https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnkkq12wn3eo
“My family has always been involved with pipe bands, so I’ve been doing this probably since the day I was born."
Emma Ferguson is one of a group of musicians who are trying to raise the profile of pipe bands and encourage more young people to get involved.
The County Tyrone teenagers have been honing their skills on the Highland Bagpipes for years.
They say being part of a pipe band has helped them thrive and connect with others from different backgrounds.
It comes as the Mid Ulster Pipe Band and Drum Major Championships are taking place in Cookstown on Saturday.
Ms Ferguson is a member of the Matt Boyd memorial band from Pomeroy, which is taking part in the competition.
Members of the band played as guests arrived at a recent event in Pomeroy Image caption,
Members of the band played as guests arrived at a recent event in Pomeroy
“I’ve meet so many people from different cultures, different countries and different communities, that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, piping is for everybody," 21-year-old Ms Ferguson said.
The band is named after Matt Boyd, who was shot and killed by the IRA in 1993.
Ahead of the competition, members of the band recently performed at a cross-community celebration event to mark the completion of the Connecting Pomeroy project at the town’s forest park. ‘There’s nothing else like it’
Some members of the band performed outside a new visitor centre that is to serve as a shared community building, while other young musicians played Irish traditional music inside the building.
Guest at the event included First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly.
Sixteen-year-old twin brothers Jake and Charlie McAlister are members of the Matt Boyd memorial band and played the bag pipes to welcome guests.
“Me and my brother practice twice a week, it takes a lot of work, but when you hear the sound come from the pipes it’s worth it," Charlie said.
Jake added: “When you play the pipes with a group there’s a real sense of enjoyment and teamwork, there’s nothing else like it.” Sixteen-year-old twin brothers Jake and Charlie McAlister are members of the Matt Boyd memorial band Image caption,
Sixteen-year-old twin brothers Jake and Charlie McAlister are members of the Matt Boyd memorial band
Alan Ferguson, pipe major of the Matt Boyd memorial band, said it was great to see young people getting involved but he wanted to see people from all backgrounds.
“Young people are the future of the bands, so it’s great getting a chance to showcase the instruments to generate the interest," he said.
The Mid Ulster Pipe Band and Drum Major Championships will take place at Cookstown High School.
Irish traditional music was also played alongside the pipe band at the event in PomeroyImage source, bbc Image caption,
Irish traditional music was also played alongside the pipe band at the event in Pomeroy
The event features pipe bands from across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Trevor Wilson is chairman of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Northern Ireland.
"We are pleased to see this contest return once again to the town of Cookstown," he said.
“There is an enthusiastic mix of pipe bands and drum majors from the district and the centralised location of Cookstown makes this contest one that nearly all visitors from around Northern Ireland can attend.”

This happened at my station tonight. There is no details yet and we are completely shut down tomorrow. There’s no routes going out. Prayers go out to the victim and their family 🙏🏾💔
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/crime-insider-amazon-employee-shot-and-killed-in-chesterfield-county

Sorry if it looks like I was trying to mug her in the photo. It’s hard to get a good pic of her belly.
I found her under a dumpster about three or four weeks ago? You can see my initial post about her on my profile. She was about 4-6 weeks then, so she’s probably close to 8 or 9 now. She got her first dose of dewormer, then her second seven days later back then. She plays and eats and drinks perfectly fine. I know she doesn’t have worms in her stools (I had to sit and watch her every time she went to the litter box on her own in the early days because she had a habit of stepping in her poo).
I found a flea on her the other day. Shes too young for flea treatment right now, so I immediately went into clean up mode: got flea treatment on all four of the adult cats, completely vacuumed the house (every corner, nook, and cranny included), and washed all the blankets that she and the others like to sleep on.
I’m hoping the hard belly is just a part of her awkward growth into young kittenhood. She’s got long skinny legs, too. It doesn’t bother her when I poke it. I read it could be gas? She farts a lot. Overall, I think she’s okay, but I’m a serious worry wart and I’d like a second opinion. I’ll be taking her to the vet for her first shots and stuff soon. I was in between jobs so money’s been a bit tight.

