizer and Moderna in December found no harmful effects from the vaccines to pregnant rats — evidence cited by the W.H.O. in its guidance. One extreme consequence of a conservative approach to vaccines played out during the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when health workers offered a vaccine for the disease to all frontline workers and contacts of people confirmed to have it — except if they were pregnant or breastfeeding. Without the vaccine, 98 percent of pregnant women who were infected with the Ebola virus died. The rules were changed following a public outcry but, by then, many pregnant women had died, Dr. Lyerly said. Covid-19 has also proved to be dangerous to pregnant women. A large C.D.C. study published in November found that pregnant women with Covid who were symptomatic were significantly more likely to be hospitalized or to die when compared with nonpregnant women who also had Covid symptoms. The evidence prompted agency officials to add pregnancy to the list of conditions that heighten the risk of severe disease and death from Covid. The C.D.C. has set up a smartphone application called v-safe to solicit reports of side effects from immunized people. About 15,000 pregnant women have enrolled in the registry so far, the agency’s immunization committee reported on Wednesday. “I think that’s our best chance of getting safety data rapidly,” Dr. Jamieson said. Britain initially starkly recommended against Covid vaccines for pregnant women, but has since revised its guidance to authorize inoculating pregnant women who are frontline workers or otherwise at high risk. “I’m hoping the W.H.O. will reconsider as well,” Dr. Jamieson said. Some experts said the recommendations are not as divergent as they may appear at first glance. “The C.D.C. is more inclined to say that pregnant women should have access to the vaccine, but should discuss their circumstances with their providers,” said Dr. Ana Langer, a reproductive health expert who leads the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The W.H.O.’s interim recommendation says that women who are at particularly high risk of exposure or getting Covid should get the vaccine. So where’s the big difference here?” Denise Grady contributed reporting. Source link Orbem News #Advice #conflicting #Covid19 #Pregnant #Vaccines #Women

[jospeakma]

Blog 9 Caged Cat

Fig 1. Caged Cat, mixed media. JS. 2020.

I’m writing this blog over the Christmas period and seeing my cat in a cage (fig.1) with a protective collar on to stop her scratching her wound, is a great metaphor to sum up the Covid-19 pandemic! My cat was hit by a vehicle and had to have emergency orthopaedic surgery, followed with being confined to a cage to stop her moving around freely and damaging herself. If you don't have a dog or cat, the collar is to stop them licking their wounds. The cage and the collar represent the effects of the pandemic; restricted freedom of movement, restricted communication and restricted contact - all of course for their safety. 

I have the radio on in the background (BBC R4 12:30 December 29th 2020) and they’re talking about the effects of covid-19 on mental health and how it could have the biggest effect on mental health since WW2!

Having said that there is a strange unity caused by the pandemic and it is felt worldwide, like we’re all under one sky – although some skies are stormier than others! It does make me worry about where all this will take us in the future.

Almost everything I do outside of the home I live in (including; my studio, garden and the people I live with) is done through a technological device. My lectures, my conversations, looking at art, going to the library, personal therapy… the list goes on. Although I feel lucky; I have comfort, I have space around me and devices to communicate through, but this is not the real world. Conversations lack the nuances of body language and its difficult to judge when to join in a conversation on Zoom. I have wondered if I would have felt differently about the course if it was running normally in normal times. We lack the  experiential element to the course, with studio practice, discussions and having more of an opportunity to get to know each other in person. The journey to University would have been a bigger part of my day, although as a positive, I have saved a lot of money on petrol and saved a lot of time in traffic. If the course runs normally next year it will be interesting to compare the two experiences. I have found zoom backgrounds very interesting and I get distracted by them. We get a window into other people’s lives and this is frequently seen in interviews on the news. I find myself commenting on their interiors. People in their comfort zones - their homes.

Studio Practice

As a cohort, part timers and full timers have occasionally come together on Zoom to make art and chat informally. It has been the only face to face social interaction with my fellow students outside of university lectures and seminars, although the studio practice groups, have a similar atmosphere, where we can relax and chat informally. 

