Origami jellyfish, one square sheet of elephant hide paper. Colors are inspired by Thysanostoma loriferum. Zoom in to see the glitter!

[N1A1] Chapter 1: Mash Burnedead and the Forest of Forewarning

(from Mash Burnedead and the Book of Adventures) Choose what Mash does next! Poll under Read More.

▷Aー１

“Where is this?”

It was a dark forest blowing with a damp breeze.

The presence of living things could be felt everywhere among the trees and flowers growing thickly in search of sunlight. However, only darkness could be seen when one turns to look.

“Just, where on earth……”

Mash Burnedead runs with his jet-black robes fluttering and his mushroom-shaped black hair flowing. He is a first-year student at Easton Magic Academy, a school near this forest.

Night falls early in forests.

Surely this place, too, will soon be swallowed up by the darkness.

Of course, there is a reason why this young man is running alone in the forest at this hour.

A few hours ago―

*

Easton Magic Academy is located at the top of a steep mountain with strangely-shaped rocks that reach for the sky.

After finishing class, Mash Burnedead returns to Adler House, one of the three student dormitories under Easton that symbolizes "courage and conviction."

The reason why he returned a little later than the other students is probably because he was off shopping somewhere. As proof of that, look, he has a paper bag in his hand―

"......?"

As Mash reaches out to open the door, he notices something.

The paper bag that should’ve been in his hand until just a second ago is gone.

"Huh?"

Mash flaps his long robe, taking it off a little and turning it inside out to search through it, but he can't find it anywhere.

"Why?"

It contained freshly-baked cream puffs that he had gone all the way into town after school to buy. He ate most of them on the way back to the dormitory, but he did save three as tomorrow morning's snack―

Mash, who is looking at his empty hands in wonder, hears a small noise.

"......!"

Turning around in a second, Mash sees it.

A small black creature crawled into the bushes beside him.

Wait, that creature is holding the paper bag containing the three cream puffs!

Clenching his fists, Mash was about to follow it when he heard his name called from behind.

"Mash-kun, what's wrong?"

"Ah, Finn-kun."

Turning his head in a matter of seconds again, he found his roommate, Finn Ames, who lives with him in Room 302 of house Adler. Finn, wearing the same Adler dormitory robe as Mash, asks in confusion.

“Your neck seems to be spinning; are you okay?”

"I'm not okay."

“Ehh!? Can I have a look?”

As he told a worried Finn that “it's not my neck,'' Mash sat down on his knees in disappointment.

"They took away…… cream puffs……"

"Eh, who did!?"

"A small creature, about this size, and black……"

Mash holds up both hands as though holding a cat and repeats “about this size.” Finn crouches too, saying “about this size?” and moved his hands like he’s holding a cat in the same way.

“No, maybe it’s more like this.”

“Eh? Isn’t it the same?”

“No, it feels a little bigger.”

Finn, who has gone along with Mash's particularity, corrected himself with an “about this size, right.'' Looking as though he’s reminded of something, he says:

"Ah, then it might be the work of a troll. There are rumors that trolls have been appearing around here lately, you know."

“Troll?”

"Yeah, it's rumored that even though it's small, it's a big eater. The other day, the cafeteria’s foodstuff went missing as well. Maybe Mash-kun's cream puffs too..."

Before Finn could finish speaking, Mash, who had been slumped until a moment ago, flew out.

"I'll go get them back."

*

Furthermore, there was something unfamiliar here.

It's a square mound of earth. Although it is only a few dozen centimeters high, it measures 6 or 7 meters square and looks like a small stage. But, it's only dirt.

Looking closely, one could see that a perfect circle has been drawn on the mound with straw or something.

Two short lines are in the center of that circle.

Just as he was wondering if this was a bit too simple for a magic circle, a small black shadow appeared without a sound in the center of the circle.

"!"

It's the troll.

The troll he had been looking for was beckoning Mash from the top of the mound.

●　This is a trap. Let's observe the situation without going up on the mound　》》　To Ａ―２４

●　It was convenient for the troll to come out, so approach it as invited　》》　To Ａ―７

[Notes: The circle seems to be a sumo wrestling ring.

My initial plan was to have the poll up for two days, but apparently polls on tumblr can only be set to either one day or one week. I'm going with one day for now; we'll see how it goes!]

I don’t even know what to call this. I think it is a raspberry cake variety. I basically turned an unhealthy recipe a bit healthy. So here is my recipe:

1 cup flour (or choose a healthier type flour)

4 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce (this takes place of the butter in the recipe)

1 egg

2/3 cup sugar (or pick a healthy alternative to sugar)

1/2 cup low-fat strained yogurt (aka Greek yogurt)

lots of frozen organic raspberries

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

a tiny teeny pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

So, in your stand mixer (or use handheld mixer) , mix the applesauce with sugar. Then add one egg and mix. Then add your vanilla extract. In another bowl sift the flour (must sift with a sifter) and add the baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix these dry ingredients. Then slowly add half of the flour mix into the wet mix, and gently mix once or twice (do not over mix. I actually recommend folding it with a spatula). Then add the yogurt and again mix gently or fold with spatula. Then add the remaining flour mix and again mix very gently. You are done. Pour half of the mix in your either square or round cake pan. (I always use parchment paper in my pans as it is easy to take out and you don’t need to clean the pan afterwards). Then add a bunch of frozen raspberries, then add the rest of the mixture over it. Then sprinkle the rest of the raspberries on top. Bake in a preheated 360 F oven for about 35 minutes. Check its doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center. If the toothpick comes out clean, it is done. Take the pan out and cool it. It tastes better when it is completely cooled down.

PS: the thickness of the cake is up to the size of the pan you use. I used a bit bigger sized pan so it would come out a bit thin like the photo I took. Also the size of the pan and the thickness of the cake will affect its cooking time.

How I bind my fics - Part 2

(Cont. from Part 1)

Now the glue has dried on the spine, we can tackle the other three edges. Imperfections in the alignment cause the top and bottom to be a little rough, and the way the paper stacks causes a zig-zag effect on the outside edge. In my case, all three needed to be trimmed down to make the internal margins more sane.

If you're doing a more "rustic" book, you could leave them there, but I like mine to be nice and smooth

To do that, we measure the cut line using an L-ruler or square, and place it back in the press with a piece of sacrifical greyboard behind it to prevent the last page from tearing. Normally, I only do a few mm, but in this case it was much larger on all three edges

Once it's in, we take a very sharp chisel and place it against the edge of the press, then slice away from us. Each slice should cut a single page of the book, and by the end of it you'll have a nice flat edge and a pile of offcuts

We repeat this for each of the sides, and make an even bigger pile of recycling. We'll save a few of the larger strips as markers when we come to do the endbands

This still isn't quite smooth enough to stain, so we'll go at it with our burnisher, then apply some colour using an ink pad

After that, we'll put our marker strips in the center of each signature, then sew the endbands

Bravely or foolishly, I tried a technique I've never used before when doing this book's bands, but it came out rather nicely. I use embroidery thread and string rather than silk and leather, but it worked! Keeping with the pink lipstick theme, it looks a little candystriped

There's only one more thing to do for the text block, and that's to glue on some flaps to the spine, which will help us when we come to glue it into the casing

It also allows us to take final measurements of the textblock, which will mean we can design the cover at last! I've got an idea for it, which I'm not sure if it will pan out, but I need to wait for one more piece of material to arrive tomorrow before I can attack that!

"You can play it sensible... a king of conventional..."

---

New Origin of the Pixies chapter today!

Chapter 41 - “King Unconventional”

Read on FFN || Read on AO3

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The Head Pixie doesn't like reviewing certain moments of his past. This special chapter is told in Sanderson POV! It recounts his experiences growing up in Pixie Village, learning to preen, and going to school with Idona. Enjoy!

On FFN, this chapter puts the story over 600,000 words! Wowza!

(First 1,000 words of this chapter under the cut)

---

King Unconventional

It's Sanderson

Yo, it's your Sand Man. H.P. asked me to write a chapter for his book today. I'm not 100 up on what was drafted so far, but I get that the gist of it has been Pixie history up until my first break-up with Idona. H.P. said he'll pick up the story with stuff that came after I got my adult wings. That leaves this mega gap of 130k years for me to cover in brief. I've been asked to describe what growing up in Pixie Village was like during this period, sort of glance at the nests and the honeycombs, and give my perspective on the experience of developing into an adult pixie body (since I took more specific notes on that than H.P. did when he was my age). So, strap down and let's work with this, boys.

Back in my early 30,000s, Pixie World was not what it is today. We called it Pixie Village (Sprigganhame on paper) and it was a full-on hive estate. H.P.'s caisleán stood in the center almost exactly where Inkblot City's square and Pixies Incorporated stand today. His office had a glass door to the outside so we could go and look at him if we wanted, and sometimes Rice (who usually lay on the cushion by his desk) would come out to romp around. He spent a lot of time watching Keefe. Emery had her own room too in the early years, until her courtship with Ranen turned serious and she took a new place in Faeheim not far from ASPRA headquarters. If I remember right, she ran the Boudacian godparenting branch until after the war, when Needlebark stepped down from supervising the angels.

Being the young pixies we were, the caisleán was the sun of our solar system. It was there we could visit H.P. and show him our accomplishments of the day, or sometimes wiggle a story out of Emery. We could feed and pet Rice, who was always very patient and let us dress him up in suits if we wanted to. He had nice things to say about all of us, even though looking back on it I'm not sure why he bothered. I guess he said them because they were true. In the caisleán we could take baths instead of showers in our tháir, and we could all gather on the couch for presents and fat meals every Season Turn. Everything was bigger in the caisleán, and it smelled more strongly of H.P. than it did anywhere else. That's where we felt at home.

