#I also get a great electricity bill because i spend like 10 hours of my week exercising outside my house

[roylustang]

In my preparation to live a life more outdoors I have not used AC or heat in my house for the past year. It wasn’t really an experiment, but here’s what happened:

The temperature range outside for the past year (including wind chills and heat indexes) was approximately 26F during the predawn hours in winter to 110F at the height of the day in summer. The temperature in my house probably ranged from about 40F to 90F, but I had no way to actually measure this so it’s just an educated guess.

Obviously we’re skipping over spring and fall, because you don’t need climate control for those seasons anyway. 

Let’s start with winter, since we’re heading that direction again. For me, the main challenge of winter is honestly braving the cold for 30 seconds when I need to put on a bra to go running. That’s really it. I usually don’t wear one to work because I’m usually wearing three layers of clothing, so I don’t need one, but if I go to the town gym I have to change (the gym does not have climate control either). I don’t really have a solution for this other than to just suck it up, or wear a bra to sleep (which I used to do all the time in high school, but I dislike it now).

In order to stay warm in the winter, I have three main methods: kotatsu, blankets, and hot shower. I’m almost always wearing 2-3 layers of clothing and fingerless gloves, which I usually sleep in too. I usually do laundry biweekly in winter, and weekly (or more) in the summer. So that’s a point for winter (also no bugs). Anyway. 

Kotatsu is pretty obvious--it’s warm under there. I know my housemates have already broken their’s out for the season, but honestly I’m gonna try to not use mine this year as an added challenge, I guess? Idk, I’m also just lazy and don’t feel like getting it out. And also because...

Blankets get the job done pretty well. This apartment came with 5 million blankets. I’m currently using 3/4 of the Main Blankets on my bed, but the third one is still too hot sometimes at night. Otherwise, as long as I put my hood up I’m never cold at night or when I’m sitting in bed, which is usually what I’m doing at home.

Hot shower is the third method. I love this one because it literally gives you cold immunity for like up to an hour afterwards, especially if its Too Hot. I once got out of a Too Hot bath and ended up sitting in my underwear in my 40F room for awhile after because I was Too Hot. 

The secret fourth method is exercise, which I do a lot of because it is my Lifestyle. You have to change quick though bc your sweat will get cold fast. (then I take a hot shower, and I’m basically cold immune until its time to go to bed again lol)

Summer is a lot worse in my opinion, mainly because it’s humid. It’s literally sweat central and because this is rural Japan, I can’t exercise shirtless outside. It definitely makes me want to go outside though, because sweating is much better when youre moving than when you’re just sitting somewhere. 

I don’t really have multiple methods of cooling off except for cool showers (of which I took many), occasionally putting an ice pack on my torso when I felt like it, and using a fan (which is extremely necessary in order to not sweat, and also dry my body off when I come back from exercising. I will literally sweat through an entire shirt in 10 mins, the humidity is fucking insane, I have wrung 100ml of sweat from my short shorts, I have disinfected the home gym mats after using them for those aforementioned 10 mins. The chewing gum in my kitchen was ruined simply bc it was humid. I had to clean mold off the kitchen floors and tables. Just imagine constantly being soaking wet if you’re not in front of a flowing air source, that is my life. Luckily I derive a very masochistic joy from this, so it could be worse). I keep the windows open literally 24/7, and the fan runs whenever I’m in the house basically, unless it’s raining because it’s significantly cooler then. I essentially do not wear clothes in my house in the summer. 

The worst and completely unanticipated consequence of this though was the appetite loss. I lost approximately 10 lbs on accident, because I wasn’t eating lunch (mainly bc I wasn’t in school and I just didn’t feel hungry). This really fucked with my health and made me much more prone to passing out, especially during exercise. I was also iron deficient, though I don’t actually know what the cause was, because I was tested for that at the beginning of June. My hair was definitely falling out though. Anyway, when fall came around, I gained it all back. It’s wild to notice how my appetite changes from season to season. Now that its getting colder again, my dinners are much bigger than they used to be. 

Overall, I’m gonna keep doing this, because i’m very used to it now. I just have to make myself eat lunch when summer comes around again. Cold spaghetti never tasted so good let me tell you. Also, my electricity bill is like half of what my housemates are, so thats fun.

[bidoldaccount]

Grow As We Go - Five

Word Count: 1,626

ONE ; TWO ; THREE ; FOUR

Read on AO3

Read on Wattpad 

Dean is the father.

After two home visits, a lot of dealings with the court, a matched paternity test, and a lot of sympathetic looks, Dean is biologically, and most important, legally, Jack's father.

Dean kisses Cas hard when everything is done, and they both kiss Jack's cheeks. Bobby gives Dean two weeks off of work, and Cas is only in school for another week before spring break, so they spend their time cooped up in the apartment, getting to know themselves as parents. Getting to know Jack, Jack getting to know them.

"You are killing this whole tummy time thing, dude, absolutely shredding it. Look at me, look at daddy," Dean smiled, tilting his head as Jack tried looking up. He smiled when he saw Dean, his knees wriggling like he was trying to go for Dean.

Dean is the best at playtime, they find. He does the best car noises, he does a killer Elmo impression, and he can make Jack smile by simply raising his eyebrows.

Castiel is better with stories and sleepy time. He'll lay Jack on his chest, skin to skin, and breathe as evenly as he can while reading a book. Jack goes instantly still when Cas starts to speak, like a switch goes off and he's boneless. Dean watches in amazement most nights, when Jack is fussy and hates everything and doesn't like skin to skin contact with Dean, he'll go quiet in Castiel's arms, just rest against his skin and breathe.

Two nights before Dean has to go back to work and Cas has to go back to teaching, they sit down in the living room while Jack sleeps in his crib. Dean places his head in his hands and he's crying but Castiel isn't sure why. Cas sits behind him for a while, just laying his head on Deans back, waiting paitently until he's ready to share.

"This is so unfair to you." That is not what Castiel would have expected, but he doesn't let his surprise show. "A baby shows up on my door step and suddenly you have to co-parent with a guy you've only been with for a year. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you. I probably made you feel pressured to stay with me, God, Cas," Dean pulls at his hair as he tried to soften his cries. Cas picks his head up and looks towards Dean with furrowed eyebrows.

"What? Dean, if I didn't want to be here then I wouldn't be. I don't feel pressured to stay, I'm staying because I love you," Castiel said.

"But what if I change. Parenthood changes people, doesn't it? What if it makes me someone that you don't like. Someone that you'd rather not be with? I'm not going to have any time between working and Jack, how am I supposed to be a good boyfriend while trying to be a father?" Dean hiccups, his chest tight.

"Hey, honey, look at me," Cas only pulls out that nickname on special occasions, so Dean glances up rather quick. Cas scoots over so that he's sitting at Deans side. He brings his hand up to wipe away the tear tracks on Dean's cheeks. "I love you, okay?" He whispered softly. "I love you as a boyfriend and I'll love you as Jack's father. You don't have to be alone to be a good father and you don't have to be childless to be a good boyfriend. We're going to figure it out, because that's what people do when they have kids. They change and they grow, but they don't have to do it alone," Cas shakes his head, wiping away more tears.

"I'm so scared, Cas. What if I mess something up? With you or with Jack? What if I screw him up?" Dean whispers.

"Screwing up is apart of the deal. A little trauma never hurt nobody," Dean laughs wetly. "Kidding, but seriously, parents make mistakes, it's apart of the process. For what it's worth," Cas leaned his chin on Dean's shoulder, his forehead at his temple. "You're doing a great job and I think you're an amazing father." Dean closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest.

"I'm so happy you're here, Cas," he said.

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." Dean cries a little bit more, then Cas decided that their pity party is over. He grabs two sodas from the fridge, and sets out a piece of paper on the coffee table between them.

"Okay, I have to be at school by 7 and the latest I leave is 3:30, so if you drop Jack off at daycare before work, that puts him there from 10 to 4, that's 6 hours, with $15 an hour, we'll be looking at roughly $450 a week. It might be slightly lower because we have a fixed schedule and I get out early on Wednesday's, but that's a rough guess."

"I already have a headache," Dean grumbled.

"I've already calculated what we pay in rent, electricity and utilities, also factoring in Jack's necessities, a monthly food budget, daycare, our Netflix subscription, estimated gas expenses, our phone bills, etc. This is what we're looking at left over," Cas slides the paper to Dean and Deans eyes widen.

"Wait, are you serious? I thought it would be a lot less," he said.

"You make good money at the garage on top of what you earn from consulting, and I earn a good amount from teaching and translating," Castiel said.

"Wow, I guess I just never paid attention to it before," Dean said, still staring at the paper.

"We've never been hurting for money," Cas shrugged.

"Then why are we living in this shitty one bedroom?" Dean asked.

"Because then Jack would have been left on the doorstep of someone else's home while we were in a cozy two bedroom?" Cas shrugged.

"Ha. Ha," Dean rolled his eyes. " I'm serious though, do you think we should move? We can certainly afford at least a two bedroom," Dean said.

"I mean, I thought about it even before Jack but I thought it was too soon, now that he's here though, we could use the space," Cas said.

"Okay, next on the list, find forever home," Dean widened his eyes dramatically. Cas huffed a laugh, rolling his eyes.

"A forever home might have to wait a few years," he said.

Castiel was right, as he always is. Before Jack turns seven months, they sign a lease for a two bedroom apartment. Dean has an anxiety attack on their first night because he's afraid they won't wake up if Jack cries. It took Cas an hour to talk him into bed, and twenty minutes to make him stop trying to get out. Dean wakes up at 6am and he startles, flying out of bed to make sure Jack didn't hurt himself through the night. When he busts into his room, Jack is still soundly sleeping and Castiel shakes his head with a fond smile.

When Jack turns three, Dean stumbles upon a cheap house in a good neighborhood. It was nearly run into the ground because of foundation issues, no one wanted it, and the couple was desperate to sell. It took very little convincing from Cas to purchase. Dean tore the entire house down and started from scratch. It was almost nine months before Dean allowed Cas and Jack inside of the shell of their home, pointing out rooms and different features. Cas had cried the first time he saw it.

It was shortly after Jack turned four that they officially moved into the house. Two stories, painted a soft yellow that was easy on the eyes, blue shutters, a white picket fence. A very spacious garage. Cas pointed out everything that Jack helped pick out, like the granite countertops, and the wallpaper in the hallway.

"Do you like it?" Dean asked nervously once Jack was sound asleep in his new bedroom, the walls a soft blue with a space theme. He wrapped his arms around Cas' waist as they stood in the foyer, the living room the right, the stairs to the left, kitchen directly ahead. Cas leaned his head back with a furrow in his brow.

"No, I hate it, I want a home that my amazing boyfriend didn't build," he rolled his eyes as he turned in Deans arms. "Are you kidding?" He wrapped his arms around Dean's shoulders and kissed him softly. "I love it. You did such an amazing job, I can't believe you built this," he whispered.

"You and Jack deserved a home," Dean shrugged as he stepped away, hands in his pockets. "You deserve the world for being so incredibly amazing and supportive all these years," Castiel gasped as Dean lowered himself onto one knee, pulling a small velvet box from his pajama pants. "As I was building this house for you and Jack, I thought a lot about our life together. I thought about when Jack would get so calm by just laying on your chest, and the way you cried on his first day of school, and our first date when you spent twenty minutes talking about bees. I can't imagine my life without you, without you being right there next to me, so, Castiel Novak, will you marry me?" Castiel breathed out shakily as he nodded.

"Yes," he pulled Dean back up to his feet, grabbed the front of his shirt, and smashed their lips together. Dean couldn't stop smiling as he slipped the ring onto Castiel's finger.

"I love you so much," Dean said with a bright smile.

"I love you too," Cas sniffed as he pulled Dean into him, hugging him tightly.

[asymptotichigh5]

Energy, the economy, and everything else.

I’ve been meaning to address this subject somewhere for a while. For the longest time, I hesitated on what the best medium to achieve this would be : on one hand, a Facebook status needs to be short and concise, which is not necessarily my forte and of course, there is also the fact that it would quickly be washed away in the storm of social media posts that has become 2020. A YouTube video then occurred to me to be most appropriate, but it would be long, my camera sucks and I hate video editing. So, I finally turned to this blog, which I had abandoned for quite some time. Surprisingly, there was an article in my drafts I had started writing almost 5 years ago about exactly this topic titled “A physics crash-course for politicians: a recipe not to kill us all”, but it was a bit too dramatic and I might get called off for taking political stances, when in reality there will be none in this post (which is surprising, for any of those reading this who know me). Anyway, this article will be the first in a series, which I might or might not continue, depending on interest, even though I did promise a friend of mine to carry through the entire message the whole way through, hopefully I’ll be able to do this with some of you actually reading all the way through, though that might be too optimistic.

