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felassan · 3 years

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Article: ‘The Most Powerful Woman in Gaming Wants to Make EA Loved Again’

Laura Miele is helping direct the company toward a future where it’s more attuned with consumers.

One of the first things Laura Miele did when she became chief studios officer of Electronic Arts Inc. three years ago was to gather 19 video game influencers in a conference room. “What do you want me to hear? Lay it on me,” she recalls asking them. “One guy sitting at the corner of the table, he just said, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t give players what they’re asking for.’ ”

[rest of article under cut for length, pasted as Bloomberg has an article read limit]

It’s something many gamers have wondered about EA for years. The $40 billion company, one of the biggest in gaming, is responsible for Battlefield, Madden NFL, and other megahit franchises. But many gamers have long seen EA as a necessary evil, resenting the direction in which it took some games and bristling at its aggressive attempts to extract money by charging extra for digital items in games that cost as much as $70 upfront. This dissatisfaction was no secret in 2018: Gamers spent their days filling up Reddit and other message boards with free advice for EA—but many felt its decision-makers weren’t listening.

EA’s leadership knows it has to improve that relationship, and Miele is a key player in its efforts to do so. Her focus group asked for new content for Star Wars Battlefront II and requested new types of games. Miele quickly assigned 70 people to the Battlefront development project, which dramatically improved its net promoter score, a measure of how likely people are to recommend the game. She also prompted EA to create a skateboarding game and committed to reintroducing its college football franchise, the two genres at the top of the influencers’ list.

In a sense, the guy at the meeting became a stand-in for all of EA’s long-suffering customers in Miele’s eyes. “I wanted to do right by this player,” she says.

As chief studios officer, Miele manages 6,000 staffers and thousands of contractors globally. She oversees EA’s 24 studios, where she makes personnel decisions and sets strategy, and she’s reshaped how the company uses analytics to create and market its games.

In the process she may have become the most powerful woman in gaming. In a 2019 International Game Developers Association survey, fewer than 30% of the more than 1,100 respondents were women, and few if any hold a more central role at such an important company. “It’s a tough place for a woman,” says Peter Moore, who was Miele’s boss when he was EA’s chief operating officer. “It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but she battled her way through.”

Proving good intentions is more important for EA than ever, as the business model of gaming continues to shift in ways that have the potential to alienate customers. Like its rivals, the company is increasing its focus on free-to-play games, making money through sales of digital products such as outfits and weapons for characters.

There are signs it’s succeeding. Apex Legends, EA’s free-to-play hero shooter game, has posted more than $1 billion in sales since it was first published in 2019, and it continues to grow. “The way to succeed with free-to-play games like that is to listen to and engage your customer base and earn their loyalty through incremental purchases,” says Doug Clinton, managing partner of the venture capital firm Loup Ventures, who says Miele deserves much of the credit for Apex Legends. “It feels like a proof point for her that the company is adapting well beyond traditional disk sales.”

Miele, 51, was born in San Francisco but grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. She got her start in games—the kind that require a board—during family nights, when she pitted herself against her brother in Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, and backgammon. While attending the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, she worked at architectural companies. By the time she dropped out she’d moved on from receptionist positions to more senior roles, while gaining a reputation for organizing lunch-hour card games with her co-workers.

Miele landed a job as a project manager at Westwood Studios, a video game developer best known for Command and Conquer, in 1996. She eventually took over all marketing for its parent company, Virgin Interactive.

It wasn’t always a hospitable atmosphere: Miele remembers her colleagues expecting her to take notes at meetings, then clean up afterward. “That is just not something I would do today,” she says. “I adapted a lot because I was so passionate about what I was doing. I found my voice along the way.”

When EA acquired Westwood in 1998, she stayed on. At the time, the company did revenue forecasting by looking at sales data once a month and putting together spreadsheets by hand. Miele was tasked with developing more advanced analytics. She hired a group of data analysts, nicknamed “the Jedi,” and had them build EA’s first statistical regression models to examine sales trends, seasonality, and preorders. It took almost two years to put the system in place, but it overhauled the company’s business processes, and executives were soon using it to determine how to invest in advertising and promotions. “I loved how data and analytics can inform your judgment and your gut instinct,” Miele says.

Miele also decided to make one major break with EA’s existing business practices. In 2011 about 80% of game advertising budgets were spent on TV ads. But she saw how much time gamers spent online and decided to spend the bulk of the ad budget for Battlefield 3 on digital, downplaying other types of ads and cutting the TV ad budget to only 30%.

Messing around with the plan for Battlefield 3 was a good way to make people nervous. Miele remembers two executives calling her in for a meeting and demanding to know why they weren’t seeing billboards for the game as they drove in to the office. “It was scary for me, too, and I don’t blame our executives questioning me on that,” she says. But the game ended up being EA’s fastest-selling, moving more than 5 million copies in its first week. From that point, Miele’s marketing strategy became the standard for the company.

When EA signed a 10-year deal with Walt Disney Co. in 2013, Miele became Star Wars general manager. In 2014 she took over publishing operations, marketing, and other key areas, first in the North American region, then globally in 2016. At the time, the game industry was moving from physical disks to digital downloads, transforming its relationship with retail partners such as Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co.

Miele was in charge of smoothing things over, explaining that EA would start competing with them for customers even as the retailers accounted for the largest portion of the revenue. “I never said to them, ‘Hey, see you later, we are moving on,’ ” she says. “It was, ‘How can we move forward together?’ ” EA began making physical cards with digital credits that its retail partners could sell at their stores, allowing them to share in the revenue from digital sales.

EA’s studios are spread around the globe, and Covid-19 altered Miele’s routine radically. “It was a very difficult year, and I’m really proud about how our company showed up,” she says. “I considered myself a wartime leader last year. You had to get in a bunker with everybody.”

Days became an endless progression of Zoom calls. To keep up with gamers, Miele started spending evenings listening to Clubhouse chats while answering work emails. Because she hasn’t been on the road, she’s also had more time to dine at home and play board games or Apex Legends and The Sims with her 16-year-old twins. As the pandemic retreats in the U.S., her schedule might change, but she still envisions providing more flexibility to her employees to work from home and office. “I do think we’re going to have a different work environment as we go forward,” she says.

Miele is itching to get back to the studio visits. She’s helping steer EA further toward smartphones. The company plans to release mobile versions of Apex Legends globally this year and spent $2.1 billion in April for Glu Mobile Inc., a mobile game publisher, while also preparing the next releases in its existing franchises. “I think the next Battlefield and the mobile shooter games, along with how successful the M&As come out will be key litmus tests of her management this year,” says Matt Kanterman, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Her scope is clearly rising.”

— With Dina Bass and Jason Schreier

[source]

#video games #interesting..#long post #longpost

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beyondd-dazedd · 3 years

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EPISODE👏 REVIEW👏 hsmtmts season 2 episode 9 let’s go

let me start off by saying pORTWELL NATION HOW WE FEELING??? more on portwell later

i liked this episode! not as much as the last one but i kind of expected that. it’s kind of the nature of television where if you have a big episode with a lot of plot then the next episode will be character driven.

ej my beloved. i love him so much and that’s it. that’s the tweet.

we love the zoom vibes very topical (also does covid not exist in the hsmtmts universe because that is a very interesting concept)

seblos tension?? no thanks. but ej and ash being cute?? yes please. also ashlyn saying red is her soulmate made my heart SO happy. also ej’s face when gina popped up was enough to fuel my portwell heart for at least the next week.

i loved the dive into gina’s character a bit more this episode. she was so soft omfg and i’ll give her this her attempt with the gate agent was a good one.

ASHER!! ok i thought jack and gina’s dynamic was very cute but not enough to live up to portwell excellency. i like how easily gina opened up to jack because the only other people she really does that with is the caswells who are obviously very close to the whole situation. i think it was good seeing her talk more about herself and her life and her confusion about everything. i thought it was really clever that they used jack as a cheeky andi mack reference but also as a way to help move gina’s character forward because she really needed that push. gina was so precious in this episode for so many reasons. she really did better with her improvising which seemed to be something she struggled with whether it was due to things going on during the Yes And episode or just her struggling with being able to improvise. seeing her actually be able to do that with jack warmed my heart. i love how gina really openly communicated how she felt closer towards the end. she basically was like i think you’re cute jack but i need someone who is going to be there (cough cough EJ). i thought the banter was really cute between them at the end and jack telling her where the safest place on the plane was just made me so happy.

MY BABY EJ i loved him in this episode despite how little screen time he really had. him being a bit of a kid with all of his and ash’s old stuff gave me big flash backs to being a senior and trying to hold onto childhood before college. also it was a side of him we don’t really get to see. he’s very intense and that’s just who he is but seeing him be a little goofy made my heart happy. also can we talk about gina being the first person he calls about ash painting his nails because 1) YES FUCK GENDER STEREOTYPES and 2) he wanted gina’s opinion on that which was so cute but also i loved that you could still see that his nails were painted when he meets gina at the airport partially because i’m a sucker for little continuity things but it also shows that he didn’t really care what other people thought. he just wanted gina’s opinion. also i feel like we’re one step closer to bi ej and since i project on him too much and i’m bi that makes me happy. EJ IS BI DISNEY ARE JUST COWARDS. also his dancing was so endearing omfg

PORTWELL NATION the ending was so amazing. gina really had that moment of realization that ej had in the quinceañero episode which was AMAZING but also gina saying that she’s just waiting for a sign for the right person and ej just showing up at the airport to pick her up and he has a granola bar for her?? shows he’s the right one. so he obviously knows gina well enough to know that her go to snack is a granola bar. he also brought it just in case she was hungry. he also took her bags for her aND HE DROVE TO THE AIRPORT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO GET HER AND PROMISED TO DROP HER OFF IN THE MORNING. it’s obvious that he gets her and she gets him and it also shows both of their progress from season 1 to now. gina is allowing people to help her after spending most of her life pushing through on her own and ej is becoming more and more selfless when he was used to being self centered to meet everyone’s expectations. i would pay all of the money in my bank account to see some of the missing scenes where ej and gina are getting to know one another.

alright moving promptly along to literally everything else in this episode. nini is clearly having issues focusing on her music account. it could be from all of the changes recently or it could be because her main topic of song writing has been her love life and without ricky she doesn’t really have that. she’s just nini. however i did love seeing ash and nini team up to write the song. we need to see more of them together because that’s an iconic friendship (would also love to see more of nini and ej being friends because everything before this episode felt very tense between them. rightly so but still). ricky this episode was so relatable. i have been exactly where he’s been. wrapped up in a blanket feeling sad over things and just replaying everything that went wrong (i’m a ricky apologist through and through and i’ll admit it. some of y’all are just way too harsh on him holy shit). i HATE lynn but i hate her a little less because she mentioned therapy for ricky. all in all though she’s still a shitty parent and it’s evident that ricky has suffered from her mistakes. ricky’s song BROKE me. like i spent 30 mins crying over that song because joshua’s voice is just so raw and emotional and he has an amazing way of capturing the emotion of songs when he sings them. i also think the contrast between ricky and nini’s varying degrees of ability to write songs right now is interesting. i’m sure we’re going to have another season 1 moment with a big confession and them getting back together but i sort of don’t want that. i am a rini shipper until the day I die but i understand what it’s like getting out of a relationship where your whole identity is built around the other person and i think they both need time to grow and mature as people before they get back together. but this is a disney show so i know that they won’t go for that.

all in all, good episode!! there’s a lot of plot lines that need to be wrapped up and some stuff to propel them into season 3 so i’m interested to see what they decide to address now and what they decide to leave for the next season. i was not super into the plot for this season at the beginning of it but i think episode 5 was really a turning point and really got my attention for the rest of the episodes. i’ll catch y’all back here next week for another review

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts spoilers #gina porter #ej caswell #nini salazar roberts #ricky bowen #ashlyn caswell #big red #portwell #rini #seblos #redlyn

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fuzzywitchsoul · 4 years

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They Had Mild Covid. Then Their Serious Symptoms Kicked In.

Pam Belluck is a health and science writer whose honors include sharing a Pulitzer Prize and winning the Nellie Bly Award for Best Front Page Story. She is the author of Island Practice, a book about an unusual doctor. @PamBelluckMs. Khan said that she experienced “heart palpitations if I just got up to open the curtains.” Her cardiologist said she was the fifth previously healthy young person to walk into his office that week. In the beginning, her fatigue was so severe that walking two or three laps around her 600-square-foot apartment would exhaust her for the rest of the day. In addition, she said that she had “really intense mood fluctuations that don’t feel like they’re mine.”“Waking up every day in this body, sometimes hope feels a little dangerous,” said Ms. Khan, who will soon start the cognitive rehab program. “I have to wonder: Am I going to recover, or am I going to just figure out how to live with my new brain?”In his job, “my clients would tell me things like a passcode or an address and I couldn’t remember it,” he said.At Mr. Palacios’s first appointment with the Northwestern clinic, “I did the cognitive tests, and I failed them all,” he said. On a return visit, he did another battery of tests, he said, “and I didn’t do so hot on that, either.”Mr. Palacios was referred for cognitive rehab at a long-established program in Chicago that helps give patients strategies to manage and improve memory, organizational and cognitive difficulties. But he didn’t go, he said, because “I completely forgot.” He plans to go now.In the Northwestern study, 43 percent of the patients had depression before having Covid-19; 16 percent had previous autoimmune diseases, the same percentage of patients who had previous lung disease or had struggled with insomnia.Experts cautioned that because the study was relatively small, these pre-existing conditions might or might not be representative of all long-term patients. “We are all seeing very small pieces of the elephant in terms of the long Covid group,” Dr. Bell said. “Some of us are seeing tail; some of us are seeing trunk.”Along with neurological symptoms, 85 percent of the patients were experiencing fatigue, and nearly half had shortness of breath. Some also had chest pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, variable heart rate or blood pressure. Nearly half of the participants were experiencing depression or anxiety.“I was cleaning my gutters and I forgot where I was, I forgot what I was doing on the roof,” Mr. Palacios said. When he remembered, he added, the idea of doing “something as simple as climbing on a ladder all of a sudden became a mountain.”Dr. Allison P. Navis, a neuro-infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City who was not involved in the study, said that about 75 percent of her 200 post-Covid patients were experiencing issues like “depression, anxiety, irritability or some mood symptoms.”Participants in the study were overwhelmingly white, and 70 percent were women. Dr. Navis and others said that the lack of diversity quite likely reflected the demographics of people able to seek care relatively early in the pandemic rather than the full spectrum of people affected by post-Covid neurological symptoms.“Especially in New York City, the majority of patients who got sick with Covid are people of color and Medicaid patients, and that’s absolutely not the patients one sees at the post-Covid center,” Dr. Navis said. “The majority of patients are white, often they have private insurance, and I think we have to figure out a little bit more what’s going on there with those disparities — if it’s purely just a lack of access or are symptoms being dismissed in people of color or if it’s something else.”In the Northwestern study, Dr. Koralnik said that because coronavirus testing was difficult to obtain early in the pandemic, only half of the participants had tested positive for the coronavirus, but all had the initial physical symptoms of Covid-19. The study found very little difference between those who had tested positive and those who had not. Dr. Koralnik said that those who tested negative tended to contact the clinic about a month later in the course of the disease than those who tested positive, possibly because some had spent weeks being evaluated or trying to have their problems addressed by other doctors.Ms. Khan was among the participants who had a negative test for the virus, but she said she later tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, proof that she had been infected.Another study participant, Eddie Palacios, 50, a commercial real estate broker who lives in Naperville, a Chicago suburb, tested positive for the coronavirus in the fall, experiencing only a headache and loss of taste and smell. But “a month later, things changed,” he said.Across the country, doctors who are treating people with post-Covid neurological symptoms say the study’s findings echo what they have been seeing.“We need to take this seriously,” said Dr. Kathleen Bell, the chairwoman of the physical medicine and rehabilitation department at the University Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the new study. “We can either let people get worse and the situation gets more complicated, or we can really realize that we have a crisis.”Dr. Bell and Dr. Koralnik said many of the symptoms resembled those of people who had concussions or traumatic brain injuries or who had mental fogginess after chemotherapy.In the case of Covid, Dr. Bell said, experts believe that the symptoms are caused by “an inflammatory reaction to the virus” that can affect the brain as well as the rest of the body. And it makes sense that some people experience multiple neurological symptoms simultaneously or in clusters, Dr. Bell said, because “there’s only so much real estate in the brain, and there’s a lot of overlap” in regions responsible for different brain functions.“If you have inflammation disturbances,” she said, “you can very well have cognitive effects and things like emotional effects. It’s really hard to have one neurological problem without having multiple.”In the Northwestern study, many experienced symptoms that fluctuated or persisted for months. Most improved over time, but there was wide variation. “Some people after two months are 95 percent recovered, while some people after nine months are only 10 percent recovered,” said Dr. Koralnik. Five months after contracting the virus, patients estimated, they felt on average only 64 percent recovered.The study of 100 patients from 21 states, published on Tuesday in The Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, found that 85 percent of them experienced four or more neurological issues like brain fog, headaches, tingling, muscle pain and dizziness.“We are seeing people who are really highly, highly functional individuals, used to multitasking all the time and being on top of their game, but, all of a sudden, it’s really a struggle for them,” said Dr. Igor J. Koralnik, the chief of neuro-infectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, who oversees the clinic and is the senior author of the study.The report, in which the average patient age was 43, underscores the emerging understanding that for many people, long Covid can be worse than their initial bouts with the infection, with a stubborn and complex array of symptoms.This month, a study that analyzed electronic medical records in California found that nearly a third of the people struggling with long Covid symptoms — like shortness of breath, cough and abdominal pain — did not have any signs of illness in the first 10 days after they tested positive for the coronavirus. Surveys by patient-led groups have also found that many Covid survivors with long-term symptoms were never hospitalized for the disease.A new study illuminates the complex array of neurological issues experienced by people months after their coronavirus infections.