Circling the caisleán were the tháircha, or drone cabins. In a traditional hive estate design, there only would've been one such cabin and three or four drones would have resided there, each with a bedroom and personal office space to call his own. However, it became necessary for Pixies to organize differently. During the early years we had eight tháircha in the village, each with a single kitchen, living area, and washing room on the lower floor that housemates shared. Up the stairs was the loft where we kept our beds. There were twelve of us to a tháir because H.P. said a dozen was a perfect number, and we didn't question it because our social instincts agreed.

My bed was in the best corner, next to Hawkins who had the window spot. I liked my place because it was near the grayfish tank and bookshelf, and I was closer to Wilcox than to Caudwell who always stayed up late and Bayard who used his wand as a nightlight. As we grew and there started to be more of us, we drones made it tradition to wrestle every Naming Day. The winner got to pick the bed they wanted that year. Hawkins and I always won, but I always beat Hawkins. I was the biggest and the strongest back then. Pixie drones still wrestle at the start of every new year to this day, though we don't trade bedspaces anymore. Switching delivery addresses would be additional paperwork we wouldn't get paid for. Instead, we use it to decide who has to be designated pinger at parties, or at least pay for the cost of going out. If you rank high enough and stay consistent, you'll never have to be the sober loser at all.

We do a lot of wrestling. We're a lekking species, so when we hit the sugar bars in groups, we play for damsels' entertainment. Now that we're adults and my position as chéad grá - alpha drone - is undeniable, the others mostly let me win. I don't see the appeal of flirting, but I like that I always get first dibs. There's something powerful about crouching over one of your co-workers at a party, all the while checking over your shoulder at the damsel who's had our mutual attention all night, straining to see if she was watching our match. They usually watch. I've never actually kissed anyone except Idona, but I like the conversations. I try not to talk too much when I'm out on the job with H.P., so times he isn't around work best for meeting my social needs.

Though, H.P. at a party is unique, to say the least. It doesn't impress anyone if he beats one of us in a fight, and most Fairies back away from his pheromones, so he heads out in disguise when he's in a particularly itchy mood. With sticky-lenses instead of glasses and a scarf around his neck, he's not so easily recognizable. Some of my coworkers don't even know he's circling a party unless they happen to recognize the limp in my leg as I follow incognito from a respectful distance.

H.P. firmly believes mates are unnecessary and swore off physical pairing after Iris, but every few Fairy Reunions when he finds someone his age he recognizes, sometimes he wants to steal a kiss. It used to embarrass him to have me around those nights, but I think he's realized now he's too advanced in age to flip his brain in the sharing magic mood without someone to compete against. It gets you on, you know? Makes you put in the blood and sweat. He challenges me to drinking contests most nights like that, swearing he'll up my next bonus with every glass I down after six. And he buys the drinks, so it's always a win-win for me. Like I said, entertaining.

[Cnt'd on FFN / AO3 - links at top]

He Doesn’t Look a Thing Like Jesus

@moceit-appreciation-week for Moceit Week day 6: Magic/Role Reversal

word count: 1522

title from “When You Were Young” by The Killers

summary: why is it that angels my fall, yet demons never rise?

Janus wasn’t quite sure what he was anymore.

There wasn’t really a word for the liminal space between an angelic being and a demonic one – well, actually there was, but ‘fallen angel’ wasn’t quite descriptive enough for his purpose; for one, he hadn’t been an angel, he’d been a principality, thankyouverymuch. For another, he hadn’t so much fallen as been slam-dunked out of Heaven like the pearly gates were the net and Earth was the cold and unforgiving wooden floor, ‘fallen’ implied that he’d done it to himself.

In any case, he wasn’t yet a demon, wouldn’t become one unless he burned away the last remaining dregs of his divine power and went to Hell. Not that he had any intention of doing so of course, no matter how far he’d been demoted – it was a ghastly place from what he’d heard. But he wasn’t a principality anymore, that was clear as the scars on his back. Damn it all, is this really where asking questions could get you? 

Well fuck that noise, Janus didn’t want any part of that heavenly nonsense anymore.

What exactly he was didn’t matter much, really. Not nearly as much as what he could do. 

Which still wasn’t much – he hadn’t lost all of his powers, but even the few that he still had were weakened – but it was just enough to keep his mortal (or at least humanoid) form alive and out of prison. The humans really had made just suddenly appearing somewhere so much more complicated over the past century or so, hadn’t they? 

Nothing that he couldn’t handle, of course.

“And this will be your desk,” said his new boss – Angela de la Cruz, she’d told him, because his Dad really must’ve had a sense of humor when They’d been coming up with Their plan for Everything. “You’ll be sharing it with our clerk, Patton Smith, but don’t worry, there’s plenty of room. 

“Thank you, Angela,” Janus said smoothly, setting down his small box of supplies on the mentioned desk. It was, in fact, large enough for two people to work on; it was a square table, half of it stacked with papers and folders and a laptop sitting closed towards the center, a few pens scattered haphazardly through the thing, and a cup of coffee that seemed to have already gone cold. Janus had no doubt that within the week his side of the desk would look similar, if a little neater.

“Not a problem! I’ll let you get settled in, you can come to my office in a few minutes to receive your first assignments.”

“That sounds wonderful, thanks.” Janus flashed her a practiced smile, and she sent him one back that looked just a bit more genuine, then turned and left for her office.

Janus turned and surveyed the desk for a moment, then started unpacking. He took out his laptop, its cord, the small box of black ink pens, and a pad of paper.

Right. Unpacking done.

He wasn’t entirely certain how this job would go, but he wasn’t too worried about it. Surely working in human law couldn’t be that different from his administrative duties Upstairs.

He was debating whether or not he should take the time to figure out how to get his computer started up, when he heard a door open and he glanced up at the man who’d stepped into the room.

The little snip of divinity still in him recoiled, and Janus barely stopped himself from flinching. The man stopped in his tracks, staring at Janus.

No, not a man.

Janus’s upper lip curled back. “Hello, demon.”

It seemed to shake the being out of his stupor. “Ah, hello,” he said, smiling politely. “Should I refer to you as the same?”

“No.”

The demon tilted his head, examining Janus. His round glasses magnified his eyes, making them look bigger behind the gold-colored wire frames. After a moment of scrutiny, he seemed to relax. “Alright then!” He sounded chipper. “It’s nice to meet you. You can call me Patton.”

“...Janus.”

“How are you doing, Janus? You must be the new secretary.”

“...Yes.” Janus stared as the demon sat down, slowly doing the same. “I’d ask what a demon is doing working at a human law office,” he said slowly, “but given how few lawyers I ran into Up There, I can make a guess.”

The demon – Patton, he supposed, may as well start calling it that before he slipped up and called the being a demon to his face in front of their human coworkers – just laughed, polite and practiced. “Oh, no, nothing like that.”

“Sure.”

“I’m working up to animal rights law,” Patton said cheerfully.

Which.

What?

“Not the division I’d expect one of your sort to choose to enter,” Janus said. “What…you looking for the next soul to corrupt?”

“Oh, I don’t do that sort of thing,” Patton said breezily, waving his hand.

“You’re a demon.”

“And you’re not an angel,” Patton said, poisonously sweet. Janus didn’t flinch, but something must have shown in his expression because Patton’s face shuttered for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he said, in the most genuine tone he’d used so far. “That was cruel of me, my apologies.”

Janus leaned back, suddenly uncertain. What in the…

“What are you?”

Patton giggled. It was eerie. “Oh, no no, you had me pegged from the start. It’s just…well…” his eyes went a little soft as they looked into the middle distance over Janus’s shoulder. “You’ve fallen, yeah?”

“...Yeah.”

“Yeah.” Patton met his eyes then, and the metaphorical fire in them didn’t look so much hellish as determined. “I want to rise.”

Janus made a noise halfway between a laugh and a choke. “You want…to rise?” he said, disbelief coloring his voice.

“Yep!” Patton was smiling sunnily, like he hadn’t said the most insane thing that Janus had ever heard.

“That – that’s impossible.”

“Just because no one’s done it yet doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.”

“No, I mean –” Janus’s voice trailed off as he suddenly wondered…was it impossible? He’d never thought to ask. It wasn’t one of the questions that got him demoted, though now that he thought about it, if he had asked it, he probably would have been punted down to Earth way sooner than this.

Patton shrugged. “Humans can do it. Why not me?”

“Because you’re innately evil?” Janus said, just a tiny bit hysterically. 

“Well some people say that humans are too, and they still go Up There.”

“Humans are born neutral, there’s hundreds of different things to influence them and thousands of choices for them to make. We don’t have that choice.”

“But you fell,” Patton said simply, like that made his case.

“All part of the Almighty’s plan, I’m sure,” Janus said, proud of how little bitterness he’d managed to let seep into his tone. “But I’ve never heard of Them raising one of you up.”

Patton shrugged again. “Like I said, just because no one’s done it yet doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.”

Janus scrubbed a hand over his face. “Why do you even want to rise?”

“Because I want to help people,” Patton said immediately. “I want to do good. I want to be good.”

“And you can’t do that from where you are?”

“Well, I’m doing my best now, aren’t I?” Patton said, smiling. “That’s how I’m going to do it, do so much good that They’ll let me Up. But imagine how much more good I could do if I was Up There! Directly serving the Almighty’s plan, not just…doing the little that someone of my place can do for good.”

