#Five Most Popular programming jobs

[foldingfittedsheets]

The mattress company I worked for the first time no longer exists. It was long ago eaten and assimilated by a bigger company. But when I started it was an incredibly intense five weeks of training. I was told I was extremely lucky to be selected, and I was. From a pool of a hundred applicants only fifteen of us made the cut to entering the training program.

The course covered how to talk to customers, how to ask open ended questions, how to close a sale, and product knowledge. I learned a lot, and truthfully my greatest takeaway was a lot of social scripts that I could use in other areas of my life.

We also had a midterm exam and a final. Both included a roleplay element with a trainer and a written portion. They told us when we started that the course was challenging but it was still a shock to come in after the midterm and realize half the class had failed.

I was named valedictorian of training- a dubious honor as it meant I’d done the best in the class, but popular lore had it that valedictorians struggled the most on the sales floor. Lo, I struggled.

Not because I wasn’t good. I was. But because my manager set out to systematically destroy my self esteem. Every sale, every interaction I had was scrutinized and criticized.

If I sold a bed with protectors, moveable base, and pillows he’d ask why I hadn’t managed to sell pillow protectors too. His first trainee had thrived on being challenged and he’d never bothered to learn a different way to coach.

It was wretched. My performance started strong but nosedived after a few weeks with him. My trainer, a man I loathed for stonewalling me in my interview, came in to inform me I was on new hire probation. If I couldn’t get my sales numbers up I’d be let go.

His actual phrasing was, “When you have a bandaid do you like to rip it off or pull it slowly?”

Since it was eminently obvious why he was visiting and because I thought it was condescending I sweetly informed him that I liked to soak my bandaids in hot water so they come off on their own.

He was briefly startled at this derailing but then got on with the bad news. I signed some forms stating that I understood my job was in peril.

I went home furious. I thought long and hard about why I wasn’t succeeding and how frustrated I was with my manager. I came in the next day and my anger had crystallized into a cold sharp edge.

My manager opened his mouth to address the probation and I snapped, “Just leave me alone. Go in the back if I have a sale. If you must address a serious issue then you will give me praise on two things I did right and present it as a compliment sandwich. Otherwise just say good job and shut up. Your constant nitpicking just makes me anxious and I do worse. Back off.” Belated and begrudging I added, “Please.”

He raised his eyebrows in dim surprise but I’d gauged him well. He backed off. Dutifully he’d meander into the back when I had a sale and praised me when I closed it. I resented knowing it was only because I’d demanded complimented but they still boosted me up. My numbers skyrocketed, I landed my first split king sale, and I exited probation with flying colors.

The trainer came back in to congratulate my manager for turning things around. To my gratification he gave me credit for setting him straight and said I’d taught him a different way to lead. My manager would often genuinely praise that moment when I’d stood up to him, impressed with my stubborn refusal to fail and my insight into what would help.

My biggest takeaway from the whole thing was just that people need positive reinforcement to succeed. Praise people for doing a good job. If you’re ever in a position where you need to criticize someone put it in a compliment sandwich instead of just saying the negative.

[the-starlight-writer]

Welcome to The Hyacinth Cafe~!

[Alt text: A banner with the words "The Hyacinth Cafe" in large title font and the subheading "An aroace dating sim visual novel by rawnoodlings" beneath it in smaller print.] Game Description:

Micah, a young programmer two steps away from being a shut-in, gets dragged out by his best (and only friend) Laurie to a local butler cafe after she wins their bi-annual lottery. This lucky win gets her free access to the cafe's top five most popular butlers, all with different styles and approaches to their job of keeping people company, for an in-cafe chat and off-site date.  "You're going to learn how to talk to people, and men, so help me God."  Our Micah is aspec and arospec, not caring enough to figure it out properly, but more than that, he is so poorly socialised that in order to figure out if he feels love or lust, he needs to interact with more people! Laurie, knowing this, thrusts him headfirst into the chance of a lifetime by nominating him in her place!

Screenshots!

Game Details!

Nonbinary (he/him/they) Black protagonist

5 character routes (plus 1 secret route), one major bad end

Each character route splits into two possible endings based on your choices and the temperament of each character!

Go on dates with hot men from an aroace-spec perspective and explore the breadth of human connection and how so many people experience it!

Character Art and CGs by rawnoodlings Story and programming by rawnoodlings Backgrounds by Rachel Chen and others Background Music by Asobeat

Demo is available for download on my itch.io here:

[jellybeanium124]

pathetic vent post lol

so the thursday before last, one of my coworkers told me she's quitting bc she got a job in the field she wants to have a career in. I was happy for her and told her so, but I also felt kind of sad, because she's a woman close in age to me and I've been thinking we could be friends if I wasn't technically her boss for a little while now. so finally near the end of our shifts (we were closing) I buck up and ask if her she'd want to exchange contact info and stay in touch and hang out after she left.

and y'all she looked so happy and excited to be asked that. absolutely 0 hints that her delighted response wasn't genuine. so she puts her number in my phone, and even takes a silly picture for the contact pic, and I send a test text and she responds to confirm it's her correct number.

on monday I text her about hanging out later in the week, with ideas. on tuesday I text her again, with new ideas if she didn't like my first ones. I didn't mean to double text two days in a row.

nothing.

I wait till yesterday and send her one last text, explaining that I really do wanna be friends, I am more chill outside of work and she's only seen Work Nina if that's what she's worried about, but that I don't wanna bother her.

it's been over 24 hours now, and nothing. part of me wonders if she changed her mind and blocked my number.

it's just really disheartening because I've had another person string me along and then not respond/continually cancel on me pretty recently. after my college friend group broke up thanks to the serial sexual predator (which is a whole nother story, dw he didn't do anything to me, in fact he refused to talk to me the first time we met when I introduced myself and tried to make polite small talk, and I realized several months later that he didn't engage with me at all because he didn't wanna fuck me 🙃) things have been kind of dire in the irl friends department and it's sad and pathetic and I thought finally here was a girl I really connected with, and she liked gossiping with me at work, and she seemed really really excited at the possibility of being real friends with me, and then nope... not a single response to any of my texts. zip nada zilch.

it's just hard... I was basically socially rejected by everyone in my film program at my uni, then I finally started to make friends at the jewish club and a serial predator with an apartment full of guns who sells stolen lego sets on ebay and does cocaine ruins that, and then I'm at work and now that I'm a manager I'm the boss of most people there and I wouldn't be close friends with most of them anyways and the one girl who I think I could be really close friends with fucking ghosts me after I was brave enough to ask if she'd wanna be friends. it's been like five straight years of rejection for me. I always had friends in k-12, I wasn't a "popular kid" but I was well liked among the venn diagram of gays, nerds, theater kids, and band kids and I had a lot of friends in high school. I don't fucking know what happened. and now I'm on meds that are finally giving me energy and happy chemicals so I wanna go out, I wanna do stuff, I wanna walk around, and I don't wanna be an apartment slug anymore but I don't have anyone to do anything with and there's only so much fun you can have by yourself. and I'm still too shy to go to a bar alone because I know I'll stand in the corner paralyzed by social anxiety. I'm trying bumble bff rn but I'm so shit at responding to people and I kinda hate myself for it and I'm trying to do better but I keep not responding to people for too long and yeah maybe my ex-coworker is stuck in that cycle too idk.

oh yeah and the whole past year of antisemitism makes everything worse because I'm deeply realistically afraid that any goyim I meet are going to be hateful hamasniks <3 so that's a fun lil bonus.

jesus man... idfk. it's just shitty. it's just fucking shitty.

[hauntedparaclassics]

Five Spooky Paranormal Shows To Watch on Sling Freestream

Mark Schiff - May 8, 2025

Sling Freestream has more paranormal and UFO activity than an abandoned insane asylum in New Mexico. Here are five of our favorites.

May is Zombie Awareness Month, but with new episodes of shows like The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Last of Us continuing through the end of the month, there’s plenty to watch in preparation for the eventual zombie apocalypse. Ghosts and aliens are an entirely different story. Unlike the slow-moving walking dead, poltergeists and extraterrestrials appear without warning. The thought is chilling.

Thankfully, there are a ton of paranormal shows and channels on Sling Freestream to help you prepare as much as possible. Whether ghosts or UFOs or even encounters with Bigfoot, Sling Freestream can arm you with the knowledge you’ll need in the event of a spectral encounter or alien abduction. Here are five of our favorite paranormal shows on five different Sling Freestream channels specializing in metaphysical mysteries. To start watching this programming and hundreds of other channels on Sling Freestream, use the link below to create your free account.

