Take care.


bye.


I don't really actually dr yeah, thank you, thank you. Oh


How you doing?


good hurry up.


Pretty good. Where are you from?


uh from Maine, where are you from?


Michigan?


How are things in michigan?


uh pretty nice today. About 50. About 50°..


Thanks. Yeah, we've had some pretty warm weather here too that's cooled off a little bit done in uh around 50, but it was 70 yesterday, so. Yeah.


had like three days in a role that were 70. It's unusual for us so.


Yeah, same here supposed to be uh usually it's a lot colder, usually have snow right now, but nothing yet


Yeah. Not yet here either, I'm not looking forward


now


to it. Mhm.


ever been to pain before.


I never have no.


it's pretty nice. It's probably a lot. It's uh trying to think. I've only been to michigan, I've driven through michigan and I've been to Detroit and that's about it. I've never actually spent spend any time there, yep.


I live in Lansing the capital. Um It's nicer up north you know I think. But but I was born in here so. Yeah.


Yeah, well


Yeah.


a lot of trees that, I mean it's a very like heavily wooded state, isn't it? Oh


pretty much. I mean I'm in the city so you know um it's nicer up by the lakes you know? But


we live where we live is very uh pretty heavily wooded, lot of lakes, a lot of rivers,


Yeah. Yeah I would like to come there sometime. I always thought about it. I've been to new york and California and texas and all of them but never


I mean never up into New England uh made


Now.


in California have a lot in common. I mean both have like big coastlines and the people are kind of similar, tend to be like a little more liberal and you get a lot of hippies and a lot of people are interested in outdoor activity, like backpacking and fishing and stuff like that. Where'd you go, where'd you go in California?


I lived when I was younger kid um in Garden Grove


But


and


it's


it's by


not.


Long Beach.


southern,


Yeah I lived


so there's


with


nothing.


for about a year.


Mhm. Yeah I've never really never been to super the southern like phone into Los Angeles before and I think the further south have been is like like palm springs, that area um like


Right.


the uh there's a a national park down there, Joshua tree. Yeah


Oh yeah I've heard over that and I lived in florida for a couple years. Um Clearwater. So when I


Before


when


water.


I, oh


yep that's a nice area.


but I always end up back here.


Same here. I used to travel all the time for work and uh travel lodges for for you know going hiking and stuff. And we always end up back in Maine where we grew up, our families are here. So


No. Yeah.


are things pandemic wise in your area? Michigan right now?


it's pretty bad.


Is


It is is


it,


pretty bad.


are


Well


people wearing masks are like following the rules?


well some some you know worse don't you know? So how about there


Um It's a mix, you know, it's it's pretty bad in Maine right now. Like I just heard that we're one of the like it's spreading quicker and main than anywhere else. Um And we still see a lot of people around here that don't wear masks, which is


now


kind of disappointing. Um Yeah, I mean we live in a really small neighborhood and we now have like multiple neighbors around us that have it. Um people that are in the hospital with it like our neighbors. So it's definitely all of a sudden became like a lot more real I think to a lot of people.


Right. Yeah it's pretty bad here I mean it calmed down a little bit and now it's getting bad again you know So


We never really had that first spike here. It was like you were doing really, really well until about two weeks ago and not just all of a sudden, Uh, you know, we went for having like 10 cases a day that like 200.


yeah that's how it is here really that I stay home awhile I'm disabled so I'm home you know I don't work anymore so I stay in as much as I can


probably


you know.


a good idea.


Yeah I think so I don't know I have some health problems so I don't want to get that you know mm.


yeah, totally understandable. I mean we're super cautious my life and I wrote super cautious, but we both work with the public. So it's um,


Right.


yeah, it is what it is. You know, we wear a mask and we try to be as careful as possible and just,


Yeah that's all you can feel.


just ready, ready for it to be over sometime soon here.


if it ever does get


All


over with.


Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. No, I mean, it just seems like, I remember when we first found out about it at the beginning of the year, thinking of, you know, there's no way, you know by christmas time that this will still be going on we'll figure it out. And uh yeah here we are getting ready to go into the holidays and it's still getting worse.


Has been what six months it's terrible. Yeah maybe


Yeah.


not the things that go back to normal.


Yeah. It would it would be nice. Yeah. Works definitely been a little a little slower since since the pandemic and yeah we like to travel to family you know across the US that we haven't seen. You know we're supposed to go out to California and visit family and cancel that people are having kids and cancelling weddings and you know it's just it's very strange strange time.


you know it is strange it really is okay.


Jason what? Yeah what else uh


Yes


what did you do? Um I mean did you have a job like prior to what you're doing now? Mhm. Yeah.


I haven't worked in a number of years it's been probably mm nine years probably and I worked in a state building. I was ahead cook there so


Mhm. Was cooking


and


something you like?


I love it I love to cook.


Medium?


No.


What you got any specialties? Contact?


I can make anything anything. But um yeah it's one of my passions you know I really like it.


Yeah. I love cooking too. It's nice. Especially now it's like because we never never go out to eat and we don't really ever get take out if you can cook for yourself. You know if you don't mind putting the time and the effort in um you know you can make a meal that's better than most restaurants and you don't have to go deal with other people. Which is pretty nice. I feel bad for people that


woman


can't cook,


I won't go in a restaurant and just you know I mean we do get takeout now and then but um I


Yeah.


get my groceries delivered. Do I don't want to go in the stores?


Yeah. I wish we had that unfortunately. Don't grocery delivery hasn't made it to this area of main yet. Yeah.


yeah


Sorry


I love


to


it.


interrupt.


They also have pick up where you can just order it online and then pick it up if you want. I do that sometimes. But um I like it. I don't have to go in the stores, I just do my shopping online, you know?


that's pretty nice. Yeah, we definitely did. We shop like buy stuff on amazon but all of our like the grocery like basics like milk and cheese and butter and stuff, we still have to go in the store, which is what it is, just wear a mask. And for the most part I've done um most of the grocery shopping just because uh my life and I just had an agreement that I would do it during the pandemic and I just can't get it worked out pretty well for her at least.


I want to catch that.


Yeah, and I've had a lot more free time. Just my work's been a lot quieter, so I work from home a little bit more and just have more time to do it and her schedule has stayed pretty much the same, so it's not fair for me to do it. Do you have any pets?


Yeah. Um No, not never know right now. I had two french bulldogs and they were brothers and they we had to have him put to sleep within two months of each other


Oh no, I'm sorry, that's tough.


and they've been gone about a year now. So here's a picture of one of mine, the other one, I don't have a picture right here but


it's so cute.


that was deter. And then I had a cream colored one that his name was boomer.


No,


And I have I've had them since they


well


were eight weeks old, so it was devastating for us,


I


you


can


know?


imagine it's hard to like people like think, oh you just, you know, get another dog and it's like, it never is like that, you know, it's, you know when you have that emotional connection with a pet, it's so, you know, it's like losing a family member.


It is, It is. Well I lost my son in 2009. My oldest son, he was murdered


Oh jeez, I'm


here.


sorry,


Um Thanks. Um, so it's been 11 years. But um, that was, you know, the worst thing in my life losing him, you


And


imagine


then my mother three years later and then, you know, of course these dogs, you know, and it's hard on me, you know, like I kind of want another dog, but I don't know, it's


it's


just,


a lot of work.


it's not just that you get so attached to them and then I have to go through that, you know I mean? But I do like dogs, you know, I don't know, have to see how our goals.


yeah, it's it's tough, you know that it's such a double a double edged sword there because they provide so much happiness and joy, but then it's like such a heartbreaking, you know. Yeah, most dogs, you know, they only lived to be eight or nine years old, so it's like, you know that you know, you kind of know that that's coming the whole time you have a dog, you know, we have a dog and it's like he's such a good dog and I can't help thinking like we're gonna be so heartbroken and this, you know. Yeah.


I know,


Three


it's so hard. Mine were all nine years. They were nine years old and I lost 11 last May and then one in july and


probably they grew up together, they probably just they must have missed the one once. The one that survived was alone. He must have known that assembling was gone too.


Well the first boomer, the cream coloured one had a tumor on his leg. It was like a hanging tumor and they were gonna, they were gonna remove it. You know, I had it all set up to remove it and he had his, he had eye problems too. But


I find that funny.


we were getting that under control, but when they went in to check him before the surgery, they found out he had heart problems. Yeah. So there he started getting worse, you know, and they wouldn't do the surgery. And we decided the best thing for him was to be able to sleep. You know. Well then deter the brown one here. Two months later, his neck got real big and he couldn't breathe and I took him to the bat and they said they believe he had thyroid cancer


What


and they put him right, they had to put him right to sleep, he couldn't


days?


breathe. So it was very hard. It was unexpected for deter boomer. We kind of knew that, you know, but peter, I mean it was just shocking. I thought it would happen for at least another year or two, you know, but no, and french bulldogs have a lot of health problems anyway.


I've heard that?


And at the time that I that we got these dogs, we had, you know, I was working then not only the amount of fixed income and it was hard to keep their back bills paid, you know, even though I did it, but so I don't think I would get another one even though I love french bulldog, I mean I just do, but um, for that it wouldn't be fair to him, you know, I wouldn't be able to take care of them like I did them, you know, so


It's very that is very very expensive. Even if your dog has no health problems, like an annual checkup at the vet is like a serious expense.


where I


I think the last


so


time.


on,


Yeah, I was shocked.


I thought about getting a Shiba or uh is that what they're called?


The little little dogs.


The from Jabs are from Japan.


Oh yeah, shibu Shiva itsu or yeah, they


about


like,


though. Uh


yep


We'll see, you know.


bulldogs have such great personalities to their very uh big personal, you know,


they


affect


are they're french


sweetheart.


bulldog, They're great. I mean they're just so smart. They are so smart. All right. I don't know. I wish I could get one, but it wouldn't be fair to it and I just I don't want to do that, you know? So.


