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abeervinumspirits · 4 years ago

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Beer Let's Taste it For a While

Beer, hearing the definition of mind directly strikes the spectacle of a beer bar by which people are holding glasses full of beer and the memory foam will be taken from their glasses. Beer isn't just a fresh term as time immemorial, world's most widely eaten and probably the earliest of most alcoholic beverages. Beer could be the 3rd most widely used beverage after coffee and tea. Broadly speaking beer is flavoured with the accession of jumps which adds a sour taste to beer and acts as a preservative. Besides hops a few fruits and herbs will also be useful for flavouring the beer. Literature from the times implies there is a Code of Hammurabi that has been worried about the legislation of Birre Online and beer parlours as well as also the Hymn to Ninkasi had been a prayer into Mesopotamian goddess of beer serving the functions of prayer in addition to recalling the recipe of beer groundwork. Currently, brewing market is a multinational firm providing employment to tens of thousands of an individual in the kind of small bars to large regional breweries.

There are just two classes of beer. The alcohol content of beer is approximately 4 percent to 6 percent alcohol by volume (abv) that may possibly be some times less than one% abv to 20 percent in rare scenarios. Beer creates part of civilization of beer drinking states and can be also shown to be connected to the festivals in addition to along with games. Back in China around 7000 B C beer has been prepared from rice malting. Any material containing vitamin including the sugars and also the starch usually brings fermentation and also this put down the base of beer production across the environment. The creation of bread and beer had generally caused the progression of human culture in addition to technology however this simple fact is contended closely by scientists.

Beer has been dispersed throughout Europe by the Celtic and Germanic tribes across 3000 BC ago and in the point, people do not call beer. Beer produced ahead of the Industrial revolution has been on national scale but now beer production is now an international company and in accordance with a record on 2006 approximately 133 billion gallons of beer has been sold annually that costs billions of dollars. The practice of earning beer is known as brewing. An edifice dedicated solely in making beer is popularly known as brewery even though beer can prepare yourself in domiciles too as known from the early literature. A business producing beer is also known as being a beer corporation. Beer produced on national scale is traditionally known as home brewing irrespective of fact how it's prepared. Beer production is closely under the foibles of the federal government of the nation and the manufacturers need to deposit the taxation and also meet the essential documents so as to conduct a brewery successfully.

The most important intention of brewing would be really to convert starch to carbonated liquid called wort and after with this wort is changed to alcoholic drink called beer that's fermented with the action of yeast. The very first step into making beer would be mashing at which the starch origin (malted barley) is mixed with warm water at a mash tun. Mashing procedure is complete is 1 2 hours and in that period that the starch becomes changed to sugars and also becomes more pleasant in taste. This candy liquid currently named wort is drained off shape that the sausage. The grains have been washed and also this measure is identified as sparging. Sparging helps the machine to acquire around fermentable liquid out of the grains as possible. The procedure for filtering grain out of the wort and sparged water can be characterized as wort separation. The standard procedure for wort separation is known as lautering at which the grain itself behaves as filter moderate. Modern breweries utilize filter frames for this particular measure. Even the sparge got from third and second jog comprises weaker wort and so weaker beer. Brewing with a few running’s is known as patrigyle brewing.

The sweet wort got by the sparged water is currently kept from the pot and boiled for only 1 hour. Boiling hastens the water of this wort however, also the sugars as well as other components remain therefore and also this allows efficient usage of starch sources. Additionally, it inactivates the enzymes after the mashing procedure. Hops are added because of flavor, bitterness and odor. Hops can be inserted a lot more than 1 time. If the jumps are boiled for a more period afterward your bitterness of beer increases and also the flavor and the odor material of beer decreases. After draining the hopped wort is permitted to cool and it is currently ready for yeast activity. During fermentation the hopped wort becomes beer and also this measure usually takes a week depending on the sort of yeast and also the potency of beer. When fermentation has ended the yeast albicans leaving the obvious beer. Sometimes fermentation is performed in just two steps, secondary and primary. Once beer is generated through primary fermentation it's moved to some other vessel and also it is allowed to undergo secondary fermentation to get many stages. Secondary fermentation is usually used when beer demands long duration storage before packing or increased clarity. If beer has fermented it's moved to casks for cask ale or from aluminum cans or kegs or ribbons determined by the varieties.

Besides malted barley additional origins of starch could be used just like the rice or corn and also the expression adjunct can be employed since they function as a less expensive replacement for scarcely. Grain bill may be your entire sum of starch origin within the beer manufacturing process. The significant makeup of beer stems from water. Water of unique places has different mineral components therefore that the beer prepared from other regions shares strange flavor and amount. Water from Dublin is hard therefore that it really is most appropriate to its creation of stout, Pilzen contains soft water therefore famed for its creation of light lager. Water out of Burton is fuller of gypsum therefore is suitable for your creation of light ale. On occasion the brewers add gypsum into the water to the creation of light ale which procedure is referred to as Brutalisation.

The starch origin of beer will be the crucial source that gives you the material to become fermented also is accountable for its potency and flavor of beer. Most widespread starch origin utilized for beer groundwork could be your malted grain. Malting procedure creates enzymes that are in charge of the conversion of carbohydrates into fermentable sugar levels. Various colours of malts have decided from precisely the exact same grain by permitting the grain to blossom at several temperatures and times. Dark malts produce black beers. Vast majority of beers consumed malted barley because starch origin because its own fibrous husk isn't just vital from the sparging approach but in addition comprises amylase, a digestive enzyme which converts starch to fermentable sugar levels. From recent years brewers have produced fermented beer in the malted sorghum particularly for all those who cannot eat up gluten-rich beer originated from malted barley, wheat, rice and corn.

The leading elements of flavouring of beer will be the jumps that derive from the jump vine. Hops are in fact the blossoms of jump blossom that become flavouring agents in addition to preservative. Besides naturally-occurring specific berries and herbs will also be used as flavouring agents. Hops add flowery, herbal and citrus aromas and tastes to beer. Hops have an antibiotic effect and permit the employment of diminished quantity of microorganisms and also have a preservative activity. The microorganism in charge of the cessation of beer would be that the yeast. Yeast converts the sugars got by malted grains in to alcohols and co2 and so turns wort to beer. Additionally, it provides flavor and character to beer. A few brewers additionally add clarifying agents to beer since they precipitate out from their beer together side the protein solids and also are observed in traces only in the final product. These representatives create beer clean and fine rather than the muddy signature because that obtained from wheat at the olden days. Commonly-used clarifying agents have been isinglass got the swim bladders of plants, Irish moss from sea weed.

There are various types of beer seen all around the globe however, the essential theories of these groundwork are shared among different nations. Brewers from Canada, USA and Australia are really so much motivated by the European manner of beer groundwork they have developed their very own native varieties of beer. Besides different forms beer can be classified into two main types dependant on the form of brewing that affects yeast activity throughout cessation. Beers can be lagers brewed in elevated temperatures and synthetically accessible ales brewed in low temperatures. Ales could possibly be further split to light ale, dark or brown ale and stout. Beers are ostensibly classified on the grounds of yeast activity employed in fermentation. Beers which necessitate fast-acting hot trembling leaving residual sugars have been classified as ales while beers utilizing slow behaving cold fermentation at which the yeast removes the majority of the sugars have been lagers.

Limbic is many different beers that's prepared in Belgium using wild yeast as opposed to the cultivated one. A number of the types of yeast employed in making Lambic are maybe not the breeds of Cerevisiae therefore they really exude various tastes and aroma to beer. Lactobacillus is essentially accountable for its sour taste of limbic at which it produces acids. Stout and porter are black beers ready using roasted malt or roasted wheat and barley by dense yeast. The definition of Porter was useful for the very first time in 17-21 to spell out some dark coloured beer found in the river and streets porters of all London. This beer has been down the road got famous by the label stout.

Still another variety is wheat that is considerably obtained by using wheat. however, in addition, it comprises certain percentage of malted wheat too. They're normally very best fermented and also the flavour of all wheat beers varies greatly in line with this style where they're brewed. Ales have decided by hot skin with brewer's yeast which clumps and increases to the top in order that they have been known as high fermenting beers and require higher temperatures and also make fermented quickly in contrast with lagers. The most suitable temperature for undertaking cessation of ales will be 15-24°C. Inside this temperature range yeast produces suitable esters and tastes together side odor services and products leading to a beer using sour touch such as this of lemon, banana, pineapple, plum along with also others. Hops were introduced to England from the 15 th century and following the accession of hops in brewing the definition of beer had been used. The expression Real Ale was chased by Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) from 1973 for its beer brewed using conventional ingredients and naturally-occurring using co2.

The trendy beers of European source are known as lagers. The light lagers would be probably the most popularly eaten beers throughout the planet. The term lager has its source by a German note lager so to save as the brewers used to save the beers into cool cellars and caves throughout summer months plus so they detected that fermentation process lasted in the beers that were stored and this also led in better caliber of beers. The yeast used for cessation of lagers is greatly busy at lower temperatures plus it includes primary pruning in the temperature selection of 7-12°C after which the very long secondary fermentation in 0-4°C. Subsequent to the secondary fermentation has ended lagers eventually become evident. Cooler temperature additionally inhibits odd production of esters and other compounds leading to production of a yummy lager beer. With the addition of yeast breeds modern lagers prepare yourself in quite a brief time span say from 1 3 weeks.

Malt is accountable for this specific colouration of beer. The frequent shade of beers is light amber that's fundamentally created by using light malts. Coke was useful for the very first time in 1642 for roasting the malt however that this measure was banned in 1703 however, the definition of pale ale was created. Concerning volume and sale the vast majority of the beers are all derived from the balmy lagers brewed in 1842 in the town of Pilsen within the present-day Czech Republic. The light lager absorbed at today scenario is very light in shade passed through carbonation with all alcoholic strength of approximately 5 percent just. Dark beers are usually brewed by light malt or even lager base malt and certain percentage of dark malt to accomplish a desirable colour. Caramel, roasted unmated barley can be also employed for achieving a more desired colour of beer.

The alcoholic strength of beer ranges from greater than 3 percent by volume (abv) to approximately 14 percent (abv) even though this potency might be further increased around 20 percent (abv) by usage of smoke yeast and 60 percent (abv) by frost cessation procedure. Alcohol in beers stems from the sugars which lacked throughout the fermentation procedure. The number of fermentable sugars in wort and the stress of yeast used to the cessation of wort are liable for its alcoholic material from the obtained beer. Alcohol can be produced as a by-product of yeast and can be toxic to yeast. Low temperatures and too-little fermentation reduce the experience of yeast and in order that the alcoholic content of beer that is final. The alcoholic content of beers has significantly escalation in the past couple of years of 20thcentury and also a Dutch brewery has produced the most powerful beer using alcoholic content of 60 percent (abv).

The brewing industry is a multinational business in today's world plus it works in cooperation with regional in addition to federal breweries. Micro-brewery is a contemporary brewery which produces a restricted quantity of beer annually around 15,000 barrels. Ale by the pressurized keg has become the most common way of dispensing beers at the pubs. A metallic keg is generally used that can be filled with beer and pressurized by employing co2. After a cask arrives at a bar it's kept vertically in a framework called stillage that's intended to take it in 90° and allowed to cool at the basement temperature before being exploited and vented.

Beers are essentially eliminated away from the yeasts until they experience packaging from cans and bottles. Bottle conditioned beers nevertheless retain a yeast that's left unattended therefore beers need to be pumped lightly. Many beers are generally sold in cans all around the globe. People today beverage directly from cans or simply by massaging in to the glass. Cans protect beer by pressing light and there's little of no probability of leakage. Cosmetic containers can be also utilised for packaging. Warmer temperature demonstrates flavour of beer and also trendy beers tend to be more refreshing. Most moms want to eat up light lagers chilled while royal stouts are often preferred in the room temperature.

Beers are served in cans, glasses, eyeglasses etc. Beer is poured into a mode from the drinking glasses and introduction of beer container releases carbon dioxide since it's opened.