Safe spaces and leaky spaces

I come back to safe spaces and leaky spaces. Having been in a few lectures, seminars and break out rooms, with other people appearing in the background, it begs the question as to whether online therapy is a safe space for service user and therapist alike? The video camera shows a 2-dimensional image on your screen of one view point in the other room. If you were there, in the room, you would have an opportunity to scan the room with your own eyes to decide whether it is a room you feel comfortable in or not. Imagine if you were in a room with a small group of people talking about sensitive subjects. Would you feel comfortable if someone’s partner popped in with a cup of tea? For a start you would see a door open and it would give you time to pause the conversation. Much like you would at a restaurant if the waiter was serving your table in the middle of a delicate conversation. Zoom has the potential for a leaky space. Having said that, zoom and other methods of video communication have opened up the potential for reaching out.

Online Art Therapy

During this pandemic art therapy has had to adjust quickly to using online platforms like zoom to deliver art therapy sessions (Miller& McDonald 2020)’. My personal therapy sessions are all online and I believe most of my peers are too. But this has its own set of concerns over accessibility of materials and safe therapeutic space online. Not everyone will have the availability of art materials or access to the technological equipment and the safe space needed for online art therapy.  This is discussed in Gretchen Miller & Alex McDonalds’ (2020) Online art therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic, International Journal of Art Therapy article.  It raises the need for ‘therapeutic frameworks’ (Miller & McDonald 2020) to work safely within this environment for the service user and art therapist (2020). It seems that online art therapy does have potential for increasing a take up of the service through reduced ‘stigmatisation’– not having to attend a venue for therapy, but having an opportunity to attend online within the service user’s comfort of their own space (Miller & McDonald 2020). Therefore, this has the potential to open more doors for availability of therapeutic help for service users. There is hope that while building safer frameworks within online art therapy, there is the potential that technology can make art therapy services more accessible to a wider community and larger groups of potential service users. I conclude there are strong arguments for and against online art therapy.

References:

Miller, G. & McDonald, A. (2020) ‘Online art therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic’, International Journal of Art Therapy, [Online] 25 (4) pp. 159-160.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2020.1846383 [Accessed: 29th December 2020]

[purplesurveys]

1141

survey by lets-make-surveys

1 - Do you have a favourite day of the week? What is it about that day that you like so much? I feel like I just answered this recently, but let’s go with Friday again. Always nice to fade out after work and to finally close all my work tabs and chats, and not feel obligated to reply to anyone for a couple of days.

2 - Would you describe yourself as a sociable person or not? I’m not the most sociable person, like I don’t always have the energy to be at the maximum level of perky, but I am to an extent. I no longer find it difficult to approach people and strike up a conversation.

3 - Who was the last person you spoke to out-loud? What did you speak to them about? My mom. My former director, Ysa, sent me a scented candle earlier tonight - as a parting gift since she got promoted and got reassigned to my employer’s sister company - and I just asked my mom to light the candle up because I’m scared of matches and fire.

4 - Do you prefer tea or coffee? Coffee; I never drink tea.

5 - What's your ideal weather? When was the last time you had that kind of weather where you live? Any kind of weather where the temperature is anywhere below 25ºC (which is already considered quite chilly here) is fine with me.

6 - Who was the last person (apart from family) that you spent time with? What did you get up to? Does virtual count? I had a Jeopardy night on Zoom with my orgmates a couple of weeks ago. I might miss out on a couple of people, but I was with Peter, Elis, Andi, Carmel, Robin, Laurice, and Mik. Apart from that, my uncle treated me, my kuya, and my cousin Luke to lunch the morning after said Zoom call.

7 - If you have pets, when was the last time one of them got on your nerves? Oh my god, just this afternoon. I was in a Zoom call with a client and besides our PR agency, there was another marketing agency in the call who was also pitching their presentation deck. The entire call was pure bliss on my end, no one was making noise at home – the second it came to my speaking parts, Cooper started howling and barking like crazy because idk, maybe he saw an animal outside or something?? In any case it suddenly got very loud and I got caught off-guard, and I ended up stuttering several times as I was trying to focus.

8 - Do you have to wear a uniform at work or school? If not, what do you tend to wear? The only time I had to wear a legit uniform was in private school, which I attended from preschool to high school. We do have business casual dress code at work, but that in itself is pretty flexible so I don’t really count it as a ‘uniform.’

