#werechimp

[chimponpurpose]

David Schein, Food Stash Foundation: I was shocked that 50% of the waste in Canada is happening in the home.

After watching a locally-produced documentary film, David Schein woke up to the reality of day-to-day food waste: too much is going into the garbage. From supermarkets to local groceries to home kitchens, a huge quantity of the food we produce and buy is wasted. Stores don’t sell it fast enough, we buy too much, or we don’t eat it before it goes bad. David wanted to do something about it, so he started Food Stash Foundation, an organization that picks up food that would otherwise be wasted and finds homes for it at local charities that feed hungry people. He’s just starting out and learning the ups and downs of trying to do something good for the community. We talked to David about celery, the price of gas, and 900 pounds of tomatoes.

On the beginning: I watched the movie Just Eat It last year and it opened my eyes to the whole food system and how big a problem it is all along the chain. From farm to wholesale to supermarket to at home. I was shocked that 50% of the waste in Canada is happening in the home, buying too much or not finishing it.

On startup: I was a high school teacher so I had the summer off. Then in September I started Food Stash, instead of going back to work as a teacher. I'd just go on my bike and was biking around to lots of little produce stores, and supermarkets, and cafes, and bakeries, and asking if they wanted to donate any unsold food items. I was going to redistribute it to different charities. I went out and tried to find charities that were interested in receiving food and it has steadily grown from there. I never delivered food on my bike, in the beginning I was just getting out there scoping it out. Then once I got two or three stores within two weeks, I had a Toyota Camry so I was using the Camry. Which quickly became too small.

On funding: It's not making any money right now. I do have a donation button on the website and we've received $2,000 in donations since September, so it's pretty good. That's covered pretty much all of the gas, which is the biggest expense. Pretty much the only expense. But going forward, if it's going to be sustainable, then I do need to generate enough money to have a salary so I can continue. I mean obviously I can't volunteer forever. Also I would like to get a kitchen space and then a cold storage space, because right now I'm delivering everything same day. I pick it up and deliver it within a few hours.

On preventing food waste at home: You've just got to get in the habit of checking in, you know look at the back of your fridge. Also the less you buy, or the more frequently you shop probably will lead to less waste, just because when your fridge is jam packed, you can't see what's in there. You forget about something, something gets squished in the back, whereas if you have more space you'll see, "Oh yeah that celery is starting to go, let's make a stir-fry or make soup or whatever."

On putting yourself on the line: I've tried out some of the prepared foods, because the prepared foods have the most risk involved. With produce and dairy, you'll see it visually or you can smell it with dairy. But prepared foods could go off without having a change in taste or smell. Like the sandwiches or the wraps, or the ready-made entrees. So I have experimented with those to see, a day after, it's okay. Two days after, three days after, etc.

On barriers: Not all charities are equipped with big cold storage facilities with lots of kitchen staff who can prep all these things, so a lot of charities can't take 100 pounds of produce. And who knows what you're getting, it's a wide variety. It takes a skilled chef and team to be able to take a mix-match of produce and turn it into a great meal.

I thought it would be easier. Some charities have experiences in the past of food getting dumped on them and it not being good quality, and maybe they only save fifteen or twenty percent and it just creates extra work for them. They end up having to throw most of it out, so they can be wary. It takes a little bit to build that relationship and trust and the charities tell me they're using about 80% of the produce I give them, which I think is a high percentage.

On future plans: I'd like to start picking up from more farms, especially as we get into the summer. There's so much out there and the quantities they have are pretty overwhelming. Like, in a month I've picked up 900 pounds of tomatoes, and 700 pounds of cucumbers. Having that cold storage would give me three or four days to donate it or I can make tomato sauce and reduce the volume; just having the space would give me more options, it would be a bit less stressful. I'd also like to start processing the food a little bit, to extend shelf life through dehydrating or freezing or canning. Making yogurt. Different things like that.

I just want to stay in Vancouver. There's another group in New Westminster and Burnaby called ReFood, which is doing pretty much exactly the same thing. So I don't feel the need to try to go all over the Lower Mainland, I just want to do as well as I can here. There's so many supermarkets. I'm only picking up from three big supermarkets, and not every day either; imagine if you're picking up from five supermarkets every single day.