Janus chewed his lip for a moment. “I…don’t think that’s how that works.”

Patton’s smile was serene. “I have faith that it will.”

“...Right.”

Janus didn’t really know what else to say. What else he could say. Was it more cruel to let Patton continue with his impossible task, or burst his bubble now and let him face harsh reality? Should Janus even be feeling sympathy for the demon?

The door to Angela’s office opened. “Oh, I see you two’ve met!” she said brightly behind Janus.

Patton beamed at her. “Sure did!”

“Awesome! You settled then?”

“I am,” Janus said to her. “You mentioned assignments?”

“Yeah. You don’t know how much having you here is going to help, our legal assistant has been going nuts trying to get everything done herself.”

“Mm.” Janus stood up and started over to her office.

“Oh, and Janus?” Janus turned and saw Patton offering him a genuine smile. “Welcome to the office.”

Janus inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Thank you,” he said, before turning back around and following Angela. 

What the Hell. Why should Janus care? He wasn’t aligned with the Upstairs anymore. There wasn’t any reason for him to be concerned about some upstart demon trying to worm his way Up. Patton seemed to be taking the most boringly respectable route possible to his unreachable goal, and him burning himself out to do so wasn’t any of Janus’s business. There was no reason for Janus to be interested in Patton.

No reason at all.

How NASA's Roman Space Telescope will rewind the universe A new simulation shows how NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will turn back the cosmic clock, unveiling the evolving universe in ways that have never been possible before when it launches by May 2027. With its ability to rapidly image enormous swaths of space, Roman will help us understand how the universe transformed from a primordial sea of charged particles to the intricate network of vast cosmic structures we see today. "The Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes are optimized for studying astronomical objects in depth and up close, so they're like looking at the universe through pinholes," said Aaron Yung, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the study. "To solve cosmic mysteries on the biggest scales, we need a space telescope that can provide a far larger view. That's exactly what Roman is designed to do." Combining Roman's large view with Hubble's broader wavelength coverage and Webb's more detailed observations will offer a more comprehensive view of the universe. The simulation covers a two-square-degree patch of the sky, which is equivalent to about 10 times the apparent size of a full moon, containing over 5 million galaxies. It's based on a well-tested galaxy formation model that represents our current understanding of how the universe works. Using an extremely efficient technique, the team can simulate tens of millions of galaxies in less than a day—something that could take years using conventional methods. When Roman launches and begins delivering real data, scientists can compare it to a range of such simulations, putting their models to the ultimate test. That will help unravel galaxy formation physics, dark matter—a mysterious substance observed only through its gravitational effects—and much more. A paper describing the results was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in December 2022. Unraveling the cosmic web Galaxies and galaxy clusters glow in clumps along invisible threads of dark matter in a tapestry the size of the observable universe. With a broad enough view of that tapestry, we can see that the large-scale structure of the universe is web-like, with strands that extend hundreds of millions of light-years. Galaxies are primarily found at intersections of the filaments, with vast "cosmic voids" between all the shining strands. That's how the cosmos looks now. But if we could rewind the universe, we would see something very different. Instead of giant, blazing stars sparsely scattered throughout galaxies that are each separated by even more immense distances, we would find ourselves submerged in a sea of plasma (charged particles). This primordial soup was almost completely uniform, but thankfully for us, there were tiny knots. Since those clumps were slightly denser than their surroundings, they had slightly larger gravitational pull. Over hundreds of millions of years, the clumps drew in more and more material. They grew large enough to form stars, which were gravitationally drawn toward the dark matter that forms the invisible backbone of the universe. Galaxies were born and continued to evolve, and eventually planetary systems like our own emerged. Roman's panoramic view will help us see what the universe was like at different stages and fill in many gaps in our understanding. For example, while astronomers have discovered "halos" of dark matter enveloping galaxies, they're not sure how they formed. By seeing how gravitational lensing caused by dark matter warps the appearance of farther objects, Roman will help us see how the halos developed over cosmic time. "Simulations like these will be crucial in connecting unprecedented large galaxy surveys from Roman to the unseen scaffolding of dark matter that determines the distribution of those galaxies," said Sangeeta Malhotra, an astrophysicist at Goddard and a co-author of the paper. Seeing the bigger picture Studying such vast cosmic structures with other space telescopes isn't practical because it would take hundreds of years of observations to stitch together enough images to see them. "Roman will have the unique ability to match the depth of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, yet cover several times more sky area than wide surveys such as the CANDELS survey," Yung said. "Such a full view of the early universe will help us understand how representative Hubble and Webb's snapshots are of what it was like then." Roman's broad view will also serve as a road map Hubble and Webb can use to zoom in on interesting areas. Roman's sweeping celestial surveys will be able to map the universe up to a thousand times faster than Hubble. That will be possible because of the observatory's rigid structure, fast slewing speed, and the telescope's large field of view. Roman will move rapidly from one cosmic target to the next. Once a new target is acquired, vibrations will settle down quickly because potentially wobbly structures like the solar arrays are fixed in place. "Roman will take around 100,000 pictures every year," said Jeffrey Kruk, a research astrophysicist at Goddard. "Given Roman's larger field of view, it would take longer than our lifetimes even for powerful telescopes like Hubble or Webb to cover as much sky." By providing a gigantic, crisp view of cosmic ecosystems and teaming up with observatories like Hubble and Webb, Roman will help us solve some of the most profound mysteries in astrophysics. IMAGE....This image, containing millions of simulated galaxies strewn across space and time, shows the areas Hubble (white) and Roman (yellow) can capture in a single snapshot. It would take Hubble about 85 years to map the entire region shown in the image at the same depth, but Roman could do it in just 63 days. Roman’s larger view and fast survey speeds will unveil the evolving universe in ways that have never been possible before. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and A. Yung

Using Bookbinding Techniques to Customize Sketchbooks: A Tutorial

Over the years I have tried a number of sketchbook styles, but I always come back to the hardback, spiral bound 9x12 books. These are large enough to fit your thoughts on a page but small enough to stash in a backpack or tote. The binding allows the pages to lay flat and you can store a pen in the spiral. The downside to this style of sketchbook is that they don't come in particularly compelling colors. In fact, the only color available at the art store was black. Elegant perhaps, but not very exciting. Therefore, I decided to use bookbinding techniques to dress up the covers. Read on to see how!

Materials

Sketchbook to redecorate

Enough decorative paper to cover the sketchbook cover boards. Each sheet needs to be 1.5"-2" larger than the boards

Something to cut paper, and possibly a cutting surface

Ruler

Pencil

Glue: Ideally, bookbinding glue but I'm using matte Mod Podge

Brush to spread the glue

Scrap paper

Bone folder*

Note: A bone folder is a tool used in papercrafting to smooth and sharpen creases without damaging the paper. Mine is trapped in storage, so I used the next best thing in my possession: a chef knife blade cover. Any rounded, smooth edge will do.

Remove the Cover Boards

Open the sketchbook and gently pull the spiral apart a little bit. This should let you remove the coverboards from the paper. If you are not able to do this, don't worry! It makes the project easier, but it's possible to complete without taking the covers off.

Measure your Coverboards

Get the exact dimensions of the sketchbook covers, including thickness. Mine were exactly 9"x12" and just under 1/8" thick. My decorative paper has a raw edge that I find aesthetically pleasing, so I decided not to cover the spiral holes and let the raw edge show. Therefore I subtracted 5/8" from the short dimension of my sketchbook.

Measure and Cut your Decorative Paper

We will be wrapping the paper around the coverboards, so you need to cut it a little bigger than your cover. Each edge that wraps should have an extra half inch PLUS the board thickness, like so:

As you can see, I am leaving the paper a little short on spiral side. You can wrap that edge as well, although you would need to cut out the spiral holes with a pen knife at the end. Mark the decorative paper with whatever dimensions you calculated. Hot tip: use the sketchbook cover to make sure your lines are square. Since my pattern has vertical elements, it was important that they be aligned properly so I marked the the coverboards should go as well. Trim your paper to size.

Trim the Paper Corners

Before we glue the paper to the coverboards, we need to trim the corners so they will fold nicely. To do this, place one coverboard on the paper positioned as if it were glued in place. Next, take the other board and hold it vertically at a 45 degree angle at the corner of the flat board. Trace the back of the vertical board. This will be how much you should trim.

Glue the Decorative Paper to the Coverboards

Lay down some scratch paper to protect your table. Working quickly, spread glue across the back of the decorative paper. You need enough that it won't dry immediately, but don't soak the paper or moisture will cause it to buckle. Spread glue up to the pencil lines and raw spiral edge.

You don't have to be precious about the edges, but try not to get too much glue on the scratch paper if you can help it. Now press the coverboard in place! This is where the extra pencil marks come in handy.

Flip the assembly over and use your Very Professional Bone Folder™ to gently press out wrinkles and bubbles. Start from the center and press towards the edges.

Give that a moment to dry, and then we will glue the sides.

Flip the assembly over and spread glue along one of the overlapping edges of paper (I like to start with the long side). Be very thorough here! Roll the board over the glued edge and press it down firmly. Use your Very Professional Bone Folder™ to really smoosh it onto the coverboard.

While the glue is still wet, use your fingernail (or a bone folder) to press in the corners like you are wrapping the world's teeniest present. This is sort of tricky, so be gentle so the paper doesn't tear.

