#woot woot! another another new food item!

[anon-apple]

Hot Soup and Soft Bread 19

Table of Contents and Synopsis <- Chapter 18 Read on WordPress

Chapter 19: Wild Onions Fried Rice I

When Liu Xiaoying woke up, she was met with an extremely white ceiling. She turned her eyes and saw only Qi Zhiqiu in the hospital room. It was already noon the next day. Qi Zhiqiu asked: “Do you feel ok?”

Xiaoying slowly gained consciousness. The first thing she asked after she was completely awake was: “Where’s Zhou Cunqu?”

Zhiqiu poured half a cup of hot water and placed it on the nightstand, replying: “I knew you were going to ask that. Someone came to pick him up last night.”

Around 11 am, Zhong Qiuyan’s phone rang. He saw the caller ID and said to Zhou Cunqu: “The old lady is probably awake. I got a call.”

He picked up and said in a deep voice:  “Liu Xiaoying, your grandson is in my hands. Prepare a 100 million ransom. Otherwise, I will eliminate the hostage.”

Xiaoying didn’t say anything. Qiuyan then said: “Ok, how about 50 million.”

Xiaoying weakly laughed and said: “Hand the phone to Zhou Cunqu. I’m going to tell him that in the eyes of Zhong Qiuyan, he’s only worth 50 million.”

Qiuyan yelled, “You’re driving a wedge between us. How hateful.”

Xiaoying sighed and asked: “How’s Zhou Cunqu doing?”

While eating something, Qiuyan replied in between pauses to chew: “Pretty good. Don’t worry, I brought him to my place.”

Last night, after Xiaoying passed out, it was chaotic outside the hotel. Qi Zhiqiu scolded Zhou Ming and clutched her phone to call the ambulance. Cunqu was leaning against Zhiqiu’s car. After a while, he suddenly asked Zhou Ming: “You guys must be incredibly disappointed in me right now, right?”

Zhou Ming paused and asked: “What do you think?”

Cunqu laughed and said: “That’s great. How great.”

When the ambulance arrived, Cunqu and Zhiqiu got on as well. Xiaoying received an exam at the hospital. Overall, there was no major issue. Moyamoya disease is quite an annoying and troublesome disease. The blood vessels on the inside of the skull are unhealthy and can cause problems when the patient excessively breathes or becomes excessively emotional. 

Later, when Qiuyan rushed over, Cunqu was leaning against the corridor outside, picking at the dead skin on his hands. Qiuyan, a bit short of breath, asked: “How’s Liu Xiaoying?”

Cunqu replied: “She’s fine.”

Qiuyan hugged Cunqu and stroked the back of his back, asking: “And are you also fine?”

Cunqu nodded against his shoulder. He knew that Zhou Ming wasn’t wrong. He selfishly relied on his grandma for two whole years. Cunqu asked Qiuyan with his eyes lowered: “Did you also know about grandma’s sickness?”

Qiuyan replied: "Ah. Well, I first met her because she fell down on the sidewalk. Back then, the hospital said the old lady had a rather rare blood vessel disease. And she could faint if it wasn't handled properly. After waking up, she stubbornly insisted that it was just her high blood sugar acting up."

Cunqu didn't say anything else. Zhiqiu exited the patient's room and told them to head back first and rest up. There was no use waiting around here. Qiuyan tugged Cunqu and said: "Little friend, the little ducks of Moon Lake Park have already gone to sleep. Let's also go back and rest?"

He led Cunqu into his car and drove back to the Qin Qin Homeland residential community. During the whole ride, he chatted with him as if it were any other day. When they got home, Cunqu said that the temperatures have dropped recently. The duvet they used yesterday was too thin, so he had set out a thicker duvet in the sun and planned to use it today.

When putting on the duvet covers, Qiuyan climbed into the covers and pushed this way and that. In the end, he still couldn't correctly figure out the four corners of the duvet. Cunqu punched the squirming body inside the covers and said: "The sky's going to be bright by the time you're done."

Qiuyan climbed back out and took a deep breath. Then, he scooped Cunqu and brought him inside as well. The two of them rolled around in the covers. The new covers smelled like the laundry detergent they used. Qiuyan helped Cunqu’s face and placed kisses here and there. He said: “Smells so good, smells so good.” Cunqu helplessly laughed and said: “Can we get the covers on first?”

A few stacks of books in the room were tottering dangerously. Suddenly, one fell over onto the stack next to it. The two people inside the bed covers stopped.

Cunqu didn't climb out to fix them. He started telling Qiuyan about a story he read in a nonfiction book last year. It was about a thirteen-year-old boy who was falsely accused and imprisoned. He was a mentally and physically disabled child but was put into an adult prison and sentenced to life without parole. The person who recorded this story, a lawyer, went to find this boy fourteen years later. The lawyer said he waited in the visitors' room. The boy, now twenty-seven years old, sat in a wheelchair and was shut inside a steel cage. The lawyer didn't understand why a prisoner without any physical threat had to be caged. But there he was, sitting with his back facing everyone. When the prison guards opened the door to bring him out, the wheelchair wheels got stuck inside the cage. The guards used all of their strength and tugged on the wheelchair, tugged on that prisoner, but it was of no use.

In the end, they discussed: "Why don't we push over the cage and see if we can get him out that way." 

The lawyer said the mentally disabled prisoner had his back facing them the whole time. But his shoulders started shaking; he had started crying.

Cunqu told Qiuyan that the first time he read this story, he also cried. He discovered that he resonated with that feeling of being treated like non-sentient goods. 

He said: “Today, my dad said he was disappointed in me. I suddenly felt relieved, like I let out a breath I’ve been holding this whole time.”

Qiuyan looked at him, and Cunqu’s eyes started tearing up. Raising his shoulders, he cried out loud. Through the tears streaming down his face, he said: “I was relieved. They were finally disappointed in me.”

--

The following morning, Cunqu woke up not long after Qiuyan. Qiuyan smiled and said: "Hehe. Ge, your eyes are so swollen that they can't even open." Cunqu shut his eyes again, clutched Qiuyan's pajamas, and burrowed himself into his embrace to continue sleeping.

Around eight, Qiuyan drove away with Cunqu. The latter asked: “Where are you going?”

Qiuyan replied: "I am going to kidnap you right now."

Cunqu looked at him with curiosity. The dancing girl charm twirled again and again. The car drove onto the highway and then exited. Qiuyan had driven all the way to the Zhong family village.

He drove into his family home. Qiu Xuemei was wearing her pajamas and chatting with some friends in front of the courtyard doors. She turned her head and saw Qiuyan get out of the car. Xuemei yelled: "Isn't that my long-lost son? Son, do you recognize mom?"

Qiuyan yelled back: “What mom, isn’t that my sister who’s as lovely as a flower?”

The two of them, one tall, one short, one chubby, one skinny, heartily hugged each other. Cunqu almost laughed out loud from where he sat in the passenger's seat. Qiuyan dragged him out of the car and introduced him: “Sister, this, this is my good friend.”

Xuemei happily led Cunqu around. She said: “Dudu has never brought home a friend from the city. Come in, come in. Did you eat? Probably not, right.” She then turned and yelled into the house: “Zhong Baocheng, where are you at? Dudu brought home a friend!” 

Qiuyan tried very hard to interrupt: “No but, can you not call me Dudu? Ah, Qiu Xuemei, do you hear me??”

Qiuyan’s family home, which was built by hand, was torn down and rebuilt again a few years back. The outside used a dirt-yellow colored ceramic tile, which was pretty disastrous in the eyes of Zhou Cunqu as an architect. They even glimmered with light. Qiuyan’s bedroom was even worse. A pale purple floral wallpaper, a Baroque-style large bed covered with plastic-made diamonds. Cunqu couldn’t help but laugh. Qiuyan asked him how it was. Cunqu nodded and replied: “Quite grand.”

Qiuyan yelped: “What do you mean, ‘grand’?”

Cunqu pinched his cheeks and asked: "Prince, you used to get up every day from this bed?"

Qiuyan suddenly hugged Cunqu from behind and brought him onto the bed. He kissed Cunqu's shoulder and said: "Yes, princess. These couple of days, you will rest up inside my imperial palace. Liu Xiaoying will have to stay in the hospital for monitoring for a few days anyway. You should relax, stay in the mountains, and get some fresh air."

Cunqu turned around and tapped Qiuyan's nose, asking: "Are you scared that I'll shut myself up in my room again…"

Qiuyan was about to reply, but Xuemei suddenly entered while carrying a quilt. He immediately shot up from the bed.

When Xiaoying called, Qiuyan and Cunqu were sitting around the dining table having a meal. The temperature was very comfortable, and they could see the family orchard from the window. Xuemei's chatterbox abilities exceeded even Qiuyan's. She said they should come to visit again around December; they could pick strawberries to eat. Neighbors often passed by the window and would pause to exchange a few greetings with Xuemei and them. When the neighbor started to ride away on his little motorcycle, Xuemei even got up and stuck her chubby body out the window, saying: "Don't forget, don't forget to bring some seeds."

