#who takes between 3 and 10 calls per hour
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seraphtrevs · 6 months ago
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So many earplugs/headphobes/earbuds on the market boasting about how they make it easier to hear conversations, or how they can make it easier to listen to music. Like I appreciate that's a need many ppl have and I'm so happy there are so many earplugs that make hearing better, but surely there's a market for earplugs that BLOCK sounds and not make it easier to hear sounds. Just no sound! I would like zero sound please!
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nena0me · 2 months ago
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Commission Status: Open
    ✦   .  .   ˚ .      . ✦     ˚     . ★⋆.
   .     ˚ ✭    *     ✦   .  .   ✦ ˚      ˚ .˚     ✭ .  .   ˚ .             ✦
Hi, I'm Nena! (⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝) I'm a Brazilian freelance artist who likes to play DatingSim games… You'll probably see more about Touchstarved on my profile, but there may be other obsessions. If you contact me, use she/her.
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✦ About my Art
For some reference, visit my art tag> 「 ✦ Nena ✦ 」
Lineart: Only the lines of the drawing. Coloring any part with black will not change the price.
Flat Colors: Lineart with flat colors and only a few details (cheek color, sparkle in the eyes, shine in the hair)
Rendered: Complete illustration with colors, shading, lighting and lots of details!
Chibi: All chibi art will be fully colored, full body, and with some extra details.
Simple Character Design: Full body character (front only), with underwear and 1 more set of clothes! Comes with 3 different facial expressions of your choice.
YMH Touchstarved: I draw your Chibi MC with the LI(s) of your choice. The figure on the right is just a base, it can be changed according to the appearance of your character.
✦ Prices
The prices above are per character and background coloring (optional) only, if there are extras:
Extra character: 70% of the base price
Simple background: 10% ~ 30% of the base price
Complex details: 5% ~ 15% of the base price
✦ Size
Bust, Half body, Full body and Character Design: The base size is usually A5 (2039x2894, 350dpi), but it can be a little bigger or smaller, depending on the commission.
Chibi: about 900x800, but they can be bigger too.
✦ How do I commission you?
You should send an email to [email protected], with the title "Commission - your @", for better email organization. The email should contain all the references you can send, such as: poses, images of the character, clothes, details you would like to see in the illustration, etc. The commission request should be made only by email. The final file will be sent as a response to the request.
⭕: Simple backgrounds, Original and non-original characters, Suggestive/NSFW (only if you are of legal age, please), Blood, Kemono, Monsters (not complex) and other debatable categories.
❌: Complex backgrounds, Mecha, Furry, Gore or anything that makes me uncomfortable.
✦ Payment
Paypal (international)
Pix or NuBank bank transfer (national)
If possible, I would like to receive 100% in advance. Otherwise, 50% of the amount must be sent after confirmation of the commission (after sketch process) and the other 50% before sending the complete illustration. The drawing can be modified only while it is in sketch mode and any changes that come after this process will be charged extra!
✦ Commission turn around time
I usually vary a lot in hours and days, so it will depend on the complexity of the commission. On average, simpler and less colored drawings can take between 7~15 days, while more complex ones can take between 15~25 days. Chibis, even colored and rendered, take about 7~10 days, but if it is very detailed there may be a greater variation in days.
✦ What do I need to know to commission you? - Any and all commissions will be made for personal use only, commercial use is prohibited! However, feel free to use it to make a personal product, something like: print, keychain, etc… And show me, please! - Even if the commission is your request, the art is entirely mine, that is: it is prohibited to claim the art as yours. - Feel free to repost the art on other social media, but please be sure to give me credit! - Any unpleasant request may be denied. - Even if the commission request is made only via email, the conversation about the progress should be done through other social media, just call me and let me know that you commissioned me. - Ideally, I would like to publish your commission to showcase my work. If it is too personal and/or NSFW, it is your choice whether to post it or not. - When the commission is posted publicly, a watermark will be inserted so that it cannot be used by others. - Please do not remove the signature from my illustration. - If you plan to use AI with my art to "improve" it, please do not contact me.
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jeonsbabygirlsworld · 10 months ago
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DESIRE PT.2
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SUMMARY: Life was easy until you meet the eye candy of your life and the adventure with him is a hell of ride, but there is certain someone who seems to get hurt in this.
PAIRINGS: Bartender Yoongi X reader (ft Gynecologist Jungkook)
WORD COUNT: 1.8K
WARNINGS: Smut, reader is a flustered cause of course its Jungkook, eekkk Eunwoo is here as well! but he's here only for this chapter, that's it ig, Jungkook is Mia, but he soon will be here!!
SMUT WARNINGS: Doggy, blowjob, fingering, cum eating.
Note: this is inspired by a web series and I’m GONNA EDIT IT, I’m not gonna make it a whole ass 3 season containing 10-12 episodes per season and I felt like I could do something with this series. Thankyou
Work work work......
these past days it's been hell for you from the meetings and cracking up deals you were tired of it , but you still showed up every other day at the office. The interns and other employees did no good when they were asked to fill up your place when you were late for the office.
What kept you alive between this constant hectic schedule was a shot of vodka to wash down all the stress at your and the girl's favourite bar, you guys would spend the almost whole night until it was Yoongi telling you it was time to close the bar for the day.
Just like any other Friday night, you were here with your girls chatting about all the stuff which happened this week and they try to console you saying it's all right and you will pass through it, both of the girls then reach over to give you a warm hug.
Spending a few hours with them Chae gets a call from her husband telling her that he desperately needs help with the 3-year-old. “I'm sorry guys I have to leave, Yu-Jin seems to have a fever and she needs me” Chae says grabbing her purse and getting ready to leave.
Telling Chae a very goodbye and telling her to take care, Yuna is the next one to leave after she gets a call from her girlfriend, she hesitates to look at you, and you tell her it is fine and she can leave, she initiated a small hug and presses kiss on your forehead before she apologizes again.
Feeling alone in this busy bar, you see a busy Yoongi serving drinks on the countertop with Taehyung right beside him, maybe he saw you staring at him so you wave your hand and ask him if it's okay if you can come and sit there, he says he's more than happy to have you there.
"Hey, miss how are you? doing okay?" Yoongi asks before serving the last customer for the time being and telling Taehyung to look after them, "I'm okay I guess work is killing me, the meetings and the deals and whatnot is what I'm bored of you tell me?" Sighing you wait for him to answer, and he chuckles and says he's completely fine.
Yoongi places two glasses in front of you one for him and the other one for you of course, pouring in some of your favourite Japanese malts you chug it down with a “Cheers” Groaning at the taste he brings up some fries on the side and you thank him for being considerate.
"I'm bored yoongi, I wanna go on a trip or something." The tipsy you come out of you, and you slur occasionally while speaking “Calm down y/n, it's enough shall I call a cab for you?” Ever so sweet Yoongi asks you just because you are out of it after having the shots you had with the girls and the three glasses of malt with yoongi.
Yoongi soon books a cab and tells the man to drop you at the place, you reach your home soon after the fifteen minutes of the ride just to see your ex- fuck buddy right outside your house.
���Eunwoo? What the fuck? when did you come back?” Your mood instantly lights up after seeing him after so long and all the tipsiness goes away. “Hey y/n, I landed a few hours ago and thought of visiting you first and right when I was about to call you, here you were” He says with a bright smile.
You intended to initiate “Just a hug” but you don't know how he is under the sheets right now eating you out like a hungry man, “fuck right there woo” you moan and reach a good orgasm after a long time, your vibrator did no good until you felt a tongue or fingers or even someone's dick at this point.
Upon reaching your orgasm the man between you now hovers above you with his lips drenched in your release, and grabs on his hard length and positions right where your hole clenches, the release makes the slide just perfect for him to slide inside you and a moan tremble from his lips.
“Yeah perfect, keep going,”you say and grab on the small wisps of hair on the back of his head, and he grunts at the tight fit making him almost “relax angel, I promise I'll be good just please....”soft moans leave his mouth and both cum at the same time.
After a few minutes, Eunwoo lays on the side of your bed and talks to you until an awkward silence fills in and you call his name softly “Eunwoo...” sighing he gets up and leaves the bed and soon goes to grab his clothes and place a last kiss on your cheeks before telling you goodbye.
You sigh feeling bad for telling him to go but yeah you were always like this, and he knows it well just like that waking up from the bed you grab on the new sheets to change and place soft pillows all over your big bed and go back to sleep peacefully.
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THE NEXT MORNING
“Hey hi! I'd like to order a butter croissant and black coffee” You get the cash ready and tell the counter women to take your order, not realizing you hear someone calling your full name and when you turn around to see it no one then "Mr. jeon your gynaecologist."
With a flustered smile, you tell him a quick "hi" before paying her the bill and getting off the line, you didn't expect him to get off the line with you, in a flustered state you ask him if he lives here and all the stuff and grab your order just to tell her she can pack this as a takeaway.
Rolling her eyes she packs up the drink and food and gives you the bag while Jungkook just gives you a crooked smile and walks out “Hey by the way I got my period last week” you tell him, and it gets more than awkward it was earlier.
“Oh, that's great, good to see you” Jungkook says, and you wave a quick bye when you get a call from your coworker and leave the place Jungkook stands there, and a smirk paints his lips.
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This is the fourth time you are pissed at your coworker today; they fucked up the most important file “Can you at least get me a copy of the papers?” you ask again getting disappointed again “Sorry ma'am I didn't get the photocopies of it” Your intern says and you just sigh.
“Okay maybe try searching the file again, and if not I'll contact the clients and tell them to send the original copies,” you tell and dismiss the meeting, at this point, you need nothing more than a cold martini.
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“Can you believe Chae, they misplaced the fucking file, I'm glad they weren't the original or else I would've been fucked” you say very much pissed at the events which happened today, while Chae and Yuna just sip on their drinks after trying to calm you down.
“Chill baby, everything's going to be fine you need to calm down y/n” your friends tell you and you just sigh, you long for nothing more but a break from this bullshit, paying up for the drinks today you say goodbye to your friends and go ahead to meet yoongi, who is the position of cleaning up for the day.
“Hey, how are you y/n?” Yoongi asks in a very yoongi manner his front teeth appearing when he talks to you, and you tell him all the events happening with you while he places two glasses of whiskey in front of you.
You don't even notice it is past one a.m. until Eunwoo texts you.
EUNWOO🫣🫣: hey, you up?
YOU: busy right now.
YOU: rain check?
"Another glass?" you ask him after chugging down the remaining glass while Yoongi hesitates and tells you he needs to stock up for a party which is happening tomorrow, you give him an embarrassed smile and tell him it is fine, and you will leave Yoongi feels equally embarrassed to cut you off for the night.
YOU: Free now, will be in 15 mins.
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"Fuck right there" you moan at your ex- fuck buddy who is fucking you like a slut, your face down facing the sheets while he hammers from the back, his moans and grunts fill the room, and the room smells of sex and sweat.
"Fuck baby, you are so tight, missed me while I was away, right?" Eunwoo mutters while thrusting inside you and you choke on your moans and manage to mumble a small "yes" clenching on the sheets you cry for more, you needed this after a long day at work.
"Gonna cum.....ye-ah right there" you shutter at one point when he finds your g -spot, the slapping of his hips fastens just when you cum and cream his cock, and the man behind you slows and pulls out a bit just to see the creamy slick forming at the base, "fuck so messy y/n," Eunwoo says while he fills you up with his hot cum.
"On your back baby," he says, and you obey at lightning speed and your eyes shut at the moment when he nibbles on your pebbled nipples, you twitch at the feeling until you moan out loud when his thumb rubs on your clit and his index finger enters you.
Your pussy gushes out the mixture of both of your releases and messes up the sheets under you, Eunwoo continues to slurp and nibble your nipples while you whine at the overstimulation and fall apart on his fingers again for the second time in the night.