9 - Would you rather live in a house with a swimming pool or an indoor cinema? Indoor cinema. I watch a lot of things that I’d love to be able to view with a much bigger screen - plus it’s a lot easier to maintain than a pool, lol.

10 - When was the last time you were at the beach? August 2019 :(

11 - Do you own a credit card? If so, do you currently owe any money on it? Could you afford to pay it off tomorrow if necessary? No. My parents also advise against getting my own credit card since I could pick up some bad spending habits from it, according to them. That sounds scary enough so I’m ok with my debit card.

12 - What do you tend to wear to sleep in? Does this vary depending on the time of year? Usually something light, short, and airy since I live in a tropical country that never gets to enjoy temperatures lower than like 23ºC.

13 - What do you tend to have for breakfast, if you eat it? Fried rice, hotdogs, and bacon strips are filling enough for me.

14 - If someone offered to cook you a three-course-meal of your choosing, no budget - what would you have? Oysters, filet mignon, and macarons.

15 - How many hours of sleep do you typically get each night? Is that enough to function or would you rather have more? Anywhere between 7–9 during weekdays, and like 3–4 during weekends because revenge bedtime procrastination is real. Yeah, I’d say it’s enough on both ends.

16 - Does your house have a loft/basement? Are they functional or do you just use them for storage? We have neither.

17 - When was the last time you did a load of laundry? Do you need to do some in the near future? I don’t do the laundry at home.

18 - Are you addicted to anything legal? What about illegal? I guess vaping? I’m a lot more reliant on it now versus the past few months, and I get a little restless whenever I have to charge it for an hour or so. 

19 - Do you suffer from road rage? What kind of thing tends to set you off or wind you up while driving? A little bit, but I obviously haven’t had to express it in a while because of my much-lessened time on the road due to Covid. Standstill traffic is the biggest factor, but standstill traffic + stupid drivers who are impatient and end up not following the road lanes is the quickest way to irritate me and set me off.

20 - What kind of animal did you last see in the wild? Is that a common sight where you live? I have no idea, and that’s precisely because I live in the suburbs in a city which would not make them a common sight.

21 - How is your hair styled at the moment? Low side ponytail.

22 - Do you post a lot on social media? If so, what kind of thing do you tend to post on there? Not as much as I used to. I’ll probably post 5–7 tweets (versus the 50+ I’d post when I was younger) and share like 1–3 Facebook posts a day. I could talk about pretty much everything on Twitter since that’s my main dump - be it rants, my feelings, what I ate, the latest dumb thing Cooper did, etc. On Facebook I mostly share memes, at least family-friendly ones that wouldn’t alert my relatives lol.

23 - What are you watching/listening to at the moment? Nothing for either. I can hear some birds chirping outside since it’s finally getting brighter again, but that’s it.

24 - If you have multiple pets, do they all get along with each other or are there sometimes fights/scuffles? Cooper has actually finally settled down a bit so I’m starting to feel more comfortable letting him out with Kimi in the same room/floor. He understands that Kimi doesn’t like being disturbed so even though he’s in the mood to run around and be energetic and play catch or whatever, he always takes the time to tip-toe around Kimi. They’re not best buds by any means, but it’s enough to leave them be and not worry about a fight breaking out anymore. Sweet boys.

25 - What are some habits you have in common with your parents? My dad excessively blinks when he’s feeling tense or in an argument; I ended up picking that up from him. With my mom, it’s mostly phrases or expressions that she likes to use.

26 - Where's your favourite place to swim - the ocean, a pool, river, lake etc? Beaches.

27 - When you're saving your place in a book, do you use a bookmark or fold your pages down? Or something else? I either remember the page number or do a tiny dog-ear. Bookmarks aren’t the right match for me lol, I’ll most likely end up losing them.

28 - What's your favourite kind of cereal? Sweeter ones.

29 - Is any part of your body hurting at the moment? Is there a specific incident that caused the pain? Yeah, my neck had actually been seriously stiff during my last shift and I couldn’t move my head unless I moved my entire body along with it. It’s died down now but I can definitely still feel the strain. My left shoulder in particular feels very strained at the moment and I’m feeling a considerable level of discomfort from it as I take this.

30 - What was the last thing to make you laugh out loud? 2 Days 1 Night, the usual. The Korean style of video editing is phenomenal and can literally make anything funny.