I saw the email yesterday about free tickets for first responders and educators and figured why not, used my work email (I work for the county office of ed) and the next day I had two voucher codes in my email. Probably gonna hit the July 4th game.
Worth a shot if you qualify!
FJF

It's hard to say what exactly separates the seedy underbelly of Seattle from the middle and upper-class neighborhoods. There are just as many drones flying overhead and crawling underfoot, just as many signs in meatspace and augmented reality advertising all manner of good times, just as many colorful astral sights to see for the magically active folk who can see them. The differences are subtle, but still noticeable if you know how to look.
Perhaps it's the way people look at you as though they're either planning to mug you or defend themselves in case you feel like mugging them. Perhaps it's the abundance of flickering lights and generally janky infrastructure all around, giving many things the look of being not entirely up to code or legally constructed. Perhaps it's the feeling that you're out from under the constant watch of the powers that be, for better and for worse.
People who know the shadows know that anything and anyone can be found there, for the right price and after some hard looking. Need a street-doc to dig a Ruger Super Warhawk bullet out of your shoulder off the books? Need a decker to leak your cheating ex's naughty pictures all over the local grid? Need a street-mage to skip the drugs and cast a spell directly stimulating the pleasure center of your brain? Need an armored ork with a shotgun to kick in a door somewhere and pump the guy who stole your girlfriend full of buckshot? You can find all those things and more on the streets, chummer, if you know where and how to look, and if you can pay the fee that might not always be a simple nuyen transaction.
As your path begins turning you down the darker streets, and into the places where concerned upper-class parents warn their dopey college kids to stay far away from, the locals can all tell you're not from around here. A rat shaman takes a peek at your aura and isn't all that impressed, a decker scans your devices and decides your comlink isn't worth the bother of hacking, an armored ork with a shotgun sizes you up and goes back to his monster-sized burger at the street kitchen, deciding you're as much a threat to him as an itchy pair of underwear. They know at a glance you're not from around here, but most simply don't care. It's hardly a rare occurrence that someone from "out of town" wanders in; most are simply looking for someplace else, in which case they simply wander back out again, looking for business or pleasure, in which case they find it and move on when their errand is finished, or looking for trouble, in which case they end up shot, stabbed, burned, bruised, drained of astral lifeforce, or with a thin stream of blue smoke coming from their ear where a bricked piece of cranial cyberware once resided. Sometimes all at once, and sometimes with even more...creative ends.
But you're on a mission, you're looking for the next phase of your life. Any long-time denizen of the shadows will tell you that there comes a time in all their lives when they have to pack up the past, store it all away in the attic where their memories go, and start fresh with a clean slate and hopefully some lessons learned. That's what's got you in the sketchy side of town this evening. The only question left is who you are now.
Are you an addict whose money ran dry and who's starting to spiral into darker vices? A sprawl ganger who wants to prove himself and start climbing up the food chain? A mage looking for a place to begin practicing the forbidden sides of magic? A newbie hacker who dug too deep one day and now needs stronger protection than the cheap firewall program on her deck and the taser under her pillow? The choice is yours where you start, and the choice is yours where you go from here. But you can always be sure of one thing....
The shadows can be the best or the worst thing to happen to you, but one way or another, it's going to be one hell of a ride.
[...]
Hi there! Thanks for reading :D
If anyone here is familiar with the Shadowrun world or has any interest in the hints I've given about it, then this story is for you. You don't need to already be familiar with Shadowrun to take part, I'll happily answer whatever questions I can for anyone who doesn't already know them but has an interest.
I'd like to do a story about someone not from the shadows having/wanting to uproot their former life and transition into the life offered by the sketchy criminal underworld. Ideally, I'd like it to be long-term since there's rarely a dull day in the life of someone from the shadows and there are all kinds of interesting stories to weave from that basic thread. I'm a big fan of "found family" and "honor among thieves" vibes, maybe we could do something with that?
If anyone is curious, I'm male, 25 years of age, and from the EST time zone. I've been roleplaying for about half my life and playing Shadowrun for 6 or 7 years, so while I'm not a grandmaster of either, I think I know enough about both to create an awesome story with someone who wants to work with me. I'd be happy to send a writing sample to anyone who wants to verify that for themselves.
I want my partner to be 18+ since there can be some dark things that happen in the shadows, and I'd like my partner to be at least semi-literate, but otherwise, I'm more or less open to anyone! Come one come all; if you're interested in this prompt, then I'm interested in talking more with you about it. I can't address every detail or question someone might have in this post, so if you have any questions or comments, PM me here and I'll be glad to answer them.
I hope to hear from you soon! :D. And remember:
Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never...
...EVER...
make a deal with a dragon.