Energy is a concept which is as important (if not more) as it is misunderstood by the general public. Most people don’t consider energy to be a considerable issue in their daily lives, but hopefully by the end of this post you will understand that energy is what allows you to live your 21st century carefree lifestyle. It turns out that most of us consider energy to be a bill to pay at the end of the month, or an annoyance to pay for when we fill our cars with gasoline at the pump, but energy — before being a bill to pay, or a commodity — is a physical quantity. A quick look at Wikipedia will give you a definition of energy which appears to be rather circular. Perhaps a more appropriate definition of energy for the sake of this post is the following:

Energy [/ˈɛnədʒi/, noun] : a physical quantity quantifying the ability to change the environment, or the ability to do work.

By “change the environment” we refer to the ability to perform any kind of change at all. Letting a ball fall involves energy, heating up water to make a cup of tea involves energy, me typing on this keyboard at this very moment also involves energy, etc. The SI unit for energy is the Joule, which at the human scale represents a tiny bit of energy (roughly speaking, it is the energy required to lift a medium-sized tomato (300 grams) by 1 metre. This unit has the annoying nuisance of being too small, so for the rest of this post we will talk about energy in terms of MWh (megawatt-hours), which corresponds to 3 600 000 000 Joules, which is a hell of a lot more medium-sized tomatoes lifted, or in terms of kWh (kilowatt-hours), which corresponds to 3 600 000 Joules. It is a good exercise to try to understand the MWh in terms of human work to put everything into perspective. To this effect, the BBC actually had a great documentary which appeared in 2009 about electrical energy consumption in the UK which performed an experiment in which a tiny army of people were forced to pedal to provide electricity to an average-sized house with an average-sized family having an average-sized consumption of electricity. While the documentary has great shock value, we need not hire an army of 80 cyclist to get the right orders of magnitude. An 80 kg man carrying 10 kg of supplies with him and climbing 2000 m up a mountain spends roughly 0.5 kWh to go up the mountain. Similarly, digging up 6 m${}^3$ of dirt to make a hole 1 m deep takes roughly 0,05 kWh of energy. By comparison, 1L of oil provides 2~4 kWh of (usable) mechanical energy.

Of course, using the oil to drive up the mountain, or to fuel an excavator to dig up the holes is a no brainer. Oil, or more precisely the machines it feeds, are not constrained by fatigue, do not form unions, do not complain that the ruble is too heavy, or that their legs are tired. It is also incredibly cheap by comparison, even if the human workers going up the mountain or digging up the hole are not getting paid at all. Assuming the cost of a slave to simply be the sustainance cost of a human being (i.e. minimal clothing, food and shelter) it is still a couple of hundred times cheaper to use a machine instead of a person to perform tasks, whenever possible. The reason why slavery ended is not because all of a sudden people grew a conscience out of thin air, or because we are so much better or educated than our ancestors ; it is simply stupid to have slaves in a world where you have access to a dense source of energy, because using this energy for mechanical work is many times more efficient and cheaper than owning slaves. This heuristic argument is also what ultimately explains the correlation between the abolition of slavery and the first industrial revolution (although the latter was mostly fed by coal as opposed to oil). In other words, the huge disparity in the efficiency of dense energy sources is what explains that mankind has historically always transitioned to sources of energy which monotonically increase in energy density.

But just what makes energy so important? Well, the answer lies in the definition. Since energy is ultimately the driver for any transformation of the environment, energy is by definition the main driver of the economy, too. In fact, the availability of a large supply of energy is what has allowed the development of modern society as we know it: paid holidays, retirement benefits, social security, social programs, your trip to Thailand last year, the variety of food you find at the supermarket, the fact that you even have disposable income to spend however you wish, free time, your ability to pursue long years of study, etc. Without the access to a cheap, reliable source of energy, this would all be impossible. Without realizing it, on average, we can calculate an equivalent amount of slaves used by any human on Earth today, given our estimates on the output of energy a human being is capable of delivering above and the total energy consumption of the planet. Doing the math, we find that an average human lives as if he/she had ~200 slaves working for him/her constantly. If we look at developed nations, this number jumps to 600 to 1500 equivalent slaves. This is an outstanding standard of living compared to what any of our ancestors ever knew. And so, it’s not that our generation is 200 times more productive than previous generations of humans, what has been driving the economy for the past 220 years is not humans, so much as it is the increasing access to a park of machines which has driven GDP growth since the industrial revolution. In fact, this can also be seen in developing countries, where an increase in development is immediately accompanied by a rural exodus driven by the introduction of machines to perform the heavy work in the fields. This allows for a widening of the pool of workers, which can then be free to use more machines and increase GDP.

So what sources of energy have we been exploiting in the last 220 years? Worldwide, the mix looks a little bit like this: 

Notice that most of this mix (oil, gas and coal) are sources which are fossil fuels. In essence, what this chart is saying is that we owe all of the societal progress of the past 220 years to fossil fuels. Of course, the use of these fuels has the annoying consequence of releasing CO${}_2$ into the atmosphere which — as we know — has some rather undesirable consequences for the future of humanity. This chart also tells a story about how people have completely misrepresented and misunderstood the problem. Most people think that the energy crisis will ultimately be solved by replacing the carbonated sources of energy by “renewables”, even though the later are basically invisible in the above chart. Luckily, a world where we live only with renewable energy is entirely possible: it’s called the Middle Ages. The impossibility of replacing these carbonated sources with “renewables” is an important point to treat, and deserves an article of its own, but in the end its cause is the same as what has driven this discussion so far: energy density. We shall come back to this important point in a subsequent post. For now, let us finish driving the point home in establishing the unequivocal link between energy, specifically oil, and GDP.  Energy availability is the main driver of the economy, this is simply because the economy is nothing other but the collective transformation of stuff into other stuff by humans. This, and the fact that 50% of the world-wide oil consumption is used to transport goods or people from point A to B is what explains the following correlation between oil and GDP: 

In light of global warming, the question becomes one in which we are forced to arbitrate between real GDP growth and carbon emissions. It is literally that simple, yet it is difficult to grasp what this means. GDP growth is an abstract concept most of us don’t really understand, and most people advocating for giving up growth don’t fully grasp the consequences of what it will mean for all of us. Very really, what it means is diminishing real wages and purchasing power by a factor varying between 3 or 10 over the next 30 years (we will come back to these figures eventually in another article, too). Now, most people will point out that we can and should just take all this wealth from the oligarchs and the billionaires out there, and this is true and should definitely be done, but it will unfortunately still not be anywhere near enough to solve the problem. Orders of magnitude are a bitch and maths sucks, especially when they contradict your political opinions. In real terms, giving up growth means to take your current salary, and divide it by 10, and ask yourself whether you are really ready to live with that. The questions on left and right are at this point so irrelevant that it is stupid to even ask them. Both of these models of thinking completely rely on a pie which is ever increasing and in which the living standards of everyone eventually rise. For the right, this is obvious, but this holds true even in a leftist society, in which the social programs and everything that goes with it relies heavily on economic growth and an increase of the economic pie. This view is flawed, as in very real terms in order to protect ourselves from climate change, the only way is to considerably decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, in other words, considerably decrease global GDP.

(Un)fortunately, whether the politicians decide to take global warming seriously or not, the problem will auto-regulate eventually. You see, there is a tiny and obnoxious problem regarding our addiction to fossil fuels: we are running out of them. We should point out that not all fossil fuels are equal: this is not only true from a carbon emission perspective, but also from a transportation point of view. Indeed, only about 10% of the coal produced yearly is actually exported, because it is inconvenient to transport. Gas presents a similar problem, given its physical form, which is not sufficiently energetically dense to be easily shipped without compression (which itself involves energy). This leaves oil as the main source of energy which is actually exportable and tradable.  And so, not only is oil vital due to the fact that it is the only source of energy which can reliably be used to for transportation, it is also the only option when looking at trading energy internationally. However, oil production has been already past its peak in most countries with considerable oil reserves. From a European point of view, the problem is actually worse as the energy consumption in Europe has been stagnating and in fact decreasing since 2005, when we reached peak consumption.

Incidentally, this explains why there has been no -- and there will be no -- economic long term real growth in Europe in the future, and it this has indeed been the case ever since 2008. In fact, most of the economic growth which has happened in Europe ever since is due to the trade of goods which increase in value over time (such as housing), which gets further gets inflated as there is a surplus of liquidity which has been continuously injected into the system since the introduction of quantitative easing. We will come to this problematic in a latte post. Similarly, we observe analogous curves of decrease in variation of energy consumption in the countries of the OECD (source of data: BP Statistical Review 2017), which means that this halting of real economic growth is not to be expected anywhere else in the OECD either.

During a recent discussion with a close friend of mine, he pointed out that the decrease in consumption in energy could be explained by the fact that the economy in developed countries had essentially become an economy of services, and that thus, this correlation between GDP and energy consumption and production was flawed, but this reasoning is wrong. First, because many of these services introduced involve or depend strongly on developments in e-commerce and industries attached to the development of the Internet and computers. However, the digitalization of the economy has not led to a decrease in energy demand, but in fact quite the opposite, if anything it has considerably increased our energy dependence. Second, the data simply states otherwise across the board. For instance, the chart below depicts an evolution of the percentage of people working in services and the amount of tons of CO${}_2$ released in the environment per capita in the World (data is from the World Bank).

Of course, the fact that these are positively correlated in the world and these countries is expected. In the world, because supporting the increasing living standards of the people working in the service sector necessarily comes out of an increase of the economic pie, which can only mean that the energy consumption (thus, at first order, the tons of CO${}_2$ in the atmosphere) increased. In European countries, the CO${}_2$ per capita has been reduced, partly to a negligible population growth, but also due to the delocalization of the most polluting elements of the economy to developing countries. Nonetheless, the general worldwide trend is clear: more service sector employment correlates with higher output of CO${}_2$, which implies higher energy consumption. But of course, by the reasoning above, this is hardly surprising.

Most of the time, the decline in the rate of growth of oil production is dismissed by saying that we will always find alternative forms of petroleum which will remain exploitable and will secure us with more oil. However, these alternative sources, such as bituminous sands and are problematic to exploit, require more energy input to be exploitable and are of lesser energetic quality. Similar decreasing curves of consumption and production have been appreciated for gas as well. Coal remains an exception to this, but it is not easily tradable, which implies that only 8 countries (including the US, China and Australia) really can consider exploiting coal for long term energy consumption, but given the climate consequences this poses, this is hardly a desirable outcome.

And so ultimately, it is not even a question of deciding whether or not we want to transition out of fossil fuels or not. The decrease in fossil fuel consumption will happen whether we like it or not — and by extension, so will the inevitable shrinking of the economy. The problem is that it might not happen fast enough to avoid catastrophe, which might already be unavoidable. What this also means is that the questions we should be asking ourselves as a society are not so much whether we should adopt liberal or leftist policies, but rather how we optimize the distribution of resources in a world where the economic pie decreases year by year, but no one seems to be wanting to have this discussion seriously.

[prorevenge]

Entitled driver gets exactly what she deserves

So one day about a month ago, I decide to grab some sushi after the morning shift at work. This sushi place is right by a small private college within Bexley, called Captial University. I pull into the lot to find one empty space and I pull in. I get out, go into the sushi joint and spend maybe a half an hour there. After a great lunch, I go back to see my car is blocked into the space by a huge gray GMC Yukon. I was blocked in the spot, as the parking spaces have those concrete bumps in front to separate the spots. I took a picture of the license plate just for reference.

Well I just waited patiently for the car owner to show back up, because maybe there were no spots to park in at the time, and my car just happened to be the one, (as well as two other cars next to mine of course). About 10 minutes later a woman (maybe 35 years old) shows up and sees me in my car listening to music. She knocks on my window and tells me that I need to turn my music down and that us college kids are ruining her city. First of all, I go to Ohio State, and not Capital. I look at her blankly, as my music isn’t that loud, and am wondering how she assumes I go to Capital. She yells in my face “Wake up you spoiled brat!” Now I had no clue who this crazy woman was, and I just turn my music off and shut the window and continue waiting for the car owner to move their car.

Well the woman pulls keys out of her purse and hops in her gargantuan GMC Yukon, and screeches away, spattering mud on my car, which I paid for, and pay to clean. I was the brat? This woman has the audacity to seal 3 cars in and complain that my music is too loud? I was 15 minutes late back to work that day. I am NEVER late. This was the first time I was late to work, and I hope it was the last. I swore that if I ever saw her again, I would do to her what she had done to me.

