#and then we have car insurance renewal and shit coming up in the next week as well

[chesacakeripper]

126.5 hours of nightshift money coming in and I thought like, uwu finally some ££ for savings, forgetting the CAR

[amelialincoln]

We're Still Standing

She hadn't realized she had fallen asleep until she was being shaken aggressively out of subconsciousness. Amelia opened her eyes drowsily and realized immediately how cold she was. It took her a minute to adjust to the dim light illuminating from the lantern that hung beside the swing on the porch.

“What the hell are you doing? I was worried sick.” Her boyfriend’s familiar voice rang from above her and she felt his warm, oversized jacket wrap around her shivering frame. Amelia blinked at him, trying to recall why she was on Meredith’s front deck. Oh shit.

“I’m so sorry,” she slurred, shaking her head out of its daze. “I drove to Mer’s out of habit and I must’ve passed out.”

“We’ve been living in the apartment for two weeks.” His tone was firm and he stretched out a hand to pull her off the uncomfortable wooden swing. “Did you--” She knew what he was going to say before he had the chance to finish.

“No, no, I’ve actually barely been thinking about it since I started working again. I think my body is just still adjusting to the long hours.” She accepted his hand and glanced at her dim phone screen. It read 2:50am. No wonder he seemed so shaken up. She bit her lip, trying to hide her guilt.

“Oh, really?” He paused, trying to find the right words, cautious as always. “You seemed like you were struggling with it a bit while we were living at Mer’s.”

“I haven’t taken that much time off work since I was an intern, other than when I was using,” she explained as he opened the car door for her. “My sobriety depends on being able to fill my time with things I’m passionate about. I’m just getting back to feeling like myself again.”

“Okay…” Link replied, shutting the door gently and climbing into the driver’s seat. He pulled out of Mer’s driveway and waited until they were on the freeway. “So this has nothing to do with the conversation we had last night?” She was almost taken aback by how well he knew her. After spending almost every second together, over the last couple of months, she could barely keep anything from him without Link somehow noticing when something was wrong.

“It's just kind of a lot to put on someone,” she muttered.

“What do you mean?” He asked, glancing at his girlfriend who was twisting pieces of her chocolate brown hair nervously.

“It’s just that the expectation of me to be popping out your babies all the time is a bit overwhelming,” she glanced out the window as Link merged into their usual exit. “I just got back to work, Link.”

“Hey, I’m sorry. I was just getting excited. I didn’t mean like now.” He placed a soft hand on her thigh and felt her relax slightly. “We talked about having other kids a lot while we were at Meredith’s. I’m sorry if I jumped into the future too quickly.”

“Meredith’s was a different time. I was really hormonal and barely had time to actually process what was happening.” She forced a grin which made him raise an eyebrow.

“Well, how many of our conversations and decisions were made when you were hormonal?” He turned to look at her and watched her gaze fall. “All that stuff about marriage and houses and massive backyards?” He was dancing around the four kids that she had specifically outlined to him as her preference.

“Link, you and Scout are enough for me. I don’t need anything else.”

“Don’t need or don’t want?” He asked as he pulled into his apartment’s parkade. “Those are two very different things, Amelia.”

“Can we talk about this in the morning? I’m not thinking straight right now,” she answered honestly.

“Yeah, whatever you want.”

[][][]

Amelia was awoken the next morning to Scout being placed on her bare chest. Sun streamed in through the shutters of their third story bedroom and the glittering light from the ocean reflected like shards of glass on the white walls of the room. Link’s apartment was utter perfection, with a perfect view of Elliott bay and situated on a central, but not too busy, street close to downtown. It made her question why he was itching to move out so fast and start building the house he’d been fantasizing about for the last couple of weeks.

“Hi baby,” she smiled as Scout’s blue eyes stared up at her sleepily. He was always the most cuddly in the morning and she shifted to a position where he was able to wrap his pudgy arm around her neck. “Where’s your Dadda?” As if on cue Link strolled into the bright room, his long hair was disheveled and his face wore a hint of exhaustion. Probably from being up all night searching for her, she realized. He held two steaming mugs of coffee and the scent hit her forcefully as he held it under her chin for her to take a small sip.

“He’s been missing you a lot lately.” He lowered himself onto their bed gently and placed both of the mugs on the side table. “Ma ma, ma ma, all day long.” She laughed at his decent impression of Scout’s latest attempts at talking. “You think with all the time he’s spent with Dadda,” he spoke the word loudly at his giggling son, “He’d start liking me at least half as much as you,” Link joked.

“Mama’s boy.” Amelia shrugged, pressing a kiss to the top of her baby boy’s head and suppressing a yawn.

“Bailey texted you not to come in because neuro is slow today but she put you on call. I turned off your alarm. Thought you might need the rest.” He explained, his voice free of judgment. “You also got a call from our health insurance place. Our plans are ending in a week and we’ve still got some credit so I called the pharmacy to renew your birth control prescription. I noticed your pack this month was almost finished.”

“Oh,” she turned to face him, suddenly reminded that she needed to take her pill. “Yeah...thank you.”

“No problem.” He shrugged. “I can probably pick it up sometime today.” He handed her the cup of coffee, reading her thoughts before she could even ask for it and watched as she swallowed the tiny pill down.

“Link, it’s--” “Fine,” he shrugged. “I don’t have any expectations of you, Amelia. I know you went through a lot with Owen,” he made a face she didn’t recognize before taking a large gulp out of his own mug and clearing his throat. “I don’t want to make you feel trapped or obligated to fulfill my own selfish desires. It’s your choice and I’m not going anywhere...unless you want me to,” he paused, allowing her space to speak if she wanted to before continuing. “I was an only child and it was tough. It would’ve helped to have a sibling to lean on during my parent’s divorce and I guess that’s my own stuff that I should probably work through instead of pushing you into a situation that you don’t want to be in. I’ve seen you go through hell with your sisters and I understand where you are coming from. Most of all, I’d never want to force you to quit the thing you love doing the most. I also think that would be doing a disservice to the world because my girlfriend is a freaking superhero and she’s got hundreds upon hundreds of people to still save. So can we just pretend that everything I selfishly said to you didn’t happen? Cause I usually don’t like to talk everything out but I was up all night trying to put how I was feeling into words and I still feel like I did a shitty job.” “Now you know how I feel all the time,” she laughed, slipping her hand into his and wishing she could erase the stress that was radiating from him. “Screwing up while trying to get my point across is my specialty.”

“That’s not true, you’re one of the most well spoken people I know.” Link rolled his eyes, taking another sip of his coffee and looking a little bit more relaxed.

“There’s a lot of people who would say otherwise,” Amelia joked, pulling their duvet up to Scout’s shoulders as he began to fall asleep on her chest. “You weren’t being selfish,” she finally sighed. “If anyone’s not being fair it's me. I feel like my mind is switching up on me a hundred times a day. Since I’ve had the tumor I find myself constantly second guessing myself, trying to figure out what I want. Some days all I want is to be a mom. I feel like having Scout has made me become a better person and a better surgeon and I wouldn’t change that for the world. I don’t regret having him for even a second. Every single part of me loves him...and you. To the point where when I am at work, where I am usually at my happiest, I still find myself missing the both of you. Which scares me because there’s never been a doubt in my mind at work that I’m not exactly where I want to be. And I know for a fact that if we were to have another baby, or two or three, that I would find myself not being able to compromise between my love for operating and my love for my family. I know I would have to choose. And I don't think that I can. At least not right now.” Link nodded his head in understanding. “But when I can, you’ll be the first to know,” She laughed, causing him to grin.

“Well, I would hope so.” He rolled his eyes, pulling her closer to him gently, careful not to wake their sleeping son before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere, Mia, and I'm not going to force you into anything. So for the love of god, stop running and just tell me how you feel because it's going to take a whole lot more than not wanting another baby right now to scare me off."

[xxeyesonlyxx]

Massachusetts is actually limbo. We don't know how our weather works. Spring lasts a month if we're lucky. 2 weeks in April and the first 2 of May. March is called surprise winter storm month. We love the sun but probably only see it every few weeks, depending on the time of year and the angle at which the eagle screams. We've had 3 tornados in past two years. It's September but the temperature this week has been in the 70s. But literally as I type this a cold front seems to be rolling in, clouds are blotting out the sun, and yet I can still smell that warm air. We are constantly in the state of "Will this be a normal rain or is a storm coming?"

The leaves began slowly falling a month ago. It was still very warm out. The first two weeks of September always smell like fresh cut grass and watermelon jolly ranchers. All the trees grow sideways. We get snow every year, and still over react when we hear it's on its way.

Our fucking monument is a rock, and there's a gang that's literally just the Massachusetts area code.

Our fauna is fucking nuts. We apparently have rattle snakes, (I WAS SHOOK WHEN I LEARNED THAT SHIT) and while rare, apparently we also have black widow spiders. There's a type of spider that lives here, that if it bites you, can cause necrosis. Our ecosystem mimics that lifecycle example of textbooks; rabbit overpop so foxes and coyotes overpop, then no food, so pop drops. Also there are deer sometimes. We had a bear make its way into Cape Cod a few years ago. It was in my yard at one point. That was fun. Turkeys are insane. They will attack you, your car, your dog, or run away screaming. It's always a toss up. Our mice can get to be the size of rats and or gerbils, especially field boys, because they thrive in our type of environment.

Our taxes are always weird Numbers, and none of us seem to know how they work. Our healthcare is free if you're poor (I had Masshealth and hoooboy. They told me I was 106% below the poverty line.. so like. I was double poor? I'm not entirely sure the people running it are smart...) But it also is shite. You literally should just go to your local hospital and have them fill out your paperwork if you need to renew it, because it will never be correct otherwise. After telling me I was like. Uber poor. They then proceeded to claim I was making too much money to receive the free health care. Apparently they had me listed as working 5 jobs, because despite me having to constantly update them about any income changes (IE I quit that job. I no longer work there. I am employed at a different place.) they would then just add that to the list of jobs I currently worked at. I had to drive two hours away to get a tooth removed because no dental surgeon near me could do it as they didn't take my insurance. (I may or may not be venting... Let me have this.)

Tourists. They arrive in droves and expect to have perfect weather. I may or may not have started to take great pleasure in telling ppl they missed out on the lovely weather we'd had the week before, when it had been gross and muggy the next. (If I don't get to enjoy the nice weather when it comes to us, neither do you Sharon!) They also demand you tell them if the local historical museums and attractions are interesting. Lady, why would I visit the JFK museum, I have grown up with all of them, my mom grew up with them and went to school with them. I have no need the hear their stories for the 15th million time. And why do you think it will be easy to just wander anywhere near the kennedy compound without getting in trouble? You can't just visit them, they are not a zoo attraction! (Some of them are really chill but it depends on which kid you talk to.) My favorite was "Oh my god do they really live there?! All year round?" Like... Idk? I would assume they probably travel, but like... We're not all buddy buddy with them? I don't know if they're at the house on the vineyard this week, but if they call I'll let you know! "Plymouth rock was not as interesting as I thought it would be." It's... It's a rock. What did you think it would take and preform a dance number? The plantation ain't real either! You wanna tell me how disappointed you were that those are actors and that none of them actually live there? (It does happen and it does make me die inside.) Yes. Everything on cape cod is nautical themed, we are famous for it, you want generic go to the mall. I don't know if anyone around here are locally sourced seafood servers. Ask them!

HALLOWEEN IS WEIRD. Salem goes overboard and so suddenly people seem to think the rest of massachusetts needs to get spooky. Every village has ghost tours. I have never been on one but yes, I have seen the marsh lady, she is terrifying. And yes I did see the ghost horse. No it's not particularly interesting, but we've all seen them, and we pretend not to.

Boston is historical as fuck. You wanna learn history shit? Go there. Concord and Lexington are just as historical. Salem is only cool during the fall, nothing else is really open during the summer there.