Many societal activities are proven to be related to smoking such as handmade cards, bar games etc. Beer is popularly consumed all around the world at a sizable percentage in contrast with this wine that your 2nd most commonly consumed drink. The major active key part of beer is alcohol in addition affects general health. Moderate use of beer lessens the probability of coronary arrest and cognitive reduction. Long term impacts of alcohol boost the chance of liver damage. The brewer's yeast applied for the cessation of beer is also a rich supply of minerals such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin and Vitamin B and so, beer is occasionally known as berry. As per a report conducted by Japanese boffins at 2005 low-fat drinkers possess antifungal properties that were strong. Non-alcoholic beers decrease the danger of cardio vascular diseases. But over-consumption of any such thing is uncontrollable therefore beers need to be absorbed at a limitation.

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dustedmagazine · 4 years ago

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Dust, Volume 6, Number 10

The Slugs

September seemed to be the month when all the records on endless delay finally got kicked out the door, COVID or no, ready or not here we come. We’re deluged with music, some recorded before the world changed, some clearly cooked up mid-pandemic. There are a lot of covers EPs, lots of solo material, lots of home-made lo-fi, lots of benefit comps, and who are we to complain? Better, instead, to reach for the headphones, load up the hard drive, pile on the LPs and do some listening. Here’s some of the stuff that caught our attention, as usual ranging all over the continuum, from traditional to edgy and experimental, from silly pop punk to enraged death metal to bookish electro-acoustic improvisation. Contributors this time out included Jonathan Shaw, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Derek Taylor, Ray Garraty, Tim Clarke and Andrew Forell. Happy fall.

Amputation — Slaughtered in the Arms of God (Nuclear War Now!)

Slaughtered in the Arms of God by Amputation

Given the degree of smugness that accompanies utterances of the phrase “Old School Death Metal,” it’s frequently instructive to listen to some. Right on time, the misanthropic bunch at Nuclear War Now! has delivered some seriously Old School sounds to our digital doorstep. This new compilation LP gathers both of the demos of Norwegian knuckle-draggers Amputation, along with a contemporaneous rehearsal recording. Likely the resulting record will be of principal interest to fans of Immortal, the long-running, on-again-off-again Norwegian black metal band that Amputation would morph into in 1991. The songs collected on Slaughtered in the Arms of God have some additional musicological significance, as they document the sounds of 1989 and 1990, transformational years in Norway’s metal scene. Mayhem and Darkthrone tend to get most of the attention, for reasons both good and bad; and like Darkthrone, Amputation made death metal before transitioning to blacker, more brittle sounds. The music on Slaughtered in the Arms of God is muddy, thudding and thick. Perhaps that’s the result of the primitive recording tech the band used, likely of necessity. But through the murk (and to some degree because of it), you can hear the influence of Stockholm’s fecund death metal scene, especially Dismember’s earliest stuff. Scandinavia’s metal currents run deep and dark. Whether that means that Old School Death Metal is intrinsically a good thing is a different matter.

Jonathan Shaw

Anz — Loose in Twos (NRG) 12” (Hessle Audio)

Loos In Twos (NRG) by Anz

I love the idea of listening to DJ mixes of original or all-new material; it’s probably why I still value, say, Ricardo Villalobos’ Fabric 36 so much. Manchester’s Anna Marie-Odubote, aka Anz, has been doing just such a thing annually since 2015 and really went wild with spring/summer dubs 2020, which compiled 74 tracks into nearly an hour and a half of new music. That would’ve been more than enough amid all of this (imagine me gesturing around vaguely), but “Loos in Twos (NRG)” on the venerable Hessle Audio imprint is an equally formidable, decidedly tighter release I played a lot at the start of September. Three club-ready tracks here break down acid, jungle and footwork, and while all three are heady breaks, the looped vocals and bongo of “Stepper” make it the one for me. Get those feet moving digitally now so they’re comfortable once the vinyl arrives in early October.

Patrick Masterson

Ashes and Afterglow — Everybody Wants a Revolution (Postlude Paradox)

Ashes and Afterglow drops pop punk melodies into deep buckets of fuzz, lets them bubble and bob to the surface before shoving them under again. The band is mainly the output of one Luke Daniel, who appears to have been in other band called Sea of Orchids, but neither outfit has left much of an internet trail. And sure, this is the kind of thing that could easily get shuffled under; it breaks no moulds. And yet shuffling “To Take a Look at the World,” has a heart-worn resonance, Daniel’s voice echoing in reverbed hollow-ness against surging tides of guitar noise. “My Yesterday Girl” churns a little harder, with a bright, pop-leaning sort of hopefulness hedged in by seething feedback. It’s not bad, but it never hits a melodic vein the way that similarly inclined artists like Ted Leo or Ovlov or Tony Molina do, and it never pushes the noise over the top, either. Neither pop nor punk but somewhere in middle.

Jennifer Kelly

Ballister — Znachki Stilyag (Aerophonic)

Znachki Stilyag by Ballister

A cake is still a cake, whether you put chocolate frosting and strawberries or white icing and a fondant roses on top. And while they don’t all taste or look exactly the same, a Ballister album is still a Ballister album, and the first Ballister album in three years does not mess with the recipe. Dave Rempis (alto and tenor saxophones), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello and electronics), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion) still trade in a particularly hard-hitting form of total improvisation. The changes are ones of emphasis — Lonberg-Holm sounds like he’s using a wah-wah pedal and deploys some especially slashing feedback tones, there’s a bit more space in Nilssen-Love’s intricate beat configurations, and Rempis left his baritone sax at home — and of location. Znachki Stilyag was recorded during the fall of 2019 in Moscow, Russia, which may explain why the big horn stayed at home. But the ones you hear still cut and thrust with broadsword force and rapier precision. This is a cake you can trust.

Bill Meyer

Vincent Chancey — The Spell: The Vincent Chancey Trio Live, 1987 (No Business)

Vincent Chancey likely isn’t alone amongst his peers in feeling exasperated by folks singling out his instrument as uncommon or unusual to jazz. It’s a form of damning through faint praise and one that feel

s even more lackadaisical with any time spent with his music. Chancey plays the French horn and he’s plied it in settings as diverse as Sun Ra Arkestra, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra as well as gigs supporting Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello. It’s unclear whether the trio documented on The Spell was a working concern, but that hardly matters given how well bassist Wilbur Morris and percussionist Warren Smith gel with their convener. Spread across two sides of an LP, the concert recorded at a New York City art gallery covers four pieces, two by Morris bookending one apiece from Smith and the leader that stitch together very much like cohesive suite. An unadvertised surprise comes with Smith’s ample application of marimba alongside a regular drum kit. Recording quality isn’t optimal, but Chancey’s rich, rounded, phrases gain extra gravitas through the sometimes-grainy acoustics. Woefully underrepresented in the driver’s seat discographically, his acumen as both improviser and composer is easily vindicated by this limited edition (300 copies) release.

Derek Taylor

Che Chen — Tokyo 17.II.2012 (self-released)

Tokyo 17.II.2012 by Che Chen

Nowadays Che Chen has earned a measure renown as the guitar-playing half of 75 Dollar Bill, and all the praise is earned. But before that, he played a roomful of instruments in the True Primes, Heresy of the Free Spirit and duos with Robbie Lee, Tetuzi Akiyama and Chie Mukai. The through-lines to all these efforts is a willingness not to play things the way their supposed to be played, and a gift for supplying the right resonance in any setting. Since 75 Dollar Bill is a New York-based band made for social occasions, the COVID-19 lay-off has been especially hard — so there’s no better time to see what’s in those hard drives in the closet, right? Chen has released this solo concert from 2012 via Bandcamp. In Tokyo for a brief layover, he played amplified violin at a party held in the basement of someone’s apartment building. The amplified part is important; dips and swells of feedback count as much as in this 25-minute performance as the fiddle’s bright, plucked notes and rough, bowed tones. Chen moves purposefully from one mode to next, taking time along the way to savor the room’s lively acoustics.

Bill Meyer

Jeff Cosgrove/ John Medeski/ Jeff Lederer — History Gets Ahead of the Story (Grizzley Music)

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Odds are that even the estimable William Parker would be surprised by the prospect of a William Parker cover album. But that’s essentially what History Gets Ahead of the Story is as organized and realized by drummer Jeff Cosgrove. That the project is the province of an organ trio only adds to the potential consternation quotient. John Medeski officiates the Hammond B-3 console and saxophonist Jeff Lederer, doubling on flute, completes the combo convened by Cosgrove. The latter’s connections to Parker stem from a trio he was part of with the bassist/composer and pianist Matthew Shipp that disbanded in 2015 after fruitful collaboration. Parker’s personage and music left an indelible mark and the seeds for the present album were sown. Collective creative license doesn’t get in the way of soulful, energizing renderings of such staples as “O’Neal’s Porch,” “Corn Meal Dance” and “Wood Flute Songs,” but troika also cedes time for a triptych of strong originals that align aurally with their dedicatee’s inclusive tone world sensibilities.

Derek Taylor

Derelenismo Occulere — Inexorable Revelación (Le Legione Projets)

Inexorable Revelacion (FULL LENGHT 2020) by Derelenismo Occulere

This sounds like a rehearsal gone wrong. In the time of the COVID pandemic, Neo Apolion, a guy responsible for the music in this Ecuadorean duo, recorded a demo and sent it to the band’s vocalist Malduchryst with a message to do with it whatever he wants. Malduchryst took his band partner’s words all too literally. With complete disregard to the music he began vomiting a noisy, messy mass of screams to a microphone (has he never heard of a black metal with no vocals?). If it sounds totally batshit, you can rest assured that it is. This is what makes Inexorable Revelación actually great black metal. When a lot of metal bands these days are just Backstreet Boys with leather jackets on and with guitars, Derelenismo Occulere care about only fury and mayhem. Their Argentinean mix man Ignacio only adds more chaos to the album. The only flaw this tape has is that it is 15 minutes too long.

Ray Garraty

Whit Dickey — Morph (ESP-Disk)

Morph by Whit Dickey

Drummer Whit Dickey and pianist Matthew Shipp have been recurrent partners since the early 1990s, when they were both members of the David S. Ware Quartet. It’s fair to say that each man is a known quantity to the other, and that one of the things they know about each other is that they might still be surprised by the other’s playing. Dickey’s retreated from time to time in order to revise his approach, and while Shipp has often threatened to quit recording over the years, he has never stopped working or evolving. This double disc combines one duo CD and another that adds trumpeter Nate Wooley to the pair. Wooley’s done a number of dates with Shipp in recent times, but he and Dickey were musical strangers before they entered Park West Studios in March 2019. Without Wooley, Shipp and Dickey seem very free and trusting of each other, transitioning with dreamlike ease from abstracted gospel to sideways swing to restless co-rumination this the ease. The trio seems more considered. The trumpeter dips quite sparingly into his extended technique bag, favoring instead linear statements that instigate fleet perambulations from the pianist and more supportive, less overtly dialogic contributions from the drummer. Both sessions work, and their differences complement each other quite handily.

Bill Meyer

Dropdead — S/T (Armageddon)

Dropdead 2020 by Dropdead

Yep, it’s that Dropdead, the Providence-based powerviolence band that hasn’t released a proper LP since 1998 and was on a long hiatus through much of the 21st century. Since 2011, Dropdead has put out a string of splits, with heavyweights like Converge and Brainoil. But a whole record? Maybe the unrelentingly shitty condition of our political and economic conjuncture motivated the four guys in the band (three of whom have been affiliated with Dropdead since 1991) to write the 23 burners, rants and breakdown-heavy hardcore tunes you’ll hear across Dropdead’s 25 minutes. It’s a welcome addition. Bob Otis’s voice doesn’t have the shredding quality of days of yore — but that ends up being useful. You can hear the lyrics, and they’re drenched in venom and righteousness. The rest of the band hasn’t lost a step. Pretty impressive for a bunch of guys with that much grey in their beards. That said, they don’t pull any intergenerational, “we’re-older-and-wiser” moves. This is still music that wants to collapse boundaries, between stage and mosh pit, between races and genders, between species, even. Not so much class positions: “Warfare State,” “United States of Corruption,” “Will You Fight?” Late capitalism’s depredations still bear the principal brunt of the band’s anger. Things have gotten worse, and Dropdead respond in kind. They may be a lot older, but they’re even more pissed off.

