#all the tax stuff started and a new checking account made for the business and everything

[ekuns]

<<< THIS PERSON IS NOW A LEGAL BUSINESS OWNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i finally did it!!!! wahoooooooooooooooo

[rafaelbivar]

Home Business Startup: Managing Your Finances Effectively

More and more people now work from home. Having your own home business is very popular. It's crucial to manage money properly from the start. Smart money habits ensure long-term success.

The goal is to keep your home business running smoothly. You want to grow bigger over time, not fail. This guide teaches simple money tips for beginners.

Establish a Separate Business Bank Account

It is wise to keep business and personal money apart. Open a new bank account just for your home business. This stops money from getting mixed up messily. It lets you see where business money comes from.

Having separate accounts makes tracking costs and income easier. You can see exactly what you spent on business needs. You can also see how much money your business made. Keeping accounts separate makes taxes much simpler to file.

Customers and partners will see you as a real business. Having your business bank account looks very professional. This builds trust and credibility for your home business venture.

Make a Solid Financial Plan

Before starting, make a detailed plan for business finances. First, outline all startup costs you must pay upfront, such as equipment, supplies, licenses, marketing costs, and more.

Next, list the ongoing monthly business expenses you'll face. Things like rent, utilities, materials, inventory, and other bills. Leave nothing out when planning for these regular costs.

Don't forget occasional one-time costs that may pop up, such as purchasing extra inventory, travel costs, or equipment repairs. You may also need money to hire temporary helpers.

Make a realistic estimate of incoming cash from sales. Consider the number of customers and what prices to charge. Avoid overestimating to keep your projections realistic and honest.

Do a break-even analysis to find when profits start coming in. Calculate how much income covers all your business expenses. Determine how long it will take until your business makes a real profit.

Implement a Zero-Based Budget

Make a zero budget every month. Account for each dollar. Spend money with care. This stops waste and saves profit.

Start budget at zero dollars in and zero out. Add money you expect to make from sales. Next, add costs you must pay, like rent and bills. Check the budget monthly to match real money made and spent. Make changes to keep the budget correct and updated. This keeps your budget in line with the facts.

Pay important bills first before other stuff. Find ways to cut out any wasteful spending. Keep only costs that are needed.

If needing a loan due to bad credit or unemployment, consider loans for unemployed with bad credit and no guarantor required. This option provides needed cash without strict requirements. Repayment can be made from future business income.

Use Cost-Effective Tools and Resources

When starting a home business, money is tight at first. Finding cheap money tools is key. Many free or low-cost programs exist.

Simple programs make invoices, pay stubs, and track money made easy. Fancier low-cost ones also do accounting, taxes, and inventory tracking. Organized money data helps run a business smoothly.

Cloud money tools are great for home businesses on the go. Access your money info safely from anywhere. No need for expensive computer equipment. Use free online stuff, too, like budget templates and guides. Templates for invoices and bookkeeping save time. Guides teach money skills for cheap.

Control Inventory and Supplies Spending

Use the just-in-time inventory to cut holding costs for stock. Only order supplies when you need them for orders. Storing lots of extra inventory ties up cash unnecessarily.

Talk with your suppliers to get better pricing and terms. See if you can negotiate discounts for bulk orders. Or maybe get extended payment windows to improve cash flow.

Review inventory levels routinely to avoid too much overstock. Having excess supplies wastes money sitting on shelves that are not sold. Order smarter amounts based on real sales and needs.

Plan for Surprise Money Troubles

Sometimes, every business faces unexpected costs or money shortages. Build an emergency fund with cash reserves set aside. This covers surprise expenses when they inevitably pop up.

If you lack emergency funds, look into a loan at doorstep options. These loans provide needed cash quickly with simple requirements. They offer relief during temporary financial pinches or emergencies.

Having proper insurance also safeguards your business from risks. Coverage protects against disasters like fires, lawsuits, injuries and more. The right policies prevent you from covering huge costs alone.

Check emergency fund levels periodically and adjust cash reserves. As your business grows, higher cash reserves may be prudent. This ensures your rainy day fund stays prepared.

Conclusion

Managing finances the right way is most important. Make solid plans for spending and income upfront. Watch money closely as your business operates, too.

Never stop reviewing and improving money practices over time. Smart planning and budgeting lead to lasting growth. Follow basic money rules for a thriving home business.

[the-firebird69]

Trump tax release puts spotlight back on years of controversy over his finances - ABC News

It also seeking 2021 so very very important year. He sold well 30% of his stocks in most companies. And that's so much money people laugh because he had like at that time 90% of the world's businesses any money

I'm 2020 he sold 5% of it and didn't declare any and that my friends is more money than you have ever heard of in your entire life and he made tons of money and it's in the bank account of his he's trying to threaten our son and others with messing that up and they're getting good at it and they're going to mess up these people are so stupid and so mean. Right now they're losing huge huge numbers of people in the Midwest and other areas they're getting their asses handed to them and they are trying to get here and fixing to get here. We moved to intercept. I'm sitting herw2e insulting your son on TV ass about 300,000 octillion of them die because they're sitting there on TV. What they're doing here is gross and disgusting and they're under the influence of clones inside tonight finally. So they're in the Midwest and they're gathering up getting hit and it's by Max but the clones are influencing them to do it and they were right there during the pitiful song tell him to do it it's very very this is gross what's going on he's right it's a gross place to be and doesn't want to be here and we agree he shouldn't have to be here how is this dumb stuff going on. The more luck began attacking the clones in the Midwest and they didn't go anywhere and they're still fighting and they're yelling at them. The casualties of catastrophic from the warlock trying to go east and from the fight with clones it is devastating their ranks. Huge numbers and clones are attacking Trump's areas gigantic numbers and they are growing in magnitude and soon they will be dominating his areas any other after the stuff it's a huge effort and we need them out. A lot of people are checking and they see it and they know it's below and they're going in at this time it's a giant cluster f*** there and it will be over for the trumpsters shortly and bja is starting to feel it. Feeling soon fairly soon they will try for ships all over the place and have some success in New Jersey and it's probably from fighting Trump is there a kicked out no they're kicked out of New York and two New Jersey as Trump was kicked out of New York so the answer is there they were evacuated and they were forced to New Jersey. There's an invite there and it's over ships. But they were exposed to radiation before going there. And that's possibly the fantastic four if I tell you a fight Tommy f and he rides them after against each other and trying to use it to take the ships and it's after the fantastic four. Both films coming up fast. And the EMP has come and gone and they work exposed and would like to say that it hasn't happened yet the people are getting in position and it seems to be two cruisers of the same people but there are two different pulses the post was on the 17th and additional pulses will follow but that was pretty big and it usually takes several days to get here, and now is the time for it to be here 5 days as it was slowing as a dispersed.

Thor Freya

[phaeton-flier]

I think there's two separate points here, so I'm going to tackle the first one:

The first point is to what extent investing in the Stock Market is a separate kind of thing from investing in IPOs, or angel investing, or loaning money to some guy so he can start a smoothie business or whatever.

I think the disconnect here is that all of the examples in the latter case are concrete. It's easy to see how not doing them means there's just less stuff being made, while buying shares of Coke doesn't seem to cause new kinds of soda to spring into being. But one of the things that incentivizes investment is being able to sell it off later. If investing in something means getting part of the business, but you can't sell it off—you just get a share of the income, forever—then you're going to be a lot more wary about investing in something, because all of the returns are locked in decades away, and you can't access that money to do something with it in 5 years. This is even better if it's lower in value at that point, because if it looks like you've got a fixer-upper on your hands you might want to just sell it at a partial loss to someone willing to do the work to fix it.

So being able to sell it to some second party, who never interacted with the initial person asking for money, incentivizes you to invest now. And that second party is more willing to buy, more willing to pay a higher price for whatever they're buying, if they know they'll have the opportunity to sell it to some third person later. And at any step the business might collapse, it might lower in value, you might be left with a dud, but that's the nature of investing, you'd have to take that risk even if you couldn't sell it off.

Obviously this also allows you to do "bigger fool" scams and shit, but like, "individuals selling things" also allows you to pyramid schemes. The trick to get rid of pointless speculation is that places that do it run out of money. You can lower the amount by raising central bank rates (and thus make low-estimated-return investments less attractive) but that has it's own effects. Ultimately taxing the money to use for social programs doesn't only remove money from the low-percentage moonshot stuff. I'm down for a progressive taxation scheme anyhow, but it's important to note that it's not just, like, redistributing money from Makeup for Dogs to Food Stamps.

I think the distaste here, for these second-order effects, is of the same kind as "bullshit jobs", where (some) people label "stuff I don't like" as bullshit because an operations and logistics engineer isn't as immediate to producing a pencil as the guy who cuts the logs or the guy who checks the erasers. But if you don't have HR and accounting and a million other support staff, you're a lot worse at making pencils! Similarly, all this weird investing in stocks rather than specific businesses does serve a purpose, it's just kind of at a remove. I don't think we need to hype these people up, but The Money is doing things. It's not sitting in a king's vault nor being spent on pointless consumption like megayachts.

I remember reading a post on here ages ago making fun tumblr people for thinking rich people's money is just like sitting in a scrooge mcduck vault instead of being in motion in the form of like funding new companies or whatever and at the time I totally bought it but in hindsight it's nonsense? Most of rich people's money is just like. Sitting in stocks. Maybe moving between stocks. Very clearly not in economically meaningful motion. Especially because unless you buy like an IPO then buying stocks is sort of an economically neutral act. In terms of actual like. Desires satisfied

[randomposterofstuff]

Soldiers by Choice - Chapter VII

Author's Note: Hello, all! So, I've been pre-occupied with a lot of stuff, and this chapter also took me a while to formulate and write. Lol. In any case, I hope that you like it!

Also, just a quick age check: at this point in the story, Mikasa is 21 and Levi is 27. Hehehe.

Tumblr Chapters List can be found here.

Also available on Ao3! Please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts on that site! Check out the "Archive of Our Own" tab on my page to go to the site!

CHAPTER 7: Contracts and Visits

Summary: While in Mitras on business, Levi meets Mikasa's parents and visits his own family.

Year 847 (3 months later)

From his seat, Levi scans the ornate chamber. The high ceiling is adorned with three golden chandeliers, although their candles are not lit since it is still daytime. The sunlight streaming from the tall glass-paned windows lining the walls likewise provides enough natural light.

His eyes then flit about the area. To the right side of the room, two rows of various civilians dressed in fine clothes and tailored suits are seated behind two long polished mahogany tables. Snippets of conversations concerning businesses, taxes, and costs float around the room and intermingle with the discussions of the other military officers seated along with him at the left side of the room.

At the table behind him, he hears Shadis speak with other Cadet Corps Commandants. When asked if any one of them stood out, the former Survey Corps commander answered in the negative and said that the Southern Division has a handful of decent cadets and a few good ones but that he considers none of them to be particularly extraordinary.

At the far end of their table, Nile Dok frowns and sighs at the news being relayed by his MP officers. They’re speaking too quietly for Levi to properly hear over the cacophony of chatters. Still, the Ackerman captain can guess that it must have something to do with either the incompetence or corruption committed by subordinate MP pigs.

In the middle, Anka and her fellow Garrison soldier are sighing exasperatedly as they observe Dot Pixis quietly snoring in his seat, his alcohol flask still clasped in one hand.

Levi then hears the rhythmic tapping of fingers on the table and sees Hange staring at the door at the farthest right end of the room. The Titan-researcher's eyes widen ever so slightly as if willing someone to come through it.

“Erwin,” Hange addresses the blonde Commander sitting between the two of them. “When is Premier Zackly going to arrive?” They ask in a near whining voice, eyes still trained on the door where Zackly is supposed to enter.

"Soon," Erwin replies quietly, blue eyes reading the stack of papers in front of him. "The start of the event is at 9:00 AM.”

At the term "event," Levi scoffs. "Tch. Contract signings are hardly eventful."

Hange half-laughs in concurrence. “Levi’s right, you know. I could be spending this time going over my research findings back at HQ!”

Erwin merely hums, still reading their copies of the finalized contracts. “I agree. However, the annual contract signing is a long-standing tradition. You all know that.”

Levi rolls his eyes at that.

They've been in Mitras for official business at the Central Military Headquarters for the past three days. On the first day, the Commanders of the three military branches and the Commandants of the Cadets Corps presented their respective annual progress reports and liquidation accounts. Their audience on that day consisted of the Premier and the employee-representatives of the dozens of merchant companies seeking to be selected as suppliers of various essential goods for the military; the actual heads of these companies are only present during the actual contract signing.

Levi didn’t miss how some of the reps grumbled under their breaths or made dirty looks when Hange reported their expenditures and when Erwin explained the progress that the Survey Corps had made in the past year. The captain admits that on paper, the accomplishments of the legion seem small and few compared to the Garrison's or the MP's. But if all relevant circumstances were considered (especially the fact that they literally fight man-eating giants), they would see that even the smallest victory is a great leap forward.

But Levi didn’t expect the sheltered snobs with posh jobs to understand such things, not even when Erwin had called on him to expound on specific details concerning Titan combat, although they all kept their mouths shut and dropped the looks when it was the captain’s turn to speak.

They spent hours listening to the representatives explain their employer-companies' sales pitches and bids on the second and third days. The military enters into contracts with the corporations which can provide the most for the lowest prices on an annual basis. And while Levi knows that the military cannot function without the essential provisions, he finds sitting on his ass for hours on end to be just as tiring as wiping out hordes of Titans.

Yesterday, the winning bids were finalized, and all that was left was to sign the contracts. They could've signed them immediately the other day. Still, the higher-ups and the heads of the supplying companies decided to stick with the unnecessary tradition of holding a ceremony on a separate day.

Levi takes out his pocket watch and sees that there are only 15 minutes until the so-called event begins. As he places the watch back in his inner jacket pocket, his eyes flit to his right on reflex. He blinks once as if to remind himself that Mikasa is back at their headquarters and is likely kicking the asses of subordinates during combat training.

Precisely 15 minutes later, the door at the farthest right end finally opens. Everyone rises as Premier Darius Zackly makes his way to the center of the room, where a long decorative table is placed. On top of the polished wood are the official contracts for signing.

When Zackly reaches the center, the soldiers in attendance raise their right fists to their chests in salute. The Premier returns the salute before gesturing for everyone to sit.

“Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the annual contract signing.” Zackly’s voice resounds in the chamber, clear and authoritative. “I would like to thank the Commandants of the Cadet Corps divisions, the Commanders of the military’s branches, and their fellow officers for being present today.”

“I would also like to thank the heads of the companies which were selected during the annual public bidding for the procurement of essential goods and supplies to the military for their presence today.”

Zackly clears his throat before resuming. “Without further ado, we will begin the signing of the contracts. I will announce the specific contracts to be signed one at a time and the corresponding parties to each. When called, please step forward.”

The Premier then walks over to the first contract placed on the farthest left of the table. “The first is the Memoranda of Agreement for the Supply of Food Rations between the Royal Government Military and the Reeves Company and Stillon Company. As the Premier of the Military, I, Darius Zackly, will be the signatory of the military. Mr. Dimo Reeves and Mr. Charles Stillon, please step forward.

From amongst the group of civilians, two men – one stout and rotund with a balding head and the other tall and thin with greying hair approach the center table. Zackly signs his name first before the two men place their signatures.

The exact process is repeated for the subsequent contracts for the provision of steel for blades, materials and goods for transportation, and animal feed for horses – for which Erwin stepped up to sign on behalf of the Survey Corps. They then reach the contract for medical supplies.

“The next contract is Memoranda of Agreement for the Provision of Medical Supplies between the Royal Government Military and the Azumabito Apothecaries. Once again, I will be the signatory of the military, and Lady Keiko Azumabito will sign on behalf of her company. My lady, kindly step forward.”

From the first row of suppliers, a woman in her mid-forties rises as a blonde gentleman pulls out her chair for her. As she walks towards Zackly, Levi sees that Mikasa clearly takes after her mother.

Much like her daughter, Lady Keiko’s raven hair is neatly tied into a low ponytail. The two women also share the same fair complexion and likewise move with similar graceful postures – the only difference is that the older woman’s gait does not have the firm bearing of a seasoned veteran soldier.

Once Lady Keiko signs her signature, Zackly bows to her in thanks before moving on to the next contract.

“The next contract is the Weapons Provision Contract between the Military Police Brigade and the Ackerman Gun Manufacturers Corporation. Commander Nile Dok will sign on behalf of the Military Police, and Lord Mikhail Ackerman will sign on behalf of his company. Both parties please step forward."

The same man from earlier stands from his seat. He waits for Lady Keiko to reach her chair to push it in back for her before approaching the center table. At first glance, Levi cannot see much of Mikasa in her father – unlike his wife and daughter, Lord Mikhail has golden-colored eyes and dark-blonde hair. His skin is also slightly more tanned.

A few more contracts later, the so-called event eventually concludes after a (thankfully) brief message from the Premier. Everyone then begins to file out of the large chamber.