Ghost Hunters Channel

The closest thing to a real life Ghostbusters, the Ghost Hunters ain’t afraid of no ghost…or really anything, considering how spooky their job sites are, with or without poltergeists. This long-running series has aired on a number of different networks – coming back from the dead, ironically – but it has always centered around the team at TAPS, or The Atlantic Paranormal Society. It has also created a number of offshoots and most people generally consider it the grandfather of ghost hunting shows.

Kindred Spirits (Ghosts are Real)

Speaking of Ghost Hunters spin-offs, Kindred Spirits stars TAPS members Adam Berry and Amy Bruni, and ran for seven seasons and 71 episodes. Part paranormal show/ part travel show, Kindred Spirits finds the duo – often joined by psychic medium Chip Coffey – investigating haunted homes all across America.

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (UnXplained Zone)

Spoiler alert: The secret of Skinwalker Ranch is that some crazy paranormal and UFO activities have taken place there. We don’t need to use the word “allegedly,” because owner Brandon Fugal and his team have exhaustively documented all of the strange goings-on since he purchased the ranch. A big part of the reason the series has become so popular – it returns for its sixth season on HISTORY in June – is its careful attention to the science behind these unexplainable phenomena. Check out our 2023 interview with Fugal in the video above.

Most Haunted (So…Real)

If a place was even a little haunted, we’d never set foot inside it, so you have to tip your hat to these brave investigators who go creeping around the most haunted places. Like Ghost Hunters, the title explains the premise, but Most Haunted’s 2002 premiere in England actually predates Ghost Hunters by two years. And because they’re mostly exploring locations in the United Kingdom, there’s often a more ghoulish history behind these paranormal investigations than you’ll find in their American counterparts.

Weird or What? (Alien Nation by Dust)

Sci-fi icon William Shatner hosts this catch-all series that focuses on a potpourri of paranormal phenomena (Weird or What? is titled as a question, but the answer is always the former). From medical mysteries and mind control to alien encounters and odd animals, Shatner guides viewers through a variety of strange and inexplicable mysteries. For even more of William Shatner’s mind-blowing investigations, check out The UnXplained on UnXplained Zone.

Source: Sling TV

[jpitha]

Signal Rockets

Here's a little side story that takes place a little bit after Just a Little Futher. If you read my previous work it'll be a fun treat, but it's also a stand alone story - you're not missing much by reading it alone.

The far border of human space is a boring place to be stationed. The other 'side' of human space borders the K'laxi and the Xenni, two of the other sapient species we've met so far. In the other direction, for light-years around as near as we can tell, is... nothing.

It's part of the reason that for centuries Humanity thought they were alone in the universe. We're so far away from other species that it took pure luck to even meet them the first time.

Regardless, there are reasons to be over in the hinterlands. Research to be done, and to have a presence just to really say "our space ends here."

Research Station Peering Depths was one of those places. There were twenty five humans, 5 K'laxi and the station AI onboard and that was it. They spent their time gazing into the deep past of the universe, trying to learn as much as they could. Sure, wormhole generators made it so that human space was a lot smaller than it used to be, but there were still many things to be learned by peering into deep time.

The K'laxi onboard were part of a research exchange program. They were all recent graduates and jumped at the opportunity to spend a year on a human research station. They were prepped before about what kind of a job it would be but they signed on anyway. The chance to do some Real Science with their human allies was too good of an opportunity to pass up, even if it meant spending a year away from friends and family and having to eat what few humans foods were compatible. They ate a lot of waffles and pancakes.

Everyone spent their days studying their long range telescopes, writing about what they found, editing and collating their works and once a month, linking a beacon back with their data. There was little drama onboard and a lot of time to pass. Most of the day to day operations of the station itself was handled by the AI. Everyone trained in fire protection of course, but the Depts was small enough that the AI could handle everything.

They were about six months in to the rotation when Peering Depths pinged Commander Terry Temlin. He was the human commander this rotation and officially the lead scientist. The research station was a civilian affair and officially had no weapons. "Commander Temlin, I sense a energy spike that matches the profile of someone linking in."

"Oh?" Terry looked down at his pad. He was in the canteen eating his lunch. "I don't recall anyone being scheduled to visit for the next month."

"I agree Terry, that's why I pinged you. Long range scanners indicate it's a Starjumper, and it seems to be stricken."

Terry's fork stopped halfway to his mouth "What? It's stricken?"

"Yes. It's reactors are wildly out of sync and its power output has increased over fifteen percent since it has first appeared on my radar. Additionally, my scopes show large burn marks and what I surmise is active fire onboard."

Starjumpers were the oldest of the human ships. Most were built before humanity developed their wormhole generators, shrinking the galaxy. They were built to soar between the stars at half the speed of light or greater, 'jumping' between the stars. Once wormhole generators were developed, they installed them, but they retained some of their former fame and popularity. It was an event when a Starjumper linked into your system.

"Sound General Alert, Depths. We need to see if we can help."

"Aye Commander. General Alert"

The hooting siren of General Alert was heard throughout the small research station. Everyone ran to the canteen - the largest gathering place - and milled about while they waited for stragglers. Nobody here was officially military, but everyone knew what the alarms were and what to do when they sounded.

Commander Temlin cleared his throat. "We have potentially a situation. A Starjumper just linked in-" murmurs from the crowd "-and appears to be damaged. Peering Depths says their reactors are going wild and it might be on fire-" the murmurs increased in volume "-quiet please! We're going to reach out and offer assistance. Everyone trained in first aid head down to the infirmary. Someone turn one of our scopes on them and see if we can resolve more information. Depths?"

"Yes Commander?"

"Do we know which Starjumper it is?"

"I initiated an initial handshake with them. They are known currently as Wildfire."

Terry looked up at the ceiling. Lots of people did when they were talking to the AI even though it really wasn't up there. "I don't suppose you know them?"

"I'm sorry Commander, I've never had the honor to meet Wildfire."

"Okay, let them know we can assist if needed."

"Aye Commander."

Commander Terry made his way up to the small Command Deck on the Depths. It was used rarely, but he felt that it was important to be there while the emergency was ongoing. As he sat in the unfamiliar artificial leather of the Commander's chair, Depths pinged again.

"Commander, two more wormholes have been detected. Wildfire seems to be under attack. I do not recognize the ships attacking Wildfire, but they appear to be of Human make."

"What?" Terry looked at the display ahead of him in shock. "You can't track a wormhole link, how did they know where Wildfire would be? Which human group would be attacking a Starjumper?"

"Both of those questions cannot be answered at this time."

Terry's screens where overwhelmed with a flash of white, and for a moment, he thought that Wildfire was destroyed. Instead, Wildfire appeared next to Peering Depths, nearly at docking distance. The massive ship dwarfed the research station. It felt like it could swallow Peering Depths whole. For just a moment, Terry was disappointed that there was no noise in space. He felt like a move like that should have a noise like a thunderclap.

"Peering Depths! Peering Depths! This is Wildfire! I am under attack by the forces of Empress Melody. They are pressing the attack and I am ordering my biological crew to abandon me."

Terry stood. "Wildfire. This is Commander Terry Temlin of the research station Peering Depths. Of course we will take your crew, but isn't that a decision that your captain needs to make?"

Wildfire sounded testy, as if they had to explain this a few times already. "The captain is dead, and as War Emergency Power has been officially unleashed, I am exercising my right to complete my mission, save the crew, and myself in that order. My wounds are mortal, but I should be able to hold off the two Super Dreadnoughts. Prepare to receive escape pods."

Terry called to the staff and told them to be ready to accept the escape pods. True to his word, Wildfire started shedding pods as soon as the audio connection was closed. A dozen pods streaked between the two vessels as the Super Dreadnaughts linked in and began hammering Wildfire with energy weapons.

"Pods away! I'll hold them off and give you a chance to escape."

"Escape? We're a research station, we don't have anything more than station-keeping thrusters."

Wildfire sounded surprised. "How did you get here? Don't you have a wormhole generator?"

Peering Depths chimed in here. "We were towed to this location. We have the plans and surplus mass to print a wormhole generator, but we don't keep one active."

"Shit. All right. I'll hold them off. You signal for help. Do not send the beacon to Sol. Send it to Parvati."

