Well, there's certain applications where it be cool, but I don't think gaming is there another thing gaming will be until Probably another 10, 20 years? Because even if you have that on your head there's not much more to in mercy right now and I don't just for gaming I don't think it's great. I mean they did that Chernobyl um document documentary where you could walk through Chernobyl that's cool. Those kinds of things are cool but game and I just don't think it's quite intended for it.


Mhm mhm Good.


Not only does it make people nauseous, the frame rates and the amount of power it takes to do it still is quite high.


Yeah, yeah, maybe, I don't know, I tried it out once and I found it what?


I've had people swear by though but it's just like yeah you're swearing by and you love it so much. Why are you playing the regular version of that game? And has VR I've seen people playing regular versions of games that have er and I'm going why why if you swear by that it's better while you're not playing it then I've never tried it but it's just I don't know.


Yeah, mm. I haven't owned one myself, but I did try it quite a bit at my friend's house and I found it really fun. Uh huh. Oh, yeah.


Then again I have to look at the old Nintendo virtual boy and it's like yeah let me let me not do that. Yeah let's go to the red and black screen again and say that's virtual reality.


Yeah. Oh boy.


They had maybe maybe 20 some games on that system.


20 some games.


Let's let's do that again.


Yeah, I briefly heard about that and I kind of got snuffed out and I was like, what happened? But yeah.


It was like a boy kept going. They thought this is gonna be the next big thing. It's like how can you think putting that big bulky thing in your head and you can't even scrap it to your head? Put the big bulky thing in your head, you and those kind of numbers. Yeah. How could you think that's normal to look at the red and black screen that close to your eyeballs, not even color.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


I mean come on. Just Nintendo. Why weren't you smarter? Yeah.


Yeah. I feel like some big companies are sometimes just so like, like they're so the common sense department was just not there guys like this.


Right. Well the U.


This is just stupid.


U. S. Told them not to do it and to know us did Nintendo. Japan because the guy that created the virtual boy created the game boy, they put too much faith in his ability to get a good system out that they went with it anyways and so it hit market and just imploded.


Mhm. They say so.


Mhm. Mhm.


No one's still like bothered just to check like there's a small consumer test maybe.


Yeah. Yeah. No it was like let's let's release this worldwide and see it just flopped like a flailing fish.


Yeah. That's a lot of faith to put into one man.


Yeah I think he actually stepped down and resigned out of like honor or something after that.


Yeah. Right.


My understanding it hit him hard because of the failure.


Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. God, that's unfortunate. But Right.


I mean he created one of the greatest portable systems of all time of the game boy and I think they just put too much on him and too much faith in that and I don't blame him so much as them for one not having any oversight apparently.


Okay.


And two for pushing technology out.


Yeah.


That wasn't ready.


I mean as well ahead of its time and it wasn't ready. I mean Sega had a virtual reality system at the time but there's was actually halfway decent even though it didn't do anything.


Right.


But they still had one that was better than that.


Yeah. Mm. All right now.


Amy history man. There's a lot of crap there.


Right. Mhm.


Mm hmm.


We already consider getting a VR set, but I think I'll still think of it.


I don't know. I mean if you want you try and you like it then it might be something for you. But I just don't see very many things coming out for it and the ones I have seen haven't been very impressive personally. But um personally if I was to get one I'd wait for further down the line when the hardware gets way better and the computers can power it better because still modern systems are having trouble struggling to give up power.


Yeah, Maybe we'll see for the future. I guess. What? Yeah. Yeah. Built No, it's fine.


Okay. Sorry.


Yeah, fortunately I was able to build a fairly decent PC last year, so fingers crossed.


Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah. Oh yeah my my computers from 2013 so but I'm also using a computer in a different state remotely for gaming and screaming yeah It's cheap and it's running an equivalent to 1080 in it which um it was supposed to be this year but because of Covid and hey it's 2020 let's have to delay it.


I see. Yeah, it's upgrade from like 2013 as well. That's right. You're using cloud gaming is. I see. Yeah. Mhm.


But it was supposed to be upgraded to 2080 equivalent but that's not going to have until early next year now.


Mhm. Yeah.


No this whole year can just go to freaking hell shift.


Covid just screwed a lot of things up. Yeah. Well, on that now. Um, I think it's time to say farewell.


Mhm. Right. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well I think we've uh gone about to the gutters that we can go to So I hope you have a good one.


Yeah. Uh huh.


Take care.


Yeah. You too. Pleasure meeting you.


All right. Yeah. My.


Goodbye.


I would say Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every time. Mhm. Okay. I think that's yeah. Mhm. Okay. Hi.


Hi, I can see you.


No, I can hold on.


Can you see me much?


I am going to maximize my window and I am going to turn off the sound on my phone.


All right. I'll do the same.


All right.


Doesn't usually make much noise, but just in case. So I'm molly nice to meet you too.


Yeah. I'm abby, it's nice to meet you. This is the second time I'm doing this. Have you done this before?


I haven't no.


I met someone really cool and interesting the last time. Which is why I decided to do it again.


Well you you may be disappointed.


Good.


Okay.


I think everybody is interesting as long as they're talking about something that they're interested in, I'm interested in a lot of different things.


All right, okay. What are you interested in? Right.


Um Like some are just normal like tv and movies and books and some are really weird like uh pre modern biological and chemical warfare like like stuff like greek fire and and like plague bodies and stuff like that.


Ah Okay.


I read a book about it. It was really cool.


That is really interesting.


That's really interesting.


I read afterwards that some of the contemporaries of that author didn't necessarily find the book to be all that academically accurate but it was a really cool read and I wasn't doing it for academics.


Yeah.


It's not something you might fight in a paper, but definitely a good story.


Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. I watched a lot of documentaries I find like finding out new things to be really interesting.


Me too. Me too. I listen to a lot of informational podcast.


Right.


No, watch documentaries all that much. But I love learning new things.


Okay. Well so what types of things are you interested in?


Exactly. These things managed to also some fairly normal stuff like thanks and biographies.


Yeah. Oh yeah.


Mostly. I have a fairly eclectic collection of biographies and interest.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.


I have. I have sports hobbies. Mostly my husband and I are triathlete, so Yeah.


That's really cool. I have no sports abilities whatsoever.


All right. Yeah. Right.


I used to fence in high school but like I am the clumsiest person ever.


Right. Yes. Yes. I was destined for clumsiness. I'm obviously you can't tell him sitting down, but I'm about six ft two. So um clumsiness was always in my deck. So at like age eight, mom said you're going to ballet class, I don't care if you're good, but you have to learn to control your body and they didn't.


I found that taking tai chi classes helped me somewhat but there are no more tight.


I have mhm Oh yeah, Yeah, Yeah.


Like I don't mean like since the pandemic started but I mean like for the past several years there haven't been tai chi classes around where I live. So I am back to being clumsy. Yeah.


Right, Yeah, mm seems like something that might have moved online.


I didn't get far enough in it where I could do it by myself So maybe I could see, I know that there were pre pandemic tai chi classes through my local library, but they always got filled up really quickly because you have to sign up for them.


Yeah. Uh huh, interesting.


Mhm.


I'm sorry my cat is biting my toes, I'm just gonna put her outside real quick.


Chris mhm.


So that the letter, uh huh Do you want to meet at his cab?


Okay. My cats right here too.


Mm goodbye, Everybody's training you? Yeah. Uh huh Uh huh Sorry.


Yeah. My cat, my cat is like, right, like if you see my hand, she's like right here.


Okay. Oh yeah, my cat is not much for cuddling, she's still fairly feisty, so about a year and a half.


Mhm. How old is she?


Yeah.


Yeah. Yeah. My my cat wasn't really that much of a cuddler until she got to be around five.


Yes, wow.


Um She's nine now until then if she wanted to be like snugly, she'd sit like next to me, she wouldn't really sit on my lap until she was at least five. Um But my cat is also abusive. Like if she wants something like if I'm sleeping, she's only abusive when I'm sleeping, but if I'm sleeping and she wants something, she will actually smack me in the face.


Mhm. No, like that's right.


Yeah. And she um she's like really super Polydor Actel and she's going to be not happy about this, but okay, like if you see the size of her paw and she has, she has a nail that comes out of the bottom of her pa so like she'll actually smack me and like she always smacks me with the one that has the nail at the bottom of her pa.


Oh Mhm.


It's like turning your ring inside out before you smack someone in the face.


Yeah. And then um if that doesn't work, I almost always sleep on the side, she'll take two of her nails and put it in my nostril and like pull my head.


Oh, uh huh Yeah, that'll wake you up.


No, she is very determined.


Oh my stars. Oh. Oh yeah. A couple of weeks.


She has to go to the vet soon. It's time for her annual, there's nothing wrong with her and she doesn't even need shots or anything, she just has to go, well that's different.


Think we had our police shot scheduled for like the day the office decided to close for the, you know pandemic.


Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


And they were like, I don't know, just bring her in later.


Yeah. Yeah.


Okay.


Yeah.


She'll probably be fine.


Well, my vet offices doing is um, they're just having the pet owners wait in their cars and they're bringing the pets in and then um after they've done their check up there calling the pet owners and talking to them over the phone about their pets and so they're bringing the pets to and from the car.


Mhm.


So that way, because I mean you don't have to worry about getting coronavirus from the animals, so that way. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, well, I mean coronavirus, you don't have to like, unless you're dog or cat has a cold, you know, like you're not exactly breathing in the same space as the dog or cat.


I did read Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


For the most part when you're checking them up, check you hell out.


That's true. I do tend to like wash my hands after she sneezes on me, so it's probably fine.


Well, I just, I just actually broke my rule, so I'm going to have to be very careful for the duration of this phone call because I'm actually allergic to cats.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


But I but with the exception of like, getting like itchy eyes and stuff, I've become accustomed to individual cats because I get I get like the the like stuffy nose, breathing problems, kind of allergies from cats.


Well, mm No, hopefully the lag won't be so bad in the connection that it'll I'll actually catch you in time.


But if I'm used to certain cats like my cat, those don't bother me, but I'll still get really itchy eyes if I had my cat and then touch my face. So usually I have a cat hand and a not cat hand. But when I was showing you her paw, I used both my hands. So I'm going to have to wash my hands after this call and make sure to remember, do not touch my face in between. If you, if you see me happened to go from my face, please remind me. Yeah, I I don't really notice much of a leg.