Well fast forward a month later to what is today. I decide to grab some sushi after taking an exam, and went to the same sushi place, in the same parking lot, to see the same gray GMC Yukon taking up both of the last two spots in the lot. I am on cloud nine at this moment, and park right next to the driver side of her car, making sure I was in a spot, and that she couldn’t get into her car. There was about 5 inches between my passenger door, and her driver door. I leave my car, grab sushi to go, and patiently sit in my car. Well what do you know, about 15 minutes later, the woman walks up to her double-parked car to see that I had sealed her in. I hear her yelling that she is going to sue the person who did this. She sees me listening to music in the car that is blocking her from leaving. She approaches my car and demands I move. I tell her “you got into the spot, you can get out of the spot.” She threatens to call the cops, and I just laugh (I know the laws, and even have a thin blue line flag bumper sticker on my car).

She calls the cops, and within 1 minute, a cop shows up. I get out of my car and the woman starts yelling at the cop about how I had sealed her in. I told the cop I was trying to park within the space. The cop looks at her car, and then looks at mine, and looks so disappointed after. The officer says to the woman to be happy I didn’t have her car towed. He also said that that she needs to move her car within the next minute or he’ll ticket her for parking illegally. Angrily, the woman climbs in her passenger door and is struggling to reach the driver side. She is throwing garbage out of her car in a fit, gets in, and moves her car over to drive. The cop knocks on her window and orders her to pick up her trash. She says to him “well, isn’t that what garbagemen do?” I am trying so hard to keep a straight face, but I just start laughing my ass off because of her stupid remark. At this point the woman looks at me, and it seems she finally remembered who I was. Looking very pissed off, she sighs, gets out of her car, picks up her trash, and gets back into her car.

The cop gets back into his car, and tries to pull away, as the woman jerks her car out of the spot, nearly hitting the cop car, and speeds to the end of the lot, where she stops at the red light. The woman, forgetting that she isn’t the queen of the world, and speeding is illegal, immediately gets pulled over. This lot is about 40 feet wide, and the woman is about 20 feet from me, so I can hear her. She starts yelling to the cop “reckless driving?” and I know exactly what is going on. I get back in my car, turn the music back on, and start thanking heaven for giving me this satisfaction. I pull away from the lot to have the greatest sense of fulfillment I have ever had in my life.

​

(source) story by (/u/SuperJahobo)

[genderpunktheo]

this might be too personal so i completely understand if you don’t want to answer this fully or not answer at all, but i’ve recently been watching videos on ppl’s budgets etc but a lot of them are female american influencers and while it’s interesting and useful to see how they do, i don’t understand how $3000 is an averaged monthly budget. only if you’re comfortable sharing i was wondering what your monthly budget or monthly spending is like as a british student and someone out of that sphere?

Sure, I don’t mind sharing! 

So, as a student my tuition fees are covered by a government loan, I won’t bother including that cause it goes direct from the government to my uni and I never get to even see it. 

I also receive a maintenance loan from the government three times a year - each one is supposed to cover about three months (the last three months are over the summer, we don’t get one for that since we’re not at uni). 

My last payment for this was £1312 which sounds like it would be a lot but that basically covers my rent for the term - in fact, the last term it didn’t even do that, I paid my landlord £1400 which was October, November, December rent so I had to sort out the remainder from my own money. That includes water, electricity etc. (unless we overuse it but we never have so far). Rent is so low because I live in a student house with three other people. 

These maintenance loans are means-tested based on how much your family earns - I get the lowest possible amount because the assumption is that my family earns enough to send me money to make up for it. However, because of various reasons (too private to share), my family aren’t able to do that so I just make do with what I’ve got (at least it pays my rent!! I’m very grateful for that).

In order to pay rent over the summer, I always aim to save £400 for July over the course of the year and then I pay £400 for August and £400 for September by having a summer job. 

Last year I worked for half of July which paid me £556 at the end of August. I then worked full-time hours for the whole of August and got paid £1330 at the end of September for that. 

Once summer rent was paid that then left me with £686, a large chunk of which went on my new camera for YouTube and the remainder I used to help pay for mine and my boyfriend’s anniversary trip to London. The camera was technically for work I suppose but still, I felt incredibly privileged to be in a position where I was able to do that - for the two years before, I would never have been able to make a purchase like that so it was pretty awesome!

So that rather long (sorry) explanation tells you how I sort out rent. As for everything else: 

Most students I know pay for rent out of their loans and then pay for anything else with one of three things: 

They have a really high loan amount and can live entirely off of that 

Their families send them money 

Or (the most common) they have to get a part-time job while at uni

So I’m I guess sort of in the part-time job crowd? But I’m unusual in that rather than working retail or something, I do create content and fund myself as best I can through that. 

I make about £30 a month from Patreon which I am incredibly incredibly grateful for. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how many new and deleted pledges happen that month. 

I also get money from sales of X MARKS THE SPOT which again, varies a great deal. Usually, it’s £70 to £120 a month. 

I do some freelance work here and there. The type I’ve been doing up until now was on sites like UpWork where you write something for a client on the site - usually CVs and things like that, or content for very small websites. I’m starting to get to the point now where I feel more confident pitching to more reputable sites and making a proper go of it but I haven’t got far with that yet. Freelance is the most variable thing I do. In good months I might get £200, in the worst months, I get nothing. 

If you’re wondering whether I get money from YouTube - the answer is no, lmao. I did recently get monetised but so far that has yielded between £3 and £9 a month. You need a total of £80 to get a payout, so I still very much make videos just because I care about it! 

So all of those things together amount to between £100 and £350 a month, after rent payments. Not very much at all - I could definitely have more if I got a more traditional part-time job but I choose to make do with less money because otherwise I wouldn’t have time to make this content and I do feel that what I do is important. 

Because the amount is so varied, I make a big effort to save money during good months so that I don’t run into trouble during the bad months. Sometimes this still falls through and that’s when you’ll see me ask for some help on here - like when some lovely people sorted out for me to get a new binder (thank you!)

What I’m very good at is budgeting food. In my first year of uni I could manage £10-£15 a week during the months when I made the least (I had even less then). Now I live with my boyfriend so we haven’t had to worry so much until he lost his job last month. We spend between £25-£50 a week on food for the two of us depending on how well we’re doing and if we’ve run out of longer-lasting things. 

I have a couple of extra bills per month £10 for Spotify, £4 for a NYT subscription and one I just started - £12 for a stock media site. 

Anything else either goes into savings, pays for new clothes, snacks, occasionally going out with friends or other miscellaneous things. 

I hope this is helpful/interesting! Sorry for rambling so much haha.

[aclimatecrisisactivist]

AN ECO-FRIENDLY LIFESTYLE

What does that mean? From my point of view it means thinking about the climate and trying to have as small a carbon footprint as I can as I go about my daily life. How do I do this?

It all starts with where I live. My wife is an educator and we live barely 2 miles from the school where she teaches, that way she can cycle, or even walk, to work. In addition to not having a carbon heavy commute through LA traffic, it means she can get to and from her class in 15 minutes - a real luxury in LA, where so many people spend hours in their car every day staring at the car in front of them. Because of this we don't need a second car, which also saves us a ton of money.

Another reason why we like the neighborhood that we live in is that there are a lot of good restaurants and local activities for my daughter. She has dance lessons at a studio which is barely 10 minutes walk from our house. We also have guitar lessons locally and often walk the 15 minutes to the class and back. It’s good exercise and it feels liberating not to have to use our car every time we go out to do something. It’s also good to patronize local businesses, as that is so much better for the community.

The metro in Los Angeles still doesn't cover many areas, so it’s not possible to use it to get to all the places that I need to go, but one thing I do is combine car and train on as many journeys as I can. For example the tour company that I own, The Real Los Angeles Tours, has a tour that starts in Hollywood and finishes in Santa Monica, so I drive to downtown and park my car there. That way I can take the Red Line to Hollywood to begin the tour and then I take the Expo line back to downtown from Santa Monica after finishing the tour. It’s so much faster and easier than trying to drive it anyway - and sometime you get a free concert (see video below).

In general we turn off devices and lights whenever we’re not using them at home and we only run the air conditioning or heating when we have to (we have used the heating a couple of times this month ;-), therefore reducing our electricity usage and bill. I contracted last year with a power company to get 100% of our electricity from renewable sources, but it’s great that our bill is only around $25 a month. Our gas bill is about $15.

I’m writing about this just to give people ideas on the kinds of things they can do to bring down their carbon footprint. Clearly there are things that I’ve mentioned here that aren't going to suit some people, or maybe are simply impossible for them to do. Many people are just not able to move their residence to near where they work for example. Nevertheless it’s all about starting a conversation, or thought process, about what we can do - because we can ALL do SOMETHING. Amazingly there’s nothing that I’ve mentioned here that has cost me extra money or otherwise created significant difficulties for me to achieve, on the contrary they all save me money and contribute to a happier and healthier lifestyle for me and my family,

By Damien Blackshaw

Damien is the owner of The Real Los Angeles Tours and is on twitter: @damienblackshaw​

[whereisyourtruenorth-blog]

True North Winter Tips

I’ve casually looked around the internet (namely pinterest and youtube) for winter wardrobe tips and have genuinely laughed and been disappointed at the content that was brought up. Not that these people uploading these things didn’t post quality things, they just live in an area where their idea of Winter isn’t....well....is it REALLY Winter? Peep toed any sort of shoe? Thin knee length skirts with sheer tights? It just wasn’t practical and where I live I’m surrounded by northern, older generation practicality. I have a deep appreciation for the logical, simple, practical views on things here so I thought I’d share some. Some of them you may already do...they aren’t all about clothes because in real Northern weather it’s just not something you entirely think about.

1.) Dress appropriately. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. When it’s -40 and the sides of your driveway are like The Wall in Game of Thrones (bust out your inner Ygritte) you must learn the appropriate way to layer your clothing. Learn about/wear base layers that trap in your body heat and wick moisture. Dampness can make the cold feel many times worse if you are wearing anything that soaks up moisture without expelling it. If you can, invest in a pair of good winter boots. and socks. Tuck your pant bottoms into your socks before putting your boots on so no air or moisture can get to the skin of your ankles. Mittens are a better option because they keep your fingers together to provide heat. I have found that locally made mittens that are a blend of wool/cashmere to be the best at half the cost of store bought mittens. Remember to protect your ears and head as well! If you’re going to be outside for more than 20 minutes a snood is perfect to tuck the bottom half of your face into to breathe into it to create moisture. If you’re prone to wind burn I suggest swiping a small amount of Vaseline or something similar onto those areas (usually cheeks) and on your lips for protection.

2.) Update your tires! Not all of us have trucks but 4 wheel drive is a great help. It can be expensive to be ready for Winter but if you live here long-term and have the means to slowly do things, tires are important. It’s a terrible idea to drive on bald tires in general but especially on snowy roads. If you have a smaller, compact vehicle it’s a great idea to add weight in your car to reduce sliding on slippery days on the road. Cat litter or 50lb bags of salt can help add a little traction.

3.) Have emergency items in your vehicle at the height of winter. An extra blanket or two, extra mittens, a small emergency kit, matches or a lighter, “Heet” for your gas tank, keep your gas tank ABOVE half consistently in case you get stuck somewhere. A lot of people keep a large empty tin can and candle in their vehicle in case they get stranded and for some reason you don’t have heat in your car. You can light the candle inside of the can and the can will act as a heat source. Do not keep items that can explode in the extreme cold. It’s not fun.

4.) Stay active! If you dress appropriately, go for walks! Around the block or more if you can. I swear it will reduce your seasonal moods. If you already enjoy partaking in winter sports that’s even better. If you’re living in a Northern state long-term you may as well bite the bullet and embrace it. Staying indoors constantly is what will deplete your happiness and Vitamin D levels. The sun is still out there! It’s even better if your family or friends are interested in doing something active with you. It can be as light or as strenuous as you want so long as you get outside for even 10 minutes.

5.) Eat seasonally. At least where I’m at it’s extremely easy and accessible to get local produce. Most people here have a garden but if not nearly half of the driveways have carts of produce at the entrance. We are also surrounded by Amish who do the same and have some of the best stuff there is. People here are decently sustainable and share produce or grow their own. I know that is not the same for everyone but find out what is local to you and utilize those resources. You will be supporting someone else local instead of a large corporation and getting great produce for a lower cost. Here I can get all root vegetables and squashes for the winter (or we can summer abundance), honey, maple syrup, oats, apples, pears, peaches, etc) Most of our homes have an area usually in the basement or pantry for root vegetables to store throughout the winter.I believe eating seasonally can give you nutrition that’s a little lost during the hardest months of the winter. The food is heartier and more dense than water summer foods for a reason. Incorporate these and some broth into your diet to help you re-load your energy.

