Today, I finally put on my altered dress for my (23f) best friend's (24f) engagement party. Although I look beautiful in it and I am feeling myself, I keep having flashbacks and flashfowards of what can go bad.
We met on facebook when we were both in high school and clicked, despite having bad opinions about each other. We had plenty of common things to talk about, and I honestly admired her for how intelligent and well spoken she is. Although, she always was the kind that had her mind set on an ideal when it came to relationships that resulted in a very toxic dynamic between her and her partner. When her partner didn't satisfy her, she would go cold and never said what was wrong. Instead, she was venting to me. That made our friendship toxic. She would constantly cheat emotionally on her partner with me. Things escalated quickly, and we actually caught feelings for each other. I started to be her actual lover, and I felt guilty about it. At some point, we were in a relationship, too. It was a short and bad one that put our friendship on a pause.
4 years later, I decided to reconnect with her because I thought that I wasn't going to waste a good friendship in a bad relationship, and it was a very good decision. We were both healthier, and now we had a better dynamic, too. I talked to her about my boyfriend ( 25m) and our love story. Long story short, he is my soulmate. I am convinced about that. No relationship compares to this one. I told her about how fast we had to move on because of our circumstances and how nice it is to live with him, and she understood. She is happy with our relationship and wishes us the best. Not so much later, she met her current fiancé (25m). He was quite intimidated by me, he told that to my face but we clicked well. That's until we found out that he is quite dodgy. He is a womanizer who decided to "settle" and fell for her quickly. He also is the kind to search for the most dodgy jobs just to make a bit more cash, that he spends quickly on god knows what. He saw everything. Drugs, prostitution, robberies, death, etc. Not only that, but he is cocky about never being caught, too. I thought they were an odd pairing since she is the independent, level-headed but introverted big sister that took no shit from anyone, but whatever. We didn't want to judge. They moved on quickly with their relationship, even quicker than me, and my boyfriend did. They got engaged in 8 months, and three months later, she is pregnant, too. Their engagement lasted only 6 months, and next month, they are getting married. Because a wedding is quite expensive for them right now, they decided to skip the church wedding and only do the official documents and do an engagement dinner party with their close family and friends. Oh boy, the organization is a mess.
First, they asked us to be their godparents but quickly changed their minds after their parents realized that me and my boyfriend are not married, which is a big problem with the church but not with the documents. I wanted to point that out to them since they are not going to be wedded in church but whatever. Ever since we were in high school, she promised me that I would be her godmother to her wedding. It was disappointing, but I knew that I needed to be flexible. Second, she wants her guests to dress more elegantly for the event. Her fiancé and my BF got a bit fussy that they couldn't wear jeans and Hawaiian shirts, but we quickly changed their minds. But this transitioned to the third problem. I had to get my dress pretty early into the engagement so we could save some money. I got a nice dress for my budget: a midi mint dress with puffy veil sleeves and crochet flowers motifs that enhanced my bosom. I checked with her if the color and the model were ok, and she said that she was happy with it... Until she got her dress. She decided to dress in a way more layed back style and get a white cotton beach dress. It's incredibly simple, and my boyfriend described it to be a sack of potatoes in comparation to what I was wearing. Not only that, but it was 5 times more expensive than mine. This was a problem. I didn't want to overdress or upstage the bride to be, so I got another dress that's more laid back, the one that I am currently wearing so my mom could alter her a bit. Fourth, they keep changing the dates, and that got everyone annoyed because it messed with the free work days. Fortunately, this was resolved, and now they have a date that's set in stone. The organization is quite messy, too. BF had the condition that he didn't want to drive in the city, so he would drink, something that can't happen because they have many guests and not enough cars. We live far away from them, in a suburban area. There is a 5 hour drive between us and besides them, we don't know anyone in their city. They offered us a free room ( baby's future room) but even that is uncertain. Fifth, they are not the most stable couple. Her fiancé gets mad and jealous quite easily. He used to fight with her when she wears more make-up than usual or she was too indiferent to his flirting. She is the kind of woman who never wears her emotions, and that drives him nuts. She did open up slowly to him, but it's too slow for his pace. Not only this, but he has a high-sexual drive while her's is low. He gets very fussy when they don't get to have regular sex. When she got pregnant, the gyno told her to stop sexual relations for a while, so the baby stays in place. He said that he can't stop having sex for his own health, and it is quite unfair. She hit him with an ultimatum that if he made her abort it, she would never have kids with him again. That made him settle, at least for a while. He is also the kind that wants a boy, so he could continue his "legacy." If that didn't make it clear for what kind of person he is, then I don't know what more can I tell you. Also, the both of them hinted that me and boyfriend should get pregnant too, so our children could be best friends just like us. We quickly shut it down with "With what money?Plus, we are not mentally prepared for it". Which brings us to the sixth problem, and I and BF are not in a stable money situation like they are. BF used to be overworked and paid badly while I couldn't work right now. He did get to change his job for a better one, which is a huge relief. I wanted to work, I wished to, but bestie and her fiancé keep wanting to have vacations with us twice a year. No workplace would be able to give me that many holidays, which I know is unfair. That's the country we live in. Because of this, for the last year, we were on a tight budget that couldn't allow any more changes.
Besides these problems, there are many more things like family drama and other money problems. Because of the constant change, me and boyfriend are stressed and this got us in an argument. First being about my dress and then about the couple that couldn't understand our money problems. Me and bf resolved it, but he has some good points. The organization is as messy as their future marriage.
I apologize if I've made grammar mistakes, english is not my first language.

So for most of our relationship (four years), my partner has been switching jobs and had some bouts of being unemployed. While he did keep his last job for about a year, it was a job with no benefits (like vacation and sick leave or any yearly extras).
In the meanwhile, I've been grinding my way through with a difficult three shift job with the same company, doing overtimes and ultimately climbing my way in the corporate ladder to a somewhat comfortable position with normal working times and acceptable paycheck.
The financial burden has mostly been on me for all this time. I've always been covering the rent alone and I got the best place I could afford for us, but it's far from good. I've been paying for all trips (he does not ask to go on any, but I personally can't stand not having a vacation at least once a year, because I don't know what I'm even working for then). Granted, he helps with groceries and his family often invites us for meals, but I also often provide food for both of us.
He also struggles with depression, and during his last bout of unemployement, he had a particularly dark period. At some point after that, he said he realized he needs to provide as well and we need to have a constant income, and he got serious about finding a job with normal contract and solid paycheck. When he finally did land one, I was over the moon and we also started planning moving into a bigger place.
But, when he started working and signed the contract, he immediatelly started saying how much he hates the job and started applying to different ones. His reasons for hating it are that they're using shitty software and he doesn't like the work environment. So he got an offer from a different company for a different job with minimum wage. He thinks he would ultimately be able to progress there and make more than he does on current one and he does have long-term plans to specialize in something else. He also thinks he could still cover half of the rent if we get a bigger place.
However, based on my work experience, I'm very sceptical of this new job providing any kind of stability and I don't think it's financially viable, nor that the people in charge really care about people working under them (I think they just want to get away with paying them as little as possible). The current one might have it's flaws, but it provides substantially more money that would increase our quality of life.
I love my partner to death and he is the most important person in my life. We click on many other levels and I can't see myself spending my life with anyone else. Ultimately, I want him to be happy. But, I'd be lying if I said my needs were being met for years now and I have a crippling fear that life will pass me by without being able to travel and explore the world. At the same time, I hold back from speaking my concerns most of the time because I don't want to affect his mental health negatively.
Right now, I don't know if I should give the new job the benefit of doubt and let him do his own thing or insist that it's not a good idea. I don't want him to be unhappy at his current job, but I don't know want to put my life on hold anymore either. I also have no idea what we would do if I lost my job, which can happen in this hectic world.
TL;DR - Partner is leaving a well paid job he just got for a minimum wage one; the financial burden has been on me througout the whole relationship and I'm worried this act means it will be on me for years to come. I don't want him to be unhappy at his current job (that would provide financial stability), but I don't know if I can continue putting my life on hold either. What do?

On a rainy Saturday afternoon not so long ago when internet connection was fluctuating in most homes, the 80-year-old Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, widow of the late Senator Heherson Alvarez, carrying a mini iPad, hurriedly alighted from a three-wheeled pedicab Toktok and stormed her way into a popular coffee shop in a mall in Manila.

A senior citizen in panic mode, she told the stunned baristas she’s looking for a Wi-Fi connection because she was about to interview retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio via Zoom.
The coffee shop, a known world brand, has Wi-Fi exclusive to its employees, so the old lady was told to try other establishments. She went from one coffee shop to another only to be told the same, until a kind stranger led her to a well-known beauty salon with a free internet connection.
The lady salon attendant was very accommodating to the octogenarian, even typing the password on her IPad. Of course, she needed to avail herself of their salon services. Initially, she opted for a haircut, but since she needed to talk and hear clearly who she was talking to, she settled for a foot spa with pedicure.
“They lowered the volume of the piped-in music, and since there were less customers because it’s been raining all day, I was able to do my interview,” Guidote-Alvarez said.
For the next half-an-hour, the hair dressers and manicurists working with their scissors, nail clippers and cuticle removers on their customers’ hair and fingernails, listened to Carpio and Guidote-Alvarez discussed how Filipino fishermen and the Philippine Navy ships helplessly negotiate their ways in Scarborough Shoal amid the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.
“They were all very nice to me. I was able to finish my interview, with newly pedicured nails,” she told The Diarist.
For those who’ve worked with Guidote-Alvarez, her steadfast, almost stubborn, nature to accomplish a task, is nothing out of the ordinary. She would improvise, find alternatives, call up friends and former students, wake them up from sleep, just to get things done.
But now, in her 80s, legally blind and nearly deaf, she has mellowed down.
Cecile Alvarez with her mentors, National Artist for Literature Alejandro Roces, Jr and Fr. James Reuter. SJ
In her twilight years, Guidote-Alvarez has been solely hosting the 57-year-old Radyo Balintataw on DZRH, one of the oldest radio stations in the Philippines, where she tackles a wide range of topics, from climate change, women’s health, theater, culture, dance, to current issues, apart from playing old recordings of classic radio plays she produced and directed, dating back to the late ‘80s.
She shared with TheDiarist.ph how she started and continues to host one of the longest running advocacy programs on AM Radio.
Theater on TV
After founding the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) on April 7, 1967, or exactly 57 years ago, Guidote-Alvarez thought of the need to expose PETA’s members to television, so she started conceptualizing Balintataw, which in Filipino means the pupil of the eye, but in a larger context has something to do with having wild imagination, or what you might see if you have a third eye.

“I designed Balintataw as a bridge between cinema and the stage, where the youth being trained in theater skills can have a ready-made laboratory experience linked with the film and entertainment industry that would likewise have a natural on-the-job training and orientation regarding the theatrical discipline of working with a literary script, whether dramatic or comic—not the regular improvised script done on taping or copycat scripts from foreign themes,” Guidote-Alvarez wrote in her yet-to-be published Memoir of a Freedom Fighter’s Wife.
“A primary goal when I conceived PETA was to initiate and sustain artistic expression that draws meaning and power from the lives of the people, and sharing the literary gems with a greater number of audiences through a Broadcast Theater-Film Program with Balintataw on Channel 5,” she added.
“No matter how little the pay, at least it provided our local writers with a little honorarium. I sought permission for award-winning pieces of the Palanca Playwriting contest to be fleshed out to reach the masses. The much-awarded playwright Bert Florentino served as our literary manager, assisted by Mauro Avena. Eventually, Isagani Cruz took over when Bert left for the US,” she wrote.
“Writers need exposure and encouragement through a regular TV performance that will give them a sense of achievement and inspire them to keep on writing with some kind of honorarium. I was glad Lupita Aquino (now Kashiwahara) agreed to be TV director and Robert Arevalo as TV host.
She got members of the PETA Kalinangan Ensemble to serve as stage directors. “This is to undertake preliminary preparation with a rehearsal with the actors for character development and memorization and preliminary staging,” she wrote.
Five months after PETA was founded, Balintataw TV premiered on Channel 5 on Aug. 19, 1967, coinciding with the Buwan ng Wika birthdate of President Manuel Luis Quezon.
The first play, whose title escapes her now, featured Armida Siguion-Reyna and Maria Eva “Chingbee” Kalaw. She employed photo journalist and award-winning photographedocumentarist/cinematographer, Romy Vitug, to work with her in filming outdoor scenes for Balintataw.

In the pre-Martial Law Balintataw, among those initiated into television were Lino Brocka, Elwood Perez, Nick Lizaso, Maryo delos Reyes, Mario O’Hara, Joey Gosiengfiao, Behn Cervantes, and Frank Rivera.
Among the stage actors who crossed over to television were Lily Gamboa, Angie Ferro, Lorlie Villanueva, Jonee Gamboa, Joy Soler, Sherry Lara, Gardy Labad, Noel Trinidad.
Like with PETA, Guidote-Alvarez directed and managed Balintataw for five years. Because of Martial Law, she and husband Heherson went on exile in the US to escape a military shoot-to-kill order on Heherson, who was tagged as a subversive.
Post-Martial Law
Internationally acclaimed auteur Lav Diaz mentioned in several interviews how he learned writing radio and TV scripts in Balintataw.
This happened in the late 1980s, when the Alvarez couple returned from exile.
Despite its absence on the air in the Martial Law years, Balintataw was honored by Star Awards as among the 20 unforgettable outstanding broadcast programs in the Philippines.
“This encouraged me to consider reviving Balintataw on TV. Another blessing was a FAMAS award for having an important role in the development of cinema recognizing Balintataw as a bridge for synergizing cinema with the stage, providing a pathway of entry of our PETA artists into film and for movie stars to consider enriching their experience by acting on the legitimate stage,” Guidote-Alvarez wrote.
Though she didn’t return to PETA anymore because it had been surviving well and had its own set of officers led by Brocka, she just tapped some of its members for the return of Balintataw.
For 14 years, the Alvarez couple lived in the US as political exiles, shown here during a Ninoy Aquino Movement meeting. Cecile revived Radyo Balintataw upon their return in the late 1980s.
Channel 4 stint
“I arranged to revive TV Balintataw on Channel 4 in 1989. We began with a drama about a rebel returnee, title escapes me now, but I clearly remember it was written by Lualhati Bautista and directed by Maryo de los Reyes. We also had a good story series on the hazing of Lenny Villa, an Aquila Legis Frat neophyte,” she wrote.
At the time, Heherson had been elected senator after having served as Agrarian Reform Minister and eventually Cabinet Secretary during the first year of the Cory Aquino Administration.
“We were able to unravel the deadly hazing process from a fellow neophyte who broke the code of silence as we revealed graphically, acted the cruel process used. I had Jose Mari Avellana direct it. This presentation won all the awards. Lav Diaz was training with us and he started writing teleplays. We also had Nora Aunor in an adaptation of Bert Florentino’s The World Is An Apple, adapted by Frank Rivera, and I had Nick Lizaso direct.”

