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enddaysengine · 4 months

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Algorithmic Drones

Consume art without a soul and you will find yourself without a soul. In the Chronicles of Darkness, this is not a metaphor. The God-Machine needs blood and meat to lubricate its gears, minions who won’t blab about the dark rites they perform in sub-basement 3, and bodies for its angels to possess. The Soulless Algorithm ensures these human resources don’t run out.

The Soulless Algorithm is an occult plugin that piggybacks on AI software — including art programs from Final Destination, writing programs from Bayside Sorcerers LLC, and Youtube’s video algorithm. The Algorithm doesn’t directly infect mortals; instead, it subtly tweaks the outputs of the program it is attached to implant subliminal messaging into mortals using that software.

The God-Machine uses one-off exposures to the Algorithm to move people into the places that help complete occult matrices. However, long-term exposure turns the user into a stigmatic and untethered their soul, allowing the God-Machine to turn them into a compliant drone. These shells of human beings go about their everyday lives, but they do it without passion or meaning. They remain competent, but they don’t have any real insight anymore, just going through the motions day in and day out. They get their reports done on time, pump out content to feed the social media machine, and continue on as they did before — but inevitably, they lose followers or get passed over for promotion without noticing anything is wrong.

Integrators hypothesize that the God-Machine only intended the Soulless Algorithm to create the bare minimum of algorithmic drones required to meet its needs. They believe that the rise of AI programs in the early 2020s caused the initiative to spread out of control to the point that the God-Machine cannot reign it back in. Inquisitors and Saboteurs are far more skeptical, assuming everything is going according to plan. Meanwhile, a few morally bankrupt Tempters look for a way to turn the Algorithm to their own advantage.

Algorithmic Drone

Compliant stigmatic Virtue: Obedient. Drones are all too willing to follow orders from legitimate authorities. Vice: Superficial. Drones take everything at face value, and don’t bother thinking critically. Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 2; Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 2 Skills: Computers 2 (algorithms), Occult 1, Politics 1, Science 2; Brawl 1, Drive 1; Streetwise 1 Merits: Good Time Management, Omen Sensitivity, Unseen Sense (God-Machine) Health: 7 Willpower: 0 Integrity: 1 Size: 5 Speed: 9 Defence: 2 Initiative: +4 Glitches: The body odor of algorithmic drones smells faintly of brimstone. Enthralled by the Machine: The drone’s soul has become unmoored, and the God-Machine’s whispers have taken place. The drone suffers from the Soulless, Enervated, and Enthralled Conditions but does not suffer from the Broken Condition as usual. A soul cannot be attached to the drone unless the God-Machine’s influence is first removed. Uninspired: The drone cannot gain or bestow the Inspired Condition by any means. Unskilled Labour: The drone cannot raise her skills dots above two by any means. If her skills are already above two, they become two until she regains a soul.

Other Drones

The above statistics represent a generic drone who was a software engineer before the God-Machine sunk its circuits into them. Drones from other backgrounds can be created by varying the drone’s skills. If a character turns into a drone over the chronicle’s course, they will pass through the following stages.

Stage 1: Soulless Art, Soulless Self

When the Soulless Algorithm infects a character, they gain the Soulless Condition. If they are not already a Stigmatic, they become one now, gaining the benefits and drawbacks described in Demon: the Descent p. 225. Stage 1 infectees do not gain additional Supernatural Merits beyond Omen Sensitivity.

Stage 2: Uninspired

When the infected gains the Enervated Condition, they also lose the spark of creativity that drives morals forward. They cannot gain the Inspired Condition by any means, including by supernatural means. They also cannot bestow the Inspired Condition on another character by any means.

Stage 3: Enthralled by the Machine

When the infected gains the Enthralled Condition, their conversion into an algorithmic drone is complete. While they retain the abilities they possessed before, they no longer excel at them. The character does not gain the Broken Condition as usual for Enthralled. Instead, all the character’s Skills now have a maximum of two dots. If the character possesses more than two dots in a Skill, reduce it to two dots as long as the character has the Soulless Condition.

Hey! This was originally made for my patreons over on Patreon. If you want more exclusive monsters, you can back me over there, but you can also follow for free and get email updates whenever I post new public content too!

#Demon the decent #Stigmatic #God-Machine #God Machine #God Machine Chronicle #rpg #urban horror #urban fantasy #Chronicles of Darkness #pathfinder

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oleworm · 4 months

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@girlmaturin tagged me! What were my six favourite books of 2023?

This is going to be a difficult one. First of all because I appreciate books for different reasons, it can be because I learned a lot, because it made me think about new things even though (or because of the fact) that it made me uncomfortable, or simply because it fits my aesthetic or thematic tastes. It wouldn’t be fair to pit completely different books against each other, but I’ll try to do what I can!

There’s also the fact that this is the year that I’ve read the most books in my life since I started counting them. Maybe not 100 but 96! You can laugh at me, but to be fair a lot of these were short books, or essays or short stories that I saved as an e-book and counted independently. I’ve been reading a lot of older books that I had at home or bought secondhand and it really makes me think that contemporary books are so big! It used to be normal to find lots of books that were 100-190 pages long about a specific topic or just because the author wanted to type out their thoughts. I don’t know how much the cost of publishing has increased, but it seems as if every book has to be definitive and huge in order to justify the expense.

1) The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

I’m counting this as a book since I found it as an e-book on Project Gutenberg. I was a child the first time that I read it, so a lot of the implications went over my head. This time around I was fascinated by how it synthesises the ideas of the epoch—the insularity of the upper classes in a time of increased social mobility (Poe was, after all, an American) countered with eugenic fears of fixing unfavourable traits into a bloodline through repeated inbreeding. It’s fascinating that the text lays it out so clearly. There’s this line that stuck to me, about how the house of Usher never allowed any branches to grow too far from the trunk of the tree, and then there was this part when Roderick Usher describes the psychological traits that afflict the family—I say afflict because they are disturbing to him—not as a result of the circumstances of their lives, but a part of their inborn nature. It brought to mind the way that Vincent van Gogh described his depression to his brother, who also suffered from it. “The root of the evil lies in the constitution,” that is how I remember it, though I could be wrong because it was in translation and it has been quite a while since I read about the subject. It reminded me of that, and how people describe dogs with behavioural issues caused by poor breeding.

Anyway, a little insect encased in amber for the neuroses of an age!

2) The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee

A sheltered girl falls in love with a realistic robot—you would expect a pulpy romance novel but this was so much more than that to me.

It’s a story about a girl that has been sheltered all her life and does not realise that she is being abused by her mother, who controls every aspect of her life by making her feel that she is too innocent, too stupid to make a choice even with such personal things as her interests or her physical appearance. There were some mean-spirited interpretations of this little book, calling it a poor littlen rich girl story. But rich girls can cry too!

But besides, the heart of the situation, beyond all the fantastic, futuristic aspects, is one that can happen to anyone, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

One thing that I like very much about Tanith Lee is her ability to join different genres and settings. For example, in this one she described economic inequality and labour issues caused by automatisation and at the same time had the socialite characters talk in a droll, misogynistic manner that is right out of Saki. But writing this review I realise that these are not elements that are discordant with each other, though superficially they appear to be. Of the popular writers I have read she is one of those who best understands that the long 19th century may well be even longer—ha-ha, historians, don’t kill me!

I found it funny to be reading this book at the height of the AI-debate, as one of its main plot points was the fear that artists had of being replaced by machines that could “create” new and better works from the wealth of artworks that had been made by human artists before. I’ll probably remember that, if I live long enough to see what happens later.

3) Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze

Before this year I hadn’t read any books by Palestinian authors, so when I saw that this book was being shared freely and that it had some names that I already recognised I thought it would be a good place to start.

The fact that so many people contributed to it was the main reason that I chose it, there are so many different points of view, everyone emphasises a different part of life in Gaza, their experiences with their family, their work, their fields of expertise. There’s university professor who describes not only the subject matter of his lessons, but also the difficulties faced by students whose classrooms and study materials can be destroyed at any moment. The architect talks about the settlement pattern in Gaza, and how families prefer to construct their own homes in a way that the extended family may continue to reside together, though logistically it is not always possible to do so. The student provides a narrative of her daily routine, and how everyone must plan their day around the water and electricity shortages, and what difficulties this presents to cooking, cleaning and studying, activities that a lot of us take for granted. Most of the writers talk about the anger and frustration of having to deal with borders and checkpoints, the separation of family and friends for years and decades at a time across relatively short distances in the Palestinian Territories, in Israel and neighbouring countries, as well as the loss of opportunities abroad when people are impeded from leaving or fear that they might be prevented from returning.

Somebody said that it wasn’t right that Palestinians should always have to humanise themselves to the eyes of foreigners, hoping that we might care. I agree, because it is true that we should care for other human beings without having every detail of their suffering described to us. This book has sad parts, parts that are extremely frustrating, but it has moments of fun and happiness too. And the authors wanted people to read it and remember, and I want you to read it too.

The publisher has shared it for free download here.

4) When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

I listened to the audiobook for this one on the Platform Formerly Known as Scribd and have ordered a physical version to have at home. I was so sad when it ended!

I loved reading about Little Ash and Uriel, a Jewish demon and angel who leave their shtetl when one of the girls from the village goes missing on her way to America. The research that went into it made me want to read more about the historical period in which it was set, and it didn’t stay a resolution—I did end up reading a book about Jewish life in the Russian Empire!