6.) Site “How to Hygge” by Signe Johansen for a real play by play on the art of hygge. I bought this book about four years ago and I still go back to it every year. Coziness truly helps when it starts getting dark around 4pm. Light candles (evergreen scents are by far my favorite) and lots of them! Get small fairy lights. If you don’t have a real fireplace invest in a small electric one that will heat a room and create that ambience. Isn’t seeing people chop wood satisfying? I think it’s because it harkens back to when people did it purely out of survival. The scent of wood burning stoves are on my top favorite scents out there. I know it’s hard but try waking earlier in the day to get the most of the daylight that you can. People wake much later than in past generations and miss a decent chunk of their day. In the winter it’s important that your body gets the most daylight it can. Wake early, make your bed, go outside for a minimum of 10 minutes. It’s the easiest recipe for a little happiness.

7.) Crack your windows for 1/2 hour every week to bring in fresh air and the old can be drawn out. Sometimes our allergies worsen because our home is shut up with all of the dust and allergens. Crisp, fresh air for a small time every week can help clear it out.

8.) Speaking of windows...find which windows in your house let the most air seep through and get a plastic window kit to cover them. It can help for comfort ability and your heat bill. Obviously I suggest keeping one uncovered (whichever one doesn’t let air through) to be able to crack it once a week.

9.) Get a bird feeder or if you have one try to keep it stocked consistently! Sometimes seeing birds, especially cardinals and blue jays can improve your mood in the winter. When you unexpectedly catch a pop of red against the blanket of white is a real treat in February. Birds have more food options during the warm months but is harder to come by in the cold. I try to mix my bird seed with dried mealworms or make my own suet with lard and peanut butter because fats and heartier things like mealworms can really aid their lack of abundance in the cold. Plus I get excited when they seem to like my suet!

10.) Do not constantly engage in whining collectively about the weather. Spin the narrative. Whining about it helps no one and there’s a reason why Scandinavians are said to be rated some of the happiest people! They flow with nature including in the winter. You can be active as well as be a hermit. Get up, get dressed, go outside a little before or after work, come home and light your candles. Make a hot toddy with Tom and Jerry mix (nods at Wisconsinites) and get COZY. People are sometimes depressed, anxious and paranoid because there is a difference between earning coziness and just sheer laziness. Sometimes you get down on yourself because you wish you would be doing just the basic every day tasks but don’t. Even just trying to be positive about winter and saying something positive will help you and make others potentially have a different thought.

11.) Share with your neighbors! Winter is the seasons of the holidays and having people with you is a joy. Find a hobby that is something other than sitting on the couch all day on the computer, phone or TV watching. Your favorite TV show is not a personality trait. One of my favorite hobbies is baking. It gets my mind on the right track and I’m not spending hours scrolling through someone else's life. I’ve noticed that in Wisconsin we love fruit based desserts and pastries. It’s probably because at the end of fall we have a surplus of berries, tree fruits and rhubarb from the trees in our yard or garden or we foraged it ourselves in the woods. Apple or rhubarb crisp anyone? Make a crisp or whatever you want and give some to your neighbor or someone you know who may not have a lot of support or are going through a tough time. Instead of spending hours scrolling it can be such an easy way to bless someone else and you feel happy in turn.

12.) Do not over lotion your skin on cheap lotion! I really suggest oils or thick butters like pure shea butter in the winter months. Try not to constantly wash your hands in hot water as tempting as it is for hot water can dry your skin quicker. Bar soap (especially locally homemade) naturally has a higher fat content and can help keep your skin moist rather than liquid soap that has the tendency to strip moisture. Wilder Supply out of Alaska is a great company if you can’t find local.

13.) Buy YAKTRAX. These are seriously awesome for someone who enjoys being outdoors in the winter or if you have an outdoor job orrrrr if you’re just paranoid falling on ice ;) They are really affordable and offer a few different varieties depending on your activity and intent for them.

I could name so many more but for now that’s the top ones the came to mind to jot down!

[nicosroom]

My Money Snapshot

[Inspired by Corporette]

Location: Ohio, small college town

Age: 29

Occupation: PhD candidate (English)/half-time instructor

Income: $16,000 before deductions

Net worth: $588 (I’m crying)

Current Debt: $12,844

Living situation: Renting with a roommate

Money Philosophy:

I grew up in the “working poor” category. My parents are divorced and my father never contributed much financially. Mom made around $21,000 per year at work and she cleaned houses “under the table” to supplement that. Somehow, we never went hungry, what we ate was relatively fresh and healthy, and she managed to put two of us through Catholic schools for a total of 14 years. I know now that mom is still paying some of those loans and credit card debts and that part of her strategy included not contributing more than the 3% that her employer matched in her 401k. Every time I complain about the financial stress I feel at my salary level, I have to remind myself how comparatively unstressful my financial life is.

I’ve always been poor and I always knew that graduate school/academia is not a lucrative career. I tell myself that if I can make things work at this pay grade, then I’m ready for just about anything. My main strategy is to have a budget, stay in the budget, and save every bit that I can.

Monthly budget

$1000-1100 for the necessities each month. Monthly spending on eating out, entertainment, shopping and other categories varies widely. I also won’t lie... dating someone who makes 4x more money than me helps... I’m fairly frugal on all of these fronts: I buy most of my clothes second hand and I tend to shop seasonally. Spikes in spending occur around the winter holidays when I’m buying gifts and when I am doing traveling. And I also have totally weak, impulsive moments - like the $3 soap sales at Bath & Body works, or that time I spent $110 on bras and underwear on a whim. Anyway:

Rent: $272.50/month

Other living expenses: $130-170/month (electric, internet, phone, renter’s insurance - lower in summer, higher in winter)

Transportation: $332/month (gas, insurance, car payment)

Healthcare: $162/month (health+dental insurance, no vision coverage)

Groceries: $120-150/month ($30/week)

Debt Picture

Student loan: $2000

Car loan: $10,488

I’m a career student & my motto for all the years I’ve been in school has been “follow the money.” I went to college on very hefty scholarships and I only had to take out the $2000 loan to cover housing costs during my first year. For the subsequent three years, I was an RA, so I never had to take loans again. I applied to graduate programs based on the research fit, and when I got my offers, money weighed heavily in the decision. I would have loved to live in Boston as a wee 22-year old, but I wasn’t about to take out loans for a year’s worth of tuition and the living expenses. And to get a PhD while living in Minneapolis, my very favorite city in the US? It would have been such a dream, but for the quite steep difference in stipends and the significant disparity in cost of living compared with Ohio. My only regret on this front is that I haven’t started paying back my tiny student loan. I’ve been able to defer it since I’m in graduate school, which was a great idea when I was a master’s student who didn’t know the first thing about budgeting. But if I had just paid $25/month from the start of grad school the balance would be $0 about the same time I graduate from this PhD program this August. Instead, I’ll be scrambling to pay off the whole balance before my 6 month grace period ends. 

The car loan is less than a year old. I finally broke down and bought a new (by which I mean used) car last summer after really pushing it with the car my parents had bought me in high school. Repairing that car put me into credit card debt more than once and I was getting so stressed about it. It was time. I have a very good credit score, so I qualified for a nice loan rate with my credit union, and to get a better rate I got my mom to co-sign my loan. It’s a popular rental fleet model so there were tons of them on the market, but average miles were high - so when I saw one that was two years old with only a years worth of miles on it at $1000 less than the average price for that make, model, and year, I jumped on it. My payments are $231/month on the 5-year plan. Currently, I’m paying that minimum, but I plan to escalate my payments as my income goes up (I’m on the academic job market now, pray for me). I folded this car payment into my existing budget by giving up solo-living and finding a roommate. When I had my own apartment, very spacious with a huge kitchen and tons of windows/natural light, I was paying about $585 for monthly rent. I hate living with people, but I hated the idea of being trapped in this college town without a car even more - one of my other mantras is “you can do anything for a year.” 

A note on credit cards: I love them. I’m one of those responsible people that charges everything and pays the balance like clockwork every month. This is the only way to make sure you’re actually taking advantage of the cash back/reward perks! Currently, I’m using Capital One’s Venture card and stockpiling airline miles for travel (it has a 40,000 mile sign-on bonus). If you’re good for it, I also recommend one card with a great balance transfer program. For me, when I get into an emergency situation, it makes me feel like I have options. It’s been about 4 years since I’ve had to use my balance transfer card to cover costs ($1400 in car repairs, summer 2015), but at my level, I can’t afford to not have back up plans. 

Savings and Investments

$5,517 Cash

$7,861 Roth IRA + employer mandated retirement account

Retirement: The biggest financial mistake I've made in grad school is that I did not opt into the retirement account offered by the university when I started my M.A. in 2012. When they ask me that “what I wish I had known before I went to grad school” question, this is near the top of the list. I did, eventually, open a Roth IRA and slowly I started to build something. This year, when my graduate funding dried up and they made me a “half-time instructor” the retirement account for public school teachers was mandatory and the contributions are high: 14% of every pay check (annoying, yes, but on the flipside, there is an equally high employer match). While I’m contributing to this, I’ve paused my contributions to the IRA. I’ll roll this money over, either into the IRA or into another state/employer retirement fund when I move on from here. 

Personal savings: I strive for a minimum of $100 per month and frequently do a little more, but each month is different and I consider it a win if I break even. Through most of grad school, I’ve taken on “second jobs” to bolster what I can save (and boost my resume). Both jobs have been through the university, so they limit me to five hours a week. When I max them out, this can be an extra $200-250 each month. 

I took up a new savings challenge this academic year to build on my “play money” savings account (a high yield savings account which my bank labels a “goal setter” account). The challenge involves tallying the “total savings” printed on my receipts each month (i.e. when the grocery store is like “you saved $6″ because of sales and coupons). So, At the end of the month, I put that running total into my goal setter account. Sometimes the total savings are like $26, but others its as much as $171. It’s an interesting challenge because it encourages me to do tedious things, like scroll through all the digital coupons on the grocery store app; but at the same time, I know that the higher that number is usually coincides with a lot of shopping which encourages some self-regulation. 

I initially set my goal at $2500 when I opened the goal setter account in 2014. When I had to dip into the account in April 2018 to pay $930 in car repairs, I finally set plans in motion to buy my car. Since I bought used, I only put 10% down on the car (just over $1200). When I sold my old car for $1000, I put that money right back into the account to start saving for new things...

What I’m saving for now:

travel: to celebrate finally finishing this PhD, I’m hoping to pull off a trip to Europe. Later this year, I’m also turning 30 around the same time that one of my regular professional conferences is meeting in Hawaii. If I can do one or both in the next year, that’d be grand. (As I mentioned, I'm saving up airline miles with my credit card program, too!)

a multicooker: think InstantPot...but more expensive because my dreams all revolve around small appliances that match my stand mixer. 

What I do to be frugal... 

I’ve been frugal my whole life, but a couple of major habits I’ve formed include:

Meal planning and home cooking (read my guide to meal prep here). The money part of that means planning what I eat around maximizing the ingredients I have to buy. I plan meals that use the same ingredients so I’m not spending on an entire bunch of celery and then throwing out 75% of it. Routinization also helps, so my grocery lists stay about the same week to week and the bill relatively predictable - for example, I eat avocado egg salad almost every day for lunch. I know, avocados are not cheap, but I also believe in spending on the things that nourish you––literally and “spiritually.” Roxane Gay once said that she never bought avocados or blueberries when she was a “poor grad student.” Once she started making money, she realized she would buy them because she could afford them, but she also threw them out all the time because she didn’t plan her meals right to actually eat them. The point is, buy the foods that you like/feel good about and build habits around them. It’s not wasted money. That said, I won’t pay more than $1.25 for an avocado!

Second hand clothes shopping, especially for my business casual (it’s amazing what people donate to the Goodwill, barely worn!)

[jungdrizzydraco]

An O.C. for Your Asses!!!

I wanna see if the characters are legit before I move forward with this short story im working on (I'm a character first kinda guy, so I work inside-out) leave any form of constructive critique you wish, they are still works in progress, thanks!!

