#thank you amtrak for saving me lots of money

[imnotfinebutimfine]

Shout-out to @amtrak-official for letting me travel quickly & cheaply so I could affordably take this small picture of Hozier without paying for parking

[thran-duils]

Use All of Me (P.12)

Title: Use All Of Me (Part Twelve) Summary: Fem!Reader x Dark Mob!Steve Rogers. The Avengers are heroes saving the world but in this AU, they are also permitted by the powers in charge to have less than favorable business underneath their guise of mere superheroes. Steve and Tony are at the helm, keeping their empire’s wealth in check, both devious and perilous if crossed. Steve takes a liking to the reader at a party and it may be her undoing to her autonomy choosing to go home with him. Words: 3,008 Warnings: Dark AF, angst, emotional/mental abuse, smut, breeding, death Author’s Note: ♫ Steve is getting desperate ♫

Part Eleven || Part Thirteen || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost

Tony was pacing in front of the cameras he had up on the large wall when Steve entered the room. Bucky, Sam, Clint, and Rhodey were already down there with Tony, sitting or standing. The general feeling in the room was tension and it was permeating the air.

“Get anything from him?” Tony asked as soon as he caught sight of Steve.

“He didn’t know shit,” Steve said gruffly. “Not that I gave him much time to say anything past admitting he had known she wanted to escape. If he was going to help her, he would have driven her off the property himself and disappeared with her. He would not have stuck around afterward if he had assisted her in any way. He was not that daft.”

“I would beg to differ on that,” Natasha commented, coming to stop in front of the cameras, her eyes searching the screens. “Are you only focusing on New York?”

“Larger cities in the north east for now mainly,” Tony answered, coming to stand beside her. He pointed at the lower right corner of the screens. “I have it set up to follow the main tracks of the Amtrak across the country the longer time passes.”

Bucky came up to Steve and asked, “Her family?”

Steve shrugged, “Her parents aren’t alive. Didn’t mention anyone else really. She was an only child.”

“What about her friends? They could have family in other states.”

“I could look into that,” Clint said. “Facebook isn’t that hard to look through and people are always oversharing on that stupid app.”

“Speaking of her friends… if she says anything she’s heard from you, Steve, about the business, that’s not going to be good,” Rhodey said, looking grim.

Uncomfortably, eyes swept to Steve quickly and he shook his head. “I don’t think she’s concerned about that,” Steve said tightly. “She just… wanted space. And instead of asking, she does some impulsive, unsafe bullshit.” He was working himself up again, his hands resting on his hips tensely. “Absolute horseshit.”

Tony turned from the screens, taking a few steps towards him. Trying to reason with Steve and calm him down, he told him, “Look, Pepper did too when we first got together. It takes a while for them to adjust from the hustle and bustle they were used to, but they do eventually. Unfortunately, Y/N had persistent friends. Stupid, persistent friends at that. But we are going to find her. You’re gonna get your kids back and her.” Tony held up his hand as an idea came, “And on that note, you need to register with the putative father registry.” Steve’s brow stitched in confusion. Tony laughed and said, “Trust me. I did it when I was younger because I was a little loose and needed to know if any of the women I was with – and I was for sure the father – were going to do anything with the kid that would blow back on me. There’s a notice to claim paternity form for a child born out of wedlock. With that, you’ll be notified of any court proceedings, such as adoption or guardianship changes.”

Steve’s jaw clenched at this and Tony said, “I don’t think that’s out of left field that might happen.”

“I’d love to see her try,” Steve said darkly, a deep scowl on his face.

Tony had to smirk at that ferociousness. “Hmm, me too. And good thing about this is that she won’t be notified that you registered. You know, not that she would get a notification anyway because she is AWOL, and it would go to her old address. It also doesn’t need to get notarized.”

He clapped his hands and turned to look at everyone else. “So, we’ll keep these on here. Like I said, the Amtrak cameras are going to go down the three main tracks. If it happens she’s gone for longer, we will start scanning outwards of the northeast on the other cameras. Barton, you got the familial ties. Man, big notes if the family is in a bordering state. Oh, I did get access to Natalie and Yua’s phones, but they are unfortunately turned off. Smart cookies. But if they turn them on again, it’ll light up on this laptop—”

“I’ll watch it,” Natasha volunteered.

Tony nodded in acknowledgment. “Unfortunately, we can’t put out a look out on the license plate because well… it’s Natalie’s car and it’s not stolen if she’s driving it.” He sighed and shrugged, “The rest of us… just on standby I suppose until we get something.”

“Do you want me to handle the meeting tonight with the union?” Rhodey asked.

“I forgot about that. Thank you for remembering,” Tony said appreciatively. “So, yes. And don’t let them try to bully you into giving them a bigger cut. Our deal is set, they just need to give us the money from the trade.”

“Do you have the surveillance video? Of Y/N leaving?” Steve asked him suddenly.

“You sure you wanna watch that?” Tony asked, skepticism lacing his tone. “I don’t need you punching a hole through these screens or anything.”

“No, I want to see it,” Steve said. “I want to see what she left with. Make sure she just didn’t hop in a car without anything.”

“Alright,” Tony said, still sounding uncertain. He walked towards another laptop and opened it, working to pull up the video.

Steve was there behind him, looming. He sat in the chair in front of the laptop, watching Tony rewind to the part he wanted to see. It stopped as the women started coming out of the house. Steve leaned forward, his eyes zeroed in on where Y/N was standing saying goodbye to everyone. He watched until it was just Yua with her and then Natalie came out of the house, a duffel bag over her shoulder and a hoodie and hat in hand. She threw it into her car and they moved quickly to put the coat on Y/N and get her into the backseat of the car. She was adjusting the hat and pulling the hood up as Natalie pulled away.

Tony was right. All Steve wanted to do was grab the laptop and smash it repeatedly on the table to try to quell some of the white-hot rage exploding inside, thinking if Bryce’s dumbass had just been outside, they would have never been able to even get her into the car in the first place. And how Natalie had managed to not be stopped in the house by him made him even angrier if possible. The giant oaf had been watching a movie Wanda told him.

He held it together though, keeping his hand steady as he reached up and closed the laptop with a slight snap but not too hard.

“Well, at least she’s got some clothes I guess,” he said to no one in particular. He pushed the chair back with a loud squeak. “I need to go on a run.”

<><><>

“And what? Go back to the city and wait for Steve to find me and beat the crap out of me until I give him information?” Yua asked seriously.

Your mouth fell open slightly at her bluntness. You had asked Yua what she was planning on doing past this as the three of you sat on the back porch of the cabin in the moonlight. When you had suggested going home, she had rose her brows in surprise before saying what she had.

She noticed the look on your face and apologized, “Sorry. That’s just… what’s going through my mind. Filter is a little gone by now.” She held up her fourth beer can sheepishly.

“I don’t think it’s far from the truth,” you said quietly. “So, you’re smart for worrying about it.” You shifted in your seat and admitted, “Steve doesn’t exactly sleep much either. So he’s got more time in the world than most.”

“Insomnia?” Natalie asked.

“No. He doesn’t need to. He would fake it a lot of the time… you know, just to lay in bed with me during the night.”

“That’s kind of romantic,” Yua said and Natalie shot her a piqued look. “What? It is!”

“Or creepy because he wanted to be next to her all the time,” Natalie retorted.

