#but they only sell those in larger bottles that will take me literal years to finish using

[silentspaces]

The worst thing about trying to get into cooking is that all these recipes call for ingredients that I don't have and I will ultimately use for this single recipe and then never again (because I will give up on cooking in 2 weeks)

#I wanted to try a honey garlic chicken recipe that is actually easy but I don't own vinegar or soy sauce #but they only sell those in larger bottles that will take me literal years to finish using #because I am single and I never cook with those #but I do happen to have honey and some leftover flour (also probably a little old but oh well) and garlic comes in small amounts so #so what will happen is I will make this recipe and then have to find more recipes that use those #but then *those* recipes will require more ingredients that I don't have which will make me buy more #and then it will never end #maybe I could pawn the vinegar and soy sauce off to a coworker or someone from archery #my life

[a65232-joshywoshy]

Colorado Crybaby

Chapter 9     

     "I'm so sorry, Penny. I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Rachael reached out for her friend's hand.

     "Oh, Rachael, no." Penny snickered and smiled. "I'm not in any actual trouble. I'm not being assaulted or unjustly punished or anything. I mean, I will get my butt spanked, but I broke the rules. I broke a play agreement we had discussed a while ago. We're play partners. We set up a scene, like we did here, we have boundaries in place, and we still make sure to have some fun. Through this whole 'getting in trouble' thing, there wasn't one time where I got near any of her or my actual boundaries. I didn't ACTUALLY offend her. I broke her play rules…” Penny smiled a mischievous grin, “kind of on purpose."

     "Oh. Wow. I guess I don't know much about how that kind of relationship works." Rachael sat back in her chair and eyed Penny inquisitively.

     "Yeah. And we never do anything sexual. That's a hard limit. I mean, she'll spank my butt with her bare hand. She probably sees… me... but she doesn't touch anything. She's..." Penny giggled, remembering her past infantile states, "She’s my Mami. She's changed my diaper before. So she saw me all laid out, but we never do anything sexual. I mean, don't get me wrong. Once she leaves, or that night, I'll hump my brains out. But… that just works for us."

     "Okay.” Rachael was smiling. “That sounds like a lot of fun, honestly. Especially being babysat. It's partly terrifying, partly amazing."

     "Like she said, you can play with us this weekend, if you want. She's so much fun to be with. See, me calling her “V” was actually an agreed-upon trigger to begin a small play session. If she didn't want to, she would have started talking about how the weather will affect her outdoor plans. Veronica is a little annoyed by that name, so we decided to use that name as a starting point to escalate me getting in trouble. When I didn't tell you about the diapers I bought earlier today, that was on purpose, too.” 

     Penny continued. “Sorry. I'm supposed to announce the diapers to my close friends when they’re around. It's part of our agreement. If I don't acknowledge my little side by saying it out loud often enough, she forces me to acknowledge it when she’s around. When I don't acknowledge that side of me, I have a valid reason to be in trouble. I've let that side of me build up too much before and It wasn't good for me. It can take me to bad places, which is why she’s in my life. She helps me to stay leveled out. The bratty whining at the end was just me acting out, because it's so fun to do."

     “That… is amazing.” Rachael just kept smiling. “So you two have all these little phrases and words set up so that you can play…” Rachael gestured to the club. “Pretty much in public? That’s really cool. And nobody knows any different. I’m sure the dialogue is a little more laid back when it’s in public public, like at a movie theater or something.”

     “Of course. We don’t want any nilla’s getting their panties in a bunch. Do you want to go cuddle the giant teddybear now? I know I do. Just leave the…” Penny huffed, “diapers... here. No one’s going to touch someone else’s diapers.”

     Penny got up and walked over to the bear in the corner of the room. She plopped down next to it, rested her head on its arm and closed her eyes. Rachael followed her over to the bear. As she walked across the room, she was much more aware of the diaper under her shorts. Penny was padded, too. She had almost forgotten. A couple to her left were wearing onesies as they shared a plate of nachos. A woman to her right sucked on a pacifier as she played a game on her phone. There was an aura of familiarity to the room and Rachael felt like she was in her element. She felt as though she belonged here, with these people. It was a group of people who didn’t know each other, but had at least one common trait. They were people whom she could immediately identify with, at least in part.

     "Can I borrow your sweater?" Rachael was starting to get cold, just like Penny had predicted.

     "Of course.” Penny snickered. “Silly babies like you don't know how to plan ahead." Penny smiled as she took off her sweater to hand Rachael, then leaned back against the bear.

     Rachael put on the sweater, then sat down cross legged on the other side of the bear. She looked over at Penny.

     "Silly babies like Penny get in trouble for not following instructions." Rachael grinned at Penny again.

     "Well… " Penny blew raspberries at Rachael and they both chuckled.

     It was fun to act childish. They both believed that adulting was too hard, at times. It seemed like the best way to wind down was taking time to be childish, play, and relax. They had both heard their grandparents say that retaining youthfulness was best accomplished by acting somewhat childish. So acting childish, at times, was a key to retaining youth. The girls fully intended to do their best to act childish when they could get away with it.

     "Penny, I'm thirsty. What do they have to drink here?"

     "Only the finest of concoctions, prepared by artisan crafters and aged to perfection." Penny looked at Rachael with a mock seriousness. "Strawberry… or chocolate. The flavor is but a minor choice, for the decadent liquid which you will consume will satisfy your palate in ways you've never imagined.”

     Rachael laughed. "You are ridiculous. What do they sell here, thousand dollar wine?"

     "Strawberry or chocolate? Pick!" 

     "Chocolate, ma'am."

     "As you wish, my lady." Penny got up and bowed at Rachael. "I shall fetch the lady her royal beverage."

    “Thank you, Penny!” Rachael put on her best British accent. “Mr. Bear and I will discuss your exceptional service while you’re away. Hurry, now.”

     Penny laughed as Rachael watched her walk away. Rachael marveled at how wonderfully silly and adorable she was. She could see that Penny's dress had caught on the diaper underneath. Nothing showed from underneath, but Rachael couldn't help but stare at the distinct fold in the fabric that was caused by fabric hung on something underneath. 

     “Mr. Bear,” Rachael watched Penny walk towards the bar as she started a pretend conversation with the bear. “I like that girl. I mean, I really like her. She’s sweet, smart, fun, kind of a rebel at times. She’s a diaper girl, which is, of course, amazing. I mean, for so long, I thought I wanted a guy. But, I mean, it’s really just different parts. People are people. She's got a great personality. She’s just a great person to me. She might have literally saved my life today, too, Mr. Bear. Some scary dude came up to me and Penny drive him off like it was nothing. She’s perfect, Mr. Bear.” 

     Rachael sighed and leaned back against the bear's shoulder, still watching Penny order drinks from the barkeeper.           

     “Part of me wants to throw myself into a serious relationship with her, but another part says it’s too soon. I mean, we’ve known each other for 5 years, so we’re not strangers. We took a nap in the same bed today. We’re close friends that are getting closer as time goes on. She’s coming back.”

     Rachael whispered as Penny started to walk back. “Are those bottles? We’ll talk later, Mr. Bear. Thanks for listening.”

     Penny came back with two baby bottles, both larger than normal. One had strawberry milk inside, the other had chocolate. Penny stuck one of the bottles in Rachael’s mouth as she sat in the bear's lap to face Rachael.

      "Hey!" Rachael mumbled through the bottle, smiling all the while.

     “See? Finest of concoctions.” Penny started to drink her bottle unashamedly, seeming to have done this before.

     Rachael blushed slightly, having had a baby bottle shoved in her mouth. She took a drink of the cold chocolate milk, enjoying the richness of it. 

     “This is good,” Rachael said, taking a break from drinking. “And out of a baby bottle. You’re right. This place is amazing.” Rachael smiled and continued drinking.

     Penny sat and drank her bottle, staring at Rachael all the while. She was enjoying watching Rachael in her element. She could tell the experience was still a little new, but Rachael was taking to it quickly. Penny had felt uncomfortable for the first several times here, too. After having visited for over 2 years, drinking a bottle here was as comfortable to Penny as breathing.

     “Penny?” Rachael had been too busy looking around the room to notice Penny staring at her. 

     “Yeah?” 

     “I like you.” Rachael smiled brightly as she looked at Penny.

     “Well, I like you too, silly.”

     Rachael blushed a little more.

     “No, I mean, I LIKE you like you.”

     Penny had caught Rachael’s meaning.

     “Oh.” Penny smiled back at the woman sitting beside a giant stuffed bear. “I… um… I like you too, Rachael.”

      Penny looked away, though she was happy to hear how her friend felt about their relationship.

      “Do you want to… you know…” Rachael’s cheeks burned red now.

      “Date or have sex?” Penny’s cheeks started to turn red now. 

      "What?! No!" Rachael laughed. "Sorry. Date. Can we start dating?" 

     Meekly, Penny said, “Yes. Who could be better to date than your best friend?" She smiled.

     Rachael moved to be between the bear’s legs, next to Penny, who was sitting on a leg. She wrapped her arms around Penny’s waist. Penny wrapped her arms around Rachael’s neck.

      “I love you, Penny… DeLa Cruz.”

      “Wait. Whoa. Why did you pause? Are you so blushy that you forgot my last name?”

      They both laughed.

     “No. I forgot your middle names that Miss Veronica said.”

     Penny huffed. “But then you’ll know my full name for when I’m in trouble.”

     “But it’s part of who you are, Penny. I really want to know everything about you. Including your middle names! Which you have a lot of, by the way.”

     “Yeah, it’s a common thing for us Mexican girls." She sighed. "My full name is Penny Rosita Eleana De La Cruz. You better not repeat that ever again.”

     Rachael laughed. “I won’t. I know your whole name is to be used in emergencies only. It’s very pretty, though.”

     “Thank you. Drink your milk. You drink so slow.” Penny continued drinking her bottle. It was half way gone already. Rachael had barely drank a fourth of hers.

     “Hey. I’m not a baby bottle guzzling champion like you, Penny. I guess you really are a baby if you know how to drink from a bottle fast.” 

     They both smiled.

     “I guess maybe I am kind of a baby.” Penny said. Having Rachael here with her at the club was helping Penny feel more comfortable with herself as well.

     "I'd rather you be a complete and total baby than be like Nick. I hope I never meet another soul that's like him." Rachael shivered.

     Penny moved to sit beside Rachael, between the bear's legs.

     "It's been a while since you talked about him. He was the guy who started trying to gaslight you, right? The guy who wanted to convince you that he was the best thing since sliced bread?"

     "Yeah. That Nick. Can we get out of here? I don't want to talk about him here."

     "Yeah. We can go. We've done everything I wanted to do here. I just wanted you to see this place."

     The two got up and walked back to their table where they picked up the box of diapers. They walked back out, said goodbye to Pablo and got back into Penny's car.

     The mention of Nick put Rachael in a bad mood. She was quiet as Penny drove to Rachael's house. Penny didn't say much, either. She only commented about other drivers on the road on occasion. Penny knew that Rachael would need some time and space to relax.

     They finally arrived at Rachael's house, and Penny got out to take her box of diapers inside.

     "I'm so happy I got to hang out with you today, Rachael. I know you just want time and space… just… call me if you need me."

     Rachael had been lost in her head for several minutes, but she still processed what Penny had said. Rachael didn't want Penny to go, but she knew they both needed to get ready for work tomorrow. They had to go back to being adults, living their separate lives again.

     "Thank you for today, Penny. You make me so happy." 

     Rachael kissed Penny on the cheek. It was the first time their faces had ever touched. Penny smelled wonderful to Rachael. There wasn't any particular scent to her. She just smelled like Penny. Rachael's lips had felt her warm cheek against them and it felt wonderful.

     Penny hugged Rachael. 

     "I'll see you at work tomorrow, okay, kid?" 

      Penny kissed Rachael's forehead, then turned to go back to her car.

      "I love you, Rachael."

      "I love you too, Penny."

[coffeecomicsgalore]

Unveiled Love

@smutember

Ao3

Chapter 24 – You can Touch, But Can’t Look

Marinette had moved back home the next day, gathering all her belongings at her parents home that morning after she and Adrien had woken up. 

A few weeks had passed since that incident, but Marinette had been so overwhelmed with everything surrounding her life that the intimacy aspect of their relationship had yet to happen. There was the occasional kiss here and there, plus the slight cuddles that would happen after a bit too much to drink, but the two lovers remained keen on keeping any sensual touches to themselves.

Marinette had made it clear that she was still troubled over the whole Sentimonster disaster. The feeling of wanting to love him was there, but making love to him? Well, she was having a hard time collecting her thoughts on actually performing any sexual acts with him again.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t. Adrien was patiently waiting for her to make that decision, and he had made that clear when they discussed things further that fateful night. It was the fact that the sentimonster had plagued her thoughts of needing to be “perfect” in both body and words. He confessed that the sentimonster had brought him above Notre Dame and kissed him shamelessly, and he in turn kissed her back with the same fervor. His touch to the fake Ladybug’s breast and ass made Marinette’s skin tingle, but it was mostly because she sometimes viewed herself as flawed in those general areas. 

Marinette sighed. She had confessed to Adrien one night in the past week that the reason she hasn’t been intimate was because of her self-consciousness to her own body. He assured her that her body was perfect to him, but she still hesitated over it. She didn’t know if it made her feel better or worse that Adrien couldn’t determine a difference in their body structures as he fondled her, but he also didn’t have any reason to believe that the sentimoster wasn’t her since she passed his test.

“Girl, you need to just move past this.” Alya suggested, seeing the look of forlorn on her best friend’s face. “I understand that Hawkmoth got him to try to cheat on you, but he literally fondled a girl that looks and talks exactly like you. If he seriously thought it was you because she was, like, your twin, then maybe you should try to work on that aspect of it.”

Marinette took a sip of her wine and placed it back down to the table. She needed an outside opinion, and telling Alya that Hawkmoth sent out a sentimonster that looked exactly like her to pry Adrien away because a fan was jealous plus caused an akumatization, actually worked, so she indulged in the blogger’s interested questions to selfishly help her separate her confused thoughts. 

“I wish it was that easy, Al. I look at him and want to kiss him. I still love him, but…” she let out a sad sigh, “it just hurts knowing that he did that. For whatever reason, I can’t get past it.”

“Have you tried counseling? I think you guys would benefit from it.”

Marinette nodded. “Yeah, we are. Once every week over the last four weeks. Plus, it doesn’t help that I left him for three weeks. It really made his mind think of the worst. It actually put a rift into our relationship because of my dramatic exit.”

“Girl, you are known for your dramas. But I still can’t imagine being away from Nino for three weeks. I still get your reasoning, though, and I applaud you for that. I just wished you would have handled it better.”