Hey everyone,
Shipping is FREE for $25+, otherwise flat $5.
Offers welcome.
Happy to provide alternate shots for any books and answer any questions.
THE GOODS
TPBs / Hardcovers

• Amazing Spider-Man by Michelinie & Mcfarlane Omni [read once, good condition] - $100
• Batman Who Laughs HC [read once, like new] - $10
• Batman-Superman Vol. 1 HC [read once, like new] - $10
• Dark Nights: Death Metal Deluxe Edition HC [read once, like new] - $10
• Harrow County Vol. 1 TPB - $5
• Justice League: No Justice TPB [read once, like new] - $7
• Justice League by Scott Snyder Vol. 1-3 HCs [read once, like new] - $80
• New 52 Aquaman Vol. 5, 6, 7, 8 HCs [Ex-Library] - $20
• New 52 Aquaman and the Others Vol. 1 & 2 TPBs [read once, like new] - $15
• New 52 Justice League Vol. 1 Omni [unread] - $65
• New 52 Nightwing Vol. 1-5 TPBs [well loved set] - $35
• Night of the Monster Men HC [Ex-Library] - $5
• Nightwing by Tom Taylor Vol. 1 HC [read once, like new] - $12
• Power Rangers Artist Tribute HC [read once, like new] - $10
• Power Rangers: Sins of the Future TPB [read once, like new] - $10
• Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon TPB [read once, like new] - $10
• Power Rangers: The Psycho Path TPB [read once, like new] - $8

Floppy Comic Lots

• Marvel Cinematic Universe Guidebook Lot: [8 issues, 1 TPB] - $15
  • Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man, Iron Man 3/Thor: The Dark World, The Incredible Hulk/Iron Man 2, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude TPB
• Venom (Cates): [5 issues total]- $6
  • Web of Venom: Wraith 1A, 10A, 11A, 16A, 28A

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

I know without seeing the car(s) it's a shot in the dark. But AAA only allows so many tows and I'm clueless and I would welcome any input. I have two cars. Car 1: 2006 Chevy Aveo I paid for in full back in college. 180K approx mileage. Brakes are practically gone. Mysterious loud ass grinding noise. Parking brake light on even tho parking brake isn't pulled. Wayyyy overdue for oil change. Two bald tires. Needs alignment. Car 2: 2006 Mercury Montego a shitty buy here pay here scammed my dumb ass into buying because I'm an idiot and the chevy was randomly stalling (the Chevy has since stopped doing this without explanation). Aprox 2k owed on it. Hasn't been driven in 9ish months because the gas tank started leaking like a fucking river the day after I bought it. Expired OH temp tags. Unknown mileage because my dumb ass didn't realize the odometer doesn't work. Two flat tires. (Also, windows don't roll down and trunk doesn't open.) People who know something about cars (aka not me): which should I try to get repaired? Does one strike you as more affordable than the other? Are they both a waste of time? Ive been taking the bus to work but my contract says I should be able to drive to other work locations around the county as needed and I'm worried it's a matter of time before not having a car bites me in the ass. Thanks for reading, thanks for any advice 🖤

Hello,
I am an investigative journalist with The Marshall Project Cleveland working on tracking Ohio foster children who have been sent to private facilities both in and out of the state. I have data on different providers which shows a scatter shot of places all over the state and country. I am working to find families or the survivors of such "placements." If you know or were a child child who is from Ohio who was sent to facility by the county or state government and are comfortable with sharing your story, please let me know.
Thank you.

