#and after the storm next week we get a system EVERY 2-3 DAYS UNTIL FEBRUARY

[psychoticwillgraham]

now all the weather channels/youtubers aren’t even giving a snowfall accumulation number anymore bc of the wind blows just slightly different, then it’ll push it up from STL and we’ll get close to a foot of snow. oh and now we’re getting A LOT of ice so. wonderful :))

[andrewdburton]

Three Months of Slacking

Unsuccessfully but Refreshingly trying to climb the local waterfall

“MMM, are you still alive?” – somebody on Twitter

Holy Shit! I just realized that the last time I wrote a blog post for you was on April 18th, and now it’s late July. That’s an entire quarter of a year that I have let this wonderful, golden field of interesting opportunities and people sit untended.

 How could Mr. Money Mustache, a reliable stalwart of bossy financial advice since 2011 and usually good for at least one post per month, have drifted so far from his original dedication? It’s a question that earnest fans have been asking, and that I have even started asking myself.

When you break out of any habit, it can be hard to get back into it: the psychological barriers start to stack up and the pressure rises and you find yourself waiting for more and more unattainably perfect conditions that, surprise surprise, never really come.

If it’s a workout habit that you have broken, you might tell yourself,

“Oh, I just need to get over this injury or this cold.. And then my Mom is visiting next week but after that I’ll be ready to get back to the gym.“

With my blog-writing hobby I make excuses like,

“Oh, now that it has been so long, I have to wait until I have something really interesting or worthwhile to say. And yeah okay, maybe I have a few articles like that in the drafts folder, but those ones take a lot of thinking and focus to write, so I’d better wait until I am feeling really smart and focused to crack into that subject.”

But in both cases, the correct solution is just to say,

“Fuck it. I am going to just do something towards my goal, no matter how tiny.”

To get back in shape, you just need to start with at least a few pushups, which you can do right now on the floor of your office or kitchen. To resurrect the MMM Blog, Mustache just has to type some shit into the computer, and heck, why not just an easy breezy article telling you about some of the interesting things I’ve been doing in lieu of blogging?

Some stories from a real life of early retirement, which may be more relevant than plain old financial analysis and reader case studies anyway. And once we’re all caught up in life, maybe it’ll be easier to keep in touch on a more regular basis henceforth.

So in fairly rapidfire format, here’s what I’ve been up to this spring and summer:

1) Renovating The Shit Out of Our New Two-House Compound

We found the previous shower had been leaking for years and creating the most interesting scene of decay. We tore out and rebuilt the whole area, and cut in a nice window for good measure.

You may recall that back in January, I teamed up with a friend to buy the house next door, with cash, at a below-market price. Once she moved in, we realized that it needed even more renovations than we originally planned. So I’ve had a joyful time tearing down walls, framing in new windows and doors, reworking the floorplan and changing the wall surfaces, as well as fixing the shoddy plumbing and electrical work that was found along the way.

On my own house right next door, I’ve been going just a bit wild with metalworking, making all sorts of fences and decks and even a “Juliet Balcony” which features a fireman pole allowing me to slide quickly down from my master bedroom to the ground where we have a shared hot tub between our properties – in case of Hot Tub Emergencies, of course.

Cutting a giant hole in the back of my house (in February!), adding a sliding door where there was previously only a silly little shitty window, then many fun, casual days of metalworking. The last pic is my side deck, which I built mostly out of wood but also features lots of metal and a fun little outdoor kitchen including coffee machine and induction cooktop!

2) Working on a Pretty Big Documentary Project

Hmmm.. something seems different about the HQ kitchen.

I have said for years that I would never do it, but somehow a very persuasive filmmaker who has made some documentaries that I really respect, roped me into helping out with a probably-pretty-big documentary.

I did a casting call in March and found a couple that I am now coaching and working with throughout 2021. The film company doesn’t want me to talk about it much until they are ready to announce it, but suffice it to say that it is taking a lot of my time and energy, which comes out of what would otherwise be my blog-writing time budget.

However, this is the good kind of hardship – forcing me to experience things I wouldn’t otherwise get to do, and the end result will be reaching a lot more people than I could by just writing on this website alone. My fingers are crossed that it will come out the way I hope!

3) Switching 120,000 Underserved MMM Email Subscribers over for Better Newsletters

Easier signups, and better eventual emails.

Since the beginning, I’ve mostly ignored the fact that I sorta have a list of email subscribers, with predictable lackluster results. People were able to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves automatically, and the only thing it got them was an automated mailing of any new blog articles on the day that I posted them. The emails were poorly formatted, people who had non-gmail addresses often had trouble subscribing, and many probably wondered why I couldn’t make it work better.

Thankfully, a mini-crisis happened that has forced me to do the work to solve this problem, at last: Google announced that they were shutting down the aging Feedburner email service, so all of the old-school bloggers like me who were still using it were forced to migrate to a more modern platform.

I did some research, and in the end I decided to go with a higher-end option called ConvertKit, which is one of the most popular email services. It can do a lot more cool stuff, and I have taken advantage of this to create an automated (and free of course) “MMM Boot Camp” email series that people can sign up for. 

It’s just a curated feed of some of my most useful articles (about 35 out of the 500), which automatically go out to people once per week until they have graduated, so you’d think it would be pretty easy for me to create this.

But as I read through my old stuff, of course I realized that much of it was crappy and outdated so I ended up partially rewriting every one of those 35 posts as I went through, which took some time. The good news is, the updated versions are here on the website as well, so the work should benefit anyone who happens to read them in the future.

4) Having lots of Fun Times (and Hard Times) In Real Life

Just another cool sunset/storm in my back yard, taken during the traditional Evening Walk.

I’ve had a series of wonderful visitors who came and stayed at my house, sometimes for a week or more. Friends and I have hosted some big events at the HQ Coworking space, which left me both energized and drained at the same time. Then I got Strep Throat in mid-July, which knocked me out for the count for a full week or more – even well after the antibiotics worked their magic, I have still been having some ups and downs with energy. 

And then of course there’s the heat – I am always more energetic in cool weather (The typical 50 degree sunny days of a Colorado winter are some of my favorite for outdoor work in t-shirt and jeans). So the summer season here is always a challenge for me, with an endless procession of cloudless 95 degree desert days making me resent the very Sun I normally worship so much. I’ve been taking refuge indoor more than I should, hiding in my air conditioned house and making excuses and accomplishing less because of it. At least this has led me to the keyboard today, to write this blog post.

5) “Cutting the Pipe” at HQ and Installing a Giant Fancy Heat Pump system.

I had fun working alongside my co-owner Mr. 1500 for this work. Everything was easy about this install … except rebuilding some of the filthy century-old ductwork we found once we took out the old furnace.

Since I first bought the building in 2017, the MMM-HQ coworking space has been limping along with a clunky decades-old gas furnace, a gas water heater that was about 20 years overdue to spring a leak, no central air conditioning at all, and very high utility bills due to the way our local gas company charges commercial customers.

When you combine these irritants and contrast them with the fact that we happen to have a glorious solar electric array on the rooftop that makes a surplus of power, you can see why I would be itching to tear out all the gas appliances, cancel the service account permanently, and install all-electric replacements that are more efficient and will also save an estimated shit-ton of money each year.

I’ll save the full details of this for my very next blog article, but as a spoiler: we found and successfully installed a unit that should be able to cool and heat our building year-round, is very DIY-friendly, and cost only about $4000 to buy. It should prove to be a great annual return on investment, and I am excited to start installing these things on all of my properties and those of any friends who are doing upgrades.

And with that, I’d say we are all caught up.

In the comments: what have YOU been up to these past 3 months? And what subjects do you think we should be covering here on MMM in the next three?

from Finance https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2021/07/25/three-months-of-slacking/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[withabackpackandcamera]

February 17th, 2017

Day 29: Goodbye Stockholm, Hello Lofoten Islands!

What a short Stockholm stay! It's been awhile since I've traveled at such a fast pace and I forgot how tiring it can be to rush through every inch of a city when you're tight on time. Because I've been situated in Reykjavik for a few weeks, I was able to take my time looking around the city without feeling rushed. Plus, when I did go around to see things, most things were outside of the city and required a car or bus, both of which expended less physical energy than speed walking. Oh well, I guess I did bring it upon myself. When I first decided that I would go to Scandinavia, I was planning on just visiting Norway. But because I found a cheap WOW Air flight to Oslo for $65 and because I probably won't be in this area again for awhile, I decided to just slip Stockholm into my itinerary and make the most of what I could in two days. Which, I dare say, I did.

And as I make my journey to Leknes Airport in North Norway, here are my quick thoughts on my short time in Stockholm:

- Stockholm is a large European city with diversity, history, good public transportation, and lots of food and shopping. - If I remember my previous Europe experiences clearly, Stockholm felt like a smaller, calmer, quieter, friendlier, and cleaner Paris mixed with some Prague-ness. - Stockholm is a city filled with art. From the ridiculous art installations in the subway system to sculpted figures seen on the side of buildings to random art pieces placed around the city, there is plenty of art and creativity to enjoy. - Traditional meatballs are so yummy. - McDonald's and Joe and the Juice are widespread throughout the city. - There are many parks and museums to see in the city. - Sweden has a different cold from Iceland, with less wind involved.

With those thoughts down, to my day!

Today, I got to the airport relatively early via Flygbussarna, the bus service to the airport. So, I decided to check if Arlanda had a lounge and surely they did! So into the lounge I went for my first official airport lounge experience! And man, feeling like I'm rich is nice! Breakfast today was cereal, cookies, pate, turkey, cheese, and bread with Nutella and OJ on the side. A great find, especially for someone who is cash-strapped and in need of being fed and saving money!

A short visit to the lounge and before I knew it, it was time to take three different flights to the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway with layovers in Oslo and Bodø. The first two flights were fine. However, the last leg of the trip was a bit scary and nausea-inducing. With a single fixed-winged plane as our plane of choice for the 25 minute flight, turbulence from the strong storm outside was in full force. At multiple points in the flight, the plane dropped, turned, and shook in ways that had my imagination thinking the wrong things. But after 25 minutes of nerve-wracking turbulence, we finally arrived safely at Leknes Airport. Whew, we made it, despite initially landing on one wheel because the wind blew the plane sideways enough to affect the landing.

As we were getting off the plane, I realized that most of the passengers were American and that most of the passengers were photographers, or just had nice bags of camera equipment. Interesting to see that but it was not surprising once I got onto the archipelago and noticed that the only tourists in Lofoten were photographers.

Anyhow, after getting into the airport, I got my rental car, which was changed to a Toyota Auris Stationwagon from a VW Golf (sweet!), and I was on my way as the snow storm kicked it up a notch. The drive on the E10 was snowy and windy but beautiful (from what I could actually see). The roads wound through the fjords and eventually took me to Å, Norway, the last road-accessible town at the southern end of the Lofoten archipelago. Once I got there, I had a hard time checking into my hostel because the reception guy wasn’t around. Eventually, he came back and showed me to my room, a room with two beds at the end of the hostel hall that I would be sharing with a roommate. I later met my roommate, Kevin, who was an Englishman and a photographer here primarily for photography.

As the night approached, the weather didn’t look like it was going to get any better. But I decided to take a short trip out to Reine, the beautiful town next door, to see if I could get any photos. But with the snow and difficult photography conditions, I snapped a couple of shots and returned to the hostel. Once I was back, the weather continued to worsen, with tons of wind, tons of snow, and lots of building-shaking. With that kind of weather, I was ready to raise the white flag for the night and just chill and figure out my trip for the next couple of days, since I hadn’t done much planning. However, that was when the first of three Italian guys came in asking for a hair dryer in broken English. And who knew that that would be the turning point of my trip!

Later that evening, the three Italians, brothers Andrea and Luca and friend Luca came in and started up a conversation. We talked for a while about everything, from travel to the politics in Europe and the United States, our perspectives and views on our countries, and about school and work. Once the conversation started to die down around 23:00 or so, they decided that they really wanted to do something despite the weather and were itching to go out and search for the auroras. At that point, I was like… Uh, really?? It’s storming outside. And cold. And late. And I’m tired… But of course, knowing me, I decided, what the heck, I’ll just join for fun and just hang out because it would be time better spent than sitting on my bed.

The initial half hour of searching wasn’t too fruitful. Clouds were everywhere and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The only thing we had going for us was that the snow had stopped for a little bit. We drove randomly around until we found a dark place to stop along the coast and decided to leave the car and attempt to find the northern lights in the small patches of clear sky we would see from time to time. At first, nothing. Then, I noticed some wispy, different-colored clouds in the distance. That’s gotta be it, I thought to myself, since I had seen similar wispy clouds in Reykjavik. And with my camera, bam! THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! It was really subtle at this point in the night, but the fact that we could see anything at all was astonishing!