In the fall, after Samar Khan came down with a mild case of Covid-19, she expected to recover and return to her previous energetic life in Chicago. After all, she was just 25, and healthy.

But weeks later, she said, “this weird constellation of symptoms began to set in.”

She had blurred vision encircled with strange halos. She had ringing in her ears, and everything began to smell like cigarettes or Lysol. One leg started to tingle, and her hands would tremble while putting on eyeliner.

She also developed “really intense brain fog,” she said. Trying to concentrate on a call for her job in financial services, she felt as if she had just come out of anesthesia. And during a debate about politics with her husband, Zayd Hayani, “I didn’t remember what I was trying to say or what my stance was,” she said.

By the end of the year, Ms. Khan was referred to a special clinic for Covid-related neurological symptoms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which has been evaluating and counseling hundreds of people from across the country who are experiencing similar problems.

Now, the clinic, which sees about 60 new patients a month, in-person and via telemedicine, has published the first study focused on long-term neurological symptoms in people who were never physically sick enough from Covid-19 to need hospitalization, including Ms. Khan.

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tangerinegod · 4 years

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Hello! I am sorry to bother you but I am a senior getting ready for college this year. I am in the US and I wanted to major in the same thing you did, do you have any possible tips for me? I still haven't even looked for colleges that would be best for animation majors so I figured if you were up to giving out any tips/saying any basic ideas if you wanted to/if you had the time to then maybe I'll have a better idea! I apologise for if I sound weird! I'm tried to word it correctly but I can't 😿

hi!! i’m totally down to share my experiences! someone else also had some questions so i’m going to put them all together in this post haha, hopefully this helps! it’ll get pretty long so apologies ahead of time but art school is a lot to think about so i wanna be as helpful as i can around it, its a lot of time and money. I’m gonna put it all under a read more cus it is really really long!

i wanna start off with the fact that I had the privilege of attending school in a financially stable environment, my parents were/are really supportive so w merit scholarship i only came out with around 20-30k in debt and i also had housing support my entire time in school. they were ok with me focusing on academics so i didn’t hold a retail job unless i was out of school like summer/winter break. Ofc though i regularly take commissions/do merch/cons to try and pay for all bills that arent rent cus i did want to be financially independent where it was possible. I also did try and work during the semester but everytime i did my body would deff start to breakdown from the fact that i didnt wanna compromise schoolwork with jobs.. so just read ahead know this experience is from a student who was able to attend focusing only on school work for most of the time!

the biggest thing is knowing art school is not required to become a professional in either freelancing or industry! there are a huuuge amount of online tools and classes these days that provide the exact same education and for cheaper too. i think it depends on what experience you prefer/can handle/want but it’s definitely possible to make art/animation art your living without higher education. the thing that college will for sure give you though is the ability to meet deadlines, work even when you dont want to, and connections with peers+teachers. i think the connections part is invaluable because you’re basically coming out with a network of people you already know and who know you!

also its good to know if you want to attend/can handle art school! it’s a lot of time and energy and students get burned out really fast. the best piece of advice i got before going was ‘if you draw every single day, even if its for only like 5-10 minutes or a doodle for a whole year you should be fine’ consistency is super key because you’re attending school to draw, and you’ll have to create work for stuff you aren’t excited for at some point or another. burnout is extremely real and the only reason i didn’t experience it was probably because i got super into drawing naruto fanart again inbetween sophomore and junior year! it helped give me something to draw seperated from school which is the only thing i was drawing for since i had entered rip. a heads up id also consider myself a workaholic so i fit in ok with the ‘art school’ environment but it is suuper unhealthy. if you are fantastic at managing your schedule then it’s definitely possible to take care of yourself! freshman year i got 8 hours a sleep a night and only pulled all nighters for some second semester finals at the end. sophomore year + up though i ended up prioritizing hw over sleep and like for sure, definitely shortened my life span. there’s another q down below where i’ll go more into detail but ya, be careful w ur work balance!

another tip especially for animation is knowing for a fact what type of animation you’re looking to go into, and what the school is offering. I didn’t think i’d get into art school at the time so i only applied to two places + decided if i didnt get into either id attend community to get credits out of the way while building portfolio. honestly? i did not do a lot of research LOL but like i did end up having the chance to tour and stuff! just know that each school will have a very different curriculum. The main differences are schools that prioritize 3D (cg animation, cg modeling, ect) and 2D/traditional (hand drawn, ‘oldschool’, digital or traditional based) this is a huge difference so make sure you do research for it! in most cases a 2D/traditional program will also offer 3D since it’s at the forefront of the industry animation wise rn. My school taught 2D but like hand drawn on physical paper 2D, frame by frame. while it was a good experience it’s super outdated because digital tools make it way faster + easier! i’d recommend looking for a program that is digital 2D over traditional 2D.

if after your senior year covid is still affecting campuses in the US to keep them shut down i’d recommend attending a community college to get credits and then transferring into school. one of the negatives is paying money for gened classes when ur not there for them; if you can get them out of the way sooner and cheaper there is absolutely no negative + you could graduate earlier or use the extra time for better work or to work a job!

these are all the general tips i think i’d give on like a broad basis of attending or not to think about? let me know if u have more q’s! someone asked q’s im answering below that go more into personal experiences + work culture so heres those:

- how many hours a week do u spend studying, in class, otherwise making art? like how much of ur life does it consume?

I was basically working on art.... 24/7! since i wasnt working a job at the same time i crammed as many credits as possible into my schedule so on avg i did 18 credit semesters (around 6 classes) art classes go for 6 hours and non art go for 3, so i’d spent around 30-35 hours in class a week! hw wise it varied on the class but combined it would be around 35-50 hours a week... im guessing? on average studio classes would have 8-10 hours of hw, maybe 5 for a light week, and gened classes 5 hours w them all combined. or this was probably how things were before junior year? junior+senior year i had thesis + everything else ontop.. i’d spend around 30-40 hours on thesis a week with other classes ontop of that bc my film was super long cus im a dummy!

- is it hard going to art school n realising that altho u were probably quite talented… so is everyone else? Like. all of a sudden. ur not special and everyone seems as good as u, you know? More generally, how do u deal with comparison?

kinda?? i think instead of the idea of like you vs others it feels more of like a competition at first to be the best. this varies hugely on school culture though; my animation year was really friendly with each other and get along extremely well, so my answer to this is v different than some others who attended different schools. i think that the idea of ‘comparison’ only lasts a portion of the first year because at some point you realize that it’s not a who’s better as much as its a ‘these are my coworkers’ type thing? like healthy competition 100% because we’re all working to improve but i think most of us learned pretty early on that viewing each other as peers going into the same workforce helped a lot. also at some point everyone develops their own style/starts to develop their artistic preferences so there isn’t a way to compare whos 'better’ anymore? i dont think there ever is tbh because style is appealing based off of an individuals preferences. If anything realizing everyone else is also amazing makes you wanna work harder ig? or thats how i felt! it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who create such amazing work.

- is there a lot of workaholic culture? all nighter culture?

100000% there can be a workaholic and all nighter culture. i know people who avoided it and thats honestly fantastic because i fall super easily into that pit. sometimes i’ll pull all nighters on a personal project just because i really want to finish it... i am definitely considered a workaholic all the way through and its not healthy rip... i’d estimate at the worst i was pulling 2-3 all nighters a week and only 4-5 hours of sleep on the nights i didn’t? that was only for one year tho, after that i was like yeah ok this is really bad for my health in the long run LOL so i tried to cut it down to one all nighter a week and around 5-6 hours of sleep the rest of the week! by senior year my decision to cram in full semesters paid off and i was able to consistently get around 7 hours of sleep a night + no all nighters minus finals since my schedule was lighter despite thesis 😭 while there is that culture i don’t think people view it as like a badge of honor or something to be proud of anymore which is good, we mostly view it as a flaw of the art school system and something that needs to be fixed!!

- are you glad u did it? how did u know it was what u wanted?

i am glad i did it! i’m definitely in a limbo right now of if it was worth both my time, money, and my parents money rip but i think with what i got out of it i definitely wouldn’t be as far skill wise or knowledge wise when it comes to the art industry. i would say it was only worth it for be because i had so much support going in though so i was able to focus so much on improving. if i had only been able to put in part of the effort and not make full use of the resources provided i would honestly have a different answer..

i knew it was what i wanted when i realized i really couldn’t see myself pursuing a different profession happily! despite all the bumps and stuff im fully in love with drawing still and feel honored that it’s a field that can provide a living. my second profession choice was to go into culinary school? and third option i think going was into music cus i was also a band kid hehe.

- how do u cope with ur hobby becoming ur job? how do u deal with art going from something u do for fun to something u do on command constantly?

i think seperating work art from personal art is important! in my case im doubling naruto into being personal work so i have something to fall back onto that isn’t work related. its been a hyperfixation for 12+ years? so drawing it at this point is just like personal art imo. some people have hobbies outside of art and only draw for their job! i think after attending classes for so long the idea of hobby turning into job feels extremely natural? also i enjoy doing it so thats a huge plus!

sorry this is SO long but i hope i answered your guys’ questions! if you have more just lmk!

#anon #ask #long post #im so so sorry this is like long as shit #ill literally tell you guys everything though art school should not feel like a mystery esp if ur planning to go into it!#Anonymous

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sugarnospice · 4 years

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The semester that lasted a year..

Its final week and I feel like I’ve lived 9 different lives in the last 4 months.

This semester was unconventional to say the least and I feel like I’ve lived an entire year during it. This was my first full semester with all online classes. I tried to enroll in hybrid classes but soon after school started, the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed forcing everything to remain online for the rest semester. Of course this was not a surprise but nonetheless still disappointing. I missed the feeling of walking into a classroom on the first day and choosing my unassigned-assigned seat for the semester, usually an aisle seat within the first 3 rows. I also missed walking around my beautiful campus in between classes and catching up with people I know along the way. Most importantly I missed the atmosphere that surrounds the academic buildings and libraries during a normal semester. People hustling to get work done before the weekend hits, some girl on her 3rd espresso shot trying to finish a midterm paper, the frat boy that only came to socialize, the group that can't seem to agree on a business proposal…sigh, I never knew these would be the things I missed most.

I would say the most difficult thing this semester was getting myself to focus in my room. I have never been one to do homework in bed because my bed is for sleeping and comfort, not stress. I made my work desk to be as comfy as I could always making sure my shades were open to let natural light in. That's another thing, during a typical semester I never worried about being idle all day or not getting enough sunlight but with everything being done in my room I had to make an extra effort to keep myself in high spirits. The best thing I did for myself was create a routine. I knew each day of the week what subjects I would be working on, when I had to be at work, and when I had time to schedule a break or a workout. Soon after the semester kicked off my schedule became second nature.

Having an entirely online semester was not something I thought I would enjoy but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I did end up liking it. I got to do things on my own time and in my own environment. I have always struggled with sitting in classes and focusing on the professor and not the students around me who were shaking their legs or clicking their pens. I got to create my own school bubble and work through things the way I best knew how. I tend to need some kind of background noise when I take notes because it helps me remember content based on the song I was listening to when reviewing (sounds backwards I know, but it works for me). Finals are still winding down for me but I’m supposed to be ending my semester with a 4.0. Never have I ever gotten grades like this and I am so proud of myself for working through these past 15 weeks and staying on top of my school work.

Without even taking school into account, Fall semester 2020 has been my favorite semester of college. I started this semester out with the position of Rho Gamma for the panhellenic community here at JMU. This position entailed me being assigned 13 Potential New Members (PNM’s) who were rushing this fall. I got to work with so many other women in the Greek community here and got experience with leadership, conflict management, scheduling and networking. I was able to find 11 of my 13 girls homes and 1 even ended up in my own chapter. It was comforting to know that these girls trusted me with their opinions and they opened up to me alot during the 2 weeks we worked together.

I also moved into new housing this year and my roommates were everything and more for me. They worked hard and that motivated me to do my own work. The fact that they are all seniors and are graduating in the spring gave us all the more reason to try going out and doing things on the weekends together while we still can. Bethany is the best roommate to get my mind off of things with because she always has so much to share. I’m so excited to see how she excels at her job in the future and even more excited for her to progress in the new relationship she found recently. Sara, who is my floormate has been nothing but amazing in supporting me everytime I come home and have something I need to get out. She listened to my bad mornings after a night out and was there to give me a reality check when it was needed most. Natalie, who doubles as my roommate and big, has done so much this semester to move forward in her career and I'm inspired everyday by how hardworking and passionate she is about it. She supported me in the process of transitioning to Chapter President and was a great friend to lean on during wine nights.