No, but you never know.


Yeah. You never know.


Yeah. Mhm. So we, we we got right into interesting things but like where do you live?


I live in upstate new york in Albany.


Right. Really? Okay. My my my dad is from upstate new york near Rome Carthage. There's a military base up there.


Yeah, it's a it's a little bit south of here.


Yes.


I think Albanese like the halfway point, so upstate new york is usually like Upstate New York is like anything above one county above New York City.


Okay. Okay. Yeah, we've been after, Yeah.


Or or if you live in new york city, Anything above one count. If you live in new york city, anything above new york city is upstate new york and then once you're one county up it's Canada.


Mm hmm.


Yeah.


A C A C I think he said they were pretty close to Canada, but it yeah, me too.


Oh then maybe they're one of the northern ones. I I could be wrong.


I am I'm from the other side of these United States. I live in Arkansas. Yeah.


God, it's been pretty warm here lately too.


Yes, it's warm here. Mhm.


I feel bad for my cat because she's a long heard black cat two.


Age, yeah. Yeah. Our cat really likes being outside, so we take her out quite a bit, but um she's a long hair too.


But um. Mhm.


But I think they I think they just kind of adapt like Yeah.


Mhm. Yeah, it's just that mine because she's black, she absorbs all of the heat from the sun and said she doesn't reflect much of it.


Yeah, makes sense.


Yeah, Yeah.


Yes.


Mhm.


Uh huh.


But yeah, yeah, her name is Takahashi.


Does she have a name? Yeah. Actually that is unique.


Yeah, it's actually japanese for hands and feet, because when I got her, I got her with my roommate who is half japanese and he named her, Yeah, I personally would not name a cat, a japanese name because that would be cultural appropriation, but a Japanese person dance like a japanese name.


Cool.


So, and I wasn't going to change her name once. He, he was no longer, you know, she was no longer his cat.


Well, I was going to harshly critique you but I guess I will not.


What? Yeah, yeah, but the name is appropriate because she does have like, you couldn't see it very well from the picture because it's also hard because she's black, but but she's like Got like nine toes on each of her front feet.


You get a pass. Yeah.


So like when you look at her paws, her pa looks kind of like this.


Yeah. Oh. Uh huh.


Yeah, it looks like when when you look at her pot, it looks like she is a paw growing off of her paw. Yeah, because because a bunch of the extra toes are off of the side toe, not the main four toes.


Nick it. Mhm. Yeah. Is she are their cats that are like that or is she?


Well, I mean, I mean it's very common for cats to have extra toes, it's not common for cats to have as many extra toes as my cat does.


Yeah. Hi. Hello. I was thinking, but yes, I wonder if they're useful in any way.


Oh, they're very not useful. Like, they hinder her balance a lot, like she's afraid of heights, she won't like um I'm sitting at my parents house right now because um I'm in the process of moving into my new house and at my parents house, there are certain counters in the kitchen, she will jump on and certain councils she won't jump on because um like the kitchen island, their stools there so she can jump on the stool and then jump on the island, but other counters there aren't and you have to jump straight onto the counter and she doesn't go on the counters where you have to jump straight onto the counter because it's too big of a jump for her, and she's worried about landing.


Mhm, mm. Mhm.


So one thing that I've been very aware of in setting up my new house is making it very friendly for her for her to have different places of different heights that she can reach with her limited jumping facility, because because she likes heights, she just wants to make sure that she can get there and get back and yeah, okay, cats are very smart and observant and and when and when you're not doing what they want or they're bored, they just decide that they're going to be a pain in the ass until you're doing what they want or you're entertaining them because see it's not your apartment, it's your cats apartment and you're just there as there as her slave.


Interest very considerate. Right, that makes sense. Thanks. Yeah we also just moved I think we've been here a couple of months but in our old apartment our cat was able to open the bottom cabinets in our kitchen so we had to childproof them et cetera here. We thought ok, we'll childproof all of the bottom cabinets. It'll be fine. She can open these drawers and she can get on our counters and open our top cabinet it if I don't even know how she knows that cabinets open. Like let's be yes, she was not happy when we started working from home full time.


Yeah. Yeah. Hey.


She was like this you're here all the time. Go away, that's my napping spot and you're sitting in it.


Yeah.


Keep Yeah.


See my cat doesn't isn't like a total cuddle buddy, but she likes being around people.


All right.


So she likes at least being in a room with people. So she likes when people are home all the time. I remember in one apartment, um I had these really, really big windows. There were like three ft by three ft and it was summer and I had the window open and I drove home and unfortunately the nighttime and she's a black cat, you couldn't, the pictures did not really come out. But when I came home I parked and she was stuck spread eagle on the window because her nails were stuck in the screen because like she saw me drive up because she recognized the sound of my car and my apartment was um right next to the front steps of the building, and like parking was just right in the front of the building, it was street parking right in the front of the building and there was always ample street parking there.


How? Oh no thanks. Mhm.


So I pulled up and she heard me and she just ran and she she got stuck. It was the funniest thing, I mean of course like I ran in and I got her down so she wasn't up there for more than like a minute.


No.


But it was so funny.


Uh huh.


Yeah, she was like her home.


Yeah. Yes. Oh man. Oh that's funny. Mhm. I'm imagining like full arms out legs out attached to the screen right here.


Oh yeah. Oh yeah, and a big fluffy tail, like wagging back and forth, frantically. Give me down, get down, get down, get me down, I'm not happy hey.


Uh huh Uh huh We're fortunate she's not allowed.


And very, very loud crying. Yeah.


Cat is very quiet. I have a friend who's cat is very very loud. Yeah replace pretty quiet.


Certain cats are more vocal than others.


She talks a lot like when we first get up in the morning and she's like she's very chirpy. Didn't hear me talking about her. Yes you I'm sorry but she should never like she just like stopped what she was doing and turned to look at me when I was describing her tripping.


Mhm. It's okay. I don't mind if you talk to her in front of me to be Yeah, my cut is I don't necessarily understand all the time when my cat talks because like, usually, like if you think about like a baby when a baby cries, it wants something, it's either hungry or it's tired or it wants to be held or it needs a diaper change or like it's in a situation it doesn't want to be in, you know, and it's anxious or like it can feel like that you're anxious, you know, something like that.


He was like anybody but she she's not like good cat Rachel. Yeah Right okay.


She can have a full football that I just felt fresh water start yelling like crazy. I could have also have just changed her litter And I'll go up to her to like pet her and she'll like run away like five ft and then she'll continue now. So obviously she doesn't want me to like pet her anything. So I'm like, I don't know what you want from me, like I don't speak cat, I'm really sorry, but like, I don't know what else to do. And she's not like an interactive cat toy person, she's only like a play by yourself. Cat toy person. So like if you have one of those like feather on a string things, she won't bother. But like if you give her like a few like balls or like stuffed toys, she'll play with them when she feels like playing. So like even if I were to like take one of her toys and like toss it to her, she just like looked at it and be like, I didn't say it was playtime, and so I have no idea, but like she but she mows for my parents for food because my parents give their cats wet food in addition to dry food. Um which I don't give her because she has a sensitive digestive system and she should not be eating the wet food, but she does. Um But it's not as bad as it could be, Like it took me, she's really small, she's only like £8,, she looks a lot bigger than she does because she's like offer.


Yeah yeah yeah they're smart that way they are Right, mm.


Um But it's because her growth was stunted because it took like a year to find a food that she didn't that that like she could tolerate and she's still at £8 eats more than both. My parents cats in a day, and my parents cats are 16 and £17. She goes through more food today than both of them combined um just because it goes through her system so quickly. Um But I do not give her hands like, as a policy because when we move, I'm not going to be giving her cans, so sometimes I can't sit for my parents, and when I do that, I do not give any of the cat scans because they don't need cans, it's like a treat for them. They eat the dry food. Um And so my parents are like, can you give them food? And I'll be like, they have food, and they're like, no, it can't, I'm like, no, I'm not setting a precedent where they get cans for me, because if they see me give a can once they'll expect it again, and that's not happening. Yeah, well, But she wakes my dad up at like 5:00 AM every morning.


It's her, it's not the other cats, it's her. But like, he was giving the cat's food at five in the morning, I'm like, why did you decide five in the morning was a good time to give the cat's food. You acclimated her to 5:00 AM, and now she'll me out at you until you get up, and well she doesn't smack my mom around, she'll smack him around.


Mm Yes. For a long time when Ripley was a kitten she got used to us getting up at a certain time and then on the weekends obviously we did not get up at that time. Um And she very rarely did it to me because I think she loves me more but she would lay on my husband's chest and pull out one claw and just tap on his lip like good morning it's time to play with me.


Yeah. Mhm.


Get up, I'm awake you should be a wake. Mhm.


I don't know which cat did it, but one of the cats did something like that to my dad and he actually got an infection that he needed, like special antibiotics for, because it was like a zoonotic infection.


Right mm. Yeah. Thanks.


Yeah.


Yeah, I mean the infection itself wasn't bad, but like, it wasn't like a normal infection that people get because like, it was an infection from cat.


Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah that's the only thing that worries me about letting her play outside. I mean she's on a leash so we don't let her kill anything but usually if cats are inside they just don't have access to very many things that we don't have access to L Duckett right 2015 but when she goes outside I don't know I guess there are bugs in the house and stuff.


Okay.


Not a lot but they could bring in drinks.


I'm the first time pet owner, I don't know very many things.


See Yes, she's my first cat too, but I've had her for so long that, you know, I figured stuff out.


Yeah. Yeah.


Um And I had pets growing up too, so um But see that's another thing my parents are like trying to delay me moving out because like their cats are lazy and my cat is a mouser because they get mice in their basement um that somehow gets through from like the garage or something and and she is a good hunter and and they don't they don't want to give that up and I'm like you get your own Tadashi, this one's mine, but like she's going to be sad because the new house doesn't have any mice in it.


Yeah. Yeah. Ooh, mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


But I could do what I did in one of my old apartments which was go to the pet store and get like half a dozen feeder crickets and just like go into like the living room, which is like the biggest room in the house and let them out one at a time.


Ah Yes.


So she can go hunting the cricket.


Uh huh marked.


She really liked that. And because it's a feeder cricket, you know that it doesn't have any like diseases and proteins, protein.