Getting up from their seat, Hange lightly groans while stretching their arms and shoulders. “Well, at least it’s finally over!” They then turn to Erwin. “Should we get our things and get back to HQ?”

Erwin shakes his head as he stores their copies of the contracts in a satchel. “Not today. I was told that all boats at Wall Sheena’s docks are undergoing maintenance today. They won’t be available until tomorrow.”

Hange grumbles in dissatisfaction. “Aw. I was really hoping to get started on sorting through my Titan findings!”

“You left Moblit in charge of the Research division, didn’t you?” Their Commander asks as he moves to stand. “Isn’t he supposed to manage such tasks in your absence?”

The Titan-researcher’s disappointment remains. “It’s completely different when I do it myself!”

Levi merely takes an exasperated breath as the Section Commander continues to ramble on about their research. They had just exited the meeting room when someone called out to them.

“Excuse us. Captain Levi?”

The three officers turn in the direction of the voice. Some feet away from the entrance stands Lord Mikhail raising a hand in greeting. To his right, his wife stands with her hands clasped in front of her.

“It looks like they want a word with you, Levi.” Erwin comments. “We’ll head to the main hallway and wait for you there.”

“Alright.” The Ackerman captain replies before walking towards the two nobles.

He straightens his posture as he approaches, and once directly in front of them, he bows at the waist while keeping his hands to the sides and his eyes trained downwards.

“Lady Azumabito, Lord Mikhail.” He addresses them before lifting his head. “What can I help you with?”

The pair return the gesture simultaneously, with the lord likewise keeping his hands to his sides and the lady with her hands still clasped in front of her.

“First of all,” Lady Keiko says when she lifts her head, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Captain.” She offers a polite smile.

"We would call you 'Lord Levi,'" her husband comments, a slightly amused twitch to his lips, “But Mikasa had written that you both prefer to be addressed by your military ranks.”

“We do when we're acting in our capacities as such," Levi affirms with a cordial smile.

Lord Mikhail smiles more fully. “We wanted to speak with you because we wanted to take the opportunity to properly thank you for what you did for Mikasa.”

“We planned to write you a letter,” his wife interjects with a slightly sheepish look, “but we thought that our gratitude would be better expressed in person. Written words could only convey so much.”

“Although, we feel somewhat foolish for approaching only you now when months have already passed.” The dark-blonde man adds, his tone apologetic, as if they had done him a discourtesy.

Levi blinks, confused by their statements. He isn’t aware of anything special that he had done for Mikasa that would warrant their thanks. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Lady Keiko and Lord Mikhail both look surprised at his admission. They exchange a quick look before the lady seems to realize something; she nods at her husband as if to say that she understands the source of the captain’s confusion.

"Our apologies." She redirects her attention back to Levi with a rueful smile. “We should have been more specific. We wanted to thank you for rescuing her and caring for her when she was injured by accident.”

Levi merely stares blankly for a brief second before the memory of their first expedition as co-captains flashes in his mind. He then realizes that they were referring to when Mikasa was hit by a flare shot; it’s the only logical explanation since she had never been incapacitated during a mission before that.

“I see.” He says, finally understanding that she must have written to them about the incident. “Of course. I was glad to have been able to help her.”

To his surprise, Lord Mikhail lets out a laugh. “You sell your deeds short, Captain. Mikasa wrote to us that you not only literally rescued her but that you also tended to her when she was recovering. That went beyond merely helping her.”

The praise causes Levi to feel uncharacteristically bashful. A prickle of heat creeps up the back of his neck; thankfully, he manages to keep his expression level. “I suppose you’re correct.”

“You’re quite modest, Captain Levi.” Lady Keiko comments, amused. “But in any case,” her tone takes on a more serious tenor, “we truly are grateful for what you did for her. As Mikasa’s parents, we are proud of her career as a soldier. But in the same vein, we also worry about her.”

Lord Mikhail firmly nods in agreement. “Mikasa is our only child. So, you have to know how much it meant to us that you were there for her during her time of need.”

Their concern and gratitude are as clear as day, and Levi feels himself soften inwardly. Everyone in the Survey Corps is someone’s child, and the captain knows that every parent fervently hopes for their son or daughter to return home after each expedition. After all, even the most skilled veterans are only human, himself and Mikasa included.

“We actually also considered sending you a gift to show our appreciation.” Lady Keiko adds. “But we were afraid that it would’ve been considered legally inappropriate since you’re an officer and both my husband and I are military contractors.”

Levi shakes his head. “No gift is necessary.” He says even though he appreciates the thought. “I was happy to do it for Mikasa.”

His response prompts smiles from both parents. “That’s good to know.” Lord Mikhail says.

“And speaking of Mikasa…” his wife begins, her tone curious and hopeful, “Is she here with you?”

The captain shakes his head again. “No. She’s back at our headquarters helping to oversee the training of our troops.”

They visibly deflate at the news.

“Ah, I see." The disappointment is evident in the mother's voice. "We had hoped to see her today. When our representatives at the biddings told us that you were present, we assumed that she came with you.”

Levi’s brows rise slightly at that. “Is that so?”

“Yes, we did.” Her husband says, “You’re her co-captain. And she mentions you frequently in her letters to us.” He explains while mirth colors his tone, “And this might sound odd, but because of those things, we were given the impression that you’re together most of the time.”

The captain blinks once at the unexpected explanation. “Oh…” he trails off momentarily, thinking of an appropriate response. “It’s true that we work closely together most of the time since we’re co-captains. But we each have separate responsibilities as well.”

Lord Mikhail chuckles amiably. “Of course. Of course.”

“In any case, Mikasa is doing well.” Levi offers as a consolation, “She is also in good health.”

Lady Keiko’s expression brightens at his assurance regarding her daughter’s well-being. “We’re very glad to hear that.” She smiles gently. “Well, we won’t keep you for long.” She raises her hands before clasping them. “Kindly relay our regards to Mikasa and tell her that her parents miss her very much.”

“I will," Levi promises.

Lord Mikhail then extends a hand to him. The captain takes it and feels his clansman firmly grip his hand before shaking it. “We wish all of you every good fortune on your future expeditions, Captain.”

The solemn tenor of the older man's voice conveys sincerity, a sharp contrast to the superficial and jeering remarks the Corps often received from others. Levi takes a second to appreciate the sentiment before nodding. "Thank you." He replies.

With that, they once again bow to one another before parting ways. The captain makes his way to the main hallway, where Erwin and Hange await.

“Did Lord Mikhail and Lady Azumabito ask about Mikasa?” Erwin asks as soon he approaches them.

"Yeah," Levi replies, unsurprised that the Commander guessed correctly. “They asked if she came with us. They were disappointed when I told them that she didn’t.”

Hange smiles at the remark. “Well, she is their daughter. So, that's not exactly surprising." They then noticeably perk up as if just recalling something. "What is surprising is that you actually bowed to them!” Hange exclaims, voice clearly amused. “I half-expected you to stand in front of them and cross your arms as usual. Good thing I saw you do it before we left; otherwise, I never would have believed it!"

At their commentary, Levi reflects that he was wise not to reveal more about the conversation as it would have sparked intrigue for the Titan-researcher.

---

Apart from the carriage driver at the front, Levi’s only companions are the sounds of horse hooves trotting and wooden wheels trekking across the paved pathways of Mitras. Though, the mare’s neighs would join the other two every now and then.

When half an hour passes, he sees the scenery from the other side of the carriage window change from rows of infrastructure to copses of trees; he also senses the cement pavement beneath being replaced with a flat dirt path. When the carriage begins to slow down, Levi is greeted by the sight of a large iron gate in the near distance. In the middle of it is an engraved crest composed of a large ‘A’ emblazoned on a grey shield – the insignia of the Ackerman clan.

Located at the farthest eastern edge of Mitras, the Ackerman clan compound consists of roughly 5,000 hectares of land. It houses the clan’s ancestral mansion, the Elite Royal Company’s training complexes, farms where tenants graze cattle and harvest crops, and hundreds of acres of forests for 3DM gear training.

When the carriage comes to a halt, a uniformed figure approaches the window and taps lightly.

Levi slides the carriage window open and sees a young man dressed in a black buttoned frock coat with a white collared shirt beneath. A long rifle is holstered across his shoulder by a thick leather strap. The leg endings of his dark trousers are tucked in his combat boots. The Ackerman insignia is stitched onto the shoulder sleeves of his coat and is engraved onto the grey metal of his belt buckle.

“State your purpose.” He demands, gaze trained on the Survey Corps emblem on Levi’s standard-issue military beige jacket.

"I'm here to visit my mother and uncle," Levi replies.

The man in black looks confused for a moment. His questioning eyes dart from the captain’s jacket to his face; recognition then colors his expression.

“Lord Levi!” He exclaims, surprised. “My apologies!” He offers a bow. “We weren’t expecting you!”

The captain quietly sighs in exasperation at the use of the title but decides not to say anything about it – he is home and on a personal visit.

“It’s alright.” He waves the apology away. “Just open the gates for us.”

“Right away!”

Levi closes the window as the gates are opened. He hears the driver urge the horse onwards before the wheels roll forward.

The carriage rides on for three miles towards the mansion; en route, it passes by one training complex, and Levi hears the battle cries and shouts of numerous clansmen undergoing their hand-to-hand combat training. After the second mile, the faint sounds of gunshots can be heard as they ride past a shooting range. As they continue onwards, Levi sees a group dressed in 3DM gear heading towards a nearby forest.

The carriage eventually reaches the household. After paying the driver his fare, Levi steps out and stands in front of his childhood home: a large and wide three-story manor house painted in dark and greyish hues. The concrete walls are over a hundred years old, but they still stand strong and have weathered the seasons well thanks to fine masonry work.

Levi climbs the steps leading up to the entrance hall doors before pulling the rope of the doorbell device. Not a minute later, the doors open to reveal a footman in a dark suit and livery. His eyes widen as when he sees the captain.

“Lord Levi!” The footman exclaims as he opens the doors even more widely before stepping aside to let the captain enter. “Welcome home! We weren’t expecting you today! Do you have any luggage?”

“Thank you, Gregory. But this is an impromptu visit, so I don’t have any luggage. And I’ll be leaving before sundown.” Levi explains as he crosses the threshold. "Where are my mother and uncle?" He asks once the other man has closed the doors.

“Lord Ackerman and Lady Kuchel have just settled down for tea in the library, my lord.” The footman answers. “I’ll escort you to them.”

The captain raises a hand. “There’s no need for that. I want to surprise them. You can go on ahead.”

Gregory bows. “Very well, my lord.” Levi nods in acknowledgment before departing for the library.

His booted footfalls patter audibly against the smooth marbled floor of the main foyer before they are muffled by the thick red woolen carpets that adorn all of the manor’s hallways.

As he strolls at a leisurely pace, Levi takes a moment to appreciate the general upkeep of the place; the paneled glass windows sparkle under the sunlight with no traces of dirt or residue on them; the scenery portraits on the walls have also been dusted with their frames polished; and the unlit candelabras on the tables lining the hall likewise shine.

Apart from his family, Levi missed their home’s standard of cleanliness the most.

After making a few turns, he eventually reaches his destination. The door to the library creaks slightly as he opens it. The sight of several bookshelves bolted to the walls greets him as he steps in. Turning to his right, he sees his mother reading a book on the settee near the unlit fireplace at the front of the room. His uncle sits on an upholstered armchair to her left, a cup of tea in one hand and a folded newspaper in the other.

Levi notes that neither of them is in their frock-coat uniform. Instead, they are both wearing civilian clothing; his uncle is in a white button-down shirt with light brown trousers, and his mother is in a casual blue dress. He wonders if this means that they’ve been home all day or if they’ve already finished with their duties for the day and have dressed down.

On the table in front of them is a teapot, a two-tiered tray of biscuits, and one empty teacup – his mother hasn't drunk any tea yet.

“What is it, Gregory?” Lord Kenny Ackerman’s deep voice calls out, his eyes still trained on the article he’s reading.

Levi smirks slightly. “I’m not Gregory.”

At his response, his mother and uncle snap their heads up and lower their respective reading materials.

Lady Kuchel’s dark eyes widen in pleasant surprise as her mouth curves into a happy smile. “Levi!”

She sets her book on the table before rising to greet her son. She quickly strides towards him, and he meets her halfway. When they are a few feet apart, she raises her arms and wraps them tightly around him.

Swaying slightly, Levi firmly returns the hug and feels the warmth of her embrace. He smiles fondly when the familiar scent of her floral perfume wafts to his nose as she clings on to him.

“Oh, my dear boy.” She says into his shoulder before pulling away. She then leans up to press a kiss on both his cheeks. “It’s been so long!” Her smile is broad, and her dark eyes crinkle with joy.

He pecks her cheek gently. “It’s good to see you again too, Mom.”

Once he disengages from his mother, his uncle approaches with a grin and open arms. “Welcome home, boy!”

“Good to be home, old man.” He replies with a smirk as he moves forward to embrace the older man.

The Ackerman clan head laughs at the greeting. “Ha! It’s been over a year, way too long!” He sportingly claps his nephew’s back. “So, how have you been?” He asks when they break away.

Levi is about to answer when his mother takes hold of his arm.

“Let’s all sit down so that we can catch up properly.” She says while leading him to the settee. His uncle follows suit as he returns to his armchair.

“So,” Kuchel begins as she sits next to her son, “How have you been?” She then reaches for the teapot and pours tea into her unused cup. “And why didn’t you tell us that you were coming to visit?” Once the cup is full, she offers it to him, “Here, have some tea. This cup hasn’t been used yet.”

Smiling, Levi accepts the tea while taking a biscuit from the tray. “I’ve been doing fine.” He takes a bite and briefly savors the sweet and buttery taste before continuing; it’s been a while since he had treats from home.

“And I didn’t tell you because this visit is unplanned. I’m actually here in Mitras on official business with Erwin. We had meetings with the brass and suppliers, and we were supposed to return to our headquarters today.” He pauses to take a sip of his drink.

“But all the boats at the docks are undergoing maintenance. So, we have some free time on our hands. We go back tomorrow, though.” He explains as he sets the cup down.

Kuchel smiles as she takes her son’s free hand. “Well, I’m glad that you took the opportunity to come and visit. I’ve missed you!”

The captain chuckles. “Oh, come on, Mom. I write to you guys a lot.” He comments before finishing the rest of his biscuit and taking another one.

To their left, Kenny laughs at the remark. “You know your mom, kid. Letters aren’t enough for her.”

“Of course, they aren’t!” Kuchel insists as if affronted by the idea that letters would be enough to make up for her son's absence. “Anyway, are you eating well? Getting enough rest?”

Levi swallows his second biscuit before answering. “I already told you that I’ve been doing fine, Mom.” He says in a partially exasperated tone. But he smiles warmly at her good-natured fussing; he knows that she’s only concerned. “As you can see, I’m healthy and well.”

The Ackerman matriarch smiles at his assurance. “And how is Commander Erwin faring?” She continues her queries. “I know that your survival rates have risen considerably ever since he replaced Keith Shadis, but how has he been doing lately? Is his performance as your Commander consistent? How does he participate in your expeditions?”

Levi’s smile disappears at the new line of questioning.

While the captain is generally upfront and blunt about the dangerous and gruesome circumstances that come with being a Survey Corps soldier, he finds speaking with his mother about such matters to be uncomfortable. Even in his letters to her, he keeps details of missions and expeditions to a bare minimum, preferring to describe things in more general terms.

“Oh, give him a break, Kuchel!” His uncle intercedes, noticing the tense shift in his expression. “You know he doesn’t want to discuss work whenever he’s here.”

Kuchel is momentarily startled at her brother’s interjection before a sheepish look settles on her features. “You’re right, Kenny.”

Levi lets out a small breath he didn’t even know he was holding, relieved and grateful at the interruption.

She then turns back to her son. “I’m sorry.” She smiles apologetically, having realized that her questions must have been upsetting him. “I shouldn’t have pried like that. I know that you’re stronger than most, but I still can't help but worry."

Levi’s demeanor softens. “It’s okay, Mom.” The captain grips her hand gently. “I know that you mean well.”

“But honestly, you should have more faith in him.” Kenny states. “He’s been a soldier for years, and don’t forget that I personally trained him before he enlisted! Besides, he's also got a clansman fighting alongside him. And it's not just any clansman; it's Mikhail's kid!”

Levi smiles a bit at his uncle’s reference to Mikasa. When he wrote years ago that she was made his lieutenant, his mother replied that his now co-captain was thought to be a cut above the rest when she underwent their clan’s training. The Ackerman matriarch also mentioned that Kenny and the other trainers think Mikasa would’ve given Levi a run for his money if they had been part of the same batch. Since Mikasa is 6 years younger than him, Levi was ahead of her by 6 batches.

“Well, all of that is true.” Kuchel concedes. “But a mother will always worry.” Her dark brows then furrow as if realizing something. “And speaking of which, where is Mikasa?” She turns back to her son. “Is she also here in Mitras?”

He shakes his head. “She’s back at our headquarters. She and some other officers are training our soldiers.”