Because of COVID-19, I wasn't sure how I was going to meet new people this year. My favorite thing has always been getting to know new people and figuring out how they influence my life. At the start of the semester it was difficult to do anything because we were constantly being hit with possible exposure. At one point JMU was 9th in the nation for leading cases of covid so you can imagine how scary it was at the start. Nevertheless after reflection I found that I created strong relationships with 10 new people this semester while cultivating my previous ones. My favorite friend has been my neighbor Adrian. He has been a driving force in most of the new friends I have found. I started out being very reluctant to be his friend but him being a pisces and all, I literally could not help myself. Adrian has been great at letting me break out of my shell and introducing me to new music, food, people and places and if there's one good thing 2020 has given me it was his friendship. He has introduced me to a whole world I didn't know existed at JMU. The latin community is a small one here but the culture is so strong. I finally feel like I have met people who are like me and I don't feel like I have to be more than who I am for them

This semester I was also elected Chapter President for Gamma Phi Beta at JMU. This was an intense honor and I am so excited to work along the other exec members in 2021. I often find myself lost in my feelings about being president. I have not had a leadership position this large since I was a senior in highschool and already it has shown to be a much larger role. Being in charge of 200+ girls is going to be a challenge but I thankfully have a large support system begging me, one I intend to use. While president I hope to be a role model for the younger members and leave a lasting legacy with my chapter. When I was first initiated into Gphi I knew one day this chapter would bring me to great things. The women I have been surrounded with these last 3.5 years have made me stronger, smarter and more kind. Giving back to the organization and the greek community is something I am so happy I had the opportunity to do.

To say the least, I'm excited for spring semester to begin and I'm hopeful for where it will lead me. Thank you fall 2020 for all of the laughs, the cries, the love and all of the opportunities under the sun!

Shi

#college writing

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dcnativegal · 4 years

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Day 55 of Pandemic, & I’m sick

Monday, May 4, 2020. Day 55 of the global pandemic (declared by World Health Organization on March 11th.) We as a planet hit 3,500,000 cases today, and 250,000 deaths. There are many more than that, but the planet doesn’t have enough tests. But then, there was this announcement:

So obviously we’re in good hands. [Sarcasm alert.]

The entire planet has slowed down, such that seismologists can detect the quieting of the earth: less shuddering of industry, cars, construction. Check out the drop in electricity usage:

Here’s a bit of perspective from Instagram:

The Lesbians of Paisley have been fertile ground for viruses. Valerie is nearly recovered from the viral pneumonia she was diagnosed with on March 26 at the emergency room at Lake District Hospital. She’d begun to feel feverish and achy, with violent coughing on March 15th, 2 days after what turned into my last day in my office at the hospital’s primary care clinic, and a day and a half after we’d dined with our friends Toni, Al, Bonnie and Bruce in person, sans masks. We began 100% isolation from the outside world the minute she felt sick. She recounted the ER adventure to a friend thusly: We drove in and they have organized a system that resembles getting on a [military] base after 9-11. We sat in the pickup at the checkpoint until a somebody in protective attire had taken my temp and saturation levels and asked a bunch of questions. Then they slapped a red sticker on the dash, told us to park in the ER lot and "don't get out of the pickup." Five hours later I had donated blood and been CAT scanned. I had two pneumonia shots that were current and two flu shots, also current. They checked the blood against 14 different virus strains and came up blank. The chest showed white lungs and my saturation levels were iffy. So they used one of the tests they had been sent, gave me antibiotics (just in case) and sent me home. Took me three days to sleep off all that fun.”

Me and Griffey the poodle waited in the pickup for her. At every sound, he got up from the passenger’s seat and looked at the ER entrance where she’d disappeared. No Valerie? Back to sleep. I walked him 3 times. Hope, her RN daughter, told us that her flow through the ER was great practice in maintaining distance and perfect hygienic process through the CT scan, taking blood, even pushing her food on a tray to her. Lake Health District Hospital is prepared, and still, technically speaking, zero cases in the county.

I was so anxious about her health, her ability to breathe, that I gave up all thought of working from home. I listened to her breathing and coughing, brought her tea, and finally, asked her to write out her last will and testament. She did, and put it away. I figured, her kids are wonderful and won’t fight about stuff but, better for her to express her wishes, even if the paper wouldn’t be legally binding.

Apparently, I get the FrankenDodge (the pickup which has hit one too many deer and who’s grill is sewn together by wire). I’ll take it but I’d much rather have her.

We waited 10 days for the nasal swab results. While we waited, she got better. Never had that cytokine storm, nor that respiratory crash. Storms and crashes; pretty apt words for the medical horror of end stage COVID-19. Once her test came back negative, despite the warning of her PCP who says that nasal swabs miss between 30 and 47% of positive cases, I was able to go to town on the 10th of April, get some software downloaded onto the computer so I could work from home, and hit Safeway while wearing a mask. I also dropped off one of Valerie’s homemade masks to a friend, along with some toilet paper illustrated with Trump’s kissy face. The moment of levity was greatly appreciated.

I started feeling lousy six days after my jaunt to Lakeview (April 16th). Cough and release of gook high up in my chest. Headache. No fever. Who knows if I have COVID-19. We listen to a British gentleman, Dr. Campbell, daily, as he reviews what’s going on globally, and he interviewed a woman who had exactly my illness course, before she moved on to fever and gastrointestinal symptoms. She never got tested. Too much hassle. Which is so ridiculous, criminal really, and in the USA, a direct result of American hubris and incompetence. Fine. Anyone with any symptoms of any illness is isolated until we have a vaccine and treatment, is my prediction. I’m still feeling shitty, though better. Started taking antibiotics just in case and in the hopes of recovering SOMEDAY.

My son Jonah and his girlfriend June escaped just in time the terrible plight of New York’s COVID19 deluge of infections and hospitalizations. They’ve been in Baltimore at June’s mother’s beautiful home. He spent his 26th birthday in the basement because they were still in quarantine. See adorable picture, below. Now they’re allowed upstairs, enjoying the quiet. Apparently, writing and directing music videos is not an essential service during a pandemic, but he’s writing pitches and living off the most recent lucrative gig with Kesha, thank goodness.

One of the most moving things that is happening in the USA during this time is the 7pm clapping ritual for medical workers and first responders in New York City, in all the boroughs:

There’s a firefighter in DC who’s going to hospitals and nursing homes to play the bagpipe.

That’s where my daughter Clara lives, in DC, but right now she’s staying with a friend in Laurel, MD, since her group house dynamics are stressful and had a symptomatic guest at last report. She’s working from home to make sure the Latinx school children are getting the tutoring they need now more than ever. We worry about her husband Jose and his country, Guatemala, since there are COVID-19 cases down there, and refugees seeking asylum are being dumped there, with and without the virus. Over 700 cases in Guatemala as of today. We hope he will get to the USA this year. However, Trump referred to it as a shithole country, which doesn’t bode well.

My sister and her husband are well, thankfully. They work fulltime from home in the company of Pepper the cat and Darcy the chocolate lab. Yuuki, 25, stays there, too, mostly in their room; they are out of work and applying for unemployment. Kohji, age 28, works from home in DC and makes more money as a web designer than I ever will after 34 years as a social worker, but who’s counting. (I remember well the admonition of a field instructor back in 1987: don’t go into social work for Power, Pay or Prestige.) His girlfriend is probably out of work; she works for a nonprofit that plants trees in DC. Probably not essential work right this very minute. Makoto, 23, is out of quarantine and looking for something to do; he’ll be a senior at the University of Delaware this fall. As far as I hear on Facebook and email, the rest of the folks with whom I share DNA are well. So that’s good. I worry about my Aunt Mary Lee who is 87. But she says not to: she’s fine and her ritzy retirement community in McLean, VA is on “lockdown.”

Psychologically, in the experience of quarantine and ‘social distancing’, there’s me, and then there are my clients.

My moods go up and down, but a little further down than usual. The terror that Valerie might die of COVID-19 has passed, but I figure I will always need therapy. I have “Facebook messenger” video chats with my therapist, Darcy of Bend, every other week now, which helps. Having ‘Generalized Anxiety Disorder’ and a tendency toward major depression, I find therapy to be a corrective. A bimonthly tune up. Without it, I naturally veer toward negativity and neurosis, and a hypervigilance that served me well when I was a child, but is exhausting, overwrought and over-thought as an adult.

Psychologically, Valerie is always fine. Seriously. She was once told as a young woman by a therapist who’d tested her with the MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) that she was outrageously and puzzlingly normal. Now that she’s feeling mostly well again from the pneumonia, she’s been tearing up the joint, fixing the sump pump that apparently keeps this little house from drifting down main street on the wetlands it’s built on. Digging out the leaves from our irrigation ditch, chopping and clearing the wood from our front yard.

The BEFORE picture:

The AFTER Picture.

And this happened one morning in March. Just a cattle drive past our front door.

Valerie’s planning a garden at her daughter’s place, which has a deer-proof fence and lots of sun up on the hill above us. A delivery of horse manure is scheduled, and the garden bed has been rototilled. Val’s granddaughter Jessica and her husband Alan are living up there now, working from home for their Portland-based gigs. They’re almost finished the 14-day quarantine since they moved down here. The new normal: anytime anyone leaves one locale for another, they disappear into strictest quarantine, not to leave their abode. Groceries are delivered to the doorstep. A recent day turned out to be Jess’ 25th birthday: I’d bought a canvas bag with a picture of a pug on it, like her dog Archie, and Valerie found something gluten free flour mix with fresh jam to give her. Birthday gatherings are suspect at the moment.

Here’s a lovely idea for quarantined birthday celebrations:

What a kind and generous offer.

Even in isolation, Val and I do socialize, on zoom. The one pictured below is church.

We ‘visit’ with our fellow parishioners from St. Luke’s on Sunday evenings. Then we say Compline together, from the Book of Common Prayer. My favorite prayer of all time is this one from that service.

Yes, shield the joyous. Because joy is fleeting.

Our writers’ group, Easy Writers, ‘meets’ on zoom every Monday now. I wrote this bit about my yarn for the prompt, ‘write something in your home that means a lot to you.’

I am doing a great deal of crochet and a little knitting.

Yarn is my comfort and my joy. It is the raw material I create blankets and scarves and hats with. My tools are hooks and needles made from wood and plastic and metal. My fingers are also my tools.

Some of the yarn is like cotton candy: spun mohair from a goat is said to have a ‘halo’ or ‘aura’ because of the gentle cloud of color you can see an inch or two away from the spun thread. Some yarn is like twine: you can see every string of ply. My favorite is merino wool and single ply. A unity of color that will not split. All for one and one for all, the fuzzy stuff is twisted and bound into a single string of strength…

My clients are stressed out. The pandemic adds a layer to the stress they were already experiencing. I listen and knit, from within the cocoon of the yarn room which my folks can see behind me. One of my clients wanders about with her phone in her hand while I get slightly dizzy. I like this kind of counseling since I get a glimpse of my clients’ homes. Reminds me a little bit of being a geriatric care manager. You can tell a lot about a person from their home. From my home you can tell that I have a lot of yarn, and I work multiple projects at a time because there are piles of them alongside my recliner.

One of the sad weights of being present for my clients is their level of estrangement for most if not all social connections, especially people with whom they share DNA. And every single one has what is called in the mental health world “complex PTSD” from multiple traumatic experiences. I sit with them, on the phone or via video. I hope to model for them what Carl Rogers called ‘unconditional positive regard.’ I breathe deeply to release my own distress at their sadness. We explore one tiny step toward reducing their isolation, the sense of trust. All during a pandemic where other people could be carrying a potentially deadly virus.

It’s no wonder I’m pawing mohair out of screen for my own comfort.

Sometimes I email clients links or articles on how to keep their spirits up, or about good things that are happening instead of the dire predictions they’re listening to or watching. There is much to share that is hopeful. I sent one to a client on creative ways to care for everyone and she shot back:

“I believe this is Liberal rhetoric.

Esp the paragraph below:

This current emergency provides the possibility for a new emergence—the birthing of a truly civil civilization dedicated to the well-being of all people and the living Earth. “

Oh well. We can’t have a truly civil civilization dedicated to the well-being of all people, now can we?

Sigh.

Brilliant writing is being penned right now, since the entire planet’s human inhabitants are barely one degree of separation away from this virus, which is apparently ‘barely alive’ and therefore hard to kill, as it spreads onward to make millions miserable and hundreds of thousands die.

I’m saving articles from The Atlantic, The NY Times, and the Washington Post, and following a historian named Heather Cox Richardson who writes a daily blog called Letters from an American. In a recent post she writes:

“The big news … has been the ‘protests’ of state governors’ stay-at-home orders and mandatory business closings to try to contain the novel coronavirus …These protests are a classic example of trying to control politics by controlling the national narrative. The protests are backed by the same conservative groups that are working for Trump’s reelection. …These are not spontaneous, grassroots protests. They are political operations designed to divert attention from the Trump administration’s poor response to the pandemic. Even more, though, they are designed to keep the American public divided so that we do not protest the extraordinary economic inequality the pandemic has highlighted.

These protests have diverted the national conversation by turning a national crisis into partisan division along the lines the Republican Party has developed since the 1980s... The change of subject protects not just Trump but also the ideology at the heart of his Republican Party. Since 1981, Republicans have argued that the economy depends on wealthy businessmen who know best how to arrange the economy—the makers-- and that it is vital to protect their interests. Under their policies, wealth in America has moved upward. The pandemic has highlighted how these policies have removed economic security for ordinary people. They cannot pay their bills, and they might well turn against an ideology that uses our tax dollars to bail out corporations while they must risk their lives to pay their rent.” [Emphasis mine]

I am so glad someone smarter than me can reveal the interconnections of what’s going on politically.

There is food for thought on Facebook and Instagram: in the guise of a rewrite of Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese, this poem.

Mary Oliver for Corona Times (after Wild Geese)

by Adrie Kusserow

You do not have to become totally zen, You do not have to use this isolation to make your marriage better, your body slimmer, your children more creative. You do not have to “maximize its benefits” By using this time to work even more, write the bestselling Corona Diaries, Or preach the gospel of ZOOM. You only have to let the soft animal of your body unlearn everything capitalism has taught you, (That you are nothing if not productive, That consumption equals happiness, That the most important unit is the single self. That you are at your best when you resemble an efficient machine). Tell me about your fictions, the ones you’ve been sold, the ones you sheepishly sell others, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world as we know it is crumbling. Meanwhile the virus is moving over the hills, suburbs, cities, farms and trailer parks. Meanwhile The News barks at you, harsh and addicting, Until the push of the remote leaves a dead quiet behind, a loneliness that hums as the heart anchors. Meanwhile a new paradigm is composing itself in our minds, Could birth at any moment if we clear some space From the same tired hegemonies. Remember, you are allowed to be still as the white birch, Stunned by what you see, Uselessly shedding your coils of paper skins Because it gives you something to do. Meanwhile, on top of everything else you are facing, Do not let capitalism coopt this moment, laying its whistles and train tracks across your weary heart. Even if your life looks nothing like the Sabbath, Your stress boa-constricting your chest. Know that your antsy kids, your terror, your shifting moods, are no less sacred than a yoga class. Whoever you are, no matter how broken, the world still has a place for you, calls to you over and over announcing your place as legit, as forgiven, even if you fail and fail and fail again. remind yourself over and over, all the swells and storms that run through your long tired body all have their place here, now in this world. It is your birthright you be held deeply, warmly, in the family of things, not one cell left in the cold.

-Adrie Kusserow

Not one cell left out in the cold. Yes.