"lay down wanna suck you off real good" you whisper and kiss his lips in the heat of the moment, now that you are in between his thighs you start laying some soft kisses all over the tip and he whines at the sensitivity.
The taste of your releases still lingers on his tip, and you whimper at the taste, sucking on the tip Eunwoo above you is about to lose on for the second time, his soft grunts surrounded the room as you palmed and layed soft kisses on his balls.
The tightness of the grip he has on your hair ensures you that he is about to cum and increase your pace in palming him and you soon let him cum in your mouth and you swallow like a good girl you were.
You don't know why you let Eunwoo stay even after it was ruled to never let any fuck buddy stay at your house after fucking but here you are in his embrace and cuddling him.
A/N: Thank you for the reading ik it is confusing not Appeling ending or the whole chapter I'm sry but I'll do better. tag list is open.
TAGLLIST: @jungk97kwife @kingofbodyrolls @kimmingyuswifee @heyyymin @cassies-cookies @missnea @kooklovee @lovkiss @jungkooktoespost @jalexad @gimeow @lillove7 @marvelbun @namelesskeid @tyche0119 @gbbhbc123 @whoa-jo @holybxba @bangtans-momma @gdjyho @kpopsmutty69
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macgyvermedical · 4 months ago
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Let's Talk ESRD and Dialysis
Have you thanked your kidneys today? Do you feel grateful when you pee? How about when you eat a little too much potassium or drink a little too much water, do you really enjoy feeling confident that your kidneys will just dispose of the excess?
If so, you probably know the alternative.
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About 10% of the world's population has a condition called Chronic Kidney Disease, or CKD. About 2 million of those people are in End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and require dialysis or a kidney transplant to live.
Your kidneys are amazing things. They are two organs that sit outside of the sac that hold the rest of the abdominal organs, called the peritoneum. They take in blood from the body, determine the levels of electrolytes, water, and waste products in that blood, and remove the waste products and excess electrolytes and water.
They also have secondary tasks. They monitor the amount of red blood cells in your blood and send out hormones that entice the bone marrow to make more when we're low. They also monitor blood pressure and release hormones that raise that blood pressure when it gets low.
Lots of things can hurt the kidneys. For example, poorly controlled high blood pressure and poorly controlled diabetes are among the top reasons why kidneys fail. Additionally, being dehydrated while engaging in strenuous exercise or taking medications like ibuprofen or naproxen (any NSAIDs) can cause kidney damage.
We measure how well the kidneys are working via the Glomerular Filtration Rate, or GFR. This is a measure of (essentially) how much blood in milliliters the kidneys filter per minute. 90 or higher is normal, while a GFR of 15 or lower is considered ESRD.
So let's say someone has a GFR of less than 15 and the decision is made to start them on dialysis and put them on the kidney transplant list. What options do they have?
Well, they need to figure out if they want to do hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.
In hemodialysis, the patient is hooked up to a machine that runs their blood across a special membrane. On the other side of the membrane, a solution called dialysate draws excess water, electrolytes, and waste products from the blood. Hemodialysis is usually done at a dialysis center for 3-5 hours, 3 times per week.
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Hemodialysis is better for patients who have either failed home peritoneal dialysis or can't or aren't comfortable with doing the technical part of the job by themself at home. There is also a social component, where dialysis is a chance to meet and interact with other people who are going through the same things they are.
People who undergo hemodialysis have to have some kind of "access", or a way for the blood to come out of their body, go through a machine, and go back into their body. For some people, this is a dialysis catheter that is inserted into the person's chest and looks like this:
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It can also be a fistula. A fistula is the surgical connection between a vein and an artery in the arm or leg. Over time, this connection becomes large and rubbery, and each time dialysis is done, two needles (one to remove blood, and one to return it) are placed in the fistula. A fistula often looks like this:
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In peritoneal dialysis, the patient instills the dialysate directly into the sac that holds their abdominal organs. The sac itself acts as the membrane, and dialysate draws the electrolytes, water, and waste directly through the sac wall. They then wait a certain number of hours, and drain the dialysate. This can be done manually by the patient during the day, or at night while the patient sleeps with a machine called an automatic cycler. Usually peritoneal dialysis is done every day, with 2-4 cycles of 4 hours per cycle.
People using peritoneal dialysis also need a form of access, but instead of it being to their blood stream, it is to their peritoneum. Here's what that looks like:
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The catheter is placed surgically into the peritoneum, and stays there all the time, even in between dialysis sessions.
Someone using peritoneal dialysis has to be very careful when they are accessing their dialysis catheter. This is because the biggest problem with peritoneal dialysis is the risk of a life threatening infection called peritonitis. Someone who gets peritonitis too many times may need to switch to hemodialysis.
Here is what a manual exchange looks ilke:
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Someone may choose to do peritoneal dialysis over hemodialysis because it affords more freedom to keep a job or do daily tasks like keeping house. People who do PD also don't have to find rides to the dialysis center. However, they do have to take on more of the responsibility for making sure they do treatments correctly and be able to keep accurate records of the treatments they give themselves. Peritoneal dialysis also tends to be less taxing on the body, and have fewer side effects than hemodialysis when done correctly.
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girlactionfigure · 5 months ago
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⚠️ SATURDAY after Shabbat - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime
( after Shabbat summary report #3 )
📌 HEZBOLLAH ROCKET ATTACK kills 11+ children, ages 10-20, critically and seriously injured: 34+ mostly children, in Majdal Shams - north Golan Druze city.
.. IDF Spox: "All the murdered are children. (Number increased to 11)  According to the investigation, it was a single rocket that was launched and the warning was too short.”
.. Among the dead are four brothers from the same family.
.. (Really?) The UN Force in Lebanon UNIFIL: "We are in contact with the authorities in Lebanon and Israel regarding the incident in Majdal Shams, in an effort to keep the peace.”
🔹DRUZE STATEMENT.. The head of the Druze community, Sheikh Mwapak Trif (sorry if error in name translation): "We are in great shock at the terrible massacre in this brutal terror attack. A functional country cannot allow continued harm to its citizens. It crosses every possible red and black line.”
🔹ARAB MEDIA.. Lebanese media emphasize that in Israel there is "significant incitement" among senior Israeli officials regarding a powerful response against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
🔹PM.. to depart US basically as quick as can be organized with the delegation, within a few hours.
🔹LEBANESE DRUZE demand an investigation.. Wiam Vahab, the Druze-Lebanese politician who is considered close to Hezbollah, tweeted incisively: "Our blood is not cheap, we demand an independent investigation.  There are 200,000 Druze in Lebanon.
🔹US SAYS.. American officials to Israeli media: The Biden administration is very concerned that what happened in Majdal Shams in the Golan will lead to an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
▪️PROTESTS - ANTI-GOVT.. large Tel Aviv Kaplan protest - “elections now, free the hostages now”.  Large but smaller than previous weeks.
🩸BLOOD DONATION REQUEST.. MDA says over 100 units of blood used for injured in the attack, calls for blood donations.  Here’s where (change the date to tomorrow) -> https://www.mdais.org/blood-donation
♦️Report in Lebanon IDF Air Force began an intense wave of flights over Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli. (???)
♦️IDF AIRSTRIKE on Shabbat in Balata, Shechem, Samaria.  Terror cell hit, commander killed.  During further battles, 2 terrorists eliminated, 21 wounded.
⭕ JENIN.. Shooting by terrorists at the Al-Jalama checkpoint, north of the city of Jenin, on Shabbat day.  Then shooting at Israeli town of Shaker, across the green line.
🔅EMERGENCY PREP - THE BASICS
🔅via ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime
A number of people responded to a few scary-ish articles “well what am I supposed to do?”
Basic preparation:
.. Drinking water.  Buy some bottled water, 9 liters per person.
.. Washing / flushing water.  Have a few buckets  or a bunch of used water bottles, to wash or flush with - fill buckets when emergency starts.
.. Medicine.  If you take chronic medicine (every day), take the 3 month supply from your Kupah.
.. Money.  Have cash on hand in case ATM’s and credit cards aren’t working.
.. Food.  Canned, dry, etc, supplies on hand for a week.  Baby food? Formula? Special nutrition? Pet food?
.. Light.  Flash lights, candles. 
.. Shelter.  Make sure it is ready.
More here -> Supplies and Equipment for Emergencies.  https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15903-en/pakar.aspx
❗️EMERGENCY PLANNING
Links to prepare for greater conflict.  Note many of the links work on in Israel, to view from outside use a VPN (special app or program that lets you appear somewhere else on the internet).
.. Preparing your home for an emergency.  https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15902-en/Pakar.aspx
.. Help Prep your Neighborhood and Family Elderly.  https://www.oref.org.il/12550-20999-en/pakar.aspx
.. Know the Emergency numbers:
Police 100 emergency, 110 non-urgent situation
Ambulance 101
Medics 1221
Fire 102
Electric Company 103
Home Front Command 104
City Hotline 106
Senior Citizen Hotline *8840
Social Services Hotline 118
Cyber (hack) Hotline 119
🔸 MENTAL HEALTH HOTLINES, in case you are freaking out:
.. in English : Tikva Helpline by KeepOlim, call if you are struggling!  074-775-1433.
.. in Hebrew : Eran Emotional Support Line - 1201 or chat via eran.org.il
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fishmech · 7 months ago
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It's just like, damn man communication and getting info cost so much around 2000.
You wanna look up some information on the phone so you can call someone that isn't in your phone book? That's like $4 in modern money.
You wanna call your aunt who lives a couple of states away and you're not paying the extra monthly landline cost for unlimited long distance? $15 in modern money for a 10 minute call in daytime hours, still like $3 nights and weekends, and these are both like "you got a pretty good deal" cases. Worse for most people.
OK so you just want to call your buddy who moved like 25 miles away? Maybe it's free cuz you lucked into still being in the same local call zone, but maybe you're still paying $3 in modern money for a 10 minute conversation because you managed to hit through two long distance zones. Especially if you're on opposite sides of a metro area or something. And if he had a cell phone you were calling, it might mean you paid even more because it registered as a further call.
But that's landline, let's say you were going cell. You might be paying the equivalent of $50 a month in modern money for 120 minutes of call time and no included texting. This service would likely charge you extra for "roaming", that is being out of your designated home calling area, as well as exceeding 120 minutes of talk time (and you would be billed a full minute minimum for any call that connected, mind), and texting once might be 75¢ in modern money on a cheaper provider, as much as $2 modern on others. Your excess call minutes might cost between 50¢ and $3 in modern money per minute and roaming calls would cost similar amounts even when you were within your plan. And on such a plan there was no cell data service so it would be an addon around $5 a month in modern money to have it at all - and prices of between 35¢ up to $5 in modern money per kilobyte transferred. Even if you were using strictly plain text that piled up quick.
You could of course move up to significantly more expensive plans per month in fixed costs to have much bigger pools of call minutes, freedom from roaming charges texts, and data. And to have significantly cheaper per-unit overage charges if you exceeded those. But that would quickly take your bill beyond $100, even $200 a month in modern money for a single line.
And of course if you wanted a couple songs from favorite singer? You ain't streaming it on a cheap monthly plan or likely even paying individually: your ass is paying nearly $38 in modern money for the whole album on CD, maybe $23 in modern money if you got a good sale price. And the artists still got a fraction of a penny off it cuz music royalties have been fucked forever. (of course you could pirate it probably... If you had internet service, if it was fast enough, if you could afford it for generally $36 a month in modern money for slow dialup, often much more if you had broadband available at all)
You wanna watch TV shows? Well like now you could watch the over the air stations for free. With tons of ads on the non-public stations ofc. But this is generally pre digital so there's much fewer stations on the air.
Or you could pay around $85 modern a month to get a pretty decent cable or satellite package and well you know, hope the time the shows you like line up with your schedule and of course it's full of ads too. Maybe you will setup a vcr or DVD recorder to catch what you couldn't be around for, and if you're not willing to wipe your old recording then you're going to need to drop serious cash to have fresh tapes and rewritable DVDs to keep that stuff around.
