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Fortnite Darkfire Bundle (PS4/XB1/Switch) $14.99 & BOGO Fortnite Figures at Best Buy - DotD

Fortnite Darkfire Bundle (PS4/XB1/Switch) $14.99  msrp $29.99

Amazon has the PS4 version for the same price.

 

BOGO Fortnite Figures

 

Other Fornite deals:

Buy any v-bucks card, get the SteelSeries - Arctis 1 Wireless Stereo Gaming Headset for PC for $59.99

 

 

Here's what the Darkfire Bundle includes:

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/darkfire

Spoiler
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    Doom Eternal $39.99 at Best Buy

    First time I’ve seen it discounted. With return windows extended until May 31st, you may be eligible for price match even if you bought it at launch.

    Xbox One https://www.bestbuy.com/site/doom-eternal-standard-edition-xbox-one/6255282.p?skuId=6255282

    PS4 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/doom-eternal-standard-edition-playstation-4/6255267.p?skuId=6255267

    Windows https://www.bestbuy.com/site/doom-eternal-standard-edition-windows/6255255.p?skuId=6255255






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    Does Blindness Beat Bias?

    Because everything is currently terrible, I binge-watched Love is Blind. In case you are planning to do the same, this is a spoiler-free post. You probably know the premise: contestants in this romantic reality romp go on speed dates in little pods. They can’t see their conversation partners, and at the end of the dates […]





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    High Vibe Honey: Week Of 23rd February 2020 + What To Do If You Feel Lonely!

    Do you struggle with feeling lonely or alone? Hilariously, you’re not alone! Loneliness is an epidemic, and in fact, it’s the number one public health crisis. We are increasingly disconnected from one another, while at the same time we have more opportunities to connect than ever. So if you find it hard to make friends, […]

    The post High Vibe Honey: Week Of 23rd February 2020 + What To Do If You Feel Lonely! appeared first on Gala Darling.



    • High Vibe Honey

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    High Vibe Honey: Week Of 29th March 2020 + I Am My Own Hero!

    In this wild time, you might be looking around and noticing that people are losing their collective shit! In this climate, it is more important than ever to truly use your tools, cut off negativity, and feed your mind with material that makes you feel STRONG, rather than fearful. This is your moment to become […]

    The post High Vibe Honey: Week Of 29th March 2020 + I Am My Own Hero! appeared first on Gala Darling.



    • High Vibe Honey

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    100 Things To Be Grateful For Right Now

    Life has not been cancelled. Babies are still being born, flowers are blooming, bees are floating around, people are falling in love, artists are making some of their most incredible work. Your existence is not OVER. The circumstances have changed, that’s all — and it won’t be like this forever. But in case you’ve been […]

    The post 100 Things To Be Grateful For Right Now appeared first on Gala Darling.




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    Quarantine Beauty: The Tools And Techniques That Have Me Glowing!

    I don’t know about you, but giving daily make-up a rest has been doing wonders for my skin. But in case we’ve never met before — hi, I’m Gala! — I like to maximize things. My train of thought goes something like, ‘Sure, my skin looks good… But what if I came out of quarantine looking better than […]

    The post Quarantine Beauty: The Tools And Techniques That Have Me Glowing! appeared first on Gala Darling.




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    There Has Never Been A Greater Time For Romance Than Right Now!

    When things are tricky — see: global pandemic! — it’s easy to get mired in the muck of it all. And absolutely, it is a hard time for many of us. But where we really move into a place of power is when we shift our perspectives by asking ourselves a simple question. That question […]

    The post There Has Never Been A Greater Time For Romance Than Right Now! appeared first on Gala Darling.




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    Case Mod Friday: IndominAORUS Bench

    This week for Case Mod Friday we have what might be the ultimate bench build! It is from KillR_MODZ and he calls it the IndominAORUS Bench featuring all new Z490 hardware and some awesome watercooling!

    The post Case Mod Friday: IndominAORUS Bench appeared first on ThinkComputers.org.