So, with that little bit of hope instilled within us, we continued driving and searching. Shortly after witnessing the first bit of auroras, we stopped and looked to the sky again. And the Lights were becoming more and more apparent through and between the cloud cover! Then they became stronger and stronger! Excitement overcame us all because who would’ve thought that tonight of all nights would be a night of auroras! Especially since we were the only ones crazy enough to go out and search for them tonight! And wow, the Northern Lights were crazy amazing!! Even though it was cloudy the entire night! And even though the weather changed every 10 minutes from a calm winter night to wind gales, hail, and snowstorms! The lights were so intense tonight that we could see them dancing around and above the clouds in the night sky! And we saw strong streaks of it everywhere, sometimes lighting up to a very visible green before disappearing into the darkness! WOW! I couldn’t believe I was seeing such a spectacular sight! And imagine what it would’ve been like had there been no clouds tonight!

And for almost 4 hours, we drove around the area and stopped for photos as we saw the Lights. At some points, the auroras were coming down in slightly different colors than the green I had been seeing! It was jaw-breakingly unbelievable! So this is what it's supposed to look like!!! And this is what I’m supposed to take a photo of! And, the funniest thing that night was that the Italians actually weren’t sure how they would capture the Northern Lights on their camera and phones. So, I stepped back and did some photography teaching so that they could capture some good photos of the Lights to provide proof that they saw what they had come up to Lofoten to see! And they learned quickly and got some awesome shots of the Lights!

What an adventure with the Italians! What a night!

5 Things I Learned Today:

1. Airport Lounge access is quite nice. A nice, comfy, relaxing space to sit in without being bothered. Food and drinks are free, saving a ton of money. It feels nice to be pampered! And this must be what it feels like to be rich!

2. Single fixed-winged airplanes are small and as a result, can feel a TON of turbulence. So much that sometimes, you pray and hope for the best.

3. “Rorbuer/Rorbu” is a word you see all over the Lofoten archipelago. They are traditional Norwegian fishing huts (most of the time red, but can be yellow and other colors too) used by fishermen and are the beautiful huts you see all over Lofoten.

4. Lofoten is similar and different in many ways when compared to the Westfjords. I think Lofoten is prettier because of the sharper peaks and shallower fjords that allow for much prettier photos to be taken!

5. When you see intense Northern Lights, they are absolutely stunning. And when they are dancing, the are absolutely amazing! And never count out the Lights in bad weather. Because if wind blows hard enough and pushes the clouds out of way quickly, you can get intermittently clear skies and auroras in between the clouds!

[go-ahmad-universe]

Back From Bangkok, Despite Red Shirts and Red Faces

I recently returned from ten years in Bangkok, the cash of Thailand. While there, I discovered that I knew very little about Thai politics, certainly not enough to know who the Red Shirts were or why they were verifying in Bangkok. Being giveaways in a ore when something out of the ordinary is episodes tends to center one's consideration on that channeling not only during the visit but also subsequent to it. For me, I seem to gain a vested interest in a position if I was there during an important event. For this reason, my understanding of Thai politics began replacing during my visit there. Now back home, I remain interested in chasing the news of the anti-government protests of the Red Shirts in Bangkok.

In January 2010, I started estimation a month-long traveling to India. At the same time I managed to convince a good pal keep in Sydney to meet me in Bangkok after my travels in India. We agreed to meet in Bangkok the second week of March. Our plans consisted of stopping for four nights in Bangkok before voyage down to a shore supply south of Pattaya for a further four nights. Our end two era would be spent in Bangkok before flying home. Not surprisingly, our plans didn't always follow the line we expected them to due to the political unrest in Bangkok.

My supporter was already aware from the Australian media that the Thai government expected protests and possible clashes with a escape called the Red Shirts around the time we were nomination in Bangkok. Coming from London, I don't remember interpretation or hearing anything closely the politics in Thailand that would have alerted me to any future trouble. My pal wrote me a worried email about three weeks before we were to meet in Bangkok. She read of the ascension uneasiness of the Thai authority and other Asian states regarding the proposed anti-government demonstrations. I, again, brushed off her concerns. It wasn't until we were in Bangkok that I realised things were more serious than I theory and that she was advantage in creature concerned!

I arrived in Bangkok from Delhi on Tuesday morning, 9 March 2010, with my supporter entrance scores hours later from Sydney. We were halting at the Davis Hotel in the eastern segment of Bangkok for four nights. I heard nothing closely any showing at the international airport, from the taxi driver or from the hotel pole when I arrived. The two of us started our sightseeing of Bangkok on Wednesday and Thursday, tour by river receptacle and skytrain to the various sights. It was only late Thursday that we started to get the news that the 'Red Shirts' hoped to have a million demonstrators for their weekend protests. Our hotel beam recommended that we stay around the hotel on Friday as they didn't know what to expect. We took their suggestion and listened approx to the news to see if we would have soups leaving the city the next morning for the seaside. There were already reports of group massing in Bangkok for the weekend demonstrations. At the same time, the reports indicated that the numbers visage to appeal were scads smaller than expected.

The next day we left for Jomtien Beach just south of Pattaya Beach. Again we saw no mark of trouble. There were no prevention or police-blocks on the lane as we left the city nor as we hordes on the motorway down to Pattaya. During the weekend, we began hearing more closely demonstrations, the measure of the crowds and the rhetoric of the head of the Red Shirts. It was reported that instead of a million demonstrators only about 100,000 Red Shirt demonstrators had turned up in Bangkok by Sunday. We learned that the low numbers were due, in part, to the authority blockades of all access roadstead to Bangkok from the northern rural areas.

It may be that you are now wondering, "What are these coloured shirts in Thailand? Who are the Red Shirts? Are they different from the Yellow Shirts?" Let me explain: As a generality, the Red-shirts are supported by the rural populace and the urban poor. The Red Shirts are also known as the 'United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship' (UDD). They supported the former prime clerk of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, Thaksin Shinawatra, because they believed he cared what happened to them and listened to their problems. Despite PM Thaksin's billions of dollars in wealth, he is considered a victor to the downtrodden Thais. Not surprisingly, the Red Shirts supported the next two prime ministers chosen by the same government: Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat. There are also pro-democracy activists participating in the tides showing who disagree with the legal establishments of the 2006 military coup which ousted PM Thaksin.

The Red Shirts fundamental faith is that the betrayal rule of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is illegitimate because it came to durability after disputed forums rulings dissolved two elected pro-Thaksin governments, chasing the 2006 military coup. They misses the turning legislature dissolved and new polling held.

The Yellow Shirts are mainly middle-class and urban elites who food the tendency authority of PM Abhisit. The Yellow Shirts are one of Thailand's active political groups, the 'People's Alliance for Democracy' (PAD). They are sometimes joined by an anti-Red Shirt aviation which attracts senate employees, middle-class families, academics and some low-wage workers. In previous performance by the Yellow Shirts', there has generally been more rage and confrontation.

What is incubation the turning Red Shirts' demonstration? In a quick and somewhat superficial history lesson of Thai politics, I system out the following dates and deed in an probation to type this very complicated story of decay and short-lived rule in Thailand slightly more comprehensible:

In 2006, the Yellow Shirts led protests against the then prime delegate of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, because of alleged corruption. Mr. Thaksin became prime minister of Thailand in 2001. Prior to becoming prime minister, Mr. Thaksin earned billions of dollars in telecom ventures. PM Thaksin was supported by the Red Shirts. In September 2006, PM Thaksin was ousted by a military coup amidst various charges of corruption. He moved to Britain shortly after where he remained until October 2008. It was not until after more than a year of military control that new elections were held in Thailand in December 2007. February 2008, an colleague of Mr. Thaksin's, Samak Sundaravej, was sworn in as the new prime minister. The Red Shirts supported this government, too. In August 2008 there were protests by the anti-government Yellow Shirts culminating in a three-month occupation of certain appellation composition by the protestors. This maintenance continued through the November living of the Bangkok airports. September 2008, Prime Minister Samak was dismissed under a Constitutional Court ruling due to a confrontation of interest in consenting payments for his impression on a popular Thai cooking show. Following PM Samak's dismissal, Somchai Wongsawat (the brother-in-law of Mr. Thaksin, prime delegate until 2006) was sworn in as the new prime minister. In October 2008 the Supreme Court of Thailand found Mr. Thaksin guilty in absentia and was sentenced to two days in incarceration for a corrupt world deal. Following his conviction, Mr. Thaksin left his residence in Britain for Hong Kong. Somewhat surprisingly, Mr. Thaksin also owned the Manchester City football club for slightly more than a year onset in mid-2007 during his short postponements in Britain. Beginning on 25 November 2008, the anti-government Yellow Shirts invaded and occupied Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport before also convention the Don Murng airport down the road. As sliver of the Yellow Shirts' plan to power PM Somchai to resign, their livelihood was to prevent Somchai from returning to Thailand from the APEC Summit in Peru. The Yellow Shirts refused to leave the airports unless a change of government took place. On 2 December 2008, Thailand's Constitutional Court met the demands of the Yellow Shirts by judgment the country's government guilty of alternative fraud. The forums ruled that PM Somchai was banned from politics and demanded that his sects be dissolved. On 3 December 2008, the Yellow Shirts' nourishment of the airports ended. 17 December 2008, Abhisit Vejjajiva, a emulators of Mr. Thaksin and his two successors, formed a new rule and became prime minister. In April 2009, the Red Shirts staged a brief protocol to oust the rule of PM Abhisit. There were synopsis riots following the Red Shirts' attempts to storm the Asean summit. February 2010 Thailand's Supreme Court ruled that US$1.4 billion of Mr. Thaksin's frozen properties in Thailand (more than half of these assets) be seized by the court based on unanimously verdict Mr. Thaksin guilty on five numbering of corruption. On 12 March 2010 the Red Shirts began assembling for weekend protests on 13 & 14 March in Bangkok. The conductor stated that they would stay in Bangkok for five days in a move designed to credits the current rule to call new elections. Reports stated that Mr. Thaksin was seat these protests and he was foothold the flap for the Red Shirts participation. 22 April 2010, the Red Shirts continued to remain in the way and worsening fury occurred when five M-79 ammo are short from near the Red Shirts' encampment. At least 86 group were wounded and one killed. 28 April 2010, one Thai mass was shot dead in a clash north of Bangkok between rule troops and Red Shirts. Two days before, PM Abhisit said his authority was jostling out of patience. On 29 April 2010, the Yellow Shirts intend to submit demands to PM Abhisit to might the 'situation' with the Red Shirts if no decision has been reached by that date.

Back to My Story During our stay at Jomtien Beach, we snapped up every allusion of the Bangkok protests from journal stories, TV reports and also from the resort's staff. While there wasn't any apparent wrath against others, the tendency prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, rejected any demands for dissolving his government. Several days after our arrival, the ante was upped by the Red Shirts. Nattawut Saikua, a leads of the Red Shirts, called for a murder obscenity against "the government, the aristocrats and the powerful people". Protestors were encouraged to give existence to be thrown on different rule buildings.

On Tuesday, 16 March, huge containers of collected life were thrown on different rule sites including the prime minister's residence. There were also reports of the huge company by the moniker to prevent any of this blood, some of which may have been contaminated, from procuring the water table beneath Bangkok. Hearing roughly this life curse made this award even more surreal and macabre. Our own plans for our conclusion night in Bangkok were thrown in disarray. We began worrying whether the hotel we booked in the financial territory of Bangkok would be caught up in the protests. We decided to cancel our booking at this hotel and made a new one at the Davis Hotel where we first stayed. The next day when we heard about the murder obscenity the owners of the resource suggested we cancel our controversy at the Davis hotel as the prime minister's adjustment was nearby. We then chose a third hotel at the limit of the financial district, ing nearer to the outpouring which we hoped was out of area of protests.

We herdsman back to Bangkok for our end two age in the capital. We saw no signs of any defense and felt a breaths foolish for replacing hotels so dozens times. There seemed to other cars especially as we reached the streets of Bangkok. Transportation, including public buses and skytrains seemed to be operating as usual. We were untouched by any demonstrations. While we didn't continue with our general sightseeing plans, we did explore our local community. It was only as we waste out to the Suvarnabhumi International Airport to leave that we saw military jeeps closing off several lanes of lane leading up to the airport.