Jonathan Shaw

Fake Laugh — Waltz (State 51 Conspiracy)

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Earlier this year, Kamran Khan released his second Fake Laugh album, the charming, playful Dining Alone, which made its way into Dusted’s mid-year round-up of favorites released in the first half of 2020. Khan’s third album, Waltz, is a very different beast, featuring just piano, vocals and the odd keyboard texture, casting his songwriting in sharp relief. Undoubtedly created in this stripped-down way out of lockdown necessity, it’s hard to listen to these wistful, melancholic songs without imagining where Khan’s knack for colorful arrangements might take them, given the chance. (As a tease, closing song “Amhurst” offers up a shimmering electronic melody and some sighing synth chords.) There’s no doubting Khan’s way with a tune, and his naked vocal, though occasionally showing strain, suits the mood. It’s understated and undeniably lovely, yet Waltz feels like a minor release for this talented artist.

Tim Clarke

David Grubbs / Taku Unami — Comet Meta (Blue Chopsticks)

Comet Meta by David Grubbs & Taku Unami

In the 23 years since Gastr Del Sol fell apart, David Grubbs has done many things that don’t sound much like his old band with Jim O’Rourke. And Taku Unami has worked in such varied settings and ways that the most persistent quality of his engagement with sound is its ability to induce question marks and ellipses in any train of thought intending to decode it. So, it’s both remarkable and delightful that this record, the duo’s second collaboration, sounds rather like parts of Gastr Del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife. The foundation rests upon the way two guys who can and do play intricate guitar duets make subtle use of other elements — creeping acoustic piano, humming synthesizer, urban field recordings — to make music that thickens atmosphere and accumulates mystery with such subtlety that you don’t notice it until you’re in it.

Bill Meyer

Guided by Voices — Mirrored Aztec (Guided by Voices Inc.)

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I know, I know, it’s another Guided by Voices record, the fifth since 2019, but hear me out. Pollard is still tapped into the fuzzy, rackety, melodic sap of the rock and roll universe, and he has only to knock his hammer a few times against the gnarled tree of life to extract more of what sustains us. Shorter version: he can do this all day, every day, without any noticeable let-up in quality. So, let us celebrate another batch of Who-like power chords, of rumbling drums and monumental bass thuds, of melodies that curve out delicately like spring’s first vines, then thicken into thundering climaxes and triumphant refrains. Let us give thanks again for inscrutable lyrics that drift off into poetry then pull back in the most ordinary artifacts of the spoken word. “I Think I Had It. I Think I Have It,” crows Pollard in a voice that has been blasted by time but come out more or less intact, and yes, Bob, you still do.

Jennifer Kelly

Edu Haubensak & Tomas Korber — Works for Guitar & Percussion (Ezz-thetics)

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The celebrated Wandelweiser aesthetic serves as a loose overarching impetus for the four interpretations of compositions by Edu Haubensak and Tomas Korber that comprise Works for Guitar & Percussion. Classical guitarist Christian Buck and improvising percussionist Christian Wolfarth ply their instruments through pairing and isolation. Essayist Andy Hamilton describes context by delineating a distinction between music (based in the language of tones) and soundart (which is non-tonal) and placing the duo’s interpretations in the opaque border between these realms. Repetition and timbral disparity frame Haubensak’s “On” while Korber’s “Aufhebung” applies scrutiny to microtonal diversity and temporal impermanence. Wolfarth fields Korber’s “Weniger Weiss” from behind snare drum, trading recurring stick rolls with varying segments of silence that compel ears accustomed to Western musical structures to consciously fill in the blanks. Haubensak’s solo “Refugium” finds Buck bending two closely tuned strings in an extrapolation of an Arabic maqam that feels tenuously connected to the form, at best.

Derek Taylor

Inseclude — Inseclude (Inseclude)

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Brad MacAllister of CTRL and Blue Images and Benjamin Londa of Exit have been working in the darkwave and chillwave scenes for several years and their first album as Inseclude is a long distance collaboration that mines the darker side of 1980s alternative and electronic rock. From Pennsylvania, MacAllister sent musical ideas to Londa in Texas who added guitars, lyrics and vocals to produce a set of songs that are well made and enjoyable if largely unmemorable. There are a number of contemporary bands doing similar things — Hamilton’s Capitol and Manchester’s Ist spring immediately to mind — taking the Cure, New Order, Sisters of Mercy template and why not? Unfortunately, the passage of time and the law of diminishing returns have led to overfamiliarity with this style of music that makes for easy and perhaps unfair comparisons. When they stretch themselves, Inseclude’s songs do hit. “Sondera” and “Failing To The Pulse” carry some real menace with the juxtaposition of wide-angle synths and paranoid vocals but elsewhere the pair seem held back by a restraint and lack of bottom end that diminish the impact of some pretty decent songs.

Andrew Forell

Kvalia — Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines (Old Boring Russia)

Схоластические Грёзы Силовых Машин by Квалиа

Krasnoyarsk sits on the banks of the Yenisei river in southern Siberia and is known both for the natural beauty of its surrounding landscape and for its primacy as an aluminum producer. Local musicians Aleksander Maznichenko and Aleksey Danilenko reflect the latter on their new five track EP Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines, an icy, metallic collection of post-industrial clang pitched somewhere between Einstürzende Neubauten and early Clock DVA. Their machines are forceful but cranky, rusted, near obsolete. Maznichenko keeps the thrum of turbines is steady but the drum machines lurch and thump, the keyboards whine and scream, the Russian vocals protest their obstreperous charges. Danilenko’s bass is post-punk elastic skipping amongst the raining sparks hinting at a will to dance with his mutant riffs. They sound like they mean it and the result is a terrific EP full of fire, fumes, steam and sweat.

Andrew Forell

Mezzanine Swimmers — Kneelin’ on a Knife (Already Dead)

Kneelin' on a Knife by Mezzanine Swimmers

These songs circle around noise-crusted, repetitive beats, the drumming stiff and mechanical, the riffs chopped to short bursts, the vocals woozy and distended. “Sexy Apology” reiterates a three-note keyboard lick ad infinitum, as main Swimmer Mike Smith drawls the title phrase, similarly on repeat. Yet within this unchanging structure, chaos erupts in detuned keyboards, miasmic feedback and corrosive noise. It’s hard to say whether these songs are too tightly organized or too loose, a bit of both really, and yet, get past the headachy thud and there’s an unhinged psychotropic transport. No one ever said that kneeling on knives would be comfortable.

Jennifer Kelly

Mosca — The Optics (Rent)

Mosca · The Optics [RENT001]

Part of the initial wave of neon-infused dubstep hedonism surrounding the Night Slugs camp at the turn of the last decade, Mosca’s Tom Reid has since survived on the strength of a regular slot behind the decks at NTS and sparingly deployed releases on such renowned labels as Numbers, Rinse, Hypercolour and Livity Sound. “The Optics” debuts his new Rent imprint, conceived as a way to get out music that doesn’t fit in elsewhere. (Originally, this was to be an a-side for a coming AD93 release, but as he says, “There's only so long you can keep a track with a baby crying in it back from the masses.”) Supposedly inspired by the Under the Skin beach scene, the five-minute track immediately throws you off with a dub-heavy shuffle and metallic, alien sounds that zoom around the mix. The main thrust of the melody arrives around a minute in, and gradually the sounds close in on you. There’s bells, birds, a baby crying and then, just when you’re feeling completely stressed out, it all falls away; a driving jungle rhythm carries you the rest of the way. Deeply satisfying dance from a head who hasn’t lost his way.

Patrick Masterson

Prana Crafter/ragenap — No Ear to Hear (Centripetal Force Studio/Cardinal Fuzz)

No Ear to Hear by Prana Crafter / ragenap

When Robert Hunter, the poet who wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star,” “Ripple,” “Truckin’,” “Terrapin Station” and many other songs, died in late 2019, long form psych musicians Prana Crafter (William Sol) and ragenap (Joel Berk) mourned separately but simultaneously. The night he died, both took solace in improvised music, which didn’t so much evoke or represent Hunter, but captured some of their feelings about his work and their loss. When they talked, soon after, they found that both had made lengthy open-ended meditations on the same person. Those two extended pieces make up No Ear to Hear. Prana Crafter’s entry, “Beggar’s Tomb,” is weighted and slow moving, building gradually from simmering drones into towering edifices of feedback and dissonance. Although performed largely on guitar, the sound is filtered through gleaming effects and layers into astral strangeness, a mystic’s trip through mental interiors. ragenap’s “Nightfall” also takes shape slowly out of looming sustained notes and black velvet quiet and sounds that scratch and vibrate at the edges. A solitary acoustic guitar takes up space at the forefront finally, carving a hesitant melody across the hum. The tune turns fuller and more agitated as it progresses, adding layers of feedback and distortion. Neither of these pieces sounds much like the Grateful Dead, and of course, neither has any sort of lyrics. I doubt that anyone, hearing this album for the first time would say, “Oh yeah, Robert Hunter.” And yet inspiration works in strange and, in this case, fruitful ways. You can enjoy this even if you don’t like the Dead.

Jennifer Kelly

Raven Throne — Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) (self-released)

Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) /The Return (The Chronicles of the Serpent Darkness) by RAVEN THRONE

These Belorussian black metal veterans are true materialists. On their seventh album, they show that nature is a social construct, not something given. And boy, their nature is not a loving mother. Unlike many metal bands convey nature via field recordings, Raven Throne craft their ferocious sounds with guitars and drums. Aren’t these as natural instruments as stone and wooden sticks? The atmospheric black metal subgenre has been contaminated by pop and folksy metal so that it’s hard to maintain a truly evil sound, while still bringing the atmospheric elements into it. Raven Throne pull it off. This is how darkness should sound.

Ray Garraty

The Slugs — Don’t Touch Me I’m Too Slimy (2214099 Records DK)

Don't Touch Me, I'm Too Slimy by The Slugs

The Slugs are an exuberantly lo-fi punk pop duo out of London who bash and thump and shout short, acidic ditties about being female, in a band, under assault and under the weather. Liberty Hodes, who is also one half of the comedy duo A Comedy Night that Passes the Bechdel Test, plays a jangling, forceful electric guitar, while her Phoebe Dighton-Brown bangs away in brutal simplicity on the drums. Both sing, sometimes in unison, sometimes in rough harmonies, occasionally in slashing counterparts. (One chants “Feel sick/can’t be sick” while the other rolls out mellifluous “ah-ah-ah-ahs” in “Feel Sick.”) There is a charming, unstudied quality to their music, which is a bit too smart and biting to be primitive, but nonetheless eschews frills. It’s hard to pick favorites—the whole EP is over in five tracks and 11 minutes—but “Pest” is giddy fun, with its slouching, battering guitar-drum motif and slacker choruses. The shout along chorus of “Don’t touch me! I’m too slimy!” is the best thing on the record, hitting a rebellious, unwashed spot of resonance in the work-from-home era. Second best, the gleeful tirade about sleazy male promoters in “Girly Gang” (“Give you all the gigs if you touch my wang”), which builds in round-singing euphorias until it ends suddenly and a la Jane Austen in matrimony (“Married in a dress by Vera Wang”). People are comparing the Slugs to the Shaggs, but that’s just short-hand for banging away anyway without all the training. The Slugs are smarter, slyer and more autonomous, and if they sound a little rough, that’s exactly how they meant to sound.

Jennifer Kelly

Tobin Sprout — Empty Horses (Fire)

Empty Horses by Tobin Sprout

Blessed with one of the finest names in music (alongside dEUS’s Klaas Janzoons), Tobin Sprout is best known for being part of the Guided by Voices line-up that created classic albums such as Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes in the 1990s. Though Sprout’s subsequent solo output has been a steady stream compared to Robert Pollard’s deluge, Empty Horses is his eighth solo album. In it, the now-65-year-old ruminates faith, mortality and American history atop a spare, country-tinged backing. There’s a deep ache to many of these songs, the kind of emotional weight that manifests in pointedly low tempos, sparse drum parts that hang behind the beat and vocal performances that are almost uncomfortably intimate. Running to a succinct half-hour, with many of the songs clocking in at just a couple of minutes each, Empty Horses confronts demons seemingly too pernicious to overcome. Yet, when the music becomes more expansive — such as the graceful pedal steel of “Breaking Down,” the woozy modulation of “Antietam,” or the biting fuzztone of “All In My Sleep” — Sprout sounds like he may be on the verge of making a much-needed breakthrough.