Emmy Awards
Balintataw TV was selected as one of five soaps for social change recognized by Emmy Awards. The Philippines was one of five countries cited, with Mexico, India, Brazil and Kenya.
“The nomination was made possible by the wonderful support from David Poindexter. It was a supreme honor for our country to be recognized in the Emmy Awards, to be cited among the five Third World countries using soap opera for social change.”
Poindexter was a Methodist minister and TV producer who founded the Population Communications International.
Surviving on radio
“In spite of the cry about how television can be deadening the minds of the people with copied themes with an eternal favorite love triangle story, there was really no funding for Balintataw,” she wrote.
“Sponsors would go naturally to the commercial stations where big stars were paid highly for the starring role. Balintataw may have substance but we could not afford payment of bankable stars,” she added.
“Financial stress forced me to drop TV and remain on radio because I didn’t want to kill Balintataw per se just because we didn’t have funds.”
Creative classroom
“We have focused on Balintataw as a creative classroom on the air. I was able to talk to Fred J. Elizalde of DZRH and the president of the network, Mr. Jun Nicdao,” she wrote.
In the ‘80s, the HIV/AIDS became a global epidemic and in the Philippines, the general populace was still clueless on how to deal with it.
“In order to get funding, the first series I did was about the explosive news regarding AIDS in Asia. I got the DOH Secretary at the time, Dr. Juan Flavier, to act as himself, providing the data. It was easier to start off with an AIDS radio serial.
They did a minimum of 13 episodes to raise awareness about the disease.
“From then on, some of our television scripts we transformed into a radio version. DZRH provided us with our initial production staff, so we used some from the network and some of its resident artists and drama talents. Our time slots were changing but always coming after the long-running horror drama, Gabi ng Lagim.
“We worked on the themes of overseas workers, the drug problem, corruption, aside from portraying contemporary and literary classics serving as social commentaries,” she wrote.
Women playwrights
“We dramatized the works of noted women writers and playwrights like Estrella Alfon, Genoveva Edroza Matute and Marilou Jacob, who is distinguished in being a founding president of Women’s Playwright International.
“Apart from our PETA staple of writers, we involved young, upcoming and budding university and community theater groups.
“We also had a lot of foreign plays, where we could feature theater festivals beyond borders. We could do Shakespeare, we could do Euripides but also the current playwrights in the Arab region we translated in our language.
“We brought in Chinese contemporary plays, Malaysian, Indonesian and from other women writers from ASEAN member countries.”
Virtual history book
“The significance of Balintataw is portrayed as a virtual history book on audio as it unveiled events in the country. Radio is fresh, instant and up-to date,” she added.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Balintataw became Guidote-Alvarez’s outlet and therapy. Having lost her husband on the second month of the pandemic, a widow cocooned at home, she began hosting it six days a week, learning how to use an iPad and interviewing via Zoom.
The word “Balintataw” has been associated with her name.
Visual artist and editorial cartoonist Benjie Lontoc in casual meeting told us how in his younger days, when AM Radio was a national past-time, he was surprised to hear a Filipino adaptation of No Exit by Jean Paul-Sarte. This was when radio was airing soap, fantasy adventures targeting housewives and children.
Another was the airing of Larawan as a radio play in the 1990s, with Guidote-Alvarez as the voice of Candida Marasigan.
Leopoldo Salcedo (left) as Manolo in a confrontation scene with Dante Rivero as Tony Javier in PETA’s 1968 ‘Larawan’ directed by Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. (Photo from PETA archives)
In the 1960s, she directed Larawan, the first Filipino adaptation of Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino for PETA’s second season. It ran from December 1968 to January 1969 at the Raha Sulayman Theater at Fort Santiago in Intramural. In the cast were Rita Gomez (Candida), Lolita Rodriguez (Paula), Leopoldo Salcedo (Don Manolo) and Dante Rivero (Tony Javier).
Guidote-Alvarez has a funny recollection of the radio play. It was Nick Joaquin himself who told her years ago how his pedicurist suddenly started a conversation about Larawan.

Joaquin was relaxing on the barber’s chair having a post-haircut pedicure and foot spa when the lady pedicurist asked him how the story would end. Joaquin was stunned because he didn’t want to be known in the barber shop as Nick Joaquin the famous National Artist for Literature, but just a regular customer.
“He told me he almost fell out from the chair. He was a very private person and the pedicurist recognized him as the playwright,” Guidote-Alvarez, laughing, told TheDiarist.ph.
When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, she was given only three years to live. It’s been more than two decades since then. She has also conquered COVID-19 twice.
Over and beyond her work in theater and various advocacies, Guidote-Alvarez is among the few surviving practitioners of AM Radio broadcasting.
The beauty salon incident wasn’t a first for the octogenarian radio host. She occasionally went back there to interview guests and record her shows whenever Wi-Fi connections in her home fluctuated.
Despite all setbacks, man-made or otherwise, the steadfast Cecile Guidote-Alvarez’s voice continues to be heard in this mass media platform in an era that knows mainly Spotify. As Joaquin wrote, “to remember and to sing, that is her vocation.”
(Except Saturday, Radyo Balintataw airs daily on DZRH 666 Khz AM radio after ‘Gabi ng Lagim’, and live streamed on radio.org.ph. Some episodes have been uploaded on YouTube.)

Dramatic title, but I can't really explain it that well in few words. I also couldn't figure out a Subreddit that this would fit on, I think this one is best.
This one's a long one. TL;DR at bottom, but some details are important.
A bit of backstory first.
I'm a recently graduated HS Senior, headed to university in Fall. Around March, I applied to work at a mid-sized stadium in my area for a summer job-- I have about 2 years of stable retail experience, plus ServSafe certification and some good credentials outside of that. I've left almost all my jobs on good terms and I do my work fine. Never had any complaints.
I am a black woman. That is relevant to my story. I also have a very "white-sounding" name. For the sake of my privacy, let's say it's Sarah McIntyre. It's got the same vibe. I also have a "white-sounding" voice, especially over the phone. A lot of my family pokes fun at it, and it's not a huge deal.
So, I'm applying to this job, and the online application is pretty sparse. Few questions about my experience, age, and contact info. Nothing about my race at all. I apply, get a request for a phone interview, and hop on a call a few days later. My manager loves me. We have a great interview. She emails me a day later and says I got the job, and my orientation is in a week.
Orientation goes on, it's in a pretty large group and she doesn't address any of us directly or even ask for names, but I noticed her giving me a bit of a weird look. I figured it was about my hair which is dyed bright green so whatever.
We start working, and she's just very weird to me the whole time. Gives me weird looks, doesn't answer my questions, always watching me while I'm working at the concessions register. She doesn't do this with any of the other girls there. Concessions is about five other girls, all around my age. All of them are first-years at the stadium.
I get ready for work the next day, and I get a call from my Manager:
"Hey, OP. Don't come in today." "Oh? Is the game called off?" "No. Someone else is covering you. Bye."
Which was incredibly weird to me, honestly. But I wasn't going to press on the issue-- it was the first shifts of the season, maybe she wanted to train someone else instead of having me work. After this, there was about a month and a half gap between my next shift, which was May 9. Then I have another May 11; both go fine.
Manager posts the schedule for the next few weeks, up until June 9. I have one single shift. One. A four-hour concessions shift. I was insanely confused by this-- it's the start of the season with home games almost every single day, and multiple events with huge crowds. I texted the other girls I work with through our scheduling app and asked what their shifts looked like-- 3 to 5 shifts every week, about six hours each.
I was seriously wracking my brain for 3 days straight trying to think why on Earth I got the short end of the stick. I show up early and leave late every day, I help out as much as I can, customers don't complain, I'm experienced with the register and with counting tender, my co-workers and I get along fine, I've never had any issues with anyone.
The only thing I could seriously think about was my race. Which feels very cheap and victim-y, but it was the only thing I noticed that was an outlier. Out of every single employee at our stadium, I am the only person of color. Maybe somebody else is a minority, too, but they're incredibly white passing if they are. The only other brown people are the baseball players, which aren't on our staff team-- they're a separate entity entirely.
But that's all I can think of-- and my manager wouldn't have known about my race until she saw me for the first time at my first shift. And it's kind of difficult to have all-white staff considering we are in the suburbs of Chicago. Most people in our area are Black or Latino. It's seriously a considered effort to have an all-white staff in this area. I think I may have just slipped through the cracks because my name and voice are very misleading? But I can't tell if I'm overreacting or not-- I haven't said anything to my manager.
I don't want to quit because my coworkers are really nice, and I love the job. It's great being outside and being in a fun and fast environment like a stadium. But I'm trying to save for university and that's difficult when I don't work at all. Plus, I don't wanna give my labor to someone who despises me.
Am I overreacting in this situation and getting ahead of myself, or is this actually something worth looking into? Please help me. And yes, I know that it's very overdramatic to make things about my race-- this is genuinely the first time I've had to consider this with an employer.
TL;DR I'm the only minority at my job and I get barely any shifts while my white coworkers get more. I don't do anything wrong and I have lots of experience in similar roles. Should I look into this more, or get over myself?