What we learned in Bangkok from speaking to Thais performance in restaurants, shops, and taxis was that bulk of them supported the Red Shirt demonstrations. This rather surprised me as I plan they would be supportive of former PM Thaksin since he was found guilty of many enumeration of corruption. There seemed to be several reasons for this support. First, I heard several Thai group opinion their maintenance for the Red Shirts' protest was due to the lack of aggression and wrath of its members. The Red Shirts were viewed as being peaceful and passive. This was in direct contrast to the protests by the Yellow Shirts one and two age prior when the performance were violent and aggressive. A helper reason for the maintenance of the Red Shirts' struggle was that those in the lower levels of the economy, including shopworkers and taxicab drivers and those keep and usage in the country, haven't felt represented by the more urban elite in Bangkok, whose part included aristocrats. Another discernment given by someone in teaching was that Thai politics had taken a dangerous turn since the 2006 military coup. This person believed that chasing the coup, the government had silenced the voices appearance from the woman swathe of Thai society. The voices had been silenced using different laws to squash free dialect and avoid a candid debate. There are sign that there are those in the military who are sympathetic to the Red Shirts' cause. In very simplistic terms, the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts represent a station struggle.

Personally, I felt sorry for the Thai people who still remain friendly and warm towards the tourists that come to their country. Since my fool visit to Bangkok 13 days ago, they also seemed to be more wary and even a air weary. I impression this distancing was because they were disillusioned with tourists but now I think they were wondering what was happening with their government. They are hardworking and class clan who poverty to be heard and also have a stable government. Their recent authority have neither lasted nor generally been truthful. Time will tell whether the tendency authority led by PM Abhisit follows its immediate forefather or it finds its own, straighter path.

For more about https://gurlyapparel.com/ visit our site 

[unillama04-blog]

So I have chronic health issues so I spend a lot of time in hospital. Last year I spent 6 months collectively in the hospital. I’ve had mental health issues since I was 8. I tied a belt around my neck and to the bed, medication induced psychosis. I don’t remember it from the day after it. And then I had to go to camhs.

Which wasn’t good. From age 9 and a half I’ve been deeply suicidal, just thinking back to summer 2016, I was 11. I had a diary that I hid in my room. And I remember every single entry for the summer had me saying I wanted to kill myself. Then when I went to school I grabbed my diary and chucked it into an outdoor bin. I don’t think I will ever move on from that guilt.

Last year was a shit show. January I only did 2 weeks at school as my disease was back and was waiting on tests. On my last day a was out into a headlock and the girl punched the crap out of. When I was at home I had vile online bullying. My school told my parents to involve the police.

February I was rushed to hospital with a bad infection and catastrophic levels of inflammation in my intestines. I was in for 5 weeks. I was told I needed an emergency test, but the soonest they could get was 11 days as I had to have meds 3 days before so I couldn’t keep waiting every day for a slot it had to be scheduled. So I went home for 11 days. During that time I had tickets for panic at the disco I was so excited. So excited. But I was to sick to go so my family went. I told them it was fine but I sobbed at home, I was tube fed in pain and was missing out.

Then I had the procedure in April, I was told my intestines were really bad. My body was using up my medication to fast so it was ineffective and that I’d need surgery soon rather than later as if it was left I’d end up critical and needing emergency surgery. All that year I had no support from camhs, list in the system yet again. I had a new worker as mine had gone on maternity leave. Leading up to the descion of surgery my surgeon kept doubting me and saying I should have a few months of psychological support before surgery. And maybe some of my pain was psychological which when they did the op they found out it wasn’t. You can’t have poor mental health and have chronic illness as then the drs just say it’s all your fault and all in your head. I had to fight for surgery and screaming at my parents for agreeing at first with my surgeon. I was fighting for a better life. But what they didn’t see was me wrecked in my bedroom repaying hold on just until surgery. Because I had enough of my disease. I was so close to self harm but if I did I knew my surgery would of been called off. The blade and scissors pressed against my skin many times but I never dragged it to create the cut.

I had my surgery in June. It was horrible. I was in agony and ended up in the critical care unit. I was drowning in dry land. My body went out of control and my lungs filled with fluid. My stomach had temporarily paralysed. My parents didn’t visit me as much. Because of the stomach I was struggling to eat or drink and I wasn’t weened off my tube feeds so in July I was transferred to the medical ward. Sometimes I really wish that I never left critical care breathing.

July came, my dads birthday was on the 6th and there was so much pressure to be joke for his birthday it was degrading. Just eat. But every time I ate I felt so sick and was in agony. I was on pump feeds but I kept turning the pump off as it hurt too much. I got into trouble a lot for it. I was told I could go home for my dads birthday but couldn’t. And then the enormous pressure as it was my sisters 18th on the 10th and her party on the 13th. I was promised I’d be out for her birthday and I wasn’t. Her birthday Wednesday the 10th July, was when everything started snowballing. My family went out for a meal, it was all over Facebook it looked amazing. They was having so much fun. And I was stuck in a hospital bed. I was so fustraited as I had been promised I could go home for her birthday.

That night there was a girl brought in for self harm thoughts. She wasn’t supposed to be on my ward she should of been on the general med ward not complex health. I was already feeling low and hearing that stuff just made everything worse. That night I snapped a razor and it was horrible. I managed to not self harm. Then Thursday evening I was doubled over in agony it was horrible so Friday I was just wiped out. And couldn’t fake any smiles. So a student nurse who looks after me a lot came to ask me if I was okay as staff was concerned and they knew I was under camhs. She explained about her depression and I said about what had almost happened. She quoted the confidentiality crap. But I thought bcus I hadn’t done anything nobody would need to know.

But it had to be reported. then the next day was Saturday the 13th. And my consultant cane to see me and I was in a foul mood bcus if my sisters birthday. And she said “Ellie I’ve heard some very disturbing reports from the nursing staff a hour how your feeling” I asked about the home leave and doged the camhs crap. And it was horrible. I managed to get home leave for the night but had to go back to the hospital. The only doctor in the team who let me as I’ve missed out on so much. And they kept promising me that I’d be discharged.

Well I surpised my sister it was an amazing moment, but i can’t ever think of that moment and not get upset. Everyone was happy to see me. It was nice but I couldn’t eat and I had been moved to bolus feeds which were really hard. And they were all pressuring me to eat. I had to go to bed and leave the part early. I felt like utter shit. Like I had let everyone down. I was really trying to hold off the self harm. Thinking what about mum and dad like I always try when that comes into my head or if I have suicidal thoughts. But it wasn’t enough I was in my room by 9, and by 12 I couldn’t cope. Couldn’t cope with other pressures behind the scenes. Couldn’t cope with the pain. I had all the psychological crap. And I had surgery I just underestimated recover pains. I wanted to feel something. I wanted to feel pain see it fucking understand it control and stop it. I couldn’t understand anything else.

I had razors in my room but it was too late to snap them. So I used pins sissors. I was so ashamed come the morning. I couldn’t eat breakfast, more pressure. And had to pack to go back to the hospital. I had a shower. It hurt so much. That was so mentally hard. Because I had cut just before I got into the shower. As my sister had a surprise holiday reviled for the next day was so excited. Her and my mum was going abroad. I was happy for her I had knew for ages. But my dad and brother (the only ones that’s be left at home) were planning what they was going to do whilst my mum and sister was away. And my brother said “it’s like I’ve got 1 sister anyway as Ellie is never here” he has autism and didn’t mean it to cause hurt. But it was a moment I fully realised I don’t fit into the family picture. I don’t belong in just a strain on what they want to do.

With all this I was on 1-1 in the hospital whilst they got me stable mentally and physically. I was cutting a lot when I got to the hospital it was out of control I didn’t want to keep doing it but I couldn’t help it. The Sunday my nurse had noticed my ankles whilst doing my feed I said it was nothing and put them under the blanket. Then the Monday came and I was just very bad. Tuesday I turned to a trusted nurse and quietly explained. She took the blades. It’s a children’s ward I felt really shit. For how I felt and what I did. I made sure it was something I child would never really pick up. Or find. In a packet of pocket tissues. Shoved in a sick bowl (empty)

The Wednesday came and they had to tell dad. It was a shit show. I begged if they could wait until Sunday. But they couldn’t. My dad went mental called me an attention seeker he later realised it wasn’t. It was horrible. On the Sunday night when my mum and sister where flying back I got really worked up and scratched so hard 6 repetitive I’ve lined wnd one just huge mess. I didn’t realise at first because I was so anxious but afterward I went oh fuck. Because there was no getting around that one as it was my hands/wrist. On the Monday my mum had a massive conversation about my self harm and came around and she had her own history that was personal that she told me which broke my heart. She came and visited me on the Tuesday it was a massive surprise. I met her at the lifts at the end of my ward I was pushing my wheel chair. It was July so it was boiling and I didn’t have my hoodie so I couldn’t hide it.

Mum saw and flipped her shit, it broke my heart. Before we had gotten half way across the hall after being in the lifts my dad stormed off to the ward because he was furious with me. There was a massive kick off. She said that if I self harmed again she’d make sure I get sectioned. My mood abd tiufht we’re low and I opened up to the hospital psychologist abd was honest and was on 1-1.

Now it’s April 2020 and I asked to borrow a pair of scissors to change a medical dressing. It was handed over that I had them and the nurse took them off of me. Then I asked to borrow some for my cross stitch and my nurse said your not keeping them you have to give them back give your history. I have self harmed since July but badly and made sure it wasn’t too deep etc. I’m 3 almost 4 months clean. Yet I’m still treated like a head case. At this stage I just wanna die I’ve had enough as I can take of this life

[gwynversionone]

Gwyn V1.0 Pt 2: Transition to De-Transition

CONTENT WARNING: De-Transitioning, Dysphoria

So, somewhere around November of 2012 (I actually went into my old Facebook to get timestamps this time) I was starting to present as myself. I didn’t really “come-out” to people for a few more months but I didn’t stop myself from dressing and acting how I wanted to. My mother and almost everyone else I lived with may have insisted on dead-naming me but, I only got mis-gendered around 25% of the time by them. I actually found comfort in the fact that people would apologize when they realized they referred to me as “he,” it made the experience “more real” for me. It was about this time that I was accepted into a social group at my college. Dorks who would hang out in the cafeteria playing Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic, luckily I was already in to the former and was easily brought in to the circle.

Around February of 2013 I had decided to let everyone I hung out with know that I was a trans woman and that I would like to be called Cassadee. To my utter surprise I was met with absolutely zero resistance. This was the point where I was truly able to begin to be myself as I had a genuine support system in these people after this point. I won’t lie, I’d really like to name names in some kind of self-indulgent attempt to reconnect with these people but, I haven’t talked to any of them since the day I had to de-transition and it would seem so out of place to attempt that through here. I would however, like to share a memory (that is depicted in the video I will release 7/13/18). Some where near the end of February we had a random “snow-storm” that shut down our community college for the day (North Carolina has no idea how to deal with even a remote amount of snow.) I remember we had all decided to meet and just drive around town looking for whatever card game related items we were interested in. I knew that one of my friends was in the hair technician program at our school, so I figured I’d go for broke and ask them to add some highlights to my hair. They were happy enough to oblige and that night we got the needed materials from a local beauty store (I actually remember the exact store we went to.) I wanted my hair to resemble Cassadee Pope’s (who was actually the person I derived my name from) and my friend delivered in a great way. I remember that I almost cried when I looked in the mirror after we were done, it looked perfect. This look didn’t actually last me very long as I was finally able to convince my mother to bleach my hair completely blonde about a month later.

My shift into blonde-dom (if you’ll permit me to use the phrase) was another turning point for me, as blonde was seen as “the most feminine hair color” in my mind. Once I was blonde there was absolutely no way that someone would mis-gender me! Honestly, it kind of worked, even my peers at school that I wasn’t out to began to be curious about the rapid change in self-expression I began to show. A few people eventually began to use my preferred name and pronouns as well. It was this new found confidence that allowed me to finally wear a bikini (around the above-ground pool that we owned) and I also started dating as Cassadee at this point also. I had friends who I’d hang out with and go shopping, who would encourage me to buy what I wanted to wear and who would push me to not bend to anyone else, they actually helped me use a “women’s dressing room” for the first time. These experiences were amazing and I do look back on them fondly now but, if my life was going to be a roller coaster then drops come immediately after the peaks.