“Really? Well, that’s a shame.” His mother laments. “I would’ve loved to finally meet her in person. All I have to go on are Kenny’s assessments of her performance from years ago and your letters.”

Kenny hums at her statement. “You know…” He begins suddenly, his tone knowing and half-teasing. “… you would’ve met her sooner if you became a trainer, Kuchel.” He comments, “Mikasa would’ve learned a lot from you when she was still training under the clan.”

She rolls her eyes in exasperation. “Kenny, we’ve been over this. We have plenty of trainers as it is. Besides, you know that I prefer administrative work.”

Her brother raises his hands in mock-defeat. “Yeah, I know. All I’m saying is that you would’ve done a great job at whipping the kids into shape.”

Levi chuckles quietly at the banter between the two older Ackermans. His uncle urging his mother to be a trainer for the clan’s Company was commonplace during his childhood. Yet, Levi knows that the Ackerman clan head is grateful that his sister handles the administrative aspect of managing their clan; Kenny himself had said that he prefers action and training over paperwork and meetings with the Royal Government Assembly.

“In any case,” his mother redirects her attention to him, “the next time you visit, you should bring her along!” She chimes cheerily, “It’d be nice to get to know her!”

He smiles at his mother’s eagerness to meet his co-captain; he can imagine the two women getting along well as they chat over tea. “Sure, Mom.”

“I haven’t seen her since she was a kid; I wonder what she's like now," Kenny comments off-handedly. “And it’d be interesting to know what she has to say about you.”

Levi raises a brow at his uncle. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The older man sniggers. “Soldiers from other military branches always say that you're mean, scary and that you curse like a drunk when you’re pissed.” He then smirks mischievously. “I want to know if she has anything to add to that.”

Kuchel sighs at the statement. “Oh, Levi.” She pats his hand. “I wish that you would act more like a gentleman to others.” She says this with a tone that tells that she’s not really upset about it; the Ackerman matriarch has come to accept that her son is a bit of a rough diamond.

Levi groans in mock-consternation. Yet despite his partial annoyance, he’s glad to be home and away from the politics and fighting – even if it’s only for a short while.

---

End Note: So, Kuchel, Kenny, and Mikasa's parents have finally appeared in the story! Because the Ackermans were never persecuted, Levi grew up with both his mother and uncle present. His relationship with his uncle in this story is clearly very different from how it was in canon for the same reason. Hahaha.

I don't know when the next update will be, but I plan to see this story through. Hehehe. Anyway, let me know what you think! Feedback of any form will be much much appreciated! Until next time!

[razberrybi]

hello! this isn’t the most timely of postings, but I want to make a series with stuff I wish I knew before applying for/getting into college. the series will be most helpful to lower-income american students, because that’s my experience!  eventually I’ll have more stuff regarding STEM courses & tips for when you do start college.  everything will be tagged #college help by raz.  I’ll get a link for it up and running on my blog.

first off, probably the ugliest part of the process for me: filing the FAFSA, aka the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  I wouldn’t be able to go to college without it but the process literally brought me to tears.

if I save just one student some unnecessary frustration, then my job here is done! kal @promethes was my inspiration to do this, she’s running something with a similar purpose in a couple months so if you’re interested keep an eye out for that.

finally, if you’re trying to get into college/are just getting in and have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me an ask! 

if you don’t want to open up the link above to a google doc, the text is available under the cut.

Things to know about the FAFSA:

It opens on October 1st every year.  Be prepared to file it right when it opens, the aid is first come, first served.

If you’re going right into college after high school, that means you should apply on October 1st of your senior year.  

If you missed the deadline, it’s open till June 30th the next year, but do not procrastinate this. Please trust me. Mark October 1st on your calendar, know it like your birthday.  This is free money from the gov, don’t miss out.

You need to file for the FAFSA every year you’re in college, it’s not a one-and-done thing. 

To file, you will need an FSA ID for you AND one of your parents (unless you’re not a dependent.  If you’re living with a parent/legal guardian and they provide more than 50% of your financial support, you’re probably their dependent.  That means they claim you on their taxes & get money back on their return). Make those FSA IDs here. Remember the passwords.

These are separate accounts that you’ll need to actually file the FAFSA.  Also, if you have loans taken out they’ll show up here.

When you’re ready to do the FAFSA, use this official website.  Other websites can charge you.  They might not be secure and definitely won’t be any easier. 

Sometimes, income is complicated or parents aren’t always on top of their taxes.  Thankfully FAFSA wants documents from two years prior, i.e., for the 2020-21 school year they’re asking for 2018 taxes.

Try to check that those are filed away somewhere you can access before the Oct. 1 deadline.  Make sure your parents know the government will pay for your schooling if you do this, and you usually won’t have to give that money back.

If your situation changed and you make a lot less than you did 2 years ago, contact your school’s financial aid office. Sometimes they can help with extra aid.

What documents will you need?

Your social security number

Your driver’s license, if you have one

W-2 forms from 2 years prior, and other records of money earned 

Your (and/or your parents’) Federal income tax return from 2 years prior (form 1040, will be different if you’re in an American territory and not one of the states)

Any untaxed income records form 2 years prior, like payments to deferred pension & savings plans, tax exempt interest & child support

Records of taxable earnings from federal work-study from 2 years ago

Record of grants, scholarships, or fellowship aid that was included in you or your parent’s 2018 adjusted gross income

Any current bank statements

Any current business and investment mortgage info, business/farm records, stocks/bonds info

Documentation that you’re a permanent US resident or other eligible noncitizen

If you’re lucky, all these records will be filed in one spot or easily accessible.  Try to access them early just in case.

If you have an idea what colleges you’re applying to, add them to the FAFSA when prompted.  This will help you know exactly how much money they’re giving you sooner.

Because of the whole “parents not being on top of taxes” thing, I’ve always had to manually put things in instead of clicking the button that lets you manually import the info.

It’s frustrating and takes a while, but you will be able to do it.  Thankfully the FAFSA has been getting better with the help available on the page (you can click an info button and it explains most things). 

Still unsure what something means? Open a new tab on your browser and google it.  You need to answer everything honestly, don’t take chances and take your time.

If you do get to auto-import, I suggest you go through the information manually to double check things if it lets you!  I’ve used a similar tool with a tax-filing service and they can get some things wrong.

There are a couple “optional” sections.  I fill them all out except for the section about assets, which I’ve consistently skipped.  I always get max aid doing this, your mileage may vary.

When you finish, you’ll get a number for your EFC, or expected family contribution--how much they predict your family will have to pay for college.  For example, if that number is 000, you’ll hopefully get maximum aid and your tuition will be paid for.

Sometimes, they can’t give it all in grants (money you don’t have to pay back), so some of the money will be made out to you as subsidized or unsubsidized loans.  If you need them, take out the subsidized loans first, these will not gain interest until your grace period ends, typically 6 months after graduation.

I’ve literally never had success applying for random online scholarships and I applied to a lot of them.  The FAFSA is so important if your family is low-income, those grants cover my entire tuition.  The rest of my college, including room/board and a shitton of fees, is covered by merit scholarships directly from my school.  I go to a large, in-state school, and suggest you stay in state if you can’t get into an out of state college that will 100% pay everything for you.  Those colleges, not coincidentally, are also extremely hard to get into especially if you don’t have connections--think the Ivies, MIT, etc.

I recommend in-state because it’s almost always much cheaper than out of state tuition.  Sometimes colleges have programs that will let you go to another state and pay in-state tuition at their partner school, if you’re desperate to move far look for those programs OR find a farther college in your state keeping in mind how good their program is for the major you’re looking at.

Also, fancy private schools might get you some connections or more famous speakers at events but the quality of your education won’t be much better, if at all. 

Look for scholarships that come directly from the school you like.

Merit scholarships are money your school will give you for having good grades/test scores.  How much money 100% depends on the school. Mine had a program where they had different levels of aid, and they calculated which level you fell into based on your high school GPA, ACT, and SAT scores. It’s worth trying to improve your scores on one of those tests if you know it’ll get you more money.  These scholarships tend to renew every year/semester if you keep your GPA up in college. 

For school-specific questions, contact the school’s financial aid office.  For general questions, contact me! Send an ask to @razberrybi on tumblr.

Finally--if you manage to complete the FAFSA wholly or partially on your own, congratulations!! It’s not an easy feat.  In my experience the FAFSA is literally harder and more frustrating than filing your taxes.  Treat yourself for getting it done!  

[imaginetonyandbucky]

The Buy In

Chapter 3: Puzzle Wrapped in an Enigma 

by @dracusfyre

On the way back home after the brothel closed, Bucky logged into Discord and dropped into a channel labeled only with random numbers and letters. First day of work was :thumbs up:  but there were two dudebros who tried to jam up my shit. Wish they would back off, he wrote. The channel was monitored 24/7 in case of emergency or actionable intel.

He waited as the dots danced, then his police handler wrote, that sucks. who are they?

Bucky typed the last four of Rumlow and Rollins’ badge numbers and put his phone back in his pocket. This operation was way more important than those two swinging dicks; between the video from tonight, which was going to be a PR nightmare for the department, and his request, Rumlow and Rollins better be manning a desk for the foreseeable future.

He was pulling out his keys to his apartment building when he heard a car door opening nearby. His head whipped around and his other hand was already on the pistol in the holster at the small of his back when he heard, “Whoa there Blue Eyes,” in a familiar voice. The figure that stepped out of the car held his hands up and stepped into the light.  “Hard day at the office?”

“I’ve had worse,” Bucky said warily.

“How’d everything go today?” Stark shoved his hands in his pocket and leaned against his car, the streetlight casting harsh shadows on his face.

“Fine. Didn’t KT give you a debrief?”

“Yeah, I heard his side. I wanna hear your side.”

Bucky thought about it, wondering if he should put a shine on it or be honest. “KT and Hawkeye’s play tonight was clever and would have worked perfectly against a different set of cops. But I think those two won’t give up until they get back at the person who embarrassed them. Might have made more problems than they solved.”

“Yeah?” Stark tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. “You sure about that? KT's been on the job for a few years now and thought it was a good call. It's your first day and you saw the cops for all of fifteen minutes.”

Bucky shrugged. “I’ve met guys like them before. Don't strike me as the type to know when they're beat. Best thing would be for them to be encouraged to take a long walk off a short pier.”

Stark made a thoughtful noise. “But KT explained office policy on that?”

“Yeah. Only as a last resort.” Bucky tried to sound neutral, but something of his skepticism must have bled through.

“You don’t agree?”

The note in Stark’s voice put Bucky on high alert. Higher alert, since his heart was still racing from before. “I get the logic, it’s just…different,” Bucky said. “Makes sense though. Bodies attract attention.”

“Is that the only reason you think it's a good policy?” Stark asked neutrally.

Bucky hesitated. He got the feeling there was a right and wrong answer to this and wished this conversation had happened six hours ago when he was less tired. “Killing people changes things,” he said finally - honestly - hoping he wasn’t about to touchy-feely himself out of this operation. Between the military, the police, and then undercover work with organized crime, he had been so steeped in machismo that it had become second nature – to those guys, life was one big dick measuring contest - but Stark didn’t seem to work like that. Or at least, he didn't want people to think he worked like that. “Not just changes people, but like…it sends a message to everyone else. ‘This is what a life is worth.’” Bucky took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to maintain eye contact with Stark.  “People respond to that. Makes them…mean. Hard. So if you can avoid that...” He ran a hand over the back of his neck, feeling like an idiot. He probably sounded ridiculous. “So, yeah. Anyway. Guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Seems to be working for you.”

“We do alright,” Stark said slowly, and Bucky figured he must have said the right thing because he straightened and held out a hand for Bucky to shake. Bucky looked at it with surprise and took it, feeling acutely aware of the strength of Stark’s grip and the callouses on his palms. “Welcome aboard.”

                                               ***

Tony got back in his car as Blue Eyes continued into his building, cranking it and pulling away from the curb on autopilot. If Blue Eyes hadn’t been a cop, Tony would have told himself that he was too good to be true; as it was, Tony wondered if it was possible that the police or feds or whoever had profiled him well enough to give “Brooks” a gold plated script to work from. But it hadn’t felt like the new guy was playing him tonight; his comments had been too rambling and inarticulate to have been prepared in advance. Rhodey was going to think he was an idiot, but he really though Brooks was being honest with him tonight, which had the potential to change things.

At the first stoplight, he pulled out his phone and texted Rhodey.

I like him.

Rhodey sent a rolling eyes emoji almost immediately. Blue Eyes?

Yeah I want to keep him. he’s wasted as a cop.

The three dots must have started and stopped a dozen times; Tony was almost back to his own place when he finally got a response. You’re playing with fire.

Tony smirked. I know, he wrote back. It’s what I do.

Yeah, but this time, if you get burnt, we all do. Tony pulled into his private garage and turned off the car, listening to the engine tick as it cooled. Rhodey was right. As much as he was intrigued by Blue Eyes, he couldn’t put his people at risk by tugging on that thread. “Dammit,” he said out loud, scowling as he got out of the car. “Ten years ago I wouldn't have thought twice.”

                                             ***

A few weeks into the operation Bucky and KT were making the rounds, checking in with the businesses and people on their beat, and Bucky was suddenly struck by two things: one, just how much this gig felt like being a street cop, walking the sidewalks just observing the neighborhood; and two, how no one was ever this happy to see him when he was a street cop. People saw KT and more often than not, they were smiling, chatty about business and local gossip. Most of them greeted Bucky (“Oh, this must be Blue Eyes,” which had yet to stop making Bucky’s ears burn) and were happy to introduce themselves. The ones that weren’t smiling were the ones that had something to complain about: permit not going through, shipment delayed, broken equipment that insurance wasn’t paying out for. KT took notes, nodded and commiserated, and when they left almost everyone looked at least mollified, if not cheered.

“You know, for us playing the bag men today, we sure aren’t picking up any money,” Bucky commented. A couple of times KT had taken a store owner to the side and Bucky, straining his ears, heard something about loans; these people always had the look of someone explaining why they couldn’t pay but it wasn’t their fault, honest. Like everything else, KT made notes and listened politely.

“That’s not what we’re doing,” KT said. “This is check in. We do it every two weeks or so. Money stuff is all handled online.”

“Yeah?” Bucky knew for a fact that the FBI had been working with the Treasury to trace Stark’s money, and, failing to find any signs of dirty money or money laundering, had concluded he must be operating with cash only.

“Yeah. Boss didn’t want to tempt anyone or make them a target.” That was smart, Bucky reflected. Ripping off other gangs was an art form in organized crime. Still, he had to wonder how Stark kept the money transfers so well hidden from the best financial analysts in the US government.

“No targets except his accountant,” Bucky joked, fishing for info. “Like with Al Capone.”

KT just shrugged at that, like he didn’t know and didn’t care, so Bucky left it alone. “So what do we do with that stuff?” Bucky said, gesturing at the notebook KT had been writing in all morning.

“We take care of it.” He took the notebook out and flipped through it. “Not too much stuff this time.”

Bucky turned that over in his head. “So under the Mechanic, fixers actually…fix things,” he said. “You’re really going to call a shipping company and an insurance office and everything?”

“Yep. Well, we are.”

Made sense; if businesses were paying Stark for protection, he could also throw in other services to sweeten the pot and keep people from rolling on him. Bucky shoved his hands in his pockets and was lost in thought while he mostly followed KT around the neighborhood. Granted he’d only been here for less than a week, but so far nothing was adding up to what he’d read in the case files on Stark and his organization. It was making him uneasy. He’d come here with a picture in his head, and a goal of filling in the holes so they could make a case against an organized crime boss; but now he was increasingly realizing that something was wrong with the picture. So when KT told him one night that they had the next two days off, Bucky sent another message on the Discord channel and when he got a confirmation, he went to the New York Library, the big one with the stone lions and millions of tourists. He went to the adult services desk and asked for a laptop. The librarian studied his ID, went to a safe, and handed him a laptop from inside. Bucky found a study carrell in a quiet spot and logged on with an 8 character name and 16 character password, established and memorized before he’d started this operation, and opened up the case files on Stark.

Scrolling through, Bucky felt some of his disquiet ease as he re-read the laundry list of crimes Stark was reportedly involved in: racketeering, tax fraud, illegal gambling, high-end car theft. Armed obberies; he opened up the file on robberies and realized with morbid amusement that even while Stark protected his own people from being targeted, he had no problem targeting bagmen from other gangs, making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. Tax fraud, obviously; if Tony was hiding all of his income from the FBI, he was definitely hiding it from the IRS. Though as he opened up Stark’s tax statements, gotten from a subpoena to the IRS, and noticed that the document for just one year was hundreds of pages long, Bucky reflected that a good accountant could hide a lot of money in his legitimate businesses and all the assets that Stark had inherited from his parents.