Exactly.


I mean you kind of feel bad for the cricket, but if it doesn't get eaten by her it's just gonna get eaten by some other pet anyway.


And it's it's it's not the worst insect to release into your house if you know she doesn't catch it.


So.


Not like a spider or something.


Yeah. Yeah. And even if even if all of the crickets got let out, it's not like you can get a cricket infestation, don't just die eventually.


Yeah, I don't think read I hope not.


Well the thing is is like I don't know what crickets eat, but it's like not in your house because like I know that um that um if you want to breed your own crickets for pets, you have to buy like special cricket food.


Yeah. So in order to feed like that is a bit much like instead of buying crickets for feed you buy feed to feed your crickets.


Yeah. Yeah.


Two seems a bit yeah.


Well I think overall it's cheaper because like the food you get for the crickets last like forever. And so and the crickets read really quickly, I don't know. But um and I don't know how expensive crickets are uh comparatively, but I used to get crickets um and you can also get them like canned, but they're already dead, so that wouldn't be of interest to my cat, but I used to sometimes get canned or and you can get them free stride too.


Okay. Yeah.


Um I used to get those when I had sugar gliders because insects are actually a natural part of their diet.


Yeah. Uh huh, interesting.


I love my sugar gliders. I gave my last one away though because there in the wild they live in like big communities and if you have only one sugar glider they can get really depressed.


Uh huh. Yeah.


So um When I was down to two and one of them died. I there's a network online for people who have adult sugar gliders who either are looking for a companion sugar glider or who have a sugar glider who can be a companion. And so I found a home for her because I didn't I wanted what was best for her.


Mhm.


But it raised her since she was born and she was the sweetest thing.


Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you did the right thing. That's sad.


Yeah. Well I knew that I knew that I wasn't in a place where I could take on a new sugar glider and I also wasn't in a place where if you want to keep a single sugar glider you seriously need to spend like eight hours a day with your sugar glider.


Mhm. Yeah.


And they're nocturnal.


Yeah.


Yeah. Uh huh.


Yeah. It will be a significant lifestyle shift.


Yeah. Um So yeah I found a good home um with a woman who uh has an adult son who's mentally disabled and he are has he had a sugar glider who's others and his other sugar glider died. And so I gave her lavinia and like all of Albania stuff, and I got the weirdest, weirdest gift back ever. So I was raised jewish, but I'm pretty much an atheist, I'm not officially an atheist, because I'm one of those, you can't disprove a negative, so I can't say God doesn't exist because you can't prove that something doesn't exist, but I'm like, if there is a God, I don't think God's doing shit.


Um but I wanted to be like, nice, so this woman, like as she's leaving, she asks me if I celebrate christmas, because this was like the middle of december, I was like, sure, you know, because I didn't want to be like, I wasn't going to go into anything, and she was like, here merry christmas, and I was like, thank you, and she hands me like a gift bag and I opened it up and it's like this hollow plastic bust of jesus and I'm like, if you're meeting someone that you've never met and have never really talked to, is that really an appropriate gift?


Yeah. Seems a bit forward. Also possible that someone gave it to her and she was like, I don't know where I'm going to put this unless for lady.


I love that plastic bus. I give it like a place of prominence as like an ironic thing. I also love the fact that like, if you look at it, it looks like it's like clay or ceramic or something and then you pick it up and it weighs like two ounces, so it's like this really, really cheap since the thing, but it looks like it's like got this grubby task. Um but like, yeah, like, I don't know, you go out and like, I mean she knew I was a woman, so like she got me like a candle or something, you know, generic, like even if I didn't like a candle, like candles like it's something easily re gift double, not you can get one for like $2 at like the dollar store or yankee candle or something.


Like a plastic bust of jesus.


Yeah at least he didn't have his crown of thorns.


Yeah. Well, you know there's a boundary somewhere about what you're willing to put in someone else's home.


Yeah. Yeah she was from, she she drove I think an hour and a half or two hours.


I live in the south, so that sounds less far fetched like. Yes. Goodbye. That alone.


She was from more central new york like west, she was like in um she wasn't like the like the Cornell Ithaca area.


Mhm.


Um But so she was and I mean so she was in a more rural area and like rural new york is more conservative and um religious and like Republican, a lot of people don't realize but like new york when we vote as a whole state like for president were very democratic because all of our major urban areas our Democratic and they have many many more people than our rural areas. But um for all of the local stuff, so like not the Senate, because again to people whole state votes but for Congress and all of the state legislature in the state senate, it's very mixed because like I said the city centers are Democratic, but a lot of the rural areas are Republican and most people don't know this, but like with the exception of the city centers, new york is pretty much a farming state. Like If I go to my local farmers market and this is like a farmer's market that only has things from within 30 miles, like there are apples and peaches and and like homegrown beer from hops and liquor and wine and uh honey from a blueberries and maple syrup, various berries and fruit, various vegetables like just in like a 30 mile radius.


On your true.


And And that's a 30 mile radius from the capital of the state. What the city centers like are very concentrated, it's like urban and then like And then like two miles from urban, it gets rural like I'm in my parents house right now.


Yeah. Mhm.


Um it would take 10 minutes to drive and get to downtown Albany. There's a corn field across the street from where I am right now.


Yeah. Yeah. I feel that I grew up in indiana which is our city centers are not as Dense, but we have about four big cities and the rest of the state is corn.


But yeah Like most people don't realize this but for all of the 90s we had a Republican governor that with the exception of like the last term and like the second half of the last term was pretty popular and he didn't get reelected because he didn't run for re election.


Like You can have, I mean I grew up in a town of about 100,000 people and I lived in town across the street from a cornfield. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


I don't know if he would have gotten reelected.


Uh huh, interesting.


Mm.


Yeah, California is like that too. Like like you obviously have southern California but the northern California is mostly farmers and it's fairly rural and fairly conservative. Just is interesting.


Yeah I just I think a lot of the U.


Yeah. Electricity. Okay. Right.


S. Is like that it's like so much of things are assumed because people don't know, people think oh it's Arkansas, everybody's like a hick there but there are actually urban places. You know like you can be in a city and be in Arkansas or like you can be in a cornfield and be in new york two weeks.


Yeah. Yeah, fascinating.


Yeah.


And you know it's it's those things that you know make politics in this country a lot more complicated than they otherwise could be because people are like, well why don't the Blue States and the red states just like as if we were going to have another civil war and just like split them off except the blue states aren't all blue and the red states aren't all red. You know what are we gonna do? Split it up by county and like all the blue counties can be one country and all the red counties can be one country. It's like or like have like a mass migration. Well, I guess if we wanted to like, well I guess if we did reparations for slavery and we included land ownership, then we theoretically could do that because we could take land ownership and redistribute all the land in the country and that way, all the people who feel one way can go in one area and all the people feel another way to go in another area, then we can split the custom, but that's never gonna happen, you know? Okay.


Yeah. 50 times.


Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah, just yeah, colorado can be colorado can be the neutral zone.


And who gets to decide which area b other group gets to live in because both sides are going to be like, I would like colorado, please. Mhm. To me, yeah.


Like, you know how like whenever there's a war there's like the neutral zone in between.


Mhm.


That's that's colorado.


I feel fat. Yeah. Okay. I think we could probably draft this as a bill like.


Well, no, because first we have to get the republicans to agree to give reparations.


Right.


What I mean if you think about it like how would you how would you feel if like okay like they talk about ancestral wealth and it's like they talk about how there's no ancestral wealth because black people weren't allowed to like own land or buy houses or things like that.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.


But it's not only that but it's like If you were a slave for 400 years, That's four even not even including land ownership, that's 400 years worth of wages that they don't have.


Just wages, not even including interest or what they could have done with those wages in terms of like investing and land ownership or anything they did with that. We just wages like they were like just be happy you're free like just be happy with what you get. I'm sorry but that's just not cool for me. Yeah.


Sure. Yeah, ethical.


Yeah. Yes.


It is Oh I things are complex.


Mhm. Yeah, and then like I just I don't understand so much about what's going on with the country these days, like I know how people are feeling, I just don't really know what's happening, you know, like I know what various people want to happen, what what people want to happen and what actually is happening are two completely different things.


Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah, and like it just everything that's going on just seems so opaque to me.


Yeah. And intentionally, so there are very few people that benefit from reality being the narrative regardless of what it is, it is generally more beneficial for anyone to be able to spin whatever is going on, hide whatever is going on or make something up whole cloth, it hurts.


Yeah, and I like, I remember earlier today, I was just telling my dad, I don't care who wins the presidency, I just want to go to sleep and wake up four years from now.


Yeah. Yes. Uh huh. Yeah. Uh slim pickens, yeah.


Yeah, and people are like who are you voting for president?


Mm right.


And I said, I mean I'm in new york, so it doesn't really matter who I vote for president because I'm not in a swing state, but so I have the liberty to do this, but I'm not voting for president. And they're like why are you voting? And I said when you can give me a candidate that hasn't been accused of sexual assault, I'll vote for president and I'll vote for them.


Mhm. Because unlike other years, it's not even an issue of like, well if you vote third party, like you're taking a vote away from someone that might agree with you a little bit, it's like they all dropped out. There are not 3rd party candidates, no one's running, we're in the middle of a pandemic.


Yeah, well, well we could always um we could always do a write in for Kanye West and what was that about?


Uh how Lauren come quickly, mm uh have you seen fiddler on the roof?


I should have, but I haven't, but actually I if I were to believe in all of that, I wouldn't be surprised if the messiah came soon because I have always said that Oprah is the antichrist and I have good arguments for it.


Okay, it's bad, but it's good, but it's sad. There's a there's a line at the end where all the jews are being um and hoisted out of Russia and one of the and one of the men in the town goes to the rabbi and he says Rabbi wouldn't this be a good time for the messiah to come? And he's like, I guess you will have to wait somewhere else, It's like, but now it now would be an okay time. I think that would be okay anyway, chicken, It is not the worst pandemic the world has ever seen. So there's that right? Yeah. I'm intrigued.


Well, first of all, the antichrist is actually supposed to be very, very popular because people are supposed to think that because the antichrist is supposed to be someone that people actually think is a savior and that like the vast majority of the world actually follows and almost everyone loves Oprah.


Oh okay. Carrie. Uh huh. Mhm.