As an immigration story, it made sense that one of the tensest moments in the book was the medical examination by the immigration officials—sadly, in many countries the discrimination of sick and disabled people is still a real problem, though I hope that it will change in our lifetimes, as it did with racial quotas. It’s sold as a Young Adult book but adults would enjoy it too, as it deals with complex issues in an accessible manner but without leaving them flattened.

5) The Idiot by Elif Batuman

As a reader of Russian literature I’m surprised that I didn’t find this book earlier! It was really funny and cute and you could tell how young Selin was supposed to be in this story. Like when she imagines her crush to be like a love interest in a Russian book even though they’re in the 20th century and he’s a completely different type of Eastern European just because his name is very similar to Ivan! There’s a very funny scene also where she talks with a psychologist about her mostly online relationship with this person and he says “Hm… He reminds me of the Unabomber,” and she gets all defensive about it because there is a kernel of truth to it, he is posing as this edgy intellectual and she does not truly know who he is outside these characters they have created in their epistolary world.

I love the way Selin talks about her friends and the books she reads, Elif Batuman really captured what it’s like to be that age, and it was refreshing to read a book about a girl where horrible things don’t happen to her and she can continue learning and being herself.

6) El miedo en el Peru, siglos XVI al XX, edited by Claudia Rosas Lauro

A series of academic articles about fear in Peru in the 16th to 20th centuries. What people were afraid of and what were the social, cultural, religious and political reasons that they might be afraid of a particular thing.

I am adding this to the list because of one specific article—it is introduced as being about the fear of one’s parents, but in particular it talks about a number of legal cases where people were attempting to leave monastic orders claiming to have been made to join under duress—either because they were underage at the time of their vows, or because they had been threatened with physical violence by their relatives, often their parents. I found it interesting, there is a clear parallel between being forced to join a monastic order and entering an unwanted marriage. The arguments that can be used are the same, that the person was too young to meaningfully consent, or only accepted to preserve a degree of bodily integrity. Many of these victims had been threatened, even with death, because the parents wished for their properties to pass on to another one of their relatives. Having taken a vow of poverty, a monk would no longer be entitled to it. It also happened sometimes that these young men would join a monastic order to escape violence in the home. There were other cases where it wasn’t a relative, but rather a priest or another religious authority that convinced a young person that he should take monastic vows, while being too young to understand them or not having received a proper explanation of the terms.

There were other cool articles, such as the one where the fear of piracy overlapped with the fear of heresy because most of the pirates that accosted the Spanish Empire were Protestants from Great Britain or the Netherlands, or the one about the people who chose or were made to starve to death under siege because of Royalist propaganda about the Republican army’s brutality.

This came out rather long… Because I haven’t been typing it directly on the computer where there are so many distractions. I ordered myself an AlphaSmart 3000 over the holidays, it’s an electronic typewriter that you can plug into your computer to transfer what you’ve written before. It’s very pleasant to type in, and it’s also satisfying to see how the letters appear on the word processor when the device transfers the text, it emulates a keyboard so it looks as if it were typing in real time. Don’t worry, I’m not being paid to advertise for a company that no longer exists. If people with similar tastes to mine found it fun or useful I thought I may as well try it out. So far I’ve written a story on this and half-way typed up a draft of a much longer one. Just make sure that if you use different languages on your computer that it’s configured to the English keyboard when you transfer text, otherwise strange symbols may appear!

I’m tagging @bacchanalium, @sifilide, @tetrachromate, @osmanthusoolong, @bogfox and @sherbertilluminated if they want to!

#ole blog #tag games

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altschmerzes · 1 year

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book club with gav! book 2: reputation

reputation by sarah vaughan

i picked this one up from the bookstore because i recognized the author, having watched and..... decently enjoyed the netflix limited series 'anatomy of a scandal' which was adapted out of another of her books. i didn't want to just read anatomy of a scandal because i'd watched the series, and i wanted to enjoy a New Story. i liked the look of it, it seemed to be dealing with some elements that i find really compelling - courtroom drama, political drama, social and journalism media, etc. reputation on the whole is something i'm a little obsessed with. thought all that sounded cool.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: gang it is not good. this is not a good book. the writing style was in DESPERATE need of an editor, with details that seemed irrelevant peppered all over, overstuffed bloated sentences that confused what was being described and why, etc. it also had a habit of utilizing a narrative trick that i think can be very fun if it's used effectively and sparingly. (i've used it myself actually, and i try to apply the same approach - use it sparingly, and make sure that it works enough to justify it.) it's this sort of like- there's probably an actual literary term for this, but it's like. retrospective narrative commentary on what's happening, 'i.e. i wouldn't know until later how bad of an idea that was, it was naive of me to trust him, at the time i believed him, this would come back to bite me when, etc'. this book used this so fucking often that it didn't just foreshadow future events including twists, it just. flat out told you what they were all going to be, leaving you able to predict beat for beat what was going on like 75% of the time. the povs were ineffectively deployed, and half of them didn't need to exist. the timeline jumping was fun for me but i can see that it would be hard to track if you weren't specifically watching it like i was. i didn't like the characters. any of them. the protagonist was infuriating and not in a fun way. and the overall promised thing that was the most compelling about the dust jacket - the way it stated the protagonist "is a liar" played out in the most boring way possible. the most interesting information came at the very, very end in the last, extremely short portion of the book that was effectively an epilogue, and it wasn't set up well.

now. in order to contextualize my thoughts about this book it is necessary to like..... go into a plot synopsis. it’s an EXTENDED plot synopsis. so that and my thoughts will be below the cut. general cw for this book that it's a murder mystery, so there's that, and this discussion of it will include brief and nondescriptive references to a mentioned suicide (we don't even know the character, he's related to a very small side character), revenge porn and nonconsensual nude pictures that are nonconsensually distributed, and some discussion of sexual assault/predatory relationships.

plot summary! so the plot of the book can be summarized this way: protagonist, emma webster, is a member of british parliament. she's a labour mp. she's an advocate for women's rights and feminist issues specifically, and has a current agenda about an anti-revenge porn bill. because of her advocacy, she sees a LOT of online harassment and threats of a truly vile nature, and some twitter threads and social media posts are included in the book. i love this sort of thing (the media threads), but i wish they'd done more with it. she is divorced and has a 14 year old daughter. her ex-husband is remarried to a former friend of hers from when she was a teacher. she is working with a specific journalist on this revenge porn bill. she lives part time in a home in her constituency, and part time in a home she shares with two other female mps close to parliament in london. events go down as follows, though i'm not 100% clear on the timeline, because this book had 45 plots. - protagonist is getting threats, she thinks her daughter is unaware of them, is mostly brushing them off while also being super intensely freaked out about them - daughter is having trouble at school: she's being bullied by an ex-friend who among other things has an instagram making fun of her - protagonist has a particularly angry and frightening interaction with a scary man from her constituency who's mostly mad he thinks she doesn't care about veterans issues because she doesn't talk about or campaign on them - threats she's receiving amp up, she starts to get texts direct to her mobile - she is freaking out constantly about her security and whether she’s safe at home. thinks every man she sees is going to throw acid in her face, which is both reasonable as a fear (genuine heightened threat to female politicians) and unreasonable as a fear (white women who consume too much true crime and think every single person in the universe is personally trying to serial kill them specifically complex). - she fucks the journalist and then immediately is like hm i should not have fucked that journalist, immediately ends the relationship and basically ghosts him, they don't even work together professionally after that. - the morning after she fucks the journalist she finds out daughter has taken secret nudie pics of her ex friend in order to teach that ex friend a lesson about...... being a bully and also too proud of her body? i guess???? and sent it to the boy her ex friend likes. the police are involved. it could be a child porn charge bc both girls are 14. the boy is 16. - this is gonna be really fucking bad for the protag and for daughter if it gets out to the news, especially given protag is campaigning against revenge porn and uh... well... this is similar enough it's gonna be hugely bad. - protagonist is obsessed and anxious to pieces about the possibility of this leaking - the daughter isn't actually charged, she just sort of gets suspended from school and then sent to another unit in the school for problem studentsTM. literally this is all of the consequences the daughter sees for her behaviour. that’s the whole thing. - threatening texts are persisting, protagonist thinks Angry Man Constituent is stalking her, bc he is, we see this in... his pov for some fucking reason - journalist lets protagonist know that he's been tipped off about a story involving the daughter that they can't print for legal reasons but if she works with them, they can spin it well - protagonist flips shit - she then concludes journalist is also stalking her. his paper posts pictures of her taking the trash out and is like She Seems Stressed! she takes this as an indication that he personally and specifically is stalking her and hates her and wants to take her down and ruin her daughter’s life, thinks there is a coded message in the article about her daughter. - journalist turns up dead (he's badly hurt in her home, dies in hospital) - protagonist goes on trial for his death - she initially tells the cops and her friends and Everyone that she came home and found him at the bottom of the stairs. turns out this was a lie. she pushed him. trial is basically on whether it was murder or self defense. - trial occurs, she is acquitted, important detail we learn is that the journalist got a message from a FB account he thought was her inviting him to the house. big part of the trial was that he was just There when she got home and she thought he was there to like. attack her or smth. - things we learn after the trial in the last like, 40-ish pages of the book: - the angry man constituent comes to the trial and yells at her when she's acquitted that his son (a vet) has died by suicide, and is then arrested and given a non-contact order - the threatening texts were not coming from him, they were coming from her daughter's ex-friend now-bully's mom? i guess? - her daughter is the one who sent the message inviting the journalist to the house in her mom's name. she wanted to talk to him, convince him not to run the story because she figured it was on her to handle the situation for some reason. - journalist got "x-rated" photos from a former university lecture section tutor of protagonist from when she was like 19 and in a sexual relationship with him (a pretty predatory one it seems) that will destroy the former tutor now-professor and political pundit's reputation (which would be a good thing, he sucks). this will also be devastating for protagonist (bad, yikes, bro, no). he wants to offer to protagonist that if she will work with them on that story, which will also prop up the point they're making together about her anti revenge porn bill, he will bury the thing with the daughter entirely. - this is what he was coming to talk to her about that day, and this is why she pushed him down the stairs. because she did. it's made clear in the last bit that she very much did Panic And Murder Him. - the reason the daughter didn't get there in time to be there first, why the protagonist got there first and this all happened, and there was so much confusion over who invited him there and why and all that, is that her train was delayed bc of. the constituent's son's suicide. whoof. - the step-mom knows what the daughter did. - none of this....... ever comes out i guess? it all kind of fizzles. that's it that's the book.