“I think it was a little bit of both. It’s not like he wouldn’t hear me get out of bed even if he was in his study or somewhere else in the house, so it’s not like being right next to me would have made much of a difference in the long run,” you muttered, picking at the blanket. “But, he enjoyed it I think. Lying in bed with me. Snuggling me while I slept. He’d watch TV quietly too.” You chewed on your bottom lip, thinking of how you had enjoyed those moments too, waking up with him there, warm in his embrace. Admitting that out loud though was too hard; like it was fake that you had asked for help.

“Good thing light doesn’t bother you when you sleep. Honestly, I’m jealous of your ability to just fall asleep wherever,” Natalie said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Soaking it up while I can,” you said, giving a halfhearted smile.

“Where are we going to go though? Seriously? We can’t exactly go back to our apartments for our things. I’m afraid someone would be watching,” Yua said and you admired her ability to think ahead like that.

“We could order a moving service. Have them store our things in a storage unit outside NYC. Then after a substantial amount of time, have it shipped to wherever we move to,” Natalie suggested before she sighed heavily. “How am I going to get a good recommendation for a job by just quitting?”

“You could call and tell Brett the truth. Well, not who we are running from, don’t want to get anyone else involved, plus you know… they are already going to be mad about Y/N leaving with secrets. So no need to incriminate them when they’re already expecting it. On the off chance they do find us, not having gotten them in trouble with the law will probably bode well for us. But anyway, you know… tell Brett that you’re helping a friend escape an abusive partner.” Yua suggested. The two of you were staring at her in astonishment and she shrugged. “What? That’s what I was going to do with my boss. I can work from home completely. I already do it half time. He just needs to mail me a laptop and we already have WiFi here. Thank god, I would die without Netflix.”

“You astound me sometimes,” you told her, a wide smile on your lips. And it was quickly replaced by tears of gratitude and she reached for your hand, grasping it tightly. “No, it’s fine. I’m just… overwhelmed. I didn’t want you guys to have to uproot your lives for me.”

“We’ve been friends for a decade. Plus, it’s not like I have anything going for me back there anyway except a high paycheck and a string of hard dicks following behind me like dogs and I can get that somewhere else,” Yua responded, taking a swig of her beer as you and Natalie laughed. She gave your hand one more squeeze before pulling away.

“Plus, New York was getting a little tired anyway,” Natalie chimed in. “I’ve wanted to move. Not ideally like this but… I think we can make the best of it.”

Nodding, you said, “We can try.”

You suddenly stilled, your fingers digging slightly into your abdomen.

Yua sat up quickly, “What? What’s wrong?”

“I… I think one of them just kicked,” you said, a slow smile spreading across your face. The two of them immediately relaxed. You shot Yua a look and asked, “Is that too early?”

‘No, that sounds right on time,” Yua said. “Especially for your first one.”

Looking down at your abdomen, you smiled again softly this time. You tried to will them to move again, imagining them sleeping there. You wondered what they were dreaming about.

<><><>

Steve thanked Tony for bringing him the sandwich he had placed in front of him, taking a large bite. He was and had been planted in front of the surveillance screens for a long while, only getting the minimal amount of sleep he required and only when someone else was there to watch while he was out. Rhodey had just been watching with him and got up to stretch his legs, also thanking Tony for bringing the sandwiches.

A ring cut into the silence and Steve swallowed before picking up his phone. He saw the number on the phone, recognizing it as Dr. Kamal’s office.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Rogers?” A voice said on the other end of the phone.

“Yes?”

“I am calling from Dr. Kamal’s office. It looks like Y/N has an appointment right now and we were wondering if you were on your way…?”

“Shit,” Steve swore under his breath and said, “No, no we are not on the way. I’m sorry. It completely slipped my mind to call and cancel.”

“Would you like to reschedule? There’s an opening later in the day, there was another cancellation. Or we can look—”

“Look, I’m going to be honest,” Steve cut in. “I don’t know where she is.”

“O-oh,” the assistant said on the phone, stammering a bit at that information. “Like today or…?”

“I haven’t seen her for days,” Steve clipped. “She ran off with her friends. I’m not sure to where. I have not had contact with her. So, I can’t make an appointment because I don’t know when I’ll find her or if she’s coming back.”

The assistant said slowly, “Um, well, I suppose then give us a call when you do know.”

“Will do,” Steve muttered before hanging up the phone.

Steve let out a frustrated sigh, slamming his phone down on the counter. His mind was racing thinking about Y/N missing a check up and something being wrong with the babies, with her, or both. He hated not having control of the situation and not being confident she was being kept safe by him.

He looked to Rhodey and Tony. “It’s time to report her missing.”

“Steve, she’s not missing. The cops won’t—” Rhodey started to say.

“I don’t need the cops. If we get her face out there, someone might call.”

“And if that someone is a cartel or something? Saw her face, kidnaps her or all three of them and then demands ransom?”

Steve shouted, “Then I’ll fucking pay it, Rhodey!”

Rhodey closed his mouth and shot a look at Tony, who merely shrugged in return. Rhodey sighed, knowing that Tony would be acting the same way if it was Pepper who had run off on him and would not be garnering any support to dissuade Steve from it from him.

<><><>

Yua came into the cabin quickly, tossing her bags down, startling you and Natalie watching a movie. She stood in front of the TV, blocking the view. “We got a problem.”

“What?” the two of you demanded in unison.

“Your face is all over the place on one of the news channels. I saw it at the mini mart behind the counter.”

Natalie scoffed, “How? Are they saying she’s missing?” Yua nodded and Natalie let out a frustrated noise. “Aren’t those supposed to drop if no foul play is expected? Like… they can easily draw conclusions that you ran off on your own accord. It’s clear in the tapes I’m sure!”

“Money,” Yua said darkly. “They’ll be able to keep up advertisements about it forever probably with all the money they have. Probably banking on everyone wanting to do a favor for Captain America. Who wouldn’t want to be in his debt for a favor? Plus, they’re also playing the ‘she’s not mentally competent’ card.”

“What?” you asked shocked, feeling like you had gotten socked in the stomach.

“You can’t be serious. Just because she’s pregnant?” Natalie demanded.

Yua said nothing which was answer enough.

“How will I go to a hospital?” you asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Natalie assured you quickly, “You can use an alias when they admit you. And when we bring you in, we will have a hood on and a hat, just like when you left. Hopefully there won’t be a lot of people in the ER. Upon discharge, your real name would be attached to the records but under HIPAA you’ll be protected.”

Yet, HIPAA could not protect you from someone who desperately needed money really.

“But… won’t someone turn me in to Steve?” You could not keep the worry out of your voice.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Yua said gently. “And I don’t think it’s something you should worry about.”

Squeezing your hands together, you focused on your breathing, trying to remain calm and push the thought from your mind. Your birth was still far enough off that hopefully it would die down a little.

“Have you thought more about adoption?” Natalie asked you gently.

You nodded, “Yeah. Can I though if I am not a resident of the state?”

“You can surrender a child – or children, in your case – up to the hospital within 72 hours in most states. I checked,” Yua said.

“Good,” you said, nodding. It hit you suddenly and you asked panicked, “You turned your phone on?”

Yua shook her head and said, “I asked the guy at the station to check it out for me. Slid him an extra five dollars while I went to call my mum on the pay phone, let her know I’m okay. He was confused but he did it.” You relaxed hearing that, as did Natalie. Yua ventured, “Are you sure that’s what you want to do? Adoption?”

