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zacharyja · 9 months ago

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Sunday, June 9, 2024

Osaka Day Trip - Dotonbori, America-mura, and Shinsekai

Today began at about the same as most days, 10am wake up time followed by a shower and getting dressed followed by conbini breakfast and then our day begins. We headed over to the train station to make our way to Osaka, and hopped on the Hankyu Kyoto line which goes straight to Osaka-Umeda station. The train itself was pretty nice, as it seemed decently new and had a cool little rock garden-esque nook midway through the train car.

After getting to Osaka, we hopped on another train to get to the Nanba Yasaka Shrine, which was only about a 10 minute train ride from here. I had not thought this shrine would be as impressive as it is, but seeing it in person was pretty incredible. The sheer size of the lion statue, called “Shishiden” was amazing to see in person. The lion with his mouth agape is said to swallow evil spirits, and many people come here hoping for academic improvement, job offers and success in examinations. Though the exact date of when this shrine was founded is not known, according to legend it dates back to Emperor Nintoku’s rule in the 4th century.

Once we had spent our fair share of time at the shrine, we walked back to the main Dotonbori area, which is hands down the busiest and most well known area in Osaka. There are so many shops and restaurants and things to do here that it gets a bit overwhelming at times. One thing that really sticks out here is the massive Don Quijote store, which includes a huge ferris wheel that has not been running the past 2 times i’ve been here so i don’t know what that’s about. We browsed around for a while and leisurely walked through the streets until we had worked up an appetite and wanted to get some lunch. We walked by a place that looked decently cheap and tasty and after looking at the menu for a bit outside one of the employees came out to greet us and lead us upstairs to the restaurant.

Once inside the vibes were not amazing and after taking a look at the menu in the restaurant we realized they trolled us and had higher prices inside than were advertised. This was not a massive issue but what was an issue was when we ordered our food and it looked nothing like the photo. They surprisingly trolled us again and brought out what would be probably the worst meal i’ve eaten in all of Japan. I also do not get the hype about Okonomiyaki, as cabbage, dough sauce and bonito flakes honestly leaves a lot to be desired. My food was not very good at all and somehow they managed to make even the rice taste weird. To top it all off this ended up being the most expensive single meal we have ordered thus far, which is insane considering I literally ate wagyu beef last night. Lesson learned - do not get trolled by sneaky restaurant employees.

After our subpar meal, we walked around the area for a bit longer before heading over to the America-mura neighborhood area. This neighborhood is famous for being a hub of youth and western oriented culture, including the likes of street art, small independent galleries and cafes, as well as thrift and vintage stores. I enjoyed this area a lot and thought it was pretty cool to walk around in. The stores were interesting but I always go back to the same issue of not understanding why Japanese people only want to buy American clothes, as all of the thrift stores solely carry items from America. I probably see more people wearing US college merchandise in Japan than I see on my own college campus back in Gainesville. We also stumbled upon a store called “Florida” which was a thrift store that had a curated selection of secondhand clothing. One item in particular that stuck out to me was a random T-shirt from the Don Garlits drag racing museum in Ocala, which I pass by every time I drive to and from my parents house to Gainesville.

After this we made our way back over to Dotonbori and found ourselves randomly at a Purikura place, which is a popular type of photo booth with the Japanese youth. Many of them have extreme filters on the photos and make you look as “beautiful” as possible, which is a pretty foreign thing to Americans as we do not really edit our photos this much and it just looks silly. Though that sentiment is not shared here and it is seemingly taken a bit more serious and seen as cute.

Following this, we decided to head over to Shinsekai, which is now a famous shopping and eating area. Though it once served as a gathering place for laborers who rebuilt Osaka after World War II. It is interesting to see how things like that can go from something so simple and unintentionally turn into something as massive and popular as this street.

I enjoyed walking through here and seeing everything in the area. There were a ton of cool buildings here and far too many restaurants to count, though I was intrigued as to why most of them were Yakitori places. Once we got a bit hungry we found a quaint little restaurant which looked promising. It was a Yakitori place and so we ordered a bunch of small dishes, including gyoza, croquettes, and kushikatsu. The food was pretty decent but the Japanese croquettes definitely took the cake for the best item.

Once we finished dinner, we walked back to the Dotonbori area to see about finding a specific ice cream place that I had found online called “Cremia” which is apparently made with milk from Hokkaido, which has a mild vanilla like flavor and makes for amazingly soft and delicious ice cream thanks to the high milk fat content. Not to mention the cone was unlike anything I have tried before, it is considered similar to langue de chat, which I have not heard of before but it tasted phenomenal. After eating the ice cream we walked around Dotonbori for a while and made our way to find some sort of sit down place to chill and hangout for a bit.

We first walked into a reptile cafe, which in theory looked pretty cool, as the entire store was filled with tons of different reptiles, ranging from green anacondas, to iguanas, to pythons and so much more. They also had a wild assortment of items on the menu with the likes of tarantulas, emu, raven, and gecko meat. I was not feeling very adventurous and it cost ¥1000 to get in, on top of having to pay another ¥1000 for a required drink it did not seem worth it to us so we turned around to find somewhere else. Once back on the street we saw an interesting looking cafe which had gothic looking girls as the bartenders/employees. This was interesting and we walked all the way here for the reptile place just to be let down that we decided to check out the goth cafe. This was a decently fun experience, and much better than the previous maid cafe that I went to, which got a bit weird when they referred to us guys as "Master". Though here they did not really do any of that and it was more just like extra friendly bartenders who chatted with you the whole time. The language barrier was a bit of a hurdle but they were more than happy to try and figure it out and I was actually surprised by how far I have come in my confidence level with speaking Japanese, as I was able to hold a decent conversation with them. It was also nothing that a little google translate couldn't help, and it is always fun interacting with Japanese locals.

After the cafe, we made our way back to the train station and headed back to Kyoto. Once back in Kyoto we grabbed some Gyudon for a late night snack and then ran over to Round one for some Maimai before they closed. That pretty much concludes my night, sorry for the long blog post today was very busy!

#japan

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what-if-nct · 2 years ago

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Why does it make so much sense that Hendery is a Florida man? This means he and I will rock out to some Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

He has the strongest Florida man vibes I've ever seen. And he would love Tom Petty!! I can vividly see him drumming on the stirring wheel and yelling "I'm free, free falling" in the car that's parked in the parking lot and he's only still in the parking lot to finish the song. He works at CVS but used to work at Publix. He has a picture of him on his dating profile holding a fish with the goofiest smile and starts talking to you about government conspiracies. When I first saw him he gave me the strongest Florida vibes. Like something about him just screams Florida. I've never seen someone not from Florida look like they were from Florida as much as Hendery, look at him.

Hendery, 23

Lives in Gainesville,FL

Cashier at CVS

I'm just here because I'm looking for a step mother for my cats and my friends said I was getting too weird and I needed a girlfriend. Just know I'll get weirder in a relationship.

420 friendly

Snap: henders99, send feet pics

Libra INTP

Wait should I make tinder profiles for all the members. I kinda want to now. I have this thing where I really like making something then after a few days I never make that thing ever again. I want this to be that thing.