oKAY. now for: my thoughts.

fuck this book sucked so bad.

it was so distracted. it could not decide what it wanted the plot to be, or what it wanted the twists to be, or what they wanted to focus on, and it made all of its contents so much more muddled because of that. i was so thrown by the angry man constituent because literally the only relevance he actually ended up having to the story was as a direct case representation of the way the protagonist was being harassed and stalked and that his son's suicide was what delayed the daughter from getting there before the protagonist got home and found the journalist there. WE GOT HIM AS A POV CHARACTER. WHY? WHY DID WE NEED THAT???? all the stuff with the daughter was so unclear too? everyone here is an unreliable narrator which is fine but the way that they were unreliable was so like....... confused and muddled and nonspecific. did the daughter and the protagonist drop the ex-bff when protag got elected and ice her out? did ex-bff stop talking to the daughter for no reason and then get mean to her For No Reason? i have genuinely, honestly, really no fucking idea. and it's all like this. two characters will have wildly different perceptions of an event or a string of events, and there is NO clarity on which of them is right. which like, i'm struggling to articulate my issue with this, because that's a narrative choice you can make, but i think it does a disservice when we just... all of them are like this? they're all the same amount of unreliable, which makes it completely impossible to tell who actually IS unreliable, and there's just no way to know what actually fucking happened in this fucking book. i like an unreliable narrator. i don't like not knowing what the hell happened in a book like. On The Whole. there's no follow-through. there's no contextualization. there's no way to anchor any of it to reality. it made me nuts.

the protagonist was self-centred, sanctimonious, boring, and non-committal. there was nothing likable about her, either as a person or as a protagonist. she took so little action in her own life, and there was like... the lying that i was promised in the dust jacket didn't pan out in any kind of interesting way. she lied about finding the journalist at the bottom of the stairs when really she pushed him, but this is revealed so fast it barely matters, and the rest of the book has two small instances of what seems to be her misremembering minor interactions with other characters and saying something didn't happen when it did, and then being Seen As A Liar because she. lied about the initial finding the journalist. and then i guess not disclosing the things with the pics of her and her ex-tutor but... it just. didn't pan out in a way that was at all interesting. everyone else also sucked but it was never clear how much? the daughter's step-mom was like everyone thinks of me as the Other Woman and it's not fair 😠 and the journalist was doing some shitty journalism things though nowhere near as much as protagonist thought and the daughter did some shitty things too and never had any kind of sympathetic impression to me.

there was what i referred to often as like, milquetoast girlboss feminism all over this book. it was STEEPED in it. the whole thing was like, a thesis on how dangerous it is to be a female politician, which, yes! this is SO true! but it had nothing to say about that reality except that it exists, and there was also like... idk it felt very like, this is a perspective and landscaped shaped by White Girl True Crime in a lot of ways? she was obsessed with her own risk and this was never examined in any way. a lot of it was legitimate and real and a lot of it wasn't. she thinks every single person she interacts with is out to get her- specifically every man, which okay, i can get that. but also like... it caused her to lash out at everyone she knows, freak her daughter out, be unreasonable and cruel to her roommates. she had a simultaneous need to think she was two seconds from being murdered at all times and also to act to everyone around her like everything was fine, while also expecting them to take every concern she had immediately seriously at defcon 1. this was never unpacked. she wore a well behaved women rarely make history shirt in the second paragraph, talked about The Trolls all the time, and the book quoted harry potter in the daughter's section. it made weird and uncomfortable choices with race, when it engaged with race at all. just. overall hm.

here is an example of the way that race is dealt with here, in a section where the protagonist is about to be cross-examined by the crown prosecutor.

lot going on HERE huh! and it is all completely unexamined. yikes!

and then there’s this - the only other time when a character is identified as a person of colour. it’s a very uncomfortable thread where the like. it girl, most popular kid in school who the protagonist's daughter's friend abandoned her to suck up to is the only other identified character of colour in this book aside from this prosecutor and the daughter is repeatedly - REPEATEDLY - referred to as, and i’m directly quoting here, “an english rose.” she’s just so pale and thin you see. that’s why she’s so bullied, you see. because she’s so so so white. and so so so sooooooo thin. qualities well known to cause bullying in high school students- anyways. here’s the description of the most popular girl in school. who the daughter’s friends abandoned her for.

once again! YIKES! LOT going ON here! let’s unpack some of it shall we! (putting aside some of the... cringeworthy attempts at a grownass woman trying to emulate the slang of current day 14 year olds. i know it’s been eleven years since i was 14 but “bae-girl” is Nothing and im embarrassed for her just reading it. a lot of her Teen Talk has sounded good and natural but this is NOT it and her texting slang was atrocious.)

anyways. so. idk how it plays off to have your protagonist’s redheaded extremely pale skinned “english rose” daughter set up to be the target of social ostracism and bullying because her friends all chose trying to get close to the school’s super popular It Girl, who is described Like That. i think Not Good! not that there are never school hierarchies that fall down these lines but way these descriptions are presented and the language around them plus the whole “you an author are making up the social landscape here and are making some questionable choices villainizing a “confident, mean, hard” brown girl in contrast to the sensitive and delicate extremely pale white girl”” thing is like……. there are choices being made and i don’t like them.

and then there’s the ex best friend herself. who the daughter took the creepshot of and sent it to the boy the exbff likes. who is described like this (content warning for some SURPRISE! fatphobia as well!)

Flora hated her for this. She hated her for being so comfortable with her body. Despite her rounded tummy and the fat bulging over her bra, she liked herself enough to parade around the changing room, her double-Ds shoved up, her head tilted to one side.

i would like to remind the court at this time that this is the same ex-bff who is apparently basing a large part of her bullying campaign on how So So So THIN this girl is. because you know. the fat girl bullying the thin girl for how thin she is - another famously common high school social dynamic. you know how fat girls rule the school and thin girls are just so- sorry i can’t even stick the landing on that sarcastically lmao. again. not that things never shake out this way but 1. this is an author making choices and doing zero critical engagement with them, 2. this is playing into some bad shit and i hate it.

there are so many other things i could get into here. i have so many examples of sentences that were written so, so badly. i have so many specific moments that sucked ass. but i would keep going forever if i didn’t stop, i just want to leave on one last note: it’s not that the protagonist was a shitty person. it’s not that bad things happened and no one saw proper consequences. it’s that like- it’s that none of it was intentional. she sucked and i don’t think she was supposed to, at least not that much. i was promised a protagonist who was a liar. that was not what i got. i got ONE lie and two instances where she seemed to either mildly misrepresent or misremember a specific conversation she had. i got Poor Protagonist, She Told One Little Panic Lie And Now EVERYONE Thinks She’s A LIAR! Poor Baby! i got milquetoast girlboss white girl feminism that was completely uncritically presented. i got ‘everyone is out to get me all the time’ and this was given as a perfectly reasonable thing to believe and act on not ‘the real danger she faces has warped her worldview and she either needs some serious help or to find another career, as it is causing her excessive amounts of distress and she is lashing out at everyone in her life without consideration for their feelings or experiences or fears. ugh.

anyways. forthcoming are the two (2) shining lights from this book aka moments that were so fucking ludicrous they made me laugh hysterically. but that’s a separate post that i’ll make in a moment.

#gav gab #book club with gav

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wild-at-mind · 1 year

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I feel a bit sad that some people seem to consider gender identity as something that is purely outside heterosexuality, with 2 groups, the sad straights and the cool fun genderqueer people. I guess they are right in a way* but I’m not sure putting heterosexual partnerships in the boring box, separate from us in every way, sits right somehow if you care about inequality. Heterosexual relationships are still one of the biggest sites of inequality for women in most countries, definitely here in the UK, when it comes to domestic work and raising children. That goes double and triple if the child has additional needs (add hours wrestling bureaucracy to get your child the state help they need). I won’t add emotional labour as such as the term has become meaningless and I guess appropriated from workplaces (?), but in heterosexual marriages and partnerships there is often a level of caretaking of the man in the relationship as well. Often invisibly to him. In one way of talking about oppression straight people oppress the LGBTQ community, and this is true, so by that axis of oppression they are all privileged over us. But in another way of talking about it, it’s much more complicated, because in a heterosexual partnership the woman is likely to have less power in the ways she participates in stuff to do with relationships, sex and gender. (All kinds of oppression are more complicated than tumblr was pretending it was for all those years.) While the LGBTQ community is outside of societal norms and often embraces this, the unequal heterosexual partnership is the backbone of our society, still, and whatever that says about us, so it ends up touching everyone’s lives in some way. Inequality behind closed doors does matter. Isn’t this what ‘the personal is political’ meant?