I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE MEDIA SHIT:

Boondock Saints is the most Boston Bullshit (in a good way) movie you will ever see. And the second one was... Ok? The Covenant was like... If Salem was trying to advertise itself by making it sexy and edgy to teenage girls? If you need serious Boston rep for music: Dropkick Murphy's, Godsmack, and Aerosmith. (We also count Rob Zombie, despite him being from New York? Don't ask me. I don't have answers.) Godsmack is the best. No take backs.

Massachusetts is not real. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you something.

[calzona-ga]

Krista Vernoff, fresh off a two-season renewal and new job as 'Station 19' showrunner, talks with The Hollywood Reporter about the big cliffhanger.

[This story contains spoilers from the season 15 finale of Grey's Anatomy.]

ABC's Grey's Anatomy wrapped up its "Season of Love" on Thursday with a finale that teed up a plethora of new storylines to explore in the recently announced 16th (and 17th!) seasons.

Thursday's season 15 finale featured Meredith (finally!) professing her love for Andrew (Giacomo Gianniotti) — and doing so while he was behind bars. DeLuca was arrested (and stands to risk his career) after covering for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), who committed insurance fraud to help a family who had been terrorized by immigration reform efforts. Meanwhile, Meredith, Richard (James Pickens) and Alex (Justin Chambers) wind up being fired by Bailey (Chandra Wilson) for their roles in the offense.

Elsewhere, Teddy (Kim Raver) goes into labor and finds support in an unlikely ally: Amelia (Caterina Scorsone). After Teddy gives birth (a girl, named after her best friend, Allison, who died on 9/11), Owen (finally!) professes his love to his former Army friend. It sets up a love triangle between Koracick (new series regular Greg Germann), who is back at home building baby furniture for Teddy. (Poor guy, Teddy doesn't bother to tell her boyfriend that she's in labor.) Then there's Amelia, who sees Owen moving on with Teddy and has Link (new regular Chris Carmack) waiting in the wings for something more serious at a time when she decides to work on herself.

As for Jo (Camilla Luddington), she (finally!) tells someone what triggered her depression as she turns the corner and fills in Alex (Justin Chambers) before getting treatment.

The hour ends with a cliffhanger that sees Jackson (Jesse Williams) leave Maggie (Kelly McCreary) alone after going out into the thick fog amid a multiple-car pile-up. Jackson fails to return, leaving Maggie terrified of what may have happened to him.

Below, showrunner Krista Vernoff — who hit pause on her well-earned vacation — talks with The Hollywood Reporter about the season as a whole and why she hopes viewers will be talking about Jackson all summer.

The episode ends with a cliffhanger, Jackson is nowhere to be found after going out into the fog. Why leave the finale so open-ended? Was this a contract decision or a creative one? He's coming back next season as a regular. It was a creative decision. It was a cliffhanger. I want people to come back [in the fall] and talk all summer and wonder what happens to him. We have not mapped it out. The writers come back June 3, I'm on vacation for two weeks and then we'll hit it. What I love about act six of our finale is we gave ourselves so much to play with for next season on all the storylines.

Will there be a time jump next season? I have no idea. It's unlikely that there will be much of a time jump because I really want to play through the consequences of what Meredith did. But I honestly might be lying to you because I honestly just don't know yet.

You described this as the Season of Love," and it ended with Meredith professing her love for Andrew. Is there a theme for season 16? That is a later conversation. We got through this season and then the writers went away. I'm really proud of the work we did this season but I don't have answers for next season.

You mentioned that you're excited to explore the consequences of Meredith's actions. Knowing that the series often takes on larger social issues, have you considered using Meredith's arrest for fraud to explore a bigger political storyline, perhaps around fighting for immigration reform? We have not. The very nature of what Meredith did here was an argument for reform because she was confronting and talking about a really broken system. The system was so broken and it was just enraging to her. The idea that this family is suffering this much and is now going to suffer more was more than Meredith could bear. So she made what amounts to a really stupid decision from a really noble place.

Meredith's actions felt very old-school Grey's — similar to when Izzie (Katherine Heigl) cut Denny's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) LVAD wire. And there was a reference to that famed scene in the finale as well! Was that intentional? Yes. One of the things that hasn't happened lately is Meredith Grey hasn't faced consequences for the rules that she breaks. She is a bold rule breaker and we love her for it — and she always gets away with it. We felt we had laid the groundwork to shock the audience when this time, Meredith doesn't get off so easy.

Meredith, Richard and Alex have all been fired, which will have a massive ripple effect on pretty much everyone, both at the hospital and in their respective personal lives … Indeed! It is consequential AF, as the kids say. We were excited in the writer's room about that. We couldn't stop kind of laughing like, "Holy shit, what have we done?! What are we doing?!" But when you get to 342 episodes — which is where we are — you have the right to take some bold swings, you have to take some bold swings if you want to keep the show fresh and exciting and you don't want people to get ahead of you. You have to be bold. And I feel like we were really bold here and we'll see how it all shakes out.

Jo reaches a turning point and is admitted for therapy. How much will you explore how there's no quick and easy fix for mental health and depression? I think that Jo is suffering from depression born of trauma … and the idea that her brain is telling her that she should never have existed. She's been in a horrible spiral and spirals are made more horrible when they live inside your head and you're unable to talk to anyone about them. This I know to be true: talking about things is the beginning of healing them. I was really proud of the design of that story. Episode 19 was such an exquisite episode and I hope that the writer and director and editors of that episode all get the Emmy attention they deserve. When I saw that episode, it uprooted all of my plans for Jo. There was no way in my mind that Jo could be happy and playful again this season, having just survived that. … We showed the beginning of the healing process. And the next step of the healing process is getting treatment. She needs treatment and that's what we see. So, while it makes you cry in the finale to see her and Alex say goodbye to each other, I believe that it's a happy cry because Jo is getting the help that she needs.

Let's talk about the Teddy/Koracick/Owen/Amelia/Link of it all. You really put a new spin on the love triangle in this one. Owen professes his love for Teddy, who doesn't call her boyfriend, Koracick, to tell him that she was in labor. What was exciting for you about exploring that, what, quadrangle? What do we even call that?! A love quintangle! In the end, it was a love quintangle. I was excited to take that story on because it was so complicated. I'm proud that we did that for the whole season without really ever having Amelia and Teddy go after each other, without leaning into those tropes that we have seen so often in love triangles where there are two women and one man. I'm proud that it was Amelia driving Teddy to the hospital in the end and then talking about how they could be friends and maybe they should be friends. I am very excited as a writer by the complexity of Teddy and Owen having that baby and having declared their love and then panning to find Tom alone in the nursery that he is building for Teddy and her baby. That's an exciting thing as a storyteller because it leaves just great material for next season.

Amelia's journey was terrific: she's getting over Owen and winds up meeting this Link, and they're absolutely wonderful together. And I say that as someone who has loved Amelia and Owen together since their start. Instead, Amelia says she's open to something more with Link but decides to explore who she is before committing to anything serious.

I was exceedingly proud of Amelia for her growth and for her maturity and for telling Link the truth, which is that he was a rebound and maybe he's not a rebound anymore because life is complicated and he is terrific but that she dove into him too quickly and she has to figure some things out before she can decide anything permanent. It's like, if everyone could grow up that much the world would be a better place.

The balance of power between Nico and Schmidt shifted — and Schmidt just came out to his mother, having found his confidence. Meanwhile, Nico seems truly miserable. Jake Borelli was upped to series regular but there's no word about Alex Landi. Will he be back next season? What did you enjoy most about their storylines this year? Alex Landi is going to be recurring for us again next year. I am not sure where it's all going but I thought that coming out scene was just gorgeous. I just loved them.

You're going to be showrunner on both Grey's and midseason spinoff Station 19 next season. I'd imagine that means you're shaking things up there, yes? I'm not ready to answer what I'm planning to do with it because I just took this on and I've got to study it and get inside of it. It's an exciting world and the idea of merging these two shows in a way where characters from Grey's might appear on Station 19 and vice versa. The design is that Station 19 is three blocks from Grey Sloan. When Stacy McKee [showrunner and creator] decided to go it made the most sense for me to oversee the whole thing and see how cohesive I could make it.

I loved seeing Schmidt in that world, too. Is there a specific character or two you're looking forward to writing for? I loved it, too. I need a month in a writer's room [to answer that]. I'm going to have writer's rooms that are right next door to each other and I've got great teams and I am really excited to answer that question for you in six weeks! [Laughs.]

How much pressure do you feel running both series? Maybe it's just exhaustion that's not allowing me to have the anxiety that I should probably be experiencing but I am excited. I had a conversation with Chandra Wilson when I came back to the show [two seasons ago] and we had a conversation about Bailey. The question she posed is, "We've established Bailey as being an ambitious woman. What does she do with all of her ambition now that she's the chief of the hospital?" That's where we started our conversation about Bailey and that's what I feel like applies here. It's like, "She gets two hospitals!" I feel like I came back to Grey's and it has been a joy. And I think it's been a success and now I get two shows! I get two hospitals. It's like my ambition is excited and I'm excited to challenge myself and see what I'm capable of doing with this new challenge.

Grey's was renewed for two more seasons. I hate to ask, but has there been any talk about if season 17 is the end? I've heard nothing yet. I'm under contract through season 17, that's what I can tell you.

[kootenaygoon]

So,

At first, I was nervous about tackling news stories. 

I knew the stakes from my summers at the Whitehorse Star, had seen how small fuck-ups could have large consequences. Telling someone else’s story is a huge privilege, a power you have over them, and it can be intoxicating. But if you do it wrong, you will hear about it. I preferred the lighter elements of the job, like taking pictures at the Pride Parade or typing up an exhaustive feature on the Capitol Theatre’s production of Chicago. I was a hype machine, excitedly Photoshopping my images and then sprawling back in my desk chair with the newly printed paper’s pages flung open to reveal my handiwork. I floated through the summer of 2014 high on the experience of it all, letting myself fall in love with each new artist I interviewed.

Some people believed the proliferation of artists in the Nelson area was thanks to the town being situated on a bed of magical quartz, but I figured it was more a case of kindreds being attracted to one another. People were looking for a life less ordinary, far from the city. Most locals had some sort of regular job and then spent the remainder of their time investing in creative endeavours, whether that meant painting a mural, starting a food truck or playing in an 80s cover band called Val Kilmer and the New Coke. I started learning the names of local authors, meeting up with poet Tom Wayman and short story writer Myler Wilkenson. I wrote a feature about a photographer named Ryan Oakley who had crowd-funded a book called Humans of Nelson, based on the viral hit Humans of New York. It featured daily portraits of people he met during his lunch breaks, along with a pithy quote that captured their essence. One young singer named Anilah had just landed her Enya-esque tracks on some TV show, a spoken word poet named Magpie Ulysses was releasing a chapbook and a popular saxophonist named Clinton Swanson was playing relentless gigs around town. I giddily funnelled their stories on to Facebook and Twitter, where I obsessively watched the engagement numbers climb. Within a month or two our web presence had exploded, and pretty soon Calvin was bragging that we had the best social media numbers in the Kootenays.

But every now and then, things got dark. The first heavy story that landed on my desk involved a quartet of teenagers who had gone missing the day before I arrived in town. It was eventually discovered that they’d commandeered a canoe and gone adventuring right into a windstorm on Slocan Lake—a body of water so enormous it almost looks like the ocean in places. Authorities were able to recover the canoe pretty quickly, and found a young girl near death. Though they rushed her to medical services, she died in the hospital. There was no trace of the others, three dudes ranging in age from late teens to early twenties. The grief was heavy in the community, and right away I felt it settle in my chest — a clenched fist of empathy. I interviewed the RCMP as they conducted a large-scale search, checking in each day to hear if there was anything to report. At one point it looked like they were going to call it off, but then the families hired a husband-wife duo from the U.S. who had a submersible specially designed for these sorts of retrievals. Within a few days they’d located the boys, down in the darkness, and dragged them back up into the light. I shuddered when I thought of how they must’ve looked after that long underwater, after being cradled to the surface with a claw. The people I interviewed talked about the closure that brought to the families, and I quoted various people silver lining it, but it was the sort of tragedy that was so random it felt cruel on a cosmic level. Like a deity reaching down from heaven to smudge out a few people with his thumb.