You ever met a rich crackhead bitch who’s parents bought her and her heroin addicted boyfriend a whole house, a new car, monthly allowance and seen it all come crashing down? This sounds like a fantasy, but it’s actually reality in the streets of Montgomery County, . This is the life of a rich crackhead named Amy.
Now I know a lot of you niggas don’t be wanting to read long ass shit, so imma warn you ahead of time, I’ll be putting a lot of effort in this post. So if you’re an illiterate ass nigga, u might as well leave now. Before I tell you about Amy, we gotta get the background first and go all the way back to 2021(if you want to skip and get right to Amy, just go to paragraph 11/12, but you’ll miss out on a lot). It’s the year 2021, I had just came back a couple months ago from pulling off EDD fraud. One day I was driving drop top mustangs in Malibu, the next I’m seeing my accounts get frozen and my money slowly begin to dwindle down. Before I knew it I was back in the dmv, broke and back to square one. Now from the time I was in Cali to the time I returned a lot of shit happened. I fell off with a lot of people, so I found myself hanging around an unusual crowd of people, the Bethesda kids.
You see before I dropped out of Towson University, I had met this nigga named LP, he was from Bowie and he went to school out Bethesda, but me and him got along because we had two things in common: we both liked DMV music, and we both liked to party our asses tf off. But that’s a story for another day.
You see LP put me on to a lot of people from Bathesda, I had never really hung around white folks before, and with the connections he gave me i made friends with a couple of crackas and even met my now deceased ex girlfriend. I was going to the craziest white functions and constantly turning up. But I saw more than a chance to have fun, saw this as a money making opportunity🤑 cha ching! And it was through LP that I met some friends who introduced me to a nigga named Swervy.
You see them white folks love to drink beer and smoke weed at parks, so one day I’m meeting up wit one of my good men, Ju. Ju is the typical school shooter typa fella, so it’s no surprise what I saw when I linked up with him at the spot. With him was this long haired European foreign exchange motherfucker whose name I forgot, and this bearded Eastern European nigga named Swervy, and he was wildin the fuck out. Mind you I’m from the projects, and all these bathesda niggas I’m meeting are rich ass motherfuckers who live in multi million dollar mansions. Keep in mind these cats may be rich, but everybody out bathesda is rich so these are basically the rejects. Pretty much the closest thing to a street nigga you can find out there.
As I’m getting introduced to some of these cats, Swervy pulls out a syringe. So I ask “Man wtf is this man doing,” “He’s shooting up fent” casually says Ju. That was the first time I ever witnessed someone shooting up a drug, and it wouldn’t be the last. Swervy would eventually become Amy’s boyfriend. And he was quite the yapper, he’s one of those motherfuckers who peaked in high school, and now he’s just watching his life come spiraling down, at least that is until he meets Amy…
In this meet up I learn a lot about Swervy. He was basically a kingpin at the age of 16-17. He would get shipments of 10’s of thousands of Xanax bars and sell them like hotdogs at a baseball game. These weren’t your regular junkies, these are the children of senators, buisness owners and lawyers. So you didn’t have to worry about a junkie saying he’ll pay you back, money was nothing to these crazy ass white folks. In the midst of all this yapping, I hear something that caught my attention.
“Yea so basically my cousins got like seven pounds of weed and 500gs of thc wax that they’ll give me if I can pick it up, it’s all the way in Arizona” Says Swervy.
🤑🤑🤑Cha mothafucking ching! This was the money I was talking about. Now driving cross country with pounds of weed and concentrate was risky, but shit I’d give my left nutsack for that kind of opportunity. And I might as well have, because a week later I was on my way to Tucson, with this Russian speaking drug addict I had just met the other day. Mind you I’m driving around in a red Lancer, with paper Vermont tags that I had printed online. I might as well Have went up to the police station and asked any of them if they wanted to buy drugs. My young naive dumbass didn’t realize the risk, all I was thinking about was 🤑🤑🤑 cha Ching!