On social media: I had never done Instagram before I started this in September so it's all new to me. It's the best because what we're doing is visual so it's cool for people to see the quality. I think people might get it in their heads that the food is bad, it's not the best stuff. But when they see pictures of grass fed, organic milk, and grass fed organic yogurt, and Parmesan cheese, or even just the apples. You can see the quality of the apples, or the red peppers. This is good stuff.

Instagram has enabled me to connect with people who support what I'm doing and want to help out. I've asked for volunteers, once in the fall and then once a couple weeks ago, and I've gotten a lot of responses. Since January there's been five volunteers helping me on a weekly basis, doing a pickup and a delivery.

On what he needs now: I’m looking for more sources of food, so if any of the readers work at a store or know of a store that might be interested in donating. I’m always looking for more volunteers. So people can email me about volunteering or if they work for a charity or know of a charity that would like to start receiving donations, they can contact me as well. Any little donations, little donations help. Even a couple of dollars. Yeah, gas is expensive.

You can volunteer with Food Stash Foundation, make a donation, donate food, or receive food if you work for a charity.

[a-dragons-journal]

So Let’s Talk About Werewolf Magick

So I recently reblogged a post showcasing a book titled Werewolf Magick, by Denny Sargent. I was curious, so I looked up some samples of the book, and then I was intrigued because it looked both interesting and promising (a rare combination for me these days when it comes to witchcraft books; I haven’t actually bought a new witchcraft book in probably years), so I went ahead and stopped by Barnes & Noble’s to check it out.

Long story short, I ate through the entire thing basically in one sitting, and I am fascinated by this book and will most definitely be trying some things from it out and potentially incorporating it into my Craft and/or my spirituality. Wanted to jot my thoughts down, and since this is a journaling blog, here we go. Be aware ahead of time that this is not so much a book review for the benefit of other people as it is a personal journal post about my own thoughts on what’s relevant to me specifically, though it will probably be helpful to anyone wondering if they should look into the book as well.

Some things up front for anyone thinking about buying it:

No, the book is not about physical shapeshifting; that was the first thing I checked for, so I thought I’d get it out of the way.

I wouldn’t by default recommend this book for someone totally, completely new to magic; the author definitely comes at it from the perspective that you already know some basics about magic, and having that under your belt will help you understand it. That being said, if this is the only thing you’re really interested in, you should be able to start with this book, but be ready to have to figure out a couple things as you go along.

Be aware that this book does talk about using sex/masturbation and sexual fluids in magic - it’s not a big focus, and it’s not explicitly detailed or anything at any point, but it’s present, especially in later chapters. If you’re underage and/or uncomfortable with that, this may not be the book for you.

It is very focused on wolves and werewolves, obviously, but I don’t actually think it would be that hard to modify for other species if you so desire.

And now my own loosely organized thoughts, under the cut for the sake of everyone’s dashboard.

The Genetics Thing

Probably the weakest point of this book, and the thing that annoyed me the most, I do wish the author would quit bringing up the genetics thing. He mentions a few times toward the start of the book that “humans share 85% of our DNA with canids and other wolves,” sometimes stating that that “genetic connection” helps with shapeshifting, which, like... a) stop trying to justify your metaphysical stuff with science when the science absolutely does not justify it, you’re just weakening your own credibility, just own up to the fact that it’s purely metaphysical, and b) we also share 50-60% of our DNA with bananas and something like 95% (off the top of my head) with chimps, but I don’t see you suggesting that we should become werebananas or werechimps. At one point there’s also a ritual where one visualizes going back through evolutionary ancestry, ending up at wolves, and I had to stop reading for a second bc like... dude, you understand that we are not in fact directly descended from canids, right?

That aside, as annoying as it is, it’s a pretty minor thing and only comes up a few times. Easily enough ignored.

Wildness, Wyrd, and Way

There’s an entire chapter dedicated to the cosmology and underlying principles behind werewolf magick, and part of that is the idea of Wildness, Wyrd, and Way, the underlying principles of it. Wildness is essentially exactly what it says on the tin, base nature and connection to the earth; Wyrd is the interconnection between all things as “embodied in every ecosystem,” the idea that you are not separate from every other thing; and Way is essentially borrowed from Taoism, understood here as to be without sense of self and to act without “knowing”, as “Fish do not “know” when to spawn, birds do not “know” when to migrate, and wolves do not “know” how to behave in a pack. It is just part of the Way.”