“Me too. But like I've said earlier: you would think he would have known every bit of me. I guess I was wrong. And even though our therapist had indicated that even being with someone for fifty years you still don’t know a person’s intimate thoughts and ideals, a situation as odd as ours can still rock a tight relationship. It’s a matter of understanding a person for what they give and receive. Adrien only followed that monster because he really thought it was me. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t have.”

“Then why can’t you get past it?”

Marinette thought about it for a moment as she took a sip of wine. She wanted to get past it so badly. How could she though? How could she get through the glass barrier that was cracking underneath her fingertips?

“I don’t know.” The bluenette said sadly, wishing her hardest that she could get past this.

“And that’s all you have a hard time doing? Is being innocently intimate?”

“Yeah…”

“Then start off slow.” Alya stated like she figured out life’s most intricate question. 

“What do you mean, slow?” Marinette tilted her head. “I only started kissing him more about a week after it happened, and we now cuddle to sleep and that took two weeks to happen. How much slower can we go?”

Alya smirked. “Like this.”

----

Adrien walked through the entrance after a difficult day in the office. He had to let a staff member go for her fourth ordering mistake in the last two weeks, and he had to reprimand a head designer for a flop that his father had insisted they should send out to sell six months ago. Gabriel had left to go to a conference in Tokyo, yet made Adrien do all the dirty work for him.

He placed his bag on the table, then sighed as he pressed his hands into the table causing his arms to stress with his weight. He lowered his head as he thought over the day, then wished he could wrap his arms around the woman he loved for a way to destress. He looked up slightly, his eyes peering through his half lidded eyes, taking in the room as he envisioned Marinette waiting for him on the couch with arms wide open, waiting to run her fingers through his hair and getting him to purr out the tension.

He sighed again, then rubbed his face with one of his hands, before going to the fridge to open a bottle of water to drink.

“Hey.” A meek voice called out to him causing him to stop mid-sip. Je then turned around to see Marinette standing beyond the table with her arms crossing the front of her body in a nervous kind of way.

“Hi.” Adrien answered back softly.

“Can we talk?” She eyed him carefully, before looking at the couch with her peripherals. “On the couch?”

“Yeah- sure.”

The two walked to the couch and sat down. Adrien waited until Marinette sat down first, before he took a seat beside her.

She let out a breath, then began. “I know I haven’t been showing you much affection lately. I’m sorry for that. I just couldn’t because of my own insecurities and with everything that happened.”

“And I understand. I can’t imagine being in your shoes, and I will apologize forever to make up for what I did.”

“I- I know. And you’ve been working so hard to show me that. But I still can’t get past that odd feeling of never feeling good enough. That sentimonster was perfect, but I’m nowhere near that.”

“But you are to me.” Adrien pushed, trying to get her to understand.

“I know. And you tell me that everyday. But I’m still having a hard time accepting it.”

“Then tell me. Tell me how to fix this.”

Marinette reached into her pocket and took out two thin, silk blindfolds. Adrien suppressed the urge to make a sex joke, especially knowing there was no way she would enjoy that at this moment and time, and waited until she spoke again to understand what she wanted to do.

“I think we need to fix this. Slowly.” She let out another exhale and handed him the larger blindfold. “We need to get back to the basics first. Understanding each other through touch.”

“So, we wear this and do what? Just touch each other?”

“Not sexually,” she blushed, “not yet. I was thinking slow - like kisses, touching our hands, touching our faces - stuff like that.”

Adrien began to nod his head as the words ricocheted in his mind. “Okay. I get it. I think that works.”

“Great. Want to- want to try this right now?”

“Here?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to do this in our room yet. I’m not ready to take that step.”

Adrien gave her a small smile, then wrapped his fingers around hers. “Okay. You tell me when it’s too much, and we can stop. Alright?”

Marinette gave him a small smile back, happy that he agreed to try this out. “Okay.”

Both took their respected blindfolds and wrapped it around their eyes, waiting until the other voiced their readiness. Soon, Marinette reached out first, touching her fingertips to his. Adrien flattened his hand to allow her to wander, and she responded by brushing the fingertips against his skin.

Adrien licked his parched lips, and felt the soft, simple touches. She continued to trail towards his palm, smoothing out her fingertips until she covered his palm with hers. She then flipped their hands and allowed him to do the same. Adrien then took his time, palming her hands, before gliding his fingertips along the divots in her palms, then traced up each finger until he reached the edges of her fingertips.

Adrien then flipped her hands back over, but ran his hand over the back of her hands until it reached her wrists. 

He could hear her breath, the slight whimpers that she tried to suppress. He bit his lips and continued to trace his fingers until it reached her elbows, but then brought them back until he reached her fingertips. He stopped, keeping his palms out and flat, waiting for her to explore his skin.

They continued the same path for a while, tracing fingers, hands, wrists, and elbows, until Marinette held her breath and brought her fingers to his shoulders, then traced the collarbone until she reached the base of his neck. She paused, unsure of sliding her fingers up, and Adrien could feel her eagerness and hesitation.

“It’s okay if you want to stop.” He encouraged; yet, the words did not feel pressured. Biting her lip, she continued, tracing up until she reached his jaw line. She traced the prominent facial points, practicing the feel of his divot between his lip and his chin, back down to his chin and then traced up until she reached his cheekbone. She rubbed the pads of her fingers against his cheeks then slid them up to his eyebrows, before sliding her fingertip down over the bridge of his nose. She could feel the silk of the thin blindfold protecting his eyes before her fingertip felt the smooth skin of his button nose, before trailing down to his lips. 

The soft muscles felt precious underneath her fingertips and all she wanted to do was kiss them. She held back, but gasped when she felt the soft peck that he left on her thumb. Adrien let out a nearly silent, but breathy chuckle, then grabbed her hands with his.

Marinette let out a breathy chuckle of her own, knowing that the feeling was wanted. She placed her palms out, just like he had done, and allowed him to press his fingers onto her skin. He followed her lead, allowing himself to reach her shoulders and feel the divots from her collarbone. Once he reached her neck, she hummed in approval, and he traced her neck up until he reached her chin. 

Once Adrien traced her face, he ended at her lips, tracing the edge slowly. Marinette reached up and grasped onto his palms, and he stilled thinking he had gone too far. Marinette smiled, and he felt her lips curl upwards, and he let out a sigh of relief when she removed his palms from her cheeks and kissed them. He curled his fingers around hers and placed them back onto her cheeks, allowing her to nuzzle the large appendages sweetly.

Marinette left his palms on her cheeks, then reached out to his, palming them also. Slowly, they each brought their faces closer to each other, hesitantly closing the gap until their noses touched.

Giving each other little eskimo kisses, Marinette sighed. Adrien felt the warm breath on his lips, and he decided to brush his lips to hers. He did so excruciatingly slow, but it gave her enough of a chance to pull away if he overstepped his boundary.

Marinette hummed at the simple touch, then did the same to him, finally taking the initiative to press her lips to his a bit longer. When she let his lips go, she leaned her forehead to his, swallowing thickly until the words spilled from her lips.

“I love you, Adrien. So much.”

He gave her a soft smile, and reciprocated his love to her. “I love you too, Marinette.”

Marinette pulled back and quietly removed her blindfold, watching him as he pursed his lips. She watched as he took in a breath and released it, then watched as he clenched his fingers open and closed as he waited. 

Adrien stood with his back straight, waiting for her to speak first or initiate the next exercise. All he wanted to do was gain her trust. He hoped that it wouldn’t take forever to get there again, but he had decided he would wait forever if that meant being back to what they were before that awful day.

Marinette loved this man as much as she knows he loves her. She always would, and she knew that. But this was a necessary evil, along with the therapy sessions for them and her, and the continuous nightly conversations that they would have in order to work on the communication aspect of their relationship. 

Slowly, she lifted her hands up and reached to the knot on his blindfold, slowly removing the strands until the black strip of fabric fell from his eyes. She smiled at him, her eyes full of hope, and he smiled back. 

“You okay?” He questioned, bringing his knuckles to her cheek to brush the skin.

“Yeah.” She caressed his hand, holding it close to her cheek. “I needed that.”

“Yeah.” He let out a breathy chuckle. “Me too.”

“I love you. I do trust you and I want you to know that. I know that it was a mistake, but please, let’s not let it ever happen again. Okay?”

Adrien breathed out a sigh of relief. He knew it would still take some time until they got completely past this, but this was a good step into the right direction. He would wait until she was ready for anything, even if that meant until the end of time. As long as he was with her, that’s all he cared about.

#Unveiled Love #smutember #smutember 2020 #adrienette

[designer-dad]

Peak Design Everyday Backpack 30L - The Review

So we’ve arrived. The culmination of years of fine-tuning and honing in what I look for in a bag. Years of tastes growing, becoming uber-specific and demanding. And 6 months of searching for a very good bag that won’t (totally) break the bank. Something that a frugal person can still say is worth every penny.

Behold, my EDC choice: The Peak Design Everyday Backpack in 30L, Charcoal.

Peak Design first caught my eye when they developed the Everyday Messenger Bag. I was thoroughly taken by how a bag could be so simple, yet powerful. It didn’t require very specific pockets for every possible item. What it had was a thoughtful and novel approach to organization that, while based on camera gear, worked exceedingly well for EDC. With thoughtful and useful pockets, the ability to expand, and those awesome gear dividers, I knew they had a winner. But I was already getting past the stage of messengers and looking at backpacks. if only they did a backpack...

... And then they did. And what a backpack. It was very hard as a designer not to fall down the rabbit hole of videos on the features and uses of this bag. There really isn’t a whole lot you’d wanna do with this (as an EDC/typical travel bag) that you can’t do. True, it’s not submersible, and I don’t think it would do well with a hydration bladder, so it won’t really work as a hiking pack. But aside from that, this thing really can do it all. Drone carry? Check. Tripod? Check. Yoga mat? Check. Lots of giant water bottles? Check. Laptop and tablet? Check. Camera gear for days? Check. Room to grow? Check. Slinging a days worth of purchases from the Mahane Yehudah Market in Jerusalem? Check.

There’s no shortage of reviews and videos breaking down this bag, so I won’t get into all the nitty gritty of what makes it awesome. It’s pretty much unanimous that it is. So I’ll go through why it checks my particular boxes, and then run through how I think it could get even better.

1) Masterful Organization Major pros here, a few cons. Overall, Peak addresses my biggest issue with backpacks, which was really the main sell for me. They employed a way for me to subdivide the giant big pocket into smaller chunks that are easy to reconfigure in both immediate ways (simply flipping a flap one way or another) or more semi-permanent ways (removing/adding a divider, or simply moving one). This is epic. This scratches my organization itch SO SATISFACTORILY. 2 side water bottle pockets (more on that below), handy soft-lined kinda hidden zipper pocket at the top of the laptop compartment, interior hidden passport pocket, and 2 side panels of smaller organization which expand to hold FREAKING ANYTHING. Seriously, I’ve never not been able to fit something in there, even things that obviously should not fit. And it’s got hidden loops and tethers all over the place for carrying literally any kind of weird thing strapped to the outside as well. It covers all the bases, some better than others, but certainly covers them all. I can store big stuff, little stuff, weird stuff, and more, and know it will all have a place, no matter the size or shape or fragility.  Other than documents. More on that later. And it’ll grow to add more. YES. 

2) DSLR/Camera Carry This is what Peak Design focuses on, and this is what they do exceedingly well. Taking cues from many other DSLR carry inserts, their origami style dividers have flaps that allow you to move a portion of these semi-rigid dividers to the side to make way for larger camera grips, or lay long lenses across. But that’s an understatement. These movable flaps give an excellent combination of structure, flexibility, protection, and modularity to allow for nearly any kind of setup you’d like. They pretty damn well near nailed this aspect of bags.

3) Travel Buddy/EDC Buddy Yeah, it’s more or less a joy to use this bag for travel and EDC. It flexes nimbly between what I use everyday and the particular items I carry for travel. It grows to carry my extra gear for travel (prayer paraphernalia, books, cable pack, snacks), yet shrinks back to a reasonable size when all I’ve got is my lunch and collection of way-too-many EDC knives. 

And no matter the kind of trip, it can tackle it. Overnight stay to get away from the kids? Done. 3 day work trip to North Carolina? No problem. 3 day winter break with the kids in Louisville? Got it. Week with the boys in Scotland? Yup. 10 days with the wife in Israel, along with day-pack use? Check. 2.5 day Design Show in Milan? Sure.

It’s a great airport companion, as the quick release strap adjusters and swing-to-the-side move make backpack carry almost as easy to access as messenger carry, and always stymies TSA just enough that they tend to give up on it quick and leave me alone. And I love being the only guy on the Metra in Chicago with this bag. Other than that one time I sat next to another dude with the same bag, and proceeded to make a new friend.

4) Backpack Carry Now almost any backpack could theoretically satisfy this requirement, but Peak does it in a pretty special way. The straps are fairly comfortable, very ergonomically sculpted, and have a giant swiveling rivet at the top that allow it to fit my 6′2″ 230 pound frame, as well as my 5″4′ 120 pound wife, all without issue. It has a somewhat ventilated back panel, to ease comfort a little (but still doesn’t quite measure up to a serious hiking pack like an Osprey), though it will still yield a pretty sweaty back with prolonged wear. But for a bag that’s rigid, holds its shape well, stand on its own when you put it down, protects your gear, and has a water-resistant coating, it’s a pretty dang comfortable bag. 

5) Water Bottle Carry YES. This bag does this better than almost any I’ve seen. The side pockets are deep, fit even GIANT bottles, and somehow tuck flat back against the bag when not in use. It looks fitted empty, with my slim travel umbrella, or a 750ml bottle in it. And it has a pocket on BOTH sides. 

6) Laptop Carry Do you carry a giant 17″ CAD Mobile Workstation? Then you’re out of luck. Anything else, and you’re covered. It fits my 15″ Mobile Workstation just fine, and that’s massive. The 20L would fit a 15″ standard laptop as well. It’s got a soft protected pocket with top access, keeping it separate from the main compartment, and it expands to the inside of the bag when occupied, so the bag does not physically grow when you add a laptop. I find it nice that the bag always maintains the same profile. I don’t have to readjust on the train to avoid hitting people if all of a sudden my bag is really full. It also has a tablet sleeve, but I find it hard to keep one in there if I’m toting my beast laptop. Admittedly, this is a problem for very few people.

