notthatbritishsingerguy-blog - Tumblr blog

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

ooc

Sorry I missed the whole week! :c Can I still participate? Did I miss the Skype session we'd talked about? 

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

Zane read the text with wide eyes, jaw dropping in exaggerated shock. Out of habit, he signed his response before thinking of typing it: 'Oh, really? I see!" To hearing people, though, it probably looked like he was pushing something away from him. He corrected himself and went back to the text screen, pausing for a second to think of the right translation. "Oh, I see" didn't seem to work in text as effectively. 

'Really? Wow... How did I miss that? Probably because I'm drowning in social media apps. No one posts on instagram about toilet paper house deliveries. But I can tell you what Beau had for lunch every day last week.' He looked up, raised an eyebrow, and rolled his eyes, lips pressed together. 'Great. Now I want steak. Thanks.' He tried to think of the last time he'd actually had real, properly cooked steak, and he couldn't. But then, this place was so fancy, they probably served all kinds of elite, overly priced but delicious food.

He texted again, 'No job means cheap ramen. I could write a recipe book: 100 Ways to Eat Cheap Knockoff Noodles.'

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

Both of Zane’s texts made Ian actually laugh aloud. He had a point there, being a deaf guy on a radio show seemed a little silly. How did he expect to get around it? Did he have some kind of interpreter person to help? He realized that he knew absolutely nothing about deaf people, as he had clearly proven by their awkward introductions. He was just grateful Zane was still sticking around.

'Dude, you can order an Omaha steak on Amazon and get it delivered to your door. The internet is awesome.'

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

ooc

[hello, also will be out of internet most of tomorrow. kids have a retreat until 8:30 or 9 at night, and that's my bedtime. lol. I will catch up with everything Friday! (: ]

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

OOC

[just a heads up that I am running behind on everything tonight and I have to work late tomorrow so I might be awol for a bit, please don't forget me D:]

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

Okay, communication was progressing a little. At least he didn't feel like he was a caveman speaking in half-sentences. Zane read the message, pressing his lips together in thought. The sense of awkward at least made some sense, now that communication was clearer. But he didn't really want to be seen as "poetic" or something. That's not what he was here for. Plus, it sucked, poetic or not. 

He shook his head and replied. 'If it's any consolation, I'm a deaf guy on a radio show. I feel out of place, too.' He paused, working his lip in thought. How serious was Ian about the never leaving the house thing? Zane always wondered if you could get toilet paper delivered to your house. Who wanted everyone to see at the checkout line how much toilet paper you needed? And why did society ditch the milk man? 'Serious question-- can I get toilet paper mailed to my house???!' He hit 'send' and grinned. 

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

The moment they exchanged texting numbers, Ian breathed a sigh of relief. Zane Hebert. So his name was Zane. It was a pretty unique name, Ian thought. He kind of wished his own name sounded cooler like that. Instead, he got just plain ol’ Ian. 

-2 for Creativity

He looked up at Zane, reading the gesture as Zane wanting to know Ian’s own reasons. ”Me?” He pulled out his phone and started texting, sending his first message to Zane as ‘I came because I’m the weird fat guy that never leaves his house and entered on a whim. Not any awesomely poetic reason like you have, dude. But hey, it’s real nice to meet you.’

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

If Zane was reading him right, and he felt he was pretty good at body language, being he was a bit fluent in it, he was able to get his message across to Ian. He still kept talking, which was a bit bothersome, since it was pretty useless, but at least it looked like his emotions were pretty clear on his face. It looked like he got the idea that Zane and Yvette weren't exactly as close as he'd like. And when he'd let her know about the tickets, it really sucked even more, because it's not like he was a fan of the band. He didn't think he'd appreciate it the same way one of her hearing friends would. On the plus side, Yvette had taken a girl friend, and not the guy she ended up going out with a few days later. 

Still, it sucked. 

But he hadn't given up. He could still make her happy with Veritas and Erin-Spenser-type things. Even if he couldn't be with her, he could at least be a good friend to her. So that was his goal for the trip, really. 

It was impossible to communicate all that to this hearing guy though, so Zane just shrugged. 