You want the higher end cable/satellite stuff? Well HBO alone back then was like $28 in modern money for a month on top of the rest of your bill - and most other similar no-ads premium channels were similar.
And let's not forget that this was still a time where getting official copies of shows on any kind of media often just Didn't Happen. Or they'd do it but they'd only put out random single episodes, maybe one full season on a multi season show. You might easily pay $26 in modern money for two half hour episodes or one full hour episode on a tape or DVD. Maybe you'd get lucky and instead be buying a whole season set for $75 in modern money, admittedly a much cheaper price per episode. Otherwise though, it's record it yourself in often pretty bad quality or trading and copying recordings from other people who liked that thing, if you got in touch with any.
And on-demand cable/satellite was just getting started and often required upgrading to a higher package, including paying more to rent a higher end TV box, with miniscule libraries. And the pay per view costs were often like $5 modern to watch a single movie squished to fit your TV, sometimes up to $35 modern for "new releases". Similarly, typical rental store costs were in the ball park of $7.50 to $30 in modern money per item, depending on overnight versus all week and sometimes old release vs new release. That shit added up quick! And Late fees could easily double up or triple up in just a few days.
And of course newspapers and magazines and books all cost money. We generally expect most of these to have some at least limited amount of free access on demand today, whether it's the free few articles a month before the paywall or getting free access digitally through your library. But of course back then, that's no such thing. A lot of online versions of publications were strict pay only, others only posted summaries for free, and that's if you were even online. It may not sound so bad to shell out 65¢ to $2 in modern money for a newspaper issue, or $4-$15 in modern money an issue for various magazines, but you'd be buying them pretty often if you wanted to keep up with things in more detail than they got into on TV. Even if you subscribe and get that discount for everything in a year, that's like maybe $90 a year in modern money for a major city paper, or $70 to $150 in modern money for a magazine depending on its frequency and size and content.
Shits just so fucking easy and cheap these days for real. You want to call someone you don't think about distance charges or roaming, you just fucking call. If you're calling overseas you probably use some app or program on a computer to call for free. A text message does not cost more than sending actual mail, it's nothing. Even all those stupid streaming services, which I don't use personally, you can have like 5 of those damn things, have way more to watch for less than cable back then, let alone modern cable prices, and have somewhat more reliability in what will be available next month!
Even when you're stuck on something like a strict budget, using prepaid cell service with blocks of minutes now, like some Tracfone "I only can afford $15 a month" stuff? It's like shlt at least that's 500 minutes/texts/megabytes of data. Like you're still getting screwed but it's much less so than what you got for that 10 or 20 or 25 years ago, and a lot more places have wifi you can use to stretch your data usage out.
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prommethium · 2 years ago
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He said that he was craving Aztec soup.
Because he is my dad, of course I made it!!
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Now, I'm sharing just because I'm saving MY recipe here and for the ones who would like to eat some decent fucking Mexican food.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE 3 LITERS OF SOUP. 
6 big tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 big ass onion
2 chiles guajillo (dried mirasol)
2 chiles de guisar/ancho (dried Capsicum annuum)
120g of chile chipotle 
1 chicken leg (or just a chicken bone... any bone)
2 chicken breast
carrots to taste
potatoes to taste
Cucurbita to taste (that green veggie)
2 Avocados
Fresh cheese to taste (when I mean fresh, I mean; go and buy it from your local market, not the shit that has probably 6 months in a fridge, this needs a cheese that breaks once you slightly press it between your fingers) if you can't get it, use mozzarella.
15 tortillas (please use tortillas made of CORN, but if you don't have them... well then the dish you will prepare can't be called "Aztec," but hey, you have my permission to use bread or even those shitty nachos BUT YOU CAN'T USE DORITOS... or I'm personally chasing you over and murdering you.)  
Spices
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METODOLOGY!!
1) Bring half a liter of water to boil, turn the energy down (fire or ignition WHATEVER!), and add there the dried chilis (this will help them soften.) Leave them to rest. (just look how sad they look and how happy they turn after a nice hot bath 🥺✨ if you are weak and can't tolerate spicy food take away the seeds and the little veins, Omacatl is going to curse you without friends bc of your puny palate.)
2) In a pot, add 2 liters of water, add salt to taste, and put there the chicken; (as it cooks, take away all the foam.) Cook medium-high heat for 35 min.  
3) Cut the tomatoes and the onion into big chunks, and peel the garlic cloves (do it with your fingers pretend they are the eyes of your enemies and release some anger.) 
4) in a very hot comal (or if you are basic, in a nonstick pan,) put your tomatoes and onion to cook, DO NOT USE OIL!! just let them cook on a hot surface.
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k: omg!! they look burnt!! are you sure is that the right way???
c: STFU YOU WEAK HUMAN, THEY NEED TO LOOK LIKE THIS if they don't look like this you are doing it wrong; if you don't do it like this the nearest Mexican human corpse is going to haunt you down.
5) Take away the chicken from the broth, and put it in a bowl.
6) Take away from the jacuzzi those dried chilis and put them on the mixer, add the cloves of garlic, tomatoes, and onion you just cooked, the 120g of chipotle chilis, and now my fellas, dear colonizers reading this, pay attention, this is crutial THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT TASTE GOOD:
add a pinch of: 
salt, black pepper, cinnamon, powder of cilantro seeds, brown sugar, thyme, AND 3 PINCHES OF DELICIOUS GLORIOUS CARAWAY. Add a liter of water and mix it well, once looks as homogeneous as it can be, pour it into the chicken broth.
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Just look at how pretty that looks!!! That looks like decent food, that looks like something my ancestors would be proud of!!! *honestly I got some tears after tasting this, ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!!*
7) Use any method you like to make eatable those chunks of meat, I like to separate the meat with my hands.
8) Add the meat again to the chili-spicy/broth and add the minced veggies 
9) cook for 40 min, low heat.
10) Mince the coriander
11) If you are a cool decent human cut the tortillas into small rectangles and fry them until they are hard 🔥😏 2 to 3 tortillas per serving. If you are not cool use your shameful nachos. 
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12) TIME TO FUCKING SERVE AND TASTE THE FRUIT OF YOUR 3 HOURS OF WORK!! 
In a bowl, serve the meat and veggies, add some chili broth, put in the center your tortillas, around the tortillas the cheese, on top the minced coriander, and decorate with slices of avocado. 
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now that is decent food 😌🔥 you are very welcome.
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maia-and-ria · 3 months ago
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Maia Hasegawa Home Screen Lines
Credit to @/danieyells for the template
*I added a new type of voice line of my own at the end
** so many of these lines refer to Ria's voice lines and ofc a lot of these are a bit unhinged 😭
Hello: (the first time the game is opened after that character is set as home screen NPC. Only happens once per day, unless the character is switched out and back.)
"Well aren't you a busy bee. Go on, don't let me hold you back."
You've Got Mail: (whenever there's something in the inbox, usually Arena rewards)
"If you don't take them, the institute will."
Default: (requires no affinity, has no time constraints)
"Move, will you? My hands are full I don't wanna spill my coffee on you."
"... Shit I forgot the file in my room."
"I'm bored. Hey MC, wanna crash at Ria's bar?"
"I gotta go to another class, but I can walk you to yours if you want."
"Don't mind them. They're staring at me, not you. Why...? Who knows. They're not brave enough to confront me."
Affinity 1: (between 5am and 11am)
"Rise and shine and whatever corny stuff that comes after."
Affinity 2: (between 11am and 4pm)
"Let's go to HTH. Sho owes me a meal for beating him in the Pit last time."
Affinity 3: (between 4pm and 8pm)
"Seriously?! These dumbasses can't just be reckless as they please and expect me to bail them out every time."
Affinity 4: (between 8pm and 5am)
"The Pit is still loud, I'll walk you to the cathedral. Who knows what Alan might say if I keep you in here with me."
Affinity 5: (between 8pm and 5am)
"Who the fuck do you think you are to call me at this hour? Do you even know what work-life balance is?!"
((She's... clearly not a morning person sometimes...))
Affinity 6: (between 4pm and 8pm)
"The garage can really benefit from a good coffee machine. I'm sick of lining for a coffee every time I'm going out to work."
Affinity 7: (between 11am and 4pm)
"...Is that your ringtone, MC? What— (sigh) damn it. Ria's changed it without me knowing."
Affinity 8: (between 4pm and 8pm)
"I'm going to the casino, wanna come along? We're gambling this time, not drinking at Ria's."
Affinity 9: (between 8pm and 5am)
"Have you seen Professor Nicholas? I need him for something."
Affinity 10: (between 10pm and midnight)
"My 5th cup of coffee... my heart feels like exploding."
Affinity 11: (between 5am and 11am)
"Don’t talk to me. I didn't slept a wink last night."
Affinity 12: (between 11am and 4pm)
"Did you say you lost your key? I can help you kick the door open if you want — I'm kidding. Here's your key, you dropped it earlier.
Affinity 13: (between 4pm and 8pm)
"Where have I been? Jail. I have to get these pups to Alan. He's the one who decides their punishment."
((Pups = Vagastrom general students))
Affinity 14: (between 5am and 11am)
"What brings you here, MC? ... That mutt did? You know what, come with me, we're leaving the institute. I'm seriously disappointed that you would do what he asks."
((Mutt = Leo))
Affinity 15: (between 5am and 11am)
"Can't sleep? I can give you my last cigarette. Just don't tell Ria."
Affinity 16: (between 11am and 4pm)
"You’re curious about my left arm? We have to find some privacy if you really want to know."
Affinity 17: (between 10pm and midnight)
"... They denied my request again. The least they can do is fix that old house."
Affinity 18: (between 8pm and 5am)
"Same appearance... same description... just like what Ria told me. Heh– guess who's going to get behind bars soon."
Affinity 19: (between 10pm and midnight)
"I need to change the oil... Fuck it. I'll order a general student to do it tomorrow."
Affinity 20: (between 5am and 11am)
"What the fuck are these notifications... Are these thirst comme— KUROSAGI I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES YOU FUCKING MUTT!"
Affinity 21: (between 11am and 4pm)
"Be nice to Sho. Not all of us are strong enough to have that perv for a brother. Personally I'd slit my throat the second he welcome me into the world."
Affinity 22: (between 4pm and 8pm)
"I'm off to work. No goodbye kiss for your husband? Hahaha, I'm kidding. I was just copying the other cops."
Affinity 23: (between 8pm and 5am)
"Can you like... not sneak up on me? I don't want to accidentally judo-flip you to your God."
Affinity 24: (between 10pm and midnight)
"Hm? Blood...? Oh! Hahaha, it's not mine. Some criminal tried to avoid interrogation so I went for a little hunting game."
Affinity 25(max): (no time constraints)
"I don't know how you feel about a dirty cop like me, but should you ever need help when I'm not around, simply mention my name in front of those slackers. It'll strike fear in them knowing that you're with me."
((Slackers refer to cops below her rank))
Spring: (March-May)
(between 5am and 11am)
"Mm? (yawn) Get out. I'm not in the mood."
(between 11am and 4pm)
"These flowers? They're for Ria. It's her favorite that only blooms this season, and I just happened to pass by the shop. I got you some too, honor student. Hope you're not allergic."
(between 4pm and 8pm)
"I need to train the rookies tomorrow. Can't have them slacking off."
(between 8pm and 5am)
"My hair and cherry blossoms...? Yeah, pretty similar. It must be an insult to them to share a trait with me."
Summer: (June-August)
(between 5am and 11am)
"Don’t get too close. I just finished training and I'm way too sweaty."
(between 11am and 4pm)
"Can I borrow your hair tie, honor student? ...You want to help me tie it? That would be nice, thank you."
(between 4pm and 8pm)
"Great. Fucking great. Why can't people just enjoy their vacation and not do crime? Whoever says it's to create memories will be sentenced to death by my own hands."