There is so much to be grateful for. I have a place to live, and even while paying off my bankruptcy debt, I have plenty. Enough that I can make small donations here and there. Here’s one cause I found: supporting foster children who were in college and now have no place to go. (Terrible visuals for the logo: it’s “Together We Rise.”)

Soon, the nights of below freezing temperatures will pass, and both Lesbians of Paisley will be healthy at the same time. Perhaps I’ll get my Tricycle-for-Grownups serviced and toodle around for exercise. Perhaps the Stitch & Bitch knitting/crochet gatherings will resume, maybe in a park for physical distance and social connection.

And maybe I’ve already had Covid-19, and so has Valerie. Looks like 50-70% of all the people on the planet, not quite 8 billion humans so maybe 4 to 6 billion people, need to catch this thing in order to give our species herd immunity. Or WILL catch it because we have no way to stop it, only to slow the infections so that health care is not overwhelmed. We live and Love in the Time of Coronavirus, to paraphrase Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I maybe a libtard, a snowflake, a lily-livered liberal, who’s heart bleeds. But I agree with this sentiment, found on Facebook, our American ‘commons’:

Love absurdly and abundantly, my people. And wash your hands.

#covidー19

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nfl2sevensummits · 4 years

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MJ was one of the first venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. What a resilient story of overcoming the odds of being a woman in a men-dominated space to, in part, fund some of the most dynamic companies of this generation

170: MJ Elmore: Angel Investor at Broadway Angels, Advisor, Limited Partner, and Former General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and Fellow at Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute talks about rising up to excellence as a woman in the overwhelming male investment industry.

MJ Elmore

MJ Elmore discusses how growing up, her older sister, who also attended Purdue University, was an early mentor figure for her. “In my family, we were five kids. My dad was a school teacher, and the likelihood was that we were going to go to the school at Indiana State University, not to Purdue. My sister sort of blaze the trail of no, I’m going to go away to school. She saved her money and worked during high school and did that, and I sort of thought, I can do that too. So she was the one who motivated me to go to Purdue and earn my way through college.”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with MJ Elmore, Angel Investor at Broadway Angels, Advisor, Limited Partner, and Former General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and Fellow at Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute who shares insight into her journey into the prestigious Stanford University. “When I first got out of Purdue, I worked for Hallmark cards in Kansas City, Missouri, which was a cool experience, and then I moved to California in 1977 and began working for Intel. I was going to business school at night at Santa Clara and not finding that a great experience and got the opportunity to go full-time to Stanford to get my MBA, and that was in 1980.”

What You Will Learn:

At what point in time did MJ Elmore start working for IVP? “I had been in marketing at Intel, and I really expected after I got my MBA, I would go back into marketing in Silicon Valley. But along the way, there was sort of a booming time for venture capital firms. They were really growing, really looking for more personnel. I was one of the few people in my class at Stanford who had Silicon Valley tech experience. So, since most venture companies pursue those kinds of investments, I got some interviews.”

MJ Elmore explains what makes a company typically do better business from an investment standpoint than others in their space. “We were really looking for ten times our money, and that would have been considered a hit. That was our goal, ten times our money in any one deal. So, then if you make ten investments, what you hope is that 3 of them make ten times your money, another 3 or 4 make five times your money or 2-5 times, or the rest of them return the money or lose. We have a saying, ‘you can only lose all your money,’ which sounds like a crazy thing to say. But if you think about it, if you have ten deals and one of them, you lost all of your money, but the other ones return somewhere between 2-10 times your money you didn’t really care you didn’t really care that you lost all of your money.”

How did she work her way up into being a partner one year after she joined and not just a worker? “We didn’t really have a lot of associates in those days. We were really just a group of partners. But in terms of how I made my way, he and I hired everybody else in the firm. Some of those people who we hired, well, they were all men, and a lot of them were more older than me and more senior than me and maybe even had a bigger equity stake than I did. It was an interesting position, but I was still trying to find my way. I was still a newbie in the venture business. I was in my mid-20s.”

What was it like for MJ Elmore being the only woman partner? “The way you become successful in a venture partnership is to make your partners a lot of money. If you make good investments, they like you a lot. My mode was to kind of try to find great investments, and so it was going to be that the success would be the great equalizer for them to accept me, and truly I think they actually didn’t think of me that much as a woman. I had some of my partners say after they read the Alpha Girl book, they were like, and I think one of them even says this in the book, ‘MJ, I just thought you were one of the guys.’ And he meant that in a good way.”

What does MJ Elmore look for in companies with her over 38 years of experience? “What problem are you trying to solve? How big is the problem? How are you going to reach these people? I tended to focus on those kinds of marketing things. Is there a real market here? Will the dogs eat the dog food? What proof do you have that there is a market? How big is the market? How are you going to reach the customer?”

Mentors for Women

In today’s environment, is MJ Elmore seeing more women coming to the table feeling more empowered? “There has been a big push over the last few years. There is an organization that was formed called All Raise, and it was a group of women, some of the younger women in the venture business. It started kind of trying to really sort of in a systematic way to increase the women in venture, increase the women that got funding. Right at the same time, we were in the Me Too area.”

The Unpaid Work of Women

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, MJ Elmore also talks about the inequality of domestic work that women do compared to men. “Melinda Gates wrote a book last year, and she talks about women, the unpaid work with the home and the family when women are working. There is a huge disparity if you take a dual working couple, up to twice as many hours a week that the woman tends to put into home and family than a man does, and understand in today’s times in COVID, it is really exacerbating because the kids are home. They are not in school. There is a lot more unpaid work at home.”

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com

Emilia’s Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/

MJ Elmore website: MJElmore.com

Check out this episode!

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phoenixknightv2 · 4 years

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State of the REALUnion: CoronaPaused (The version with a very raunchy yet funny yet true prospective moment)

Hi everybody,

First and foremost i hope everybody is doing well and staying safe during this tough time. It has not been easy, i can only imagine. My thoughts and prayers are with everybody during this time. I’m here tonight to bring some prospective on the current situation at hand. Here is what is on tap.

-The state of the Pandemic

-Conservative vs Liberal Media During this

-Personal Message for President Trump and Congress

-Where i stand

-A Message to my loved ones

In the Great Words of Chris Cuomo, Lets get after it.

The state of the Pandemic in the US

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Never in my lifetime, never in any of our lifetimes did we ever expect to go through something like this. Ever since the Influenza Pandemic, the swine flu, the H1N1, ebola. Those were easily controllable. CoVid-19, holy dear mother of god this has just gotten out of control. We’re reopening yet the numbers in a good chunk of the country have continued to go up. POTUS yet thinks that is a badge of honor. Seriously?!?!?!?!!??!?!!? In Texas, we are emerging as a hotspot. I’ll address that more in a bit. As i have said before, capitalism has taken over this country where the money talks. If money talks then ok there we go, we’re going to do what the money tells us. That is what the Red states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, etc have done. The Blue states continue to play it smart. New York especially.

The Winners of the CoVid 19 Pandemic

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Doctors

Nurses

Chris Cuomo

My Girlfriend

Joe and Mika Scarborough

Mitt Romney

Dr. Bright

My Father

His Team

H-E-B

Andrew Cuomo (Yes i know about the Nursing Home mistake. He’s been better than most Of Congress however. Congress does shady shit on purpose. No one bats a fucking eye)

Bernie Sanders

The Last Dance Documentary

President Obama

Dr. Fauci

Mayor Adler

Dr. Birks

Senator Lamar Alexander

Bill Lee

Mike DeWine

Liz Cheney

The Losers

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Greg Abbott

Donald Trump

Dan Patrick

Ron DeSantis

Brian Kemp

Fox News

Sean Hannity

Louie Gohmert

The Majority Of the Rest of Congress

Trump Supporters

Now i get it, we all have to make money to survive but the experts continue to say hey reopening without a proper plan is not the way to go but a good chunk of the states especially the red states are saying no no no, we’re reopening anyways. Its because of the fucking money. Yes we need to survive. Yes we need to make money for rent, for food, for bills, for all the responsibilities and then when the responsibilities are caught up then for the fun shit. But if experts are saying woah woah woah hold on a second we’re rushing fast here, if we start to lean back on the things that were working to fight CoVid-19 then we’re going to have a second wave and it’s going to be alot worse. We are going to have to lock back down, and let me tell you what, if that happens Riots are going to happen and more people are going to die. Let me tell you this as well, it scares me.

It scares me for afew reasons.

1. Crimes are going to be at an all time high.

Note: My old man and i are ready to defend ourselves and our castle. If we have to fight to defend ourselves and our loved ones, i won’t be afraid to do so. I’m not going to let the stupidity of our state government and our federal government igniting sick people to start riots stop us from protecting our loved ones.

2. It scares me for my girlfriend and her cat (And i love that cat like it’s my own daughter)

3. It scares me for one of my best friends who lives alone and her dog. (I love that fucking dog like it’s my own nephew and it’s the closest thing to a doggy friend i have since my three dogs left me years ago when they left with my bitch of an ex stepmom)

4. It scares me for the vulnerable

5. Scares me for the kids

6. Scares me for the rest of my loved ones.

It is very disgusting and the more this immature shit continues to happen, the more the riots are likely and i will do whatever i have to do to protect my loved ones. This country is falling apart. Just earlier tonight, i got pissed off when my father told me that a good chunk of people were back downtown and a good chunk of them were not following the safety guidelines just after Dr. Escott said earlier yesterday, we are effectively flattening the curve but we need to continue to do so especially if we want events like ACL and Longhorn football to start on time. Governor Abbott even though he’s a greedy brainless little pussy (i’ll give him some points on SOME not all but some things. More here shortly) has even said now is the time more than ever to continue to follow the guidelines even though we are all getting out of lockdown. (I’m still not out of quarantine unfortunately because i along with my old man have major skepticism of reopening earlier. More on THAT later on) Continue to wear masks even though they’re not required. (Governor, come on. I know you’re alot smarter that. If masks aren’t require then why is A) The numbers continue to go up tremendously to the point of where we are now a hot zone. Oh but wait a minute we’re still going to open. B) Why are people deciding to NOT listen to you and are deciding to say HEY THE VIRUS IS OVER!!!!!!!!)

I’m sorry no it is not. As a matter of fact, the numbers continue to go up especially in the Lonestar State)

It’s going to be alot worse governor if you don’t do the right thing. We got one shot to do this right so you better pray to god you’re right because the 90,000 deaths are already on POTUS’s doorstep. Right now the Texas numbers recovery wise and death wise are actually pretty good. 29,359 Recovered and less than 2,000 people have died (RIP to those people by the way. My heart goes out to families of the victims of CoVid 19. I’am really deeply sorry that you’re going through this. It is saddening that y’all going through this.) Just really hope you don’t fuck it up governor. The cases continue to go up so hope you’re right and if you aren’t right, i’m going to laugh at you because of your failure and you realizing that ok i’m a moron.

To everyone who has lost someone or something, whether it’s your job, business, or someone you love and care about, i cannot even begin to imagine the pain you are going through. If there’s anything i can do whether it’s pray for you or be here for you just to talk to, i’m here. I will never fully understand but i’m here because i certainly don’t ever want that to happen to my loved ones.

Now before i continue, anybody wanna know why i posted a pic of this scumbag?!?!??!?! Because this ladies and gentlemen is Dan Patrick. Our Lt. Governor. I have criticisms of Abbott but this fuckass right here is well.....a fuckass. I would say Dipass like Rick did one time on Rick and Morty but no i’m going to take it a step further. Fuckass. You Dan Patrick are a die hard fuckass.

Here’s why...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP1GkV06PYY

‘‘I’m sorry to say i was right on this!!”

A scumbag thing to say Mr. Lt Governor. Now what am i talking about?

When this first started, Dan Patrick said and i quote

‘‘There are senior citizens who are willing to die for the rest of us!!” ‘‘There are more important things than living!!”

I’m sorry what?!?!?!?!??!?!?! Yes i know the rest of what he said but Mr. Lt Governor that is the stupidest thing i’ve ever heard and one of the most crooked things i’ve ever heard. You sir i don’t give a rats ass if you’re 70, you deserve to get punched in the face. If not by me then by someone else or if at the very least a bag of diarrhea that consists of shit, hot sauce, the hottest tacos from torchys tacos, chips and queso. Because that is a shitty thing. Wanna know why?

Alot of my loved ones are the elderly. My grandma Sandra, my grandmother Bren, my grandpa Ben, and my grandfather Lou. And that’s just to name a few. But especially My grandma Sandra, Bren, and my grandfather Lou. Very close with them and you know what? I don’t want them to die. I want them to be able to meet the love of my life. And you know what else, i’m not the only one who has elderly loved ones that they’re close with. Alot of people in this country are close with their elderly relatives. That is a very offensive thing especially because almost 100,000 people are dead because of this virus. You should be ashamed of yourself Mr. Patrick. Lets address that second part. More important things than living? Money? Well how can we enjoy the money if we are dead? AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA See i just answered your own question. Shame on you Patrick shame on you. I would like to be able to have my loved ones meet my love. I would like to meet my queen’s father as well. So shame on you Dan Patrick

Now lets get back to Abbott. Do i think he’s an idiot for not following the guidelines set by the white house that the White house itself and majority itself ain’t following? Oh yeah. But it’s not as bad as DeSantis who apparently is allegedly being accused of asking Florida Scientists to manipulate the numbers? Ok that’s just crooked as hell. So far Abbott hasn’t been found of doing the same thing but if a scientist in Texas came out and said that too....that wouldn’t surprise me but here’s what i will give Abbott credit for.....Actually caring about the nursing homes and the staff and residents especially making the tests available to them. Kudos for that. That doesn’t mean you’re safe from other criticisms but i hope you’re right because we cannot afford to continue the back and forth. Shut down for afew weeks then boom back open. The back and forth needs to not happen. I hope you’re right because i would love to get back to the fight but i will not be surprised if this backfired because you choose Trump over Science.

The Ongoing Liberal Vs Conservative Media War

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The Following are Exempt from this

-Chris Cuomo

- Joe and Mika Scarborough

Show you why here in a minute

But the rest are not exempt. If there is one thing ONE thing that Trump is not wrong on, it is in fact the media except Fox news needs to be added. Mostly His puppet Hannity, Tucker Carlson (Even though i sense and been seeing a turn in him lately) and that Bitch Laura Ingraham. Spewing Conservative conspiracy theories out the wazzoo. The Liberal media isn’t exempt from this either. I’ll get to them next. But conservatives are still spewing lies out of their mouth. Attacking the Medical community and of course STILL NOT LETTING GO OF RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!! CAN WE PLEASE JUST PUT THE FUCKING POLITICS ASIDE FOR ONE SECOND AND ALL OF US WORK TOGETHER!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! I thought this was gonna bring us closer together but no it has divided us further apart. Conservatives on fox news etc saying this is a hoax by the deep state, come on. I always make the joke of conservatives and liberals in the media and in congress need to just lock the door on capital hill for one night and either argue all night or order a shit ton of drugs and fuck it all out with one massive orgy like the orgy in the Seth Rogen animated movie sausage movie. If you don’t know what i’m talking about, watch that movie but viewer discretion advised that movie is raunchy as hell and the final scene where the orgy happens.

I’m serious.

Does Kaitlan Collins and Kayleigh McEnany need to go down on each other or have a threesome with Mitch McConnell’s wrinkly ass and have a Cuckold while his wife is watching?

Does Rachel Maddow and Poppy Harlow need to use a vibrator on each other while Hannity and Tucker are jerking each other off?