Augustine Harriet Andersson

Age:22

Sign: Gemini (sun) Cancer (moon) Virgo (rising)

Height: 5'8

Eye Color: Formerly dark-brown, bleached to a pastel-hazel because of some dark magic fuckery

Hair Color/Cut: dark-brown,q shifting variations of a fade, whose design changes somewhat based on his thoughts and emotions (yes, this is an enchanted fade)

Build: lean, lightly muscled from years lifting cauldrons in his grandfather's potion shop

Notable Features: Dimples; left-dimple is deeper than right, multiple piercings on each ear, artificial left eye (looks organic but to magical eyes, it looks otherwise)

"Have you ever been like...fundamentally angry? I feel that way...like at my core, there's this rage that seethes and coils at the pit of my stomach, everyday, like a python that can't quite squeeze his prey all the way to death. Everytime I think I've grown up, forgiven something or someone or myself, there's this anger that tightens right back up all over again...like it's reminding me of something. Somedays...I feel like that feeling will petrify everything I've ever loved about myself, and I'll just be another slave to outrage and ego and pain...just like everyone else...haha, then I'll really be a normie."  -August Andersson, on his depression and internal anger issues.

Augustine Andersson is a witch-boy. But you could probably already tell that from looking at him: the way his eyes are almost constantly fixed towards some unseeable infinity, the way air molecules hum with fresh, manic energy around him, how he seems to absorb sunlight and the way his brown skin would filter the glow as a result of his connection to the natural...it was all very off putting to others around him for most of his young adult life. And as we all know, no one likes a freak, so such years had a hand in building his current trust issues, feelings of great anger and inadequacy, and all the tics and tricks he uses to keep such feelings at bay. He's not at a total loss; at his core he is a humanitarian, deeply compassionate and available to those who have managed to capture his heart, as well as wild and humorous. However, he keeps a tight lid on his darkest feelings and insecurities, out of fear that they may be too much for those around him (also, he might accidentally call forth a vile arch-daemon on accident, but that's neither here nor there.) After finally having had enough of his mundane time amongst the humans, he vanishes from his college campus one day and takes to the open road, hoping that like the many young, angsty teens in the movies he loves, he will find himself in his own solitude. But the best way to deal with oneself is when confronting someone else, and after a close-call with a reckless (and very cute) motorcycle rider on an interstate, August will be forced to deal with every single part of himself, the good, the bad, and the strange...

A few more things about him...

1. His father is Afro-swedish, hence his last name.

2. Loves to travel and is nomadic by nature.

3. He gets a special kind of warmth out of being moderately petty at all times.

4. He loves open spaces and bodies of water, as well as hikes through mountains (ok so he only went once in Vegas, so sue him, he really liked it!)

5. Surprisingly low maintenance, really just likes being around people that are happy, and the feeling easily rubs off on him.

6. Both positive and negative emotions easily rub off on him.

7. Can get caught up in moments of warm content, given his unstable interior life, and can get lost in wasting/spending time.

8. Gets restless easily.

9. Budding film buff, faves include Kill Bill vol. 1&2, Her, Moonrise Kingdom, Gone Girl, Blue is the Warmest Color, Moonlight, & Mean Girls.

10. August's father is very engaged with politics and civil rights, so in honor of that, he decided that his son's middle name would belong to one of the greatest figures of the civil rights movement: Harriet Tubman.

11. Favorite new movie is The Favourite.

12. Due to a lack of acceptance of his full self and the full spectrum of his sexuality, he is judgemental of others and holds them to the same near-impossible standards he holds for himself. 

13. Things he expects from others: To read his mind and conjure what he wants without saying, to have his needs and boundaries respected without actually stating so, for others to fit in whatever box he thinks they should be in, for everyone's intellect to be slightly lower than his own, but high enough not to annoy him with silly questions, ect.

14. Listens to Lorde, J. Cole, Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator, Young Thug and assorted film soundtracks.

15. Enjoys playing into his double-sided nature when it suits him, and has a secret glee in melding into different roles depending on who's around him.

16. Is attracted to more eccentric personalities in platonic and romantic relationships

17. Smokes weed to escape boredom. (and his problems)

18. Smokes weed because he likes the feeling.

19. Is secretly a little ratchet, but he'll kill you if you say so, it'll fuck up his reputation as the quasi-sociopathic erudite.

Magic House-Thoth

Augustine is a member of the Sacred House of Life, witches whose magic is passed down from the Egyptian Gods themselves. August himself is a descendant of an African slave-witch, once known as Ashe. She was taken to Egypt as a typical piece of cargo from zealot raiders, and was sentenced to a life of building the pyramids. Or so she would have thought: Thoth, the God of Magic and Knowledge, took pity upon her and beguiled her to follow an invisible force into the desert one night. He then revealed himself to her in his ibis-headed brilliance and bestowed upon her a set of choices: he could free her now and set her loose across the desert with all the things she would need for survival, or he could give her secrets and wisdoms unknown to man at the time, but she would have to frequently return to him for lessons. Ashe always prized knowledge and growth over any material thing, or even something such as freedom (I prefer to disagree myself). And secrets from a God must count for that much more, right? She indulged in option two. Thoth grinned and whispered to her the mysteries of life, the secrets of the stars, and the riddles of worlds lost and intangible, he spoke magick into her very soul. She would then use her newfound knowledge to fool her captors, freed any slave that would believe in her, and with her wits about them, guided them across the desert to build a library-like sanctuary, in honor of Thoth. The former slaves then learned from the god's teachings, passed through Ashe, and became witches and educators in their own right, and Ashe came to lead this new coven of magi. This is how the House of Thoth became to be. 

Magick: As a member of house of Thoth, August has the ability to manipulate various aspects of the moon, writing, hieroglyphics, knowledge and sciences, and the progression of time. His particular specialty is the creation of Moon Dust, a substance used as a medium for most of his spells. By gathering various quantities of mineral, be it: crystal, rocks, pearls, aluminum, or even silvers and golds, he can channel his magic into them and break down and rearrange their atomic components into a corrosive, abrasive substance that also tends to stick to objects due to an electric charge. This dust is also dangerous to breathe in. He tends to carry around a pouch or two on his person, as trying to create some on the fly is nearly impossible given how much time and intricacy is needed to create the substance. (I mean, working with just a pile of plain old rocks would take a couple of hours to convert, let alone harder or more distilled substances.) Spells that he has mastered so far include...

Spell of Refraction: A spell in which the moondust bonds to whomever or whatever August desires (sans the harmful effects, it's enchanted in this state) and whatever is enveloped in dust turns invisible via light refraction.

Spell of Revelations: He can spread his moondust over an area and have the pieces cling to imprints of negative emotion or dark magick. A spell used for forensic work.

Spell of Retribution: An offensive spell that uses moondust to its fullest offensive powers and creates small funnels of dust to ravage the opponent. The largest funnel made could surround a fully grown man.

Golemancy:  Can create golems out of the moon dust he has formed, usually no larger than a human toddler. They tend to take form roughly resembling lego-men (he was a big fan of the Lego Expanded Universe as a child), but one can easily be fooled by their size: each golem has the strength of three men, and can combine to further power themselves up.

There are a few spells that don't require the moon dust...

-The Veil: A surface-level illusion layered directly over the skin. This allows the caster to look like whatever he wants to look like and sound however he wants, but can be broken if struck with bad intentions (like a slap from an offended woman on the street)

 -Somnus: A very old, yet practical spell. Also one that does not require moondust, this handy spell induces sleep.  Those affected by this spell will not remember being forced to sleep, but they will have active and vivid dreams for distraction. Also necessary for Dream Diving.

-Dream Diving:  A skill Augustine has yet to master, this allows the caster to astral project into one's consciousness for complete access to the afflicted parties mind, if the brain is distracted by dreams. August has gotten stuck in several public nude dreams, and it takes long hours to remove oneself from another's mind.

-Illusion Casting 

-Temporary Madness Inducement

-Script Magick: By writing down a word or phrase on any surface that can be sufficiently marked on, whatever has been written manifests somehow, just so long as it is within his power. He can't create miracles with it though.

Top 10 Roadtrip Songs

Sobriety- Sza

No Role Moldelz-J. Cole

Sacrifices -Dreamville, assorted artists

Grown Up Fairy Tails- Chance the Rapper, Taylor Bennett 

My Boy-Billie Eilish

U.N.I.T.Y.- Frank Ocean

West Coast: Lana Del Rey

Cruise Ship-Young Thug

400 Lux-Lorde

Let Em Know- Bryson Tiller

[johnheintz]

Venezuela's Cultural Problem

March was a total apocalypse in Venezuela. We had many power cuts that lasted between 3 and 6 days. Food was scarce, hospitals were flooded with people. Renal patients who could not be dialyzed died and fuel was too hard to find for many hospitals’ power plants. Sum that with the fact that many of the cities that have suffered the worst parts of the crisis, like Maracaibo, generally have temperatures over 90°.

Ravaging was widespread. The owner of a bakery killed himself after he saw what angry mobs did to his business. At night, you could hear gunshots popping like fireworks on New Year. Some businesses were not looted only because owners and security personnel slept on the roof and were armed with pistols and shotguns.

It was like Mad Max, The Purge and a Western got mixed up in one terrible nightmare.

One of those days, I was in a long line outside a market trying to buy some food –whatever I found, for my family. In the line, there were a couple of people talking about the looting of a business the previous day.

 “They were selling everything too expensive, they deserved it.” “You know, I even helped one guy move a juice cart he took. But he was too stupid to grab some fruit. How is he going to make juice now?” And then some people laughed.

Let’s move further to the month of June.  In Maracaibo, where I live, the electrical situation was not solved: we still had (and have) daily power cuts of somewhere around 6 and 14 hours. In a good day, you may only have a 3-hour cut, in a bad one you may spend the whole day without power.

Also, the gasoline situation is hideous. 2-day lines to fill 20 or 30 liters of gasoline are the norm. If you want a full tank you have to give alguito to the tanker: a pack of rice, a coffee, a $1 bill or so.

 If you’re having a good day, you may fill your tank in 10 hours. Obviously, there are ways to fill your tank in an hour. You pay $20 to the tank guy or the National Guard (yes, the stations are militarized) and you’ll fill your tank quickly. In a country where the minimum wage does not reach $10, that is not an option for many.

One of those days I was around 36 hours in a line. It was hell. People were selling their spots; others were trying to wriggle around the line. Dozens of people paying the guards to pass first, some paying to fill 20-liter containers to then re-sell them (20 liters of gasoline cost somewhere around $15 and $20 on the black market).

And it’s the same everywhere: if you want to renew your passport, you have to pay a hefty sum if you want it to receive it faster. If you need some dollars for traveling or saving, you’ve got to go to the black market. Maybe you need to register your college degree and do not want to lose a whole week coming and going to the registry? Then pay. And it’s all perfectly fine.

You see all this and you may reach the same conclusion of many Venezuelans: The crisis of Venezuela has a cultural root.

After all, we are the culture of Tío Tigre y Tío Conejo (Uncle Tiger and Uncle Rabbit), a group of Venezuelan folk tales where Tío Conejo always won using his wit and tricking Tío Tigre. We are a culture that applauds viveza criolla. That expression is a bit hard to translate directly, but it basically means being like Tío Conejo: not playing by the rules, being “street smart” to achieve your goals.

Is there a cultural and civic education problem in Venezuela? Definitely. Is that the root of our problems? Definitely… not.

After all, we are also a culture of hard-working people. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country and there are many complaints about us in the host countries: that we are loud, that we take people’s jobs, that we complain too much about communism, and that our women rob husbands (In Peru they even made a song about that!), but they never complain about Venezuelans being lazy. Also, take a look at the people that are still here: Many of them earn a wage between $8 and $15 a month and still decide to wake up every morning at 5 a.m., walk for half an hour or more to the bus stop to reach their jobs where they probably won’t have electricity for around 6 hours, get back home around 6 p.m. and have a power cut at 8 p.m. And they still decide to go to work every day.

Also, if you read a bit about countries during great disasters like war, a natural disaster or a hardline socialist rule you’ll see the same stories: black markets, general loss of civility, and rampant corruption. When external conditions force it, the law of the strongest imposes: many people only care about surviving and many others see an opportunity in people’s pain. That’s not culture, it is biology.

Culture is dynamic. What builds civic culture is institutions and education. If institutions play by the rules and work correctly, if people earn livable wages and have access to decent services, the incentives for corruption are greatly reduced. If the government leaves their hands out of production and promotes a strong private sector, then a black market makes no sense. If people knew about the importance of being a citizen and cultivating civic virtues, maybe things would be different.

Venezuela has a cultural problem, but that’s not a root of the issue. It’s a systemic crisis: we have a social and political system that rewards being a Tío Conejo, not being a good citizen.

Edgar Beltrán is a 22-year-old political scientist and philosophy student from Maracaibo, Venezuela. He is passionate about discussing how politics affects the daily lives of people and about untangling the hidden structures of reality through philosophy.