At the back of the file was sex trafficking, which was based on a handful of reports that said that prostitutes were disappearing from other parts of the city and showing up working for Stark. Bucky put a note next to that one recommending the line of investigation be dropped. After spending hours and hours at the brothel chatting to the Widow and the ladies there, waiting to see if Rumlow returned, he knew none of the men or women there were being forced to stay, not even for lack of other work. Widow recruited from all around the city, helping people get out of the business if they wanted to and offering others a chance to work for her. Turns out, most of that building was devoted to the people who worked in the brothel: everyone got their own apartment, which was separate from the suites they entertained clients, and there was an in-house doctor and even childcare in the basement. All the money went straight back to the sex workers, except for this mysterious buy-in that no one had explained yet, and they were using it for a bewildering array of side projects that the women were more than happy to talk about during their down time.

After a few hours, which included writing up his reports from the past few weeks of working for Stark, Bucky sat back and closed the laptop. It was his first month, he reminded himself. No one was going to let him close to the real work of the organization after just a few weeks. He sent another message to his handler on Discord, and when he got a confirmation back, he stood up and walked away from the carrell; when he was about twenty feet away, he saw his police contact, dressed like a soccer mom, come by and spirit the laptop away.

His next stop was the gym; by the time he was done, shirt soaked wet with sweat and muscles aching, his head felt clearer.  He didn’t know why Stark was trying so hard to seem like a good guy, but if Bucky was patient enough he’d scrape past all the pseudo-philanthropy and get to the real man underneath. Stark wasn’t the first guy to be handsome and charming and charismatic while hiding a dark side.

[lunarr-rrose]

Profit First, The Storage Stud POV

https://u109893.h.reiblackbook.com/generic11/the-storage-stud/profit-first-the-storage-stud-pov/

Recently, someone asked Fernando how he handles his money management or cash flow management not only for his personal income but with the multiple businesses that he runs as well.

There is a great book that he would like to recommend and it’s called “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz.

According to him, the basis of Profit First is number one, you have to take a profit. As opposed to what most entrepreneurs do they spend first and then just see if there are some profits left.

This book focuses on profit first and then compute all expenses to see how much will be placed in operating expenses. If you are not making enough to sustain what you need in the operating account then you must realize that there is something wrong with your system and you need to fix that.

There are levels of profit first. How it works is you set up multiple bank accounts for each business or for each venture even for your personal life as well. It goes all the way from a start-up that is not making any money or revenue all the way up to an F-class business that’s making $50million in real revenue per year.

If you continue watching this video you’re going to have a vivid idea of what is Profit First. Listen to Fernando as he further discusses the details of this book.

Fernando O. Angelucci is Founder and President of Titan Wealth Group. He also leads the firm’s finance and acquisitions departments. Fernando Angelucci and Steven Wear founded Titan Wealth Group in 2015, and under his leadership, the firm’s revenue has grown over 100% year over year. Today,

Find out more at

https://www.TheStorageStud.com

https://titanwealthgroup.com/

Listen to our Podcast:

https://thestoragestud.podbean.com/e/profit-first-the-storage-stud-pov/

-------------------------------------------

So, recently I got a question on how I do money management or cashflow management? Not only for me personally, as an individual, but also for the multiple businesses, I have. Making sure that we always have cash for what we need. So there's a great book that I really recommend everybody read. It's called, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. And the basis of Profit First is that number one, you got to be taking chips off the table, right? So, you have to be taking a profit. And then from there, you pull down all of your other expenses and then what's left over that's your Operating Expense Account. So, as opposed to what most entrepreneurs do, which is they spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, and to see if there's any profit leftover, we focus on Profit First and then everything else will get funneled out. And then, that will tell us at the end of the day, how much we have to spend on our operating expenses.

And if we're not making enough to spend for the things that we need in our Operating Expense Account, then we have to go, there's something wrong in the system and we have to go and fix that. Maybe it's more marketing and advertising. Maybe it's, you know, higher profitability deals. Maybe, there's a bunch of costs that we have that are not really necessary. So, there's levels of profit first and how it works is, you set up multiple bank accounts for each business or for each venture, for each even I use Profit First in my personal life as well. So, it goes all the way from a startup, which is not making any money in real revenue, all the way up to an F class business. That's making 50 million in real revenue per year. So, let's just start with the startup and then I'll go to the next level up, which is being an A-class business.

So, in the startup, usually what you do is every time there's money coming in a traditional startup investor, you know, not one from Silicon Valley here, but just someone that started in the real estate business for the first time, they usually have one bank account. And the problem with having one bank account is everything. You don't really know what each of the buckets are inside of that one bank account. 'Cause you only see one number. So, what they do is they tell you to set up a minimum of five bank accounts. And so, that usually is going to be, you know, your first one's going to be your Income Account. That's where all money comes into the company, but no money goes out of that income account to exterior accounts, right? You're going to, all the income comes in there. Then, twice a month for us, it's on the 10th and the 25th, an automatic distribution will be made from that income account into your multiple sub-accounts based off of a percentage.

So, next you have your Profit Account, then you'll have your Owner's Pay Account because you're an owner of the business. So, you need to get paid. Then you'll have a Tax Account and then last but not least you'll have an Operating Expense Account. That's just the basic level. Once your business starts getting a little bit more complex, you can start setting up additional accounts. Like for example, we have a Payroll Account, we also have a Fun Account. And then, you apply these splits, to get to each one of those accounts on the 10th and the 25th. So, let's take a perfect example. Let's go through my wholesaling business.

So, in my wholesaling business, there is a Owner's Pay Account. 34% of all checks that come into the wholesaling business goes into the Owner's Pay Account. Then, we have an Operating Expense Account. 30% of any check that comes in, will go to that O P E X Account, that Operating Expense Account. So that, what that does is it limits me, on how much money I could spend every two weeks or every month, if I don't have the money in the O P E X Account. Oh, that new lead source looks super interesting if I don't have the money for it, that means we can't pay it. Or Hey, you know, I really wanted to get this company vehicle. Well, if you don't have the money for the company vehicle and the O P E X Account, then you can't get it. And it kind of limits you and makes you really prioritizing, like what are the costs that are really have to spend on that are to drive the business forward and increase this operating expense account?

Next, I have a Fun Account, and I think it's very important to build a great culture in your company. So, 1% of all of our real revenue will go into a Fun account. And then, what we'll do with that Fun Account is each quarter we'll have a quarterly, you know, team building or fun event. So for example, last quarter we did go-kart racing on go-carts that go 50 miles an hour. The quarter before that, we took a boat out onto Lake Michigan, and I bought a bunch of booze for all the employees. Quarter before that we did a, an extra fun account where we had a bunch of people show up and we did these games. So, think that's super important. We do. 1% of our real revenue goes into the Fun Account. Next is the, Profit Account. We do 5% of our real revenue goes into a Profit Account and the Profit Account acts differently than the other council explained that here in a second, after that we have the Tax Account 15% of our real revenue will go into the Tax Account.

And the reason for that is one of the biggest issues, new entrepreneurs or new real estate investors make is, and I made this mistake as well is, paying last year's taxes with this year's revenue. You're basically robbing Peter A K future growth, to pay Paul A K past performance taxes that you owe. So, by setting up a specific Tax Account, when you get it to the end of your fiscal year and your tax bill comes, you're not caught off guard, because you already have a separate account that has all of the tax money that you need to pay that off. So, it doesn't hinder your growth for the previous year or for the next year and allows you to grow up pretty quickly. And then, last but not the least, we have a Payroll Account where we'll put 15% of our real revenue into that Payroll Account.

And so the nice thing about a Payroll Account is, as that Payroll Account starts getting bigger and bigger and bigger, then you're saying, Hey, we have the money now to hire a new employee. Maybe I hire an acquisition person. Maybe I hire a disposition person, maybe it's time to hire a lead manager, but if we don't have the money in that account, then, we don't have the financial means to hire somebody. And usually I like to have about six months worth of their salary saved in that Payroll Account before I'll bring a new person onto the team. So, that's how we will split our accounts. We also have some sub-accounts, which don't want to get too much into, but we have an Earnest Money Account. You know, we have a Working Capital Account, so just some extra stuff. Let's go back to the Profit Account.

So again, the name of the book is called, Profit First it's by, Mike Michalowicz. I really recommend you go buy that book immediately or get it on, you know, on audible or some audio tape, if you're bad at reading. Because it's going to it. When I implemented this in each one of my companies, it changed the way we operate and it really made things so much easier, less thought involved and allowed us to scale and grow much faster. So, with the Profit Account, it operates much differently because, as money goes into the Profit Account, it doesn't come out every two weeks. Like it would on your Operating Expense Account or on your Payroll Account or, you know, on your Fun Account. Our Fun Account comes out quarterly for our fun events, but you can, I know some companies where they, every two weeks they'll pay for lunch or they'll, you know, they'll pay for everybody to go to the bar or, you know, whatever it is, go to dinner. With a Profit Account, that money is for the owners in that money is not allowed to be reinvested into the company because you're defeating the whole purpose.

You got to take chips off the table. If you're constantly reinvesting all of your money that you make in the company you're gonna get burnt out. Number one, because you're never getting paid. And number two, you're not going to see any real growth. So how the Profit Account works is once a quarter, whatever's in the Profit Account, you cut in half. So say there's 50 grand in the Profit Account. That means half of that account, 25 grand is available for distributions to the owners. Okay. So say there's five owners of a company that means each owner gets a $5,000 check each quarter, if, or I guess that quarter, and they're not allowed to reinvest it in the company. So I like to buy gifts for people or go on vacation or whatever it is. It's just a nice extra bonus that you get for being an owner on top of your, either your W2 or your distributions that come out of the owner's pay account.

So super interesting. And then again, the Tax Account that gets diminished, depend on what type of entity. If you have a C Corp, you're gonna have to pay your taxes quarterly. If you have any other type of tax entity. So, if you have an L L C that's passed through, if you have a partnership, that's, you know, taxes as a partnership, whatever it is, then that Tax Account will get paid out at the end of the year. So, super important. I really love it. I love it so much. I decided to take that same principle and apply it to my own life. So, and I'm probably divulging too much here, but in my, I also have five bank accounts for my personal life. I have an Income Account. I have a Living Expenses Account. I have a Fun Account. I have a Reserves Account, which is kind of like your do not touch account.

That's like your, that's your emergency money until it gets to a certain amount of expenses. And then, I also have an Investment Account. So, and this is investments that I make outside of my company. Because it makes, you need to diversify the way your income streams. So, don't plow all of your personal money back in your company, invest in say someone else's company or in a fix and flip deal or in stocks and bonds or in annuities. What have you, depending on what, where you are in your life. So in my personal life, all the money comes into my income count. And then on the same days that, I do the Profit First for the businesses, you know, on the 10th and the 25th, I also do the same thing for my Personal Accounts. So, 15% go into my Living Expenses Account.

This is things like groceries, mortgage payments, rent, you know, fixing the car, you know, any thing that is considered a living expense that you need, but is not superfluous, right? So like your Netflix Account does not go into your living expenses, does not go from the living expenses. Your, you know, your bar tab does not come from your Living Expenses Account. That stuff comes from your Fun Account. So in my Fun Account, I will, that's how I pay for vacations. That's how I pay for, you know, going out to the bar. It's a really nice dinners with friends or family. That's where I will buy gifts for other people out of that account, buy gifts for myself. Anything that is not considered living expense, we'll go from that account. Then, we have the Reserve Account, right? So, the Living Expense Account was 15%.

The Fun Account was also 15%. Then we have the Reserve Account, which is the majority. It's 40% of my income will go into my Reserve Account. I like, I'm someone that I like to have a safety net in case 2008 happens again. Or if there's another, you know, black Swan event like this pandemic, the pandemic has actually worked out really well in my favor. But, if something happens, that's unforeseen, that's where that Reserve Account is. And I personally like to have three years worth of living expenses. So, super easy to do this right. 40% of your income goes into that Reserve Account until you hit three years of living expenses. How do you know what three years of living expenses is? Well look at how much came out of your Living Expense Accounts for last year, triple it. And that's what you need to put in your Reserve Account.

Once you hit that mark in your Reserve Account, that whatever it is for you, if it might be six months, it might be three months reserve. It might be five years reserve. I talked to investor that has 10 years of living expenses in a Reserve Account. Once you hit that level, then anything that rolls over trickles down into your Investment Account. So the last but not least my Investment Account is 30% of my income that comes in, I put into my Investment Account and that gets divvied up into multiple things. You know, stocks bonds, hard money lending, other real estate investments that are not my own life insurance using the, you know, the becoming your own banker kind of Infinite Banking Concept I B C. It could be buying gold. It can be you know, collector cars, whatever, anything that is considered investment, not through your business, but through your personal life,

goes into that count. So as, your reserves get topped off and you're hit your number, then anything that goes extra then gets starts funneling into your, into your Investment Account. So, really recommend that book, I recommend everybody read it, apply it to your business, apply it to your personal life. And those are kind of the basic accounts that I was talking about. The Income Account, owners pay, O P E X profit and tax. I added a few more accounts, but I've talked to people that, you know, they have 10 accounts or they have 12 accounts. The whole concept though, is it's in separate buckets, separate accounts, so that you're not tempted to spend that on things that you're not supposed to. One of the things that Mike Michalowicz recommends is for your accounts, they get paid out much longer. Let's say your tax account gets paid out once a year.

And let's say your profit account gets paid out quarterly. He says, try to make it as difficult as possible to pull that money out so that you're not tempted. So one of the things he recommends with those accounts is to put it at a different bank that makes it super difficult to draw, put it in a Savings Account, do not get online access for that bank. So if you need to make a distribution from that account, you have to physically go into the, into the bank, get a cashier's check, drawn up and then go deposit into your regular bank of use. So say you're, you know, you work at a community bank or you bank with a community bank like I do. You can have your tax account, like at a chase or whoever offers the highest rate on their Savings Account, but it has to be at a different institution that you have no access to.

So you won't be tempted. So that's what I recommend. Hope that helped you guys. If you have any questions or if you want me to discuss anything else in my business, feel free to put in the comments below. Love sharing the knowledge here. So, truly anything you want me to talk about. Just drop me a line, give me a call, shoot me an email, check me out on my website. All those things will come to me. So, until next time, have a great day and I'll talk to you soon.

[thecandywrites]

Jewel Of The North Part 11

Woo, this was so much fun. Karma begins to sink her teeth into Alorna and Doug. Meanwhile Noah and our dear reader Zara draw closer and closer. Que- Lady in Red.

Many thanks to @monstersandmaw​ for sharing ice orcs with me. I am having a blast. Enjoy. 

Jewel Of The North

Part 11

The next morning, you accidentally slept in because you were up half the night getting some of the best sex of your life and reconciling with Noah and having the best heart to heart while you were fucking the other’s brains out and this morning you felt like you were running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get ready on time and Noah walked you to the spa himself and you weren’t five steps from it before you saw Alorna and Doug at the counter, getting last minute upgrades on their services and about to go into it and both you and Noah stopped dead in your tracks and gasped and squeezed the other’s hand tightly and you doing that made Alorna and Doug turn around to look and one look made them freeze and breathe in tightly and the looks on their faces were priceless as they looked like they both had been caught with their pants down as both you and Noah quickly got your phones out and got pictures of them, together for proof of where they were and why the couldn’t be found back on the mainland.              

And seeing them, you and Noah looked at each other before looking back at them and started busting out laughing and pointing because the odds of the four of you meeting back up, let alone like this- was astronomical. So it was either by fate that you met or by the craziest coincidence. Yesterday you would have wanted to beat them both to a pulp. Today- though, you didn’t care. You had your family and a clean conscience and you knew they couldn’t boast of that last one and you knew Karma was about to bite them in the ass and you knew that justice was coming for them and for you. 

“Oh my gods, you left John for Doug?” Noah asked his sister. 

“What if I did?” Alorna shirked with a shrug. 

“I mean you’re a stupid, faithless bitch either way and incase you missed it, I officially disown you. By the way, since you seem to have been ignoring your phone, I think you should know I got a text from your soon to be ex husband, telling me that you had skipped out of town on a cruise and he officially called all his credit cards that you have- in as stolen and cancelled your check card and kicked you off the checking account at the bank. And his lawyer is expediting your divorce and all your stuff is at the community center and that he changed the locks on the doors. But at least he left you your car.” Noah informed her as he pulled up his text from John on his phone and read it off to her. 

“What?” Alorna blanched as she came over to look at his phone to read it herself. 

“Even if that’s true, Sweetheart, you can move all your things in with me.” Doug offered Alorna which made her beam smugly at her brother. 

“Thank you Baby, I knew I could depend on you.” Alorna practically sang as she sauntered back to him and kissed him sweetly as you just stood there and shook your head as you texted your picture to Summer and gave her the update as even more updates came pouring into your own phone.  

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment I need to keep.” You excused yourself and went up to the desk to check in for your own appointment. 

“What are you getting done?” Doug asked you curiously from down the counter.

“Nothing. It’s an interview and sales pitch to be an onboard LMT, I get the ultimate cruise experience and elite package in a King’s Suite for free just for about an hour or so of my time and any money I spend on this cruise, I write off as a business expense, both personally and from a business expense for all of my businesses. So while this cruise is free, I get to enjoy a twenty thousand dollar tax break for myself and for each of my businesses, which considering all four of them and counting myself, is a whole hundred thousand dollars. Not bad for an hour or two of my time eh?” You returned with a smugness of your own as Doug and Alorna’s jaw dropped in jealous disbelief. 