It's gonna be tough to like we have uh family that lives outside of boston and uh it's difficult for them to go outside and walk the dog because there's so many people, you know, there's people in their apartment, there's people you know on the sidewalk, there's people out in the parks, so it's like, you know, even to go outside and walk the dog, you're exposing yourself to like dozens of people. Uh huh.


Right. Yeah.


Mhm.


I don't go out that often. I do blow a little bit walk or whatever. Oh, I just hate I wish it would go away


Me too. Yeah. Yeah. Well I mean we're lucky just because there's a lot, you


maybe.


know, there's a lot that we can do outside um that kind of, you know, we're


We are.


able to do a lot of the things we like to do still just because they were kind of social distance activities before, you know, we backpack a lot and hike a lot and fish a lot. Um and those are all things that like we can still do because you never really around people that much. Um So we've been lucky and it means, I mean just in general main is very uh there's just a lot of space, a lot of privacy, not a lot of people. So it feels we've been very felt very lucky um to be here for the pandemic.


All right. All right. You have kids?


I do not. My wife has a son um from her prior her prior relationship, but we just have a dog between


Well,


the two of us. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We had we had talked about it and uh I'm just part of


and


me is really glad that we that that it didn't happen just because I can't imagine raising a child right now just with the state of the world and um I just I just I have a lot of sympathy for people that are raising Children um through the past. Yeah. Yeah, it just seems like


It must be one word.


so we we've been were childless but we're definitely uh we're okay with that decision for the time being.


All right. Yeah. Mine are all grown Well, my oldest son got killed and then I have a daughter that's 31 and then a son that's 29. So


Do they live near you?


my daughter lives while on the other side of town here And my 29 year old son lives with me. So he helps take care of me


But


you're


you know. Oh,


Yeah, that's pretty, pretty common situation nowadays for, you know, Children to be kind of keep staying close to the family and helping out. And just financially, it's, you know, cost of living is so high and wages are so low that It's tough. Especially for that age range. You know, people in that kind of 20-30, you're all range.


Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think about our new president? Yeah.


see I I voted for biden. I'm not really, you know, I have a hard time putting myself in like either political party just because there's certain things. I, you know, I'm a fiscal conservative socially. I'm pretty liberal, but I also am very pro gun. Uh, so it's, it was tough. You know, my vote really was based on the pandemic. Um, and just kind of who I thought would get us out of it the quickest. What


I


about


didn't


you


I didn't


then?


vote. I I don't I don't know.


Like


I couldn't


her?


couldn't make up my mind and I just I don't know. I didn't really care for either one of them, you know? So


Yeah, it was an old man competition that was kind of disappointing. It's like I didn't really, you know, neither one of them were, I thought a good choice. Um It just seemed like, you know, the machine has made up its mind and told us who are choices were and that was that was it. And it's just um yeah, it's interesting in maine now we have ranked choice voting, which is kind of cool. Um It allows you to uh it makes it easier for like third party or off non party candidates um to get votes and actually stay kind of relevance. So you can if there's something you like, that's not one of the like the lead, you know, lead democrat or republican, um you can vote for them first and then if they don't win, it goes to your next choice down. So it's not like you're throwing away your vote, which I think a lot of people feel, you know, if they vote for somebody that's not, you know, the person with, you know, like there were other running for president this year other than biden and trump, but people feel like there walked into one of those decisions. Yeah. But with ranked choice voting, it's pretty neat. You can actually vote


warrant.


for some and support somebody that you actually feel, you know, is in line with your values and uh, and not feel like you're just throwing away your vote if they don't win. So this


here we had it for present, the presidential election, which was kind of neat.


Yeah, that's pretty neat. Uh huh. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know about it. I mean this I think on trump, I think trump was very upset that he was so or


It doesn't seem to be a very gracious loser.


he's not and he thinks there's a big scam going on with this voting, so


It doesn't sound like they're making much headway into proving that so far. Yeah, that's that's just how I mean. You think, you know, it's just how politics works. You know sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, you know just it seems to go from, you know it just keeps swinging back and forth. You know four years from now, probably have a Republican governor, Republican president and then we'll go back


One


for four years and then we'll go back to a democrat. It's just like just kind of seems swap swap back and forth and maybe that's good, you know, I mean at least that kind of seems to keep things balanced out a little bit, you know you don't end up you know too far to the left or too far to the right. Yeah, neither one were particularly inspiring.


They're not I don't know.


Yeah, my dad is um younger than joe biden remember like voting? I was thinking, man, you know, you know my dad still got most of his facilities, well I mean he's still be sharp for his age but um I was thinking man I don't know if I like he's too old to be president and joe biden is older than him. Yeah.


he is old but


I'm surprised I'm surprised there hasn't been like uh you know just you know like kinda like another JFK like a really young kind of youthful you know energetic you know it seems like we keep getting stuck with all these people that are Yeah one step what's happened the nursing home.


The rhine I don't think trump took this virus very serious. You know he didn't take it very even after getting getting it. He didn't you know. I don't know.


not everybody can get a trip to the hospital in a helicopter you know. Mhm.


Right.


You know my neighbor had to go to the ICU you know in the back of a ford escort. Yeah. You know and it was an hour and a half drive to get to the you know the ICU from here. Yeah it's sad it seems like the whole like wearing masks thing. Once that got politicized, that kind of sealed the deal for us in terms of where things are going to go. Yeah, very odd. But regardless of my political affiliation, I'll continue wearing a mask and try


Need to


and try to encourage other people, other people to do the same.


I do what I'm supposed to do. What honey


It seems like a pretty common sense


that.


thing, you know? Yeah. If you're in for surgery, you expect everybody to be wearing a mask. Yeah. But yeah, we'll see. Hopefully. Yeah,


Yeah


Maybe by next spring, all of the vaccine, hopefully.


there


You


will


think


be. No


you're in the corner?


we love it.


Yeah. I'm ready for life to go back to normal. Whatever normal was before the vaccine here. Before


What?


the virus.


Why? I agree.


Cool. I think we're at our, at our time mark there.


Are we?


We are, yeah, we got, we got a whole 25 minutes in.


Oh wow that's good. Okay well have a good day. It was nice talking to you.


Yeah. It's not nice talking to you to stay healthy. And uh, yeah, I have a great holidays,


Yeah you too by the way.


Okay. Yeah. Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. For young professionals, close quarters combat. Yeah, A complimentary. All right.


Hello


Hello there


are we to start now?


I guess. Uh huh


Hi I'm Catherine.


I'm julie.


Nice to meet you julie. I'm sorry my my dog is scratching and it's. Uh huh. Come on baby girl, come on go to your bed, go to your bed. So are you from Julian?


I am from Wisconsin


Oh wow. Uh I don't know how far that is from New Jersey.


quite a way. Uh huh. How


Oh


are you enjoying the pandemic?


um Not really enjoying it, it's like you're one of the first people that I talked to since the shutdown. So um yeah I mean I don't we don't really go out because we're living with my in laws right now and they're old so we try to minimize the going out stuff with my husband. Yeah.


yeah.


So yeah it's been a while since I talked to another person side phone family. So I kind of like practice. So ah


I


it


don't,


plans


for


haven't


the weekend.


planned what?


Yeah. Any plans for the weekend?


Uh no, actually really none at all. Which is kind of the way I prefer it.


Yeah. Yeah it's uh my I'm talking to my husband and I was like you know what this pandemic is actually doing good for my mental health because I have a lot of anxiety and so being an introvert, it's uh it's a blessing for me, I'm not forced to like socialize and be out there and you know.


I mean I feel kind of the same people ask me and I'm like, it's not that different from my regular life. In fact, it's given me a lot of time to really kind of reevaluate things and I just quit my job this week,


Nice. I mean, I don't know if it's a good news for you.


right. It's like I'm just, I've realized that I, you know how much I really hate it and how much stress it causes me. And so it's like, you know what, this is a perfect time to explore a little bit and figure out my passion again, you know?


Yeah. I like the is that a paint painting in uh


inside


in the background?


it's a tapestry on the wall.


Oh yeah, it's really cool. Is


Thank


it like


you. It's


is that


an elephant.


elephant? Huh? That's interesting. Oh now I see it, I thought it was a snake, like a cobra


I was.


with the ears. That's


and it's one of those looks different, you know when you're standing up close you can't really help you have to be further away. So trying to get my


yeah, the eyes and the ears. I I see it now. Yeah. So uh sorry, my my dog is really um distracted me. You have any dogs? Animals?


I have a cat. One


that's


cat.


good to hear. Yeah, I want to have a cat but my husband is allergic to cats and my dog doesn't like cats so


so it might be a while. A long while,


way so um if you don't mind me asking are you married kids?


I am divorced, I got divorced I guess about 2.5 years ago And after 23 years. Uh Yeah wow. Is right a shitty marriage for the most part. I mean


Yeah. Well congratulations you got out of it? Yeah.


exactly, I'm super proud of myself. I mean everyone's like oh you poor thing and it's like oh my God no It's one of the best things I ever did and I have a 15 year old daughter who is with me. She we adopted her from Guatemala. She was a baby. So, um,

All right. Yeah. Mhm. Oh right. Mhm. Oh uh


it's


so


very


cute. Yeah.


very nice. I'm, I'm happy. You know, I'm,


Are


I


you


mean,


dating?


I won't say a 100% happy because like who is right?


Yeah.


But it's such a better change for me. Um


Yeah. Well that's good to hear. Are you dating currently?


uh no, I'm not dating at all. I haven't even attempted to date. Uh you know, I


Well


said


it takes


to someone


time.


like the last time I had a first date was 1991, like put that in perspective, You know what I, and I've been really shitty at small talk and how's the weather and all that stuff, you know?


me too. Mhm.


right now, I don't know, I run the gamut some days I think that I will want to partner again and something they think, you know what, this is all nice just being, you know,


Yeah. Yeah like after 23 years I can't imagine not


he was


wanting.


very he was very emotionally abusive and verbally abusive. So I mean


that's


every


worse than


day


physical


it was


abuse.


like, you're a bitch, you're we are worthless, you suck at this, you're so stupid, you know, and I'm not stupid. I mean I'm very educated and I'm I'm a good person, you know, I have a good heart and I mean what I've read is that narcissists attract em paths and that was, that was our dynamic. You know, everything was all about him. And um I was just like, oh well here let me help you with this or let me do this or you know, um it took a long, it took a long

Oh wow. Oh Lord. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah.