(between 8pm and 5am)
"Shorter nights doesn't always mean lesser workload, huh... Fuuuuck."
Autumn: (September-November)
(between 5am and 11am)
"Spooky season huh... I'll dress up as a good cop this year. That'll scare the rookies."
(between 11am and 4pm)
"Have you ever gone bird hunting? You know, shooting real birds as they fly. No? Pack your things. We're going."
(between 4pm and 8pm)
"Do you need my jacket? The air is getting chilly lately."
(between 8pm and 5am)
"I bought you a drink. Make sure to drink while it's hot, alright?"
Winter: (December-February)
(between 5am and 11am)
"I wish they would stop saying that phrase from Game of Thrones. My mind would instantly picture Kamurai with his ice sword and I don't know what to feel about that."
(between 11am and 4pm)
"My hair feels so dry – the product Ria recommended is useless."
(between 4pm and 8pm)
"(Sneeze) ...Fuck. So sorry for that, MC."
(between 8pm and 5am)
"Winter is the perfect season for homicide— statistically speaking."
Her birthday: (July 29th)
"Fine, fine. I'll celebrate my birthday. Why do you seem so happy doing this? More happy than the birthday girl herself."
Your birthday:
"I've emptied today's schedule to celebrate your special day. Keep in mind that I let criminals loose for another day just for you. Unless you want to celebrate by hunting them down with me, of course."
New Years: (January 1st)
"Let's hope for a much, much lower crime rate this year."
Valentine's Day: (February 14th)
"...What do I do after receiving the chocolate? I've never had anyone giving me anything during Valentine. Do we like... kiss? On the cheek, maybe?"
White Day: (March 13th)
"Pink and yellow lilies. I hope they can cheer you up through tough times— and I hope they stand as a reminder that I'm on your beck and call whenever you need me."
April Fool's Day: (April 1st)
"Honor student, you have the right to remain silent— Pfft, you become so pale just from that? Wait... did you actually do something...?"
Halloween: (October 31st)
"Trick or treat! The trick is handcuffing you to me all day. Unless you're one of those people who see it as a treat..."
Christmas: (December 25th)
"I usually take most of the work during Christmas. I've decided to be a little selfish this year."
Idle: (about 20 seconds without interacting with the game) (below 13 affinity)
"I'm out. I have calls to make."
(13 affinity and above)
"A penny for your thought, or a bullet for your problem? I was joking. But that got me your attention."
Absent: (logging in for the first time in 2 or more days?)
"(Sigh) Another lost pup...? Don't waste my ti— Oh, it's you."
About others (opinion on other ghouls. asked by MC)
About Ria:
"If she fell into the depth of Tartarus, I'm falling down with her. It's nothing romantic, it's just that no creature would be sane enough to befriend her."
About Alan:
"His biggest mistake is letting that Kurosagi run things around as vice-captain. I guess as long as he keep that mutt in check, I can't really interfere much."
About Leo:
"I will bail any Vagastrom students out of jail without charge except for him. Hell– I would even put him behind bars myself. What, like it's hard? I can send you his police record on WickChat if you want."
About Sho:
"He's tolerable. I would have better opinion about him if only he's not Kurosagi's devoted follower. No offense. I like his cooking, though. And he can take a punch in the Pit."
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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 5 months ago
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This is my post for tonight's movie presentation at the D23 Expo, which I'll edit/update as the news comes out, and after I formulate thoughts and whatnot... I have already seen some of the stuff for ELIO and ZOOTOPIA 2 revealed earlier today and yesterday, and will integrate my thoughts into this.
10:23PM EST (Approx): Looks like MOANA 2 will be the focus of their first announcement tonight. A real 180 from the 2022 D23, where they saved all the animation stuff for the last half hour and breeeezed through it.
10:30 PM EST: Trailer drop. Promises epic adventure, more pig, a very natural kind of villain, and worldbuilding/expansion of this South Pacific setting. I dig, I dig. Looks very movie-caliber to me. If it was never said that this began life as a D+ show, I don't think most would see a difference.
10:35 EST: The Rock is involved with another Disney movie, a live-action called MONSTER JAM. About... Monster trucks. Documentary or picture that isn't a remake? No release date given.
10:37 EST: 'Kay, we're jumping right into the AVATAR movies now. From water to monster trucks to water... I guess we'll be jumping around a bit tonight.
10:42 EST: AVATAR 3 is AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Not THE SEED BEARER, as previously rumored. Hitting all the elements.
10:44 EST: Alright, Pixar time, what's a-cookin'?
10:46 EST: Kicking off with DREAM PRODUCTIONS, the INSIDE OUT Disney+ series that had been previously talked about in interviews. TBD 2025. Takes place between the two movies, so a little bridging of the gap.
10:48 EST: FINALLY! A WIN OR LOSE release date! December 6th!
10:50 EST: Trailer for WIN OR LOSE. Looks like a lot of fun, love the different animation styles for each players' perspectives.
TOY STORY 5 is being directed by Andrew Stanton after all. Concept art shows Woody, Buzz, and the gang all together, in Bonnie's room. She's playing with a tablet. Apparently the story about toys dealing with... Electronics. Smartphones and computers and tablets... Is this a midquel?
A bunch of malfunctioning Buzzes... 50 of them... Is the antagonist. Kinda dipping into the unmade Circle 7 TOY STORY 3 well for ideas, is we?
10:54 EST: Pixar original 2026 is called HOPPERS, starring Bobby Moynihan as a beaver. Not a movie about a clone army of the A BUG'S LIFE villain. Logo gives secret agent/spy vibes. Critter comedy meets action?
It's about a girl who switches brains with a beaver, while her town's mayor (voiced by Jon Hamm) threatens to destroy the beaver home... Love this. Wacky-sounding and perfectly Pixar.
10:58 EST: Zoe Saldanha is starring in ELIO, as the titular kid's aunt. The story doesn't sound much different from what the mid-2023 teaser promised...
The little girl is HOPPERS is putting her brain in a ROBOT beaver, correction. This stuff comes at you so fast. No director named, but I'm thinking it's Daniel Chong?
11:01 EST: INCREDIBLES 3... Whoaaaaaa.
HOPPERS is Daniel Chong's Pixar movie. Makes sense... Bears, now beavers...
Per INCREDIBLES 3... "Brad Bird is developing it right now." Directing? Writing? Producing?
Pixar presentation OVER. INCREDIBLES 3, I guess, will bow in 2027 or 2028.
11:05 PM EST: ZOOTOPIA 2 time. Ke Huy Quan voices a snake named Gary in the film. Reptiles, sea creatures, and more are now in the city.
11:09 PM EST: FROZEN III, 2027. Not 2026. FROZEN IV confirmed. Disney's "Four Seasons" quadrilogy, it seems.
Jennifer Lee says an original comes from WDAS in 2026... Doesn't say what... yet?
11:12 PM EST: Not announced at D23. Adrian Molina was removed as director from ELIO, it was taken over by Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian... More on this shocking development later.
11:15 PM EST: They're onto stage stuff now, musicals, etc. No word on the WDAS original slated for 2026. Surprised, but also not surprised. The furthest Pixars tend to get announced before the furthest WDAS movie... Still very shocked about ELIO, though. First director removal of Pete Docter's era... He said in an interview that Molina is still at Pixar and had been moved to a "priority project"... ELIO must've really hit a wall, or something's afoot...
Stay tooned...
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onslaughtsixdotcom · 1 year ago
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My Wilderness Hexcrawl Rules
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This post began life as an attempt to redesign the Ranger for 5e. I'm still going to do that, but it diverted to an explanation of my wilderness hexcrawl procedure, which I don't believe I've ever shared online in full.
I am on record as saying "exploration" is everything the players do that isn't talking to people or fighting monsters, but for the sake of this, we're going to focus on wilderness "exploration" and parts of the game that use that.
So to do that, we need to talk about what this looks like in my game and at my table. All overland travel in a dangerous area is on a 6 mile hex grid, and we engage in the "gritty realism" rest variant when we use it. This means a short rest is 8 hours overnight, and a long rest is every 7 days/short rests or if the party spends 24 hours within the same hex (which also puts them back on "normal" resting; unless, of course, they travel outside that hex again). Again, this is a "dangerous area," which is most of the parts of the world that adventure takes place in. If the players are travelling a long distance that isn't the focus of the adventure (for example, they travel weeks from the city of Dawnharbour to the city of Steelhaven) then that can be handwaved; they're sticking to roads and not worrying about it, because the Adventure is not The Travel.
When the party travels through hexes, we determine their planned route and weather. This determines how many hexes they can go through. The party can travel 24 miles per day through normal terrain, which equals 4 hexes; difficult terrain like swamps, deep forest or mountains may reduce this to 3 or even 2 hexes.
For each hex, the players roll what I call "Advancing d6s." This means they roll, in order: 1d6, 2d6, 3d6, and finally 4d6. This produces several results, between 1-6, 2-12, 3-18 and finally 4-24. This corresponds with this simple table:
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The d6 table is landmarks such as burial mounds, obelisks, etc. The d8 table is several encounters that are not necessarily combat related, such as a group of fake adventurers, a Peryton that attempts to capture a player, or a golden Fey steed appearing on the horizon. It also contains an entry called "Character Event," which is a series of encounters built around the PCs. (I'll go more into Character Events in a later post.) The d12 table is larger landmarks and mini-dungeons or lairs, including things like wild magic zones, dead magic zones, etc. Finally I have lists of combat encounters. Embphyrkhaksis is the BBEG of the campaign this particular table is taken from; an adult red dragon who can appear any time all four players roll 6s. (For each encounter with Embphyrkhaksis, I raise the threshold for him to abandon the encounter by 10hp; initially they just had to deal 10 damage to the dragon for him to flee, but after 4 or 5 encounters they need to do 40 or 50 damage for him to leave. Exciting!) I then arrange the encounters we rolled into the best narratively cohesive order, based on my judgement as a DM and my absolute, flawless, omniscient knowledge of what is Actually in the hexes ahead of them; I ignore results that are boring or have been used recently if there is a legitimate feature in a hex that I've previously determined. At a later time, I'll update this post with a formatted PDF of my table so you can alter it and make your own.
When the party spends the night in the wilderness, they need to set up watches. My rules assume a 4 person party using 2 hour watches. (Elves can take 2 watches and still gain the benefits of a short rest.) During a watch, they roll 1d6; on a 6, an encounter happens. The character makes a Perception check to see if they notice the encounter; this is contested against a DC equal to a passive stealth check made by the monster. (If there are multiple monsters, I use the monster with the highest bonus.) If they fail, they are Surprised, which can be really dangerous with 3/4 of the party still sleeping, outside of their armour. If they pass, the party member has the opportunity to wake up the other players and put on their armour. (Realistically, this takes 10 minutes, but the start of the encounter is a little abstracted in this case.)
This is the core of my wilderness overland travel system. It's easy to see, when it's laid out like this, that there are several "hooks" by which the Ranger can key into to make them feel very useful in this style of campaign.
Next time: We fix the Ranger.
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seacee16 · 1 year ago
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when petals fall | bangchan
bang chan x original female character
ch. warnings: mention of family death
prev chapter // next chapter
!! FULL STORY ON AO3 !!
ch. 10 ~ when the rain stops
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The dorm was quiet. Each kid was tucked away and asleep. Chan, as per usual, was the only one still awake. He had kept his promise to his fellow Aussie, coming home with the rest of them as soon as their schedule for the day had ended. He had taken a long, warm shower and spent a number of hours playing games with the kids before they all retired for the night. Now, he laid in bed with his closed laptop next to him and his phone next to his head.
He would have settled for an early sleep had it not been for the way his phone vibrated as soon as his eyes began to shut. The man turned to the screen, wondering who would be contacting him at that hour. Familiar smiling honey eyes stared back at him as her name flashed across the device, causing his face to lift in a tired grin.