“Enjoy your time at the spa.” You offered sweetly before you paused and turned to address them head on. 

“Oh by the way, before you go, I should remind you- just in case you didn’t know, there is always legal backlash for defaming and maligning a priestess of Aura. Because my lawyers have already been in contact with every single elder in every clan up here and especially with every single elder on the councils and got so many statements of what you two said about me to them and already have more than enough evidence to sue you both and it doesn’t matter if and when which of you turns on the other or not, both of you will answer for what you’ve done. You should know that the last person to defame a priestess of Aura, was sued for a 150 million dollars in damages, and the out of court settlement ended up being 15 million. So you’ll be hearing from my lawyers when you do get home and currently you’re both in the process of getting warrants out for your arrest because defaming and threatening a public figure which all priestesses of Aura are, is an arrest-able offense in every country in the world and an expedite-able offense too. So enjoy jail. I doubt anyone but me will have pockets deep enough to bail you out and there’s no way in hell I would ever do that either. But I hope this little affair was worth it for you.” You offered, your tone sweet as honey but the gravitas of what you were saying hit them both like a ton of bricks Noah beamed the happiest, proudest smile. 

“Yes! In your faces motherfuckers!” Noah cheered as he gave them both the bird. 

“Baby, I’m gonna be sitting right over here until you get out.” Noah informed you happily as he pointed to a chair before he strutted over and settled into it. 

“You’re lying. That’s the worst bluff I’ve ever heard.” Alorna scoffed at you. 

“I guess we’ll see when you get off the ship, in any port you do get off at. You’ve fucked around, now you get to find out.” You smiled smugly back with a shrug. 

“Ms. Kingsley?” Sharon- the spa’s manager called when she came out. 

“That’s me.” You confirmed as you went over to her and shook her hand and went back with her into the spa for your interview. 

“What if she wasn’t bluffing.” Doug murmured to Alorna before their own therapists came out to get them. 

“She has to be, she’s just trying to get the last word and the last laugh and steal our fun. It’s not gonna work.” Alorna insisted but Doug wasn’t sure before they went back into the spa. 

Noah happily texted his mom that you and him had fully reconciled and that he had told Alorna the ‘news’ of John’s divorce as his mother confirmed everything you had just told Doug and Alorna and that yesterday, shortly after you left, that she had gotten a call from a lawyer asking about the incident and that not only did she and Ukluk confirm the case, but so had Isla, Tonrar and everyone else involved and that the clan law was in the process of getting modified by each clan and that each clan was offering Zara a share of the tribal lands as recompense for believing the lies about her and were working on a formal apology and would be officially stripping Alorna and Doug of their clan standing and ties and that the police were involved and that there were indeed warrants out for their arrests and that cops were already contacting the cruise ship to let them know they were harboring wanted individuals. 

Noah simply giggled gleefully as he got up and went to the closest bar and got a celebratory drink before settling back into his spot.

Finally, after all this time, and pain and heartache and damage, his sister and Doug had caused, they were getting what was coming to them. Karma was real and was gonna bite them in the ass soon enough. And the best part about it, is he didn’t have to lift a finger and neither did you. All he had to do was stand by you and do right by you from now on, which he was more than prepared to do. Never again would he waiver from you. Because while you had lost the battle the other night, you sure as hell were going to win the war and just because you weren’t physically fighting or combative, didn’t mean that you weren’t fighting back, you were just fighting back in the best way possible. You were going to hit where it would hurt them the most. And Noah for one would rather get the shit kicked out of him rather than be abandoned by his clan. So he was supremely grateful.

He pulled out your check that had been in his pocket, and turned it over to read the back one more time. 

‘Dear Noah, please don’t think that I’m giving up. I’m not. I will never give up, not on you or on Sakura. And I will fight till my last breath for you both. I don’t want you to have to choose between your heritage, your culture and your birthright- and me. You deserve both. You both deserve everything you want. Love, happiness, honor, pride, heritage, roots and family. When you read this. I hope you’ll understand that as a priestess, there are rules I have to follow while in regalia. And I hope we find each other again soon. No matter what happens, I will always love you both- Sincerely, Zara.’ 

Even now, Noah wiped a stray happy tear from his eyes as he pressed the check to his heart. He had been a fool yesterday. A thankless bastard, a reprehensible asshole. But you redeemed him. Even when you shouldn’t have. And for that, he would always be grateful. And love you unconditionally and always treat you with the utmost care and respect. And treat your children as his own. Even if they both hated him at first. He would win them over by staying true to you and them. And he was always going to have your back and theirs and be the trustworthy rock you and they needed. He silently prayed to every god you both believed in and vowed this to them and when he had finished. A renewed sense of peace and happiness came and settled in him and renewed his spirit. 

The interview process did take about an hour and a half. But you came out of the spa, happy and smiling and laughing with the spa’s day manager before you practically strut over to him. 

“So? How’d it go?” He asked before you slid into his lap and drank the rest of his drink. 

“It went great, they offered me a job but sadly I had to turn it down because I actually want to be around for my kids and possible new husband and can’t do that living on a ship full time.” You hinted. 

“They have a jewelry store on this cruise ship right?” Noah asked. “I can get you a wedding ring right now.” He offered. 

“Don’t you dare, the jewelry on this ship is cheap in quality and sky high in price. I would much rather have a traditional ring from the clans or bead in my hair or whatever. Besides, if you do get me a ring, it’ll live on this necklace or any other necklace you get for me because I can’t wear jewelry on my hands for work. But I would wear it on my off days and special occasions.” You answered. 

“Besides. Call me old fashioned, but I want a traditional wedding with all the friends and family and all that and not some last minute thing on a cruise ship.” You urged him. 

“Me too.” Noah simply grinned as he happily wrapped his arms around you and held you comfortably. 

“So, let’s go get some brunch.” You urged him before you got off of him and offered him your hand to help him up which he gratefully took and once he was up to his full height he returned the glass to the bar and walked down to one of the restaurants on the ship with you comfortably under his arm. 

“I will say this though, could we get you some nice dress clothes for dinner?” You asked as you walked down the hallway with your own arm around his waist. 

“Sure.” Noah answered before you both gorged yourselves on a brunch then went shopping to get Noah a few things for the remaining nights of the cruise, including a black suit with a black dress shirt and black dress shoes with black socks with a few different ties and handkerchiefs that would match the dresses you brought so that you would match and so that Noah’s suit would be versatile. 

“Aww, I see you found her.” Maggie said as you guys walked past the customer service desk together, both of you carrying several bags each. 

“I did.” Noah grinned proudly. 

“So- what did you forget?” She asked you curiously. 

“His heart.” You answered truthfully. 

“Awww!” She gushed. “Really?” She asked as she looked from the two of you. 

“Yeah, we’ve been falling for each other since we first met each other, and it just took one good kick in the pants for me to come to my senses and come after her.” Noah revealed. 

“What was your kick in the pants?” She pressed giddily. 

“This.” Noah said as he showed her the back of the check before she and everyone else at customer service read it and started crying once you explained the whole story after putting your things on the counter so you wouldn’t have to keep holding them and it freed your hands up for your gestures. 

“So, I actually won’t be needing my cabin. I’m rooming with her.” He nodded over to you. 

“Well then I guess you need a refund for your suite don’t you? I mean you didn’t even really use the room at all, barely stepped your foot in it. So it doesn’t count, besides, we need the room for other guests anyway.” Maggie insisted before she got his room card and re-programed it so it would work for your room instead. 

“And I got you some ship credit for whatever else your hearts desire while sailing with us for any “inconvenience”. Oh this is straight out of a movie I swear!” Maggie swooned happily as she typed on her computer before she printed out receipts and stuff for you both. 

“Thank you so much for sharing. I ship you guys so hard. Here’s my email address, email me what happens, I want to know.” She insisted as she wrote down her personal email address to you. 

“Definitely.” You grinned before you got your stuff and went back to your suite together and got ready for dinner at the cruise’s most fancy restaurant. 

“Wow.” Noah breathed in awe before he wolf whistled at you from the comfort of the couch in the suite when he saw you walk out of the bathroom in a red dress that hugged your curves gorgeously and was sexy as sin. Your hair was done up, your makeup flawless, the red of your lipstick matching the shade and tone of the dress perfectly and your jewelry he could tell was older and most likely inherited from your late adopted grandparents. 

“Thank you.” You thanked him bashfully as you struck a few seductive poses for him. 

“That’s going to be real fun to take off.” Noah grinned as you could already see the beginnings of a hard on tent his pants. 

“Yes it will. Later of course, not right now, we have a reservation to keep.” You urged him as you got on two different pairs of shoes. 

“The red or the black?” You posed as you stood before him, switching from one foot to the other. 

“They both look amazing, pick whichever one is more comfortable.” He urged you. 

“They’re about the same. I’m going with red. Save the black for the little black dress.” You decided before you walked over to a chair and put the other red shoe on the other foot so now they matched before you found your shawl and put your things in a little clutch. “You ready?” You asked once you were all put together as you draped the shawl around your shoulders. 

“Ready.” Noah said as he turned the TV off and got up from the couch and straightened himself up before he was by your side in just a few strides and happily escorted you to dinner and smiled so proudly when everyone you walked past seemed to stop and stare at you strutting past them. You could tell most of them wanted to say something, a few of the brave ones whistling lowly after you passed them but one look from Noah had them biting their tongue and looking away guiltily. While Noah looked perfectly dashing- he was an ice orc after all and therefore- not someone to mess with and Noah happily escorted you to the restaurant where you got seated at a table in the center of the restaurant where you happily shrugged your shawl off and laid your clutch next to you in the comfortable armchairs. 

Noah wanted to pinch himself. Two weeks ago, he was bartering flights and airplane fuel and googling what he could make for dinner with only two or three ingredients and a handful of spices and he felt like he was treading water, barely keeping his head above water and begging his garden to ripen his produce faster so he could eat it and use it and he had been so grateful that Taylor had recommended him to you. You were one of the first clients to not haggle. He had given you a high price to start with, expecting to be haggled down. But you had accepted it and even sent him a deposit and that had set him straight and it was enough to ease the sinking feeling and gave him breathing room. And then the moment you walked into his life. Suddenly money was the last thing to matter to him. For the first time since childhood, money was not a major factor in anything. All that mattered was Sakura and you. Your safety, your wellbeing, your comfort, your happiness. And when you took to Sakura as easily and readily as you did, all he could do was thank the gods for answering his prayers for allowing the right woman into his life and Sakura’s life and for giving him the patience to wait for her. You were like a soothing balm to all the wounds losing Neena he and Sakura had sustained. 

Neena, while she was traditional in most senses and was an excellent mother and careful with money and expenses and incredibly thrifty and resourceful because she had to be, she was easily contented and not demanding at all, however she wasn’t the greatest lover, or cook. She was very reserved. And not expressively passionate. 

But you? Passion and heart, feeling and intuition was in everything you did. You were mild, gracious and generous when you wanted and needed to be but you didn’t let anyone walk all over you or take advantage of you and very protective. You were balanced between open yet discrete and an excellent judge of character. And you created such a safe, wonderful, nurturing, welcoming and relaxed environment wherever you were. And you were always, always- professional. You garnered respect wherever you went and whatever you did. And you were a goddess in both the bedroom and the kitchen and the perfect fit. 

He felt guilty comparing you with Neena. It wasn’t fair to either of you. He had married Neena out of obligation, because Isla had arranged it since his youth and being married to her was a lesson in patience and persistence and learning to adjust to the other and learning to be a team.  But to feel his heart and his soul and his mind light up brighter than the moon and the stars in the dark of night- when he met you, was something else entirely, it was an instant attraction rather than a growing to like, then love and working in tandem with you was second nature to him. You were an addiction for his soul. And he couldn’t believe he was lucky enough to have you in his life. And he was adamant, that he was never, ever going to be foolish enough to try let go- ever again. 

Soon enough, he noticed that your table didn’t have the usual two waiters, your table- had four. And all of them were practically drooling over you. Noah was used to only having great service at home. They were treating both you and him like royalty and he sincerely doubted he would get this kind of service if he wasn’t with you. But he was going to enjoy it and suddenly the table was full of all kinds of complementary offerings. And with you flashing that smile and remembering each waiter by name and being sweeter than sugar and honey, they were all eating out of your hands. Even the chefs and sous chefs came out to see how you liked their offerings and happily sent you away with a handsome spread of other desserts to enjoy in the room since you were quite full just from all the appetizers and tapas and entrees whether they were on the menu or not. 

On the way back to the room as both of you were carrying a few bags each, you passed Alorna and Doug who were leaving the casino and arguing bitterly with each other. Apparently they both had had some really bad luck in there and you and Noah simply snickered a laugh and shook your heads at their theatrics and drama. 

Once you were in the room Noah was all too happy to peel your red dress off of you so you could take your corset off and groaned in relief once your body wasn’t being restricted anymore which got Noah to chuckle as he got his own suit off. 

“Feel better?” Noah asked. 

“Much.” You answered before you went to the bathroom to wash all your makeup off and once you reappeared you found Noah in a simple t-shirt and a pair of night shorts as you had donned your own pajamas. 

“Dessert on the balcony?” You suggested. 

“Sure.” Noah nodded as he grabbed the bags as you two went out the porch as you grabbed a blanket and snuggled into the double sunchair together as you two got to digging into dessert. 

“So what are your hobbies?” You asked him curiously. 

“Like what?” He asked you. 

“Well, bedsides the flying, when it’s the off season, what do you like to do?” You asked as Noah took a big bite of cheesecake and thought it over as he chewed.  “Besides the things you have to do to live up here, what are the things you look forward to doing in your off time?” You clarified before you took a bite yourself. 

“Well I guess, just...making things and improving things. Two weeks ago, my winter plans were to rewire the parts of my plane I didn’t rewire last year. And the usual home improvements. Last winter I made Sakura a new dresser, so I’m kind of a jack of all trades.” Noah answered. 

“Well then I think I have something that will interest you, it’s a workshop and it’s a decent sized outbuilding. When Andy and I were designing the house, he wanted to have a space to do his tinkering, to work on the vehicles, to do some maintenance and whatever else he needed or wanted to do. So even after he died, I went ahead and built the workshop that’s bigger than a shed but not quite a pole barn. It’s big enough to do small to medium sized projects in, comfortably. Thanks to my brothers and brothers in law and my dad I was able to score a lot of various equipment for super cheap from a lot of the old estate sales and barn sales and such. Like I have a lot of woodshop equipment, mechanic stuff, forge stuff, blade-smithing stuff, blacksmithing stuff and the like. And my dad and all the men in my family, whenever they come over, I can always find them out there, fiddling with stuff. Like it could be a proper man cave. All it would need is like a couch and a tv. Because it already has a mini fridge for soda and beer along with a bathroom and washing facilities. It is a separate space from the stables, and the hay barn.” You informed him as you pulled out your phone and showed him pictures of it before he took the phone and zoomed in on some of the equipment was shown as Noah’s lips were pursed into a silent ‘ooh’. 

“Why do you have a hard on?” You teased as you noticed his half hard cock make an appearance in his shorts as you stroked your leg against it from half sitting in his lap.  

“Cause I’m looking at one of my biggest fantasies brought to life, in my wildest dreams I never would have imagined anything like that and my head is almost spinning with all kinds of ideas of everything I could do with all of this. It’s almost too good to be true. I mean that’s a….” Noah chuckled as he looked at it all before he started listing off what he saw and what he knew about all of it as you just smiled brighter and prouder as relief and validation and vindication flooded your mind. 

“Good.” You beamed. 

“Why did you build it if Andy wasn’t alive to enjoy it and use it?” Noah asked you thoughtfully.  

“Can you promise me not to freak out?” You posed. 

“Yeah.” Noah answered as he gave you a curious look. 

“Ok, so it was one of those- ‘build it and they will come’ kind of things. I had always planned in my head that if and when Andy would die, I would just up and move to the northern Great Lakes to be with the rest of my family. And then when Andy did die and we had already bought the property and were in the process of bulldozing the existing farm house and clearing brush and trees to make room for the house. I flirted with the idea of still cutting ties and just up and moving. But Olga surprised me by coming down to see me and she advised not making any rash decision with a broken heart and not to let my past ideas limit my current potential. And she had me bring her out there. And she ended up doing a peering right then and there, among the dirt and gravel. She told me to not change my plans of moving there, that my roots where I was- were already deep enough to sustain me and my family and if I uprooted myself and my family that I would damage them and me more than help them and myself. That I had the will, the means and the ability to build my dreams right there, from start to finish and that if I built it, they would come true. I just had to lay the foundations. To grow a garden, you ready the soil and then plant. I had already started to ready the soil. What I grew from there depended on how much soil I readied and what I planted. Both literally and figuratively. And that by the time my heart was ready, everything else would be ready too. And when she shared that with my family, they were all too happy to help in any way they could. When I had full control of all the funds from all of my inheritance from my adopted grandparents- I went back to the design firm and did a complete redesign and because I now had, literal millions to play with, I was able to design my dream house with all the flourishes and thoughtful touches and dreams and fantasies I had initially wanted but gave up because they didn’t fit the utilitarian point of view Andy had and I got to plan and execute it exactly how I wanted it. And even when there were little hiccups with the construction. I was ok with it. Because I wanted it to be perfect and it was. And then after it was built, and I was furnishing it and suddenly my dad, my father in law and my brother and brothers in law drug me to all these estate sales and barn sales and I got a ton of equipment for super cheap. And Olga told me that the right man would recognize what I have and know exactly how to use it best, not just in my self but with what I had. Which you just demonstrated for me, cause you knew what all of that was and I am willing to bet that you have at least a dozen ideas of what to do and how to use it all in your head.” You grinned proudly as you tapped the side of his head affectionately.  