Tim Clarke

Son Lux �� Tomorrows I (City Slang)

Tomorrows I by Son Lux

Son Lux’s songs embed unsettling sounds in deep wells of silence, finding disturbing textures in string sounds, electronics, percussion and the fluttering soul falsetto of founder Ryan Lott. Tomorrows I, reportedly the first of three related albums, has a quietly dystopian vibe and a moist, echoing unease that might remind of you Burial’s classic Untrue. A brief, looped, keening violin motif punctures the opening cut, “Plans We Made” with all the threat of Bernhard Hermann’s shower music for the film Psycho, while Lott trills haunted phrases about being afraid to let go. “Undertow,” near the end, brings in a whole string quartet to swoon dissonantly, as a knocking beat (drummer Ian Chang) sounds like a body being dragged across the floor. “Just waiting for the undertow,” sings Lott in the dread empty spaces between, in arias of muted desolation. Minimalist and menacing and mesmerizing.

Jennifer Kelly

Ulaan Janthina — Ulaan Janthina (Part 1) (Worstward)

Ulaan Janthina (Part I) by Ulaan Janthina

Steven R. Smith contains multitudes, and Ulaan Janthina is the latest manifestation of his mutating musical self. This release exemplifies three aspects of Smith’s practice. First, he likes to make beautiful things. Hard copies of this tape come in a custom-oriented box that contains tinted photos, shells and printed communications as well as the cassette. And he’s project-oriented. While other iterations have been devoted to an Eastern European vibe, or guitar noise or a virtual ensemble sound, Ulaan Janthina results from a decision to work primarily with the keyboards in his house. It’s a winning strategy, since his synthesizers, organ and harmonium all benefit from the grittiness of Smith’s recording methodology, and his spare playing style makes his melodies stand out quite starkly from the background atmosphere. Like the name says, this is part one of the Janthina (named for a genus of sea snail that makes its own floating platform — not a bad metaphor for the survival-oriented independent musician) venture; a second, similarly packaged cassette is pending from Smith’s Worstward imprint soon, and a future release is already planned by Soft Abuse records.

Bill Meyer

Various Artists — Spr Blk: Liberation Jazz and Soul From the '70s and Beyond (Paxico)

Liberation Jazz and Soul by Marcus J. Moore

Author Marcus J. Moore (late of The Nation but also found everywhere from Pitchfork to WaPo) has a book on the way in October, The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. In advance of its release via cassette devotees Paxico, Moore cobbled together “rare and somewhat familiar” Black music from his own crates. “These are the kinds of songs I play when walking through New York City or driving through Maryland,” he says in the release. What that means for you is a two-sided mix that burns slower on the A and gets more percussion-heavy on the B. Leading off with Doug Carn’s fittingly titled “Swell Like a Ghost” and featuring jams from Willie Dale, Milton Wright, Ronald Snijders and other lesser jazz, soul and funk lights, it’s a revealing mix that will no doubt pair well with that fall reading you’re about to get going on.

Patrick Masterson

Vatican Shadow — Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era (20 Buck Spin)

Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era by Vatican Shadow

Dominick Fernow is hugely prolific, and most folks with ears tuned to the densely churning worlds of noise and industrial music will be familiar with his abrasive, unsettling output under the Prurient moniker. Fernow’s releases as Vatican Shadow are fewer in number, and more attuned to ambient, even melodic movements and textures. That’s sort of odd, given that the Vatican Shadow records thematize and explore Fernow’s obsession with the history of the Middle East, especially post-9/11 collisions of Western military force, Islamic traditions of resistance and the tactics of terror used by both sides. Relaxing stuff, that ain’t. Consistent with the larger project’s tendencies, Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era claims an interest in the CIA-coordinated Iranian coup (MI6 helped out, too, those imperial scamps) that deposed Mohammed Mossadeq, installed the Shah Reza Pahlavi and inaugurated some of the principal tensions that have shaped the last half-century of world history. It’s unclear how Fernow’s pulsing, shimmering, sometimes juddering synth sounds are meant to represent or otherwise engage that history. For sure, record art and song titles summon all the right semiotics, sometimes with an interesting edge. But “Taxi Journey through the Teeming Slums of Tehran” sounds more like a malfunctioning MP3 player than a taxi or a “teeming slum” (can we all be done with that phrase now?), and “Moving Secret Money” is pleasantly trance-inducing, rather than insidiously evil. Musically, it’s quite good. The packaging seems to want strike other notes. Maybe that’s the point — too many folks are too busy consuming quietist pop to bother with the grind of the political. But is this the intervention we need?

Jonathan Shaw

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notbecauseofvictories · 5 years ago

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Hi Sarah! You seem to be quite enthusiastic and well informed about cooking, and I was wondering if you had any tips for students at uni? I feel it's so difficult to keep a healthy diet and cook for yourself on a low budget. Do you have any good recipes you could share? Or ideas? Thank you so much if you are able to answer, no worries if you don't feel like it.

This is...kind of a difficult question to answer, given that I approach cooking as a decadent, pleasurable thing, rather than something functional. (Some people shop online when they want to splurge. I make 48 coconut macaroons hand-shaped and dipped in chocolate, and a parmesan-garlic cream sauce to drizzle over my steamed brussel sprouts.) If all I need to do is consume calories, I’m much more likely to cut corners---seriously, store-bought sauces, simmer pastes, and salad dressings are a godsend---or buy something convenient. I could probably survive on deli sandwiches, if I really put my mind to it.

However, I do want to suggest a couple tips I think are helpful:

1) Know what you like, know what you need.

What it says, because food is always a balancing act between getting the kinds of nutrients your physical, calorie-consuming body needs and the sugar/salt/fats you want. Personally, I will eat literally anything if there’s bread or cheese or both involved. (This is not a joke---I have eaten a lot of creamed spinach and deli sandwiches.) However, having discussed my diet with healthcare professionals, I know what I need is proteins and vitamin d. So when I’m preparing my schedule for the week, I force myself to think about both: what will I eat, what should I eat, what can I make that satisfies the difference? And then, what’s my timing? (i.e., do I need to stay late at work? do I have other plans that night?)

Like everything with my life, I review it vaguely sometime Monday and plan out my week. Though I do know enough about myself to build in some flexibility, because sometimes a bitch is walking home desperate for a burger, and shouldn’t have to apologize.

2) Google with abandon.

I do not have any private store of family recipes. My mother was a functional cook, and my grandmothers were either of the “hors d'oeuvres and martinis” generation or the “jello(tm) with colorful sprinkles is an actual dessert” generation. (The difference there, by the way, is class. But that’s a whole other tumblr post.) The point is that at the end of the day, there’s no secret treasure trove of recipes for me to delve into.

Which means I google everything. Every recipe I post here, every time I have spare ingredients I’m looking to get rid of. “Unsweetened chocolate recipes” is one of my latest searches, because I accidentally bought 4 oz of it instead of semi-sweet and don’t know what to do. (I’ll probably end up make brownies.) I have also googled in the last few months:

Reduced milk recipe

Quinoa recipe

Bean recipe

Dark corn syrup recipe

Pie crust recipe

Apple pie recipe

Scallion pancake recipe

The point is, just because you don’t know what to do shouldn’t keep you from making good food! Personally, I love Epicurious, and always check their suggestions first, but the internet is wide and deep and full of people who will suggest cooking times, oven temperature, and spices you can add to stuff to make it taste good. Don’t be afraid to scroll through 4 different recipes on different domains, even if it’s the same dish; or to add “simple” to you search terms. You have more cookery knowledge at your clumsy fingertips than anyone before us ever has---use it.

3) Store it, freeze it, stick it in a tupperware.

As someone who’s now been cooking for herself for at least 5 years, I am here to tell you that there’s no “cooking for one.” Cooking for one is a lie. What you do is cook for 3-4 people, and then freeze or refrigerate the leftovers. So it’s important to consider how well your various ingredients freeze and how you’ll reheat them when the time comes.

Meat and seafood freeze well when you get them from the grocery store! Unfortunately, if you cook something or marinate it, and leave it to sit in the fridge, it will get very tough or break down entirely. (This is especially true if you use a particularly acidic marinade.) Unless you get them already frozen, fruits and vegetables do not freeze well at all—water expands as it freezes, and your fresh fruit & veg are so watery that the ice completely ruins the cellulose structure and defrosting will make them mushy. If you have leftover cooked vegetables, those should be used in scrambled eggs or eaten with a sauce within the week. Cream-based soups and sauces freeze pretty nicely, you just have to be careful not to leave them long enough to get freezer burn. Freezing bread arrests the yeast and mold processes, so if you’re looking to keep your loaf from turning, stick it in the freezer in an airtight bag.

(I haven’t had a microwave in two years, so most of what I make is the kind of stuff I can reheat on the stove—or eat cold!)

Also, most food isn’t ruined by temperature---you can leave a lot of stuff out on the counter after cooking without fear of bacteria. However, too much exposure to the air will ruin just about any dish: creams curdle, meat toughens, vegetables soften, starches harden. If you’re going to store something at room temperature, stick it in a ziploc bag, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil quickly, and it’ll last longer even without the refrigerator.

4) Occasionally, try something new.

Obviously, as a uni student you should try lots of new things---but as a uni student cooking for yourself, I encourage you to occasionally experiment. Make bread, if you’ve never made bread before; try a desert if you’ve been focused on single-serving chicken breasts. Once every few months, try cooking or baking something you’ve absolutely never tried. (For hard mode, pick something completely out of the ballpark---for example, a couple months ago I tried to make a meringue and failed miserably. But I think I understand why I failed and that’s made me a better cook in the interim.)

It is, of course, very important that we eat in a way that serves our body and its needs. But at the same time, making food has always struck me as serving more than just need---we make food to show our love and appreciation for others (isn’t feeding an act of service?), to articulate desires we can’t verbalize, to satisfy unreasonable cravings, to demonstrate capability, to prove our worthiness, to offer something that isn’t-sex-but-is, etc. etc. etc. Food is very rarely ever just food. Which means that sometimes, we should sequester ourselves in the kitchen and see if we can make that....thing from the Great British Bakeoff.

As a footnote, I hope my coworkers enjoy haphazardly baked alaska.

#tw food #no love sincerer than the love of food #Anonymous

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dancing-with-dichotomies · 5 years ago

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Additional Possible Trio of Towns Personalization Options?

Okay, so it’s already been mentioned that people want to see more shades of skin colors, especially in darker shades, and they also want to see same-sex pairings be possible. I think these are some other personalization options that would make the game feel more fun and unique.

A few more hair/eye colors. We got a good basic set but some in-between shades would be nice, or heck, yanno, just let us choose the shade from the color grid 100% personally. Why not, can’t be that hard if Stardew did it right?

At least 3 shades of light, medium and dark skin tones, each. We have extra light, light, sorta light, and then “olive”/actually tan or something, and “coffee”, which is a light dark. Need at least two more shades of medium (try distinguishing the orangey spray tan looking tan with actual light brown tan...) and two more of dark (Again, try the “coffee” with cream you already got with some REAL black coffee!)

If the world could get over it’s homophobia and realize that gay people existing doesn’t stop heterosexual and bisexual people from existing and continuing the population, it would also be cool to choose your sexual orientation at the beginning of the game. If you choose heterosexual, only opposite sex marriage candidates will give you romantic lines/flirt with you and same sex ones will only extend friendly lines. If you choose homosexual, only same sex candidates flirt with you and opposite sex remains “just friends”. If you choose bisexual, all marriage candidates will flirt with you equally, and if you choose “It doesn’t matter/Hearts not parts/Pansexual”, perhaps that could then unlock two new trans marriage candidates, who would hopefully both be good, non-offensive representation for both a transwoman and a transman. And please not just the generic Pink!Girl and Blue!Boy, REAL -characters-. Please do NOT trans any existing characters, however, that would probably step on toes.