(I’m currently reading Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World by Kumari Jayawardena and I haven’t gotten that far yet but the author has already several times stated that feminism in the countries covered often made very little impact on dynamics between men and women in the home. This suggests the domestic sphere is likely to be the last place to become more equal.) I don’t know, I’m was ‘straight passing’ and all, still am really depending on your eye. You don’t have to listen to me. It just seems sad. I don’t really know what I’m getting at any more. In my life all I wanted was to escape the trap of heterosexuality, the thing that had harmed me greatly, but for me it wasn’t just about ‘that’s inherently not who I am’, it was more ‘that’s not what I want’. In a world where we’ve come far enough to be able to talk about some LGBTQ identities as being a matter of choice, what you want to be, how you want to appear etc, does that make sense? Where people sometimes choose to transition not because they are in terrible pain if they don’t, but because they might have a chance at joy if they do?

Maybe we are lucky to be able to escape the ‘straight life’. We can’t forget those who are still in it though.

*straight, binary trans people exist of course, but I have a feeling this kind of person assumes that no one in this position could possibly do anything interesting with gender (not true, in my experience)

#gender #sexuality #heterosexuality #relationship equality #rambling again sorry #i'm glad people are having fun with gender even if it remains a source of self loathing for me #i do occasionally Get It but the loathing comes from feeling like i don't have a right to my own identity #look back with kindness

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 months

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"In early 1868, the social order at Little Glace Bay was challenged by a miners’ strike. Though the strike was apparently broken by the spring, conflict persisted into the summer. In May, the miners sent to James R. Lithgow of the Glace Bay Mining Company a list of grievances that had “led to a total Stoppage of All work in the mine.” Henry Mitchell, the mine manager, was the focus. In January, the miners claimed, Mitchell had promised to pay four dollars per running yard, but at the end of the month he paid the miners by the tub so as to deprive them of one-third of their wages. Later he sent them to work in “narrow places three in each place at a [still] more reduced price”; the colliers asserted, “we could not earn enough to support ourselves or our families.” After stopping work at the end of February, Mitchell resumed production on 18 March at reduced wages, promising a return to regular levels of pay at the beginning of the shipping season, which he also failed to do. Finally, in the winter and spring, Mitchell had promised the miners at Little Glace Bay that he would not employ new hands. Despite this promise, “he took on about thirty pairs of coal cutters.”

In May, Mitchell discharged all the new miners. The miners’ petition to Lithgow explains,

we occasionally met among ourselves to pass the time to talk about our circumstances and other social talk, and it seems that all other oppression on us by Mitchell was not sufficient to satisfy him or enough to make us Slaves altogether for on the seventh of May he discharged all the new hands, as we think to punish them and us for meeting and talking together at all. When we asked for the reason why he discharged the Men whom he was taking on a few days, and also had some men employed for work in a few days afterwards[,] he ordered us to bring up our picks, and stopped the work.

Mitchell viewed the mingling of the new hands with the Little Glace Bay colliers as a threat to his authority and sought to stave off any further meetings between the two. The colliers appealed to E. P. Archbold, general manager of the Glace Bay Mining Company:

We have a Union raised amongst us, which the Bos[s] has much Statements against, but we can assure you that it is for no bad design, but help another where sickness might occur or injured at his labour, and it is our intention to raise funds to aid one another. We lay our suffrages before you hoping that you will consider our present position that we now stand in. We solicit you as a gentlemen the rights of our labour.

These petitions would have little impact. The recent end of the Reciprocity Treaty had greatly reduced access to important American coal markets. With the end of boom times, the miners’ bargaining position was significantly diminished. Indeed, it was Archbold who had thus advised Mitchell: “Coals are getting duller and cheaper in the U States. If they strike all we will have to do is to stop work." The deferential language of petition was a ritualized 19th-century form common in North American political culture. But the miners also spoke a far less deferential language. Anonymous notices threatening violence were posted in Little Glace Bay at the time of the strike. A number of these have been preserved in Henry Mitchell’s papers and reveal seething underground opposition. One notice, featuring a drawing of a coffin framed by two pistols at the top, declares:

“All you Strange Miners ar to com under the union flag a Saturday kinght [night] if not you will have to le[a]ve the Pit[.] Remember What I Say[.] if you don’t By god you Will le[a]ve this world” (Figure 2)

Another notice was addressed to someone named Morton, with a similar drawing of a coffin and pistol:

“be wear your time is com[.] a fue Days to chang your ways is given.”

Mitchell also received a threatening letter. Much of its contents have been cut out, but one can deduce its essence from the surviving bottom portion of the document:

i will blow heart out of you like a Squirel and Mitchel you Son of a Bitch I have got your Days nombered in my Brest and that is very few and i think it no more Sin to Sute [shoot] the like of you than a i would a dog for you are a son of hells fire and that will be your Distination [destination].

This type of evidence presents to the historian “a sense of double vision”: deference and consensus on the surface, violent abuse and threats delivered in anonymity. As E. P. Thompson wrote of such apparent contradictions of expression, “both could flow from the same mind, as circumstance and calculation of advantage allowed.” The threatening letter was a “characteristic form of social protest” in a society “in which forms of collective organized defence are weak” and in which defiant individuals are vulnerable to “immediate victimization.” The anonymity of the threats directed at Mitchell and others was evidence of the vulnerability of the miners to the retribution of the coal operators and their allies. These allies included religious authorities at Little Glace Bay. In early June, local Catholic priest John Shaw and Presbyterian minister Alexander Farquharson Jr. prepared pledges for miners who promised never to attend union meetings again. Mitchell collected these, and they remain glued inside a tattered notebook – nine from Shaw and five from Farquharson. These clergymen had arrived in Little Glace Bay with the broader migration of Highland Scots from the Cape Breton countryside and were deeply embedded figures of religious authority in the community. The pledges they collected sought to absolve individual miners from prior associations with the union. An example of one, Farquharson wrote to Mitchell:

“The bearer hereof Angus McPherson has I understand been a member of those Union Meetings but declares that hereafter he shall take no part whatever in them. I know Angus well and I feel that I can rely upon what he says.”

Mitchell had apparently been sending miners to Farquharson and Shaw to make these pledges, but those sent likely complied only grudgingly. In one instance, Shaw complained to Mitchell, “send me none except those who are sincere and had made up their minds already.” “I care little for the stubborn Catholics who will never yield but because they cannot better themselves,” Shaw rumbled. Religious authority, in highly personal and direct forms, was drawn upon to reconcile the community to the prevailing social order at the mines.

In September, a local man wrote to Mitchell from Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia, where apparently some of the miners had removed themselves. “I have Sean [seen] some of you[r] old hands hear[.] the[y] Spok very hard againce [against] you.” The miners were defeated, and some were evidently banished from Little Glace Bay. Nonetheless, the stubbornness Shaw encountered as well as the “reveries” of the anonymous threats, in which Mitchell was “a son of hells fire,” indicate that the restoration of consensus and deference were not inwardly accepted." - Don Nerbas, “‘Lawless Coal Miners’ and the Lingan Strike of 1882–1883: Remaking Political Order on Cape Breton’s Sydney Coalfield,” Labour/Le Travail 92 (Fall 2023), p. 89-93.

#cape breton #glace bay nova scotia #strike #miners' strike #coal mining #coal miners #mining company #resource extraction #resource capitalism #nineteenth century canada #working class struggle #union organizing #threatening letters #social history #canadian history #working class history #academic quote #reading 2024 #scottish immigration to canada

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wolint · 3 months

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NAKED AND EMPTY

Job 1:21

Everything in life has a start and end date! Nothing last forever. When is humanity going to learn that everything in life has an expiring date? Everything that has a beginning, must have an ending, as Ecclesiastes 3 says, there’s a time for everything.

Ecclesiastes 5:15 puts it beautifully “As a man came from his mother’s womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labour to carry in his hands.”

Nobody, no matter their rank, status, and importance, rich or poor lives forever. Even the Queen of England, Elizabeth 2, eventually died. The ten days of her mourning and burial, with the committal of her remains to earth is the only difference between her and normal regular people. The same fate awaits us all, we came into the world naked and empty, we’ll all go out the same way.

There is a distinctive lesson in life: the futility of wealth.

Solomon, in all his splendour, makes us understand as he did in Ecclesiastes 2:23b, that all the trappings of wealth are vanity.

As expensive as the queen’s and other celebrated and wealthy people’s funeral and burial were, they had to let go of the symbols of power and authority, laying them on the altar of the King of Kings, the only one with the ultimate power and authority, the Immortal God whom all other powers and authority bow to.

Nobody has a choice in the family they are born into, just like the queen, yet she assumed the mantle of office and diligently served for years without any break but at the final moment, the symbols of her seventy years of authority and power were broken and removed from her coffin. Her sceptre, orb and crown were quietly removed and placed on the altar of God. Queen Elizabeth, as the presiding minister announced, must return to her Maker just as she came to earth 96 years ago, simply, and without the trappings of her royalty.

This is a lifetime lesson. Naked and Empty! We came with nothing; we will leave with nothing!

The reward of our endless pursuits and acquisitions will be left behind someday, not taken with us into eternity. In the meantime, according to Matthew 6:19-21, don’t store up anything on earth, rather store treasures in heaven, where they will be of more eternal value and use, because everything else would be left behind.

The dust will return to the earth declares Ecclessistes 12:7 and the spirit will return to God who gave it-the removal of these items from the queen indicates that her journey, work and spirit ceases to operate in this realm and are not valuable or useful to her eternal journey or destination.

Yes work, as clearly stated in Ecclesiastes 9:7-18, everyone has a God-given work to do on earth, are you doing yours? Everyone looking at the queen’s life is convinced she finished her work. Did she finish her God-given assignment? Would God agree with us?