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realcardetailing · 3 months ago

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eienoah · 9 months ago

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May 12 - Hakone day trip

Today was an early day where I barely even got a chance to eat breakfast. We went straight to the station and got on a line to Shinjuku. From then we went over to the romance train where we all partnered up for seats. I managed to snag a nice little snack which was a small chocolate filled pastry. It was quite good but barely enough for breakfast. The train ride was about 2 hours in which I mostly just talked to Jonah the whole time. We arrived near Hakone and hopped on a steep train to get further into the area. From there we got on a cable car which took us to the gondolas. From there we got to an area that had such a great view of the surrounding area especially from the gondola. We reached an area that had eggs boiled in sulfur water which turn black when fully cooked. They were much different to how I expected but surprisingly good. From there we got on another gondola with just ok sights which took us to a visitor center-like place. I found my favorite thing, the little city pins. I love them so much but I also got a hello kitty pin with a Sakura theme that I love. We ate at the themed restaurant on site and my meal was kind of mid but at least it was sustenance. We then hopped on the pirate ship which didn’t let us go to the front unfortunately but being able to ride a pirate ship across a lake was surely a strange experience. After disembarking we landed in a small town where we walked to a small museum which replicated one of the path checkpoints mentioned in the reading. From there we did a short walk over to a different small summit which had perfect overcast so the lighting was amazing. After that was a small walk over to the shrine which I think around that point the group had reached around 25 flights of stairs. We really did get our workout in for the day. The shrine was pretty cool but I picked up an awesome charm for super cheap at just 500 yen. We then went over to the torii gate and waited for almost an hour to take pictures. I managed to meet some people who are actually friends with one of my friends back in Gainesville, some Aogaku students. Guzen???? After that we took a nice walk back to the small part of the city and all got on the bus back to the train. From there it was about a two hour ride back which flew by talking to friends. I also found out next. Team I might be able to go surfing with Momo. I’m extremely excited for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Academic portion

From the readings I thought it was interesting to actually see a little bit more about the trade route stoppages at the museum-like place. You kind of got a better feel for just how strict they were back then on securing anything and everything passing through. Almost like a pre modern TSA. The statues reflecting different rooms were interesting but the coolest to me was the summit tower which was used for scouting purposes. I did see a lot of the weapons that they described in the reading but the bows blew my mind. I have never seen a real life yumi and had no idea how large they actually were. In addition, seeing the actual road that was used in ancient times was incredibly astounding. The part that made me laugh however, was that there was a road for cars literally 10 feet from it. Today really did feel like I almost walked an entire trade route but it was super fun so I am glad I got to do it.

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masterofd1saster · 10 months ago

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CJ current events 2may24

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Big Brother don't care

Police love surveillance cameras, but not the cost. Setting up a high-definition system at a single site can cost thousands of dollars. So officials came up with a workaround in Richmond Heights, Ohio, east of Cleveland. The city will soon make all banks, restaurants, hotels, and retail outlets within its jurisdiction install and maintain surveillance systems at the businesses’ own expense. A previous ordinance, passed in December 2021, does the same thing at apartment complexes. Cameras must be government-approved and cover every entrance and parking lot 24/7. Property owners must also store the digital files for 30 days at their own expense. If anything breaks, they must pay for repairs or risk $500 daily fines. The city makes no exceptions for vandalism, power outages, or technical glitches.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/2979641/cities-are-forcing-businesses-to-spy-on-themselves-and-pay-for-it/

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Should they not have stolen a car? Are you telling me they shouldn't lead police on a high speed chase?

Four teenagers including high school football star aged 14 to 16 are killed in horror crash after cop cruiser used PIT maneuver to stop them speeding at 111mph - as horrifying photos show their mangled wreckage ***The four, who were between the ages of 14 and 16, attended Newberry High School in Bradford County, northeast of Gainesville. Two of the teens in the car died at the Waldo area scene, while the other two passed away from their injuries days later at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.*** The vehicle appeared to be slowing down but then the driver hit the gas and sped away with the car reaching speeds of 111mph.*** Authorities later added two of the teens that were killed in SUV were wearing ankle monitors, while three had active warrants, reports WLBT. Some of the occupants also appeared to be wearing ski masks.*** https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13360151/Four-teenagers-including-high-school-football-star-aged-14-17-killed-horror-crash-cop-cruiser-used-PIT-maneuver-stop-speeding-111mph-horrifying-photos-mangled-wreckage.html

If only there were some way to prevent high speed chases in stolen cars....

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Eh, she's cute so she'll get straight probation

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP) — A former volunteer for Immanuel Baptist Church turned herself into police April 17 on charges of sexual assault, first degree. Reagan Gray, 26, was a volunteer in the church’s music ministry and a teacher at Little Rock Christian Academy, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She had been on leave from her job as a teacher at Sylvan Hills Middle School since Feb. 7. A criminal court hearing has been set for June 17 at 10 a.m., according to court documents. The Democrat Gazette cited a March 12 affidavit that authorities charged Gray with assaulting a teen from Sept. 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021. While the victim’s age is redacted, in various reports he is stated as being 15 or 16. In addition to physical interactions, the volunteer and teen also swapped nude photographs.***

If anyone tells you American criminal justice is sexist, tell her "no poop, Sherlock."

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Wait - they're safer where people shoot?

SELMA, Ala. (WSFA) - Due to multiple weekend shootings involving juveniles, some Selma City School District schools are transitioning to virtual learning this week. A Facebook post by Selma City Schools announced on Sunday that, in light of recent events affecting the community and at the recommendation of local law enforcement, Selma High School and Saints Virtual Academy/Alternative School will transition to virtual learning Monday.*** https://www.wsfa.com/2024/04/29/multiple-weekend-shootings-cause-some-selma-city-schools-go-virtual/

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Drugged her?

DENVER (KDVR) — After Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found in 2023, an autopsy determined Morphew died by homicide with several drugs in her system. Morphew never returned home after she went on a bike ride in Chaffee County in 2020. Five days later, a personal item of Morphew’s was found, but it took three more years for her remains to be found in Saguache County in September.*** Morphew died by “undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.” According to the autopsy, “These drugs are marketed as a compounded injectable chemical immobilizer for wildlife providing pharmacologically reversible analgesia, sedation and immobilization.”*** https://kdvr.com/news/local/suzanne-morphews-autopsy-finds-animal-tranquilizer-other-drugs-in-system/

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Let's see how his corpse balances the scales.

DENVER — An ex-National Security Agency employee out of Colorado Springs was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison on Monday for attempted espionage. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a 32-year-old Army veteran who lived in Colorado Springs, was sentenced on Monday morning. He faced charges in connection with his effort to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent of the Russian Federation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Dalke, who has degrees related to cybersecurity, worked as an information systems security designer at the National Security Agency (NSA) between June 6 and July 1, 2022. Between August and September, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to a person he believed was a Russian agent but was actually a FBI online convert employee, the DOJ said. The department said Dalke communicated with the undercover agent thinking he was demonstrating his "legitimate access and willingness to share." In late August, he requested $85,000 in return for the information.*** On Sept. 28, 2022, Dalke arranged for more classified information to be passed along to who he thought was a Russian agent. He transferred five files, four of which contained top secret information. The other file was a letter that read "My friends! ... I am very happy to finally provide this information to you… I look forward to our friendship and shared benefit. Please let me know if there are desired documents to find and I will try when I return to my main office.”*** According to his arrest affidavit, Dalke told the undercover agent that he had $237,000 in debts, according to the Associated Press. In 2017, he filed for bankruptcy because of student loan and credit card debts, it said. He allegedly told the undercover agent that providing the classified information for payment was “an opportunity to help balance scales of the world while also tending to my own needs," the AP reported.***

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So the women in the house shot all those officers?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) — Three U.S. Marshal task force officers and a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer were killed, and four other officers, three of whom were with CMPD, were hurt during an east Charlotte shootout that stemmed from a fugitive warrant operation on Monday afternoon. Residents, along with anyone in the area of the neighborhood, were asked to avoid the area as active gunfire was ongoing for hours. At 4:56 p.m., CMPD said the area was safe. The situation began around 1:50 p.m. along Galway Drive near Denson Place. CMPD announced that Officer Joshua Eyer was shot in the line of duty Monday afternoon after assisting other officers with the apprehension of a suspect. Eyer was a six-year veteran and a member of the 178th Recruit Class. The North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections stated that two of the U.S. Marshals Task Force members were N.C. Department of Adult Correction veterans. They were identified as Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott. Poloche leaves behind a wife and two children, while Elliott and his wife are parents to one child. Police say as the task force tried to serve a warrant for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, they were met with gunfire, and officers returned fire. During that shootout, authorities struck the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes, and he was pronounced deceased in the front yard. Hughes was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of felony to elude out of Lincoln County. As officers approached Hughes, they said they were met by more gunfire from inside the home. After a long standoff, officers cleared the house and found two females inside, who were both brought to the police station as persons of interest.***

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What is it w/ the Porter family?

The younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. was arrested early Sunday morning in Missouri on investigation of driving while intoxicated. Jevon Porter, 20, was arrested at 1:31 a.m. in Boone County, Missouri, State Highway Patrol records show. Porter, who was released, also was accused of speeding. The 6-foot-11 Columbia, Missouri, native is a sophomore on the Loyola Marymount University basketball team. *** The incident represents the latest in a string of arrests and other alleged misdeeds for the Porter family. Coban Porter, another brother of the NBA star, was sentenced to six years in prison last month for killing a woman in a drunk-driving crash in Denver last year. Jontay Porter, another sibling who played for the Toronto Raptors, was banned from the NBA last month after a league investigation found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors about his health. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/05/01/jevon-porter-arrested-driving-intoxicated-missouri/

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amusing

Mark Pomerantz was a deputy DA in Manhattan who investigated a variety of allegations against Donald Trump. He testified in Congress and a video was released on 1may24. He repeatedly invokes his 5th Amendment right to silence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXnRgPW5D1g.

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Speaking of ethical lapses by Trump prosecutors....

***Judge Juan Merchan expressly ruled that prosecutors are not permitted to use Cohen’s guilty pleas for two campaign finance violations in 2018 as evidence that Trump committed a crime, but the judge did provide leeway on the matter, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has used it.*** Matthew Colangelo, one of Bragg’s leading prosecutors, outright said in his opening statement that he expects Cohen, Bragg’s star witness in the trial, to testify about how Cohen pleaded guilty for his role in arranging hush money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels. Both women alleged they had affairs with Trump. “Cohen will also testify in this trial that he ultimately pled guilty and went to jail for causing an unlawful corporate contribution in connection with the Karen McDougal payments and for making an excessive campaign contribution in connection with the Stormy Daniels payoff,” Colangelo told the jury. Conservative legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy called the remarks “breathtakingly mendacious.” “Colangelo was not properly admonishing the jury that Cohen is a witness of dubious credibility. He was signaling to them that the NDA payments to McDougal and Daniels — for which he had just blamed Trump in an extensive narrative — were crimes for which Cohen ‘went to jail,'” McCarthy said in an op-ed. “In reality, Cohen was sentenced to prison because of his lucrative fraud crimes, not the [Federal Election Campaign Act] charges. The SDNY never charged Trump, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have charged Cohen if he hadn’t agreed to plead guilty.”*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/2987906/prosecutors-test-limits-admissible-evidence-trump-hush-money-trial/

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used-auto-usa · 3 days ago

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ev-roadtrips · 1 year ago

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Road Trip Routes

The routes we took for our trips to Boston and Gainesville :)

Boston is approximately 450 miles from DC and the trip took us about 13 hours nonstop. We stopped at a total of four charging stations each way. One of these stops was randomly at a police station in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey, and the rest were all next to strip malls or big grocery stores. All of them had some pretty decent food offerings and were nice to walk around at.

Gainesville is approximately 770 miles from DC and the trip took us about 20 hours nonstop (yes, that was rough, we split it up into two trips on the way back). We stopped at a total of seven different charging stations each way. Almost all of the chargers we stopped at were in the parking lot of a Walmart, since Electrify America (one of the charging station brands) made some sort of deal with them. There are very few Walmarts in DC, so my mom and I were pretty excited by this and stocked up on a bunch of cheap school supplies. The other charging stations we stopped at included a Circle K, a strip mall, and a dealership with a cute but scary street cat.

Overall, the stops never took us too far off of our route, and we would have made a lot of them to take breaks anyway. It was interesting to explore the area while the car was charging; my favorite discovery was an automatic Lavazza machine that made you a coffee or hot chocolate for a dollar.

#electric vehicles #electric cars

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novadrivingschoolva · 1 year ago

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ecodweeb · 2 years ago

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Another Florida work trip, another test of my patience

Florida just annoys me, from their anti-LGBT policies to the insane drivers. "Florida Man" is a thing you can witness on nearly any street corner, and I'm torn on if North Florida or South Florida is worse for the "Floridiots." Perhaps it was because I was destined back to Florida for work, but for the first time in quite a long time, I had a less than expected charging experience on my trip to Gainesville. Nothing show-stopping, mind you, just an annoyance that set the tone for the whole trip.

I left my house sometime before 7am on Monday, expecting this to be another mindless drive down I-95. I decided to finish reading Leslie Reyes's book "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle," since I was gifted the audiobook and hadn't gotten past the first two chapters. This turned out to be one of the better parts of this trip -- the book is extremely relatable to a bipolar electric motorcyclist like myself. I often will sign up for Audible and a free book credit when I know I have long drives to complete, it's less stressful than shuffling though the 3,000+ songs that make up my music library. My first stop is, as it always is, Florence SC. This is a good stop for the dining options next to the charging stations, which is adding a new Crumbl Cookies! I was the only vehicle at the location will I rolled up a few minutes past 9am. All 4 stations were operational, and I picked unit #2 for my charge. Like I always do, I pulled up the Electrify America app on my Android Auto screen in the car, selected my location as I was making the final turn into the shopping center, then tapped on select a charger. As I swing into the Walmart parking lot, I scan the stations and decide on #2 and tap on it on the screen as I pull into the parking space. I tap the "Start charge" button and wait as the machine goes from the Electrify America screen saver to a "Plug in here" screen. I turn off the car, pop open the charge port, grab the charging cable, pull out the charging port cover caps, and plug in. I stretch. I walk to the passenger side of the car and get my things out of the car, then I walk back to the driver side to see what the time to 100% estimate it. It was over an hour and a half, which is perfect for a leisurely breakfast at the Eggs Up Grill restaurant.

As I walk over to the restaurant, I hear jackhammering. There is a Crumbl cookies going into the space next to the Eggs Up Grill -- and the vibration never ceased the entire time I was in the restaurant. I ordered a delicious omelet with chicken, peppers, and cheese. I surfed the web (boy that sounds dated these days) from my phone while I waited on my meal. I ate, I used the bathroom, I had a discussion with some friends in a group chat, added a positive check-in on Plugshare, and then I decided it was time to head on since the car was over 80% charge. After paying and taking a photo of the receipt in the Expensify app (because all meals on travel and paid for by my work), I walked over to the car and pressed the stop button on the charger and unplugged the car. I hopped in and decided that I'd charge next in Pooler, GA.