Also, if you choose to be homosexual and adopt, it’d be cute if you could befriend/adopt existing characters that seem to need a home like Sumomo or maybe Tigre or another child character in need of adoption, instead just adopting a random child. Opposite sex pairs of course should also be able/encouraged to adopt.

For that matter? How about less girls and boys and more men and women? It’d be cool if you could choose your age range, and have a few new marriage options be available/not available depending on your age? This would be a good way to establish social boundaries, too. If you choose 18-21, you can only date characters close to that age, and you cannot marry/date slightly older until after at least 3 years pass in game. After 3 years you can date/marry the characters in their 20′s. If you choose 21-29, You can marry candidates that age or just a little older. I see Ford as 31-32 but he should be the oldest marriage candidate for that age group.

If you choose to be 30+ you should then get new older marriage candidates. In addition to Ford and maybe another extra 30-something candidate or two, both male and female, I think a lot of people would love to marry Widower!Hector and give his boy Colin a mother and have them live on your farm. Or you know poor hassled Lotus from Lulukoko has a following of fan-ladies and fellas too! And maybe have Ittetsu or Ginjiro have a single younger brother, or give Moriya a second chance at love after his heartbreak? This would make the game feel both more unique and expansive, but inclusive of all different kinds of players, from different walks of life. Naturally, only people who choose 30+ should be allowed to marry these characters. Older chars will only flirt with an older player, and the younger chars will only flirt with a character appropriate to their age.

Another customization idea I had, was if a future game allowed you to butcher animals for meats, perhaps at the start of the game it can ask you if you are an omnivore (eats both plants and meat) or a vegetarian? If you choose omnivore, the game adds the butchering option and adds a few extra meat recipes/game quests based on that. If you choose vegetarian, it will choose to only focus on fruits and veggies and not make you butcher any animals for quests.

Speaking of which, a few extra animals would be nice. Ducks and pigs would be fun too. In the butchering option pigs can be used for meat, in the vegetarian option they can be truffle-hunters. A white pekin duck, a green/brown mallard, and a black duck would be cute to do with the quail, silkie and regular chicken.

I think with the added personalization options, it would also open up both new quests and new options for interactions. I think it would be very interesting to see boundaries be taught through such a varied and unique set of communities.

And please. We know you can draw characters that look reasonably-aged like Kasumi and Ford and Hector and Lotus now, so... PLEASE. NO more marriage options that look like literal six-year-olds like Inari or that so called Doctor Cody(?) or whatever who looked 100% like a kid pretending to be a doctor, not a real one like Ford.

Also speaking of Ford and reasonably-aged characters, why not have Ford have a female cousin his age, who looks and acts around 30 like him, maybe from a family who helped Ford become a doctor after he left his neglectful mother and father, and who maybe comes to work at his clinic as either a nurse or fellow doctor.

Also speaking of Ford, as a six foot tall woman his “you’re so petite~” lines peeve me off sometimes, lol. XD Maybe get to choose if your char is tall/short or thin/muscular/”huggable”, and have dialogue towards them change accordingly? Not just assume females are tiny/petite and men are big/burly?

Lastly, I’ve mentioned matchmaking or friend-bridges before... But it would also be interesting if this was used to explore boundaries. For example, you can set up Ludus with Lisette or Komari (maaaybe Hinata?) just fine, but he will be uninterested in Iluka and Siluka and Ford, and vice-versa. Siluka might like Ford or Wayne, but not Hinata or Yuzuki? Maybe Hinata has feelings for Yuzuki, but Yuzuki would only be interested in pursuing the Kasumi, Komari, Lisette or Siluka… Maaaybe Wayne? Or maybe not. Maybe Yuzuki could be strictly heterosexual despite appearing GNC, but still let other characters be bi or gay?

Well, I can dream and scream into the wind~ Let me know if you guys think these would be cool in a future TOT game too!

#sos tot #trio of towns #story of seasons trio of towns #3ot #3ot ford #3ot ludus #lgbt gamer

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deadmomjokes · 6 years ago

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Adulting 101: Grocery Shopping, Smarter

I have roomed with way too many freshmen who lived on fries and takeout because they, per their own admission, had no clue how to buy groceries. And I know a bunch of people are probably in the same boat. So I’m going to take you through the issues I often had to help my tiny baby roomies with, and drop some extra tips on you that I’ve figured out while living away from home. Feel free to add your own!

PRODUCE BUYING (yes, you need to eat a plant every now and then)

Canned and frozen veggies are just as nutritious as fresh, sometimes moreso. Nutrient content degrades as the vegetable sits after picking, and if you live somewhere that your produce has long shipping times, it’s actually less nutritious than canned or frozen. In canned vegetables, look for the “low sodium” marker. Canned and frozen also last a million times longer than fresh, and are WAY cheaper. Buy the frozen broccoli and thank yourself later when you have Netflix money left over.

Pro tip: when using canned veggies, rinse them a few times. They now taste fresh, ready to cook or ready to eat straight. You’re welcome.

When shopping for canned fruit, pick ones that are packed in 100% juice, not syrup. That syrup not only makes things way less healthy, it makes it pretty slimy too. Plus the juice is nice in smoothies, if you choose to save it.

If you buy fresh, do so in quantities that look too small. Get what you think you need, then put a little back. You always need less than you think. If you DO buy large quantities and they start to look funny, cut them up and freeze them.

When buying fresh, get some that are ripe now, and some that need a few days. This way you have some that will last a bit longer rather than trying to scramble to eat 3 avocados within 24 hours.

Buy onions in bulk, chop them up all at once, and freeze them. Only cry once, my friends. They cook much faster when they were previously frozen, and they last ages. Plus a sack of chopped frozen onions makes a good makeshift ice pack for twisted ankles and sore backs, and it won’t hurt to thaw and re-freeze a few times.

Here’s a cheat-sheet for how long produce lasts and how to store them. This should give you a good idea of how much to buy. It is very conservative, tho, so don’t panic. For instance, it says tomatoes only last about 3 days, but I’ve gotten a week and a half out of them if you don’t refrigerate them and keep them away from other fruit. Use it as a guide, and google some other “produce cheat sheets” to get an idea of your time window.

When buying frozen vegetables, get the big resealable packages. They’re cheaper per ounce, and you don’t have to worry about whether you can eat all of it at once. If you have limited freezer space, however, just get some freezer ziploc bags and store the extras in that. Twist-tying the opened, non-resealable bag will just freezer burn your food.

I know you think you eat a lot of potatoes, but you, an individual, do not eat enough potatoes to warrant that 5 or 10 pound sack that’s always on sale. Pass it by and go to the individual, select-a-piece display. You’ll thank me when you aren’t cleaning up rotten potato goo in a few weeks because you only got halfway through the sack and just couldn’t eat any more potatoes.

MEAT BUYING

Buy in bulk, keep out only what you’ll use within a day, and freeze the rest into individual serving size packages. You can get SO many meals out of a tray of chicken breasts, so buy as big a package as you have freezer room for.

Check the yellow-tag/clearance section. You find amazing deals there! Just freeze it right away if you aren’t cooking the whole thing for dinner that night. Yellow-tag is always because it’s nearing its sell-by date.

Don’t feel like you have to cook meat in whatever size or form it comes. Buy big honking roasts and cut your own chops/steak from it. Buy that tray of chicken breasts and cut each piece into stew chunks or strips . Get the bone-in stuff and fillet it yourself. Think big when buying, small when storing, and then use that knife block your mom gave you and slicey slice things down to an individual size, or into something new. (Pork roast into chunks makes for a great, cheap stir fry.) Pop the rest into freezer ziploc bags and take it out the day before you need it. (Thaw in-fridge, please, it’s much safer.)

Ground turkey acts the same as ground beef in most recipes, and is generally cheaper unless you live in beef country. Substitute and save.

GRAINS

As with produce, buy your flour and sugar in much smaller quantities than you think you need. That 2lb sack doesn’t look like very much, but it’s a lot less likely to attract pests if it’s not sitting there for months while you struggle to use it, and it’s also much more manageable so it doesn’t get everywhere while cooking or storing. (You’ll also make fewer sweets if you don’t have a huge bag of sugar sitting in your cabinet getting clumpy and worrying you.)

Mac-and-cheese IS a viable grain option, and if you dump in some broccoli and/or chicken chunks, it’s a full meal. It’s cheap, but less sodium than ramen, so try switching it up. Also try to look for mac-and-cheese made with whole and/or enriched flour if you eat a lot of it, you’ll be slighly less likely to get constipated from it.

Premade loaf bread has a butt-ton of sugar in it. This is not only not as good for you, but makes the bread more likely to mold quicker! So look for low-sugar options. (Or make your own bread, it’s not too hard.)

DAIRY

Unless you’re like me and drink a crapton of milk (doctor’s orders, don’t judge), buy your milk in half-gallons. You can always grab another one if you run low between regular grocery shopping days, but you don’t want to have the experience of going to pour your cereal and getting your appetite ruined by the smell of rotten milk.

If you can’t or don’t want to drink milk, most milk alternatives are now fortified with the same nutrients that animal milk has. Don’t skip the dairy recommendation because you don’t like animal milk, get yourself some soy or almond milk and get your daily calcium intake!

Cheese lasts a long time, but will get dry, hard, and powdery if not stored properly. Look for, you guessed it, resealable packages.

Most of the time, block cheese is cheaper than grated and you can just grate it yourself at home. But always check the price-per-ounce, it’s usually located in the corner or on the side of the tag.

Yogurt lasts longer than you think it will. Buy in the big tubs, not individual cups. It’s cheaper, and you can pick how much you want.

SHOPPING TIPS

Shop by what’s on sale to save money. Have an idea of what you want when you go in, but be flexible with your choices. For instance, I would go in with a shopping list that had an item that was simply “sale meat.” I had meal ideas planned out that I could replace or alter based on what was on sale at the store. No chicken on sale, but the tofu was marked down? We’re having tofu stir fry on Wednesday instead! Apples on sale? You had planned to get bananas, but if the apples are cheaper you can either get some of both or just do apples. Check the sale papers or online ads beforehand to see what kind of specials they have, and try planning meals around that.

Speaking of, CHECK THE SALE PAPERS! Save those mailers, compare prices, and see which store has what you’re after. Google the store’s website and see if they list their specials online.

Have a basic plan for what you’re going to do with your purchases. Don’t just pick up a bunch of kohlrabi “to try” if you don’t have a plan. It could be as simple as “I’m going to look up a recipe later today and I’m moving Tuesday’s dinner to next week so I can make this new thing on Tuesday.” But don’t just go “huh, that’s neat” and buy it without consciously planning when to use it. Or you’re going to end up with rotten kohlrabi and money wasted. Be aware of what you’re buying, and tell yourself how you’re going to use it before you put it on your list, or in your cart if it’s a last minute decision.

Don’t shop hungry. Simple idea, you’ve probably heard it before, but you’ll come home with impulse buys and a headache if you shop on a very empty stomach.

Make a list. You ARE going to forget that you really needed rice if you don’t put it on that list. I know you think you’ll remember, but you won’t. Crossing the threshold of a supermarket completely wipes your RAM. Write that stuff down somewhere and take it with you.

Be willing to shop around. I know Walmart is convenient, and it has asparagus on sale, but if the Kroger also has an amazing sale on the salad greens that you were planning on buying, try to make the effort to get to both stores. Nobody said saving money and eating well was easy, but it is worth it. Unless one store has price match, then just take your ad in and do the shopping at that store.

Try to have a buddy. Grocery shopping can be exhausting and stressful, but a friend can make it easier, and keep you sane. They can also help steer you away from impulse buys just by their very presence. It’s a lot harder to justify the checkout candy bar when your friend is right there, even if they don’t say anything. (Or you could get both of you a candy bar, if you’ve got the cash for it.)

Try to pick a single grocery day and plan for it consistently. Weekly, biweekly, whatever is best for you, just plan a day to do your in-depth shopping. Shopping piecemeal is a good way to spend more money than necessary, and to make sure you forget stuff. (You may have to make fill-in trips between big shopping days, but plan the big ones and try to put off as much as you can until then. But stopping for milk because you ran out won’t break the bank, so don’t worry about doing an occasional quick-stop.)