Suddenly, it looked like Ian got really excited about something. For a second, Zane thought he'd missed something happening around them, and he turned his head back to look-- nothing but people mulling around... What did he miss? He looked back, and it got a bit more clear. Ian had his contacts window pulled up on his phone, the beginning of Zane's name already in there. His eyes widened in understanding, and he nodded, taking the phone in his hands. Sure, it was kind of cumbersome and oddly archaic, but it would do for now, he guessed. It wasn't the first time he'd used text as a primary conversation tool. After all, that's how he and Yvette mainly talked. But she knew a little sign, at least, from a relative. 

He typed in "Zane Hebert" and his number and email and handed it back to Ian. He pulled up the same window on his own phone, and waited for the action to be reciprocated. Out of habit, with his free hand, he signed, "And you?" It was at least half obvious. Maybe he could get it. What was his story? Zane wondered. 

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

Their miming game had begun. In his mind, all Ian could think was that the name-thing had been like a video tutorial, but now he was in the level 1 zone, trying to gain experience as fast as possible. “Z” started in on a crazy session of explanation, figuring out that Ian was asking his motivation for coming. +10 Intuition.

He looked at the imagine on Z’s phone, then at the “Friends” button, then to the headliner that said “In A Relationship”. At Z’s sigh, Ian’s eyes widened in understanding, and his face fell visibly. Z shook his head and shrugged, and Ian suddenly felt like reaching out and giving the guy a hug.

"You got friendzoned?" Ian frowned, his voice small and weak. Even though he knew his words weren’t understood by Z, he at least could read his expression, he hoped. "And you came all this way because she loves Veritas. Dude, that sucks."

But on a more positive note, seeing Z’s cell phone gave him an idea. “Hey, why don’t we text each other?” Ian pulled his own smart phone out of his pocket, gesturing to it with one hand, a hopeful smile on his face. “Then we can talk! What’s your number?” He went in to his “New Contacts” and put “Z” in the first name, leaving it so the guy could fill in the rest of his name and number. Then, the sudden lightning bolt of fear struck him in the heart - what if Z didn’t want to? Was he being too pushy and annoying? Was it obvious he was just the stupid fat guy who couldn’t communicate with the deaf guy?

Was any of this PC on any level?

His expression now worried, he looked down at his backpack again, his unkempt hair falling into his face as if he was a berated child. It was a mistake to come, right? To keep bothering the guy. To say anything at all. Things were so much simpler behind a computer screen. You could turn it off and go lay down and shut yourself off from the world anytime you wanted.

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

Zane laughed. Yes, yes, I'll be Z. Like Zorro. All right then. 

It took him a second, but I-- Ian-- said something else to him. Maybe he hadn't really communicated the whole deaf thing clearly, Zane thought to himself. Just because he was aware didn't mean that suddenly Zane magically could read lips or something. People never realized how much of a pain that was, and he'd never taken a speech class a day in his life. What he could pick up was all from watching too much TV. 

Then it seemed Ian gave up and went to really weird miming. Zane cracked a smile, having fun playing this guessing game that was way over the top. He stared for a bit, trying to decipher this jumbled, crazy gesture. What was the context? First meeting, random deaf kid shows up, radio show... Dancing, maybe? Was that dancing? He laughed again, shook his head, and went for his phone. 

Unlocking the screen, Zane flipped through his camera gallery until he found the picture he wanted. He held up the image to Ian, showing a pretty blonde girl with a huge smile and a Veritas t-shirt. He pointed to her picture, then turned the phone back to himself. 

Next, he pulled up facebook, found her name in his friends list, and pointed it back to him. Zane made sure to point out the word "Friends" on the page, and then connect it back to the same picture of Yvette in the Veritas shirt. He clicked on her profile, then turned the screen back to show Yvette's picture with a blond linebacker-sized guy, under the heading "In a Relationship." He let out a sigh, shook his head, and shrugged. 

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

  There was a part of his brain that just screamed Oh, thank god when he realized that the guy understood what he was trying to say. The guy watched Ian spell out his name on his palm, repeating the gestures as if trying to stay hands-on with it - Ian inwardly cringed at the accidental deaf joke - an then he pointed to his eye. Eye? "Oh, yeah! I!" Then the guy held up one pinky to Ian. He figured that was the sign language equivalent, so he did it back, his big hand seeming to dwarf the other guy’s. Sweet. I was able to tell him my name starts with I. Wonderful.