Isn't,


time for me to admit even that I was in an abusive relationship because you just you don't


You


want to get


loved


yourself.


yeah you love that person and sometimes it's just you're you're blind too what he does and it's just it's hard.


Exactly. And when I came here, it was like we moved to a small town about three hours from where we lived before um my brother and my nephews are here, so that's really helpful


Most of


for


family


my daughter especially. But it was like I could come in the house and the same full of dishes and there was no one screaming at me, you know, it was fantastic. Like nice. Can't you even load the dishwasher for christ? You know? It was like I had to like recalibrate to be like I can learn how the hell I want. It can be a total mess or it can be totally clean and that's all okay.

Mhm, yep. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh huh mhm.


Mhm.


So


Well that's that's really good of you, I'm so happy to hear that. Yeah, well


How on a


I am,


daily,


what was that?


how long have you been married?


Right Um actually it's our third-year anniversary next week to


no.


uh yeah July 20 yeah three years. Um we're still not tired of each other not yet. Ask me again in seven years maybe but


but it has its ups and downs, you know?


mhm, yep, yep, I mean we we came from two different cultures so that's definitely um has two sides of the story, so sometimes it's a good thing because it keeps the relationship interesting but sometimes I'm like I'm so sick of your shit, I don't want to talk to you so yeah it definitely has its ups and downs. But I I got lucky because um I couldn't have backs for a better husband than my husband because it's literally like a saint. Like I feel guilty because how you're describing your husband, I'm like am I like that like emotionally abusing my like sometimes I would find myself blackmailing my husband to do things for me, but you know it's like okay baby can you do this for me because I am doing this and this, you know it's like sometimes I would force him to fold the clothes like the laundry because I hate doing that

Uh huh. Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah. Ah. Yeah. Uh huh.


But.


but like you know it's we gotta do it something some someone has to do it. But yeah uh currently I'm busy preparing for um it's actually also his birthday Next week, so our anniversary is the 20th and then Um his birthdays on the 23rd. So it's uh Yeah. Yeah, I'm actually thinking what am I going to give to him? It's like you know every year I am reading out of ideas of what to give to him because it's like he's not


No.


really into material things. So most of the time it's uh the experiences that he wants or likes more than you know, the the gifts that I give to him. So um this year I am surprising him to a


box.


stay in upstate new york, so just the two of us and the dog for a couple of days just to unwind. And he works for amazon and he manages the building Which is like they literally work them 8200 hours every week every day.


Cash.


Yeah. Yeah and I'm like well no wonder your boss is the richest man in the world. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you would think that having or working for a company like Amazon would command a really good salary but it's not which is like really surprising because with the amount of work that they give to them it's pay shit.


Well yeah. And work that many hours. The pay is even worse if he's salary,


Yeah. Yeah. I would find myself complaining at two a.m. Because his phone is going off because there is a problem in the building and I'm like at you at least like you know four hours silence your phone is like if something happened and I'm not there or they can't contact me, I'm going to be in big trouble. So. Yeah. Yeah it's uh it's been promoted actually proud of them three times in less than two years which is which is a huge deal. And um recently he just got another it's a lateral move. But um he'll be working online so he's going to be working from home. None of those crazy um stuff working at the warehouse.


very


Um He manages yeah he manages extra large building, so mattresses, TVs, you know these big stuff and during the pandemic you would think who would order, you know those stuff like tv but they're still shipping like 1000 packages every day every day and that's like really really crazy for me. And yeah like where are these people getting money from? I thought you know the economy is down, people are going out of jobs but that people are still spending thousands of dollars for these things, so.


Well, and I wonder what the pandemic, I mean I wonder I hope been a lot of have realized that they not have the resources to survive something like this because you know like my daughter and I were driving down the road and she said something


Something


about


about,


getting the car and I said look at all the cars passing us. How many of those people do you think actually own their car? You


that's


know like people are complaining, oh I have


you can.


no money, I have no money and I get it. But it's like has this impacted your thoughts about saving money


That's true.


and preparing that emergency fund so that I mean right now, I mean, I quit my job and it's not like I'm rich, but I I'm going to figure it out, you know? But I have enough to pay my bills right now. And I, a lot of people are like, oh, give me money, give me money, give me money because I have nothing, You know?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Mhm. That's true.


And they're working for a hell of, a lot more than I make.


Yeah, that's true, yep. It's like I'm an immigrant, I just moved here like three years ago before I came here. Um I'm from the Philippines. So back home, my idea of America was free, health care, free education. And Diana came here. The first, the first thing that I did was um to uh Atlanta new york JFK and then I tried using one of the cards and I'm like, why is it locked, why can't I take one? And then the uh the the what if the janitor said, oh you have to pay for it. I'm like, what? I said 4 95 and I'm like, I've traveled a lot and this is the only country that I have ever been that I have to pay to use a card. I mean even in my country it's free. And I said to myself, I must be really in America because yeah,


Where


and


everything


I,


costs something?


you you have to pay for this and it's just and then living here for quite some time. Uh it made me realize that um well this is America for me, I guess. It's, it's not as land of the free as I thought it is. You have to, everything, everything has a cost and consumerism here is embraced so much that even though I have a, I have a neighbor who has this huge houses so many luxury


What?


cars, then how, how do you know that they're not in credit? Yeah. So


And we're told over and over get this product the more you buy


I mean,


the better. I mean, what I'm in the midst of right now during this pandemic, I have de cluttered, oh my gosh, I had all this stuff in my garage from my marriage, you know, I didn't ever sort through it because I really didn't want to look at it at the time. It was too upsetting, you know, And I literally went out there, I spent two entire days

yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah.


Well,


And I took six carloads of stuff. Two good war. I didn't, I just like looked at all my wedding china and all that and I'm like, screw it, I don't want that. II plan to retire within about four years and I want to travel and I want to live like, let's say six months in san Diego and a year in Oregon and like, I don't need any of that crap.

yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Oh, right.


Thanks.


I'm not going to take that with me on my next leg of the journey. And I tell my daughter all the time like our thing is travel and experiences. And I said, I will spend money on that. I will not spend money on buying a bunch of shit that we don't need, I won't use or I'll get rid of three years later. You know it's like I mean I'll sometimes by like original

Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Exactly. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah,


it's


artwork, I like art a lot if I go to art galleries and such. I mean I maybe we'll buy something that really resonates but like all this stuff that we buy, I mean it's our


Because


culture


it,


is just like we shot for fun, you know we don't even shop for need.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like my um, well, my in laws here, um, they would buy stuff because it's on sale like, so why do you have a six person tent? And like, well my parents thought if it's a good deal. Yeah. How many times do they use it once? And how many, how many, how long has it been stored at the garage? I don't know since I was a kid. Yeah. That's that's exactly the conversation that happens all the time here. They've got like a bunch of stuff sword everywhere around the house. And it's just crazy to me how you have all of this stuff that you Haven't used and there are stuff that haven't been used in 50 years and they're still there because it was a good deal at that time. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. Right, yep. Mhm. Mhm. Right.


And you know in America I mean really


No,


most of us are


but.


quite spoiled because we have space so we have all this empty space and we feel like you know one of my friends said to me that her husband wants


Help.


a bigger house and she said to him what we actually need is a tiny home because


fiber.


the amount of space you have is the amount of space you feel like you need to fill. So it's like, yeah.


No. Oh


we just, I don't know.


yeah. Yeah. My husband and I are talking about, it's either a tiny house for us or a van, like a converted van.


Love


So


it.


yeah so we could travel around, I've always wanted to travel around the States but because of his job and we're tied to one place but now that is also working from home I'm like you know what why don't we just build that Vanda we've always wanted to and it's really that much It's like I've seen a couple we can build one for like 20,000 25,000 and be your house we have you know all we need is a solar and an internet and a Porta potty.


And I love that. I mean if I were younger I would totally want to do that.


and


My I mean I would like to convert, like I've seen school bus conversions and stuff like that. My knees are bad. I can't be crawling around in a van. I'm too fat, too old for that. But you know what I mean? Like I want that kind of a


Freedom


of a freedom of a interest not accumulating all the stuff and you know, I tell my friends like Some of them think


But


I'm kind


I


of


was


crazy in


no.


that regard. But I said like I would rather go out and drop $100 or $200 or $200 on a tasting menu


It


from a sheriff.


mhm


It's san Diego. Then I would to buy shit from


What?


TJ Maxx or you know, like it's not that I don't want to spend the money, but I want, I just don't want the stuff and


it's


I'd like to be mobile. I mean that's kind of what I'm working on now, that I've quit my job. I'm taking a class in psychic development


allow


and I'm trained in raking and stuff and I want to like develop a passion for something that I can do


It's not


from anywhere so that I can travel around and do whatever I want. I mean, I've got


With


three more


the official


years until my daughter graduates


kids


from high school,


on


so I


your


am


own.


homebound. Until then I tried to talk her into home


I


schooling


mean yeah.


from a tiny home, but she didn't want to do that.


Or


So


not He'll get there eventually.


I, and I think she's there. I mean in her adult life I will see her as a wanderer. But it's hard when you're a teenager, you know and you want


what?


like real friends and a boyfriend and all that stuff. Um So we are we are in, I don't want to say stuck,


it's


we are choosing


was


to


also


be in Wisconsin


you know. Mhm.


for another three years. But after that I've told her like don't plan, I'm at home to your bedroom because there's not going to be any bedroom, There may be a foldout couch or you know,


Uh huh. That's that's exciting.


it


I


is to me, I mean my family thinks I'm crazy. They think I've lost my marbles, you know.