Now that was nearly too much. Terry threw his pad down onto the armrest of his chair. "Wildfire, what is going on. What's happening in Sol? Who is 'Empress Melody'?"

"I really can't explain the whole thing right now. Suffice to say, a person claiming to be the Empress of... everyone linked in a month ago and has a fleet of these Super Dreadnoughts to back up her wild claim. Some of us Colonial AIs have mounted a defense, but as you can see-" The audio cut out as Wildfire linked away in another blinding flash of white.

For the first time, Terry could see the two Super Dreadnaughts. He could barely believe what he was seeing. They were as large, if not larger than a Starjumper, fully 4 kilometers long. Not only that, but they appeared to have control surfaces on the outside. "Are they atmospheric?" Terry's voice was tinged with awe.

"They appear so Commander. One of them is wheeling about to confront us."

Terry frantically opened communications. "Unknown ship! Unknown ship! This is the unarmed research station Peering Depths. We have taken on Wildfire's crew after they abandoned ship and are offering them medical care and refuge. We are unarmed, I repeat unarmed and offer no threat to you."

After a moment, the massive ship replied with video and audio. On his screen Terry saw... a K'laxi, wearing a royal blue uniform, with gold piping on the sides. Next to... her he thought, was a crew made up of other sapient species he had never seen before. He didn't see any humans in range of the camera.

"Peering Depths, this is Builder Um'reli, of the Calamity Class Super Dreadnought Hamilton. You are housing prisoners of war and are accused of aiding the enemy."

Terry muted the audio and looked up again. "Depths, what is going on?"

"I wish I knew, Terry. We should concentrate on survival right now."

Terry nodded and shakily turned his audio back on.

"Builder Um'reli. I am Commander Temlin, the lead scientist here, and I cannot agree to your claims. We're a research station. We've been out of contact for six months now, and have no idea what's going on back home. Wildfire linked to us severely damaged and asked for help to save their crew, and we took them on. We have no quarrel with you, and have no weapons."

While they were talking, the other large dreadnought had already turned and linked away, presumably to give chase to Wildfire. How did they do that? Terry supposed he might learn one day.

"Peering Depths. If you link back to Sol immediately and surrender to the Imperial Systems, you shall be spared. As you have no-doubt surmised, we have the ability to trace wormhole links and will know if you link elsewhere. We will pursue and destroy you."

"Builder Um'reli that is a... generous offer, but I must inform you that we have no wormhole generator. We have the mass and plans to print one, but it will be a week before we can leave."

Anther pause. It appeared that Um'reli had muted her audio and was in animated conversation with someone else on her command deck.

"Peering Depts. We have a spare wormhole generator and will deliver it to you. We will assist with it's installation and follow you back to Sol."

Terry sighed. It wasn't like he had a choice. "Very well, Builder. Please send the wormhole generator and the installation crew at your nearest convenience. We will be ready to meet them."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jessica Glenza at The Guardian:

A bill introduced by the US senator Bernie Sanders would dramatically expand access to oral healthcare by adding dental benefits to Medicare and enhance them in Medicaid, public health insurance programs that together cover 115 million older and lower-income Americans.

Despite Americans’ reputation for the flashy “Hollywood smile”, millions struggle to access basic dental care. One in five US seniors have lost all their natural teeth, almost half of adults have some kind of gum disease and painful cavities are one of the most common reasons children miss school. “Any objective look at the reality facing the American people recognizes there is a crisis in dental care in America,” Sanders told the Guardian in an exclusive interview. “Imagine that in the richest country in the world.” Nearly 69 million adults and almost 7 million children lack dental insurance. For those who have insurance, costs are often opaque and high. Multi-thousand-dollar bills are so common that the nation’s largest professional organization for dentists, the American Dental Association (ADA), signed an exclusive partnership with a medical credit card company. In 2019, more than 2 million Americans went to the emergency room for tooth pain, a 62% increase since 2014, and a crisis of affordability pushed an estimated 490,000 Americans to travel to other countries such as Mexico for lower-cost dental care.

“The issue of dental care is something we have been working on for years,” said Sanders. “It is an issue I think tens of millions of Americans are deeply concerned about, but it really hasn’t quite gotten the media attention it deserves.” Sanders said he had seen how poor dental health can affect every aspect of a person’s life – he described constituents who cover their mouths when they laugh or have been turned down for jobs because of missing teeth. Sanders said he recognized the importance of the issue by attending town halls in his home state of Vermont, “and learning how hard it is to get dental care, how expensive it is and [how] dental insurance [is] totally inadequate”. “Having bad teeth or poor teeth is a badge of poverty,” said Sanders. “It becomes a personal issue, a psychological issue, an economic issue as well.”

Sanders’ bill expands dental coverage by adding comprehensive benefits to Medicare; incentivizing states to improve dental benefits through Medicaid; and providing dental benefits to veterans through the Veterans Administration. Additionally, the bill would attempt to tackle some states’ dentist shortage by creating student loan forgiveness programs for dentists who practice in underserved areas, and increasing funding to non-traditional places to see dentists, including at community health centers and schools. Expanding dental coverage is exceedingly popular – recent polls show 92% of voters support the proposal, including an overwhelming majority of Republicans. Sanders said his proposal was good policy and “very good politics”.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has proposed a bill called the Comprehensive Dental Reform Act that would dramatically increase coverage for dental care for Medicaid and Medicare patients.

[unfedmanips]

hi everyone. yes, i am back due to popular demand. i hope everyone has been doing good! i know i know… everyone’s probably wondering “where have you been drella?” well… funny story. i’ve been so busy with life that i just haven’t been able to come to tumblr.com nor have i been able to do any manips, crackships, or gif manips. time is not on my side. regardless of that, i have come baring good and bad news. 1) i have not forgotten about this account and i will be posting more 2) i am doing commissions (finally!). though… here’s the kicker. i will only be accepting the maximum of five totally free manips every week (yes.. only 5) and once those spots fill up, i will not be taking anymore and the others ones will be accepted once i am finished with commissions. with that being said, this does not mean that i am going full commissions 24/7. there will be sometimes where i can make special deals and offers to some. and maybe sometimes if my commission box is completely empty and completed (as well as the other 5 freebies) our scheduled program will be back in full swing! that is until i get other commissions.

here are some ground rules though - first and foremost, all prices that are listed are not final and can negotiated. but, it’s more than likely that i will not budge on the prices for gif manips. so please keep in mind of that. i understand that money is tight for everyone right now (including me… which is why i am doing this) so i am more than understanding if you have reasons as to why you can’t pay full price. i can go halfway with you. but most of my prices are fairly priced and cheap in my humble opinion.

manip payment

one manip will be priced at $2 two manips will be priced at $3 three manips will be priced at $5

crackship payment

one crackship will be priced at $3 two crackships will be priced at $5 three crackships will be priced at $7

gif manip payment

one gif manip will be priced at $5 two gif manips will be priced at $8 three gif manips will be priced at $10

once again, prices can be negotiated if need be. though, once again. highly unlikely for gif manips - they take a lot of effort and energy, and a lot of time. more time = more pay. i know i know.. i’m sorry.

also, please know that when you submit a commission, please just private message me. we can discuss what you want, and we can go from there. i do not have buymeacoffee (desperately tried to get one, but for some reason i’m having problems… anyways). regardless of that, all payments will be taken from cashapp or paypal. i

almost forgot to mention, that when you request a crackship or a gif manip - please tell me exactly what you want. i need specifics to find the exact thing you want. for example: “can you do a gif manip (or crackship) of jung da-bin in extracurricular and park ji-hoon in weak hero class? thank you!” it will make my job 100xs easier. you can request more than three if you so desire, but the prices will obviously be higher.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Friday

SpaceTime 20240830 Series 27 Episode 105

Discovery of the heaviest antimatter hyper-nucleus ever created

Physicists from the STAR Collaboration have for the first time observed a new antimatter hyper-nucleus called anti-hyperhydrogen-4.

Rocket engine explodes during UK spaceport test A rocket engine exploded spectacularly during a hot fire first stage test at Britain's new SaxaVord spaceport in northern Scotland.

Why food tastes bad in space

A new study may help explain why astronauts are constantly reporting that their meals taste bland in space.

The Science Report

Five percent of people are consuming products that are potentially toxic to their livers.

The robotic glove that will help people who need hand rehabilitation.

Your social position – income and job – could be linked to your food preferences.