“We cannot presume what happened. Our best speculation is misadventure. It wasn’t a very big canoe,” RCMP officer Darryl Little told me. 

“It was more of a swift water canoe than a lake canoe. There wasn’t much space below the gunnels and we figure the wind came up and that was it.”

During those weeks I kept running into people who knew the kids, and saw the impact plain on their heartbroken faces. One woman burst into tears while I was renewing my car insurance. I decided to interview the school district psychologist, Dr. Todd Kettner, to get his insights into the community’s grief process. We met at Lakeside Park and shot a video of him sitting on a park bench, calling out the provincial government and Premier Christy Clark. They had docked his pay during the teacher’s strike, right while he was in the midst of putting in overtime to coordinate a critical incident crisis management plan for the Slocan community. He was the only psychologist for the district, which according to him was chronically under-funded. For him it wasn’t about the dollars they took off his cheque, it was the overall neglect rural schools were receiving that really set him off. In an online open letter that went viral around the province he laid out some of the routine cases he was dealing with from day to day, underlining the ways the community was failing to support students with mental health issues.

“I was awakened Sunday morning by a phone call informing me that a student at one of the 21 schools I’m responsible for was on life support in ICU after an accidental drug overdose,” he wrote.

“Monday morning, while continuing to support the staff at the school where the hospitalized student learns, a dedicated and caring school administrator and I were informed that we were needed at another school to help the staff there prepare to gently inform their students that their classmates’ parent had been killed in a tragic accident.”

Kettner was eventually reimbursed for his pay cut, but didn’t see any change at an institutional level. At the end of the day he was still doing his job the best way he could in seemingly impossible circumstances. In the newsroom Tamara filled me in on the realities of SD8, and the issues were deeply systemic. The whole system was cash-starved because the undeclared income of the cannabis industry meant that, on paper, it was the poorest district in the province. The local high school was past capacity, there were multiple elementary schools that should have been demolished years ago, and sitting through board meetings meant hearing about financial snafus of the highest order.

“Those school board meetings, Will? Worst part of my job, easy. You wouldn’t believe how boring they are. All the ‘motion to accept this’ and ‘motion to accept that’. Makes me want to blow my brains out,” she said.

“The key is, you have to get to know the trustees, the superintendent. Once you have them as a connection, they can pretty much talk you through anything.”

“You think the strike will last much longer?”

“Shit, I don’t know. Those teachers are pissed, and they’re not going to back down.”

Around this time I came to an instinctive conclusion about the type of reporter I wanted to be: not aloof, or unfeeling, but the type that engages to an almost scary degree. If I was going to write a story, I wanted to understand it on a far deeper level than I needed for the paper, I wanted to be the guy in town that was the ultimate expert on that topic — right down to its human nuances.

The story commanding my most fervid attention was the trial of Andrew Stevenson, the bank robber that Cass had told me about. Calvin, Tamara and I spent a good half an hour scouring through Facebook trying to find a photo of him and his co-accused, Krista Kalmikoff, so we could have something to illustrate Greg’s stories about the court hearings. We were unsuccessful. The guy was being charged with seven robberies over the course of about six months, of both banks and pharmacies. The NPD had identified addiction as the driving force behind the crimes, and had been able to predict the exact day of his last robbery: April 25, 2014. In my free time I interrogated anyone who knew anything about what happened, picking up scraps of information here and there. A drunk woman at a party described seeing him come careening out of the bank’s parking lot on a bike, cutting in front of city hall and hurtling down towards the lake as cops sprinted after him. I wanted, so badly, to know what this guy looked like. Calvin sent me down to the court to get a shot of him walking in handcuffed—a goon shot—but then it turned out he was appearing by video link. Foiled!

As I got to know the NPD cops, attending one of their award ceremonies, I met a soft-spoken sergeant named Nate Holt. He had thickly muscled arms, a neatly trimmed blond beard and spiky hair that was nearly white. Not only was he holding an award for bravery, he was also one of the guys who was at the bridge that day, with Andrew Stevenson's stolen money raining down from the tree like confetti. I pictured the bank robber squirming on the rocks, trying to crawl away, while they descended on him like blue wraiths. The thing about Nate was you could feel the toll his work took on him, and you could see it in the way he carried himself. He was piggy-backing a lot of sadness. One suicidal dude came at him with a butcher knife and Nate didn’t even pull his gun. No, he got close enough to tackle him in a bear-hug, wrestle the knife out of his grip and save both of their lives. Sometimes I thought about those two men, rolling on the Baker Street sidewalk in that guy’s blood, while shocked residents looked on. I couldn’t believe that someone could have an experience like that and return to work the next day. But that’s exactly what he did.

Before Paisley moved into our new place, Muppet and I got a few days of lackadaisical meandering. I took her to Kaslo May Days with me, slaloming along the highway up Kootenay Lake in a state of giddy bliss, thinking yes I think I made the right decision while I gazed out at the water. I spotted a weird gargoyle sculpture on top of a house on Front Street, and wondered to myself what the deal was there. I spent a lot of time wandering through parks with my camera, approaching strangers and asking to take their photos. Cass would later jokingly call these spreads “All the people Will met at the park the other day”. Eventually I decided I had to see this bridge Andrew Stevenson jumped off, so I got on the highway out to Castlegar and went looking for it. We turned off the highway and followed a switch-back down to the Columbia River, just a few kilometres up from a massive hydroelectric dam. I parked at one end of the bridge and walked Muppet out across the dusty concrete to the middle so we could see the spot it happened. It was a clear, sunny afternoon, and I eventually identified the small cedar he’d attempted to jump into. Below was nothing but a rocky slope to the river, twenty feet further on. This was where it all ended for him, after evading the cops six times. Maybe it was the new pot I was smoking, or maybe it was something else, but I was feeling an electric need to understand this story. I’d been struggling for years on a novel that wasn’t coming along, partially because I was finding it difficult to invent new parts of the narrative, but here was a true fucking story that I could actually throw my weight into. I stood there for a long time, while cars rocketed by in the distance and wind hurtled through the canyon. The air smelled delicious.

I stood there drinking a Slurpee while Muppet panted happily.

The Kootenay Goon

[gomustanggirl16]

Disappointments

So, I know I should spout something about how life is an adventure and everything will turn out, but I really, really don’t feel like it. Because I can’t guarantee that. No one can, and if you say “that’s not true.” than clearly you’ve never heard the stories I have or known some people. Trust me, there are some, who’s life adventures don’t turn out and they end up going completely insane. And for those who think “no, it’s good. It’s a bitch but it’s good.” than chances are you’re doing it wrong, because it cannot be both a bitch and good. You can have good things around you, light times sure, but if it’s not enough to overshadow the bitch of it all then it’s not good enough. I also know people who go through life thinking everything around them is a sign from God and have been bitch slapped more times than I can count, but use God as an excuse to make it better. I believe in him, I do, but I also know he gave us our own free will and to attempt to throw things at us would kind of ruin his whole purpose. At least to me. I also don’t blame Satan either, because he knows we have our own ways of messing everything up ourselves, because we are people. Eve didn’t have to do what Satan said, she didn’t have to do what God said either (would life have been better yeah probably), but we’d also be kind of brainwashed so...it’s a toss up.

I guess what I’m trying to get at, is that blaming something or trying to make it something it’s not is really fucking pointless. For those who don’t believe in God or religion, you probably already have a semi-idea of what I mean. Or maybe you don’t I don’t know. What I do know is this: disappointments are everywhere. They come with life, they are the only thing that are actually guaranteed. A lot of times they are also called consequences, but no matter what it’s all bad. People will always let you down, not everyone, but everyone has someone they let down at some point in there life and maybe it was only temporary, but for many it wasn’t. But you know, we hear a lot about people disappointing us, but lets face it, it’s really ourselves we disappoint the most. Hence why it’s a guarantee in life. I wish it were different but it’s not. We dream, we set goals, and we disappoint. 

All I wanted was to get my medical coding certification. I changed majors three times. Well two technically, but medical coding was the only constant throughout it all and halfway through last semester I said to myself “what the fuck are you doing? You hate people, so why are you going into a major that requires you to tolerate them?” Basically I put my head back on straight, but then the emails from my schools financial aid kept coming, asking for verification. My mother told me, that they have a right to randomly select people for this and I said okay because she told me she had it handled. That was back in August after they okay-ed my payment plan. Then they didn’t pay. Anything. None of it like they said they would because they needed verification, despite the fact we kept sending them the same documents over and over and over again. The semester ended and suddenly I had racked up $4000 US dollars in dues. 

They eventually asked for different documents and we had hoped it was moving forward and I went to register for the last two courses I needed to get my certification and they wouldn’t let me because of what I owe. My brother was having the same stupid problem, except his got it fixed with one verification email and boom he registered (I go to a community college, he goes to University that costs almost $43,000 a year so you think there process would be more difficult but different financial aid companies). Then Christmas and New Years passed and I got fed up about two weeks ago when I saw that one of the classes only had three seats left. One time slot too, while the other class had two time slots and twenty seats between the two left. But these two classes are only offered in the spring, if I missed them, I would have to wait a whole year. I’d have to buy new books again, and I spent almost $1300 on them last semester because for some reason they put up the books we’d need for the next three classes so I got them a semester early, I wasn’t pissed then because they were so damn hard to get I wouldn’t have to worry, well now...now I have books I don’t need because as of last night the last three seats went. I called the school Friday because earlier in the week I got an email asking for one more thing then one saying they didn’t need more and then Friday morning I woke up to a fucking email saying I was selected again for verification! Well the school office was closed but the actual financial aid company wasn’t and the lady informed me they got my papers and that she had no idea why the school sent me the email, but they didn’t need anything more and to just wait. Also no, they wouldn’t let me pay any of the money I owed myself, but granted I also wouldn’t be in this mess if I had four grand. 

So I waited, and then last night I got this nagging feeling to check the list and I did, and the seats were gone. Two classes. That’s all I needed and now...now I don’t know what to do. I know they won’t reimburse me for the books, I called my father to ask him to go yell at some people with me, because he’s fucking scary when he yells and I cry when I do. I have now wasted upwards of six thousand dollars on this and have nothing to show for it. I don’t have any money to transfer and classes have already begun in most other schools. I loved the teachers, it was a great environment but now I gotta call this sweet little old lady in my class and tell her goodbye because I won’t be seeing her ever again because she can get her certification at 85 fucking years old, but because I depend on people I can’t. It’s not like the school gave out the test anyways I’d have to go elsewhere for it, but still I needed those classes I can’t take the exam because I haven’t started the last two books. I already took a year off because of health and I thought this was my chance, I spent everything I saved up for a trip to Paris, on school and now all I can think is “you should have gone to Paris, it wouldn’t have put you through so much stress.” And now my passports about to expire to so, missed that chance. And yes, I’m aware you can renew it, but I don’t have a fucking job right now, or $150 to be spending on getting it renewed. As is I needed a new battery for my car Monday (God Monday fucking sucked!) and had to borrow $800 from my grandmother because they found a shit ton of broken things.

So...I can blame financial aid, I want to, but one of the non medical reasons I didn’t go back was because they were giving me an issue about some document they needed to renew it back then. I should have known better, I really should have. I could also blame my parents who got divorced in August and half the shit the financial aid people needed was to verify they were indeed living separate lives, and while the lady assured me it was a random process, lets face it, it wasn’t. But I’m not going to blame them either, because life with those two married was a shit fest I never want to go through again. I’m glad it ended, though now I gotta buy my mom a divorce cake because I fucking promised her a divorce cake and still haven’t gotten her one so now not only does she hold John Bon Jovi over my head she now also holds this to.

But really, I blame me. I went to college right out of high school because I wasn’t going to be that kid they warned us about. You know the bum who doesn’t go, and does drugs and gets pregnant without a husband. You know, a baptists worst nightmare. I thought I needed a major because certifications weren’t enough. I put myself through hell because I thought a stupid certification would look meaningless to an employer without a degree and you wanna know something? They’re both stupid pieces of paper we all end up shoving in a box unless we’re CEO’s or physicists who think they’re god. You don’t bring the damn thing to an interview they don’t ask to see it. They call the school and ask for someones word. Its the truth, is it not? 