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    Free webinar to help residents be financially prepared for wildfires

    With wildfire season already starting in some regions of the United States and around the corner in others, now is the time to start thinking about your physical and financial preparedness.  To help you be better informed, NFPA is hosting two free




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    “Simone de Beauvoir alone would never have gotten me from intellect to action”

    Note from OBOS co-founder Judy Norsigian: After publication of my reflections piece in the June 2019 issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), I received this wonderful email from Kay Johnson. Her story reminds us all once again of how ONE life experience (reading a book/having a terrific teacher or mentor/participating in an eye-opening social justice action/etc.) can change the course of our lives and bring us into partnership with others also committed to racial, economic and social justice for all.

    I am ... More

    The post “Simone de Beauvoir alone would never have gotten me from intellect to action” appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves.




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    Please Support Civil Liberties and Public Policy During the Covid-19 Crisis: An Appeal from Judy Norsigian

    These challenging times require fierce, broad, and intersectional activism – which is just what Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) has been doing for the past four decades. This now-independent nonprofit, which used to be affiliated with Hampshire College, continues its unique movement-building work preparing younger activists to work on the front lines of today’s struggle for reproductive justice. Please consider supporting CLPP today with a generous donation. 

    As we know, the Covid-19 pandemic is disproportionately harming those in our communities who were already facing ... More

    The post Please Support Civil Liberties and Public Policy During the Covid-19 Crisis: An Appeal from Judy Norsigian appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves.



    • Abortion & Reproductive Rights
    • Activism & Resources

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    Book Week 2019: David Shariatmadari's Don't Believe a Word

    Welcome to the third review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing this week. In the end, there will be four posts. I thought there would be five, but one of the books has (orig. BrE) gone missing. Having had a day off yesterday, I will also have a day off tomorrow, so the final review will appear during the weekend. Probably.

    Anyhow, today's book is:

    Don't believe a word
    the surprising truth about language

    by David Shariatmadari
    Norton, 2019 (N America)
    W&N, 2019 (UK/RoW)


    David Shariatmadari writes for the Guardian, often about language, and is one of the sensible journalists on the topic. The number of sensible journalists writing about language has really shot up in the past decade, and judging from reading their books, this is in part because of increasingly clear, public-facing work by academic linguists. (Yay, academic linguists!) But in Shariatmadari's case, the journalist is a linguist: he has a BA and MA in the subject. And it shows—in the best possible way. 

    The book is a familiar genre: busting widely held language myths. If you've read books in this genre before, you probably don't need these myths busted. You probably know that linguistic change is natural, that the border between language and dialect is unfindable, that apes haven't really learned sign languages, and that no form of language is inherently superior to another. Nevertheless, you may learn something new, since Shariatmadari's tastes for linguistic research and theories is not always on the same wavelength as some other books directed at such a general audience.

    Once again, I'm reviewing with a partial view of the book (this is the practical law of Book Week 2019). In this case, I've read chapters 1, 5, and 9 and skimmed through other bits. The introductory chapter gives us a bit of insight into Shariatmadari's conversion to full-blown linguist, as a reluctant student of Arabic who was quickly converted to admiration for the language and to the study of language as an insight into humanity. "It's not hyperbole to say that linguistics is the universal social science", he writes. "It intrudes into almost every area of knowledge."
    UK cover

    I chose to read chapter 5 because I'd had the pleasure of hearing him talk about its topic at a student conference recently: the popularity of "untranslatable word" lists. Goodness knows, I've contributed to them. What I liked about the talk was his detective work on the words themselves—some of the words and definitions presented in lists of 'untranslatables' are practically fictional. And yet, those of us who don't speak the language in question often eat up these lists because of our ethnocentric need to exotici{s/z}e others. This leads inevitably to discussion of linguistic relativism—the notion that the language you speak affects the way you think—and the bad, old (so-called) evidence for it and the newer evidence for something much subtler. The chapter then goes in a direction I wasn't expecting: introducing Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), an interesting (but far from universally taught) approach to meaning that uses about 65 semantic building blocks to represent and compare meanings across languages. NSM adherents make the case that few, if any, words are truly equivalent across languages. But while any word in one language may have no single-word equivalent in another language, that doesn't mean those words are untranslatable. It just means that translating them can be a delicate and complicated thing.

