Hello everyone. I am offering material on "pre-Islamic trade of Arabs, connections with southern Arabia and east africa". Here I quote quotes from the paper "SOUTH ARABIA, THE ARABS, AND THE EAST AFRICA TRADE IN PRE-ISLAMIC TIMES", GEORGE HATKE
Author profile and download article here : https://www.academia.edu/64871798/Hatke_2021_South_Arabia_the_Arabs_and_the_East_Africa_Trade_in_Pre_Islamic_Times
"...It also makes the case that, during the period in which Himyar dominated the southern part of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, Arabs descended from groups based in the Red Sea littoral to the north of present-day Yemen and who had practiced a mixed economy that combined agro-pastoralism with trade, were recruited by the Himyarites for commercial ventures as a means of integrating them into the socio-economic framework of the Himyarite state.
...These Arabs, it should be noted, constituted a distinct group, quite different from the indigenous peoples of South Arabia. This was true ethnically as well as linguistically. Moreover, the differences between the Arabs and indigenous South Arabians were perceptible enough for the ancient texts to treat both groups as distinct peoples.
... It will be further hypothesized that this integration into the South Arabian economy normalized relations between South Arabians and Arabs, which became strained at times if one is to judge from ASA records of armed conflict between the two groups.
...Turning now to the Arab involvement in South Arabian maritime trade, as described in the Periplus, it is worth reiterating that the Arabs and the ASA- speaking peoples were two very distinct groups. In fact, when Arabs are mentioned in ASA inscriptions, whether by their tribal name or by the terms 'rb/arab/ and 'rb/'a'rab/, they are treated as foreigners. 46 But if this gives us some idea as to who the Arabs of pre-Islamic times were not, it leaves open the question as to what the label "Arab” meant in a South Arabian context...."
The whole collection of works : South Arabian long-distance trade In Antiquity: "From Arabia."
Edited by George Hatke and Ronald Ruzicka
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-6456-5-sample.pdf

so first i just want to say this i my first time using reddit to post and i don't know what's the best community to go to for help but i thought this could be sorry for any typos i just want to type this asap if there's a better place like maybe a therapy community or something please lmk. So i'm in my 20's and i live in arizona. i've been having issues with my career stability and i've just been having the worst of luck, not to mention my and my girlfriend are planning on getting out first apartment at the end of this month and im worried ill keep having to do go from job to job. My job before my current job right now was contracting for low voltage work my first contract with them was short(about w week) and it was cool but then that was cut short and i was moved to the original site i was planned for. at the site on the first day i had an issue trying to get into the parking lot for training(watching some videos then leaving) and ended up getting in trouble because the guy didn't like my tone when he started yelling at me when i got into the wrong area to park mind i was a little frustrated am i'm usually a nice guy but the guy was giving me a hard time and somehow called my recruiter later the same day and they told me to just head home for the day because of that incident. and then i call my recruiter for that job and told him what happened. long story short they never got back to me for new openings so i was out of a job. and the job before that was a low voltage project that i was on for about some months or so but the team lead on that job just randomly fired me one day for bs reasons regarding to cutting the team costs short bla bla bla, it was literally bs he told me because i have proof of me doing a good job his lies when he fired me and oddly enough i thought we were friends because everytime i start a job its already is going so good but eventually some bs happens, but even then i could tell eventually that i was being singled out just by my job task and how the team was behaving and eventually fired for me simply showing up and doing my job, now i don't want to sound like a victim in the post but i promise i reflect on my situations and i'm always looking to please everyone and do the best job i can do and after i always look to see what i could've done differently but i swear my situation im being done so wrong i get fired for literally no reason. even my job before that was a valet position i got from my friend because i was working a job i liked but the crew i didn't get along with after a while for reasons idk( again i have no reason why im nice to people and i try to make friends and overall im a good person to everyone im not being mean in anyone etc) i just wasn't able to make friends and eventually even a old friend from a old job i had starting working with us in the crew but me and him were not even cool again we stopped talking after the first about week he got there for some reason, but yea the valet job i was working there for a while doing good but eventually i get fired for a bs reason but i could tell it was going to happen because a whole bunch of other bs i can make a whole post about but basically i got fired from that job too and the reason was because apparently i wasn't at my valet post not doing my job (and a supervisor that worked there didnt like me from day one which he did his best to make me look bad), which was a lie he said the front desk peoplesaid, which im almost positive they didnt because one i was doing my job and two i knew the front desk people well and they wouldn't have a reason to say a lie or even tewll him anything like that. so basically my worst history sucks all of reasons that i genuinely fell are out of my control. and of course my little backstory doesn't cover all the nuances and details but trust when i say im a great worker and i do really good at whatever job im doing, and i also look to do better but i don't get the recognition ever! and if i do its not rare it makes a difference.