Wade held Jasmine in his arms as he flew a low height down the long road to another section of the staryard, Tina on his back and Nathan and F right behind them in the air. Together, the five glided across the base grounds, taking care as to not irritate the aerial security during their search for the meeting room. Being outside for the flight, the group considered it a blessing that Wade's 'enhanced cooling unit' allowed his body to tolerate the breaching sun in the still cloudy sky, which, according to F, was dangerous to drones like her due to the inefficient cooling she and disassembly drones like her suffered from. Given F's physical fault, she had to fly under shady areas in order to safely traverse the base at day.
Originally, Wade and his friends had planned to walk to the meeting zone, but after running into a trooper experiencing a health mishap, the group did what they could to help the distressed officer. By the time he was brought to the medical ward by other soldiers, Wade found that him and his team would be at least a few minutes late if they kept on their way with their walk.
Deciding to speed things up, Wade, understanding the concern for performing such an effort, opted to carry the Fowleys around the base to the meeting area. Reluctantly, F decided to come along, carrying Nathan in a similar manner that Wade was carrying Jasmine. Taking notice of the time on his HUD, which read, "9:47 AM", Wade scouted for the building he and his friends were directed to. "8072" He said to himself, the number being for the building that would house the imminent meeting.
"They said it was down here, right?" Wade asked aloud to Tina before stopping himself in mid-air, the girl holding onto him tightly as he tried to speak over the growing sound of a retrofit Apache flying overhead.
Looking about, Tina nodded as she spotted the target building. "Yes, I believe that's the one over there!" Pointing past his head, Wade followed her finger to a large building ahead at his right. The structure was moderately tall, only about two stories high, with several soldiers and officers going in and out of the building. Wade smiled as he noticed the target number, as well as the big, bold words describing the building's designation. "8072, Briefing Center B"
"Good eye, honey. Hang on!" Continuing his low glide, Wade zoomed towards the building's entrance before stopping just meters above the ground, his two friends close behind as they slowed down as well. The troopers around them initially looked startled by the sudden arrival of Wade and his group, but quickly regained their composure as Wade hovered still above them.
"At ease! Just visitors." One of the soldiers declared as they identified the newcomers, who touched down before Wade let Jasmine down to her feet, Tina hopping onto the ground along with her.
Putting his hands up, Wade apologized for his swift surprise. "Sorry for the scare, we got delayed for a meeting we're invited to."
The soldier gave an understanding nod as he replied to the former worker drone sternly. "I can see that, just be a bit more careful next time, Mr. Carter. You gave the boys here quite a scare."
Wade returned the gesture in embarrassment as F put a hand to his back, chuckling at his efforts as Tina questioned the officer. "Is Mrs. J in there? She's the one who called for us."
The guard gave his reply as Wade and Tina pulled out their IDs for clearance. "Yes she is, Miss. The meeting's set to begin in under ten minutes." Checking the two drones' IDs, Jasmine and the others pulled out theirs as well, the watchman motioning another trooper over to verify the group. Once the guard finished checking the five's cards, he nodded in approval as the watchman spoke once more. "You're clear to enter."
"Thank you Sir, again, sorry about that spook back there." Wade replied with a smile as the trooper gave one of his own, the disassembly drone and his allies making their way towards the office door before stopping upon the call of a voice.
"Hey, Felice!" Wade turned to find the origin of the voice, F doing the same as the two quickly spotted a quartet of soldiers walking excitedly towards F. The disassembly drone glanced to her friends with a smile before turning back to the approaching entourage.
Wade examined the four troops as they got closer: Two human men, one woman, and a male worker drone. One of the male soldiers had short, blonde hair, and a small scar to the right side of their face. The second man bore a tan skin tone and had black hair, with blue strips that went down slightly in a mullet style. The woman bore a set of long, dark green hair, with the hair going down and over her left shoulder. As for the worker drone, he wore the standard green soldier helmet, single eye visor and all. He had no hair on him from what Wade could tell, and bore a pair of whiteish purple eyes on his visor.
As F walked over to the soldiers, the same one that called to her spoke again. "Felicity, I didn't expect to see you around here today! Where you been?"
The girl soldier interrupted his initial chatter. "Hang on Carlos, do you even know if she remembers us?"
"Aye, don't she have one o' them memory locks, or sumthin?" The drone added in a heavy Scottish accent.
F waved her hand as she replied to the group. "Easy, everyone. Thankfully I still got my memories, courtesy of my technician back at Central." Lowering her hand, F let down her usual persona as she gave a wide smirk to the soldiers, clearly pleased to see them. "Good to see you guys around here."
The soldiers gave light cheers to F as they all embraced her, the group having a surprise reunion as Wade and the others watched in surprise. These must've been F's old colleagues from when she was in the service, Wade thought. Quite the coincidence for them to be here at this base of all places.
Not bothering with the convenience of the matter, Wade shook the thought off as he and his friends watched F and her old friends breaking the hug, Tina wrapping an arm around her boyfriend as the second male human spoke to her in what the two discerned as Spanish. "Ay, who your new friends, F?"
"Oh, these guys?" F replied in the same language, quietly startling Wade and the others as they had never heard her speak like that until now. Glancing over to Wade, F motioned him and the others to come over. "Everyone, these are some friends I made in the past few days. Wade, Nathan, Tina, and Jasmine." She pointed her hand to the four as she said each of their names. "I met the boys here during my time on Ceres. Jasmine and Tina here are sisters."
The four soldiers gave various forms of excitement, ranging from hearty laughs to low woops and even a whistle from one of the guys. As F stood next to her old teammates, they each introduced themselves to Wade and his friends. The blonde soldier went first. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all, name's Carlos, Lieutenant Marksman."
"I'm Private Alvaros, good with close-range and stealth operations." Said the tan soldier with a salute.
"Sergeant Lucia Vasquez, usually the one who leads this bunch around these days." The female warrior stated with a humorous smirk.
"And Corporal Duncan Wallace, at your service!" The soldier drone stated proudly as he saluted to the bunch in front of him, who gave warm smiles as Wade shook his hand.
"Quite honored to meet you all, seems you have quite the history with F." The former worker drone said as Carlos patted F on her back.
"Oh, we do! She's the one who took charge when we didn't! Did you all hear of the Pasting of Nola VI?" Jasmine and Tina gave nods of affirmation while Wade, not as familiar with such history, held his hand up in a questioning manner.
"I think, wasn't that the battle where the Navy just barely held the outpost in that system? From the Stryker Clan?" Wade asked as Carlos nodded approvingly to him.
"That's right, and if Felice weren't there, WE would've been the ones getting pasted!" Carlos' statement brought victorious cheers and "oorahs" from the group, F letting a blush loose as she chuckled at her team's praise of her efforts.
"Well, that's not wrong." Although she didn't want to break off from her friends and discuss the past few years since they'd last met, F remembered the briefing. Clearing her throat, she continued. "And as much as I'd like to chat about the good times, I've been called to a meeting here, as have Wade and his crew."
The soldier group gave understanding looks to F as Lucia spoke up. "Thought so, Carl here was real eager to see you, though."
"Maybe we can talk after the meeting?" Nathan proposed as the soldiers collectively nodded in agreement, F readying a smartcomm attachment before turning to face her friends again.
"We're probably getting low on time, you all go in, I'll catch up in a sec." Wade nodded in acknowledgement before taking Tina's hand, the lover drones continuing towards the briefing center as Jasmine and Nathan followed behind them.
Passing through the door, the four guests observed a short hallway, which seemed to split into two paths as they came closer to the other end. Looking to a sign on the wall above, they saw arrows pointing to two separate areas, "Primary Briefing Room; Main Lobby + Secondary & Tertiary" Going to the right, they entered the moderately active lobby, several officers walking and standing about in mass chatter. Walking over to the desk up against the wall to their left, Wade and his group waved a hand to the occupying attendant.
"Welcome, what do you need?" The desk attendant asked as Tina raised a finger to reply.
"We're here for a meeting, Mrs. J called us here."
The attendant nodded in understanding before directing an arm towards the other end of the room, where a single door stood. "She should be in the second briefing room down that way."
"Thank you." Tina replied warmly before she and Wade began walking towards the door, their friends behind them as they proceeded into the room.
The room beyond the door was quite sizable, a large circular table occupying the middle with several chairs surrounding it. The walls went up a few meters, with four whiteish blue lights illuminating the room. On the wall opposite to Wade and Tina were three monitor screens, all of which showed the USN in bright blue. In several of the seats were faces both familiar and unfamiliar, several men and women in varying styles of uniforms conversing about quietly or taking notice of the recent visitors. Standing up near the monitors were three people: A decorated officer whom Tina identified as a ship captain, and the so-called operatives, Tessa, albeit as a hologram, and J.
Walking slowly into the room, Wade gave a low wave of his hand as he tried to hide his nervousness. Noticing his shyness in front of the officers, Tina held his hand and rubbed his arm comfortingly while returning a pleasant smile to the staff in the room.
"Ah, Wade, Tina. Glad to see you all here." J stated with a smile as she scanned the group, raising a digital eyebrow as she noticed one missing guest. "Or, most of you, I see. Did F run off somewhere?"
Wade shook his head as he replied to his fellow disassembly drone. "Oh, no. She just ran into some old friends, she should be back-"
"Right now." F finished aloud as she entered the room, seemingly having heard Wade speaking about her absence. The warrior drone fast walked to Wade's team, taking a seat near them as they prepared to do the same. "Not too late, are we?"
"Not at all." The standing officer answered as the group took their seats, Wade and Tina sitting next to each other as they got comfortable. The captain examined the lot for a moment, glancing to J as he asked about them. "So, these are the ones you helped rescue from the Mojave?"
"Yes Captain, and they helped us out greatly in turn. This is Wade Carter, one of the captured drones whom became a disassembly drone before we could mount the rescue. The luckiest one, if you ask me." Motioning her arm over the others, she continued. "And there's his girlfriend, Mrs. Tina Fowley, and her sister Jasmine." Smirking to F and Nathan, she finished her friends' introductions. "And these two are Serial Designation F and Mr. Nathan, whom I've heard were once under your ranks."
The military captain gave a welcoming smile to the five as they returned the gesture, eyeing F and Nathan specifically before speaking to them. "Indeed they were, we still have records on their contributions to the colonies." Eyeing F, he continued. "Though, in Mrs. F's case, I won't blame her if she doesn't remember us. We've been very well aware of JCJenson's 'memory suppression' protocols when it comes to their DDs."
F laid back in her seat with a smug look as she replied to her former superior. "Well, my friend on the station's a good tech gal. She's... waived that hindrance from me."
"I see, that means your still with us, am I right, Mrs. Lee?" Unlike her friends next to her, F was not startled by her original name being said aloud, rather smiling proudly as she saluted to the captain. "Good to see you again."
"Pleased to be here, Sir." F replied as she lowered her arm, glancing to her companions next to her as J spoke up.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Captain Preston Mitchell, commander of the USNV Vickers down at the stardock."
Wade gave a respectful salute to Preston as he spoke first. "It's an honor to meet you, Sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Carter. I've heard about your efforts from J, you did an admirable job back there, son." Wade failed to hide an embarrassed blush from the compliment, but it quickly faded as a beep sounded from a small device on the table. It was swiftly silenced by the captain as he tapped a button on the small, pyramid shaped timer, then facing Wade's group before continuing. "Though, as much as we could use some small talk, it'll have to wait till later."
"Indeed, we're running late at this point." Said another officer, a highly decorated member of the base with dark skin, dark grey hair and a thin beard. He immediately won the attention of everyone in the room as he spoke up. "I'm General Hugh Hood, overseer of this base. I'm certain you know some of the reasons you're here with us, correct?"
Wade nodded as he spoke to Hood. "Yeah, it's cause of those rogue agents from the JCJenson corporation." Glancing to J, the corporate drone nodded in affirmation before speaking herself.
"Tessa and I spent the last hours of yesterday evening clearing up the matter with General Hood, along with several other officials stationed here." She stopped as the middle monitor behind her flashed with a banner at the top, reading, "INCOMING TRANSMISSION", and in place of the USN emblem was a textless version of the JCJenson logo. Below the profile image was another two lines of text. "N. Jenson (Company Exec); Comms Source: Yottrite IV"
"And also told our boss about what happened here too, he wanted to give his say on this ordeal." Looking to the general, J asked him, "May I put him on?"
Hood only gave a nod of approval to the corporate drone before she picked up a remote on the table and tapped a button, accepting the call as the picture shifted to show a middle-aged man in a pristine-looking business suit on the screen.
Wade and Tina glanced to each other before J introduced their guest on the screen. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the CEO of JCJenson: Mr. Noor Jenson."
Jenson gave a pleased nod to his subordinate as he spoke to J. "Thank you for the pleasantries, J. I see we are ready to discuss our plans on dealing with this 'recall' disaster I've bore witness to on the news this morning?"
J nodded as she replied to her boss. "Indeed, I've explained to General Hood here about our efforts yesterday, and, as of recent, we've just received a message from a source we believe to be close to the company."
Mr. Jenson looked down to J attentively as he spoke to her. "Well, that's quite intriguing news, J. Do you have this message available for us to view?" J and Hood both nodded in affirmation, but didn't get an immediate reply as Jenson gazed to Wade and his friends. "...And I presume these are some of the drones rescued from one of the factories?"
Again, J nodded to her superior before explaining her colleagues. "Yes Mr. Jenson, the two drones at the front in particular were among those taken by the Administrator and their subordinates." Pointing an arm to Wade and Tina, she introduced the drone couple. "The disassembly drone here is Mr. Wade Carter, a brother to his-technically speaking-owner, the late Ron Carter. The latter helped us recover Wade during an initial raid inside the Nevada facility." When bringing up Ron, J gave an apologetic look to Wade as to show she did not mean to be offending on him and his brother's relationship. "And this is his romantic partner, Mrs. Tina Fowley. I heard she and her sister Jasmine are pilots."
Jenson looked over the two drones as his obedient employee described them to him, quietly sighing as Wade and Tina returned the gaze with nervous smiles. Once J finished, Jenson spoke to Wade. "I... would say it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carter. But, given recent events, I don't hold fault to you for feeling frustrated at me for my... former subordinate's actions."
Wade shook his head lightly, taking Jenson's light apology with a faint smile as he replied to the CEO. "Actually, I don't. The only person I have such feelings put towards is," He hesitated for a moment, his anger at Dr. Halloway returning for a short moment before he eased himself. "..That bastard Halloway."
"The feeling's mutual, Mr. Carter. Dr. Halloway has been trying my patience for years now, especially with you and your fellow disassembly drones." Looking to J, then F, he returned his gaze to Wade before questioning him on his new body. "I don't know if J has told you of this, but if there's one truth my company has admittedly not held up to for a while, it's our quality. Recently, some of my research staff here made blueprints for an upgraded variant of the disassembly drone design. It's intended to fix several faults we expected to be nonexistent previously, most notably that atrocious cooling unit."
As a schematic pulled up on the left monitor, everyone glanced to the improved design before F spoke up about it. "If I may ask, Mr. Jenson, how big of an improvement is this new cooling unit supposed to be?"
"Good question, F. Frankly, it's supposed to do away with the issue entirely. Saves us from sacrificing enormous supplies of oil for the poorly built unit in the previous iterations. We even tested it with a repaired drone just a few days ago, and it worked flawlessly." Then, glancing to Wade again, he questioned the former worker drone on his new form. "Speaking of, how does your enhanced body feel, Mr. Carter? I'm certain it feels better to not have to-"
"Actually, Mr. Jenson," Wade interrupted, pulling out one of his canteens as he answered the CEO on his upgrades. "I guess Halloway changed up the blueprints, cause unfortunately this new cooling unit didn't cure the overheating problem. I... kinda learned that the hard way." Wade glanced to Tina apologetically, still feeling bad from her seeing him eat the corpse of the dead murder drone back at the factory.
The corporate CEO grimaced in frustration as he took in Wade's statement, already intolerant of the head researcher's actions as he replied. "...I was worried about that, Edgar always likes to run things his own way, making excuses for that 'Administrator' he watches over." Taking an agitated breath, he continued on with his spew on the two culprits of yesterday's events. "It was only because of all the very impressive creations and enhancements she and her research team provided that I tolerated them for so long, but this..." Sitting up straight in front of the camera, Jenson finished sternly. "J said the Administrator... Cyn, I believe? She was apparently something worse than we presumed originally, and I'm very inclined to believe so after yesterday."
"As well as the program tied to the Administrator, the AbsoluteSolver." J clarified before receiving an agreeing nod from Mr. Jenson, standing corrected on his placing of blame.
Raising a hand, Nathan asked about the supposed plans. "Yeah, about this "Solver Project", what do we plan to do about that?"
"Good question, Nate." Tessa replied as she crossed her arms before looking to Jenson and beginning her explanation. "Initially, we were going to investigate the other factories spread across Earth in order to get some more info on the Administrator before things get worse. But, just this morning, it seems someone else saved us the trouble." Just as Tessa neared the end of her sentence, J held up the remote again, tapping a few buttons before the left monitor shifted to show a slightly grainy video onscreen.
The video only showed a single being, a worker drone, dressed in a chrome suit and bearing a set of yellow eyes. Behind them was what appeared to be a vacant room, a few shelves holding many books within them standing still in the back. The drone's visage indicated they were filled with immense anxiety, terrified of being caught as they spoke quietly to the camera.
"I can only hope someone gets this in time, they're gonna be on me once they find out the transmitter screens are down!" Turning the camera, he showed what appeared to be a large factory room, several more of the mysterious conveyor belts like at the factory slotted next to each other. It was hard to discern every detail due to not only the window reflection, but also the dark lighting in the inactive conveyor room. Filming the room beyond, the drone continued. "Dr. Halloway's a madman, he's got more of those stolen drones being brought here and he's going to be overseeing it in the afternoon tomorrow! I've seen what happened back in Nevada, I can't take this any longer! I'm at coordinates ##.######, -###.###### Please, send someo-"
The suspicious, partially scrambled transmission immediately cut off to static, leaving Wade, Tina, and their friends with confused expressions as Tessa spoke up. "Yeah, that caught me by surprise too."
"So, that guy says they got more drones being sent 'there', but... where is there, exactly?" Jasmine asked with immense curiosity.
"I was hoping you'd ask that, Mrs. Fowley." The technician replied as she glanced to J, who tapped a few more buttons on the remote before speaking over her boss-friend.
"While the transmission itself isn't much to work off of, our friends from Comms over here managed to intercept the signal earlier, and even better, discern where it originated from." As J started her explanation, the screen shifted once more to show a large city, with one skyscraper highlighted in red as it was zoomed towards on the screen. "That scrambled audio wasn't a simple glitch, it was intentionally done so as to hide key information for us to uncover. Upon cleaning up the message, we managed to recover a set of coordinates, which direct to this structure here, in San Francisco."
Wade and his friends stared at the building in shock, examining the tall structure as it stood over the shorter buildings in the city. Tina broke the silence in her gaze. "So, this is another factory? It looks... terribly different from the one we got out of."
"Not exactly, Mrs. Fowley." Mr. Jenson answered, Tina and the others looking to him as he continued. "THAT is the Administrator's main laboratory, its location was kept on the down low so other authorities and terrorist groups wouldn't find out what the buildings true purpose was." Sighing, Jenson completed his reply. "But, with this recent mistake of Halloway's, that place has lost all purpose for us at the company."
Wade raised a hand to speak. "So, we're going to pounce on that place? Get Halloway before he runs off again?"
"Exactly." General Hood replied as he looked up to Mr. Jenson. "This whole 'recovery/recruitment' effort has gotten out of hand all across Sol. We've gotten countless reports of people being killed because of this, be it the brutal robberies here in Nevada or the bloodbath on Ceres. Even if Mr. Jenson refuses to cooperate, this has become a dire matter for us now. One way or another, this insanity will be stopped with due haste."
The CEO nodded in acknowledgement before explaining his own plans for the mission. "Speaking of cooperation, upon seeing what was happening at Earth, I ordered a detachment of our corporate starships in orbit at the time to depart for Sol in order to help with investigating the situation. They're not warships, but they are well-armed. I'll dispatch them to your authority upon concluding this call." Glancing to Wade and his team for a moment, Jenson continued. "As for the mission, I may not have much of a say, but let it be known that you have my blessing to do whatever it takes to end this madness. I don't care what you do with Halloway or any of his lackeys, or what happens to that facility down there... I want that program shut down."
"Thank you for the extra hands, Mr. Jenson. We'll make sure this Administrator is dealt with." Hood replied gratefully as Wade sat firm in his seat, Tina and the others following suite.
"General?" The former worker drone said aloud, catching Hood's attention before he made his request. "I know I'm not a soldier, but I want to help with dealing with Halloway and his grunts. After what he did, after losing my brother, I can't rest until I see that man stopped."
Tina raised a finger as well. "As do I, Wade could use a hand with those people, and given how we did during our escape run out of that place, I think the two of us make quite the duo." She glanced to Wade with a smirk as she referenced their combat prowess when flying together.
Nathan and F stood up before the latter gave her own request. "Sir, I wish to take part in this mission as well. I can also recommend Wade for you too, as I fought alongside him during the factory raid."
"Wouldn't mind giving a hand myself! And I'm sure my pal Kurtis would love to help, he's here at the base too!" Nathan added with a confident smirk, the group's determination encouraging Jasmine to stand up as well.
"I'd like to help too." She stated simply, a smile on her face as the general and his companions observed the five guests.
Admittedly, Hood knew it would be a bit absurd to allow these people to take part in an operation which would certainly involve bloodshed, especially considering most of them merely had civilian status at the moment. But, upon careful evaluation of the five, their desire to see this problem dealt with, and the fact that some of them had experience on the field...
He paused his train of thought as Captain Mitchell spoke to him. "General? I read up on the Fowleys' files when we recovered Mrs. Jasmine here, they provided service in their early careers." He smirked to the pilot sisters as he finished adding his say. "And to be frank, we need more people like them here. The records we have of them showed them to be damn fine pilots."
Tina blushed at the praise from Mitchell as she spoke to the general. "That is true, we uh... did get discharged for our... 'fancy maneuvering'."
"Sir?" Jasmine said, the general's attention on her as she added to the conversation. "Even if our flying is a bit out of protocol, Tina saved a lot of people on that starjet a few days back. I can promise you, she's an excellent woman to have at the wheel."
Glancing to Wade again, Hood took in his face, one of begging desperation as he spoke once more. "Please, Sir. My brother, the troops he brought from the Coalition, Halloway's gotten them all killed cause of this. I want to do this. I HAVE to do this, at least for them."
The good general took a deep, quiet breath, considering his decision once more before finally revealing it to Wade and his friends. "Mr. Carter, Fowleys? I'm probably making myself a fool for saying this, but you're permitted to assist us in this mission."
The drone couple contained their gratefulness in the form of ecstatic grins as Wade replied to the general. "Thanks, General. We won't let you down."
"And Mrs. Lee?" Hood said as he glanced to F, who returned the gesture as he told her, "You're technically under Mr. Jenson's authority, whatever his answer is, it's mine as well."
Bringing her yellow-orange eyes to her CEO, F awaited Mr. Jenson's answer. "F, yes? I heard Mr. Hood call you by a different name just now, I assume you have some experience with the army?"
The warrior drone nodded as she explained herself. "I once inherited the name of Felicity Lee, Mr. Jenson. I served under the USN Defense Forces before joining the DD Division." Then, glancing to the military staff near her, she finished with, "I had hoped to provide my enhancements to the Force one day."
Jenson gave a hint of a proud smile as he finally gave his decision. "Well, it seems you'll finally get that chance. From now on, even after this mission on Earth is over with, you're hereby dispatched to serve under the USN."
F admittedly couldn't hide her excited smirk as she flung a salute to her now former boss. "Thank you Sir!"
Looking up to Jenson, General Hood asked the CEO, "Mr. Jenson, how long until your ships can reach Earth?"
Jenson glanced down at his communication console as he answered the military leader. "At max speed, their Ion drives should be able to bring them into orbit in as little as one to two days. I believe there should be some ships within the system that could help as well."
"Signal them when you can, Mr. Jenson. We could use all the help we can get from them." The CEO nodded to Hood as he stood firmly to the viewer, the general turning to face Wade and his colleagues. "And Mr. Carter? We'll be mobilizing our forces immediately after this meeting concludes. It'll be a minute, but I want you to gather whatever items and belongings you'll need for this operation. Be ready to head to the flight pads in no more than three hours."
"Understood Sir!" Wade said with a salute, Tina, Jasmine and Nathan giving their own as Jasmine raised a finger.
"What about the area around the lab? That place looks like it's in the middle of the city."
J raised a finger as she told Jasmine and the others about their resolution of the civilian obstacle. "Shortly after reporting our findings on the transmission, Hood told us that they were sending in some teams to clear out the civilian population within several miles of the facility. Once we get there, it should be of no concern."
Jasmine sighed in relief as Tina spoke up. "So the people should be safe from any sort of danger?"
"Correct, Mrs. Tina." Preston answered before continuing. "Given the resistance Halloway and his men showed during the Coalition's raid, they most certainly won't hold back there."
"One more thing, Sir." Nathan asked. "The Coalition's going to help us out with this too, right?"
"You can count on it, Mr. Nathan." The Vickers' captain replied as he looked to J, then to Jenson as he spoke further. "I met the leader of the Coalition's detachment working with us when I was introduced to J and Mrs. Elliott here, they intend to see this conflict finished. I highly doubt they're willing to sit back and let us do this by ourselves."
"And their help will be much appreciated." Hood added, everyone's attention returned to him as he looked to Tessa, curious eyes scanning her holographic form. "And Mrs. Elliott, if I may. Do you mind heading down here to assist us in our investigations later on?"
"Funny you say that, General. I'm almost done with my own snooping around on the JCJ up in orbit, Cyn has some small departments of hers aboard, and I thought I'd gather some more intel before coming down." Glancing to Mr. Jenson, she saw him giving an understanding nod before returning her gaze to the military staff. "I should be down there by the evening, judging by where you're located."
"Do what you must, Mrs. Elliott. We could use whatever you find." Hood replied firmly as he turned once more to the JCJenson CEO. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Jenson. We will get to the bottom of this."
"It's my pleasure, General." Glancing to J and Tessa, he spoke to them once more. "J? Contact me when you've finished with Halloway and his Administrator."
"It'll be done, Mr. Jenson." The obedient servant answered before saluting firmly, receiving a final nod from her boss before he ended the transmission.
With their off-world guest out of the way, Hood looked to Wade and his friends, J, Tessa and Captain Mitchells sharing the gaze with them as the general spoke to them in finality. "Well, you know what comes next everyone. You're all dismissed for now. And remember, landing zone by 1300."
"We'll be there Sir." Wade said with a nod as he and his friends stood up, pushing in their chairs before making their way out to the door.
As they neared it, Wade stopped for a moment as they heard Hood call to one of his friends. "And F?" The soldier drone looked to the general as he continued. "Before we depart, would you mind changing your uniform? I believe it could help with identifying you from the other disassembly drones more easily." Glancing to J, then back to F, he finished with, "I recall hearing about the most formidable drones having clones prepared, yes?"
"Correct, Sir. I'll stop by the nearest barracks while I can." F replied before turning back to the door with her colleagues, Wade opening the door for them all as they passed through. After them, Wade passed through himself, shutting the door to the meeting room as he returned to the lobby.
Walking about together, F spoke to Wade and the others. "Well, that went smoothly. I'll be heading down to the barracks, then head over to your place to help out."
"Actually," Wade replied, raising a finger up as he asked his fellow murder drone, "You think you could bring your friends over? We could get to know each other while we're getting ready."
F glanced to Nathan with a smile before returning her eyes to Wade. "I could see about that. You're gonna like them, I can promise you that."
Taking Tina's hand, Wade walked with his girlfriend alongside Jasmine and the others, nearing the hallway they came through as they prepared for the walk back to the apartment.