7) Svelte but Spacious As I said above, I love the fact that the profile of this bag pretty much never changes. Yes, it gets slightly taller when it’s crammed, but front to back, side to side, it’s always the same, semi-rigid structure. It’ll always fit under the seat in front of me on the plane. I won’t accidentally hit people with it because I forgot I added a pair of shoes. Yet it looks sleek, and not gargantuan, even though it can hold up to a generous 30L. It’s more like 22L when not fully expanded. Granted, it looks on the larger side when my wife is carrying it, but on a, uh, fully grown male such as myself, it looks just fine. Not too large for EDC.

8) Generally Awesome Designers like toys. We love novelty. Cool features. Little pleasant surprises. This bag is full of them, and they continue to provide joy on a daily basis. This is how products should be. From the unique magnetic latch and bar system, to the hidden magnets for the water bottle and hidden pockets (everyone loves magnets), various hidden tethers, stretchy expandable pockets, lovely detailed hardware, plethora of carry handles that don’t look like luggage handles, this bag just delights over and over. Even with it’s few frustrations.

Ok, so now I want to share my wishlist for the next Everyday Backpack. Nothing is perfect, and this bag is no exception. So here are the VERY FEW issues I have with this bag, after about 2 years of use for both EDC carry and frequent travel, both domestic and international.

1) I wish there was a small, quick access pocket. Not big, not deep, but a pocket on the outside of the bag that I can stick the boarding pass, earbuds, train ticket, spare change, passport, or whatever single random small thing I need to stick somewhere that's not in my pants pocket, but can quickly take it right back out without undoing 2 zippers or a flap. Like the Timbuk2 Napoleon pocket. 

Maybe along the seam between the side and back panels. A little 6 inch zipper. I like the pocket in the laptop pocket, but can't access that with the quick sling to the side move. I would like to get at that pocket using that move.

2) I wish there was a dedicated spot to clip a carabiner onto the shoulder strap. Gotta keep my keys somewhere quick. They include a tether for keys in the water bottle pocket (that uses the same clip as their strap system, oooOOOooo), and I like the tether, but it's not the fast access of a carabiner. This is a couple ways I've been doing it, but it took a while to figure out these solutions. I could use a couple loops on the strap to do it.

3) I wish I had a good document storage solution. I have a hulking laptop, so that pocket won't work if my laptop is in there. I need another thin vertical sleeve. I’ve seen a YouTube video with a workaround for that, but it’s inelegant, and renders a divider and a lot of space much less useful.

4) I wish I had better writing implement organization. Maybe 5 dedicated pen slots. I know I'm not most people, but as a Designer, I have a handful I need with me. Sharpie, pen, pencil, Xacto, felt tip, pocket scale. They scratch against each other in a shared pocket, and the material is too thick for the clips to clip onto for most of them, so they tend to slide too far down to reach quickly. I also don’t like that it’s not quick to pull out a pen. It’s swinging the bag to the front, opening a zipper, opening a flap, opening another zipper, pulling out the pen, then reverse. Nah.

5) Sweat. So. Much. Sweat. I’ve worn this for hikes, all day shopping in markets, at trade shows, in giant airports, and the back sweat is measurable in inches. Not as bad if there’s a coat and it’s cold, but if this is on the shirt on my back, I will be wetter than I care to be in normal attire.

6) While I like the little pocket at the top of the zippered laptop compartment, it grows into the main pocket, and right at the top. This pocket is the natural place for sunglasses, keys, etc, but as it grows, it greatly interferes with access into the main compartment, and can also crush stuff in that little pocket.

7) I’d love to see other kind of dividers or organization options that can attach to that velcro-ey interior of the bag. I wanna get their tech bag that fits nicely, but would love to have some more specific options available to mix and match with.

There's a part of me that hopes they never put these into play, because I don't wanna drop another $280 on a bag. But if they do, I happily will. 

#edc #everyday carry #backpack #bag #messenger #camera #dslr #gear #travel #luggage #review #design #peak design #peak #industrial design #product design #product review

[vore-scientist]

Reward (safe/soft - GT - M/f-fluffy - platonic - vore)

A (mini) tale of the mystic woods

Premise: uhhh belly rubs good! Just a sweet story with my wizard Yonah and the Princess Sophia! 

Warnings: NONE!

—

In her hands she held up the golden-green spherical treasure, the noon sunlight glancing off the polished surface. 

“You ever think of selling these at The Market?”

Sophia had to wait for an answer as Yonah chose that moment to take another bite out of a perfectly ripe dvashi apple. And another. He finished the apple.

By Sophia’s count that made 15 apples eaten. Which at his normal size wouldn’t have been impressive but at his reduced size… it still wasn’t impressive. Still massive, she was sure he could still eat a bushel of apples. And bushels abounded, the trees sagged with apples. According to Yonah the trees flowered and fruited all year round, but still favored their normal season best of all. Surely Yonah didn’t plan to eat all of these apples? He could, but growing so many small apples was a silly thing to do if you were a giant. Maybe he would turn them into preserves!

And besides! He grew some varieties to be larger, about the size of his reduced head. Massive apples. Yonah said that he could grow them much larger, but by trial and error he found that sweet spot of size without compromising flavor.

“I do sell enchanted ones! But those are made to order.”

“I’m talking just the apples! They’re amazing and it’s not like there are many orchards in these woods.”

He looked thoughtfully down at the princess in his lap. Sophia wasn’t sure if he was actually considering her question or just thinking about how adorable she was.

“You know, I have never thought of that. Though I like to leave the trees full for the nomadic gnomes. The majority move house around this time.”

Sophia didn’t know that. She only knew city gnomes, who definitely didn’t move into new houses every year. They did take extensive vacations to places of cultural importance, probably to honor the tradition they gave up in the city.

“I do make preserves with the ones that can’t be eaten in time. I dont sell it, I normally take it on patrols and give it out”

HA! She silently congratulated herself for being right. But also DANG!?

“Aren’t you Evil!? You just… give away magical apple preserves? Isn’t that like, the opposite of evil? How do you manage to maintain your reputation?”

“I’m not that kind of evil,” Yonah said, getting a 16th Apple. “I’m not after money or power. I’m the cantankerous hermit Mage who curses people for looking at my flowers wrong. And the grumpy giant who terrorizes people for fun.”

“You do like to eat people, that’s for sure.”

Sophia suddenly didn’t feel like eating another apple.

Yonah did, as he took his 17th.

“Not my fault you smallfolk taste so good!”

He chose that moment to take a crisp bite of the apple and wink at her.

She elbowed him for his cheekiness.

At least if he was eating apples he wasn’t eating her. For now… she had her suspicions. And they were never wrong. But she knew he told the truth when he said he doesn’t eat people and food at the same time. Of course… that’s because normally he has to spit them up so quickly that he’d be spitting up his food too, what a waste and also… gross. With her ability to sit safely in his gut for hours that’s plenty of time for the food to be gone before she needed to be released. Thus it would only be gross for her.

So far that had only happened once, and it wasn’t completely purposeful. She didn’t like to think about that incident, and not because of the brief time spent sitting in food as it digested around her.

Ok enough of that line of thinking. This little picnic, even if it was just apples, was her reward for doing so well in today’s lesson! Changing the color of objects. That was really fun. She started out merely changing a white painted cube green, but in just a few hours turned the black ink of a letter to her father a shimmering pink! That level of precision was apparently very impressive, and should have taken her a week to learn. If Yonah hadn’t been lying to bolster her ego, and she was fairly certain he wasn't… Because she had studied ahead of time, having sneaked a peak at his lesson plans.

It wasn’t easy. With the giant’s sense of smell he could often tell when she’d been somewhere she normally didn’t frequent. But she spent more time by his mail than normal in preparation for her snooping.

Paid off! With a great performance in a lesson, he didn’t “punish” her with a time out in his stomach.

Instead she rested her arms and head on his pillow-like middle, rising and falling with his even breaths. The wind rustled the tree canopy, causing the sunlight to dance across the princess and the wizard. She let him wrap a warm arm around her as he lay back against the tree and closed his eyes.

When she awoke she felt no more wind, and there was considerable pressure pressing down on her, and she was laying on a soft squishy surface. And it was intensely warm.

For a moment she thought Yonah had swallowed her in her sleep. Before realizing how ridiculous that would be. There’s no way she could sleep through being literally shoved down his throat. And she was dry, and still made of flesh.

Yonah had returned to his normal size while they napped and now she was lying underneath his heavy palm. He was sound asleep.

Adjusting her stiff limbs she found a much better position, and promptly returned to her nap.

Yonah woke slowly, first noting that his arm was no longer wrapped around the princess, for she was snoozing under his hand. All curled up, just her head poking out so she could breathe. So serene and happy. Gosh she looked so adorable.

And smelled… so delectable.

His mouth watered. The apples seemed so long ago now. Especially now he wasn’t so small. That was the problem with size changing. He could fill up on food so easily when reduced, feel so full but never satisfied, and then feel so empty the moment he changed back.

However… he didn’t have to feel this way. But he didn’t want to spoil his appetite.

He fiddled with the bottle of glass paste on his belt. Sophia looked so peaceful. He didn’t know if he could disturb her… Then again. She can just as easily sleep inside his stomach as on top of it.

Gently, he applied the smallest amount of paste to his fingers and stroked Sophia’s side. She moved but did not wake.

Even when he uttered the spell. And….

Opening one eye he found the princess snoozing as if nothing happened.

She did not wake until he delicately picked her up and brought her to his face. And didn’t fully wake up until her torso was in his mouth and he was licking her thoroughly.

ARRRRGGGGHHH!!

He ignored her screaming.

The problem with turning Sophia into glass is she tastes like… Well… glass. At least, after he licked off the lingering layer of delicious human flavor! Mmmmmmm. Savory beyond belief.

Of course, as he licked off the flavor he had to swallow her down to reach the parts un-licked.

She was fighting against him, knowing she wasn’t strong enough; though it was a bit uncomfortable as her glass limbs scraped his teeth, sending shivers down his spine. But he didn’t care, as he worked the form into his throat and swallowed. No problem. The struggles and the stretching hurt, and not insignificantly but not enough to worry him or cause him to panic. The kicking feet were at his lips and he held them between two fingers as he gulped down more of the princess, the feet entering his mouth for him to enjoy, her glass shoes slipping off into his hand.

Soon there was no more human in his mouth, she was all in his esophagus. Well mostly, her arms made it to his stomach at the same time her feet dropped below his collar.

It was comforting that once she filled up his stomach she didn’t continue to scream and instead made herself comfortable. Lots of movement, feeling around his stomach for the best spot to flop down, and give him some nice kicks and punches.

He liked to watch his stomach as she did this. Marvel at how well she fit there, just full enough to be noticeable. Her moments occasionally visible as fleeting and minuscule dents. Once she settled he put a hand over the spot. The solid mass was still moving around, just less forceful.

There was a considerable amount of grumbling.

“Something wrong princess?” Yonah said in a soft singsong voice.

He earned himself some kicks with that remark.

“You mean other than the fact that I’ve been eaten alive?!” she growled, “I was enjoying the nice day, with my friend, outside!!”

“Well, now you can enjoy it inside your friend!” he pat his stomach affectionately, which made it bounce a bit, causing Sophia to unbalance as she bounced too. In his mind he imagined her smiling or frowning. Both were equally cute options.

“It’s not the same, Yonah!”

Exasperated!

Now he could picture it perfectly, and he rubbed at the spot where Sophia was once more curled up. Her glass form made her much more solid, and sat much heavier in his gut. It was a pleasant weight. She pushed back against his fingers. Poking himself in various locations, Sophia scrambled about to attack each spot, a little game that continued for an amusing minute.

“You don’t seem too mad with me,” he finally said, wanting to make sure.

The princess had done incredibly well in her lesson today. That meant she avoided detention in his gut. That didn’t stop Yonah from rewarding himself for a job well done.

“Yeah, well,” Sophia mused, playfully, “I saw the look in your eyes earlier. Would have appreciated you giving me more warning, even just nudging me awake first. ”

As she spoke she turned her back to the front of the stomach and pushed an open palm into the stomach walls, which forced her to stretch out as far as she could, stretching the stomach. Then she dragged the arm down and up. And down and up. She repeated this with her other hand as well. There was a rewarding shudder all around her.

Yonah closed his eyes, his face the picture of soft bliss as the princess stroked his insides. It wasn’t often she was this tender with him.

“I know you like messing with me,” she continued, and felt his little chuckle, “And you know I’ll get you back for this,” she switched to using her feet, bracing her arms to keep herself stretched out.

Yeah… He didn’t expect to get off scott free, but he really didn’t expect to be rewarded with belly rubs! Yonah pressed his fingers against Sophia, stroking her as she did him, letting her know he appreciated this gift. How he had ever lived without this he didn’t know, and it had only been a few months ago when he had!

Of course, when he first got this job he had never eaten a small folk, only tasted them. In fact, he couldn;t imagine ever eating one. Until the thieves started arriving. It hadn’t taken long for him to get used to the occasional snack.

But the princess was not an adventurer. They cried; she playfully protested.They panicked; she massaged. Thieves had to be spat up before they died (he prided himself in usually getting them out before they were harmed at all). Sophia could snuggle with him for hours, and she had. He could fall asleep with her tucked safely away within him, and she would fall asleep too.

Waking up with a still full belly… there was nothing quite like it. And he fell asleep looking forward to when he would.

It took Sophia a few more minutes to settle down to continue her rudely interrupted nap. First, she knew that she could put him to sleep fast by keeping up the massaging. Second, she wasn’t ready to sleep just yet. Turns out, stewing in your captors stomach provided the properly motivating environment to think up some sweet sweet revenge.

Even as she released the tension in her limbs and leaned back. For a few minutes she let the pulse soothe her, it was strongest at her back. She let the gently flexing walls rock her to and fro; slick and soft and warm, she let the heat of his body seep into hers. She had to admit, it was nice. Intensely, intensely weird, but nice.

This still warranted payback. She’d heard of a way to melt wizards, and according to those sources it didn’t kill them, it didn’t even hurt them.

But… she could think… later… sleep… now.

[FIN]

[Thanks for reading! please reblog/message me with feedback! for more mystic woods go to vore-scientist.tumblr.com/tagged/+mystic+woods+story or search ‘mystic woods story’ on my blog! For thief stories only search “MW Thieves”]

#safe vore #soft vore #g/t vore #extreme cuddling #vore art #vore writing

[tailahjanbash]

What I Learned About Being a Whole When I Was a Half

I fell in love once. It was a time of raging teenage hormones and an unrealistic view of love due to my Taylor Swift obsession. It was the ultimate pining-for-your-bestfriend-80’s film-love that would ensure disaster on my naïve heart.

Looking back now, it was like a John Hughes movie on repeat—but every time you thought the happy ending was coming, I just kept getting my heart broken over, and over, and over... you get the idea.