On the dining room walls hung a calendar gifted when purchasing Chinese New Year's goods and professional studio photos of Xuemei. Qiuyan said while biting a shrimp: "This was when she got scammed. She spent a good few thousand to get these photos taken. Then they ended up with this type of style, and she cried as she hung them up everywhere in the house." 

Xuemei blushed and grumbled: “Why are you talking about this?” She abruptly raised her glass and said: “Come, in honor of finding my long-lost son, as well as my son’s good friend, let’s toast.”

The three Zhong family members instinctively stood up and prepared to toast. Cunqu was briefly taken aback. 

It was at this moment that Xiaoying called. When Cunqu picked up, the other three still stood there, waiting for him to toast with them. Xiaoying said from her end: "Grandma's doing fine; your little aunt isn't letting me leave the hospital. How are you?"

Cunqu raised his head and looked at the family of three holding their glasses, who held their positions and eagerly waited for him to join. Cunqu couldn’t help but smile as he said: “I’m doing pretty well, Grandma.”

After he hung up, he raised his cup of hot water and met their glasses in a toast.

-> Chapter 20

[jadeile-writes]

Fanfic Progress Update 45

Woot! It’s Saturday, and that means Fanfic Progress Update! Stay tuned to the end of this post for a spoiler-y glimpse into the next chapter of Adventure Gone Mini AND the next chapter of Shit, the Radio Demon is a part of my afterlife.

Current WIPs:

Adventure gone Mini

Fandom: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / The Minish Cap

Summary: Sidon is given his very own Sheikah Slate, the first replica Purah has managed to make, and sets out to travel with Link with the intention of registering warp points for convenient travel in the future. However, when a malfunction shrinks them down to the size of bugs, and they meet little people called the Minish, they have to change their plans from “fun adventuring” to “getting out of this mess”. Not that those two have to exclude one another. Link/Sidon.

Progress: Chapter 32 is the current latest chapter and was posted on 18th of December. Chapter 33 is finished and will be posted on 8th of January, which is the next Wednesday. Chapter 34 has been started.

I update this fic every three weeks on Wednesdays.

—–

Shit, the Radio Demon is a part of my afterlife

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary: Husk is just your everyday demon, minding his own business and living his afterlife mostly in self-caused misery. He’s been at it for about ten years when he rather abruptly finds himself on the Radio Demon’s radar. Suddenly his life becomes a lot more interesting. For fuck’s sake, he did not ask for this bullshit. Alastor/Husk.

Progress: Chapter 5 is the current latest chapter, and was published on 3rd of January. Chapter 6 will be published on 7th of January, and chapter 7 on 10th of January. The rest of the chapters are done and waiting for their turn; the final count is 16.

I update this fic every Tuesday and Friday now!

—–

Afterlife the Complementary Text (workname)

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary (temporary): As the title says, this will be what amounts to a complementary text to Afterlife. You could call it a sequel or a side story as well, and not be completely wrong. Every chapter of Afterlife is vital to the story: they bring the plot forward, each introduces a new development, each has a specific purpose for being in the story. The ones in this one, though? Slice of life chapters that go in-between the main story, enhancing it. An interesting incident is mentioned in the main story? It may just appear in this one. These are the ideas that couldn’t fit in Afterlife, despite being fun, because they would have counted as filler chapters in it.

Progress: Nothing has been written yet, but I do have a list of ideas. Currently it has nine items, but some may get combined to fit into one chapter instead, if the idea isn’t enough to cover a full chapter. Or maybe I’ll simply do short chapters as necessary. I don’t know yet. The first two items on the list would go between chapters 7 and 8, so I doubt I have enough time to write them and start posting this fic side-by side with Afterlife, like I kind of want to. So, we shall see if I’ll start posting this only after Afterlife is done, or if I work something else out once I have something written.

—–

Drunk Alastor (workname)

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Summary (temporary): Roles are reversed in many ways when a drunk Alastor knocks on Husk’s door and has no intention of going to his own room for the night. Why yes, the author has one specific goal to get to here (no, not that one, eww), and you guys are going to love it, mwahaha! Oneshot, Alastor/Husk.

Progress: I’d say this is… maybe 2/3rds done. Or at least half done. It’s a long oneshot anyway. No progress since the last update, but I will get back to this.

—–

Other WIPs I’m not currently working on but intend to get back to someday:

PoE Drabbles (Pillars of Eternity)

DC Drabbles (Justice League)

Diaphanous Relations (Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore’s books)

Rolling with it (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Possibly worth staying for (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Radiohusk that makes me question my life choices (Hazbin Hotel)

—–

That’s it for the WIPs! Here are the promised sneak-peeks into Mini and Afterlife. (Note: the text may end up slightly different in the fics themselves due to more editing happening before publishing). Enjoy!

Mini

Link and Sidon woke up nice and early, well rested and eager to face the day. They ate a hearty breakfast on a bench near the marketplace with Link taste-testing the local specialities – super expensive roasted spider leg for one – and Sidon mostly eating from his own stash, as there was nothing that would satisfy his hunger available. They hoped that the town at the entrance of the Lost Woods would have a better selection. After all, the forest there was all misty and damp, so frogs were a likely find.

After they were done eating, they headed to the library.

Librari was sorting books that had been left in the return box overnight, or had possibly been brought in this morning by the early birds. She looked up when they entered, and smiled widely.

"Good morning, Link, Sidon", she said, then blinked rapidly a few times before bonking the side of her head slightly with her fist and proceeding to sign the same thing.

Link chuckled, and Sidon's smile widened as he answered alike.

'So, Hero Museum?' Link asked as they reached the counter. He noticed a couple of thick pamphlets that were clearly about the museum on the desk; their covers had a very detailed drawing of what seemed to be a set of artifacts on a table, which was why he drew that conclusion.

Afterlife

Husk was so damn hungry.

He checked his canned and other dry foods cabinet for something, anything to eat today, and was coming up alarmingly empty handed. Not that it came as a surprise as he had been depleting his food supply for a couple of weeks now because of having had rotten luck at the casino recently and losing more money than he made. He ate the last of his plain rice last night, so now there really was nothing left.

He was broke, and also out of food. That was worse than his usual bad monetary situations, where at least his resources lasted him through the rough patch. Not this time, though. Had he forgotten to stock up after the last time? He must have. Fucking bullshit.

Fuck damn it, what was he supposed to do now? Pawn something? He had already pawned a few unnecessary items in order to get more gambling money, which he had proceeded to immediately lose instead of multiplying it like he had planned.

That’s it this time. See you next Saturday!

AO3    FFnet    Purple Crayon    Ko-fi

[worldwidewanderers]

Machermore Castle & the Ferry

we arrived at Machermore Castle which is located in Dumfires and Galloway. you know where that is, it’s just out side of Stranraer. (( side note: kyle let me drive the funny car in the driveway! pretty exhilarating stuff!! )) right. so, if you overlooked the fact that I said we arrived at a castle... we got to the CASTLE where we were welcomed by the cat that lives on the grounds named appropriately “Castle” (( this is real life)). we opened the door to the attached apartment of the castle and had a very open cozy flat for the night. this was another off the beaten path places so we made our way your the store ((another aldi-woot woot!)) for dinner fixins and had a relaxed night. we had an early morning ahead. had to drop off the Benz and get to the Ferry port by 10:30am.

the morning brought us beautiful blue skies and everything seemed greener than we know. we opened the door to head out and Castle the cat had brought us a gift...a dead mouse. flopped right on the door mat and she proudly sat there waiting for acknowledgement of her success. I tapped her head with approval and said our goodbyes.

we arrived at port Ryan in Stranraer dropped off the car and boarded the “ferry” which was actually a fucking cruise ship. it had multiple floors with shops, and jewelry stores, and nick-nacks, slot machines and restaurants and bars, vending machines, video games and interactive games, a full blown movie theater playing Captain Underpants or you could watch it about the cabin on any of the multiple TVs thrown on every other wall or random pillar protruding from the floor. we wandered about about for the 2 hour something journey across the water. we docked in Belfast, Northern Ireland and I had butterflies in my tummy. the pure joy of our arrival in the next country was relevant and we were all ready to embark on the next leg.

we hailed a taxi to the airport to pick up the new rental car which we weren’t meant to get the car until the next day but we decided to get it a day early. we ran into our first hiccup at the Hertz counter. from the last car rental, a hold was placed on the credit card which didn’t drop off immediately, so that stopped us in our tracks because there technically wasn’t enough credit available to place a new hold on the card because of the last one. yada yada. technical financial bullshit. after about 2 hours on our phones researching new plans of attack, a few phone calls and button clicks on the internet and we were on our way.

this time we got ourselves the shiny blue Ford Focus we were meant to get back in the UK.

we had a quick but lovely drive to the next airbnb at the Loughside Farm near Carrickfegus. it was a beautiful house on a working farm with fresh eggs for breakfast. we had another lay low night with you guessed it, another trip to the grocery store. however this time, being in the sticks was a little more complicated. the local store had very limited items, so we decided to hit up take-out chinese close by, except they were cash only and we were fresh out. so we checked the next little grocery and the pickins were even slimmer. so. we made the 15 mins trek out to the main town for the good old trusty Sainsbury. after what seemed like hours on our quest for food, we cashed out, headed back to the farm, made dinner and watched the ever appropriate movie “Hostel”. all is good in Northern Ireland and another early night for us to rest up for our 5 hour drive down to Kinsale, Ireland.