Next, the guy drew some letter in the air. Ian stared blankly for a minute before realizing he had made a Z, and that that was his ‘name’. His mouth once again formed into a little ‘o’ shape, and he nodded, repeating the gesture. “Z! Z! I get it.” He smiled, a little too triumphantly perhaps, and there was an awkward, silent moment. Ian had no idea what to do now. What could they talk about, when getting across one letter was that much of an issue? 

"Uh…" he thought for a minute scanning for any possible topic that he could convey properly. "Why did you come here? Like…no offense, but…can you listen to music? Like, music?" He let go of his backpack long enough to do a horrible imitation of someone dance, with one hand on his ear as if he was a DJ at a club, holding the headphones to one ear. "Do you like music?"

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

That face was a face Zane could recognize. It was the "oh crap" face that accompanied 90% of hearing people that suddenly realized that he was not one of them. Every time he wanted to say something snarky like, Yes, there are humans out there that live in silence. And you know what? It's totally cool! But of course, due to the context of the situation, each time that was not possible. 

The guy was definitely thrown. And part of Zane did feel bad for it. It wasn't like he set out to make people feel super awkward. But it didn't look like either of them were making progress conversing with anyone else, so why not attempt it this way? This... very awkward.. and really ridiculous way. He was doing air letters. Air letters were such a pain. There was a reason deaf people didn't use air letters. (Except for Z. Z was weird.) But the dude wasn't deaf, so how was he supposed to know? Zane gave a sigh and tried to figure it. Was that an I? Maybe. He copied the motion, but to be sure, he signed the letter and then pointed to his eye, trying to communicate: "You mean what I think you mean, right?" Thankfully, he only had to read three letters. Thank you for not being named Barnabas or Christopher or something. Finally, Zane repeated the letters he thought he made out in ASL-- Ian, since it was the only thing that made sense. Of course, it could have been Iam, but he'd never seen the name Iam before. Well, he'd probably just be I to Zane anyway. Not like it really made that much of a difference in this situation.

Zane decided to keep it simple. He could be plain old Z for a while. So, he pointed to himself and then signed "Z". Once more, he made a thumbs-up sign, a question on his face, hoping that that would do the trick. 

The life of the hearing, where you spend 10 minutes trying to figure out each other's names. 

It was gonna be a long, quiet vacation.

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

  Upon seeing Ian’s weird-looking exaggerated mouth movements, the guy just out-right laughed in Ian’s face. His expression fell, and that lumpy feeling in the pit of his stomach came back, more fervently. Trying to be clearer had made him more of a joke than he already was. His face flushing and his hands growing clammy, Ian shifted in his seat, making it groan. The guy made another slicing sort of gesture at his ear, and Ian’s eyes flickered with understanding.

"Oh….Ohhhhh…” his mouth formed a little round ‘O’ shape. “You can’t…you’re deaf?” He sat still for a moment, then looked at his hands. “Well…this is awkward.”

What am I supposed to do now? What do I say? Can he read lips? Is it rude to ask? Why did he come over to talk to me? Did he think I know sign language? What do I do!?

His hands clung and relaxed, clung and relaxed against the top little loop of his backpack. He had come here to try, so that was what he wanted to do. He looked up at the guy, biting his lip and hoping his attempts would at least show him that Ian was trying. He held up one palm facing the guy, then proceeded to write I-A-N, trying to go slowly so that it would be easier to follow. But having an invisible writing tool made things super-vague, and he wasn’t sure if the deaf guy would get it.

"My name…is…Ian.." he said, having to consciously keep his voice to a normal level, despite his instincts. So he settled for just speaking slower, at least until he knew whether or not the kid could read lips or whatever. 

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

(also just fyi you don't have to have a separate tumblr for the character, just send it from wherever or anon, I don't care. Just as long as you clearly write which character it's from, we're good!)

Her blog is here.

If you want to see how your charrie would interact with her in a romantic relationship, here’s the prompt… you can send her asks or whatever or just start a post and she’ll reply to it on tumblr and all just as a trial thing and once everyone who is interested has gotten to...