    US cover
    The final chapter (9) takes the opposite view to David Adger's Language Unlimited (in my last review), and argues that the hierarchical (and human-specific) nature of linguistic structure need not be the product of an innate Universal Grammar, but instead could arise from the complexity of the system involved and humans' advanced social cognition. While Adger had a whole book for his argument, Shariatmadari has 30-odd pages, and so it's not really fair to compare them in terms of the depth of their argumentation, but still worth reading the latter to get a sense of how linguists and psychologists are arguing about these things.

    Shariatmadari is a clear and engaging writer, and includes a good range of references and a glossary of linguistic terminology. If you know someone who still believes some language myths, this might be a good present for them. (Though in my experience, people don't actually like getting presents that threaten their worldview. I still do it, because I care more about myth-busting writers earning royalties than I care about linguistic chauvinists getting presents they want.) It would also make an excellent gift for A-level English and language students (and teachers) and others who might be future linguists. After they read it, send them my way. I love having myth-busted students.




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    Book Week 2019: Gretchen McCulloch's Because Internet


    Welcome to the final review post of Book Week 2019. In the intro to Book Week 2019, I explain what I'm doing. The 'week' has turned out to be eight days. If you're perturbed about that, I'm happy to offer you a full refund on your subscription fees for this blog.

    On with the show. Today's book is:


    Because Internet

    Understanding the new rules of language (US subtitle)
    Understanding how language is changing (UK subtitle)

    by Gretchen McCulloch
    Riverhead, 2019 (N America)
    Harvill Secker, 2019 (UK)


    Gretchen McCulloch describes herself as an internet linguist: writing about internet language for people on the internet. She actually does a lot more than that, with daily blogging at All Things Linguistic for years and being one half of the Lingthusiasm podcast team and writing on all sorts of linguistic themes for all sorts of publications. So, I expect many readers of this blog will already know her and have heard about this book. 

    US Cover
    I expected Because Internet to be good, knowing Gretchen's work, but I also probably (in my grumpy, middle-aged, oh-do-we-have-to-talk-about-emojis-again? way) expected it to be faddish. There have been too many just-plain-bad, (orig. AmE) jumping-on-the-bandwagon books about emojis, and I've got(ten) a bit sour on the topic. 

    This book is so much more than I expected it to be. 

    I should have known better. Having read and heard much of her work, I should have expected that this would be a truly sophisticated approach to language and to general-audience linguistics writing. So far in Book Week 2019, I've recommended the books as gifts for A-level students/teachers, science lovers, and language curmudgeons. This book is good for all those groups and more. 

    UK cover
    The key is in the subtitle(s).* This is not just a book about emojis and autocomplete (and, actually, autocomplete isn't even in the index). This is a book about the relationship between speech and writing and how that's changed with technology. It seamlessly introduces theories of why language changes, how change spreads and how communication works in a time when the potential for change is high and the potential for changes to spread is unprecedented. 

    That seamless introduction of linguistic concepts is the reason I've started this book from the beginning and not skipped around (unlike for other books in Book Week—where the rule is that I don't have to read the whole book before I start writing about it). In most books about language for non-linguists, I'm able to skim or skip the bit where they talk about the basics of how language works and the classic studies on the topic and the ideas springing from them. McCulloch covers those issues and those studies (the Labovs, the Milroys, the Eckerts), but since this is intertwined with looking at how language is changing in the 21st century—because (of the) internet—it was worth my while to read straight through. The great thing about the language of the internet is: even when it looks really different from non-internet language, it's still illustrating general principles about how language, communication, and society work. But it also shows how society is changing because of technology, particularly in changing who we are likely to interact with or hear from, In the process, it gives a history of the internet that's enlightening even for those of us who've lived through it all. (I've just flipped open to a section about  PLATO at the University of Illinois. One of my student jobs was working in a PLATO lab, playing Bugs-n-Drugs [aka Medcenter] while signing people in and out. That game was not good for my hypochondria, but I have awfully fond memories of PLATO.)