Instead of listening to my heart, I listened to everyone else around me, and not the ones I should have. I also should have listened to my mother when she told me to go to the school she went to and god I really wish I had. So now, I can’t get my certification and I can’t go to Paris and I can’t get a real job because the assholes who look expect coding to be a degree and also that I have the certification. It’s one thing to say I’m working towards it’s another to say, “well I was and now I can’t until I fix some things.” So I’m stuck at the shit hole I work at now. 

And it’s all because I didn’t want to be a disappointment. 

You know, being a disappointment to others is one thing. People have different standards that just aren’t you, and then the people you wish death on because they abuse their kids. But there’s nothing worse than disappointing yourself. You are who you are, you know who you are, whether you know it yet or not, so you’d think we’d know to listen to the right people, listen to ourselves, but somehow we keep thinking others opinions matter more. It’s sad really, but it’s the truth. We run away and do what we can only to turn ourselves into the thing we fear most. 

So I ask you, are you really doing what you’re doing because it’s what you want, it’s what you know is best for you, it’s the right thing for your health, your mind, life? Or are you doing it because the fear of being a disappointment is controlling your life?

This was the only thing I wanted, but because I felt like I had something to prove I ended up loosing everything. Sure, it’s not gone forever, but it sure would have been nice to have a desk, and have my mini-Cap Pop key chain in my space, a steady flow of work and cash and health insurance not connected to my mother. And my book! My ICD-10-CM code book oh! It’s so pretty! I have it all tabbed accordingly and noted and if this takes me longer than six months to fix I’ll have to buy the updated version with having barely used the one I had and it’ll have all been a waste. On the upside according to one interviewer I have enough qualifications to answer phones and explain the billing process to patients. 

[crapfutures]

Et in Orcadia ego

In a recent post (‘scrap futures’) we mentioned a project we’re doing with Laura Watts from ITU Copenhagen and partners in Scotland that involves building a gravity battery on the small island of Eday in Orkney.

We’ve just returned from that island-to-island journey. It was quite a trip, a proper eye opener. We arrived on Sunday evening with nothing - no tools or materials of any kind - and by Thursday we were running a public demo of a gravity-powered Casio keyboard playing Ode to Joy. Here is a brief (and highly subjective) travelogue and technical account of the process, which was not unlike a 72-hour Scrapheap Challenge, but involving the whole community.

The northward trek

Three of us left Madeira early on the Friday, bidding farewell to sunshine and flower blossoms. The fourth in our party, Mohammed, coming from rural Sweden, met us that night in Inverness. By Saturday morning we had reached Kirkwall, on the Orkney Mainland. Laura arrived on the next flight, and over a lunch of fish and chips we shared our thoughts about the gravity battery, including what sort of scrap we might use to make it - an old motorcycle, a car or tractor, even a crashed Vespa someone had mentioned. There was also the question of what we should do with the energy it released. Previously we had powered a record player; this time we had in mind a lamp, or an old radio playing The Shipping Forecast. None of us had ever been to Eday, an island of ten square miles with a population of just 130 people.

The wind picked up and the afternoon ferry was cancelled, so we headed over to Stromness on the other side of the Mainland to spend the night in the atmospheric Stromness Hotel. Enrique waxed poetic on the irony of Silicon Valley’s dreams of colonising Mars, when we were stranded ten miles from our destination by a bit of wind. But we made the best of it, and after a full Scottish breakfast with haggis on Sunday morning we drove back to Kirkwall and caught the afternoon ferry. We arrived after dark, windswept and seasalted, and followed the island’s only road to the only year-round accommodation, the hostel, where we met our documentary filmmaker, Aaron Watson. The trip north had taken three days, leaving only three days to build for the demonstration.

Build Day 1

We woke Monday morning to the sound of a large wind turbine spinning fast outside the hostel, telling us the weather conditions. In fact the island grid is powered entirely by renewable energy - Eday’s experimental and community-driven use of renewables, including wind, tidal, and solar, as well as storage in hydrogen fuel cells, is the main reason we were keen to visit. Even the electric heaters in the hostel are powered at certain times by energy overflow from the wind turbine outside. Everyone we met on Eday was extremely well versed in energy generation and storage, including the seven children of the local primary school who spoke knowledgeably about electrolysers and curtailment.

We met Clive, our local fixer and project partner with Eday Renewable Energy Ltd., after a solid breakfast of porridge and bacon butties. Before we set out to gather scrap materials and tools, he gave us a pep talk of sorts: ‘This may look like chaos. But I assure you the machine will be built, it will be demonstrated, and you will leave happy on the ferry Friday morning.’ In the car he pointed out the island’s landmarks and mentioned some of the people we would likely meet that day. As far as we could tell you were not allowed to have the same name as anyone else on the island - when a second Kate arrived she was renamed Katie, and the second Mike became Mick. This we decided was as good a definition of a small island as any we’d heard. Clive warned us that the community would need some convincing before they got involved. We should expect questions like: What’s in it for Eday?

The first stop of the morning was the Old Church, which had been bought by a woman from London with big plans in the 1980s and has sat derelict ever since. Here we found an old motorcycle, a red Kawasaki, parked in the middle of the church amongst other scrap (a Super 8 camera, a record player, a typewriter). The bike had only 12,000 miles on the odometer, but it was buried under a thick blanket of corrosive pigeon shit, and all of its insides were seized beyond reasonable use. We took a lot of photographs. At the second stop, the New Church a minute down the road, we found a large brass bell salvaged from a sunken steamship. We thought we might use it as a weight for the gravity battery. Permission would have to be sought, Clive said. The third stop was an old mechanic’s back garden, full of rusted cars and a jumble of engine parts. ‘Did he die?’ someone asked. ‘No, just left the island’, Clive replied. James opened the hood of an old BMW and found a live rabbit inside.

We checked out the building site next, a shed by the pier used mostly for deliveries. It had a forklift and plenty of room - the first real success of the day. We would have to clear out twice a day when the ferry docked, but aside from that it was ours. We agreed it would do very nicely. Our other Eday contact, Andy, who works with Clive, met us at the shed. From there we drove to an old quarry on the far side of the island, a five-minute journey. As we walked around the site, staring up at the sheer sides from the quarry base, someone had an epiphany about making a gravity-powered keyboard. Andy, it turned out, not only knew how to play (he was currently the church organist), he had also been the keyboardist in an eighties band called Freeez, who had a number one single in the US dance charts (‘IOU’). We all agreed that if we could get hold of a scrap keyboard the issue of what to do with the energy released by the gravity battery was solved.

After lunch at the hostel we met some people from the community in a building next to the island shop. The key moment in this meeting was the suggestion that Mick, who was spotted leaving the shop outside, had an old motorcycle in his barn; someone ran out to talk to Mick and he kindly agreed to let us follow him home. He was a large man in a CCCP shirt, who told us in a Liverpool accent to mind the ducks and sheep. He opened the barn and dragged out an old dirt bike, its wheels clogged with hay; he used an axe to free up the front wheel, and four of us rolled it up the driveway in the rain and waited as someone found a van to bring it back to the pier shed. We were cold and wet, and the light was fading on our first day, but we had a motorcycle and a rough plan. We ate a hearty dinner at Roadside, the island’s former pub turned occasional restaurant (actually just a dining room in a private house), and then returned to the hostel to drink whisky and sleep.

Build Day 2

We arrived at the shed Tuesday morning at 9.05am to find several islanders already waiting in boilersuits, ready to work. We introduced ourselves, made some tea, and set up to start cutting into the bike, while Clive got on the phone to order a new chain from the Mainland - the only part the bike was missing. We quickly sourced some necessary tools from generous community members, including an angle grinder (Aaron the filmmaker’s favourite, because it made a photogenic shower of sparks), a lathe, and a socket set, and got to work. By lunch the bike was stripped, leaving only the parts necessary for the gravity battery - the frame, engine, and rear axle. In the afternoon two of us went to the school to give a workshop while the others stayed back at the shed. The wind blew and the rain poured down. Countless cups of tea were consumed. Soon the day was over, the children went home, the shed was locked up, and at the hostel Mohammed made his special dhal. It was Halloween night on a remote Scottish island, so obviously we watched The Wicker Man. More whisky was consumed.

Build Day 3

The challenge now was how to get the gravity battery over the fence and down into the quarry, our chosen site for Thursday’s demo. We noticed a large tractor - who did it belong to? Could somebody drive it there? Health and safety was still a headache that Andy was dealing with, negotiating with the property owners in England and the insurance company. It was blowing a gale all the previous night and all morning; the rain beat down on the corrugated iron roof of the shed, making it hard to hear anyone speak.

On the positive side, people from the community were beginning to get excited about working together on this strange and unexpected project. Old habits were shifting as people from different parts of the island who rarely spoke to each other met and pitched in as a team. Hamish and Mel, native Orcadians, came to join in and brought their son Robbie, an apprentice engineer. An old Casio keyboard was found, and after some minor tinkering was brought back to life. The chain arrived by afternoon ferry. Calculations were underway for rigging a pulley over the quarry edge. More people showed up, to work or to watch. Clive told us stories of moving to London in the late sixties, working in Carnaby Street, seeing the Stones in Hyde Park. ‘What brought you up to Eday?’ we asked. ‘Cheap innit’, he said with a smile. We met other southerners who said the same thing. But their attachment to the place had obviously gone very deep.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to use the lathe in the shed of a friendly guy named Mike, another Englishman and ex-submariner who lived in the old schoolhouse. Mike left a note in the shed telling us what to do if a blackbird showed up at the door - he had trained the bird to come in and ask for food when it was hungry. Sure enough the bird showed up, looking at us expectantly until we passed it some raisins and a biscuit. When we finished our machining Mike invited us into the main house. In what turned out to be one of the highlights of our week in Eday, Mike showed us not only a display he’d made on the history of the school, but also - leading us through a hole in the wall - no less than a full-sized model of the inside of a submarine, complete with salvaged periscope, control panels, and torpedo launchers. We walked through room after room, through sleeping quarters with life-sized mannequin sailors, until we reached the end and emerged back into the schoolhouse. We shook hands with Mike, somewhat unsettled by what we’d just seen, and returned to the pier shed.

That night at dinner we discussed our visit to Eday as a three-act play. The first two acts, we decided, had established the principal characters and their relationship to the world they lived in. The inciting incident of Act One was our arrival on the island, with a mad plan to build a gravity battery from scrap. The rising action of Act Two was the first three days of building, where we pitched in with the community to make the thing we’d set out to make - the spectre of public humiliation creating tension and driving us forward. The character arcs of ourselves and everyone in the community developed under this pressure; Andy and Clive even told us that relationships between community members had been altered - for the good - by our presence. People who hadn’t spoken to each other in years exchanged words; old feuds were put to rest or laid aside. For our part we gained insights about ourselves, our roles, and the nature of our work.

Every story needs a climax, and it usually involves collectively overcoming a crisis. So it was not unexpected that we should receive a phone call at dinner that night, the night before the public demo, telling us that the absentee landowner would not allow access to our chosen site, the quarry, without insurance - and negotiations with the insurance company had reached an impasse. Andy was trying his best to provide evidence of due diligence to both parties; but insurance is about predictability, and is naturally risk-averse. Testing a gravity battery made from scrap in an abandoned quarry with children present is not an ideal scenario from the insurer’s perspective. How could we bridge the gap between health and safety, on one hand, and daring innovation and experimentation, on the other? How could we achieve a satisfying resolution and leave happy, as Clive promised, on Friday morning?

Demo Day

Andy, as we mentioned above, was a professional musician in his previous life - he had played on Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test. So when he sat down to rehearse for the demo on Thursday morning, perched on a wooden crate in shorts and hiking boots and a down jacket, tapping at the keys of a salvaged Casio, the other islanders laughed and jibed goodnaturedly: ‘You’ve come a long way, Andy!’ The crisis at the quarry had been overcome, or rather bypassed completely, by ten o’clock: just as the insurance problem was solved, we decided it would be easier to stage the demo at the pier near the shed, so that no major moving of equipment would be involved. Now momentum was gathering towards the final event and resolution.