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

OOC: PSA for Erin's Fiance People

Her blog is here. 

If you want to see how your charrie would interact with her in a romantic relationship, here's the prompt... you can send her asks or whatever or just start a post and she'll reply to it on tumblr and all just as a trial thing and once everyone who is interested has gotten to interact we can figure it out! Maybe a vote would work? haha idk. 

(I am also posting the prompt on her blog, but putting it here because only like 2.5 people are following her atm)

Prompt: 

You two met while working on the set of Erin's first film. You hit it off, and even though you've known each other a relatively short time, you feel like you've known each other forever. Now, you feel like you're ready to pop The Question. How do you do it? 

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

The dude's words looked longer, and his mouth got wider, and  way too exaggerated, and Zane's brows inched farther up his forehead. Is he really doing that thing? ...Yes, he is actually doing the thing. Wow. Wow... His surprise melted into laughter. This was real life. There was actually a person doing the "if I shout you will magically stop being deaf" thing, and what was great was that he didn't even really know what shouting sounded like to begin with. The irony was too much. 

He couldn't help but laugh, even though it might have come across as rude, Zane didn't really know. There was a different definition of rude for hearing people, he'd slowly been learning, and he hadn't mastered it yet. He shook his head, trying to think of a way to explain it, because apparently pointing to your ear and shaking your head wasn't obvious enough. Laughter tapering off now, he put his hands over his ears like they were muffled. Then he mimed like he was slicing off his ear with his finger, trying to say, "It's like I don't have any, dude." 

Of course the short answer was that yes, he knew English. But that would not be the necessary answer at the moment. He made a thumbs-up, his brows arching in the form of a question. Did any of that make sense to you?

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

  For a very long, awkward, horrible moment, Ian just stared blankly at the kid. He pointed to his ear and his mouth, the shake of his head clearly a sign that he hadn’t understood Ian. Was he hard of hearing? Did he speak some weird language, like Russian, and didn’t understand English?

He worked his lips for a moment, trying to figure out what to do past the heavy burning of his ears from shame and the distinct feeling that he was being a total idiot in this scenario.

"Um…" he raised his voice to a ridiculous high level, sure he would earn stares from the other contestants in the room. "Do. You. Speak. English?!”

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

Of course, immediately the guy started rattling stuff off to him. He was able to catch "hey" and then everything after that was a giant ball of incoherency. Zane raised his eyebrows, genuinely trying to decipher  something, anything besides "hey." 

He got nothing. 

He could guess it was about arriving, or the house, or the people, or the contest. Maybe the guy knew he was deaf and was complaining why they'd let someone who couldn't hear music get tickets to a concert and be on a radio show. Or he could be talking about tacos. Who knew?

Zane shook his head and gave a little shrug. He signed 'deaf' which, thankfully, was a pretty obvious sign consisting of pointing from the ear to the mouth. Sorry, bro, try again? 

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

  Ian looked up from his backpack at the approaching figure. He was a pretty young-looking guy, who looked like he actually took part in sports and knew how to use hair gel and a comb correctly. Ian fought back a frown as his heart sunk even deeper into his belly, his fingers twisting painfully on top of his backpack. He’s actually coming to talk to me, though. And he seems pretty nice.

At the thought alone, a smile snuck its way onto Ian’s face. It was hard to tell how old the guy was, but Ian took a shot in the dark and assumed he was younger than Ian himself. He sent Ian a smile, accompanied by a little wave, which Ian returned.

"Hey," he greeted, tilting his head up to look at the guy and feeling oddly small and large at the same time. "Crazy-fancy place, right? I feel like I’m gonna walk into a bathroom and I’ll find a pool in there or something."

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

This place, this trip, looked way more incredible than he'd imagined. He assumed there would be a hotel, maybe a really nice one, but this wasn't even close to that. This was Zane's technical home for the next however many weeks. The problem was, if it was based on his popularity with the audience, the deaf kid probably wouldn't get a huge fanbase. There was still his solution of a text-to-speech app, but he had no earthly idea how well that would work on radio. Or if it would even work at all. 