Does Lindsey Graham need to get it in with Tomi Lahren and her Fiance while Chuck Schumer is licking their assholes?

Does Nancy Pelosi and Melania need to take turns swapping POTUS’s cum?

Does Joe Biden and Donald Trump need to have a bisexual fuck in the presidental suite? (House of Cards Reference)

If it gets to the point where Kaitlan Collins is wearing her one night stand outfit and doing the walk of shame then Tomi Lahren and Kayleigh McEnany come up to her and do a threeway kiss on the news and wolf blitzer is asking how was your night with the biggest shit eating grin and Kaitlan Responds ‘’Wolf it was amazing. How was yours?’’ Wolf replies with something and then makes a body movement in regards to his nose being fucked up from snorting cocaine or where Trump and Biden are in the oval office actually working together. If a giant orgy takes them all to work together i’m all for it. LOL I had to get that out there now lets be serious.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kayleigh-mcenany-slams-cnns-chris-cuomos-use-of-less-safe-drug-to-fight-coronavirus

I saw that article of Ms. McEnany slamming Chris Cuomo for taking non-hydroxychlorquine. I’m sorry Ms. McEnany, do you realize that you made yourself stupid by saying POTUS knows that his medicine doesn’t work yet SLAMMING CHRIS CUOMO WHO ACTUALLY HAD COVID-19!!!! Kayleigh you ma’am are dumb as rocks. Have you had CoVid-19? No. Chris and his family did. His wife and his son both ended up having CoVid you fucking FUCKASS. Did POTUS? NO!!!!! SO SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH AND JUST FOCUS ON TRYING TO SAVE YOUR JOB!!!!!!!! God such a fuckass.

But lets get to the rest of Fox News, watch this video made by Trevor Noah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh4uS4f78o

Then by the now this channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmW_H4U-MI

See where i’m going with this?!?!?!? THEY LIE!!!!!!!!!!! ONE MINUTE SAYING ITS A HOAX!!!!!!!!! NEXT MINUTE SAYING THEY NEVER SAID THAT!!!!!!

WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!??!?!? ARE YOU DRINKING BLEACH LIKE TRUMP RECOMMENDED!?!?!?!?!? DID YOU DISINFECT YOURSELF WITH DISINFECTANT?!?!?!??! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR BULLSHIT CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND YES I’M LOOKING AT YOU AS WELL LIBERAL MEDIA!!!!! IF YOUR NAME IS NOT CHRIS CUOMO AND MIKA SCARBOROUGH OR JOE SCARBOROUGH THEN THE REST OF YOU IN THE MEDIA NEED TO REALIZE WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!?!?!? CONGRESS IS DIVING US!!!!!! THEY CONTINUE TO LIE AND WE FALL FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!!

Now lets go to the Liberal Media of MSNBC and CNN

Before i continue, Shoutout to Miss Mika for this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khmEjO-FEaE&t=62s

Someone finally had the balls to say it. Enough is enough. Trust me and i called POTUS out weeks ago for his whole Liberation tweets which is what i keep saying is what will lead to riots and i’m just going to say something and i need to get it off my chest. I’ll take it a step further. I have enough of the corruption of our country. Now i’m going to still continue to speak on it but i will not do anything further than that, but if i lose any of my loved ones then its game on. I’ll go to war. I’ll protect my loved ones or i will die trying. Enough is enough. This country is falling apart. Now do i thank the men and women who have risked their lives overseas for our freedoms? Of course. Do i especially now thank all the medical workers for fighting this horrible enemy that is CoVid 19? So that the rest of us are safe and we have a chance despite the fact our country is ran by idiots and also is filled with about 85 percent idiots who don’t give a damn about doing the right thing. Millennials including who think OH MY GOD THIS ISN’T A BIG DEAL!!!!! LETS GO OUT AND GET DRUNK AND POP BOTTLES AND PILLS ETC!!!!! Absolutely. I have a new found appreciation for the medical community.

But i will use my first amendment rights because the United States of America has a brand new nickname

What is it?

The United States of Stupidity

Land of the Rich

Home of the Stupid

That is what this country has become. If anybody is offended by that i’m sorry but it is true and the way congress has handled this CoVid catastrophe has proven my point. With the way POTUS has acted during this, is wrong.

Before i begin the Liberal side,

I’m proud to be an American, i’m proud of all the doctors and nurses, i’m proud of the men and women who have all risked their lives so that the rest of us can be safe. I tell my Girlfriend alot who is a nurse by the way that i’m proud of her and that she is my number 1 hero. Not all heroes wear capes. So to all the doctors and nurses and the military and the firefighters and the police offices (not all cops) i say thank you for your service. To all the doctors and nurses during the CoVid Pandemic, Thank you and god bless you now while i’m proud of them

A good chunk of this country’s citizens and A VERY GREAT CHUNK OF THIS COUNTRY’S LEADERS IN OFFICE, not so much.

Quick story, My old man and i hate Sean Hannity with a passion but one night while we were having Dinner, he did make a very great point why are we not hearing from more survivors of CoVid? I have to give him that but the difference is on the Liberal media we ARE hearing from more CoVid survivors compared to Conservative media. Conservative it’s conspiracy after conspiracy oh they’re going to take your rights away.

Now i have a question for people like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham etc. Do you guys have kids? Do you guys love your loved ones like how the rest of us do? What happens if they catch CoVid? Are you still going to think it’s a hoax? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo because then hopefully you people will wake up and realize what the fuck are we doing? Enough with the conspiracy theories

Now to the liberal media. Guys, you have the opportunity to say why are we doing this? Mika already called out POTUS earlier, you guys could have the opportunity to call for unity with Fox news. Why are you not doing so? When this is over if y’all wanna go back to hating each others guts, fine by me. I will be busy focusing on my loved ones and my future. Matter of fact when this is over , I probably won’t watch the news hardly if ever again unless its Cuomo or Morning Joe. I got a future with my queen to focus on and i got a trip i need to get ready for but right now it’s the time to work together. Now it’s no guarantee that Fox News will budge but at least you can say you tried but seriously can you please just try? Now is not the time for war. Also Fox News for the love of god, Y’ALL ARE PART OF THE MEDIA TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST STOP!!!!!!!!!!! It really dumbfounds me that they can get shown videos of what they said and it’s oh we never said that, it’s just stupid. Hopefully these people will learn but lets be real they won’t

Where i stand with the pandemic

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

I have been in quarantine for 8 weeks about to be 9 weeks. Unlike most others, i’m waiting with my old man to see if we don’t go under another lockdown and our state of Texas doesn’t spike to New York Level. As i’ve said earlier, cases not good but recoveries and the death rate, not bad. It’s just up to the others to keep the improvements going. Earlier my father told me that he was downtown at whole foods and as he was driving home, he saw a SHIT TON OF PEOPLE NOT WEARING MASKS And of course he can speak for me on this but i was frustrated. If they don’t want to follow the guidelines especially when more places can reopen soon then if we go back under lockdown, don’t fucking bitch about wahhhhhhhhhhhhh why can’t we go back outside?!?!?!?! Well the answer is simple, you people are fucking dumbasses. You didn’t follow the guidelines like you own the fucking place and here we are again.

My loved ones if they sometimes need a break from the masks, that’s different. There’s going to be times where i need a break from it to give myself some oxygen. All i will say to my loved ones and i’ll say it again later on, please just be safe. I love you guys and i don’t want anything to happen to you guys.

Back to where i stand. These last 8 and a half weeks have been a test. It especially sucks because before all this happened, i made significant progress. My relationship was moving in the right direction, and after leaving my shitty shit shit job, i got the job i wanted for awhile and it was a great feeling. Now to feel like i’m being tested again, it sucks. Especially after coming out of one of the darkest times of my life a year ago that involved me going to a mental hospital to have a safe place to fall apart so i can pick up the pieces where i also discovered i have PTSD after one day waking up not wanting to live anymore. It especially still haunts me because my love had to endure that with me. Fast forward to this pandemic, i was hoping that last year was the end of Dark times for AWHILE especially because my queen deserves the world and i want to be able to take her to the dinner she 100 percent deserves. She works hard, she puts up with alot and i don’t care if i have to pay it off, when i’m cleared (and i’m going to stay cleared. I’m not doing a second round of this shit) i’m fucking taking her to that dinner barring any unforseen even for sticking with me through some of my roughest times. Before i take the rest of my loved ones to dinner, she gets first priority before i get back to my job (after my thyroid hint hint Pops if you’re reading this). She deserves that and i want to be able to give that to her or if i have to cook for her and set up a very nice candle light dinner at her place or mine, barring not having to deal with any more bullshit when i’m cleared. Now if there is one positive i can take away well actually two, its these

1. It has made me realize that i need god in my life more than ever because i refuse to relapse back to the dark side.

2. It has brought me and one of my best friends back to each other to reconcile.

Now i cannot stress this enough, i’m not happy with being under lockdown but i understand why. I’ll get to that here in a minute. I would so much rather be at work, i would much rather be with my queen, i would much rather be with my loved ones. Having a long awaited reunion. Our first since the night one of our own passed away and this time because we’ve all had to do some growing up, hopefully it won’t be sadness. It will be celebration and hijinks lol I’ll make sure of that and if i have to get super drunk, i will because as i’ve always said, i’m a funny funny drunk. I don’t always drink but when i do, i’m hysterical lol.

I do however understand why this is happening and which is why even if it’s frustrating, i will continue to fight for my future with my queen and my job that i busted my ass for. Those are the two things that are important to me. Just think of me as the Sam Ehlinger of everything else.

I’ve come so far and i’m not going to just give up without a fight. If and when i’m cleared, if i catch CoVid i’ll do whatever it takes to fight it. If i die, i die. It was a good run, at least i went out guns a blazin to fight CoVid. Now before i continue, i’m not saying i want to die. Last year, i had nothing to lose. This year is a different story, i have everything to lose and i’m not going to let anything take my progress away from me. If and godforbid if i have to fight it in the hospital alone, i’ll do what i have to do to beat CoVid. No problem because unlike everything else i’ve been through, i have more to lose now and more to fight for and i’m not giving up easily on anything. Should i catch CoVid and BEAT IT?!?!?!? It will be another story to add to the legacy of the Phoenix Knight. Knock me down, i’ll continue to rise from the ashes again and again and again, nothing will keep me down easily which is why despite the rocky situation i’m in, well that we’re all in. I’m not giving up. Despite that this has kept me from not being able to see my queen in the normal capacity that we both want and that hasn’t been easy for the both of us, i will not give up. As Daniel Bryan once said ‘’If you fight for your dreams then your dreams will fight for you!!!’’ This is a test of my character and i have every intention of passing with flying colors.

Now in three weeks (Bare with me here), my old man and i are going to have a BIG revaluation conversation about where we stand with the pandemic. I’m nervous, scared, yet excited. While i desperately want to get back out there and i’m hoping phase one will lead me there (phase one something i worked on for my father to try to tell my side of the story about why i think i’m ready to get back out there), i will do what is right. I will do what is safe and i will not be like the rest. I will be smart. I refuse to put my loved ones in danger let alone myself in danger as well. One wrong move just like with all the other re-openings then its right back to the start. This is where it’s tricky. So as you all know or well alot of you know, i want to be in san marcos at some point in the very near future. I do not want to fuck it up. My job was step one of that plan before all this happened for i’am not happy here in austin anymore. I need something more quieter but yet something more close to my people. My father, and my 4 best friends. It is not cheap here but because of the pandemic, it has led me to a bit of a rock and a hard place. Now before i continue, i always tell my girlfriend and i guess i need to practice what i preach, we just don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe Abbott was right and i look like a jackass and i can get back to a little bit more normal of a life and back on track. I just don’t know. Now here’s the rock and the hard place, it is not easy and not cheap AT ALL here in Austin. If i want to go back to work if it is not safe enough then something different would have to be arranged. Someone i know or by myself. A) I don’t want to get someone else sick. B) If i’m living on my own and i get sick with CoVid god knows what’s going to happen. Or if i’m still here at home, if i get sick i don’t want to get my old man sick with CoVid either. It’s a very tricky situation and that is why i’m nervous about making the wrong move but as long as i keep my team in the loop and they do WHATEVER it takes to help me make sure i’m safe to keep my job and at my location or (Riverside or southpark meadows if SoCo is no longer an option) i guess it’s not terrible but i do miss it but which is why i feel between a rock and a hard place in this. Also if i do crack and say its time for me to try living on my own (has to Be close to work, safe and REASONABLY PRICED) One wrong move and it can set off a giant pandoras box but maybe worse. Just like with the immature state openings, one wrong move and we are back under lockdown. Hence why i want to go to san marcos but like i told my father, the whole point was to transfer there AFTER WORKING at my job for several months to a year and i refuse to go into san marcos dumbfounded. I wanted to go in a smart way but also because it’s cheaper, more quieter and did i mention its cheaper? Lol well its because i want to be able to travel more with my queen and i want to still live my life and do things i want to do all while being responsible.

The perfect scenario: If the curve really is flattened or something like that, the numbers are not too bad and my old man clears me after our revaluation talk or if not, he pretends to not clear me but saves it for my 27th birthday on July 1st and says even though its still tricky, happy birthday YOU’RE CLEARED FROM QUARANTINE!!!!!!!!!! Oh how beautiful that would be. Granted the sooner i’m cleared, the better. I would love for the signs for me to be cleared after our revaluation conversation. The minute i’m cleared, i’m going full Phoenix Knight and i’m not looking back

Message for Congress and POTUS

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

I’m going to keep this simple. Ladies and Gentlemen of congress along with President Trump, i’m going to take it a step further along with what Mika said. All of you need to KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!! Enough with the fucking games and do your job. Orgy joke aside, do what we elected you to do and do your jobs. Enough with the greed, stop using god and religion as an excuse for your bad behavior.

I would say more but Mika took a good chunk of the words out of my mouth

Mr. President, grow up!!! Calling for Liberation in the middle of a crisis, you’re sick bro. Get off twitter and do your job. You think you’re making America Great again? Guess again Donnie, you’re not!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0239jHlMYY Evidence 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB8icFsfJe0 Evidence 2

Mika already said what i was going to say. Do your job and do it right because the more you fuck up, you are going to be on the wrong side of history.

I’ll leave it at that

Closing statements and a message to my loved ones

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

I’m going to close it with this. First by starting off with a plead, to everyone else who isn’t my loved ones, please.....please......please do not be stupid. Please be smart, follow the guidelines, maybe not always but a good chunk of the time, this is not a secret government conspiracy this is a serious situation and the more you don’t be smart, you’re going to ruin it for the rest of us. Normally i would rant but i’m begging you please be smart here. When the virus goes completely away or calms down tremendously, if a good chunk of you want to be stupid, greedy and going back to the clubs to post explicit pics etc popping bottles etc be my guest, but right now, please just be smart and considerate. I’m begging you.

Now for the message to my loved ones.

I’ll start with my queen, my best friend, my love Nicole: Baby, i just want you to know i love you with all my heart. I’m sorry this situation hasn’t been easy. But i appreciate you for sticking it out with me. I promise somehow someway i will make it up to you big time when i’m fully cleared but whatever happens in 3 weeks if its a step in the right direction where at the very very least we can spend more time together again, i’ll take it. I love you and you and Roxie are two of the main things that are keeping me going. I Love you with all my heart and i’m not giving up. Ever since the mental hospital, i just continue to fall more in love with you. I hope i make you proud like how you make me proud. You are one of the most beautiful kind hearted funny smart human beings i know. I’m honored to call you my girlfriend, my hero, my queen, my best friend. I love you with all my heart my pookieroo, my queen.