“Oh at least a hundred.” Noah admitted happily before he turned to kiss your fingers and your palm with equal affection.

“I look forward to seeing them.” You insisted as you snuggled further together. 

[maisstories]

I Need Your Help

To be more precise, my girlfriend needs your help. The reason I am the one writing this text is because right now she is so depressed and discouraged that she doesn’t have the strength to believe asking for help would make a difference, and that… that terrifies me.

For those who don’t know us, I am Mai, and my girlfriend is Kari. Under different circumstances, we should have our lives all nicely sorted out, but as we are all aware, we live in the kind of dystopian world society at large likes to pretend only happens in fiction. Especially Kari. You see, I’m from Spain, and Kari is from the US. This means an entire ocean separates us (otherwise I would’ve bundled her up and brought her home, believe me).

Kari is a poor wlw who lives in a very conservative area (as in, Bible Belt conservative). She has ADHD, which went untreated most of her life, hampering her at every turn. First, because she grew up in a very conservative Catholic family and most Catholic families just Don’t Believe in Those Things. Now… well, now because she has no medical insurance and can’t afford to pay for medication. Cute, isn’t it? And that’s not even the best part. Kari has depression, that I mentioned, but this whole situation, and the hopelessness it causes her, has brought forth suicidal ideation. I don’t have the words to express just how scared I am by this. It paralyzes me. There is nothing, physically nothing I can do if they ever get the better of her.

To add to this, it has been made abundantly clear to Kari that her parents won’t help her if she becomes homeless. They didn’t want a child to begin with. A gay child? Yeah, no, forget about it.

(On a bit of a bright note, Kari has two adopted cats, which are the cutest fur balls over. They’re her closest emotional support most days, and I am very grateful for them. I can’t cuddle her or be physically there for her at all, but I can at least ask her to go cuddle them. They’re not even on the particularly scratchy side for cats).

Currently, Kari has a job, but despite taking on as many extra hours as possible, she cannot make enough money for rent. In fact, she cannot make many other basic necessities, which I will list here because they’re important, I am worried sick, and we really do need help:

-Work: Kari lost her previous job for one of those completely absurd, US-only reasons back in late October. I say absurd because any company trying to pull that shit here in Spain, and most likely anywhere in the European Union, would’ve been fined out of business. But hey, Country of Freedom and all that, isn’t it? She finally found a new job mid-November. Lower pay, though, which means it doesn’t help her cover full rent.

-Rent: As many people in the US will know, and others not from the US will have heard, rent outside of isolated areas is ridiculously expensive, especially for such a large and unpopulated country. The Wonders of Capitalism. As such, Kari is forced to pay a truly monstrous amount of money for a minuscule space to live in, one that ate up most of her previous salary and that surpasses her current one.

-Bills: Let’s not forget these. She rations. As much as she can. Electricity, water, internet… she goes for cheapest and least use, so far as to monitor her use of water during showers, but this still adds to her expenses.

-Food: Now’s where things get to a truly awful degree. When she moved to the place she lives in now (and if anyone wants the story that led to this move, please ask, because that’s an entirely other level of fucked up), she had to apply for food stamps, because she had barely no money left to feed herself and her two adopted cats after all the mandatory expenses. Food stamps people don’t look at the money you have left after bills, they just look at your income, so she was allotted $16. Useful, right? Anyway, fast forward to late October: Kari loses her job, so, obviously, one of the first things she does is contact the food stamps people to update her situation and have her allotment reevaluated. No response. Contact again. No response. This keeps going on. Mid-November, she gets a new job (still no response from the food stamps people despite the many attempts to contact them). Last Friday, her food supplies consisted of a bit of chicken, two fish fillets, and a couple eggs. I do not kid you. Today, the food stamp people finally answered her call: they won’t look into her case until, at least, December.

That’s it for the basics. As you see, it’s a wonderful situation.

Now, my role in this, as I’m sure some of you are wondering.

Let me start by saying this: I am a heavily disabled woman (nearly blind) living in an isolated area with the worst public transport system this side of the Mediterranean Sea. I am incapable of even getting out of home without assistance and someone to drive me at the moment. This means, having a job where I currently live is out of the question (I’m working on getting a job somewhere else where I’ll be able to live on my own. Sort of). My only source of income right now is my Patreon account, the earnings of which go fully to Kari because my girlfriend’s wellbeing matters to me much more than anything I could ever need for myself. I may say whatever I want about my parents’ belief that my relationship isn’t real because they don’t believe you can forge real connections through the internet (or the fact they want me to have a BOYfriend because they want grandchildren), but at least they’re so terrified I’ll break the moment I step outside on my own that they take good care of me.

Still, unfortunately, I’m only a writer, and a writer’s Patreon doesn’t make enough money to cover for such serious issues.

But Kari is the most important person in my life. I’m not exaggerating. I never thought I’d fall in love. I’ve always been the weird one out, the blind kid teachers coddled too much out of pity so other kids disliked and picked on, the one who was so odd that didn’t even fit with the weird kids in school. That happened everywhere, anywhere I went. Even in some fandom groups. It came to the point I stopped trying. It came to the point I thought once my parents died I wouldn’t have anyone. I’d stopped making plans for the future. There was no future for me.

And then I met Kari. She can make me smile with a silly gif and an obscure quote I thought no one else knew at 3am when I’m on the verge of tears because I feel trapped in my own house; she can get me excited about doing a joint cosplay in the distant future when I’d given up on cosplay years ago because I had no one who wanted to go to cons with me; she listens to my stupid history rants and even shows interest in them, when the most I’m used to getting are eye rolls and a change of topic.

Kari is the best that’s happened to me. Ever. And I want her to be happy. I want her to not have to worry about rent; I want her to be able to buy herself a chocolate bar because she feels like it without having to feel guilty for wasting the money. I want her to be able to live without the fear of being evicted every month, without having to worry about tomorrow’s meals because she ran out of food stamps and the fridge has only a can of soup left for the weekend. I want her to be able to go to the doctor when she’s sick and buy the medication she needs to get better.

But I don’t have the power to do this. Not now, not yet. So I’m asking you, everyone out there, to please help us. Help her.

And, I’m afraid, November is an awful month for Kari. Due to the late date at which she found her new job, she is missing a large chunk of rent. I’m doing everything in my power to gather money, and I ask —no, beg— you to help. Donate something, anything. Even if it is small, many small donations can make a difference.

Originally, we wanted to do a GoFundMe page with a three-month goal of 975 dollars to cover that period’s expenses (yes, guys, we’re missing about 500 this month. It’s that horrible), but every single crowdfunding website we have found works through bank accounts. Banks in the US are sharks; they tax you for not having enough income, for not having enough activity… Basically, if you’re poor in the US, you have to pay to have a bank account that will never have any money in it because the bank will eat it up. So, until we find an alternate crowdfunding site that allows to collect through paypal, we have set us several other safe forms through which you guys can donate to help Kari.

Paypal.Me: https://paypal.me/findyourwaycrafts

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/findyourway

Kari has a crafts store, because she is a fantastic artist (and you should totally check it out), with much stuff already on it and other stuff planned to come:

Store: https://findyourway.storenvy.com/

Store Tumblr: https://findyourwaycrafts.tumblr.com/

However, these things take time to take off, and we are running out of time in November. So please, please, help us cover the remainder of Kari’s rent for this month. Even if it’s just a dollar, three, five, a purchase of a necklace. Anything. Please, help us. Help Kari keep a roof over her head this Winter.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

With Washington Deadlocked on Aid, States Face Dire Fiscal Crises (NYT) Alaska chopped resources for public broadcasting. New York City gutted a nascent composting program that could have kept tons of food waste out of landfills. New Jersey postponed property-tax relief payments. Prisoners in Florida will continue to swelter in their cells, because plans to air-condition its prisons are on hold. Many states have already cut planned raises for teachers. And that’s just the start. Across the nation, states and cities have made an array of fiscal maneuvers to stay solvent and are planning more in case Congress can’t agree on a fiscal relief package after the August recess. House Democrats included nearly $1 trillion in state and local aid in the relief bill they passed in May, but the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has said he doesn’t want to hand out a “blank check” to pay for what he considers fiscal mismanagement, including the enormous public-pension obligations some states have accrued. There has been little movement in that stalemate lately.

As California burns, the winds arrive and the lights go out (AP) New wildfires ravaged bone-dry California during a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200 people trapped by flames and ended with the state’s largest utility turning off power to 172,000 customers to try to prevent its power lines and other equipment from sparking more fires. California is heading into what traditionally is the teeth of the wildfire season, and already it has set a record with 2 million acres burned this year. The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history—the Camp Fire that swept through the community of Paradise and killed 85 people. That fire was started by Pacific Gas & Electric power lines. Liability from billions of dollars in claims from that and other fires forced the utility to seek bankruptcy protection. To guard against new wildfires and new liability, PG&E last year began preemptive power shutoffs when conditions are exceptionally dangerous. That’s the situation now in Northern California, where high and dry winds are expected until Wednesday.

Unhealthy eating and the poor (Bloomberg) It’s no secret that the cheapest food in the western world is often the stuff that’s worst for you: fast meals and ultra-processed food, usually loaded with salt, fat and sugar. For the poorest, it’s typically what they can afford, and that’s only grown more acute during the coronavirus pandemic. Unhealthy diets are poised to worsen the obesity problem all over the world, contributing to a “global pandemic in its own right,” the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization said in July. Healthy and nutritious food has already been out of reach for more than 3 billion people. With economies sinking and unemployment at historic highs, millions more will find themselves trying to balance their budgets with the need for vital portions of fresh fruit, vegetables and proteins.

Facial recognition failure (OneZero) A new report from the Government Accountability Office of the federal government found that the Customs and Border Patrol was doing a bad job of alerting the public when facial recognition was being used on them, hiding the clear, legible signs disclosing this and describing how to opt out behind larger signs. It’s also not entirely clear that the enormous investment put into this tech is genuinely useful, as the report also found that of the 16 million passengers arriving in the U.S. through May 2020 that the CBP scanned in airports, they resulted in stopping 7 imposters.

At Least 37 Million People Have Been Displaced by America’s War on Terror (NYT) At least 37 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new report from Brown University’s Costs of War project. That figure exceeds those displaced by conflict since 1900, the authors say, with the exception of World War II. The findings were published on Tuesday, weeks before the United States enters its 20th year of fighting the war on terror, which began with the invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001; yet, the report says it is the first time the number of people displaced by U.S. military involvement during this period has been calculated. The findings come at a time when the United States and other Western countries have become increasingly opposed to welcoming refugees, as anti-migrant fears bolster favor for closed-border policies. The report accounts for the number of people, mostly civilians, displaced in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya and Syria, where fighting has been the most significant, and says the figure is a conservative estimate—the real number may range from 48 million to 59 million. The calculation does not include the millions of other people who have been displaced in countries with smaller U.S. counterterrorism operations, according to the report, including those in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Niger.

Will the U.K. Crash Out of the EU? (Foreign Policy) U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set a deadline of Oct. 15 for the United Kingdom’s talks with the European Union as the latest round of negotiations gets underway today to determine the post-Brexit EU-U.K. economic relationship, again raising concerns that the United Kingdom could crash out of the bloc without a deal in place. The announcement comes as the British government is working to push legislation through Parliament that would override key parts of last year’s Brexit withdrawal agreement. The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the so-called internal market bill is expected to remove the legal force of the highly contentious Northern Ireland protocol, which observers have long argued is vital to preserving peace and stability in Ireland after Brexit. Economists have consistently warned that the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit could be severe. On Monday, business leaders in Britain doubled-down on those warnings, telling Johnson that securing a Brexit deal was essential for the United Kingdom’s economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.

‘We are in the second wave’: Europe on edge as cases spike (NBC News) Cases of the coronavirus are spiking in France, Spain and the United Kingdom even as social distancing restrictions ease, stoking concerns among doctors and policymakers about a “second wave” in countries still reeling from the pandemic’s first wave. France set a new record Friday after health authorities reported 8,975 new cases, far higher than the previous record of 7,578 the country set March 31 at the height of the pandemic. In the U.K., new infections soared to nearly 3,000 in one day—the country’s biggest jump since May. And Spain saw nearly 9,000 cases Thursday. Unlike the pandemic’s punishing first round in the spring, France’s troubling rise in new cases has yet to cause a significant surge in deaths and hospitalizations, a salutary statistic for policymakers who remain determined to press ahead with reopenings of schools and businesses.

Belarus activist resists authorities’ push to leave country (AP) A leading opposition activist in Belarus was held on the border Tuesday after she resisted authorities’ attempt to force her to leave the country. Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Coordination Council created by the opposition to facilitate talks with longtime leader President Alexander Lukashenko on a transition of power, was detained Monday in the capital, Minsk, along with two other council members. Early Tuesday, they were driven to the Ukrainian border, where the authorities told them to cross into Ukraine. Kolesnikova refused, and remained on the Belarusian side of the border in the custody of the Belarusian authorities. The authorities have applied similar tactics to other opposition figures, seeking to end a month of demonstrations against the re-election of Lukashenko in a vote the protesters see as rigged. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger to Lukashenko, left for Lithuania a day after the Aug. 9 vote, under pressure from the authorities.

Myanmar army deserters confirm atrocities against Rohingya (AP) Two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear” in villages where minority Rohingya Muslims lived, a human rights group said Tuesday. The comments appear to be the first public confession by soldiers of involvement in army-directed massacres, rape and other crimes against Rohingya in the Buddhist-majority country, and the group Fortify Rights suggested they could provide important evidence for an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court. More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017 to escape what Myanmar’s military called a clearance campaign following an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group in Rakhine state. Myanmar’s government has denied accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes.

Australia evacuates journalists from China amid ‘national security’ probe (Reuters) Two Australian foreign correspondents were rushed out of China for their safety with the help of Australian consular officials after being questioned by China’s Ministry of State Security, their employers said on Tuesday. China correspondents for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Australian Financial Review (AFR) sought shelter in Australia’s embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shanghai as diplomats negotiated with Chinese officials to allow them to leave the country, the ABC and the AFR reported. The two journalists—the ABC’s Bill Birtles and the AFR’s Michael Smith—had been banned from leaving China until they answered questions about detained Australian citizen and television anchor Cheng Lei, the media companies reported. Both journalists were told they were “persons of interest” in an investigation into Cheng, a high-profile business anchor on Chinese state television, who was detained by authorities in August, the AFR report said. The president of Australia’s Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Marcus Strom, said the treatment of the Australian journalists by Chinese authorities was “appalling”.

Kiwi expats (BBC) Approximately 50,000 New Zealanders have returned from abroad since the beginning of the year. Behind Ireland alone, New Zealand has the second-highest proportion of its citizens living abroad, with between 600,000 and a million New Zealanders living abroad compared to a population of 5 million people in the country itself. Many are in Australia, where they can work without a visa, but others go to other countries further off for work or school. A University of Auckland sociologist estimated 100,000 could return depending on how long the pandemic lasts

Syria wants more Russian help (Foreign Policy) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he wants to expand his country’s economic and business ties to Russia as a way of bypassing crippling U.S. sanctions during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday. Lavrov hinted that Russia was prepared to come to Assad’s aid, noting during a subsequent press conference that Syria needed international assistance to help rebuild its economy now that Assad is in control of most of the territory he lost during the country’s brutal civil war. The meeting was Lavrov’s first visit to the country since 2012, demonstrating Moscow’s continued interest in Syria after providing Assad with critical military support throughout the civil war.

Jordan resumes regular commercial flights after six-month halt during pandemic (Reuters) Jordan resumed regular international flights on Tuesday after being suspended for nearly six months because of the novel coronavirus epidemic, officials said. They said Queen Alia international airport would initially handle six flights a day before expanding to ensure that airport authorities can enforce strict social distancing and other health rules.