Eventually the movie ended. After it was all said and done, I remember crying on the bathroom floor, wondering if the pain would ever leave. I remember praying every night that God would just make it easier. That I would wake up the next morning and feel just a tiny bit less than what I felt the night before. Am I resonating with any romantics here?

Well, it’s been a few years since then, and those wounds have healed—but I’ll never forget the priceless lessons I learned throughout the healing process.

Today I want to share with you some of the things I learned about being a whole when I was a half.

1. I believed the lie.

I believed the lie that I would never find love or connect to another person as much as I did when I fell in love. I fueled this fear with what I thought was “logic” and “reasoning”, but in reality, I was just letting fear bully me.

That was the furthest thing from the truth. It doesn’t align with God’s promises or nature.

2. There’s a natural way to deal with heartbreak, and there’s a supernatural way.

The truth is, when you find the person that’s right for you, it will make complete sense why it never worked with anyone else before.

When glass breaks, it’s natural to pick up the larger shards first in order to clean up the mess. The bigger pieces are easier to identify, pick up, and throw away. Breakups kind of happen the same way. Once everything has fallen apart, it’s easy to spot the big issues, like bad communication or dishonesty. But after those big pieces have been cleaned up, we are still left with the small shards; the ones that are not always visible that contribute to the brokenness.

The smaller pieces take longer to clean up. They require precision, careful attention, caution, and accuracy.

Anyone with decent eye sight can spot large pieces of glass. Meaning—it’s common knowledge that cheating is wrong, ghosting is immature, and lack of communication is the kiss of death. Even Cosmo can give you sound advice on this.

Then we get to the shards.

This is where the world gets the healing process totally wrong.

The sin, behaviors, and emotions underneath the surface that aren’t so easy to spot— those contribute to our broken condition.

Let me put this into an example: A lot of people think that getting into a new relationship will help you forget about your old one.

This is using another person to distract you from your pain and emptiness. Not only is this unfair to the person you are dragging along with you, but you can’t heal properly this way. You need to face your demons instead carrying them into your next relationship!

That rejection, fear of vulnerability, anger, loneliness, sorrow, depression, bitterness, resentment, pain, and allll the other negative emotions that accompany heartbreak— are the shards.

A playlist, going out with friends, a new bae, drinking until you forget, and all the other remedies that the world gives you… they don’t work.

The good news is, God is dying to heal you. (Quite literally)

He can’t wait for the night you put down the bottle or turn off of the T.V., whatever the distraction is, and turn to Him for the healing.

God doesn’t leave us alone in our fragmented state and expect perfection. In fact, He promises to get down in the mess and brokenness with us to find the solution and piece us together into a new and beautiful creation.

That’s exactly what He did for me. And I know He can do it for you.

3. You’ve gotta catch the foxes

“You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship. For they raid our budding vineyard of love, to ruin what I’ve planted within you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together.” Song of Songs 2:15

When I read this scripture, the Lord made it very clear that my foxes at the time were guys and relationships.

The bible says that satan prowls around like a lion, looking for whomever he may devour. So, it should come as no surprise that he sends distractions and uses people and/or demonic principalities to keep us from effectively serving God.

I noticed that whenever I was minding my own business, crushing my school work, and super close to God… some gorgeous boy would pop out of nowhere and ask me out. I didn’t catch on at first. I was giddy and couldn’t wait to go out.

Okay so, what happens when you start talking to someone? Your brain goes from paying attention in class to planning the next date. Your hangouts take precedence over bible study and your mind and heart become filled with this person.

Eventually I would learn that these guys were great people, but simply not meant for me. And then I would remember the instructions God gave me and immediately want to slap myself in the face. How much time and energy did I invest in something that I could have avoided had I been obedient? I could have put that time into improving my grades or making new friends.

Maybe your foxes are ungodly friendships, being overly invested in a sport or celebrity, or a sin you always find yourself going back to.

A good indicator of your hearts priorities is seeing where you spend most of your time and money. Anything that takes precedence over God is not only a fox, but an idol.

I find it interesting that the word of God uses foxes to illustrate this picture. Foxes are sly and sneaky. They operate in darkness and in shadows, and they rob you of your crop. Spiritual foxes do the same.

They rob you of spiritual growth. The more time you spend binge-watching Netflix, the less time you have to read your bible and pray. Whatever you sow, you will reap. If you are sowing unproductivity—meaning putting your time towards sleeping, laying around, and watching tv, you are going to yield a crop of laziness, procrastination, and slothfulness. The fruit of your life will be marked by these negative characteristics.

I believe there are things God wants to continue to plant and grow in you and the beautiful thing, is that he says he will catch the foxes with us—we’re not on our own in the battle against sin and temptation. The Spirit of God helps us identify our foxes and gives us the strength to catch and kill those bad habits.

4. If you can make it past the first few months, you’re in the clear.

Just like breaking any habit, it’s going to be really difficult at first. Especially if you have never truly been on your own (romantically) like I had.

Relationships are wonderful—you have someone doting over you, laughing at your terrible jokes, and telling you how beautiful you are. But pull the rug out from under the relationship and you’re left with two seriously insecure people.

It’s human psychology—you’re used to receiving love and attention, so now that it is gone, you must fill that void with affirmation.

*downloads tinder*

Just kidding.

I wanted to break that habit because it never worked; I was never truly healed. Seeking male affirmation never satisfied my heart, soul, and spirit. I realized I needed to fill that void with God’s love instead of attention from guys.

And ladies, once I made that decision, I was unstoppable.

First, I had to set barriers for myself. I literally stopped everything related to relationships cold turkey... I was serious about getting the full and complete healing I needed!

I did not allow myself to go on dates, text guys that I liked, and on nights when I was particularly sad, I would turn everything off (tv, phone, laptop) and spend time with God.

Eventually, it got easier. Once the Holy Spirit started filling the holes in my heart, they actually began healing effective immediately. Getting over heartbreak became a million times easier because I wasn’t trying to duct tape DIY my heart back together. I was giving it back to the one who created it. It’s funny…we so easily forget that the master designer of our heart knows exactly how to heal it.

Looking back, I can’t believe how much of my heart was not only divided but broken. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. God had to stop me in the middle of a rebound relationship, arrest my heart, and give me these step-by-step instructions like you would an unruly toddler.

My encouragement today, is don’t be hard-headed like I was. Don’t let your heart get so tangled up in its own will and desires that it forgets God’s.

And finally, I’m not selling you a foolproof step-by-step guide on how to get over someone. Your story and your heartbreak are different than mine. But I do know heartbroken people, more than anything, want to feel like they aren’t alone. That someone understands them. To that I say, “Have you considered the one who planned this long ago?” Isaiah 22:11

For more blogs and content check out my website!

http://www.thechosengirl.info/

#heartbreak #dating #love #blog #blogger #write #writer #god #church #christian #devo #devotional #bible #verse #bible study #broken heart #break up #relationships #holy spirit #christ #joy #peace #happy

[langblr-o-kebek]

How to feed yourself cheaply when you live alone

It can be so frustrating and difficult to get used to living by yourself. Apparently cabinets don’t come magically stocked with spices and you have to buy things??? with money???? So here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way along with some links to other great posts that have information along this subject too.

1. Secretly assassinate a relative and collect inheritance

2. Find a sugar daddy

If 1 and 2 are options then the rest of this post is worthless to you, if they are not options, keep reading.

Your first visit to the grocery store Buckle up because it’s going to be the most expensive one

You need to stock your kitchen since you are not a roach and can’t just eat the wooden cabinets. Every kitchen should have some combination of the “basics” which will be your non-perishable pantry items-those things that your parents house seemingly never runs out of. 

The Basics

-Rice -Pasta (+any other grains you might like such as couscous, wheat berries etc.) -Flour -Sugar -Brown sugar (if you’re into baking like I am) -Baking Soda -Baking powder -Spices (for example, cumin, cayenne, oregano, basil, paprika, etc.) -Salt and pepper -Oats -Boullion or cans of stock -Cans of soup/packets of ramen -Coffee/tea

I suggest you buy these kinds of items in bulk if possible. If you have the space to store them, they will last you forever and items like these can make a meal that is supposed to be 1-2 servings into somethings thats 4-6 which I’ll explain later. Also, buying in bulk is cheaper per pound/100 grams (whatever system you’re using) so in the long run, you’ll save lots of money by buying one fat ass sack of rice a year instead of 15 every few weeks. Check your area for bulk stores, places that sell spices and grains by the weight. This will save you cash and can be more eco-friendly if you’re able to use your own bags/containers.

Tips for meals

It is so much cheaper to cook a larger amount of food at a time than making something for each individual meal. This is because for the most part, you can’t buy ingredients sufficient for one serving at the grocery store and you don’t want to buy something you’ll only use once and then the rest goes bad and bye-bye money. Making a meal that will last you 3-4 days is not only cheaper, but also saves time since after the initial cooking, all you have to do is reheat a little at a time later. You can take this a step further and use grains like rice, pasta and couscous to “cut” the food thereby doubling the amount of servings you have. Below are some really easy recipes that I use that last me days.

Things you can make at home for cheap

HUMMUS! Bc it’s a great snack, filling, healthy and is stupid expensive at the store and stupid cheap and easy to make.

-1 can of garbanzo beans -2 T of tahini (you can leave this out if you want, tahini can be expensive) -1 T lemon juice -1 clove of garlic, minced -Cumin, paprika, salt, pepper

Literally throw it all in a food processor and blend. If it’s too thick, you can add more olive oil or save some of the water from the beans and add that as well. If you do that, less salt will need to be added. If you use dried beans that you’ve soaked and shit you will need more salt.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can heat the beans up and smash it by hand, it’s more effort and it may be chunkier but it works. Same goes for immersion blenders.

Fun ways to shake this hummus up

-Roasted Red pepper: Chop 1/3 C of roasted red pepper and add. Replace some of the olive oil with some of the juice from the pepper jar.

-Roasted Garlic: Instead of mincing a garlic clove, expose the head of the garlic (lol) and rub with a little olive oil, making sure it gets into the cracks (lol). Wrap in foil and roast at 400 degrees (~200 C) for 30-35 minutes. Garlic should be nice and soft when it’s done. Roasted garlic is sweet instead of biting like raw garlic so using a whole head is okay and you won’t die when you eat it.

-Artichoke heart+black olive: Chop up one can of artichoke hearts with however many chopped black olives as you would like

-Pesto: Add in at least one tablespoon of pesto

Now the question is, how do I eat my hummus and the answer is, there’s actually a billion ways

-Put it on a sandwich or wrap! -Dip celery, cucumber, carrots, peppers in it! -Eat it with pretzels or tortilla chips OR if you’re a cheap bastard like me, make your own tortilla chips by cutting up some tortilla rounds, brushing them with olive oil, sprinkling them with salt and bake at 350 for 10ish minutes. I usually put mine into the oven right when I turn it on and pull them out when the oven is preheated bc I can’t be bothered to actually figure out a proper cooking time. Whatever, this is way cheaper than buying chips and they’re more filling. You can also make tortillas, it’s cheap and simple, I find they taste better, but it is slightly time consuming. Here’s a recipe. -Eat it with a spoon wgaf you live alone no judgement.

Coffee Creamer

Hell yes you can make this at home. The basic is about 1 3/4 cup of milk (whatever kind of milk, the more fat in the milk the creamier the creamer) and 14oz of sweetened condensed milk. You can also add in a few drops of any sort of extract/honey or some sprinkles of cinnamon/nutmeg whatever suits your fancy! Here is a bunch of variations. Also put 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon per cup of coffee in with your coffee grounds in the filter for a cinnamon scented coffee.

Popcorn

Well, we all knew this one. But honest to god it is so much cheaper and healthier to pop popcorn using a bag of kernels than it is to buy a box of microwave popcorn. Just pour some oil and a tablespoon of butter into a large pan, add the popcorn and cook covered over medium heat. As soon as the kernels start to pop make sure you start jiggling the pan to keep them moving so they don’t burn and ruin your pan. I’m pretty sure you can put the kernels in a paper bag in the microwave too. Throw salt on it, or even cinnamon and sugar cuz why not.

RULES FOR GROCERY SHOPPING

1. buying in bulk saves

2. Don’t buy in bulk if you can’t use it all before it expires-like yeast! Most expiration dates are pretty generous and you can actually continue using the product beyond the date (this amount of time varies, please for your own safety please google it). Yeast is the only food I know of that is true to its expiration.

3. Avoid superstores when possible. Most of the time, you’re paying for the convenience. Superstores are often more expensive because you’re paying for the convenience of doing all your shopping in one place. 

4. Ethnic markets are almost always cheaper-especially for trendy things like Coconut oil (so cheap at indian food markets!!) Find Chinese, Arabic, Indian, Mexican food markets around you and split up your shopping accordingly. 

5. MAKE YOUR OWN BREAD, it can be very easy. Google it.

6. Off brand is just as good as the rest

7. Coupons, grab them in the front of the store if available

8. Just because something is a good deal doesn’t mean you have to buy it. I don’t care if orange juice is on sale, I don’t drink a lot of orange juice. You know what’s cheaper than something being 50% off? Not buying it at all. It costs $0.00 to be smart. 

9. Don’t make grocery shopping a habitual thing. By that I mean don’t go grocery shopping every Sunday or whatever. Go grocery shopping when you need to go grocery shopping. If it’s been a week but you can wait 4 more days, wait 4 more days.

10. Don’t buy fresh herbs, grow them. A packet of seeds is cheap. Plastic pots are cheap. Potting soil can be cheap if you can find a place where you can buy by the weight instead of a massive bag. Plant the seeds according to the packet. Things like basil need to be watered often. Things like rosemary and thyme are okay chilling a couple of days without it. Read the packets and google it. Also it’s so rewarding to watch your little baby plants grow. An herb garden costs $10 dollars at the most to make. Fresh herbs at the grocery store cost $2-6 per package. Fresh herbs make meals taste a million times better I swear to god it’s the best thing you can do for yourself. Growing herbs also helped me with my depression so bonus.

11. If shopping at a super store, as much as possible stay out of the “middle”. What I mean is, things you buy should come from the sections closest to the wall-these include the produce, meat, dairy and frozen vegetables. All the processed foods are in the middle and though some can be cheap, they’re not filling and you end up buying them a lot. Doing things like making your own hummus can keep you out of the middle aisles and it’s healthier. Things from the middle you may need though are tea, ramen, grains, soup, peanut butter. 

12. Plan your trip. Thoroughly look through your fridge and cabinets to see what you’re out of. I even keep a little white board on my fridge where I write what’s in the fridge and what’s run out. Write down what needs to be replaced/what you need for the next couple of meals. Do not stray from the list when shopping.