Like tell me someone who doesn't love Oprah, but they also do things that are horrible for the world now.


You look apparently.


These are the things that Oprah is responsible for. Dr Phil Dr Oz, jenny McCarthy's anti vax movement.


Yeah. No. Yeah.


Okay. Yeah, I mean there are so many horrible things that she has given her support to and used her fame for that are just detrimental to the world that I don't know if she does it on purpose, if she believes in it, if she just doesn't research it but have such a negative effect. But you can't criticize Oprah because she's so popular and she's a black woman who's made it from like the slums to like superstardom.


Oprah.


Yeah, like Oprah, like the only person that you can really compare with Oprah is Michelle Obama, those are like it as far as black, we're going to go if you take away the black thing you can do like endure Gandhi and that's like it.


Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.


So so like you have Oprah being responsible for people not wanting to get their kids vaccinated and you have Oprah being responsible for um in addition to like black people's normal distrust of the health care system, which is reasonable and systemic because of the way the health care system has treated them before and use them as unwilling guinea pigs and all of that.


Uh huh.


Um but you also have her responsible for somebody who is a major proponent of non medicine instead of medicine. Like things that have no evidence for them have evidence against them are patently false, have claims that have no validity that people are using instead of things that will actually help them.


Mhm.


So that that is my and I mean I don't remember what like all the specific criteria were for like someone having to be the antichrist.


Yeah.


I think there was something about like having to have a prostitute as your mother and I don't know if Oprah's mother was a prostitute or not, I'm not going to accuse Oprah's mother for being a prostitute.


I think you know that might be a little outdated because I mean me consider mary Magdalene a prostitute and there is no proof of that.


He.


There's nothing in the bible that she's a prostitute but people claim that that's just like slut shaming.


No, no. Yeah. Well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.


Sorry.


Mm.


I know to what you were referring. People who have read the pass it that there's a story about a woman that is um that is known to be in the town. Mhm. Languages hope was probably a prostitute.


Yeah they're separate stories but they are assumed to be the same person.


The next three we have is about mary Magdalene being healed of seven demons, which is why the two are often conflated. But they are widely considered widely I say of the people I know that they're separate stories. Yes. Yes. Probably not the same person.


Yeah, but all right hurricanes are coming.


So I'm not, like I said I'm not going to say anything about Oprah's parentage, I have no idea about Oprah's you know childhood or anything. Um although I do recall her saying something about like being abused as a child. I don't know what specifically kind of abuse it was, but her saying that her childhood growing up was not a good experience. Um But yes, that that is, but I mean I don't personally believe in the antichrist, but if I were to believe in the antichrist, that would be, you know, that would be my, my suspicion. Plus. I mean in addition to the pandemic, we've had like the killer hornets and we've had um I mean what else have we had? I don't even remember all of the different things. Right? Yeah. The hurricanes are going the latest we have bunny Ebola now, bunny Ebola, I mean it's technically not Ebola because it's a different strain of virus than Ebola, but they're calling it rabbit hemorrhagic fever and they're just shortening it to bunny Ebola.


No. Can it spread to people girl?


And unlike regular Ebola, this one can be transmitted through fluids by touch on surfaces through the air and washing your hands do not kill it, it's like super Ebola, but only for bunnies, it's on, it's on the west coast, mostly in the northwest right now, but it's moving down to California.


Yeah, that's a study prevent. Yeah. Well, okay. I love bunnies. I am. I wish they did not have Ebola however. Yeah.


Um it's something that's again, we got it from china. Um we didn't get it directly from china, we actually got it from europe, who got it from Russia, who got it from china and it's been in europe for like over a decade.


Mhm.


But we just, we just started getting uh an epidemic of it recently and I saw an article about it last week and I was like not another thing.


Okay. Thank you. It is sad and and I love them.


Yeah, effort.


But again if europe is not it for I don't thank me I'm more a more on site.


Who doesn't love bunnies either? You love them because you're, they're cute and fuzzy and and you want to pet them or you love them because they're yummy and tasty and their first warm and fuzzy to wear. Well I'm more a two but you fall into one of that.


It. Yeah, yep.


You can't. So either way you love bunnies.


Yeah that's true I guess I can't think a bunny laid down in our back yard the other day and it like it like laid down and it stretched out its legs and its like for like twice the length of its body. It was it was so chill. It was just like I'm just going to lay down in the shade Like 101° here. Like it was so chill Ripley lost her mind.


Yeah.


She was like, let me add it. No having a nice but.


Yeah. Okay.


Okay.


So so so yeah so people in the west are like not letting their bunnies out, like even if they're bunnies are normally outdoor pets, they're being indoor pets.


Like I think I remember like before they figured out what was going on, like an entire vet full of um rabbits that they were um that they were like housing that they were just not sick rabbits but rabbits that like people like were away and they needed somewhere to like how is their rabbits while they were away?


Like they all died but at least unlike normal Ebola this one works a lot faster so like at least they're not suffering for as long.


Uh All right good.


Yeah I'm not a fan of suffering.


That makes me feel better about you.


Uh I imagine in a hole growth people's cats dying from Hello.


In less sad news. Ebola has been contained to only one country and and we're almost done with it. But like the congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the only place with known cases.


Yeah. Yeah. Well they're actually various strains of Ebola and some of them aren't actually that bad.


Yeah. Uh huh.


This is the bad Ebola When you talk about the one that's like 90% fatal.


Yes. The one when we talk about Oh no, if you yes, Yeah, The one with like travel restrictions and you can't yeah, that the bad one.


Not the one that's 40% fatal. Hey? Yeah. Yeah that's good now let's just hope you know they keep the pandemic away there too.


Yeah.


Yeah. What?


Yeah. Yeah. Seems unlikely.


I really hope I really really hope they don't open the schools.


Maybe.


My best friend's a teacher and like I really hope they don't because it will be a disaster.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think there are some places where it could be really bad Arkansas, we're currently in our uptick.


Mhm. Mhm.


But yeah, I am pro staying home. I am pro meth, I am pro cleaning. I'm pro many different school options. But there are places in our state that have one active case where it's just not, it is and a non issue.


So those, I mean it makes sense that right.


Well I don't well I don't think it should be a nationwide thing. You can see a tail. Uh huh. Um Well I don't think it should be a nationwide decision. I think it should be an area decision. One thing I disagree with is them making masks of political issue. People are like it's a free country but you know what try the argument the next time you get pulled over for not wearing a seat belt.


Which actually makes less sense than us making you wear a mask because like literally you are the only person that gets hurt in that.


Yeah. Yeah. Also um I mean like is when you wear a mask, you only like unless you're someone who's already been wearing a mask for several hours a day, for months, you only need to wear a mask for like at most half an hour to an hour at a time.


Thank you.


Like when you're at the supermarket and most and a lot of places you can order your food to be delivered like your grocery store food or you can order it to be like curbside ready and you can just pick it up at the curb.


Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I find the reaction to be a lot of people.


I just I just don't I just don't think it should be a political issue, you know?


No.


Um But the thing with schools is like, I think what's going to happen is if they open schools, there's going to be a huge upsurge and then schools are just going to have to close again. But because they open schools instead of doing any prep for online teaching, there is going to have to go back to zoom classes without having had any prep for online teaching and everybody will be scrambling again.


Yeah.


Um But also like, I would feel horrible for the kids because what happens if you know somebody in your school gets coronavirus and you get coronavirus from that And you're like, say in elementary school, so you're like eight or 10 and you go home and you're fine because you're a kid, you've got a great immune system.


Mhm.


Your parents actually did vaccinate you. So, you know, you've got a strong immune system and you know, your parents have done stuff that's healthy for you, but like, not everybody in your family has such a great immune system and you know, you give it to your parents and one of your parents died and then you feel guilty for the rest of your life because you feel like it's your fault that your parents died of the coronavirus because you're the one who brought it home from school and try social distancing during recess.


Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, that exact right week.


Like you like, you can you can be six ft away from your friends, you can't be any closer, like how are you going to keep, you know, elementary school kids from doing that?


I doubt that will be uh no recess.


That's uh in Arkansas, our schools are probably opening and like you're not leaving your classroom, you go to your classroom, you have school, you go home it like you don't get to go to the cafeteria either. Like you have to eat in your bathroom.


What about kids who have uh state funded lunches?


They're making arrangements. I mean like the food because they, because they also have kids with allergies. I am not a teacher, so I don't know the ins and outs, but I know that they are working through a very detailed plan.


Mhm. Thank you.


And so because the kids with you have to be any separate room or a separate area of the room, I don't remember but. Okay.


Maybe they'll get like a partition to block those two, like to like put up between those kids while they're having lunch.


Okay. Mhm. Maybe I don't know.


Help him.


Um but like, but like, how crowded are the schools?


That might work. But it sounds really sad like it depends.


How crowded are the schools in Arkansas though?


So uh most It's really small.


Mhm.


Most of our counties have less than 30,000 people in them. So the schools are fairly spread out unless you get somewhere like Little Rock or um Fayetteville and then they're fairly crowded.


If it's like two days a week and they split the class in half Because my friend teaches 4th grade And they're like 35 kids in her class.


But those schools are not necessarily starting right away or they're doing a staggered approach where like only have the kids come each day. Like your yeah. Yeah. So. Right.


So like, even with, even if they split the class in half, it's still going to be hard to get the kids to be six ft away. And like I was in her classroom because I was helping her at the end of the year, not this past year, but the year before.


Yeah.


And I don't see how you could fit 15 kids in that room With six ft in between each one.


I mean I don't know how are you going?


I just hope that when they do pass whatever stimulus bill they pass, there's a lot of money going for education.


Yeah, because like we, because I mean also with the cleaning, they can't expect the teachers to do the cleaning because they already do so much.


Yeah. Mhm. Yeah mm.


And so they need to be able to hire cleaners who are specifically trained in cleaning for this. And also if if for schools that do physically open, they need to hire people who clean who are trained for cleaning. But also like they should be hiring people to like check temperatures at the door. And they should also like be hiring people um for transportation service, so parents don't have to pick their kids up if their kids have to go home because their temperature was too high. Um Because like if you don't have a car and you rely on public transportation, like it might take you like even if you're not at work, it might take you three hours to get to the school because you have to rely on the bus schedule to get there because you may not be able to afford a taxi or Uber and then you know it's a taxi or an Uber really going to want to let you in their car if you have a fever.