You swallowed thickly, avoiding eye contact. The two of them were quiet, waiting for you to figure out how to answer. “I’m not sure,” you whispered, breaking the silence.

~~~

Tags: @imsonick , @alexakeyloveloki, @kvzctam, @ironlady1993​, @taintedgenre, @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @roxyfan14-blog

[congapin28]

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[ayonde]

Fall, Winter and Spring (Blog#6)

I came to US for my MBA in Aug 2013. A month later I had landed an internship at Nationwide Insurance thanks to National Black MBA. After returning to Williamsburg I was undoubtedly happy. However that euphoria didn’t last long as up next were Mid-term exams. At William & Mary, the 1st year is divided into 3 MODs. Some subjects lasted only one MOD while some spread across MODs. In MOD 1 we had Accounting, Organizational Behavior, Business Analytics and IT Technology that were one MOD subject while Management communication and Leadership Development Experience was spread across MODs.

In accounting I felt like a fish out of water. Accounting wasn’t (and still isn’t) my cup of tea – like at all!! W&M does recommend incoming students at arrive early before the start of the program and attend boot camp where they go over accounting basics. In India as I studied science in my high school and then engineering during my undergrad I had a hard time classifying line items into asset or liability, let alone balancing the two.

Organizational Behavior required a lot of reading and case studies. My reading speed was slow. My mid-term results were not very encouraging. I was average at best and ended up with a 3.0 GPA Mid-term. Now there was a new threat looming. If my GPA drops below 3.0 and stays there I will lose my financial aid – which would be disastrous!

I focused all my attention in getting my grades up. In MOD 2 I had Marketing and Finance in addition to Economic analysis and Ethics. The latter two were easy for me, and I was able to get good scores. Marketing was taught by Prof. Larry Ring, it’s more like a lesson in consulting case than marketing. Really exciting and wonderful stuff but a lot of reading. I have always struggled with that when under clock. If I was fish out of water for Accounting I was a fish in outer space when it came to Finance. Regardless I somehow managed to get average grades in those two. So it put my GPA at 3.0 but top of the class grades in other subjects moved me out of danger and my GPA was at 3.3 by MOD 2.

On Campus Job & SSN: At W&M, my financial aid was scheduled to kick in during the 2nd year of the MBA program, but I desperately needed a job in my 1st year to keep me afloat. I applied for an on-campus job and got one as website caretaker for an English professor. It helped me pay my monthly phone bill at Verizon at the very least. Having an on-campus job also helped me get my Social Security Number. Usually for SSN you need a job offer or an internship offer. I did have an Internship with Nationwide but since the actual start date was 9 months out I didn’t have offer letter required for SSN until later. Regardless, 2 hours and 2 bus transfers later I reached Newport News in VA and applied for my SSN. I would feel bad for myself for being middle class poor and not having a car really. My classmates from China would have $$$ thanks to their strong currency and buy cars in the 1st week of our MBA program. Most US students will get some sort of auto loan or have existing vehicles. Most Indians come from a middle class families and our savings got divided by a factor of 60 thanks to the weaker Rupee. Which meant a very tight USD budget and worrying about money most times. Worse, the Indian currency was weakening meaning my parents had to put more Rupees than anticipated to meet the budget.

1 US Dollar = 55 Rupees in Jan 2013

1 US Dollar = 61 Rupees in June 2013

1 US Dollar = 65 Rupees in Sep 2013

Updating my SSN at Verizon helped me get my $400 deposit back. Remainder of academic year in 2013 was spent managing my budget, studying for grades and finding a work life balance. Chris let me drive his car and soon I got my driving license. Chris also invited Chloe, Teru, Frank and me to his home at Newport News for Thanksgiving. He taught us the rules for American football. I soon realized that talking about football is the easiest way to break ice with virtually everyone in the United States. I learned the rules of the game, and I picked up the team names and some players names over the course of time.

 Life was past paced until 2nd week of December that’s when 1st semester concluded after End-term exams were over. All of my US friends went back to their respective home cities. All of my international friends either went to their relative in US, or went back to China/India/Thailand etc. to be back with family. Some went on to discover America. Disney world, Alaska, Las Vegas etc. I had no money for such travel. Being on a budget meant I was by myself at Graduate complex. There were 4 students in all of Gradplex. Williamsburg resembled a ghost town in winters. (See empty law school library)

PMP: Since the Green (University) Line stop running during winter break. Buying grocery meant a 2-3 hour roundtrip bus ride. I often walked to buy bread and eggs and the slippery ice or snowy conditions didn’t help at all. I was alone, poor and depressed. I thought of using this opportunity and start preparing for my PMP exam. Nearest test center was 3.5 hours via Amtrak away – Washington DC. I scheduled it in 2nd week of Jan 2014 and studied hard. I was locked in my apartment and literally had nothing else to do. Took the Amtrak to DC and stayed at my friend - Vipul’s place. Took the exam and cleared the PMP the next day. I was now a certified Project Management Professional. I was happy, not only because I cleared the PMP but also that I got to spend some time with Vipul. Vipul was my roommate during the last two years of my undergrad engineering. It was good to cherish old days.

I went back to Williamsburg after spending few days in DC as 2nd semester was about to start. Finally school reopened and Williamsburg became alive again. By end of Feb/March we were done with MOD 2 and MOD 3 started. MOD 3 was my comfort zone. Winter was on retreat and Operations, Macroeconomics, and Cost Accounting were my favorite subjects. My GPA was back up and I was looking forward to summer of 2014!!

[michaelwma-blog]

An End To My Independent Life & Why I Now Work at RateGravity

Legit photo credit: Ally Schmalling. Deliberately hacky photoshopping: Yours truly.

For the last year and a half, I have accidentally stumbled into being an independent contractor.  After leaving my last startup in a bit tumult, I was not actually looking for work. In fact, I was determined to not work at all. However, I now am starting another chapter as Chief Marketing Officer of RateGravity, a seed-stage startup that is out to revolutionize the mortgage industry.

I am thinking to myself, "How the hell did I get here? Another seed-stage startup? Are you really doing this again? What are you, nuts?" The announcement goes public today  in a few hours, so I thought I'd try to take some time to reflect on the journey that got me here.

I: What Did You Learn, [Loser]? The month after I left my startup, my father-in-law and I went out to dinner. As the former Amtrak Chief of Police, he has a gift for cutting all the crap and getting to the heart of the matter. He asked, "In life, you either win or you learn. So, what did you learn?"

Ouch. OK, I didn't know what I learned. I was burnt out. Cashed. In fact, I was looking forward to my time "on the beach." More gooey blender drinks.  Less thinking.

Ironically, I never afforded myself that luxury.  I think I was just too scared to answer the questions directly. A former investor quickly brought a due diligence project. Another friend asked for another project help. Snowvation needed sales, marketing, and temporary executive leadership, and I was determined to ensure that ShredBetter would not have been sold in vain (BTW, Snowvation is kicking ass).

Looking back, I think I used work to defer having to answer the hard questions. This cycle repeated itself in random ways about 6 times in the last 18 months. I consider myself very lucky and thankful to my friends for being so gracious and open to letting me into their enterprises. What's more, that luck bought me enough time to assuage my own fears, I think.

II: For Hire: CXO With Commitment Issues So I worked, and through work often comes great therapy. As the great activist once Grace Lee Boggs said, "You make your path by walking."  And in that walking, I think I have figured some things out and have a clearer answer to my father-in-law's question. 

By seeing lots of growth and turnaround companies, I have gained newfound perspective about what I learned from my last startup: I honestly failed to continually evaluate my own 3 Questions This Over-The-Hill Entrepreneur Asks (if you don’t at least scan this link, the rest of this piece may not make sense to you, if at all!).