The drive to Pooler was slow. The rain caught up to me and I went through two really good squalls that reduced traffic down to speeds below 55mph. I have to say I became very, very thankful for the radar-based cruise control of the Hyundai. While I couldn't see the blinking hazard lights on the SEMI I was following, the car could sense it and kept me two car lengths away at all times. It couldn't lane keep, because that relies on the cameras which were useless in this level of rain, but that's ok. I could see enough to stay on my side of the white lines. After what felt like longer than 2.5 hours, I arrived at Pooler. There was a Rivian R1T and I believe a VW ID.4 already at the location when I pulled up. There was a man with an high-viz safety vest that read ABB on the back, so I knew he was a service contractor for Electrify America. He and the Rivian owner were talking, the Rivian may have been the test vehicle to confirm the repairs. I don't generally check sites out before I go -- for better or worse I have blind faith that I'll get to my destination eventually -- but I happened to look at Pooler's on Plugshare while I was making the positive check-in at Florence. At that time Plugshare said one system was unavailable, but when I got to the site all 6 stations seemed to be operational. I pulled up and repeated the process of starting my session before leaving the car, plugged in and then went into the Walmart to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. When I got back to the car, I was the only vehicle at the chargers. I waited a bit for the car to hit 80% before unplugging. I did not know if I could make the 201-miles from Pooler to Gainesville, so I planned a short stop in Brunswick to give me a buffer. I was averaging 3.9mi per kWh, but I didn't feel like taking any chances. The drive to Brunswick is only an hour, and during that drive I attended a Zoom meeting by phone. The drive to Brunswick was uneventful, but my experience at Brunswick is where all my headaches would come from. This site has 4 stalls, located in two rows with the stations next to each other and their screens face oppose parking spaces (so the stations are positioned between parking spaces instead of at the head of them). A Kia EV6 and an ID4 were already pluged into the stations that I could just pull straight in and plug in, so I had to reverse into the end space to use the open charger. As I tried to start a session from the EA app, the Android Auto screen keep saying I had a session going. Sometimes the app does this, it's the weakest point of their service, so I killed the app on my phone and relaunched it. It still gave me the end session button. By this time I noticed that the screen saver on the station had cleared and I saw the "Plug in First" screen with the Complimentary Sessions blue banner -- well, who doesn't love a free charge? I plugged in and immediately saw why it as in free vend mode -- I was getting a staggering 14kW (that's twice the speed of the car's built in AC charger) instead of the 50-70kW I was expecting. Okie, well, I can move to the other station and hope for better speed once I get the app working, except that the app still thinks I'm charging in Pooler (and I'm at 79%). Great. I called Electrify America and get a very kind newbie on the phone. I tell her what's going on and she does everything she can to try and get my app unstuck: ending the session on her end, which it says it's ended but my app says it's still going on. She rebooted the station, no change in my app. Finally, the Kia moved and I asked him (while still on the phone with EA customer service) if it was slow and he said that he was only getting 30kW out of it. Well, 30 beats 14. I asked the lady to start a session on station 3 using my account, which is the one next to the station I was using. Luckily the longer cables at this site meant I did not need to move my car, just unplug from one and plug into the other. Immediately I got 38kW -- ok, this is a lot better and I don't need a ton of charge to make it to Gainesville either -- but then a Mustang Mach-E pulled in. I explained the situation to the driver, and she took the 14kW freebie since the Kia had moved to the only other open station. The EA rep was listening this whole time and complimented me on my kindness, and I thanked her for her patience in getting this mess sorted out. We then started chatting about my experience with the network, how it's grown, what the pains are, why I picked the Kona despite having an Audi etron, and mentioned I was missing 700+ charging sessions form my history and that last I checked they just closed my case. She said let me fix that for you, and opened a new case about my missing charge history. We also commiserated on the fact that both of our jobs require us to use Salesforce and how we don't hate it, but we wished it was better laid-out. I ended my call with EA support, chatted a bit more with the Mach-E owner, then went into the Walmart for a bathroom break and to get a subway sandwich for lunch. There was a line at the Subway, but I didn't mind as everyone was in good spirits and talking among each other. I got a 6" flatbread with steak and cheese, then headed back to the car. I ate my sandwich after updating some tickets for work, then stopped the charging session from the app (which seemed to clear up the ghost session), unplugged and made the final leg to the Electrify America in Gainesville. The drive was uneventful, save for the now clear skies and very humid weather. I pulled into the Target at Gainesville and 2 of the 4 stations were in use. Once again there was a Rivian R1T, and a Kia EV6 already plugged in. This location has the newest generation of chargers for the three CCS stations, but I opted to use the older station with the CHAdeMO. Mostly because I could pull straight through to it, and I'd have to reverse into the only other space to use the only open CCS-only charger. I started the machine from the app, but as I went for the plug I hesitated. The white plastic cover on the handle was missing, but the connector itself was fully in tact. I decided I'd rather risk electrocution (ok, that's really NOT something that can happen) than reverse into the space to use the other charger. I plugged in, and it started charging just fine. I had about 45 minutes to kill, and half of that was spent in the Target bathroom. After relieving all the gas that had accumulated in me over the last two plus hours, I wandered to the far end of the shopping center which has a Sushi restaurant. I figured I'd let the car trickle to 100% and go ahead and eat dinner. Well, that wasn't going to happen as both the Sushi place and the Maple Street Biscuit Co were closed. At 6pm on a Monday. Maple Street I could understand, but the Sushi place's hours said 5-10pm M-F. Annoyed, I marched over to the Publix and picked up a Body Armor water, some peanut butter M&Ms, and a bottle of water. I checked out, scanned the receipt into my Expense report, and then wandered to the car. I was over 80% charge, so I said screw it this will do for the week. I drove 4.6 miles to my hotel, this took me over 25 minutes. Traffic here is unjustifiably heavy for a college town. I added a stop at another Sushi place that looked to be on the same road as the hotel. What I didn't know is that it's literally next door to the hotel, which is in a downtown-like setting where there is NO FREE PARKING. Enter the next frustration -- I decided I'd check into the hotel and then get dinner at the Sushi place. I asked the Valet how parking worked was told you can pay $30 EACH TIME you leave the parking deck for self-parking, you can free park on the street but have to move every 2 hours, or you can pay $30 for Valet and that it doesn't matter how many times you take the car out with Valet it's one flat rate. Well, Valet it is. They get me a luggage cart, I unload, and head into the Hampton Inn. Check in was smooth, I head up to my room on the 5th floor and start unpacking. I get to my Ozempic -- a once a week injectable medication I take for diabetes -- into the room's mini fridge. The fridge is warm, there's water on the back wall as if it's defrosted. I call the front desk, and no one answers -- I get sent to the phone tree as if I called the 800# after 10 rings. I hang up and call back, the guy who checked me in answers after 5 rings. I tell him I need someone to come look at the fridge as I have medication I need to keep refrigerated, he said the maintenance staff has gone for the day but I could leave it in the fridge behind their desk. I politely declined, this stuff was a fight to get approved to use and costs over $1100/pen and I'm not letting it out of my sight for any reason. I asked him to move me to another room, he said no problem. I pack everything back up, and head to the lobby. I'm given room 404 -- insert nerd jokes about "room not found" here -- and thanked him. Back to the elevators, up to the 4th floor, this time I check the fridge and it is indeed cold. I unload, unpack, and fall onto the bed in a tired and frustrated state. I laid there at least a half hour before deciding I needed to eat. I put my shoes back on and walked over to the Sushi place. It wasn't busy, maybe 5 or 6 total tables. There was one waiter, and only one Sushi chef. I ordered an Angry Orchard - they were out. Again, this day is just trying me. I said that's ok I'll stick to water, and placed my order for Crab Rangoons and two sushi rolls. The Rangoons came out and my word they were beautiful, I should have taken a photo. And delicious! The waiter says he feels bad about them being out of Angry Orchard and he'd buy me another beer, I told him unfortunately that's the only kind of alcohol I can have. He understood, but then I asked for a Shirley temple (it and a few other non-alcoholic mixed drinks were on the menu). He smiled and said certainy. When he came back with my drink I complimented the rangoons and he said the lady in the back only does things by hand. This set the stage for the Sushi, which took more than 20 minutes from getting my Shirley Temple to come out. A lady who I guess was the GM or owner came over and apologized, saying she was short staffed today. I hadn't been gruff in my talking with the waiter, and I don't know if the fact that I am a giant covered in arm tattoos, but I said that's OK I know it'll be worth it from the reviews. She smiled and thanked me for my patience. When the sushi did arrive -- woah boy -- it was delicious. I told her when she came back by to check on me that this was well worth the wait. During all this I had a small side conversation with two ladies sitting at the table catty corner to my back. One of them had leopard print dyed hair and I was smitten with it. She told me she does it herself and I was floored. I told her she's a light in this world and don't let anyone ever snuff it out. I have no idea what her day was like, but she looked like she was going to cry when she said "thank you so much for saying that." They left shortly after my food arrived, and I enjoyed my two rolls. I made myself eat the last two rolls -- and I felt uncomfortably full (this is an expected effect of the Ozempic -- a 15% loss of body weight is typical for people on this medication). I was afraid over eating might give me the "nasty burps" in the morning (think a burp but it tastes like rotten flesh), but I decided it'd be worth it. I went back to the hotel, prepped the bed, put on my CPAP and fell fast asleep before 10pm. At 4:04am I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed... in room 404... in Gainesville Florida. It would be two hours before Breakfast was served at the hotel, so I attempted to go back to sleep and gave up after 30 minutes of rolling around in the bed. I got on my phone and goofed off till 5:30, when I took a shower. Now, Florida has hard water which I don't like, but man the water pressure and the instant hot water made this one of the better hotel showers I've ever been in. Feeling refreshed, I threw on my sweats and a shirt to wander down to the 2nd floor for breakfast. It was the typical Hilton 3-star hot breakfast: eggs, potatoes, and a pork-based protein (ham today). I loaded up on eggs and got a small portion of potatoes and two slices of ham. I then got a cup of OJ and sat down so I could watch Good Morning America on the TV in the dining room. The news was grim, covering the school shooting in Nashville. I remember my grandparents, when they were around the age I am now, saying the world's going to hell in a handbasket when they watched the news. I felt like I was channeling my maternal grandfather with my internal commentary on the world watching the coverage of yet another mass shooting. After breakfast I broke out the laptops in my room and proceeded to catch up on emails and tickets. I decided I didn't want to go to the client site until after lunch today, so that the commissioning team had enough time to assess the installation so that they could give me a rough ETA on when we could expect to power up and test the charging system. At 11am I walked over to Harry's - a place that bills itself as a seafood joint but the seafood options are rather limited -- for lunch. I ordered their salad with grilled chicken, and then joined my 11:30am project engineering call. I ate while I listened to folks get lost in the weeds on various issues we have experienced, which thankfully ended about 10 minutes early. I finished up my salad and paid the tab, then headed back to the Valet to fetch my car. I had joined a telemed call while they got the car. I drove to an Aldi and parked so I could talk with my psychiatrist about my current medication regimen and how things were going/how I was feeling. It was a productive call. It ended just after 12:30 and I put in the address for the client site. I arrived at the client site and was met by our on-site contact who badged me into the secured lot where our chargers were being installed. I got to work checking on the labeling, gathering serials, and doing all the other things my team does to activate a new system. I created the needed tickets to address things I'd found, and after about 3 hours on site I called it a day and went back to the hotel. I did a little more paperwork before calling it a day and heading across the street to the Day-of-the-dead themed Taco shack. I ordered a burrito, chips and queso, and the mango Limoade (think frozen lemonade made with limes). It was all delicious, and again I made myself eat that last bite. I then headed back up to my room and downloaded the Roku app onto my new-to-me $230 Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 with a cracked front screen. This is the folding tablet-phone, and I'm only using it as a wifi tablet. I watched the last episode of "For the Love of DILFs" on OutTV, this is a trashy gay dating reality show hosted by Stormy Daniels. After getting angry with who was chosen the winner (posers, they didn't deserve it), I was left wondering what else I could binge until I felt sleepy. Well, a suggested show was "Popporn." which I can only describe as Mystery Science Theater 3000, with comedians (and Lucy the Slut from the hit musical Avenue Q) and porn flicks. It's actually really funny, and I binged the entire first season in one sitting. Afterward, I put on music and said it's time to sleep. Wednesday I woke up around 6:30am. I goofed off on my phone for a little bit, then showered and went down for breakfast. Today it was "Western style omeltes" with sliced sausage for the protein. I ate and watched Good Morning America, then headed upstiars to update tickets that the commissioning team had opened last night with updates from my tickets that crossed over with the things on their punch list. I did not plan to visit the site today, everything I need to do from this point on I can do remotely -- and, in fact, this is supposed to be the last on-site activation that my team is going to be doing. I was informed during the day that the site would not be energizing on Thursday, meaning that there was no reason for me to stick around after the replacement parts arrive on Thursday and I deliver them to the site. I would love to say this was the end of my frustration, but it was not. There is another situation that has been ongoing for about 6 months, and while there is traction to correct the problem the situation is heating up with the stakeholders. I made a comment on the case and tagged some top level brass for visibility on the suggestion of another coworker who isn't in my group. I was immediately hit with an anxiety attack that I'd just made a career limiting move -- so I informed my boss who said this wasn't career limiting but it wasn't the right way to go about escalating the issue. He said to run things by him next time. He told me this while I was out to dinner -- at a fabulous Thai place whose building blocks all cellular signals (so I didn't read it till after I'd gotten back in my car). I picked this place because there was a Level 2 nearby, but it was in use by some Toyota Plug in Hybrid that was there for the soccer game going on in the park. First Come, First Served... After dinner, I drove over to the Electrify America at the Target to top off the car so I could attempt to drive from the client site directly to the Electrify America in Pooler, GA without stopping in Jacksonville or Brunswick. While I was there an EV6 pulled up and I chatted with the owners, who were in town because of a family medical emergency and only rapid charging because well it's Wednesday and that's not usually when they need to charge the car at home. After they went into the Target to use the bathroom, a lady with a Polestar 2 pulled up. It became evident very quickly that she has never done this before. So I asked her how she liked the car, and she tells me that it's a rental and she just needs to top it off to turn it in. I knew the credit card readers were not working on any of the machines -- and in fact the legacy CHAdeMO machine she pulled up to was listed as unavailable in the app -- so I said let me give you a hand. I explained the process as I started a session for her from my account.