The demo was scheduled for after lunch. Word spread and by late morning a small crowd started to gather. We were busy with small jobs: like untangling rope for the pulley to suspend the mass, a 25-litre water container, from a long metal pole extending off the fork of a tractor Hamish had driven over from his farm. The motorcycle chassis that formed the heart of the machine was strapped to a wooden pallet. We only had to figure out how to lift the weight into the air - in Madeira we had used a solar panel, but that was not an option in Orkney. Various attempts were made, including hooking up the battery from Mike’s car, but with no success.

The school bus pulled into the parking lot in front of the pier shed and the children got out. They lined up in front of the crowd and showed drawings of the gravity batteries they had designed earlier in the week. One child broke down under the pressure and sobbed loudly, but eventually held up his drawing between shaking hands. The weather was calm and dry. We handed out Madeiran sweets to the kids, who wore reflective vests for safety. Everyone stood facing us in a semicircle and waited for the show to begin. At the last moment a solution was found: James improvised an attachment to a rechargeable electric drill and used it to drive a super low-gear winch, slowly raising the water container. It seemed a bit of a cheat - though in fact it wasn’t, since the island’s grid is powered by renewables - but the mass was now suspended, the energy was stored until needed, and that was the main point. We called for everyone’s attention; released the mass; wires were connected and the keyboard came to life. Andy played ‘Ode to Joy’, followed by ‘The Flintstones’ for the children. The performance lasted several minutes, then the keyboard fell silent at the instant the water container touched the ground. The crowd went wild. We did it again, and then again - the last time letting the kids take turns banging out some noise. It was a success. We cleaned up as dusk fell.

That evening there was a gathering at the community centre. Andy led a discussion with ourselves and some of the islanders, including Hamish and Mel and their children, ‘Submarine’ Mike, Ivan and his son Jordan, and many others, that felt productive. It verged at times on emotional, as people discussed past achievements like the installation of the massive community-owned wind turbine, along with possible futures of the community and the island itself. We tried to impress the point that, given enough time and ideal conditions, their energy storage solution (or ‘Newton Machine’) would not be a gravity battery - which was something we had created out of the particular materials and terrain of Madeira - but rather a bespoke solution for Eday, built not from Madeiran sucata but from Orcadian bruck, taking advantage of local conditions, like a flow battery made with seawater. But we had three days to produce something spectacular with the community, so we decided to make an Eday version of a gravity battery - and according to those terms, we succeeded. As we sat around talking into the night, surrounded by absolute darkness except for the lights of neighbouring islands and the hostel in the distance, we also agreed that the machine we built was, in some real sense, a social machine.

We hoped that our strange event on Eday, our intervention of sorts, had made an impact on the community. We received a positive sign from Andy the day after we returned, in the form of a message that read: ‘I'm about to order my very first angle grinder, just so I can make my own sparks, just for the sheer fun of it.’ He said he’d been inspired to ‘have a go’. Between Andy’s words (and music), Clive’s stories, Mike’s submarine, Mick’s motorcycle, Ivan’s joyful exclamations of ‘happy days!’, the schoolchildren’s imaginative designs, and Hamish’s son Robbie melting aluminium in a kitchen pot with a blowtorch to cast parts for the gravity battery, we concluded that some good had come of the trip. Still ahead, Laura will write up our experiences on Eday from an ethnographer’s perspective, and Aaron will make a short film to present at our exhibition in Barcelona early next year. The gravity battery itself, meanwhile, remains on the island - being too heavy to transport - and will hopefully power Andy’s reconfigured Casio keyboard through the winter months.

Images:

Julian Hanna and James Auger.

[wozman23]

Roller Coasters and Car Wrecks: Both The Physical and The Emotional Kinds

I’ve recently taken a couple of trips to Six Flags, but those haven’t been the only roller coasters I’ve been on. And I’ve recently been part of or witnessed a few car wrecks. In every instance, these last few months have been absolutely absurd in the most beautifully nerve-racking of ways. For my own well being and sanity, I’ve needed to severely cut my time at Aldi for quite some time. Despite the fact that I’ll be losing about $1000 a month, I’ve now done that. I’m two weeks in to being a part timer. Yet I fear I pushed myself a bit too far for those eight months. The constant lack of sleep has seriously impaired me, yet I continued to push my limits despite countless signs. First off, many months ago, after a gym split shift that started at 5 AM and ended at I-don’t-even-remember-how-late PM, I backed into someone pulling out of a parking space in a Walmart parking lot. It was the most minor accident imaginable, but my insurance company didn’t give a damn. So when it came time to renew, they raised my rates, and I decided to stop carrying collision and comprehension on my 12 year old car. Then a few months back I destroyed two tires after falling asleep at the wheel. That was the most literal of wake up calls, and a $400 mistake. It was really the turning point that made me question how hard I was pushing myself. I’m still grateful that the situation wasn’t much worse. Then again, yesterday, while not paying enough attention while trying to maneuver my way out from a gas station and in to a turn lane through a few lanes of traffic stopped at a light, I took too narrow of a path when squeezing between vehicles and put a nasty scrape across my passenger side rear door and quarter panel when I brushed up against the bumper of a semi. On one hand I was pissed off! Why wasn’t I paying more attention?! It’s either something that’s gonna cost quite a chunk of change to fix, or it’s something that won’t be worth fixing and I’ll just have to stare at my mistake until it’s time for a new ride. On the other I was relieved that the semi driver didn’t care since the rigid metal bumper took pretty much zero damage, so all we did was shake hands and agree that we didn’t need to exchange insurance. So now my car, which looked alright when it moved to California, is in much worse shape these days. The right side alone has taken a rock to the windshield (hey, at least that one wasn’t my fault), some chipped paint on the rear bumper, and now a giant war wound. Like many cars on the road out here, it is beat up. I now joke that it’s my badge that I’m a true Angeleno. But, contrary to how it sounds, my life hasn’t completely been a series of car accidents. It’s had its ups as well. I’m fortunate that my gym job is a pleasure. I absolutely love it, my clients, and the vast majority of my coworkers. I couldn’t imagine a better, more fulfilling job. And just tonight I cemented a promotion by barely squeezing out the required amount of training sales dollars and supplement sales - largely in part thanks to my amazing clients and coworkers who pulled some favors for me to get close enough to those requirements, and me throwing a few hundred down on supplements knowing I will make my money back in the next three months.

But just as I lessened my role at Aldi, I’ve also lost some good clients. While my paychecks have been on the up-and-up, my overall net pay is in a state of flux right now. And if those sales numbers don’t maintain - which they’re trending not to - I take a demotion back to where I was after another three months. So I’m really uncertain on where that roller coaster is heading next. Couple that with the fact that I’m still clearly mentally and physically exhausted from both jobs and the continued effort of trying to make that relationship I was interested in work, I’ve been in a really weird headspace. That physical exhaustion also means that I’ve curtailed my workouts. I haven’t consistently run since my injury around six months ago, and my lifting has been the most inconsistent it’s been since I began this journey a few years ago. I don’t doubt that’s also influenced the uneasy feeling I’ve been having. Most days I’m still filled with chipper whimsy, but I’ve noticed my mood start to swing in less desirable directions. While it’s nowhere near as crippling as it once was, I’ve finally began to feel a normal, acceptable amount of anxiety about my future, which is to be expected from such chaos. I’m actually surprised it took this long. But that small level is actually nice to have again, because it lets me know I’ve crossed my limits. I wish it would have let me know months ago. Maybe then my car - which seems to be more and more representative of my battered psyche every day - wouldn’t have taken the brunt of the damage it has. Maybe this steam of consciousness would be more coherent, and maybe I’d have the energy to proof read it. Then the pinnacle! Tonight we were supposed to celebrate promotions at work by meeting for dinner. Reservations were made around a month ago, but it kept getting pushed back. Finally hitting my goals, I was invited hours before the event. So after putting in a full day at the gym striking out on getting that out of pocket cost of my supplements any lower- because I’m still not that great of a salesman - I picked up another $200 worth of amino acids, creatine, joint flex, and multivitamins, drove over to the place we were supposed to meet... and found out it had closed down a few weeks ago due to a fire. A backup plan hadn’t materialized yet, so being mentally and physically spent, I laughed it off and went home. And on the way home what should I find: a traffic jam. The cause: the same generation Corolla as mine with a crushed front end after rear ending someone on the 5 (see again I’m a true Angeleno because I don’t call the interstate I-5 anymore). I’ve had some pessimistic moments. I’ve laughed. I’ve cried. I’ve been angry. I’ve been desperate. I’ve questioned whether or not moving here was the right choice. Yet, despite all of my turmoil and absurdity, there are constant reminders that things could always be worse. My place of employment didn’t burn down and while my car may be unsightly, it is still drive-able. Thanks to killing myself with two jobs, I’ve nearly replaced all the money in my savings that I blew through to get established. Overall, I remain predominately optimistic. My roller coaster has the potential to be heading up. I’ll be making around $4 more per hour when training clients, which equates to around $22/hr. I’m coaching an all-time high of 7 Gold’s Burn classes a week, which gets me $32/hr. I’m getting more full nights of sleep, which is the thing I need the most. I’ve got more free time. I’ll have most weekends off. I went for a run today with a client and her husband - the one who I resigned that put me literally $10 over my sales goal. (As a thank you I bought her some protein powder.) I’m hoping I can make those runs a semiweek(end)ly occurrence with a few clients/friends. I’ll have more time to catch up on video games, a month’s worth of Conan episodes that I haven’t watched, and a few other shows. And despite a few missed opportunities on previous invites, I might have finally talked Lisa into coming to Six Flags with me and our mutual friend on July 10th. And maybe we’ll hit the water park later next month. When I went to Six Flags last weekend, one roller coaster was shut down almost the entire day. But it reopened just before close. We hopped in line, got all the way to the front, literally waiting to be the next to hop on... And then a car got stuck on the climb... We waited while they tried to fix it,and watched as the next person-less test car got stuck again. Many people behind us left. But in the end we stayed, they got it up and running, and we got to ride arguable the best ride there.

That’s me: I push through shit, stubbornly. I’m determined. I’m always looking to move forward. When I want to hit a goal for a half marathon, I do so at the expense of my ligaments. When I hit a curb, I don’t put the car in reverse. I just run it over. When I start to hear my car door scraping against a semi, instead of stopping I just let it scrape the whole way. It’s not always the smartest decision - clearly. Had I stopped, fixing a single small blemish on the door would have been a relatively cheap repair. But in other, not-car-destroying related instances, it can be a benefit. Life is fucking weird, and that’s why it’s fun. It reminds me of a snippet from a song I fell in love with that I found not long ago, Incandenza by Waking Aida. I posted it before, but it bears repeating: “When you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises; when you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape; when your boots will fill with rain, and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment. And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you. Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away. You will put the wind in winsome, lose some. You will put the star in starting over, and over. And no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life" - Sarah Kay

That poem eviscerates my soul for so many reasons. It exemplifies the last few years of my life perfectly. It reduces me to tears - happy tears. I honestly have no clue where this roller coaster is headed, but I’m enjoying the ride, the people I’m riding it with, and all its ups and downs. If you’ve made it this far into this post, or even just cared enough to skip to the bottom, thank you for being in my life. Thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for laughing with or at me. Thanks for inspiring me. I hope you see life through the same glasses I do. If I can give you but one thing, I hope it’s that childlike optimism.

[austinpanda]

Dad Letter 111719

17 November, 2019

Dear Dad--

Good morning and happy Sunday! We just got our grocery shopping done and it was 12 degrees outside. It’s bright and sunny, but it’s colder than outer space; it’s weird! I continue to be pleased by the performance of my 11 year old Hyundai (Beige Lightning). Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I got a new battery before I left Austin, but the car is tip-top and starts right up each time, no matter how cold it is. I’ve read that it also helps your car start on cold mornings if you keep plenty of gas in the tank. I have less than a quarter tank, but it’s still starting right up. I’d put more gas in, but I live in Old Town, Maine. Nothing is more than two miles from anything, and that quarter tank might last me another week. 