[boisentertainment]

Pandemic Community Support: Labyrinth Brewing Co.

“It took us 18 hours to brew our first beer”, says Adam Delaura, co-founder of Labyrinth Brewing Company out of Manchester, CT. “Two years later we’ve got it down to a science, our routine has only gotten more efficient”. Labyrinth has been hard at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to their opening day back in August 2018, new systems have to be put in place and mastered in order to adapt. 

The state of Connecticut ordered all breweries to shut down their taprooms. Adam said that “Most of our revenue comes from our taproom”. Telling breweries to shut down for several months without any future plan of return leaves everyone in the dark.

Breweries like Labyrinth during the pandemic are shifting to take out methods with a limited budget in order to do business with customers. Labyrinth is dependent on a loyal community that has their back. After years of generously giving back to the people and organizations around Manchester, “The Neighborhood Brewery” plans to come back stronger than ever.

The “Brewhouse”

Prior to Opening Day

The three co-founders Adam, Sean, and Chris turned a 130+ year old building into a home for Labyrinth doing most of the work on their own prior to opening day. They all grew up in Manchester together, so they already had an advantage knowing the area’s demographic. 

After a few Youtube tutorials, the trio cut down trees with rented chainsaws to clear out the back parking lot. They even recycled the extra wood to build tables. The wonderful hand-crafted tables and glass bottle lights give an authentic feel inside. Not to mention, a wonderful art gallery occupies a third of the taproom, representing artists in the local community.

Labyrinth’s Art Gallery

Labyrinth Gives Back

Serving the community means everything to Labyrinth. In one instance, Labyrinth understands the mutual benefit of collaborating with food trucks to serve customers in the parking lot, “Those trucks need all the money they can get to provide for their families”, said Adam. Labyrinth lets a variety of BBQ, taco, and pizza trucks operate free of charge. On the other hand, Adam said, “I don’t have to worry about food supplies and presentation”. It’s a win-win situation. 

Labyrinth has helped a variety of charitable nonprofits such as Oak Hill, Food Share, Protectors of Animals, and Interval House. In 2019 they hosted 29 fundraising events in their tap room and attended 22 off-site fundraising events. they were able to support a total of 63 locally focused organizations. 

Many breweries were scrambling to adapt when the shutdown happened. Plenty had never canned beer before and wanted to start, which caused disruption in the can supply chain. Labyrinth on multiple occasions would borrow from breweries, while also lending cans and growlers to others. “We were all just trying to help each other out and it’s a great example of how the brewing industry is a community”, Adam said. 

Last October, Labyrinth participated in the third annual “Barktoberfest” dog festival in Manchester as a vendor. The festival brought people and their dogs together to celebrate canines and raise awareness for responsible dog ownership. Labyrinth even hosted an after party event and sold treats for the dogs using recycled grain from leftover products.

All of the proceeds were donated to the Manchester Dog Owners Group.

Daisy at a MDOG Fundraiser

Challenges During the Pandemic

During tough times like the COVID-19 pandemic, Adam stated that, “If we did not have the local connection to organizations and charities as well as people in the neighborhood, we wouldn’t be alive”. Labyrinth has thrived since opening day in building relationships with the community rather than primarily focusing on profit. “People are making it a point to support local business”, Adam said. 

Having no real business plan is just one of several challenges that Labyrinth faces during the pandemic. “Before this, we could estimate having x amount of sales, but how do you do that now?”, Adam asks as he explains the curbside pickup process. He wasn’t sure how to set new operating hours, or how to market effectively with limited resources. He wants to look out for his staff more than anything, but the current process only needs a few people to operate. 

On the other hand, profit margins are smaller because they need more supplies (cans, labels, cardboard trays, etc.). Transporting the beer also ramps up costs, opposed to just serving it in the tap room. 

Shifting to can distribution has been a challenge. The cancelation of large group gatherings is ruling out keg sales. Meanwhile, Labyrinth is used to producing beer in large batches sold during normal taproom hours. “Once it’s brewed it can take weeks of maintenance”, Adam said when explaining the brew process. “Three weeks is a more typical time frame for many of the beers we brew, canning the beer is the easy part”. Responding only to curbside orders makes it difficult to plan for demand each week with such an operation. 