[happy2bmyownboss]

So, I know it has been a bit since I’ve posted and I do apologize. To say that life has been crazy would be an understatement. We’ve had dentist appointments, another birthday (Ms. Caitlyn turned 13), house drama, and some baby news.

In our last life update post, we had just had Mr. Joey’s birthday and I had been working on getting some freezer meals entered into our Cozi calendar. (Yep, that’s an affiliate link and there may be a couple more scattered in the post as well.) The new meals that I’ve added to our rotation have been a big hit and many of them came from Jamerrill’s Large Family Table.

I have tweaked a couple of them to work for our family but everyone has loved them and I will soon be making them in bulk to put in the freezer. I’ve been holding off on another major Freezer Meals session because we want to get moved in so we wouldn’t be moving so much frozen food back and forth.

As far as the house goes we have had a little bit of progress:

the electrician has been out and finished his work

the electrical inspection passed… YAY!

the finishing crew fixed a few items but left a few to finish which we will tackle this weekend

Now we are waiting on the skirting which is scheduled to happen tomorrow morning and then a final inspection scheduled for Monday. We are still waiting on our steps for the back door as the ones that came were the wrong size. You can see that the post falls in the center of the second door… we plan to replace these with French doors in the future and those steps won’t work!

Once we get the final inspection we should hopefully get the go-ahead to move in by Tuesday… woot-woot! We are so ready but we are dreading the move as well.

This weekend we will be installing the dryer vent which was missing and a couple of lights in the bedroom closets. Mr. Awesome is replacing the pull chain lights with a couple of ‘can lights’ which will be wired to their own light switches… hopefully, this will keep the kids from breaking the lights.

As I’m writing this we just happened to notice that the electric company is over at the house so we should have power soon!

Over the weekend we made a trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. This was our second time visiting the park and the second time we had been blessed with tickets to go. Thank you Ms. Dorothy and Mr. Ron! We all had a great time and the kids have been begging to go again.

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I found this cutie in the gift shop and had to bring it home with me for the baby:

The little trip over the weekend was much needed as Friday was an extremely stressful day… I haven’t really said a lot about any of this to anyone but I’ve decided to share this with everyone as we need all the love and support that we can get! It really does take a village to raise a child and maybe our experience can help someone else on their journey.

Friday was my first appointment with the high-risk clinic and it did not go anything as expected. We were at the office for almost 5 hours! I was already nervous because we had already had a couple of issues earlier. The doctors had already been telling me the risks of having a baby at ‘my age‘ and it seemed that they kept stressing the chances of having a baby with ‘issues’.

The ultrasound had been scheduled first and when the tech went to get the doctor I was pretty certain that she had some concerns… the longer we waited for the doctor the more it weighed on me. After 10-15 minutes I just started crying… poor Mr. Awesome didn’t have a clue and when I told him my fears he just reassured me that everything was going to be OK.

The doctor came in and did the ultrasound again getting even more pictures and measurements from different angles. She ended up telling us that the nuchal fold measured a bit thicker than what is considered normal which indicates an increased risk for chromosomal abnormalities. She also said that the baby seemed to have a ‘small window‘ in the septum of its heart but that this can and often does close up on its own.

She then sent us to talk to a genetic counselor. That was another experience in itself! When I say I was an emotional wreck it may be an understatement. He did his best to comfort us and then to explain the different conditions that they were concerned about… he seemed a bit surprised to find that we already have an adopted child with Down Syndrome and that we were familiar with some of the other conditions like Williams Syndrome.

We went over the risks again and the statistics before being offered some other testing. We have no family history of genetic disorders and the biggest factor is my age. We declined all invasive testing and opted for the NIPT screening which would be back within 5-7 days. It seemed like a long time but the time really did pass by quickly. 

Sigh… after all of this I still had to see another doctor who again went over all the risks associated with my age… I’m 42 not 82! I was put on baby aspirin and told to continue my meds for the thyroid issue which reminds me that I need to call them back and get a refill on that! I really can’t recall what else they might have said as everything was pretty much a blur at that time as I was overwhelmed, tired, and hungry!

We went to eat before finding the lab and then got my blood drawn before heading home… we did talk a little bit about it on the way home and we both agree that this baby is staying put until it is ready to meet the world! The blood test results show that we are low risk for Trisomy 13 & 18 but at a higher risk for Down Syndrome… we also found out the gender but I’m not revealing that yet! 

As of right now we are still not planning to undergo any further testing, we know that our baby is in GOD’s hands and although we may not know the reason for these trials that we are enduring at the moment we do know that HE has a plan! Does this mean I don’t worry? No. I really felt that I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown but Mr. Awesome has been right beside me and has helped me through this.

This can be really scary because there are so many unknowns. Yes, it seems that the risk for our baby to have a genetic issue is higher than many but we love this little one already. No test or procedure is going to be able to change the outcome and we will love and welcome this little one into our family.

We have to focus on the positive that our baby seems to be very healthy on the scan… it was dancing up a storm! The baby’s growth seems to be on track as well and we did see little fingers and toes… I also thought I caught a glimpse of the gender but the tech said it was too early and she didn’t give me a picture… I was right!

We can’t let the tests and everything else suck the joy out of this wonderful experience. I’ve had to ask GOD for strength on several occasions as no parent wants to think that there may be something wrong with their child. This pregnancy has already played a much larger toll on me than previous pregnancies and I am just completely exhausted most days.

I’ve had to hand this pregnancy over to HIM because it is completely out of our control… there is nothing that can change what is or what isn’t and HE will not desert us. I even told the counselor that those issues wouldn’t be the end of the world… it would just be something a little different than what we expected. 

I mean, never in a million years did expect that I would be having a baby right now. It is a blessing to even be carrying this little life inside of me and for that, I am so very thankful. GOD has indeed been so good to us in so many ways and I must TRUST him and HIS plan for this child.

This has been my go-to verse for right now:

Please just keep our family in your thoughts and prayers and I promise to try to reveal the gender soon!

Have a blessed weekend!

        Life Update: Crazy Days So, I know it has been a bit since I've posted and I do apologize. To say that life has been crazy would be an understatement.

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 4/8/20

SEAN: April is here, and the shipping list is still fine, mostly.

ASH: That’s good to know!

SEAN: The mostly is due to Dark Horse, who had two items on next week’s list, a 5th Gantz omnibus and the 2nd Star Blazers 2199 omnibus. Looking at their site now shows that the items came out on March 25th but are also on pre-order. Given DH tends to work with Diamond, who aren’t shipping books, this may be the best we can get.

ASH: I realize now that I haven’t actually read the first Star Blazers 2199 omnibus yet.

SEAN: Denpa has a 6th volume of Inside Mari.

Ghost Ship has To-Love-Ru Darkness 15, aka To-Love Ruuuu innn… SPAAAAAAACE!

J-Novel Club has a giant pile. In print we have Animeta! 3 (that’s a manga), Ascendance of a Bookworm 4, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 9, If It’s for My Daughter I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 8, In Another World with My Smartphone 9, and The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind! 8.

ASH: I’ve liked Animeta! so far. I’m pretty sure I’d like Ascendance of a Bookworm, too, but I haven’t had a chance to actually read it.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is The Tales of Marielle Clarac, an Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO series which, instead of volume titles, has a different title for every book, a la Haruhi Suzumiya. The Engagement of Marielle Clarac is the first. Marielle is a noble’s daughter who’s not particularly gorgeous or famous, but who gets a proposal one day from a knight who will be an Earl one day. She’s quite happy… he’s just her type, and now she can imagine all sorts of things about him. Yes, Marielle is secretly a fangirl. This looks fun.

Also debuting is a manga version of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

Furthermore, out digitally is Altina the Sword Princess 3, Demon Lord Retry! 3, Discommuncation 3 (that’s a manga), Her Majesty’s Swarm 2, The Holy Knight’s Dark Road 2, and Infinite Dendrogram 11.