The first low-point I had since I began transitioning was in July of 2013, when I was informed that we couldn’t afford to maintain my blonde hair any more. This is somewhat understandable as an adult today, I didn’t have a job or any finances of my own and we never really had an abundance of wealth of our own. So I decided to dye my hair black, as it required no maintenance and I didn’t want to witness all my natural brown hair overtake the blonde. I instantly went into a dysphoric state. This hurt more than I could express. It was around this time that whenever I felt any kind of deep-cutting pain that I just got another tattoo. This is very much why I have so many vapid and dis-interesting tattoos that I despise. Some time near October of 2013 we ended up moving to escape my then step-father’s infidelities. This move resulted in more depression past what I had already experienced and this caused me to miss registration for my next college semester. I decided to cut my hair shorter and get it closer to it’s natural hair color as a way to cope with these feelings.

Near the middle of December I think my mother noticed how miserable I was becoming, I was never leaving the house and couldn’t visit my friends as often seeing as gas was getting to be too costly. However illogical this may seem though, she found money in the monthly budget to pay for me to DIY my HRT. I was through the roof! I had spent the last few months trying to wear her down on the issue as I had been doing extensive research into it. This part of the story does come with a disclaimer by the way: I’m not going to encourage or advocate for DIY. I am also not going to dissuade you from taking the necessary steps to live a happy life. DIY was pretty expensive and honestly if I was doing everything over I’d convince younger me to get a job to aid in financing the endeavor. January 19th of 2014 I began using Estraidiol and Spironolactone. I was ecstatic and decided to take a picture every day to chronicle any changes I had. This lasted for maybe a week before my un-medicated ADHD just kind of made me uninterested in doing it. I actually stopped taking pictures almost all together as I was convinced at the beginning of the month to chop off all my hair because I dyed it so much. I hated the result that came from the haircut and subsequent re-bleaching of it (because clearly the excuse used to get me to cut my hair was so damn valid.)

The last part of this story is going to get very, very sad. I just want to give any reader the fairest of warnings possible. After all, how often has someone de-transitioned because they “wanted” to? I lasted 3 months on HRT before I was told we couldn’t afford it anymore. This was the most brutal and final blow my ego could handle. I went out and got a monroe piercing and a nostril piercing, at this moment doing anything to keep the slightest grip on my “femininity” as I spiraled into a horribly dark episode of dysphoria and depression. I stopped wearing makeup altogether shortly after the month of April, when I realized that I had no more energy left in me to fight. I started just accepting that I was being pushed out of my life, out of my own happiness. The month of September wasn’t particularly eventful until my mother told me I needed to make a “male” Facebook account (at the time I was still using “Cassadee’s” account, hoping I could go back to who I was) due to her talking to my biological father and needing a way to show him and his family the son he never got to see grow up (just typing that last part makes me sick.) September 25th 2014 was the last day I took a picture for my old account, I subsequently made it the profile picture for my new account as well. I held on to all my old clothes and even my unfinished bottle of spironolactone, always clutching to the thought of “being able to pick everything back up, whenever I had my own job and life.” It took another year before I tossed out all my clothes and makeup and another year before I tossed my grand-prize trophy, the bottle of spiro. Still unfinished, but somehow just as empty as I was.

[rickhorrow]

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 4

with Jamie Swimmer & Jesse Leeds Grant

The revenue the Golden Knights have pumped into the NHL will "help deliver the largest salary cap increase" since 2014. According to TSN.ca., NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the current projection for the 2018-2019 salary cap upper limit "remains between" $78-82 million. Even if the NHL and NHLPA "decide not to enact an inflator, that means the salary cap will rise" at least $3 million from this season’s $75 million. The cap has risen an average of $2 million over "each of the last three summers, with revenue remaining mostly flat." League-wide revenue is approaching $5 billion per season, and the success of not just the Golden Knights, but "also a 31st team in general, has helped." Said Daly, “There’s a lot of revenue certainly generated by the Las Vegas franchise. Certainly on their jersey sales and licensed merchandise, it’s off the charts…It’s an amazing story in every category.” Meanwhile, Game 1 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals between the Capitols and Golden Knights handed NBC Sports an average of 5.279 million viewers across NBC, the NBC Sports app, and NBCSports.com, making it the most-watched Game 1 in three years. Overall, the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs remain the most-watched in 21 years, and are on track to be the highest-revenue series of the current era as well.

This year’s NBA Playoffs have been incredibly successful for the league from a viewership standpoint thus far, and the Finals appear to be no different. According to SportsBusiness Journal, as LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers continue their battle against Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors for the fourth year in a row, the NBA is able to celebrate its best playoff viewership since 2012. Through the conference finals, TNT, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and NBA TV averaged 4.6 million viewers for the 77 telecasts, coming in just short of the 4.9 million average six years ago. The NBA Playoffs have also “won the night on cable TV nearly 92% of the time (34 of 37 nights)” this year. Two of the most-watched contests were the Game 7 matchups in both Eastern and Western Conferences, which averaged just under 9 million viewers apiece. The Warriors-Rockets Game 7 ultimately finished with 14.8 million viewers, “marking the second-best figure for an NBA game in cable TV history.” Starting with a thrilling Game 1 in Oakland, won by the Warriors, this year’s Finals could produce higher ratings than even initially expected.

As the French Open enters its second week, Amazon is set to agree to a two-year deal for the exclusive global broadcast rights to the Laver Cup. Sources told the Australian Financial Review that the agreement will allow the tech giant to show the three-day international team tennis tournament on its Prime Video subscription service. Plans for associated content, including behind-the-scenes videos and a related mini-series, will reportedly also be included. The Laver Cup, which launched last year, is named after Australian tennis icon Rod Laver. It is owned and operated by Team8, the management company set up by Roger Federer and his long-time agent Tony Godsick, in conjunction with Tennis Australia and the USTA. In a format reminiscent of golf’s Ryder Cup, the competition pits ‘Team World’ against ‘Team Europe’, who were captained last year by John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg respectively. This year's Laver Cup is due to be held in Chicago in September. News of the latest deal comes as Amazon continues to expand its portfolio of tennis broadcast rights. Last year, it outbid Sky Sports for rights to the ATP World Tour in the UK, while it also won rights to the U.S. Open in that market for the next five years.

Minor League Baseball has partnered with EVERFI to bring a summer learning course to rising fifth grade students in key markets. The digital course, Summer Slugger, teaches students literacy and math skills through the game of baseball. Multiple MiLB clubs will participate in the pilot, which will reach thousands of students including the Las Vegas 51s, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the Charlotte Knights, the Lexington Legends, the Charleston RiverDogs, and the Omaha Storm Chasers. On May 22, the Omaha Storm Chasers hosted a program launch event at Gateway Elementary School with 240 students. The Las Vegas 51s also hosted a launch event on May 10 at Eva G. Simmons Elementary School, with 270 students. Minor league baseball has always been known for its innovation, creativity, and family-friendly atmosphere. The deal with EVERFI takes that mindset from the ballpark to the classroom, aided by an equally creative, innovative partner.

As the U.S. Open prepares to tee off at Shinnecock next week, Tagmarshal, the golf course intelligence and pace-of-play system, is operational at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club. Pinehurst is a former U.S. Open host, host of the 2019 U.S. Amateur Championship, and one of Golf Digest’s top-five courses worldwide. With more single golf championships than any other site in America and nine challenging golf courses, Pinehurst will enhance its already renowned player experience by using Tagmarshal’s sophisticated geo-tagging and pace algorithm software. Partnering with Tagmarshal gives courses proven operational efficiencies, while superintendents use Tagmarshal data to better manage pin placements, wear patterns, and hole set-ups. Equipped with these vital statistics, some courses can expect to see a 15-17 minute decrease for each round and increased maintenance efficiency. Recent system installments across the country have led to 70% of rounds being played on pace or within five minutes of target goal times. Top-ranked courses trusting Tagmarshal include Carnoustie (The 2018 Open Championship), The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort (2021 PGA Championship), Whistling Straits, and more. The amount of time it takes to play a round of golf is one of the sport’s major deterrents, so any innovation that leads to quicker play will only benefit the industry as a whole.

The NFL has repeatedly stated its intent to stay out of politics, though President Trump’s criticism of players protesting the national anthem this season “pushed the league to shift its stance” on the issue. According to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump’s repeated and direct criticism of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem ultimately resulted in team owners making private “political calculations” in response to the president’s strong words. “This is a very winning, strong issue for me,” Trump told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones last year. “Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.” Multiple owners, including Miami Dolphins Owner Stephen Ross, cited their support for the players up until Trump made his comments. “He changed the dialogue,” said Ross. The NFL pushed back against Trump’s comments last season, but the decision to change the policy this year came from the owners themselves – most of whom lean conservative and many of whom have backed Trump with campaign contributions.

The NFL stadium being built in Los Angeles could find its way into the regular rotation of Final Four hosts, much to the dismay of Phoenix. According to the Arizona Republic, the Chargers and Rams’ new stadium, which is expected to cost as much as $4.963 billion, is becoming an “attractive option” for one of the country’s biggest annual sporting events. Los Angeles is currently one of seven cities bidding to land a Final Four over a four-year span, competing against Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, and Indianapolis. “There is interest in Los Angeles,” said NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee member Tom Burnett. “And as I’ve told the others, we have a math issue here. There’s a presumption that Indianapolis will get one of those because of their NCAA arrangement, so (it could be) six for three years.” This past year’s Final Four in San Antonio delivered an economic impact of $185 million, and the 2017 rendition in Phoenix turned out an impressive $324.5 million positive impact. With the warm Los Angeles weather and a state-of-the-art stadium in the works, L.A. sits as a serious contender to land a Final Four in the near future.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to legalize sports betting across all 50 states will impact more than professional sports leagues – it will also have a direct effect on college athletics. According to SportsDay, Big 12 presidents and athletic directors recently got a crash course on the ruling and how it will play out on a collegiate level. With a conference as geographically spread out as the Big 12, different universities will be forced to react in different ways to the ruling depending on how their respective states elect to handle the issue. “Well, in all frankness, I wish I knew how it was going to affect the landscape,” said Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. “You just look at our footprint. We have five different states that are going to have five different sets of rules and laws.” Just as multiple professional leagues have already noted, universities are beginning to talk about pushing for an “integrity fee,” hoping that the fee would be put toward “enhanced compliance and gambling education.” With college athletic department funding mostly down at all but the power conferences top-tier schools, it goes unsaid that sports gambling integrity fees could also put some much-needed revenue into AD coffers.

A new economic impact report claims that Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis brought in “net new spending” of $370 million to the Twin Cities. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Super Bowl celebration that lasted from January 26-February 4 in Minnesota delivered on its promised economic impact, coming in $50 million over initial pre-event projections. The $370 million can largely be attributed to the $179 million spent by broadcast and event planners – the most ever for a Super Bowl. The ultimate number was reached “after subtracting about $80 million for displaced tourism (people who were kept away from the area by the event).” The number, which is still being disputed by a few parties, confirms that Minnesota – Minneapolis and St. Paul specifically – know how to host mega sporting events successfully and profitably, boding well for the 2019 Final Four also being held at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Milwaukee Bucks are on the verge of signing a naming rights partner for their new $524 million downtown arena. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the Bucks are working to finalize the deal with Fiserv, a Wisconsin-based financial tech firm, that could be worth as much as $6 million per year for 20 years. If agreed up by both parties, the Bucks’ new home could become either Fiserv Arena or the Fiserv Center, though no ultimate ruling has been made public yet. The Bucks had initially been looking for more money in their search for a suitable naming rights partner, prompting them to walk “away from the same deal with similar terms within the past year.” “We certainly have been in negotiations with three or four different entities over the last year,” said Bucks President Peter Feigin. The new 17,500-seat arena will host both the Bucks and Marquette University upon opening. Per NBA tradition, there’s likely also an NBA All-Star Game in the future for the Bucks’ new house – February Wisconsin weather notwithstanding.

FC Cincinnati has officially been unveiled as Major League Soccer’s 26th franchise. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the club will begin play in the top flight of American soccer in 2019, marking a significant milestone for a franchise that only joined the USL in 2016. In 16 home games last season at Nippert Stadium, the team averaged an impressive 21,000 fans while also “beating two MLS clubs in the U.S. Open Cup in front of 30,000-plus fans.” Putting that attendance figure into perspective, of the 22 MLS teams in the league last year, only seven had a higher average attendance over the course of the season. A 21,000-seat soccer-specific stadium is currently planned to open for the 2021 season, which should be at capacity each game based on the club’s current trajectory. FC Cincinnati will have to pay a $150 million expansion fee ahead of joining the league, marking a 15-fold hike in price from the $10 million that Toronto FC paid to join MLS only 10 years ago.