Like if I was an Uber driver I would take the temperature of anyone who is going to get into my car and if you had a fever I would say sorry.


Good for no.


Yeah. But like also like I remember when I was in school they were doing construction and they put up temporary buildings and for places where there is physical room you can put up temporary buildings and and as long as you're willing to hire teachers to teach or if you're willing to do like distance learning and just put in someone to like keep to like monitor the class and have the teacher be on video.


Yeah mm.


You can put kids in a separate room and then have the kids alternate or just have the teacher alternate which room they're in. Um And that way the kids aren't going back and forth between the rooms, there's only one person going back and forth.


Mhm. Uh huh mm.


Um I think not when I was there, but um after I was done with school, one of the schools in my area started doing that um in the junior high because like all the kids were with the exception of the kids who were in like the advanced classes, all the kids were taking the exact same classes instead of having electives and whatnot. So they just had the kids stay in the same classes and they just had the teachers rotate.


Uh huh. That's really smart.


Yeah, and that way they don't have to work.


I mean friends.


And I mean the kids were allowed in the hall in between classes if they needed books and stuff, but they just made sure that the kids lockers were near the classrooms that there stuff was in. And you know, it made it a lot easier and simpler.


Mhm.


The teachers complained at first, but then after a while, you know, mm, he calmed down.


Yeah.


But I mean, and if there isn't room, if your building has a flat roof and the roof can support it, you can put temporary buildings on the roof. I don't know if you can put enough depending on how big the school is, but you know, or you can set up a school in a different building because how many buildings are currently not being used because there are businesses that are closed because of the coronavirus. If you have a giant, you know, office building that usually uses, um, that doesn't usually use, that usually uses just partitions for desks that can be easily taken out.


No.


That's like a really big room that you can social distance in and if nobody's using that, you know, the government can rent that building and you can use that as your school.


Uh huh. Yeah I, yep.


But all these things cost money. So hopefully there will be money for schools because otherwise a lot of people look at that.


Yeah. Yes yeah yep.


Mm I have enjoyed talking to you too.


And on that we have gone significantly over 25 minutes which is fine. I thoroughly enjoyed this back. Okay if you have to work tomorrow.


I talked way too much though, which I tend to do, but yeah.


It's very interesting though like you said it's not hard if you're talking about things that interest you so you too.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, have a great evening and um, have fun filling out your survey.


Yes.


I could, I'm


Bye.


blow hi get diarrhea.


well right, how are you? Just using?


Mhm.


Good.


Uh huh.


Uh you hear me okay?


Yeah. Yes. Very good.


Yeah, okay, good um what's your name?


Get get get uh Justin Justin that Yeah.


Nothing, I'm Gabby, nice to meet you.


Yeah as a manager to right uh Los Angeles.


So where are you from? That's fabulous.


Yeah.


You live there right now?


Yes. Mhm.


That's right now.


Uh We're from mhm.


It up in boston originally um And then I lived in Colorado for the last 10 years and now I'm back in Boston for a little while.


Also so right now you're in boston right now you're in the boston.


Oh yeah. What? Yeah, yeah, the bar scenario at least.


Mhm.


Yeah, I like how was the play?


Oh thanks. Uh huh. Uh It's okay it's getting a little bit coat coder.


Oh. Mhm.


The weather.


Yeah, it's a mugging or? Not really?


Not really because you heard about news about a wildfire it's like mm.


Yeah. Yeah, I did. I saw some pictures from like all over California, but in L.


A.


Right.


I heard it was pretty bad at some point to.


Mhm. Yeah it's really uh grew me dreamy it's because of burning so you're right okay thank you.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well I was in colorado until like the end of august and we had some bad fires there too, so before I left it was so smoky, you couldn't see like the mountains near me or anything. So um it was nice to leave how I left, but yeah, they have a lot of fire issues still.


Mhm. Yeah exactly. Oh nice.


There's still a lot of like active fires in colorado, unfortunately. So probably, you know, with winter, they go out soon.


Huh. Mhm. Yeah exactly. So what do you do for even?


Yeah.


Mhm.


Uh, well, Covid changed that. So I was working at a ski resort actually in colorado.


Mhm mm.


Um, I worked at a spa, like managing a spa at the hotel, but I, I lost my job because of Covid.


So now I'm doing nothing. What about you?


Mhm. Oh uh ah I'm doing engineering jobs right now.


Right, and there you go.


Yeah several engineering yeah.


Yeah. Any what type of engineering? The ones hearing? Okay. Do you work for like one company or using multiple jobs there?


Mhm. Um Just one companies.


Welcome. Thank you.


Uh huh.


Yeah. How long have you been doing that for?


Uh It's been a while, it's like a seven years.


All right. Let's do you like it?


Uh It was okay.


Okay. Well, are you saying you went to school for engineering?


Yeah. Maybe run that nothing to complain. Yeah I went to school for injury. Yes.


Yeah. Where'd you go?


Uh USC if you heard about that and yeah, yeah.


You're a student and help Universe.


Mm Yeah that was in California.


You have something California. Okay.


There you go.


What about that? You've been and out. You've been in southern California a long time.


Yeah.


Nice. Were you born there?


Uh No, actually I've been born locally. Yeah, actually came from china.


Okay. Spent a lot of time in California.


Mhm. Mhm.


Cool.


Uh we passed in the area you come from?


Mhm.


Have you been to boston? And you know it well, Have you been to boston before?


Uh huh. Yeah.


Nope. You're Yeah, you're kinda got a little, you're back. Um Have you been to boston before?


Uh Not really. All right.


No.


I'm not really familiar with boston's at all.


Yeah. Like I'm like pretty close to like right in the city, just like the town just next to the city, so almost right like in boston itself.


Yeah. Mm hmm.


But but it's right on the ocean, so it's nice.


Yeah. Oh so the boston is actually right next to the ocean.


Yeah, boston harbor, boston harbor is kind of famous and then my towns like this little peninsula that's sticks off of boston.


Mhm. Mhm mm.


Um Yeah, it's a city definitely on, on the coast.


Yeah. Yeah.


Their speeches. I mean it's cold water, but there's because it's not as nice as the beaches in California.


Yeah, because I think the boston is connected to atlantic ocean instead of a pacific ocean.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah and it's kind of north north so it doesn't get that, you know the water doesn't get that warm even in the summer.


Yeah, the pacific oceans that uh mhm.


It's pretty cold.


Mhm.


You want it in the ocean and stuff. I've been to L.


Uh huh.


A. And san Diego several times in the beaches. There are so nice.


Yeah, it's sort of a called it as well actually.


Mhm. Yeah. I am. What part of, what part of L. A are you in?


Mhm. Uh I mean uh west coast, like the west side of the way, I'm sure you know where santa Monica?


All right. Yeah.


Yeah, so fairly close to that area.


Oh I love santa Monica.


That's nice. I knew someone who lived in santa Monica and I want to stay with so I'm very familiar with that area.


Mhm. Uh huh. Yeah, as pretty shield.


Yeah. Mhm. I'm jealous.


All right, joe it is chill.


No. So do you go to venice beach more a weird place.


Uh huh. Oh yeah. Sometimes but not really open.


But really good.


Yeah. Yeah, it's really called it uh There's a lot of tourists there.


What very life? Mm. Yeah. I'm sure I like though that there's that long path along between venice and santa Monica. So you can like bike or um rolling late or whatever.


Yeah. Yes.


I went roller skating when I was there like a tourist but uh I like that it's all like you know connected like that.


Mm, mm hmm.


It's really cool along the water there.


Right. Tavern.


Okay.


Yes.


Yeah. Um what else do you do with your time in California?


Mhm. Mhm.


You sir?


Actually I don't but uh mm.


I was perfect. I live there.


Yeah, I mean a lot of people that would serve, I don't actually, I will learn serving but because of covid and everything so yeah.


Mm Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah now it's different.


Yeah.


And you can also ice skating or like ice sport snowboarding here.


Yeah. I snowboard. Yeah because I, yeah I had a ski resort like I live and it's from the sea resorts.


True. I bet. Yeah. In colorado. Yeah, it's scared.


I would remember it almost every day. Yeah it was nice.


Nice. Oh wow.


There's some good speaking in California you just have to travel a little further. Yeah You're like well they're around it's not too far but mammoth is the really good one.


A little bit like two hours, right. Oh yeah, man, that's here.


Mammoth. Yeah I've heard I've never been but I've heard really good things about that place but it's not that.


Mhm. Okay. And Memory is like a five hours, right.


Yeah. Oh yeah, exactly.


Yeah. Together.


Mhm. Okay.


Oh colorado.


How's the colorado? Different? Yeah.


It's um well so I lived right in the americans.


Mhm.


Um So I lived at like 9000 ft, so very high altitude up in the mountains.


Right. Yeah.


Um It's known maybe eight months of the year where I lived.


Yeah. Oh yeah.


Mhm. So it starts snowing in october and stop snowing and then in May.


Uh So I lived in it, but Colorado in general is beautiful. I mean there's like mountain, so many mountains and uh isn't that a beautiful state?


Yeah. Mhm.


Denver is kind of boring but the rest of the state's ready.


Really?


Yeah, maybe like an hour and a half from Denver, So I wasn't really in the city, I was really in a more rural area.


Mm.


Um It happened tourist area though and yeah, overall it's it's a cool state.


Yeah.


Yeah, a lot of young people like to move there so it's kind of like changing, you know, lots of people up to colorado.


All right. Mhm. Really, wow.


Thank you. Never been.


I've never been there. Yeah.


Have you been to any of the mountains in California?


Mhm.


Like have you been to the national parks like Yosemite and stuff?


Yeah, I went to insanity is it's pretty, it's very high altitude. Mhm. How to do.


Yeah. All right. Yeah.


Yeah and it's pretty nice.


Yeah. Yeah.


It's appreciate especially around probably november.


Pictures look amazing. All right. Yeah.


And they started with snow.


Yeah. Yeah. That is prettier. Yeah.


Have you been to um Vegas? That's their color, that's not too far from you, right.


Yeah.


Like five hours.


Yeah. I went to several times.


I love Vegas and I just I would drive there all the time if I lived in California Um from Colorado we would drive and it was 11 hours drive, so it's pretty long.