Kodansha, in print, has Boarding School Juliet 11, Eden’s Zero 7, Granblue Fantasy 4, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan 12.

ASH: Oh! I need to catch up with Arslan!

SEAN: Digitally the debut has an author familiar to many: Shinobu Ohtaka, creator of Magi. Her new series is called Orient, runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and seems to be the Sengoku period version of Magi. I’m in.

MICHELLE: Something about the blurb for this turned me off. I think I’m sitting Orient out.

ASH: I’ll admit to being intrigued by Sengoku period…

ANNA: I am also intrigued.

SEAN: There’s also A Condition Called Love 2, Chihayafuru 19, Drifting Dragons 7, Goodbye! I’m Being Reincarnated 4, Smile Down the Runway 8, and To Be Next to You 4.

MICHELLE: Those new shoujo series are racking up volumes so quickly!

ANNA: Too much!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut is Primitive Boyfriend (Genshijin Kareshi), a shoujo title from LaLa. Our heroine wants a guy, but they’re all wusses. Then she magically ends up in the past. Is a caveman the sort of guy who’s her type? This is three volumes long, which seems about right.

MICHELLE: It does, but it could be fun!

ASH: The premise seems ridiculous, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

ANNA: OK, this sounds funny.

MELINDA: I… am not sure.

SEAN: Also out from Seven Seas: 12 Beast 7, Bloom Into You 7, and the 3rd My Next Life As a Villainess! manga.

Tokyopop releases an 8th volume of Konohana Kitan.

It’s the first week of the month, so you know Viz is up next with their Jump and Beat series. The debut is Prince Freya (Itsuwari no Freya), a LaLa DX series (man, you don’t see any LaLa titles for over a year, then two come in the same week) from the creator of The Bride & the Exorcist Knight and The Heiress & the Chauffeur. Prince Freya does not have an &… yet. Possibly as she’s a lookalike for the real prince, and thus is forced to step in and impersonate him in a crisis. I admit, I always love those sorts of plots.

MICHELLE: I will definitely be checking this out.

ASH: Same!

MELINDA: I’m here for it!

SEAN: Jump titles include Boruto 8, Food Wars! 35, Jujutsu Kaisen 3, One Piece 93, Platinum When Will This Ever End 11, We Never Learn 9, and World Trigger 20.

On the Shojo Beat end we have Ao Haru Ride 10, An Incurable Case of Love 3, Takane & Hana 14, and Yona of the Dawn 23.

MICHELLE: Woot for 75% of those! I greatly enjoyed getting caught back up on Ao Haru Ride and Takane & Hana recently.

ASH: Yona of the Dawn is my priority, but I’m reading a fair number of these, too.

ANNA: This is a week for me!

MELINDA: I have fallen behind on both the series Michelle caught up on, so I have work to do!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen On has another March novel slightly bumped into April: the 15th volume of The Irregular at Magic High School.

Don’t go out, read a manga! What are you reading?

By: Sean Gaffney

[cryptswahili]

Living on Bitcoin Day 5: An In-Store Buy At Last (Spoiler: It’s Pot-Related)

This is the fifth instalment of reporter Colin Harper's "Living on Bitcoin" experience in San Francisco. Find out what happened to him earlier on Day 1 , on Day 2 , on Day 3 and on Day 4.

I woke up in a millionaire’s bed today, something I never thought I’d say because I ain’t gonna make a million bucks, and I always doubted I could’ve finagled my way into the bed of someone who had.

Jeremy’s room is your prototypical festival bro living space: Bob Marley poster in one corner, jam band festival posters for Camp Bisco and Gathering of the Vibes (among other music festivals) tacked above a 50-inch, Toshiba plasma screen, which was leaning against the wall and propped up on the box it came in. A tangled cluster of conference passes (many speaker or VIP) hung from a back wall above the felt loveseat.

Below one of the room’s three windows, there’s a bookcase sectioned off into six cubbies, which include Hunter S. Thompson, Michael Lewis, Truman Capote, and some self-help and econ/business books. Almost poetically, a book called Ego is the Enemy appropriately placed in a cubbie diagonally opposite to the one housing Tucker Max’s Assholes Finish First.

On the third floor, I made the coffee I bought at Whole Foods, warmed one of the croissants and did some work.

Over Slack, my colleague Aaron van Wirdum suggested I try a map called Bitcoin Map on the Google Play store to see if it had any bitcoin-accepting places listed that I could be missing. I pulled it up, browsed some places I had previously tried but knew no longer did. Then, I glanced at Haight-Ashbury on the map one last time and noticed a smoke shop and one-time hookah lounge that accepted bitcoin.

On the off chance, I called them up.

“Do you guys still accept bitcoin?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yes.”

Exuberant, I let a triumphant expletive slip and thanked the woman, assuring her that I would be by later that day.

It would be a smoke shop that becomes the first place where I can spend some bitcoin, I thought to myself.

With that victory, my spirits were lifted and I began to make preparations for my day. Needing to get more credit for Uber, I tried out Gyft, a gift card purchasing platform that made Hill’s second run at this in 2014 so much easier. Vinny Lingham started it, and the platform accepts other forms of payment than just bitcoin.

I couldn’t use it though. I tried to buy an Uber gift card, but my Samourai wallet wouldn’t accept the BitPay QR as valid (which, given Samourai’s general crypto maximalism, made sense and also seemed to sum up the difficulties of the experiment to that point). I opted for Bitrefill again.

Then I started doing some research on Kraken and Coinbase’s locations in San Francisco. According to Google, they have the same office address, which I found odd.

Putting the address into my Uber app, I decided to make my way to the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District to see if I could pester my way into either or both offices. “Just show up and ask to talk to people,” Hill’s advice echoed in my head.

The addresses I got on Google led me to a mailing address, but then a bit of sleuthing got me addresses (supposedly) of the actual offices for both Kraken and Coinbase. Kraken’s, though, turned out to be a FedEx, which led me to think that my informant was screwing with me or that Kraken had registered that address intentionally so as to not be bothered.

Coinbase’s office was right, so I cut the informant some slack. I secured a receptionist’s number from the security desk in the lobby but didn’t really have time to make an appointment for later. This wasn’t 2013 anymore: I couldn’t just drop in on their three employees in an apartment office anymore. This was 2019 and Coinbase had become a unicorn with more than 500 employees and six offices in three countries.

The rain was light but steady when I was searching for Kraken and Coinbase’s offices, but it would come down progressively harder the longer I walked. I passed a Target on my route in which I could have bought an umbrella (Paxful and Gyft have Target cards), and it highlighted a problem with banking on bitcoin through gift cards. You have to preplan your purchases, or else you have to stop, connect to wifi, and use an exchange that takes bitcoin to buy new cards before you can redeem them.

It seems obvious, but it’s not as seamless as cash, debit or credit. Even so, there aren’t so many hoops to jump through — just enough to make doing so outside in the rain an inconvenience.

My denim jacket was thoroughly soaked, so I stopped inside a Starbucks and ordered a coffee with a Starbucks gift card I bought on Paxful. I ordered a seasonal latte, basic white boy that I am, but I had the barista only pump about a third of the usual flavor shots into it because I don’t like drinking syrup.

While downtown, I visited Quantstamp’s offices, as Christian had set me up with a buddy of his who worked there, Jared let me in and we talked crypto. He mentioned a bubble tea cafe nearby that used to accept crypto, but it proved to be yet another red herring, making me worry that maybe the smoke shop on Haight might not either.

Ubering back to the castle, I sent some additional funds to my Samourai wallet ahead of my trip to the shop. Rachel wanted to come along, partly I think for the fun of it but also because she was fiending for some Juul pods and was banking on my generosity to secure her some.

We reached the smoke shop shortly before close as one employee was busy allocating merch to a back closet. It was what you expected from a smoke shop: pieces, bongs and actual tobacco pipes in various sizes and in a motley of translucent, glass-infused colors. They sell smokes and vaping supplies too, but no Juuls or Juul pods (to Rachel’s great dismay).

Approaching the counter, I try to confirm what I’d been told over the phone.

“Y’all take bitcoin, right?”

“Bitcoin? Yes, I think,” said the middle-aged, Asian woman, hesitantly. “We used to at least. Ask him,” she says, pointing to the man stacking the backroom with inventory.

Her husband, a middle-aged, white guy with glasses, a mariner’s cap and close-shaven beard, who looks like he might read communist theory and know his way around a VPN, dashed my bitcoin-spending hopes with his answer.

“I don’t think so. Honey, do we still have the payment processor?” he asked.

They didn’t. Snapcard, which may have very well been the same defunct-processor that Woot Bear used, was no longer in service, so they stopped taking it some time ago. They had originally decided to start accepting bitcoin in 2013-2014 when it was “cool” to do so, and the husband was kicking himself for not doing it sooner.