“Petal,” Chan cooed happily as he answered the call. “To what do I owe the pleasure of an after-hours phone call from you?”
“…Chan?”
He froze. It took nothing more than his name on her tongue for Chan to know that something was wrong. It was the tone of her voice. The shake in her breath. The twist of her letters. His heart clenched in his chest as he lifted himself into a seated position on his bed, the sheet falling away from his bare chest.
“Sakura. What’s wrong?” He waited for her reply, growing more anxious with every second of silence that passed.
“Are you busy? I don’t want to bother you,” she finally said, no emotion to her words.
Chan was tumbling out of bed before she reached the end of her sentence, his free hand feeling around violently for the nearest sweater. With his phone tucked between his shoulder and ear, he rushed to throw on clothes.
“No, not busy at all. What do you need, petal?”
“Can I see you?” He heard it. Barely there, but loud as the rolling thunder. The crack in her voice when she asked for him. A hiccup followed shortly after.
“Where are you? The river?”
“Namhansanseong Fortress.”
Chan cursed under his breath. “Petal, what are you doing there?”
“Can I see you?” she pleaded a second time, not knowing that the male was already out the front door.
“Stay where you are. I’m on my way.”
<3      <3      <3
It wasn’t long before the cab pulled up at the familiar wall, the air cold and damp as if expecting rain. As if the sky would cry too. Chan hurried out of the car, not waiting to see it leave before taking off towards her location. His eyes searched for her, worried pants raking his chest. Chan felt his heart lurch beneath his ribs. He found her, a few feet off the ground walking along the top of the jagged fortress wall. She had both arms stretched out at her sides, and her lips pulled tight with utter focus. A breeze pushed the hair from her face, bringing his attention to the red rings around her eyes and the tint to her cheeks and nose. Her body tilted before fixing itself, arms tipping at each side of her frame.
“Sakura!”
The man ran towards her, watching as she spun towards the sound of his voice. All he could hear was the blood thumping violently in his ears as he rushed towards the her. Chan was only some meters away now. Her smile widened at the sight of him while one foot slipped forward on the stone. But before she could fall, Chan reached the wall, securing both arms around her waist before pulling her into his chest.
“Hi, Nemo,” Sakura giggled. Chan ignored the squeeze beneath his sternum at the sound of her laughter, focusing on the slur in her steps and the weight of her unsteady figure. Holding onto her upper arms, he let his gaze speed over her for any signs of a drunken fall, or any other pain.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” The girl shook her head frantically before another round of laughter bubbled up. Chan sighed.
"You're drunk, petal."
"And you, Christopher, are annoyingly sober," she shot back, a tilted smile gracing the span of her face. "Why is that?"
With a tired huff, he let go of her, walking towards the walk and sitting on its edge to catch his breath. He raked a hand through his hair, pushing the hood off his head in the process. "I don’t drink much, not the biggest fan of alcohol. Plus, people make the worst decisions when they're drunk."
"I’d beg to differ. I have never once made a bad drunk decision," she tells him proudly, a lopsided grin etched into her face. 
Chan snorted. "There's no way that’s true."
She feigned a serious expression, hands firmly on her hips. "I'm telling the truth,” she shot back through pouting lips. A hand raised to her heart. "Scouts honour."
"You're telling me that you make no stupid choices when you’re drunk? That the only thing a lack of sobriety makes you do is dance clumsily?" His comment earned him a flash of her pink tongue, followed by a small shrug of her shoulders. "Were you drunk that night too? When we met?"
Sakura shook her head. "Nope."
She clumsily hopped up onto the wall besides him. "Do you want to know what I think?" Chan responded with a tilt of his head, eager to hear her answer. Her heart stopped at the sight. She forced herself to shake off the feeling. "I think that people truly make the worst decisions when they're happy. When they feel like nothing could possibly break them. No amount of water can sober up a mind drunk on pure joy. And that, Christopher, is what gets us. Not alcohol, but happiness."
“Why are you drunk, Sakura?”
“Because, Christopher,” she said. “I am living through something that is too painful to experience sober.”
Chan looked at her, waiting patiently for Sakura to explain.
“The last two years weren’t the best for me. I lost my uncle, and then my grandmother. A few months later I said goodbye to another uncle…and then otōsan got really sick. It was unexpected. I thought it would pass. That he would come back from the hospital when he said he would. But he never did. 19 days and h-he was gone too. I-I haven’t exactly been handling the grief that well. My brother was never home, and my sister shut down. And okaasan…I had to be strong for her. For both of them. I buried myself in my studies until the feelings were so deep down that it could be easily ignored. But sometimes…sometimes it comes back.”
“Sakura,” he said in a sorrowful voice. She hated the tone. It made her skin itch, and her eyes sting. She hated the way her throat closed up at the sympathy laced into his tone.
“Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t say it like that.”
Chan brushed off the aggression and continued, “You’ve been through all that in just one year? How are you even managing?”
Sakura shrugged, a drunk giggle slipping from between her poison tinted lips.
“I don’t know, really. Physically, I feel fine. Great even. Mentally, I’m managing. And emotionally-well, I’ll cross that rickety old bridge when it begins to crumble beneath my feet, I guess.”
“Sakura,” he said again, his voice just above a whisper.
The sound of her name caused her to look at him, a smile still on her face, red from the alcohol running through her blood. A minute hiccup was heard, her head tilting to one side.
“You’re not okay, are you, petal?”
The accusation hit her like a wave of Arctic waters, her high spirits crashing down and disappearing with the foam. It was enough to sober her up, just enough that a crack formed in her façade. And Chan watched in silence as her entire being began to fracture right in front of him.
The first change was seen in her eyes. Bright beads of unpolished amber in the darkness, unable to meet his gaze. They fluttered around, trying to grasp onto anything in sight that could draw her attention away from the dreaded question. But her thoughts beat her to it, digging its talons into her mind and not letting go. And suddenly it was all she could think about. Her eyes misted over, and all she could do to stop the tears from forming was look up. At the stars. To where she knew he was. Then came her smile. The once vibrant bend straightened out, curving downwards as they began to quake. Her bottom lip was tugged between her teeth, leaving indents behind when released. Her throat bobbed as she choked down the noises she wanted to make, the cries she wanted to let out. Like every time before, she forced it down.
But Chan saw it all; knew that she was hurting so badly that she didn’t want to feel or think. That she didn’t want to breathe.
She reached down out of habit, her fingers curling around her own wrist tightly. “I don’t think I am, Chan.” And with a smile of cracks and whimpers, she let out a truthful answer. “It hurts. So much.”
“All this time, have you let anyone comfort you?” Ashamed, she shook her head, and Chan felt a large piece of his heart chip away.
Without warning, he took the remaining steps towards her and gathered Sakura up in his arms in one swift movement. His arms wrapped tightly around her body, as if he hoped to squeeze all the broken pieces of her soul back into one. One hand slid up into the hair at the back of her head, allowing her face to be hidden from sight. Protected from judgement. From the embarrassment she may feel from him seeing her cry. His cheek pressed against the side of her head, and all it took was one whisper for her walls to come crashing down around her.
“I’m here now, petal,” he whispered to the girl in his arms. “You can let go.”
The build-up was slow, but soon he could feel the tremors running through her body; could hear the sobs that tore from her lips.
“Why do they keep leaving me?” She sobbed into his chest, her words shredded by hiccups and pained cries. Each sound ripped through his heart. He tried to hold her tighter, to keep her closer. Chan wanted to give her every happy thought and precious memory and pray that it makes the hurt in her heart a little less. He wanted to beg before every celestial being until they took the pain from her life and rid the world of it entirely. He prayed on each tear that she shed. A prayer for better days and healed pasts. He wanted her to be okay.
But she wasn’t, and that was the reality he had to live. So, in that moment, he hugged her a little tighter and wished for her pain to morph into peace.
“You know,” she said in between tears, “there was this cat in our neighbourhood that my sister and I absolutely adored. He wasn’t a stray, he wore a collar, but he was always roaming around visiting the different houses. We started playing with him whenever he came by, and soon he started coming by daily. Otōsan hated it, didn’t want the cat around at all. But after a while, he started warming up to the small thing. He ended up loving the cat like it was our own.” The smile that had started to form on her face faltered. “According to my sister, the cat went missing recently.”
Chan wrapped an arm around her shoulders, tugging the girl as close to his body as possible. She nuzzled further into his side, hands clenching at her sides.
“Maybe I’m just cursed to lose everyone that I start to love.”
It took him less than a second to take her chin into his grasp and force her to look up at him. Her eyes were glossy, but they didn’t once waver while staring up at him. Honey covered in the clearest layer of ice. The arm that had been around her dropped, hand resting just above her hip instead. Sakura could feel the way the hand pressed to her side shook. However, when she looked at him, only calm was seen. No furrowed eyebrows. No clenched jaw. Just the same kind eyes and half smile that she had become so familiar with.
“You are not cursed,” he told her. They were simple words, but Sakura found believing them to be the real challenge. She had lost too many to think those words were true.
“Everyone I love has left me, Chan. What other explanation is there?”
“The stars are testing you. You just have to push through until the test is over.”
Sakura scoffed. “I’d rather be cursed.”
“Then I shall call you Rika.”
“What?”
He laughed gently, reveling in the look of confusing that had traded places with the sadness in her eyes. How I wish you knew, petal.
“At the end of the day, test or no test, cursed or not cursed, you still have your okaasan. Your siblings. Your friends.” Chan leaned in closer. His lips stopped a breath away from her own. “You still have me, petal.”
With that, he leaned up and pressed the gentlest kiss to her forehead. And like timid waves over stick strokes on the shore, Sakura felt the panic fade away. With his gentle hands still cradling her damp face, she felt the pad of his thumb glide over her cheek.
And when one corner of her lips finally twitched up in a hint of a smile, he couldn’t help but feel his heart swell in his chest.
“There’s my girl.”
“Do you remember when we met?” Sakura began. “You told me that I looked unbothered by the world, that my freedom enticed you so much that you couldn’t help but approach. This past year, being here in Seoul, was meant to be a time where I could find myself again. I was so lost after he died. I just gave up. The things I once loved became poison; I couldn’t go near a paintbrush for months. And that night was the first time in a year that I knew what I wanted to do with my near future.” She turned towards him, admiring the way his eyes stayed on her no matter how she shifted. She was all he saw. Only her. “That day, I submit an application to do a one-year postgraduate course at this university in Africa, and sending it in alone gave me such a rush. I laughed. There was nothing funny in sight but I just laughed. For once I was excited for my return home. For once I wasn’t worried about anything or anyone else. I was happy.”
“That’s why you were dancing?”
Sakura nodded, her head falling to lay on Chan’s shoulder.
“Would things have gone the way it did if you weren’t happy that night?” he asked, referring to himself and all of their interactions since that one night.
“I think I would have walked away. Or I may not have even been out there that night. But I was happy, and I was there, and so our paths crossed.”
“I’m glad it did,” he whispered honestly.
Her mouth opened to respond, but she stopped when Sakura felt a wet drop on her cheek. She had long stopped crying, her breathing slowly regaining its normal rhythm. The drop was too cold to be her own. Then she felt another, and it dawned on her. The clouds had thickened, the temperature dropping as the sky prepared to let go. And as she started to tell Chan her predictions, it started. Light, but quickly falling heavier on their heads.
“My car is this way,” she yelled over the rain, dragging him up and towards the parking lot nearby. They continued running, even as his hand slipped out of her own.