Virus puts new strain on Gaza’s overwhelmed health system (AP) Dr. Ahmed el-Rabii spent years treating Palestinians wounded by Israeli fire during wars and clashes in the Gaza Strip. Now that the coronavirus has reached the blockaded territory, the 37-year-old physician finds himself in the unfamiliar role of patient. El-Rabii is the first Gaza doctor diagnosed with COVID-19 and is among dozens of health-care workers infected during the local outbreak, which was detected late last month. The spread among front-line workers has further strained an already overburdened health-care system. Since 2007, Gaza has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade meant to isolate Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized control of the territory that year from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. Few people can move in and out of the territory, and Hamas placed anyone returning to Gaza into mandatory quarantine centers for three weeks. Before last month, the handful of Gaza’s coronavirus cases were confined to the isolation facilities. But on Aug. 24, the first cases were detected among the general population, and the numbers have multiplied since.

When will tourists return to Africa? (AP) Africa will lose between $53 billion and $120 billion in contributions to its GDP in 2020 because of the crash in tourism, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates. Kenya expects at least a 60% drop in tourism revenue this year. South Africa a 75% drop. In South Africa, 1.2 million tourism-related jobs are already impacted, according to its Tourism Business Council. That’s not far off 10% of total jobs in Africa’s most developed economy and the total damage isn’t yet clear. “Devastation,” council CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said. South Africa’s borders, including virtually all international flights, have been closed for nearly six months and there are no signs of them reopening.

[thewitchsstudy]

An Old Opinion Research Essay

Made this last school year. It’s about MLMs (Multi-level Marketing) and why I think they should be illegal

Thousands of dollars. You don’t make thousands, you pay thousands. You don’t sell thousands, you recruit thousands. You don’t get paid to work, you pay to work. Welcome to MLMs, the most unethical world of business where everything is a scam. It deserves to be banned, gone from the reach of the people who run them. For the safety of the workers. 

MLMs- Multi-level Marketing- companies pop up a lot in the modern day. Have you ever gotten a Facebook message from somebody, likely with an eye bleeding amount of emojis, claiming to know you from somewhere pitching a product? That’s an MLM worker, no doubt. While most see them as annoying at worst, these companies that these workers come from have been proven, as from testimony by former workers, the FTC, and multiple state lawsuits, to have destroyed finances, careers, friendships, and lives while breaking the law. Many have been accused of or been charged with illegal activity- operating a pyramid scheme. 

Any amount of research will bring up how horrible some companies can get. Being repulsed at the practices is one thing, but how do we prevent them from harming workers? I argue a full ban on the practice. With already tight regulations and monitoring by the FTC, MLMs are in hot water. Still, illegal pyramid schemes manage to bypass the law and operate until it’s too late (hello Advocare, like your lawsuit?). The best way to deal with MLMs is simply banning the practice.

Bans may not be the best, but they can be necessary. Prepare to feel a mix of shame, disguise, anger, and bitter hopelessness for humanity.

Corporate can be a dictator. Many people, including former workers, heavily argue the point that many MLMs are morally and legally wrong. They have no base pay and hide under a “make as much as you want” claim. In reality, workers buy products from the company to sell to consumers, and when they don’t sell, often due to the terrible quality and horrible company reputation, they are essentially being paid under minimum wage with negative wage counts! Financial reports show that, during a year in an MLM, the majority percent of employees lost money, some broke even with joining packages and product costs (which cost thousands of dollars), and less than 5% made money, and less than 1% reached or exceeded the annual national minimum wage ($15,080)

In addition, workers who quit MLMs are often shamed by supervisors and friends still in the company. They get harassed online through texts and Facebook for breaking free. Friendships are broken in split seconds. Lives are left fragments of what they once were. Families fight and argue and refuse to communicate with each other due to associating with these companies. A video by Vice News, which is highly recommended to watch, tells the stories of women who have left MLMs and the shame that was placed on them. In addition to their terrible financial situation, it documents how much shame was put on these women who are left friendless, leaving friends for the company and leaving the company with fake “friends”. MLM workers are encouraged to sell to family and friends, and one worker has stated that “every conversation turned into a sales pitch”. Any human would leave a friend who did that.

On the other hand, people argue that MLM products are legit and that they are perfectly legal and not pyramid schemes. They say that, without legal action, MLMs are fine to operate. They argue that a pyramid scheme is a solid definition that requires many boxes to be checked, and that MLMs don’t check enough. They may call them “Anti-pyramids”, which is a funnel and shows more on the top than the bottom and the money still goes to the one guy on the bottom and that’s still a horrible business model for a dozen reasons, but that’s beyond the point. These could have good backing to them. When the research is done, however, even on social media, these people are often corporate workers who run these MLMs and bank millions or other workers (who many call “Huns”) who are in denial about their workplace being a scam (they may also be arguing this case even if they understand the truth).

It is also important to understand that the other side will defend their word with flamethrower and shield, even if the flamethrower is a knockoff that doesn’t even work and the shield is a sad excuse for a thing made of atoms. Workers post pictures online of their new “expensive” things they bought with money from their “job”. Many have debunked these as fakes, including noted images of clearly empty bags that were supposedly filled with stuff (classic fake-rich tactic right there). This is easily found, since if the poster refuses to show a top view or take the items out, you don’t trust that anything is in the bag. Many in the Anti-MLM community  realize and share their findings on how the evidence and claims made by these people are next to nothing in value. It makes them incredibly petty and decays their point. Like rotting flesh.

Most of that evidence is little slaps to MLMs. The big problems come when states start suing them. Oh, yeah, MLMs from Advocare to Young Living to LulaRoe have been sued for years. States, ranging from Idaho to California, have accused these companies of operating illegal pyramid schemes. Warehouses have sued LulaRoe over not receiving payment for storage. LulaRoe has been sued over cross-state taxation (taxing buyers in states with no tax who purchase from workers in states with tax). Federal government agencies have reprimanded MLMs as well, most noticeably in a case against Young Living where a man died in a distillery due to severe safety code violations, such as lack of training and not providing respirators in the high-chemical environment. Note, these are only some well-known companies and their well-known lawsuits. 

Deception is rampant in MLMs, and consumers are being lied to almost constantly. Young Living used to claim a Seed to Seal standard and having 100% pure essential oils. Not only was it revealed that they source from multiple farms, which makes the Seed to Seal claim highly unlikely, independent lab tests show birch and jasmine oils produced by the company were, in fact, synthetic. Worse, one study done by the State of California showed higher than acceptable levels of a chemical known for producing cyanide inside the body in Young Living’s oils. This was not mentioned anywhere by Young Living- not on the bottle, not online, not anywhere, which is an offense in California. They were, like previously, sued over this serious health and safety matter since they sold their products in the state. 

It should be obvious that Young Living’s products are not the most trustworthy, regardless of your opinion on essential oils. That could be applied to all MLM products. LulaRoe leggings are notorious for ripping, even in the first wear. Herbalife’s powders and mixes, especially their soup reportedly, have been called by people such as John Oliver as tasting “like wood shavings” (this was a continued joke in his televised segment on Multi-level Marketing, another good watch for more info). When looking at prices, such as LulaRoe leggings costing $30+ bucks for a quality $10 Walmart leggings with better, non eye-bleeding designs far surpass, the word “scam” pops up in New York City lights.

John Oliver in his segment also went into detail on how, while distributors lose thousands on MLMs they work for, their founders and CEOs can afford meetings that I can only describe as an 80s metal concert if everybody there was on some serious drugs. Some things that occur range from overly enthusiastic live announcers, CEOs coming out as “Welcome to the Jungle” plays, and screaming at the grave of a man named Joe Nobody, dated 1952- about how much he could’ve done with his life if he had just joined his MLM. Are laughing out loud at the thought of all this? It’s real, and you can find the Joe Nobody clip and more in the John Oliver episode online. It’s on-the-floor-laughing levels of ridiculous. One can only imagine being at any MLM meeting, host, worker, or random guy, in person is an accurate simulation of an acid trip for all parties involved. 

How does this add up to a pyramid scheme? With the previously stated knowledge in mind,  look at the employees. Those Facebook messages from before? Those can be recruitment messages. These often target mothers, those of color, and those of specific religions depending on the MLM. For example, LulaRoe often has single or unemployed mothers as distributors. On its website, the FTC notes that promises of extravagant lifestyles, wealth, and “high-pressure tactics” during recruiting are prominent red flags for any business. Guess who milks these until the cow runs red? MLM recruiters. While I don’t trust Reddit for factual info often, there are credible accounts of this practice on such subreddits as r/AntiMLM and r/LuLaNo. 

The big problem is that MLMs may pay their employees for recruitment. The FTC says that “Your recruits, the people they recruit, and so on, become your sales network, or ‘downline’. If the MLM is not a pyramid scheme, it will pay you based on your sales to retail customers, without having to recruit new distributors”. The way it often works when a Pyramid Scheme is in place is that those higher up in the pyramid get a percent of commission from those they have recruited, those recruit’s recruits, and so on. Pyramid schemes require active participation for this often only check, which requires more money for products that will never sell and, as the saying goes, “get left in a garage.” The FTC notices this is a practice utilized by pyramid schemes. A former LulaRoe (funny how LulaRoe pops up so much) worker high up on the corporate ladder on the previously mentioned Vice News clip claims to have been receiving these commissions, with checks from the company proving it. MLMs have systems of ranks, which are often named after anything from crystals to management positions, and guess what those more than not focus on? How many people you recruited. Higher up you are, the higher percent of commission, the more money you get. 

That, fellow readers, are the bones of pyramid schemes. You don’t grow a business with a stable customer base and happy employees, you make more people fall into it and destroy their lives. Former work testimonies say that supervisors actively encourage recruiting over selling.  It’s a cycle of new and quitting members.

It should be obvious. Horrible quality, product not worth the price, constant lying to consumers, lawsuits galore, and the foundation of a pyramid scheme and its culture are what make MLMs scams, unethical and borderline illegal. We, as consumers and workers, should call for a ban on this business model to protect sales and underclass workers from a practice that harbors illegal schemes. If a company wishes to grow, it should in an ethical way that isn’t a pyramid scheme coverup! The FTC says that pyramid schemes “can look remarkably like legitimate MLM business opportunities” and so taking part in any MLM is a risky venture to the highest degree. Even legit MLMs have the same issues as pyramid schemes, since the lack of buying due to terrible reputation causes equal wage and financial issues as stated earlier. MLM and pyramid scheme operators milk money from their employees. As Bo Burham’s song “Repeat Stuff” says, they’ll “stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out money.” We need to stop them from beating the dead horse of MLMs so they can’t collect the money it spits out at them. And the best way to get rid of a dead horse is to bury it. 

Bury the horse, they cannot get the money. Will you grab a shovel and start burying it, or will you watch as people continue to beat it? 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The White House Has Erected A Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE

By David Wallace-Wells

Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.

Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though, in addition to abandoning the states to their own devices in a time of national emergency, the federal government has effectively erected a blockade — like that which the Union used to choke off the supply chains of the Confederacy during the Civil War — to prevent delivery of critical medical equipment to states desperately in need. At the very least, federal authorities have made governors and hospital executives all around the country operate in fear that shipments of necessary supplies will be seized along the way. In a time of pandemic, having evacuated federal responsibility, the White House is functionally waging a war against state leadership and the initiative of local hospitals to secure what they need to provide sufficient treatment.

Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country. It’s worth reading the correspondence, written by an executive running a small health system, at some length:

“Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

A lead came from an acquaintance of a friend of a team member. After several hours of vetting, we grew confident of the broker’s professional pedigree and the potential to secure a large shipment of three-ply face masks and N95 respirators. The latter were KN95 respirators, N95s that were made in China. We received samples to confirm that they could be successfully fit-tested. Despite having cleared this hurdle, we remained concerned that the samples might not be representative of the bulk of the products that we would be buying. Having acquired the requisite funds — more than five times the amount we would normally pay for a similar shipment, but still less than what was being requested by other brokers — we set the plan in motion. Three members of the supply-chain team and a fit tester were flown to a small airport near an industrial warehouse in the mid-Atlantic region. I arrived by car to make the final call on whether to execute the deal. Two semi-trailer trucks, cleverly marked as food-service vehicles, met us at the warehouse. When fully loaded, the trucks would take two distinct routes back to Massachusetts to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected.

Hours before our planned departure, we were told to expect only a quarter of our original order. We went anyway, since we desperately needed any supplies we could get. Upon arrival, we were jubilant to see pallets of KN95 respirators and face masks being unloaded. We opened several boxes, examined their contents, and hoped that this random sample would be representative of the entire shipment. Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure. I remained nervous and worried on the long drive back, feelings that did not abate until midnight, when I received the call that the PPE shipment was secured at our warehouse.”

In this instance, the executive managed to secure the supplies, but what is most horrifying about his account is that this experience was not all that surprising to him — he expected interference from federal officials, and did everything he could (including staging the shipment in food-service trucks to avoid detection) to get around that interference.

Those measures do not seem unusual, horrifyingly enough. Last month, 3 million masks ordered by the state of Massachusetts were seized by the federal government. Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, was arranging secret chartered flights of supplies as a way of outmaneuvering federal interference. “The governor has clearly outlined the challenges this administration has faced as we’ve worked around the clock to purchase PPE for our health-care workers and first responders,” a spokesperson for the governor told the paper. “The supply chain has been likened to the Wild West, and once you have purchased supplies, ensuring they get to the state is another Herculean feat,” he continued. “These flights are carrying millions of masks and gloves our workers need. They’re scheduled to land in Illinois in the coming weeks and the state is working to ensure these much-needed supplies are protected and ready for distribution around the state.” A source “knowledgeable about the flights” told the paper that the governor didn’t want to be more open about the shipments “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”

This is not just the federal government telling states they are on their own, as it has done repeatedly over the last few weeks — a sign that the president, often thought to harbor authoritarian impulses, will invariably choose to unburden himself of responsibility even when seizing it would offer remarkable new powers, and itself an moral outrage demonstrating incredible political sadism, given that states lack the resources of the federal government to pay for this stuff. That’s in part because, in many cases, states are legally barred from deficit spending, which means in times of crisis, especially those producing huge budget shortfalls through collapsing tax revenue, they are functionally unable to respond at all. In such situations, the federal government is designed to serve as a backstop, but over and over again throughout this crisis, the White House has said states will get little to no help — that they are entirely on their own. (The federal medical stockpile isn’t meant for the states, as Jared Kushner has said, as though the country is anything more than its states.)

On top of that outrage, the Feds are bidding against states who are trying to buy their own supplies, and refusing to interfere in those auctions between states, which have driven prices up by ten times or more. But while you might think that was as bad as federal management of this crisis could be, it is not. This new outrage is deeper: Even those states that are trying to manage their own resources, buying equipment themselves with incredibly scarce resources to aid in a time of crisis, are being stopped, and those resources seized on the way to delivery.

You could call this piracy. You could call it sanctions. The federal government is choking supply chains to states like it chokes supply chains to Iran and North Korea. These blockades aren’t as complete as those surrounding sanctioned regimes, of course, and some amount of the disruption may be honest confusion in a time of crisis. But the disruption is being brought about by federal interference, and unlike the kind of disruptions you’d want to engineer against antagonistic states, the purpose seems completely unclear — indeed the policy is inexplicable and indefensible.

Which may be one reason why no explanation has been given. We don’t know where these supplies are going. We don’t know on what grounds they are being seized, or threatened with seizure. What business do the DHS and FEMA have with ventilators and PPE purchases by governors and local hospitals? “This is like a story out of the last days of the Soviet Union,” David Frum wrote on Twitter, of the NEJM letter. “This is what it means to be a failed state,” wrote the essayist Umair Haque, echoing him. In the absence of an explanation, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that this is simply mafia government, exerting control for the sake of control, not in spite of but because of the crisis-led demand, and squeezing the American people, as they die in hospital beds and attend — with inadequate protection — to the sick and scared.

[lockdownuk]

Lockdown Diary Part 3

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online.

Day 61: Writing this in the afternoon on day 62. An exercise driven day. Two walks and stair climb as usual plus I popped round Jeff’s early evening. First time I’ve been to his house, 1 Garden Row, Elmington. It’s further than I thought so, with walking there an back, I managed a daily total of 14km. It was good to see him and have a social (but social-distanced) beer. When I got home, @9:45pm, I made thai green chicken curry, watch The Report (a great, if worrying film) and then TikTok-ed until gone 5am!

Day 62: Typing this on day 64! Beer round Karen’s. Missed Sam’s quiz.

Day 63: Typing this on day 64! Beer round Karen’s. Again! Well, it is bank holiday Monday! Had dirty pizza for tea and watched The Heat. Again! It is the most piss funny film.

Day 64: Well, I have been feeling guilty about treatung the bank holiday w/e l;ike a bank holiday w/e. It’s dawned on me that that guilt is way too self-disiciplned. I got up about midday, usual two walks and stair climb but that’s it. I need to clean the house from top to bottom, get on top of my online courses, get the garden done, get the car fixed, go shopping…fucking hell - if only I had the time…

Day 65: Today I swapped Amazon prime free trial for about the 5th time in my life. Same card and address - will they get wind of my skullduggery. This is all so I can finish watching Hunters and catch Homecoming S2. I went shopping at Asda near Raunds. I wish I hadn’t, it’s no good for a comprehensive shop. Received an email from RCI inviting me to a Zoom meeting with Pal Mulcahy for a business update. I fear the worst. And it’s at 10:00am, FFS!