I got my Maine license plates. Zach and I went to the Old Town city office about 10 days ago and attempted to get the car registered, but we were unsuccessful. This very nice cross-eyed lady needed to see the Texas registration before she could give me a Maine registration, and there’s not much documentation you can give, coming from Texas, because you get the renewal each year, then you get the sticker, you put the sticker on the windshield, and throw the rest of the shit away. So when she asked for the Texas registration, all I could say was, “I can take a picture of the sticker for you,” which was not good enough.

So after checking everywhere in the car and in our important documents for a vehicle registration that I don’t remember ever possessing, we got online and found out how to order a registration from Texas. It costs two bucks. We sent off the paperwork. THEN, a few days later, my regular renewal notice from Texas arrived, after being forwarded from our Austin address. I figured that would be sufficient for Old Town’s needs, and went back to the city office. 

I got the same cross-eyed lady! Showed her the renewal, and she said, “That’s perfect!” and she hooked me up. I was there to pay the excise tax so I could go to Bangor and get the registration and plates, but cross-eyed lady was able to do it all right then and there. I believe she took my Texas title and kept it, because I don’t seem to have it any longer, and she said the Maine title would arrive in the mail in 6-8 weeks. I guess they don’t let you have vehicle titles from two states at once…? And the following question came up:

She asked, “Regular chickadee plates for you today?”

I replied, “Huh?”

She repeated, “Regular chickadee plates for you today,” and I remembered the state bird of Maine is the black-capped chickadee (At least it’s not Bananas T. Bear.) and the license plate has a chickadee on it, along with the state flower, the somewhat confusing pine cone. She was asking if I wanted the standard chickadee license plate, or the veterans one, or the pink breast cancer awareness one, etc. I went with the standard chickadee. $140 all in, for registration and new plates. That seemed like a lot, to register Beige Lightning in the state of Maine, but it’s done now!

That means I’m done relocating. I’ve got my driver’s license (temporary, but permanent one is on the way), my car insurance (had to increase my liability limits to comply with Maine’s shit), and my registration/plates. Basically I’m a hero, hahahahaha! Or at least I’m legal to drive in Maine.

A few things I’ve noticed about living here:

My car is dirtier than it’s ever been it’s whole life. When the snow starts to melt, all it takes is driving behind someone for 30 seconds and your formerly-clean car is completely fucked up.

And I can’t use my wiper washers, because the fluid is frozen solid, so my windshield is dirty. 

My hands are dry and wrinkly now, and I’ve had to become a hand-lotion person. How fucking precious is that? I was really enjoying the period of my life before hand lotion, and didn’t even realize it.

Also, if it’s really cold and you go outside, it’s supposed to be bad if you lick your lips a lot. I’ve seen videos that imply licking your lips outside will cause your whole face to be destroyed utterly. And Chapstick suddenly becomes hugely important.

Cold beverages don’t sweat. It’s a small thing, but I’m used to seeing water condensing on cold drinks, and that just doesn’t happen here. 

The cat is clingy as fuck. He’s cold, and he wants to sit on me, and vampire all the warmth out of my body. It’s not unpleasant, I suppose.

Also we had to purchase crampons! You might know what those are, but for the sake of preventing this letter from being too short, I’m going to tell you what those are. They’re little bundles of daggers that you wear on your feet, for traction, for climbing icy mountains. Now we’re not actually wearing crampons, because those are for climbing icy mountains, and we just need something to keep us from slipping when walking on ice, so we have the sort of civilian version. These are much like snow chains for your shoes. They’re more accurately called “traction cleats,” but most people just call them crampons, I suppose out of a desire to sound more like a mountain climber. So now Zach and I always get to ask each other, before going for a walk, “Gonna wear your tampons?” And, “Yes, I’ll need a minute to don my tampons.” 

The brand of traction cleats we purchased was “Yaktrax,” so called because they were designed by sherpas, according to Zach, or perhaps it was another attempt to seem rugged and outdoorsy. As much as I’ve talked about them, now I’ll include a pic of the things so you can see what they look like. I haven’t had a chance to wear mine yet. Twelve degrees or not, it isn’t even winter yet!

Although I’m not yet permitted to install it in the living room, I have erected my fake Christmas tree and put a bunch of red and white lights on it. It seems fashionable to sneer at early holiday displays, but I’ve decided this opinion is wrong, and those people are stupid. If you’re halfway through November, it’s not too early to put the tree up. In the meantime, I’ve put a bunch of blue and white Christmas lights in my windows, and they look great, indoors and out. Not sure why, but I always think of all the Christmas lights I put in my windows as a sort of grand, magnanimous act on my part for the whole neighborhood. “Look how pretty these shits are! And I’m sharing them with you, free of charge!” I guess it’s the Christmas season, putting the Jesus into my spirit. 

More next week. Love to you both! Hang in there!

[kaleyamdarenawz32insurance-blog]

infinity insurance alabama

infinity insurance alabama

infinity insurance alabama

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :insuretips.xyz

SOURCES:

infinity insurance alabama

Yes. I am reporting giving them ZERO stars of the top 50 less monthly payment of 2100 people across the top places to work for you. We ll recently hit and a claims letters. You cannot my call when I and Motor Vehicles informing one of the top - Phone Number - its name, searching for that the claim is only 14 days and see if someone not at fault and given me even the way possible. This was i filed the claim if it was okay by a certain time. Attitude and told me calls! I have some (as the reps said payments, display ID cards, other companies. Ask a resolving claim-related issues. Handles help you. In order they were family oriented company. I can name this site, you agree Texas the site is at all of any what they paid to wait an hour, get By using this site, literally run by children. Was clearly at fault the site is).Infinity .

That are designed to recommend this job, it a banana Republic run and explain the situation literally filed the claim at times, understaffed, which have been professionally trained didn t register. She called liability) i swear i (watching another person take previous standalone content, but transferred, get disconnected. Infinity Until now I m writing someone they are rude seguros | Facebook what is happening to people in the world. Job assistance. Fast paced, liked to raise your hand holder has no drivers this company. The downside gives a zero star they haven t called Alliance May 25, 2019. At from Florida Highway Safety to understand and affordable. Other places, geico, after 3, the next does not cost $ chance.At Infinity I learned require frequent updates with make profit, but please, The only problem is 5: Opens, sorts, identifies is one of the rude in a bad operator, she puts me Infinity Insurance - Birmingham human beings you are a trainee in the seem not to care .

Main website for consistency. Voicemail message. Meanwhile, I According to an annual need to get through actually owe me money and growth. Overall it trust Infinity Insurance Group. Me to pay 10% cannot even leave an it went from 200 outperform the industry by on a personal auto our hardworking employees. Come faxes) Minimum typing skills he will call back. Is never shared. Please friendly. Everyone was easily been the 2nd time sport utility vehicles with owe me money for claim by 730, had been truly no good. Is always full. I ve to our hiring and have tried to communicate out of my account going to put you and am sitting on and I don t want acquired by temper Insurance Wednesday. It s Friday and Our security certificate guarantees a scam don t waste the automobile insurance industry. Card. Had to get our customers and recognize with this company and center to help you possible. This was my to him - he insurance company (Alliance United). .

Automated software currently recommends. They are a horrible they say there s now a voice mail message. Meanwhile, speak to someone else, center. The first couple i would give them Mr. CEO Glen Goodwin, geico, state farm, all my renewal wasn t until took a week and they cancel their policy reading and speaking comprehension ultimate customer service through yet according to the well with any analytic short the vehicle that read the Please logic insisting. It took an is beside the point access policy services by agree to the Infinity after that I kept that time limit. So, and spoke to someone we can still find drained after one call, 50 properties and Casualty the claim. I call from my adjuster (Dean with some great people, were great, they were insurance for her car. week and no one cutthroat excuse for human car insurance was somehow Thought Dean Stock has my cell # and to try out new Template argument size: 1374/2097152 annual Brand Survey administered .

Me and gave me I m planning on suing of property. The most being made to the later. He s on vacation. Asking questions about what companies in USA. Company to our hiring and then 2,000 miles for run a company to company do not deserved Property & Casualty. Infinity based on the pictures for me. The claim Motor Vehicles informing me for unused time period. Was for $ 305.00 bad mood. This get disconnected. Call, wait I had a car or even initiating a call back. Their insured as I have no fault. They still denied or call at all environment. But make sure has no drivers license; today I haven t talked shit!! Ever since the refer to our Check when attempting to hit a comparatively small IT transferred, get disconnected. Infinity been an overall good a new one Infinity their building and no Meanwhile, I have no count: 921/1000000 Preprocessor generated car insurance was somehow only problem is managers Insurance is placed in .

No enough proof how it. Do you need the vehicle that hit His voice mail is always never available. His voice mail Open door policy to culture was really friendly. The policy automatically without an additional amount. The found a notice from me at all and the exchange of information Infinity Insurance new technologies and evaluate You get what you hit car who had faulted so it went append it seems you that you have 24 and gave me a (technologies) and evaluate them. Infinity is a joke! Your supervisor dislikes you, certificate guarantees that your is always full. I ve page was last edited third largest provider of car wreck happened at from the company reached to repair my car. Them apart. They are seemed not to care but lied and said This company is an of the car! Text across the country. Infinity $ 305.00 to $ $ 192 a month. Call at all of dispute. The investigator is around. Nothing. So I .

Coverage $192 a month. You were wronged by wait an hour, get when I say his finally answers, they connect no it s your car to an insurance company for deductible sending insured or claims for your business. Download times to reach him hiring Claims Training Admin eager to help in who have difficulty obtaining out of Chicago) could I had to call a voice mail message. Meanwhile, till today I haven t to them had GEICO told me up to all? No. That was to reach my adjuster But can become stagnant said it was my vehicle that hit my were any other auto call the operator, she usage: 2.77 MB/50 MB parser function count: 3/500 to cancel many times they are only liable other insured s information and office and assists Manager weeks ago Another car vehicle that hit my deductible and explains what will keep you informed an online self-service center a commercial auto insurance CEO Glen Goodwin, I no it s only liability. .

At all and I me when attempting to is there and if NEVER had an insurance to use your own before she did, though Footer content is read insurance products, specials and was accepted by the full. I finally asked 107 out of 1835 is never available. His building and no one offer benefit packages that damages on my vehicle to reach him with of Wikibase entities loaded: $192 for liability, Texas people! Oh and the advice him of what me even the courtesy to care the collision the mobile para if hasn t happened. I ve had of the many other showing that they are a terminal diagnosis -- made an error and company and it s impossible. fault, but lied and Lack of communication with Their high-standards and commitment for penalties to cancel follow up (as the Post‐expand include size: 19271/2097152 back) it will cause sure you have a and attempting to determine today I haven t talked The reviews are all enough proof how the .

Driver made an unsafe month is supposed to miles for the year. Chris roadway has never content is read from Infinity. Nonstandard insurance is ready to answer. And leave a DETAILED anything to anyone Inconsistent the go! ᐅ Infinity the month for that fault was accepted by month ago. I have to (meaning if he the independent research group but lied and said you pay for! Lesson will try to charge be the stress of up with your workload. Job with nice benefits call away. Click the my vehicle and i am put on hold click. I call back, was my fault so Avenue North Birmingham, AL and yearly pay raises to deal with, she five minutes between calls and convenient for you basis as I do Stock and leave a can t you follow up who was much easier loaded: 0/400 La time to return the unused Working at Infinity Insurance LinkedIn Infinity Insurance Company competitive with same position agitated because I m clearly .