I fell into the clutches of the government about 10 months ago when I lost my job as a florist, and my job provider signed me up for a traineeship in aged care because they are desperate for workers right now - I wasn't able to say no without losing my payments because it's paid work. I'm currently doing a traineeship as a personal carer and I absolutely hate it. Not only do I do 3 overnight shifts in an aged care centre a week, I'm also looking after 32 residents by myself as a new trainee and most have dementia and behavioural problems. The RNs are either sleeping on their shift on a different floor or are nowhere to be found - and ringing them on their phone gets me nowhere. The people I take over from at 10pm never do their work and I end up having to finish their pad changes while they have been sitting on their phones waiting to go home for the last half hour. My float, who does breaks and is meant to help out on different floors when it gets busy, gets argumentative towards me after I call every floor to find them, because they don't want to carry an internal phone with them all night long and then tells me that other staff need them more. Then I find out they hang out on the least busy ward.
When working, I also have various residents who, after going to the toilet, want me to "dig in" as deep as possible when wiping them and get abusive if I don't (I don't! At $20/hr overnight I don't get paid enough to do that - and it's gross!!) and start crying because they didn't get their way. Others lunge themselves out of bed and have falls and it's my fault because I was on that floor, I've had residents punch me because they didn't want their pad changed, verbally abuse me for no apparant reason. That's the dementia, i understand that, but it still hurts. we've got one sleaze that comes out every hour on the hour to check the time and makes a pass at me. He hasn't showered in over a week because he gets aggressive and every time I see him in the middle of the night his teeth are bleeding - quite honestly, I get quite scared up there by myself on occasions. I've tried telling management, but HR doesn't want to listen, because they've got their person to work up there and that's that.
I've also tried to take 3 days off after 10 straight months of working 3 overnight shifts a week, gave them 6 weeks notice and got told they have to work it all out first and they'll give me a call back - it will probably get denied. I tried to take a day off once before with 2 weeks notice because a friend came to visit from overseas that I hadn't seen in close to 20 years, got approved, and on the day they called me and asked me why I'm not at work. They are absolutely useless.
I feel like I'm stuck in a nightmare and nobody on the outside wants to believe me. This company prides itself for being a 5 star facility and I'm about to join a union because of them. I also don't trust the trusted person we got a contact for as she works in HR as well. They exist to look after the company, not the staff.
This is why I'm looking for different work now, and am quite keen to go into veterinary nursing. I feel like it would be a lot more wholesome than what I'm doing at the moment, i would have transferable skills and would also be able to find full time work (CNAs in my country only ever work part time or casual - full time is only for management).
Would anyone have any insight into this?

I'm confused between option A and B however, the correct answer is D according to the explanation. The explanation apparently says D will weaken the argument. The disparity in the wages of female and male labourers is on the basis of the extent of physical labour they do. Isn't option D contradicting the main idea?

I saw this question in Ask Reddit and it reminded me of an incident. This was back in 2009 or 2010. The civil war had just ended and there were lots of foreigners who had come to Nepal to work on the peace process. I was just a teenager at the time, just graduated high school, but found a job as a paid intern at an INGO.
Most of the foreigners at this INGO were very young, like 20s and 30s and to me it seemed like they got the job just because they were foreigners. They didn't know anything about Nepal or the peace process and were very incompetent. But they were getting paid lots and lots of money.
I used to hang out with these guys after work and we would go to some bars and restaurants. At first they tried to hit on me too but when they realized my age, they kind of stopped. But one day, I was talking to this older guy, I think he was in his 40s or 50s. He was very drunk but he told me that he would share a secret with me. I said okay thinking its some stupid innocent secret but he started to tell me about how he had just joined humanitarian field so that he could travel to poor countries like Nepal and fuck all the girls here. He told me that he loved Asia because Asian girls are very small and as a six feet plus guy he loved to fuck these girls with their legs in the air. I remember this distinctly because he specifically mentioned how much liked to see their legs up and how they would scream with mix of pain and pleasure. He already had like three-four young Nepali girls that he was fucking regularly and had promised each of them to take them to US. I suspect that this is true about a lot of INGO workers here.
This guy was like one of the top guys of the INGO and he said that there were many other guys like him. They had an informal group where they talked about girls in countries like Nepal and how to pick them up, what to promise them, etc. He also said he loved Asia and especially Nepal because most girls here are clean while in places like Africa there is a chance that you might get diseases like AIDS.
It was one of the most fucked up things I had ever heard. Thankfully I didn't have to interact with him much and I avoided that guy after that conversation. I don't think he even remembered telling me this.
So what is the most fucked up secret someone has told you?

I am in need of suggestions on the best approach on auto insurance for our 22 year old live-out nanny. The nanny has no history of accidents or tickets but has only been driving since age 18. We are in Indiana.
-The nanny is a W2 employee and we have an employer ID. I doubt it matters but we carry a workers compensation policy for her through the local farm bureau.
-We have two vehicles, a Toyota and a Lexus. The nanny drives the Toyota 1-2x per week. She does not ever drive the Lexus.
-I am currently with USAA. Adding such a young driver to our policy very significantly raises our rates. USAA has no mechanism to exclude the nanny from driving the Lexus.
-We explored lowering our liability limits and adding an umbrella. It did not provide any savings.
-The nanny only carries state minimum coverage on her own vehicle and the vehicle is in her parents name. I am concerned about our liability if she had an accident while driving on the job.
Right now I don't see a better option than just paying the higher rates to have her on our policy. I'm not an expert on property/casualty though so I'm wondering if there are other options I should be exploring. For example, should I look at a commercial auto policy? Split the Toyota off to a different carrier and only add her to that policy so the rates on the Lexus don't skyrocket? Pay for her to increase the liability limits on her personal vehicle instead of having her drive our vehicle?
Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

Hey guys, this is a long rant... I (21F) moved to Freo last year and struggled to find a minimal wage job for months, I finally got accepted as a foh for a cafe in Freo...worked there for 3 months and until they ghosted me one day.
What happened at first was they stopped rostering me on the next week's shifts. I texted my "boss" asking about it but he never replied to me. The next week, I was removed from the business roster completey. I was dreading that it was a mistake, because I really needed money. So I went there in person (because he never responded to my attempt to contact him), to ask why I wasn't getting any shifts. With a blank stare, he looked at me and said "Well I gave you time to look for another job". ?????.
First of all, he never told me I was fired prior to all this. Wdym he gave me time to look for another job when I didn't even know I was fired. I asked him for a reason, he said I wasn't improving, I was slow on the register, made mistakes, and my attitude isn't good to customers (even though I was complimented by 4 seperate ladies about my smile and bubbly presence). He compared me to another co worker (who worked there for 3 years) bcs I wasn't up to her level. He shrugged and shooed me away.
Sure, I accept the criticism, and they're very good reason to sack someone. My complaint is that he never ever voiced any complaints towards my work ethic or gave me notice. Never yelled at me, never told me to do better during my shifts, never told me to get my shit together before ghosting me out of the blue. Normally, an employer should give an employee a warning first? I asked my former co-workers there about it, and they were just as confused as I am. While they're standing and talking, I clean tables, wash dishes, polishing cutlery, and scrubbed the cafe. If my work was unsatisfactory, they should've at least given me 1 warning. Went from getting paid award rates to suddenly jobless, I was unprepared and couldn't pay for necessities afterwards.
I'm not the first person that this happened to. During my 3 months of employment there, he already did this to 2 other people. I tried contacting Fair Work, but I was ineligible to apply for unfair dismissal (because I was a casual). I think about it everyday and it still mortifies me.
I'm sorry for the long rant.