This lady is a radio show host, based out of Charlotte. We talked for about a half hour as her car topped off from 81 to 100%. She said she really liked the car but she thought the fueling process would be more developed than what it was. I told her this is 1996, you've gotten your first Windows 95 PC and you signed up for AOL...and everyone is complaining about the busy signals on Friday nights. She giggled, getting the nostalgic reference in our shared technological adoption curve. I told her if you're ok with some headaches and can be a tad flexible with your time, now is the time to adopt. If you can't, wait two or three years -- at which point the nice cars today (like the Kia she oogled that was parked next to me) will be Certified Pre-owned and much more affordable. Her charge ended and it costs $4.32 - she asked me if I wanted her to venmo the payment to me. I told her that I do a lot of consumer surveys for prepaid gift cards and just load the balances into my account, that I haven't paid to charge since October, and that I wasn't worried about a $4 charge. Pay it forward. She agreed, thanked me, and hopped in the car to go have dinner at the Thai place I'd eaten at because she loved my raving review of the drunken noodles. I waited until the Kona hit 100%, which wasn't long after the Kia folks came back and left -- waving and thanking me for the chat -- and I hopped into the car and smiled. I'd helped someone today, and I had a great conversation with a number of people. You really do meet some of the kindest people at charging stations. I drove to my hotel and the valet was parking another car, so the desk took my key so I could head up to bed. I goofed off online for an hour or so before I went to sleep, knowing this was my last night in the hotel and feeling so excited to be going home tomorrow. I get homesick all to easily. The next morning I woke up later than normal -- 7:45 -- and I got a shower and rolled down to the second floor for another eggs and meat breakfast. This time I missed Good Morning America and instead was greeted by Dr. Phil -- I ate fast and headed back to my room. I checked the Fedex status of my package and it was out for delivery, so I called the front desk to let them know I was expecting a package in the next 3 hours. The package came before 10am, so I packed up my bags and checked out of the hotel and headed to the site to drop off the parts. I got on the road to home just before 11am and feeling pretty confident. It's a shame that confidence wouldn't last. I asked Google for a Krystal's (because I'm from Tennessee and can't make a trip in Krystal territory without having a meal there at least once). There was one about an hour away in Georgia that was easy in/out from the highway. I ate a banana to keep my blood sugar up until then. I stopped at the Krystal and they weren't super busy -- two cars ahead of me -- but obviously understaffed. I ordered 4 cheese Krystals with no mustard, tots, and an unsweet tea. I got my tea but was asked to pull forward to wait on my food. I waited a good 10 minutes before someone came out and gave me the correct order, on the bright side it was rather hot still. I ate my little nostalgia burgers (my dad and I loved this place when I was a child) and hit the highway. I drove 206 miles (3 of those being the in-town driving from charger to hotel and hotel to client site) with more than 50 miles estimated remaining when I got to Pooler. I don't remember the charge level when I arrived at Pooler, mainly because Pooler was a mad house with all but one stalling appearing to be in use. I backed into station 1 and found it was showing unavailable in the app, but acting normal on its screen. I plugged in and waited for the payment screen than tapped my phone. Volia! It started! I ran inside to use the bathroom and then caught up with my boss who asked me to ping him when I stopped. Turned out it was the annual compensation review and I got good news on that front -- the decision to leave NC State for ChargePoint was certainly the right one. Feeling good and lookin' gorgeous (my boss made a joke about my hair in the wind on our Zoom), I chatted with the F150 owners who gushed about their truck. They showed me the Frunk, and how the rear seats fold up so you can use the back seats for storage, and really did a good job of selling me on the vehicle -- and these aren't folks my age, they're easily my parents generation. Pretty cool.