It would be his first prolonged stay completely surrounded by hearing people. No one who knew sign, unless they counted "hello" and a few obscenities. It was going to be weird, having a thought come to him to share, but no one to understand it. Zane frowned at the thought as he walked through the pristine, elegant front room. There was a pile of bags and luggage, and he added his to the pile. 

Zane took out his phone and unlocked the screen, seeing the wallpaper he'd put there as a reminder to himself. It would probably feel pretty isolating, true, but the face of the girl on the screen told him it was worth all the effort, all the awkward. Zane was sure he'd do anything to see her face light up, and when he'd told her about the concert and the tickets, her eyes had brightened and her smile had blossomed and his insides turned to goo. 

Yeah, she made it worth it. 

Plus, the house and view were amazing. If he had to be cut off from everyone else, at least he had a sweet place to stay and enjoy it. 

Zane noticed in the corner of his eye that he wasn't the only one to the side, away from everyone else. If he knew anyone might actually be able to understand him, he'd love to be in the center, meeting everyone, but at this point, it felt like a useless endeavor. He wondered why this guy chose to pull himself to the side. He didn't look like someone who loved Hollywood or LA or celebrities, or even sunlight much. But he was here, so maybe appearances weren't as they seemed for this guy. Zane gave a shrug, pocketed his phone, smiled in greeting, and gave a wave. 

This was gonna be an interesting challenge.

Entrance - No Pants/Zane

Wow… Ian had been sitting awkwardly in one of the chairs in the main entrance to ‘Lotus Mansion’ for several minutes now, and amazingly, the beautiful home had still not vanished before his eyes. Wow, wow-ow-ow.

You couldn’t have gotten farther away from his last place if you had deliberately tried. The grimy one-bedroom apartment had held only an IKEA desk that had been broken multiple times, and a creaky bed with one creaky office chair. The rest of the furniture in his ‘home’ had consisted of various stacks of boxes in various states of unpacked or stuffed. The floor had been cheap tile that was always filthy and covered in dustballs, and the lighting had been poor. Living in his apartment had certainly taken its toll on his health, as he sat slumped and bulging against the elegant light-green chairs that seemed to be made for dainty Victorian women and not a modern computer geek. His skin was not an endearing, romantic pale, but a sort of sickly yellow hue, the veins at his wrists and neck showing up colorful, as though signaling for help and better nutrition than his current balanced diet of microwaveable food and whatever delivered cheaply in his hometown.

Now he was suddenly in this world of graceful wrap-around porches, enormous rooms meant just for beauty, high ceilings and large windows letting in tons of light. That was why Ian sat awkwardly, his large hands clutching his fully-stuffed backpack as he watched newcomer after newcomer wander in. Why are they all so pretty?! This is supposed to be a radio show, right? No one cares what you look like. But all of them seemed to glow with colorful, different, normal personalities. The kind of personalities that sauntered up to front desks, dipped down their shades and coolly demanded to be served with style. The kind that drove nice cars, not biked their way to the gas station to buy a box of tissues to replace the toilet paper he couldn’t afford.

No matter how he looked at it, this was a mistake. Ian clutched his backpack fearfully, his hands quivering. No matter how you looked at it, the neon light was blazing over his head, saying, you don’t belong here.

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

I haven't read anything you wrote in like 4.5 million years :c I did not know this was a thing. But yes ok that story. lol

Ehh.. .you tend to know people in your grade/subject area best.You share planning times together and lunch times together, and that's when you usually go "omg my second block drove me craaazy today" and "yay today's lesson was fun!" and stuff like that. The male teachers tend to have a closer bond than the female teachers because there are fewer of them. (putting it under a read-more because wow this was long)

If the public school is small, we can assume it is in a very rural town, as public schools are based off of population of that area. (Having grown up in an urban area, most of my classes had between 30 and 35 students. My graduating class in the smaller town was still a class of around 700-800 kids.) Socioeconomic status says the majority of rural areas have students from single income homes and/or they receive free/reduced lunch. Rural schools tend to struggle with keeping up with technology and often do not qualify for government aid, though they should, so the school may be worn out and their textbooks/supplies might be outdated. This would especially annoy a social studies person, since history is always changing/progressing!