“People would want to come in and buy rolling papers and we didn’t want to take it, which was stupid,” he chuckled.

I asked if they still had a Coinbase account to which I could send bitcoin, but the wife said that her son held the account and they didn’t know how to use it. After a few more failed attempts at trying to find a solution, I gave up, thanked them and left the shop.

As I left, I was convinced there was some grand conspiracy to keep me from spending bitcoin, until the woman peeked her head out of the shop to beckon us back.

“I think we figured it out,” she said.

Eager and a bit antsy, I leaned over the counter to observe her Coinbase app while I tried for the items I had picked out (a glass piece that’s totally not for me and white sage for the castle). As it turned out, they weren’t verified with Coinbase, so they could only buy/sell on Coinbase and not send/receive. This annoyed me: Why do one when you can’t do the other?

“It’s ok,” I said, resigned at this point.

But the woman insisted. She was nice enough to let me just scan the QR code for her son’s wallet, and she even gave me a five buck discount on the piece.

Effusive, I thanked them and asked for their names, which they prefered I not publish here. Apparently, San Francisco is not too friendly to tobacco shops.

“The city is trying to annex the smoke shops,” the husband told me. That coupled with the stigma of bitcoin and the illicit drug market’s symbiotic dependence on the dark web (and the fact that the business is basically a head shop) made them wary enough of potentially damaging publicity.

The fact that the transaction almost happened then didn’t, only to almost not happen and then succeed was representative of how the experiment has been panning out so far. The bitcoin PoS was makeshift, but it finally happened, and I was happy enough to finally get the first IRL transaction out of the way, even if it came on day five. It was also directly peer-to-peer — no middleman payment processor involved, which I liked.

Finally, something to write home about.

Returning to the castle, I would spend the rest of the night fraternizing with the residents who were quickly becoming acquaintances and friends. They all had their own goals and projects, and the interactions in my short time with them will be worth a story one day.

There’s Rachel, who’s known Jeremy since 2015; Liz, the Queen of the Castle (obviously); Michael, a laid back relations or community manager who “kinda does crypto but not really;” Orest and Aymard, who work at Ausum Ventures with Jeremy; Teddy and Hans, who are building a blockchain query database for legal documents; Vivian, the VP of the same self-driving car startup, comma.ai, that used to reside in the castle’s basement; and a prodigious, 18-year-old developer-entrepreneur who runs his own AI financial consultation startup and whom Jeremy referred to once as his “protégé.”

“So, are you like the wunderkind developer prodigy of the house?” I asked him.

“Pretty much. But it’s not just that.”

“What, like you’re also the wunderkind entrepreneurial prodigy?”

“Something like that,” he responded with a smile and honest innocence.

He told me he would rather not be identified in the article because the banks and other businesses he works with don’t know that he’s still a kid, he confessed. That he had operated so long without them finding out was astounding to me.

The Prodigy began his company when he was a freshman in high school. No, not college (he never took that road), high school. In the company’s early stages, he decided to go all in on his vision.

“So I pretty much left high school.”

No diploma or degree to speak of, he moved to San Francisco when he was 15. In what would have been his sophomore year, he was focused on driving business growth while his peers were testing for learner’s permits.

An early investor in Ethereum and a sometimes crypto-head, he met Jeremy at a crypto castle party in 2017, and Jeremy would take him under his wing and offer him a home.

Now he works out of the community surrounded by the advice and the tutelage of the castle’s residents, who, while still young entrepreneurs themselves, have plenty of experience and tips to impart to the kid.

I highlighted The Prodigy here because or his age and precociousness but also because the whiz-tech kid who eschews education in favor of just doing makes for a pretty good story. Realistically, I could have profiled some of the other residents and their endeavors as well (for instance, I plan on doing an article on some of the innovative, impactful startups Ausum Ventures has invested in).

But The Prodigy particularly personified the house’s ethos: driven, focused, entrepreneurial and hardworking.

“Do you do drugs or drink?” I asked him.

“No. Never.”

“Good. Don’t,” I advised him.

Truth is, considering the portrait of the millionaire party boy that has been painted of Jeremy in the past, the castle was nothing like that. It wasn’t like the mainstream coverage would imply: no end-to-end daily benders or booze-infused ragers. I don’t think anyone even touched a drink while I was there. Everyone was busy working. As Rachel would tell me, “No one drinks here. They all have shit to do.”

As Kashmir Hill did in her original journey, Colin is accepting BTC tips to help him along the way.

Tip jar: 3CnLhqitCjUN4HPYf6Qa2MmvCpSoBiFfBN

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[ellahmacdermott]

Living on Bitcoin Day 5: An In-Store Buy At Last (Spoiler: It’s Pot-Related)

This is the fifth instalment of reporter Colin Harper's "Living on Bitcoin" experience in San Francisco. Find out what happened to him earlier on Day 1 , on Day 2 , on Day 3 and on Day 4.

I woke up in a millionaire’s bed today, something I never thought I’d say because I ain’t gonna make a million bucks, and I always doubted I could’ve finagled my way into the bed of someone who had.

Jeremy’s room is your prototypical festival bro living space: Bob Marley poster in one corner, jam band festival posters for Camp Bisco and Gathering of the Vibes (among other music festivals) tacked above a 50-inch, Toshiba plasma screen, which was leaning against the wall and propped up on the box it came in. A tangled cluster of conference passes (many speaker or VIP) hung from a back wall above the felt loveseat.

Below one of the room’s three windows, there’s a bookcase sectioned off into six cubbies, which include Hunter S. Thompson, Michael Lewis, Truman Capote, and some self-help and econ/business books. Almost poetically, a book called Ego is the Enemy appropriately placed in a cubbie diagonally opposite to the one housing Tucker Max’s Assholes Finish First.

On the third floor, I made the coffee I bought at Whole Foods, warmed one of the croissants and did some work.

Over Slack, my colleague Aaron van Wirdum suggested I try a map called Bitcoin Map on the Google Play store to see if it had any bitcoin-accepting places listed that I could be missing. I pulled it up, browsed some places I had previously tried but knew no longer did. Then, I glanced at Haight-Ashbury on the map one last time and noticed a smoke shop and one-time hookah lounge that accepted bitcoin.

On the off chance, I called them up.

“Do you guys still accept bitcoin?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yes.”

Exuberant, I let a triumphant expletive slip and thanked the woman, assuring her that I would be by later that day.

It would be a smoke shop that becomes the first place where I can spend some bitcoin, I thought to myself.

With that victory, my spirits were lifted and I began to make preparations for my day. Needing to get more credit for Uber, I tried out Gyft, a gift card purchasing platform that made Hill’s second run at this in 2014 so much easier. Vinny Lingham started it, and the platform accepts other forms of payment than just bitcoin.

I couldn’t use it though. I tried to buy an Uber gift card, but my Samourai wallet wouldn’t accept the BitPay QR as valid (which, given Samourai’s general crypto maximalism, made sense and also seemed to sum up the difficulties of the experiment to that point). I opted for Bitrefill again.

Then I started doing some research on Kraken and Coinbase’s locations in San Francisco. According to Google, they have the same office address, which I found odd.

Putting the address into my Uber app, I decided to make my way to the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District to see if I could pester my way into either or both offices. “Just show up and ask to talk to people,” Hill’s advice echoed in my head.

The addresses I got on Google led me to a mailing address, but then a bit of sleuthing got me addresses (supposedly) of the actual offices for both Kraken and Coinbase. Kraken’s, though, turned out to be a FedEx, which led me to think that my informant was screwing with me or that Kraken had registered that address intentionally so as to not be bothered.

Coinbase’s office was right, so I cut the informant some slack. I secured a receptionist’s number from the security desk in the lobby but didn’t really have time to make an appointment for later. This wasn’t 2013 anymore: I couldn’t just drop in on their three employees in an apartment office anymore. This was 2019 and Coinbase had become a unicorn with more than 500 employees and six offices in three countries.

The rain was light but steady when I was searching for Kraken and Coinbase’s offices, but it would come down progressively harder the longer I walked. I passed a Target on my route in which I could have bought an umbrella (Paxful and Gyft have Target cards), and it highlighted a problem with banking on bitcoin through gift cards. You have to preplan your purchases, or else you have to stop, connect to wifi, and use an exchange that takes bitcoin to buy new cards before you can redeem them.

It seems obvious, but it’s not as seamless as cash, debit or credit. Even so, there aren’t so many hoops to jump through — just enough to make doing so outside in the rain an inconvenience.

My denim jacket was thoroughly soaked, so I stopped inside a Starbucks and ordered a coffee with a Starbucks gift card I bought on Paxful. I ordered a seasonal latte, basic white boy that I am, but I had the barista only pump about a third of the usual flavor shots into it because I don’t like drinking syrup.