How we


But


get that do but


so many people are trained to just, you work your whole life 8 to 5, you


At


know,


six


blah blah


ft.


blah and you by the house, you're married, you have the kids, you have the mortgage, you have the brand new cars, blah blah blah and I don't want that.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah. And at 60 or 65 you retire and then you go on cruises and uh


and


you


you die. Uh huh. You know and a lot of people die before they get to enjoy


Of


much


the.


of anything at all. You know I mean I think it's amazing that you found that your husband has similar ideas. You know That's amazing all.


He's talking of kind of working I mean working 100 hours a week really tire you out. So right now he wants to get a certificate uh for I think program management or something so you can actually apply to other companies that okay we'll pay him more. Um Right now we're working


Off.


towards that but eventually his ultimate goal is to become a house husband, which I don't blame him. Yeah. Um but yeah, we don't have any kids not pointing on having any anytime soon. It's just, you know, it's expensive to have a kid and it will take a lot of your time. And um right now it's just for for my generation, it's just a, not a thing to do at our age is it's


How


like,


old how old are you?


31 Yeah, yeah,


Mhm.


husband is 30. And


I didn't become a mom


what


until I was 37.


you had a hard time getting pregnant or when you were


I started trying to get pregnant


different?


when I was 30


Well, Uh huh.


and um


And Mhm,


I mean yes it was damn near impossible Party at 35.


Do


I decided


you like


what the hell am I doing?


yet?


Like why am I trying so hard and then and then we adopted we decided well I decided we were that thing And I went that road and I'm so glad that I did. But I mean I wasn't ready at all to even think about kids until I was 30 and early. It was like,


And


let's just see what happens kind of thing. By the time I got to like 33 or 34 it was like, Oh my God, I want to be a mom. Um,


Yes.


it


has to happen, you know.


Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that's what my mom has been telling me because I grew up in a culture where 28 is almost considered a spinster. Yeah, yeah, so I've been, we've been married for three years and I'll tell you, my mom and dad has been asking me every couple of months, you know, when when am I going to see a baby from you? And I'm like, I don't know, maybe not ever. And they're like, yeah, your your room will expire and you know, the genes it's going a waste. And I'm like, the reason why I'm going to have a baby is because, you know, we're mentally financially emotionally ready, not because of the pressure of my parents. I mean, I understand that they're not getting younger. Yeah. It's just sometimes the pressure from them, it's just sometimes it it makes me think, you know, this is what they want for me, Maybe it's signed. But then I would list the cons of why we don't want to have a baby right now. And it's just okay. Maybe not, maybe not not right now. And I meet women who are like, like you, for example, who Haven't had Children until they were under later years and if I decide to, okay at 35, maybe I want to have a kid, I'm, I'm tired of traveling and I can't have a kid I'll adopt. Yeah. So


I mean, yeah, everyone thinks you're going to run out of options and it's like you really don't ever run out of options. There's always, there are always options. I mean even if I couldn't adapt that could have fostered or you know, there's always, well and it's, it's important to understand other people's wants and needs from your own, you

Oh yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm Oh yeah. Mm Right.


Basically.


know? Okay.


Everybody,


Yeah. I mean.


yeah, every one of us has their own journeys. So yeah, how was it hard for you to adopt? Like what's the process?


It was a long process. I mean it was a year and a half. It is more paperwork than you can possibly imagine.


Was


You


know,


expensive?


you need police reports, you need local, you need to stay, you need federally be fingerprinted, you


for


need a whole study, you need classes, you need doctor's notes, you need original birth certificates, marriage certificates, ask for it. I mean it's a lot of stuff

a while. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. Right. Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah. And just


and


the


then it's a long process


avoid.


on the other country too. You know, um,


He was


of what they need to do and of course Guatemala being a latino country, you know, everything's manana, manana manana so nothing moves quickly. Ever. Uh, but you know, I mean, I wouldn't trade it for anything and you just have to know going in that. It's that it's a long process adopting from the States. I mean if you're open to a um, biracial child or a latino or african american, it can be relatively quick. I mean, I know people who got all their stuff done and then were chosen and

mhm Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm Oh. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, mm. Uh huh. Yeah.


No.


like a month later the mom was having the baby and you know, they would go down to like texas and you're required to stay for like five days with the baby and you head on home


It's


with your with your newborn. You know,


so what? Yeah. Yeah.


we didn't choose that. I mean we lived in a very, very small town. Um


Yeah.


and I don't know, I guess my husband, I mean my ex husband, he wasn't racist or anything. I didn't think that raising like an african american child in a tiny little town


I understand.


would be a good idea. You know, if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have cared. But but yeah,

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.


Uh huh.


So we got my daughter when she was 10 months old. And


yeah it's just the emotional


it's


toll of waiting for a year that sets of such weight. Yeah.


it is. But you know, you get into a place where it's like once you see that picture of that baby, that's your baby. So it really doesn't matter. I mean in one hand it's excruciating. But on the other hand, it's also like, okay, this is my baby. It really matter when she comes. So if she came when she was 10

Mm. Yeah mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


Well


months or if she came and she was too,


Well. Uh huh.


it's still my child, you know? So you can kind of let that anxiety go a little


bit I guess.


yeah and um I hope you don't mind me asking this was it hard racing an adopted child? I mean she she's different from, she looks different from you is like do people question you, do you get weird? Looks


I mean the good


what?


thing about most of our lives being in such a tiny little town that everybody already knew our story. So in that town we really didn't get that. I mean every once in a while now it will be like, that's like, hi I'm celeste mom and they'll look at me and look at her like, huh, what's that I hear from here, You know? Uh

Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah.


huh. And there have been some older friends that we've had that have made some racist comments. Um not about her but in general and I just say to them like I can't tolerate that. I mean I have a biracial child so that just isn't funny to me. Um


it's funny because


What?


she is so much a part of me that like I kind of forget that she's adapted. Like people have said to me when was her first smile and I'm sitting there like uh huh and then I go well shit why am I thinking about that? I have no idea. I wasn't with


her then, you know? But it's like I don't know you


So


you love them. Just like you would


hope.


a biological child you almost


hold


forget.


up. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's that's really that's really nice because um I I had a I have a cousin who was adopted and um it's like in my family adoption is not really not exactly acceptable, it's not the word that I'm looking for but nobody told the child that she was adopted, its like taboo to tell the adopted child that you were adopted. So when um some of her classmates in school were teasing her oh you're you're adopted


well


it some mean word to taunt her that she was adopted and she came home crying everybody is saying that I'm adopted and my my aunt went to school and she actually berated the Children for for for yeah. Yeah and I was like why couldn't they just sit her down and tell her the truth because there's no use for them to hide these things because eventually she would know and God forbid she will you stop that.


yes. That's


They would


the worst thing


you can do is hide it. I remember when my daughter was like three and she came home from daycare and she said Tori says that you are not my real mommy and daddy is not my real daddy. And I kind of just went oh shit okay

Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


You


wasn't ready to have this conversation yet. But I said to her,


Absolutely.


I said so here's the thing you have another mom Who were you in her tummy. And so I went and got the picture and I said that this woman Olivia is your mom but I am also your mom, I'm the one who raises you. And so I said the same thing like you have another dad but we are your real mom and dad because we are the ones who love

Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yes. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh. Mhm. Yeah.


What?


you, we are the ones who tuck you in at night, we are the ones who whatever. And I mean my my ex husband was


Hello?


like oh my God what are you doing? Like why are you telling her that and why are you showing her pictures? But for me it was like yes you have to be 100% open. She didn't understand everything that I said. She looked at me in a way that she needed me to tell her like and I said I am your real mommy but you also have another mommy. You know she was looking to me for that reassurance and um

Yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.


I never lie. I'm one of those people who's so freakin transparent that I mean I


I can sense


actually


that.


I you can oh


Yeah.


look I mean some people are like how can you be like that? But I just believe in honesty and it's someone if someone likes me or doesn't like me or whatever, it's like they at least need to make a decision based on knowing me the actual me, not that, that we project to other people, you know?

Mhm Oh exactly. Exactly. Uh huh Okay. Yeah. Mhm.


Yeah, yep, yep, I got what you mean


So


and


I mean, yeah, some people think it's a little crazy again, but I don't care, you know?


if you if you always listen to what others are thinking about you, that's that's not how you live your life. I've ever had heart um hardest. Yeah, it's it's like for so long I've been a people pleaser and I'm still am sometimes I find myself wanting to impress the other person because I want her him to like me. But then I would realize why am I doing this if he or she likes me or she or he doesn't like me and so be it. It's like I don't want to live a life where I am limited by what other people might think about me before. Used to be so afraid of being criticized, especially after moving here. It's like I speak the language perfectly. But there's still this, um, this image of me in my head that I am inferior to everyone else because I did not, um, I wasn't born here. It wasn't raised here. We're still like when my husband and I got married, I, I received a lot of racist shit from his friends and that was really hurtful. I was like, why am I being, why why am I even here? It's like I didn't even choose to be here. It's just a certain circumstances, circumstances or situation just calls for for me to be here. But you know what I'm like, I forgive, I forget. That's it, I move on. But it's been a learning process for me because before um moving here, I never really experience any, any of those racist attack, but it happened to me and it just devastated me and then eventually you realize, you know, you either um lament on it for so long and it just affects you for so long or you just move on and just don't, you know, let those people prove that you you are what they say that you are dope.

Yeah, exactly. Right, yep. Uh huh right, mm, okay, Right. Oh, okay, Right. Yeah, exactly.


Exactly. In our country, we pride ourselves so much being open


well all


the


it's


people


like we totally aren't, you know, we're


I bet.


judging everything and everyone all the time and it's so ridiculous. I mean,


Yeah. It's like I don't even watch the news now recently


no,


just


me


as


neither.