He may be friendly with his kids, but he must be sure to refrain from BEING their friend, even if he is much more at ease around them. (I am of a similar mind.) He'd have discipline problems out the wazoo and kids not caring at all if he became their friend. Though the kids will likely confuse his easy manner with them for friendship. (He could also get fired if the principal found he wasn't exercising any authority, but that depends on the principal.) 

 Many students view a social studies class (history, geography, civics, etc.) as a "gimme" class, ie it is an easy A. Many students expect it to be primarily lecture-based and believe they can easily zone out because the lecture is bound to be dull. Students often expect the teacher to rely excessively on documentary rather than using it as supplement to the curriculum. Also, kids always think history classes are the best time to sleep. lol. (: 

Many history classes are heavily writing-based, even in middle school. DBQs are the popular thing right now too-- give a kid a historical document and they basically write short answer/essay responses from prompts probing the document. Probably nothing new but it seems to have gotten VERY popular in the last few years.

And yes, there is a wonderful, blissful routine. ^_^ haha. I love that. The only times that is disrupted are for drills/emergencies. 

Also, getting a sub is a royal pain so we tend to go to work sick even if we feel like death, because finding a sub/making sub plans is even worse. :P haha

um yeah ok that's stuff about school idk

did any of that essay help? lol

ooc

  haha No, it’s okay, his profile is hard to read. XD He’s from the Divergence story I worked up ages ago, based around a communist state and a wacky teacher? Yeah, that’s my baby. :3

Ummmmm, how about… what’s the environment like, between a teacher and students, or a teacher and other teachers? Toby works at a public middle school, so I imagine that makes a difference. It’s a relatively small school too, if that changes anything. Is daily life relatively routine or what? What is the typical stigma that, say , a teacher for History or Government classes might have to deal with, as your best guess?

He’s a bit of an outsider to his fellow teachers, I think, because he isn’t very good socially, plus he gets along better with people the age of his students than anything. lol But I do think it’d be good to know what kind of stimga he’d be faced with, at least hypothetically.

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

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mytinymustard replied to your post:OOC: thoughts for post-grad charries

My Toby teaches middle-school level, so if you feel up to giving me a run-down of what daily life is like and whatnot, feel free. :3

what no I even looked three times at his profile

noooo

I fail at reading comprehension

but yes I can do that seeing as I teach middle school and stuff. XD what do you want to know??

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

OOC: thoughts for post-grad charries

Yo! So kudos to the handful of educator-type characters! I am super excited to interact with them, because yaaay people who love knowledge and learning. <3 

One of my IRL besties is currently getting her PhD and working towards professorship, and I get to hear a whole bunch about the process and what qualities/requirements universities look for in potential professors. (The rules are very different for community colleges, but I know about that, as well, having looked into it myself.)  

So, please feel free to ask me if you are unsure about anything in regards to academia. If I don't know the answer, I can ask and find out, but I've learned a lot about it this past year, so I think I can help! (: 

Also, for our one HS teacher, if you have any teacher-questions, I can help with that, too. ^_^ Public, private, or other school setting, I'm relatively educated in multiple school settings. :3 

[notthatbritishsingerguy-blog]

Retreat Entry Form

Name: Zane Hebert

Age: 22

Gender: I wanted to think of a sardonic way to answer this but I have nothing to say besides "male." 

Occupation: Aspiring Deaf thespian (also known as begrudgingly unemployed)

Fun fact: I actually know who One Direction is, because my hearing friend's sisters kept making comments about my name. ...All right, that one isn't very good. How about this: I have made a complete plan to counterattack zombies should the undead ever attack. 

Why should we pick you? Give a brief description as to why you should be considered for the retreat sweepstakes. One of the best people I've ever known is a sweet, beautiful girl who also doubles as the biggest Veritas fan ever. She can't participate herself, for reasons I won't get into, but if I can help her get even a slim chance of living her dream of seeing them in person, then I will jump at that chance like white on rice. And if I can make it on a radio show somehow, then it'll open a lot more doors for deaf performers, which is also a nice bonus! (Get ready to hear a lot of my phone reading my texts aloud and "me" sounding like Stephen Hawking, not that I'll care about the sound of that. :P)