While downtown, I visited Quantstamp’s offices, as Christian had set me up with a buddy of his who worked there, Jared let me in and we talked crypto. He mentioned a bubble tea cafe nearby that used to accept crypto, but it proved to be yet another red herring, making me worry that maybe the smoke shop on Haight might not either.

Ubering back to the castle, I sent some additional funds to my Samourai wallet ahead of my trip to the shop. Rachel wanted to come along, partly I think for the fun of it but also because she was fiending for some Juul pods and was banking on my generosity to secure her some.

We reached the smoke shop shortly before close as one employee was busy allocating merch to a back closet. It was what you expected from a smoke shop: pieces, bongs and actual tobacco pipes in various sizes and in a motley of translucent, glass-infused colors. They sell smokes and vaping supplies too, but no Juuls or Juul pods (to Rachel’s great dismay).

Approaching the counter, I try to confirm what I’d been told over the phone.

“Y’all take bitcoin, right?”

“Bitcoin? Yes, I think,” said the middle-aged, Asian woman, hesitantly. “We used to at least. Ask him,” she says, pointing to the man stacking the backroom with inventory.

Her husband, a middle-aged, white guy with glasses, a mariner’s cap and close-shaven beard, who looks like he might read communist theory and know his way around a VPN, dashed my bitcoin-spending hopes with his answer.

“I don’t think so. Honey, do we still have the payment processor?” he asked.

They didn’t. Snapcard, which may have very well been the same defunct-processor that Woot Bear used, was no longer in service, so they stopped taking it some time ago. They had originally decided to start accepting bitcoin in 2013-2014 when it was “cool” to do so, and the husband was kicking himself for not doing it sooner.

“People would want to come in and buy rolling papers and we didn’t want to take it, which was stupid,” he chuckled.

I asked if they still had a Coinbase account to which I could send bitcoin, but the wife said that her son held the account and they didn’t know how to use it. After a few more failed attempts at trying to find a solution, I gave up, thanked them and left the shop.

As I left, I was convinced there was some grand conspiracy to keep me from spending bitcoin, until the woman peeked her head out of the shop to beckon us back.

“I think we figured it out,” she said.

Eager and a bit antsy, I leaned over the counter to observe her Coinbase app while I tried for the items I had picked out (a glass piece that’s totally not for me and white sage for the castle). As it turned out, they weren’t verified with Coinbase, so they could only buy/sell on Coinbase and not send/receive. This annoyed me: Why do one when you can’t do the other?

“It’s ok,” I said, resigned at this point.

But the woman insisted. She was nice enough to let me just scan the QR code for her son’s wallet, and she even gave me a five buck discount on the piece.

Effusive, I thanked them and asked for their names, which they prefered I not publish here. Apparently, San Francisco is not too friendly to tobacco shops.

“The city is trying to annex the smoke shops,” the husband told me. That coupled with the stigma of bitcoin and the illicit drug market’s symbiotic dependence on the dark web (and the fact that the business is basically a head shop) made them wary enough of potentially damaging publicity.

The fact that the transaction almost happened then didn’t, only to almost not happen and then succeed was representative of how the experiment has been panning out so far. The bitcoin PoS was makeshift, but it finally happened, and I was happy enough to finally get the first IRL transaction out of the way, even if it came on day five. It was also directly peer-to-peer — no middleman payment processor involved, which I liked.

Finally, something to write home about.

Returning to the castle, I would spend the rest of the night fraternizing with the residents who were quickly becoming acquaintances and friends. They all had their own goals and projects, and the interactions in my short time with them will be worth a story one day.

There’s Rachel, who’s known Jeremy since 2015; Liz, the Queen of the Castle (obviously); Michael, a laid back relations or community manager who “kinda does crypto but not really;” Orest and Aymard, who work at Ausum Ventures with Jeremy; Teddy and Hans, who are building a blockchain query database for legal documents; Vivian, the VP of the same self-driving car startup, comma.ai, that used to reside in the castle’s basement; and a prodigious, 18-year-old developer-entrepreneur who runs his own AI financial consultation startup and whom Jeremy referred to once as his “protégé.”

“So, are you like the wunderkind developer prodigy of the house?” I asked him.

“Pretty much. But it’s not just that.”

“What, like you’re also the wunderkind entrepreneurial prodigy?”

“Something like that,” he responded with a smile and honest innocence.

He told me he would rather not be identified in the article because the banks and other businesses he works with don’t know that he’s still a kid, he confessed. That he had operated so long without them finding out was astounding to me.

The Prodigy began his company when he was a freshman in high school. No, not college (he never took that road), high school. In the company’s early stages, he decided to go all in on his vision.

“So I pretty much left high school.”

No diploma or degree to speak of, he moved to San Francisco when he was 15. In what would have been his sophomore year, he was focused on driving business growth while his peers were testing for learner’s permits.

An early investor in Ethereum and a sometimes crypto-head, he met Jeremy at a crypto castle party in 2017, and Jeremy would take him under his wing and offer him a home.

Now he works out of the community surrounded by the advice and the tutelage of the castle’s residents, who, while still young entrepreneurs themselves, have plenty of experience and tips to impart to the kid.

I highlighted The Prodigy here because or his age and precociousness but also because the whiz-tech kid who eschews education in favor of just doing makes for a pretty good story. Realistically, I could have profiled some of the other residents and their endeavors as well (for instance, I plan on doing an article on some of the innovative, impactful startups Ausum Ventures has invested in).

But The Prodigy particularly personified the house’s ethos: driven, focused, entrepreneurial and hardworking.

“Do you do drugs or drink?” I asked him.

“No. Never.”

“Good. Don’t,” I advised him.

Truth is, considering the portrait of the millionaire party boy that has been painted of Jeremy in the past, the castle was nothing like that. It wasn’t like the mainstream coverage would imply: no end-to-end daily benders or booze-infused ragers. I don’t think anyone even touched a drink while I was there. Everyone was busy working. As Rachel would tell me, “No one drinks here. They all have shit to do.”

As Kashmir Hill did in her original journey, Colin is accepting BTC tips to help him along the way.

Tip jar: 3CnLhqitCjUN4HPYf6Qa2MmvCpSoBiFfBN

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

from InvestmentOpportunityInCryptocurrencies via Ella Macdermott on Inoreader https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/living-on-bitcoin-day-5-an-in-store-buy-at-last-spoiler-its-pot-related/

[melissadownslovestravel]

9/11-9/24

Holy cow. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. This post will most definitely not cover all that’s happened but I hope to give some sort of life update.

After getting back to McMinnville we really just hung out.We were not ready to start job searching as we were still in limbo and not yet in Portland so we found other ways to fill our time.

Tuesday mainly included getting my Oregon license! Woot woot. I am officially an Oregonian. We also saw a movie at an awesome old theater that included $1 slices of pizza.  

Wednesday was my birthday and thanks to Leo and mom and pop, it was a beautiful day of celebration. My parents had sent me a present in the mail and had a gorgeous orchid delivered to Jenny and Philippe’s for me! I told Leo that for my birthday I wanted to be in France. Leo’s uncle is from France. Leo, Jenny and Philippe all speak French with each other and my learning is not going well. Still, it makes me crave more French culture. Plus, all the wine! So because we weren’t flying to Paris he made my birthday a French theme. This did include breakfast in bed, though not necessarily a french breakfast. It also included a trip to a stunning winery called Domaine Serene Winery. The man helping with our tasting was so kind and gave us multiple free tastings. One of them was a $100 bottle that I now desperately want, great! Regardless, the tasting and views at the tasting room were phenomenal.

Afterward, we went to dinner at a French restaurant with J&P. We ate authentic French food. The owner was French and he was constantly chatting with our table (though I couldn’t understand most of it). It was a lovely night for my birthday.

Unfortunately it was still a kind of sad day, it was the first birthday really away from my parents. Normally my mom would find a way to come see me at work or school with a coffee treat in hand. I was missing that but thankful for all Leo had done for me.

Thursday was unfortunately a day of setting up new insurance. How horrible.

Friday was an exciting day. We went into Portland because we were going to get our apartment keys. We were told we couldn’t move in until Sunday still but that we could just get the keys. Turns out, we got the keys and went in the apartment. They told us it was ours as soon as we wanted! This was the first time seeing our apartment in person as we were so happy with it! It was exactly what we had wanted. We still weren’t moving in until tomorrow.

Saturday we packed up allll of our stuff from J&Ps and made our way to the new place! As we were leaving McMinnville we stopped to get food and the car battery died! Ugh. We needed a jump and luckily a state trooper helped us and soon enough we were on our way again. Phew. Tonight we would just be sleeping on our camp gear because all of our other belongings were in the uhaul. Still, we were in our apartment!