Slowly, his steps lost momentum until he was standing still in the downpour, staring after her. He watched as Sakura turned to look for him, surprise covering her face when she noticed the distance between them now. Her mouth moved, but her words fell mute to the sound of the heavy droplets falling around them. Chan didn’t know why, but he couldn’t look away. They were both near drenched and cold. Sakura’s hair was flattened against her head, curls of dark hair stuck to her cheeks and forehead. Her clothing clung to her frame. She looked a mess. And yet, he couldn’t look away. In that moment, Chan felt himself wishing. He watched as the rain fell and kissed her in a way that he yearned to. Hard. Continuously. Without an end in sight. He found himself longing for her the way a desert traveler craved for the water of an oasis; so close to the eyes, but so far from touch.
“Chan, let’s go!” He heard her voice through the rain, pulling him back to reality.
They reached the car, Sakura handing Chan her keys before getting into the passenger side. While the cold rain had aided in sobering her mind, she didn’t trust herself to drive. Luckily, the male didn’t seem to mind, pulling out of the lot as soon as the car was warm enough to keep their chills at bay for the period of the drive.
It was a quiet drive, and once they reached her building, Chan followed her up. He refused to leave without seeing that she was safely in her apartment. Praying that she hadn’t left the rooms in a state, Sakura punched in her code and entered.
He had already started to take a step away when Chan felt her grab onto his forearm, stopping him from leaving.
“You’ll get sick. Stay for a while. Just until you’re dry, or at least until your driver gets here,” she tried to convince him, nervous that the cold would cause him to fall sick during such a busy time.
Chan looked down at her, observing her. The way her eyes stayed on the area where she held onto him, fingers curling slightly in the wet material of his sleeve. And when her gaze lifted to meet his, he knew that there was no way he would ever be able to say no to her. Fuck, those eyes. He was nodding before the action even registered in his brain, caving at the first sight of her victorious smile.
“We don’t have a working drier right now, but I’ll grab you a towel in the meantime.”
So, he let her drag him back into the depths of her apartment until he found himself in the living room area. A long white couch covered the length of the wall to his left, an array of abstract paintings hanging above it. Chan could just make out the golden ‘S’ in the bottom corner of the largest piece, recognising it from the canvases scattered around Sakura’s art class. A horizontal cabinet of equal colour to the couch sat along the opposite wall. Photo frames and the rare succulent littered its top, a television seated at the very centre.
In his blind admiration of the room, Chan hadn’t noticed that Sakura had disappeared for a moment, only to reappear with a fluffy blue towel big enough to wrap around his shoulders. The girl lazily tossed it over his head before retreating to her room to change. Chan huffed, pulling the towel off his head with a boyish pout. He attempted to dry his pants first. When it was as dry as he could get it to be with the towel alone, Chan moved on to his sweatshirt.
A door opened, and Chan looked up to see Sakura exiting a room wearing lilac hoodie and matching sweatpants; a green clip keeping her damp hair in place at the back of her head. In her hands sat a bundle of black.
“Here, it’s clean.”
Upon closer inspection, Chan recognized it as his own hoodie. The one he had given her when they were on the company rooftop.
“Is this-“
But she had already turned away, promising not to look as she headed towards the small kitchen on the other side of the open space. There, she busied herself with the few dishes that had been left to dry besides the sink after that morning’s breakfast. Sakura kept her eyes on the glass bowl in her hands, focusing on returning every item of cutlery and crockery to its respective homes. Focusing on wiping down the granite countertops until they were spotless. Definitely not focusing on the fact that the boy that made her heart burn was potentially shirtless right behind her. She dropped the rag in her hands, reaching up in an attempt to cool her slowly heating face.
An awkward cough was heard behind her, some vague signal that it was all clear. Sakura let out a breath. Safe at last.
When the last of the misplaced items had been stashed away, Sakura turned her attention back to the lounge, only to spot her guest sitting on the ground on the farthest side of the room. Chan had the towel laid out beneath him, back against the extended bit of wall as he stared out at the mourning sky.
“You’re on the floor,” she stated, grabbing her own towel off a nearby chair.
Chan looked up at her innocently, eyes wide and honest. “I was afraid the water would ruin your couch.”
“Your hair is still dripping, Nemo,” Sakura teased, watching as panic flashed through his eyes. He rushed to push the damp hair out of his face, stray droplets flying as he pulled his hood up and over his head with a quick apology.
“Don’t do that, you’ll-Forget it, come here.” The boy’s movements paused, eyes lifting to meet hers. She back tracked to the kitchen table, knowing he would refuse any instruction to sit on the couch. So again, she looked at him, calling him over until she saw him stand hesitantly.
“Sit,” she instructed, eyes flickering down to the open seat.
And he listened. Chan let himself sink down into the seat, hands tucked away in the pocket of his hoodie as he stared up at her waiting. Tense. It was only when Sakura placed her own towel over his head that he seemed to acknowledge what she was doing and relaxed. With careful hands, she patted the water out of his hair in slow motions, trying her best not to accidentally tug too hard.
“I feel like a little kid,” she heard him mumble from beneath the towel, a laugh following his words.
“You look like a little kid,” Sakura responded, yelping when she felt a pinch at her waist.
So, in a true mature response, she pulled on his hair. Hard. Only he didn’t react in the way she had expected. No pinch or shout or taunt. No. Chan’s head fell back, the towel flapping open and exposing his face to her gaze. Her stared up at her, eyes wide and lips parted, shock written all over his face. Shock – and something else? Sakura felt her body heat up at the thought. Her hand was still locked in his hair, tangled in the web of dark curls that stuck to her digits. She was lost. And when she felt his hands creep up to rest on the curves of her hips, she knew there was no hope in finding a way back from where they were.
Sakura blinked, breaking all eye contact and tension to say, “Your hair is all curly.”
He chuckled; hands still firmly pressed against her sides, thumbing her waist through the material of the soft hoodie that she wore. “It gets like that when its wet.”
Chan pulled her closer so that she stood between his knees. She didn’t stop him. Instead, Sakura curled a lock of his hair around her index finger. “I like it.”
I like you.
“Yeah?” Sakura nodded, watching the locks bounce back into place as she soaked up more water. Once it was no longer dripping, Sakura gave him the okay, but the man went right back to his spot on the floor. She rolled her eyes, but followed him, lowering herself until she was seated on the floor opposite him. His focus stayed on the rain outside. Sakura rests her chin on her raised knees, wrapping both arms around her legs. She stares at him, eyes shining with curiosity in the dim light.
“What’s going on in that brain of yours, Nemo?”
Chan sat silently; eyes cast to the outside world as he wondered. He found himself thinking back to the night she had come to his aid, cradling his face in her small hands as he trembled. She had been there for him. Give me the weight of your sky, she had said. Please, she had pleaded. He snuck a glance at the girl sitting opposite him, waiting patiently for his response. One look into her eyes, and suddenly, he was passing a cloud-covered sky into her outstretched palms.
“You were right,” he admitted, immediately feeling the weight lift from his chest. He inhaled with ease, eyes finding the cars passing below them. “I need to learn to allow the kids to help me. I know what they do in secret, how they disguise their help by asking me for help, because they know well that I would never turn them down.”
 
“Hyung, I know you’re busy, but that I’m at the company gym and I really need your help. None of the instructors are here to spot me and lord knows Seungmin’s arms would snap if he even tried to help with this amount of weight on the bar. Think you could come down and help me out, just for an hour?”
 
“Hyung, would you help me make dinner tonight? Felix really wants brisket and I need an extra set of hands that I know won’t get in the way of my mastery.”
 
“Chan-hyung, would you mind sitting still for a little longer? I want to practice drawing people, and the others keep moving around when I try. Please, hyung? I won’t take too long. Just this once? Thank you!”
 
“But it’s not just the kids, everyone else looks to me for strength too. I do those weekly lives for them, so that our Stays, or anyone really, have one hour of peace to look forward to at the end of every chaotic week. They have something safe to be excited about, a reason to make it to Sunday,” he told her. Chan leaned his temple against the glass, closing his eyes.
As he spoke, Sakura listened intently with an open mind, and content heart. After helping so many, he was allowing someone to help him.
“There’s this constant pressure of being who they think I am. This perfect, smiling leader who they can rely on to always be there. And that’s what I want to be, don’t get me wrong. But,” he pauses. “But I’m human too. I fall and I break and I have days when getting out of bed seems impossible, and sometimes even I need the Chan that they depend on so wholly.”
He let out a tired sigh. “It’s hard being human, when the person they believe me to be…isn’t.”
“Me saying this is in no way meant to invalidate what you’re feeling,” Sakura started, wanting to get her thoughts across clearly. “But I can assure you that they know you’re human. They may know it more than you yourself do, Chan. Why do you think they – we – pester you about getting enough sleep? Why at least once every live, someone asks if you’ve eaten, or how you are? Your life is a double-edged sword. I know it’s not ideal to have your life’s events be as public as yours are, but because of this your fans have seen you go through all of your phases. Good and bad. Every victory and failure, every loss and gain, every smile and tear. They know that you laugh and cry and tire out like every other person. They know this, and yet they are still there every week. You may do those lives for them, Chan, but they join those lives for you.” Chan let her words sink in, his heart overflowing with love for his fans. They were the reason he was where he was, doing what he loved with the people he loved. His family, the one he got to choose. His home away from home. But with the joy came another cloud of doubt, and then he was frowning once more.
“What makes me so special? I’m just another kid with some stories to tell. There are hundreds – thousands – of others who could do what I do. What makes me so deserving of their love and time and blind dedication?”
“Because you have earned their loyalty. You put in the time to be there for them, to remind them how precious and loved they are when the world around them made them feel like nothing. The world sees their differences as defects and flaws, but you see them as stars and gold. Love isn’t something you need to work for or earn, it just happens, but loyalty? If you have that, they’ll be there. Throughout every little hiccup in life.”
Chan stared back at her. “How do you always know exactly what to say?”
“Giving advice is easy, like loving. Its receiving and taking advice that is difficult. And like being loved, it gets harder the more you’ve been hurt.” Sakura pulled at the sleeves of her sweatshirt, so much so that the cuffs hung loosely over her fingertips.
“Can I ask you something?” Sakura looked over at him, taking in the sight of his flushed face and dark eyes.
“Anything,” she responded honestly.
“Why Korea?” Chan asked her. “When you decided to leave home, what made you choose Korea? I’m sure you could have gone anywhere.”
She thought for a moment. “Seoul is familiar. It’s not home, but its close enough to home that returning would be easy. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to travel. There’s just so much that I want to see, and so many places I want to explore, that I don’t think I would have wanted to go back home after seeing it all.”
Interested, Chan leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “What things would you want to see? If you had no restrictions and no boundaries – no limit – what would you want to see?”
“I want to see the Northern Light,” she said with a pensive gaze focused on something outside. The left corner of her mouth pulled up as her head tilted to lean against the cool glass. “The Acropolis of Athens. Mont-Saint-Michel. The Great Barrier Reef. Lake Como. I want to see Cappadocia from a hot air balloon so colourful it hurts my eyes, and hike in forests straight out of a fantasy film. Oh, and I have to see a real sunfish, and…”
In the rush of her dreams, Sakura failed to notice the besotted look on the man’s face as he stared at her. He took in every word, absorbing every syllable, drinking in every sound that fell from her mouth like a man dying of thirst. And he remembered his own dreams. How the 13-year-old trainee would dream of his debut. Of winning his first award, for an album he put his entire soul into. Of performing on a stage so big that it made their group of eight look tiny. Of a dark sea lit up by lights like the night sky at back home. His dreams accumulated over those seven years, growing bolder even after his debut. And one day, he realized that he had almost reached the end of his once infinite list of dreams. But Sakura had yet to accomplish all of her dreams. And Chan couldn’t help but feel excited for her to fulfil them, whenever it may be.
“I hope all of your dreams come true, petal.”
She smiled back at him and said, “Thank you, Chan. But in the end, I’m okay even if they don’t. Sometimes it’s nice to just have the dream, something to give you hope. In the reality of things, some dreams just don’t come true.” The contentment in her eyes began to waver. Chan frowned at the sudden dip in her mood.