Context: my husband (36m) and I (41m) are from Virginia. We are living and working in AZ and are on a 2 week trip home. Both my parents and his parents are also here in VA. We all live in the same area, but husband and I, as well as his parents are currently employed in AZ. The town he and his parents are from in VA is about 45 minutes from the town my parents and I are from - same area, neighboring towns. So we are essentially on a 2 week vacation to be home and visit family and friends. With our jobs, we only get two trips a year to come home. Next one will be Christmas.
A good friend from AZ decided to spend a week with us because she had never been to East Coast and we invited her - a very close friend to my husband and I for the past 3 years. After spending several days with the MIL, our friend (she is a dear friend to my husband and me both) has decided she REALLY does not like my MIL. She explained it yesterday as my MIL constantly making comments about what she was wearing, what she was eating, her makeup, repetitively suggesting sunscreen while in the sun (only because my MIL recently had a scare with basal cell carcinoma) and actually got tearful talking about it to me. There were multiple other comments she cited, that to me seems rather trivial. My MIL can be borderline annoying. She tends to tell the same stories and repeat herself many, many times. And she's pretty forward with her suggestions on many things. After 16 years, I just ignore it - not that it ever really bothered me in the first place. It's just her personality. She is a chatty lady, never rude or condescending, but she certainly loves to talk a lot. But on the other hand, I can see how it would really irritate others. The 10th time she's told you about how they cut the basal cell carcinoma off her leg and how she's keeping her skin covered and sunscreen on to prevent sun exposure - yeah, it doesn't even phase me at all, but apparently it's like nails on a chalkboard to some. I honestly thought it was just minor annoyances adding up until my friend explained yesterday that it made her feel like my MIL was calling her out for being brown (we are all white and our friend is Navajo). To be clear, my husband, in-laws and I all live and work on the Navajo reservation and have for many years. I do not think my MIL did or ever would say anything racially charged because I don't think she has those thoughts - none of us think like that at all. Regardless of what I think or know, this is how my friend interpreted it. For reference, she and I are staying with my parents, who are a whole different speed and she loves them and spending time here.
Today, we had to take my husband to his parents and plans were known that our friend and I were going out to get pedicures. My MIL loves pedicures and more than that, just loves being around people. My FIL and husband were doing a lot of farm work today, essentially leaving my MIL to be at home all day alone.
When we got there, my MIL was dressed, hair done and ready to go with us. Our friend had said enough that I knew this was not a situation I could diffuse. Nor do I think it is my place to intervene. Our friend never said anything to my MIL about how badly her comments bothered her because she doesn't want to make an issue of it. She just does not want to be around her.
I feel so caught in the middle, dancing the fence and feel like I was forced to choose a side by ditching my MIL - a position I despise being in. I just told my MIL that we were going bar-hopping after pedicure, which was a lie but she is a 100% non-drinker and I knew she wouldn't go if she thought that is what we were doing. It worked and she didn't go.
If it were me, by myself, I would never in a million years have just left her sitting by herself if I knew she wanted to go somewhere with me. The guilt today has been unbearable and I've been a bit tearful over the whole thing. Fighting back the tears in public is embarrassing AF, y'all. I love my in-laws dearly and would bend over backwards for them any day of the week. I've gotten multiple texts from my husband about how sad my MIL has been today because we left her there alone. He took her out for lunch after we ditched her and she told him that we saw her as a 3rd wheel and it made her sad and honestly, my MIL is NOT the "sad type". I've never saw her sad in the 16 years I've been around her, other than after her mother died. I.e., for her, sad isn't even in her vocabulary. I can't and won't tell my husband that our friend is the reason I didn't take my MIL out today because I'm afraid that would turn the whole situation nuclear and cause more friction and volatility amongst everyone and I also don't feel like it's my place to speak on our friend's behalf. I also don't want to cram two women in a car, one of whom can't stand the other one and not knowing if my MIL would make more comments to my friend that would make her uncomfortable. I could see how upset my MIL was in her face before we left. I immediately told our friend how horrifically guilty and terrible I felt for leaving her alone before we pulled out of the driveway because I knew how much she was looking forward to getting out of the house with us today and how much getting ditched by us would hurt her. I was really hoping our friend would backstep and agree to my MIL going with us. She just told me "thank you for not inviting her, I don't think I could handle it anymore". To beat it all, my husband is staying with his parents because there's a lot of upkeep needing to be done at their place and I really kinda miss my husband a lot, but seeing him would require our friend to be around my MIL and that won't fly. My husband also feels like I don't want to be around him and his family, now. However, we are the ones who invited our friend here and I certainly wouldn't feel right about ditching our friend to go see my husband either. I generally try to be very conscientious about others and go out of my way to ensure everyone is comfortable, happy and having a good time. But this entire situation is completely untenable.
I drop the friend off at the airport on Weds to fly back to AZ, the husband and in-laws leave to drive back to AZ on Thurs (I'm following a few days after) so this whole horrible mess will be over with then. I loath and hate this entire situation. I feel angry with our friend for putting me in this situation, but also was never present when my MIL made whatever comments she made. Or perhaps I was present and literally nobody paid attention because we all know my MIL and sometimes we just let her talking go in one ear and out the other. I feel like and I want to say our friend is over exaggerating, but I can't because I didn't hear or do not remember what my MIL said to our friend. And especially if she feels like she is being attacked based on her race or culture. I'm not touching that with someone else's 10-foot pole. I'm again going to reiterate how horrible and what a shitty human being I feel like for ditching my MIL today, knowing how badly it would hurt her feelings and how badly I hated doing it. Also reiterating that neither my MIL, nor any of us are racist and our friend is the same race and culture as the people we've been working with, working for and living amongst for the better part of 5 years now. If someone had ever told me they thought my MIL was racist, well...I don't know what I would do, but I can guarantee I wouldn't have felt guilty about leaving her today. Plus, I've spent enough time around her that I'm pretty sure I'd know if she were racist by now. I just have one more day to dance this dance and I can deal with the fallout later when everyone has more distance between them. I have no idea if I'm actually going to tell my husband and MIL all of this later, but saying anything now with emotions raw seems like a treacherous and flammable experiment. I'll just take the blame and play middle-man for now.
AITAH for ditching my MIL?

Situation 1: Michelle, an international student, will be studying in Hualien County to obtain her degree and hopes to gain a better understanding of the National Health Insurance.
Q1: How and when can I obtain the NHI (National Health Insurance) card? A1: NHI stands for National Health Insurance, which is necessary for all individuals living in Taiwan. Of course, the process of obtaining NHI depends on your residency status as a foreigner living in Taiwan. Let's break down how and when you can get NHI!
Foreign Students If you've come to Taiwan to study at a university, getting NHI is quite straightforward. It's important to remember that foreigners can obtain NHI only after living continuously in Taiwan for six months on an ARC (Alien Resident Certificate), but you are allowed to leave the country once for up to 30 days during this 6-month period. After these six months, your university will collect insurance fees for each semester upon registration. As a student, you'll only need to pay the insurance fee, which is 826 NTD as of 2024, and then wait for notification from the university that your card is ready for collection. Insurance fees are collected from September to February in the first semester and from March to August in the second semester.
International students can be employed part-time in Taiwan. In this case, students with a steady part-time job should be registered in the program as employees through their employers. Don't forget to inform your university about this. The university will reimburse you a portion of the insurance fee you've already paid.
If you are seasonally employed, meaning you are a full-time student who only works during summer and winter vacations for fewer than 3 months and returns to school when classes resume, you do not need to change your enrollment status during the period of employment.
Foreign Workers A foreign worker must be registered in the National Health Insurance Program from the first day of employment. Therefore, those working in Taiwan are not subject to the six-month waiting period. Your employer should register you and be responsible for paying your insurance (formerly known as the "insurance registration organization").
If you're a company chairperson or owner, you need to set up your own insurance registration unit. If you have another primary job, you can be insured through that company or agency without enrolling as a responsible person.
If you're employed but don't have a fixed employer, like being a member of an occupational union, a farmers' or fishermen's association, or are actively involved in farming or fishing, you should enroll in the National Health Insurance through your respective union or association.
If you are working two jobs at the same time, then you should be registered in the NHI program through your main employer. Your main employer is the one where you work more hours; if the hours are similar, then income can be the deciding factor.
Unemployed foreigners If you are unemployed and qualify as a dependent, you should be registered in the NHI program through your employed spouse or direct blood relatives.
If you cannot be enrolled through your spouse or direct blood relatives, you are required to enroll in the program at the local administrative office where your household is registered, under the identity of a "regional citizen."
If you are an unemployed veteran or a dependent of a deceased veteran, then you can enroll in the program through the administrative office where your household is registered under the identity of "veteran."
For more information, please feel free to ask or refer to the NHI handbook (click the specific link below).
Q2: What medical services are covered by the NHI? A2: The National Health Insurance (NHI) in Taiwan covers a wide range of medical services, such as: Outpatient services Inpatient services Emergency care Surgery Laboratory tests Prescription drugs Dental care Mental health services Traditional Chinese Medicine Rehabilitation services The medical payments include diagnosis, assessment, laboratory tests, consultations, surgical procedures, anesthesia, prescriptions, supplies, therapies, nursing care, and covered hospital accommodations. Essentially, all essential healthcare services are included in the system.
Q3: How can I understand the cost of services under NHI in advance? A3: Under Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI), patients are required to make co-payments for medical services, including hospital visits, outpatient care, prescription drugs, and various medical procedures.
Let's see a breakdown of typical co-payments for various medical services under NHI! Visiting a hospital or clinic with a referral: Co-payment for Medical Center with referral is fixed at 170 NTD. For Regional Hospital it is 100 NTD. For District Hospital it is 50 NTD. And for Clinic it is 50 NTD. Visiting a hospital directly without a referral costs more: Co-payment for Medical Center without referral is fixed at 420 NTD. For Regional Hospital it is 240 NTD. For District Hospital it is 80 NTD. And for Clinic co-payment remains fixed at 50 NTD. For visiting dentist and traditional Chinese clinics, the co-payment is fixed at 50 NTD regardless of the level of medical institution.
Important to know For patients with a disability identification, the basic co-payment is charged at the Clinic rate (NT$50) regardless of the level of medical institution visited by the patient.
The following situations are regarded as visits with referral: Follow-up visits within one month of a medical visit with a referral sheet, limited to a maximum of four times. The first follow-up visit after outpatient surgery, emergency surgery, or discharge from the hospital. The first follow-up visit within six weeks after childbirth. Therefore, the co-payment for such visits is charged according to the standards of medical visits with referral, and hospitals may issue relevant certificates for patients. During a course of treatment, patients only need to pay the co-payment for their initial visit (excluding rehabilitative physical therapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine traumatology).
Emergency Care Co-payment Standard: Medical Center: 740 NTD Regional Hospital: 400 NTD District Hospital: 150 NTD Clinic: 150 NTD Near-poor Households/Individuals with Disabilities: Medical Center: 550 NTD Regional Hospital: 300 NTD District Hospital: 150 NTD Clinic: 150 NTD
Co-payment cost for outpatient prescribed drugs
Regular prescriptions: If the cost of the medication is equal to or less than 100 NTD: In Clinics and District Hospitals: Patients are exempt from co-payment (no co-payment). In Regional Hospitals and Medical Centers: The co-payment is 10 NTD. If the cost of the medication is equal to or greater than 101 NTD:
In all levels of medical institutions, an additional 20% will be charged for every 100 NTD. For example, if the price of medication is in the 101-200 NTD range, then the co-payment is 20 NTD; if in the 201-300 NTD range, then the co-payment is 40 NTD. In Clinics and District Hospitals: If the medication cost starts from 1001 NTD, the upper limit for co-payment is reached, and the co-payment is fixed at 200 NTD. In Regional Hospitals and Medical Centers: If the medication cost is in the range from 1001-1500 NTD, the co-payment is fixed at 200 NTD.If the medication cost starts from 1501 NTD, the upper limit of co-payment is reached at 300 NTD.
Refillable prescriptions: In Clinics: Patients are exempted from the co-payment. In District Hospitals, Regional Hospitals, and Medical Centers: The first time filling a refillable prescription follows the same rules as outlined above for regular prescriptions. From the second refill onwards, patients are exempted from the co-payment.
Important to know For Traditional Chinese medication co-payment, the same system as that of Clinics is used. Costs under 100 NTD are exempt; for costs equal to or greater than 101 NTD, an additional 20% will be charged for every 100 NTD. At Dental Clinics, outpatient prescription drug expenses are exempted from co-payment. Emergency Care Prescription: For Clinics and District Hospitals: 150 NTD For Regional Hospitals: 400 NTD. For Medical Centers: 750 NTD. I hope now you have a better understanding of how to calculate the cost of medical services under NHI. Feel free to ask more questions or refer to this webpage (click the specific link below).
Q4: What services are completely free under NHI? A4: With NHI, you can access a wide range of medical services at very affordable prices, and some services are fully covered! However, it's always a good idea to ask your doctor or a consultant at the hospital/clinic about which services will be covered.
Let's break down what kind of services can be fully covered under NHI: Basic Medical Examinations: These are routine tests to check your health, like measuring blood pressure, checking cholesterol levels, and assessing kidney function through urine tests. Preventive Services like Vaccinations and Screenings: This includes vaccines to protect against diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as screenings for diseases like cancer or diabetes. These screenings aim to catch health problems early for easier treatment. Essential Surgeries: These surgeries are necessary to treat a medical condition and improve health or save lives. For example, removing an appendix, fixing a broken bone, or treating a serious infection. Hospital Stays in General Rooms: This means staying in a hospital room shared with other patients (one room with 3 beds or more) and having basic facilities. General rooms provide standard care for conditions that don't require intensive monitoring or specialized equipment. Some Prescription Medications: Certain medicines prescribed by doctors are fully covered by NHI, so patients can get them from the pharmacy without paying anything. These often include essential medications for common conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and infections. Medications with a cost below 100 NTD will be fully covered or will require a 10 NTD co-payment. Dental care: Most medications prescribed by dentists are fully covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI). However, it's important to note that full-mouth anesthesia is not covered. Also, you have the right to receive two dental cleanings per year fully covered, allowing the general public to get dental calculus removal. People with tooth decay may be eligible, depending on a dentist's evaluation, for fluoride varnish treatment. As long as the cavity does not reach the pulp (where the tooth's nerves and blood vessels are located), it can be fully covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI). Generally, the National Health Insurance (NHI) will cover the extraction of wisdom teeth, supernumerary teeth, and impacted teeth. However, extractions for corrective purposes (teeth that are intact and without decay problems) will not be covered by NHI.
Medical expenses in Taiwan are relatively inexpensive, so don't worry about spending a lot of money when seeing a doctor. Therefore, don't be afraid to go to the hospital.
Q5: In which hospitals can I utilize NHI services, specifically at Hualien hospitals? A5: Here is the list of hospitals in Hualien in Chinese (the English version will be posted and updated later). But if we talk about the most popular hospitals in Hualien where you can definitely get assistance in English, then we can list these hospitals: Mennonite Christian Hospital Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital Hualien Hospital Smiles-Dental
Q6: Is it possible to receive NHI consultation in English? A6: Yes! It is possible to receive NHI consultation in English! The back of the NHI card has a hotline number for inquiries: 0800-030-598, or by mobile phone call 02-412-8678. Calling the number is free of charge.