Yeah. Mhm. Mhm mm.


All right.


Mhm.


But we still would do it twice a year. But from but from what for you? It's like five hours. I would do that all the time.


Uh huh.


And there's no Covid not with Covid. I didn't go right now, definitely.


Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah.


Right.


What about boston? Is there anything fun compare with?


Yeah. Really? Um It's worth visiting. I think it's one of the coolest cities in the country because it's really historic.


Mhm. Yeah.


So there's a lot of stuff like from the american revolution, a lot of history to see and it's just I don't know it's it's a very like old beautiful historic city on the water. And there's lots to do. Lots of like museums and historic sites and good food.


Place it really good food. Um Yeah and there's lots of colleges to there's like 30 colleges in Boston alone so um lots of young people and it's just like yeah it's a cool city.


Mhm. Yeah. Uh There's a lot of stuff to do there like that.


Yeah. Yeah there is a lot to do. Yeah and it's very like tourist friendly like it's really easy to get around if you're a tourist very like it's not as big as new york so you can get to the different parts of it a little bit easier.


Yeah. Mhm.


You can walk a lot of it.


Yeah.


Um But yeah it's worth visiting.


I think I like it better than new york.


Two you need to drive there or there is such public transportation.


But that's just me um depends on where you live. Like if you live too proud of the city you have to drive. But there's a subway system that's really good.


Yeah. Oh ladies and yeah.


So I I'm not taking it because of Covid right now. But normally like when I grew up here I went to high school and I would take the subway in high school actually right.


Okay. Okay mm. Mhm wow.


But if you're like a targeting your stay in the city you can get really anywhere with the subway is super easy.


Yes. Okay.


Oh wow nice.


We don't really need a car to visit. I mean it's I used to own if you live here because then you can drive outside the city.


You're killing me.


But yeah you really don't need one. It's really good public transportation.


Mhm. Oh okay.


Unlike L. A. Doesn't have very good transfer.


Yeah. It has to drive everywhere.


Yeah. Yes.


Which just sucks and that's what I think is really bad.


Yeah. Yeah. Traffic. Yeah boston definitely has its traffic but you can avoid it if you take the subway so and it's so expensive to park in the city like you wouldn't want to drive into the city anyway.


Mhm. Mhm. Yeah.


It's better to just jump on the subway and live like near a subway stop.


If you lived here, I would always make sure I lived close to one arrows.


Yeah mm.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I I like subways. There's been good way to get around.


Yeah.


Mhm.


Exactly. Yeah. I like I like in L.


A. You know there are some nose up with, well the subway is the same way to stop the subway is sandwiches store.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes wow.


So, so first I came to, I, I ask people where is the subway? And they say, you know at restaurants that it was like, what?


Yeah that's a lot of thing there.


Okay. Uh, So, Oh yes.


So are you working from home now because of covid?


Yeah. So seems Colbert. Everybody's stuck home. Yeah.


Yeah, that's the best part.


So you don't have to drive to work, you have to drive in the traffic. Yeah. That is nice. Do you think once things are normal, you'll be able to keep working from home or don't make you go back to the office?


Mm hmm. I think because my job mm types, so it requires me to visit the site. So I still have to go to the office.


Uh huh.


But I think after this I won't be frequently with the office published.


Yeah. You know, every day maybe?


Yeah. It's more like an alternative schedule. I think like a couple of days home, a couple of days office. Yeah. Because it really safe company a lot of money to put people's home because yeah.


Mhm. Yeah. Right. Yeah.


Because you started, no.


It's nice to have like where you sometimes go in and sometimes you get to go home and stay home because then you don't have to dr every day and you know, sit in traffic and waste.


Yeah.


Guess.


Yeah. And you consume pretty much you're all utilities instead of companies paying you.


Yeah. Right. Yeah. No, I think a lot of companies going forward are going to have more people at home are more flexible life between home and in the workplace or that you don't have to drive every day and it will be cheaper for the company's maybe.


Mhm. Yeah, I think so.


Right. No, I think a lot is going to change even when Covid is gone. Mhm. Yeah.


So what's up playing I guess? Uh, mhm.


My plan. Good question. Um Well, I plan once Covid is mostly over or close to over. I don't know when that will be but I plan to move to a new city and try somewhere new.


Right.


Um So I'm thinking like new Orleans probably just do something really different because it's really different than anywhere I've lived before, but it's a really really fun city.


Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah. Mm hmm.


Um It's like a small city that was so you feel like it's not too big and overwhelming. Um And I think I want to get into like I've been doing hospitality for all these years, you know working with working on the spot and stuff.


Yeah. Mm. Yeah.


But I think I want to get more into like travel planning. Like um you know not like like a travel agent but it's a really bad time to do it so I have to wait until it was over.


Oh yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


So I'm gonna start like working towards that. I've just been doing like side work online in the meantime and stuff like a little bit of money.


Mm.


But yeah, I'm gonna try and get into that kind of area because I love to travel so yeah, and your home and you can do it anywhere you want.


Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Very well. Exactly.


But I kind of want a little job, you know?


Yeah. It probably is kind of hard. No industry hit the most hardest.


Yes. Yeah, I learned that hospitality is traveler hard, but I think they'll come back really strong because people will be very eager to travel once this is over, including myself.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Mhm. Do you think, do you think people is going to do virtual traveling first before they actually go into the place? Mhm.


No, I think people are just as soon as over there going to inflict their cases, they're gonna want to get out of wherever they, I mean some people already traveling, obviously it's different, but there are people traveling a lot within the United States still all right.


Yeah. Already. Yeah. Okay. Mm. Mhm.


Like when I was still live in colorado, even though my job couldn't open because it was hard to distance at a spot.


Mhm. All right.


Um There were a lot of tourists in colorado all summer into like the national like outdoor stuff like going to the national parks and like you know hiking that sort of thing.


Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah.


So people have been doing a lot of travel within the U. S. But I think as soon as borders open people are going to want to go over to these.


Yeah. Yeah. Right. Mm.


Yeah.


Oh, wow.


Yeah they're going to be desperate to get out of the country. For I I had a trip plan to italy in august that I had to cancel.


Mhm, mm.


So hopefully next year I can go mean summer fall fall next year.


Okay. I'm sure next year probably every single picked up.


Hopefully there's a vaccine so fingers crossed.


Mhm. Mhm, mm.


I can we can get back to life.


Okay. Wow.


Do you have any plans once converted over?


Okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. Uh, yeah. I tried to plan a trip to Japan but cancel.


Right. How cool. Yeah. So will you go again? Go once things are normal again?


Yeah. Uh, probably, yeah, probably gonna take a while because. Mhm. Not sure.


Yeah. Yeah.


Travel is gonna be soon very soon.


No I wasn't I didn't think before next summer at the earliest.


Yeah I think so. Do even the vaccines come out?


Yes you fall right.


Yeah. Even vaccines come on. It's not really prevent anything.


Yeah. Gonna take a long time to make enough for everyone to get them to to be a very effective vaccine.


Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.


Yeah. But they will help. Yeah.


Uh huh.


Yeah. We're all hoping but yeah, they can't rush it.


Yeah.


Um What were you going to do in Japan? Just visit to tourists like tori around.


Yeah. I probably just tour around, try some food. Uh huh.


Yeah. Okay.


Yeah and transcend cultural around just walk around.


I think that's why I'm thinking you know uh maybe in the future the travel agency, they will have a virtual tool.


Oh you can like see what would be like before you go.


Yeah. Yeah so like event planning and they may just virtual take you around before booking and everything.


Yeah. That's a good idea.


Oh so you don't have a deep.


I mean yes you don't know what it's like. Yeah.


Yeah so we have some like generally minds like okay that's what I want.


Yeah. Yeah that was, I mean it could go that way.


Okay. Yeah employer mm wow.


Yeah. Um I'd love to go to Japan. So they have really good skiing in Japan. They get a ton of snow in the mountains there. So my friends bought a that live in boston. They bought a vacation home in Japan that they own and it's by a ski resort in Japan. So not this winter but hopefully next winter a year from now we'll get to go and stay at their place in Japan and it will be really cool. I'll have a free place to stay there and it's not work.


It's amazing.


Yeah. Amazing. I know there, I mean it's amazing. So I'm really looking forward to it. We should have gone this winter but we couldn't you know obviously so I'm hopefully next winter we'll get to go but I want to stop in Tokyo also and see some other things and then this game that's really cool but it seems like have you been before?


Mhm. I've been there before. Yeah the big city like also car uh Kyoto.


Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. What's your favorite part?


Uh Actually I think the traditional temple.


Really?


Yeah so it's super amazing because it's so quiet.


Yes. Well yeah.


Capital is a city.


Very Tokyo.


Uh, yeah, I think they'll be always everything's crowd it. I don't really like a crowded ever.


Yeah.


So I like quiet place.


Mhm.


So that's good.


Yeah, I think Colorado is really quiet, right?


Uh huh. Yeah it depends on yeah it is on the whole, there's lots of very peaceful areas. I mean, Denver is a pretty big city, but yeah, on the whole, you can get away from people very easily.


Nice. Yeah. Man, everywhere, everywhere right now is really kind of, it's not affordable at all.


Mm hmm. Yeah, I like it's not affordable.


No, I was on his way shoot out like incredibly expensive.


Yeah. You live by yourself. Radio of roommates.


Yes. I live with my roommates.


You're right.


Yeah, probably expensive if you live on your own.


Right. How about, how about boston, is it affordable?


Yeah, I mean, you can get like outside the city into the suburbs.


Go? Yeah.


Isn't that expensive? But like part of your like right in the city and it's fun and on the subway, it's kind of expensive.


Uh huh.


But there's um, of kind of range of prices. But yeah, you can find more affordable ways to live.


Yeah.


But I think the funnest places to live, a very simple, right, right.


Uh, some mascara.


Thing is uh colorado, it's not, the Denver is a little bit expensive because it's so popular to move there right now. Um, where I lived in the mountains was very expensive because it was so touristy so there's lots of people would really expensive second homes and stuff, but most of Colorado isn't too expensive.


Yeah. Mm Right.


Um Yeah I think you know the major cities like boston new york L. A. Definitely san Francisco or you know among the most expensive, but I do think boston has options, so if you moved here you can find like a key way to live so many lives.


Mm.