I it should be called instead of United Divisive and I've been telling my husband, oh my gosh, I'm like, do you see what's happening right now? And like these people have come out of their caves and just spewing all that is hateful hateful stuff and it's not just from one side it's both sides are I think in my opinion are to be blamed. It's like no one backs down. No one wants to I'm not saying everyone but it's just you know


Forever.


everyone has their own opinion. If your opinion doesn't agree with mine it's false news. So it's like it's crazy. Yeah. It is it is so


Yeah. I mean there's a part of me that thinks that I will when I quit my traveling that I will move to another country, like the central America where I can retire cheaply and not have to deal with any of the bullshit. You know, America is a melting pot and that's a wonderful thing. But we don't accept, we don't like it. We it's in our, you know, bring us your poor your tired, your huddled masses on the statue

wow. Mhm. Uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Exactly. Yeah. Mhm. Right.


Please.


of liberty and all that stuff. But we don't actually believe it, you know? And like I mean I do, I totally do. Um


huh.


but it's it's ridiculous. Part of me thinks that I'll retire to a country like Panama, you know like live deeply beautiful weather and just forget all the bullshit. You know,

Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Really? Exactly. Like I eventually that's that's our plan to to move out outside of the U. S. Um Right now it's the only thing that's holding us back is his job. But once we hit that number that we need to retire outside of the US like bye bye. America


I know I'm trying


bit locker.


to hit my fight. It's called fire, you know financial retire early. I mean I don't think there's a chance in hell that I'll hit my number, but I'm


first.


trying like crazy and if I can go somewhere else at least


But.


for a while, that will help a lot, you know.


Yeah. Yeah. I mean even just lean fire. Have you also heard of that? Yeah that's right now that's what we're targeting. So as soon as we pay off the student loans of God the student loans um Yeah. Um as soon as we do that we can always go back home to the Philippines and not pay, you know a lot of money to live to actually enjoy life. Um But you know right now We're stuck here for I would say 3-5 years and then afterwards it's wherever


That


that's


sounds so


them.


anything.


Yeah that's that's the plan. And I think what you're also doing is actually really great. I I haven't really talked to someone in I mean in person or in video call who uh knows about the fire movement. Yeah. Yeah. You're like the first person who I actually talked to. I am in I'm a member of the groups, you know facebook groups. Have you also heard of joseph? I


Yes. I am a member of that too.


that too. So I'm a member but I don't I'm not really active. So you're you're the first person who actually heard? Yeah. About


we should friend each other on facebook and we can talk


would


to the FBI.


I would love to. It's okay. Uh huh.


I'm going to write this down


great.


here. I got paper. What is your name?


Uh My name is Katherine, K. A. T. H. R. Y. N.


R Y N


Uh huh. And then an with a double N. And E.


A N N E


Mhm. And then uh


Yeah.


Villi R. V. As in Victory. And then I L. L. A. R. So right now my facebook is deactivated but I will activate it soon. Yeah. Yeah, it's just uh I'm protesting about uh what's happening with facebook right now. And I'm like, you know, fuck you, Mark Zuckerberg,


yeah, I know.


I temporarily deactivated it. But I can give you my email. Listen kate won't you can shoot me an email if you need someone to talk to just,


Call.


you know, rent about it. Or if you ever go here in the Northeast, we're also planning on visiting Oregon. If you happen to go to Oregon and you know, your tiny house and our bus, we could totally meet each other. Anyway. My email is D 80 D. As in dog. Okay. A as in apple Tsn table and then Catherine my first name at gmail. Yeah.


Yeah. I don't know. Do you want my name in case you activate your facebook account?


Yes. Let me get my Uh huh. All right. Ready. Yeah.


first name is julie J U L I E. My last name is a tough one. Its blade. Oh it's B as in boy Alice in uh I don't know. Light. Oh

Mhm. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Uh huh.


E. He is in dog. Oh


Blue. Uh huh.


W so B


Blue.


B


L O E


wow.


D O W is


Well,


pronounced. Yeah, it's pronounced blade. Oh, but


you


it smells


don't


like blow dough. Yeah.


Yeah.


Uh or blow edo or whatever.


That's the first time I heard last thing like it's


So


interesting.


yeah, we should definitely an act,


Okay. Oh I've gained a friend today I guess. Thanks to this pandemic. Yeah. All right. Um So do we just, thank you Hang up?


I don't know how we end this chair. It's


there's


new but in the end it what the hell?


yeah we did a photo.


Well maybe you just minimise that screen and then take the survey. I don't know.


I guess so. I mean once we're done I guess we just move on. Just click the next page. Is that what it test?


Yeah. It says,


Okay please return to this browser tab. Yeah just uh click the next um the link. I'm going to click it now. Oh if uh it disconnects. Um I hope to talk to you again.


All right. Sounds good.


Okay you have a great day. It's nice meeting you julie.


Nice to meet you too. Yeah.


Yeah. Okay bye bye.


Bye.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. What? Okay. Mhm. We've been having Mhm. You know? Yeah.


Hello? Mhm. How are you today?


God, How are you?


I'm pretty good.


But I am just going to finish one sentence if you don't mind typing really quickly. All right. How's your day going?


It's going pretty well. I went to sleep pretty wait this so like I'm kind of tired.


Are you where are you like, what time zone are you in?


I'm in pacific time zone, so it's nine a.m. Over here. What


So


about you?


I am I'm in South Dakota, so I'm in central time. Um Yeah, so this is just kind of middle of the work day for me. I'm taking an early early lunch to do this and earn a little extra money.


No.


What do you what do you work as?


um I'm a social media manager for a telecom. Kind of like a Comcast or uh I don't know who you would have, where you're at. Probably Comcast. So it's similar to that, but its regional to the midwest and then we also have a sports network.


Oh, I see. That's cool.


Yeah. How about you?


I'm currently a college student. So Yeah,


Boom.


I'm just yeah, everything's online though, so like I don't know, it's just like whatever like I'm just trying to get through it I guess. Um I don't know. Uh


I think that's all you can do right now like it's just so hard just like get through this and I don't know I feel like a lot of us are just kind of waiting for normal life to start again. So


Mhm. Yeah. I don't know like it's been I don't even know when Cortina started. It's been like so long. It's kind of become like the new norm I guess. Like it's really weird. I'm


it


sorry.


really has. So what are you studying? What's


I'm


your major,


studying molecular Biology right now. Mhm.


good for you? Awesome. That is way out of my wheelhouse.


Uh What did you uh What sorry? Uh Sorry? Uh


No, no worries. And I'm actually going to turn on my do not disturb too


Yeah. Uh huh. What did you major in in college?


um english education. So I did teach high school english for a few years out of college and I mean I think this is true of most of us now and going to the future, I just had kind of a round about way where I did different jobs and got into different areas and finally ended up in social media but like I went to college and like 98-2002, so social media wasn't didn't even exist back then, so people are like, Oh did you study in college? And like no, the internet was fairly like I that studies social media, so just kind of learned as I went and yeah, here I am.


How did you get like all your teaching credentials and stuff like that when you took? Yeah.


yep, I talked for three years out of college, so do you think you'll go on and get like your master's and doctorate or what do you want to do with your degree?


I'm not sure like I really like the like the sciences and stuff like that, but like I'm not sure if I want to pursue like my PhD or like a masters in Biology because like, I don't know, it's a lot of years. But yeah, I'm not sure. I want to do a three degree, but like maybe I want to go into like research and like, I don't know, I'm really actually interested in like cancer and stuff like that. So I want to do like research on like cancer and how do I, you know, develop cares and stuff like that.


absolutely. Yeah,


huh.


that's really cool. I've been, who's in his in pharmaceuticals? He was Organic chemistry. Um So yeah, just a really cool area


Right.


to go into where you can make a huge difference for sure. Yeah.


Have you sorry


Oh sorry, I was just gonna ask if you have done


if


this study before, like this interview thing.


um I got offered it um like a month ago, but I didn't do it the first time because like, I don't know, I just didn't feel like doing it. So this time I just did it for whatever reason. Have you


I have. I um last time I like maxed out the number of chats that I could do. I think it was like six. So that was really interesting. Like chat with all different kinds of people and just have like really different experiences. I mean everyone was super pleasant but sometimes it was a little painful because people

Okay. Yeah. Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


Do


were


you want


just harder to talk to. So


Yeah. It's just it's just different talking online, like the dynamics are different. So yeah, it's the same thing in the classroom, like, you know, it's not the same as the classroom in person. Like everyone is just, I don't know, ever, mostly people just have the camera and mic muted and like whenever you try to go into like group work or why talk to the teacher like it's just not the same. You don't have any like human, like real human like queues to pick up on some, you know? Mhm.


that's a really good point. I feel like for a long time people were saying well in the future we're going to do like everything online, like school online and work online.


what?


And I think we're learning really quickly that it's valuable. It has


this is just


but definitely does not replace interaction. And do you feel like it's exhausting to be in classes online all day? I'm in meetings like this all day and I'm exhausted.


Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Just sitting in one place all day. Like you like obviously it's not good like you you weren't supposed to sit in one point. You weren't made to sit in just one place and just like stare at a screen all day. So you know. Mm hmm.


Yeah. My step count is crazy low since I started working at home and now I don't know, you can't see behind me, but it's snowing here.


Oh, that's cool.


Mhm. Um It is literally cool at the end of my outdoor adventures for a while, so yeah.


Yeah. I live in California so I don't get that much snow if at all. Yeah. But I mean the temperature is decreasing, but that's really the cost that I'm going to get to any like cold weather.


capture,


Although


are


it's


you,


been it's been raining recently. So I mean, I guess it's that


are you


I'm


in southern or northern California?


in southern California. Mm hmm.


I have family in ventura, that's actually where I'll be for christmas if if everything works out with covid and stuff, but um yeah, I love visiting there in the winter because the weather is just so


I don't know. It's kind of crazy how like out of hand covid got so quickly like in like the winter, like when you like the turn of 2019 to 2020 like there were like barely any coronavirus coronavirus cases in the U. S. Like I saw like on the pho like health website and like it's only like four cases in like Washington and like uh, and some other states like in the pacific northwest. But then like, I don't know man, like it just started spreading like wildfire. Like I guess it was just downplayed to how bad it was. And like there's some also like this bad planning. I'm like people's parts I guess.