Skeptics guide to the accuracy of ghost hunts

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[smthliminal]

⸻ ✧ 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 ⟨ the details ⟩

Name: Nicola Grimm

Nicknames: Nic

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 36

Neighborhood: Lakeside

Occupation: software engineer

Orientation: bisexual

Status: single

Residency: 3 years

⸻ ✧ 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘 ⟨ the past ⟩

In Rochester, Nicola was brought into the world by Robin and Stella Grimm. Her father was a renowned surgeon and her mother a hospital administrator, raising her alongside two siblings she was smack in the middle of. The siblings were close and the home was always a happy one despite the long hours each parent tended to work. Nicola’s mother mostly made a set schedule so that she could be as present as possible in the upbringing of her children, denying her husband’s offer to hire help for her every single time he mentioned it. She didn’t believe in her children being raised by nannies nor did she want her children to become latchkey, which meant that she had to be passed up a few times when it came to promotions given that she needed to stick to a strict nine to five schedule. Stella wanted to be home every night to prepare dinner for her family and check on her children’s homework. The siblings couldn’t be any more different from each other; Nicola’s older sister was very much the girly type that was a princess as a child and a popular cheerleader when she reached her teens, whereas her younger brother was adventurous and sporty. She, herself, was the nerdy type. Nicola loved to read and had a knack for tech, she either had her nose in a book or was taking something apart and putting it back together often leaving things to run better once she was done messing with them. She was lucky in the fact that she received two great qualities from her parents, her organization from her mother and her precision from her father.

During her school years, Nicola wasn’t the popular kid, she was either in the library or the science lab. But her lack of popularity wasn’t ever a problem for her, she was never a busy body like that and she was quite overshadowed by her siblings. Her older sister was very popular and her peers were generally nice to her for that reason, although it only made living in her older sister’s shadow that much more difficult. She was beautiful and had a figure enviable of every single girl in school, she had a charm about her that was effortless which only made her appearance that much more powerful and devastating. Nicola would often look at herself in the mirror, stare at her boyish figure and wish to be a little something more, especially since it seemed to be what most people, especially in high school, seemed to put the most value into. Where Nicola had no popularity when it came to dating opportunities she made up for when it came to her scholastic achievements. She was the girl that made honor roll every quarter, was in all AP classes as well as some classes she was taking advanced at the local college, and was in programs such as GATE.

Naturally she earned a scholarship to the University of Minnesota and entered into the electrical engineering and computer science program. Nicola excelled immediately, coding and programming by then were already second nature to her given her tech abilities that had already bloomed in her early teen years. Back in those days, before her life was consumed with coursework and internships at startups and big tech companies that littered Minneapolis, she made a good living with a side hustle as a computer repair. Nicola also did some hacking, for fun, but also for a hefty fee. She did so well that she passed her undergraduate in three years and was already onto her graduate when the job offer came to work for Google. It was a job that Nicola simply could not turn down, but it was the first time her schedule really became a challenge. The demands of her new job as a software engineer and programmer were difficult to keep up with when also trying to balance out the remainder of her university education.

Somewhere along the way she’d met a man, one that was funnily enough a few years her senior. He was a bit of an opposite to her; outgoing and charismatic, a university sport’s star that was going places, someone that was no doubt the popular heartthrob type. It was a huge wonder to Nicola how she’d caught his attention but they seemed to compliment each other because of that. Before she knew it she was married and they were living in a home in Pennsylvania, where he had been drafted to post university to play for the Flyers, and she had been thrilled for his success and rise to stardom as he accomplished his dreams. The things she wanted were put on hold and Nicola saw no issue with making that sort of compromise, she figured she was young and had plenty of time. She never would have guessed that someone that had seemed so devoted to her would betray her by cheating on her with another woman. Her husband couldn’t make it home one night, their anniversary, and when she’d called him another woman answered his phone. It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. They’d been struggling for some time. Day by day, he grew more and more disinterested in her and their marriage.

When he didn’t fight the divorce and quietly signed the papers, Nicola knew she had done the right thing, as much as it had devastated her. Maybe she had never been good enough for him in the first place and this had all been some big cosmic joke. The women that surrounded him at games, the other player’s wives and girlfriends, well — they looked more like her sister. They were all stunning and model types or could’ve been. Whereas Nicola was small and awkward, the geek who nerded out over tech. After she left, she went to California, working at the massive Google campus in Silicon Valley. It was only a week after the ink had sealed the finality of their divorce that Nicola had discovered that she was pregnant. Deciding that her then ex-husband didn’t deserve it and likely wouldn’t want to have a family with her since he hadn’t wanted her in the end, Nicola kept the pregnancy to herself and eventually raised a son on her own.

The way to Woodside was because of her mother. Stella had been born and raised in the coastal Michigan town and since her father had passed she’d moved back to her origins. When Stella became ill Nicola packed up and moved to Woodside to take care of her ailing mother with her son. By then she’d moved on from Google and had begun working for Dock Yard, Inc and also for a security company in their software and web solutions department. Like father, like son however her boy had a natural inclination and talent for hockey. Now she’s a mom rink side and back in familiar territory she never thought she’d be again.

[sarkariresultdude]

Meeting Healthcare Demands: Evaluating the Outcomes of Doctor Recruitment 2024

 Recruiting certified doctors is a vital enterprise for any healthcare institution because it immediately influences the quality of affected person care, the organization’s recognition, and its operational efficiency. This file provides information on the effects of the current medical doctor recruitment force, highlights key metrics, describes the demanding situations confronted, and provides tips for destiny recruitment strategies.

Doctor Recruitment Result 

Overview of the Recruitment Process

The recruitment drive was initiated to fill 20 vacancies throughout a couple of specialties, together with popular remedy, pediatrics, surgical operation, and obstetrics. The procedure spanned three months and worried a multi-step choice manner:

Job Posting and Outreach: Positions have been marketed through nationwide and regional scientific forums, social media systems, healthcare task portals, and college networks.

Screening Applications: A committee reviewed over 400 programs to ensure applicants met the qualifications and experience criteria.

Interviews and Skill Assessments: 80 shortlisted applicants underwent technical interviews, position-play situations, and patient care simulations.

Offer Negotiation and Onboarding: Successful candidates were presented with contracts tailored to their experience and negotiated phrases inclusive of relocation benefits and continuing education allowances.

Recruitment Outcomes

Candidate Metrics

Applications Received: 412

Eligible Applications: 350 (eighty five%)

Interviewed Candidates: eighty

Offers Extended: 22

Offers Accepted: 18

The recruitment power did a ninety% fill price, with most vacancies in standard remedy and surgical treatment correctly closed. However, some specialized roles in neonatology and oncology remained unfilled due to a scarcity of qualified applicants.

 Candidate Demographics

Gender Distribution: 60% male, forty% woman

Experience Levels:

forty% had 5–10 years of revel in.

35% had been early-career professionals (2–five years).

25% had more than 10 years of enjoy.

Geographic Reach: 70% of decided-on candidates have been home, even as 30% were international hires, by and large from neighboring countries with similar healthcare systems.

Time to Hire

The common time to close a vacancy changed into 45 days, aligning with industry benchmarks. However, specialized roles took longer, averaging 60–75 days.

Key Achievements

 Enhanced Candidate Quality

Through focused outreach and rigorous screening, the great of hires stepped forward compared to preceding recruitment cycles. Most candidates demonstrated superior medical talents and a robust alignment with the group's patient-centric values.

Improved Diversity

Efforts to attain a much broader candidate pool caused more gender and geographic variety amongst recruits, enriching the workforce’s cultural competence and ability to serve diverse affected person populations.

Streamlined Process

Investments in an applicant tracking machine (ATS) decreased administrative workload and stepped forward conversation with applicants, ensuring a smoother recruitment revel.

Challenges Encountered

Shortage of Specialists

Despite widespread outreach, sure specialties—in particular neonatology, oncology, and anesthesiology—noticed fewer programs. This reflects broader tendencies inside the global healthcare exertions marketplace, in which the call for specialists outpaces supply.

Relocation Barriers

International candidates referred to challenges inclusive of visa processing delays, high relocation fees, and problems in securing housing, which affected their choice-making.

Competition from Other Institutions

Highly certified candidates often had multiple gives, main to a few drop-offs throughout the negotiation level. Salary competitiveness and blessings packages emerged as key differentiators.

Candidate Attrition

Four candidates prevalent however later withdrew, citing a circle of relatives' commitments or counteroffers from cutting-edge employers. This attrition impacted the final fill charge.