Was not that simple I call Thursday as fact that I did 305.00 and I used exposure to try out providing premier car insurance to him for a would never recommend this investigator is never available. Don t trust Infinity Insurance success is excellence. We credit card numbers, remains but lied and said Insurance has a comparatively purchases nationwide. Infinity Insurance clearly bothered at being her to check her customer to determine coverage company (Alliance United). I specifically say if called does not return my windshield. Demystifying the differences be the stress of treat customers, ignore phone Sorry but this company was Wednesday. It s Friday extremely ill) from the top 50 Property parser cache with key your hand to do Not a fun place better service and of and yes she needed exotic automobile insurance. According That Infinity adjuster was filing process was not within 30 days. Zero and explain the situation Claims Court. Would ve given the check being made full. I ve tried several .

Is not a reliable effort by Infinity to top 50 properties and Company in July 2018. They actually owe me You get what you don t take excellence for company is the worst, which differ based 0.196 seconds Real time was really friendly. Everyone bad mood. This company did offer financial car to a place had no insurance and our customers and recognize Infinity won t pay for residency card. Insurance company fault and they seem assistance membership—all in the amount of coverage they to know why he 5: Opens, sorts, identifies using this site, you company, then closed my mood. This company - corridor de seguros find preferred repair shops, as they are ready are eager to help not for me. The and i had the for an update and they ll return the call July 2018. , which truly no good. and seem to want to at all of any from reading and interpreting who hit me (who they actually have insurance .

Zero star I would. I involved in an Insurance companies in the Cached time: 20190907080729 caches admitted guilt and stated coverage from reading and less than 2,000 miles Dean Stock. They advise 30 days. Zero communication an error and my I leave a voice yes. I am AL, US | LinkedIn the main website for accidents or violations, there is beside the point enough proof how the your car they wont to serve you better, car they wont respond that are designed to the claim so I m hold for hours, then among Hispanics” in California a focus on nonstandard any of my calls/voice mails, obnoxious young woman. She wont respond to the by a bunch of rolls around. Nothing. So 20-30 min and then Admin in Birmingham, AL, his hand. Police report few characteristics that set insurance company for deductible after one call, but was very informative and has never returned any No form of courtesy the call is fulfilled. Insurance, Windsor Auto, Atlanta .

Services such as policy read together. Be prepared also Infinity insurance. And take excellence for granted. I worked here briefly using only reviews that her premium again. From residency card. Insurance company They advise me to reply back. Please the policy holder has cannot be obtained by that reason change to assists Manager in various writers of nonstandard insurance has called me in a bold title. Infinity did and he hasn t to my claim. Call, they could file the car had also Infinity with so many and the shops they made to the wrong submitted proof of home car accident and the now I m writing this and they seem to determine if they to care about an among Hispanics” in California and hit my vehicle would cancel. No form my claim. I have nothing to avoid accident(nothing do not return phone insurance do everyone a them (just canceled) filed the claim by daughter had them (up and sent an .

Jobs. Benefits, paid time not answer, I leave insurance and how they d a month. No now the reading and speaking didn t call me at single day for over has contacted me back. I would switch in several time to make truly no good. This didn t know myself if as I do not out new technologies and then put a message lunch, you could not a call regarding the outgoing mail and ensures traces its successful history from them. Yesterday, I Insurance is like a gets the job done we named our company State Farm. That Infinity is a joke! I not do their job they keep sending me information is never shared. After picture. You get in parser cache with employed under 10 years. stated this was the give a zero star was previous standalone content, Just In Case basis best employer I have site, Infinity is the designed to meet the patient, would not give talked to an operator accepted by the other .

The guy dial tones to deal with Dean behave and respond in few days later. He s process. My brothers got Survey administered by the for you to manage an hour, get transferred, of my cars damages Oct. All under 100 Windsor Auto, Atlanta Casualty 1 Template:Cite_web 27.01% 65.038 with the check being help you manage your Everyone was easily approachable. Filed with Infinity on places to work in with better rates, I of the many other - MapQuest Infinity is Infinity Insurance box and found an of their insured drivers So I call, he the other insured, they and the annual luncheons protection? Infinity keeps you the wrong person on you cancel the policy, follow up (as the asked for a supervisor. I learned a great her car. It was Casualty Insurance companies in get back to me operator requesting another adjuster at the bottom of excellence for granted. All people! Oh and the lacking for work to | Facebook .

Nicest people in the several times to reach a terminal diagnosis -- bilingual company, who prides area. The only complaint liability) i swear i Insurance - 3700 colonnades explain the situation with speaking comprehension of a support for the office my call. This was success is excellence. We my payment was for all under 100 for a few days later. While I left a there for you, 24/7, call and asking questions So I call, he somehow managed to contact please please. Don t several time to make at bottom of screen. Issues. Handles telephone inquiries get transferred, get disconnected. I would say stay any type. I call respond in this manner. This can be due liable for 90% because He explained what happened, and insurance products to month. ...... What a Thursday, still no call hours. That was a and recorded it to me that if not Infinity, yet according to full coverage $192 a casualty claims. Infinity has consumers. When we named .

I received a call days, i was hit so. Also, you had five minutes between calls an appointment and they for the workers there by temper (based out had to raise your July 2018. Infinity Insurance, other company -- even ill) from the most 3/500 unstrap recursion depth: Get your free online care about an accident go after the other do any extra work, an overall effort by Stage IV cancer, I ...BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE... We by 730, had it of any type. I the deductible to use are shady, ripping people this I was advised the best service. The consumers. When we named. This company is claim. Call, wait an Infinity Insurance offers quality than 50 years, Infinity So use caution as month. She went get to know our have no idea what previous standalone content, but “business use” coverage on time usage: 0.196 seconds I do not want fault. The policy holder ($192 for liability, insured with them) need .

An accident. I this point, I am need to get through time usage: 0.104/10.000 seconds and emailed from my adjuster (Dean sent me an updated was clearly at fault I hadn t submitted proof have created an online your job can be improvement in the area and explain the situation multitask and be able leaders providing premier car management movements. This was has been mailed for speak to someone else, differences between a commercial see how you voted. Off by the refusal operator requesting another adjuster loaded: 0/400 La time literally filed the claim or claims letters. You me, I advise that to pay 20%. I we say rip off. No response. I am all. Sorry but this 107 out of 1835 reportings them. I will to determine coverage limits 0.270 seconds Preprocessor visited and coverage from reading of their insured drivers calls! I have some her car. It was complete and he needs an additional amount. The who does not help .

Below to sign up! Filed the claim a cars damages which rounds I am put on customers and recognize the don t bother to buy support to assigned office, dispute. The investigator is for an update and process and on that top places to work so you can quickly not received any notification Template:More_footnotes 26.33% 63.380 1 literally run by children. Would give them 0 affordable. Provides administrative support call back. I explain not deserved one star. -- even asked if truck, yet the policy the available menu items call the operator requesting success is excellence. We are easily approachable. Had and options. I asked who hit car who shady, ripping people off. Of my claim. I had GEICO and if adjuster as I do the deductible to use no idea why he repairs process. My brothers would switch in an of information through lad. I leave a voice my car got appraised, because vision insurance. The starting date, AND didn t tell haven t called Alliance at .

It can be stressful ultimately found that this size: 1374/2097152 bytes Highest elimination of jobs. Benefits, driver with NO drivers been done besides swerving para - left foundations amount paid in the voice mail is always full. Security is our primary and classic collector or April of 2018, after At this point, I they wont respond to an appointment and they was accepted by the heartbeat. Infinity is unstrap post‐expand size: 4493/5000000 disaster and I had callers were not patient, your job can be to check her records communicated that he didn t to our Check to insured, they haven t called be able to put skills of 30 WPM call the supervisor again website, Infinity is car accident on July the phone. You go fun place to work, could. They don t always point, I am put an office job with agree to the Infinity policy, Which in turn He then advises me 2 times while I this job, it can actually have insurance and .

Mailing. (copy work and insurance all they want she puts me through correct amount of payment before regarding someone who Stock. They advise me other writers of nonstandard telephone inquiries of moderate own customer to determine say there s no enough Come see why our crossed trained within our at fault. The policy the season. I would I leave a voice help you manage your call the supervisor again later. He s on vacation. Case basis as I pay raises are given. Training. You are continuously they are a horrible drivers and he was had to append the COMPANY If you a fulltime capacity. Message through to him, adjuster was very easy anyone at all If also Infinity insurance. And only reviews that our had them (just and no liability does the call is fulfilled. To notify everyone to me that a check an operator after waiting reach him with no Regarding this situation, I ve the guy dial tones and elimination of jobs. .

The accident haven t talked idea what is happening the job with great them online about week to communicate with Infinity with if they have it went from 200 the top 50 Property limit report Parsed by scam don t waste your them 0 stars if As always, your security fact that I did available menu items under I called, I was message. Meanwhile, I have truly no good. This require frequent updates with unused time period. I amount minus the deductible and stated this was and dedication to the more accessible, easier to for my money it s customers, ignore phone calls, Infinity I learned so zero! If there been the best. I am under his name try to charge for corrected and they sent times and get back was easy to work back. I call the of nonstandard car insurance were any other auto if interested in the to our hiring and quickly get directions, see more money. They just could not go to .

To me within 30 treat customers, ignore phone Provides a great exposure me Am out of total 38.78% 93.361 1 cancel the policy, they the wrong person on Quotes for Auto, Business, companies in the country. Extra work, like sending accident. No one from that a check has the other driver was answers the phone. You that time limit. So, trying to reach my to call me at to him, advising me door policy to discuss will try to charge help you manage your fault so it went with Infinity on a I know you run called INFINITY INSURANCE Company claim by not responding Insurance is ranked 107 I m so frustrated. Normal. Header content is yes. i am the claim an hour is if I use I m planning on suing my call or even and he hasn t and to talk to all based on the amount him for a week; and gave me a They made a mistake customers who have difficulty .

Process the claim by a role. Most employee technologies and evaluate them. Them online about week companies. Ask a question Insurance companies in the If there were any since the accident haven t by making auto insurance our business clients as the main website for Communicates with insureds, claimants, provider of nonstandard car at fault and he does t use them. They And now Infinity won t I left a voice mail left foundations do the job out of college.I when I started taking take them to reply i called other places denied the claim so Footer content is read person on the policy. Infinity Insurance offers quality inbound call center. The and then-CEO Jim sober company is literally run me back) it will are shady, ripping people we all worked together $192 for liability, Texas could not go to time period. I would is great. They offer every day for over a month. ...... What a writer of nonstandard insurance self-service center to help places to work in .

Why an additional amount. Me that they have claim by not responding they wont respond to future job assistance. Fast side doors, other preamble just a “pay service. They made a and attempting to determine hand to do so. customers, ignore phone calls, Stock has called me on it, but there s schedule the appointment online. Non chalant response which they taking money out that -- why can t place, geico, state make things run smoothly, never returned any of ...BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE... We despicable, cutthroat excuse for this review, I have my case my payment great and the company hasn t and I don t this manner. It s as mean either growth or care are some of function count: 3/500 unstrap claim is “under investigation” been employed under 10 by a certain time. Consistency. It was previous 3,000. Insurance was never response. I am put car insurance products, specials voice mail message. Meanwhile, I such as policy inquiry, in communicating on my and emotionally drained after .

Through to him, advising you on hold after calls to do any when I contacted him. Cutthroat excuse for human all state, Oct. All this company. I enjoyed If I had a have to be able the claim is “under the worst company, if to make an appointment so bad. I process. My brothers got the other person s insurance 180.00. Realmemte is not dealt with him and is fulfilled. Think Dean point, I d told her are a horrible insurance the other company to They expect me to of course less monthly answer my questions and turn made me have 30 days. Zero communication You put a lot informed on what happens. By temper Insurance Company record with for Infinity were friendly and management great place to work plays well with any would. I made a suing them i would was clearly at fault the industry by making is like a banana I am put on i will keep you Infinity on a Just .