[redefiningthirtysomething]

I’m going going, back back to AZ AZ

2 years ago we were living in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the best decision we made for our family and we thought things would be amazing. I am born and raised in Los Angeles, CA but life in LA was too busy, always working, Bella was growing up and life was just to expensive. I was looking for something else, something slower. I was tired of trying to keep up with work, my friends, family,... it all was very overwhelming.

We packed up our SUV and put our LA life away and drove 8 hours with our baby girl (she was 7).

We arrived so excited, ready for our new life, full of expectations. We planned this months in advance, we saved money, we prepared our friends and jobs. We had going away parties and tears. We arrived to our home, a 3 bedroom, hard wood floor, made for us house. We celebrated over drinks on our first night and experienced our first monsoon in our first week, It was spectacular. I had never seen anything like it. After settling in and introducing ourselves to the neighborhood I landed a job at a local hospice and Eli resumed his stay-at-home-dad job during the day and a night job he got at a local facility. I worked 3 days on, 4 days off 12 hour shifts. Bella was going to a great school right across the park, we would literally walk her over, drop her off and have a morning workout, followed by our breakfast, some morning sex and Eli then was off to sleep to be ready for his night job. We were living in a beautiful big home in a quiet neighborhood with a nice yard for Bella, fireplace, we had a cat and a Kitchen island I absolutely loved. My Master bedroom was bigger than the size of our entire LA apartment and my closet space, sigh... why did we ever leave? ... well, here's what happened.

We made plans to live there for life, but we only lasted six months. I got a job a few weeks after we moved in, we were living off of our savings and we were  planning our next career moves. The Job I got was good, but it paid very low and yes, I know that is expected in AZ the wages are less than in CA, what I made in CA was an unreasonable wage in AZ and they clearly told me this during my interview. But I thought, well ok I can figure this out as we go. The bills or the first month were a little outrageous. We moved to AZ in August ... need I say more? It was HOT AF so we had the AC unit on all day and all night long at a cool 71. Although some locals told us how to maintain a low electricity bill during the summer, we had NO IDEA how serious they were and didn't quite listen to their advice! It cant be that bad right ? wow, $600 for a month? A MONTH? That's not even including any of the other bills. that was the electricity ALONE! It knocked me out of my shoes. Ok, so the bills became an issue but we got a handle on it the best we could, but we were definitely in a strict budget.

A few months after we moved in my sister and her GF were having a hard time in LA and we agreed to help them out and let them live with us in AZ, we had an extra room and it would help us with the bills, plus it would be nice to have family around since we still hadn't made any new friends. It was good for a while but turned ugly really quick. I don't like to talk shit about people, but the GF has a nasty attitude and she's just an overall toxic person, I kind of see her as a bully who cried wolf. Awful, awful. Unfortunately my sister doesn't see it and they always think it's everyone else. I mean if she's happy with that, it's on her but like I've said before, leave us out of your negativity. Anyway, things got heated one night, she yelled at my daughter and insulted Eli, and I had to defend my family. After a screaming match, and an almost full on throw down in my kitchen I kicked them out. They moved to Tempe and my sister and I stopped talking. Cause of course, we attacked her, so they say. I have never in my life been in a fight and i'm so non confrontational... but apparently that night big bad me was in attack mode. Such silliness.

At this point, we're broke AF, we have no friends and my sister lives 20 miles away and doesn't talk to us. Ugh, Great start. Seriously the only good part for us about AZ was the happiness Bella had. She made so many friends on our street, she ruled that street basically. This girl was never home, she was always outside riding her bike or her scooter, or playing in someones yard, at the park ... she loved it. Sleep overs at out house, she had her room which we decorated to her style, her own bathroom...she loved it. I cant even begin to explain how good we had it. Bella was in her happy place.  Isn't this what we moved for? We completely lost sight of it. Eli and I were arguing a little bit, we were kind of just annoyed at life and we took it out on each other. Bella was getting stressed out because she hates to see us bicker, she tried to help us make up a few times. We don't like to put that on her, so we would make up, but a week later we were both back to not giving AF. We made things work, but there was a tension.

A little after Christmas we found out I was pregnant, 2 weeks pregnant to be exact and that very same day I found out I was pregnant I received a call from my boss at my old job in LA that they needed me to come back and that they would give me a raise. We looked at each other and it was like a weight lifted off our shoulders, we didn't even think about it before saying yes. We packed our shit and were gone by the weekend. We dipped out SO fast, we like ran back to LA ... what we thought was the best decision. Boy... were we wrong.

We moved in with Eli's parents, we were broke and didn't have money or time to find a new place. I started back at work that upcoming Monday and we had to get situated ASAP. work, yes, work was great. I went back and they started me at a great rate and It was like I never left. I still had my status of 10 years and accumulated my PTO, benefits as if I never left. So grateful that they thought well enough of me to ask me back. Bella went back to her old elementary school and things went back to Normal. Months went by and I'm super pregnant. We decided to stay at his parents house during the pregnancy because I didn't want to add anymore stress.  I have come to realize that I don't like living with other people other than Eli and my girls. People have something to say about something and always give opinions. whatever, I stay at work or in my room most of the time anyway. But, that's not how I wanted to live. Soon after I had Olivia, Elijah went to work so that I can spend time with the baby and bond. 4 weeks in a was stir crazy and made him quit his job and I went back to work. That's his family we live with and I am not comfortable, I don't feel like I can just go make breakfast and lounge around, not that I cant but it's a me thing. I don't like having to tell people where I am going if I'm leaving the house. I have always been very independent and I am easily annoyed when I don't have my freedom. plus, hey we pay rent ... I don't really have to explain my life ... but I cant be rude you know, so I bite my tongue.

We live in a trendy area of LA filled with hipsters, bars and restaurants .... and also very high rent. A 1 bedroom small apartment on the low end will cost you somewhere along 1900 month. jeez. We haven't been able to move out or find a decent price. We almost decided to buy a home but they're at 1 million for a little house. Bella has her room, a small room ... literally half the size of her AZ bedroom and she cant play outside , we live on a busy street and with the mentally ill/homeless that hang around the area doesn't make it safe. So she spends most of here time inside unless we go somewhere. Olive sleeps with us, we co-sleep, we did with Bella too, but soon I am going to have to transition her to her own room, plus she's about ready to crawl but we don't have space! Another thing is things have changed here. I don't see any of my friends, they don't have kids so they're out traveling and brunching. Things that I can't do right now. I haven't seen them at all to be honest, maybe once since I've been back from AZ. Olivia is 8 months now. Management at work changed, we have a new director and things are so different from the company I once knew. My sister eventually moved back to LA and I made peace with them, I wanted to have my sister in my life and things were good until recently. The GF strikes again, but with my mom! that's another story for another day. so, yet again my sister thinks its everyone else, except her GF. Also, I don't have a relationship with my little sister, but we will get into her in another blog.

I am a total mom and my focus is 100% on my kids and my family. I didn't know this until I had them.. obviously. I used to be all about me, going out, working and living my life. everything changed. everything. I live for my kids, I love them so much and my ultimate goal in my life is to make sure they are taken care of. why the fuck did we leave Arizona? Because we had no friends? I want to slap myself sometimes. were we bored? who fucking cares? Bella was happy! We could have made it work. We could have but we ran and took the easy way out. Eli and I sat down one day and we were trying to figure out our next move. we need to grow and make changes to better us as a family. We asked ourselves where is our happy place? where are our kids going to be happy?

The move back to AZ is in July. YES! we are so excited and thrilled. This time we see things differently. this time we know what to expect , we know the summers are harsh and we know the job market, we know that we only have each other out there... and that's OK! I am going to start an online business which I am currently working on. Eli will be the one working and I will stay home with bebe. It's NOT about us anymore. The house is set and ready for us we just gotta pack and go. By the way, we have a family house in AZ. It's my moms and she rents it out, but she lets us (her daughters, family) stay there and it's currently without renters. She knew I would go back. She knows that we have to make sacrifices for our kids sometimes. I don't feel that I am sacrificing this time.

I have faith and we love adventure.

[prorevenge]

Contract Negotiations in a Second Language

This one's a bit bit, sorry for the length, I've tried to cut it down... hard to do without losing some twists and turns in the story. Hope you think it's worth it, I sure do!

TLDR @ the End.

I work in China as an English teacher. There are hundreds of great jobs out here, but at least an equal portion of people trying to screw you in every way possible. Each company I've worked with has been an education in paperwork, contract negotiations, and leverage. 6 years in, I'd like to think I'm finally getting the hang of it. 6 years working here isn't unheard of, but it's rare, and my level of education/job experience (plus standard white face) sells for quite a premium here.

At this private school I'm one of 3 foreign teachers, a job that carries a lot of prestige locally, and brings in a lot of students (read $$$), as only certain schools are even permitted to hire foreigners and even less can afford/find them. During recruitment periods, parents are paraded into my classroom, and I'm sometimes given bonuses because of how often I'm complimented on my energy, teaching style, even handsomeness (this matters in China... I'm NOT handsome, but white in rural China is auto-handsome). The other foreign teachers here are African--and yes, there's a substantial racial bias, and they get paid much less. I've chosen this school, because it's got the lowest cost of living area with the highest offered salary---but most importantly the highest amount of free time. I work about 20 hours per week, save 70% of my salary, and spend the rest traveling. I had negotiated a VERY competitive salary. I also signed a non-standard contract that I had personally edited. I was proud of myself... at least until....

I arrived at the school and the international staff liaison immediately asked me to sign their 'standard contract'--the earlier one was a mistake, and couldn't be submitted for my visa. I now knew this was one of "those schools" I'd heard stories... they would do anything to screw over the 老外 (foreigner). I pulled up my big-boy britches. ... I needed to be prepared. ... I wasn't...

Initially, I didn't even read the "standard contract," it offered me only 2/3's of my agreed upon salary, so I told them to update that. They returned (days later) and I read it--a horrific document that would lose me: my Christmas holiday (a great luxury in China), my salaried status (a shift to per/class pay with no pay for canceled classes), and even allow them to charge me if I leave without finishing my contract. More terrifying still? "additional 'activities' or 'events' could be assigned without pay or notice" apparently at any time. The contract would also require me to locate another foreign teacher 'replacement' before allowing me to sever employment, and prevented me from leaving this school for any competing school in China.

"Everyone signs it!" was chanted at me by four separate workers (all of the English speakers in the building), each appalled that I was arguing. I informed them "I'm not everyone. We'll stick to my contract."

(I found out later, everyone apparently does sign it. They just don't bother following it. The other foreign teachers just run away on payday. The school has lost more than 10 teachers this way.)

Four individual attempts were made to rewrite the "standard" contract to include what I had negotiated for. Each new version left out new things... (I hate to ignore Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." , but we were approaching the edge of Occam's Razor here... "The simplest explanation is usually true.") God, I prayed they were only stupid! By the end, I simply wrote the contract using their format.

Except by then we were 6 months into the school year. Operating that long without an official contract in China is dangerous, and can allow the government to seize my 'illegal wages.' But there were just 3 more months until summer vacation... except...

that's when the school decided that they didn't want to pay my summer salary. Now my paperwork clearly said that I was a salaried employee, and that I was to be paid whether they had classes or not. Summer had no classes, I pointed out, but I still get paid. ... I hadn't anticipated them creating a summer school just to give me classes. But, the dates for 'summer holiday' wasn't specified, so I lost three weeks of my vacation to their "summer classes." At the meeting where I debated the ambiguities in the contract, seeking some discussion, a meeting of the minds, the boss lady simply demanded, "Will you comply with the contract you signed or not?" [This remains the most English and the only grammatical English she's ever spoken within my hearing.]

Would I do what I signed up for? Fuck. ... I would.

...but contract negotiations were already starting... for the school year (by now) beginning in only two months. I hadn't been prepared before, but I was determined to get my 3 weeks back.

The initial plan was to set my demands so high that eventually insisting on getting 3 weeks vacation or 3 weeks extra pay would seem reasonable. I rejected the three contracts they offered me (each one a version I had already seen and refused the year before), the foreign staff liaison (FL) suggested that I again write the contract myself, so I would be happy with it. I sighed, and uttered , "好吧," (a reluctant "Fine.") Don't mind if I do!

I had three contract versions sent to them by the end of the day. (They were just modified versions of my last 3 employers)-- but they were written in amateur and heavy English legalese. Poor ESL (English Second Language) workers never had a chance. They balked.