Detroit has officially been announced as the host of a new PGA Tour event beginning in June, 2019. According to the Detroit News, Quicken Loans, the title sponsor for the event, helped deliver the news, making the Michigan city a PGA Tour event destination “for the first time ever.” Detroit Golf Club is expected to host the new event, which will replace The National on the PGA Tour’s schedule. Quicken Loans was The National’s title sponsor from 2014-2017, meaning that the Detroit-based company will be able to leverage its extensive presence across its hometown to promote the event. Quicken Loans officials already said that they are “planning for a multi-week event, complete with concerts and other attractions, with the golf tournament as the centerpiece.” The Buick Open hosted in Grand Blanc back in 2009 was the most recent PGA Tour event held in the state of Michigan, so this news comes as a huge positive for the rebuilding city and its state.

The battle between North America and Morocco for hosting rights to the 2026 World Cup is heating up just ahead of the June 13 decision. According to Reuters, the joint bid between the United States, Canada, and Mexico is working relentlessly to fend off Morocco, a “feisty rival” that poses a significant threat due to its African support base. Of the 211 total votes that will be cast by each country’s FA, 54 of those votes come from Africa, Morocco’s home. Because of that, both bids have made the African continent their “primary focus” over the past week or two, with the joint bid trying to steal a few African votes away from Morocco. Liberia has already voiced its support for the North American bid, and South Africa’s government has urged its FA to vote that way as well, citing its “strained relations” with the Moroccan government. The North American bid is poised to generate more than $5 billion in short-term economic activity, per a report from BCG, with individual cities expecting approximately $160-620 million each in incremental economic activity. While these numbers dwarf those expected out of Morocco, FIFA has shown its new desire to factor in more than money when making these decisions. Whichever way the vote falls on June 13, expect continued debate and outcry about it to be part of the soundtrack of the imminent World Cup in Russia.

As the 2018 World Cup in Russia quickly approaches, now less than two weeks away, FIFA remains under heavy scrutiny for awarding Qatar the right to host the 2022 event. According to the London Daily Mail, a watchdog organization recently uncovered more evidence of corruption directly relating to Qatar’s successful bid back in 2010. The Foundation of Sports Integrity said that Qatar’s vote victory was “completely illegitimate” as part of a new investigation. Evidence cites that Qatar paid “millions to members of FIFA’s executive committee as they considered which country would be awarded the tournament.” One confirmed “mystery payment” ahead of the 2010 vote was £3.6 million deposited into Argentine FIFA executive Julio Grondona’s Swiss bank account; Qatar also allegedly paid off a £50 million debt owed by the Argentine FA. Qatar beat out the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Australia to become the smallest nation by area ever to have been awarded a FIFA World Cup, and while bribery has long been alleged as the reason why, as evidence piles up it is quickly morphing from whisper to fact.

Despite being met by some opposition at the onset, Jacksonville Jaguars Owner Shahid Khan’s $1.19 billion bid to buy Wembley Stadium is pushing forward. According to the London Times, there was no “outright opposition” among FA councilors at a recent meeting to discuss the potential sale. English FA CEO Martin Glenn laid out an ambitious vision to the councilors were the sale to go through, as it could result in upwards of $1.3 billion being put into grassroots soccer across the UK by 2030. Also to ease the emotions of the councilors and preserve the sanctity of the historic venue, Glenn confirmed that “any new owner would have to agree to numerous projections until 2057, such as not selling naming rights for the stadium and ensuring the Royal Box remains in place.” “Receiving an offer to sell Wembley Stadium is not a betrayal,” said Glenn of the deal. “It is not selling the soul of the game…What we have in front of us is simply an opportunity.” Expect Khan to prevail in the purchase. But don’t expect him to be moving the Jaguars to London anytime soon.

Tech Top 5

NBA unveils augmented reality 360 Portals. The NBA announced the launch of 360 Portals, a new augmented reality (AR) experience available in the NBA AR app that allows fans to live within memorable, behind-the-scenes moments from the 2018 NBA Playoffs and Finals.  The NBA AR app, which launched for iPhone in October 2017, is now also available for free on Android devices. In addition to featuring AR experiences from the NBA Playoffs, including team huddles, player introductions, and postgame celebrations, 360 Portals will include special on-demand NBA Finals content that will be captured and made available throughout the series.  Using Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore technology, 360 Portals superimposes a virtual door that fans can walk through to immerse themselves in NBA action. Said Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, NBA Executive Vice President, Digital Media, “We hope fans around the world check out the NBA AR app throughout the Finals for a unique perspective on our biggest event of the year.” 360 Portals is the latest AR offering from the NBA.  In October 2017, the NBA became the first U.S. sports league to offer an AR game when it launched virtual pop-a-shot on the NBA AR app.

Youku acquires World Cup streaming rights in China. Youku, a Chinese streaming site owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba, has won Chinese digital streaming rights to the 2018 World Cup. According to Caixin Global, a Beijing-based media site, the streaming site entered into a partnership with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), China’s exclusive World Cup broadcaster. The content deal with CCTV, which holds domestic rights to the national team soccer tournament, will see the Alibaba-owned video hosting service live stream 64 World Cup matches. The agreement also allows Youku to provide online highlights and on-demand content for its users in China. All content will be made available on the Youku mobile app and website, as well as on select smart TVs. The news comes after Migu, a video-streaming company owned by mobile carrier China Mobile, announced in May that it had acquired online rights from CCTV to broadcast the 2018 World Cup, with Chinese media reports estimating the price for the rights at ¥1 billion (US$155.8 million). CCTV holds exclusive media rights to several FIFA competitions between 2018 and 2022, including the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Analytics startup monitors athletes’ off-field behavior. Sports analytics platform Avrij Analytics has raised $1.2 million. The funding was led by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), which invested $500,000 in the company. Technology Ventures Corp and other private and public investors also participated in the round. Launched in 2016, Avrij Analytics’ founders saw the need to develop a sports analytics platform while working as data science consultants in New York. The team said that they returned to New Brunswick to take advantage of the province’s startup resources. Avrij Analytics provides sports organizations with a software platform that tracks, monitors, and predicts an athlete’s off-field behavior. The company’s goal is to protect athletes’ brands and help sports organizations optimize the recruitment and management of their teams. Avrij Analytics takes into account activities like community involvement, an athlete’s online tone of voice, and a player’s charity work. In addition to merely monitoring and monitoring on-line conversations and interactions, Avrij believes it could predict conduct.

IndyCar strikes analytics deal with Hookit. IndyCar, the sanctioning body of the Indianapolis 500, has partnered with leading sponsorship valuation provider Hookit. Through the long-term partnership, Hookit, now the Official Data Supplier of IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will provide insights and evaluation for IndyCar on the performance of its events and promotional campaigns for its sponsors. As part of the partnership with IndyCar, Hookit is providing data and insights to all IndyCar teams, building on the pillars of Innovation and Technology within the series. Kimberly Cook, Chief Revenue Officer at Hookit, praised the partnership, saying, “At Hookit, we continue to grow our presence within the motorsports community and are excited to be partnering with IndyCar which has among the most dedicated fan base in the world, especially in the Indy 500 and at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sponsors are at the core of racing, so helping IndyCar prove the great value it brings along with its fans and teams to its partners is key to continued growth in the sport.”

Arccos provides users analytics for every swing. Arccos, the golf analytics startup that works as a digital caddie, deepened its partnership with Microsoft this week. A brand new model of its app will supply golfers actual-time swing methods and analyses for each shot on any course on earth. By means of an up to date function within the firm’s app, referred to as Arccos Caddie 2.0, the Microsoft Azure-powered service will use synthetic intelligence to supply customers with recommendations about methods and predict outcomes as they work their approach down the golf course. Among the many elements Caddie 2.0 will think about are a consumer’s shot historical past, the historic efficiency of different Arccos customers, climate circumstances comparable to wind velocity and path, elevation modifications, gap geometry, and hazard places. “Your complete sports panorama is being revolutionized by superior analytics, and golf is probably the very best sport for the appliance of those ideas,” stated Arccos CEO Sal Syed, in a press release. “Working with Microsoft, we’re plugging into a really conventional framework—the caddie/participant relationship—and taking it to the subsequent degree via the facility of AI.”

Power of Sports 5

Cal Ripken Jr.'s playing career is best remembered for being baseball's Iron Man, never missing a game for 17 years. His career after baseball has been built on furthering a love for the game. Last Wednesday, according to the Oklahoman, Ripken along with hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni gathered at Oklahoma City’s newly-renovated Southeast High School Sports Complex for its grand unveiling. In partnership with Fields & Futures (backed by Group One Thousand One), the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, and Oklahoma City Public School Athletics, the new field and electronic scoreboard for baseball and softball were unveiled to the public. "This is big league," Ripken said. "This is the same caliber of field that we would've gotten to go out there and play on. If you really get excited about the field you are playing on, you start to do really good things all around." Southeast became the 22nd OKCPS athletic field to be renovated, and became the first to feature a synthetic turf infield. Ripken said it was important to him and his family foundation to partner with Fields & Futures because of its mission of restoring baseball to poorer schools and neighborhoods.

Ronnie Brewer plans annual foundation weekend. Former NBA player Ronnie Brewer will hold his annual charity weekend this week. The Ronnie Brewer Jr. Foundation supports communities in at-risk situations while promoting education, physical fitness, and the importance of working together as a team. This year’s events will begin Friday, June 8 with a bowling tournament at Ozark Bowling Lanes. The weekend events continue on Saturday with the annual gala held at Pratt Place Barn. This year's theme is “A Night with the Stars: The Best of Northwest Arkansas.” The gala will include dancing, local food, and a silent auction. Ronnie Brewer Jr. was motivated to start this foundation because he found it important to give back and support communities in ways he felt supported while he was growing up. Since joining the NBA, Brewer Jr. and his family have dedicated themselves to making a difference in each community in which he has been blessed to reside. While playing pro basketball, Brewer Jr. has managed to support the Salt Lake City, Chicago, and New York City areas. He also provides enormous support to his hometown of Fayetteville.

NFL alumni to host charity event at MetLife Stadium. The RHF Foundation was chosen by the NFL Alumni (NFLA) to host a charity event on June 13th at MetLife Stadium. The event allows attendees to play on a NFLA charity flag football team, which includes playing with and meeting NFL players, a coaching session, field access, photo and autograph opportunities, stadium tours, and Under Armour gear. Guests can also participate in tournaments for cornhole and KanJam. The event will benefit the Ferraro Brothers for Brothers Scholarship Campaign in partnership with the Folded Flag Foundation, as well as Law Enforcement Against Drugs. The NFL Alumni is a charitable organization composed primarily of former professional football players guided in their volunteer efforts by the motto “Caring for Kids.” They serve as passionate advocates for greater quality of life benefits for all former NFL players. The NFLA eagerly pursues greater benefits and the implementation of programmatic services devoted to enhancing the health and productive acuity of retired NFL players and their families.

Aaron Rodgers honored with doctorate for charity work. This week, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers received an honorary doctorate of humanities from the Medical College of Wisconsin. The honor was given in recognition for his commitment to helping children with cancer through his work with the college and the MACC (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer) Fund. There was no public ceremony to recognize Rodgers. "It is with great pride that we welcome Aaron to the MCW community," Dr. John R. Raymond Sr., president and chief operating officer of MCW, said in a statement. "Honorary degree recipients exemplify the MCW commitment to the highest standards of education, scholarship, innovation or community engagement. When conferring an honorary degree, we honor those individuals in our community who have embraced our ideals and have dedicated a substantial portion of their lives to bettering the world around them." According to the school, Rodgers has helped raise $2.8 million in research and continues to make appearances on behalf of the MACC Fund.

Carson Wentz holds charity softball game. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz will hold his first annual charity softball game this week. The event will feature current Eagles players swinging for the fences during a Home Run Derby, followed by a softball game where Eagles offensive players will square off against Eagles defensive players. Funds raised will benefit The Carson Wentz AO1 Foundation, which funds three initiatives. One objective is to support Philadelphia youth by providing service dogs to assist with their development and quality of life. The second objective is to provide food, shelter, and education opportunities to underprivileged youth. The third objective is to offer hunting and outdoor opportunities for individuals with physical challenges or life threatening illnesses or U.S. veterans living in the Midwest. Autographed items can be bid on at a silent auction, which will include meet-and-greet opportunities with Wentz and others, with proceeds being donated to the foundation.