    Another thing to appreciate about McCulloch's book is how unreactionary it is. She doesn't set up her discussion as "You've heard people say these stupid things about the internet, but here's the TRUTH." (A style of writing that I can be very, very guilty of.) She mostly just makes her case gracefully, based on what the language is doing, rather than reacting to what other people say the language is doing. Rather than 'This, that and the other person say emoji are a new language, but they're not', she just gets on with explaining how emoji fulfil(l) our communicative need to gesture. It's a positive approach that academic linguists will have had trained out of them by the requirements of academic publishing.

    This is a bit of a nerdview 'review'. Usually reviews tell you some fun facts from the book they're reviewing, whereas I'm telling you what I've noticed about its information structure. That's because that's what I really look for in books as I prepare to write a new one. In terms of information, in this book you'll learn, among other things:
    • which "internet generation" you belong to and how your language is likely to be different from other generations'.
    • what punctuation communicates in texting/chat and how that differs from formal writing
    • how language change can be traced through studying strong and weak social links and geographic tagging on Twitter
    Inevitably, the book is mainly about English, in no small part because English rules the internet. But it does make its way to other languages and cultures—for instance, how Arabic chat users adapted their spelling to the roman alphabet and how emojis are interpreted differently around the world.  In the end, she briefly considers whether space is being made for other languages on the internet.

    It's a galloping read and you'll learn all sorts of things.


    So, on that happy review, I declare Book Week 2019 FINISHED.


    * I love the transatlantic change in subtitles, since it completely illustrates the point of chapter 8 of The Prodigal Tongue: that Americans like to talk about language in terms of rules, and Britons in terms of history/tradition. I've also written a shorter piece about my personal experience of it for Zócalo Public Square.




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    Breeching Valves – Should They be Used in Sprinkler Systems?

    What on earth is a breeching valve? A breeching valve, also known as a safety shutoff valve or excess flow valve, monitors pressure and flow in a system. Upon seeing excessive flow, the valve will automatically close, essentially shutting off or




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    AUBE '20/SUPDET® 2020 call for papers issued

    A call for papers has been issued for AUBE ‘20/SUPDET 2020, a joint conference of the 17th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection (AUBE ’20) and the Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Symposium




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    Open Request for Proposals for “Cybersecurity of Fire Protection Systems”

      Fire protection systems are increasingly networked to Building Control Systems (BCS), Internet of Things (IoT), and other platforms that are, by design or oversight, exposed to the public-facing Internet. This emerging environment could lead to




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    Despite relatively small numbers, more women are assuming leadership roles in the US fire service

    It will come as no surprise to women in the fire service but the number of female firefighters in the U.S. remains relatively low, according to the most recent U.S. Fire Department Profile from NFPA. The newest data was released today on the heels of a




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    While humans are away, Yosemite bears come out to play

    It’s been nearly a month since the spreading coronavirus prompted Yosemite National Park’s closure on March 20, and resident black bears are making the most of it. Last year, 4.42 million people visited Yosemite. This year, it’s a bear’s world.[...]




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    Sea turtles thrive on empty beaches during COVID-19 lockdowns

    As more people around the world stay inside, more animals are able to thrive in places that are typically crowded by humans. In the southeastern U.S., sea turtles are enjoying a peaceful nesting season without pesky sunbathers, fishermen or boats.[...]




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    How to cook dry beans

    The time has come. You’ve cooked everything in the fridge, anything halfway palatable in the freezer and cupboard, and the only thing standing between you and a pandemic panic trip to the grocery store is that forgotten bag of dried chickpeas. Or maybe coronavirus has decimated your paycheck and you’re trying to stretch those food dollars farther than they’ve ever stretched before. Dried beans and peas are the answer. They’re inexpensive and full of protein and nutrients. And now that we’re sheltering in place, there’s plenty of time to cook them.[...]