Once I hit 80% or so I had enough range to make it to Florence. I unplugged and waved goodbye, and set off. Bonus -- my session never billed to my account despite me getting updates in the app from it and stopping the session from the app. My optimism was going to fizzle out on this leg. Google told me that it's avoiding a crash and to exit in 20 miles. Well, before I get there my engineer on site says they're ready to power on the stations. I asked Google for a Subway and pulled off at the next one (I was feeling a little hungry as the burgers were not substantial). I spent an hour at the subway prepping the chargers for tomorrow's test and then I got back on the road. I get to the exit Google wants me to take and things have certainly slowed down. I'm in the exit lane and waiting, and waiting, and waiting... the traffic seems to be moving just fine past the exit so I break the line and get back on 95. This was a mistake. About 5 miles head things came to a dead stop. I'm 1.5 miles to the next exit to bypass this mess. After a solid 20m of waiting, cars start passing on the shoulder - and I join them. Some Semis and bigger trucks were trying to be dicks and block the shoulder, but we went around them in the grass. We got to the exit, and myself and at least 7 other vehicles all followed the same route around the accident and back on to 95. The rest of the drive was ok, save the book I was listening to -- "The Other Family Doctor" by Karen Fine -- which was making me well up with tears of pet deaths from the perspective of the veterinarian. I got close to Florence and checked the app to find one open station. As I exited the highway and got closer to the chargers, the app updated to 3 open stations. It said station 1 was not available, which happened to be the one that I pulled into. It also said all but station 4 (with the CHAdeMO) was derated to 50kW. I never got above 40kW the entire charge, but I was somewhat OK with that because I'd planned to eat at Pizza Mio. However, because of the earlier traffic, I got to Pizza Mio about 20 minutes before they closed and lemme tell you they banged out my pizza in 5 minutes and asked me to shoo. I barely had time to pee after paying for the order. I sat outside and ate the whole personal pizza. I opted for pesto as my sauce, with fresh mozz, peppers, siracha sausage, black olives and pineapple. It was very tasty. Afterward I wandered back to the car and sat in it to listen to my Audi book till I had 180mi of range (I need 154mi to get home and I like a buffer). As I'm waiting a Mercedes pulls up and backs into the station next to me -- I wave at them and they roll down their window and I tell them that machine's derated they may do better at the one next to it. He says well that one also says it's derated, I said try the one on the end the app says it's 150kW. So he pulls out and plugs into the legacy CHAdeMO equipped station and heads off into the Walmart. As I'm nearing 68% (more than enough to get home) a Porsche pulls in and seems to have trouble getting the station to start. He finally does and wanders off towards the Subway next to Pizza Mio. I unplugged and headed towards home. Things were good until outside Lumberton, North Carolina where the construction has been ongoing for months. Things went to a single lane twice, and I came to a full stop several times. I would see this again on I-40. But I persisted and I got home just before 11:30pm (I'd hoped to get home before 11) and plugged in the Hyundai and headed off to bed.

All in all, I only paid $76.47 (including that charge I gave the Polestar owner) to travel 1107.8 miles. Not bad, even if there were hiccups along the way.

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browninkus · 2 years ago

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1/14/23 9:30pm get a ride from #tiaastadium to Atlantic Beach. The rider was a Jets fan anyway said leaving before the rush Jags were losing anyway. Saw a whole lot of #fairweatherfans wearing #Jags gear leaving too. Get a long ride #uberx request while on the way. When I picked up the passenger he says you don’t mind heading to #gainesville this time of night? Nope love the long rides. Checking #690 am radio to keep track of the score and boy they were dogging the first half. While in Gainesville the students were happy to be back and partying in the cold none the less. One group of ladies needed to be taken to the tow company to get their vehicle. 🚘 Dude was making a killing towing cars looked like a used car lot. I see the sign even says cars for sale 🥲 Didn’t know the #jaguars won the game until I was back in #jax #fl 4am. #uberchronicles #onlyingainesville #everydayimhustling #bookitsoon #lawofattraction #uf (at Gainesville, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CncQHw_ONZN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#tiaastadium #fairweatherfans #jags #uberx #gainesville #690 #jaguars #jax #fl #uberchronicles #onlyingainesville #everydayimhustling #bookitsoon #lawofattraction #uf

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thenihtgenga · 3 years ago

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So, I was on holiday in Florida from the 9th-23rd of July. I just realised I totally forgot to post any of my holiday photos so... yep. Doing that now. Unfortunately my phone kind of broke half way through so I wasn't able to take photos for a bunch of stuff I would have loved to do so, but here! Florida Images!

One of the first places we visited was the Canaveral Space Center, where we saw Many Rockets And Cool Space Things.

Including the actual control room for the Apollo missions!

We also saw many gators throughout our trip, including: Biggest Gator! (outside a gator farm near Christmas)

Regular Gator! (on an airboat tour from Lone Cabbage Fish camp)

Baby Gator! (on the same tour)

Drain Gator! (Went for a walk at Paine's Prarie. There was a culvert under the path, and a gator was chilling in every pipe outlet)

And Fried Gator! (Lunch at Lone Cabbage. Left- right: gator basket, boneless buffalo wings, catfish basket)

Gators weren't the only wildlife we saw though- there was also Toilet Frog- the first (well, second, but it was meant to be first- we had an unplanned overnight stay in Tampa on night 1 because of a problem with the car rental) place we stayed at was a campsite with a composting toilet and shower block, in cubicles made from pallets lined with saw palmetto leaves. Frogs loved hanging out in there. The shower cubicle was more popular for obvious reasons, but for equally obvious reasons I didn't take my phone with me when I went for a shower. Look at this little guy though! So cute!

These lizards are anoles. The brown ones are invasive, the green ones are native. Both are adorable, and I spent Way Too Long trying to get a photo of one displaying its dewlap.

They're common as muck all over Florida so I probably looked like an absolute tit to the locals, but whatever. Even common wildlife is special, and it's not like they're common round where I'm from, so... Anyway, I got a photo of that guy in Fort Christmas Historical park. Merry Christmas.

Another common as muck piece of wildlife that I was really hoping to see was the birds- I've been really fond of cardinals and grackles for a long time, and I actually got to see them, yay!

(Blurry Cardinal found in Gainesville) To put this into perspective, this is like someone visiting the UK and getting excited to see, like... a jackdaw or a sparrow. But whatever, if you don't think Birds Are Cool, screw you.

Speaking of wildlife, we visited Blue Springs (And Silver Springs, but I got no photos there. Which is a shame because godsdamn that place was beautiful), where I saw: Vultures! (another really common bird in Florida, we saw them all over the place, but not generally in such large groups)

Terrapins!

More gators! (lots of gator photos already and I didn't get a good picture of this one, so I'mma skip it)

Armoured Dildos!

Many fish, including these gar! (not sure exactly what species these ones are, but I think they're either Florida or longnose gar. Both species were present in the spring, as well as catfish and plenty of other species.)

There was also plenty of insect life present, such as this beautiful (and freakin' huge) dragonfly that stopped to rest next to us for a minute or two while we ate lunch.

And here's a photo of the area we swam in.

Blue Springs has the spring pool and a section of river available for swimming, then there's a floating barricade, downstream of which swimming is forbidden as it's kept as a conservation area for manattee. Which don't understand what a barricade is and apparently Do Not Care about people, because one swam up into the spring pool. I still can't believe I got to swim with a manattee! Of course I tried to maintain a respectful distance from it (I tried to keep around 12ft away, though this did go down to about 6ft at one point when it started swimming towards me) but thanks to the water diffraction it looked like it was so close I could reach out and touch it. No photos alas, because phones and water Do Not Mix, though I did get some manattee photos a few days later!

This was at the manattee observation deck on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where we saw somewhere around 27-30 manattees. Seriously, there were so many manattees.

I also saw a snake in those rocks in the foreground. Couldn't identify the species alas, as I only saw part of its body between two rocks- I actually thought it was a discarded piece of black pipe at first, until it slithered away!

Going from the natural to the technological, that evening we had an excellent dinner at the Old Florida Bar And Grill, from the deck of which we watched a space launch! The photos don't do it justice, it was incredible.

Musk is a prick and fuck capitalism taking over the space industry, but... all that aside, this was inspiring. It's not just SpaceX's achievement, it's humanity's.

And finally, here's a nice bit of wall art I found while exploring Railroad Square Art District in Tallahassee

And a fishy mailbox from the same area

And alas, that's it! There was so much more stuff that I would have loved to take photos of, but alas, when your camera's borked and literally Can Not Save The Pictures Any More, there's not much you can do. Ah well, still have the memories, at least.