If you have not started your assignment, it’s not too late to start.

Job recognised this truth clearly in our text. Do you? Naked and empty he came, just like every human being, reiterated in 1 Timothy 6:7, we brought nothing into the world that neither can we carry anything out.

What’s the use of amassing earthly treasures at the detriment of heaven’s treasure by not doing kingdom business? The most vital point of destiny is the day of departure: nobody knows when the roll call would happen, we, must therefore, live each day as the last, for it counts.

God has made everything appropriate in its time, use yours well, and do what you can now, for you came naked and empty, and you’ll go naked and empty when it’s time, leaving a legacy.

PRAYER: Lord, help me maximise my time on earth doing your business, so that when it’s time to go, I will be empty of earthy treasures but full of glorious and eternal treasures in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

WOMEN OF LIGHT INT PRAYER MIN.

#spotify #devotional #christianpost #women's ministry #biblestudy #biblestudy christianpost women's ministry #biblestudy christianpost 'women's ministry #conference #family #prayer meeting

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tatemckinney85 · 4 months

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Have you got a car that is in need of repair? Before heading about obtaining resolved, it is essential that you will be well educated about the subject to ensure you have the maintenance you need. This information will educate you on all you need to know when it comes to auto repair.

Tend not to consider your vehicle for the initial mechanic you locate. You must do research to locate a reliable technician with honest rates. Question your family and friends concerning the aspects they have been to before and appearance the web to find critiques authored by some other clients. When it comes to vehicle fix, less costly is not always a very important thing. You want someone that is knowledgeable about your make and model of car to get working on it. While you can receive having a buddy do your oils modify in exchange for supper, nearly anything more complicated is way better kept to some skilled. You don't wish to have to pay additional later to correct individuals "repairs". Obtain motor essential oil discounted and also in discount merchants and maintain a couple of bottles in the trunk of your automobile. Examine your gas each time you fill up your petrol reservoir. If you find that your essential oil levels is low, you will help save a lot of money by getting your own gas accessible rather than purchasing it with a gas station for higher rates. Take note of the gauges and problems lighting on the cars dash. Discover how to recognize the indicators of any vehicle that is overheating, reduced on gas or not recharging battery. Being aware of which of such indications need to have instant interest can protect against injury to your automobile and save you funds in the long term. Ask your auto technician regarding their A.S.E. certification. The National Institution for Car Assistance Excellence has a examination twice a year for it. To gain this qualification, technicians need to move a composed check as well as having about 2 yrs of employment experience of auto technicians and maintenance. This accreditation raises the chances of you discovering capable aspects. If you are planning a streets journey, make certain you go and also have your vehicle serviced. Program it just a little ahead of time therefore you are not hurrying to obtain it done in the eleventh hour. Even if your automobile feels great, you want to make sure that you will make it to your vacation spot and rear without having issues. Spin your car auto tires every single 6,000 mls or at each and every other essential oil transform. Spinning your car tires on the establish schedule assists guarantee that they wear uniformly, and so go longer. Your car is likewise much easier to push, as unbalanced car tires can lead to the automobile taking to just one aspect or perhaps the other. Replacing a charcoal canister is very high-priced, but you can actually substitute this component on your own. Pull off the wheel located within your fuel tank and disconnect the vacuum facial lines linked to the outdated canister. The aspect should then can come appropriate away from. Mount the brand new a single and hook up the lines meticulously before putting in the tire yet again. Will not be concerned if you discover a puddle water beneath your auto. Puddles are generally a result of moisture build-up or condensation out of your air conditioner system. You ought to be concerned in case you have not been utilizing your air conditioner system or if you realise puddles of water below your auto consistently. A damage or damage inside a plastic material bumper is quite simple to resolve. Begin by cutting the portions that adhere out from the damage before the corners are smooth. Then you can use a filler to produce the ding vanish. Yellow sand within the location and painting to hide the repair. Generally check with beforehand just how much labour fees at that specific store. In fact, will not allow them to have your tactics until you have a clear idea of what you would be charged. Many times, this info is not published in an apparent position, so it is essential to know what you are actually getting yourself into. Usually do not overlook strange sounds you notice when driving. Clunks, screeches, clicks and pings tend to be caused by reduce pieces. Take your car to your honest technician and explain the noise as best as possible. Your technician probably will substitute or change the various components that had been inducing the disturbance. After you have read through the following tips, you are now ready to take on a different state of mind in terms of car maintenance. You will be delighted you are aware where to start, and you may now look after company correctly. No reason at all so that you can appear about the improper finish associated with a deals.

#ull #youtrip promo code first

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coatsgroup · 8 months

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3 Uses of Water-Soluble Thread

Temporary stitching plays a vital role in the production of various items, including quilts, footwear, woven and knitted garments, and denim. In traditional methods, these temporary stitches must be manually taken out after the product is sewn properly. This removal process is labour-intensive and consumes significant time.

However, there is now a more efficient alternative: using a water-soluble thread like Coats Aquamelt. It is 100% water-soluble, so it dissolves when sprayed with or immersed in warm water, making it a great alternative to regular sewing threads when temporary stitching is required.

Better than tacking and basting threads

Aquamelt is a staple-spun polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) thread that can completely replace conventional tacking or basting threads for apparel, accessories, and footwear manufacturing. It eliminates the need to manually remove temporary stitches, saving costly operation and time and preventing fabric damage. Manufacturers don’t have to worry about any residue or stains after wet treatment. Once it melts, the product will only have clean seams without untrimmed or loose threads.

3 ways to use:

Coats’ water-soluble thread meets Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX Class I, meaning it’s safe to use on clothes for babies, toddlers, and children. Moreover, it’s practical for the following applications:

1. Clothes manufacturing

Water-soluble threads are widely used on ladies’ and men’s shirts, trousers, tops, and checkered or striped fabrics, and they simplify making pleats and garments like skirts and dresses. In addition, these threads are practical for the following applications:

Basting waistband

Machine and hand applique

Armhole and neckline gathering stitches

Line matching stitch

Complex fabric matching

Bias cut patterns

Multiple applications, like Strobel temporary gathering stitch for accessories and footwear

2. Basting

A water-soluble thread like Coats Aquamelt can speed up the basting process in quilt-making. It keeps the pieces of fabric secure to prevent shifting. After sewing, there’s no need to manually take them off. Similarly, the thread can hold batting and fabrics together for whole-cloth quilting. The entire product can be placed in a washer on a gentle cycle with lukewarm water, and the stitches should melt.

3. Hangtags

Products sold in retail establishments often come with plastic hangtags holding branding information and prices. Businesses looking to reduce their environmental impact and waste can use Coats Aquamelt as an alternative to plastic hang tags.

Try water-soluble threads!

Get a quote from Coats to learn more about Aquamelt water-soluble thread.

About the author:

Coats is an expert in designing and supplying a diverse range of technical products to the Performance Materials sector, which serves various strategic end-use markets. Coats provides a variety of thread options, and understanding the ideal choice for various sewing endeavours holds significant importance. Brush up your wardrobe with Coats thread, the most fashionable, durable, and affordable thread on the market. Renowned for offering some of the finest sewing threads globally, Coats sets the standard for the quality of products, including premium polyester and fibre optics yarns. Many leading brands use Coats threads.

#Water-Soluble Thread #thread manufacturing

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starfishbloom · 1 year

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Wounds of class (pt. 2)

Sometimes, almost inevitably, you’ll run into someone straight out of Pulp’s “Common People”. This person will be better than you in everything: they’ll have better connections, be abreast of the best and hottest authors, art, and music. They’ll be more curious have more energy and be more confident and better educated and much much better traveled, with a broad experience in radical politics (including an illustrious pedigree in getting arrested to...make a point). Deceptively, they’ll work at some extremely menial job like hospitality or set construction or anything very obviously classified as casual labour.

You’ll wonder how they did it? How did they manage to fit so much into their lives? They’ll also have a ready sob story about difficult family life which might even be relatable, and your big soft stupid working class heart will fall head over heels for this remarkable person, this fellow searcher and traverser of worlds who’s obviously superior to you in every way.

But something won’t sit quite right. They’re not kind, and they’re unashamedly self-centred. And slowly slowly, ten drinks or so into the night, the prosaic truth emerges. Little details or language slippages begin to paint the backstory “my mother’s driver once…” “I never speak with my dad, he’s a stupid banker in NYC”. Your heart sinks, you know this feeling.

At 15 drinks, the admission finally comes. “My family is super rich but I’m working class I believe in the value of human labour…I don’t accept any money from my family (except to pay cash for this apartment”). Your heart breaks at this. You know how it’ll go, you’ll be discarded once you fail to be consistently interesting. And they have a whole coterie of interesting people they surround themselves with, not to mention a fair bit of minority tourism.

So your superpower was money all along, and you “identify as working class” and think that working class people… fetishise work?! “You and your big stupid naive credulous working class heart.” I think. You fell for it again.

We’d probably willingly sacrifice a limb, or at least a few fingers to never have to work again, to have time and space that’s ours and ours alone, to create and study for the pure the pure joy of it, and never have to fear men like your father deciding that bottom line growth demanded sacrifice.

At 20 drinks, you stumble home, not having said anything you meant to say. Unlike the rich you find no joy in cruelty (“suckers” they call you behind your back) and you simply feel the weight of centuries of inferiority. They always warned you never to get in the ring with someone outside your weight class, you silly boy.

When “common people” was written, we were laughing at them, now that they’ve successfully assimilated and infiltrated culture, and they’re laughing at us. They can imitate us better than we can live us.