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    Indonesian Microlibrary uses prefab FSC-certified timber

    In the Indonesian city of Semarang, international architecture firm SHAU has completed Microlibrary Warak Kayu, an inspiring new public space that raises the bar for community design and sustainable architecture. Prefabricated with only FSC-certified timber, the new neighborhood icon is the fifth built project in the Microlibrary series, an initiative to encourage reading in low-income areas by creating "socially performative multifunctional community spaces with environmentally conscious designs and materials." In addition to the exclusive use of sustainably grown and logged timbers, the project is the first library in Indonesia made entirely of FSC-certified wood. The Microlibrary Warak Kayu is also[...]




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    Whimsical guesthouse uses prefab timber and corten steel

    Belgian firm Atelier Vens Vanbelle has created a stunning guest home for a client who works in the film industry. Located in the Uitbergen region of East Flanders, the Alex Guesthouse boasts an eye-catching design comprised of a unique curved volume made out of prefabricated timber and clad in corten steel.[...]




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    Red brick firehouse in Belgium runs on solar power

    Rotterdam-based studio Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven has built a charming new firehouse for Wilrijk, Belgium. The firehouse is clad in bright red bricks that stand out thanks to white grout and vertical columns made of larger bricks. The building is also incredibly sustainable, generating its own clean energy through a massive rooftop solar array.[...]




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    This Napa Valley winery has been farmed organically since 1985

    Nestled on a gently sloping segment of land on the quiet, western end of St. Helena, California, Spottswoode Estate contains a remarkable piece of environmental history. The property became one of the first vineyards in the Napa Valley to farm 100% organically in 1985, eventually evolving into a leader in sustainable farming for the famous wine-growing region.[...]




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    Invasive "murder hornets" arrive in US, threaten honeybees

    If you’ve been itching to get back to the outside world, two words might make you think again: murder hornets. For the first time, these gigantic, invasive hornets have been spotted in the U.S., which could be a problem for both humans and honeybees.[...]






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    BepiColombo’s Flyby on Earth

    What would it look like to approach Earth during a flyby mission? When it swung back past Earth last month as it journeyed to Mercury, ESA and JAXA’s robotic spacecraft BepiColombo captured its flyby of our planet in this nearly-10-hour-time-lapse video.

    The Earth is so bright that no background stars are visible. Launched in 2018, the robotic BepiColombo used the gravity of Earth to adjust its course, the first of nine planetary flybys over the next seven years -- but the only one involving Earth.

    Unfortunately, the video is only in black and white, and I wonder what it would look like if it was colored. Still, it is magnificent to look at.

    (Video Credit: APOD Videos/ YouTube)




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    Mr. Beast Gives Money To Random People Online

    There’s nothing stopping Jimmy Donaldson aka Mr. Beast from giving away money, this time doing it via video calls. Watch as he and his friends pretend to be a news reporter, school professor, and many others as they interview people, and then surprise them by giving them thousands of dollars. Some recognize him and his team, however.

    “A lot of people are going through a ruff time right now so I tried my best to do some good,” he said in the video description. He also posted this on his birthday, and said that liking or subscribing would be “a dope present.”

    Very wholesome.

    (Video Credit: MrBeast/ YouTube)




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    Robert Mitchum was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

    Movie star Robert Mitchum is best known for his many roles that combined allure and menace, in movies such as Cape Fear and The Night of the Hunter. Oh yeah, and for his rowdiness that included being fired from at least one movie and that memorable arrest for marijuana possession. But his life before Hollywood would make a good movie in itself. When Mitchum was only 14 years old, he was sent to live with his sister, but he didn't stay there long.