Adapting to the Shutdown

With a new beer take-out system in place, Curbside Pickup is surprisingly a success so far. When I arrived in the parking lot, the staff were setting up a clothed table held down in improvised fashion, with bricks in boxes. Afterwards, the beer orders are set on the table for pickup throughout the day. 

Labyrinth is even taking take-out one step further by offering home delivery using their own vehicles to satisfy customer demand. Fifteen home delivery orders went out on the first day, as customers show their amazing support to keep Labyrinth alive. The extra effort Labyrinth has been putting in to sell beer has Adam working up to sixteen hours a day. 

Despite tough times, Labyrinth is still making it a point to connect with their customers and community. They had to think creatively to engage with people, but events such as “Virtual Happy Hour”, and “Virtual Beer Tasting” are some bright spots during the pandemic. “Now we’re bringing it to you”, Adam said. Both events utilize popular video communications platform Zoom where up to 100 people can be together for free. The events are organized and promoted through social media.

Virtual Beer Tasting 4-Pack

Virtual Beer Tasting works by buying a $20 ticket that gets customers a mixed four pack of beer for pick up during curbside hours in the parking lot. An email invitation is then sent to join the Zoom video session. Labyrinth guides you through the beers, flavors, ingredients, and answers any question you may have in a relaxed conversation.

Adam understands that when business starts to open up, customers may think twice before leaving their homes and stopping in for a drink. “We just want everybody to feel safe”, Adam said.

General upgrades as well as safety improvements include (pictures below):

Refinishing the main bar top. 

Repainting the restrooms 

Installing touchless paper towel and soap dispensers 

Adding hand sanitizer dispensers 

Baby changing stations in the restrooms

Adding climate control to the restrooms (prior to this it would get super cold in there during the winter) 

Building a small patio outdoors (social distancing) 

Making a Difference Together

COVID-19 undoubtedly has caused one of the worst economic shakeups in the history of the United States. With many small businesses struggling with their backs against the wall, it’s crucial to adapt in order to stay open. It’s fascinating to see people come together and support the businesses they are committed to.

Labyrinth didn’t have to focus on helping others more than building profit over the years, but they did anyway. Customers line up beer orders on a daily basis because they want Labyrinth to be open. They understand how much the brewery benefits the neighborhood.

Labyrinth takes great pride in being located right in the middle of a neighborhood. One of the greatest gifts one can give is making a positive difference around you. Helping one another during a time in need can encourage others to follow suit. 

During difficult times, it’s just a neighbor helping another neighbor at the end of the day.

If you enjoyed my content, feel free to check out our podcast as we drink Labyrinth beer on episode 17.

The post Pandemic Community Support: Labyrinth Brewing Co. appeared first on Bois & Bar Talk.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Loose Cattle Interview: Making the Listener Not Hate You

Photo credit: King Edward Photography

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“The New York Philharmonic is basically a cover band,” Michael Cerveris told me over the phone a couple months ago. Okay, he was being facetious; in context, we were talking about the merits of labeling Loose Cattle, the group he leads along with Kimberly Kaye, as a cover band. They certainly started out that way 10 years ago, forming with the low-bar goal of playing country songs in their friends’ living rooms. (After all, Cerveris had a successful theater, TV, & film career, and Kaye in a ska band, so they weren’t banking on success.) When they started landing high-profile gigs and releasing only non-traditional recorded material like live records and Christmas collections, they didn’t really have time to ask themselves who they were as a band. You could argue that they finally get to do that on Heavy Lifting, their debut studio album a decade in the making, which came out on Friday via Low Heat Records.

On Heavy Lifting, Loose Cattle--which has always had Cerveris, Kaye, and a rotating cast of other members, at this time René Coman, Doug Garrison, and Rurik Nunan--finally record some of their crowd favorite covers and original material but also include some timely, somber interpretations. In a sense, they say it’s both the first album and the difficult second album, the original statement and the changing of trajectory. They get their kicks on a rollicking version of Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Gasoline and Matches”, Bob Frank’s upbeat “Redneck Blue Collar”, and “Sidewalk Chicken”, an original about disposed poultry that’s treasure for a passing-by dog. They duet on the Johnny and June-esque “He’s Old, She’s High”, a song written by Cowboy Mouth’s Paul Sanchez about the two of them (Cerveris and Kaye started Loose Cattle while in a romantic relationship), whose line “He loves his Dolly Parton / She digs her CeeLo Green” segues perfectly into their closing mashup, “F*ck You Jolene”. But the most poignant and notable songs on here are the somber ones, versions of Vic Chesnutt’s “Aunt Avis”, Judith Avers’ “West Virginia”, and Selda and Derek’s “Filling Space”, which gets a bluesy strings and pedal steel treatment. 