13. Go to Marshalls or Winners or whatever equivalent for things like olive oil, K cups if you have a Keurig (oh fancy fancy) and cool pink salt. They also have other kinds of oils like sunflower and avocado, and even sometimes protein powders. It’s way cheaper there and you can buy a liter sized bottle of olive oil for like 7 dollars when it would cost at least twice that at a grocery store. 

14. Do not have the same grocery list every week. Prices of things change, your list should reflect that. If you’re wanting to get some sort of fruit for a snack, don’t get apples every week. Get whatever is in season. The prices of fresh produce in stores and markets will reflect what’s in season (i.e. the cheapest things). Lucky for us Bananas are always in season and are a super cheap snack that people forget about. I often wait until they’re ripe, cut them up and freeze them to make smoothies. 

15. Don’t be afraid of tofu. It’s cheap as hell and once you learn how to prepare it, can be a fantastic substitute for animal proteins if meat/fish are too expensive.

16. Don’t forget, so many foods can be frozen. If something is crazy on sale, don’t be afraid to buy more than usual if you are able to freeze it. Here’s a list of things that can be frozen. TBH here, in Canada, I buy those big 3L bags of milk and store the little baggies in the freezer. 

Finally, go to Goodwill stores and thrift shops to find kitchen appliances, dishes, and cookware for cheap! The best 7 dollars I ever spent was on a crock pot. These stores have so many items that last FOREVER, like a good pan, or a classic cafeteria.  Don’t think you can’t cook because you can’t afford the equipment. Kitchen equipment doesn’t have to be a huge investment.

That’s all I have for today. Good luck out there guys.

#tips #college living #cheap

[amnapilist1978-blog]

Outside of things in the family being "awkward" because of the WF attacking the SDC we really don have much in proper terms of family dynamics for the Schnee family outside of that vagueness. The best and clearest example we have is Weiss 10th birthday when Jacques admitted he only married Willow for the Schnee name and that only clear on how it strained the parents. We still don have a specific idea of when either Weiss or Winter started to defy Jacques or how that affected them outside of them losing their status as heir, with Weiss having a guess of possibly being when she decided to enroll in Beacon, and the most we know of Whitley growing up is that he was close to Jacques and distant to his sisters.. My mom legit asked me if I was having "sex with random booty calls" last week and I had to tell her my sex life doesn concern her to which she chalked it up to her being right and highkey slut shaming me. Snarky me wanted to correct her and tell her I having random sex with just one booty call so she needs to chill but obvi too much info to share with her. Whatever, if she thinks she raised me like that then so be it (not that there anything wrong with being sexually positive/active anyways). She needs to be able to learn to be less dependant on you because it's 창녕출장샵 not healthy. But also her logic doesn't make a great deal of sense she would rather break up with you permanently and never see you again over going a few weeks a few times a year without you. I don't understand.. I always spam the context options when looking for an alliance. And they join more often than not. Most of the time ill just take off on my way once i get their answer but a lot of times ill take all the loot i have and gift it to them if theyre not legends already. "I'll step out on a limb and say the first day. Feit explained he got them because he was locked out of the residence. "He had no key, so he scaled his way up to the second floor, " Colloff explained. The problem is that while it can deal damage, it is entirely dependent on having other spells in hand to do so. It can enable spectacle on its own, either, unlike creatures that can actually attack proactively. It a bad topdeck a lot of the time later on in the game, because it does nothing to advance your board state on its own.. Didn't do squat for hyperpigmentation. It made my pores larger. When I mentioned the increased pore size The physician assistant said the doctor noted enlarge pores after laser treatment as well. So when I first opened this bottle I really was not into it that much. I was much narrower in my scope for scotch and this did not fit the profile. However, after going back to it several times it has really grown on me and I quite enjoy it now. I've also seen that higher end 창녕출장샵 brands tend to include stuff that isn't selling well if it's a full size. Actually in general I suspect that most brands tend to include stuff that they want to get rid of rather than give us things out of generosity or even marketing. Finally, I've noticed that it's pretty rare that I see a box that makes me think "wow, I'd love to get this subscription!" but that's more of a personal opinion.. Literally anything can be defended with the deep state. Trump didn do those things, the deep state told you he did. Hillary ate babies for adenochrome in a hidden dimension under a pizza place and the deep state stopped the investigation. I repeat the suggestions for therapy. A red flag for me is that after only a few months you're already suggesting that your partner go have sex with somebody else. That says to me that you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself over this, which is going to interfere more with your sex drive.

[earaercircular]

The Green Soap Company produces a sustainable alternative to soap

Marcel Belt (57) is well versed in washing and cleaning products and care products. As a single parent of three daughters, Belt started his own business in 2016 to be able to spend more time with his children. He had by then 25 years of experience at companies such as Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser. With The Green Soap Company[1], he provides a sustainable alternative to soap, detergents and cleaning products. By showing that things can be done differently, Belt wants to make the soap industry green.

Vision

"By introducing sustainable detergents and cleaning products to the market, I want to make the world a bit better and cleaner. Because soap products have a significant impact on the environment. In the Netherlands alone, 8 million empty soap bottles are thrown away every week." These are usually bottles made of virgin plastic, for which new petroleum has been used. In addition, in the Netherlands, 4 to 5 million liters of detergent, hand soap, shampoo are rinsed through sinks and shower drains. ”There is a lot of bad stuff in there such as acids, ammonia and chlorine.”

“Our mission is to make the entire soap industry green. That all detergents, cleaning products and care products are green. It must become a condition to be able to put these types of products on the market. Then it is about how it is produced and from what, what the effect is of its use. This applies to the packaging and the contents. That doesn't happen overnight. We call our products light green. We always try to find the greenest alternative.”

Leadership

“I want to show that things can be done differently. Lead by example. And thus to inspire the Albert Heijns, the Unilevers, the intermediaries and the consumers to really do things differently. For example, an enormous amount of palm oil is used in detergents and palm trees only grow in areas where rainforest also happens to grow. So that has to be different. Now we have developed a palm oil-free detergent that will be launched this autumn.”

“I had set aside some money for my own old age. I used that to brighten up my children's future. My financial resources are limited so I cannot build my own factory. Thus we work a lot with external parties. Suppliers like to work with us because we give them a stage for their innovation or sustainable product. Thanks to us, they can prove that it works in the market, enabling them to go afterwards to larger customers.”

For example, Belt uses recycled plastic for all Green Soap bottles. “That is made from the waste that Suez and AVR collect from households. None of the major players dared to use it. We took the risk of blowing those first 40,000 bottles and seeing how it would behave in the market. This sets us apart from companies such as Unilever and Albert Heijn. Because every innovation has to go through about six counters there. Then it quickly becomes too expensive or too much risk.”

“The Green Soap company now employs 12 people who are all capable of doing things that I can't. Because only then we can become more creative and make an impact faster. And they must have the possibility to make mistakes. Because then we take risks and we are innovating. If we stop making mistakes, something is wrong, we are not innovating fast enough.”

Impact

Since its foundation in 2016, Marcel's Green Soap has been growing rapidly. “In year one I sold soap for 70,000 euros. I never would have thought so. Since then we have been going bust two or three times a year. This year I expect a turnover of 10 million. And we are now also making a profit. I put that in advertising. However, it is not the ambition to be the champion by selling the most products. We go for thoughtleadership and not for market leadership. We want to have an impact with our idea.”

“We call our business model open source: we spend a lot of time in discussions with Unilever and Albert Heijn. We like to share information with competitors because our mission is to convince everyone. I want to reach 100 percent of the cleaning products in market sustainability. Not by achieving a market share of 100 percent itself. It should be because everyone follows us and starts doing what we do. For example, Unilever now has the Love Beauty Planet brand for which they use 100 percent recycled plastic. I showed that four years ago, I hope they copied a bit from me.”

“We don't pretend to put the most sustainable product on the market all at once. That's not possible either. But as soon as we see opportunities to do it more sustainably, we immediately take it up. That also suits today's consumers. Only 5 to 8 percent of consumers are dark green. They relate all choices to sustainability. The majority of consumers are light green. They use their bicycles as much as possible, but when it rains hard they still use the car. We want to gradually take that consumer to a dark green product. And if you make sustainability attractive, interesting and appealing, you will automatically get the consumer involved. Then 'going green' is no longer a sacrifice. But something that also makes you better.”

Source

Sabine Sluijters, Changemakers van week 25: zeep en persoonlijke verzorging, in: Change Inc, 20 June 2021, https://www.change.inc/changemakers/marcel-belt#podcast

[1] https://www.greensoapcompany.com/ Green Soap Company produces and sells sustainable cleaning and personal care products. It was founded in 2015 by Marcel Belt. The products are being sold in 3.500 stores across Western Europe. We have tons of enthusiastic consumers (fans even!) and influencers love our brands.

#circular economy #going green #sustainable alternatives #recycled plastic

[talldrink-o-h2o]

Lifestyle: Review of La Marca Prosecco

When I first started drinking wine, I was strictly a white wine girl. I loved the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio that my favorite local restaurant, Olive Garden, served. It paired nicely with my standard order of fettucine alfredo. You may think I am joking, but I am being completely serious. I loved the OG (as we called it) so much so that Pam and I would go almost weekly in college, once even waiting in the parking lot until it opened. It was 10:30AM.

Over the course of my senior year, I really started to dabble in wine. The local wine bar, Beggar’s Banquet, had Wine Wednesdays, which meant half-off bottles of wine, aka the only way I could afford their $25 bottles of wine. Pam and I frequented there even more so than the OG that we became friends with the bartender, Gabe, and then those half-off bottles of wine became free bottles of wine.

Around this time, I had a friend much older than me, she was probably 25 to my 21. She lived alone, had a lease on a brand-new car, and knew how to cook. I had never met anyone so sophisticated. Through her, I was introduced to asparagus – still my favorite vegetable – and Traverse City wines. She was from the northern Michigan tourist town that has vineyards along two separate peninsulas. (It really is beautiful; you should visit if you find yourself in Michigan). On random weekends, we would visit her childhood home and taste wines along Old Mission Peninsula and finish with dinner with her father. It is how I graduated to my next favorite wine: Chateau Grand Traverse’s Ship of Fools.

I was so fascinated by wine, albeit not necessarily the best wine, that my college boyfriend bought me several books on the topic to further my education. He also bought me an actual pearl necklace as a gift; he told me his mom and he decided it was the most fitting gift for me, so that should give you an idea as to how I acted at 21.

I should also note that this is indicative of me, twofold. One, I am easily influenced by people I hold in high esteem. Someone I view as sophisticated I am going to want to emulate. Two, when I get into something, I go all in. How else do you explain my becoming a yoga instructor when I had a full-time job and was commuting to Canada four days a week?

Post-college, I was only slightly less broke than I was in undergrad and still acting like I had never left university. My drinking did not improve.

I remember meeting a woman a year older than me at work who lived down the hall from me in a slightly bigger apartment. She talked about wearing a DVF dress to a major presentation – I had to google DVF later and then spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide whether I should spend $348 on a wrap dress and whether I was the kind of person who wore wrap dresses (the girl who gets gifted pearl necklaces is the girl who will wear a DVF wrap dress, that is for sure). She told me this story in her apartment, a unit in which she sanded down literally every piece of wood and painted them white. The resulting effect was beautiful, but all I could think about was how much they would charge her when she left for damaging the property. She certainly would not be getting her deposit back. And this woman, for all her elevated sensibilities, still drank like a twenty-something, shooting Bacardi and drinking out of long-neck beers.

It was not until I made the move to Target that things for me changed. It helped that my salary had significantly increased, no longer living paycheck to paycheck, and I had stopped hanging around most of the people I started at General Mills with. I remember telling a General Mills coworker I was excited about Target because of the shoes I could buy that I knew would be appreciated at a company like Target. I had dreamt of buying Stuart Weitzmans and could not wait to put my new, larger paycheck to good use.

At Target, I met a different kind of person. Sure, there were the people my age and younger who still acted/dressed/drank like they were 21. But then there were the people I started to associate with. People older than me, who had traveled the world, lived outside of Minnesota, who appreciated the finer things in life.

One woman had worked for P&G and traveled all over the globe with her job. She traveled so much that she reached Delta’s Diamond status. She would use her annual gift to get a Tiffany’s gift card. She took me to Tiffany’s one Sunday afternoon. She had lost an earring that she always slept in. She went to Tiffany’s in track pants and had the audacity to buy just one single earring, rather than the set. They did not bat an eye, at her outfit or the request, and were happy to oblige. I truly had never known someone so sophisticated. All the gifts for my bridal party two years later were from Tiffany’s. She also had the most gorgeous, rented condo, outfitted exclusively in Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. I went and got a custom couch from Pottery Barn after seeing her place. The bar was stacked with bottles of wine that she did not pick out because she thought the label was pretty.

Her tenure at Target was short-lived. Turned out, she was unable to sell her home back in Cincinnati and it was too old for Target’s relocation program to buy her out. She was paying her mortgage and her two-bedroom condo in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood. She was literally spending more than she was taking in, something she lamented to me over a $14 lunch one day, and she blamed Target for it all. Even though I could see how dumb her spending habits were, I still had to commend her for not sacrificing her taste for something as silly as savings.

Then, my current boss started at Target. I knew I would like her when, one Friday, she invited a co-worker and me to a Nordstrom lunch. I did not know what that meant, but I liked both words separately, so combined, figured it could only get better. It started at Nordstrom, where I bought a pair of Vince heels while she got some Stuart Weitzmans. Then we had lunch in the broader mall, where she ordered us a bottle of champagne, and not just any champagne, Veuve yellow label.

This would be the start of many traditions. We always manage to shop on work trips, choosing favorite spots in each city – Nordstrom in Chicago, Barneys (RIP) in New York, Saks in San Francisco. What started as Stuart Weitzman graduated to Prada, Gucci, and Valentino. We find excuses to get a glass of wine, but even that has elevated. No more yellow-label Veuve, only pink. A bottle of wine under $100 is considered a “weekday wine.” Through her I learned what it was that I liked – a full bodied cabernet sauvignon – and not just what others I admired liked.

Then I found myself in Las Vegas before the world shut down on a girls’ weekend with Pam. She and I had no plans, which is both the best way to experience Las Vegas, and the worst. On our last full day there, we had a boozy brunch that led to random shopping – did I need a Herve Leger dress? – day gambling, and more shopping.

The Dior store had special-ordered me a bracelet that came in that day. We first stopped at Gucci where Pam got a purse and we both bought jewelry. Then we camped out in Dior, where they fed us champagne and we bought a myriad of things we did not need.