My father Chris: Pops, well done with the business and advancing with the masks. I’m very proud of you. I’m thankful for all that you have do and have done during this pandemic. I’ll save the rest for phase one

Andria: Thank you for being one of my best friends over the last six years, it has been an incredible ride and because of you, i met three of my other best friends. Love ya dude. I cannot wait for whats to come.

Chris: Brother, words cannot even begin to describe how proud i’ am of you. You have made tremendous progress over the last year and i feel like i got my brother back. I love you man and i’m so blessed that we met and that you have become like a brother to me man. I cannot wait for the new memories to come

Don: I know you’re going to make a funny out of this lol so i’ll leave a good chunk of it to you to make a funny. Just i love ya man and thank you for always making me laugh. (There will be tacos and nachos in your future soon hopefully really soon)

Bri Bri: The biggest blessing to have come out of this pandemic is that i feel like i got one of my best friends back. I know it hasn’t been easy between us but that doesn’t matter now. I’am so blessed you and i are doing well again and that i can see mav again soon, Fucking love that Dog. Anywho, proud of you. You are cool shit. And i got nothing but love for ya. Cannot wait for things to be better than ever.

I hope i make you all proud.

To everyone of my loved ones: Guys, i love y’all. I don’t know whats going to happen next but all i know is that we will get through this together and we will come out of this stronger than ever. I pray for y’all almost every night. My heart and my thoughts are with you guys. Anything y’all need at anytime, i’m here. It may not be easy but we will get through this together. As Bernie Sanders always says ‘’We’re all in this together’’. I love y’all, please stay safe and things will get better. I have faith and in the great words of Bobby Rhoode, it’s going to be glorious!!!!!!

Remember my friends, when you feel what you want to feel, you’re being real and being real is a very big deal.

Stay Safe, Love you guys, God bless you all

Phoenix Knight Forever

-Sky-

0 notes

speaknowslut13 · 3 years

Note

Lauren my beloved! Sorry I missed yesterday, my life is chaos and also I was out of data haha.

Ohh very fun! I feel like kids that age are fun because their personalities are really starting to develop.

Awesome! I’ve also played flute since 5th grade and then I played piccolo in marching band all through college. I miss playing in groups, and I’m really hoping that’ll be possible again soon! You are to drums as I am to singing lmfao I was almost kicked out of choir in high school bc I canNOT carry a tune. What other instruments do you want to learn?

I love channels like that! That and cooking channels are the majority of my subscribed to haha so if you ever decide to start a YouTube, I will certainly be on your subscribers list. Understandable, Tiktok stresses me outtttt lol I go on from time to time bc my sister always sends me a bunch but then I have to delete the app again.

Awwwwwe oh my gosh, that’s so cute!! 🥺🥺 what was your wedding like? (Though I never plan on getting married myself, I loveeeeee weddings hehe) what kind of stuff do you like to do together?

Omggg what an incredible experience for rep tour! Tumblr during rep tour was one of my favorite times ever on tumblr, like so exciting to get clips of the b stage songs and see peoples posts about meeting her! What other concerts have you been too?

I’m hoping to visit Croatia at the end of august, if everything goes according to plan/covid doesn’t once again wreck my plans. I grew up in the northwestern US, and there people joke that the seasons are “fire season, road construction, winter” and winters are regularly so much snow, windy, and -20°, so not ideal conditions for enjoying them. Have you been to Grand Canyon or any of the other national parks in the southwest? They all look so beautiful, that’s one part of the US I would definitely like to see more of.

Thank you!! I’m really excited to be a student again but I am also really glad I took some time off. I enjoy Dostoevsky! Probably not my all time favorite, but my best friend loves him so I’ve read a lot of his stuff and talk about it a lot. Also a big fan of Byron and I have a love/hate relationship with Shakespeare. My favorite poet is ee cummings, I love Cynthia Kadohata, huge Neil Gaiman fan. And many many others haha but off the top of my head let’s go with that 😅

What do you write about? And in what medium? I write a lot of poetry and I like writing non fiction, but I learned in college that I am NOT a fiction writer hahaha.

What have you been up to this weekend?? I hope you’ve had a lovely day 💖 Drew

ps: I love reading your responses! Please don’t feel bad or stressed about writing a lot ✨✨

Hello, Drew! Chaos feels like the natural order of the world lately. It’s fine if you miss a day or two! I understand.

I actually never really wanted to be married myself. I figured if I did, I’d be at least 30. I wanted to get school done first. Then, after my previous relationship, I decided I wanted to be alone. Fate had different plans. I also wasn’t sure I wanted kids. Changed my mind. However one is plenty. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone invalidates a person’s choices by saying “oh you’ll change your mind”. So even though I changed mine, I won’t be implying or outright denying that you don’t know your own mind.

My wedding was small. We eloped. It was a complicated situation with his family at the time, and we had decided to have the protection of a legal document since we were living together anyway. We picked randomly picked the day. Turned out to be Valentine’s Day. So, I, along with millions of other people, got married at a court house. In fact, someone was wearing my same dress that day! It was awkward. We have yet to have any celebration outside of that day. It was just my immediate family. However, I’ve never regretted marrying him and I still look back fondly on it. Fun fact: his parents found out we were married after we totaled their truck a few months later. Not so fun fact: that was the scariest accident I’ve been in to date. Accident wasn’t our fault and at least in this accident I had airbags. Ever been in an accident? Or in one without modern crash technology? It’s not very fun. Hurts a lot. I remember having to tell my father in law, on the side of the road, that Chase and I had actually gotten married. He was stunned but super supportive. Like I previously said, it was complicated . And I can get into it more, but there’s so much else to address right now!

We really like sitting in silence on our phones together! 😂 We are one of those annoying couples who like to do everything together. We are practically attached at the hip and the pandemic has only made it worse. He’s really interested in getting into D&D. We like playing video games together. We both love swimming. We both really want to travel. I’d love to take him to Europe. We like movies. But we both compliment our different likes and knowledge. He loves animated movies and animes and I love books. We both love art. He’s so good. He lets me do his makeup and nails from time to time. It doesn’t bother him at all. But not only that he’s really helpful at making sure I get my medicines and that I get rest when I need it. Throughout the lockdown he’d do all the running around so I wouldn’t have to go out since I’m immuno compromised. Sometimes I feel like he’s too good to me and the kid. I try to give back what I can. But honestly, he’s my best friend too.

Ahem. Enough gushing.

Other than some musicals and local symphonies, I’ve never been to any other concerts! Weird. I know! I’ve wanted to but never have. I’ve always wanted to see Imagine Dragons. Or Panic! at the Disco. There’s a few artists actually, I’d love to go see.

Croatia is BEAUTIFUL. My time in Europe was 2 weeks during July. I’m in love with it. If you go, Rijeka is wonderful. But near Rijeka is a mountain town called Fužine. It’s MAGICAL. I spent most of my time there. One of the upsides to staying in Rijeka is that it’s just a few hours away from Venice, too. Which. Was also breathtaking. I cried at the beauty of it. I have pictures of these places and I love looking at them. But they also make me a little sad. For multiple reasons. We had a layover in Munich on our way home and so we spent two days there as well. We drove up to the Neuschwanstein castle. It was amazing. But the most harrowing part of that stop was at the site of Dachau. I will never forget the heaviness of it. I had to stop halfway through. It was too much for my sensitivity. A privilege I will never forget.

I was able to visit Idaho (Rexburg) during October and December one year and I loved it. I’ve only ever been to Washington (coastal) and Oregon during the summer months. I wanted to go to school in Washington, originally. Thought I’d move up there. Now the goal is to ultimately expat. Canada, likely. We will see if that ever pans out, though.

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon once when I was 10 or 11(?). We went during December to ride the “Polar Express”. It’s a special event they run during the winter months before Christmas. We were snowed in so we stayed an extra day and took the train to the Grand Canyon. So I got to see it all snowy and clear. It’s gorgeous and I highly recommend it once. I don’t know if I would ever really go back but I might take the kid someday. I at least want her to go on the Polar Express ride. It’s cute and fun for the kids. I was a little too old to fully enjoy it, but my little sister was roughly the right age.

I’ve been to several places in Arizona. The missions, Jerome, and I’ve also been to some places in Colorado and New Mexico. I can’t recall all their names off the top of my head and it was a long time ago.

I greatly appreciate anyone who can write poetry. It is not my forte. They come out childish and awkward. So, I keep those to myself. I write anything and everything. I have several stories, but three top priority right now. One is complete but needs serious reworking and revision. I started it when I was 15. It’s a paranormal mystery with romance. The second one is a fantasy that I started with a friend when I was 14/15. It has its own world and has taken on a life of its own since then. It’s massive. And the third one is a coming of age story. It’s my most delicate one. I started it when I was 21. I have shared an excerpt on tumblr of this one. It’s my most complicated one yet. Like any artist, I’m constantly second guessing my work and lamenting my talent.

This weekend has been mostly spent recharging. I’ve been helping my mom with a project. And of course swimming. I’m a child at heart and I bought myself a mermaid tail. I’ve elevated my pool game. It’s so much fun but my body is yelling at me. I’m not as energetic as I was in my youth. You mentioned marching band? You and I really do have much in common! Not only are you a flautist, but a marching one at that?! I marched in high for two years. I loved it but I started to get burned out. And then I started horseback riding and planned to do that instead. My parents couldn’t afford to do both. And then I caught mono. Looking back, I understand why my mono knocked me out for so long (it’s linked to my autoimmune issues) but at the time every one of my friends thought I was being dramatic. It was kind of a horrible experience. So even if I had signed up for band my junior year, I would’ve had to quit. And then my senior year I signed up for this program that put me through a college program to get my EMT-B. I didn’t take band at all that year. Now I just play for myself. Ideally I’d learn every instrument.

I actually couldn’t sing very well for the longest time. Which was ironic because my mom was operatically trained. My older sister was also trained. And my little sister preferred chorus to band. I ended up teaching myself later. So now I don’t sound terrible but I’m not going to take my solo act on the road anytime soon.

If I can teach myself makeup, art, instruments, and other various things, then maybe I can also someday be brave enough to put myself out there on the internet. And if I do, I will definitely let you know! I will at least have 3 subscribers. 😂

Tell me about this trip you’re planning to Croatia!

#inthaf anon #themodrenreplies

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jacewilliams1 · 4 years

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The Return of a Rusty Pilot, Just in Time for a Global Pandemic

After years of accumulated rust in my logbook, a friend and senior mentor at work, who is also CFII, was admiring the Boeing 737 poster hanging in my office one day when he mentioned he knew of a 182 fractional ownership opportunity. “You know what? I have a 182 poster behind that 737!” I said as I took down the poster and opened the frame to reveal the circa early 2000s Skylane cockpit facing Sporty’s Pilot Shop. The admiration continued for a few more minutes, and a lightbulb clicked. Fast forward six months, and I had reinstated my third class medical and was a new partner of vintage Skylane ready to start my first lesson in 13 years.

For the next three months I re-learned the basics that were buried way way back in my subconscious, and I got familiar with a few new things, like the constant-speed prop and electronic flight bags. I also took my instructor’s inaugural instrument ground school, newly prepared for a handful of local VFR pilots. On March 16, after just over 21 hours of instruction, I received my first-ever BFR, complete with a high performance endorsement.

A reminder of the dream…

And on March 17, our tiny airport closed its terminal’s doors. The world was in chaos, and through the rest of March and April, flying took a backseat to surviving the pandemic. But part of that survival was keeping our young children (ages 3 and 1) occupied, and our solution was frequent trips to the hangar and biking among the hangars and along the taxiways. As talk of opening things back up increased, we decided this would be a great time to put the bird to good use by taking the kids to see their grandparents in Kansas. We decided to introduce the kids to flying gradually. So one Saturday in April, I installed the car seats in the back, and we taxied around Los Alamos Airport (LAM) for 15 minutes.

I started flying again the first week in May. After standing in the hangar for 20 minutes, gazing at the wind sock and psyching myself up to tackle the “8G12KT” crosswind, I completed my first solo in over a decade. Three days later, with car seats installed again, I took our family sightseeing over Taos and Lake Abiquiu. A week later, a slightly longer cross country flight with a 45-minute stopover. The next week, another family flight, and a 2.5 hr solo cross country. I racked up 13 hours in May, which was almost 15% of all my hours up to that point. We were almost ready for Kansas. There was just one thing left I needed to do.

When my instructor was ready to teach again, we scheduled a ground school (wearing masks) to brush up on a few things, and a few days later, a short dual lesson (also wearing masks) to solidify that discussion with action.

For my first-ever long cross country, family in tow, during a global pandemic, our mission was to trek to Kansas for a week. In the days leading up to our departure date, I watched the weather like a hawk. We wanted to leave early in the morning, but if schedules and weather worked out better for the afternoon, so be it. Friday morning, I preflighted the plane and installed the car seats. That afternoon was looking iffy, but we might have a two-hour window around noon. As the morning passed, the clouds over the mountains in our flight path grew to cumulonimbus. We were packed and ready, but as the outlook grew worse, I made the no-go decision. We’d try again first thing Saturday morning. And good thing too, because that afternoon and evening, the radar suggested storms would have been chasing us for our entire flight, and the possibility of finding ourselves in a bad situation was very real.

We woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning. I weighed our luggage one last time, we got the kids up and ready, and I headed to the airport to load up and do one more preflight. Everything looked good. After a short run up, we lined up with the runway. I’d never flown this heavy (still well below max gross limit). I knew that ground roll would be longer than I was used to, and everything was fine, but the experience was nonetheless surprising. Wheels were up by 6:40 am.

The weather was perfect, and we had a generous tailwind on our route to Liberal, Kansas. The 3-year old slept quite a bit, but the 1-year old cried for about half of the first leg. Communications with air traffic controllers had become more fluid, and I was comfortable with flight following handoffs as we crossed into Texas, then Oklahoma, and into Kansas. Liberal’s AWOS winds were reported to be down the runway at 14G25KT, and short-final was bumpy. We found the (fantastic) FBO, gassed up, got a clean windshield, and relaxed for about an hour before loading up again for the next leg to Wichita. Remembering my instructor’s discussion on density altitudes below which leaning isn’t required, I took off nearly full rich. This was my first time taking off in this airplane below 5000 ft. MSL. Even fully loaded, with the winds as strong as they were, we were in the air quicker than I expected. After leaving the pattern and a quick call to Kansas City Center for flight following, we were on our way.

The second leg was just as smooth, and the calm afforded me the opportunity to rehearse Class C communications in my head a few times. I was a little nervous as we approached 30 miles out from ICT, and as a result as we got closer, I forgot to switch from Approach to Tower. I got a gentle reminder from the controller. Lucky for us that, again, winds were right down the runway (19L). Another smooth landing, and a short taxi to the FBO. Part one of the mission accomplished!

The Wooten flight crew, ready for an adventure. (Photo credit: Julia Kennedy)

Although our goal was to stay a week, our earlier experience reminded us of the importance of being flexible. To make sure we were home by a deadline, it became clear that we’d have to cut our trip short by a couple of days to avoid what looked like three solid days of thunderstorms between us and home base, spanning our intended departure dates. While an early morning departure would have been ideal, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend a little time with the great-grandparents the next morning. So our goal was to depart by noon.