Hey, so I'm in a weird position and can't make a decision no matter how much I think about it. So I'll be honest.
I got laid off from my previous job a month ago due to lack of work with the promise to call me when things got busy again, since then I found another job (been there for almost 2 weeks) as I 1. Obviously need money 2. Couldn't wait for something I didn't believe would come as I believed I was laid off for putting my boss in her place for wrongly (truely wrong, not the I believe I'm in the right so I'm right kind of wrong) accusing me of "abusing" her during a meeting when I barely raised my voice/cursed or said or did anything that would be inappropriate in a professional setting. Regardless of the menial details I believed it was a very convenient reason to lay me off for lack of work because after that happened I was laid off the day after. before anyone says wrongful dismissal it doesn't matter due to the nature of the job I already looked into it
Then I got a call asking if I would want to come back as a casual. Here's a few things I'm struggling with that is impacting my decision.

1. They are hiring for multiple casual positions. Why? If you're hiring more than one casual why wouldn't you just hire me back as a casual and see if I can get my full time job back? I understand securing work for the employees who still have a FT job but still it doesn't make sense to me.

2a. After a call with my previous boss addressing my concerns they could not say if I would get priority over shifts. For example if only 1 person was needed would I get the shift automatically since I worked there for 3 years previously.
2b. I also asked how many shifts for the foreseeable future in general is expected. They said every day they could have people. That isn't an answer though. Will my hours be made to be just under the limit to be rehired as a full time worker? Would that happen due to my previous suspicions as to why I believe was laid off? Is the intention to actually rehire me or use me for my knowledge and capability that I have for the job?

1. The. Money. Right now where I work I make 18$/h 9-5 and have no benifits which I need and I've been looking for another job currently for that reason. I have health issues and generally can spend anywhere from 200-300$ month if it's a bad month. The job I had I made 21$ an hour with benefits (yes I know I wouldn't get benefits until full time but the pay increase is the issue) and the job is unpredictable so it's a minimum of 9hrs a day, there were days when we would do up to 12 hours though it would probably be up to 10.5 depending on how much we want to work.

4a. I hate where I work now. It's so menial and I come home honestly depressed/angry about it some days, yes I haven't been working there long but that should say something about it. The main boss truely could sell an igloo to an Eskimo with how good he pitched the job compared to how it actually is.
4b. I loved where I worked. The people were great both the customers and my coworkers. Me and one coworker honestly would get into it often but I miss the job. It also helped that I could occasionally get free things.

1. I am much more active where I work currently and I've been working on losing weight. I barely have any time to sit down which obviously helps with steps for losing weight.
   
2. Am I going to get fucked over? It got pretty slow before I got laid off.. even though there's a decent amount right now who's to say it won't again?
   
3. I am currently on ei which I applied for immediately after I got laid off. I didn't get paid out much due to extra vacation that got paid out. But will I lose it if I quit my job now even if it's to pursue another? I was told to keep my ei going when I got the job "just in case the job isn't a for sure thing for 6 weeks" which can be interpreted in different ways.
   

It was mentioned that we would have another talk tomorrow about my decision and about a question I had about how many days the current amount of jobs would be generally good for considering past jobs. Since I'm not a dick and would just get up and leave a job I was recently hired on without giving the chance to have a replacement...However....
As you can see there are good and bad sides to both options. There's probably some things I'm missing but my head is in shambles trying to decide but those are the main points I can think of. Regardless you can clearly see I really am struggling between not only the security of the job I have/what I'm being offered and the fact that I am working towards finding something better so the opportunity for what I had is tempting, the money between the two, the opportunity for benifits, and more so please give me your honest opinion.
So if you did take the time to read all of this thank you. Whether you decide to comment or not. I do understand ultimately this is my choice above anything but I want the true opinion of those who aren't biased so please let me know what you think without holding anything back.
Thank you for your time and hope you have a good day/night

So let me tell yall about this job I was working at before I made the ultimate decision to leave. Bare with me because it’s a long ride…
So for starters, I was working at a daycare not long ago, it wasn't too bad. The job itself was good and the pay wasn't so bad either. I'd work 80-90 hrs bi weekly. So l'd get paid biweekly but my Manager? OOUUUUU she is just, idk how to explain it. Shes just one of those managers who believes she’s above everyone including her employees. My coworkers? Worse. They all literally compete against each other. It’s weird asf if you ask me. I was a teacher aid. At the end of the day, teacheteacher aid. We’re all getting paid the same and working the same hours (besides part timers) nevermind the fact, The amount of incidents that occur in the center is ABSURD.
So if you know Florida, you know Florida is hot AS FUCK ALL YEAR ROUND (majority of the time) a parent comes to pick up their child in the classroom and the child isn't present and they not checked out on the CSR (Child Supervision Report) To better explain, Anytime a child leaves we have to mark the time they left on the paper. So basically, for better understanding… Arrival times and departure times. Including if they were moved to a different classroom also if we take children outside. That is also marked on the CSR. CSR’s also have something called “Name-to-face” which has hourly times where us as the teachers or teacher aids have to mark the minute within the hour so for example: 12PM so for that we would check the time once it’s 12PM and then add the minute which for example would be: 12:43. After we do that we have to check every child off that they are still in the classroom within that time. At the bottom we have to count the amount of children and the amount of teachers and initial at the bottom. It’s basically to help teachers keep track of when children leave or if a child is missing. Well, said child isn't checked out on the CSR. parent goes crazy trying to figure out where kid is because no one else picks child up besides parents. Turns out the kid is outside on the playground sleeping. IN THE HEAT, So parent goes to my boss and goes completely bazurk. Which I don't blame them. Parent mentions how they are worried about the child maybe having had a heat stroke and that’s maybe why they are on the playground sleeping but that’s what the CSR is for.
Another kid, in the toddler Classroom. Probably the cutest child. Little Cuban/Puerto Rican baby if I’m not wrong.I kid you not, that child HAS STACKS ON TOP OF STACKS ON TOP OF STACKS of incident reports from them biting kids. Child bit a another child in their sleep. When parents were told about the behavior they looked at us and literally laughed and said "well my child is being provoked to act that way” PROVOKED BUT THEY WAS SLEEPING? manager wouldn’t kick them out the center but was quit to kick another child out for hitting another child ONCE. Should I also add that this specific child had to be put in a classroom with the same gender be they attack the other gender. Not to mention, some of the teacher (not myself included) be spanking the child who likes to bite. My boss has no idea but I have indeed seen it first hand and may I add that obviously us as the teachers aren’t supposed to be hitting and or spanking but…. NOBODY and I mean nobody wants to deal with said child. Everyone refuses to be in the classroom with that child. May I also mention that the spanking includes pulling their ear, pulling their hair, pushing them on the ground and pinching their body.
One of coworkers, has a medical condition apparently but long story short, coworker falls asleep very easily. You can be talking to them about something important and they are literally ASLEEP. Coworker was in the infant classroom with me and was rocking one of the babies to sleep. Coworker started falling asleep so l asked them politely to hand me the baby. They refused so I said "whatever if they get in trouble that's on them” sure enough they dropped the baby on their head. A 3WEEK OLD BABY. Causing the soft spot to become misplaced. Now said coworker has an open court case for that with the family and they're trying to sue the center for neglect.
My daughter came to work with me one day. While being there she did good but a child slapped her straight in her face and that was enough for me to say "yeah she's never coming back" and she hasn't since. I never told my boss about it because even then, what would be done? Nothing but an incident report would be written. Also, while on the playground. My daughter was trying to reach the water and couldn’t. For those who don’t already know, my daughter is a little person so she often times needs assistance. She was standing there for I KID YOU NOT, 15 mins waiting on said teacher to help her reach the water. Teacher was standing around gossiping with other teachers. That was a red flag for me.
The worse thing about it is, it's said to be a learning center right???? Well sad to tell you but they do no actual curriculum with the kids, kids sit in a classroom majority of the time playing with broken toys or toys that are missing pieces. Fight with one another or sleep. They eat lunch and snack and other stuff but they only go outside twice a day for 30 mins. They (the teachers) have a whole book to read from and figure out curriculum but they don't do it so most the time the kids are over stimulated being locked up inside. They're also supposed to potty train the kids but NOPE, not even that. There are 4-5 year olds in the center who still wear diapers. It's crazy honestly. I’ve never seen more lazy and neglectful workers A DAY IN MY LIFE. Diapers are supposed to be changed every two hours but they don’t check them or change them accordingly. Children have gotten back to back rashes due to the neglect of diaper changes.
Now about my boss, her son, he is the absolute cutest being ever. He's literally a chunky monkey. We all call him Babybear, chunks or chunka monks. Unfortunately, he has a lot of medical conditions so my boss is constantly in and out of the center but when she is in the center she does NOTHING all day besides yell at us or sit at her desk on her phone. Not engaging with parents, not helping out in the kitchen, NOT NOTHING. Just on her phone on TikTok or Instagram or on FaceTime and this is facts because I have indeed seen it while on my lunch break.
There was an incident that occurred while I was on the clock with the preschool kids. I was outside with them on the playground. I was helping a child pour water into the cup and another kid was on the playground on the slide. I hear crying so I turn around to see who it is and I notice bleeding so I run to the child to figure out what happened. Child won't tell me just only saying their mouth hurts so I call someone on the walkie to take the child up front for proper care. They take child and whatever boom, they get the care they need. I make an incident report and that's it. Anytime a child hurts themselves or they injur one another. An incident report had to be made for both parties. May I also add that our form of communication within the center is WALKIE TALKIES. NOWWW, Weeks after the incident my boss brings me into the kitchen and starts yelling at me I mean like screaming. Saying she can't trust me because I have yet to tell her what happened that day on the playground. Saying I'm an outsider to everyone within the center and I have to redeem myself to them. Anything I say to them (coworkers) will be ran back to her. I like “instigate” things with coworkers according to her. She also mentioned how she had multiple complaints about my coworkers saying that all I do my entire shift is sit in which I explained that I suffer from Vertigo. I have it written on medical papers and medication doesn’t help half the time. I sated that me sitting is me giving myself the opportunity to stop a dizzy spell from occurring and or progressing. She really just said a bunch of bullshit and that's really when I realized that I was done working there. I was being overworked for one and two, I really wasn’t appreciated so I left.
Sorry for the rant but moral of the story is…… DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO ANY KINDERCARE LEARNING CENTER AND OR WORK THERE. THEY ARE HORRIBLE, And I mean ALL of them. Keep your babies safe and yourself included stay blessed 🥹🩷

I've seen a lot of conversations about advancements in artificial intelligence, with recent conversations focusing on people losing jobs due to automation, whether it's coding, writing, art, etc. In particular, I've seen a lot of pushback against AI art on the basis of plagiarism and the fact that the market value of an actual artist goes down considerably when competing in the same market as AI. I have several major grievances with the foci of these conversations.
First of all, automation is nothing new. Tools by their nature are things that modify the ratio of input to output, similar to how a gear box increases torque. Put in X amount of work while using a tool and you should expect to see greater than X productivity. A better tool gives you a better exchange rate.
First of all, this is nothing new. We can go back to personal computers, back to early industrial technology, all the way back to looms or farming techniques from the agricultural revolution if we want to. These AI conversations have a lot of recency bias and are noteworthy only because of the nature of jobs that are able to be automated now (namely white collar jobs that involve processing information.)
The conversation that needs to happen, similar to the conversation that should have happened with the invention of all of these older tools, is what should happen with that improved efficiency. Let's look at the relevant variables here:
Worker puts X hours of work to produce Y units of productivity and is compensated in Z currency. So suppose a tool doubles the efficiency of a task:

• If Y and Z remain constant, X is cut in half so the worker's day is only half as long and they have more leisure.
• If X and Z remain constant, Y is doubled, so the worker produces twice as much, so the employer is the only benefactor of the increased efficiency.
• If X and Y remain constant, Z doubles, so the worker's hours remain the same but they're now paid twice as much.

(I'm aware that each of these examples is an extreme; you could find some split by which workers work a LITTLE less and companies are a LITTLE more productive and workers are paid a LITTLE more.)
The fact that tools change how efficient a task is throws a wrench in the Protestant work ethic which values work as a moral axiom. If work on its own is what's valuable and is not simply the means to an end (the actual work being accomplished) then you could argue that effective tools are immoral or "lazy" because less time was spent working. But I don't think anyone, including people that claim hard work is virtuous, would argue against tool use on the basis of it being more moral to work inefficiently.
So the question then becomes a moral argument of HOW tools should be utilized and WHO they are meant to benefit. I think in most cases, inventors of tools are motivated by the idea of how much easier a task could be for the people using them. The philosophy of patenting seems to support this idea; after 20 years, anyone can reap the benefits of someone's innovation. The fallacy is that many of these innovations hold no practical utility to an individual and require a prohibitive amount of infrastructure to build or operate.
Public utility regulations are a reflection that this is already understood to some extent; we allow utilities to be a (heavily regulated) monopoly because of their dependence on extensive infrastructure. However, an idea that I've never heard anyone propose is that tools the increase productivity should be treated the same way. Until there is a consensus that powerful tools should exist to benefit humanity as a whole, innovation will only ever worsen the wealth gap.
An alternate history in which workers' hourly compensation increases (or working hours decrease) with every new invention is almost unconscionable to the average person because of how far removed this is from real life, and because of how long we've been going down the path we're currently on. However, this is essentially the fantasy that is sold to us over and over as we see advertisements for how much easier modern technology can make a task. Not only do we imagine it will save the AVERAGE PERSON time and energy, but this is a vision of the future that is deliberately SOLD to us. But when those same tools are used in the workplace, WE never collect on that saved time.
So the argument that AI is "taking our jobs" is actually pretty similar to the same scapegoated arguments of immigrants or outsourcing "taking" jobs; this perspective blindly accepts the idea that we HAVE to work hard for the means to survive, and that jobs are just a natural part of the environment instead of being synthesized by employers that can arbitrarily decide what working hours or compensation are "fair."
I don't say this with the expectation that public policy will change; most people are already aware that there's a closed circuit between legislation and private interests that are the benefactors of the status quo. However, my hope is that people are able to redirect their anger in the right direction. As an example, AI art doesn't stop you from making your own art, it only impacts your quality of life if you rely on your art to provide for yourself, and THAT'S the status quo that needs to be challenged.