I can sit here all day and tell you about that drive to Arizona, but imma keep it short and simple so we can get to this Amy chick. It was a fucking disaster, but we end up somehow making it back. We got the pounds and the concentrate, but it was all fucking shake! I’d be lucky to sell that shit for $100 a zip. Anyways, the trip opened my eyes to something, this nigga Swervy was a crashout crackhead dummy, and if I continue hanging out with him I was gonna end up dead or in jail. So I begin distancing myself, as I watched this man throw his life away from a far.
Now months go by, and at this point I’m like the street life ain’t for me and I’m working a job, I got a girlfriend and I’m staying low and just cooling it, with these pounds of weed that was so garbage, I was giving it away like charity donations. I had that goodwill pack! Just as things settle down that’s when Swervy comes back in contact with me. You see last time I had linked him, this man was overdosing off fent and we had to drive him to the hospital and save his life. But to my surprise, he was a changed man, or at least that’s what I thought...
He now has this girlfriend and he lives with her in germantown. You see me I’m baffled and curious, what crazy bitch would date this crazy motherfucker who’d probably sell his soul for one shot of heroin? I just had to find out. And when I met Amy I just didn’t know what to say. She was in her 30s and Swervy and me were in our early twenties. Amy was this slim, blonde hair, blue eyed Czechoslovakian chick who stood at about 5’7”. She wasn’t attractive by no means, you can tell the drugs did it’s toll on her, but if you’re drunk enough she can probably look fuckable. She had her degree in psychology from UMBC, but don’t be fooled her brain seemed like it was long fried. A conversation with her felt like a trip to the mental asylum. You will have better luck deciphering ancient Egyptian hyrogriphics before you can make sense of a word she says. Regardless I genuinely tried to get to know her. My guess was at some point in life she must’ve took a full sheet of acid and never recovered since. But she had her own two bedroom condo with a view of Sugarloaf mountain, a Pomeranian dog(which Swervy fucking hated), and a new jeep. So regardless I was impressed this crackhead motherfucker managed to bag her. So I asked him “Where did you find this shawty?” “At a hookah lounge in Rockville” he told me. That’s right folks, a fucking hookah lounge. Boi when I tell you after that, I was hitting up hookah spots like I had season tickets!
So I’m hanging out with them a lot now basically third wheeling, but Germantown was a long ass motherfucking drive, and I lived at the borderline to DC so I would even spend some nights in their guest bedroom. This Amy chick had parents that paid for her gas money and food, they had a fireplace and a balcony. And I can enjoy the comfort of all this as long as I occasionally bring some weed to smoke. And me I’m not one of those leeching ass bums, so the only time I’m hanging out with them is when I’m invited. And I got invited a lot, probably because Amy’s a bit cuukoo and Swervy had either robbed or scared off all his friends from Bathesda. He wanted someone to give him a break from her, a bro he can drink a beer with. So I would often times accompany them. One time we were at Buffalo Wild Wings, and as I sit across from both of them Amy begins playing footsies with me under the table. Of course I play it cool. I had no interest in her, mainly because Swervy hits raw and takes hepatitis medication, also having witnessed this man hold a bunch of homeless niggas at gunpoint in broad day light after I lost my phone at this gas station in Arizona. I can only imagine how he would react if he found out I smashed his girl.