[gartdavis-blog]

Visit to Aguadilla

Friends,

I recently traveled back to the house I grew up in on M street in Ramey. I have followed the state of the island since Maria hit almost 8 weeks ago, and had lots of questions going down, so I thought I’d share my notes…

Travel by air:  I was not able to book in or out of BQN airport… Jetblue flights that run overnight from the states were all cancelled.  So I booked AA through San Juan.  Prices were reasonable on AA, but Jetblue is still the best if you can get a flight.  Easy to find flights down to the island… harder to find them back.  SJU airport was full, but operating normally.  AC was on, and I had no trouble transiting and picking up my rental car.  BQN currently only has had a regular service from Spirit Airlines from FLL.  In theory, service from Jetblue and United will return to BQN before the holidays, but we’ll only know for sure once its happened.  One new feature of BQN - the old ready area where the bombers used to park has been taken over by the US military, and is now a small city of lights with lots of army trucks exiting and entering near the golf course.  Now that the Army’s mission is complete, this may return to its normal empty state.

Connectivity: much better than expected.  I have a Verizon contract and was connected to Claro the moment I powered up at SJU and it remained so all over the North side of the island.  Near Ramey, the connection is actually LTE, which means its been good enough to use my phone as a hotspot for email, research, e-commerce.  I believe that this is partially a result of more than 40 high efficiency solar powered cell stations that were brought to the island by Vanu inc.  (Vanu Bose, the founder of Vanu and the driver of this humanitarian contribution, was the son of Amar Bose of the eponymous corporation. He passed away last week.)  People on AT&T were also on Claro.   I had coverage from San Juan to Mayaguez continuously on Route 2 without interruption.  I wouldn’t count on this to watch netflix, but it was strong and reliable for phone, text, and email.  All of Ramey had coverage.  At this point there is no value in pursuing satellite, but there are various expensive Satellite systems, like this one from Garmin, that keep you in basic communication when you're off the cell grid, but they don't actually replace Internet connection.  There's a great review in there that goes on for pages - its a complicated device.

Travel around the island - Driving from San Juan to Ramey was almost completely normal except for the visuals.  You notice right away that all the outdoor advertising and large signage is gone, and pretty much anything involving wood, corrugated roofing, or poles for any use.  Traditional construction of concrete with metal ventanas is pretty much untouched. The impact is notable in San Juan, but becomes much more dramatic from Arecibo on.  A kinda weird visual - you could tell the worst sections because the buildings looked sandblasted.  Many businesses along #2 were open with generators, or occasionally, a section that had power.  I took the same route to Ramey as I have done, without detours.  Some traffic lights are out, but none of the really important ones where big routes cross.  If you have to turn left at a busted light on rt. 2, just don’t…. turn right and figure it out later.  

Water… is flowing in Ramey and many places around the island, and did not drop out when I was there.  There’s still a boiling order, and when you take a shower you come out smelling like you exited a heavily chlorinated pool.  But regardless, having water is great.  I brought two different filtration systems, one that is gravity based (Lifestraw) and one that you pump.  I bought 4 coleman solar showers, which are basically 5 gallon black plastic bags with nozzles.  Down the road, I’ll try to purchase some water storage, a big cisterns for flushing, and something else for long term storage of potable water, but right now this was not as urgent.

Fuel:  I had no problems getting gas, there were no lines and most gas stations were open.

Groceries: The Econo is open, and even takes credit cards.  As always, its a social center, so budget 3 minutes for talking for every minute of shopping.  The coolers were full and prices are about as I remember them.  I bought a fresh salad that was good!

Restaurants: many are open, though some with a smaller menu or shorter hours.

Open out gate 5:

Levain (daily coffee here was sent from heaven)

Debut

Cofos Pizza

Martin’s BBQ

Cinco

Country Pizza

110 thai

Palmas

Open down the Hill:

eclipse (dinner only, no breakfast or lunch)

The frituras place at the S on the way down to Jobos

Ocean Front and lots of places near Jobos

Julios and lots of the other frituras places on the beach near Isabella

Open out Gate 1:

El Meson

Sasones

Desecheo

Lots of fast food out near #2

Closed:

Umas

Ramey Bakery

Airport cafe

Marriott (they have a small thing set up just for guests)

Beaches: After seeing pics of crashboat online I was concerned that all the beaches were just as hollowed out… not so:

Crash boat: every bit as dramatic as the pics.  Right side is now tiny and not terribly safe, lots of exposed rock under the surf near the jetty.  It seems that a lot of the missing beach was thrown onto the space that was the parking lot… which is now 3-4 feet deep with sand.  I hold out hope that this sand can be pushed back out to re-create some of the old the beach.  The left side you can still park and swim; its smaller but not that different from how it was.  

Malecon Aguadilla: The brand new oceanfront walk seems to have come through entirely unharmed and looks great.

Borinquen beach: Much as beautiful as it always has been.  Only new feature: a military unit desalinating water in the parking lot… impressive operation.

Survival / Martinica / Bajuras / Shacks: the Sand road down the cliff is still intact, though the left turn to go to Survival is completely blocked.  You can go straight across, although its still rainy season and with all the recent dumping its turned into a bit more of a cesspool of garbage and shit than I remember.  It appears that despite the violence of the storm, the waves did not break through the dunes and flood the old sand excavation area - a concern I’d long held.  Once across, you can walk the strand to either survival or Shacks without impediment.  I saw many hoof prints as well, so it looks like people are riding this stretch.   The lawns next to the Eclipse took a beating, but the restaurant was hardly touched… hopefully people will be able to breakfast and lunch their soon.

Jobos: is in mid-construction down near the beach access, so I didn’t see that much, but did not seem too undermined.  None of the oceanfront places fell in, and many were open and totally full on a Friday night.

Surfers: the road down has a couple trees propped across the roadway, but not so low you can’t pass.  The parking lot structure is a bit undermined, but it was before.  Waves are the same.

Spot/Middles/Isabela: I was down that way at Julios in lower Isabela on Sunday and the place was as full as I can remember, complete with the parade of Jeeps and music.  The beach roads are intact and the north shore seems largely as it was.

Money / ATMs, Banks, Credit Cards: this is not quite back to normal, cash is still the only currency in a lot of smaller businesses, but I didn’t have trouble getting cash out of ATMs, and used credit cards for large purchases at Home Depot and Econo.

Electricity - This is really the biggest story that remains.  The grid is a string and tinkertoy tangle that will be an enormous labor to sort out.  Just to restore 30 houses on our street is a project that will require clearing/cutting dozens of fallen trees to create backyard access, and then every pole, wire and transformer is down (and will have been for months), and most connections to the individual houses are impaired as well.  And the whole island is like that.  Right now, the focus is on the easiest and most critical places.  The most recent estimate that I think is credible is 70% of meters connected by the end of February.  This leaves the 30% that pay the smallest bills and are the hardest to reach, and I could see it being another year before its 95%.  While I was there, none of the housing areas in Ramey had power, but there were a few areas outside Gate 1 and Gate 5 that had been restored.  Lots of people run generators - our neighborhood sounds like lawn mowers going 24 hours a day.  The Solar folks, particularly Maximo Solar near us, are crazy busy.  He’s signed contracts for more than 1,000 off-grid systems… only about a million more to go!

Until power is restored - There is a lot that can be done to improve quality of life even if you do not have grid power.  Its hard to know how much to spend because you don’t know when you might be lucky enough to get your power back on.  My view - think of your spending as one part now, one part preparation for the next Irma/Maria.  But with the money thing in mind, I’ll go in order from cheapest to most expensive.  I brought two checked bags of 50 lbs each, so my experience was limited to what I could brink and what i could buy on the island.  

— My very favorite thing is the OPolar USB fan. This 9 inch fan  doesn’t replace a ceiling fan, but it runs all night, blows enough to keep me cool and keep the bugs at bay, and uses just a part of my laptop battery, and it was cheap.  We still had our mosquito nets, but the mosquitoes were actually not bad in Ramey, so I did not re-hang them.  This fan actually had a review from someone in PR who used it after Maria using her laptop battery.  I also found these little fans that are used to cool electronics and blow 50 CFMs each and are powered by USB ports out of the batteries.  I bought two sets of two... These worked and drew very little, but the Opolar was a much better solution for cooling down and sleeping.

— I bought 4 LED solar lights that you leave outside during the day and stay on all night... they have motion detectors and you can leave them in three modes: full on, night light, or motion detecting that goes from night light to full.  My next favorite thing.  charge up during the day, take them inside and light your evening hours no problem.  Then leave them in night-light mode so you don’t stub your toe on the way to the bathroom.

— a Two burner grill and a propane cylinder.  I bought these on the island for $89 and $49 at the Home Depot in Hatillo, and now I can boil water and cook stuff.

— portable fold up solar panels (36 watts) - this is perfect for charging cell phones and kindles, but not for laptop or fan.  I’d skip this, and instead, the next two are useful individually, but if you’re willing to drop the dough, they are perfect together:

—185 watt-hour battery that output USB and, with separate inverters, 110 volt AC which runs laptops, charges phones, anything up to 100 watts draw, including the USB fans (see above), but also the smaller of the standard 120 volt rotating fans.  

— 80 watt fold up panel to charge the battery.  These connect to each other via a 5.5 outside diameter * 2.5mm inside diameter DC cable that is female on both ends, but is fairly short, so I bought 3 12 foot male to female extenders. This combo worked great, but you really do need 8 hours of sun to recharge the battery if you’ve drawn it all the way down.  It weighs 4 lbs, folds to the size of a fat laptop, and if you have a reasonably sunny day, will power up the battery I listed above.  While I don’t recommend it, I did leave this unit out in some pretty heavy rain several times, and it continued working.

— One of the things that I hungered for as I tried to mete out my meager trickle of electricity was the ability to know how many watts a thing used… what would burn down my battery faster, this fan or that fan?  This watt meter would have been super useful, so I’ve bought three and they’ll go back down with me in December.

— A 1000 watt honda generator.  This is 26 lbs and can be brought in checked luggage as long as you never open the box.  It is the quietest, lightest, smallest generator on the planet, and runs longer on less fuel than anything out there.  Two trade-offs: you can only power 900 watts of stuff with it, and its pricier than many bigger, noisier, heavier generators.  This will let you run things like a (modern) fridge, almost any household item that doesn’t have a heating element including all your fans to keep you cool, and you can charge your batteries in the rain.  Generators could not be had at any store I visited on the island, nor could you buy a jerry can, and I looked.  If you bring a generator to the island, bring a jerry can or you’ll not get much use of it.

— Cool trick: turn off every single breaker in the house.  Turn everything off.  Cut off the female end of an extension cord, and splice on a male end.  Plug one end into your generator, and the other into a wall socket.  Now all the things that are on that circuit are powered by the generator.  In my case, that enabled things like ceiling fans and the lights attached to them.  Warning: do not back-power the grid, make sure that the circuit you plug into is -not- open.  If this sounds confusing, just think of it like water.  If your neighbor has well water and your city water is out, they can run a hose to your outdoor spigot and turn both ends on, and you’ve got water in your house… now you just need to make sure that your neighbors well isn’t running through your house back out into the city water system full of broken pipes or whatever.

— Refrigeration -- Our house fridge ran brilliantly on the Honda genset… it cooled right down, and stayed pretty cool when the generator wasn’t running.  Alternatively, there are some really fantastic new compressors  in a 40 quart fridge/freezer (about 1.33 cubic ft) that draw just 30 watts (about 10% of the power of a normal fridge) and can run for a week on the charge in a 12 volt car battery.  I'm not going to jump on this, but it may be the best way forward for folks that are trying to run a minimalist electrical footprint on portable solar panels.

— Cleanup & Tools -- Chainsaws could not be had at any store on the island.  Dewalt has a new 'flexvolt' battery system with 60 volt tools.  For example this chainsaw or this fan.  If you buy 4 batteries, you can power an inverter power station that with the power stored in all 4 batteries is a little like the jobsite version of the Tesla Powerwall, which can power a house fridge or other normal things that need house current.  I didn’t purchase / test this.

Laundry -- This becomes a top issue once you’re in week 4 and you have water and generators.  The motors in older washers draw 1,000 to 2,000 watts, so you need a bigger generator than the one I brought.  Modern energy star washers draw more like 500 watts.  Dryers - Just no… I’ll put up a clothes line for the back porch.

Bigger Batteries, Inverters, bigger portable solar — We have had folks from RAM staying in the house, and they were kind enough to put another portable solar solution on the house.  It was a pair of Centech 750 watt inverters, a Solar charge controller model cm-30a, two Uni-Solar PVL-136 roll-out solar panels, and a 935 CCA 12 volt lead acid truck battery that I bought at the local auto parts place.  This system worked, but was not able to run stuff that drew more than 100-200 watts.  I think part of this was just my ignorance of how to optimize the utilization of this rig.