STORAGE TIPS

Ziploc bags are your friend, but make sure you know what kind you’re getting. Only specifically labeled “freezer bags” should be used in the freezer, or you risk your food getting icy and freezer burnt. Also, look for the store-brand zipper bags, they work just as well.

Label everything you put into the freezer if it’s not in the original package. You’re going to have days where you can’t tell if that’s chicken or tofu. Most freezer zipper bags have a space just for labeling. Keep a kitchen sharpie handy and label stuff. Also put the date on it, and use things within a year of freezing.

Get canisters. There are some cheap ones, even, but get SOMETHING. Put your flour and sugar in the canisters. It will last longer, and you don’t risk the bugs. You may think your apartment is safe, but bug season comes for us all in the end, and those little turds go right for a folded-over sack of flour, I swear.

Keep a list on the front of your freezer of everything that’s in there. Add to the list as you put stuff in, and cross stuff off as you take it out. That way you don’t have to dig to know if you have any more of those frozen peaches you like in your smoothies. Nor will you forget for a million years the bag of stew meat you had intended to use. Small magnetic whiteboards are particularly good for this purpose. (Also consider doing that for each major storage area--fridge, cabinets, pantry, etc-- if you routinely forget what’s in there. You could even tape it to the inside of the cabinet door so nobody else sees your bad memory.)

Don’t store potatoes and onions next to each other. They’ll both sprout.

Keep bananas away from all other produce. They’re naughty ethylene fiends that will spoil your tomatoes just for fun. That said, stick a banana in with an under ripe fruit and it’ll be ready in a day or two.

Take your produce out of the little plastic bags unless they need to ripen a bit more.

Go through your fridge completely once a month. Take everything out, check the dates, sniff it, and throw out old/rotten/nasty stuff. Go through your freezer once every 2 or 3 months. Reorganize your stacks, and double check your content list is current.

I know this is long, but I hope it can be helpful. Please add on any tips you have, at the very least I’d love to read them!

#long post #food tw #adulting #grocery shopping

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doghausmtl · 5 years ago

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The 7 Best Supplements for Your Dog’s Raw Diet

Many dog parents have made or are making the switch to raw food diet for the multitude of benefits it provides: fresh breath and clean teeth, healthier skin and coat, better emotional and mental health, and better digestion. Much of this is made possible because raw food doesn’t preserve or process any of the whole foods that go into it - processes that may ensure longer shelf life but that strip away nutrition at its source.

But does feeding fresh, raw food mean that adding supplements or other fresh foods is no longer necessary?

We don’t think so, and for two main reasons:

Some ingredients don’t freeze or dehydrate well, so adding them as fresh ingredients is essential for unlocking their nutritional potential and providing your dog a complete diet.

Supplementing, whether by adding fresh ingredients or appropriate supplements, is a way of individualizing your dog’s food to fit their precise dietary, lifestyle, and wellness needs.

Like with any diet, make sure that you’re feeding a nutritionally balanced food that's made from reliably sourced ingredients. In this blog, we’re using Formule Raw’s frozen beef formula. This raw recipe is made from 90% antibiotic- and hormone-free beef, 10% fruits and vegetables, and is nutritionally balanced for all breeds and ages of dogs. Not to mention: dogs love it!

So let’s take a look at our favourite supplements that will boost the nutritional availability of any raw food diet:

Happy Days Raw Fermented Goat Milk is easy to feed and looks so delicious that we could almost drink it!

1. Goat milk

Unlike the store-bought cow milk that so many of us are accustomed to, goat milk is more easily digestible and less likely to cause an allergic reaction, thanks to low quantities of a number of proteins found in cow milk that have been linked to allergies. Raw goat milk, which preserves many of its naturally-occurring nutrients, also contains lactase enzymes. This means that even those with lactose intolerance - including dogs - can digest goat milk without any issues.

Goat milk is often considered one of the most complete sources of nutrition available. It contains a balanced source of protein, electrolytes, trace elements, digestive enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, making it a powerhouse of highly digestible nutrition. Raw goat milk that has been fermented - a process that preserves the natural microorganisms within - contains over 200 probiotics that boost digestive function and immune support. And as we’re coming to find out, your dog’s digestive system plays a huge role not only in their overall health, but in their emotional and mental health, as well.

Best of all, this supplement is suitable for daily use, especially for maintenance of chronic issues such as poor digestion and even liver and kidney disease; or simply add it as a probiotic boost!

The Honest Kitchen’s Beef Bone Broth comes in a powdered form, but can easily be rehydrated and even made into delicious frozen treats!

2. Bone Broth

Bone broth is made by taking bones, especially collagen-dense bones and tissues around the joints, and simmering them in water and an acid (like vinegar) for 24 hours or more. This long process helps to draw out all the beneficial nutrition found in the bones themselves and make them easily digestible.

You’ve probably already heard of bone broth, as it has become somewhat of a celebrity in the health food world - but for good reason. Full of minerals, bone broth contains a number of compounds that help protect and heal joints, particularly glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid.

And with the addition of turmeric in The Honest Kicthen’s Beef Bone Broth, which acts as a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, bone broth also makes for a restorative supplement for digestive upsets. It’s ideal for a dog who’s feeling under the weather, or as an intermittent supplement for a dog who needs an extra spring in his step.

Fresh blueberries and a spoonful of veggie and fruit mix - puréed cranberries, broccoli, raspberries, and ground flax seeds.

3. Fresh Greens

Dogs are facultative carnivores, meaning that they can survive on vegetarian diets, but thrive as meat-eaters. The amount of fresh fruits and vegetables you give to your dog is entirely up to you and your dog’s individual needs. But no matter the quantity, fresh greens help provide and can even accentuate many of the vitamins, minerals, fibre, and antioxidants otherwise unavailable to dogs in a purely meat-based diet.

So selecting greens that compliment your dog’s dietary requirements is key. Some of these include: blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, strawberries, pumpkin, broccoli, kale, spinach, kelp, and various microgreens. Blueberries, for example, contain manganese, a trace mineral that helps metabolism protein and carbohydratess, whereas strawberries can even help whiten your dog’s teeth!

But because fruits are a natural source of sugar, avoid feeding excessive amounts. And because not all dogs will take to eating whole fruits or vegetables, nor is it always feasible for them to easily digest them, blending (and freezing) greens is a painless way of providing a green boost to your dog’s health.

Fresh, organic eggs cracked open and ready to be slurped up!

4. Eggs

No matter what diet you feed your dog, whole, fresh eggs are one of the most balanced and bioavailable sources of additional nutrition you can provide. They’re inexpensive and delicious, but don’t shy away from pasture-raised and organic eggs - you are what you eat, after all, and pasture-raised chickens lay eggs that have a higher nutritional value than conventional eggs, with higher levels of protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and even fatty acids.

Eggs can be fed raw or soft-boiled, and are great as added protein after a long or active day. As an added enrichment, raw, pasture-laid eggs can be fed whole, as the shell and membrane contain healthy amounts of calcium and phosphorous, as well as other minerals and proteins that play a role in maintaining good bone and joint health.

Bonnie & Clyde’s Wild Omega-3 Fish Oil uses sustainably caught wild sardines, anchovies, and mackerel, and doesn’t have any funky fish smell!

5. Fish Oil

Fish oil is generally made from fat that’s extracted from fish tissue, but can also be made from the livers of some fish - think cod liver oil. It's most known for being rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including EPA and DHA, that are more potent than those found in plant-based sources. A healthy ratio of omega-3s has been linked to healthy growth and maintenance of your dog’s heart, brain, eyes, skin, and even has anti-inflammatory properties. It’s an all-around powerful supplement for mobility and overall health, particularly for aging dogs.

However, fish oil degrades quickly and doesn’t freeze well, so serving it fresh, preferably right before a meal, is the best way to provide its benefits to your dog. Alternatively, both hemp seed oil and flax seed oil contain a comparable amount of essential fatty acids and are just as beneficial when added to a raw food diet.

Raw honey from your local beekeeper works best!

6. Raw honey

A true product of its local environment, honey is made from the nectar of flowering plants, which is then further broken down in the beehive. Raw, unpasteurized, and unfiltered honey is exactly as you would find it in the hive itself. Pasteurization and filtration may make the honey smoother and give it a longer shelf life, but they ultimately strip away the most nutritious aspects of honey: its many important antioxidants and local pollen.

Antioxidants help protect your dog’s cells against free radicals, which play a role in heart disease, cancer, and some chronic illnesses. But pollen? For dogs that suffer from seasonal allergies, exposing them to incremental amounts of local pollen may alleviate their symptoms.

On top of that, honey has a wonderfully sweet flavour that even dogs adore, so it can be added as a topper to any food to entice picky eaters. Certain kinds of raw honey, notably Manuka Honey from Australia and New Zealand, possess antibacterial qualities and can even be used to treat wounds.

RawPaw’s Green Lipped Mussel powder is made fresh from whole New Zealand mussels.

7. Green Lipped Mussel

Green Lipped Mussels (GLMs), or New Zealand mussels are a type of shellfish found only along the coasts of New Zealand. What set these small, green-streaked mussels apart from many other sustainable food sources are the extraordinary health benefits they possess: even in a powdered extract form, GLMs contain very high concentrations of Omega-3s, which, as said before, play a role in heart and brain health.

Most importantly, GLMs contain high quantities of glucosamine and chondroitin. Both of these not only reduce inflammation and discomfort from regular wear and tear or from degenerative inflammatory conditions like arthritis, but also help build and maintain healthy cartilage and bone - making GLM a safe treatment for joint problems and as a preventative treatment for active dogs. Given that 50% of dogs over the age of eight develop inflammatory joint conditions, GLMs are a highly accessible form of pain and inflammation management. Best of all, this powerful supplement has no known side-effects!

Green Lipped Mussel powder can be fed as a topping to food, mixed into liquids, or even fed as ice cubes.

Supplementing your dog’s diet doesn’t have to be hard, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly beneficial. Every dog can at the very least benefit from the addition of probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, and fresh greens to help to promote a healthy body and mind.

Because each dog is unique, differences in breed, size, age, personal history, and even dietary preferences will influence what kinds of supplements will be the most beneficial for them. So if you’ve been inspired by any of the supplements here and you’re curious about what you could be adding to your dog’s diet, come visit us at the store! We always get really excited when someone asks us about supplements - even for cats!

#supplements #dogs #doghausmtl #doghaus montreal #dog nutrition #productswelove

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sansanficrec · 6 years ago

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Q&A with ladytp

Grab a glass of wine and get to know @ladytp!

How long have you been writing fanfiction?

I actually went back to the folder of my first posted fanfic, and it was almost 6.5 years ago, September 2012… That was my first ever creative work I wrote as well, as I started quite late – being already adult, established professional and all that. So never too late to start, one doesn’t have to have grown up writing!

Did you write before that?

No I didn't - unless scientific publications are counted as 'creative' writing (well, to be honest, sometimes there was an element of creativity when trying to make one's data make sense, LOL!)

How long ago did you join Tumblr?

To be precise (as I like to be!) I joined March 1st 2013 – so almost six years ago… But it took me four months to make my first post (an awesome music video about ASOIAF and GoT), being initially a ‘lurker’ to observe and learn. I migrated there from Livejournal when things started to quiet down there – like a moth I was drawn to bright lights, moving images, and more of my fandom content!

What is the meaning behind your username?

My username is from the Livejournal times as well, as when I joined it, I didn’t grasp the significance of one’s url or username and just picked the first one that came to mind when filling in the details: “lady” and my initials. D’oh! Luckily I have been able to successfully have the same name in other platforms as well, which is great – it is easier than have many different names. I am also glad that it is not fandom specific, as my interests are many and varied…

What was your first fandom? First pairing?