“Your sky seems a little heavy,” He stated, thinking back to that night in his room. With his head tilted to one side, and without looking away, he opened his arms widely. “Will you let me hold you?”
The girl arched an eyebrow. “Was that one of your pick-up lines?”
Chan shrugged. “I modified it to fit the conversation.”
“I think you mean ‘will you let me hold it’.”
“I know what I said, Sakura.”
Sakura wanted to say no. She wanted to stay where she was, where she could see every flicker of emotion in his brown eyes. At a safe enough distance to help him, but not too close that she could be pulled deeper into his warmth. It was too risky, too dangerous. But maybe…maybe that’s what she wanted. Just for one night. For them to just be a girl and a boy, comforted by each other’s embrace.
So, on shaky limbs, she crawled over to him. When she was close enough to his long stretched out legs, she turned around. Two arms found their way around her waist almost instantly, wasting no time in tugging her back until she was seated between his legs with her back resting flush against his chest. Sakura couldn’t help the content smile that formed on her face. He smelled like rain. Sakura loved the rain. She could feel the heat from his body seeping into her skin right through her clothing, into her bloodstream and straight to her frenzied heart. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into his warmth.
And he received her with an open heart. One hand lifted to carefully shift her head into the nook beneath his chin, and he immediately felt her body curl into his own. His arms tightened around her protectively.
“Just until the rain stops,” Sakura whispered, a yawn chasing her words.
“Of course, petal. Just until the rain stops.”
And for the first time, Chan prayed that the storm would never end.
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Dubrovnik to Split-
We awoke on our last morning in split and Matt and Becca went on a super quick and relatively flat (by Dubrovnik standards) run then we packed with the usual franticness and stored our bags in the luggage storage in our building at checkout time of 10 AM. Our ferry to split didn’t leave until 3:15 pm so we had some time to kill and we started this buy spending about 2.5 hours of hanging on Banje beach right by our place. The kids had fun exploring the beachside rocks and all enjoyed cooling off in the clear blue waters of the Adriatic. We then used our one 50 euro cent piece to pay for a 30 second beachside shower to try and desalinate the 6 of us (but it seemed like only Matt was willing to brave the ice cold shower water to do so). We then headed back to our place, got our bags out of storage and changed our of swimsuits in the courtyard before catching a bus to the port area. There, Matt’s plan was to check out Dubrovnik beer company and grab beer/lunch. We only succeeded in one of the two as they apparently don’t start serving food until 3, but the beer was tasty and it was a bit refreshing to taste some hops after not getting much of this in beers over the past month or so. We improvised a lunch of bread, cheese and the 100g of Salami Matt had purchased way back in Pianillo and then walked about 10 min to our ferry dock. The children and Becca were once again commenting on Matt’s frugality as we walked by several much larger ferries going the same direction to our much smaller, slightly cheaper and hopefully (for Matt’s sake) equally fast and comfortable “TP lines” ferry to Split. The ferry ride did turn out to be pretty smooth, if a bit long. it was cool to look out and see the coastline of Croatia and hundreds of islands sliding by as we sailed up the smooth waters of the straits between them. We called in Pomena, Korcula, and Hvar before arriving in Split right on time at about 8:30 pm. From Hvar on there was another child who was sprinting laps around the ferry playing a broken english chase game with our 3 littlest kids (Emily the pre-teen read her book instead). On arrival it was immediately apparent that Split was a much bigger town than Dubrovnik with lots of hustle and bustle around us and people trying to get us on taxis. We instead walked to the nearby bus stop where google maps said to get on the number 18 bus, so we did, it was one of those double long busses and Becca/kids got on the back while Matt walked to the front door to pay for tickets. When I got on the driver asked where we were going then looked at Matt's phone and told hime to get off walk across the street and take the 15 bus, so Matt got off and yelled back to the fam to get off which they tried to do but the back doors wouldn't re-open so the family drove off on the bus with Matt standing on the curb! Becca called Matt and we made a plan that they would stay on and ride the 6 stops as originally planned per google maps, which they did and found the place, and checked in. Matt walked across the street as instructed by bus driver but discovered the number 15 bus was not coming for 45 minutes, so he again checked the phone and it advised him to take the number 8 bus which came in 10 minutes so he did, purchased a ticket without being hassled bu the driver this time and ended up with a short 5 min walk to the place at the end. Matt arrived to all the kids being very fired up about arriving at the rental place they had been looking forward to the most of anywhere, complete with a "B" shaped pool the kids had dubbed "the butt pool" in pictures and a kids room with a cars/star wars theme. We finally got them calmed down, unpacked and in bed around 10 pm and the tired adults also hit the hay after social media-ing a bit on our fast internet.
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irretrievable-narrator · 3 months ago
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This is fearmongering.
I am an Environmental, Health & Safety manager who has worked (and currently works) with PSM/RMP covered chemicals, including some that can create toxic vapor clouds similar to the one in Conyers, GA. I would like to explain why this post, and many similar posts in the comments alleging that "they" (who are "they"?) are trying to get people injured by exposure to chlorine or chlorine-containing gases in the air, is incorrect. These posts come from ignorance, which can be corrected by understanding.
This is a long post, so please see the rest after the break. It's a lot faster to make misinformation than to correct it.
When an environmental incident occurs, the Federal EPA is notified nearly immediately by the company, by concerned citizens, and by community management (such as the Emergency Management Agency referenced in the screenshot above). Georgia is covered under Region 4, the southeast United States. When the Region is notified, they will immediately take action to begin monitoring the area and deploy a small army of contractors for cleanup, monitoring, and incident management. The EPA has a very special rule called a TDD (technical direction document) that allows them to immediately authorize workers to begin work to stop the incident - a verbal authorization can suffice. In other words, time is of the essence to stop emergencies from affecting the public.
I've spoken directly to several EPA agents in my line of work, all of whom are deeply committed to public welfare. Their lives are dedicated to protecting their communities. All of them lived in the Region they were tasked with protecting.
But don't take my word for it: during an emergency, the EPA will often post real-time data on the emergency. You can see the same info they're seeing in the same places they're seeing it.
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This snippet was taken at 5:41 PM Eastern Time, 10/4/2024. You can see that their air monitoring is reporting toxicity levels at a safe level (not necessarily zero - more on that in a minute). Each square or diamond is a monitoring location where they've placed a person or device to monitor air quality. Here's an example of one by Draeger, commonly used on industrial chemical sites:
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These meters constantly pull in air, networking with each other to develop a map of the affected area. The results can be found in data summary reports on epa.gov like this one:
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Here's what that data means: VOC is Volatile Organic Compounds, often solvents, pesticides, or irritants. Ethane, acetone, and methanol are all classic examples. H2S is Hydrogen Sulfide, the characteristic smell of rotten eggs and a natural gas additive. CL2 is Chlorine, the element currently in question from the original fire and damage at the BioLab facility. It creates hydrochloric acid on contact with water or in your lungs, causing severe damage.
Based on this data, we can see that this monitoring device detected chlorine 72 times during the reading period (5:00 PM on 10/3/24 to 5:00 AM on 10/4/24, not pictured here), and exceeded the EPA's action level during that time with a highest value of 2.10 ppm. PPM means "parts per million". Like "1 percent" means "1 in 100," and "part per million" can be thought of as how many molecules per million of air. On average, this meter was reading 0.06 ppm of chlorine in that 12 hour period.
Chlorine is an extremely irritating chemical, and you can detect it at approximately 0.32 ppm (source: CDC.gov) which is well below the OSHA permissible exposure limit of 1 ppm (source: OSHA.gov). You can detect it before it is dangerous to you, which is good for your safety and bad for your nighttime walks. In an abundance of caution, if you can detect it at all, you should avoid it. Your nose doesn't know the difference between 0.32 ppm and 1 ppm!
The "action level" is the amount of that chemical (usually 1/2 of the OSHA PEL, or "personal exposure limit") that initiates certain required activities like exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, or community crisis management (like shelter-in-place or evacuations). You can see that we exceeded that number overnight!
So why did they only have you shelter in place at night!?
As others in the replies have already explained, a nighttime inversion is a weather phenomenon where cold air in contact with the ground is lifted upward, and warmer air from slightly higher up is pushed toward the ground. (source: Weather.gov) Without enough wind, warm air gets stuck underneath a "blanket" of cold air, much like smoke from an extinguished candle might be stuck under a bowl placed over it. If that air contains chlorine or chlorine-containing compounds from the BioLab fire, it may become more hazardous than during the day when it would otherwise blow away or dissipate into the atmosphere.
Here's the same table, but from the day before - 5 AM to 5 PM local time.
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Look at that! The action level wasn't exceeded, so it's not necessary to force people to shelter-in-place during the day. In the areas where the action level is still being exceeded, the emergency management teams on the ground will likely evacuate affected persons and block access to prevent people from becoming exposed.
It's not because "they" (whoever "they" is supposed to be!!) are trying to hurt you, it's just because there is an elevated level of risk at night. The EPA exists to protect your community, not to sustain capitalism.
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tajmirrortours79 · 2 days ago
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Taj Mahal Tour by Train
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A Train Tour of the Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal Tour by Train, which offers comfort and speed, is the best option to see the ancient sites of Agra and the magnificence of the Taj Mahal in a single day. For tourists who want to experience the efficiency of India's express trains while taking in the architectural splendor of the Mughal Empire, this tour is ideal.
Summary of the Tour Timeframe: One day Delhi is the starting location. Mode of Transportation: Shatabdi Express or Gatimaan Express, high-speed trains Extensive Schedule Departing Delhi at 6:30 AM From the New Delhi Railway Station, take the Shatabdi Express or the Gatimaan Express trains. It takes roughly one hour and forty minutes to get to Agra on the Gatimaan Express, one of India's fastest trains. During the trip, breakfast is served on board. 8:10 A.M.: Reaching Agra You will be met by your driver and guide for a full day of sightseeing at the Agra Cantt Railway Station. Explore the Taj Mahal at 8:30 a.m. Your first destination is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the famed Taj Mahal. Emperor Shah Jahan erected this marble monument as a tribute to his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and it is a masterpiece of their building. Spend some time taking in the serene atmosphere, symmetrical gardens, and elaborate designs. The duration is roughly two hours. Explore Agra Fort at 11:00 AM Agra Fort is another UNESCO World Heritage Site that you should see. Explore its opulent buildings, including the Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, and the private rooms used to house Emperor Shah Jahan. This lasts for one hour. 12:30 PM: Lunch Break Have a great meal at a nearby eatery. Some recommended locations are ITC Mughal Daawat-e-Nawab's Pinch of Spice Peshawri. Try tandoori rotis, kebabs, and biryani—all traditional Mughlai fare. 2:00 PM: (Optional) Visit Itimad-ud-Daulah's Tomb This magnificent monument, often called the Baby Taj, is frequently seen as a forerunner to the Taj Mahal because of its elaborate marble craftsmanship and style. Time: 30 to 45 minutes. 3:00 PM: Mehtab Bagh (Sunset View Optional) Cross the Yamuna River to Mehtab Bagh if you have the time. It provides a tranquil perspective of the Taj Mahal, particularly at dusk. 4:30 PM: Unstructured Time to Shop Look through Agra's lively markets to find one-of-a-kind mementos like: Crafts made with marble inlay Items made of leather Shawls made from pashmina Handmade items 5:50 PM: Get out of Agra On your way back, get on the Gatimaan Express at the Agra Cantt Railway Station. Onboard, there are evening munchies available. Delhi arrival at 7:30 p.m. The end of your amazing day excursion to Agra is reached when you arrive at the New Delhi Railway Station. Important Points to Remember A representation of love, the Taj Mahal is the jewel in the crown of Mughal architecture. The Mughal Empire's magnificence is on display at the magnificent red sandstone fort known as Agra Fort. Mehtab Bagh and the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah are optional stops for sweeping views. Shopping: Handicrafts and beautiful marble work can be seen in Agra's markets. Contains AC chair car tickets for the round-trip train ride. Snacks and breakfast when traveling. A private, air-conditioned vehicle for Agra touring. expert services for guides. Exceptions Tickets for monument entry. Lunch and other costs. Gratuities and suggestions. An estimate of the costs One-way train tickets range from ₹750 to ₹1,500 per person. Entrance fees to the monument: Foreigners pay ₹1,100, while Indians pay ₹50. Foreigners pay ₹550, while Indians pay ₹35 at Agra Fort. Each lunch costs between ₹500 and ₹1,500. Daily rate for guide and driver: ₹1,500 to ₹2,500. Tips for Touring Get your tickets in advance. The Gatimaan Express sells out of train tickets fast. Essentials to Bring: Water bottle, sunscreen, comfortable shoes, and a valid ID. Note that tripods are not permitted within the Taj Mahal for photography purposes. Timing: Make plans in advance as the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. Final Thoughts Experience the architectural magnificence of the Taj Mahal and other Mughal-era sites in Agra with the magnificent Taj Mahal Tour by Train. You will return from your trip with priceless recollections of India's rich cultural legacy thanks to the quick and comfortable travel.