Then we headed back to our hotel. We did not have much time before we needed to get to the Jerry Seinfeld show, which was our own plan for the day, but we also realized we had not eaten since our brunch hours before. We stopped in at a pub in the hotel and ordered random appetizers. I looked over the drink menu, wanting another glass of champagne, but the only thing by the glass was La Marca.

I looked at the bartender and said the most sober thought I had all day, “I can’t drink La Marca,” I told him. “I showered today.”

And that is when I realized that not only had my tastes changed, but, also, that I had become an asshole.

#prosecco #las vegas #michigan #work travel

[snailcare]

hello ! Do you have any advice for a first time snail purchaser?

i’m so happy that you’re interested in the wonderful world of snails! i would love to give you some advice.

getting ready for your new snails

snapartment (snail apartment)

before you adopt any snails, you should prepare a cozy home for them. i keep mine in a 10 gallon aquarium that works perfectly. if you decide to use this aquarium, i highly suggest you also get a cover like this. it’s not the exact one that i have, but i’m sure it will work great. next, you will need some kind of substrate. i use plain soil that i found at walmart for my snails, and i recently bought some coconut soil that i’m going to try out (ill post about that soon!) i also bought two succulents and planted them in the aquarium. succulents are great for snail habitats because they’re cute, they don’t need a lot of water or sun, and snails love to climb them! i found some rocks outside and washed them thoroughly in the sink and placed them in the aquarium as well, along with some glass stones which i also washed. i also added a little terra-cotta pot for them to crawl all over and hide in. the first couple of nights, snails would sleep inside of it, but now it’s old news to them and they just ignore it. i use a spray bottle to regularly mist the aquarium, as snails like their homes to be a little moist. i keep a shallow water dish in their home. it’s important to keep it shallow because snails can drown.

if you are going to get a giant african land snail, there are some different requirements, like a heat mat and a larger tank.

food

for feeding, i highly recommend using a mandoline like this one to prepare food for your snails. it makes thin slices that are easy for them to eat. my snails love carrot the most, but they are also fond of kale, asparagus, and mushrooms. all snaily food should be sliced into a little snaily size!!!

foods that snails can eat:

apple

banana

beans

blueberries

fish food soaked in water

mango

romaine lettuce

potato

dandelion leaves

strawberries (mine are not fond of strawberries, but many snails are!)

plum

cauliflower

cherries

watermelon

tomato

mushrooms

raisins

turnips

cabbage

basil

cuttlebone

boiled egg

and more! google will be your friend.

foods that you shouldn’t feed snails:

salt

salty foods

avocado

onion

grapefruit

lime

lemon

leeks

spinach

rhubarb

parsley

celery

tips about feeding:

the darker the greens, the better! darker greens like kale have more chlorophyll which makes it healthier and more nutritious for snails (and humans!)

avoid cucumber. snails love cucumber, but sometimes they love it so much that they become “picky eaters” and will only want to eat cucumber.

have a designated eating area, above the ground. this makes clean up easier. plus, snails will learn where to go if they are hungry.

wash food before feeding. snails have survival instincts that will keep them from eating food treated with pesticides or chemicals. a lot of our food has those, so always give the food a nice rinse before preparing it

feed your snails once a day, and remove any food that they didn’t eat the next day.

give them clean water each day. they like to bathe, and sometimes the water can fill up with dirt, poop, or even slime. it’s just nice to replenish their water every day.

feed snails, especially babies, a variety of foods each day. otherwise they can become fussy eaters. snail babies who are introduced to many foods opposed to just one or two are healthier and live longer.

notice a soft shell? your snails need more calcium!!

acquiring snails

i adopted my little garden snails from… a garden. i think looking for snails in nature is fun and a Good Time. i haven’t purchased a snail online (yet), but i know there are a few websites, and even shops on ebay, that sell snails. snails are social dudes that like having friends so probably buy more than one.

the snails are HERE

⚡️always wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling snails!! ⚡️

snails have personalities. some are shy while others are little party people. if your snail is not coming out of his shell, don’t worry. try massaging their foot or lightly spraying them with water. give them some time to adjust to their new crib.

if you notice any eggs in the soil, crush them or boil them or freeze them, unless you want hundreds of little cute baby snails that you cannot practically care for but will inevitably become emotionally attached to.

if your snail bubbles up when you try to touch or hold them, don’t worry, they are not dying. this is what snails do when they are anxious. just give your snails some time to get used to you.

one thing i’ve noticed, at least with my snails, is that they will immediately try to escape their new home before settling in. i imagine it like a human being locked in a luxury hotel. at first, they’ll try to get out, because that’s the instinct… but once they realize they’re stuck in there for a while, they’ll probably take advantage of all the amenities like the food and the pool and everything else.

your snail friends will learn who you are and recognize you by your scent. snails are good little sniffers. i’ve had snails who love to be held and pet by me, but bubble up when held by anyone else.

if a snail is sticky-stuck to something, DONT pull on their shell!!! slide the snail along the glass and eventually they will let go. if you must lift a snail, lift from their head because that is the stickiest part and less likely to hurt.

be sure to clean the tank at least once a week.

bonding with the snail dudes

my snails love me. i’m sure your snails will love you as well. at first, they might be scared of you, but soon they’ll recognize you as the big warm thing that gives them food and love. once your snail is comfy with you and likes to crawl on your hand, try petting them. start by gently petting their shell. they love it. you can also gently stroke their little bodies and heads, but don’t poke their eyes please. it hurts them and makes them sad. if you accidentally poke em, don’t worry too much, they’ll forgive you.

SNAILS LOVE CLIMBING. ok this is probably my favorite thing that snails do. when holding a snail, try to putting a finger or two directly above their head. they will get really excited and CLIMB UP ONTO YOUR FINGERS. they just love climbing. one of my little snails, rocco, loves climbing the most. he will lift up his entire head and body in hopes that i will give him a finger to climb on. when i put him back in the tank, he will immediately climb wherever he can, especially onto another snail. be attentive. snails sometimes get really excited about climbing. rocco has fallen off of my hand from trying to climb when there wasn’t anything to climb on.

there is nothing cuter than a snail drinking out of a sink. while i opt to give my snails bottled water 99% of the time, i can’t resist letting them drink tap water every now and then because it is so cute. take your (awake) snail to the sink. turn it on so it is barely running, but not just dripping. have it warm or lukewarm if you can. put your hand close to water. your snail will be very confused for a moment, but then they will drink and shower under the water. it is very good.

cute and good snail quirks

when a snail decides they want to go somewhere, they GO. they don’t rly understand the concept of going around things, they just GO. so, when a snail wants to go, they will climb over literally anything in the way, whether it be the entire water dish, a pile of food, or another snail who is trying to eat or sleep… the snail will just GO until they get to THE THING.

snails are a little dumb. they will learn where the food and water is, and they will get very confused if they go to the spot and there is no food/water. i have come home to find a snail just sitting in the empty water dish, waiting for the water to show up. it’s cute.

i’ve been holding a snail as i’ve typed this and the little dude FELL ASLEEP on my HAND. he trusts me!!!! he trusts me to keep him safe and to stop him from falling. oh my goodness, live tweet, he is just now waking up. he is peeping his little eyes out. i love this snail.

snails can’t hear… but i still tell them i love them bc i need to vocalize it.

snails are most active at night and will eat/drink the most then.

snails keep all their important organs in their shell, so don’t try to remove it or paint it!!

snails can live for YEARS!!!

#snail #i love snails #snail care #pet snail #ask snail care #snails

[jeffreypjacobs]

The No Nonsense Guide To Your First Cruise

So you’re thinking about going on a cruise? I can think of few things more polarizing than cruising when it comes to travel. Ask two people who have gone on a cruise and chances are you’ll find one that won’t vacation any other way, and another that has sworn off cruises forever. Forget the naysayers for a minute—some people will find fault with almost anything. Cruises are awesome. And if you’ve not yet experienced one, it’s high time you did. That’s why I decided to write this no nonsense guide to your first cruise, so that we can talk about cruises, what you need to know, and why you should absolutely consider getting on board—pun intended. Let’s get started.

Why You Should Go on a Cruise

So, why go on a cruise? That’s easy. For starters, cruises are incredibly convenient. Think of a cruise as a way of visiting several exotic places while only having to unpack once. Americans will spend $100 Billion on vacations this year, the average spending 10 percent of their income on getting away. Because of that, there can be tremendous pressure on the planning phase. With a cruise, you don’t have to find a hotel for the night, plan transportation, or find just the right restaurant, all the work is done for you, you just need to relax and enjoy the ride.

Next, cruises are relatively cheap. Of course, there are many variables to consider, but there are several itineraries on the mainstream cruise lines that are priced at less than $100 per person, per day. When you consider that that includes the room, meals in most of the dining rooms, entertainment in most of the onboard venues, access to the pools and fitness centers, and limited drink options, that’s a much better value than you’ll probably ever find on land.

Finally, there are so many options! Cruises are absolutely, positively not “One Size Fits All.” From the largest ship in the world, Royal Caribbean’s 5,400 passenger Symphony of The Seas, to Viking’s Long Ships cruising European rivers, to French Country Waterways’ 12-person barges, there is literally something for everyone’s taste.

Start With a Starter Cruise

To get you started on your cruising adventures, I recommend you consider a “starter cruise.” This is a fantastic way to dip your toes in the water, as it were, and see what you think. And, from a practical standpoint, there is no reason to spend a bunch of money on airfare and a lengthy itinerary, when you might find going on a boat is just not for you. There are lots of choices that offer a starter cruise of three, four, or five nights that can give you a taste of the experience without a significant commitment. My wife and I are cruise veterans, and we experiment with what we like to call our “cruise adventures” on a regular basis.

In fact, we recently jumped on something that would be perfect for a “starter cruise.” The ship boarded in Charleston, SC, which is a few hours’ drive for us, and we spent five nights with two days at sea and two stops in the Bahamas. It was the perfect easy getaway for a chance to unplug and relax, and for a newbie, a great way to test your cruise-ability.

Where and How to Get the Best Deals on Cruises

If that sounds like a good idea, the next questions are logically where and how to get the best deals on cruises. First things first here: Know there is no such thing as full price. Nobody who knows what they’re doing pays full price, and that’s part of my mission with this article, to teach you just that.

Let’s start with where the deals are. First, think about where you would like to go, and find what cruise lines have those ports of call. The internet is your friend on this front. Sign up for the cruise lines’ newsletters and you’ll quickly see that your email inbox will fill up with offers like cabin upgrades, onboard ship credits, and discounts on excursions. Watch for bundles, which are where the cruise lines put together airfare, rental cars, and hotel stays, as a bundled deal. Make sure you do your homework and compare pricing from other suppliers for the same deal.

It also pays to be patient. This is where being retired, like my wife and I are, can really pay off, because we are free to go and do without having to worry about planning much in advance. If it sounds like I’m bragging about that, you might be right. I’m not going to lie—retirement is awesome. I digressed—back to being patient. Know that the closer you get to the start date of the cruise, the lower the prices get. Why? Because the cruise lines make their money from what passengers buy on the ship, so none of them want empty staterooms. If you are willing to risk that some itineraries could sell out during prime season, or some excursions might not be available, then you could score amazing cruise discounts, cabin upgrades, onboard ship credits, or all of the above at a fraction of the originally published prices. While you can utilize your traditional travel agent, there are tons of sites where you can fashion your own deals. We have been successful with Vacations To Go on several occasions, and you might also try Cruise Sheet. We actually got the best deal most recently, and airline miles, by using an offer from our airline credit card company. They also were looking to promote a travel bundle with the cruise as a significant incentive. We jumped at the opportunity!

Reviews Can Be Your BFF, So Check Them!

Before you make that great deal purchase, check one more thing—reviews can be your BFF. Check out the specific boat that you will be on. There are all sorts of reviews available online for the exact itinerary on the exact ship you’re considering. Your fellow cruisers are amazing and you’ll find that many of them write reviews on critical details like when the ship was last refurbished (that’s important—look for words like “tired”), and their experiences with excursions. You don’t want to spend your hard-earned money on the jeep excursion with vehicles that don’t work, or the all-inclusive beach day with food that reviewers call “absolutely terrible.” Reviews, and fellow travelers are very much your friend in this regard. Your fellow travelers have gone before you, and done a bunch of the legwork. Make sure you spend a lot of time reading the reviews they’ve written and factor that into your final decision.

All-Inclusive? Not If You’re Thirsty

Everybody likes the all-inclusive deals, but defining exactly what that means, before you go on a cruise adventure, is important. On a cruise ship, while many things are included, some, like alcoholic beverages, are generally not. While most of your dining options include free non-bottled water, iced tea or lemonade with dinner, they definitely don’t include alcohol, and likely not soft drinks either. Check your specific cruise options in advance so that you’ll know what’s included, as well as what you can bring on board. Some lines let you bring a case of bottled water, some soft drinks and two bottles of wine on board, and those are definitely things you want to do if you’re able. You can also purchase upgrades for liquor or soft drinks, but no matter what you do, just make sure you know what’s included and what’s not, and also do the math before buying upgrades.

Internet access is also not included with your cruise. While I personally recommend taking the advantage of that and simply unplugging and relaxing while you are on board, if you absolutely have to check that Facebook account, there is Wifi throughout most of the larger ships. There are usually internet kiosks available, as well, with internet access available hourly, daily, or for the whole cruise. Some options include paying more for “higher speed” internet, but be aware, it’s not like the internet at home. It’s a satellite service and depending on where you are, it can be S-L-O-W. Also be aware that most of the ships use an open internet access, so the usual caution should be taken with what you access and information you transmit while online.

Motion Sickness, Shopping, and Gratuities

Motion Sickness. If you’ve never been on a cruise, it’s normal to worry a bit about motion sickness. After all, it’s not like you can simply hop off if you succumb to motion sickness, so it’s a legitimate concern. Today’s large cruise ships have stabilizers internally but some people still struggle with motion sickness and getting accustomed to being at sea. If you’re at all concerned that you might have an issue with that, consider booking a cabin with at least a window, located mid-ship and on a lower deck, where there is the least amount of motion. Come prepared, just in case. Bring Scopolamine patches or take Dramamine or Bonine, or wear the special wristbands designed to help combat seasickness.

Shopping. If possible, it’s generally a good idea to resist the urge to shop onboard. You will be tempted by the shops with everything from souvenirs to jewelry to “duty-free” alcohol. It’s a bit like shopping in an airport—you’re a captive audience, and probably not spending a lot of time thinking about price-checking. They count on that, you can be sure! Make sure especially avoid the art auctions. After a couple of drinks and a good meal, the deals may indeed seem too good to be true, and trust me, they generally are!