Now, my email clearly explained that each contract offered different benefits, each a separate option I'd accept: One gave me less classes/week, one provided substantial penalty fees for each week my salary was delayed, one insisted that my "holiday" salary for the year (3 months) be paid immediately. Additional benefits tossed in at random: sick days, penalties for not giving notice of canceled classes/holidays, (as opposed to the less than 24 hours notice I'd heretofore received). I even added my water/electric bill, cafeteria meal card, and internet to the list.

Overwhelmed by the complexity of the documents... FL asked for the 3 to be combined into a single document. I did, again reminding them that they contained several options, and this time adding that it was really an initial negotiating position. I'm quite certain that reminder was never read. Well, I combined the documents... every potentially reasonable request I had managed to concoct over 2 months was thrown together into the final draft.

I imagine FL having a quiet heart attack upon reading it, knowing sending it to the boss was akin to a suicide attempt. That's when they stopped paying me.

I had now agreed to working one summer month [okay, 3 weeks] "free" (as it should have been a holiday), and now I had worked another month, but payday arrived without them paying my salary... my legal options were pretty unknown to me, it's not my legal system, and I can barely parse a Chinese sentence, much less read legalese... I continued to work, and occasionally remind them about needing paid... as I neared two months behind in salary... we began "negotiations."

These contract negotiations were more stressful than any breakup I've ever had: First, I would be called into the office, berated at for being ungrateful (usually) for hours, have it explained that I was being unreasonable, told precisely how much each of the workers in the office made (fractions of my salary), and then asked to make some concessions, ... I told them they'd receive concessions only if they made some proportionate concessions on their end. (This is China. None of the people I was talking to were authorized to make any concessions, they were just aware the boss lady/owner (HRH-- Her Royal Highness) was NOT HAPPY with my requests [or perhaps would be not happy?--I still don't know if/when she read the contract]) But there was nothing they could do... I started playing games on my laptop while waiting for them to run out of stamina. I wracked up 120+ hours on the game. Wake up. Go to class. Go to meetings. Get yelled at. Lunch break, go home, nap, return in the afternoon for a repeat performance. Had this for an entire two weeks with little variation... well sometimes the meetings were before class, sometimes the meetings were after. Variety is the spice of life! I began to look forward to classes, as they were a reason to escape "meetings."

Finally, someone must have decided I wasn't going to budge, and the contract was sent to the boss for approval. My demands had been shuffled, reworded, and buried in paragraphs--but the content was largely unchanged.

HRH immediately made a (6+ hour) trip to the school from Beijing for our meeting. Upon her arrival HRH stood for a photo session with me, I was given chocolates, wine, the (ceremonial) position of vice principal, and the promise of a raise. (I hadn't even considered a raise! I made way too much for the region as it was! But it'd been promised, so I added it into my next draft.) The meetings lasted 3 days on and off. (Although my time with her was less than 3 hours total, because we were constantly interrupted by investors, new students, parents, etc.)

On the third day, I left the meeting (for lunch) with the regretful promise that I would begin looking for work elsewhere. I already had four interviews scheduled for the afternoon.

No sorry, I couldn't possibly return to the meetings, I've already scheduled an interviews until 4. Yes, I know, it's important, but I've already scheduled the meeting. ... Okay... okay... No. I have a meeting. .... Yes. I understand. ... No, I still have a meeting... I'll come over immediately after. ... Oh, HRH wants to talk? ... Sorry, still have an interview. ... No, I won't cancel... Yes, HRH is very very busy... well, it's very kind of you to (finally) give me that promised raise, but I have promised to have these meetings, and I keep my promises. Buh-bye.

[Between interviews] I'm sorry. I have an interview now, and can't answer your direct messages, but yes, some sick days is reasonable... I've g2g... That'd be nice... The Wechat [Chinese skype/facebook] call is starting. Buh-bye.

I arrived to a very different meeting. My boss was sitting in a room of 6 police officers with a pile of money on the table bigger than a large suitcase. I was certain she was paying them to arrest me. 'Oh fuck,' I thought. 'HRH is real fucking hardcore. What the fuck was I doing?'

I was told that I wasn't allowed to leave the school, that my contract only allowed me to work for her. I agreed that might be the case, (suddenly, I was in a very agreeable mood) and asked if I could read that part in the contract I'd signed. She picked up the contract and began scanning. The contract said no such thing, but her face never changed as she scanned the substantially altered "standard" contract. Everyone in the room pretended we weren't paying attention to her.

​

She finished scanning. There was a glance at the FL.

"Yes, you will only work for me." She asked me what the other schools were offering, salary-wise. I told her. She rounded up the number and tossed two wads of cash to me, and turned to continue her conversation with the police. "Bring his contract. We're signing it now." A worker snatched the money from my hands and counted out my (very late) salary.

The poor staff. They were still unprepared. (They brought the combined version of the contract that I'd emailed... my first 'final draft'.) HRH didn't even glance at it before signing. I got everything I could have thought to ask for. I celebrated for two weeks--in Thailand.

Epilogue: FL has an easier job (same pay) in a different school now. We're still not friends, but she told me she's grateful to not work here anymore. She won't say it's my fault, (that's not Chinese culture), but I'm 99.99% sure it is. I've bought her gifts, (2) until she stopped accepting them.

This year I promised no new demands in my contract... I just wanted my salary... ... but there were still some changes...

First, since I've accumulated an additional 80% of my yearly salary in fines, (they failed to pay my three months holiday salary up front). I've had my contract reviewed by a Chinese lawyer. It may be not eloquent, (online translated) Chinese, but it would hold up in court. To be honest though, I still feel bad about them signing that insane contract, so I'm holding to the stated intention in the penalties... This year, as an addendum I added: "As the penalty is meant to be corrective, rather than punitive, so long as my wages, and the wages of my fellow employees, are paid on time, the missing fines from last year will not be assessed. All fines will become due, including all subsequent late fees, if any teacher can demonstrate that they have not been paid by the 15th." I calculate that weekly fines will have pushed my punitive figures to 200%+ of my yearly salary by that time. They asked for one change-- I was the only staff member with Christmas off, and it was breeding resentment. Instead of Christmas and Christmas Eve, could I accept instead holiday days in lieu? I wrote the addendum myself. I wrote "Upon request of Party A, instead of the Christmas holiday, Party B will receive an additional 12 paid holiday days." 12.

​

The addendum was returned signed. I can only assume HRH is still not reading my contracts before signing.

I'm now up to 4 months paid holidays, and yesterday I sent the excel spreadsheet with the complete calculations of all fines from last year. There was a panic, until I restated the reminder that the fines will not be assessed so long as I can't validate any complaints about myself or my friends/co-workers not being paid on time. I was assured (again) it wouldn't ever happen.

TLDR: Boss in China screws me out of three weeks vacation, creating special "summer school classes" just to make me work, only possible because of a bad contract translation/ambiguity. So, I rewrite my contract next year- give myself a raise, three weeks of paid vacation, free meals, and nearly extortionate fees for late payments. I could demand 80% of my salary extra this year in penalties alone. Instead, I wrote myself in an additional two weeks of paid vacation. Going to see how long I can keep this up.

(source) story by (/u/StillAdamRoots)

[prodigyduck]

That Time I Almost Got Mercedes Lackey Killed...

So let me tell you about Gen Con 2018 and how I almost got Award-Winning novelist Mercedes Lackey killed...

 To get the story started, you'll need to know that I am acquainted with New York Times Best Selling Novelists Larry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey. If you are unfamiliar with their work:

 * Misty is the author of over 100 fantasy novels. She also has a successful superhero series under her belt. And despite being in her 60s, does not look like she is going to stop writing anytime soon.

 * Larry is also an author, who has collaborated with Misty on several Valdemar novels. He is a fantastic illustrator. Both are avid bird enthusiasts. Remember the giant eagles from Lord of the Rings? Those are thanks to the film and footage taken by Larry. The same footage has been used by Weta Workshop to create the griffons in the Narnia and Warcraft films.

 So, anywho...

 Larry recently succumbed to an old shoulder injury he received during his days as a volunteer fire fighter. It was pretty bad. He had limited mobility, had to wear a sling, and could not lift more than 5 pounds for risk of tearing his shoulder out of its socket. As it was only three weeks from Gen Con, and they had already promised their fans they would be there, Larry asked if I could drive Misty to Gen Con and watch over her during the convention. They were also going to be sharing a booth space with my favorite independent film crew Zombie Orpheus Entertainment; for whom Larry has been doing script writing recently.

 Previous to this, I was not planning to attend Gen Con this year. Financially, 2018 has not been a good year for me. I have been making enough money to pay my share of the household bills and groceries. But I have not been making enough to save up for extra fun things like vacations or conventions. Ah, the life of a freelancer! So, getting asked to go to Gen Con was made me very happy. Knowing that the room and expenses would be covered helped greatly! All I really needed to do was acquire a badge and save up as much money as I could for the next three weeks to have a little extra spending cash for the dealer room.

 In the three weeks leading up to Gen Con, I had managed to accumulate about $300 of extra spending cash. Not bad, but not nearly as much as I usually have to spend in previous years. However, the week before we leave, Rogue Genius Games drops $1,500 on me for recent sales of my newly-released Super Powered Legends Sourcebook. Suddenly, all of my financial worries for Gen Con vanish! Yay!

 Sunday -- four days before Gen Con -- my friends marc and Tom drop me off at Larry and Misty's home so I can spend the next day helping with packing and sorting. About 10 AM Monday morning, we have a tsunami roll through the area and it knocks out the electricity. Given the rural area, the power does not get turned back on until 4 AM the following day. Needless to say, we were able to get nothing done with no power available. Tuesday is a mad rush to get everything done that we had not done Monday. Books are packed, posters and art prints are signed, Larry is trying to put EVERYTHING in the Ford Flex -- and I do mean everything! He wants us to take a giant printer, camera tripods, and several Go-Pros for ZOE to use. My foot goes down at 3 PM. Nothing more is going in that vehicle and we are leaving. Larry is literally trying to give us more stuff as we are backing out of the driveway. Bye, Larry... bye!

 Once we get on the road, everything goes smoothly! We have driven through St.  Louis, Missouri around 9 PM and stop at a Motel for the night at 10 PM. The next morning, we awaken at 11, get some breakfast, and go. According to the GPS, we are only three and a half hours from Indianapolis. And, thanks to smooth traffic, we get there in that time. Check in to our hotel, I go and grab my badge from the VIG Lounge, deliver some buttons I made for BJ Hensley, and all is good!

 Thursday, everything goes great. I escort Misty to all her seminars. At the first one, I get to meet the authors of the Expanse! When we get to her autograph signing time, she lets me know that I am free to do what I want for the rest of the day, and I go through the dealer room. First day of Gen Con done! That evening, Misty lets me know that she only has one seminar to attend at 4 PM the next day and that she will otherwise be at the ZOE booth until then. I am otherwise free to do what I want until 4.

 Then Friday...

 Misty's 9:00 alarm goes off and she re-sets it. But she does not get out of bed. Seeing she wants more sleep, I make quick use of the bathroom, dress, and make my way out. It's 10:00 Misty is still asleep, as far as I can tell. I am standing in line to sell some miniatures at the CoolStuffInc booth when Larry calls me at 11:30 to tell me that Misty has had a stroke and my stomach drops to my feet. She is currently at the hospital. I run back to the room, and try to answer all the doctor's questions that I can. I pack an overnight bag for Misty, which is grabbed by her ZOE handler, Judy, and taken to the hospital. Otherwise, I am in the hotel room alone for most of the day, fretting and worried. I get calls every couple of hours for updates. At 4, I am coaxed out of the room by Larry, who convinces me to put on my game face and help show the con that we are still there for the fans. The show must go on.

 I still can't help but feel like shit because I was not there for Misty when she needed me.

 I finally get some food -- my first in the day -- about 9 PM.

 Saturday, I am awoken by a phone call. Misty is okay. I was NOT a stroke. In fact, it was a toxic reaction to the outgassing of the new room we were staying in. The hotel wanted to impress Misty with its newest-refurbished room, not realizing they needed to let it vent from all the paint and redecorating. And given we were 11 stories up, none of the windows are able to open for outdoor ventilation. But, Misty is otherwise okay. I am up and out to the ZOE booth. The show must go on. We are here for the fans!

 I have a curtain call for the Gamers: LIVE! show at 11:40 AM. At 11:20, Misty calls me to say I should gather my things in the room, as the hotel will be moving us to a room that is not so... newly refurbished; one that has already undergone its full outgassing period. I am internally screaming my entire way to the room, throw everything into my suitcase on the bed, and run all the way back to ICC 500, where the show will be. I am pouring sweat from what should have been a 30 minute round-trip done in 15 minutes. But I am there for the show!