Um I don't know if that's true for L. A. Right?


No, there was no word.


There's no. Yeah. Yeah that's what I hear about California, I like it but I don't know if I moved there because of the price.


Mhm. Mhm. I think because the tax is so huge, like the state tax, right?


Yeah. Is it? Yeah.


Yeah. And okay.


Gas tax defensive to yeah it's pricey there.


Gas tax.


Uh huh.


Yeah, They need to drive everything up because the tour is everything.


Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean people still live there though. Clearly it's worth it's worth living. Very people will pay.


Yeah, I guess.


Although all of those places deliver expensive, it's hard to avoid that if it's somewhere worth living, probably expensive whether like you're in the mountains in a beautiful place or the beach or like this good city you're gonna I've done that right, I want to live with the new Orleans probably because it's actually a very cute city but the minimum wage is much lower than kind of like you know evenness of it, they don't pay people as well so it's still not keep in the long run for a lot of people who live there in Ireland yeah I've got a really cool history um kind of a lot of cultures came together, they're like spanish french obviously american like it all kind of came and it's got a lot of history and really cool like culture and events and yeah things that you can't see anywhere else in the world except normally.


Mm that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah. Mm. There's a lot of tradition there too. Right? You all are, yeah. Right. And also a lot of spooky stories.


Yeah. Yeah I'm not too into like the ghost stories but but yeah it's a big part of it.


Okay. Yeah.


I mean there's a lot of true stories that were kind of were there. Um But yeah that's sort of like which culture like voodoo and that kind of stuff.


Mm. Yeah.


It's good for the tourists you know?


Mm.


And apparently Halloween not this year but normally is really fun there.


Okay. Yeah, that's true.


Well I can't really into it for like a whole bunch but yeah there's lots of like good music that's the best part in the food and good morning.


Mm hmm. Yeah, true.


Look in the summer.


There's a lot of seafoods where All right, seafood lobsters.


Yeah. Yeah scram well lobster is more like boston. Um Berlin's is like a lot of shrimp stop.


Oh, mhm, mm.


Um But you're not just seafood, lots of like soul food like kind of like southern food and like fried chicken and all that good stuff.


Okay. Mhm, mm.


Um Creole food, like gumbo and jambalaya.


Yeah. Right.


It's. Yeah. Yeah it's fun if you ever get a chance visit because it's it's pretty cheap city to visit.


Yeah. Mm, wow.


You know it's more affordable than traveling to a lot of other cities because accommodation isn't that expensive. And the restaurants are an overpriced and you can find good deals and it's kind of like a fun place to go.


Mhm. Yeah. Yeah, mm. Good to know, wow.


So it kind of feels a little bit like europe more than the U.


Well, mhm.


S. In some ways because of the architecture is all kind of a french style, a lot of it. Yeah.


I thought, Oh, yeah.


Okay good. I have a record a few times.


Oh, thanks. Well, interesting.


Yeah, explain more to.


Mhm. Yeah, definitely.


Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah, I was very interesting in boston.


Yeah and just visiting.


Yeah, I'm visiting. Mhm, wow.


Yeah. Well I highly recommend it. Like I said it's easy to get around with the subway. Um And walk like whole downtown area.


Yeah, mm hmm.


You can really walk a lot of like the tourist areas but the tourist areas that we're going to they're not like to tourists you know there I enjoy them still. And I grew up here so I am then there's lots of cool areas like Harvard Square which is like I'm not technically in boston but it's like this whole in your area with all the colleges like Harvard and M.


Mhm, mhm.


I. T. And stuff and there's lots of cool stuff like out that way. Right. Yeah. Diamond.


Mhm.


I would put it on your list.


Government. Mm hmm, correct.


Yeah. All right. You think creating?


Yeah, yep.


Do you think we did 25 minutes? Yeah.


I think so. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.


Back in the perfect. Well it was really nice talking to you.


Really nice talking to you too.


Yeah. You have addressed your day and then you get to go to Japan when this is all over.


Yeah. You to go to a eight a.


They were talking someday.


No, thank everybody.


Okay take care. Bye. Uh huh.


Mhm. Hey. Oh hi, can you hear me okay?


Yeah. Yes I can hear you hear me.


Yeah how's the lighting?


Uh It's a bit gloomy on your side.


Let me try um switch.


Uh huh.


Maybe there's that but then there's a window behind me over here so that might be too I could open the side window, I have the lines drawn just because it's hot out and it keeps the little feeler if the windows are not all open.


Okay. Yeah.


Sorry about that.


Yeah Norris.


Sorry. Uh huh. Yeah little better.


Right. Yeah it's good it's good yeah.


Yeah. Cool. Good good. Yeah how are you doing today?


Uh Not too bad.


Just trying to keep busy.


Yeah I'm not too terrible.


Uh yourself?


Yeah. Trying to keep cool.


Oh mm Yeah whereabouts whereabouts are you?


It's been Today is going to get up around 100, it's gonna be over 100 tomorrow. Um after a couple of days it's gonna start dipping down back into the 80s but we've been having a heat wave. So the pacific northwest um you know right right on the Washington Oregon border sort of up on Mount Adams a little bit so yeah and I'm gonna write between the western and eastern side so the climate is not quite like you would imagine in Seattle or Portland it's a little bit hotter in the summer so.


Right. Oh okay I didn't mean. Yeah wow okay burner you know I'm in new york city and we're having yeah we're having a heat wave as well.


Yeah. Yeah. How about you where you at? Well Oh wow.


Yeah we're near the hundreds so trying to keep cool.


Mhm. O. G. S. Yeah and it gets humid it's more humid there. It's like a dry heat here. So I think it gets more humid there. Right?


Yeah it's more human over here so.


Yeah and then you get like I've heard you get like the garbage smell.


Yeah.


They're the just the hot city smell.


Yes the yeah indeed yes the garbage snow is uh it's horse is by far the worse in the summer.


Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah we're out I'm out in the country so it's you know it's it's not bad at all in that sense.


No. Yeah so you're working from home these days?


Just fresh air. Yeah I do some transcription. I do what I can get some you know if I if I can get translation that's better. Um I do what I can so you know it depends. Um There wasn't a lot of work available at first for a while because of the covid, because you know, nobody, nobody had any work to send out.


So um but you know, it's picked back up now so I have some work that I can do.


Yeah. Oh that's good yeah it's good to get to get to hear let's pick it up.


Yeah, yep. Yeah. How about you?


Well I was actually working like contracting just before the Covid hit and then they shut down all the offices.


Oh jeez what?


Yeah I was pretty much out of work out of work since.


Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was basically I worked for a while too, so um I was going to get a job as a research assistant, you know, like a kind of a part time thing, but that fell through basically um you know because it was a grad student who's going to hire me then everybody, you know like somebody's gonna hire you, they have to have money and if nobody has money to hire you, then it's like a chain of events, right?


Yeah. Uh huh.


So same translation, you know, it costs money for people to hire you to translate stuff and if they don't have money from their job to hire you to do that then so and it's the same with transcription right?


Right. Uh huh. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah.


Because that that stuff comes from you know companies usually or businesses or yada yada so if those were mostly shut down because of the pandemic then they weren't sending transcription work to the transcription company so there would just be nothing available for a while. But then you know I think it started picking up as people as they started getting more set up with remote work and they you know there was they were kind of functioning morgan so what kind of contracting?


Yeah. Okay. I was in like I. T. Business applications you know doing my group supporting the supporting the application so.


Okay. Yeah. Uh I would imagine that would be almost unemployment proof.


Yeah. Uh Yeah I mean a lot of H. R. S. Holding onto the holding onto the openings and they're actually hiring so I don't know really.


Uh huh.


Uh Yeah.


Yeah there's opening just I don't know they haven't filled them so I don't know you're done I studied like computers and like networking and all that kind of stuff back in school.


Weird. Yeah. How'd you get into I. T. Of course yeah.


So I left shortly after I graduated and then I worked for about like six months and I decided to take a different path.


I went into like education became an english teacher overseas and now now I'm back I'm kind of back here and I'm doing trying to get back into my original career path.


Oh wow cool. Uh huh.


Yeah I talk a little bit in Thailand, Hong kong and Taiwan all Oh yeah, the camp program has been around for a long time now, so it's a credible programs to me if you do want to give it a shot.


Where do you teach english? Yeah. Uh huh. Cool. Yeah I've heard that um you know it's I've heard of the jet program like you can do that in Japan and I imagine you know it's pretty in demand in in places like Thailand and Taiwan too. Mhm. Yeah.


Yeah, I think they, they're still looking for teachers in Japan, I don't know, but now, but they always look for teachers, you know what and Oh yeah, What?


Mhm. Yeah. Yeah I've considered it I'm like I'm actually thinking about going into computer related field, I was actually in graduate school in the humanities and I left that for various reasons. Um Which that never pans out for people anyway get a PhD in Islamic languages and literature, there's no job openings so even if I did get the PhD you know everybody else is in the same boat but um so I've considered going into that I'm like teaching myself some coding and stuff I figure you know while I have extra time on my hands so um just like python, html CSS that kind of stuff so we'll see where it goes. But yeah, I've heard about the Jet programme, it seems like it could be could be interesting, you know?


Well, well in japan a lot of the flock, the legal law firms, they hire trans, they need trans translators as well.


Why should you?


But mainly I guess japanese to a different thing by two different actually, I guess you can go japanese anyway.


Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, Well it's the same with Russian, like, I know Russian, um but they like if they're going to hire an interpreter, you know, they're gonna definitely gonna hire somebody who's native bilingual over somebody who learned it as an adult.


Oh. Oh right, okay, wow.


You know, like somebody who who spoke both growing up, if they can find somebody like that, then they're going to hire them for interpreting interpreting. So I don't really haven't done that. And especially, I remember being in grad school and somebody was like, oh, what about medical interpreting? That's good money. And I'm like, shit, no way, man. Like, that's like your somebody's life is possibly on the line if you mess up the interpreting, you know, like, no, no, the left kidney.


Yeah. Yeah. What?


No, not that I don't know left from right, but you know what I mean?


Yeah, yeah, you can get, can get intense.


Uh Mhm um yeah, yeah, and then I also know like polish german Ukrainian, um, a little bit of Yiddish, but like, yeah, but when I do translation, I do like written translation, so not really interpretation so much.