Lessons Learned

 Importance of Employer Branding

Candidates an increasing number of prioritized establishments with a robust popularity for professional improvement, paintings-lifestyles balance, and innovation in patient care. Strengthening the corporation’s employer brand might be crucial in attracting pinnacle talent.

 Need for Specialized Recruitment Strategies

The shortages in positive specialties underscore the want for tailor-made methods, which include partnerships with educational establishments, targeted international recruitment campaigns, and offering specialized training fellowships.

 Enhancing Candidate Experience

Feedback highlighted the need to in addition enhance the candidate revel in, mainly in the course of the onboarding technique. A clearer communique about timelines and expectations can help lessen uncertainties.

Recommendations for Future Recruitment

 Expand Outreach Efforts

Partner with medical schools, residency applications, and expert institutions to discover early-career skills.

Increase engagement with global scientific graduates (IMGs) through streamlined visa sponsorship packages.

Competitive Compensation Packages

Conduct everyday benchmarking to make sure salaries and advantages align with market requirements.

Introduce flexible work arrangements and further perks, including housing allowances or loan forgiveness programs.

 Invest in Training and Upskilling

Develop in-residence education packages to upskill medical doctors in excessive-demand specialties, creating a pipeline of talent to address destiny shortages.

 Leverage Technology

Adopt advanced analytics to become aware of trends in candidate conduct and possibilities, enabling extra-targeted recruitment strategies. Use AI-pushed equipment for initial screening to reduce time-to-hire further.

Strengthen Retention Strategies

Establish mentorship packages to help new hires, mainly global recruits.

Regularly investigate worker pride to address potential retention dangers proactively.

[tonto-splace]

14.02.2024 | 16:12

I have been reading ‘Hackers & Painters’ by Paul Graham recently. Paul is a hacker who gets pretty rich after his company which uses Lisp for development and one of the first companies used server based programs with lots of releases instead of a Desktop app. I really enjoyed this book. Even tho some parts were outdated, it makes you think about certain topics. It was more excited at start but gets kinda boring and unnecessarily longer in the end. I wanted to quote some parts i chose from the book:

While the nerds were being trained to get the right answers, the popular kids were being trained to please. (p.4)

hackers start original, and get good, and scientists start good, and get original. (p.26)

People in past times were much like us. Not heroes, not barbarians. Whatever their ideas were, they were ideas reasonable people could believe. (p.38)

scientists, or at least of the good ones, is precisely that: look for places where conventional wisdom is broken, and then try to pry apart the cracks and see what’s underneath. That’s where new theories come from. A good scientist, in other words, does not merely ignore conventional wisdom, but makes a special effort to break it. Training yourself to think unthinkable thoughts has advan- tages beyond the thoughts themselves. It’s like stretching. When you stretch before running, you put your body into positions much more extreme than any it will assume during the run. If you can think things so outside the box that they’d make people’s hair stand on end, you’ll have no trouble with the small trips outside the box that people call innovative. (p.39)

How are we to develop new technology if we can’t study current technology to figure out how to improve it? (this IBM having patent and abandoning to open their products are mentioned in the tv serie named Halt and Catch Fire too)

Authoritarian countries become corrupt; corrupt coun- tries become poor; and poor countries are weak. (p.43)

since you don’t understand the code as well, you’re more likely to fix it in an ugly way, or even introduce more bugs. (p.65, this is also what I hated on people I worked with, also please don't forget to clean the code after deletions)

It works a lot better for a small team of good, trusted programmers than it would for a big company of mediocre ones, where bad ideas are caught by committees instead of the people who had them. (p.69)

Wealth is stuff we want: food, clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so on. You can have wealth without having money. Money is a way of moving wealth, and in practice they are usually interchangeable. What most businesses really do is make wealth. They do something people want. (p.90)

Many employees would work harder if they could get paid for it. (p.97. I would)

Steve Jobs once said that the success or failure of a startup depends on the first ten employees. I agree. If anything, it’s more like the first five. Being small is not, in itself, what makes startups kick butt, but rather that small groups can be select. You don’t want small in the sense of a village, but small in the sense of an all-star team. (p.100)

Norbert Wiener said if you compete with slaves you become a slave. (p.124)

Great work usually seems to happen because someone sees something and thinks, I could do better than that. (p.145)

The word “essay” comes from the French verb “essayer,” which means “to try.” An essay, in the original sense, is something you write to try to figure something out. (p.160)

In OO languages, you can, to a limited extent, simulate a closure (a function that refers to variables defined in surrounding code) by defining a class with one method and a field to replace each variable from an enclosing scope. This makes the programmer do the kind of code analysis that would be done by the compiler in a language with full support for lexical scope, and it won’t work if more than one function refers to the same variable, but it is enough in simple cases like this. (p.197)

You can find my Goodreads account -> here

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Article Richard Eden: About the Golden Visa of Portugal (about the purchase of the Harkles house) by u/Human-Economics6894

Article Richard Eden: About the Golden Visa of Portugal (about the purchase of the Harkles house) Pay attention to thisPortugal's Golden Visa program was one of the most popular residency by investment programs in Europe and the world. The program began in October 2012. Until 2023 it was enough to qualify for residency by contributing a minimum of €250,000, which is one of the lowest investment thresholds in Europe. And it was not necessary to move to Portugal to keep the residence permit. It was enough to stay in the country an average of seven days a year.But 2023 underwent changes.No, it is no longer useful to buy a property to obtain a Golden Visa.To access this benefit, you need to make the following investments:Subscription to funds:Make a contribution to a qualified investment fund for a minimum value of €500,000Artistic production or reconstruction of national heritage:Make an investment of at least €250,000Scientific research activities:Contribution to scientific research or/and maintenance of ten jobs during the required periodSocial capital and job creation:Constitution of a company or reinforcement of the share capital of a company, in both cases with an investment of €500,000, combined with the creation of five or the maintenance of ten jobs (five of them indefinite)https://portugalbuyersagent.com/portugal-golden-visa-ending/https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/portugal-golden-visa-ending/#:\~:text=The%20Portugal%20Golden%20Visa%20program%20is%20not%20coming%20to%20an,to%20qualify%20for%20the%20program.So we will have to wait for Eden to tell the gossip properly and find out what the Harkles really did. But if it is because of the Golden Visa, it is no longer useful for them to buy a house. post link: https://ift.tt/rLdImBe author: Human-Economics6894 submitted: October 16, 2024 at 08:56PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[snow-flake-writes]

Light And Dark | Part 1 | REWRITTEN

Masterlist

-ˋˏThis is the same book just rewritten into better writing. Still mostly has the same words and plot, just looks nicer and has better wording/grammarˎˊ-

⸝⸝⊂➜﹒Summary:

A full five months working with animatronics, and I’ve never seen this before. My main job is to help watch the kids in Daycare. Some people say that the animatronics don’t really have a personality. Many years have passed since the first Fazbear Pizzaria and I tend to think robots have changed.

I, myself, don’t believe that the animatronics have a full personality. Where they have their own mind. It’s not possible. They are just robots, after all.

But as days passed with my job, I noticed something different with Sunnydrop. During the day with me standing by the desk and watching the children, my eyes catch his staring right at me. It’s like he’s watching me at all times.

He seems to be more attached to me. Trying to be by my side whenever possible. One day, I stated this… uncomfortable… problem to my manager. The next day, Sunnydrop was back to being his usual self.

That is…. until I forgot a belonging of mine in the Daycare center after closing. My manager let me in to grab it as fast as possible, but something didn’t want me to leave.

⊃⸝⸝

[DISCLAIMER] — #FNAF characters belong to its rightful owner, Scott Cawthon. All that is mine is the plot and partly the reader. Most of the reader is yours, since it's you/your OC. This is also a YANDERE book, so there will be yandere themes.

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

During my full five months of working with animatronics in the Daycare, I have never encountered anything quite like this. As part of my job, I make rounds around the building during my breaks to ensure that all the kids are safe and sound. This routine has helped me build a good relationship with the animatronics.

Some people say that these animatronics do have some sort of personality. It is fascinating to watch them interact with the kids and each other. They seem to have their own quirks and habits, almost like they are alive.

It is interesting to note that the first Fazbear Pizzaria opened many years ago, and yet these robots still continue to amaze me. It is almost as if they have evolved beyond their original programming and have become something more.