 Obviously, I sucked, because I have no improv skills -- especially when compared to the comedy talent of the ZOE crew -- which is why I quit acting during my Jr. High School years. But where I missed out on improv, I excelled at artistic comedy; holding up quick illustrations of goblins going "pew-pew-pew" after Owen Stephens suggested the villain of the show was a space ("SPACE!") goblin. Close to the end of the show, Satine Phoenix and Rudy Rootenburg appear, along with the rest of the Maze Arcana crew, and steal the show. This is the first time Satine and I have meet in person. We have spoken many times over private chat; both being fans of tabletop rpgs and both being professional artists. She gave me the biggest hug.

 At that moment, I realized something... I was no longer sweating (thank the gods!), but I was no daisy either. Also... Satine Phoenix is a fucking ANGEL! She just... radiates... positively, joy, compassion, love... all the things that are good and wonderful and being a human. I really hope I get to meet her again, maybe for more than 5 minutes.

 After the show, I return to the (new) hotel room to find Misty there with several of her author friends. They are laughing and talking about the experience Misty just had. As Misty describes it: "I have never been to Woodstock, but last night I went to Woodstock! Those hallucinations were something!" She went on to describe seeing a woman with brown hair and an astronaut suit standing in between the paramedics who took her from the hotel room. She saw visions of the actors from ZOE, and all the different characters each of them played, having a rave. In the MRI, she saw a sheet of  red blood cells covering her. As the MRI machine made a noise, the sheet got closer and closer to her face. Misty was aware that if she blew her breath at the sheet, it would be pushed away...

 Yeah... she has new material for her next several novels.

 By Saturday afternoon, Misty is back at the ZOE booth, signing books for fans and telling the story of what happened to her to each one. All of them are crying, glad that their favorite author is not dead. I am sitting next to Misty, putting on my brave face and trying not to break down, either... I still feel like crap for not having been there for her when she needed me. but she's safe. She's smiling.

 The rest of Gen Con goes smoothly. The drive back goes so smoothly that we get Misty home in one day (apparently I have my father's endurance for long-distance driving). I call my friend Marc and ask if he is willing to pick me up. I really want to sleep in my own bed. It's been over a week, and I want to be home. Marc does, indeed pick me up, and I recall all of this to him on the three-hour drive home.

 It's 2 AM on Tuesday when I get to sleep in my own bed. At this point, I am really glad that I had the forethought to wash my sheets before I left for Gen Con. I was tired of smelling my own body odor. I slept so good that night.

[evionoct]

sleepily | part 1

It’s boiling here and I feel like an egg. | Day 00

[ background ]

Reader is a graduated student who received her degree in Psychology over a year ago, and got a job offering from the small town of Jasper, Nevada.

—

Wanting to get away from the crowded environment of the city and an over-bearing family, she took the job right away. It’d also cost a lot less to live there compared to Chicago. As she’d been working at a clinic for a little over a year after completing her residency, she was able to afford renting out a space until she had enough money to start looking for permanent housing.

[Y/N] sat in a taxi that was driving to her new home, looking out the window and observing the land which seemed to stretch on and on for miles. Time was dragging by a bit from the trip to the airport to Jasper and [Y/N] hoped that it’d speed up soon. She hadn’t owned much. In her attempt to save up money all it had taken was not spending money on things she knew she couldn’t take with once she moved away.

Paper plates for the win.

Nevada wasn’t the cheapest place, but the small, distant town was appealing to her because the peace and quiet was something she craved badly.

The increasing volume of a car’s engine shook [Y/N] out of her spacing-out session and pulled her attention to her right side.

She observed as a brightly-colored yellow and black-striped Camaro raced past the taxi, followed by a blue motorcycle without… a driver?

[y/n] blinked and watched as a racing-suit-clad female was revealed as the rider.

Oh.

So there was one, and the lady in the back of a taxi is in need of a lot of sleep.

The duo sped off into the distance, towards the town. In that moment she wished the taxi she was taking would go faster.

—

Lugging the last of her suitcases out of the back on the taxi and up the stairs to her new home, [Y/N] settled herself down on the hardwood floors to relax for a moment. She started work in four days from now, and today was Sunday. So that meant Thursday. Hurray…

Can’t keep sitting around like this, otherwise nothing I need done will be accomplished.

Standing up with a tired sigh and a few sharp twists of her spine to relieve the building pressure from being immobile for several hours, she went to work on putting her little apartment together.

Her new space had no furniture whatsoever, so that meant she either didn’t sleep tonight or she had to go out again and find a place that sold cots or air mattresses. She’d also need a means of cooking food.

She rounded the corner. Okay, so there was a kitchen area with a mini-fridge, small stove and a deep, aluminum sink, which her sleep-deprived mind completely forgot about. It was easily unnoticed by her, the entire lot being embedded into the wall. Or in the oven and stoves case, placed there.

[Y/N] rubbed her face, before fumbling with one of her two giant suitcases to get out her laptop. Did this building even have wifi? Was there a coffee shop nearby she could use? Wait, so that meant her original plan to use her laptop was pointless. [Y/N] tucked her laptop back and pulled out her cellphone, which had surprising (but so, so beautiful) 5 bars of signal.

Time to try and get shit done.

shopping list

a cart curtains cot/air mattress blankets pillows towels bowls/eating utensils soap

Starting time: 10 AM.

—

It was 9 PM by the time she finished setting her living space up and dragging her miserable, overheated self all over. The tired egg took the bus to Walmart in her attempt to avoid the sun.

[Y/N] had to walk back the rest of the way and drag the heavy cart with her new home’s meager bit of furnishings, nearly getting lost and fried to the sidewalk because she knew what she was pulling along would be a battle to get on and off the bus.

A used cart rested by the entrance to the apartment in an equally empty living room. Save for the gray-colored drapes that were now pulled over all of the windows, the home could still used more furnishing. It was impressive enough to [Y/N] that she managed to get so much done in a matter of hours without keeling over.

A comfortable cot was neatly set up in the third room of her home, across from the bathroom, covered by only sheets and a few thin blankets she could peel off if the temperature made sleeping unbearable.

Having turned on the air conditioner in her bedroom and living room, [Y/N] knew she’d end up paying a lot for her electricity bill. Growing up in and coming from a city with much cooler weather, Nevada was testing her.

Great, so she’ll be needing to buy new clothes too.

The lights were turned on, the giant suitcase filled with her clothes in her room and open.

The solid, wooden cutting board she brought with her from Chicago was set on the cream-colored counter, cubed carrots, celery, and onion bubbling away in a pot filled with boiling water and lentils. The knife used to cut up the vegetables was placed in the sink, the wooden spoon she brought along with the cutting board resting on the stove top on a dish. Once in a while she’d take the spoon to stir the soup.

A peach colored towel was thrown over the horizontal metal pole in the bathroom, her travel soap bar and a small bottle of shampoo resting on the ledge by a fogged-glass window in the shower. The shower curtain was pushed aside, making way to a smooth tile floor with hexagonal patterning. The mirror was no longer covered in a thin layer of dust, a bottle of anti-bacterial soap from the dollar store close by set on the side of the sink.

As she stirred her dinner, dead tired and feeling absolutely burned out, [Y/N] began planning what she had to do next.

I have to eat, shower, change into pajamas, and sleep. Landlord knows I’m here, took care of all the paperwork before my flight took off… what is it? A day ago now?

[Y/N] scooped out a serving of lentil soup into a bowl for herself, tucking a spoon in it and walking to her bedroom to get to her phone so she could make a new to do list.

The [H/C] woman picked up her phone, unlocking it and opening up the ‘Notes’ app.

to do list

get internet up new clothes buy soap/shampoo/conditioner more food buy desk/office supplies small lamp

Tomorrow she’d get an Uber instead of attempting to go through the state equivalent of an oven.

A/N: Hi, this didn’t turn out as well as I liked because I’m trying to rush and shove stuff together and I just want to post it already. I’ll probably edit all of this later if I read back and find something I don’t like.

[gatorinc]

So every once in a while my Dad would send me and my Grandpa money to take care of us and that’s usually when I knew if he was still alive and his whereabouts. It had been a few months and I haven’t heard from him so I wasn’t quite sure if he finally succumb to his drug addiction. So four days after my 15 birthday, I came home to find my Grandpa dead at the kitchen table. Apparently his heart just gave out, I guess old age finally caught up with him. I started to call 911, but I realized because of my living situation, I would probably be put in a foster home and I’ve heard that they are not good. So I left him there and went looking for my dad. I looked in a few places that he used to be at and eventually found him. He was kind of messed up and wasn’t really acknowledging my existence. At first I was angry, but I let it go cause it was just sad. I told him to get it together and I told him about my grandpa. He cried and said that he’ll step up and be a man. I dragged him back to the apartment and fixed him some coffee and make him take a cold shower to sober up as much as he can before I called the police. Gave him some of my grandpa’s clothes to wear and let the situation play out. Grandpa didn’t have much of insurance, just enough to cover the cost of cremation. We really didn’t have to worry about bills as gas and electricity was already turned off because we didn’t have the money to pay it. Water was paid up this month but next month was a different issue. My dad moved into the apartment and actually got himself together and wascontributing to the bills. The whole month of July it was like he was a different person. It was like who he was before his drug addiction went out of control. Grandpa always encouraged me to save my money from my job but we have bills to pay so my bank account was usually empty except for about a few dollars or so. When my Dad moved in and things started to change for the better, I started saving my money and by the end of the month of July I had $704. I was hoping for the best but when August started, I noticed the signs of him losing it again. Realizing that this may go badly, I knew that the money I saved would be spent trying to keep myself alive. It wasn’t enough to pay for the rent and I didn’t even try to contribute to the bills as I figured it would be a total waste. I rented a storage unit that was secured behind an access gate that you can only get into if you had the code which they only gave out to those who rented a storage unit and they change the code every year. I started moving my clothes and personal belongings into the storage unit, I also bought a small battery operated air compressor and a blowup air mattress. And move them into the storage unit. I ended up switching gyms which were a little bit more expensive at $75 a month instead of the $15 but it was in a better area and it was open early and closed late so if need be I can stay there for long periods of time and they had great lockerooms, restrooms and showers. September came and we had no electricity, no water, no gas and no phone. Rent was late and it was obvious that at the end of the month that we would be evicted. Dad kept apologizing andsaying that he would get it together but I knew that he wouldn’t. He was too addicted to the drugs and couldn’t stop. One day I skip school to make arrangements for what I was going to do next, I thought about maybe going to the police and telling them everything but I really didn’t want to go into the foster system. I made sure that all my clothes, pictures, personal belongings, and anything else that I wanted and/or needed to survive. October 1, 2015 came and I no longer have a place to live. I said good bye to my dad and went on my way. My days were planned, as the gym opened up at 6 AM so I could go there early to take a shower and change my clothes. I would get to school between 7 and 7:30 and I was able to eat breakfast. I was in school all day and then afterwards go to work. After my part-time shift was over, I would go to the library and do the homework that I didn’t

finish in school and then I would go back to the gym and work out until it closed around 9. After the gym closed, I would linger around for about an hour and a half and then make my way over to the storage unit, I didn’t want them to know I was living in there as it was against the rules and I would be in big trouble so I always waited awhile until I knew everyone was gone. From about 10:45 to 5 AM, that’s where I would spend the night. I would leave at 5 AM so no one would notice me and wait around an hour until 6 o’clock before the gym opened. Every Sunday, I would go to the 24/hrlaundromat down the street from the storage complex and wash my clothes. I kept a key to the mailbox at my old apartment using it as my primary address, so after School, I would swing by and pick up the mail I had my name on it and leaving the mail for the new tenants hoping that they didn’t accidentally grab any of my mail. This was my life for the next three years. I graduated with a mid-“C” average and changed jobs working for the big “M” fast food. Because of my low wages, and my expenses like food and cell phone bill and gym fees and money to wash my clothes, I only had $155to spend every month but I chose to save it if I could. For the next three years, I would spend my days at work or the gym. In 2020 when the lockdown happened, the gym was closed. I would go to the laundromat to wash my clothes as it was still open and use their bathroom, I also gave myself a sponge bath using the sink in there. I ended up buying a small TV and leisurely had the whole storage complex to myself as everyone we’re stuck in their houses and not allowed to leave.I was laid off for three months. I did ended up getting three stimulus checks for a total of $3,200 and with the money I was saving away for the last six years I have a little over $14,000. In January 2021, I was able to move into a small apartment and pay the rent in full for a year, I am currently saving the rest of the money and trying to put a little away so that one day I could buy a house.