FFS, I wrote this myself about myself. Idiot. While I wrote this just before my 40th birthday, it has all the awkwardness of a high school prom photo. But you just have to embrace the awkward.

Fail 1. My co-founder and I jumped in too fast, never knew each other as people. It was a startup version of a shotgun marriage. Thus, I failed to answer my own Kidney Test:  Would I give my business partner my kidney? I really never took time to answer that question with an open heart and wide eyes.

Fail 2. I also failed my Uzo Abada Test: Where will my art live? We didn't define roles or what we individually owned. Through poorly constructed founding relationships, there was no place for my art to live. Despite guidance from my lawyer and friends who shared their co-founding disasters, we just forged ahead and said, "No need for explicit roles. We'll just figure it out later."

All bad moves. But I did it anyway. Fail. Fail. Fail. 

So Horsepowered Partners was reborn. Originally only intended to be a shingle for my side project ShredBetter, Horsepowered evolved into a very comfortable consulting model. I was able to de-risk myself personally and professionally.  I figured I sucked at answering those 3 big questions for a founder, so why try? 

Most of my projects were tidy 60-90 day projects.  Everything was by referral. I took a little cash from my clients, usually a little equity, and sometimes hired my long-term successor.  I didn't want to be around forever. See it, fix it, exit. I toyed with renaming Horspowered Partners to Your Rebound CXO. 

Subconsciously, I think I was hoping to just finish that last project for my beach time, which never came. To illustrate, I did a lot of digital marketing, yet have no website myself.  Serious commitment problems, for sure.

III: Gravitational Pull And now, I begin another chapter at RateGravity. It started as another one of my projects, "Hey, the person we were hiring fell through.  Can you hold us over? ... Sure, no problem." 30-day contract. Then another 30.  And now here we are full-time.

So, did I learn anything? I think so. Let's run the 3 Tests again. 

1. Kidney Test: Would I give my partners my kidney? 

You may not believe this but the founder, Patrick Boyaggi grew up in the same freaking Cleveland suburb that I did, Westlake. Unreal. 

In the two months we have worked together, we have also both worked hard to get to know each other as people.  I've stayed in Patrick's house, played with his kids, and gotten to know and adore his wife.  We've tried to connect as men, fathers, husbands and also desperate Cleveland sports fans. Our kids have said hi on Slack calls. Is it kidney-worthy? No, but it's darn good for 60 days.

That has extended to the rest of the executive team, where I spent extensive 1-1 time with each of them. While it's not perfect, it might be the most I know about my co-workers before I started a job except for starting ShredBetter with my lifelong friend Brian Morgan.

So does this pass the Kidney Test explicitly? Probably not.  But that's a really high bar, and probably bears revisiting. The point is, in being wiser this go-around, and spending 60 days working and acting like a member of the team, I know more than I've ever before in approaching a new job.

2. The Kid Test: Can I explain this to a 7-year-old?

Me: You know how we had to borrow money to buy our house?

Jack (now 8): Yeah.

Me: Well, Daddy's new company helps save people lots of money on that loan. We shop all the little banks for them and they can get deals that the big banks won't give them.

Jack: Like when you used to work at Bank of America? And how much money?

Me: Yup. Average? About $29,000. It's like getting our minivan for free.

Jack: Cool. Can I get a computer now?

Check.

The mortgage industry is quite a stacked deck. If you know me, you know I am a sucker for companies that overturn large entrenched business that accumulate wealth on the backs of everyday people.  I've been involved in this idea in many industries from financial services to funerals to fashion. If there is a way to disrupt inequitable structures and give Jane and John Public a fair shake ... well, you have my interest.

That's the core of RateGravity's business model and founding story. Patrick was an exec in a major lending company. But when wanted a loan himself, he hacked the mortgage supply chain. He went direct and got a rate that no one else could get. He thought, "Wait. That's the business. Why should I be the only one to get this? We make money on people not 'seeing our screen."

RateGravity is about flipping the screen, hacking it, and saving people money. I'm in. 

Oh, and by the way, you are overpaying for your mortgage. For now.

3. The Uzo Abada Test: Where will your art live? That's one of the beauties of working together for 60 days vs. interviewing for 3 days. As my good friend Farhan Thawar correctly writes cites, interviewing is garbage. My art is already living. And I think there is more to come.

With RateGravity, we've already had more than a couple of "passionate differences of opinion." What's more, we have worked it out. Even before we agreed to full-time terms, the team allowed me to implement and change several keystone parts of the business such as brand, CRM, analytics, and content.  The impact of these decisions extends far beyond my consulting tenure. There is a mutual respect for each other's roles that has already been tested. I am confident stuff will get out in the world ... and that's all I ever wanted.

***

As I look back among all this, I still at times doubt my own heuristic evaluation.  However, my wife, Katherine, is an amazing partner -- my best friend, and my best advisor.  While in compensation negotiations, always the most fun part of any recruitment, she said to me, "Look, I haven't seen you engaged in your work like this for over 2 years. It's nice to see you like this. If you can get it done, then just do it." 

Well said. And I did.

OK, enough navel-gazing.

Fired up. Ready to go.

[kernichadventures]

The 100th running of the famous Indianapolis 500 Mile Race was scheduled for May 29th 2016 and I made the decision 2 years before to go to that race. I never thought I’d end up travelling to America, but I made it safely and left with a totally new impression.

I decided on a 3 week adventure taking in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York City and Washington. A fellow sim racer suggested I take in a 7th city, so I took a day trip to Charlotte as a late change, which ended up as the biggest drama of the 3 weeks.

I approached this trip mirroring a “Grand Tour” cycling race, using the first week to settle in, week two for the main event (Indianapolis), then being tired and expecting high drama in the third week.

After saving, planning and eventually spending a lot of money, it was time to go.

First task was getting to America, which was a onerous yet extremely exciting 18 hour task. Getting up at 4am on a Monday morning to catch the first flight of the day to Melbourne, then an expected 2 hour layover in Melbourne, then 14 hours to LAX. Walking into that international terminal for the first time, I literally stopped and took a deep breath, this was a big moment!

Clearing customs and immigration, I found myself in an international terminal, waiting for an Airbus A380 to arrive. Seeing the aircraft pull up was a sight to behold.

Arriving into LAX after an eternal flight, which felt like suspended animation for the last 6 hours, there was a strange feeling you get that you know you’re in a new country, but it doesn’t register. Taking 2 hours to get out of LAX and then taking a bus into the city (the only decent way) I made my way to my hotel (The O Hotel, a cool place, thanks for having me), stored my bags and realised that my adventure I had planned for was now officially underway. First stop was Expo Park, for the Science Museum and LA Memorial Coliseum. That place had the Space Shuttle, an icon of engineering.

Space Shuttle

LA Coliseum

Marvelling over the Space Shuttle, I marvelled at how that thing got up into the sky, orbited a bunch of times and landed again. The LA Coliseum wasn’t open for tours on the Monday, so I just had to look from the outside. The only stadium to host 2 Olympic Games (might be 3 if 2024 awarded), along with many other things.

Because I was 2 hours behind schedule, a city walking tour I arranged to take I had to cancel, so I was left to wander the streets of the city for an hour or so, taking in “The Last Bookstore” among other things, such as a trip to the supermarket to skimp on food. I had to get to my hotel and check in, then make my way to the famous Dodger Stadium for my first American experience – Freeway Baseball vs. the Anaheim Angels. What a magnificent sporting arena, I recommend it to anyone who’s in the city. The Dodgers lost in a 4 hour game, but I won’t forget that place.