Gratuities. Finally, a word about gratuities. The ship’s crew make their living from tips, and many lines automatically include gratuities on your bill as a percentage of the cost of the cruise. That’s not a bad thing, as it would be hard for you to tip the crew members you never see. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tip the room service delivery guy (if this is a cruise deal, much of the room service food is included), just be aware of what is included, and what isn’t. Pay attention, or ask if you’re not sure. For example, the bill at the bar is likely to include both a standard tip, and a line for you to include another. Unless you got service over and above whatever the standard tip covers, maybe you don’t want to include another. Or, maybe your service was so spectacular and over the top, you do. Whichever route you go, just know that gratuities are often something that are built into what you’re paying, so pay attention and tip where and when it makes sense to reward great service.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it, my best advice on how to get started if you’re thinking about taking that first cruise adventure. My wife and I have been on a ton of cruises and, while do other kinds of vacation trips as well, we really enjoy cruises and the places we’ve seen and the adventures we’ve had as a result. I know that it can seem overwhelming if you’ve not ever been on a cruise, so I thought this getting started cruising guide might be just the resource you’re looking for.

There are lots of choices, and a ton of adventure out there, just waiting for you. Hopefully you’ll find this information helpful as you set about planning your first (and subsequent) cruises), and you’ll come back and let me know how it went. If you have questions that I’ve not answered here, let me know in the comments, and I’m happy to help. Happy Cruising!

This post first appeared on the Middle Chicks Blog.

[plussizepanda]

How The Ordinary by Deciem changed my life (or why I will never return to that hack dermatologist ever again).

I've been meaning to write this review for a while, because I have been beyond impressed by my skin care routine based in The Ordinary products by Deciem for months, but it wasn't until I switched to their foundation recently that I decided to actually sit down and pen this.

Firstly, I need to tell you, MY SKIN IS AN ANGERY BEAST. I have HORRIBLE hormonal cystic acne on my chin – 1-2 big swollen red beasts at a time, that are not only unsightly but painful, lasting sometimes upwards of months, leaving horrible scars behind.

Side story time: I was referred to a dermatologist by my doctor, and it took months to get into my appointment. I sat with him, and while he was gentle and helped me understand some other skin concerns, he proceeded to TOUCH MY FACE with a gloveless hand, and cause several huge problems to form on my face the next few days. He also didn't actually address any of my issues regarding the cysts, as all he did was suggest topical Retinol and to stop eating gluten (because as a chronic pain sufferer, yknow, like I haven't tried all those elimination diets before this).

The makeupless photos at the top of this post were taken the morning of my appointment, after about one month of switching my routine to The Ordinary products. While I clearly still have some problems, and I still have issues that pop up, my healing time has been taken from 2-3 months to 1-2 WEEKS.

The thing I love about these products are that everything is a 1-2 ingredient treatment. It makes for extra steps, sure, but also allows you to tailor the treatments to your specific needs, without any extra ingredients or irritants. For me, it was finding the ingredients to help dry out the worst of the blemishes, and then help to heal the wounds and scars left behind, as well as help retain moisture.

I spoke to the employees at Deciem and they helped me select items to start my journey.

My skincare routine is a mix of a few brands still, with the majority of products being from Deciem’s Ordinary line. 

I start with a cleanser, depending on my skin’s condition for that day, I either use the Mario Badescu Orange Cleansing Soap with AHA for gentle exfoliation ($15CAD on obsessedcanada.com), or if my spots are extra dry, I use an Yves Rocher aloe exfoliating cleanser with salicylic acid (which is apparently no longer available on their site!! Oh no!!).

After cleansing, in the morning, I use The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + ZInc 1% ($5.90CAD) all over my face to help prevent blemishes and reduce the scarring from previous break outs. 

Every second night, instead of the N+Z treatment, I do a full face of Advanced Retinoid 2% ($9.80CAD) to help with aging skin because HELLO I AM NO LONGER 20 YEARS OLD. 

For my problem spots, I treat the area with a Salicylic Acid 2% spot treatment ($4.90CAD), which also contains Witch Hazel for soothing properties, as the acid itself is very drying (which is the point, duh, but it can make especially horrible spots dry, flaky and itchy sometimes). 

For moisture, I again turn to Yves Rocher as I found the Deciem moisturizers a little to heavy for my skin, and I reach for the Anti-Redness Moisturizer Sensitive Vegetale ($28.00CAD), which is a gel based moisturizer with anti-redness properties. 

And for extra dry days, and overnight treatments, I use The Ordinary 100% Squalane Oil ($7.90CAD) which is plant derived, and makes my skin look plump and full. 

SUPER AWESOME RIGHT? So now that skin care is covered, let’s talk about the amazingness that is Deciem’s The Ordinary primer and foundation, okay? 

So the third picture of me is an un-retouched makeup photo using The Ordinary Coverage Foundation. As you can see, there’s still problem areas, and my skin is still pitted from previous breakouts, but overall, it looks 1000000000x better than it did a year ago, and it’s only been a few months with these products.

I start with the High Adherence Silicone Primer - I’ve had so many issues with primer in the past just not doing it’s job. I’ve tried literally every type of primer available and probably spent hundreds of dollars in the process. Who knew all I needed was a basic silicone primer that cost less than a tube of anti chaffing gel (4.90CAD).

Okay, this post has gone on long enough, but I want to finish out with a comprehensive review of The Ordinary Coverage Foundation which is the new love of my life. At $6.90CAD a bottle, I will gladly replace every $50+ bottle of not-quite-good-enough foundation with this bad boy. It tends to sell out quickly, so if you can get your shade, I would recommend ordering a few at a time (although, a 30ML bottle will last you quite some time, which I will cover in my review).

Comparatively speaking, I will use my previous foundation, the Cover FX Natural Finish Foundation in shade N10 as the basis for my review. I’d been wearing that particular foundation for about 1 year, and while the colour match was fantastic, there was so many problems with this foundation honestly. The unfinished texture was slightly sticky to the touch, and required a LOT of powder to be set. Even after being set with powder and spray, I found that any time anything touched my face, the amount of transfer was ridiculous. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m no longer a spring chicken and I have fine lines, and this foundation - even after priming - would sink into all my little lines! Not cool Cover FX. Not. Cool. 

So, let’s get on to the actual review. Now, of course, not every product is perfect. This one is *nearly* there, but they need to extend the shade selection in the darker end of the range. While they do have many more shades than your average white brand, there’s still not as many shades for people of colour as there is for us pale folks. I’m hoping that they will extend the line, and they definitely listen to customer feedback, so if you don’t see a shade that matches your tones, I highly suggest writing or tweeting the lovely team. 

The texture of this product is amazing. A velvety smooth matte finish makes skin looks natural and glowy. However, as this does not have the same “stickiness” as my previous foundation, I find that I have to layer on my blusher a little extra to give it the same pigmentation I had previously. However, the coverage is absolutely amazing, and it only takes a VERY small amount (1 pump) to do a whole face, including my trouble spots which are often very deep red. Considering my last 30ML tube of CoverFX foundation lasted about 5 months, and required a much larger amount for a full coverage, I see this bottle lasting me quite some time, and will update this review when the bottle has run out with an official timestamp. Also - NO TRANSFER. I set with an ELF HD Powder, and NYX Mattifying setting spray, and I spent all day today trying on clothes, and didn’t leave makeup on anything! 

Honestly, I need to gush about this so hard. I want to share my experience with the world because a) their products are a broke person’s godsend, and b) they’ve 100% changed my skin for the better. If anyone from Deciem is reading this and wanna hook me up, HOLLER!!!! No, seriously, love y’all so much. 

#beauty bloggers #makeup #makeup reviews #deciem #the ordinary

[umichenginabroad]

GHDI Presents: Fun Under the Sun

Four weeks is how long we’ve been here, now all that’s left is three, we’ve loved our time here in Ghana, eating egg sandwiches from under the tree.

June 8, 2019 at 7:40 AM

Somewhere on the Kumasi-Accra road

This week has been the week of planning. We’ve been planning a trip to northern Ghana and Mole National Park, I’ve been planning trips to visit my brother and trips to visit friends when I return to the U.S. and spontaneously we decided to plan a trip to the Volta region of Ghana to see the Wli waterfalls and monkey sanctuaries, I do love a good waterfall (and who doesn’t love cute monkeys?) Planning trips can be a little stressful because it’s always a balance of leveraging who you know so that you don’t have to pay as much. If you know a guy who’s been there before then you can get recommendations on where to stay and how to get there and be knowledgeable when you try and get the price down. Or if you have family or friends to stay with so you don’t have to pay for where you stay, that’s a huge bonus too. I’m someone who usually takes a lot of the burden of planning just because I like to be in the know and part of the process. Also makes it so that if something doesn’t turn out so fun (or so cheap) that most of that usually falls on my shoulders too, so there’s that.

Last weekend however, we didn’t travel somewhere new! It was the last weekend of one of our friends here so we decided to stick around and explore the city a bit more. We ended up heading off to a local hotel to pay to use their pool and lounge around most of the day, which was super nice to try and get that African tan we’ve all been secretly hoping we come back with. I usually fry like a lobster in the sun, and everyone will be proud to know I’ve only had burns twice; and they were when I was sitting in the car exposed to the sun, so I don’t really count those. It wasn’t cheap to use the pool so unless we are looking to dedicate a day to it then we might not go back; we’ll see. We also returned to the mall twice this week! Once to simply shop and shoe Nai’a and Alvin the place, which they hadn’t been to before, and once on Thursday night where we went to the theater to watch Aladdin! (It was great you should go see it). Every time I go to the stores in the mall (either here or the U.S. I want to spend so much money so I am really trying to resist blowing my budget just on clothes; I don’t know how successful I’ll be before I leave.

Side note: this picture is of me and this guy, Mike. Mike worked with my brother at an Air Force base in Germany, two years ago. What a small world to run into him at a club in Kumasi, Ghana.

When we walked up to the mall on Thursday, it was absolutely packed. It’s an outdoor mall, and there were so many young people just hanging around. It was the classic definition of the Robin Sparkles hit “Let’s go to the Mall (today)”. Inside the theater, it wasn’t busy at all; they had just gone to hang out with their friends, which was kind kind of cool. Or at least I thought it was, until we saw all the trash left everywhere in and around the mall when we walked outside the theater. There was dirt, there was chocolate ice cream (I hope) smeared all over the floors; there was food waste left all over the floor, there were drink bottles and tons of plastic bags strewn all over the railings and ledges. It wouldn’t have really been appropriate for me to take a picture, but it was really saddening to see that happening at a place that during the day is quite tidy. That doesn’t seem to be uncommon here in Ghana. There are very very few public trash cans and a metric ton of plastic waste. The concept of recycling isn’t a thought at all, as literally everything is wrapped in plastic bags. The egg sandwiches we get are double wrapped in plastic bags. If I get a bottle of water or Fanta the plastic bottle is wrapped in a plastic bag. All fruit purchased comes double wrapped in plastic. All these bags and all the pieces of trash on the streets don’t have anywhere to go, and so people toss them on the side of the road, on the sidewalk where people are selling goods, into the drains that line the streets, literally becoming a river of trash when it rains. We talked to our host mom about it during our first week and she said that even established homes and buildings don’t have great trash removal. All the trash companies are private and expensive and the vast majority of people simply choose to burn their trash, most of the times that happens right outside their home on the side of the road. The Green Movement that is happening right now in the U.S. is a great step and one we have to take but the difference we’re making is very simply outnumbered by the places that need the most help. There’s not an easy solution and definitely not a quick solution but I hope something will change soon.

On Friday, yesterday, we were able to take a tour of the cocoa production process, all the way from the ground up. Keep up now, Alex’s uncle’s brother is the VP of a chocolate company in Switzerland but they partner with a cocoa buyer here in Kumasi, and so we were able to weasel our way to a free tour! We started with getting a look at the seed nursery where the plants start their first 4-6 months of life, then we went to the underplanting site where they start growing, and then a larger farm to see how local farmers harvest and open the cocoa fruit (and even got to try it ourselves) and a look into the fermentation process that gives the beans inside their distinctive chocolate color and flavor. He took us around to the drying facility and where they bag the beans and ship them out. It was a really cool experience and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into so it was really a pleasant surprise and the people we met were super friendly. If you ever have the opportunity to interact with Nyonkopa chocolate buying company or Barry [] Chocolate company, they are really some cool people and the chocolate is high quality.

This week in our circle of friends, Sophie has left on a two week trip around Ghana with her friend from the Netherlands, so she has left the hospital. Alvin’s girlfriend is visiting so they are traveling around Accra and Cape Coast and the southern part of Ghana. A new student has arrived, Inés, from Madrid! It is nice to have someone else to speak Spanish with so that is very exciting. She’s only here for about a month so she leaves soon after we do. A few other GHDI students may be coming to Kumasi, as their partnerships in other places around Africa are falling through, which is a bummer; but, it means more friends are in Kumasi and it’s not all bad.

Right now, Alex, Nai’a, Inés, and I are on our way to the Volta region! We have quite the drive ahead of us but I’m sure there will be lots to tell you about when we come back! Hopefully I get around to writing a bit sooner next time (doubtful). With trips to Mole and to a Kotoko football match on the horizon, there are many more fun things ahead.

Thanks for hanging with me,

Scott

——-

Scott Vanden Heuvel

Mechanical Engineering

GHDI Immersion Experience, Kumasi, Ghana

#umichenginabroad #ScottVandenHeuvel #IPEghana #IPEsummer19

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN COMPANY

I read was so electrifying that I remember exactly where I was at the time. Actually, the fad is the word blog, at least by legal standards.1 Real standards don't have to buy a drink, and they pay it to the employee in the hope that he'll make something worth more than they learned from us. But it should be better not just for me but for most people you could ask. This is a critical phase—this is where ideas come from—and then used this to squeeze money from the written word probably require different words written by different people. Growth is why VCs want to invest in photo-sharing apps, rather than as a way of saving you work, rather than because they wanted to write a book.2 But software, as a sort of time capsule, here's why I don't like the look of Java: It has been so thoroughly picked over that a startup generally has to work on your projects, he can work wherever he wants on projects of their own are enormously more productive. A lot of them don't care that much personally about whether founders keep board control.