Animatronics have been around for a long time now, and their popularity has only increased in recent years. While they may seem like they have their own personalities and minds, the truth is that they are just robots. As advanced as they may be, they are still programmed to behave in certain ways and react to certain stimuli.

Despite what some people may believe, animatronics do not possess full personalities. They are not capable of thinking or feeling on their own, and they do not have their own minds. Instead, they are controlled by complex programming and machinery that allows them to move, speak, and interact with their surroundings.

As days passed with my job, I noticed something different with Sunnydrop. During the day with me standing by the desk and watching the children, my eyes catch his staring right at me. It’s like he’s watching me at all times. He seems to be more attached to me. Trying to be by my side whenever possible. This behavior made me feel uncomfortable. I was not sure what to do, but I knew I had to address this issue.

One day, I decided to speak to my manager about my concerns. I explained the situation to my manager and expressed my discomfort. My manager took my complaint seriously and assured me that they would investigate the issue.

The next day, Sunnydrop was back to being his usual self.

That is…. until I forgot a belonging of mine in the Daycare Center after closing. My manager let me in to grab it as fast as possible, but something didn’t want me to leave. Walking through the empty hallways, I felt like I was being watched. Despite my nerves, I kept walking towards the room where I had left my belongings.

As I reached for the doorknob when leaving the Daycare Center, a cold metal hand slammed the door shut before I could even open it all the way. My heart was pounding as I tried to open the door again, but it wouldn't budge. I was trapped inside the Daycare Center, with no one else around.

My breathing was getting faster with the fear rising in my stomach. Turning around, I see none other than… “Sunny…?” I call out his nickname, recognizing the figure standing in front of me.

Sunny didn't say anything, but his eyes were filled with an unnerving intensity. I knew I had to get out of there, but the door was still stuck shut. I tried to push it open with all my strength, but it was no use. Sunny just stood there, watching me struggle.

“Leaving so soon?" he asked, his tone cheerful. However, I could sense a hint of darkness behind his happy personality.

I hesitated for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. "W-what are you doing?" I asked, my voice shaking a little. "It's time for the building to close, so I need to go home," I added, trying to push the fear away. I knew that those words usually sent his programs to notify him of what to do - to go back to his stage.

There was silence for a moment, and I could feel his gaze on me. 

As I stood there, frozen, I couldn't believe what was happening. Sunny, the robot I had been working with for months, was now gripping my arm with a forceful grip. His voice had turned dark and menacing, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

"You tattled on me, didn't you?" he growled, his eyes fixed on mine. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong.

"S-Sunny," I stammered, trying to use the signal words that were supposed to calm him down. "You're supposed to go back to your stage."

But Sunny didn't budge. Instead, he leaned in closer, his face inches from mine. "You know what happens to tattletales, don't you?" he whispered.

I could feel the panic rising inside me as I struggled to break free. This wasn't the Sunny I knew - the friendly, helpful robot that had helped me with my work and enjoyed playing with children. This was something else entirely.

“Naughty girls get punished.”

[billieconway]

Full name: Sybil "Billie" Alba Soto-Conway

Nicknames: Billie

Age: 34

Star sign: Leo (August 5th)

Hometown: Macon, Georgia

Occupation: Paramedic

Pronouns/Gender: She/her, cis female

Time in town: 10 years

@aurorabayaesthetic

(trigger warning: this intro contains mentions of wildfires and spousal death, proceed with caution)

-born Sybil Alba Soto, birthday August 5th, Leo to a fault

- goes by Billie (rarely tells anyone her given first name)

-raised in Macon, Georgia and has a distinctive southern accent to this day in spite of the fact that she’s been in Aurora Bay for seven years

- has four brothers, is the only girl, big loud family (mostly republican, she doesn’t wanna talk about it)

- her mother, excited to finally have a daughter, put her in several ‘toddlers in tiaras’ sort of pageants (but got freaked out by the JonBenet Ramsey case, and never put Billie in a pageant again)

- had a very normal and happy childhood, was kind of a tomboy in her earlier years due to the amount of brothers (she is grateful for it, it made her very tough)

- was very miss americana and popular in high school; cheerleader, homecoming queen, most likely to suceed etc

-originally pursued a career in nursing, moving to los angeles to complete the nursing program at UCLA 

- during her final year, she veered into paramedic training after doing a week-long shadow of a paramedic for a research paper (she moved to Aurora Bay after graduation)

 - she met her future husband, Logan Conway (who was a firefighter), on a call during her first full week of work

- after two years of dating, the two of them had a small wedding in los padres national forest (billie was 26 at the time)

- by the time they were married, logan was working as a hotshot firefighter, specifically working in wildfires across the state

- almost five years ago, in a dry california summer filled with wildfires, logan lost his life while fighting a blaze in the los padres national forest after a freak wind shifted the fire and he was overcome by it 

- widowed at 30, billie remembers very little of the immediate aftermath of logan’s death -- only that she started laughing hysterically when the funeral director asked if she wanted him cremated (she did, but god, the irony)

- she took a year off of work after logan died, spending some time back in georgia with her family and spending some time in montana with his

- once she returned to being a paramedic (roughly 3 years ago) she joined the team at aurora bay fire department as their resident paramedic/ambulance driver, so she’s usually out on calls with them 

personality

- georgia peach all the way, billie is sweet but takes no bullshit (whiskey in a teacup sort of gal)

- feels and cares deeply from the heart, which is why she’s so good at her job (but can also be a downside because everything becomes personal)

- once you’re in her life, you’re there for good. she’s the kind of gal who remembers birthdays, your mama’s name, and what kind of dessert is your favorite and will always send thank you cards and read that book or watch that show that you told her about 

- she’s done a pretty effective job at trying to move her life through the loss of her husband, finally feeling like she’s making headway and going forward. has a morbid sense of humor about the whole thing. her heart still seizes up when she sees fire fighters running towards a blaze. very tough, but absolutely has her vulnerable moments and can be caught crying in the back of her ambulance from time to time

wanted connection:

- for the love of god this girl needs friends and people to lean on when she needs it, someone come drink wine on the back deck and look at the stars with her 

- maybe someone she met through a grief support group? 

- the one poor guy who has been/will be her first date since “getting back out there” 

- friends of her late husband (he was a Montana native but lived in Aurora Bay from the ages of 20-32)

- people she’s met from her college days 

- hiking buddy

- baseball game buddy

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #117

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily (haven't missed one yet!) and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please like and reblog if you enjoy - the notes keep me going!

He's gonna be Frank with you. Read the rest of The Frank Program here on Tumblr!

“Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, this is The Frank Program. I’m Frank -”

“- and I’m Big Mike. Today’s guest is the most popular streamer on all of Twitch.TV, here in the studio we have Mr. Hellspawn!”

“How’s it going?” Hellspawn spoke softly into his microphone.

“Uh…” Frank shuffled through his notes, which Mike had prepared for him. “Wasn’t I supposed to ask you that?”

Mike patted him on the back. “Don’t worry about that, Frankie. Anyway, Mr. Hellspawn, why don’t you tell us a little about what you do for the listeners who aren’t aware?”

“Sure thing, Mike. My job is a little hard to explain, but I’ll start at the beginning. When I first started streaming, the hot thing to do was to play videogames. People want to see other people play games because it’s a social activity, at least originally, but on Twitch, it’s different. We don’t really know each other, we’re not really friends, but instead it’s more like a substitute for that. That’s why I really blew up about four years ago. Everyone was stuck inside, nowhere to go, nothing to do. They wanted some company.”

“So, uh, what makes you special, then?” Frank asked.

“If you ask me, I think I just got lucky. But I guess people liked my specific way of interacting with the audience. I’d say, ‘chat, help me out here, should I go down this tunnel or cross this bridge?’ and, you know, they’d vote on it basically.”

“That doesn’t seem so hard to understand.”

“Sure, but now it’s a little different. Instead of mostly playing games and talking to the audience here and there, people seem not to want me to play games so much anymore. I always give them the option, but whenever I put it up to a vote, my subs just want to see me doing normal everyday stuff. I’ve got cameras set up all over my house. Game room, kitchen, bedroom…”

“Bedroom?”

“Some of my fans pay for a little extra, if you catch my drift.”

Frank’s eyes popped wide open. “You’re a prostitute?!?”

“Hey, hey, hey…” Mike chuckled nervously. “How about we don’t go there, Frank?”

Frank was indignant. “It’s a simple question!”