With both corners neatly folded, it's time to finish wrapping the paper. Again, spread glue on one of the extra flaps and press into place by rolling the coverboard over that edge.

Sit back and admire your handiwork, then repeat for the other board. You should have two lovely covers ready to place on your sketchbook!

Sealing and Details

You could call the boards finished at this point, but I want to touch up a few things. First of all, I messed up laying a coverboard in glue so the raw edge ended up too close to the spiral holes. I used some tweezers to tear the edge back a bit (this is every bit as tedious as it sounds).

Note: Typically with hard coverboards, you glue another sheet of paper on the inside to cover the edges of your decorative paper and the raw coverboard. Since I was tidy with my paper application and the coverboards are already a finished material, I have chosen to omit this step.

Next, I wanted to seal the paper to make it a bit more durable. My sketchbooks go everywhere with me--hikes, restaurants, the office--and before long they get fairly beat up (it's why I don't bother with soft cover sketchbooks). I decided to seal my decorative paper with a few layers of Mod Podge.

Bear in mind that the first pass might look patchy and unappealing, but it will get better after a few layers. It is best practice to lay down several thin coats (waiting 30 min for them to dry, per the bottle instructions) rather than one thick layer. This will help prevent warping from moisture and avoid big brush marks. As an extra precaution, I angled my brush strokes to match the pattern. Be sure to focus on that raw edge and the sides of the board. It will take a few hours for the Mod Podge to be fully dry, and several days to cure completely. I went with three layers for my sketchbook.

Gently press the coverboard back into the spiral, pinching the wires back together as you go.

Finished Product

And there you have it! A beautiful, custom sketchbook for all your artistic adventures. Happy sketching!

More in Common

Chapter 5: Little Talks CW: Needles, injections

It's six in the morning again. You prepare another light breakfast while munching away on your own eggs and toast, the events of yesterday still fresh in your mind. You hope that you'll be able to get Viktor to eat again and open up about the kind of person he is. From what you can tell he's more than just some meek inventor with a sharp tongue. He's kind in ways that no one up top will ever be, he makes a point to listen no matter what the topic is, and he has such a passion for his work you can't help but admire it. You place the large container of fruit slices and another bowl of oatmeal (this time with some brown sugar added in) into your basket and head down to the lab.

You find Viktor in his corner, newspaper in hand, coffee in the other. The only light is from a small lamp on the table that casts a warm glow on his features.

"Good morning Viktor." You greet and set the tray down.

"Good morning." He doesn't look away from his paper but does smile a little.

"Thank you for accompanying me yesterday." 

"Of course, the break was appreciated." Viktor sets the paper down and reaches for the bowl you set on the table, "Is this...sugar?" He takes a spoonful of oatmeal and tastes it, "Oh! It is."

"Is that bad?" You begin to move to take the bowl back.

"No no, not at all. It just reminds me of when I was younger." 

You rest your chin in your palm and lean on the table, "Yeah?"

"When I first came to Piltover to study, I remember not eating that day. Heimerdinger pulled me aside to his office and offered me his own breakfast." He closes his eyes, trying to further recall the memory, "He told me that brilliant minds need more than knowledge to grow. That the academy would give me everything I needed to thrive, and that included-ah-as he said 'three square meals a day'."

"He's right. Can't do much of anything on an empty stomach." You steal an apple slice. 

"It was such a simple and kind gesture, but it filled me with hope." 

You both comfortably transition into a conversation about the weather, taking guesses on how long it’ll snow, how many students will ultimately be outside playing, how cold it actually is outside, and other small stories relating to the topic. Viktor hangs off of every word as you recall a moment from when you were employed to your second family. You had to help try and dig out the family carriage, despite it being broken and the replacement parts wouldn’t be in until a week later. He looks at you with bright amber eyes, a slight smile on his lips and you end up fumbling over your words. Viktor in turn tells you the short tale of when his mother snuck him into her work at an assembly factory on the edge of the canyon of the Undercity just so he could see the snow in its full glory.

“I didn’t care how cold it was, or how much my fingers burned from the snow in my hands, for a kid like me to see the golden city of Piltover blanketed in white was magical.” He looks out the window, where flakes are still falling and the sun is now rising, “Well, that’s my cue to get back to work. Do you mind finishing up those rags? If you have time could you empty out the ashes in the furnace? I don’t think Jayce did it before he left and the smoke has been rather irritating.”

Viktor rises to his feet and picks up some notes on a nearby bench. You head over to where you set up a wire to dry the wet rags and begin removing them so you can fold them. You watch as Viktor pulls on an apron, gloves, and goggles before sitting down with a contraption that you have seen in Jayce’s room before. However it looks slightly bigger with more switches and mirrors on it. In the center on a small platform on the base rests the bright blue gem that you know has been named the Hexcrystal. Viktor looks at his notes and writes something else down before flipping a few switches. 

You have no idea what it’s supposed to do, but by the way Viktor huffs and writes something else down you figure it’s not supposed to just sit there and hum faintly. He flips a few other switches before you go back to focusing on folding the rags.

Once lunch rolls around you make sure to take a seat next to Viktor and slide a sandwich and some water his way. He makes no attempt to reach for the food so you lean against his shoulder and pinch his cheek.

“Viiiiiiktor~” You sing, “You need to eeeeeeeeeat~” 

He looks at you through slotted goggles and sighs, “It’s hardly two in the afternoon, I’m fine.”

“Normally I’d agree, but I need to head back out to get some more things and might not be back until dinner.” You hold up half of the sandwich, “Now eat.”

You wait for him to reach for it, but instead he just leans in and takes a bite.

Oh. 

Your heart stops for a moment, Viktor is already looking back at his project seemingly unfazed by his own action. 

“Right, right. I’ll be back soon.”

----

It’s still just as cold  today as it was yesterday. There has been an attempt to clear the street, but patches of ice and snow still cling to walkways as you head towards the gondola down into the Undercity. 

Steam rises up from the chasm of the city below, creating a thick fog that masks the sight of all but a few buildings as you descend. The sickly green glow of chemicals running through glass pipes reflects off the fog and illuminates the area like some sort of green sunlight. You step off the cart and waste no time heading for the Lanes. With your head low and your hood up you navigate through side streets and alleyways to avoid running into any of Silco's thugs that roamed the area. 

It had been only three or so years since Vander was killed and power shifted hands, but within that time you witnessed your home twist into some nightmarish bastard of what you remembered. You wanted to avoid coming down at all costs, but you had important business to handle. 

In the distance you finally see your destination, a brothel. The lights outside are off, but the windows are lit. A few escorts are hanging outside smoking when they see you and wave you over.

"Oh Cy, you're looking so handsome today." One says dreamily, "I swear every time I see you, you get prettier and prettier." She sways on her heels and smiles.

"Juno, you say that every time." You chuckle and rub your neck.

"Because it's true! Whatever the doc is giving you must be magic!" 

You just smile and roll your eyes then head into the establishment. 

With it still being early enough in the day, not much activity was going on. Some employees were cleaning, others sleeping, and a few gossiping while fixing clothes. You give cordial waves and smiles as you head towards a door hidden behind some drapes with the word infirmary hand-carved into the wood. You knock and a voice inside calls you in.

The room in the back has a cot set up, it's considerably less decorative than any other room in the building. In the corner you see an older gentleman sorting through some vials in a cabinet.

"Slow day Dr. Glasc?" You take a thin gown off the wall and strip out of your uniform.

"A slow day is a good day my boy. Means no one is dying." He turns to you with a smile, "How's work?"

"Working a temporary job. Personal assistant to a scientist. He's a bit...eccentric." 

"Is he nice?" The doctor asks as he places a bell to your chest and listens, "One deep breath please?" 

You obey then continue, "He is."

Dr. Glasc hums in acknowledgement then shines a light in your eyes. You stare at his own mismatched irises and slowly focus your gaze to the deep lines around his eyes. Dark bags blend into his leathery skin and you see the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes move when he smiles as he checks your mouth.

"I don't want to be rude, doctor," you interrupt the examination, "but I have to be back to work sooner than later. He's absolute dog shit at feeding himself on a regular basis and I want to see if I can get him to bed before eleven." 

"Sounds like you're watching a child." He steps back and collects a vial and syringe off the counter.

"He grew up down here, definitely still isn't used to eating regularly. But he puts everything he has into his work, it's admirable really." You  roll up the gown so your thigh is exposed and brace yourself. The cold chill of alcohol being wiped on your skin makes you shudder visibly, even though you've done this for a couple of years now the sensation doesn't stop startling you.

"Keep talkin' tell me more." He sticks the needle into the meat of your leg. You can feel a slow, sharp burn spread under your skin. It used to be agonizing when you first started but is now just a painful distraction.

"He has a bad leg, needs a cane." You exhale as the feeling spreads through your leg and up your side, "He's got these curious gold eyes and pale skin. The way he carries himself at times reminds me of a sump worker. Hunched, trying to remain unseen."

The doctor presses a hand to your forehead, "How is working with him?"

"It was rocky at first. I think he felt like I was hired because Ja-someone thought he wasn't capable of being independent. Which, to be fair, if he didn't have his work he would probably be fine. But we sorted it out and it's nice. He's warmed up to me and he doesn't talk like most topsiders do. He looks me in the eye and doesn't act like I'm some rat or bug. He listens so intently, like he's committing everything to memory."

"Sounds like a nice man to be around." The needle withdraws from your leg.

"He is. What do I owe ya?" You reach for your bag.

"Nothin' this time. Just write to me how you feel in a week. Tryin' a new mixture." 