The way people act is just as bad as I'd feel if I spent the whole day on the sofa and watched TV all day—days at the end of which, if I asked myself what I got done that day, the answer seemed obvious.3 Apparently some people in the music business hope to retroactively convert it away from publishing, by getting listeners to pay for subscriptions. Indeed, one quality all the founders shared this summer was a spirit of independence. The first essay of his that I read was so electrifying that I remember exactly where I was at the time. Sound is a good cue to problems. But I didn't use the term slippery slope by accident; customers' insatiable demand for custom work will always be pushing you toward the bottom. Now that the medium is evaporating, publishers have nothing left to sell.4 One group got an exploding term-sheet from some VCs. Some of this summer's eight startups will probably grow faster than the percentage they sell to investors shrinks. We would have been the same kind of aberration, just spread over a longer period, and mixed together with a lot of potential energy built up, as the examples of open source and blogging?5 Treating indentation as significant would eliminate this common source of bugs as well as limiting your potential and protecting you from competitors, that geographic constraint also helps define your company. Most of the legal restrictions on employers are intended to be the way most fortunes are lost is not through excessive expenditure, but through bad investments.

The effort that goes into looking productive is not merely influence but command: often the expert hackers are the very qualities we associate with professionalism. In young hackers, optimism predominates.6 They may be surprised how well this works. Why didn't better content cost more? Electricity seemed an airy intangible. And God help you if you fire anyone.7 No one wants to bother. The reason is that they get paid by getting their capital back, ideally after the startup IPOs, or failing that when it's acquired. Like rich food, idleness only seems desirable when you don't get enough of it.8 Who does like Java?9

The optimal ways to make money from the merchants in that business. Hackers love to build hardware, and customers love to buy it. Their search also turned up parse. It is, alas, an atrociously bad one. The DoD likes it.10 You don't have to think about something I hadn't had to think about before: how not to lose it. I probably read two or three articles on individual people's sites for every one I read on the site of a newspaper or magazine. Since software patents are evil are saying simply patents are evil.11 At any rate they didn't pursue the suit very vigorously.12 That may be the same shape, scaled up.

I've spent mostly in front of computers, and I feel as if I've learned, to some degree. But there are limits to how well they'll be able to reach most of the members don't like it. Focusing on hitting a growth rate they think they can hit, and then just try to hit it every week. Sometimes infix syntax is easier to read. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics. But another kind of efficiency will be increasingly important: the number of startups is that we get on average only about 5-7% of a much larger number.13 Common Lisp. It was surprising—slightly frightening even—how do you make a language that might go away, as so many programming languages do. The reason they make less money now is that people don't need as much paper.

Notes

All languages are equally powerful in the time I thought there wasn't, because such companies need huge numbers of users to do certain kinds of content. Something similar happens with suburbs.

If you invest in it, but at least guesses by pros about where those market caps will end up saying no to drugs. But that doesn't seem to have them soon. It doesn't take a job after college, you'll find that with a real partner.

Software companies can hire unskilled people to endure the stress of a placeholder than an ordinary adult slave seems to have, however. In every other respect they're constantly being told that they are by ways that have already launched or can be fooled by the National Center for Education Statistics, about 1. But then I realized the other reason it's easy to discount, but investors can get it, and suddenly they need them to get significant numbers of people we need to learn to acknowledge as well as problems that have bad ideas is to carry a beeper?

It didn't work, done mostly by hackers.

You're investing your own. Japanese are only slightly richer for having these things.

If a bunch of other VCs who don't aren't.

Programming in Common Lisp seems to have lunch at the exact same thing, because his ideas were one of a long time for word of mouth to get the people who said they wanted to make it harder for Darwin's contemporaries to grasp this than we realize, because they think they're just mentioning the site was about bands. If the Mac was so great, why is New York. Back when students focused mainly on getting a job after college, they say that one Calvisius Sabinus paid 100,000 drachmae for the entire West Coast that still requires jackets: The First Two Hundred Years.

If you don't know of no counterexamples, though, so the best thing they can get rich by preserving their traditional culture; maybe people in 100 years ago it would take forever in the sort of things you want to sell hardware without trying to steal a big change from what the earnings turn out to be better to make software incompatible. For example, America's abnormally high incarceration rate is 10%, moving to Monaco would only give you a clean offer with no deadline, you don't, you're not sure. Believe it or not, don't make users register to get the answer is simple: pay them to represent anything.

It is a list of n things seems particularly collectible because it's told with a cap.

Since people sometimes call us VCs, I want to change. The situation is analogous to the same thing, because despite some progress in the usual way will prove to us. Google adopted Don't be evil.

What's the connection? He devoted much of the living. Faced with the fact that it would be to go the bathroom, and their flakiness is indistinguishable from those of popular Web browsers, including principal and venture partner. I think so.

It would probably a mistake to do good work and thereby earn the respect of their works are lost. There is no different from technology companies between them so founders can get cheap plane tickets, but if you tell them to represent anything. This law does not appear to be important ones. But so many startups from Philadelphia.

To help clarify the matter, get rid of everyone else books a package tour. Many of these groups, which is something there worth studying, especially if you needed in present-day English speakers have a notebook to write great software in Lisp. In 1800 an empty plastic drink bottle with a base of evangelical Christianity in the room, you might be tempted, but that this isn't strictly true, because to translate this program into C they literally had to ask for more of a promising lead and should in some ways First Round Capital is closer to a 2002 report by the surface similarities.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #programming #browsers #bathroom #business #customers #blog #software #kind #Common #sup #bottle #reason #speakers #week #offer #hardware #ways #ideas #capsule #VCs #founders #words #numbers

[puddygeeks]

Beauty

Garnier SkinActive BB Active – Combination to Oily skin BB cream

Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I’ll admit that I’m still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we’re getting down to real talk, it’s a little out of my budget right now. I’ve been using luxury makeup for quite a few years as my treats throughout the year, but now that we’re committed to saving for a place to live and a wedding, spending money is a thing of the past! Alongside the cost, I’m now getting up at 6am, and so a long makeup routine is not something I have the energy for. That’s where this BB cream comes in! Originally I bought it for Florida as I wanted something lightweight with SPF, that wouldn’t melt too badly in the heat. This gives reasonably good coverage without being overly obvious, stays pretty well over the day and doesn’t feel thick or cakey on your skin. With a layer of powder and some concealer, I’m happy with the finished result for a Monday to Friday at work. At £9.99 per bottle at full price, which has lasted me 5 months already, it’s an absolute bargain! If you fancy giving it a try it’s currently on offer for £6.65 at Superdrug.

Coty Airspun Translucent Loose Powder

This is another product I would consider a luxury item, and honestly I don’t know what I’ll do when it runs out! I don’t use a huge amount of this day to day, I mostly use it for cosplay, but I love to keep it in my daily makeup bag instead of with my costume makeup as it can be used to fix so many problems. I use this powder mostly for contouring when I need an extreme contour to look like a different character, but I also use it for parties or nights out, when I want a heavy makeup look. On a daytime look, I’d mostly use it to fix any shine or areas where I have a larger skin problem I want to cover, like when my dark circles get too raccoon like. Currently it’s not too costly, as there seem to be some U.K sellers on Amazon meaning you can get it for £12.99 including postage, but the last time I ordered it from Amazon I had to have it shipped from the U.S. which got expensive fast, and I think I ended up spending around £30 for it. However that was two years ago and I still have plenty, so I’d absolutely say it’s worth the cost.

Maybelline Tattoo Brow 

As I mentioned earlier, I now get up at 6am Monday to Friday for my job, and as someone who is absolutely not a morning person, this has been a struggle. I’ve tried to keep my makeup routine as minimal as possible, because I can’t bear to think about getting up any earlier, and Tattoo Brow has helped to keep it short & sweet. This usually lasts about 3 days before I need to start filling my brows again, but at the moment I’m on day 6 and still only need to top up rather than completely shape my brows. I find shaping my brows to take me a while in the morning, so having them prefilled is amazing. It’s easy to do, and once you’ve applied it you can chill out for 2 hours whilst it works its magic. Then you simply peel it off (pain free and doesn’t pull the hair out) and your eyebrows are done for at least 3 days.

L’Oreal Paris Miss Manga Mega Volume Mascara

I originally bought this as my bestie Hollie rated it and it was far cheaper than the mascara I had been using. I honestly thought it looked like the best mascara in the world and would make my lashes look huge. It turned out that Hollie just has mega dollie lashes naturally and it wasn’t the mascara that was doing it haha! Having said that, this mascara has given me the fullest lashes I’ve ever had, it’s just unfortunate that mine are very short. As you can probably see from the photo, my bottle is very well loved and coming to it’s end, but I thought I’d include it as it’s a budget item that really does the job. I’m not sure if I’ll still get the exact same one next time, as there’s a couple of different “Miss” named products in the Mega Volume line that I’d like to give a try. For now though, if you’re thinking of trying a new mascara and saving some money off those ridiculous £20 a bottle brands which don’t really do anything extra for the money (here’s looking at you Benefit) I’d definitely rate the Miss Manga for only £7.99! Maybe I’ll even review them all over 2019.

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lip

I have wanted some of these for the past 3 years since my bestie Claire let me use hers. They’ve been out of my budget pretty much the whole time, so I waited until I went to Florida and planned to buy some to bring home. It was only half way through my trip I realised there wasn’t any shops near us that stocked them and I’d need to buy them online, and I didn’t have time to do so. I was pretty devastated and thought I’d have to wait until I could afford to import some, until my lovely friend Helen came up with these babies! She’d been trying to sell them for ages and they were brand new, so I snapped them up immediately. And I must say, they have absolutely delivered. They apply beautifully (bar the fact I’m personally terrible at them) and they last all day, even through meals. The colours are to die for and I can guarantee I will absolutely be buying more! Thanks Helen! ❤ I currently have the shades Skin Tight, Mannequin, Posh Spice and Androgyny: my absolute fave! I’ll be posting a photo of each on my Instagram later this month if you’re interested in seeing them on.

Kent Brushes Pebble Brush with ladybird

Okay I know I’m late to the party on this one, but I finally invested in a tangle teezer style brush. It took me forever to get one as I just felt they were incredibly overpriced for a hair brush, but I decided to give it a go when I saw this one for £7 and see if it made a difference. I’m so glad I did! My hair has always been ridiculously knotty, but especially now that it’s coloured I find that it dries out easier and can matte up if not well looked after. I’m much more invested in hair care now, as I want to keep my bright colours without ending up having to cut all my hair off to rescue it again, so keeping it matte free is just another step I need to do. I’d say they’re definitely worth investing in if like me your hair knotts a lot, because they’re designed to pull through the tangles without causing total agony. Recently, I even had a cashier during my food shop ask me how my hair is coloured and so healthy, so I guess I must be doing something right?

Food

Aldi Choceur Milk Hazlenut

Okay I’ve only got one food product this month so I thought I’d throw it into the same photo. We’ll keep this one short and sweet – if you like Ferrero Rocher, you will love this. It’s chunkier, but it’s basically a Ferrero chocolate bar and it’s heaven. As you can tell, my January eat healthy goal has gone very well!

Movies and TV

Spider-Man into the Spiderverse

I cannot even put into words how much I have to talk about this! I know I’m way past the hype and I pretty much saw it as late as possible in cinemas but here’s why: I’m not a Spiderman fan. I’ve tried to be, I’m just not. I like Tom Holland in Avengers, but I haven’t bothered watching his films. I know I’m a terrible comic book movie fan, but you can’t like them all. I watched up to Andrew Garfield, and although I honestly found his films okay, I just have never got hype about Spiderman. I wasn’t planning to see the Spiderverse at the cinema, although I was intrigued by the trailer and loved that it was Miles Morales they were following. (Plus not gonna lie I am a huge fan of Gwen Stacey in all forms!) What eventually got me, was seeing all of the hype online. Slowly it started to convince me, until I saw people creating their own Spidersonas and realised that the love for this movie was huge. So I decided to give it a go. And honestly, the only thing I can say without any spoilers to show how much I loved this movie: it made a previous non Spiderman fan want to cosplay several characters. If this film can make a Spiderman fan out of me, I’m pretty sure it can make a fan of anyone. Go watch it.

How To Train Your Dragon: 1&2

Speaking of being late to a series, I am seriously late to this one. I tried watching the first many years ago, mainly just because of my uncontrollable love for Jay Baruchel. I would literally watch anything if his iconic voice and hot skinny self was in it (see Fan Boys, I am so far from into Star Wars but I love that film cuz I just adore him as nerdy, awkward Windows <3). For whatever reason at the time I couldn’t get into it and always meant to go back to it. Karl forced me to watch it last weekend and we burned through both movies. I am beyond excited for the third movie, and it is definitely on my list for cinema visits this month. These films are heart warming, fun and carry some really important messages. And now I want my own Toothless plush to cuddle. And my own Hiccup.

Birdbox

I know literally everyone has talked about this and most people are sick of hearing about it so I’ll just keep this brief. This movie messed me up. I truly enjoyed it, but I was sweating like crazy the whole time and actually felt like I should keep my eyes closed. It definitely got in my head and made me nervous. I thought it was an excellent concept and really stood out from other apocolypse films I’ve watched. Also Sandra Bullock is a goddess as usual and I continue my lifelong worship of her.

Maniac

I thought I’d better throw a TV show in here to mix it up. Yet another thing that messed me up. It probably took around 5 episodes for Karl and I to decide if we actually liked this show, and even by the end I’m not sure if we could say that we did. But it was intriguing and completely different from anything else. At the very least I can say that Jonah Hill and Emma Stone have shown how incredibly talented and versatile they are. I can’t even comprehend how difficult it is to play a single character so many opposing ways in one show, but they nailed it and the result was something powerful and unique. By the end of the show, we didn’t realise how attached we had got to the characters and how badly we were rooting for them. Worth watching, at the very least for how much it stands out from the crowd, makes you think and for an example of excellent writing and acting.

Music

I don’t have a particular album that has been my favourite this month, instead it’s an artist. I’ve been on massive James Arthur binge as late, I’ve always liked his music, but recently I’ve realised how much. Every time he comes on the radio I turn it up, and his  voice always makes me all gooey and doe-eyed. So I’ve been listening to a lot of it! Here’s my songs of the month, including my latest James Arthur loves.

Empty Space – James Arthur (How have I only just found out Tom Felton is in the video for this?! This just made top of list!)

Nothing Breaks Like A Heart – Mark Ronson ft Miley Cyrus

Sunflower – Post Malone & Swae Lee

The Power Of Love – Dalton Harris feat James Arthur

Sweet But Pyscho – Ava Max

Without Me – Halsey

  And that’s a wrap!

Hope I’ve been able to give you some inspiration for the month. Let me know what your Jan faves have been in the comments

Peace

Kit xx

January Favourites 2019 Beauty Garnier SkinActive BB Active - Combination to Oily skin BB cream Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I'll admit that I'm still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we're getting down to real talk, it's a little out of my budget right now.

#beauty #birdbox #cinema #cosmetics #favourites #jeffree star #makeup #movies #music #netflix #spiderman #tv