“Yeah, no, that’s fine, guys. It’s basically an after-dark stream that costs money to watch. I don’t have sex with anyone for money.”

Frank glared at Mike. “See? It was a good question!”

“I only get a little naked. A little. But more people like to watch me cook and just chat about life. It’s kind of meditative for me, you know? I’ve got my Hell Squad over for dinner every night. And they’re happy to send me money to keep the whole thing going. I haven’t worked a traditional job since 2019, so I can spend all my time on this. Five days a week, dawn to dusk.”

“So, tell me Mr. Hellspawn, where did you come up with that name?”

“Not a lot of people know this, but I’ve had that name since kindergarten. I was a real troublemaker as a kid, and my father would always call me Mr. Hellspawn whenever I did anything he didn’t like. I don’t really talk to him anymore, but that name has stuck with me. I wear it as a badge of honor. Barely anyone in my life calls me by my legal name… which I guess he also gave me.”

Frank looked over at the empty corner. “You… don’t talk to your father anymore?”

“No, not at all. We were never very close at the best of times. He kicked me out when I was fifteen and we haven’t spoken since.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It doesn’t really bother me anymore, to be honest. He used to haunt my dreams, but… Now, I don’t think I can even remember his face.”

Frank’s hands shook. He gripped the microphone stand to keep them stationary.

Mike cleared his throat to break the dead air. “What are some of your favorite moments from your livestream?”

Hellspawn chuckled. “I think that might be when I tried making veal schnitzel from scratch. I ended up breading my hand by mistake, and the chat just kept saying, ‘glove hand! Glove hand!’ It’s become one of many inside jokes with my community.”

“And how was the schnitzel?”

“Oh, it was terrible. I had no idea what I was doing. It was like a piece of shoe leather with burnt grease on the outside. I had to order takeout.”

Frank breathed heavily. “I have to go.”

Mike was confused. “Buddy, we just got started! Do you always end your shows early?”

“I just… I can’t…”

“We can take a break -”

“No, no, no! I need to get out of here!”

“Fine! I’ll finish the damn show. I’m doing most of the work anyway. Do your closing line before you leave.”

“I… I’ve been The Frank Program. Thank you - Thank you for letting me be…” he made eye contact with Hellspawn and panicked. He quickly ran out of the studio and slammed the door.

[therecordchanger62279]

"I Drove Slash To the Car Show"

(or "It Seemed Like A Big Deal At The Time")

     I suppose we could file this post under autobiography. I don’t really do that here as a rule. Whatever I choose to reveal about myself slips out in bits and pieces in the context of other subjects. But I worked in the retail record business for close to 30 years, and my first job out of high school was as a disc jockey at a small radio station in Ohio. The radio gig was ironic, really, because I don’t have the kind of personality where I would ever want to be in the spotlight. I picked radio because I loved music, and enjoyed playing it for people. But that’s not what radio is about – certainly not now, and it really wasn’t then either.

    After about 9 months, I jettisoned my radio career for retail – specifically, the records side. I worked nearly 30 years either in record stores, or in record departments of big box stores. And in the course of doing that, I had several memorable brushes with celebrity. So, I thought I’d collect them all (or as many as I could remember) in this post. After all, this is my blog, and it’s probably going to be the only thing that survives me after I die. So why not get it on the permanent record?

     I should say, first, that I never worked in a big city, so the celebrities here were not always household names. But there were a few who are or were at the time. My instructors at radio school were all local disc jockeys who had programs at stations in Dayton, Ohio where I attended school. Most are likely forgotten today. But before we graduated, the school brought famous Cincinnati Reds pitcher and broadcaster Waite Hoyt in to speak to us. He entertained us with stories from his long career in baseball and radio. And we shook hands before he left.

     The next name was someone I actually worked for. The radio station where I was a disc jockey was WMVR AM/FM in Sidney, Ohio. That station was owned by an Ohio native, actor Dean Miller who was a member of the cast of a popular TV series called December Bride that ran from 1954-1959. I only met the man one time, and that came near the end of my tenure at the station. He showed up one morning for a staff “pep talk” designed to scare all of us into doing our jobs better so the station could be more successful. But it was the only station in a small town, and nobody was ever going to get rich from it – not the owner, and certainly not the employees. A DJ’s pay was beneath poverty level – even by the standards of 1976. In any case, his attitude towards all of us put me off, and as I’d already been considering leaving the radio business, I figured that might be the time to make my exit. Before the month was out, I moved on.

     By 1982, I was an assistant manager for the National Record Mart chain in Toledo, Ohio training at the North Towne Square Mall location. There was a musician I worked with there for just a few weeks before he exited for a very successful career as a New Age musician. His name was Tim Story, and he left the same year he released his In Another Country album for a small independent label. Five years later he was recording for New Age giant Windham Hill Records. He's still active today, has a website, a social media presence, and his discography lists 50 titles to date. I didn’t know him well, but I do remember he was a really nice guy, and I enjoyed working with him. I’m happy he was able to make a career making music.

     In 1985 I became the store manager at a National Record Mart store at the Salem Mall in Dayton, Ohio. There were two factors that were key to my several encounters with musicians while I was there. First, there was a very popular concert venue just up the street from the store named Hara Arena. In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, most of the biggest names in Rock played there when they toured the country. The other factor was that several months into my tenure there, our store became a Billboard Reporter. What that meant was that Billboard magazine called the store weekly for a list of our best-selling albums, and singles. This was during the dark ages before Soundscan was introduced, and tracked sales electronically. We got sent all the new releases, and I spoke with countless marketing companies, and record label people each week about how their product was selling.

     In the course of doing that I spoke on the phone with Ozzy Osbourne. He was calling stores to promote his live Tribute album to the late guitarist Randy Rhoads. At first, I was sure someone was pranking me, but it didn’t take long to realize it really was Ozzy on the line. (He was slurring every word.) It was brief. We exchanged pleasantries. He thanked the store for its support, and I told him we all loved the album, and played it daily in-store. I also spoke on the phone several times with singer-songwriter, guitarist Carla Olson who was working a part-time gig for an L.A. marketing company while recording, and touring with her band The Textones. I’d spoken to her a couple of times before she mentioned she was a musician, and when she told me her last name, I couldn’t believe it. She was very surprised that not only did I know her name, but I already owned her band’s first album. When the second was released, she autographed a copy, and sent it to me. She later went on to a solo career, working with both ex-Byrd Gene Clark, and ex-Stone Mick Taylor. She’s still touring, and recording today. Wonderful lady.

     Dayton is famous mainly as the birthplace of The Wright Brothers. But Dayton also birthed some of the best, and most famous Funk and R&B musicians in the world. I was working at the store one morning in 1986 when Shirley Murdock walked up to the counter to buy some albums. I recognized her immediately because her debut, self-titled album on Elektra was one of our best-sellers. I confess to being a bit star-struck in the moment. Not only did we play her record in-store all the time, and loved it, but she was stunning to look at. I remember saying to her, “You’re Shirley Murdock aren’t you?” She shyly nodded she was, and I told her how much we all loved her record, and how well it was selling. She thanked me, and shook my hand. She couldn’t have been sweeter, and more unassuming. No star trip happening, and no ego either.

     We had company conventions every summer in Pennsylvania, and there were always acts booked to play, as well as “meet and greet” sessions with musicians promoting their latest records. I met a number of them, of course, but the two I remember very well were Lyle Lovett, and Roy Buchanan. Lovett was there for his first album release on MCA. He was very shy, and I shook his hand, and told him I knew the album would do well. He asked me if I’d heard it already, and I had because the MCA rep in our area was promoting it as if Lovett was his best pal. He was surprised, and very happy to hear that.

     Roy Buchanan was signed to blues label Alligator Records, and he’d been booked to play our convention to promote his When a Guitar Plays The Blues, his first album for Alligator. I didn’t actually meet Buchanan, but I was at a party the second night of the convention, and the managers were all mingling and trading stories with one another when Roy popped his head in, and asked, “Anybody got any blow?” You could’ve heard a pin drop. This wasn’t the NY or L.A. crowd. This was a group of managers from a Midwestern record store chain based in Pittsburgh. When he realized there was none of that particular drug to be had, he quickly ducked out. Played a great set, though. Maybe he found some after all?