Sunday through Wednesday were mostly spent unpacking. J&P came Sunday to help unload the Uhaul. We started to put together furniture and organize our tiny apartment. We have less then 600 square feet but we have a ton of storage in closets and so it hasn’t been a problem. They designed the apartment really well. These days also included a few trips to Ikea and Lowe’s to get some new furniture. We have also been searching thrift stores for rugs and other smaller items.

We did get a couch from Ikea. In order to avoid the delivery fee, we stuffed half of it in the car and Leo left me at the warehouse to take it home (I would not fit in the car). An hour later he returned for me and the rest of the boxes. But we got it home and set up a couch without any major arguments.

The rest of the week included more small unpacking, exploring and job searching. I have applied for about 4 positions now. I found another connection at a women’s health clinic as someone Leo knows from Viroqua knows a doctor at the same clinic! How fantastic. I am still waiting to hear on the applications but fingers crossed. On Thursday we biked to Mt. Tabor, more of a hill only 2 miles from us. From this hill, we had a perfect view of Mt. Hood and it was a fantastic reminder of where we live. Another fantastic reminder was when we came home and a block from our place we stopped at a brewery! Our first one and so close to us!

Saturday we went back to McMinnville. The Smithsonian had free admission and there was a museum of aviation and space there. It was actually very fascinating. We got to see and go inside the Spruce Goose. It is a massive airlift flying boat made of birch wood. It was built for WWII but was never actually used. Look it up if you haven’t heard of it! As we were going through the space part, someone pulled the fire alarm and our trip was cut short but we figured we’d be back.

We then went to Jenny and Philippe’s. Jenny is out of town for about 3 weeks and Philippe is busy with harvest. He works at Northwest Vineyard Services as a viticulturist. We were picking up their dog Beatrice to dog sit for about a week. While there, P decided it was a good time to come explore the vineyards with him. I had never tasted a wine grape off of a vine.

We went to his main office where I sampled 3 main grapes. Pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay. He taught me so much about the health of the grapes and vines and also how to tell when they are ready to be picked. We ate way too many grapes but it was so fascinating and tasty. Before getting here, he has offered me a part time job and now I was regretting not taking it. I wanted to learn more and more about wine making. There was so much science involved and I do love science. We then went to another vineyard and tasted more pinot noir grapes. Pinot noir is my favorite kind of wine so I was really loving it. Plus, the grape clusters were absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to go back and learn more.

Today we continue catching up on all sorts of things and continuing to organize and decorate the apartment. We are still needing a few more pieces of furniture but in general it feels really nice. Also, our couch pulls out into a bed and we cannot wait to have visitors. Everyone is officially welcome to visit! From now on, I will most likely not be posting on the blog though I may every once in a great while. Please feel free to email me though!

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

January 2017 Updates from That Backpacker

Hello from Nepal! My month in Chiang Mai went by in the blink of an eye and all of a sudden I’m back to rolling my suitcase around and unpacking in a new place every few days. I kind of ended up in Nepal by chance because I had about two weeks between the end of my Thailand visa and the start of my India visa, and since this was “on the way” Sam and I decided to visit. This is also our first new country of 2017, woot woot! Now let’s rewind for a quick look back at January:

Where I went

Thailand: Chiang Mai

Nepal: Kathmandu

A photo posted by ✈ Audrey Bergner Jeffery ✈ (@thatbackpacker) on Jan 1, 2017 at 5:03am PST

January in review

LOLs: “You need to start walking with me. I was offered drugs so many times out there!” Sam is looking a little scruffy these days – he wants to get a haircut and a shave from a barber on the street once we’re in India – and the bearded look has been inviting all sorts of offers on the streets of Kathmandu. Funny thing is, I tried walking along with him and the touts will offer me, “Rickshaw?”, and then I hear them whispering, “Weed? Hash?” into Sam’s ear. I’m finding it a little too amusing.

READ: This past month I read Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn, which documents her misadventures travelling across China, Russia, East Africa, the Caribbean, and a few other destinations. I love reading accounts about travels gone terribly wrong – those experiences make for the best stories! – and I found myself laughing out loud and reading portions of the book to Sam, who didn’t seemed all that enthused. The book kind of reminded me a little bit of Chuck Thompson’s To Hellholes and Back, which I read a few years ago – though Martha isn’t snarky like Chuck!

DRANK: I have an obsession with the Energy Me smoothie at Dada Kafe in Chiang Mai. That main ingredients are mango, banana and coconut milk and it is the most delicious thing I have ever drank in my life. Seriously, when I’m not in Chiang Mai I dream of this smoothie; I’ve even tried to recreate it at home, but it always pales in comparison. Well, this month I made up for lost time and guzzled more glasses than I care to admit. If you’re ever in town, you need to track this place down.

ATE: Speaking of food, can I just ramble for a second about the do it yourself wraps at Salad Concept? These ingredients may sound a bit unusual, but try adding pumpkin, asparagus, raisins, black olives, feta cheese, avocado and a tamarind dressing to your wrap next time you make one. (Yes, that may require some advance planning in the kitchen, but it’s oh so worth it!) I may have a slight addiction, but at least it’s a healthy one.

TRIED: It seems the theme for this year is going to be learning new skills and trying new things, and that also covers photography. I’ve been using sub-par editing software for far too long and it was getting to the point where I dreaded photo editing because I knew I wouldn’t be able to tweak things exactly the way I wanted to. Well, I finally dove headfirst into the world of Lightroom after wimping out once before. It’s been a slow progress and I’m watching lots of tutorials, but I’ve been happy with what I’ve learned to do so far.

A photo posted by ✈ Audrey Bergner Jeffery ✈ (@thatbackpacker) on Jan 30, 2017 at 2:00am PST

Cool travel opportunities

Female Travel Presenter for India

World Nomads is looking for a female travel presenter to host a series focusing on Women in India, while sharing stories on food, culture, religion and more. I’m kind of tempted to apply for this one (!) but I’m also sharing it in case there are any wanna-be travel hosts reading this.

Travel planning tips

Let’s kick off the year with a few posts from the archives to help you plan your next trip:

How to get ridiculously cheap flights on your next trip! – Because we all like to save on airfare.

5 items to keep your backpack organized when you travel – Because no one likes a messy bag.

Sleeping in airports: Tips to help you catch some zzz’s – Because sometimes layovers suck.

Instagram of the month

A photo posted by ✈ Audrey Bergner Jeffery ✈ (@thatbackpacker) on Jan 28, 2017 at 6:47pm PST

This temple tucked in the jungle got quite a bit of love! Wat Palad is located on the way to Doi Suthep in the outskirts of Chiang Mai, and I didn’t even know it existed up until a few weeks ago.

What’s next?

I still have a little over a week left in Nepal, so next up I’m spending a few days in Pokhara. I’ve enjoyed my time in Kathmandu, but at the same time I’m looking forward to a quiet lakeside setting by the mountains. After that Sam and I are flying to India to meet up with his parents. We’re all going to be travelling together for a whole month focusing on Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. I’ve been to India before, but all of the destinations on our itinerary are completely new to me, so I’m really looking forward to that!

via Travel Blogs http://ift.tt/2kkBvxa

[cutiecrates]

Review: Tokyo Treat Dec 2016

We’re finally here guys x3 I’ve been waiting for this Review since I started (like a week ago, woot! Go impressive catch up skills!) and we’re finally here!

The reason I’ve been so excited for a snack-based Review is cuz everyone loves food things ;3 not only that, but I think I can do a fairly good job reviewing it.

Merry way past late Christmas!

I’m not going to go extensively into the details of this magazine, considering it mainly revolves around the contents of the box and or theme. As you can see on this page they held a Contest with some awesome One Piece prizes, including a Going Merry replica and Chopper hat for first place, while some adorable chopper key covers could be obtained by five runner-ups.

One thing I really like about the Tokyo Treat box is that they always include instructions on the DIY product. As I have learned, these kits can be troublesome at times- even if you’re Japanese!

Not only do they provide lots of fun content- but they also provide the wonder that is Lucky Treat.

Like Yume Twins, Tokyo Treat is no slouch when it comes to giving out some fun items to a special subscriber each month. With this box, it’s more oriented to anime/manga things, along with some fun sounding foods x3

(Sorry I’m not going into detail on what the items were. I did it earlier before Firefox screwed up on me and froze. I just kinda wanted to hurry back to the point I was at earlier. You can kinda see the stuff in the picture, and probably enlarge it if you really wanted to know.)

Before I get into the Snacks, I’ve decided to explain how the Layering system works. Basically, when people sign up for Tokyo Treat they can choose 1 of 3 sizes: Small, Regular, and Premium. Each level has their own items, and 2 of the 3 offer “perks“.

Small - 4 to 6 items

Regular - 5 or so items, one of which is a DIY, along with the items from the Small set.

Premium: Both Regular set and the Small set, a drink, a trinket (usually a toy or item of some sort), and 3 additional items.

I can definitely recommend getting Premium, you get so much and I think the price is well worth it!