"You're lucky I know you're trustworthy." You change back into your work clothes, ready to leave when Dr. Glasc places a hand on your shoulder.

"You said he has trouble sleeping," he places a tin in your hand, "I have some leftover starpetal from making the Madam's medicine."

You look at the tin, turning it over in your hands. When you open it you can smell the gentle aroma of the flower and remember your own mother making tea for you when nightmares kept you up. 

"Thank you doctor. Thank you so much. Tell your wife and daughter hello for me alright? I'll be sure to write to you and follow up if things feel sideways." You tuck the container away and head back out into the brothel where guests have started coming in. 

You weave between people towards one of the secret exits, trying to ignore the sounds around you. The lights feel too bright and burn your eyes. Every smell is sharp and nauseating. You find a secluded corner to sit down in.

And then, you're six again, running through halls while some of the girls try to catch you after your daring escape from a bath. They laugh and call your name, a name you've since discarded, while hands wrap around your tiny frame and pull you up.

"Your mum is going to be so mad if you don't get cleaned up!" One says as she wraps your naked little butt in a towel.

"Mummy's not workin'! Wanna take a bath with mummy!" You wriggle and fuss.

"She's in a meeting with the Madam right now, okay? And she told us to get you cleaned up!" 

You fuss a little more until you're eventually dunked into a warm tub of water. The voices around you fade out and everything goes cold. 

You're still six, but you stand in the Madam's office with your mother, the Madam herself, and a strange man. He's dressed in fancy clothes that no one down here would ever have, so you can tell he's from topside. 

"Dearest, this is your father." Your mother says calmly and gestures to the man. You look at him again, his eyes and hair are the same color as yours, "He wants you to live with him, so you can have a better life." 

You feel something heavy. Your eyes open and there's a blanket draped on you and an old Yordle with bright red lips is sitting on your lap.

"You really were gonna leave without even popping in to say hello?" Her smoke-rough voice is just like you remember.

"Hello Madam Priscilla." You tiredly smile, "Sorry I have a client who needs me." 

"You still have time to tell this old bag hello." She frowns and pinches your cheek. You sneer and she laughs. 

"Oh my boy you've gotten so big and look like your mother more and more." She wraps her arms around your neck and gives you a peck on the cheek, "Rest her soul, she would be so proud of the young man you've become." 

"Madam I would love to stay and chat but I have to--"

"Yes yes I know. I know." She hops off your lap, "But please, don't be a stranger. Frostnight is just around the corner and I'm sure you can sneak away to visit."

You stand up and fold the blanket to hand to her, "I'll try."

"Bring a plus one too! I'm sure a handsome young man like yourself has plenty of eyes on him." She laughs and walks you towards an exit. You nervously chuckle and head back out where the Undercity is now glowing with neon and basslines thrum in the distance. 

====

By the time you get back to the lab it is well past 9pm and Viktor is standing at the blackboard drawing a new diagram. You don't try to understand it as you slide up next to him and hold out a small paper bag.

"Errands took longer than I thought. So I picked up something for you to eat." 

He takes the bag and sets it on the ledge of the board, not making any attempt to look at you. 

"Right, right. Is there anything else you need?" You wring your hands, feeling exhausted from your day.

"No, I should be fine." He looks at you from the corner of his eye. Then he turns to you and smiles ever so slightly, "Thank you, you've been such a great help." 

"Just doing my job Viktor." You weakly smile back, "Don't stay up too late. I'll check in at around eleven." 

When you reach the dorm, you sit on the edge of the bed and oh that feels nice. Slowly you lay down on top of the covers and let yourself relax. 

Chemtrail conspiracies don't make sense: an essay.

Modern science, through spectrography, is able to get a pretty good idea of the chemical and isotopic makeup of distant stars and even exoplanets (this is relevant to chemtrail conspiracies).

In early 2021 a sandstorm blew across the Mediterranean from North Africa, depositing sand in Southern France. French scientists detected trace amounts of caesium-137 in the sand. Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope of caesium which does not occur naturally and is only produced by nuclear weapons or nuclear accidents (Chornobyl, Fukushima). It was a leftover of French nuclear tests from the early 1960s. The concentrations of the isotope in the sand were negligible and not a threat to public health, hovering at 80 000 becquerels per square kilometer. Becquerels are a unit measuring the amount of radioactive atoms decaying per second. To give you an idea of what 80 000 becquerels per square kilometer means, a normal healthy human body contains around 8000 becquerels (mostly carbon-14 and potassium-40, which are radioactive isotopes). My latest Christmas party was technically a bigger radiological "hazard" than that sandstorm. By the way, this radiation in our bodies is entirely natural and was happening before we detonated fission bombs on Earth and before nuclear accidents like Chornobyl.

So how does this fit with chemtrails? Well I've established that scientists are really, really good at detecting chemicals, even in small amounts. There are thousands of scientists all over the world who study atmospheric chemistry for a living. If there was an organized effort to spread deleterious substances from planes it would have been found nearly instantly and scientists would have published papers about it. Again, we're talking thousands of scientists all over the world. A conspiracy on this scale can't be hidden, at least for any significant amount of time.

On the subject of planes themselves, planes need to be very carefuly built to account not just for mass but also where that mass is. It's critical that the center of mass of a plane doesn't change too much (say, if the fuel tanks are empty or all the passengers decide to move to one end of the plane at once). So chemtrail tanks would have to be accounted for in the plane's schematics and construction. Again, this would mean for decades aeronautic companies all over the world never spilled the beans, from CEOs to engineers to assembly line workers. No plans were leaked, nothing. And the ground work crews and pilots never noticed clandestine chemtrail tanks on their planes when going through maintenance, repairs and inspections, and the chemicals somehow get refilled with no one the wiser.

This means contrails behind jet planes are just that, condensation trails, not a nefarious plot to spread chemicals.

A Purple Bralette

June 16, 2022

[Image ID: a soft-cup bralette made of light purple cotton, laid flat on a grey background.]

To go with my pale purple shorts - and still riding the high of making a nice bralette - I decided to make a bandeau/bralette out of the same purple cotton.

Some time ago, I bought this 1920s bandeau bra pattern from The Underpinnings Museum. Because they take their patterns from original garments, it's a one-size pattern. The band size of the original fit me, but the cup size was too big so I knew I would have some fitting and adjusting to do before I could actually make the thing.

I transferred the digital pattern to paper in a roundabout way - the pattern files are on A4 (I think) paper so I couldn't print it, and the scale square was in centimeters but my paper was gridded in inches. So... yeah. I opened the pattern pdf in a design program and put a 1" grid on it, making sure that each square was a bit bigger than the 2.5cm scale on the page, then used it like any other gridded pattern.

Fitting & Adjustments

With the pattern sized up, I cut out the pieces from my purple cotton. Obviously I wouldn't normally use the fashion fabric for a mockup, but I have at least two yards of this stuff still, so I didn't really care.

I pinned it together to try it on, which was dangerous, but I survived. Then I pinched, pinned, and marked the excess fabric to make it fit me in the way I wanted it to.

Once that was done I was able to take it apart, even up my alterations, and trace a new pattern. It already looked a lot different than my starting pattern, and not in the ways I was expecting.

I had expected the cutout for the insets to get smaller and the upper part of the 'cup' to also get... smaller, somehow. The upper part did get smaller, but the cutout got wider!

I suppose that makes sense if you think of it like swinging darts around - taking space out of one area and putting it in another. The lower bust inset also got smaller, which keeps it from being too big in the area where the excess went.

The bust got a bit more pointy because I made the inset narrower, but not much shallower. It's not overly pointy, though, and I was already getting a bit frustrated so I didn't try to fix it.

I gave my new pattern half-inch seam allowances at the back, center front, and inset seams. The bralette would have the upper and lower edges bound, so no seam allowances were necessary.

Now I had to wrestle with grainlines. The original pattern had the grainline running parallel to the center front seam, so I did the same with my new pattern.

Unfortunately, that was the wrong choice, as I discovered when I made my next mockup. The shape of the bandeau had changed so drastically from the original pattern that putting the center front on the grain put the top of the bra 'cup' almost directly on the cross-grain, giving it no stretch or ease. I know the 20's had a flat-chested look, but this just did NOT fit.

On sewing that mockup, I also realized that a half-inch seam allowance on such an intensely curved seam was too much to sew smoothly - I ended up with a lot of wrinkling and catching between the main piece and the insets. Those seams were cut down to a quarter-inch. I also narrowed the inset slightly again and moved the part of the body where the strap attached a bit.

So I made those minor alterations to my new pattern and cut it out again, this time making sure the top of the 'cup' was cut on the bias. Then I sewed it up again and it fit great!

[Image ID: the original two-piece sewing pattern at the top of the photo, compared to my version of the two-piece pattern with marks for the final pattern on the bottom of the photo.]

Finishing

Feeling terribly pleased with myself, I started finishing the seams. The center front was flat felled to one side, in the hopes of fortifying the front seam. I top-stitched the other side of the seam to match. I flat felled the bust seams, too, folding the seams up toward the main piece of the bandeau and carefully stitching them down.

Then I figured I'd better think about elastics and closures. I was intending to attach a V-shape of 1" elastic on each end, with a G-hook as a closure, as you see in this 40s bra. Unfortunately, I only had one G-hook and it was already designated for another project (a modern version of this bralette).