Cerveris and Kaye cite both the insularity caused by COVID-19 lockdowns and their ever-present tendency to look towards the margins as why they’re, too, most moved by these songs. “We’re required all of the time to be looking at people,” Kaye said. On the morning of our interview, the top story was essentially pictures of whatever Kardashian was currently horny for Travis Barker, pictures to which we were both subjected on our social media feeds. “If you’re going to look at somebody, why them?!?” Kaye said, exasperated. Songs like “West Vriginia”, on the contrary, “ask you to open your eyes a bit,” said Cerveris. They also wanted to roll out and open the album with more reverent tunes. “The idea of putting out songs in your face or requiring you to party felt really bad and discombobulating,” said Kaye, who couldn’t listen to almost anything during lockdown without crying--especially party music that made her miss her friends. A song like “Filling Space”, on the contrary, according to Kaye, “doesn’t have any judgement about what loneliness looks or feels like.” Though Heavy Lifting may preview a period of more original songwriting for Loose Cattle, these songs are just as if not more personal.

Which brings us back to the eternal question: Is Loose Cattle really a cover band? Perhaps somewhere in between. What’s clear is they reinterpret songs to fit their emotions and the zeitgeist the same way great jazz or country musicians do for standards. They’re artists. And, yes, at the same time, the next time they hang out and get tanked, they’ll probably start jamming and playing some well-known tunes.

Read the rest of my conversation with Cerveris and Kaye below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What about Heavy Lifting is unique as compared to anything else you’ve released in the past?

Michael Cerveris: We kind of did everything backwards. We had both been in a lot of bands before we ever met, and so much of the time you spend doing rehearsals, learning music, teaching different people music. Once you’re out of college, you’re not on the same schedule as everybody else you play with most of the time, usually because the only way you can make a living in New Orleans or New York or places is being in 5 different bands in the same time. So you spend so much of your time sending messages back and forth and trying to find places where you can rehearse. We wanted to cut all that out when we started this band. The idea was that we would learn a bunch of country covers because we both loved that kind of music and the storytelling, and the characters in them were just great. Our highest aspiration was be to play in our friends’ living rooms, and that was it. That’s where we started. 

Within a month, we suddenly had these random opportunities to play on Mountain Stage in my home state of West Virginia and to play at Lincoln Center in New York and its American Songbook Series. The kinds of gigs you would build your career towards. We were randomly landing there out of the gate, so we thought, “Maybe we should rehearse like an actual band.” Similarly, with records, our first record was a live record from a residency we did in a club in New York called 54 Below. Our second record was a collection of Christmas singles we had been doing once a year to treat our fans around Christmas time. So this is our first debut studio record.

Kimberly Kaye: It’s coming years into being a band.

SILY: How did you go about deciding what to include on here, both covers and originals?

KK: The problem of being a band that exists for a decade before you make a record is that by the time you make a record, the five people who do love you already have a list of favorite songs that they want to hear on your record. These are the songs we never recorded that people were like, “Why don’t you have a version of this I can download?”

MC: There were definitely fan favorites that we had to do because we had said we would forever. There were a bunch that we wrote, because we wanted to move out of being a covers band. Kimberly and I have been writing separately and together, and that’s definitely where we plan to move as a band more and more. As we were recording them, we actually wrote another couple in response to where we were finding ourselves as the process went along.

SILY: Is there a general approach you take when covering a song or recording a song someone else has written?

KK: It’s challenging when you’re doing covers to be true enough to the original that people A) recognize it or B) think, “God, this terrible cover band just murdered this song I otherwise love.” That’s always a player, being respectful to the original. Also finding a way to to say, “Hey, I might be in New Orleans or in New York but we’re not a Bourbon Street or Times Square cover band.” How do we add texture? How do we use our approach to storytelling to emphasize the parts of the story that are very meaningful to us as musicians or humans listening to the song? Trying to strike a balance between representing the song so that the person who wrote it originally wouldn’t want to murder me if they saw me in public, and then backing that up with, “How do I make it interesting?” so that the person doesn’t feel like they’re hearing the song for the ten thousandth time. Regardless of who they are, making the listener not hate you, I think.