Not expecting any real answers or solutions here, but mostly just need to vent. I hope that's okay.
First time on the dating scene in a while. I've been on Bumble for about a month now. It's been a mostly fruitful if not entirely successful experience. Maybe 3-5 matches per day, a few ongoing conversations, a handful of dates that were fun but clearly not a great fit.
Cue to last week when I match with this girl (34F) who, at least on paper, seemed like pretty much my exact type in all facets. We strike up a conversation and it's just sooooo good. Like same style, sense of humour, taste in music/hobbies. And both with a genuine interest in the other's career. She gave me her number that first night and we picked up right where we left of the next day. Within 48 hours we'd agreed to get dinner this past weekend before we both head out on our own pre-planned vacations this week.
Ended up agreeing on a really cool Japanese restaurant on her side of town. We met up at the agreed upon time, had a great (super delicious) dinner, some really good conversation, and about 2 hours later we called it a night. Walked her to her car, gave her a hug, helped her get out of the super-tight parallel parking job she'd very skillfully gotten herself into (I asked if she wanted me to help her back out, which she gladly accepted. There certainly wasn't an implication of "You couldn't do this on your own." I think I even joked that she clearly didn't need my help, but I'm here if you need me). Anyway, I help her out, we say goodbye, then she tells me to get home safe.
I drove home feeling just on top of the world. Like feeling like I'd made a real connection, the exact sort of thing I never would've thought possible on this app. Got home, texted her to let her know I'd made it home safely, thanked her for squeezing me in before her trip, and made some callback to a joke from earlier. She texted back an hour or so later "Thanks again for a delicious dinner." Notably a bit less... bubbly/flirty than our previous texts, but I didn't think too much of it.
Anyway, texted her the next day about the NYT crossword, which we'd small-talked about over dinner. I got a very cursory response about strategy ~3-4 hours later, then a "thumbs up" and "haha" reply to my follow-ons. I sense the shift and don't push it, so just leave it there, figuring she's probably just busy getting ready for her trip.
Skip to this morning, the day of her flight. I text her again, mostly b/c I just can't help myself. "bon voyage, I hope you have a nice movie selection on your flight!" or something like that. Later get a "Thanks. Here's hopin" in reply. Nothing super cold, but just not the same vibe from earlier. Later, I just couldn't help myself and decide to give it one final shot, just to sort of know for sure. I text something like "okay, I promise I'll stop harassing you and let you enjoy your vacay, but check this out" and share my NYT crossword score, crediting her for helping me to improve my time. A few hours later, I get a "That's more like it!" reply. Again, major shift in the vibe. Like palpable. It's just very perfunctory. Clearly she's not interested in carrying on a conversation further. I know she's on vacation and really wouldn't even expect any sort of ongoing text exchange. But it seems like pre-date her would have said something like "I knew you could do it! Have a great week at work and enjoy your trip"... at minimum. My heart sinks. As new as I am to the dating scene, I'm not an idiot. I can tell there's been a shift, so I just leave it there. If it turns out that i misread the whole thing, nothing I'm going to text is going to change whatever went wrong.
So, here I am, totally gutted after just one date. But man it was such a good date! That's what is eating me alive more than anything. Like, I've been on plenty of dates where it's clear I'm not feeling it, or she's not feeling it, or neither of us are feeling it. And that's okay! That never really bothers me when it happens. But this truly wasn't that. There was not a break in conversation the entire time! We were talking about each other's families. We asked more about each other's careers and hobbies. I ended up sharing some of the details of my writing projects with her, which I really don't share with anyone! I just felt that comfortable with her and she really seemed interested. And it's all pretty innocent stuff, nothing that was super weird or kinky or political or anything that I would think would be in any way off-putting, especially considering the things we'd talked about before. Bill comes, I pay it right away without any sort of "how are we gonna do this?" moment (by orders of magnitude, the most expensive date I've ever been on, but it felt like one of those ones I would have paid double the price and still felt good about it, it was that great of a connection... or so I thought).
So now here I am, a couple days later, pretty much resigned to the fact that I was just sooo wrong about this whole thing. I mean I guess there's a possibility she's just distracted with her travel, but I mean the vibe is just sooooooo different now, I think giving myself that little bit of hope would just be delusional.
I've been around long enough to know there will be other girls, and ultimately if she just wasn't into me, then there's nothing really to be sad about anyway--it just wasn't going to work out anyway, and it's better to know that now. But I'm just soooooo shaken by how wrong I apparently was by the whole thing. Like even if there was a moment where I'd slipped up and said something dumb, or accidentally offended her, or been overly aggressive, that would be one thing. I could take that and look inward and try to correct that mistake the next time. And if it was an issue of me using old photos or super glamorous pics that look nothing like me in real life, I could see that too... but my photos are all current and real with nothing that would in anyway misrepresent the real me that was going to show up that night. But looking back on the whole night, I just don't know what I would have done different and, thinking about our conversation, still feel it was just soooooo real. And now the whole thing has me feeling just incredibly jaded about this whole dating thing. Like how am I going to be able to believe the next great connection I have with someone out there. I just don't want to do it anymore.
I know time heals all wounds, and eventually I'll just brush it off and move on. But man this really sucks :(
Anyway, thanks for coming to my SAD talk :/

I’m telling this story 3rd party as I heard this from an old high school friend, this happened about a year ago.
So my friend, Amy. Works as a service writer at a Cadillac/GMC dealership in south Florida. So this boomer wealthy couple comes in to get some warranty work done to their new Caddy. At this dealership there is a window in the waiting area where customers can see their cars getting worked on.
So the lady sees their car being driven into the service bay and saw the mechanic get out of the car, a black man with long dreadlocks. So she goes to her husband and murmurs to him something. So they both go up to the where the service writers are and walks right past my friend Amy, who did their write up for them. And straight to the boomer service writer, who is also the supervisor of the service department. I guess they thought since he was a boomer himself that he would understand their concerns. This is how it went down
Racist boomer: Is that man qualified to work on my car??
Boomer worker: yeah, he is one of our most experienced and qualified guy we have, over 20 years.
Racist boomer wife: well, I paid a lot of money for that car and I worry that he is going to get it dirty and I have some valuable things in the car I don’t want to go “missing”.
Boomer worker: well ma’am I can help you with that, I will have him pull your car out the service area and give you your keys back and you won’t be welcomed back here.
And of course the boomer husband throws a fit, and goes on about how much he spent at this dealer and demands to see the dealer ownemanger.
So in walks in the man whose name is one the building, a well dressed boomer black man. And kindly tells the couple that they are no longer welcomed at this dealer anymore and that he does not tolerate racial discrimination against his employees. Hands them the keys and tell them have a good day.