This is... really interesting to me as a set of paradigms, because it’s something that really appeals to me and that feels Right to me. Every time I go on a walk in nature it reminds me how much I need what this book calls Wildness to breathe, I have always believed in the interconnections between things this book calls Wyrd (and even longed for it to be more concrete than it is in this world, as it is in Eywa), and the idea of Way as following instinct and nature appeals to me as well (it reminds me somewhat of the Ways portrayed in Golden Treasure: The Great Green, where each animal has a Way or Good Way that it follows for good or ill, describing its behavior). Wildness, Wyrd, and Way is one of the things I may actually adopt formally, because it’s basically already there under different words, but I like how that set of words encapsulates the concepts.

Wolves and Dragons

So the book is entirely focused on wolves/werewolves, presumably because the author is one - he mentions now and again that people have shapeshifted into other animals as in shamanism, but stays focused on werewolves specifically. That being said, I don’t feel like it will be that hard to transfer the book’s ideas into Dragon instead of Wolf - slightly different noises, which are already instinctive to me and shouldn’t require all that much experimentation, different visualizations, slight changes to the wording, but the principles of werewolf magic should hold regardless of species. (It will probably be somewhat easier for me on account of also being an apex predator with a lot of mythos associated with my species, especially since the social aspects of wolfness aren’t really focused on here (which is a little strange, but makes sense considering most werewolves will be practicing alone rather than with a pack), but I don’t think it would be that difficult for a prey animal or a small predator or what have you to tailor the basic ideas to themselves.)

Wings are... perhaps going to be an issue. Going to have to make sure we don’t do any intensive shapeshifting rituals near any steep drops I could potentially do something stupid over while in the thrall of an intense shapeshift until I know how the rituals in question affect me and whether that would be safe.

Shapeshifting

Speaking of the shapeshifting rituals, I am really intrigued to see how that’ll go for me. I’ve never really had mental shifts in the way most people who have them describe them; I sometimes slide a little more feral, but I never lose my humanity in the process at all. The shapeshifting in this book is a combination of mental shift, intense visualization, and likely phantom shift; I have never really experienced the former, am relatively good at the latter but usually only in short bursts, and experience the last all the time in great vividity. I will be interested to see what the rituals in this book can induce with a little practice. Regardless, I do think this book has the potential to be very useful for therians and otherkin in connecting to their nonhuman side more and learning how to integrate humanity and nonhumanity.

As a side note, I do also appreciate that he doesn’t use psychoactive substances in his shapeshifting salves and offers alternatives, as someone who isn’t comfortable using those myself.

The Werewolf Gods and Spirits

The book espouses four main gods and spirits, or maybe categories thereof (the author seems to be into the “gods have been called by many names and taken many forms but they’re still the same entity underneath” idea, which I have moved away from, but I get the idea that for general usage, you can kind of tailor these to your beliefs) - the Lord of the Forest (who can be seen as a wild god like Pan, Herne, or Cernunnos, or as his own being), the Moon Goddess (including Selene, Artemis, and Hekate), Gaia/the Earth Mother, and the Wolf Spirit.

For me, these make sense more as their own beings than they do as the potential names he offers for them, since those are their own entities, so I think I will work under that framework for the time being - the Lord of the Forest, the Moon, and the Earth each as embodiments of those concepts. And... the Wolf Spirit.

The Wolf Spirit is kind of explained in two different but related ways in this book. First, it’s explained as a general spirit of wildness, of primal nature, that just takes the form of a wolf - which should reasonably apply to any species of were, one would think. Second, however, it’s explained as the collective power and egregore of all wolves (past, present, and future) - which, I get the vibe that this is more important and that the Lord of the Forest already covers the first part, and this does not, presumably, apply to anyone other than werewolves. There should, however, logically exist such a spirit for any species (and, indeed, the author talks briefly about having interacted with a Bear Spirit as well while under the instruction of a group of shamans).

Herein lies my problem: is there a Dragon Spirit that can reach me here, given that there are no physical dragons in this world? If there is one native to this place, would it be markedly different given that the dragons that exist here are spirit-beings without physical form? If there is a Dragon Spirit of my own world, and my gut tells me it’s a reasonable possibility, would it even be able to hear or reach me here?