MC: The primary motivation of our band is not to be hated. [laughs] It’s funny: Cover bands get such a bad rap, but it’s so much a part of most bands’ development. The Beatles were a cover band for most of their beginning. It’s how you cut your teeth. [I think of it as being] song interpreters. A lot of people who are famous and not thought of as a cover band aren’t necessarily writing their own material most of the time. Nashville is full of people writing songs for other people. 

I think it’s always about trying to find songs that mean something to you. That bottom line is how songs end up in our setlist. It’s a song one of us will hear and think, “We should cover that.” When we say that to each other, it means the song has struck something in us, which normally means it’s about someone who is marginalized or in an uncomfortable situation not part of the mainstream. We both gravitate towards the margins and misfits and outsider type people. Those kinds of songs, either written from that perspective or about people grappling with those kinds of things, usually strike us.

[When] there’s something in the song that somehow feels like something we have a way to express, that will be true to us. There are songs we sometimes think of that we think are great to cover, but what we really want is just to have been in that band who did the song originally. It’s only when we feel like we have something to add to the song we love or we want to share it with more people. A lot of our fans think we’ve written a lot more of our material than we have. It could be because we’ve made it absolutely unrecognizable, or that the way we do it makes it feel like it comes from us.

SILY: There’s a good mix on here of better-known songs, and songs I looked up and couldn’t find the original version online, like “Filling Space” and “He’s Old, She’s High”.

KK: Michael and I aren’t in Nashville, but those are this album’s, “Hey, if we were in Nashville, this would be our Nashville moment.” “Filling Space” was written by a songwriting pair that go back and forth between Nashville and New York, [Selda and Derek]. They put that together and sent it to Michael thinking it would be a great song for us, and they were right. “He’s Old, She’s High” was written for and about Michael and I as a gift by Paul Sanchez, now of solo fame in New Orleans, previously of Cowboy Mouth.

SILY: I was gonna say, it was almost too perfect the way you combined “Jolene” and “Fuck You”, which inspired the line, “He loves his Dolly, she loves her CeeLo Green”.

MC: It was actually the other way around.

KK: It was one of those things before we were a band, and we hadn’t performed yet, and Michael said we should start a covers band for living room parties. I said in that case, we should try to find a way to cover CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You”, because it’s my jam. That’s how old that cover is. That song was new at the point where I thought we should wedge it in with “Jolene”.

MC: The song used to always be in the first person, and we decided when recording that it would be about two other people to make it so more people could feel it was about them.

KK: It felt a little masturbatory to sing the song about just us, so if we changed the tenses and the pronouns, maybe you know a couple where he’s high and she’s old. 

MC: When we started the band, we were a couple, and we thought starting a band would be a great thing for our relationship, because clearly we had never read any band biographies before. Even though we stopped being in a relationship but kept the band together, the dynamic between the two of us is a lot of what informs everything. It does feel like a family, though people have come and gone. Kim and I are the constants. Now, we have this really solid band that feels like a band, which is what we always wanted.

SILY: "Aunt Avis” is the first single and album opener, one of the more downtempo tracks on the album. Why did you choose to lead with it?

MC: We were aware that it was kind of an odd choice as the opener and first listen people were gonna get of the record. I guess the odd choice is the choice we go with most of the time.

KK: Yep!

MC: [laughs] I think it also captured a lot of what we’ve been talking about. It’s somebody else’s song that exists in an original version that’s so idiosyncratic and iconic. Nobody else performed [Chesnutt’s] songs the way he did. But it’s also a song Widespread Panic does that a lot of people think of as a song by Widespread Panic. This is the kind of band we are. We’ll take somebody else’s song and try to make it ours. 