Bus ride up there was pretty cool too, with red eyes and surrounded by Dodger fans.

To this point, I hadn’t slept properly for 36 hours (who can sleep in economy class??), getting back to my hotel just after midnight LA time. I collapsed.

I was originally going to go to the Getty Center on Tuesday, however my alarm wasn’t set properly and after sleeping into 9:30 am (woops) I made a schedule change. I had my breakfast inside the hotel and then took the Expo Line to the end of the line, then a bus to Santa Monica (the wrong bus, which took twice as long, woops). The Expo Line extension to Santa Monica opened 3 days later, which forced me to use the bus.

LA Public Transport was quite good for the services I used. The prices were good, services on time and took me to the places I wanted. Thanks to the city for making an effort to encourage more people to use it.

Santa Monica is a cool place, a massive beach with the famous Santa Monica Pier. I wandered around the pier and beach for a few hours, taking it all in. I was going to hire a bike and ride to Venice Beach, but decided not to.

After an all too short experience of that place, it was time to get the bus back into the city, for my LA City Tour. I ended up getting back to the hotel 20 mins late and my shuttle bus almost left without me! Thanks to Starline Tours for giving me a nice view of the city. I saw Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Bowl Lookout, Observatory and Downtown sights at night.

With Day 2 complete, it was time to get ready for Long Beach on my final day in Los Angeles.

My final full day was a trip to the coastal town of Long Beach, an hour away by train. A ride on the blue line took me through some pretty rough areas, so I kept my head down and waited for my destination. Arriving at Long Beach, I made my way towards Ocean Boulevard and took a walk along parts of the famous street circuit. I walked all the way round to the fountain turn for my boat tour. A 1 hour delay due to mechanical problems got me a complimentary entry to the famous Aquarium of the Pacific. Thanks to Harbour Cruises!

My boat ride around the harbour was very nice for the $12 I paid. I saw the famous Queen Mary up close, the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles and a view of the city from several miles away.

After the tour, I took a short bus trip back to the train and popped in for lunch at Johnny Rockets. Apart from accent problems, the experience was good. I was searching for a famous “In N Out Burger” but couldn’t locate one, so took another option.

Given my changes, the original Santa Monica trip was done a day earlier and I was left with a few hours to kill and decided to return to Hollywood, where I was 24 hours earlier. Saw a few weird people there, including a peg leg man crossing the street!

A short walk around the deserted Downtown area finished my first few days in America and it was time to get ready for the move eastwards.

An early rise on Thursday morning, to take the 8:30am bus to Las Vegas. The Greyhound bus station is in a rather dicey area in the eastern area of the city, but acceptable for me. I paid only $10 for the 3.5 hour trip, worth every cent! A ride to the eastern industrial sprawl, across the stunning Cajon Pass, through to Barstow (where I got a $5 USD 12 inch sub) and finally into Nevada and arriving at the Las Vegas bus station.

Next time I travel to America, I am touring by bus and Amtrak. My impressions of the network changed a lot in my time there.

Arriving into Las Vegas and getting off the bus, I walked into an oven! The temperature was nearly 38 Celsius and humidity quite high. I made my way to my hotel (Downtown Grand, an excellent place, only a few years old and good value) and checked in. My city view was quite nice from the 11th floor.

I then made my way to the famous Fremont Street Experience and a really cool place called “Banger Brewing”. I decided to take a tour of the place to fill up some time and my appreciation for the fine art of craft beer increased a lot. The beer itself was magnificent, especially their coffee flavoured variety.

After wandering around Fremont Street for a while and meandering into casinos, I made my way to the famous Mob Museum, which was right next to my hotel. A fine display of the mafia history of America, how prohibition affected the organised crime market and how famous criminals such as Al Capone were brought to justice.

It was now dusk and my first experience of Las Vegas at night was very good, I took in the Fremont Light Displays, casinos (again) and a cover band performance. I feel that Downtown Las Vegas has a much better atmosphere than the concrete canyon at the Las Vegas Strip. An experience recommended for anyone visiting the city.

Day 2 in Vegas would be a busy one and consisted of me taking a little road trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the iconic Hoover Dam in the morning and afternoon. I wanted to do some driving on the right and this was my opportunity. Getting the car itself was a bit of a mess, the attendant was washing cars and I ended up missing my 10am tour of the Speedway buy 5 mins and had to explore the gift shop for an hour. I am a big racing fan and I couldn’t pass the chance to visit one of the most modern facilities in NASCAR. Thanks to the Speedway for the nice tour.

Travelling to Hoover Dam took roughly one hour and the number of speeders on the road really caught me out. I couldn’t afford to be busted for speeding in a foreign country, so drove on the 65 mph limit. I reached Hoover Dam through a long winding road and police checkpoint. I was immediately blown away.

I decided on the power plant tour and I was taken down 500 feet to the power station, seeing how the Colorado River was diverted for construction and the generators themselves (which are much bigger than is visible).

After the tour was finished, I wandered across to the Arizona side of the dam and stood in 2 time zones simultaneously. Being an hour behind schedule, I couldn’t walk too far into the Arizona side as I had to return to the city to return the vehicle before 5pm. Bad traffic coming back made me miss that time! I returned the keys, but had to hold onto the GPS overnight for return the following morning.

Sunset was soon to fall and it was time to travel to the Las Vegas Strip to see what this city is best known for. First stop was the Stratosphere Tower and some nice views of the city, after navigating the maze at ground level to access the observation deck. A cool place to witness sunset.

After a bus ride on “The Deuce” I arrived at the Caesar’s Palace Forum Shops and took a wander through this Roman themed resort. One particular moment in this mall was a sighting of Floyd Mayweather, hiding in the back of an upmarket shop.

Coming out of Caesar’s Palace, I meandered up and down the north part of the Strip and saw a number of famous casinos, including Harrahs, Bellagio and The Venetian. One highlight was the famous Bellagio Light Display.

It was near midnight when I returned to my hotel in Downtown, ready for a busy final day on my west coast swing.

Final day in Vegas was devoted to the Strip and seeing as much as I could of this famous casino boulevard. A trip on the bus all the way to the end of the Strip saw me at the famous Las Vegas sign.

I then walked up the Strip and took in a number of famous resorts, including Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York/New York and the massive MGM Grand.

My main highlight of the south strip was a trip up to the top of the Paris/Las Vegas Eiffel Tower and a magnificent view of the city.

I decided to finish early, with an early rise required for the following day. It was time to head to Chicago!

Finishing my time in Vegas, I wandered the downtown area in the morning and then travelled to McCarran Airport via bus. Arriving an hour earlier than scheduled turned out to be a good move, the security there was far crazier than I expected. My flight to Chicago O’Hare would take me into the busiest airport in the world for aircraft movements and I expected chaos once there.

Aboard America Airlines Flight 1029, I left Las Vegas just before midday for a 4 hour flight to Chicago. The American Airlines experience for this flight was as expected and we were on time, in good weather with no turbulence. Thanks to American Airlines for this flight.

My arrival at Chicago O’Hare marks the end of Part 1, thanks for reading.

TBC …………………………………………

Three Weeks in the United States – An Unforgettable Adventure: Part 1 The 100th running of the famous Indianapolis 500 Mile Race was scheduled for May 29th 2016 and I made the decision 2 years before to go to that race.

[stoneleet]