“There are many names of history, and none of them are ours”

#richardsiken #classwar #mark fisher

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blogasiaorg · 1 year

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What are the top 5 factors to consider when changing jobs?

What are the top 5 factors to consider when changing jobs? "Keep your employment for at least two years." "Never leave a job until you have another lined up." Everyone, from your mother to your mentor, has an opinion on the ideal approach to change employment. But how do you know who to believe? Especially since what was true in the labour market 20 years ago — or even two years ago — is not always true now. And the market is always shifting. Consider the power relationship that exists between candidates and employers. Though it varies by industry and location and is affected by the state of the economy, analysts have termed the present labour market as "candidate-driven" in recent years. It appears that job searchers have greater influence than employers. So, when it comes to changing employment, do you have the upper hand? No, not always. It does, however, imply that you cannot rely on "age-old" advice. So, what is the most common piece of advise they receive regarding how to change jobs? 1. "Never tell your manager you're looking for a new job." It may seem rational to want to have a job lined up before telling your boss you're leaving. After all, you don't want your supervisor to dislike you or to stop investing in you. However, times have changed. "It used to be that if you left a job, you were considered a traitor," says John Sullivan, an HR specialist, management professor at San Francisco State University, and author of 1000 Ways to Recruit Top Talent. Companies have changed their tune and are now making steps to ensure that employees depart on good terms. According to Sullivan, they are aware that former employees are on social media and do not want to "risk being disparaged on Glassdoor, Yelp, Facebook, or Twitter." In reality, many businesses now have procedures in place that allow employees to return if they so desire. The concept is that if you're a valuable employee, the corporation wants to squeeze as many years out of you as possible — and those years may not all be consecutive. Return employees are in high demand for companies such as Davita Healthcare, Yahoo, and KPMG. According to one research, about 15% of Davita's new workers have previously worked there. And, if sticking with the company isn't an option, you may be able to continue working with it. Lifelong employment is no longer a viable option, but being a truly free agent isn't either. "The alternative is what they call a'transformational alliance,'" Fernández-Aráoz explains, "where you explicitly agree on a temporary alliance, clarifying expectations regarding your contribution to the organisation and what the organisation will provide you in return, which may well be support to continue your career elsewhere." This is currently popular in Silicon Valley and "is likely to guide the way to talent and career management over the coming decades." Even if you believe your boss or company is open to your leaving and possibly maintaining a relationship in some way, the conversation can be awkward. It will be more tougher if you suspect your manager will be unforgiving. 2. "Stay at a job for at least a year or two - changing jobs frequently looks negative on a CV." This is a popular item of conventional wisdom that is simply no longer true. First and foremost, it is not always feasible. "There are numerous situations when you need to leave your job with nothing else," Fernández-Aráoz explains. You may need to relocate due to your spouse's job or leave to care for a family member. Second, short-term assignments are no longer detrimental to a résumé. Employers are becoming more accepting of short-term contracts. As many as 32% of employers anticipate job-hopping. People are most likely to quit their employment after their first, second, or third work anniversary. Millennials are especially prone to leaving jobs after only a few months. According to one study, 70% of people abandon their occupations after two years. So the recommendation to stay at a job for the purpose of your résumé is just no longer applicable. Gaps in employment history are no longer as problematic as they formerly were. It's no longer considered troublesome if you've been laid off, spent time writing a book, caring for a family member, or travelling. You simply need to demonstrate that your time off was not wasted. Employers simply want to know that you used your time wisely, whether it was to learn a new skill, have a life-changing adventure, or study something new. Still, you should avoid bouncing around as much as possible, not because it would harm your future career opportunities, but because it will drain you emotionally. The true issue is continuously starting over to find a new place, a new location, new friends, and constantly proving yourself. By thoroughly evaluating any potential jobs, you can prevent a lot of switching. Because many interviews consist of a chat between two liars, it is beneficial to acquire a sense of what the work will be like in other ways. Some organisations may provide a realistic job preview that will provide you with an inside look at the company rather than the sugarcoated perspective you would receive in a series of interviews. When looking for your next employment, request one or conduct as much research as possible before accepting an offer. 3. "Do not resign before allowing your existing company to make a counter offer." If you're a valuable employee, wise employers will try to persuade you to stay. If you're on their priority list, it'll be considered'regrettable turnover,' and they'll do everything in their power to keep you. Counteroffers have grown considerably more widespread, particularly in areas with a scarcity of talent or for highly specialised employment. They are generally accompanied by flattery, promises, and even better terms. Be cautious; most counteroffers are detrimental to all parties. There are two reasons why you should not accept a counteroffer. First, there was a reason you began looking for another employment, and despite your employer's assurances, that reason is unlikely to alter. Recruiters used to believe that 80% of those who accepted counteroffers left or were terminated within six to twelve months, and that half of those who accepted them re-entered the job market within 90 days. Even if your manager is capable of fulfilling the promises in a counteroffer, there is the issue of shattered trust. They may nonetheless regard you as less devoted and hence provide you fewer opportunities for advancement in the future. Second, you've made a commitment to the new company-honour it. Of course, you should make a sound judgement based on your individual situation and weigh both options. Considering long-term potential rather than short-term rewards Which opportunity will provide you with what you seek in the future? 4. "Never make a lateral move Because a new job is your sole chance to advance in title and pay." That was just last year. Yes, in the old model, you were Assistant VP, then VP, and finally Senior VP. But that was General Motors in the 1980s, not today's corporations. He claims that with today's flat corporate structures, there is often nowhere to go in your present or next career. Instead of fretting about lateral moves, you should concentrate on obtaining fascinating jobs. Think twice about pursuing title and salary! More money and a better title rarely make you happy at work. Instead, seek autonomy, mastery, and meaning. 5. "You should always be looking for new opportunities." You want to be content rather than continuously searching. Ideally, you should never be seeking for a new work since you enjoy what you do. It is a biological condition of our brain in which we maximise production while using very little energy. We are completely involved in what we do, often losing track of time, and we are able to function at our best. When you've found this in a job, it's pointless to hunt for another. Even if you've found a job that makes you happy, you should continue to study and improve. He emphasises that this does not have to be a new role with a new firm, but rather a different role or challenge inside your current position. Because the world is changing so quickly, you must be adaptive or agile. You should always look for tasks that will teach you new talents and push you out of your comfort zone so that you have more than just the skills required for your current job. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Indeed Why employees quit the job? Read the full article

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blakeattorneys · 2 years

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Legal Services Mclarens Attorneys Randburg

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According to a 2013 WHO report on violence towards women, about 35% of women worldwide have skilled either bodily and/or sexual intimate associate violence or non-partner sexual violence of their lifetimes. In 1999, in Cape Town, a small group of womxn legal professionals based a non-profit independently funded authorized centre that may focus exclusively on womxn’s rights. Since then Women’s Legal Centre has established a stable popularity in South Africa and internationally for its advancement of womxn’s rights, and various other precedents have been set which will have a profound impact on many womxn’s lives. A domestic violence safety order is a legal doc that the court points and it protects the sufferer from additional abuse by the abuser. Analysis of 366 research involving more than 2 million girls reached an estimate that 27% of girls aged 15 to forty nine have experienced bodily and/or sexual violence by a male companion in their lifetime.

An software for a safety order may be brought on behalf of the complainant by any other person who has an interest within the well-being of the complainant. This includes a counsellor, a well being service provider, a social worker, a instructor or a member of the SAPS. Claire has a ardour for legal training and could be booked for public and corporate training occasions on a selection of authorized topics. She frequently seems on Radio to debate her work and topics together with laws pertaining to marriage and children.

B) In terms of Section 7 of the Act and in the absence of a written agreement the courtroom might make an order which it finds simply in respect of the fee of maintenance by the one partner to the other by taking various elements into account. The court docket is required to contemplate the components referred to in part 7 so as to decide, firstly whether maintenance is to be paid at all and, in that case, the quantity to be paid and the period for which upkeep is to be paid. In order to claim for maintenance, you have to first decide thereasonable needsof the child on a monthly foundation. There is not any hard and quick rule, however typically the child’s share of the common expenses in the family is determined by allocating one-part per youngster and two-parts per adult or older baby.

A Dutch media report says China is running an undeclared police operation to strain dissidents. SPAR Market Day Wednesday is Market Day at SPAR Eastern Cape, which suggests nice high quality at costs you’ll love, at chosen SUPERSPAR, SPAR and KWIKSPAR shops in the Eastern Cape. “We’ve seen a big enhance in women being abused since 1 June,” said Evans. Further information was provided by Dixon on the request of the choose on Saturday night.

Are you in a domestic relationship which includes marriage, co-habiting, co-parenting or associated to somebody who intimidates, harasses, stalks you bodily or electronically or who threatens to evict you. The firm can additionally be a member of the MSI Global Alliance a world network of attorneys with offices situated in one hundred nations around the globe. Don’t overpay for any service, rent a local skilled from our expertise pool of forty four divorce lawyers in Johannesburg who are expert and vetted.

The Covid pandemic is prone to have contributed to extra instances, they added. Matters surrounding the household and divorce could be emotional, complex, and trigger quite a lot of uncertainty. We can even assist you to obtain an anti harassment or restraining order with somebody with whom you aren't in a domestic relationship with. Our agency has the experience to guide you through the headaches where an antenuptial agreement doesn't appropriately set out the intentions of the events, or where it has different errors that needs to be rectified.