    Mitchum (1917-97) left his sister’s home in New York. He hopped a freight to who knows where. Life was an adventure to be gained and this was how it would start. He rode flatbeds, freight cars, refrigerated trains, teeth-chattering, knees-kocking, met old timers who knew no other life and gave him advice on what to do, and who to avoid, how to steal food and clothes, hunt squirrel, panhandle, and keep clear of the law.

    This was an education. This was the hobo life Mitchum had read about and long-wanted to follow. He felt at home among these outsiders, though some of them thought him no more than a tourist, a “scenery-bum”, just along for the ride. Near train stops and train yards, he’d find hobo hideouts and sit by fire light listening to stories told by world-worn travellers.

    It didn't take much time before the young teen was arrested for vagrancy in Savannah, Georgia. He was put on a chain gang doing hard labor, and soon knew that his life was in danger if he didn't escape. Read the exciting story of Robert Mitchum's jailbreak at Flashbak. -via Strange Company




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    Critical Security Patches Released for Magento, Adobe Illustrator and Bridge

    It's not 'Patch Tuesday,' but software giant Adobe today released emergency updates for three of its widely used products that patch dozens of newly discovered critical vulnerabilities. The list of affected software includes Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Bridge, and Magento e-commerce platform, containing a total of 35 vulnerabilities where each one of them is affected with multiple critical




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    Download: 'Coronavirus Cyber Security for Management' Template for CISOs

    The Coronavirus crisis introduces critical operational challenges to business continuity, placing high stress on organizations' management. As a result, CIOs and CISOs face a double challenge on the cyber risk front – apart from the new risks that the mass transfer of employees working remotely brings, capturing the management mindshare for further investments in security becomes harder than




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    This Asia-Pacific Cyber Espionage Campaign Went Undetected for 5 Years

    An advanced group of Chinese hackers has recently been spotted to be behind a sustained cyber espionage campaign targeting government entities in Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Brunei—which went undetected for at least five years and is still an ongoing threat. The group, named 'Naikon APT,' once known as one of the most active APTs in Asia until 2015,




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    The Dem Primary is Over, and We Need Bernie Sanders to Lead on Health Care From the Senate

    On Tuesday, I cast a joyless vote for the very much politically doomed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Illinois primary, in an elementary school where hushed whispers and fearful glances had replaced the normal din of an election day. There was no one standing just outside the perimeter hustling me to vote for this […]




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    Not Giving Up on Happiness: Care of the Self and Well-Being in a Plague Year

    The specter of plague haunts our world, and it brings with it not only the ghouls of disease and death but vast economic and social uncertainty of a sort only the most elderly among us remembers (the Great Depression and World War II). My father is 90 and when I called him a child of […]




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    Beloved Hobbies That Are Secretly The New 'Dad Things'

    By Lydia Bugg  Published: May 07th, 2020 




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    The Dumbest Ways Plots Accidentally Spoiled Themselves

    By Maxwell Yezpitelok  Published: May 07th, 2020 




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    �€˜Black Mirror�€™ Doesn�€™t Have To Be Bleak

    By Luis Prada  Published: May 07th, 2020 




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    Custom Genitals In The New Keanu Reeves Video Game Is Improving Gaming For The Better

    By Isaac Cabe  Published: May 07th, 2020 




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    The Venezuelan Coup Attempt Is One of The Dumbest Stories In A While

    By Luis Prada  Published: May 08th, 2020 




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    The now of November 2019

    The way a body moves through the space of grief is confounding. At times the body is a sieve and grief is a million grains of sand. Other times the body is just a body and grief is air its lungs greet and release, greet and release. My cat has been dead for almost seven... Continue Reading →




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    The now of December 2019

    The big news this month is KITTENS. Meet Criminy and Crivens, whom FunkyPlaid and I adopted in mid-November from Cat Adoption Team. These stray tabby brothers were expertly fostered, so it took them no time at all to adjust to their new home with us. At their fourth-month veterinary check-in this month, they had nearly... Continue Reading →





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    Unhand Me, You Beast!

    Just because you have me in the palm of your hand DOES NOT mean I'm "EASY", Mister!