Bigger Generators - Generators are everywhere, so the whole island is like Saturday morning with lawn mowers running.  The inexpensive gas generators work great but they are -very- noisy.  After waking up to the sound of a generator for the Xth time, quiet is important and merciful.  With that in mind, the Honda 2,000 watt generators can be put in tandem, they have an ‘eco’ mode that throttles up and down as energy is drawn, they are efficient, and as quiet as its possible to make a generator that makes this much power.  4 kilowatts peak service will allow most houses to do most things, with thoughtfulness about what gets turned on.  A dual rig with parallel cables, security attachments and extended run fuel system can be had for under $2,500.

Permanent Solar - This is the long term solution.  I’ve gone ahead and committed to 21 240 volt panels and a Tesla powerwall, to be installed by Maximo Solar.  This, combined with a moderation of electrical consumption, will permanently address electrical power.  Two neighbors had rooftop solar arrays that survived the winds of the storm completely intact.  Another neighbor out on the cliff was a bit more exposed, and their array tangled with a solar water heater tank, and was a total loss.

A couple concluding topics:

Law & Order: My experience was really very much like life on the island at any other time.  Across more than 4 decades there’s been lots of petty larceny, and perhaps I’ve just been lucky,  but I’ve experienced just one face to face larceny (in high school on the track bus) and zero violent crimes.  While there are stories (as ever) and people should take proper precautions, I found the island as peaceful (and chaotic) as ever it has been.  The mood and tone were warm, and I felt at every moment surrounded by commiseration and a willingness to help.  I felt totally secure at gas stations, banks, supermarkets and airports.

The big work: I saw electrical crews out at all hours of day and night, in all weathers.  Debris removal crews had started to come through our neighborhood.  Its an extraordinary undertaking, with no drive-in assistance, but I think the agree with others that amidst the huge challenges and overwhelming scale of work, the key words are resilience, optimism, and heartwarming positive vibes.

How to help?  

The first way to help is simply to think about this as you read the news, and as you advocate and you vote.  The future of the island is absolutely in the hands of our federal government, everything from the amount of assistance supplied to the diaspora of Boricuas that are arriving in the 10s of thousands, to the way that PREPA will pay the billions required to rebuild 50 years of electrical power infrastructure.  This stands on top of the basic questions that predate Maria: a decade of economic and population shrinkage, and a death spiral of debt burden.

There are many charities doing extraordinary work on the island.  Global Disaster Immediate Recovery Team worked with the Vanu team to restore cell communications on the island.  There is still a lot of work especially up in the mountains, so you can volunteer through the coordination site Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters.  If you’re on the island and unemployed, FEMA is hiring.

At a more personal level, I’ve followed through on gofundme campaigns of friends and colleagues, and tried to work the connections I know and contribute what I can to the upward spiral.  I’ve diverted resources from stateside projects to cleaning and rebuilding on the island, and tried to support others as they’ve done so as well.

[fundedjustice]

Domestic Violence Victim Loses Custody to Abuser

Hello, My name is Amber and I am a domestic abuse victim.   January of 2007 I met a man who was a funny, caring man. We lived 2 hours from one another. We had met through a phone dating number. Our conversations were continuous and enjoyable. We agreed to meet for drinks and conversation. Again it was great. After drinks we spent much time talking sharing about each other and what we were looking for and wanting for our future. Because of my past, i reveled it to him and told him he can except it or if he didn't i understood. One of those things was that i was late and there was a chance i was pregnant with my ex's child. He seemed OK with that and everything else i had told him. I let out a sigh of relief. The next mouth we spent time getting to know one another.  After spending time together one night, I found out i was pregnant. I told him and he changed his mind and he couldn't be with me because of that.  A couple weeks go by and he calls me out of the blue and said how he could not stop thinking about me and wanted to see where this went. He came and got me that night  He even made it official and asked me to be his  Girlfriend on February 23 2007. We got a apartment and at first everything was fine. I went to my apartment and packed only what could fit into his car and left everything else behind.( was told he would buy me new things better things) I had to bring my 2 cats to my moms because he said i could have them but then went back on what he said. Although i was sad i knew i could still see them. Got settled into our apartment and things started to go down hill. first it was him being secretive and distant then fights were started for no good reason and he would leave sometimes for hours sometime for a couple days. Never knowing where he went.( Later I found out it was to gamble) At first he was apologetic and we worked through things.  By then i already had feeling.The next couple months were horrible. We fought a lot and he became possessive with money and the car and checked up on me all the time.While all this was going on i was pregant with a boy. The one night we were fighting and i had a cigarette in my mouth and he pushed me down on the bed and i was screaming owe your burning me. He finally let me go and i had a burn on my nose and I began to get bad craps and went to the hospital. I was in labor at 4 months the doctors were able to stop the labor but after a ultra sound I found out something was wrong and my baby, he was sick. While at the hospital i was asked about my burn and i lied to protect him. The next month i went to a specialist and found out my son had no chance to live and i had to make a hard decision to have a dc&e or carrying until i deliver natural. I opted for the dc&e. On Jun 14 2007 I said goodbye to baby David and had him cremated my ex seemed to be there for me. Again that was short lived not soon after the fighting started again and the psychical abuse also became more and more. Pushes, punches grabbing of my arms to the point i had black and blues, leaving me with no money or car. Police were called by others and i lied again to protect him. he even took my sons urn and threatened to drop it off of the balcony.   We ended up being evicted out of that apartment and moved up north in December. It was two days before Christmas and he kicked me out of his car in the middle of no where, in the middle of a snow storm. once i made it to his home he was still fighting and beat me and bloodied my lip and as soon as he left so did I. I went to a neighbors house and had a friend come pick me up and i stayed there. the day after Christmas he picked me up and i went back to his house. Things went OK for a couple weeks but were not back to normal. We still were fighting but no abuse. February came and we hit our 1 year anniversary. We went out to a local bar and had some drinks and we had intercourse for the first time in over a month. and that resorted to us conceiving our daughter. The whole pregnancy he was great loving caring and involved throughout. Was there for her birth. the first 3 moths things seemed to be OK and then they went back to the old ways, Name calling, Hitting, being Secretive. He even made me do a home DNA test for our daughter.The one night he was so mad, our daughter was in her swing and he swept everything off the counter and a glass candle hit right beside out daughter. He eventually moved out leaving me with his son until school was done and our daughter. He said he did not want to be together anymore. The next couple months I continued life the best i could with calls from him asking what i was doing who i was talking to, he even called the one time and could not get a hold of me and drove from Pittsburgh to the house (a hour drive) and checked the caller ID just to try to track me down. I also was called by him, not him checking on our daughter but asking me to come see him( always late at night 11 pm and later) only for his "Needs" that continued until the end April. Then we decided to work things out and move back in with each other Pittsburgh bond Tessa , Jimmy and i was. Things were awkward for a little while but calm. That didn't last long as usual. Fighting and the psychical and emotional abuse started up. At one point after Tessa Birthday in November and after Christmas and New Years. We had gotten into fight and he left and said we were done. While away he kept tabs on me and even showed up to a bar i was at with girlfriends of mine. So there was no fighting there, i reluctantly left with him knowing he had been drinking. We sat in the driveway to the house while he yelled at me after almost a hour i said i was done talking and he stormed up the driveway. I opened up my door and he begin shoving and hitting getting me as i was getting out of the car. I remember swinging this car charger at him so he would stop hitting me. when i got out and walked in front of the car he punched the gas hitting me with the car and i hit into the car behind me. he hurried and left and i was in shock i went and checked on my daughter and asked my roommate if he could take me to the store 5 mins away. when i came back my daughter was gone, he had taken her. i called the police and he was arrested for hitting me with his car. at the hearing against the police and the domestic violence advocate i agreed to him getting a plea. we stayed together and moved into his mothers there the fighting and all the abuse continued. I left again to my mother only to come back because he wasn't going to do those things any more. Christmas time came and he again was abusive and i was miserable. A couple days after he and a friend came home drunk and he again was shoving and hitting me and he called the police on me. They came and i asked to go to a domestic violence shelter. I thought my daughter and i was safe i was wrong. He went to the next county over and applied for a protection order including our daughter and i was forced to give her to him. It was his way to get me to come back and i did. the abuse still continued and i just dealt with it.  That summer we moved to his sisters until I bought our house in Ohio. The first year was good and bad. then 2 years living there the fighting became more and more until one night the police were called by him again and i was arrested for defending my self (our story's even matched. Once again i was separated from daughter. After going to court saying the only way i could see my daughter was supervised. He dropped my daughter off to my friend daily and she stayed almost every night until i came home. After that i had no trust in the police and lived with the abuse. march 2015 my father came to live with us and i took care of him because he was deathly ill. Fighting continued but he was being careful for it not to be known. After my dad passed in June, I went to Connecticut to visit with family. He came a week into my being there without anyone's knowledge. he stayed that night and left the next day. I stayed for almost 2 more weeks receiving calls from him and having to block him even. And he then would bother my family and make up things and i would unblock him. He even told lies to get them to turn away from me. I finally returned home by him( because he was picking up my niece and her boyfriend in Ct) when i got home that night he got into a fight with me and he was trying to get the cell out of my hands shoving me around. Our daughter walked in and said " daddy stop Daddy stop, mommy please get us out of here and i will never ask anything from you again". I did just that and hid from him at a friends house until i got a protection order on him and i never looked back. My ex has 3 convictions of violating my protection order and is searving almost 5 years probation. I i have no convictions and am not on probation. My ex used the judical system to abuse me and muniplated the courts seeking full custody and won. My daughter will now have to change schools, a home she has been in since she was 2, leave friends that she has had since prescool, not be allowed to go to church, move to another state, and most of all deall with the emoional abuse at the hands of her father who has been in and out of her life since she was 3. I have always been in her life and and taken care of her. I need the money to fight for my daughter's return home we she has told the courts and everyone she wants to be with me. I cant let her down and give up fighting for her. This is happening nation wide Abusers are winning custody from their victim. Please help me bring her home i have exausted all my funds for lawyers and need help obtaining another one and bring justice for my daughter before her dad starts psycally abusing her because she does something that reminds him of me and angers him

Funded Justice

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Made In Dagenham Textual Analysis:

Which genre does the piece fit into? √ Made in Dagenham is a musical drama, despite the continued comedy element. It is based on true events set in the late 1960s, not only telling the  tale of the Women’s strike at Ford in Dagenham, but the effect on all the workers and some of their families. √ Where is the play set? Immediate location and the wider location. Ω The majority of the Musical takes place in Dagenham (either in/outside the Ford factory or in Eddie and Rita O’grady’s house), which is located in east London. There are scenes that take place in Jeremy and Lisa Hopkins house, which according to Lisa lies “in the middle of the Essex countryside”, Dagenham being just outside Essex. The Concluding conference takes place in Eastbourne, which is south of London on the coast. Ω What is significant and/or important about the locations? ▓ Dagenham is well renowned for being a poor, even poverty ridden section of the capitol. It’s a highly working class area, which is reflected in the busy working lives of most of the characters in the musical. Few characters are well spoken or educated, and most mention a desire for a break and a little more money. Rita is a prime example. In the opening of the show, we get her peak of the working mother’s morning routine, which is made hectic by her husband and kids. However in the Home of Hopkins we see a different story –educated house wife Lisa is bored stiff with the amount of time and Money she has on her hands. She is almost a complete opposite to Rita, but shares her views on Corporal punishment (both of their children have been caned by Mr Buckton) and Women’s rights, supporting her throughout the musical. ▓ When is the play set?  Are there any specific references to day, season or year? ♣ Eddie states in scene 6 that “Millwall’s last season in Division 3 South, so that’s 1958. I been married about ten years.” Which indicates that the Musical is set 1968. Also, upon research tells that the original strikes took place in 1968.  Eddie also (when asked about the date) thinks it might be ‘Pancake day’ which took place on the 27th of February, indicating it is early spring. The original Conference in Eastbourne took place on the 25th of April 1968 ♣ How much time passes during the play? ₔ Based on this, roughly two months pass in the space of the musical, (approximately 8 weeks.) How is the passage of time represented? ₠ After ‘wossname’ in scene 4, the scene jumps to Westminster with Prime Minister, but upon returning to Dagenham in scene 6 with the number ‘PAY DAY’ its now jumped to evening and the factory workers are celebrating pay day. In Scene 9, Harold opens the scene by saying “So Barbara, you’ve had those lovely legs of yours under the desk for a week now” having given her the job in scene 5 indicating a week has passed since then. In ‘Everybody Out” when the Machinists are off to Liverpool, there is a break in the singing where the music reflects the sound of a train moving at speed, which indicates the Workers have made the journey to Liverpool. Between choruses the song jumps to sections of dialogue, often phone calls between higher-class characters panicking about a potential strike, which shows time passing in the choruses. There is a montage used for the number ‘Storm Clouds’ in which scenes blurred together and connected with sections of song. It moves between locations and jumps through time, mostly with a chorus of “Storm Clouds, on the horizon”. Act 2 scene 2 see Rita is handing out the striker pay, which hints another week has passed and this is their fist pay day since going on strike. The launch of the 1600E Cortina is also mentioned to be on Friday, and the next scene jumps to that launch in a Car Showroom. ₠ How wealthy are the characters? ₡ There is a definite split between characters in terms of pay: Rita and Eddie are both working parents, who at the beginning of the show have been re-graded to B grade, meaning they’re paid for unskilled work. The same goes for all the female machinists; Beryl, Clare, Cass and Sandra. This is easy to see from the way thy talk about they’re working environment, they’re constant verbal abuse of management (shouting “Bastards” at every mention) and the uneducated quality of their diction. The Shop stewards (Connie, Sid and Bill) are perhaps a little better off even before the women were graded B, as they are part of the union. Monty was a convener and is being paid more again, however they are all still very much the working class. We see these characters more in meeting than grafting. Mr Hopkins, Mr Macer and Mr Hubble are all much higher up in Directing and management. Of these, Hopkins is likely paid the most. They are well off, and few worries over money. Hopkins has a country house in Essex (as mentioned by Lisa) we never see these characters getting their hands dirty. They spend all their time organizing meetings, telling people what to do, and it seems most importantly, drinking tea. Mr Tooley is the Ford U.S Executive. He Pay grade is considerably higher, with great responsibilities regarding the company. He even flies over from America to try and bust the strike. Other only worries he has about money is making sure other people don’t get too much of it. He is all boss, and is treated with great courtesy by all the management team at Ford. Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle work in the government; Wilson being the Prime minister and so are both of the upper class. They also have no need to worry about money (of their own). Harold Smokes a pipe and states that the TUC “pay for my holidays in the Scilly Isles. They underlay in my bathroom!” and Barbra’s learning to drive –both a costly. ₡ Is there a hierarchy? ₣ Interestingly enough, there isn’t always a correlation between pay grade and position in the hierarchy. At Westminster, although Harold Wilson is Prime Minister, Barbara Castle is a much stronger character than him, and isn’t afraid to disagree with him, often putting him in his place by saying “I’m a busy women” going as far as “ I’ll turn on you”. Mr Tooley easily has the most power at Ford, we see he’s top of the Hierarchy as soon as he arrives on the scene at the beginning of act 2. He enters on dry ice with the sound of a chopper I the background and with his barking attitude and bullish nature soon sets everyone on edge. No-one can go against his order. Next comes Hopkins, or orders all the shop stewards around. He tells Hubble off for his dirty jokes. Despite this he has a very different relationship with the workers –they make fun of him behind his back, and Sid and Bill do so cheekily in front of his face. Although Monty is technically higher up than them as a Union Convener, they mock him and show little respect, indicating the hierarchy works the other way round in relation to their pay grade. With the machinists, the majority of them seem reasonably equal, however Beryl seems a head above the other women due to her attitude, particularly towards Clare. She appears to be at the bottom of the hierarchy due to her limited aspirations and imagination, never mind her constant inability to put her name on… errr…errr… things. Initially Rita seems just part of the crowd, but she is put forward to go to the meeting with management with Connie and Monty. From here she becomes the ringleader, and eventually lead the women in, through and out of the strike until they achieve equal pay. She doesn’t back down, and refuses to take anything less than their demands. Lisa Hopkins has little chance to be part of a hierarchy, as she seems to have little chance to interact with people. However, upon meeting Rita she seems to treat her as an equal, offering to start a petition with her. However, she does seem to hold a little more power, being the wife of Managing Director Hopkins. ₣ How does their wealth or lack of it affect them? ₤ The effect of Money is most easily observed in the Hopkins and O’grady Households. Where as we see Lisa and Jeremy Hopkins positively swimming in money, with a large house and every latest product they could want, Rita and Eddie O’grady are working parents, who have tow work together to pay the bills and have very little time to spare. Hopkins is rich enough to have a trophy wife, Lisa. She is educated, beautiful and despite her own wishes doesn’t work. When the women decide to strike, it has a heavy effect on the O’grady household; soon enough their television is taken away, and they struggle heavily. Aside from the pressure put on Hopkins to get them back to work, the Hopkins are untouched. Sandra struggles heavily on strikers pay of £2 a week, and her will breaks upon being offered a promotions contra, showing she struggles heavily with the strain of having little to no money. Perhaps due to their excess of money, the higher-class men such as Hopkins and Harold Wilson are numb to these effects. Connie, who’s been struggling against the inequality of the sexist payment system all her life is passionate about issue. She even mentioned in her solo Song that originally she made jokes to make herself fell better, but now “it doesn’t seem quite so funny”. She can look back and see her mistakes, and heavily regrets them. For this reason she acts as a true guide to the women, and is the main trigger for the strikes, as she gives Rita the incentive. The male factory workers hold some resentment against management, as they seem to do nothing and get paid much more, shown by the fun they poke at them. However, they have some level of acceptance for the small wage they get. They are divided opinions when the women go on strike. Initially the men are supportive, though with no direct helping hand. Some mock them for going on strike. This all changes however when Mr Tooley lays off nearly 5000 men. Rather than blame Tooley, many men get angry with the women – “you happy now, Connie Riley!? You’ve closed down Dagenham!”. This shows there is a faire amount of pressure on them due to their low wage, and they can’t afford not to work. ₤ What are the social environments of the characters like? ₦ Are their differences in the social backgrounds and current environments? ₦ Many of the workers have very little social lives; most of it consists of work breaks and parties on payday. We see the Women having a chat on their break early in act one, and all the workers are at bar for the number ‘Pay Day’. The most socializing we see them do is on their tea breaks. For many of them, this will be how it was since they were teenagers, so their socials background doesn’t change, pehrpas starting out like Barry; as an apprentice. Lisa Hopkins has the most unfortunate social life. In the middle of the Essex countryside, as she rightly points out, she has nothing to do. In the late 1960s it wouldn’t be seen as socially acceptable for a trophy wife to go out and socialize without her husband. Unable to work, she can only go out shopping and spend time with a horse that ‘doesn’t like her’. We see her holding a huge grudge against her husband due to this, and she tests him often, trying to get a reaction, by serving duck eggs fro breakfast and states that her morning routine will be to “set fire to the women’s institute” –every word riddled with sarcasm. Naturally, the odd social event comes upon, which she is permitted to attend on the arm of her husband. Her social background was from that of a higher-class Family, meaning she will have spent time learning etiquette. She will have spent little time in the company of men (as that was socially unacceptable) even when studying her degree. The most socializing she can do is a ‘Tupperware party’ ; as suggested by her husband. Connie spends half her time with the men, and half with the women, as it’s her job to keep up communication between management and the machinists. She’s grown old working in a man’s world, and that’s what she’s used to. She’s says she’s been in the job since she was 16, and she feels very trapped in what she’s doing, but also that it was her own doing. We don’t see much of Barbara Castle or Harold Winson’s social lives, as Barbara is very professional, and we only see them in work. Its clear that Harold has little experience with women (socially) and he Babbles a lot when the machinists visit Barbara in Westminster, reeling of the times he’s met women, and even including ‘passing them on the stairs’. ₦ How will this affect how the characters will interact with one another? ₧ When Hopkins and other management team member such as Macer, Hubble and Mr Buckton interact with characters like Rita or Connie, they treat them very formerly but are slightly patronizing. They attempt to use complicated language to try and confuse them to avoid arguments or resistance. This works at first for Mr Buckton on Rita, though its clear that she’s a quick learner as she uses what she learnt from him against Hopkins in their meeting. When Barbara interacts with Harold, he attempt to be a little informal with her, being very round-about, but she cuts straight to the point. She very professional about her job; as a strong women in a mans world, she can’t afford mistakes. Interestingly enough, she softens a little when talking to Rita and the machinists, seemingly torn between he job and her desires she even says its her ‘job to get them back to work, but then again she’s a women’. This shows she is much less formal with the working class women, perhaps because she came into politics to ‘ease the lot of the working classes’. In their own groups, they often treat each other as equal (the men to the men, the women to the women). They all tend to tease Barry the apprentice, as he’s the youngest there, and hasn’t really established himself as one of the team yet. ₧ Are any of the characters influenced by events/beliefs? ₨ What effect does this have on the way the characters behave? ₩ All the women share the view that they should have equal pay. The first event that affects all the machinists is the new grade; they are put down as unskilled workers. They are all outraged at this, and decide to put forward a formal grievance. Rita is the main character motivated by events within the show. Her meeting with Mr Buckton seems to flare a little passion inside her. When Management have to organise a meeting due to the fact that Monty hasn’t signed off the new grades, Rita is vote to attend with Connie and Monty by the women. Hopkins, Hubble and Macer make no effort to listen in this meeting, and persist the machinists are unskilled despite Rita’s good arguments (partially inspired by Connie’s wise words in her solo song). This motivates Rita to the point that she urges the other women to go on strike, even traveling to Liverpool to convince the women there. this is all after she though she wouldn’t speak up at all as she “ain’t political”. Every time the bosses through something at them, she uses the blow to motivate herself. Mr Tooley is clearly motivated by his capitalist beliefs. He is determined that women shouldn’t have equal pay, as it would cost more for Ford, describing “Domino theory” to show how once they have equal pay in Britain, it’ll spread to Europe. He believes in being brutal, and lays off 5000 workers just to cut off the O’grady’s money in an attempt to bust the strike. Harold Wilson seems to believe that women shouldn’t6 be working. He has a very old fashioned view on things, and even questions why women are working, as the war is over. Rather than try and tackle any problem himself, he gives them to others to deal with, even creating a new ‘position in parliament’ for Barbara Castle. When Connie falls ill, and beseeches Rita to take over from her, Rita agrees. It is this event that influences Eddie to take the kids away, as their mother isn’t supporting them. He feels (rightly) that he has tried his best to support Rita until this point, but they can’t go on like this. Although Rita is heartbroken, she refuses to back down, and decides to see everything through. At the end of the show however, Eddie understands when he watches Rita give her speech, and gain the vote for equal pay. Lisa Hopkins, in conflict with her husband believes she should be aloud to work. She’s a few decades before her time, unable to use her degree in History. The Women striking seems to inspire some extra defiance in her, and she starts a Job working for the Spectator Magazine. ₨ ₩ What clues are there to the past lives of the characters? ₪ How will their past affect their futures? ₫ Are there any references to key events prior to the play? € Do any of the characters carry scars or memories from past events? ₭ How does this affect them now? ₮ Are their conflicts of tension between what the characters want? ₯ Do the main characters want to change their situations? ₰ Is there a difference in what the characters say they will do and actually do? ₱ How does morality or upbringings affect the characters actions? ₲ Are there direct references to the characters appearances? ₳ Are there any connections between how a character looks and behaves? ₴ What is the significance of the title? (Metaphoric or literal) ₵ Are there any key lines or speeches that summarise or capture the mood of the play? ₸ What is the main plot and how does it develop? ₹ Is there a sub plot? ₺ How can the shape of the play be best described – a story? Episodes? A journey? As a diagram or map? ₼ Which scenes are the most important? Why? ₽ Which scene is the least important? Why? ₾ How important to the piece is the set/lighting/costume/props/sound? ⃰ What is the climax of the play? Are issues resolved at the end? How much direction is given by the playwright in terms of stage directions? ℅ Which character is the antagonist? (Opposes the main action) ℓ Are their other protagonists or antagonists?№ Do any of the characters change from one to the other? ℗ How formal is the language used by the characters? ™ What is the level of education of the characters? Ω Do the characters use certain phrases or words or ways of speaking? ℮ How are the songs structured? (Monologue, dialogue, duologue, triologue, short sentences etc) ⅍ What kind of imagery is used? ⅎ What is the objective of each scene/unit? What is the super objective of the play? ⅓ What are the characters motivations and do they change in each scene? ↄ Does the play relate to any previous theatrical or written work? ← If so what are the links between them? ↑