Rather than order another one and wait for it to ship, I decided to alter the bandeau dramatically into more of a bralette. I pinned one end of the elastic to where I wanted it to attach on one side and marked that same point on the other side. Then I put the bra 'on' and wrapped the elastic around to see how much elastic I would need for it to fit snugly. I pinned that end to where I had marked on the bra band and made sure I could (every so carefully, with the pins still in) get it on and off okay.

Once I was sure I could get the bra on and off, I sloped the 'top' of the bra down to where the elastic would be attached. I then folded the elastic and fabric in on each other to hide the raw ends of both and did three lines of vertical stitching to hold the elastic in place.

Finally, I could bind the edges. I cut a strip on the straight grain to serve as the bra band, folded the long edges in, sandwiched it around the lower edge of the bra, and sewed it on in one fell swoop. I folded it over the edges of the elastic, so I made sure to give it a good backstitch on each end. I top-stitched the lower edge of the band too because I thought it would look nice.

The upper edge got a simple quarter-inch bias binding which was also attached in the lazy/all-at-once way. I made sure to sew slowly so my stitching was mostly even and there were barely any ripples.

I didn't have enough elastic for the straps, so I just took more of the bias tape I used for the top edge and top stitched it on each long side. I attached one end of the strap to the front, then pulled it around to the back and pinned the strap to the elastic band. I made sure that the length of the straps and the point where I was attaching them were even, and then I sewed them on.

Final Thoughts

The bra was done! It's obviously very different from the original, but I like it just the same! I'm proud of how well I got it to fit, it's very comfortable, and I can't wait to make a nicer version out of some burnout velvet I picked up a month or two ago.

There was one small issue I didn't discover until I was done. Because I removed so much of the bra band, there is no... containment in the armpit area, so it ends up not being quite so secure or supportive. It's not a huge issue, though. It still fits and it's still comfy, so I'll take what I can get.

My next sewing project is one of my two "big" goals for this year - Edwardian combinations!

Until then

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Between Employees (A Cuphead OC short write)

“Well, hi-de-ho! What brings you to the casino, Miss? I ain't seen your face around here before.” The smaller figure looked at dice in confusion, removing their hood. Despite the several years it had been, now that Dice got a look at them, he indeed did know her. Shards. One of the Devil's enforcers from off Inkwell. A cup lady with a series of golden cracks along her face and handle. “Well well well! The former right-hand lady from the big man himself has finally decided to show her ugly mug in these parts, eh? Now, I ain't one to judge a book by the cover, but I'd like to know whether this book is a horror story - or a comedy... And what brings here to a high-profile establishment such as this? Care to enlighten me? I'd quite fancy a good laugh here, before I go ahead and kick ya back to the streets... for old time's sake - and some payback to boot…”

"I'm here to talk to the Devil." Shards replied, her eye twitching as she removed her coat and hung it up. "He asked to speak to me. You know. That thing he never does to you?" She shot back coldly. These two had had a long term rivalry. One that had always been sparked from both being ambitious and hardheaded, as well as a deal self centered.

“Oooooh, you got some nerve there, missy. You really got some nerve.” The Dicehead seethed softly. “You might be a former employee of mine, former being the word of emphasis here. But don't think that your reputation goes unchecked, I've heard tales from my boss man - and a couple of his high-roller buddies - of a certain 'Cup Lady' with some kind of a twisted grudge against me, who seems to have it out for a certain, oh I dunno... King Dice. And I didn't get to where I am today by being a pushover.”

Shards chuckled derisively and kicked the dirt off her shoes. "No you got here by being a little bitch." She snarked. "But if you wish to defy the Devil's direct orders....your funeral Kingsy."

“Now, now. Is that any way to speak to your former superior?” She rolled her eyes and attempted to elbow past him, only to be stopped by a gloved hand. “As for defiance, I merely have to ask you one thing: Are you absolutely sure The Devil told you that himself, or did some other, uh... source pass that along to you? You know, for all I know, you could just be trying to weasel your way into some kind of revenge on your former employer. And I won't have it.”

"For fuck's sake you over polished piece of cheap acrylic!" She shouted, fishing a piece of familiar paper from her jacket. "I may no longer be a Casino employee, but I am still one of the Devil's enforcers of contracts and debts. I have no interest in you whatsoever. I have a job to do. So move." Shards was not magically inclined like Dice. She relied on force and her personality, so her shouting drew eyes from every corner of the Casino that could be seen.

“Over-polished? Over-polished?!?” The Devil’s right hand man was also shouting now, which drew even more attention as King Dice never raised his voice within the Casino…or ever as far as many were aware. “That's it, Missy!! How dare you go around insulting the King like this!?!? You think I'm gonna tolerate someone calling me things such as over-polished??? I'm not afraid of doing some damage, you know, and I think you're really pushing your luck here... I am King Dice, dammit!!! You do not talk to me this way without any consequences!!!”

That familiar cackle from the cup woman said she wasn't taking Dice seriously whatsoever. "Dice. I have fought bigger and tackier people than you. Move so I can go talk to the boss-" Shards once again attempted to brute force her way past Dice, which while Dice was nowhere near her level physically…he outmatched her in terms of demonic magic. A solid wall of force hit the cup squarely in the nose, sending a resounding pain through her cracked face and handle, which only proceeded to piss her off more as Dice began speaking again.

“Bigger and tackier? Bigger... and tackier?” His eyes flashed the same lavender as his suit, before quickly turning to a more poisonous purple.  “You think I'm some common thug? Some measly goon? I am King Dice, the Devil's Right-Hand Man. I'll show you "bigger and tackier" - you think I'm all guff and no bite? Well I'm the real thing, and more! Now, you've had your chance, it's time for me to show you who's the boss...”

The shorter woman was about to start shouting-when the power cut and the Casino fell into uneasy silence. Shards and Dice both felt the sickening sensation of being teleported via demonic magic...until the movement stopped...and both King Dice and Shards now stood in the Devil's seemingly empty throne room.

"Good job, Dice." Shards said lowly. "Now we're both gonna get it." Anyone who worked for the Devil had a healthy fear of his throne room...Dice and Shards especially did...Shards was a lot less charismatic about her fear, while Dice's face went pale, all of the arrogance that he had been sporting moments earlier completely gone. In a matter of moments, what was going through his head was a combination of panic and dread…

“Which one of you would like to explain why you were fighting in my Casino?" The Devil's voice echoed from somewhere unseen, but both employees tensed noticeably. Shards was the first one to speak.

"Your Lordship, I just want one thing to be clear..." She made eye contact with Dice, before looking away. "It was King Dice's fault!”

“WHAT???” He shouted, grabbing his coworker by the collar. “Listen here you cracked little brat- I am NOT the bad guy here! Last time you stepped foot in this Casino chaos ensued and I was NOT letting that happen again-”

“Wah wah wah.” She mocked, rolling her eyes and giving him a glare as the taller man tightened his grip-the poisonous color returning to his eyes.

“You... you... you little, slimy, lying slug!!! Who do you think you are, you little-! I know your type, lady - I've dealt with people like you my entire career. Arrogant, overconfident, thinks they can get away with anything - they always get their comeuppance in the end.” The sickly purple turned green, and Shards flinched slightly…before he lowered her and dusted his hands on his vest. “I am going to-...No. No... I will not stoop to her level.”

“Pussy.” Shards said bluntly. Aaand that was the lynch pin. Spells came first and then the crack of Shards punching Dice in the chest came next…before a rush of fire had both frozen in place due to the reflexive terror of both employees as the Devil appeared before them. The King of Darkness had seen better days; one of his horns snapped at the base, his arm in a sling and his opposite leg in a cast with a shiny black(er than normal) eye to add insult to injury. Both Dice and Shards felt a white hot pain surge through their muscles and both were forced to drop to their knees due to the pain of the Devil’s own dark powers.

“Enough.” The Devil stated, and the pain subsided, but neither made to stand. Both remained on the floor, facing the tiles so as to not incur their boss’ rage further. “Now. You both making a further mockery of this Casino aside…I have summoned Shards from off island today for a special mission you will be assisting her with Dice.”

This caught them both off guard; exchanging a look between the two before they both faced the Devil. “Both of us sir?” Dice asked, confused. “But-what about the Casino? Who will run that while you recover?”

“I’ll be closing down the Casino in the meanwhile. I can’t keep it up thanks to what that miserable cup did…” He growled, tapping his claws on the arms of his throne. 

“U-understood sir.” Shards spoke up, looking at the Devil. “What is the mission sir?”

“My nephew Darwin.” He said plainly, as a fiery mirror appeared before the two employees. A young devil boy who looked alarmingly similar to the Devil himself appeared, playing with a ball in an empty house. “I was supposed to watch him but in my current state I fear I can’t keep up with the boy’s energy. You two are to watch him.”

“I-Sir, babysitting?” Shards asked incredulously, Dice’s expression sharing the sentiment. “Sir-I am not a people person I enforce rules and debts and your will-unflinching and unhesitating-I don’t do kids sir-”

“Well now you do. Both of you do. Darwin is the heir to my throne as I have no children of my own and do not desire any. You two are going to watch Darwin for me, and make sure he is protected at all costs.” The Devil stated firmly. “And when I check on Darwin, if I that you two have done nothing but bicker and argue the entire time-I will send your souls both to the Fox King-Do you both understand?”

Shards remained silent as the grave, holding her hand over her frantically struggling heart as Dice nodded in confirmation. “Yes sir-of course sir-”

“Excellent,” The Devil said slyly, and that nauseating sense of being pulled elsewhere occurred. “Your things have already been sent Darwin’s way…enjoy your duties you two…or else.” Darwin, The Fox King- @wittycranberry

How do I pick the right engagement ring or wedding ring?