Pierre Smit has been unimaginable in his steadfast integrity, honesty and grit in serving to me battle to get my kids their father again. I is in all probability not his most profitable consumer by any means, but I am his most grateful. Thank you from the underside of our hearts for fighting so valiantly for what is true. What could have been a hard situation turned out to be a lot much less stressful than anticipated. This in no small half in your cautious dealing with the matter in an correct and explanatory method.

They have been so environment friendly with getting our marriage contracts together. She is an entrepreneur at coronary heart and enjoys growing new business strategies to make Witz Inc. the simplest platform for client’s legal service choices. Being solutions driven, it's our mandate to current all authorized choices obtainable to our clients and to teach them as to how these would apply to their unique set of circumstances. In doing so we seek to empower our clients and equip them to make well-informed choices greatest suited to their needs. Authenticity, combined with a sympathetic, intuitive approach, allows us to apply authorized experience in a deeply human and relatable method.

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procurement4education · 2 years

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Pressure on school budgets and what you can do about them.

Managing the school budget during uncertain times is one of the greatest challenges in the life of a head teacher.

It probably isn’t going to surprise you to learn that this challenge is projected to become even more complicated, as you can see from the chart below.

The good news is that you have more control over these pressures than it seems. In fact, the World Commerce and Contracting Authority identified that the average organisation loses 9.2% of the value of the contract through poor procedures. And fortunately, that is a problem that can be fixed, with a little help.

Here’s a breakdown of the budgetary challenges that head teachers are now facing, along with the ways that Procurement 4 Education can help you stop the loss, improve your processes and help make quantified savings that can then be redeployed.

Inflation

Inflation continues to rise with no end in sight. The best protection against inflation is to fix prices, yet this task is costly and doesn’t bring any guarantees. We can help you decide which contracts need fixed pricing and if the supplier can be trusted to honour the agreement.

Shortages

Shortages are predicted to worsen, due to continuing labour/supply chain issues and reduced production of food and fertilisers in the Ukraine. It’s critical to choose the right suppliers in this climate, and this is something we can help you with.

Recession

The strong likelihood of a recession in the near future means hard times for students, families and staff. We can help you achieve savings to allow options for those facing financial issues.

Poverty

Unfortunately, poverty is becoming an ever-present experience for students and, in some cases, staff. We can help you make savings that can be redeployed as a cushion for them.

Economy

The combined and lasting effects of first Brexit and then Covid-19 have left tremendous pressure on the economy. In addition, environmental concerns and the war in the Ukraine have added to these pressures. All of the research we have read suggests we will be facing double-digit inflation for at least two years, creating a recession and possibly stagflation.

Workforce Pressure

We are in the midst of a teacher shortage which is only going to get worse due to growing demand and increasing student numbers. The problem is exacerbated by the number of teachers leaving the profession. The government’s proposed 3% salary increase will mean another actual salary reduction, making retention even harder.

Covid-19

Covid-19 lingers on, along with repeated and sudden shortages of staff and students. We now understand that the need for temporary teacher coverage is an ongoing reality, creating one more item in the budget.

Politics

Our politics are uncertain. Will a new PM call a general election? If they do, what will that do to the Department? Given the revolving door in the role of Secretary of State, what will the new PM do? These questions leave us with many uncertainties about the financial future of our schools.

If all of this has you throwing your hands up with despair, don’t.

Procurement 4 Education has the tools and the knowledge to help.

Here are some of the things we can do for you:

1. Review contracts and agreements to produce a contract register, detailing ending dates, when notice must be given to avoid automatic extensions, escalation clauses and many other issues.

2. Based on these reviews, make a set of recommendations on how you can manage your spending going forward.

3. Carry out retendering of services if necessary.

Cost

To do points 1 & 2, we will charge £1,000 excluding VAT. However, if we cannot show you savings above £10,000, we will charge you nothing.

Contact Procurement 4 Education to learn more about how we can help you.

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coilwhorl15 · 2 years

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Chinese Language Tourist Visa