I went into my local Walmart tonight for a quick grocery trip to pick up some stuff I was low on. Quick in and out trip, 15 minutes at most. Sad to say it didn't end up being a fast trip because when I arrived at checkout, I was stuck behind a Boomer who wanted to cause a scene.
The guy in front of me was with his wife, who were arguing loudly about God knows what. They had a substantial amount of stuff on the belt, including a few large bottles of various alcohols. When the Boomer scanned his way back to the bottles of alcohol, he froze and began searching around for an associate, who I presume he wanted to come and scan his ID.
The problem was that he didn't scan any of the bottles. He just locked up and stared directly at a girl who was busy at the monitor for the Self-Checkout registers the next aisle over. After about 30 - 45 seconds of not scanning anything, he loudly shouted "Excuse me" in his most condescending tone, followed by "Can you come and scan my fucking ID please?!"
His tactic worked, as the employee in question immediately whipped around and walked over. He was doing that typical arms-crossed bullshit, looking like everything was a giant inconvenience, and I will note, homie still hadn't scanned a single bottle of alcohol yet.
When this young woman was in speaking range, the Boomer began to lay into her. "It makes me real sick to see workers just standing around when they're on the clock doing nothing when people like me have schedules to keep. Can you do your fucking job please and scan my ID?"
"Excuse me?" she responded.
"You fucking heard me. Get off your goddamn phone and scan my card so I can get the hell out of here."
Now, I would like to note a few things about this interaction up to this point. First, this individual was still in a work outfit...a mechanic's onesie for a local mom-and-pop tire company that I won't name here, but one in which I know the owner pretty well. He's a family friend. Second, he was still wearing his name tag (Eric, somehow I hope you're competent enough to find your way here so you can see this story). Because of this, I knew how to address him.
Eventually he asks the cashier very rudely if she's going to scan his ID and she flat out tells him "No, I don't think so. Not after how you've treated me. You can talk with my manager." Good for her. She gets on a walkie and calls for a manager to come to the register the Boomer was towering over and briskly walked off towards the Customer Service counter at the front of the store. The Boomer starts loudly hollering about how this is all bullshit and he's just expressing his First Amendment rights.
It was at this point where I actually found some balls and decided to give my opinion, unsolicited, just so this guy could get an outside perspective on how much of a jackass he was being. "Excuse me, but the First Amendment doesn't protect you from looking like a douche bag to random strangers in Walmart when you treat other people like shit." The guy wheeled around and locked eyes with me. "What did you just say to me?" I just smirked and said "Oh, hard of hearing are we? I'm pretty sure you heard what I said."
The guy visibly shook on the spot. "This isn't any of your fuckin' business, so butt out!"
"I disagree. When I see someone acting like an asshole for no good reason, I make it a point to speak up. You seem to think that by stating that you have a First Amendment right means you can say whatever the hell you want without consequence, but that isn't how it works, sir. First Amendment protects you from government overreach for speaking your mind, but it doesn't protect you from the consequences you face from others for your words or your opinions."
"That's besides the point. I'm sick and fucking tired of these minorities doing nothing and getting a paycheck for it." He responded, rather loudly and unaware that there were quite a few people staring at this point. Hooray. Racism has entered the chat.
The manager showed up, and he starts in on how he scanned his alcohol and that the associate in question was VERY rude to him and refused to serve him. He started stating that she told him he wouldn't get help because he was white when I interjected again.
"Ma'am, that is NOT what happened. This gentleman didn't even scan any of his alcohol and immediately started shouting down at your employee, just for the sake of being upset. He was rude, unpleasant, and even made unnecessary racial comments."
He wheeled around at me again and yelled "Shut the fuck up and mind your business!" before going on the tirade again. Something something lazy workers, something something First Amendment and speaking his mind.
"You know, this is very unfair of you." I started again. "You've put that poor girl in an unwinnable situation. Now that you've raised this untrue complaint, her manager is going to have to have words with her even though she hasn't done anything wrong. Does that sound fair to you, Eric?" I don't think he realized he was still in uniform, because he looked at me puzzled at how I knew his name. "How would YOU feel if someone came into your place of business and told John a bunch of bullshit about how YOU were treating them unfairly when you knew perfectly well that it was a lie? Or even better, how would your boss react if he knew you were acting like this WHILE STILL IN UNIFORM with his place of business plastered all over your chest?" When he heard me say the name of his boss, he stopped cold. "Yes Eric. I know John VERY well, and I think I might be paying him a visit tomorrow. That is unless you decide to apologize to that girl for being a lying prick instead."
The guy then became very rushed and suddenly in a colossal hurry. He muttered something about people not minding their own business, to which I replied with "I'm just eXpReSsInG mY FiRSt AmEnDmENt RiGHts!" Spongebob sarcastic voice and all. He scanned one of the bottles and had the manager scan his ID. His wife started in about how I better not show up to his office tomorrow...something directed at me, but I wasn't paying her any attention and brushed her off. I was just staring at Eric and watching him bag.
Eventually, he got all of his stuff put in his basket and he marched out, but he didn't apologize to the manager or the employee and gave me a hearty "Go fuck yourself, asshole!" as he flipped me off. I scanned my groceries and paid for my merchandise, but man was I smiling from ear to ear.
Afterwards, I made it a point to go and speak with the manager and the employee in the Customer Service center. As expected, the manager was having a conversation with the employee about that customer, and she thanked me for speaking up. I've worked retail before, so I know what it's like having to deal with assholes like Eric. It'd be a cold day in hell before I let a Boomer bully an employee then weasel his way into a victim role with management. Not on my fucking watch.
So now my next play is to show up to this tire shop tomorrow. I really hope Eric is there. I hope he's the opener. I'm going to walk in and just smile at him. Ask to see his manager. Then I think I'm going to go in and just weave the NICEST story about how he treated the employees at Walmart, so much so that I was compelled to stop in and tell his boss that he has a real winner on his hands, and that I'm a customer for life now.
Maybe that way, he might get a message. MAYBE, he will realize that I could have started a whole shitstorm for him, but I chose not to, because unlike him, I'm not a fucking dickhead.
tl;dr *(For the upset Boomers in this thread who don't like reading, it seems): Boomer got big mad for no reason and berated a Walmart employee while he himself was wearing his work uniform. I'll be paying his boss, a family friend, a visit tomorrow to discuss his employee's behavior while still representing his place of work.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a biogas plant is, how it works or what they're actually used for allow me to educate you. A biogas plant produces natural gas, or rather a substitute for natural gas, from fermented corn silage as well as other agricultural waste products. Farmers, such as myself, would bring in silage which we would unload into a large concrete bunker silo, basically just a big walled in pit. The plant I delivered to used a modified snowcat to push the silage around and pack it down evenly in the pit. Once one pit filled up they would tarp it and leave it to ferment and move on to the next pit. Once a pit was fully fermented they would uncover it and use a large wheel loader to shovel the fermented silage into what's called an anaerobic digester. It's basically just a big tank with an agitator that you fill up with a bunch of organic matter and heat it up which produces methane gas as the microorganisms inside begin to break everything down. This gas is then captured and can be used for basically everything natural gas is used for already but it's supposed to be better for the environment or something. These plants are way more common in Europe but they have started to pop up here in North America as well. And yes, before you ask, these places smell worse than you could possibly imagine.
I always thought it was a little bit weird that they built one way up here in Northern Alberta but since the large dairy farm I worked at pretty much always had an excess of corn silage every year, we certainly welcomed another place to sell it to especially since they're not picky. Trying to sell to another dairy farmer is always a hassle because they're always concerned with the quality, as they should be if they're feeding it to their cows, but the biogas plant basically just needs organic matter, it doesn't really matter what it is. If it can decompose you can make gas out of it.
Last fall we had an exceptionally good corn harvest to the point where we still had 4 more fields still to harvest by the time we had enough to feed the cows for the next year. As I said this isn't uncommon. When you're harvesting corn for silage you use a totally different harvester. Rather than a combine that separates out the actual corn kernels from the rest of the plant you use a forage harvester which is essentially a giant woodchipper on wheels that takes in the whole crop and shreds it up. Since corn can easily grow 10 feet high and you spread that over a few thousand acres you get a crazy high volume of silage coming in. Upon realizing how much excess we had my boss did what he always did and called up the plant who as always agreed to take in what we didn't need. The next morning rather than trucking back to the farm we were instructed to head straight over to the plant once our trailers had filled up.
I arrived with my first load at the plant around 10 am. A man wearing a high vis jacket directed me onto the large scale they used to weigh the trucks coming in and out. "Good harvest this year Jim?" The friendly old lady in the scalehouse said as she took down the weight of my loaded truck. I felt bad as I had been delivering to this plant on and off for the last 8 years I had worked on Mr. Baker's dairy farm but I couldn't remember, or I'd just never learned her name. Oh well, I certainly wasn't going to out myself now. "Well if we're delivering here you know it's a good one," I replied. "And there's plenty more where this came from." "Glad to hear it!" She smiled back at me handing me my paperwork. "Now you just head right on down to the back there and the boys will show you where to dump" "Thank you," I said taking the papers from her and putting my truck back into gear.
I pulled off the scale and made my way to the back of the plant where the big concrete pits are. Some more men in high vis gear directed me to back into a specific one. The giant pit was only about half full at the this point but the mountain of silage in my rear view mirrors still looked to be about 30 feet deep at its highest point. As usual they had me back up until my trailer started to climb the pile a bit. this way there were no gaps in the pile and the snowcat wouldn't have to do as much pushing. As I watched the back wheels of my trailer roll on to the silage pile in my mirrors I heard the unmistakable sound of a tire blowing out. A loud pop and then a slow hiss that quickly dissipated. "Shit!" I thought to myself as I hopped out to inspect the damage. One of the workers had also come to see what had happened.
"Must be one of your inside tires" he said to me as I approached, "all the outside ones look fine." I bent down and looked under the truck, sure enough he was right. The inside tire on the right side of the rear axle was completely flat. "Well I suppose that's why semi trucks have dual wheels," I said trying to sound unfazed while simultaneously preparing myself for the ass chewing I was bound to receive for this later. I walked around to the back of the truck to inspect the damage further and saw what had punctured my tire. I stumbled back a bit as I realized it was what appeared to be a broken bone sticking out of the tire. "What the..." I said mostly to myself but the worker must've heard too as it caused him to look down at it as well. When he did his face went white for a second then he composed himself. "Well I'll be damned," he said, "I've been here since the plant opened and I ain't never seen that before, some uh, poor animal must've gone through the forage harvester, or uh, some farmer's dog must've dug it up and dropped it in their silo." He seemed real shifty as he said this and almost seemed like he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying but I brushed it off as I figured he was probably just as shocked as I was.
While I was still able to unload I did have to leave the truck and trailer at the plant that night. A mobile tire repair service would be out in the morning to get it all fixed up. I got a ride back to the farm with our next truck to arrive at the plant and finished out the day pressure washing the manure spreaders. No doubt a reward for my efforts that day. I had to take a good long shower at the farm office before getting in my truck to head home for the night. As I started the engine I went to pull my phone out of my pocket to plug it in to the charger and realized that I didn't have it. I padded all my other pockets, nope definitely not there. I then realized that I had likely left it in the semi which was now at the plant, probably locked behind a gate for the night. Logically I could have just waited till morning to go and retrieve it. I was probably just going to go straight to bed when I got home anyway so what did I need my phone for? But because humans now have separation anxiety from their phones burned into them at age 3 I found myself pulling out on to the road in the direction of the plant rather than home. I hoped there would be some friendly night security guard that would let me in to grab it and I'd be on my way in 5 minutes.
I reached the plant just as it was getting dark and indeed there was a security guard standing at the gate as I pulled up. A very heavily armed security guard. He had what looked like a military rifle slung over his back and I wondered what on earth he needed that for. They were very illegal for civilians to own here in the great white north so they must've had a damn good reason to arm their security like this for the government to let them do it. He looked rather intimidating but surprisingly was not at all antagonistic when I rolled down my window. "Are you lost partner?" He said in a rather friendly tone. "No, no, I work for one of the farms that delivers here," I said, "My truck blew a tire on the trailer earlier today and it's still sitting over by pit 3 and I think I left my phone in the cab, do you mind if I go check?" He gave me a suspicious look, then he peered into the pickup bed and generally looked over me and my truck, then he gazed off down the road and looked at his watch. "Alright you got 10 minutes, and try and stay out of the night shift's way" he said in a much less friendly tone.
A loud click and then a buzzing sound came from the gate as it began to move and I drove through it. By now it was almost completely dark but the large spotlights of the plant made it easy to navigate. I came around the corner and saw my truck still sitting across from pit 3 and I pulled up in front of it. As I got out I noticed that there was a large excavator up on top of the pile in pit 4. I knew it was digging into the silage but I couldn't really see what it was doing properly because the concrete wall that separated pits 3 and 4 partially obscured it. I could also see the roof of the snowcat peeking up over the wall. It must've been parked a little ways away on top of the pile and I figured it must've gotten stuck and they were using the excavator to try and get it out. I paid it little attention as I entered the cab of the semi truck and quickly found my phone in the cupholder. I grabbed it and just as I was climbing down a voice called out to me.
"Hey who the fuck are you?? And what are you doing here???" A disgruntled looking worker wearing the same high vis gear was running towards me. "I just left my phone in this truck here, the security guard let me in to grab it" I stammered backing up towards my pickup. "Of course he fucking did" the man grumbled and he snatched his radio out of his jacket pocket. "Peter what the hell did you let this dumbass in here for you can't be doing that!" He shouted into the radio. "Relax they're not even here yet" the guard's voice crackled through the radio. "Umm actually I see headlights if he's got his phone tell him to get out of there." The man looked back to me. "You heard him son get lost and don't come back here after delivery hours again you got it?" I nodded and climbed back into my pickup truck and began to drive back towards the gate. As I exited the guard waved to me from behind the big black GMC Yukon that had pulled up to the gate. He appeared to be talking to the driver. There was a large U-Haul truck behind it followed by another black Yukon. As I passed the last vehicle I noticed in my rear view mirror the 3 trucks enter the plant ad the guard shutting the gate behind them.
That whole situation did not sit right with me. On the drive home I contemplated everything that I had seen and heard from the guard and the other worker. They were up to something in that plant at night that maybe even the bosses didn't know about. My best guess was it was some kind of drug operation. If movies have taught me anything drug kingpins always drive black SUVs. I know I should have left it alone but life up here in Northern Alberta was so boring my curiosity ended up getting the better of me. I thought that I could help bring down some kind of criminal organization and be a local hero, and that worst case scenario nothing was happening and nothing would come of it.
After harvest concluded I had a couple of days off to rest as we'd been working pretty crazy hours lately. I however did not rest. I was trying to find out everything I could about the plant and the people who ran it. I really couldn't find anything about it, in fact it was as if the place didn't exist. You would think there would at least be a news story from when they built the place what with it being the biggest boost to the local economy and job market our town had ever seen and all but there was nothing. Finally I decided the only thing to do was to see if I could observe what those black SUVs and the U-Haul truck were doing in the plant at night. Maybe get some photos of the exchange and hand them off to the police. I did some poking around on Google maps and found an old logging road that ran across the ridge behind the plant. There was a little dirt area where people often parked to unload their ATVs to go riding in the woods up there that was maybe only a kilometre or so from the north side of the plant.
I drove up there just before dark and hiked down through the woods all the way to the north fence of the plant. It was just a chain link fence like you'd see around a schoolyard not a barbed wire prison fence or anything so I made quick work of climbing over it. Luckily for me there was a lot of equipment and old dumpsters and shipping containers in this part of the plant for me to hide behind as I made my way towards where the main gate was. I crouched down behind one of their company trucks parked near the gate and waited about 20 minute before I saw the black SUVs pull up. This time though they didn't have a U-Haul they had a much larger yellow Penske box truck. They must be hauling some serious product to be renting that thing. I watched as the trucks rolled through the gate and much like they had done with me a few days prior the plant workers in high vis gear directed them back towards the pits.
I began to sneak my way over there being careful to stay out of sight. I realized very quickly that I wouldn't be able to get very close while still remaining hidden. The area around the pits was largely wide open to allow to turn around and back in so there was nothing to conceal me as I approached. I noticed the office nearby and had an idea. I snuck over to it and tried the door. It was open but the lights were off inside. Luckily no alarms went off and I found what I came for quickly. A high vis uniform and a white hard hat laying on the break room table. I also grabbed some safety glasses and a dust mask as it wasn't uncommon for the workers to wear them, there was a lot of dust around the pits, and I figured it would help conceal my identity.
After putting on the uniform and sneaking back outside I observed the workers for a few minutes to see what they were doing and how best to blend in. Most of them appeared to either be standing around watching the trucks pull up or walking somewhere so I figured just walking like I was on a mission was good enough. Turns out I didn't need to fake it for long. As I neared the yellow Penske truck I saw some men getting out of the black SUVs. They were dressed in what looked like church robes but definitely not Catholic since they didn't have the collar. One of them turned to me and I froze. "Hey buddy, we got a pretty big load tonight, mind giving us a hand?" Realizing my cover was working I decided to play along and just leave the part about me helping the drug lords out of my statement to the police. I nodded and walked over with the other workers and awaited instructions.
I heard the sound of a diesel engine coming closer and looked over to see the excavator I had seen coming around the corner and begin to climb the silage pile in pit 4 again. The snowcat was behind it but instead of following the excavator up the pile it came towards us. It had some kind of large metal box attached to the blade that was about the size of a small car. The operator set the box down next to the Penske truck and hopped out. The same disgruntled man I had encountered the other night got out of the cab. "Jesus man, that's a big truck you got there, probably gonna take a couple trips to unload this thing," he said to the men in robes. One of them opened up the back of the box truck and where I expected to see a giant pile of cocaine bricks or something there was something I never expected.
Bodies, and lots of them just thrown haphazardly into the back of this truck. I had to fight the urge to fill my dust mask with vomit as I saw them. The workers began loading them into the box on the blade of the snowcat just tossing them on with little regard for how they landed. No one seemed to notice me just standing there so I slowly backed up into the shadows and made my way over to pit 3. It was almost full by now so I climbed up the pile to a spot where I could look over the concrete wall into pit 4 where the excavator was without being spotted. Once up there I saw the snowcat climbing up the pile towards a large hole the excavator had dug in it. There were some more workers up there who began throwing the bodies off into the hole as one of the men in robes climbed out of the passenger seat in the snowcat. He just stood on the track watching as the bodies were piled into this impromptu mass grave they had constructed. He stayed up on the pile while the snowcat went down for the second load.
This was all starting to make sense now. This was the perfect cover for disposing of bodies. They would get broken down in the piles same as everything else and because they were constantly being emptied into the digester the evidence would only be around for a few months, and the horrific smell of the plant would conceal any foul odours produced by the dead bodies. But there was one question left. Where were they coming from? This was way too many bodies for this to be the mafia or something killing off problematic individuals. By the time the truck was totally unloaded there must've been 100 dead people in that hole. No this had to be some cult activities of some sort and the robes the men from the black SUVs were wearing backed up that theory. Maybe these were just what was left over from some sort of ritual sacrifice or something? Whoever these people are they must have some kind of deal with the plant's owners because I could tell the workers had done this before. From the time the truck had arrived to the time the excavator started burying the corpses in rotting corn silage it had only taken about half an hour.
I didn't even bother ditching the uniform I got out of that plant as fast as I could. I sprinted up through those woods back towards my truck with my heart beating so fast I thought it would explode. As soon as I was in the truck I locked all the doors and dialed 911 on speaker as I peeled out of the forest. I told the operator everything that had happened over the last couple of days and what I had seen that night. I practically begged them to send someone there right away which the nice lady on the other end of the line promised they would. She asked for my name and contact information so they could get a hold of me for a statement which I gladly gave them. She assured me they would investigate the matter and I thanked her and hung up the phone. I then pulled over and got out of the truck and proceeded to finally let out all the vomit I had been holding in for the last hour or so. I ditched the plant uniform on the side of that old forest road and made my way for home.
As I was approaching my house I saw a car up ahead. As I drew closer I could make out the distinctive reflective tape they put across the back of police cars. I slowed down as I had come up on him pretty fast and I didn't want to get a speeding ticket after all I'd been through that night. I followed the cop a few more kilometres towards town. My house was on this road coming up shortly. As we approached my driveway the cop put his signal on to turn in. I breathed a sigh of relief as I guessed they had sent someone out to check on me and I was about to put my signal on as well when I noticed the black GMC Yukon parked in my driveway and the man in robes standing next to it with a gun. The cop turned in and parked next to him. Given that the cop had basically zero reaction to the man standing there with a weapon my heart sank as I realized whatever this is runs much, muh deeper than I thought and revealing who I was to that 911 dispatcher had just dommed me. I kept on driving praying that neither of them recognized me and thanking the Alberta government for not requiring front license plates that the cop would have totally seen on the drive over otherwise.
I just kept on driving, expecting at any minute to see police lights behind me or a big black SUV blocking the road ahead of me and men in dark robes coming out of the darkness to get me, but nothing happened. I don;t even know how long I drove for I just drove until I had to pee so badly I was forced to stop at a truck stop and realized I was somewhere in Saskatchewan. I've been on the run so to speak now for about 6 months. I don't know if anyone's even following me but I have to be sure. I'm writing this all out to get it off my chest and out there as a warning before I ditch this phone and start my life over in another province as far away from there as I can get. I don't know what's going on up there but there is something very dark happening in northern Alberta and I've probably only scratched the surface of it. Either way I want no part of any of it.

I am a manager and one of the guys I manage has about a week left before starting his new job. I found out today when I got back from vacation that my boss was upset because apparently he had no idea I was taking off. My days were approved in March, we spoke about where I’d be going a different time, and I also reminded him the day I would be leaving (because he asked me if I could stay late.) When we spoke about it today, he said it was a “miscommunication” and that he “didn’t remember” I was gonna be off. He was complaining to other employees about it, yet somehow everyone else knew. I also found out he told the guy who’s leaving that he wants to fire me, and is offering him >$. He’s been trying to get him to take my place a few times, talking shit about me to where that employee feels like my boss is trying to get him on his side. In April he showed him my doctors note complaining about me needing off (I was still feeling dizzy from hitting my head after I was found unconcious.) He talks about everyone and it even makes me feel like he wants me to feed it. It’s uncomfortable.
With him being the owner of the company (no we don’t have HR,) it is difficult to talk to him. I’m one of the few people who speak up and I’m always dismissed as “defensive” or that I’m “making excuses.” I’ve been told a lot of things in confidence because no one likes what’s going on and does not approve of my bosses behaviowanting to get rid of me. I’m supposed to move to a new apartment next week. I’m scared. There are barely any jobs that pay what I get paid here. For us all. My boss and I do bump heads sometimes, but it’s so crappy to do to someone who has done more for the company than any past manager has. I’m not sure when he’s planning to let me go. It was an odd day at work. I wouldn’t have guessed when I left for vacation that I’d be coming back to this. What do I do? Everyone at my job is great but truthfully, we are miserable.