From Quebec City to Halifax was a very long and uncomfortable train ride.  The train car seemed warm to me, and I was on an aisle seat instead of a window.  Once the sunset I guess that wasn’t a big deal, but trying to sleep proved more difficult than my trip a few years ago on Amtrak.  I just think Amtrak seats are more comfortable for sleeping in a chair.  But I did learn my lesson, a sleeping car on over night train trips in Canada would be worth the crazy price you have to pay; plus dinner/breakfast are include and you get access to a special observation car at the very end of the train.  But enough about the train… On to Halifax…

Halifax Train Station

The train pulls into the Halifax Train Station at 7:06 PM local time takes a bit of time to get luggage, because unlike the previous trains the luggage is unloaded and put on one of those conveyor belts like at an airport.  And since I learned my lesson in Quebec City, I ordered a taxi and get to the hotel by 7:54 PM.  I check in, drop off my luggage and then head right back out to see the water front.  The whole time on the train getting into Halifax the sun had been shining and the day was bright, but it seems a fog rolled into Halifax just ahead of the train so visibility was down to quarter of a mile, maybe?

Its now around 9 PM and I’m hungry.  The turkey sandwich from the train had been hours ago.  So I try to find some place to eat, in what is really a tourist area.  It is a late Monday evening, and the I believe the fog had everyone moving in doors earlier then normal.  Or it could be that the area is always kind of slow on a Monday evening.  I did find a pub on the docks that was open, The Lower Deck.  They served fish and chips and I am a fan.

After dinner, I go walking around a bit more, but there are very few people out and the fog has made everything damp and a bit chilly so I head back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s adventure.

It is now Tuesday, July 3rd and I have a free morning.  My bus tour of Halifax and then to Peggy’s Cove is not until 12 PM.  I decided to eat the breakfast buffet in the hotel.  It was $20 but you get to eat a little bit of everything than just a larger amount of only a few things.  They did serve an interesting egg, broccoli, bread thing that I went back for seconds.  Breakfast all done I head back down to the docks to redeem my voucher for the ticket for the bus tour. By 9 AM the fog has cleared off and you can see across the bay.

After a short walk along the board walk, I decided to head east into Halifax and visit the Museum of Natural History. I head up along Salter Street toward Barrington Street, but half way only my trek I have to make a surprising detour. Like in each of the other cities I’ve visited, lots of construction is going happening.  I’m not sure if the construction worker are responsible or if it was just a bad fire hydrant, but water is gushing into the air a good 12 feet and running down the street about 3 inches deep. How do I know? Well, I stepped in the water and soaked my right shoe.

I continue on my way as another police car arrives to block traffic from going down the street.  So I finally get back on course and head up Sackville Street and I notice the Halifax Public Gardens.

From the number of pictures I took, I think you can deduce I didn’t make it to the Museum in time.  I did go back to the Museum on Wednesday and looked around.  It was a very small museum, but it had an interesting exhibit of artwork created by some of the local tribes of the First People, what Canadians call Native Americans, that visualized the impact of Europeans on the lives of these people.  And remember these are basically the same Europeans that are moving into the America’s and Mexico so when I say things didn’t work out well for the First People, I am making a huge understatement.  And some of the repressive laws continued into the modern era and if I’m remembering the date correctly, it wasn’t until the 1960s before a woman of the local tribes no longer lost her tribal status with the Canadian government if she married a non tribe member.

The museum also has a mascot.  His name is Gus, and at night when the staff is closing up the museum he is allowed to roam his museum.

The museum also has a bee hive behind glass inside the building with a pipe that allows the bees to come and go as needed.  It also has some good displays of the various types of rocks and minerals found in the area along with bones and some fossils of animals from the past and present.  It was a nice museum to visit, and gave me about 45 minutes out of the unusually warm day (The museum visit was on Thursday, July 4th)

After leaving the public gardens, after another quick walk through I walked around one of the edges of the Halifax Citadel National Historical Site.  I didn’t visit, but this is a raised area over looking the lower portion of the city and the harbor where a military fort had been built to defend the port.  From the level I was on it just looked like a huge grassy hill, but when you got to on of the roads leading up, you could see the fort’s structures.

The time is now 11:30 AM and I need to be at the departure point by 11:45 AM which is out side of the nautical museum.  I didn’t visit the museum so I can’t say anything about it, other than its location.  The bus leaves a bit late, around 12:!5 PM, and I am off to Peggy’s Cove which I knew nothing about before my trip and I only booked it because there was a lighthouse.  It’s almost an hours drive out to the location and our tour guide has many stories to tell mostly about tragic events that happened on the ocean.  Halifax was the closest port to the location where the Titanic sank so many of the survivors were taken to Halifax along with the dead that were able to be recovered.

Peggy’s Cove is a fishing village that mainly traps lobsters. On the docks of all the little houses, I saw many lobster trap.  The fog found me again here at the cove, but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t get some good pictures of the lighthouse and surrounding landscape.  I even had time to grab a “lobster roll” for lunch.  Why the quotes, well it was lobster meat, but the “roll” was just a hot dog bun.  Still it was good, better than any lobster I’ve had at Red Lobster.

Another hour drive back into Halifax, with some more local stories that I don’t remember because honestly I didn’t really care.  I just wanted to see the Atlantic Ocean and the light house and I was looking forward to my next tour, The Halifax Distillery.

The Fermentation Pot

The Distillation Pot and Tower

The caskets for aging

The Halifax Distillery is a very small rum distillery located on Lower Water Street.  One of main people responsible for running the distillery gave the tour.  In the pictures above you can see the pot where the mash is fermented. They only use molasses for their rum and I didn’t know this, but as rum is fermenting it is producing so much heat that they have to cool the pot.  That explains the dimples in the outside of the pots.  They run water between the outside and inside layer of the pot to cool the mixture other wise it would boil and kill the yeast and end the fermentation. My beer takes about 6 to 7 days to finish its fermentation process, rum is done in 12 hours.  Because of the heat produced by the fermentation the distillery only runs during the winter months when it is much cooler and their are less people wanting to take tours. After those 12 hours are up, the liquid is transferred to the pot and column still where it is heated and the alcohol is collected. It is than aged for 3 years in old bourbon and whiskey barrels.  Many of those being used here are from Buffalo Trace.  One of the other guests asked how many times a barrel can be reused, and the answer was up to 5 times before it starts to leak too much. I personally am not a fan of drinking rum, even in a cocktail, but the dark rum here was pretty good.  I even bought a bottle of the Rum Cream which is basically like Bailey’s Irish Cream, but made with golden rum and not whisky.  Overall, this was a very good tour, and I learned a few things I didn’t know.  It also helps that the business is still small enough that they owners are the people running the place and giving the tour.

After the tour I head back to the hotel keeping my eye open for a place to eat dinner.  I run across, The Old Triangle.  Maybe subconsciously the math teacher in me is drawn to the word triangle or the fact its an Irish Alehouse either way, that is where dinner will be.

This is Tuesday night, around 7:30 PM and the place is pretty empty.  I over here the bartender and one of the waitress discussing that fact.  About 20 or 30 minutes later after I get my food the manger even lets the waitress go home earlier because she isn’t making any money on tips, because their is no crowd and the place is over staffed.  It seems I decided to visit between the arrival of the cruise ships.  Which is very good for me, I didn’t realize that Halifax was one of the major destination ports for cruise ships.  The harbor is deep enough that the ships can dock without issues.  I thanked my good fortune and sit back and enjoy the live music coming up from the lower section of the Alehouse while I wait for my meal.