Day 66: Logged in an attended zoom forum with Paul Mulcahy and over 250 RCI staff this morning. The message was that there is going to be redundancies. I expected this and expected to fall victim. All staff that are going to be put through cionsultation would be contacted today. I however wasn’t! Very, very surpised. meanwhile, Nick Reilly asked to connect via LinkedIn (including become a LinkedIn staff team member -  that’s new to me so I’ll see what it is but I accepted the invitation) Later, I WhatsApp-ed him and asked who has been affected from IT. All he could tell me was no one on Jon Rodger’s team is under threat. Also, Mark C emailed - I’ll respond tomorrow. I got up at 09:00ish and had my mornming walk before the 10:00am meeting. I am now, at 09:30pm, fucking knackered. Dinner and then bed, methinks but not before one more episdoe of Hunters!

Day 67: Typing on Day 68. Got pretty drunk last night. I’ve got blisters from walking (new boots) so I don’t think I’ll walk tomorrow (well, today!).

Day 68: I did fuck all today. Got up after 1pm, no walking. I did manage to clean the bathroom (and smash my little mirror) and do my 26 stair climb. I am typing at 9pm and I feel whacked!

Day 69: I have an abscess. It’s not too painful (today) but I am going to call the dentist tomorrow (Monday). I think antibiotics are in order. I watched a film, which I actually started yesterday, called The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arteton and Anna Kendrick. Fuuuuuuuuuuuucking weird. The closing credits are the most bizarre, in context, I’ve ever seen. But, in general, a very good film. Back to normal exercise regime today plus hovered the hall and stairs. Get me. It’ll be interetingh to see my Google Fit figures for May tomorrow.

Day 70: Contacted the dentist who advised salt water rinsing and ibuprofen. But, tbf, it’s a lot better today and the swelling has gone right down. The dentist I called was the Oundle House (Rodericks) one. I was not hopeful since last time I saw them they referred me to their Northampton clinic for root canal work which was quoted at over £600. However, the dentist was very nice, had my x-ray to hand from that last visit and seemed more interested in making sure I’m OK than gaining a paying customer. He still wants to see me when possible though! I must mention the weather. It has been glorious weather nearly every day throughout May (it’s June 1st today). Seriously sunny and like a holiday every day. The news mentioned it today - the level of sunshine throughout the transition from spring to summer is unprecedented, apparently. My T shirt tan is, quite frankly, ridiculous!

Day 71: Today’s ‘must mention’ is what’s going on in the US and it’s not particularly related to Trump. There was a black man killed while under arrest. George Floyd died Monday 25th May (8 days ago) A policeman, who knelt on his neck for minutes while he complained of not being able to breathe, has been charged with murder. Now there are riots and curfews and military intervention all over the country. It’s similar to the English riots of 2011. It’s worrying, sad, scary and not what the fight against the pandemic needs. Most of all, it’s racism rearing its ugly head yet again. I’ve had a normal-ish day. received an email from Jim checking in, talked to a recruiter about a promising job lead (although the hours are 8-5 which I am not happy about), talked to Barry across the road and sent Barzzy a WhatsApp. And I logged in Shaw Academy and started lesson one of module 2 of web Design. It’s been a while, so long overdue, but I only did about 15 minutes. Must try harder / do better! As I type, late (10:10pm) I have dinner cooking and a strange pain in my left side and am in the middle of No Country for Old Men. Don’t think I’ve seen it since the cinema (13 years!)

Day 72: As soon as (well, within a couple of days) I mention the weather, it turns. It’s rained a little and is a lot cooler (15° rather than mid-20s). Much better for walking, I have to say. I finished Hunters today (Amazon Prime series). While I enjoyed it, it got too surreal at the end. It is loosely based on the real story of Nazi hunters in the US in 1977 but the straying from loosely based to down-right ridiculous fiction annoyed me. If it goes to S2, I will watch it, however. Received some of my rental deposit back today (the law changed so that only 5 weeks rent can be demanded as deposit). Over £600. Nice.

Day 73: I made a short video for Marc and Clare’s 26th wedding anniversary. I ‘dressed up’ for it. I enjoyed doing it and I think it was appreciated.

Day 74: Typing on Day 75 for no other reason than I couldn’t be bothered on day 74! I received a letter either today or the day before (well, yesterday or the previous day!) from Mr Minos at the eye clinic informing me that, while there is some stuff going on in both eyes (garnered from the photo scans done at the last hospital appointment), he wants to see me in three months. Always a refief when that happens. Been getting into two series on Amazon: Alex Rider and Modern Love. One is a male Hanna, the other is soppy affairs of the heart based on real life stories (from essays written in the NY Times). Both enjoyable for totally different reasons.

Day 75: Lazyish day. Well, not really, just that I only went for one walk, alebit 6km andI got pissed on. Wehn the rain hit, it was also fucking freezing! Some of the clouds were stunning today, made for great photos. As I type, it’s 21:12, I’m listening the wonderful Phoebe Bridgiers. Now, I’m gonna make some tea and sup a few ales, I reckon.

Day 76: Done lots of walking today (over 13,000 steps) I made sausage casserole with too much chilli (scotch bonnet and birdeye). I had an online (fb) debate with Sam over whether the George Floyd murder was a racial.

Day 77: Received a new (used) wing mirror for the car. £18 with delivery, I reckon that’s a bargain. I cashed in £20 from Prolific as well, so I’m satisfied at the financial full-circle. Dropped the car off at Barnwell (Nene Valley Body Shop) and walked back - 7km. Just about to dive into tea - finishing the blazing hot sausage casserole from yesterday. Then I’m going to do some more Rubik’s cube practice with my recently acquired GoCube.

Day 78: Lots of daily walking, 26 stair climb, press-up and late nights watching TikTok (gone 3am this morning) are making for a constantly knackered Tim Stubbs. Today I made veg soup and cooked up some meatballs. Both are delish. How did I ever to learn how to conjure up such stuff? The Rubik’s cube learning is coming along except that I need good daylight to distinguish between the yellow and white faces on the flipping thing!

Day 79: Listening to Radio 6 most the day and the news is making for dire listening. Forecast of severe recession, especially if there is a second peak of the virus, which I think there will be. Plus, an offshoot of the George Floyd murder and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, institutions and town councils are being lobbied by campaigners to remove statues of anyone associated with things like slavery (one was toppled in Bristol at the w/e) and rename buildings etc. that were named after historical characters with any links to something that now is deemed wrong or offensive. I agree with it but it’s not pleasant to hear amongst other bleak news. Walked to Barnwell to collect my car - front trim reseated and new wing mirror fitted, £20 - bargain (I source the replacement wing mirror). But, also, forked out £165 on car tax! Cleaned the lounge from top to bottom. Knackering!

Day 80: Chatted with Dad and Rita - he’s pissed off with the slavery backlash but otherwise they are both OK. I saw Baz in the Tesco queue where I mentioned my disgust at the Thursday market being allowed (I found I could not maintain 2m at all times just walking to Tesco’s!) and that I really don’t want to catch Covid19 as I will probably die. Maybe a bit dramatic but he messaged me later today to say he’d been thinking on what I said and offered to shop for me. I replied that I am OK to shop but am scared at how people are taking things so much less seriously than when lockdown started yet the virus is still out there just as it was then! I am very touched at his massage. I thoroughly cleaned the bedroom and changed the bedclothes today. House work really knackers me out!

Day 81: Spare room cleaned today. Not much else to type about. It’s Friday, I making curried mince and I don’t feel like a beer. How I’ve changed!

Day 82: I did have beers last night. Ended up going to bed with daylight and dawn chorus for company. Today, when I woke, gone 1pm, I have been greeted by what can only be described as thoroughly depressing news from every quarter. This includes violence in the capital, further virus outbreak in Beijing. Fog’s political posts on FB make for depressing (but vaild) reading. I’m feeling thoroughly fed up today. Not even music can lift my mood…

…but, I am currently listening to Craig Charles on BBCR6 and, I have to say, he’s putting in quite an exceptional effort - there may be hope that my mood might lift, even at gone 8pm! I might have a beer or two and grab something postivity and enjoyment from the day after all.

Day 83: Another late one last night but up before noon today. Started watching something called Condor on Sky One. It’s OK - there’s stuff I wanna waytch on Amazon Prime but, more often than not, it keeps telling me there’s ‘a problem’ when I try to play anything. Pissing me off. I just checked and I have two weeks of the initial 12 of furlough to go. I shall started asking the questions about what might happen on the Connections website.

Day 84: Typing this on Day 85. On the way back from dropping off some shoes for Sean Davies at his brother’s (martin) I met Karen and she said why not pop round for a beer so I did. Certainly not used to a drink on a Monday so that, and the genral upheaval to my evening, while good fun and a nice change, put pay to my usual diary entry! I sorted Amazon Prime out by leaving the TV turned off for over an hour. Day 85: Tim did the garden today and it looks great. The pipes in the bathroom have been knocking loudly, on and off, for a couple of weeks now. Last night, they were so loud that today I took it upon myself to resolve it or ring Woodfords. So, having turned off the water, run the taps dry to get rid of any trapped air and then turned the water back on slowly, I discoved it’s the cistern and its pipes. Woodfords are arranging Corvee to visit. Meanwhile, leaving the water turned off at least stops the noise which is, otherwise, costant and unbearable! I emailed HR a couple of days ago about what’s happening in a couple of weeks time in terms of furlough when the 12 weeks will be up. Sue Cockimngs got back to me attaching an email Deryn sent on 15th May which I never received. Basically, they’ll extend furlough if need be and an update should be forthcoming late May/early June. Well, that time has passed, so who knows what is going to happen. The furlough scheme (CJRS) has been changed by the govenment, I’ve read, and it looks like any new people would have to have been furloughed by June 10th (it’s the 16th today) so no furlough rotation, which is annoying. The CJRS ends 1st October with employer contributions required from 1st August - that’s D-Day as far as I am concerned….so job hunting will have to step up a notch! Day 86: Pete’s birthday and he bought himself the same speaker as me. When I asked if it lived up to his expectations he mentioned it’s better through WiFi than Bluetooth. That confused me as I haven’t got WiFi available on mine…..long story short, I bought the wrong fucking speaker. I got a AudioPro AddOn T10 instead of C10. To say I am fucked off is an understatement. To think I was so pleased at the cheap price I paid. Now I feel like I have wasted  €200. Bollocks.

Day 87: Finished Alex Rider last night. Another series that started off so well and ended a litte weak but, overall, not bad. I’ve started keeping strange meal times…lunch very late (4pm) and dinner really late (11pm). I need to sort it ‘cos it’s playing havoc with my sugar levels. I had a huge hypo while having my second walk today, second day on the trot that’s happened. My late dinner was Chinese chicked curry with a quarter of a scotch bonnet and two birdeye chillies. Delish.

Day 88: I have managed to be bitten yesterday or the day before on one of my walks. There are strange, itchy lumps on my right inner forearm. And I do mean itchy. I trimmed my sideburns today, I was very pissed off with them. My hair looks just a little less shit. I did a shop at Tesco in Corby today. Mainly booze as follows: 20 cans Sam Miguel £18 18 cans Stella £15 20 bottles Bud £10 8 cans Tyskie £9 3 lrg bottles Warsteiner £5 £57 Bargain.

Day 89: Lazy day. One short walk and usual stair climb. Howard and Sue popped round to give me a pressie - bottle of Monkey Shoulder. I’m building up quite a collection of whisky!

Day 90: Dad called and we chatted for an hour or so. I had to apologise for not sending a father’s day card! Dan messaged me and offered to pay for a pizza delivery which I declined.

Football has started again this past week…Prem and Championship only. L1 and L2 season was cut short and Posh missed out on the play-offs by one place. As I type, Everton v Liverpool is on Sky Sports on a Sunday evening - it’s very strange with no crowd. There’s crowd noise being played thorugh the tannoy.

[kanlara]

Reform pt 6

If you haven’t don’t forget to read the rest

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5

After Liam moved back in with me it didn’t take long for the masks to start watching us more closely than ever before. They were everywhere, including a new intern in the office where I worked as an accountant. She was a newer hero and I didn’t know her real name. She went by Rachel the intern around the office but I knew her hero persona was called Verse. Knowing her hero name was vastly different than actually knowing what she was capable of and it worried that she was an unknown. Even Raven had been sent to my apartment to do extra visits. Sending an account summary to a client I let my mind wander back to the first visit since Liam had moved back in.

“I’ll do my best to figure out what the game is that the young heroes are playing, but I can’t promise anything. Do try to stick to the routines that you still have Ryn.” Raven gave me a wry smile before turning to Liam with a glare, “And you, what were you thinking putting her life at risk? You of all people should know that things aren’t always as they seem with the heroes.” He turned to leave my apartment, “Do try to stay safe, both of you.”

Liam locked the door behind Raven as he left, “that man loves you like a granddaughter you know.”

All I could do was nod and hope that I hadn’t made his life harder than it had to be. By all accounts Raven should have retired years ago. He didn’t go out on active cases and hadn’t in close to a decade. When asked about it he would say his reformees needed him. It was true. I did need him. As selfish as I knew that made me, I didn’t want anyone else handling my case. I’d have worried less if there was ever an end to the check ups, according to Raven and several news articles there had never been a reformed villain that hadn’t ended up committing another crime. Just me, it was almost as if they didn’t believe in their own system. 

A soft cough snapped my attention back to the present. Rachel stood slightly behind my boss. Forcing myself to smile in what I hoped was a natural fashion, “Sorry about that James, I didn’t see you there. Got a little lost in thought, what can I do for you?”

“Don’t worry about it, it happens to the best of us. I assume you’ve met Rachel?” At my nod he continued, “She’s here to learn all that she can about what it takes to become an accountant. And you know just about everything there is to know about what we do here. I was thinking about assigning her to you.” He left it an open ended statement so that I could refuse if I really wanted.

I didn’t have any reason to say no as far as either of them knew. I doubted that the masks would put someone that they thought I knew about in an undercover position. It could of course be a test. But perhaps it was easier to keep her close to me and potentially learn more about what she could do. I smiled more, “Of course she can work with me. I’d love to show her the business.” looking at Rachel, “you’re about to learn where all the tricky accounts go when no one else wants them.”

“Oh good,” Rachel didn’t look thrilled about the prospect of actually learning about accounting. 

James smoothly interrupted anything else that she might say, “I’ll have the janitor move one of the intern desks over. Rachel grab your things to bring her, I’m sure Ryn won’t mind you keeping it all in her office here.” He nodded at us both and strolled out.

I couldn’t help but laugh, my “office” as he’d described it was little better than a large cubicle set in a corner so that I had two real walls. Making a shooing gesture at Rachel, “go on and grab your things, they’ll be more secure in here than the intern locker that they assigned you.”

She didn’t take long and only carried a small purse. I showed her the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and where I hid the key, “most of the people here are men and they don’t think of hiding purses in filing cabinets. Feel free to stash anything that doesn’t take up more than half the drawer. I’ll make sure to leave the key where you can find it when you need it.” 

The woman across from me nodded. She had an almost imposing presence now that we were alone where before she had seemed like she was trying to blend into the background. When she spoke her voice was pleasant, “Thank you. I’m sure we’ll get along and that I’ll learn a lot from you.”

We both smiled at that. Each thinking our own thoughts about how to learn as much as possible without giving anything important away. Once her desk showed up I made a point of asking that she receive a proper office chair rather than one of the uncomfortable visitor chairs I had in front of my desk. When her new work area was set up to her satisfaction I gave her a few of the older accounts to familiarize herself with. It didn’t take long before she had a question, “why is this company writing lasers as tax deductible?”

Glancing over I looked at the file she had open, “ah, they’re a charitable foundation and not a company. They use laser cutters to make parts for collapsible portable shelters out of lightweight materials that they give out to the homeless communities in their area. I believe that they’re trying to set up another location soon.”

She shook her head in disbelief and kept reading through the files. In the time before she asked another question I was able to reply to most of the emails in my inbox, “does this company really do business with the city’s hero organization?”

“Yes.” I looked up to gauge her reaction to this information. She mostly seemed surprised that the information was in her hands. Pointing to a large binder on the shelf behind me, “I have the legal forms about that account in there. Knowing about the account doesn’t require any non disclosure forms to be signed, nor does any information in that folder. But anything else does. You’d have to be cleared by their representative before I could even show you the form.”

Rachel nodded carefully and went back to reviewing the rest of the files. We made it through the day without further questions. If she was actually an intern she would be in her last year of college or finished with it by now. She seemed to know her stuff so maybe she really was going to be an accountant when she wasn’t wearing a mask. I’d start asking personal questions over the next few days. Today was for her to get comfortable with some of the extra information that I was actually supposed to be teaching her about. Thinking about how close I was going to be to this hero was almost enough to make me run for the hills. The thought of leaving my comfortable life was enough to make me grit my teeth and deal with it.

[singapore-movers]

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