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jdgo51 · 1 year ago
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How to Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You
Today's inspiration comes from:
30 Days to Understanding the Bible
by Max Anders
There is a very close connection between God and His Word.
Jesus Himself is called the Word of God (John 1:1, John 1:14; Revelation 19:13). To know God, you must know His Word; to honor God, you must honor His Word; to be in touch with God, you must be in touch with His Word. Mighty promises are given to those who master the Bible so well that the Bible masters them.
We are promised spiritual stability, fruitfulness, and true prosperity as we meditate on His Word day and night (Psalm 1:1-3).
When the words of Jesus abide in us, our desires will be given to us, according to God’s will (John 15:7).
Meditating on God’s Word leads to prosperity and success in our endeavors (Joshua 1:8).
We will have more wisdom than our enemies, more insight than our teachers, and more understanding than the aged (Psalm 119:97-100).
We will have greater power over sin (Psalm 119:11).
We will have comfort in affliction (Psalm 119:50).
By drawing near to God, we have His promise that He will draw near to us (James 4:8).
These astonishing observations, these magnificent claims, these profound promises — they help us to realize how important the Bible is, and what remarkable potential we bring to our lives when we become serious students of Scripture. That’s why it’s so important that we commit ourselves to mastering the Bible so well that the Bible masters us.
There are four steps to mastering the Bible so well that the Bible masters you:
Read the Bible
Study the Bible
Memorize the Bible
Meditate on the Bible
Seems simple. Obvious, even, for those who have been Christians for a while. Yet very few people take all four steps. Many take one step. Some take two steps. A few take three steps. Very few take all four steps. As a result, very few people ever experience the full life transformation, the fellowship with God, the spiritual stability and strength, the power in ministry, the joy in worship, and the spiritual prosperity that the Bible promises to those who master it so well that it masters them.
READ THE BIBLE FOR BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE.
To begin a mastery of the Bible, you must read the Bible. This may seem self-evident to some, but to others who have never developed the habit, it is groundbreaking. Some Christians do not read the Bible, or they only read snippets that are attached to daily devotionals. This will not get you where you want to go. You must begin to read the Bible widely.
It is only by covering a lot of territory in Scripture that you gain a breadth of knowledge. If you never read the Old Testament, you will never have a general knowledge of it. If you only read the Gospels, or the Epistles, you will never have a basic grasp of the other sections of the Bible. As a result, your life will be untouched by important truth, plus your ability to connect the dots from various different Scripture passages — a critical component of a mature Christian experience — will be limited.
The New Testament tells us that many stories in the Old Testament were “written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). If we never read those Old Testament stories, we will never gain the insight, the power, or the freedom that become ours when we do.
The good news is that there is a simple way to read for breadth of knowledge. If you read the Bible for five minutes a day, you will read the Bible over thirty hours a year! (5 minutes × 365 days = 1,825 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 30.4 hours!)
Think of it!! Thirty hours a year! Perhaps no other discipline will provide a breadth of Bible knowledge more easily. If you want to master the Word so well that the Word masters you, begin by reading it.
Very early in my Christian experience, I was challenged to read the Bible at least five minutes a day. I took that challenge, and have not missed my daily time in God’s Word in over forty years. As a result, I have read the Bible for a couple thousand hours! And it was all done at the manageable pace of five minutes a day. There is no easier way I could have gained and maintained the breadth of knowledge of Scripture than by taking this simple step. I urge you to take this first step, too.
Mighty promises are given to those who master the Bible so well that the Bible masters them.
Pick a readable translation.
To begin with, pick a translation that is easy for you to read. Many Christians have a New International Version of the Bible, which is a fairly readable translation. I study out of the New American Standard Bible, which is a good study Bible because the translation is very literal. However, for those times of just reading for the story and flow, and breadth of knowledge, I have found that more conversational translations sometimes allow the Bible to come alive in a way that the NASB does not. I experimented for years with more conversational Bibles and, frankly, was disappointed with them for two reasons. First, they often interpret unclear passages for you to make it more readable, and I didn’t always agree with the translators’ interpretation. Second, in their attempt to be conversational, they often dumb down the language so that it is unsatisfying to read.
However, I have found The New Living Translation to be an effective reading Bible. This version began as a paraphrase that author and publisher Ken Taylor wrote to help his young children understand the Bible better. In a paraphrase, you start with an English Bible and reword it to make it easier to understand. But in 1995, Taylor commissioned a team of translation experts to go back to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and change whatever needed to be changed in order to bring the version up to the level of a translation. In my opinion, they did a commendable job.
All Bible versions have strengths and weaknesses. More literal translations have the strength of being closer to the original languages but the weakness of sometimes being more difficult to understand. More conversational translations are often easier to understand, but sometimes that clarity comes at the expense of accuracy, especially when a difficult passage may have two possible meanings in the original language.
For those reasons, I prefer having both a more literal translation for studying and a more conversational translation for reading. This way, I can compare both translations to gain a fuller understanding.
Pick a time to read.
I read before I go to sleep. By experimentation, I learned that I could always carve out five minutes before I go to sleep. But when I tried to read in the morning, sometimes I would get too busy and forget, and I would end up having to read in the evening, so I just switched to reading in the evening.
I found that I can always stay up an extra five minutes to read. No matter how late it is, another five minutes is not going to make or break my evening’s rest. There have been times I have been so tired I had to read standing up so I wouldn’t fall asleep, but I did it. I have been accused of being legalistic. I’m not. I’m being realistic and disciplined. I’ve learned that if I give myself an excuse one day, I am likely to give myself an excuse another day and another day. So, I have just not given myself an excuse. And more than two thousand hours of reading the Bible later, with a breadth of knowledge of Scripture I could never have gained or maintained any other way, I am glad I haven’t.
Others find that they must read first thing in the morning. It really doesn’t matter when you read. The bottom line is: read when it is best for you.
Read for understanding.
This was a recommendation given to me by the man who led me to the Lord. He said, “When you read, don’t get bogged down by anything you don’t understand. Just skip over it, and read for the things you do understand… and underline everything that seems especially important.” This counsel was extremely valuable to me, and it set me on a course of Bible-knowledge acquisition I’m not sure I would have taken any other way. Without that advice, whenever I would come to something in the text I didn’t understand, I would grind to a halt, or be forced to stop reading and start studying, both of which destroyed the original intent.
Read with a plan.
Many people are motivated by the goal of reading through the Bible in a year. I think it is something that everyone might want to do at least once, just to know that one has read the entire Bible. However, it is not an easy task, and many who start the project do not complete it. You might set a goal of reading through the Bible without committing to having to do it in a year. Just read five minutes a day, and let it take however long it takes to get through the entire Bible. Other reading plans can be found online.
If the Bible is new to you, I recommend what my mentor recommended to me when I first became a Christian. Read the Gospel of John six times in a row, not worrying about what you don’t understand but underlining everything that seems especially important. Then you might read the rest of the Gospels and then the New Testament. After that, you might read the first seventeen books of the Old Testament, known as the historical books. Or, there are eleven primary historical books that you might start with: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Those are the eleven books that tell the story of the Old Testament. The other Old Testament books give additional information, but do not advance the Old Testament story significantly. Then, reading Psalms and Proverbs is always a profitable experience.
On the other hand, if you are a more seasoned Christian and are generally familiar with the Bible, read what is interesting to you in your current circumstances… but be open to stretching yourself into other territory from time to time, remembering the importance of reading for breadth of knowledge.
STUDY THE BIBLE FOR DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE.
Few of us can gain a depth of knowledge without sitting under skilled teachers. So, for most people, they must sit under effective preaching from the Bible and be involved in a Bible study taught by an effective teacher. For maximum benefit, Bible study must have assignments that get you studying and interacting with the Bible on your own. To gain a depth of knowledge, you cannot be passive. You must become active in the process of deepening your knowledge. Crawl before you walk, and walk before you run, but this should be your goal. That is the only way you will progress to a depth of knowledge.
If this is new to you, begin by attending a church that is committed to teaching the Bible, not only from the pulpit during sermons, but also in small groups or Sunday school classes. You might also find helpful information in Christian bookstores or online. More seasoned Christians might be able to give you helpful suggestions as well. If you are an avid reader, there is a wealth of knowledge available to you as well through good books available online or at Christian bookstores.
Excerpted with permission from 30 Days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders, copyright Max Anders.
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englishprocess · 1 year ago
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Forum GA3-240202501-AA1-EV03
1. How can you be environmentally friendly at work?
In account my profession is a merge between digital and print, maintaining a balance of both in order to be environmentally friendly is a tough proposal. As a Graphic Designer focused on social media management and other digital programs, the energy wasted every day could be reflected in ranges of 8 to 10 hours per day, to this is added not only the time that the computer is on, but also the fan or air conditioning, spotlights or lamps, and other additional digital devices such as printer; giving a large consumption of energy generated by one person, (if this person worked remotely). The solutions that I bring to the table are, initially turn off the computer on the break hours, usually those are two hours at lunch. As well as disconnecting it when the work day ends, this is because even if it is off, if it is connected, it continues consuming energy. On the other hand, changing light  bulbs to those that consume less, such as LED lamps, is the best option.
Regarding the printed part of my profession, it is important to take into account the amount of paper and plastic on which various billboards are printed and in which most serve only for a single occasion, so the recycling of these is something unthinkable. For this it would be better to bet on the digital age, investing in screens that show more arts with moving graphics and reduce to 0 the use of printed flyers that nobody reads because people are concentrated looking through their cell phones.
 2. What kind of incentives could a green company offer to its employees? 
A company structurally dedicated to contributing to the environment can take several incentives. From the management of its products, as well as the organization for its employees, focusing on the latter, it should be noted that a company would have to change its thinking chip and adopt one of the "first world" in which today, they have divided their thrashes in various types, such as cardboard and paper, glass and glass, plastics and packaging, organic, etc., to help recycle, so it is  something that the workers themselves are engaged in and not the homeless as in third world countries. But how could the mentality of years of generations be changed? The only way is through the education of new ones and of which it will take some time to see the change, although currently the small fines for violations of this bad habit with which we have grown, has been convincing to order more recycling systems, as is the case with malls that choose one day a week in which they do not sell plastic bags. 
3. In what other ways could businesses involve their employees in environmental issues? 
There are different ways in which companies could involve their employees in environmental projects, however I have the feeling that the person who does not really care about this issue will not participate in what the company decides to do, unless it is sanctioned. Also this would mean nothing if the employee comes home after work and continues to do the same. So given the competitive nature of the human being, a strategy that companies can implement could be recycling contests, in which the winner gets a prize, in this way would feel relevant, in addition their effort would win a reward, reaffirming what is called the IKEA effect. This way, the employee would never forget and make a difference not only in their company, but in their home.
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