Dinner was pan fired Haddock with potato leek soup.  And dessert, which I didn’t really have room for but decide to just go for it anyways was this awesome Guinness Gingerbread cake.  If all desserts tasted that good, I would always save room.

Since the sun is setting so late, it is still pretty bright out when I leave the restaurant at 8:44 PM.  I walk back to the board walk and get some really good pictures of the docks and harbor with my phone using the landscape and sphere setting.  Sadly they don’t upload well here and only look good on a phone.

And it is back to the hotel for some sleep.

It is now July 4th; the train back to Montreal doesn’t leave until 12:30 PM.  I take one final walk along the board walk, and then head up to the public garden again.  As I mentioned before I visited the History museum today.

I get a taxi to the train station and board the train and get a window sit on the single seat side of the train.  Here are some pictures I got while traveling from Halifax.

Halifax – 2018 From Quebec City to Halifax was a very long and uncomfortable train ride.  The train car seemed warm to me, and I was on an aisle seat instead of a window. 

[feedbaylenny]

No waiting until Christmas on Monday. Comcast, you obviously consider yourself too powerful.

Today, your hard-earned rate hikes take effect. Santa says you’ve been such a good company this year, only getting me concerned and wasting my time by forgetting when my Xfinity introductory offer ends.

Comcast notice, page 1 of 7

Comcast notice, page 2 of 7

Does anyone reading this have suggestions for me for when that offer actually does expire? I need the internet (keeping net neutrality, which nobody is counting on Comcast to do), and pretty much the local and basic cable stations, especially news. Nothing special. None of the new programs I’ve read about but never seen. There are a lot of companies’ names that I’ve read about but never understood. (See new information released today, below.)

Seems like I’ll be looking at something very different and unfamiliar, since my building doesn’t do Verizon’s Fios nor satellite.

Comcast’s old logo, before the feds let it buy NBC/Universal — under several conditions.

Comcast, I know costs go up but Philadelphia is your hometown, you have more to lose here than elsewhere and here, you actually own so much of your own programming and channels, including one for local sports fans (now called NBC Sports Philadelphia) and two broadcast, over the public’s airways.

One is WCAU-NBC10 (where I worked, 1998-2000, under General Electric, before the Universal and Comcast buyouts) and there’s WWSI-Telemundo62, the Spanish station really licensed to Atlantic City, whether or not it concentrates on people down the shore. In case you didn’t know, it comes just less than three years after NBC pulled its affiliation from New Jersey’s only major network affiliate, WMGM-40 in Atlantic City. That voice is gone.

SIDEBAR: Looking at NBC10’s website, I noticed the Channel 10 homepage weather featured “StormTracker4” and thought that was weird. NBC also owns its station in the next city up: WNBC-4 in New York. WNBC also brands its homepage weather “StormTracker4” but that makes sense, since it’s Channel 4!

So I tried another NBC-owned station that’s not on Channel 4 (anymore): WTVJ-6 in Miami. Their homepage weather is called “First Alert Doppler 6000” which makes sense for Channel 6 and is different from NBC’s two northern stations that are bigger, have different channel numbers, but the same name (at least at this moment). I wonder if this is regular or something simply went wrong.

Don’t forget synergy saves parent company Comcast money, and should be factored into our fees, too. (And kudos to Miami for actually selling their web weather preview!)

nbcphiladelphia.com (NBC)

nbcnewyork.com (NBC)

nbcmiami.com (NBC)

ANOTHER SIDEBAR: Newswise today, I noticed NBC10 beat Philadelphia competitor WTXF-Fox 29 (where I worked, 2016-2017) that had two headlines way up above the fold that were known and could’ve been written long ago — seven months and 15 months ago, respectively. Their personnel decisions should be going under the microscope.

fox29.com (21st Century Fox)

First, on May 9, 2017, it reported Philadelphia’s District Attorney’s Office decided not to charge Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian “with a criminal offense” in the May 2015 crash that killed eight people and injured 200 others.

Then, three days later on May 12, 2017, it reported, “Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro expanded on charges a Philadelphia judge approved a day earlier after the family of a woman killed in the crash sought a private criminal complaint” and that specific story, more than seven months old, was for some reason updated today!

Your guess why a May 12 Associated Press article had to be updated Dec. 20 is as good as mine. I don’t know what’s new or corrected from May 12.

Second, a year and a half ago, in June 2016, I had trouble inserting my subway token at the Broad Street Subway’s Spring Garden station. There was no place to insert it. I ended up having to walk up and down steps at three of the four corners of that intersection to finally find a human to take my token and let me down to the train platform. So we knew tokens were being phased out. Besides, how many other cities already did away with them?

SIDEBAR OVER: So Comcast/Xfinity, for now, Merry Christmas, but I don’t know how long my even more costly business with you will last. We’ll have to find out if and when our relationship changes in the future. I can’t wait to see (with my own eyes) what you propose.

I also wonder, did @PHLCouncil, and especially my district’s @Darrell_Clarke, who happens to be city council president, allow your rate hike?

P.S. Readers probably figured out I had the Comcast portion of this blog post prepared since shortly after I got my bill (and read it) weeks ago. Coincidentally, I found several other articles on similar topics with updates and possible solutions, this morning alone!

First, The New York Times‘ “How to cut the cord on cable” which prepares us to use the internet and streaming services to save a ton of money. Our viewing habits are different, so we all should read it.

Second, according to The Seattle Times, a Washington State broadband company “filed a claim with the FCC saying cable giant Comcast is unfairly trying to force Wave to provide higher-priced sports TV channels to customers who don’t want them.”

Third, the fighting between station owners, and cable/satellite operators, for retransmission consent money that probably cost you from watching something you wanted at some point (with both sides blaming each other) continues.

According to TVAnswerMan, “AT&T’s U-verse TV service lost two more local stations last night due to a fee fight with their owner, Sarkes Tarzian, Inc.” Satellite provider Dish had been involved in the majority of recent fights. New England Patriots fans almost didn’t see the game against AFC-East rivals, the Miami Dolphins, until the Boston CBS station allowed carriage.

FTV Live‘s Scott Jones put it best:

“The TV station demands more money to carry their single, the cable company says no and the pissing match starts. The two take shots at each other and say that it’s all about you the viewer. Which is utter bullshit! Then after the nasty comments about each other, the two sides come to an agreement, in which they NEVER expose the details and life goes on. But, you know that more money the station is demanding means your monthly TV bill is going up.“

Finally, Bloomberg warns, “Cable TV’s password-sharing crackdown is coming” and “it’s a growing problem that could cost pay-TV companies millions of subscribers — and billions of dollars in revenue.”

The article reports TV Everywhere, started in 2009, “was an attempt to appeal to young consumers by letting them access cable or satellite shows on any device.” Of course, that “any device” part led to piracy and password-swapping since companies like Charter/Spectrum only force paying customers to enter their passwords for each device once a year. Somehow, tens of thousands watched just one subscriber’s streams simultaneously for free!

Anyway, after all that, got a solution for my Comcast concern? I’d love to hear in a comment! (Got a web link?) And thanks!

Today, Merry Christmas to Comcast! You’re welcome! No waiting until Christmas on Monday. Comcast, you obviously consider yourself too powerful. Today, your hard-earned rate hikes take effect.

[janiklandre-blog]

Saturday, April 1st, 2017