Definitively ASOIAF – that was my introduction to the whole cultural phenomenon of ‘fandom’, devouring fics and joining communities (yeah, I am so far behind of everyone else – I used to have a life, LOL!). Sansan was my first ship, but I also had a brief period when I was very interested in Daenerys and Jorah (this was before I saw the show). Even though the show had a big negative impact on Sansan experience for me (not due to Rory, I hasten to add – but the storylines), it has still stayed my OTP in a sense that I feel most comfortable about writing them and their dynamic still fascinates me above anything else.

How/when did you first notice (or start to ship) Sansan?

My story is very typical; first reading their interactions after the Hand’s Tourney, then the scene of the Battle of the Blackwater – and I was hooked. Googling and finding fics, Livejournal communities and all the metas…no getting back from there! I mean; it is so blatantly obvious that I wonder who can read the books and NOT get the vibes??

Is there a SanSan fic you’re particularly proud of? Chapter? Paragraph? Plot?

Hmmm…’Which one of your children you love the best?’, in other words – always a difficult question! I guess I am still the proudest of “The Triangle” It was one of my early fics, it was a long-fic, and it was about the subject I had been fascinated with for years and years; the complicated Arthurian relationship between 3 people who loved each other for different reasons (Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot in the original, Sandor, Sansa and Jaime in the fic). Chapter-wise I am very happy with the last chapter of the “Kiss of the Blade”, as hard as it may be for some due to the character death implied. It has melancholy but also beauty, I thought when I wrote it. Plot-wise I am excited and happy about my current WIP “This Time, We’ll Do Better”, as although it has some common trope elements, I think they have somewhat cool applications and it is nice to write something more plot-orientated for a change!

Any comments you’ve received that stick out, even now?

I have to admit that again, “The Triangle” inspired some absolutely wonderful comments, probably because of its unusual premise. Towards the end, and especially with people who had read it in one go long after it had been completed, there were some wonderful convos going back and forth. I especially enjoyed the ones where people either told that they had had some reservations starting it, but then ended up really enjoying the fic, or the ones where they might have had some queries and doubts and questions, leading to a mutually fruitful and eye-opening discussions on both sides. Those conversations really blew my mind!

Do you use a beta?

I have had the privilege of working with two wonderful betas, of which I am eternally grateful. The first one was wildskysheri / wildsky, whom I “met” via Livejournal, and who betaed for me for “The Triangle”, “A Chance Encounter” and “A Premediated Reunion”. She taught me – a non-native English speaker/writer – so much about writing and what to pay attention to and what to look out for. I owe her so much! After our ways parted amicably as she moved on to other things, I was without beta for a long time, not really actively looking for one, but when my path crossed with the lovely @hardlyfatal, I have once again had the pleasure of getting my words scrutinised by someone knowledgeable, making them better on “This Time, We’ll Do Better”. I honestly can’t speak highly enough for a beta who can make any writer and fic so much better!

Are there tropes/styles/genres you struggle with? Any that are almost too easy?

I do struggle a bit writing babies and children, and hence haven’t written much about them… I don’t generally care for modern AUs either and would struggle to write a full story in a modern times – although who knows, maybe in a right setting, replicating the high stakes situation of the canon, it could work. Haven’t tried so can’t say for sure! Very fluffy genre is also something I don’t feel particularly comfortable with, nor anything where the characters are very young. And porn without plot is neither a genre I relish. The most comfortable genres for me are the slow-burns, where mature people interact with each other in a mature way (whatever that means…). First realisations of feelings, hesitancy, and all that. I also do like plot-driven stories that have a start, middle and ending. I am all open for fake marriage, bed-sharing, ‘there was only one room at the inn’ kind of genres – any kind of ‘forced’ situations where the characters are obliged to spend time together!

When you start a fic, do you know where it will end? Or do you figure it out along the way?

There have been fics along both scenarios – some were started at the spur of the moment, with only vague ideas of where and how far they would go (”The Prophecy” comes to mind, which I started as a random holiday scribbling – and repeatedly apologised and updated my chapter number as it grew and grew and grew…). And there were the ones where even at the end I couldn’t decide what the ending should be, so I wrote two (for example “Past Was Such A Long Time Ago“). But for most I would have some idea about the ending at the start, and for some I would gain it somewhere early along the way. So yeah, it varies!

Do you have any rituals/conditions for ‘getting in the mood’ to write?

I mostly write over the weekends when I have more time, after getting up and having breakfast, reading my emails and checking on Tumblr and doing all the routine stuff one does – and then I open my doc and start writing… With my internet radio blasting on the background on some jazz or lounge or classic channel. I find it hard to write during the weeks after getting back from work and being distracted by mundane home things and TV and such.

Have you ever had writer’s block? Any tips for overcoming it?

I did have a period well over a year ago when I felt I had ‘lost my mojo’. It was largely to do with the way the Game of Thrones show had progressed and changed the characters so much that I couldn’t recognise them anymore, and my initial inspiration of writing about them consequently suffered. Especially as the show canon started to take over the original book canon so strongly in many platforms, including fics. The way I got over it was to distance myself from the show and partly, unfortunately, also from the fandom (so largely focused on show). I had a nice break, didn’t read many fics, focused on books and generally took a step back. Then I challenged myself to write a new type of story, a plot-focused ‘action & adventure’ story instead of romance focused only. That inspired me to write again, and I have been riding on that inspirational wave ever since with my latest long-fic WIP!

Aspirations of publishing one day?

No, not really. It is a tough world out there, especially as writing has become more reachable to many people who previously might not have even considered it (yay, fanfic and other forms of creative writing and platforms encouraging it!), and publishing world is awash with submissions and self-published stories alike. Although I don’t know for sure, I suspect that wanting to become published would take much more effort and determination and will than what I have for now, as for me this is a lovely hobby, nothing more.

What are your other hobbies?

My absolutely biggest hobbies are food and wine. I have loved cooking, eating and learning about food and wine for most of my life and it’s really important for me. Cooking meals ‘from the scratch’ from their base ingredient is what I love, as well as learning to master new techniques, new cuisines and difficult recipes. When I travel, food is one of the main drivers for that too, and holidays are largely built around restaurants, regions, cuisines and wineries. Holidaying in wine regions and wine tasting is the favourite kind of holiday! Yet I also love everyday cooking – the beauty of this as a hobby is that I get to do it every day and can challenge myself, be inspired by it and practice it all the time!

As for other hobbies…not really… I follow the transformative artform that is WWE, especially Dean Ambrose, and love visiting historical sites and reading about history, but that can hardly be called an active hobby… I also make some photo and video edits for fun, but lately my writing has taken much of the time I used to dedicate to that. Yet I feel that what I have is enough – I have no desires for an active life with lots of different hobbies and activities.

Any tips for writers looking to post their first (or second, or twentieth) fic?

I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh, but it would be really cool if even those who write only for ‘shits and giggles’ would do some basic formatting and language checks… Things like how to indicate dialogue, spacing between paragraphs and when to apply them, and of course, basic grammar. There are nowadays so many websites advising about those things, as well as free tools (for example Grammarly), that they are accessible to every person with access to sites posting their stuff – and a simple Google search is your best friend. I recommend this because ignoring those things may easily drown even the most amazing story in these times of fic over-abundance.

Other than that, write the stories you would like to read yourself, and the scenarios you would like to see in the canon. Study the writing style of the writers whose stories you admire and see if you could pick up a trick or two from them (but not plagiarizing, naturally). And if you can, get a beta – it is not absolutely necessary, but would give you a second opinion and advice from a trusted person. Oh, and give yourself a break between writing and final editing – ideally have a buffer of chapters in a draft phase before starting to post, so whenever you write something new, you can afford to let it rest for a while before getting back to it with fresh eyes. And have fun!

Anything you’d like to say to writers in general?

Don’t get hung up on statistics or comparisons. Think why you are writing – is it because everyone does it and you feel you should too, or because you truly enjoy it, or because of the stories themselves, or because you have an internal urge to do it, or it is part of your social networking activities… all are valid reasons, but once you define what they are for you, the easier it is to focus on it and the satisfaction it gives to you.

Anything you’d like to say to readers in general?

If you like a fic, don’t be shy about commenting, as it truly means so much to the writers… Even simplest comment is gratefully received. If you feel like wanting to pass on constructive criticism, first ensure the writer welcomes it, then formulate it in the politest possible way with positivism thrown in as well (and of course, make sure it is actually constructive). Marvel the choices and abundance of fic availability and acknowledge what a joy it is to live in this time and age when all that is possible. Enjoy!

Anything you’d like to say to the SanSan fandom in general?

Do not give up hope – Game of Thrones is over soon and we can get back to canon content, hopefully soon with The Winds of Winter. Whatever the further story of Sandor and Sansa is there, we know how important it has been already and nothing can take that away!

Read LadyTP’s SanSan here!

Read LadyTP’s full library here!

#sansan fic recs #Q&A #ladytp #sansan

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ask-magic-missiles · 6 years ago

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Curious Whether Juicing Is Just As Healthy As The Saying Goes? Look At This Advice!

One of the more convenient tips to get the vitamins and nutrients located in vegatables and fruits is as simple as juicing. There is not any will need to go throughout the trouble of cooking. Juicing provides extensive healthy benefits. There are numerous techniques will get creative with the juice recipes. Please read on for several great juicing tips. When you juice dark, leafy greens like spinach, include cucumber. A great deal of leafy greens have got a strong flavor. Cucumber will mask the unpleasant taste and add refreshing flavor from the own. Furthermore, it has a huge amount of nutrients inside, particularly if add the skin. A lot of people want to use juice as an alternative for the meal. When you discover simply how much food explores a glass of juice after preparing it a few times, you can expect Improve Your Body. Join for Free this helpful Fasting Group. to realise why this is certainly so. Drink the full glass as should it be dinner, hence the vitamins and nutrients reach your bloodstream more rapidly. Before juicing, check out the vegatables and fruits that you just consider juicing. You could find that you will discover a variation from the amounts and kinds of nutrients in all of the many things in the produce isle. Use this particular information to make juice blends that meet your personal needs. You simply will not only supply your whole body together with the right nutrients, and also find some interesting blends you could possibly enjoy. You might get pulp with your juice sometimes, however, you may remedy this by using a coffee filter. Use only a filter, naturally, if you realise the pulp unpleasant and would favor it stop being with your juice. When you strain the juice by using a cheesecloth or single coffee filter, you can expect to eliminate many of the pulp. When juicing for the health rewards, look for using ingredients from greens for example: broccoli, chard, parsley, kale and spinach to the greatest effectiveness. You must achieve juices that happen to be composed of between 50 and 70 % greens. Incorporating other veggies and fruits is merely to provide more flavor. Juices made exclusively from fruits usually contain more unhealthy sugar than greens-based juices. Not simply is juicing fun, it's yet another very nutritious dietary addition. There are actually certain steps you must take, the majority of them illustrated on this page, to acquire the best from juicing. Consider implementing several of the ideas mentioned previously. Your whole body will probably be content with the outcome that happen to be from a regular glass of fresh juice.

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dailyaudiobible · 6 years ago

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01/09/2019 DAB Transcript

Genesis 20:1-22:24, Matthew 7:15-29, Psalms 9:1-12, Proverbs 2:16-22

Today is the 9th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a joy to be here with you today and taking the next step forward. And I think we’re far enough into our new year to kind of begin to understand that there’s a rhythm and to begin to understand that the Bible isn't this static old-fashioned book that is irrelevant, that there's a bunch…a bunch of things that it is willing to speak directly and truthfully into our lives. And if we will and heed it that it will change the way that we live our lives. And, so, welcome back for the next day forward. And that will lead us back into the New International Version, which is what we’re reading from this week and back into the book of Genesis chapter 20, 21, and 22 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, you know, we encountered a pretty harrowing story yesterday with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and we talked about that and the way that we subtly move toward judgment, even judgment of God and how that that can estrange us in our journey that we’re taking through the Scriptures yesterday. And, so, today, we kind of encounter another one of those types of stories where God tells Abraham to take is a promised son Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him. And we’re not gonna get into all of that because that story will unfold very, very clearly over some time, other than to just point out God and Abraham had entered into a covenant with each other and covenantal language is something that we will, you know, we will encounter quite a bit. So, we understand that the two of them joined together in covenant, which meant that nothing was off-limits from the other. So, when God tells Abraham to go and take his only son, and He’s very specific about this with Isaac, Abraham is in covenant he cannot withhold anything. And, so, he does. Of course, his trust and faith is in God and Isaac is the son of promise, so Abraham can simply say, “I must follow God even though I don't know how this is gonna work out, but I do know that my son is a son of promise and through my son many generations will come. This is what God told me. In fact, he marched me outside and had me look up the night sky and try to count the stars. So, there's this promise and I need understand what's going on, but I do trust the one I'm in covenant with.” We know how that story worked out but what we may not have paid attention to is the thread of redemption that begins to show itself at all kinds of points in the Bible and this is one of them because Abraham did not withhold his son from God and God didn't take the sacrifice of a human being, instead He sent his own son, His own only son. Now if you’ve been a believer for a long time, then you know, you can connect those dots pretty easy. If this your first trip through the Bible and encountering the stories of the Bible, this one is one that kind of touches a lot of things and will become more and more apparent as we move forward because Isaac is going to have a son of his own, a couple of sons of his own, and they’re gonna change the whole story, but let's…let's go back into the book of Matthew.