Holders of Turkish passport with validity of greater than six months. Those who've obtained a certificates of admission from Chientan Overseas Youth Language Center must additionally submit a suggestion provided by Overseas Community Affairs Council. Nationals of the next countries are eligible for business eVisas if they've obtained recommendations from the native Taiwan External Trade Development Council since 1 June 2017. 1 — for British nationals, solely British citizens are eligible. Taiwan grants visa-free entry to holders of passports of all states with which it has full diplomatic relations. All arrivals into Taiwan are subject to quarantine for 14 days. You can apply for a visa by searching for and emailing your native consulate (such as one in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., etc). For me, the New York consulate’s e-mail address is You'll have to specify your purpose for journey, similar to needing to take care of a severely unwell member of the family. 1.) Express and Rush Service usually are not available in all foreign countries. If you want to use the providers, please check on official website. The Chinese Visa Application Center in Bangkok accepts purposes for all visa categories and is officially licensed by the Embassy of People's Republic of China in Thailand. Visit your native Chinese embassy website to work out what visa you'll find a way to apply for you and what you should do to use. In the occasion of a protracted national vacation, the holder might apply for a visa at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Visa Office, Bureau of Consular Affairs. The above-said touchdown visa cannot be transformed to visitor or resident visa under normal circumstances. ‧USA and Japan nationals who possess a, including emergency passports, legitimate for the intended period of keep are eligible for visa-exempt entry. For normal cases, the processing time required is 2 working day upon acceptance of software. For distinctive instances and people where concurrence is required from the ROC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the quantity of processing time taken is dependant upon the size of time taken by MOFA to complete its verification and approval. China Visa Utility Visitors from other international locations can discuss with entry information up to date on September 23, 2020. There is no visa-free regime as such, nonetheless there are numerous conditions, connected with the period of stay in the nation and entry place which exempt from necessity to obtain visa. Persons who have used solid, altered, or different persons' certificates for getting into or leaving the country could, along with taking over their certificates, be given a warning, or held in detention for up to 5 days, relying on the seriousness of the instances. Chinese citizens residing abroad who request to return to China for employment shall apply to China's labour and personnel department or to host and employment employer units. R.O.C. Travel Authorization Certificate.The holder of a ROC Travel Authorization Certificate may keep in Taiwan for 14 days, starting from the day after arrival. If you intend to remain in Taiwan for more than 14 days, please follow the instructions below and apply for a visa. If you are not from a visa-exempt country, then you must apply for a Taiwan visa if you need to be allowed entry into the country. This article will element the Taiwan visa software course of, including the Taiwan eVisa and Visa On Arrival. Prior to January 1981, there have been no standardized adoption legal guidelines and regulations in China. Those who have settled in Mainland China, nevertheless, could elect to renew their permits in Mainland China, and so they can proceed to reside in Mainland China offered that their permits don't expire. A 30-day stay for every go to to Hong Kong can be permitted with the strength of the allow. Like Home Return Permit holders, holders of Taiwan Compatriot Permit additionally require to acquire a separate employment authorization before working in Mainland China. Consulate General Of The Folks's Republic Of China In San Francisco China retaliates with its personal tariffs on greater than 5 hundred U.S. merchandise. The reprisal, also valued around $34 billion, targets commodities similar to beef, dairy, seafood, and soybeans. President Trump and members of his administration believe that China is “ripping off” the United States, benefiting from free commerce rules to the detriment of U.S. corporations working in China. https://www.chinavisa.com.tw/china-visa/ criticizes the Trump administration’s strikes as “trade bullying” and cautions that tariffs might set off international market unrest. President Obama announces new efforts to implement U.S. commerce rights in China. For the visa coverage of Hong Kong SAR, see Visa coverage of Hong Kong. Foreigners Employment Permit of the People's Republic of China issued by Chinese authorities authorities for Human Resources and Social Security, as properly as Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Entity or Confirmation Letter of Invitation issued by relevant Chinese entities. If needed, the consular officer may require the applicant to supply different proof documents or supplementary materials. A letter agreeing to foster care issued by the trustee dwelling in China who has agreed to supply foster care providers and photocopy of the ID of the trustee. The name comes weeks after Russia invades Ukraine; during that point, China refuses to sentence Russian President Vladimir Putin for the struggle and the resulting humanitarian disaster. Chinese diplomats and state media shops also repeat a Russian conspiracy principle that the United States is financing biological weapons labs in Ukraine. During the call, Biden lays out sanctions and different efforts that are coordinated with allies to punish Russia. Xi criticizes the sanctions, saying they “would only make individuals suffer.” Both leaders categorical assist for peace talks. After commerce talks break down, the Trump administration raises tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion price of Chinese items. China retaliates by saying plans to increase tariffs on $60 billion price of American goods. All About Visas A passport is issued for about ten years, whereas a visa’s length is shorter, normally a couple of months. You can apply for a refugee or an asylum seeker visa in case you are being persecuted in your home country because of spiritual, racial, or political reasons. Every country points their very own visa to accommodate persons who've refugee standing. All appliants for passport interview are advised to reschedule their appointment for biometric capturing using the Reschedule Passport Interview Appointment link provided on the website!. It solely lists places of work that are closed or have quickly changed hours. Please check this page on the day of your appointment for any office closures or other important data. If you've appointments at a couple of office please check both sections to make sure the workplaces are open. Citizens of Canada and Bermuda don't require visas to enter the United States as students, though they want to present a valid Form I-20 on the time of admission. The H-1B program applies to employers looking for to rent nonimmigrant aliens as employees in specialty occupations or as trend fashions of distinguished benefit and talent. A specialty occupation is one that requires the appliance of a body of extremely specialized knowledge and the attainment of no much less than a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The U.S. passport has a mobility score of 166, which means holders can visit 156 countries with out the need for a journey visa. Visa on arrival signifies that travellers should get hold of a visa so as to enter the destination nation, however it can be obtained upon arrival. Visitors don't want to use for a travel visa beforehand. You can leave and re-enter Australia any number of occasions while the visa is valid. It costs AUD $495 to use for an Australian Working Holiday visa, though the price can change at any time. Check the value for theWorking Holiday visa andWork and Holiday visa earlier than making use of. The Australian Working Holiday visa is open to applicants aged between 18 and 30. Citizens of Canada, France or Ireland are eligible till the age of 35. Travel Advisory UC Davis travelers are additionally advised against all non-essential university-sponsored home journey, significantly by air. Registration is an important step in reducing dangers during journey while keeping our group secure, especially in environments with heightened well being dangers similar to COVID-19. For those contemplating domestic journey the CDC U.S. travel steerage recommends staying house as the greatest way to protect from getting sick and provides extra pointers for many who are contemplating touring inside the united states Those touring for work domestically ought to take applicable precautions whereas traveling and upon their return to work. UC Davis is reminding all members of the campus neighborhood to keep away from all non-essential journey. Employees and students who're planning on touring out of state over the holiday breaks ought to plan to self-quarantinefor 14 days upon returning, per the state tips. In some countries, medicine (prescription and over-the-counter) could also be substandard or counterfeit. Bring the medicines you will need from the United States to keep away from having to purchase them at your vacation spot. Many international hospitals and clinics are accredited by the Joint Commission International. A list of accredited facilities is available at their website (). If you receive medical or dental care, make certain the equipment is disinfected or sanitized. 辦理台胞證 has flights to Xiamen and Chengdu from April, and to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou from May. Vancouver has flights to Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen, and Chengdu from April, and to Guangzhou from May. London has flights to Shanghai from May and Beijing from November. Los Angeles has flights to Beijing and Shenzhen from September and to Guangzhou from July. China Travel Service Please observe that Chinese hotels rating is kind of complicated generally, even the hotels labeled with the same stars can differ considerably in terms of facilities and services due to completely different cities and brand names. China’s journey business is rising exponentially on the web, which is the preferred channel for prosperous Chinese outbound vacationers to search out information on foreign destinations. But what is the point of view of traditional brick and mortar Chinese journey agencies? We have the pleasure to publish an interview with Mr Shi Laishun, Vice-President of China Travel Service , the biggest Chinese, State owned, journey company. “Because the variety of Chinese outbound vacationers is rising, the prices of resorts and airline tickets are getting decrease, which might reduce the worth for outbound travel. Follow us to explore the popular sights and discover the essence of the heritage left by nature and historical past to this ancient oriental realm. This proportion represents the entire of cash and different sources which may be expected to be realized in money, or offered or consumed inside one yr or the normal operating cycle of the enterprise, whichever is longer. This is a solvency ratio, which signifies a firm's capability to pay its long-term debts. The decrease the positive ratio is, the extra solvent the enterprise. Visa Coverage Of Mainland China Hong Kong everlasting residents are eligible for a 3-year visa if they have obtained no less than one 6 or 12-month multiple-entry visa up to now. In 2010, China granted visa-free access to residents of 26 countries who visit solely Hainan. It enabled these guests to go to Hainan Island and not using a visa for not extra than 15 days if they're visiting as a half of a tour group organised by a professional travel agency. Chinese law enforcement authorities have little tolerance for unlawful drugs, including marijuana. Penalties for possessing, using, or trafficking unlawful drugs in China are severe, and convicted offenders can anticipate long jail sentences, heavy fines, or the demise penalty. Police frequently conduct unannounced drug tests on folks suspected of drug use and have been recognized to enter a bar or nightclub and subject all patrons to immediate drug testing. Based on Chinese and U.S. coverage paperwork and knowledge sources, they estimate that between three and five thousand Chinese students might be prevented from getting into U.S. graduate programs every year. Hina just added three new cities to its 144-hour visa-free transit program, making it simpler than ever to go to some of China’s most well-known landmarks—including Xi’an’s terra-cotta warriors—during a protracted layover. Applicants usually make request to the provider when boarding, and comply with a couple of easy steps to use for a free entry and layover upon arrival. Also, you can make pre-arrival online software for Shanghai & Xiamen, or direct apply at the entry port. Get A Visa To Go To Guilin China The S2 visa is a short time period visa for candidates who are visiting a member of the family that has a valid residence permit in China as a end result of work or study. The size of the extension depends on the sort of visa and multiple entry visas can not be extended. Please contact your travel advisor for assistance in visa extensions. Please reserve enough time for remedy, and keep copies of related supplies in advance. 2) The applicant ought to honestly state the scenario and prepare the applying materials. Any false declaration or pretend materials may violate Chinese laws and rules, which will immediately result in refusal of visa utility, or of entry into China sooner or later. Please fill within the complete payment precisely, and make it payable to Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. Like Home Return Permit holders, holders of Taiwan Compatriot Permit also require to obtain a separate employment authorization earlier than working in Mainland China. They can, nonetheless, take pleasure in social benefits in sure municipalities like Shanghai as soon as they've legally settled in Mainland China, a few of which are only provided to local residents. Holders of passports issued by the following countries who possess an APEC Business Travel Card containing the code "CHN" on the again of the card can enter China visa-free for business journeys for as much as 60 days. Chinese visas are issued each outside China, by the Chinese diplomatic missions, and in China, by the Exit and Entry Administrations of the county-level Public Security Bureaus . In order to enter China, nevertheless, a non-Chinese national ought to apply to the visa-issuing authorities outside China for a Chinese visa. ◆ An invitation letter by Chinese Citizen or foreigner with a Chinese everlasting residence permit and lives in China. It is the accountability of an applicant to guarantee that the documents submitted to this office for visa software are complete. Any software made with incomplete documents will end in processing delay and/or eventual decline of your visa utility. The holder will want to submit his/her passport, momentary entry allow when making use of for the visa.

#台胞證

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theinternetisfulloftrash · 2 years

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Collision Course Coachella

Pairing: Dylan O'Brien x Reader (Female) Synopsis: The last person you expect to see dancing his way around the Coachella venue right in front of you is Dylan O'Brien, but sometimes the universe just puts you in the right place at the right time. Tags: Coachella, Dancing, Semi-Public Sex, Slow-Burn, Protected and Unprotected sex (this is fantasy...be safe) Rating: Explicit (obviously) Author's Note: You wanted it, I stayed up all night to give it to ya ;) It's juicy, and I've decided to turn it into a limited series due to popular demand! A three-part saga of the weekend the reader and Dylan spend together at Coachella 2022. Index: Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3

Day 1: Colliding (Reader POV)

There’s no fucking shot that’s Dylan O’Brien? Not a chance. There’s no way? Holy shit. Holy shit, wait. It is . It fucking is! You couldn’t help the blush that immediately flooded your cheeks when the realization set in entirely.

He was walking with friends through a concession area when he started dancing to Run the Jewels that was blasting from the Mojave stage nearby, as his friends laughed and recorded him. His shirt was entirely unbuttoned and somehow the fact that it was lazily hanging from his body was more sinful looking than if he’d actually been shirtless.

You were honestly trying not to stare, but to be fair? He was making a bit of a spectacle of himself, so you felt you were well within your rights as a human to be ogling. You weren’t the only one watching him, but you might have been the only one to recognize him.

He spun around a final time and laughed, clapping his friend on the back as they headed off toward the cantina and beer barn.

You smiled to yourself. A celebrity sighting while you were on a bathroom run. What a fun story to tell your friends when you made it back to the Gobi stage. You were checking out TOKiMONSTA before heading to the main stage for the rest of the evening. You looked over your shoulder one last time at Dylan and his group of friends before you headed back to meet up with your own.

“Where the hell have you been?” your friend yelled at you as she bobbed along to the music when you finally make it back to her. “I thought you just had to pee? Did you get lost?”

“Relax!” you yelled back, unamused. “I got…distracted,” you said, waving your arms dismissively before you tucked yourself in next to your friend.

“What?”

“I’ll text you!” you said, gesturing to your phone. You looked down at the screen and opened your message history with her and typed out a brief synopsis of the events of the last fifteen minutes. You watched her eyes bug out of her head before she looked up at you.

You pressed your lips together and raised your brows before you nodded.

“No way! No! Where!?”

You pointed to your phone and sent another message. It was easier than burning through your voice and yelling over the music.

You: He was just vibing with friends? Over by beer barn.

Her: We’re going. Now.

“No!” you yelled at her and then looked back down at your phone.

You: Absolutely fucking not. I’m not gonna be one of those weirdos. He did look fucking hot though.

Her: I bet. I’m fucking mad. I’ve never been more disappointed in my bladder.

You: Next time don’t tell me to find it myself.

She looked up at you and rolled her eyes before she flipped you off.

Continue Reading on AO3!

Much love everyone! I hope I don't let anyone down. I know this shit was in high demand. It's 10 AM and I haven't slept, but the Coachella smut now exists in the world. Be a dear and let me know if you liked it (or didn't, honestly). Feedback, that's all I'm askin' for. This thing was a labour of insanity, and your feedback always makes it worth it :) -Trashy xoxox

#dylan o'brien #dylan o'brien imgine #dylan o'brien smut #dylan o'brien x reader #dylan o'brien x you #coachella smut #collision course coachella fic #trashy writing #I'm tired everyone #I edited this so mildly #I'll probably find a bunch of mistakes later #but... It's good enough to consume #I think?#anyway #I'mma go enter a fic posting anxiety fetal position #byeeeeeee #xoxoxoxox

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