One last thing >3< a lot of this stuff is BFB (Before Blog), so I don’t have more than a wrapper of the products, except for a few items. However. I assure mostly everything depicted on the packaging is accurate to the product. I can also guarantee that the next post will feature more items in the pictures because I barely touched it to save things specifically for the post.

For Christmas, chocolate is a must. Whether it be a gift for someone you care about or just a snack, and with this specific box your chocolate needs will be met!

First up we have what I probably ranked as my 2nd top favorite product in the entire box, the Christmas Edition Shimi Choco Corn. In a previous box Shimi Choco Corn was featured with several amazed reviews. Not only are they delicious but they’re so cute! 5 out of 5!

Right away I want to point out that Japanese corn puff snacks are a lot softer than American ones, they also lack the grainy texture some corn puff snacks tend to have.

Alongside it we have the Mini Choco Chips. These I mixed feelings with, because to me, these aren’t special at all. You tried one mini chocolate chip you tried them all; however, I also love chocolate chip cookies and these taste like my favorite brand, Chips Ahoy. 3 out of 5.

Rolling your way are 2 more snacks, one being a literal roll known as the Strawberry Roll Candy. A yummy 50cm length candy that is pretty much the Japanese form of a fruit roll up or fruit by the foot. However, while I occasionally enjoy those, I prefer this one for its realistic (or maybe less-artificial??) fruit taste. 4 out of 5

The next item was probably the other one I had mixed opinions with, the Christmas Fugashi. Fugashi is a type of Dagashi made from Gluten and soaked in brown sugar. It is also light and airy, melt-in-your-mouth product, which I think was part of the reason I found it so confusing. It took me several bites to kind of get a taste for it, and I recall that the ends had more flavor in them than the rest of the bar. 2.5 out of 5.

Now lets move onto some crunchy snacks with the White Milk Caramel Corn and Komekko in scallop flavor! 

Tohato’s cherished Caramel Corn snack is back with a special Christmas theme. These unique ridged corn puffs are sweet with the taste of milk and highly addictive if the flavor manages to win you over. 4 out of 5.

Speaking of unique flavors, this Komekko in scallop flavor is bound to be a unique experience! These snacks are crispy with a hint of soy sauce- but they’re probably an acquired taste. Some of them tasted more like soy sauce than others and those were the ones I preferred. When I first bit into a few of these, I had the perfect combination of what the flavors reminded me of. As of now, I just remember the Artificial crab meat. 3 out of 5.

Let’s continue on with another fun treat, Tomato Pretz! Pretz are a popular brand of snack in Japan and feature some interesting flavors: such as salad, red bean toast, and EEL!

Pretz are another addictive snack with an ease of access and 2 packs per box. It’s essentially a savory pocky. I love the box designs too- they make it look so attractive and yummy~

For those of you who might be new, I HATE tomato. However, I love ketchup, and I see no harm in trying tomato-flavored things as long as as there isn’t actual tomato in it.

When I started eating these, I was reminded of Pizza Combos. But the more I ate, the further it drifted towards “baked, plain pizza dough with dipping sauce“.

Yeah. I used those exact words when describing them. 4 out of 5.

In this picture, I paired it with the Hi Milk Chocolate Cubie! The adorable name alone should tell you just how cute these things are <3

These little cubes of chocolate bliss have something special about them, and being made by the renowned Meiji that’s of little to no surprise. Not only are they perfect for taking them to go- but they are specially made not to melt! 5 out of 5 they are really good.

Oh, and I’m sure by now you’re wondering who that strange creature is, huh~?

Let me introduce you guys to Mokeke, adorable little aliens back by popular demand, hailing all the way from planet Mokekenoke to give everyone hugs and play peekaboo <3 There was 24 styles these little cuties came in, and I think I got an especially cute one!

Can you see he has two different colored eyes in the picture~?

Here we have the 3 items I did have remaining; basically because 2 were so good I was trying to make them last. Can you guess which two before reading on? ; 3

Based on the beloved snack by the well-known little boy, Crayon Shin Chan, we have the Cocoa Flavor Chocobi Ramune. Each little candy is a bit of chocolate in the shape of a star (and one heart, I’m not sure what that was for); but be warned, before you try to bite into them you should let them sit for a few minutes in your mouth!

In all honesty I didn’t like these at all. Normally I enjoy Ramune candy- but these things are really bitter, and not in the good way like dark chocolate DX 1 out of 5.

We also had some Bireley’s Soft Candy, fruity chews of bliss with a juicy bite, available in Apple, Orange, Muscat Grape, and Peach! 4 out of 5. I really liked these, but for some reason the Peach had a little bit of an odd taste to me. I also thought the packaging made them look a lot brighter than they actually are and was a little disappointed.

Now, I don’t think I mentioned this- but among everything else I did mention, I’m obsessed with Cola/Coke! I think I nearly screamed when I saw they included Cola Ramune Candy in this box! THIS is how you do Ramune Candy. I think if I tried to describe just how amazing these were it would take me an hour. 100 out of 5!!!!!

Ahem...

Rounding up the snack menu are the ever-so-amazing-and-popular UMAIBO. In the box were 2 types, with 2 sticks, these being the Corn Potage and Chocolate flavors. Oh. My. Gosh.

The chocolate Umaibo is much smaller but just as yummy. Rather than being chocolate flavors, the umaibo is plain corn puff with a coating of chocolate. It’s sweet but not cloying. 5 out of 5.

However, as much as I didn’t want to use such terms on this blog I really can’t think of a better way to describe Corn Pottage flavor other than mouth orgy. It has the taste of corn (and I have always loved corn), but its well-seasoned with a sweet taste <3 I fell in love with first bite and I know for a fact they sell Umaibo online on quite a few sites. If you EVER get a chance to try this flavor I suggest you do it. 500 out of 5!

Okay... now we’re moving onto the final item. A drink. Be warned your mind will be blown.

Okay, a bottle of ramune. Great! But wait, what’s this??

IT’S CREAM STEW FLAVORED.

It’s as scary as it sounds, and I have no problem admitting that I couldn’t even finish it. I took a few sips hoping it would get better; it didn’t at all and I couldn’t convince anyone to finish it for me. Although it was fun to see their expressions after trying it. If you want an idea to what it tasted like think of sour cream mashed potatoes that someone blended into a thin liquid. -100 out of 5.

After rinsing my mouth out and eating about twenty mints, I rinsed out the bottle and decided to hang onto it.

I wouldn’t even give this thing to my worst  enemy...

until I ripped off the label anyway >;3

Unfortunately, I do not have images for the Puchi Puchi Art Gummy, the DIY kit. BFB of course. I did have pics on my phone, but I used up the picture limit per post anyway... I promise the next one I’ll get pictures.

<3 Cutie Ranking <3

(last time I’ll mention this, I do count quality still. I just wont list it unless I feel I have to. Also, I’m not sure what exactly I should rank here, leave a comment if you have suggestions!)

Content - 5 out of 5. Even though I didn’t like 2 items, considering you get like fifteen of them I think that’s really good! It was very Christmas in appearance and I felt like everything fit the season, pretty much in some shape or form. As I stated earlier on, I definitely think Premium is worth it. 

Total Rank: 10 out of 10 Cuties! It was an amazing first box and I don’t regret purchasing this one at all. I just don’t see how you can’t be absolutely perfect with yummy snacks and treats~

<3 Cutie’s Scale of Yummy <3

(for obvious reasons I didn’t include the Mokeke)

1. Corn Potage Umaibo - DOUBLE LOVE~

2. Cola Ramune Candy - LOVE <3

3. Shimi Choco Corn - Perfection in its simplest, cutest form~

4. Puchi Puchi Art Gummy - I actually bought 2 of these prior to getting this box so I knew I’d like it. I've always enjoyed the meigum brand of DIY candies.

5. Chocolate Umaibo - Its light crispy texture and rich taste won me over.

6. Bireley’s Soft Candy - I’m a sucker for fruity soft candy x3

7. Chocolate CUBIE - They might take a few bites to get used to, but they are fudgey cutie cubes~

8. White Milk Caramel Corn - I really did enjoy these, but sometimes the sweetness felt a little cloying.

9. Komekko Scallop - I half loved them, half disliked them. They would have ranked higher if they were all evenly given a soy sauce flavor.

10. Tomato Pretz - Despite by hatred of tomato, they were addictive.

11. Strawberry Roll Candy - Again its really good, but not very special or different.

12. Christmas Fugashi - This one just confused my little tasters a bit too much >3<

13. Mini Choco Chips - they were good, but just not all that special or unique.

14. Chocobi Ramune - it would have ranked better if the taste wasn’t so atrocious.

15. Cream Stew ramune drink - Yeah.... I think I gave enough explanation on this one.

Okay guys, until next time stay cute~!