When we originally recorded [Heavy Lifting], we thought we would put it out in 2020, and for reasons we’re all aware of, that didn’t seem like a good idea at the time. We started to sit down to figure out when we were gonna put it out and guess what the future was gonna be like, when people were gonna want to listen to music and when we were gonna want to listen to music, and when people did want to listen, what kind of music it was gonna be. When we looked at the record, this song kind of seemed to be the ideal song to talk about things that are on people’s minds and have been for the past year. How do you be good? How do you keep going when you don’t know how or if you should? Starting out of the gate with something not acknowledging the world we’re in would be jarring and weird and could be good if people wanted escape, but we’re not entirely an escape kind of band. It felt like the right song for this moment to represent us and the record and let people come in through that. The next single, “Filling Space”, too, is a step along that road. When people get into the full record, there’s all kinds of stuff on it, much more lighthearted and rocking stuff. But it’s been a rough fucking year, and we wanted to let people ease their way out of the cave.

SILY: What’s the significance behind the album title?

MC: We’re such an old school band in a lot of ways. We’ll take forever deciding on the sequencing of the record. I still look at records as A-sides and B-sides. It really matters to me. There are a million ways to do it, but I spend a lot of time thinking about the flow of the record. Similarly, we take forever naming our records. I don’t know how many titles we had for this record.

KK: [laughs] A lot.

MC: They go from the ridiculous to the less ridiculous to approaching the sublime, but mostly just ridiculous.

KK: For a minute, we were calling it Herd Immunity, definitely leaning away from the sublime on that one, more towards the absurd. But [Heavy Lifting] was a dark horse that came out of nowhere and kind of won the race. We had another title picked, and I can’t really remember it, so it obviously wasn’t that good.

MC: This definitely came up post-COVID lockdowns. I think it might have been encouraged by finding the photo first.

KK: Yes. I remember it came from the photo.

MC: And the sort of dual nature of “heavy lifting,” which feels like what everybody is getting through these days, to “heavy, comma, lifting,” which suggests that maybe this weight is slowly getting lighter. We liked the duality of that idea.

SILY: By the way, when I was Googling “heavy lifting loose cattle interviews,” just to see what other interviews you had done, I got a lot of results for interviewing for jobs on farms, and the proper way to lift loose cattle.

KK: [laughs]

MC: I think I’ve done the same thing. [Note: At the time of publication] The top hit you get is this harness, because there’s this thing for lifting down cows, which goes around their hips and lifts them down by their pelvic girdle, which doesn’t seem like a great idea, but I guess it’s what you do when you have a cow to lift.

When you Google “loose cattle,” you often get great videos of herds of cows across the world, wandering across freeways and through town squares. I think, in a way, it’s appropriate.

KK: Loose Cattle the band is not on TikTok, but we have a very strong showing on TikTok anyway if you type us in, just because people love filming animals in places they shouldn’t be.

SILY: What else is next for you, as a band or individually?

KK: In 2020, we were positioned to be playing such great shows. We had a spot at French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, which, if you’re a local, is your favorite, since [New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival] is very crowded. We had this incredible year of gigs lined up, and then all of a sudden, nothing, and we were all in different places, so we were not allowed to interact. While we didn’t get to work on too, too much as a band, we did, as we do, produce some more covers, which are not on the album but are really great. We found creative and interesting ways to make videos while in quarantine. We covered David Bowie’s “Heroes”.

MC: We [also] did John Cale’s “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend”.

KK: That was the height of the COVID spike and election stuff. We made these two kind of poignant, interesting things people love. I get a lot of folks messaging me saying they’re listening to our cover of “Heroes” saying it’s helping them get through something. In the meantime, trying to keep busy, I accidentally started a not unsuccessful true crime and horror competition podcast with a friend of mine. We compete to tell really horrifying stories from history. Hottest Hell Presents. It marries stories from history’s colon with competition.

MC: My day job has been as an actor for a number of years. I got a job on a great new series for HBO called The Gilded Age which should come out early next year some time. It’s written by Julian Fellowes, who made Downton Abbey, and it’s kind of Downton Abbey for the U.S., set in 1882 in New York. Kind of follows America in a really transitional phase after the Civil War, and the rise of the Industrial Age. I’ve been learning, doing research while we’re making it. [It’s amazing] how much we talk about today, like race relations, labor relations, the rise of the 1% and suffering of the 99%, the seeds of it came out of that period of American history. I’ve been filming it in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. It’s been a blessing to have a place to go and be creative and manage to feed myself so we can keep doing the band.