Jesus is saying some very important and very forthright, like, non-ambiguous things that we should pay attention to, “judge not, lest you be judged.” That was yesterday. And again, like if you’ve been a believer for a long time you’ve probably encountered the stories of Jesus before. And, so, it's really easy to just encapsulate them into their story form and not really listen to the words Jesus is teaching. What Jesus is saying is revolutionary and when he said it in the first century it was fundamentally revolutionary. We’re used to hearing the words of Jesus now, so it's not quite like…has that kind of impact unless we slow down and listen to what He’s saying. So, let's just examine what He said today. “Many will say to me on that day”, Jesus says, and He's talking about Judgment Day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly. I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.” Okay. So, this is another big deal on our faith journey because we can spend our whole lives trying to get our beliefs correct and our theology airtight and waterproof. We can think that every day that we learn more about God or learn something else about Jesus, then we are drawing closer and closer to Him when Jesus is saying, “there's going to be people who call on the Lord and prophesied in His name and have even cast out demons in His name, and even performed miracles in His name, and He will still say, I didn't know you.” So, what have to realize is that all of our flurry of activity that keeps us busy, that keeps us thinking that we’re drawing closer to God, all the stuff that we might do around our faith that's great, it's just not the point. What Jesus says He will say to those people is, “I never knew you”, which must mean that the point is that we can know Him and not only know about Him and that is a pretty big distinction because if you zoom out and apply these principles to any relationship in your life you would have to say that knowing about somebody is not the same as knowing them. And that should prick us a little bit because when we think of our spirituality and our faith journey, you know, then it's centered around acquiring knowledge most of the time, trying to dial it in, know what to believe, know the spells and incantations, know the potions. Like, I know that's not literal, I'm just saying, like, that's what we boil it down to. If I can say the right mantras, If I can pray the right prayer in the right order doing the right things with the right attitude then God will do something for me, like, just give me the recipe, show me how the recipe works, what I can add and what I cannot add and how to make this whole thing work, just somebody tell me how to do this. Relationships do not work that way. You can read every marriage book that has ever been published…well…you probably couldn't because there's too many that have been published to read in a lifetime, but you could read, I don’t know, the 20 most popular books ever written on marriage and still not know how to be married because it is a relationship and that happens in the spoken and in the unspoken and that does not happen based on the rules. Like, if you're living a rules-based marriage, then you're probably not very happy in it. When you are in a life-giving relationship the rules become apparent and you obey them. Like, I'm not going to commit adultery because I will not break the heart of the one that I love. I'm not going there because of what it would do to the person that I have given my heart to. And you obey the rules because you are in love. Jesus speaking in the first century is speaking to a people that have taken the law, and I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself...ahead of ourselves…because we haven't gotten to the law yet, but these people had taken the law and made their relationship with God all about obeying the rules, which bypasses the idea of a relationship other than just a relationship by proxy because you are behaving a certain way. Jesus is saying to that mindset, you can do all of the right things in it and still not know me. And, so, once again, and I mean, we’re not quite, you know, only just a little over a week into this journey so you can still jump off this boat and swim back to shore probably but it won't be long before we’re so far in the deep that these things that come along and you have to sit with them and really begin to examine your faith and understand what it's made of and where it's headed because my story and the story of thousands and thousands of people that I have spoken to over these last 13 years doing this is one of confusion about faith. Like, how do I know when I'm doing…like how do I know that I'm doing the right thing and believing the right thing? And, so, we’ll redouble our efforts to get the knowledge. And man, that's my story, that is even how I'm wired, to acquire knowledge to truly understand what it is that I'm talking about, but I have found that even if we could know everything there is to know about God that is still not the same thing as being in a relationship with God because I can know everything there is to know about my wife and not be in a relationship with her. And we human beings are wired to be relational people. So, it's like already baked into our DNA, we know when we’re in a relationship and we know when that relationship is life-giving and we also are aware when we are in a bad relationship and it is life taking. So, we know this intuitively, we’re made for relationship. It’s just the ways we try to relate to God are by acquiring knowledge about Him and that's only part of the story. Actually being together in a relationship is what we’re invited into. So, there's some things to think about and examine. Like, what is the status of your relationship, because maybe the state of your life mimics the state of your relationship with God.

Prayer:

And, so, Holy Spirit come, we invite You into that question and we’re again thankful. I mean, yes, yes, with Your word You are pressing into us, You are You are pushing us back. Like, we came into this boldly thinking we may have had much more figured out than we do and You're using Your word to kind of push us back and humble us and we’re now beginning to feel the truth flow into us and ask the right questions of us and of our faith. And this is the beginning place, this is the place where wisdom begins to be planted and flourish and the fruit of the spirit begins to be cultivated within. So, we invite You Holy Spirit to show us. What's our relationship like? Are we unhealthy with You? What needs to change? What needs to go? What needs to stay? What needs to be moved around? You can answer these questions because You have promise to lead us into all truth, You have promised us that there is a narrow path that leads to life. And, yes, few find it but we want to be one of those people. So, we’re humbling ourselves before You and saying there is no question that is off-limits, You can press in on us in any way that You want to. We are hungering and thirsting for Your righteousness, we are hungering and thirsting to live in this world as we were intended, and we don’t want this confusion and this stress and this anxiety that You're telling us that we don't have to have. You told us yesterday, we don’t have to worry about anything, we don’t have to worry about tomorrow, it’ll take care of itself. And, so, we want to live in that place, but we won’t be able to live in that place with a bunch of knowledge, we’ll only be able to live in a place walking with You in deep intertwined relationship. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray into these questions and may their answers be honest, and may they be life changing. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, and of course, its where you find out what's going on around here.

One thing that I’ll mention today that's been mentioned in the past is the Daily Audio Bible shop. There are resources in the Daily Audio Bible shop that we've assembled specifically for this journey, the journey through the year and through the Bible. And, so, you can check those out and there are also other resources, other writings and stuff. What we were just talking about in terms of a relationship with God, there's a longer conversation about that contained in a book that I've written called “Reframe” and you can get that anywhere, but you can also get it in the Daily Audio Bible Shop and that really is an exploration of what we are talking about when we say we’re in a relationship with God. What does that even mean? One of the things any relationship means is that you know the other person, which is what Jesus is saying. I'll tell them plainly, I never knew you. Like, you did all this stuff in my name, but I didn't know you. So, relationships are knowing and being known. And, so, we go into a conversation that’s much more lengthy then we can do just in one sitting here. And, so, if that peeks your interest you can check out that resource, it’s called “Reframe, from the God we've made to God with us.” And that's in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well as bunch of other resources. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and I thank you profoundly and deeply, humbly for your partnership. What we've done we've done together as I've said so many times. And so, as long as we do this together we’ll continue marching forward. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Morning beautiful family, this is Pastor Gene a from Bradenton Florida. I love you guys very much. We had a wonderful, wonderful season of prayer and evangelism and reaching out to others that culminated with our 20 years later wedding celebration. The enemy opposed us every step of the way, but I can say victoriously that the gospel went forth and that many people that did not know the Lord __ bless the __ with the gospel over and over again through our wedding and that was my plan. But I’m really calling to say thank you one more time to Brian, Jill and the whole Hardin family for their love and their efforts to shepherd us. I love you guys very much. I also want to say hi to those of us who are coming back to listen and particularly welcome those that are listening for the first time. Guys, my name is Pastor Gene, I’m Gene McIntyre, I live in Bradenton Florida. I started listening to the DAB, last November it was 5 years, when I was in a very dark place. I’ve had a lifelong struggle of anxiety and depression. And although I’m a woman of faith and I pray, God has chosen not to heal me at this point, but I was going through a very, very severe depression and I was in a very dark place and I looked for a Bible that I could listen to, instead the Lord give me a Bible that I could listen to, a wonderful pastor in Brian Hardin, and a wonderful family of faith in the community of the DAB. So, I, like Brian has said over and over again, I’m not the same person that I was last year and I’m definitely not the same person I was five years ago. So, if you just started listening or if you came back, my encouragement for you is to stick with, stick to the Lord, stick to his word, stick to this community, you will never be the same. I love you family. Have a great 2019, Pastor Gene from Bradenton Florida.

Hey everyone, this is Kristy from Kentucky, I’m back. I want to thank each and every one of you who have prayed for me over these past several years. Those of you who have heard me before know that 17 was extremely hard year, I lost both my mama and my daddy that year, my mom in May and my daddy in October and it has just been extremely difficult for me. I have a brother and I loved him so very much and I lost him in 2005 and he was my only sibling…so…and I have no children. So, this has been a very hard hard transition for me. I praise God to have an amazing husband who is just by me and who has loved me and has been patient with me through these past couple years and I just want to thank each and every one of you for praying for me. You have lifted my heart and my hands in a time when I could barely walk. And, so, I praise God for carrying me through these years and I praise Him for each of you who have meant so very much to me. And, so, anyway I wanted to call and tell you that I love each of you. Happy new year. And by prayer for 2019 is to be able to continue the ministry that my mom started and to find that sense of humor that my daddy had and gave to me. And, so, I’m praying to come back strong in 2019. Alright everyone, I love each and every one of you and I pray that each of you are having a most blessed and lovely day. Take care.

Hi daily Audio Bible family this is Will from beautiful Bozeman Montana. Happy new year, it is January 3rd and God is good, He is so good. Woo!!! I’ll tell you what, I’m just excited to go through this journey with you. I ended 2018 pretty good…pretty good. You know, walking along with the DAB family, know that each and every one of you are in my prayers and I’m just looking forward to what God is going to do to each of us, especially the challenge to maintain. It’s been so good, I’ve been so challenged, I promise you that, but I love the Lord so much and I just thank the Lord for you all DAB family. My prayers go out to you, may you all have a prosperous 2019. Brian and Jill, God bless you, thank you again for this ministry. Love you DAB family. Father, we love You and we praise You in Jesus name.

Hi DAB family, this is Viola from Maryland I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill, God bless you. I’m also excited. I’m looking forward to what God has in store for you guys __. And Ben, well done with your present, well done. Rohkim, my sister, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. I pray that God will wrap His arms around you all, that God will touch you, God will fill you, the word of God says that God is close to the brokenhearted. And, so, I pray that God will be close to you, He will provide for you, He will be the husband and the father in that family, in the name of Jesus. My sister, I’ll be praying for you. God bless you. I’m also praying for all those who are struggling in their marriages that __. __ what I have for your brothers and sisters. I pray that God will help you, able to be kindhearted to one another, to be tender, and loving to each other, that you will be quick to forgive one another in the name of Jesus and that you will make allowance for each of your faults. You know, there is nothing that God cannot do, even marriages that are failing, that people are separated, the Lord can bring you together. And, so, my prayer for your marriages is that the Lord, the son of righteousness, who is Jesus, __ healing, healing in His __ over those marriages in the name of Jesus. So, do not lose hope, it is not over when it’s over. And even when it’s over God is still working. God bless you all and I’d love to shout out to all my friends and the sisters that I’ve made in this ministry and even all the brothers that ping me on Facebook. God bless you all. This is Viola.

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