Oh, totally, and like, I mean, honestly, like my state, I'm in


Have


South


fun.


Dakota and Like we're doing nothing. There's been no lockdown, no mask mandates and they're doing it on purpose because like, freedoms like that whole argument, but the numbers are so bad here right now, like we have like a 40% test positive rate. I think they'll refuse to do anything. And it's just like, not only are we hurting ourselves


Come on.


but we're hurting other people because we're spreading it everywhere because people aren't they're not taking it seriously or they're like so afraid of losing their freedoms which is I don't know, kind of list in my opinion.


Yeah. I don't, I don't know when it comes to this. Like, I think you just have to bear with it and like follow the regulations and we'll all get this together and like everybody will be out of this sooner if everybody follows the rules. And like I'm almost certain that it would have been like much better if not completely over if we just like did it from the start. No.


Yeah, totally agree. Yeah.


So


you had, have you heard any news about the vaccine? Because I recently saw an article that says it has like a 90% success rate. But like I don't know what to believe anymore because like you and be either like super-like biased or like, like just out of the blue like it doesn't even make sense. So I don't even know what to like fall for credible news anymore.


Yeah. Well I follow this epidemiologist on instagram which sounds totally sketchy but I swear it's not. And she said like a notable thing is that they're announcing this to be a press release. So we haven't actually seen like the science that there claiming so we just need more information. And then I was talking to a coworker today and he said that he had read that the back this vaccine needs to be stored at like Something crazy like -120°.. So it's like how are they going to distribute that widely if it needs that kind of really specialist protocol for storing it? I don't know.


I also read that there's going to be like a phase of how they like administer the vaccine. So like they were going to target like public health workers first and then the elder way and then like the other general population. So yeah, it's gonna be a huge logistical task because I don't know why dude, like you have to do a lot of planning to like uh like administer it, like do you want it to be like, hey there's a bunch of questions with it to like how are you gonna like administer it? Like how like is it gonna be like uh like the flu vaccine where you just go in and like get it or like how is it going to work? Like there's a bunch of like variables I guess.


absolutely. And I think to like each state is coordinating their own response, Right? And like I said, my state is doing very poorly because we basically don't have a response though. How are they going to like, how do they coordinate with the States and like a state like California might be much more organized and helpful in a state. Like mine is probably just going to be like a mess. You know what I think we have. So I don't know. I Yeah.


Mhm.


Wait


What


and see it I guess.


what are you, how well to your best guess? How much longer do you think this is gonna go on for? Yeah, all


I


of


mean,


you.


I think through through the winter and into spring, early summer


but I was just


for


thinking


sure. So working with the, with the sports network were like forecasting like one live sports are going to come back and stuff like that. And it's like we're


let's


looking


go


into february,


what?


but we're we don't really think that they're saying they're going to


Come


have


on.


sports, but we're like, it's probably


I couldn't.


going to end up being canceled because we think numbers are just going to keep going up,


Yeah, I know.


you know what I mean?


Yeah, I know some regional, I know some high schools near me that have like their sports team opening up because I know like my old high school football team is having practices right now and the same thing with the marching band. So, um, yeah, I think there, I think, well, I know their plan was to just delay practices to winter, but like I don't know how that's gonna work out because I don't know, I haven't been keeping up with my high school news, but I don't know if they're getting tested or anything or if there is social distancing, but like, I don't know. I don't know if it's a good idea really, But


Uh huh. So in our area we have had high school football, but not college football, so that's all we've had to again, we're a sports network, like Fox sports. So the only thing we've had to broadcast is high school football, which is fine. It works. Um But yeah, like the kids are only


just


getting


another


tested


one.


if they get sick and of course playing football, they don't have like they're not wearing masks, they're just wearing their helmets. Um and the coaches are wearing masks sometimes, so I don't I don't know, it's really interesting and all these sports are like so close contact, like can you imagine basketball and the way people like breathe on each other? And I don't know, we'll see at least football's outside, but basketball


man.


is going to be another another story.


Mm hmm. I'm wanting to stay optimistic so hopefully it'll all blow over relatively soon. But by my college estimate like I'm not going back to, I'm not deworming until like at the earliest like summer 2021. So, you know,


I think that's probably a safe guess. Do you miss being on campus?


yeah, like, I don't know, I just, there's so many like the campus was so beautiful and like I don't know like I got to just like go out and like do stuff whatever and now I'm just like cooped up in my room, I can't really do anything.


That sounds really hard.


Yeah but like I don't know like I think that the first I think when we first went into court and I'm like yeah maybe this will blow over soon, like maybe I'll go back to college like after one quarter and like as the mud started dragging and like yeah it's not happening for a pretty long time, I'm not going back. Uh huh.


I mean the good news is as soon as they can, they probably will send you guys back because colleges, like I was reading that colleges need to have students on campus to like make their money basically. Like they're losing money with distance learning. So, and I mean I loved being on campus in college. I thought it was an amazing experience.


Well


So


you know


I can totally see why you want to get back to that.


do you uh for prolific, do you do you just do this alone or do you have any other white side uh Working gigs? Yeah.


I just do this. Um right now I are you on Reddit at all?


I yeah I'm pretty like uh yeah I go and write pretty awfully.


I was talking to someone in one of my other sessions and he said there's a separate it called Beer Money and that that has really good suggestions for other things to do. But I mean for me like this is about all I can fit into my schedule. How about you?


Um I knew like other like just like general survey websites but like they're not as good as prolific. Like you know how profits basically like the gold standard of these kind of websites? Yeah. Yeah. So like maybe I maybe used to do like other survey websites when I have more free time but like like um maybe if you've heard of like swag books or like you me or something like that, But like I don't really do that anymore because it takes, it's really like time consuming and like you get disqualified a lot. So like. Yeah it's sometimes it's worth it. Like sometimes like in a short story I could get like $5 real quick But then like if you spend like hours on it, like you're probably gonna get like maybe an additional 50 cents if you're lucky. So yeah it's chump change. Uh


And that's just not worth my time for me. I feel like like you said prolific is gold standard and like I know that's like academic stuff for the most part. So


I


think.


trust that their ethical and they're going to use my information like the way they should and not sell it. So I don't know, I like prolific.


Yeah. I respect their platform and like how they enforce like minimum basically wage for their surveys. It's it's really cool and it helps out the participants. What?


You know, How did you find out about it?


Um Well I was on I was on the Reddit for swag books which which links the Reddit for beer money in their side post. So they went to beer money and then like yes and then I went to the sites that their Reddit suggests that I saw prolific and I signed up because it was highly recommended and I don't regret it at all. Yeah.


found it um because I had a friend who is a professor at the beginning of the pandemic, she was like, hey, like I know a lot of universities are going to do research around covid and so if you want to earn a little extra money, like this platform is a really good way and you'll be helping with research too. So I don't


Monday.


know. Like you said, I've been really happy with it. So,


When did you start out with? Like?


um, so like mid March, right? When all this stuff started going down and I was like, you know, I've been working this whole time and things have been fine, but I'm like, that would be nice to build up a little bit of a cushion, you know, just


It's


thinking


always nice to have some extra money here and there.


for sure, especially when


What


things


to


are


do?


so uncertain with everything that's going on.


Have your finance has been well during the pandemic?


Yeah, I mean, like I said, my work has stayed the same. Like I feel super lucky my, my


What?


company has committed to like no layoffs and known for lows during the pandemic. Um, so yeah, it's just more like just trying to be careful and build up that nest steak. How about you? Are you working outside of doing this stuff?


Um I was trying to find jobs that fit around my schedule but like I think the only time shift that really work with my schedules are like railway weight shifts like that maybe midnight to like three or something. And like I don't know if I'm willing to like commit to that because I'm gonna be like super exhausted and then I have other responsibilities to tend to. Yeah. Yeah,


It's hard when you're in school.


maybe. I mean my time managers, my time management is admittedly pretty bad. So I want to prove on that. I'm sure I could balance it if I tried hard enough. But at the current moment like I don't know, I'm pretty unmotivated to get any work done.


I was just gonna say you don't sound super motivated to,


All


but I mean that's good. Like I don't mean that in a negative way because that means you don't need it that badly. So I mean that's good.


Yeah, I mean but I I have to find a way to pay college eventually. So I might want maybe when campus opens up I'll find like a work study job, like the right barry or something. Uh huh.


sure


Mm. Um Did you follow the election pretty closely?


I did. How about you?


Yeah I had this like little watching party with my friends and we were watching like state by state. It was it was fun I guess. Yeah. But I was it was a really close election like I don't know it was close to that. I would have liked it to be really


I completely


dr


agree. And yeah, take it how you want. But I was kind of disappointed that it was that close. It was like, it should not even be this close, but it is what it is. I'm interested to see what happens in the next month or so with like all the legal challenges and all that stuff going on.


I don't like some of the claims they have have like really small numbers like maybe seven and maybe like a minimum of seven and then like a maximum of like maybe 7000 disputed votes. But then those states have like Over like 2,030,000 we'd uh ballot count for biden. So like I don't know how it's gonna play over so I don't think it will. You know like I think biden has a reasonable weight in those states. And even if they take it to court, like if they added to trump's total, I don't think it's gonna surpass biden's numbers, so I don't know what the case is for.


no. I agree in historically like recounts have not usually change the outcome of what was called and what, what they found in the first go around. So I think it's just like delay tactics and also to like get their base riled up. So and it's working. I live in that we're old right now. I mean like where I'm at, it's a lot of people who are like that. So


I watched the video about the about the legal proceedings and like they stated that it's probably not going to change the results of the election, but like it sets a bad precedent in the future. Like I don't know how to word it because it's been like a while since I watched the video, but like yeah, I don't I don't know if I agree with the cases because like if this happens again in the future and like yeah, I don't know. Okay.