So you speak, you speak Russian as your second language, well, that's cool. Oh. Uh huh.


So I translate mostly mostly Russian to english because Russian is my best foreign language.


Yeah. Right, right, wow.


Um, and I think, you know, as far as translation goes, I personally think almost always it's best to hire a translator who is translating something into their native language, you know what I mean? Because it's going to be like, you don't like you want the english translation to be native english, you know, like you don't want it to sound awkward.


Uh huh.


So like, I think that's the more important.


Right. Yeah.


I mean obviously you need to accurately understand the Russian but you also want it to be like a fluid english native translation.


Yeah.


So in my time, right?


yeah, you want to be like this out of context, you know what happens?


Yeah and like I wouldn't feel comfortable translating into Russian, like because it's not my native language, it wouldn't probably be the great, you know, it wouldn't read like somebody who's native language was Russian translating, you know, it would just wouldn't read the same, it wouldn't be as good.


Yeah go on. Oh.


So yeah, I mean it depends if it was like I have done just like documents where it's like if somebody needs like I think I've translated english to polish and maybe Vice were like it's um or if it's like a short news article, I did I did some volunteer work for a refugee organization um or I think I translate, I know I did some um english to Russian and Russian to english because people would need like evidence for their refugee files and stuff, but that's, you know, that's more like a short informational thing as opposed to like, you know, an academic book or something like a whole big manuscripts or like documents of like um just like immigration documents or you know, historical little documents or blah blah blah, like shorter things that are more informational as opposed to like kind of long, you know, manuscripts that are kind of more contextual I guess, or more.


Mhm. So the same, the same for saying goes as for german you when you went off, you wouldn't translate to german Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh. Oh yeah.


Do you have you done a letter like something like a letter of intent or like academics, like someone applying for like a PhD program?


Yeah. Um I don't, what do you mean by that? Like?


They need they need uh you know, maybe their native language was grooming and they needed they needed an english is not bad enough, they needed in english?


Um no, I haven't done that, no, I don't know, just like specifically that hasn't come up for me to translate now. Um Well I have um I've helped out a friend of mine named Poland with a lot of stuff.


Oh okay, it's a proof proof reading it.


Uh one of them, I don't think it was exactly that, but like application type stuff or assignments in english, but that's less so like translating it for him and more just like he would want to make sure his, his english was good enough, you know? So yeah, yeah, I think I might have translated some stuff, but mostly just proof reading this is english is pretty good.


Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. So you studied a huge uh Slavic languages during your awesome yeah.


Mr Yeah yeah, oh shit, sorry, I want to turn my phone off or the ringer off Yeah, and then german, I picked up, you know in grad school um kind of I well you need to have a research language, so like a language you at least have reading knowledge of to, you know, because sometimes usually people choose french or german just like because there might be articles you need to read in another language, so it just helps with that.


Yeah. Oh. Mhm. Yeah. No.


Um and then I just, I decided to learn to speak german just kind of for the hell of it and I spent time in Berlin and stuff.


All right.


So I took some german classes for fun because that's my idea of fun.


Oh. Oh no. Uh huh. Yeah. So how do you like uh do like learning german learning Russian, is it?


Yeah, no, no german actually english and german are in the same language family.


They're not in the same language family? Right. Okay.


English is a dramatic language, although it's so bastardized with so much latinate vocabulary that, but the basic um radical structure of it is Germanic although it's lost all of the um a lot of them more complicated grammatical stuff for historical reasons and uh but and also like the more basic vocabulary is still recognizably Germanic like house in english house and in Germany's house like you know in english, his brother and in german is buddha, you know like so sort of in most languages the most frequently used vocabulary that those are the words that tend to remain the most stable across time.


Right. Right. Uh huh. Yeah. What? Okay. Uh Oh yeah.


So they're the ones that tend to be more common throughout the languages and a family because they don't diverge as much, you know?


Okay.


So yeah, but, but but english also has just so much, so many over layers of, because it was, you know, the romans came in and the and the Normans came in, the french came in, that these people came in, the danes came in, you know, so there was just like, and then it imports all these words from latin and other languages and so yeah, and the spelling is all kinds of messed up because of the french influence and and lots of different stuff.


Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Oh I'm still here.


I had a, I know somebody who made a joke once. Whoa, where'd you go? You disappeared? Oh, I just can't see you anymore. I don't know why.


Oh did you flick off? Hold on.


Okay, okay, I can hear you. That's weird. I didn't touch anything. Yeah.


Yeah my camera is still on, its still flashing so yeah.


Weird weird. Um My camera's on.


And okay wherever.


Let me scroll down and see what happened here. I don't see anything that happened. I see a pair of headphones and I see pretend person. Um I wonder what happened if I tried refreshing. That might ended the conversation though.


Oh.


I don't know.


Oh. Mhm.


Wait.


Uh Okay. Can you do you? Oh if you hold on sure. Truck.


Oh there I see you now.


Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Um So yeah I had a friend who made a joke once that english is his base is a is german written in french.


Yeah. Oh it's funny.


Uh huh. But yeah. So what how did you like teaching english?


Mhm.


Did you like it?


Oh I loved it. It's I mean it's not really much of a career per se.


Mhm. Right. It's more like something you do for a while.


Yeah I would say it's good to get out like you know you're a bit too late 20s doing that kind of thing and then Kind of your 30s you need I want to look until like a more stable but yeah I enjoyed I had a blast pretty much both in Hong kong and Taiwan.


Thank you. Mhm. Mhm. Stable career. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah.


Yeah I have nothing to complain about.


Cool. Yeah. Yeah I've taught Russian and I really enjoyed teaching Russian. Um I mean I was teaching at the college students and also uh you know, it was like I had learned Russian, so I was familiar with all of how to explain everything, like all of the grammatical construction constructs and I had learned all that stuff from classes.


Yeah. Right.


Right? So I feel like that was, whereas with english, it's like, I don't know how to explain this shit. I mean, I think I feel like would have to learn how to teach english, you know what I mean? Um Right, you just, it's like, yeah, especially the weird things, it's like, well why is it like this?


Yeah because it's like you were a native we don't actually learn all the rules of the system. All right. Yeah you just you just speak it and then you basically have to, yeah.


It's like, I don't know why is the sky blue, you know, like in my hand, like there are reasons just Yeah.


Yeah and sometimes it's like you have like a brain freeze. We're trying to explain like a like an idiom or even a word you kind of use the same word, you use the same word to define.


Yeah. Yeah.


Yeah it's part.


Mhm. Yeah.


Okay.


An english american english has a lot of weird idioms. I don't know, have you ever heard of this guy flew a borg? He's a german guy on youtube lula F L U L.


No what's his name again? Mm.


A. He got famous on Youtube doing these and this was a while ago videos where he would like complain about american idioms that he didn't understand. Like shooting fish in a barrel is a really fair in 21.


Yeah.


He's like, why is it shooting fish in a barrel? It's like you have, and he goes on this whole rand.


But he's like, because it's supposed to be something that's easy, but he just doesn't understand the whole, like I already have the fish.


Oh what?


I don't understand why I already have the fish here, why I need to put them put the fish in a barrel and then shoot those like, but he's funnier about it, you know?


Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Yeah I guess I can get a lot of people watching that. You get a laugh.


But if I think about, I mean shooting fish in a barrel, like to think about the idiom, it doesn't even make sense to me really for some to mean something that's easy.


Does it does it mean it's something is easy but what is it what is it?


Yeah it's like oh yeah it's like shooting fish in a barrel, you know it means something that's easy to do.


Oh yeah okay.


Yeah it's so weird.


With all of that one you really thought? I never thought. Yeah exactly.


So I don't think like as a it's a weird way to put it and be like I don't think shooting fish in a barrel would even be that easy. I mean like uh huh maybe catching fish in a barrel.


No. Yeah.


I don't know.


Yeah like yeah.


But so what are you up to today?


Fish shooting fish.


Just working?


Yeah. Not much. Just started trying to self study. You operate myself.


Uh huh.


So when I'm, you know, there's a job interview or there's apply for, I'd be ready for it because I mean I've been out of the field for so long so I'm probably lacking lacking in some areas.


Yeah. Yeah. Mhm.


I'm not all.


Right. You always want to do the continuing education?


Yeah. So Yeah.


Yeah. I'm trying to um you know the transcription stuff it's like for the like when you think about how much you're actually making per hour, it's kind of depressing especially for how you know kind of demanding the work is.


Right.


So I'm looking at trying to look at you know jobs that are hiring remote workers right now.


Oh.


Um But I mean the market is so tough right right now, I mean with unemployment so high and especially everybody wants to work from home so it's like yeah I don't Yeah.


Uh huh. It's love. Mhm. It's extremely slow. Like I'm on linkedin, I am trying out the the what we call it the premium because you can try it out for free, right?


Mhm. Mhm.


The first month I get nothing out of it.


Yeah.


Like other than like using it for the the continuing and stuff hard to get.


Mhm.


Yeah, I'm on linkedin but I never really learned how to use it or what it is good for.


I don't know, I mean I guess it connects to you with like networking or whatever but I never really got into it, I don't know.


Mhm. Well, so yeah, I find just based on that, I find it and I also apply outside of it, you know, and other on other websites.


Mhm. Yeah, I just look at like indeed and job websites like that you know like I pretty much just search for remote work and see what comes up.


Oh really?


Yeah. Um When read it really?


Read it and it also has job boards to read it. You might get. Yeah, I heard.


And there's I mean there's craigslist but I don't know who still posts anything on there.


Yeah, that one is, I'm a little iffy about priceless. I don't know.


I have found like gigs on Craig's list if you go on there.


Yeah fact.


Especially when I was still living in the Portland Metro area, like Portland Vancouver, you can find, you know like just like gigs. Um When and that's pretty, pretty simple. I wouldn't worry about that. I found like paid like study or like paid research types. Like you can go and like wine, do wine tasting and get paid like 50 bucks or like random stuff like that. He just kind of scroll through the gigs every once in a while, so baska.


Really post that kind of work on craigslist wine tasting.


Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's like and there was another like research study, it was like, it was like a smoking one and I think I made like $150 on that.


Oh. Oh yeah.


It was like a couple different sessions. So yeah, I don't know if you're gonna get a little hustles on there sometimes.


Yeah. So you were born in, born and raised in Portland?