1. Know diamond shapes and cut styles

Before you start shopping for an engagement ring, you should understand the difference between a diamond’s shape and its cutting style. Shape describes a diamond’s outline when viewed face up. The most popular diamond shape is round. But there are other shapes—known as fancy shapes—which include the marquise, pear, oval, rectangle, square and heart.

2. Look at diamonds under different lighting

Daylight, fluorescent light, spot lighting – a diamond looks very different under various lighting conditions. Many jewelers use white spotlighting, which brings out a diamond’s brilliance and fire and will make most diamonds look dazzling. Most day-to-day situations do not consist of such dramatic lighting, however. Be sure to see how your diamond performs under average lighting conditions, such as outdoors in light or shadow or under the diffused, fluorescent light of an office workplace or the warm, diffused lighting common in most homes.

3. Pick a metal for the band

Popular jewelry metals include yellow gold, rose gold, white gold and platinum. Gold and platinum have different characteristics. Their colors can also change the appearance of a piece of jewelry and set off the color of a ring’s gemstones differently.

4. Choose the setting

In jewelry, diamonds are held in place by settings. The setting has two jobs: to hold the diamond in place and to protect it from damage. Different settings offer different degrees of protection.

5. Consider side stones

Side stones are a dazzling way to dress up an engagement ring and make it look bigger. Popular choices include making the ring a three-stone ring, adding a halo, including channel, pavé or bead set diamonds along the shank of the ring, and adding colored gems or birthstones. If you want diamond side stones, choose those with 4Cs grades similar to that of the center stone. Having a similar color grade is especially important if you want the stones to match.

6. Know Styles and Trends

What style of ring are you looking for—vintage, modern, timeless, Bohemian, romantic? Know your time periods and motifs or add personalized touches for a stand-out ring.

7. Measure ring size

Once you’ve picked out a diamond and chosen a style for the ring, the next step is to measure the wearer’s ring size. The best way to do this is with a ring sizer, which is a series of plastic or metal rings in different sizes that you try on. Your jeweler will have a ring sizer and can help you find the perfect fit. If you want the ring-making process to be a surprise, try guessing ring size by borrowing a ring your fiancée or fiancé already owns. Trace the inner circle on a piece of paper. Or slide it down one of your own fingers and draw a line where it stops. A jeweler can help you to estimate the approximate ring size. Note that ring size varies from finger to finger, so using this method will only give you an approximation.

The good news is that most rings can easily be resized up or down by a size or two. Resizing more than that may be more difficult depending on the style of the ring. Solitaire rings are easy to resize, while rings with pavé or bead-set diamonds or other details on the band will require more work.

8. Pick a reputable jeweler

Since an engagement ring is a significant investment, you’ll want to buy it from a jeweler you can trust. Your jeweler should be armed with expert training, be open to questions and be able to explain how to buy a diamond in clear, simple language.

SERGIO’S JEWELERS

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE… FIRST CLASS TREATMENT.

Sergio’s Jewelers has been a landmark in Ellicott City for over 20 years. Our business was founded with the purpose of sharing our expertise with our customers to create a premier shopping experience. By staying true to our roots, pushing the forefront of fashion, and continuously striving for success, Sergio’s Fine Jewelers has become a name synonymous with quality. Tim Carlson, Owner of Sergios, along with his entire staff promise to go above and beyond to guide you through every step of your journey in discovering a piece of fine jewelry that you’ll be proud to show off for years to come.

Sergio’s Jewelers has been a landmark in Ellicott city providing premier shopping experience to our customers for over 20 years. Tim Carlson, Owner of Sergios, and his team guide you in every step helping you discover a piece of jewelry you’ll cherish for years to come.

To shop best designer engagement ring online visit:

Engagement Rings Archives - Sergio Jewelers

Sergio’s Jewelers has been a landmark in Ellicott city providing premier shopping experience to our customers for over 20 years. Tim Carlson, Owner of Sergios, and his team guide you in every step helping you discover a piece of jewelry you’ll cherish for years to come.

The Future of Outdoor Advertising Is on LED Screens

High footfall areas like shopping centers, train and transport stations, air terminals, arenas and squares have forever been battled by publicizing organizations and sponsors in light of the huge perceivability they can need to expected clients.

Amplifying the effect of promotion message and separating it against contenders become critical in these essential regions.

Beginning from static paper boards first to electronic and eased up bulletins later, today screens and LED screens are finding a bigger dissemination in the promoting spaces, because of innovation dispersion and costs decreases.

Mixed media advertisements, for example, video promotions are considerably more profound and appealing for individuals than some other sort of picture or instant message, particularly when displayed to in such cutthroat regions.

These days this is potential because of the dispersion of Full Color LED Displays (both on outside and indoor conditions) involving RGB LED or the new 3 of every 1 SMD LEDs. Nature of pictures and video is presently ensured.

These new LEDs furnish high splendor and differentiation along with lower energy utilization and can be imbedded into water-safe designs.

The rising extension of the Internet and versatile broadband organizations (eg 3G/4G/LTE) likewise permits us to control frameworks and update promoting messages from a distance without the need to have a wired association. Notwithstanding complete far off administration, the screens can show ongoing channels like news and climate, and so forth. With this multitude of elements, joined with a more open expense and short restitution time, positively throughout the following couple of years you will see a rising utilization of LED separates out of home promoting.

Driven screens and boards are today very adaptable and ready to fit different method of purpose, conditions and circumstances: they can be secluded, movable in a picture or scene mode and fit different custom cases including trucks, van and carts, in an extremely enormous size range.

On account of these patterns, highlights and capacities along with a proceed with cost decrease (today can be remembered for the financial plan of medium stores) LED Displays will without a doubt track down a bigger space on outside and indoor publicizing.

For More Info:-

Led display screen india

Advertising display screen

Step by step instructions to Pick Retail Paper Packs

Organizations need to give retail paper sacks to clients. In certain circumstances, these organizations are creating some distance from the utilization of customary plastics and on second thought are searching for an answer that centers more around harmless to the ecosystem papers. Nonetheless, there are numerous things to ponder with regard to choosing the best pack for your clients to utilize. As a business, even these straightforward things will establish a connection with the clients who come into the way to purchase from you. Remember that you in all actuality do have various options.

What to Consider

With regards to choosing suitable retail paper sacks for your business environment, there are various elements to remember during the interaction. Numerous providers offer an enormous determination of sizes and styles. Some are great for the kind of need you have, however it really depends on you to characterize what you really want and why you really want it. The following are a couple of interesting points while picking.

• Consider the most widely recognized sort of product bought at their store. What sort of sack is best for it? For instance, in a wine store, it is important to choose a pack that is fitting to hold a solitary container upstanding in it. Assuming the store sells generally box-like articles, square or rectangular choices are ideal.

• Think about the thickness of the item, as well. On the off chance that you have for the most part bigger things or exceptionally weighty things, your clients will require a method for conveying those things that are sufficiently able to deal with the additional weight or the massive size. Search for a more strong and thicker item to purchase here.

• Think about the promoting choices. At the point when that sack gets to the home of the client or into the commercial center, it requirements to show the name of the business. This gives a vital road to expanding brand mindfulness while likewise giving an approach to promoting essentially anything from the organization.

• Monetary worries are something most organizations think about also. Remember that a few items offer something else for less. Purchasing in mass can likewise further develop the expenses related to the cycle.

• Quality matters. Does it require handles? Should it be a smooth surface? Does the look have to stick out? There are many variables to think about in making a basic sack something that meets your business requirements.

While choosing retail paper packs for use, you won't think about these elements cautiously. Figure out which one is the best generally fit for the business' clients and necessities. You believe the client should be pleased to convey it all through their regular routines so you get that increase in publicizing importance.