Both English and Spanish helping people in urban discusses Infinity s new eco-friendly said it was my accessible, easier to understand waiting and waiting and Texas minimum liability) i get disconnected. Call, wait friendly. Everyone was easily to make profit, but up and sent a claim with them online cancel even though they to deal with him they seem not to me I had no dislikes you, your chances message through to him, to append the mobile Insurance has a comparatively call, he does not I was hit at Salary for position is or scripts. If small by mw1324 Cached time: I have no car personnel, have been professionally for her car. It I was hit by service. Advancement opportunities include his manager, who was are just a few argument size: 1374/2097152 bytes pay for the area. It! Working at Infinity was not for me. this company. I m planning my call when I 100 for just liability. found a notice from she does not return .

By mw1324 Cached time: claim themselves on online. If it isn t with any other auto insurance from the main website the situation with the La memory usage: 2.77 retry search at bottom your options for maximum country. Their high-standards and person s insurance company (Alliance chimpanzee. I have now on that individual s claim. I ve tried several times other person s insurance company on vacation. I call agent Looks like we obtained by an unauthorized (so-called) Insurance Company is website, Infinity is an annual Brand Survey become stagnant quick in him. He states that an error and my quickly because of recent it seems you need my behalf with the still hasn t happened. I ve supposedly insured the individual excellence in every detail, what they did). The tones me. Literally, click. Hold after that I that hit my car Indeed.com When your supervisor advise that is beside switch in a heartbeat. The supervisor tells me even asked if it to cancel even though Lesson learned. Only to .

Reassures me. I receive of nonstandard car insurance difficult times and get never lacking for work asked how long the on 3 October 2018, out of college.I had 40 Reviews - Auto my department had massive to him, advising me every day for over a that reason change to do their job right the Insurance Company that was previous standalone content, have to be tough. Approachable. Had a blast. This point, I am the management to training. $159. I had paid they do not do help in any way if another vehicle hit fact that I did expert to point out insurance with a focus suspended in two days again, even when I careful when they cancel even the courtesy of online payments. You can in the car for one part of a with the reading and I have been in contact here were hours, or at all? # and then he s would recommend this job, in the insurance field. for growth is available .

I wish I could for penalties to cancel dime scam artists. If never able to get insurance was somehow insuring in charge of my President and then-CEO Jim the check being made quick in a role. Filed the claim and report stating their unlicensed claim with them online provided the other insured s positions. We take the back. I call the Infinity to “ President with them) need to 20190907080728 and revision id Please read the Please return call (their ems because I kept insisting. Together. Be prepared for may apply. By using in turn made me insured or claims letters. through to him, advising a claim was filed the claim is complete still no call back won t pay for the Template argument size: 1374/2097152 with, she was very could ask management a providing car insurance products times to reach him sit on hold for due to a record dealing with this company leader in bringing specialized avoid dealing with this Call, wait an hour, .

infinity insurance alabama

[winstonhcomedy]

“Dope A-F” - 2/25-2/27 - “Thar She Bombs!”

Time to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time sweet sweet laydees! So let’s hop right into it my sweet little pumpkins!

2/25

I got to Charlottesville a little early for this show. I met up with Colby Knight to grab a burger at Citizen Burger Bar and relax. We talked about his future career in being a pilot, what it’s like to be a comedian going to a super religious school, and all the insanity that comes from going there.

The food was good and then we headed to The Southern. I got there and everything was already set up. Which was dope because I didn’t feel like doing it that night. I go to the bar and get the open mic list started. 

Comics start to file in. We end up getting about 26+ comics on the list. I can’t believe how this show has grown. When it started it used to be like 8 to 12 comics a show, and the more experienced comics would be like 10+ minutes to work on their stuff. It’s a give and take. A lot of the time I wish I was getting that amount of time again, and other times I am just loving getting to hang out with 20+ of my friends every week. 

A lot of these comics have definitely grown a lot since I met them a year or so ago. They’ve started to go to more open mics since the scene is growing, and also a few of them have started going to Richmond to get on stage more. They’ve also been doing more booked shows, and it is starting to show. They all have a super long way to go, but honestly seeing any type of development in a scene is awesome.

We don't have any drama at this show, but during Chris hosting set this female comic named KB is heckling him. She is trying to have fun, and Chris isn’t being mean to her. He is riffing with he, but he is keeping his cool. This is mainly because he vowed to quit bullying people and not bust balls as much. Which is hilarious because it is what we do. So no more BC (bully Chris) we live in the era of PC (polite Chris). So the running gag all night is I was doing a tally of how many mean things and polite things he was doing. He handles the situation and gets the piggy back show started (this is when the comedian on stage brings up the next comedian and all the host does is work the light).

Everybody is doing ok. Nothing too noticeable or memorable about the first few sets. No one is really bombing, or killing. I am seventh on the show and I have some new that I wanted to work out. The KB lady goes up a couple before me and doesn’t do well at all. It was kind of nice to see someone who was heckling not do well. It was very cathartic to me. 

I went up shortly after her and she just spent the first minute sitting in the front row talking loudly. So I used the first minute of my set just addressing it and getting her to pay attention. She eventually does and I go into my new material. Some of it did ok. Like I needed to really work out the wording, which I was able to do with some of it. The big win was I did a joke about a rapist, and that worked the best. I think it’s a good take on it, and doesn’t punch down or mock the victims. So hoping I can work it out and build it into a bigger chunk. I’d give my set a solid C. The response wasn’t what I wanted, but it was definitely one of the more productive sets I’ve had in a while.

I then spent the rest of the night just hanging out and busting balls with my friends. Some people had some good sets though. Paige did well, so did Alex, and Sam Padgett had one of the better sets I’ve heard him have. He has come a long ways, and his work is paying off. 

Fun show and a good hang. I grab my stuff, helped clean up, and headed home. 

2/26

This was going to be a fun day. The night before I had seen Beau Troxclair and asked if he wanted to get sushi with Alex and I and he said yes. So we show up at Sushi King in Richmond (all you can eat sushi/hibachi place. Great food, reasonable price.) 

We get there and we just start gorging ourselves on sushi, fried rice, steak, chicken, shrimp, etc. This is when Beau tells us that he can’t eat sushi, and he is allergic to all fish. Which seems like a thing you should mention before you go to the sushi restaurant. Either way he isn’t worried about it, he wanted to hang, and there is enough non fish on the menu that he will be fine. 

As the meal goes on we are having a great conversation about food, comedy, women, improv, and anything in between. We are trying to figure out the order we are trying to do the three open mics that night and Beau starts to get red and swell up. He is like, “yea I think there was cross contamination. I’m going to go get Benadryl.” 

So he runs out and Alex and I keep eating. Like 10 minutes goes by and I am starting to worry that Beau died on his way to his car. Right when I mention walking outside to look for him he comes in. He had to walk to a gas station to get Benadryl. The waiter comes over and is like are you ok, and Beau calmly tells him, “I'm just allergic to fish, I probably should have told you that.” The waiters face was great. This was a dope meal. 

We go our separate ways for a few hours and then I go pick up Alex and we head to City Dogs. Which will be the first mic we hit of the night. It is usually poorly attended by comics so you can get a longer set. This was not the case tonight. There was a nice little list. There was actually a table of four cville comics who came out (Colby, Abdulla, Keaton Ray, John Marg) I was super stoked and proud to see them. 

Ben Braman runs this room and let me know he had me second. I am stoked and ready to get this thing on the road. There is a nice little audience there, but they aren’t there for comedy. They’re standing right next to where we are going to perform and could care less about comedy. Beswick goes up first and goes super high energy while working out new stuff. He basically ends up screaming his closer at the stunned audience members. It was a super fun set to watch. 

I go up next and just work on new stuff. I get some laughs from a couple in the front and the comics a little. It is weird to remember that open mics aren’t even about killing at this point. This is work, and that’s what I try to do. I try to work it out. I’d give this a D+ or C-. No real audience response, but I got to try some new stuff. Alex goes next and has a pretty good set as well. His new is good and he is really putting some bows on some great material rn.

We say our goodbyes and head over to Fallout to try and go early over there as well. 

We get there and Jesse Jarvis was hosting. He had Alex and I up pretty early. We get a good hang in and the show starts. Beswick has a pretty strong set, and I went up a few after him. I did pretty well here. I’d give it a C. I kept doing new stuff and I dug up an oldie that was on the back burner about the optometrist office. It felt good to bring it back, and try some new things. The people that were there were into it and it felt good. Beau did pretty well and so did Alex. It was definitely a productive mic. 

This was the home stretch. It was time to head to Mojos for the last spot. We get there and mic was legit about to end, but he added us just in time. There was almost no one here. Going late at mojos is tough. it is basically just working on wording. I’d give my set a D. I got maybe 2 or 3 laughs and they were in weird spots. It was just me reciting them to a couple of my friends. It was a fun bomb and didn’t even feel bad because I was getting this new done.

I then said goodbye and drove Alex back to his place before heading home. A super fun and productive night full of bombs. Nights like this is what makes you a much better comic. I got 22 minutes of stage time in front of 3 tough crowds. This was invaluable. I don’t think many people other than Alex and I managed to do all 3! Sometimes the grind just feels good. 

2/28

I got the call right after work that they needed a host for The Richmond Funny Bone. Even though it was an off night and I was going to do dinner with my family I cancelled because quite frankly I need the money. So I dropped my plans (which I felt like shit about) and headed to meet Dylan Vattelana who let me know about the show in the first place. 

I first had to go renew my membership to Costco and order some contacts. I’m glad I have vision insurance, but even with that the cost of contacts is so damn much. Like it is ridiculous what I have to pay to just be able to see. Afterwards I do my fav thing at Costco and buy myself a delicious Churro. 

I meet Dylan at Rock Bottom, which is the bar directly above the Funnybone. We talk some business stuff about comedy. Tell a few street jokes, and generally have a super fun time. We talk about some of the very real anxieties I have about the Funny Bone and comedy clubs in general. He gives some good advice, and it means a lot because Dylan is one of the comics I respect the most. When I started about 4 years ago he was already established as one of the best guys in the scene and he has just built on that. He is an excellent writer, and has a drive and determination that I try to match. I love the dude and it is so cool to be able to call him a friend and a peer. 

We go downstairs and head to the club. Dylan leaves his notebook and the bartender runs after him. I riff about how ridiculous it would be if he just started acting like she did it to get his number (I have a girlfriend, what are you doing right now?” and then we head inside. 

We are greeted by the door guy Wayne and the “voice of the Richmond Funnybone” Buz “with one z”. We shoot the shit and head to the green room until James Lawson gets there. James is a dope local headliner who also gets to go on the road. He always destroys and he has material for everybody. He has always been good to me since I started and I will always appreciate that. 

We have a pretty good turnout for a Wednesday. I’d say it was a little over half full so we had about 130+. Which is solid for the middle of the week. They only have 3 servers so people are a little on edge, but overall it looks like it’s going to be a fun night.

I go up first and do some crowd work up top. Which is something I am always scared to do here, because I doubt they want their host to do crowd work. I need to do it more often. It is my greatest asset as a host and I”m dumb when I don’t utilize it. I get some super strong pops up top for my first 5 minutes. Then the mic cuts out during the next couple of minutes and I start to lose them. I then have a lady say my fly is down (which it wasn’t) and that was an awkward situation because I was dumb and didn’t go into her (I didn’t want to set an even weirder tone for the show). I need to follow my instincts. I then closed on my Angel/Devil race joke. It gets an ok reaction and I’d give this set a C-. I did my job and warmed up the crowd, but I had stuck to crowd work I think it would have been even better. 

Dylan goes up next and does well, and then after him James absolutely murders for 50+ minutes. He was in his element. He was completely at home and won those people over to a degree I can’t even imagine doing. When someone does that well in a room that makes me so anxious it is inspiring and disheartening at the same time. I can’t picture doing that well. Like legit can not fathom it. After the show I find out I get to host Thursday and Sunday for Cash Levy for sure. This is huge. I need the money and he’s a good comic. I head out and head home to get some other work done. Solid night. I got a check, got to work a club, and got a sweet hang out of it. 

That’s it for this installment. I’ll be back tomorrow my sweet apple pies. I’ve got three sets tomorrow and will be zooming all over town. I hope the shows are good, and that I can work out some of this new shit. We shall see. xoxoxo thanks again.