#florida #holiday photos

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stardust-walker · 4 years ago

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World on Fire {Loki X Sigyn!Reader}

Summary: Sigyn was supposed to have died almost 100 years ago. A peace mission to Migard gone wrong and she had never returned. Everyone had thought she was dead until Loki is shown someone who looks too familiar when he comes to Earth on a mission. Sharon Odell. Shannon Orwell. Sidney Orwell. No matter what name she goes by, it’s all the same. Now that Gods and heroes are real, there’s no use hiding who she really is anymore.

TLDR; Sigyn has been hiding on Earth for like 100 years and gets sucked into being on the Avengers. A series based around the one-shot I did titled Undying Fidelity.

Chapter 1

They had been on the move for a couple days by the time they got to settle down. It definitely wouldn’t be long seeing how Loki seemed determined to recruit an army and lucky for him, SHIELD had no lack of enemies.

Unlucky for him, they worked faster than him.

“Jane Foster has been moved off the grid, sir. No record of her for the past few days,” Clint grumbled as he continued to click through the files of the people that SHIELD had decided were interesting enough to keep an eye on.

Selvig sighed and shook his head.

“Can you not do this on your own, doctor?” Loki frowned as he drummed his fingers on the handle of the scepter that he wouldn’t let out of his sight.

Selvig perked up. It could have been from nerves or excitement, the god wasn’t sure. “Of course, Loki. The Tesseract has shown me...so much about how it works! We should be able to share it with other people, don’t you think?”

Loki could practically feel the Other breathing down his neck as they spoke. He didn’t answer this time, at least not with words. Instead, he let out an annoyed sort of grunt as his eyes flickered over towards the Tesseract. Perhaps it would be helpful to have someone else in case he had to dispose of Selvig at one point or another. The human life-span was so different from his own so who was to say if the man got too old to serve his purpose.

“What about Sidney?” Clint spoke up again as he looked up from the tablet that he had been focused on for the past few minutes. This seemed to peek the older man’s interest; Loki just turned his gaze towards the archer and waited for him to continue. “She’s almost as good as Jane with the astrophysics, right?”

Loki had to stop himself as he nearly physically cringed at the mention of Thor’s Midgardian love.

“Almost?” Selvig laughed. “If she hadn’t disappeared off of the map 3 years ago, she would have made a real name for herself. Sidney Orwell was one of the brightest interns that Jane had...until Darcy, anyway.”

“What use is another individual of your specialty if they all can’t be found,” Loki said through gritted teeth.

“She can be found.” Clint assured them as he turned the tablet to face the other two men. “This was from last week. A convenience store pretty close to Gainesville, New York. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Population below 500. A good place for someone who doesn’t want to be found. Running diagnostics now!”

Loki leaned forward slightly. His facial features didn’t betray the interest that he felt as he took in as many details of the woman’s face as he could from the grainy security footage.

She looked young, but that wasn’t saying much. Many Midgardians would say he looked young as well. Her face was too blurry to really make out any details until a little box popped up in the corner of the screen.

“That’s a match!” Selvig shouted a few inches from Loki’s ear, but the god couldn’t be bothered.

He could see the woman’s face a lot more clearly now as the identification picture popped up on the screen beside a clearer version of the security footage. Loki’s head began to ache the longer he looked at the pictures. Something looked too familiar. Maybe it was the slope of her nose or the cheekbones, but something itched at the back of his brain. With one last fleeting glance, he spotted it and his breath stopped.

Without another thought, he rose to his feet and gritted his teeth. His grip on the scepter tightened as he turned away from the two SHIELD employees.

“Bring her to me.”

It was always a sort of special occasion when Sidney would leave her secluded little cabin and head into Gainesville in order to stock up on some essentials. The man behind the counter knew her by name as he knew everyone in the town. Sidney was always polite and pleasant but never revealed anything about herself. People in town tried their hardest not to talk to the woman that secluded. Some of the kids in town whispered about her being a witch. Sidney had heard a group of them once when she was headed home and she couldn’t help but smirk at them.

Today was different. The air felt thick and the cellphone that she carried in her pocket felt heavier than usual. A weary smile crossed her face as she set the few containers of ramen noodles on the counter with the rest of her items. “Hey there, Ben. How’s your mom doing this week?”

“Oh she’s doing great, Miss Orwell!” The younger man flashed her a bright smile as he rang up her items. “Should be back runnin’ the store in no time. About time too, I don’t think my nerves could handle it anymore.”

Sidney laughed quietly as she paid her total, “I’ll keep that between us.”

She was already in her own world again as she collected her bags and made her way to the car. As she slammed her trunk closed, a vibrating noise in her purse drew her attention. Her hand flew to her back pocket and she found her cellphone was still there, That meant…

The blonde hurried into the car and pulled a smaller black phone out of her bag as she tossed her normal phone onto the passenger seat.

Selvig. Her throat felt dry for some reason as she looked at the caller ID on the SHIELD issued phone. That had been part of the deal she’d made with Fury. She should have known better than to trust him and SHIELD after everything that had happened with Thor. Saved by the bell, she sighed out loud as the call went to her voicemail.

As she put the car in reverse, she took a deep breath before she began on her journey home. Her right hand shifted the car into drive again as her left hand entered the passcode to her voicemail.

“Sidney! It’s Erik. I don’t even know if this is still your number but give me a call when you get a minute. I have really important questions for you!”

“Why don’t you just ask Jane,” Sidney sighed as she clicked a button before she tossed the phone back into her bag.

Still, she couldn’t shake the nagging sensation that something was wrong.

Her suspicions were solidified as she came within eye-sight of her cabin a few miles later. An unmarked black car was parked on the side of the road just a half-mile away from her house and people were inside. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she white-knuckled it down her driveway.

“You’re losing it, Si.” The blonde took a deep breath through her nose before she looked in her rearview mirror. The car had pulled off the side of the road and followed her now. “Well son of a bitch.”

Somehow, she managed to keep her demeanor calm as she put the car in park and walked to her door with her head held high. Sidney tried not to shudder as she heard the black car roll up closer down the driveway. She was safe in her house now but her eyes scanned the room quickly. She needed an escape route just in case and she found it just as a loud bang bang shook the door behind her.

“Just a minute,” she threw her voice as she grabbed a small swiss army knife off of her kitchen table and stuffed it one of her back pockets along with her SHIELD phone. Sidney took a deep breath and she opened the door.

“Oh! Hello, gentleman,” she flashed the two suited men a disarming smile as she peeked her head out. “How can I help you?”

“Sidney Orwell?” The shorter of the two asked. The blonde just nodded her head. “I’m Agent Downey and this is Agent Evans. We’re with SHIELD. You’re going to need you to come with us.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Sidney narrowed her eyes slightly as she glanced between the two men. “I don’t work for you. In fact, part of my deal with Fury was that he would let me live in peace if I let him keep an eye on me so I suggest you get back in your car and you leave.”

She went to push the door shut but a force stopped her. Anger flared through her as she wrenched the door open and stood to her full height. “I’m afraid we can’t do that, miss. We have orders.” Her eyes shot to the taller man. A shiver went down her spine this time as she locked eyes with him. There was something not right about it. “Erik Selvig requests your presence.”

“I don’t know Selvig was in a position to make requests of me,” she replied coolly.

“Everything could be explained if you just let us inside, ma’am.”

Sidney glanced over her shoulder into the kitchen for a moment before she stepped aside to let the two agents inside.

She closed the door behind them and quickly turned to face them. Everything about them just seemed...off. She was used to SHIELD agents and how they acted but there was something truly off about these two.

Time seemed to stand still and then all at once, everything was moving. The shorter man’s hand shot to the taser on his belt as the taller man pointed his gun at her. She hadn’t even realized she had the knife in her hand now. “Everything will be so much easier if you just come with us!”

“Go to hell,” Sidney hissed through gritted teeth.

“The Tesseract can show you so many things.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “What the hell did you just say?”

She didn’t get an answer. Instead she ducked as the probes of the taser embedded themselves in the door where her neck had been moments before. A yell left her as she jumped to her feet and tossed the knife at the taller man. The shorter one made a move to grab her as his partner screamed and cursed her as he tried to wrench the knife out of his hand. The woods were right there. Sidney cleared her mind as she dodged another punch from the shorter man. The man looked slightly shocked just as she punched him in the chest and sent him flying across the room.