I totally agree. And again, like, I think it's just like continues to divide people and get like, I don't know, I just see people I know who I otherwise thought were pretty reasonable just accepting these outlandish claims that don't really have like much support for them. And I'm like, why? Just just because you're a guy lost I down of, it's frustrating. It's frustrating to live in the midwest right now. My dad that yeah,

Mhm. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


Yeah. I don't know. This year has been a crazy one to say the least. Like it's, there's been so many things that's been going on, it's hard to keep track of really? Yeah.


for sure. There was this really funny Tiktok video I saw where it was like, have you seen like those God, an angel tic Tac. And the one I saw was like, Did


Well,


you get all the events scheduled for the 2020s? And he was like 2020? And I was like, what 10 years of events into one video? That was really funny.


Mm. Yeah. Well, I'm not, I don't know, I don't use social media that often because I generally like to just hang out in person really. Like maybe I'll send a text to like my friends if I'm bored or something. But generally I just like to hang out in person and do other stuff, But


Good for you. It's just


how


like if I didn't do it professionally, I would love to be on it a lot less. So


long have you been at your current occupation for?


six years. So yeah, just kind of starting to feel like I know what's going on.


Uh huh. How did you transition from being a teacher into being like a sports like uh into a sports network?


Um like I said, I mean it was kind of a winding road, but so my degree in my background is english and writing. So I kind of got into more writing type positions and then I first started in this company as a content writer and then they needed someone to do the social media piece. So I transitioned into that, so that's the super short explanation, but basically through writing and marketing. Yeah, so, but I don't have a marketing degree either, so just kind of learn as I go.


that's, I mean like you just make you take the opportunities as they go. Really? That's how life really works.


yep. So what do you like


Come


love


on.


to do?


Mhm. Um I really love playing games. It doesn't really matter like any type of games. It could be sports, it could be like card games and board games. Like really like anything that has a bit of competition in it really because I like winning.


Yeah, that's awesome.


Yeah. But most yeah, I can't play sports with any of my friends though. I used to I used to do swim but before


Well, cool. Okay,


Oh


so I would love to get my son and to swim and he's four. How old were you when you really got into it?


Um my first joined club swim when I was in like second grade and then I stuck with that. I took a year break when I was in Middle School I think 8th grade. And then I just I joined my high school swim team for all four years. Yeah.


Okay. So he's not like Too old to start at like 4, 5, 6.


No.


You know how birds like golf? They're like start them really young, so they, I don't know, so I just feel like like, should I have done something already?


Yeah, I feel like there were the better, but it's always not wait to start like you can start whenever. Really. Yeah.


Well, cool. Well I sat a timer and we're at a time, so it was nice chatting with you.


Yeah. You too.


Yeah, have a good one.


You too


Bye.


mhm. Okay, mm hmm. Mhm. It's how do you feel that you want to play? Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh, hey, how are you?


I'm good. How are you?


good. We're both early. Yeah. So what's your name


jay?


jay? I'm matt nice to meet


man,


you.


nice to meet you.


Yeah. Where are you from?


I'm from Oregon Corvallis here.


Okay, marvelous. Where Oregon state? Uh North Carolina.


north Carolina. It's too far.


Yeah. Very, very far. It's getting late here actually. Uh I just like I was lucky


The


and


trailer,


I just happened to check my email like an hour ago and I guess otherwise I would have, I would have forgotten about it. Uh


We were sleeping time for you guys. Yeah,


Have you, have you been on prolific long


I'm


talk?


sorry.


Have you been on prolific a long time?


Uh, I started in March when I graduated, so at that time I started


Oh yeah. Pretty good for uh, earning a little bit of.


Poseidon come. Yeah. Yeah.


non monster kind of better than others. Uh but like since the covid started, like my income on that has really gone up because there's been so many like surveys for that. Yeah.


Yeah, and I'm doing the same thing, like, uh, I'm graduated in March, so after that I don't have anything to do. So Why Not? This 1?


what, what


Thanks.


did you say?


Oh, I did my masters here.


Okay, what what, Yeah.


And computer Science.


Here, is that okay? Yeah. In the job market now


not


or?


yet. So I'm looking for the job and applying everywhere. So let's see how it goes because of covid, like most of the companies are not uh starting the interview process as of now, so let's see how it goes. Yeah,


okay. Yeah. Do you uh do you want to stay and or again or you want to?


I'm thinking to move to san Francisco or California somewhere. Yeah,


in a sense, yeah, I guess that's where most of the jobs are.


Yeah. What about you? What you're doing?


I work of in a small business. Uh We do options and estate sales and e commerce. Uh So I've been doing that about five years. Um It's not what I want to, it's a school for, I didn't major business, I just kind of just kind of fell into it. Uh


But that's cool.


Yeah, it's just it's just where life takes you sometimes. Uh


So it's like your online e commerce website?


Right. Yeah, we do that. Yeah, we did all uh amazon e bay uh facebook marketplace somewhat as well, so, and that the e commerce side has actually been better uh during covid the cells like for that, I've gone up a lot, but you know, we had to we couldn't do any auctions or anything like that for a couple of months. So how how is the situation with the virus? Uh like?


over here, so over here it's pretty good like as compared to other states, like in Oregon we have I think Around 600 I guess 600 or 700 cases. But yeah I know like in Washington and in California, it's it's pretty huge.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here, yeah, we're not as bad as uh like Arizona or texas or somewhere, but we're not as good as uh some other states either, thankfully that I live in a pretty rural area population, so like my county, uh it's not like it's not too bad, you're thankfully. Yeah.


then it's good like if it's a bigger area, like a bigger cities and everything then uh it's terrible over there.


Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah, I normally like to travel, but like, I don't have any interests right now, I'm going to or anything like that, so.


Let's go. And then not Carolina is uh about florida right? Exactly about florida, right?


On the east coast, it's uh between like florida and new york, kind of halfway between the two. You've never been? Where have you been up? Like the East Coast?


Oh I east coast I've been to New Jersey new york, but I haven't been to downside fill florida, I have to I want to go and that's it. But after this Covid I don't think so we can move anywhere now.


Yeah. So I don't blame you.


Yeah that was my plan. Like after graduation I wanted to move everywhere like other states, but uh not expected this.


Yeah. So did you go to Oregon state for undergrad?


Yeah I did mine look at here and then I did my masters. I


And you don't?


know it's pretty long time.


Yeah, like Corvallis?


Uh now I don't have options have to be here.


Right, that's true. Good point. Good morning. Uh I've been to, I've been to Portland, but I haven't been to a poor balance before, so I like, I like


Well it's


I like the Northwest. Uh I like the climate, I kind of like it's not as hot as it is here, and I like all the big forests uh and all that. It seems like a nice place to live well. Yeah.


it's uh this area is like at the middle, not too hard, not too cold. And we don't have a lot of snow in December. I guess we get 2-3 inch of snow. That's it. Mhm.


Yeah, kind of kind of similar to here.


Oh but rain, Yeah, entire year. You will get a rain sometimes. Yeah, it's unpredictable. Yeah.


Uh So do you have like a preference for like where you want to work or like your specialty within computer science, or?


I usually work on the front and side, so like how to design a user interface and everything, so that's my specialty here. 100.


I did this site user testing, you know what?


Oh I heard about it but I haven't tested, I haven't used


it's


that one.


uh it's for testing like it's like really interesting to me like just to see prototypes of uh designs and so forth. Uh huh.


How is it like? Uh.


For like a self directed test. Like kind of like a


huh.


prolific, it's like $10 a test. Uh But then if you do like a video interview where your ball through a prototype with the U. S. Like researcher, It pays either $30 for 30 minutes or 60. Yeah


that's cool,


or $60 for an hour. Uh And like the more you do like if you did like the more highly ready you get the work to get. Uh So it's like a pretty good little side income and you make more money than like prolific.


that's pretty good. I have to try that. Yeah.


Yeah. It's definitely worth it. Absolutely. Uh It's just it's sort of like prolific though and that uh a lot of the tests though they're looking for like really specific equal. The screeners are really tough sometimes. That's kind of like the the only annoying kind of part about it.


what I did have installed the chrome extension, have you used that? Yeah, so that's pretty good like uh you get a notification, you don't have to sit and watch like when you will get a study and it would be


Like depending on the timing though, it's so annoying. Like I just like get up and like go get a drink or something to come back. You know, I meant like a dollar survey or something like but uh huh Because I mean, you know, I know most of them only pay like a dollar or so, but I mean over the money kind of adds up. Right?


we get this type of uh So like more than $10 or $5 here, Otherwise it's like one or 2, that's it.


Yeah. Well I was like doing one for Covid and it's like Once a week or every two weeks and it's like 10 hours. So that's like help me this month like really earned just a little. I figure like a little for like the whole month if I can at least like pay my internet bill. But that


that's true


yeah, that's what I make off prolific. I figured it's time well spent. So uh what do you like to do for fun when you're away from studying?


mm I like to hiking and everything like hiking and traveling, so most of the time yeah over here in Oregon there's a lot of hiking places so that's pretty good.


Yeah, because we have, we have mountains of north Carolina, they're not anywhere nearly as big as uh like colorado or somewhere, but I mean if they are really pretty hikes and there are a lot of waterfalls and stuff like that, so it's pretty fun. Uh Yeah, I like doing, it's good to just get away from the phone, a computer screen and


yeah that's true.


uh around nature. Uh


No for nothing no network will be there. Uh huh.


Exactly. So,


No. Yeah


so do you feel like you've kind of coked pretty well during covid or you just ever


Over here I didn't feel like uh is there any change because everybody's roaming around and uh yeah the major problem is like restaurants are closed, all the shopping dropping and all the stores are closed, that's it. Other than that like everybody is roaming around but people are keeping their distance is so that's good.