still grey outside  already 10:20 a.m.  - computer would not send an earlier message - leaves me a bit worried - yesterday came all sorts of messages about undeliverable mail and it took a while before old and older appeared and I was already getting resigned to possibly have lost it - but then it did appear - oh writing by hand - I love it - wish I had a secretary who then would post it - as beautifully as Molly has been posting - once again: janiklandre.tumblr.com  has to be entered way on top where it says https and then click enter - took me a while to learn - she double spaces, uses bigger letters, much more readable than this here - she has shown me how to do it - but - I despair - if only I was three again - really wish I could master it - Molly has been doing it faithfully - but then again - so few things in my life last - she is young, she is wonderful - but many new things in her future -

Gesine was posting in Germany - I have not heard from her, I worry - my grandson also is posting and it appears automatically on people's smart phones - still have not quite figures out what they are doing, but those of you with smart phones may be getting it automatically - probably even on my smart phone - who knows - it all is somewhat beyong me - and I wish I was writing by hand - yet thank Ken time and again for at least getting me into what I call pre school computer skills - adding wonderful dimensions to my life that I treasure.

Ten minutes gone. Yesterday - was planning on church, was planning on a few words to Marie (more and more requests on my friend, scaning of documents and what not, her daughter emailing now from Berlin requesting her mother to be taken care of - and they do) - in any event, I never made it to the church. Nerviously I called the optometrist about when I am to appear on Monday, was told a service would let me know - then complained about the $250 for the drops - the woman I was talking to "oh you don't have this insurance, that insurance" no - I don't - "I can prescribe something cheaper" - I rush to the druggist, Carmine, a sweetheart, one of the very few not in the monster entities that have taken over, replaced super markets and where you have to search for everything in masses of goods) - anyway Carmine was able to return the expensive one - antibiotics to prevent infection, four drops a day) - I had paid by credit card - it all took a while, I got $85 back - something - it was pouring rain - had to return later to pick up cheaper replacement, the present eye drops only $14 - them my friend told me the generic version is $4 - it all is such a racket -  Carmine said to me "ask Joanne at the CW" - well she is busy with all the totally helpless Maries - my friend had to go with Francesca frrom Guatemala to the eye doctor to translate - well - I already realized years ago that I basically fall into the category who should be helping all the totally helpless - and I don't mind doing some of it - but then I realized that at the CW "they" consider that their domain - I can wash dishes. We live in a totally crazy world.

Rain was pouring all day yesterday - flooding everywhere - because all our money is spent on wars - no money for what is called infrastructure - like providing drainage systems - or something sane, everything - the other the "fast" Amtrak called Acella, between Washington and Boston, derailed side swiping a commuter train - all trains stopped for hours - all our public transportation a sad joke - and by now not even money to keep many roads in shape - the bus I take in NY state shaking like crazy.

So. I find hardly the time to read the NYT  New York Times - $2.50 a copy on weekdays - $6 on Sunday - the smart know how to use their tablets and pay $100 a year vs the $600 I end up spending - only my sweet, smart grandson said: Grandma, you allow yourself so few luxuries - you love the feel of paper in the morning - of course it alsowould be cheaper if I had a subscription - not in my type of housing. - it is amazing that she still can hop on a plane and come to New York - in pouring rain come to the meeting - she is the daughter of a French general - the French have a term: chnapeau - all my respect - she loves New York - even though she never became a citizen here - and I watched 

Luckily there still is so much other people spend money on that I don't - all my life, no matter how little I had, I always saved a few dollars and never have borrowed a cent.

Still, other than my breakfast muesli I ate little yesterday that was reasonable - find it harder to find food that is heaalthy and also tasty - as I have often said - I would do well with a staff - a secretary, a cook, a butler, a chauffeur, a gardner for the garden I would love to have, a trainer, a companion - there are people who do have staffs and then manage to put out books that make them rich, famous and respected. Dostoyevski hand wrote at the kitchen table, surrounded by noise - much of his writing for newspapers in continuation, every night a deadline - so - there are many styles.

I do want to mention what a German friend just told me on the phone about her rich brother in Frankfurt : 17 families with RV's - recreactional vehicles where you can live, plan to form a caravan and drive to China via Russia and back via India - a six months journey. Now, how is that?

Well, yesterday before I knew it it was close to seven, my friend who had promised to come earlier rang the bell - on Friday's the CW has a meeting - talks, lectures, films - at times very interesting, a times less so - CW style, no money is ever asked, some make contributions in a little basket - yesterday a woman who spent five years researching and publishing a book about four nuns who were murdered in El Salvador, I believe 30 years ago - I already have heard a lot about them and also have seen a movie and yes, they should be commemorated - and yes - with pouring rain few people would come - so I went -the speaker was not the greatest, I could not get my mind on it, sat in the back, anxious to leave, then I saw French Christine and then I saw her ready to leave - she could not get her mind on it either, so I followed her, the rain was still pouring, she said she was very tired, looked very tired, still wanted to walk to East 9th (CW on 3rd) to catch a taxi to go to West 9th where she was staying with a friend - so I said I would go with her, we ran, through the deluge - she still does have her apartment on the 5th floor, steep stairs but there were problems there - today she said ahe would move there - she is in new york for two weeks - when she was about to leave Paris her doctor called and said a suspicious growth on her kidney - too much cancer in her body - and I do want to take back here all I said about her earlier - she loves New York, she is the daaughter of a French general - and to hop on a plane and fly to New York, come to a meeting in pouring rain - there was a cab on 9th street and I got her to grab it - old and older, often painful to watch.

It's 11:30 - I should look for something reasonable to eat - not sure yet what the day will bring - there are my guests but mostly they want to be by themselves - when they appear the Lebanese talks a lot - his life absolutely and totally has nothing in common with my life - he too has heaalth problems and other problems that are not my problems - he is a sweet and generous man - and I wish I had them better to offer than my noisy, overheated room - still at this point there is no room to find in nyc for less than $150 a night - in the hotels next to me they run into the hundreds - 

And I too am running out of steam here. Am nervous about the op - prepared for the worst as far as costs will go. Many tell me: I paid nothing - and yes, medicaid for which I am no longer eligible pays a lot more than medicare - I did consider doing it in Amherst that turned out to be too complicated - after the op you have to see the doctor three times - and then there will be the second on April 17 and I don't know yet who will help with that. I do remember telling my mother as she was getting old - you have to pay for help. But as I too am finding out - good paid help is hard to find - I'm lucky for Molly to snow into my life for a while - and yes - now I also do remember what made me tired yesterday afternoon - Molly came at 1:30 - when I have been falling asleep these days - I did have the idea of cleaning up my contact list - but soon saw how tedious that is - still she maneuvers the computer with such ease and skill - her father is an internet technician - alas I only can marvel - and mourn my old age, my technophobia and my just about non existant learning skills - just getting with this here smart phone lying next to me where I am - a small wonder. The techno world has taken such a leap - me no longer able to leap with it. And, it is getting worse. Reading about A.I. = artificial intelligence, robots - makes my head spin - perhaps I should start hording pencils and paper - soon they may become hard to find. Sending a snail mail letter already takes me weeks - many post offices closing - and so it goes. Noon. Time for a proper meal in company - I am afraid, no proper meal, no company. But then - perhaps  hope this will send  - adios  Marianne