A lot of the times I hung out with them, me and Swervy would talk about Amy. You see he’s not the type to hold back certain information, and as he’s telling me about his life and relationship that’s when it hit me. A nigga like me grew up all my life, with the world constantly kicking my ass and in a whole different realm of this life shit, you got these two rich kids who fucked up their life so much with so little consequences it became a culture shock to me. Me I caught a case and felt like my life was over, these two white people are disfunctional jobless drug addicts and they’re living the life I could only dream of having with years of hard work. I began to question the world, how many are there like this? Was my life a joke? I didn’t know where I was going hanging out with them, but if I couldn’t live the good life, I could at least witness it from the front row. I learned one thing about their relationship, Amy was basically getting old and low on options, and her parents supported her. Why? Because she’s not running around getting dicked down by a bunch of drug dealing black men anymore. Here they see this young white man, who’s also Eastern European who makes their highly mentally damaged daughter feel secure. And Swervy could win an Oscar, I mean what a fucking performance! One second he goes from Angus Cloud on Euphoria, the next a good suburban white kid the second he meets her parents. In fact he had convinced them that he was such a good man, even went to family gatherings and all, that they decided, let’s just buy them a full blown house.
That’s right, a FULL FUCKING HOUSE. I’m talking about a three story townhouse in Germantown, with a fully furnished basement, a patio, a balcony, a grill, 4 bedrooms, a 70 inch television, a paid off brand new fully insured jeep, they’re talking about trips to Italy. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Fool, are we living in a simulation? I couldn’t fucking believe my eyes, Swervy had pulled off the ultimate finesse. He convinced this rich family that he was the one for their daughter. And the most hilarious thing about it is that he was no better than a crackhead heroin junkie you can find panhandling for money on the street. I couldn’t even be envious, no instead I had felt something inside of me, this sort of toxic motivation. I learned that you didn’t have to work hard in this life, you didn’t have to earn your living, no instead one day God can just drop this lonely damaged woman who’s family is fucking loaded right on your fucking lap. He was even talking about marrying her and having her kids. In fact he tried, but see he had a problem. His sailors couldn’t fucking swim. Maybe it was all the crack, cocaine and heroine. He was having trouble producing fertile sperm, and Amy was running out of time! And that was the peak of their relationship. He was this close to closing the deal, but when it was game time he fell short. All it is now is one of those memories in your head that’ll have you like “damn, what if…” almost like when you reminisce on a football game thinking about how things could’ve been different if that one play went right.
Look I’ll be honest, I sugarcoated a lot of things. They may have lived in a world of handouts, but that relationship was more toxic than a nuclear wasteland. There’s a lot of fucked up details that I’m choosing to leave out, the psychical and mental abuse from both sides, the drug use. He was a psychopath and she was controlling and halfway demented. There’s a saying “opposites attract” and these two motherfuckers were far from it. They were two trains headed on a full on collision, so it was only a matter of time before disaster struck, and boy did it strike. Within a year I had witnessed a once fun relationship, become episodes of Shameless. At one point we fell off, I don’t remember exactly why, probably because I was tired of constantly being involved in their nasty games, and once again I distanced myself from Swervy.
The last I heard of Amy, she had kicked Swervy out the house and he caught her giving the sloppy toppy at a local park to 3 guys. Some hoodlum niggas, and a skater dude with a face tatt. The last time I seen Swervy he was arms dealing and one day pulled out an AR-15 on me and threatened to shoot me. I heard he’s now locked up currently awaiting trial because he broke into her home. I have a feeling one day I’ll see him on the news with a crazy headline.
Anyways if you’re a real mothafucka, you made it all the way here. If you read the whole thing I hope you enjoyed the story, if you have any questions ask away. If you didn’t feel like reading all that shit then fuck you bitch!
Edit: 😂apparently it’s a small world an a few of y’all know the people I’m talking about and updated me on swervys situation. He’s now out on bail awaiting trial.

You’d think they’d come up with this nickname already. Personally I think it’d make a great slogan and t-shirt with his mug shot!