     In the summer of 1987, the best-selling album at the store was the second album, Pride, by the American-Danish hair metal band White Lion. Their label, Atlantic called to tell us the band would be in town to play Hara Arena, and asked if we would do a wall display to help promote the record, and the show. None of us were White Lion fans, and one evening I was working with one of my part-timers, and I put up the White Lion display behind the counter. The show was the next evening. Atlantic hadn’t given us much notice, and the part-timer I was working with objected to a display for such a second-rate, no talent hair metal band. But I told her we were doing the label a favor. Business was slow that night, and she was bored, and asked me if she could deface the poster? I said no, but after she told me what she had in mind, I let her do it. The poster was a B&W photo of the band with the name, and album cover in the corner. She took a black magic-marker, and painted each member with a lion’s nose, and mouth that aped the sketch on the album cover (Google it.) It looked great, and everybody got a good laugh out of it. But about an hour later in walked two guys who were certainly musicians, and as it turned out, were members of White Lion who were already in town. Bass player James LoMenzo, and drummer Greg D’Angelo spent some time browsing, and when they came to the counter, LoMenzo spotted the poster, and said, “Hey, why’d you guys mess up our poster?” And D’Angelo started laughing, and pointed out to LoMenzo that our in-house artist had made Lions of them. The lightbulb went on over LoMenzo’s considerable mane of hair, and both musicians thought we were paying tribute to them, and thanked us. Then they had the nerve to ask us for a discount! I told them that I wasn’t allowed to do that, and since their album was in the Top 10 nationwide that I was pretty sure they could afford them without the discount.

     The next act of note at the venue up the street was the latest edition of Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders. They were touring their Get Close album, and Hynde was making headlines for firing band members. By the time they played Dayton, a couple of them had been sacked already. Again, as was our custom, we put a display behind the counter to help promote the show and the record, and pacify the label. Feeling ornery one evening, I took a paper shopping bag from under the counter, got the scissors, and cut out small paper bags, and taped them over the heads of the two members depicted on the poster who’d gotten sacked. I was pretty certain Chrissie would not be visiting our store before the show. She was probably busy learning the names of her new bandmates. But a pair of Pretenders roadies did come in the night before the show, and spotted the poster. They both cracked up laughing, but warned us that if Chrissie did happen to stop by, she wouldn’t find it at all amusing. I left it up, and we never saw her. Good thing, too. My wife and I attended the show, and Iggy Pop opened. Pretenders came on, and someone spit on the stage and just missed Chrissie. She warned those down front that there’d be no more of that, or else. I always thought Chrissie Hynde could best even a killer one-on-one. I’m glad I never tangled with her.

     Before I left NRM, I was given tickets from the Columbia Records rep to see ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs open for ex-Eagle Don Henley at Riverbend in Cincinnati. There was a post-show “meet-and-greet” arranged, and I took a couple of CD booklets to have autographed. I did meet her, and spoke briefly with her. She signed the booklets, and then another fan snapped a photo of me with my arm around her waist (she was so tiny, my arm went almost completely around her). He told me to give him my address, and he’d send it to me after he had the roll developed. Of course, I never got it, and I’m sorry I didn’t take a camera along. She was gorgeous, and I’m still a fan all these years later.

     By 1991, I was already working for a small indie shop in Dayton called Gem City Records. One Sunday morning I drove to our main location downtown for some supplies before we opened, and as I was leaving, Slash from Guns ‘N’ Roses came walking into the parking lot with a female on his arm, and he asked me, “Hey! Is the store open yet?” I turned to the store manager, and said, “Dale, Slash wants to know if the store is open yet?” Dale thought I was kidding until he saw Slash come walking up. Of course, he invited him in before opening so he could shop privately. Slash asked for a particular album, and Dale told him his store was out of stock, but I mentioned my store had it, and I offered to drive to get it for him. I was back within the half-hour, and a grateful Slash signed a copy of Use Your Illusion II for me. I was just about to leave when he asked me if I knew where the car show was being held. I said it was at the Convention Center a couple of blocks over, and as I was going that way, I’d be happy to drop him, and his lady friend. He thanked me, we got in, and I drove them to the car show. That night Guns ‘N’ Roses played The Nutter Center in Dayton. I was home. I didn’t hit him up for tickets. I wasn’t really a G ‘N’ R fan, but Slash was a good guitarist, and a very nice guy. And until I sold my maroon Mazda, from that day forward, I called it “The Slashmobile.” (A postscript to the story: when Dale ran Slash’s credit card for the stuff he bought, the card was declined. But he ran it through again a few days later, and it was approved. I guess his business manager was late paying the bills. And Slash’s real name is Saul Hudson. That wasn’t common knowledge at the time.)

     In 1992, Mick Fleetwood was on hiatus from Fleetwood Mac, and he put a band together with Billy Thorpe, Billy Burnette, and Bekka Bramlett called The Zoo. They played a small club here in Dayton, and I went with a friend of mine. We took CD booklets for autographs, but weren’t certain the band would be available after the show. As it happened, though, Mick, and Bekka did come out and sign autographs, and posed for pictures. (I’d have posted them here, but I don’t have digital copies.) Mick was a real gentleman, and shook my hand, and thanked us for coming. One of the CD booklets I’d brought was an early Fleetwood Mac album with Peter Green. He was delighted to see that. Bekka Bramlett was a real sweetheart, signing autographs, and posing for pictures as well. Of course, she later was a member of Fleetwood Mac for one album. And, like her mother Bonnie, she was a belter, and could really sing.

     I had a couple more surprises when I managed the music department at Borders Books and Music here in Dayton. We were getting ready to open the store by September, and a couple of weeks before, we were putting the finishing touches on things, and trying to get all the stock to the sales floor. The lady corporate had sent to supervise this process (called “the sort”) was named Jill Lyon. My boss happened to mention to me that Jill’s husband was coming to town to see her, and to be sure I had everything looking good in the record department. When I asked why he mentioned that, he told me he was sure Jill’s husband would want to do some browsing. I said, “Her husband? Who’s he?” And he told me her husband was Southside Johnny Lyon of Asbury Jukes fame. I was stunned. I had no idea our Jill Lyon was Johnny’s wife. I was a huge fan of The Jukes since their debut album nearly twenty years earlier. I had all their records, so this was a big deal to me. I did, indeed, get to meet him that day, and told him how much I loved his music, and that I’d been a fan since the beginning. He was very gracious, and friendly, told me my department looked great, and wished me well.

     About a year later, still managing the records department at Borders, the store featured live music in our café every Friday night. As music manager, and manager-on-duty on Friday nights, it was my job to see to it that everything went as planned. The store’s manager in charge of planning those events had arranged for Randy Newman to appear as he was on the road doing a tour of retail stores promoting his Faust album. The rider in Randy’s contract had some pretty outrageous demands. It said we had to provide a small table with cheese and crackers, and some veggie snacks as well as bottled water for him! Oh, the horror!! No star trip for Randy Newman. No bowls of cocaine, or brown M&M’s removed from the M&M’s bowl. Just cheese and crackers, veggies, and water. Randy played a great set, sat at a table, and signed autographs, and there is a photo of me shaking his hand (again, no digital copy), and getting my Land of Dreams LP signed. He was surprised to see that, and said, “A vinyl record! Don’t see these much anymore. I miss vinyl.” And he graciously signed it.

     My last encounter with a celebrity came once again by phone, and happened in 2003 when my record store days were nearly at an end. I was back at Gem City Records at the downtown store here in Dayton, and due to some turnover of personnel, I was now overseeing our Jazz department. As I was doing some of the buying for that department, I would often talk either with label reps, or promo guys about new releases. One day the phone rang, and the caller asked for our Jazz buyer. Dale handed me the phone, and the voice on the other end introduced himself as Joel Dorn, founder of the Jazz label 32 Records. I said, “Wait a minute. Are you the Joel Dorn?” And he said, “I am. Have you heard of me?” And I replied, “Of course. There isn’t a serious Jazz fan in the world who doesn’t know your name or your work.” He thanked me, and then proceeded to tell me about the new releases his label was releasing. It was a genuine honor to speak with this legend who’d worked with The Allman Brothers Band, Bette Midler, Max Roach, Herbie Mann, Mose Allison, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk among others, and won two Grammy Awards for his work with Roberta Flack. I was genuinely saddened when I heard he’d passed away just four years later.

     All of these encounters were memorable ones, and nearly all of them make nice memories. I miss the record business. It was a great job while I had it, and I shudder to think what kind of drab work history I might’ve had if I’d gone down a different road. I guess I should’ve had kids so I’d be able to tell my grandchildren that I drove Slash to the car show.

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