The FBO had the plane topped off and ready to go when I arrived. Another installation of the car seats, preflight, and we were ready to go. We were wheels-up shortly after noon, headed to Dalhart, Texas. This ride was long, bumpy, and hot. The sky was clear but slightly hazy, and those generous tailwinds from our eastbound trip turned into a 12-kt headwind. After a one hour break and fuel up at another friendly FBO, we headed out for the final leg.

And it is during this leg that I applied every bit of piloting skill I had ever learned. Just south of Las Vegas, we seemed to enter a golden haze, with smoke blowing in from the wildfires blazing across Arizona for the past several days. I didn’t notice anything mentioned in the weather briefing, but the hazy smoke most certainly obscured mountains and the ground below, reducing visibility to less than 5 miles. Add to that, the crosswind gusts at home base exceeded 30 kts, which meant the possibility of diverting.

I notified ATC of my intent to descend to maintain visual contact with Interstate 25 and turned southbound to stay clear of the mountains that I knew were there but could not see. And I diligently exercised the instrument scan I’d learned in IFR ground school just a few months earlier. After flying at about 3000 ft. AGL for 15 minutes while maintaining visual reference to the interstate, the smoke mostly cleared and the winds at home base had calmed down. I decided to head home. Winds were a quartering tailwind at 8G15 kts. On short final, things got bumpy again, and it wasn’t the prettiest crosswind landing, but we arrived home safe and sound.

So that is my return from being rusty, to having completed a 1000-mile round trip long cross country with my wife, two toddlers, and 70 lbs of luggage—all during the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m so lucky to have a supportive family, an awesome instructor, and a beautiful Skylane.

The post The Return of a Rusty Pilot, Just in Time for a Global Pandemic appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/10/the-return-of-a-rusty-pilot-just-in-time-for-a-global-pandemic/

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footballghana · 4 years

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Archdeacon: Ex-UD soccer player making a difference

Our nation was built on dreamers and such is the story of Isaac Kissi.

Some 14 years ago he was coming out of a chemistry class at the University of Ghana when he was told there were some American college coaches at the soccer field and they were looking for talented players.

“It was the last day before they were leaving, so I said to our coach, ‘Let me try quick. You never know,’” Kissi recalled. “I actually borrowed a friend’s cleats and hopped into the action and the guys all got me involved.

“Afterward, Paul Souders, the (assistant) coach from Dayton, said he liked the way everyone was drawn to me and my coach said, ‘Yeah, and he’s smart, too.’

“And that’s when Coach Souders said, ‘How would you like to play soccer at the University of Dayton?’

“I’d had chances in the past to go play in Europe, but my parents felt I was way too young to leave home and besides, soccer wasn’t guaranteed. But this was a chance to play and get an education. To me it was a no-brainer.

“I had no clue where Dayton was, but I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t care. It’s somewhere in America!’ And back then every kid in my neighborhood had hopes of coming to the U.S.”

In those days he said he embraced a popular world view of America:

“America was the beacon of hope for everyone. There could be turmoil in the rest of the world, but America would step in and say, ‘Hey, knock it off! Get it together!’

“I had dreams of being a part of all that. I had dreams of making a difference.”

And since leaving Ghana, the 33-year-old Kissi has done just that.

•He starred at the University of Dayton, leading the Flyers in goals and points as a senior and being named the team MVP and an All-Atlantic 10 first team selection. He got his degree and was drafted in the third round of the 2010 MLS Draft by Chivas USA.

He played three season with the Rochester Rhinos of the USL before knee injuries all but shelved his career. He did return in 2018 to play for the Rochester Lancers of the NPSL, is the general manager of the Roc City Boom, a UPSL team in Rochester, and now he’s helped open a pipeline of talent from Ghana to UD that’s brought the Flyers some top players recently.

•He also graduated from the University of Rochester nursing school in 2016 and now is a registered nurse who’s spent the past several months working on the front lines in the COVID-19 battle.

He worked in the ICU unit at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, where he was engulfed in the nonstop life and death struggles at the height of the pandemic in New York. And now he is doing COVID-19 testing in Rochester for the government.

•And in 2017 he proudly became a United States citizen.

Through all of this, Kissi has fully eclipsed some of those skewed theories and negative stereotypes too many people are embracing these days. Their narrow view of America is not what Kissi grew up idolizing and it certainly is not what made America great.

Our strength has come from a diverse collection of dreamers from all over who make a positive impact in our melting pot nation.

Kissi is that in many ways. He is:

—An immigrant success story.

—A black life that matters in so many ways.

—A guy who puts himself on the line every day to help get the rest of us through the perils of COVID- 19. And in the process he is a voice of caution and reason when too many people are floating false narratives about the deadly pandemic.

And along with all this, he’s also dealt with a heartbreaking loss of his own.

His beloved father, Samuel Kissi – who did so much for him and his three siblings when they were growing up – had been in declining heath for the past several months.

Last year Isaac had begun the procedure to bring his dad to America to get better medical treatment. But even though all the proper paperwork had been done for months, he said he was told by government officials he needed more proof that this was his dad.

But the unnecessary red tape took a deadly toll.

His 63-year-old father died in Ghana a couple of weeks ago. The paperwork finally had cleared a few days earlier, but by then his dad was too sick to travel.

Although he’s continued with his COVID-19 testing work, Isaac was forced to drop out of the classes he was taking to become a nurse practitioner. He wouldn’t be able to finish the semester.

He is headed back to Ghana in eight days and the family will hold his father’s memorial service on Aug. 1.

‘This is not fake’

Samuel Kissi and his wife Comfort raised their four children on the principles of hard work and the strength of family.

“My dad worked with all his might and strength to put us all through college,” Isaac said. “He worked as a driver and transport officer with the electricity company in Ghana. He would take the engineers to different sites.

“He saved everything he could, so instead of staying in hotels on those trips, he’d sleep in his car or stay with a friend or just sleep on a bench somewhere. That way he could save those extra bucks and put them toward our tuitions or maybe get me those soccer cleats I had been pestering him for.”

All four of the children did go to college.

It helped that Isaac got scholarship money to go to UD, but he admits it still wasn’t easy for him in the beginning:

“It was a big culture shock and I had to adjust to the weather – I didn’t have warm clothes – and I had to get used to the food, too.”

What compounded his homesickness – something he said he told almost no one about – was that before he’d left Ghana, he and a young woman there had had a baby daughter.

“It surprised us both,” he said. “Our daughter was a gift from God. That’s why I named her Gifty. Her mother was amazing. She understood the situation and my parents got involved, too, but I never spoke about it in Dayton. I didn’t know how people would react.”

Eventually he felt overwhelmed.

“I remember I’d just gotten out of class and was walking past the athletic building and met Coach Souders. He was like, ‘How’s it going? Talk to me.’

“And that’s when I just broke down. There was all the craziness of a new place and my daughter at home and on top of that, I’d just lost my wallet and all my money.

“Coach Souders and Coach (Dennis) Currier both spoke to me and they gave me avenues to follow and resources that were available at school and that went a long way.

“Most of all I had to come to the realization that I wasn’t just living for myself now. I had a daughter. And I had a whole lot of other people looking up to me. And with my dad, I just wanted to make him proud.”

He did that on the soccer field and in the classroom.

And when injuries shortened his athletic career, his older sister, Gloria, who’s a nurse in the Navy, suggested he try nursing because he was good in the sciences and had had some first-hand experience with his own medical care.

He became a traveling nurse and worked in Fayetteville, N.C. and Syracuse. And he was at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo when the COVID-19 surge began.

“In the ICU I’d turn the intubated patients, run the drips, look at the vital signs,” he said. “We took care of lot of people. We discharged a lot and saw a lot die, too.

“Because their family and friends couldn’t see them, you became more than just their nurse. You became family.

“The older population sometimes can’t operate their phones so you make the calls for them. You try to set up FaceTimes with their families and you encourage them to eat.

“And sometimes you didn’t even get to say goodbye. You’d go home and the next day they weren’t there. You were told, ‘We lost them overnight.’

“But there was no time to grieve because we had more and more patients. It was scary at times. We were reusing PPE. That’s something you’re not taught in nursing school.

“It was tough. My mind went to some dark places during those times. It got to the point where I sometimes questioned my faith: ‘Why is God making this happen? These are good people and through no fault of their own, they contracted this.’”

Now he’s working at a COVID-19 testing site set up at Monroe Community College in Rochester.

“In the past two months we’ve tested about 16,000 people,” he said.

After being immersed in the coronavirus battle, he said: “It hurts me to hear people politicizing this and saying the virus is a hoax. I try to educate them. I tell them I’ve seen people drop like flies.

“I’ve seen so much pain and sadness. This is not fake.”

‘A great place for me’

He continues to give the best care he can no matter who he ends up treating.

“I’ve taken care of people with swastika tattoos and peopled dressed head to foot with the Confederate flag,” he said. “But you suspend all that and try to go above and beyond.”

He said, now with so much getting polarized and politicized, we instead “need to pull together more than ever.”

Back in Ghana – a nation of just over 31 million – there have been some 18,000 COVID-19 cases, but as of Thursday night, just 117 deaths.

He said people there bought into the precautionary steps early and adhered to them since.

Yet, for all the fractures he now sees here, he said he still believes “America is one of the greatest countries in the world.”

He appreciates the multiculturalism of the nation: “It’s the only super group country where you can add your native country to your designation. We have African Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans. That’s not the case other places.”

After his father’s memorial he plans to bring Gifty – she’ll be 15 in November – back to Rochester with him. And he’s hoping to get paperwork cleared to bring his mother, too.

He’ll go back to the University of Rochester to finish the nurse practitioners’ program and he hopes to keep his hand in soccer, both playing and giving personal 1-on-1 instruction to young players.

He said one day he wants to return to Ghana and open a small clinic with his sister:

“We want to mimic the health care system we have here so when you’re back home and you hear someone in your family is sick, it doesn’t mean it’s a death sentence.”

Another hope for him is to one day return to the University of Dayton:

“I’d like to be involved with Dayton someday. It was a great place for me. The decision I made to come to UD as a teenager, I‘d make it 100 times more now. I was able to do so much thanks to Dayton.”

He’s an immigrant success story.

He became an American citizen.

And just like he once dreamed, he has made a difference.

Source: journal-news.com

source: https://footballghana.com/

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faithfulnews · 4 years

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This journalist did her job: Now she hopes that it didn't expose her to COVID-19

Normal 2020 fashion. Reporting now, article online @ExpressNews soon! pic.twitter.com/btHbHKPTLT

— Silvia Foster-Frau (@SilviaElenaFF) April 5, 2020

Silvia Foster-Frau did her job.

The 27-year-old San Antonio Express-News reporter hopes her dedication to her profession didn’t expose her to COVID-19.

For more than two years, Foster-Frau has produced sensitive, nuanced coverage of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas — site of a Nov. 5, 2017, mass shooting in which 26 people died and 20 were wounded.

Her journalistic prowess has earned her honors such as Texas AP Star Reporter of the Year in the biggest newspaper category and the national Cornell Award for religion reporting excellence at mid-sized newspapers.

On Sunday, Foster-Frau returned to the rural area southeast of San Antonio to report on the Baptist church continuing to meet, “despite the potential danger posed by the novel coronavirus” — as she put it in her story.

Her news article was excellent. No surprise there. Equally impressive were the compelling images captured by Express-News photographer Josie Norris.

But given the concerns over the possible spread of COVID-19, I wondered about the decision to send journalists into an assembly with 40 worshipers, none of them wearing masks, according to the newspaper’s story.

Foster-Frau was kind enough to talk with me about her experience. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Bobby Ross Jr.: You developed some really good relationships with people involved in the massacre and have excelled at covering that. Can you tell me a little about that?

Silvia Foster-Frau: Yeah, I grew really close to them. I never had an experience quite like that. I never would have met those people if not for what happened.

For me, being the one covering it, I got really close to these people I was covering, and it brought up a lot of questions I hadn’t had to deal with about journalism and ethics. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before, and it definitely changed me as a person.

I wasn’t like, “Oh, I learned a lot on the job.” It was actually very transformative personally. I’m really grateful for that.

Ross: In any specific way?

Foster-Frau: I guess for one, I learned a lot about grace and recovering from it, and how people do that, and what helps and doesn’t help. Fortunately, intense grief isn’t something I’ve had to grapple with. Personally, kind of experiencing that almost vicariously with them really changed me. It made me a lot more sensitive. I think I developed there in ways I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

And then, apart from that, I feel like the people at the Springs are people who are not necessarily media-friendly folks. I guess learning more about their culture — rural Texan culture — and finding something in common with them was really special, even if you feel like you come from different worlds.

"Knowing vulnerability, choosing to celebrate." Front page of today's @ExpressNews by @SilviaElenaFF. https://t.co/Sf8TJ2yMZb #SutherlandSprings pic.twitter.com/DjqdisIV3M

— Bobby Ross Jr. (@bobbyross) November 5, 2018

Ross: They learned they could trust you, I think.

Foster-Frau: Yeah, I think they learned that. I was very transparent from the beginning about my mission.

I was always trying to explain that it was our public service mission to tell their stories so people could understand what they’re going through and maybe make changes in their lives and advocate for others in the future based on what they learned in their stories. I think that resonated with them. We were on the same page about what the mission was most of the time.

Ross: Tell me about your story Sunday. I’m intrigued that they’re still meeting given some of the warnings that are out there. And also, that you went and covered it in person. How did you find out that was happening? And what was your thought process in deciding how to cover it?

Foster-Frau: I knew something was going on because we’re all Facebook friends now. I saw the pastor and his wife and other members of the congregation, too, posting pretty outspokenly about how church is an essential service. They were definitely getting blowback online, too, which is why they felt more compelled to be vocal about it on social media.

As the threat of the virus became more real here, and more and more restrictions were being imposed statewide and in San Antonio, their position didn’t let up. They’ve livestreamed church services for a while now, so every once in a while I’ll tune in because I’m used to going to church with them now.

So I noticed a pretty sizable crowd on their livestream. That’s when I started to think there was a story there. It was a few days later when Gov. Greg Abbott kind of clarified the church exemption (to his “stay at home” order limiting business activity and social interaction). It seemed like there was a point of contention in Texas with whether or not churches were essential.

I decided I needed to go down there to report on it. I felt like I needed to be there to at least understand the different layers of protection. It’s hard — you can’t tell totally from the livestream if everyone has face masks or if anyone has gloves on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell depth, how far apart they are. So a photographer and I went down.

Ross: Were you wearing a mask?

Foster-Frau: I had a scarf. I planned on wearing it. And then one of the congregants, as I was walking in, I kind of put it up, and he said, “Are you planning on stealing something here, or are you planning on robbing this church?”

So I was like, “OK, here we go.” I ended up, and I’m not sure if I’m proud of this decision, but I ended up just keeping it up around my neck and not putting it on. In retrospect, I probably should have still kept it on.

Ross: In some ways, you’re as exposed as the rest of the congregation if anyone happened to have the virus?

Foster-Frau: I would say so. I tried to hang back during the service. But even afterward, I’m interviewing them, so you’re going up and talking to them. A woman hugged me without me even having a second to react.

There was just one fun moment at the end, too, where I was about to leave, and I was talking to this woman, and I put up my elbow, and she said, “Oh, no, still give me a hug.” And I just looked at her and just kept walking away, like, “OK, bye.”