I suppose the only way to find out is going to be to reach out and see if something answers. We’ll see how that goes, I guess. I do suspect I’ll have more luck if I can do the Calling the Wolf Spirit ritual in the book out in a park somewhere, but I also suspect I may not get the chance super easily, so we’ll see.

Doubles and Fetches

Not something I personally am interested in doing, but fascinating in the context of nonhumanity: the author talks about evoking your Animalself as a Double, an astral entity, and then being able to invoke it and treat it as a separate being in order to work with it. The author uses this technique to create a Fetch that can then be ridden in astral travel and/or used to protect and do tasks for you, essentially creating a familiar from your own Animalself, but I could easily extrapolate out a similar technique for conversing with your own kintype and learning from it - past knowledge if relevant, present wisdom, subconscious desires. We so often frown on the idea of viewing your kintype as separate from yourself in any way, but I could see this being an extremely useful technique for some people, even if I’m not sure I want to explore it personally - I’d be interested to see any results other people get.

So yeah, that’s my initial thoughts on Werewolf Magick. I will likely keep this blog updated on my adventures with it going forward, given that that is the entire idea of the blog, but I do recommend checking out the book to anyone who’s interested in the idea.

[mpanighetti]

Halloween Zero-to-Thirty Challenge Rating Challenge

October 3rd Prompt: Misunderstood Monster

Art by RedDrawn Art!

Special thanks to Alec for original concepts and lore for the werechimp and Asinius Avitus Scipio. References have been used with the creator's blessing.

Werechimp (Challenge 2)

Lore

Perhaps the least studied of lycanthropes, troganthropes tend to form tight-knit bands far away from human settlements to avoid persecution. Their societies are often found in dense jungles or tropical islands to help maintain their distance from society, and their interactions with humans are rare, often limited to the occasional wandering explorer or unfortunate shipwreck.

Asinius Avitus Scipio, self-proclaimed first-hand expert on this subject, has published multiple volumes full of spurious assertions about werechimps. In "Writing with One Arm: Tips for Limb-Lacking Mages and Interesting Applications of Mage Hand", he makes offhanded claims that werechimps have a prediliction toward severing and consuming the arms of humanoids they encounter, but the medical record has scant examples to offer in his support. By any reputable accounts, werechimps can be sociable people, though they prefer to keep to themselves. Most instances of troganthropic curses are accidental or provoked by human aggressors.

Characters as Werechimps. The Monster Manual has rules for characters afflicted with lycanthropy. The following text applies to werechimp characters specifically:

A character cursed with werechimp lycanthropy gains a Strength of 16 if their score isn’t already higher. Attack and damage rolls for the werechimp’s bite are based on whichever is higher of the character’s Strength and Dexterity.

Attributes

Medium humanoid (any race, shapechanger)

Armor Class: 12

Hit Points: 39 (6d8 + 12)

Speed: 30 ft. in humanoid form; 30 ft., climb 30 ft. in chimp and hybrid form

STR: 16 (+3)

DEX: 15 (+2)

CON: 15 (+2)

INT: 12 (+1)

WIS: 15 (+2)

CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Athletics +5, Intimidation +4, Perception +4

Senses: passive Perception 14

Languages: Common (can't speak in chimp form)

Challenge: 2 (450 XP)

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Special Traits

Pack Tactics. The werechimp has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the werechimp's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Actions

Multiattack (Human or Hybrid Form Only). The werechimp makes up to two attacks, only one of which can be a bite.

Bite (Chimp or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be cursed with werechimp lycanthropy.

Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage.

Stone Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage.

Change Shape. The werechimp polymorphs into a chimp–humanoid hybrid or into a chimp, or back into its true form, which is humanoid. Its statistics, other than its speed, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its humanoid form if it dies.

[id: monster stat block for werechimp, depicting a bipedal creature with the general build of a human, but with chimpanzee head, empty eyes, and elongated fur-covered arms]

[Original prompt]

[gatorbiscuit]

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I should never stream ever again as nothing I ever do will be more me than me turning into a werechimp.

[giftrash]

Morbidly symbolic scene the streets of Miami

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