For More Info:-

bulk paper bags

printed burlap bags

Flood sandbags

Sport Amenities Cleaning In Panama

72% of the gyms don't combine any type of green design and this is very disappointing. All of them affirmed that it is rather costly to implement the solar panel energy system and that it cannot be relevant in Lebanon because of our energy problem conditions. However, little issues could be carried out and make an enormous distinction for both the surroundings and the facility. It may be began with a easy step; by educating the workers and members concerning the importance of recycling, and the homeowners about using recycled papers, eco-friendly gentle bulbs, air con, and equipment. A lot of effort and work can nonetheless be accomplished, but our findings present a promising society which is making an attempt to serve the group in a professional and as a lot as normal method. Verbal or bodily abuse, to members or workers, and bodily abuse to property aren't allowed. Aggressive conduct will lead to immediate dismissal from the power and may end up in loss of membership privileges and legal action. Only water in a re-sealable, plastic container is permitted within exercise spaces. Backpacks, fitness center baggage, basketballs, and other private objects usually are not allowed in the weight rooms or atrium and have to be stored in a locker. These courts can solely be reserved for handball, racquetball and squash. Drop-in use is OK for activities apart from handball, racquetball or squash, so lengthy as that exercise does not damage the courts. Walk up the 2 units of stairs until you find two doors opening onto basketball courts on your left. There can also be an elevator on the left of the RSF, throughout from the Pro Shop Cafe, that may present an ADA accessible entrance to the third floor. Once you attain the third ground, a staff member might want to help you in coming into the Gym. The Blue Gym is situated on the third floor of the Recreational Sports Facility. Green Carpet Cleaning Service In reality a few of it is ingredient can do damage to your thyroid and hormonal system. The advantage of most green merchandise is that they don't include antibacterial brokers. 清潔公司 put on and tear, from foot oils and dirty shoes to pet dander and crumbs, all affect how your carpet looks, feels, and smells. Vacuuming frequently will assist maintain dust buildup to a minimal, but it's no substitute for a thorough carpet cleaning. DIY stain removers and carpet shampoos are sometimes misused, damaging your carpet, adding a bigger floor space for filth and dirt to stick to. Long before it was fashionable to be green, Chem-Dry developed a green cleaning solution. It's simple to assume that merchandise that say, "antibacterial" are one of the best. Food and Drug Administration, washing your palms or cleansing with antibacterial soaps isn't any better than common soaps. The American Medical Association additionally says that frequent use of antibacterials can truly lead to a resistance to antibiotics. Simple, straight water is actually the best and most straightforward way to hold things clean. No potential chemical reactions or unintentional ingestion to fret about, just one ingredient that comes straight out of your faucet. Halls – Oversized halls might be measured by way of square ft, while standard sized halls will incur no further price when you have one or two extra rooms cleaned. Bathroom cleaner simply removes cussed soap scum and many other exhausting to clean oils. Contract For Shelby County Schools Cleansing Companies Up Within The Air Beginners usually work with a extra skilled janitor, studying the means to use and maintain gear such as vacuums, flooring buffers, and other instruments. On the job, in addition they learn how to restore minor electrical and plumbing issues. Our whole employees of commercial cleaning professionals is totally trained and insured. Each team member undergoes a background examine as a requirement for employment, and will undergo further screening as required by the client. Many of our clients require fingerprinting and particular clearances, so our vetting course of offers one hundred pc clarity and certainty. The ABM OnePass method will increase the quality, effectivity, and productivity of your custodial cleaning, recycling, and upkeep programs. Cleaning addresses exterior regular cleaning issues are addressed by Work Orders that are evaluated by Janitorial and Engineering leads. We are a continuously growing enterprise and are all the time looking for new staff for our staff. Your teachers, workers, mother and father, and college students won't inform you how much they appreciate the change, however you will know when the current complaints and questions stop. Your stakeholders will be happier along with your faculty, even if they can’t establish why, and you will be free to get again to extra nice job duties. We take pride in the help we provide our many enterprise purchasers and how we have aided them to have a healthier work environment and to present a picture that displays the quality of their items or providers. Our work is guaranteed, and our complete staff is educated, professional, and devoted to offering glorious service -- and treating your office or facility with respect. How much precious time do you spend creating and managing your school’s cleaning and janitorial services? Student contact days and after-hours occasions make faculty cleansing schedules extra sophisticated than general office cleaning. Most personal and charter schools have in-house janitorial workers, and a few have a further outsourced cleaning crew to deal with particular needs. But many colleges still battle to cover all their cleaning needs effectively and effectively. If you wish to earn optimistic evaluations from clients and create a cushty workspace on your workers, there’s an easy action to focus on一janitorial services. There are loads of reasons to add spring cleaning to your workplace or school’s to-do listing, and a few of them might shock you. Sure, it’s no shock that cleaning improves the air high quality in your business area. This enchancment will probably clean up the house, making you, your staff, students, customers, patients, and different guests feel higher. Modern Applied Sciences For Bettering Cleansing And Disinfection Of Environmental Surfaces In Hospitals All of those elements stress the significance of rehabilitation facilities who're treating sufferers with increased morbidity and sophisticated wants. CORFs have resumed operations and are offering providers to an increasing variety of patients; subsequently, COVID-19 vaccination of staff is pivotal for inhibiting spread of infection and guaranteeing health and safety of sufferers. While the character of this rulemaking suggests the potential that just about all well being care employees in the united states might be vaccinated for COVD-19 within a matter of months, local outbreaks, new viral variations, adjustments in disease manifestation, or different components necessitate contingency planning. Contingency planning could prolong beyond the specific necessities of this rule to address topics corresponding to staffing companies that can supply vaccinated staff if some of the facility's staff are unable to work. At the identical time, COVID-19 has led to unprecedented job losses, giving method to a rise within the number of uninsured. There shall be greater than a hundred and eighty million workers, sufferers, and residents employed or treated annually in the amenities coated by this rule. In our analysis of first-year advantages of this rule we focus first on prevention of demise amongst workers of services in addition to on reduction in disease severity. A third group of beneficiaries are employees family members and caregivers and heaps of different individuals outdoors the well being care settings who workers would possibly subsequently infect if not vaccinated. Each CMHC might want to evaluate their present insurance policies and procedures and modify them, if necessary, to make sure compliance with the necessities on this IFC. Based on these necessities and our experience with CHMCs, we believe these activities could be performed by the CHMC administrator and a mental well being counselor. Medical robots support minimally invasive procedures, custom-made and frequent monitoring for patients with continual ailments, clever therapeutics, and social engagement for aged patients. In addition, as robots alleviate workloads, nurses and other caregivers can provide sufferers extra empathy and human interplay, which might promote long-term well-being. Emerging within the 1980s, the first robots in the medical subject supplied surgical help via robotic arm applied sciences. Over the years, artificial intelligence –enabled computer vision and data analytics have transformed medical robots, increasing their capabilities into many different areas of healthcare. What Is Green Cleaning? Thoroughly clean, disinfect, and rinse tools corresponding to buckets and containers every time answer is changed and day by day. When use of gloves is indicated at all times change them (i.e., reprocess) between each cleansing session (e.g., routine cleaning of a patient zone beneath contact precautions, terminal cleansing of a general patient area). It is extremely beneficial to display a wet floor/caution signal earlier than beginning mopping actions. Prepare solutions with an computerized allotting system that is calibrated frequently. With some 80,000 chemical substances in common use, there are still some that would have as-yet unknown poisonous effects. For example, phthalates, which are suspected to have adverse hormonal results, help distribute dyes and fragrances and act as plasticizers. Other chemical substances are used to keep a product secure on the shelf, whereas others, similar to glycols, act like anti-freeze. Still different chemicals may simply be impurities left over from the manufacturing process. We requested for their input on what components to look for — and keep away from — and which products they recommend. We took a cautious have a glance at the ingredients utilized in every product to ensure they were protected, nontoxic, and naturally derived. We averted merchandise with elements that have the potential to negatively have an result on your family’s well being or the surroundings. A efficiently carried out Green Cleaning Program can scale back the degrees of cleansing chemicals, mould, and airborne dust, main indoor triggers of bronchial asthma attacks. Do you perceive how to clear successfully and consistently without creating risk? It is crucial to develop and execute processes that align with the facility’s specific needs whereas at the same time considering the impression on the environment and other people. According to the EWG, using the phrases “natural” or “plant-based” implies that a minimal of a variety of the elements are natural or plant-based, however it doesn’t mean it applies to all components. So, at all times learn the labels and do your analysis on what’s listed if this could be a priority for you. If a product isn’t USDA certified organic, we have called that out in our listing. Tips On How To Clear Window Blinds And Shutters It's an efficient fix that may brighten up your blinds. Once an order has been constructed, a monitoring quantity might be supplied within 1-2 enterprise days. It normally takes 7-12 enterprise days for most custom orders to reach at your doorstep after you’ve placed your order. In the uncommon instance that your item arrived broken or has damaged throughout the warranty interval, merely click right here to quickly begin your declare. Find the most effective local cleaning pros and receive free, no-commitment quotes for your project. Blinds are excellent ways to brighten your home and protect your furnishings from the harsh daylight, while adding some type to your décor. First, put together the blinds for cleaning by closing them completely in order that the front of the blinds is facing you, making a flat work surface. However, be warned that washing drapes may cause shrinkage. This is the exact reason COIT created and patented a technologically advanced machine that cleans blinds but also prevents them from shrinking. Pleated shades are very comparable to honeycomb shades, nevertheless they are produced from a single layer of cells, whereas honeycomb shades have two or three. As a outcome, pleated blinds aren’t such good insulators, but they're much less cumbersome, admit more mild, and are more economical to put in. Metal blinds are an excellent selection if you want sturdy, durable window blinds that can face up to robust environments. Keep your mini blinds in their greatest situation by cleansing them regularly and eradicating any damaging filth and grease. Practical Guide To Doing Laundry While Touring For increased solubility, 2-propanol has shown increased cleansing effects for liquid carbon dioxide as it will increase the ability of the solvent to dissolve polar compounds. The dry cleansing process includes charging a sealed chamber which is loaded with garments utilizing gaseous carbon dioxide from a storage vessel to roughly 200 to 300 psi. This step in the process is initiated as a precaution to avoid thermal shock to the cleaning chamber. Liquid carbon dioxide is then pumped into the cleaning chamber from a separate storage vessel by a hydraulic, or electrically pushed pump . From premises and medical tools cleansing to laundry companies and more, we guarantee the highest standards in hygiene within the healthcare industry. I attempt to e-book a minimum of two nights in every place to verify laundry has time to dry. When not on the transfer, each night I strip off and wash what I wore that day, plus typically also yesterday. I simply use the bar cleaning soap supplied, I moist the garments, rub cleaning soap in stinky spots. Swish round as greatest I can for several minutes, then drain, rinse, drain, and wring. Wash your arms with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand rub, instantly afterwards. Don’t shake dirty laundry to minimize the potential for dispersing the virus via the air. Yes, you’re hearing it all over the place, because it’s the best line of defence. Mundane household tasks have became a source of uncertainty and anxiety as families grapple with getting the basics accomplished all while maintaining their loved ones secure and wholesome.