Ross: What is it about journalists that we put ourselves in those situations, and the story is so important, even in a case like this where it could be a bad thing to catch a virus like that?

Foster-Frau: I was anxious going down there for that reason. But it felt important to me that people understood what was going on there, and I thought it was a story that was very revealing and just interesting psychologically about how people are coping with this unprecedented time.

I feel very lucky in a lot of ways. I still have a job. I have health insurance. I have people I know will take care of me if I get sick. So, in that way, I try to put things in perspective.

I think journalists, we end up talking to people who are a lot less fortunate than us. Not that journalists have it all. We aren’t doing super great these days. But I just always keep that in mind, so when I go up for these stories, I’m like, “OK, I’m putting myself at risk, but there are people every day who put themselves at more risk and don’t have a choice about it.”

That’s the mentality. I don’t know. Maybe it was foolish. [End of interview]

• • •

I appreciate Foster-Frau’s self-reflection. I remain one of her biggest fans.

When I was younger, I ignored a tornado warning to drive to a hospital and interview survivors of the May 1999 Oklahoma twisters that claimed 44 lives.

Two decades later, I’d like to think I’m older and wiser and would take cover rather than risk my life in the storm.

Power Up: The Week’s Big Questions

1. How can newsrooms cover the coronavirus pandemic AND protect journalists?: I shared a little of Silvia Foster-Frau’s experience with Kelly McBride, the Poynter Institute’s senior vice president and chair of its Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership.

The media ethics expert offered this advice: “Journalists are known for their courage. For running toward big stories while others run away. But deliberately putting yourself at risk to cover a COVID-19 story doesn't make any sense, because there are so many alternatives. In this case, she could have asked congregants to FaceTime her during the service, take pictures for her. She could have stayed outside. ... The problem with putting yourself at risk with this virus is that you put everyone else that you come in contact at a higher risk.”

I also reached out to Marc Duvoisin, editor and vice president of the San Antonio Express-News.

Here’s what he told me:

To protect our journalists from COVID-19, almost everyone in the newsroom is working remotely. Hardly anyone goes to the newsroom anymore. I have been working from home for the past three weeks, and so have nearly all the department heads and other staff members.

My guidance to reporters is to report remotely to the extent possible — via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, etc. — and, when they must go to the scene of a story, to observe social-distancing rules and stay at least 6 feet away from others.

We have distributed hand sanitizer and masks to reporters, although supplies sometimes run out.

Photographers, who by the nature of their work have to be out in the world, have been given masks, sanitizer and sanitary gloves.

No one on our staff has tested positive for the virus or gotten sick from it that we know of.

Silvia tells me that when she went to Sutherland Springs to report on the Sunday in-person worship service at First Baptist, she wore a scarf as a face mask, brought along and used hand sanitizer and tried to maintain proper social distancing, although it was difficult at times.

The photographer, Josie Norris, wore a mask and kept her distance from people.

Covering the coronavirus crisis presents great challenges to journalists, including how to witness and record events without exposing oneself to infection. My guidance to Express-News journalists has been to put their personal safety first, always — to report remotely whenever possible and observe strict social distancing when they have to go out in the world. No story is worth getting sick for.

I appreciate Duvoisin taking time to respond to my question.

2. Speaking of houses of worship still meeting during the COVID-19 threat, are news organizations putting too much emphasis on them?: That media coverage question has emerged, somewhat predictably, as noted in a post by GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly.

Mattingly’s main point: The few churches refusing to socially isolate is a legitimate story, but so is the massive move to online worship by the overwhelming majority of faith groups nationally.

“(I)f this is still happening in areas that have had outbreaks, it's a serious, serious issue,” Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey tweeted concerning the tiny minority of churches still assembling. “It's not just a ‘one church’ thing. The reporting is deeply important.”

Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins suggested: “(T)he rationale for the media attention is pretty straightforward: it doesn’t take a ton of gatherings to infect an entire community.”

Continue reading “This Journalist Did Her Job: She Hopes It Didn't Expose Her To COVID-19,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years

Text

Uber’s Paid Sick Leave Policy Is a Perpetually Moving Goal Post

For years, Dhruv has been a full-time Uber driver in New York City who has structured his life, including his diabetes treatment, around the 60-hour workweeks he needs to make ends meet. As the coronavirus pandemic crushed the city, he felt increasingly unable to safely manage his condition while driving for Uber, pushing him to give up his main source of income and risk being unable to afford his daily medication.

"My diabetes means coronavirus, any virus actually, puts me at much higher risk for getting a severe case and dying just like that," Dhruv told Motherboard. "For me, the choice was to risk rationing or risk dying. Uber closed its [Greenlight Hubs] before even giving us hand sanitizer. Of course, I stopped driving right after. No masks or dividers, but we got an email wishing us luck in staying safe and making them money. If Uber thinks its offices shouldn’t stay open, then why should we?”

When Uber first rolled out its sick paid leave policy on March 7th, Dhruv thought applying to it would be a waste of time, anticipating that it would be a nightmare that ultimately wouldn’t last him long. Dhruv considered applying for unemployment benefits in New York because in 2018, the state's unemployment insurance appeal board ruled three drivers—along with others who were "similarly situated"—could claim unemployment benefits. Despite that ruling, however, drivers have complained that the process is being actively sabotaged by Uber and individual claims are dragged out to last months. In the end, neither he nor any driver in his network began the sick paid leave application process and instead kept driving or self-quarantined themselves. Dhruv continued to self-quarantine, borrowed money from family members to stay afloat, and began applying for unemployment benefits. Motherboard is only using his first name because he fears reprisal from Uber.

It’s understandable why Dhruv and others have not bothered applying for Uber’s sick pay program. In the month since it was introduced, the policy has changed multiple times in ways that have excluded the very groups who need sick paid leave the most while increasing the documentation required to receive compensation. Uber did not respond to Motherboard’s request for numbers about how many drivers have been infected with Covid-19 or provided with sick paid leave, but a driver lawsuit seeking an expansion of Uber’s program alleges the company has only paid 1,400 drivers out of its approximately 2 million US drivers. Uber has confirmed elsewhere that more than 1,400 drivers have been infected, with at least one death in the United States, one in Brazil, and another in London.

Initially, Uber required proof of a positive test or exposure to someone who was diagnosed with coronavirus, but testing was widely unavailable unless you were significantly wealthier than an Uber driver. After pressure from driver advocacy groups like the Independent Drivers Guild, which sought expansionary changes from the ride-hailing giant and appealed individual denials of claims, Uber announced on March 15th that you might qualify for sick paid leave if “personally asked to self-isolate by a public health authority or licensed medical authority” or if your account was caught in one of Uber’s mass suspensions meant to limit outbreaks on the platform.

By March 24th, Uber had backtracked on its policy changes by changing eligibility and documentation requirements. The rule promising sick paid leave if you had a doctor's note to self-isolate due to pre-existing conditions or high at-risk demographics (e.g. immunocompromised individuals and seniors) was amended to only apply if you were asked to self-isolate “due to your risk of spreading COVID-19.”

Uber narrowed its eligibility requirements once again by April 1st, restricting sick paid leave to those with “written documentation” showing the driver either had COVID-19 or was suspected of having it, along with additional requirements demanding “a description of your suspected risk of having COVID-19 and spreading it to others.” Uber also updated its policy to explain what documents did not qualify:

As its original April 6th deadline for claiming sick pay approached, it was becoming clear that drivers were struggling to get help, facing prolonged delays unless they told their stories on social media or to major news outlets. On Friday, Uber announced that it would be returning to its earlier policy of allowing drivers with preexisting conditions to apply for sick paid leave and would accept a doctor's note explaining a preexisting condition that put the driver at a higher risk of complications from coronavirus. Furthermore, Uber promised it would go back and review past claims it rejected and approve those from drivers with preexisting conditions.

While Uber's new policy expands coverage, it again adds new restrictions that might hurt its drivers. Uber hasn’t restored the eligibility of drivers in groups with a higher risk of serious illness (e.g. seniors) or drivers who may have come into contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus. It has also introduced a “maximum per-person payment” that puts a cap on sick paid leave. This "maximum payment" depends on the city and its average earnings but is a departure from early policies that paid out based on an individual driver's historical earnings.

“We are expanding eligibility to include drivers and delivery people who have been told to individually quarantine because they have preexisting conditions that put them at a higher risk of suffering serious illness from COVID-19,” Uber wrote in a blog post explaining the changes. “Because this will mean more people are eligible than under the old policy, we’ve chosen to establish a maximum per-person payment to make this new policy more sustainable.”

For some drivers, these changes aren’t enough. In New York City, Uber’s changes still don’t take into account the effect of its quota system that locked drivers out of the app and lowered earnings for many drivers. Aziz Bah, an organizer with the Independent Drivers Guild, told Motherboard that he’s helped drivers apply for sick paid leave and watched them receive as little as $200 despite spending more than 60 hours a week in their car to hit Uber’s strict quotas.

“The payout was based on your weekly average earnings for the last six months, right? Well, the lockout meant some drivers only had a chance to actually get rides for two or three days, even if they spent the rest of the week driving around,” Bah told Motherboard. “Drivers feel that it's arbitrary and unfair, they know they are being shortchanged, but they also feel like they just gotta take it and be quiet because this is the little help they'll get."

Ramana Prai is a London based Uber driver who the company offered £200 (~$250) in sick paid leave. Since coronavirus coverage picked up in February, he slowly reduced his driving and eventually stopped driving on March 20th. On March 22nd, he was diagnosed with coronavirus and self-isolated until April 3rd. Prai doesn't expect to see government relief grants until June, which means as the primary source of income in his household, he has two options familiar to many drivers at this point: drive to put food on the table and risk getting sick (again) or stay home and starve.

“I’ve been driving for six years. Uber has taken at least £10,000 in commission from me each year! They take 20 percent of my earnings, then offer me £200,” Prai told Motherboard. “I don’t understand how they can take £60,000 from me, then offer nothing when I’m in need. How can I provide for my partner and 2 kids with this? My employer has let me down.”

Uber’s new policy change that expands eligibility is a move in the right direction, but it shouldn’t be removed from the proper context. For the past month, Uber has dragged its feet on claims and narrowed eligibility criteria so severely that, by its own count, only 1,400 drivers have been paid. It has dropped some of its new requirements, imposed new ones, and reframes this shift as an attempt to keep the policy “sustainable” which suggests there will be future changes.

This is the same company that has for years cut driver wages down to starvation levels, began last year to lock out drivers from its app to reverse its period of investor-subsidized exponential growth, and has weaved a path of destruction through the world’s cities by worsening pollution, traffic, public transit, and urban mobility. Sustainability means profitability, which Uber is no closer to achieving, but wants investors to continue believing despite its disastrous post-IPO performance. That means improving its balance sheet by hoarding cash during the pandemic, but also minimizing costs fighting to keep workers misclassified as contractors so the taxpayer picks up traditional employer costs like health insurance, unemployment, and disability benefits.

Instead of helping its workers through this pandemic, Uber’s real coronavirus response is to try and make permanent its refusal to properly classify and compensate its app-based employees. In a desperate letter to the President, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi asked the federal government to pursue a “third category” classification for Uber drivers that would provide minimal employee benefits, while allowing the company to still treat its workers as contractors. Khosrowshahi took to Twitter to celebrate the CARES Act’s passage in the Senate, and for good reason. The pandemic offers Uber, and every other gig platform, a chance to finally write into federal law a business model that states like California and New York have been beginning to challenge.

Uber’s Paid Sick Leave Policy Is a Perpetually Moving Goal Post syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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phoenixknightv2 · 4 years

Text

Coronapaused (The Non Raunchy Version)

Hi everybody,

-The state of the Pandemic

-Conservative vs Liberal Media During this

-Personal Message for President Trump and Congress

-Where i stand

-A Message to my loved ones

In the Great Words of Chris Cuomo, Lets get after it.

GIF by justalittletumblweed

The state of the Pandemic in the US

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The Winners of the CoVid 19 Pandemic

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Doctors

Nurses

Chris Cuomo

My Girlfriend

Joe and Mika Scarborough

Mitt Romney

Dr. Bright

My Father

His Team

H-E-B

Andrew Cuomo (Yes i know about the Nursing Home mistake. He’s been better than most Of Congress however. Congress does shady shit on purpose. No one bats a fucking eye)

Bernie Sanders

The Last Dance Documentary

President Obama

Dr. Fauci

Mayor Adler

Dr. Birks

Senator Lamar Alexander

Bill Lee

Mike DeWine

Liz Cheney

The Losers

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

Greg Abbott

Donald Trump

Dan Patrick

Ron DeSantis

Brian Kemp

Fox News

Sean Hannity

Louie Gohmert

The Majority Of the Rest of Congress

Trump Supporters

It scares me for afew reasons.

1. Crimes are going to be at an all time high.

2. It scares me for my girlfriend and her cat (And i love that cat like it’s my own daughter)

4. It scares me for the vulnerable

5. Scares me for the kids

6. Scares me for the rest of my loved ones.

GIF by dress

I’m sorry no it is not. As a matter of fact, the numbers continue to go up especially in the Lonestar State)

Here’s why...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP1GkV06PYY

‘‘I’m sorry to say i was right on this!!”

A scumbag thing to say Mr. Lt Governor. Now what am i talking about?

When this first started, Dan Patrick said and i quote

‘‘There are senior citizens who are willing to die for the rest of us!!” ‘‘There are more important things than living!!”

The Ongoing Liberal Vs Conservative Media War

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The Following are Exempt from this

-Chris Cuomo

- Joe and Mika Scarborough

Show you why here in a minute

(See Alternate version for the joke)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kayleigh-mcenany-slams-cnns-chris-cuomos-use-of-less-safe-drug-to-fight-coronavirus

But lets get to the rest of Fox News, watch this video made by Trevor Noah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh4uS4f78o

Then by the now this channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmW_H4U-MI

See where i’m going with this?!?!?!? THEY LIE!!!!!!!!!!! ONE MINUTE SAYING ITS A HOAX!!!!!!!!! NEXT MINUTE SAYING THEY NEVER SAID THAT!!!!!!

Now lets go to the Liberal Media of MSNBC and CNN

Before i continue, Shoutout to Miss Mika for this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khmEjO-FEaE&t=62s

But i will use my first amendment rights because the United States of America has a brand new nickname

What is it?

The United States of Stupidity

Land of the Rich

Home of the Stupid

Before i begin the Liberal side,

A good chunk of this country’s citizens and A VERY GREAT CHUNK OF THIS COUNTRY’S LEADERS IN OFFICE, not so much.

Where i stand with the pandemic

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1. It has made me realize that i need god in my life more than ever because i refuse to relapse back to the dark side.

2. It has brought me and one of my best friends back to each other to reconcile.

GIF by manfanathletes

Message for Congress and POTUS

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I would say more but Mika took a good chunk of the words out of my mouth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0239jHlMYY Evidence 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB8icFsfJe0 Evidence 2

Mika already said what i was going to say. Do your job and do it right because the more you fuck up, you are going to be on the wrong side of history.

I’ll leave it at that

Closing statements and a message to my loved ones

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Now for the message to my loved ones.

I hope i make you all proud.

Remember my friends, when you feel what you want to feel, you’re being real and being real is a very big deal.

Stay Safe, Love you guys, God bless you all

Phoenix Knight Forever

-Sky-

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