Right. Right. Are you, are you required to wear a mask? Uh


Uh Yeah if you go to shopping and everything then yeah but otherwise if you are going around like uh you know on the roadside or you're walking on the sidewalk then it's not mandatory


that's something joe.


but you have to keep a distance of six point, that's it,


Mhm. Right. Right. I've tried


how


her.


is it in Caroline?


How big


I was in new york and yeah.


am I in my area? Um Well we started a mandate with the mask like on friday finally and people


On friday


yeah, friday finally


Oh that's a pretty long time


it is


and


um and the mask like usage has increased a lot since friday, but before that when I would go like to the grocery store, Like at most maybe like 20% of people would be wearing then it's really frustrating, I always


that's true,


try to wear like when I'm going inside somewhere, it kind of felt like a waste of time wearing one because the other people were wearing them.


But it's for our safety so we


thankfully,


have to do that.


thankfully people are paying more attention now to it and but I did wonder like why they, why they didn't do this like in april or may, I think it would have made a lot more sense. Uh


in Oregon they started I think then I proved first. Yeah,


they prefer. Oh wow, okay.


so from that time everyone is following all the rules from the state government which so they given the guidelines to all the restaurants and all the grocery stores and everyone so based on that their humanity.


You are. Do you know anyone who's had,


I'm sorry.


do you know anyone who's had covid


No, not as of now.


a little Uh huh. I'm not certain people who had


But yeah I heard like uh east coast like majority uh population is contracted to this uh disease and everything.


Yeah. One person I know who hadn't recovered it was like no big deal at all. And then my cousin added he was actually in the hospital for it. Well that was pretty serious. Uh Like most younger people know they've all like, you know, they find even if they had a all


do you think it's based on it like uh.


I think I think it's eight and then like you're sort of existing health conditions Because one of the other people I know who had it, is there like in their 60s and they have heart problems already and that's why they had to go in the hospital. So I think if you're


Yeah, that's true.


if you're generally kind of poor health already, I think it's probably a lot more dangerous than if you're younger and don't have any existing health problems. I think. Uh


Let's see how it goes.


I think we're just just for I mean life here. For the most part it's not two different now. There's some stuff being closed. But I mean everybody is just ready for it too to go back to normal. But I don't think we'll have normal until we have a vaccine or something like that. Probably. Mhm.

Right. Right. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


But this normal will be different


Yeah. It'll still be different. Yeah, I agree


I


with.


think Until 2-3 years at least we have to face this. Even if you have a vaccine then also we have to make sure that.


Mhm. Yeah, I agree with you. It will have a like life used to be. But. Oh have you have you traveled


No.


much like either within the U. S. Or around the world?


So


So.


I traveled like country wants. So I've been to Canada


And


India and do very and then paris and then us. Yeah.


You should you have a favorite or?


Uh favorite is India because of food here to and then.


my uncle, he uh he went to graduate school with the richest guy in India. Uh


cool


What's that, Lukash? Uh


I'm burning.


But yeah.


Yeah he lives just three blocks away from my house so I have a house in Mumbai and uh he just lives two blocks away from my house.


I remember seeing pictures of that.


His village is huge here,


I


Angela.


guess. Uh Yeah, so yeah you try to go back to India fairly often or?


Yeah and so every year at least one trip.


Okay, what is, how bad is the heat? Because I've heard it's like really


Oh yeah it's uh so right now in India it's a rainy season. So in


well?


India how climate is? It's like uh every season stay for four months, so four months for rain and another four months for uh heat and another four months for winter. So in uh when it's in mamba and we don't get that much of hate because uh it's uh near to the ocean But roughly you can get around 90 or 100 for an idea.


Mhm. I remember saying, I guess it was by uh


Mhm.


like before and after pictures of Covid with solution. Like what a start


pollution.


address.


So uh I guess you have seen daily because pollution rise deli is more more polluted city than member.


Isaka. Okay. And is it Mumbai that used to be Bombay? Right.


it seems like most of the people I think even I don't remember correctly but it was a Bombay when I think british was there and after that they changed it to Mumbai. Yeah.


Okay. Alright. Trying to remember, you know, a little bit of indian. Yeah, it matters.


Uh huh. Where you been? Have you been to any other countries?


Yeah, I've been to Canada also I've been to Mexico a couple of the islands in the caribbean and then I've been to the UK uh


Which one is your favorite?


uh within the UK Scotland. Uh Yeah, I love I love I like history. Uh I love the old castles and going up to the highlands, I think it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. Um, I don't like that, I like think there really is, I mean even uh like july and august, it can be cold and raining parson Oregon I guess. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I like that even though, I mean obviously, even though I speak english trying to, and like

Oh Scotland. Mhm. Oh yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm.


Yeah that's called distraction.


big accent, like I really had to concentrate kind of on what they were saying.


I know you know what are my friends uh who was from Scotland and he came here to Oregon state for doing his PhD and my office in uh university uh we just sit beside and in our office and uh on my first day when he started talking I was like what he's talking, I don't understand anything like this language. His tone is different than the keeper. Like the pronunciation is different entirely different. Were able to keep that attention to what he's saying.


How do you speak english and hindi,


Yeah I speak I think 123 or foreign languages.


what else do you speak?


I speak uh english in the Gujarati marty and Son script.


You just make sense for it? Really?


Yeah not well but kind of I can understand that. I can talk yeah but in writing


no.


I don't know anything.


Is it difficult to learn as, I think it probably is or?


So I did my uh my schooling in India. So till uh 10th grade we have to learn every language is so my mother tongue is got so I have to speak that language at home. So uh I know from home that language and uh I was living in Bombay and Mumbai come center Maheras frustrated. So in that so if you go in India if you travel one state to another state then language will be changed. So all of India all indians will speak Hindi. But if you go to other States then their States will have their own languages. So in that way I have to learn mara Moradi and hindi is like all indian language. So we have to learn and since it was in my school so everyone here also.

Okay. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. Uh huh Yeah. Mm


Is there is there like a big difference between all of the languages it


If


is


I can say


or?


like hindi, Hindi, Sanskrit and Barati all are similar but which are these little bit different here. Uh huh.


Do you try to like uh when you're living here to


Great.


try to speak in your native language is just to say you don't like forget anything?


Yeah I have to so I would call my dad and mom and they are here right now but previously they were in India and so most of the relatives are in India. So we have to talk and we have a big like a huge family. So if you just make a call to everyone then you you need at least one week.


But Uh huh. Oh yeah.


Mm.


Trying to wondering how much time we have.


I think till our time was seven o'clock, so at least till 7 25. We have to talk.


So what


Yeah. Yeah, just for five minutes and one minute extra step aside if they


I don't have any problems with the getting the money. Uh I was Yeah


Just be on the safe state.


Right. Uh uh so what did like you did you have to do like a master's thesis or Masters like big project?


I did it with the project.


Project Yeah.


I don't want to go in a PhD. So if you want to go into the PSP then you have to go without CCS. Okay.


yeah, she is a long time to say.


I know it's like uh at least you have to spend six years, at least six years. Yeah.


Yeah and then finding a job in academia as


And stuff.


it was very difficult.


Mhm. So life long you have to learn new things if you drink PST.


You have you have you entered anywhere internship


Yeah, I did my internship.


where?


So uh at Microsoft? Yeah, in Washington, it's just the next week.


Yeah okay that wasn't like that Seattle or?


Yeah, it's in Seattle Bellevue.


Okay. Yeah. Uh couple months ago I still have like all of my old computers And I was able to get one of them working and it's it's bad. Windows 95 on it.


Oh, Windows 95. That's pretty old.


It was fun to play around with very low, but there was a lot of nostalgia playing with that a little bit. Yeah,


Yeah, that's very good. Because I don't think so when Microsoft will support that, even if


I


you call


don't


them like I have been no sex so that they will hang up. Yeah.


I guess maybe like They even service like Windows 2000 or Windows Millennium anymore,


Uh I don't think so. Probably the last one will be


thanks to


Window


you.


seven. No experience also gone. Yeah, so


So.


I think Windows seven Probably they will be supporting Windows seven.


Okay, do you do you prefer like Pcs or Macs?


Yeah, I prefer Mac, but I have to use Windows over there because Microsoft don't use my continues. Yeah.


okay.


In Windows you have a lot of options and it's confusing when you have a lot of option. Yeah.


and I'm not like not smart enough probably to get a degree in computer science, but like most computer problems I can handle myself usually. Yeah,


that's really good like


I had to take it into like a repair shop or anything like that.


You don't have to take that. Yeah.


Yeah, like I've been able to like before like upgrade the RAM and the hard drive, like they're all that on my uh for them as part.


frankly speaking this degree like computer science degrees and everything is a waste of money. If you just open internet and just type it, you can learn everything whatever you want


I know,


and


I know a little bit of html but that as far as programming languages go, that's a battle on uh


But you can nowadays you can learn languages quickly. Like in one or two weeks you can start programming.


Yeah. one of my friends, like he works uh mhm. It looks like the national weather service, but like he got like a big raise because he learned python, right?


Yeah, it's booming right now.


They were desperate to find somebody like to do it with no python, so you just like took the time to learn it. And he just said like there's all these like


All


over like, I guess programming languages that a lot of younger people I guess don't necessarily know. So if you can like admit language to study, you can do well.


that's true.


So


It depends like on a company basis like what they prefer and based on that they can give you money.


yeah. Do you think because you're doing


All right.


conflict if you wanted to, which you have the option somewhere like to probably like work remotely? Yeah.


So in cultural sense, I think majority of the companies right now working remotely and they don't have a pay cut or anything else, everything is running smoothly.


Yeah. Yeah. I was really like google had already said they were going to do it like through


What?


the end of the year.


Yeah, even google and twitter now that for the rest of the life they are going offline sorry, remote. So if you want to come to the office then welcome if you don't want to then it's okay, that's fine.


Yeah. That's a great for a lot of people and you have to send the traffic


work.


every day and all that.


But I think going to offices good idea because then you interact with people and