Without another thought, she pulled the front door open and sprinted for the woods.

She had no idea how long she ran for. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours; all she knew was that by the time she stopped running, her lungs ached. Sidney nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt something. The cellphone in her back pocket was vibrating.

Her fingers shook as she pulled it from her pocket and answered without thinking.

“Listen you bastards if you think-”

“I see our intelligence wasn’t quite up to par on this information. I apologize, Miss Orwell,” a somewhat cheerful voice on the end cut her off. Sidney never thought she could be so happy to hear someone’s voice in her life.

“There better be a good reason why some of your agents showed up to my house unannounced talking about the Tesseract of all things, Phillip,” Sidney’s eye darted around the forest once again.

She could hear Coulson say something to someone else in the background before he replied. “Some of our agents have been...compromised.” He even sounded like he was cringing. “We were calling because we need your help.”

“I-”

“I know all about your deal, Sidney. Fury fully intends to honor it once the fate of the Earth isn’t in danger.”

Sidney swallowed hard as she started to walk again. “I want that in writing this time, Coulson,” she deadpanned.

“I’ll see what I can do. For now, just do me a favor. Walk North for about another 10 minutes. We’ll have a jet waiting for you.”

The line went dead before she could even reply.

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wheelsgoroundincircles · 4 years ago

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The story of Swamp Rat 17: Don Garlits' most misunderstood Top Fueler (part 2)

The Wynn’s Liner sits proudly in Garlits museum, parked just ahead of Petersen’s own failed attempt at aerodynamics, the Can Am-inspired Olympia Top Fuel car that lived its own all-too-short life in 1974.

Any chat with Don Garlits is always a thrill, but for history geeks like me, it’s especially thrilling because of his incredible memory. He turned 89 in January, but his memory is as clear as if he were 29. He, of course, knows his cars inside out, remembering specifically not only the number of each Swamp Rat but wheelbases, engines, and great stories associated with each. I do a lot of interviews with the stars of yesteryear and many, many of them, quite naturally as they age, have less than excellent recall. Then there's "Big Daddy." He's amazing.

So, as promised earlier in this column, I asked him to rank his Swamp Rats in order of favorites. Although I'm sure that, given time, he could have ranked them from 1 to 38, I asked only for his Top 5.

Here’s his Top 5, including portions of the descriptions I wrote for my trio of Swamp Rat Spotters Guides a few years ago (Swamp Rats I-A to X | Swamp Rats XI to 20-B | Swamp Rats 21 to 34):

No. 1, the first (1956-60): Although it wasn't his first dragster — he had made a crude, flathead-powered dragster from a '27-T roadster by moving the engine back and hanging a seat out over the rear end — it's the first car to wear the Swamp Rat name. The car was built on the framerails of a '31 Chevy passenger car that he bought at a junkyard for $35 in 1956; Garlits removed the frame from the body in the junkyard using little more than a large ax, a cold chisel, a ball-peen hammer, and a small assortment of hand tools. He transplanted most of the parts off of the flathead dragster to this car, except the driver seat, which was an old B-17 bomber seat. Initially using Ford power, Garlits switched to Chrysler Hemi power and later to high-gear-only. The carbureted version of this car is the one that beat the nay-saying Californians in Houston but got whipped by the West Coasters in Bakersfield, but as soon as "Big" added a blower, it was all over for everyone.

No. 22, the 5.63 car (1975): The car that succeeded SR 21 would go into the record books in a "big" way and stay there for years: This is the car in which Garlits brought the class to its knees with a 5.63-second clocking at the World Finals, a record that stood for more than six years. Built by Garlits, “T.C.” Lemons, and Don Cook on a 240-inch wheelbase, the car was lightweight and fast from the first go. He had hoarded oversized Goodyear slicks, built a new engine, and even lengthened the chassis by 10 inches, and it all paid off with that monstrous 5.63 that helped him win the event and the championship and was attached to the sport's first official 250-mph run. The historic car was retired at year's end and has never left Garlits' possession other than for occasional displays; it was hauled out of mothballs to run at — and win — the 1977 Gatornationals.

No. 26, the comeback car (1980-84): The follow-up to the porky “Godzilla” car, Swamp Rat 26 was "lean and light" — Garlits forsook paint for black anodized panels with stick-on lettering — and with the power that Garlits and Parks had learned to make to get the porky Godzilla car down the track, they seemed to be ahead of the game. The car was completed in time to run the Florida Winter Series events, but Parks quit that winter after the tough 1980 season, and Garlits won just two AHRA events in 1981. Garlits ran infrequently in the next three seasons, and Swamp Rat 26 might have just gone quietly into retirement as a disappointment had old pal Art Malone not called Garlits in the summer of 1984 and offered to fund a run at the 1984 Indy title. Malone got Garlits new parts, and they coaxed Parks out of retirement, and despite an aging car and a team of "dinosaurs" (Garlits' word), they won the race, completing a storybook comeback straight out of Hollywood. Garlits went on to also win a big eight-car Top Fuel show at Firebird Int'l Raceway and the NHRA World Finals — "Big Daddy" was back!

No. 30, the streamliner (1986): In the pantheon of famous Garlits cars, this cockpit-canopied streamliner may well be at the top of the pyramid. Garlits had Mike Magiera fabricate the nosepiece and constructed front "tires" out of 13-inch aluminum discs wrapped with industrial fan belts to fit beneath it. The belts would exit the wheels after almost every run, but that didn’t stop the “Rat Under Glass” from running 272.56 mph in the car's winning debut in Gainesville in 1986. Garlits later abandoned those wheels to run small-airplane tires that worked well but, ironically, took flight in his famous July 12 blowover wheelstand at the NHRA Summernationals. The car had to be backhalved in the Florida shop to complete the season, which ended with Garlits atop the points standings. Swamp Rat XXX also ran about half of the 1987 campaign and then famously became part of a display at the Smithsonian Institution the following year.

No. 34, the monowing car: Originally built in 1992 for Bruce Larson to drive after Garlits retired after experiencing eye problems caused by too many sudden parachute decelerations. At the end of the 1994 season, Garlits loaned the car to former Funny Car and fuel altered pilot Richard Langson and served as his crew chief in 1995, albeit with little success again. After years off the track, Garlits brought the car up to spec and competed at the 2002 Gatornationals and U.S. Nationals, then upped his speed mark to 323.04 at the 2003 Gatornationals. “It’s still the most modern Top Fueler in the world,” Garlits insisted to me. “It’s got the narrowed rear end and the mono wing rudder to make it go straight down the course, and the canopy.”

And, well, because Garlits was being so generous with his time and candor, I dared to ask him about his bottom five.

“Well, only a half-dozen cars that didn’t cut the mustard, but from what we’ve already talked about today," he said. "I think you know the five already: the streamliner (SR17), ‘Shorty' (SR18), the sidewinder (SR27), the turbine car (Swamp Rat 28-A), and then it would be Swamp Rat 12-A. That car [pictured above, was the first Swamp Rat to be designated with Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals] was too short [just 137 inches], and we only ran that in the winter series in California."

My Spotters Guides from a few years ago ended at 34, but the numbers carried on after

35: 2009 DragPak stocker

36: 2011 Drag Pak stocker

37: First electric car

38: Second electric car

Swamp Rat 38 had been Garlits' hope for being the first battery-powered car to exceed 200 mph, but he was beaten to that mark last year by Steve Huff and parked the car.So, naturally, I had to ask Garlits if there would ever be a Swamp Rat 39.“Never say never,” he said, and I could detect a gleam in his eye even over a cellular connection. “Maybe I try to build a 250-mph electric car. There’s such fantastic battery technology coming, I don’t want to spend money on old technology. I still want to drive if I can by then. I still feel good, so I don't think that will be any problems.”Same ol' "Big Daddy." I can’t wait.Phil Burgess can reached at [email protected] of more articles like this can be found in the DRAGSTER INSIDER COLUMN ARCHIVE

#swamp rat #Garlits #Gatornationals #Goodyear #big daddy #Big Daddy Don Garlits

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