So as i mentioned earlier the last job i was contracting for isn't responding, i did all i could do so i moved on. i recently just started this new contract for a new company last week. i was hoping this job was going to work out smoothly for the projected three months or longer. So its not a big team, its a small crew and were basically pulling cable into apartment units for internet etc. this is my first time working in this type of setting but im clearly qualified for the job and i understand the work as much so. So this is only the second week and im already having issues with the lead on the team and the guys. Last week on our first run we finally get a plan on how to run the fiber and we got it up to the top floor. mind you were all working together. the job is going great at this point were all happy to be there bla bla bla everything seems cool, im learning the job helping out, proving/providing my skills, making relationships all that jazz. i thought i made a friend i was working with him most of the time that week and he is younger so of course im helping him out with what werer doing when he had questions, we would talk basketball. its a small crew so no cliques to worry about( except two guys the were friends before the job) clear objective and it just seemed like it would be a cool rewarding job that i can do good at and make the most of. but yea so things are going smooth up until this point. were up stairs and ima helpful person so i started helping with a task i see another one of the guys doing that the lead called out that needed to be done. the lead cuts me off as im helping out and tells me to wait for a reason that he never gave me, so i was measuring had i set i back down but i ends up getting tangled because the formation 8 it was in it had to be laid back in a specific way which i was unaware of. no big deal though he starts working on unraveling it and it was done no big deal, yes a little mistake but no big deal foreal easy to fix. and mind you its not like i'm slowing us down we literally can only do so much in the day to due residents not wanting us in the house etc etc that's why we all in that unit in the first place so dont get the picture that this is a smooth job because its not at least while we are figuring out the building layouts etc, trust me. so yea the next day or so we end up done the same thing a little differently because again this is the first building were working on and expectations are way off bla bla bla they had bad communication on the timeframe of the job, so yea i'm spooling the cable this time and its my first time doing it, i get the rundown and i do the job, but at the end i noticed i forgot to label the tail before i cut it and let that be known, i tell our team lead and we move on. sure i technically "messed up" but tbh not taking away from what happened, its not a vital step in the cable pulling because its already pulled and ready to go that why hence we moved on but yes i understood i made a mistake and owned up to it, not a big deal considering everyone makes mistakes including other guys on the team but he wanted to single me out the next day. so next day we cant do the original plan and start working on the next building because he messed up communication with the apartments on how long each building would take before the job started and we couldnt go in the building, so no work for the day pretty much, but we ended up making a plan to work on some vacant units. i didn't get the plan until last minute because i started noticing they were going over shit without me whenever they could so once i get over there i ask to see the map so see what going on joining the conversation on the lead tell me not to take things from people that not nice because i grabbed the map. so im like that weird why is he acting like that? then later i ask bro like khey are you okay do you fell like i didn anything wrong, he said no and we moved on but it was weird that the lead would even say that trying to call me out in front of the crew like i was just being the rudest guy ever, like you guys are having meetings and shit without me in the conversations and im being rude, whatever but okay whatever like no big deal ill just try to make sure that doesn't keep happening(being singled out of little talks/ seeming rude or being too friendly) which they started doing already singling me out but yeah eventually i get the plan to do one unit after basically forcing myself into the task to see what is being done and what i can do , i got the code to do one unit and the lead said he would come with. simple task no cable pulling just setting the unit up for the cable. so it was weird i only got one but okay let me bust this out real quick. i only had one unit to do so we both do take care of it and it was easy boom, we go over back to the storage and were just waiting on them to finish the rest,,, (odd i could've been helping out too on other units) but whatever if hes here too then obvouly im good plus i asked whats the pla and he wanted the guys to do them, so we started prepping some shit to make time, i try to make small talk which was cool but then a little later he starts asking me about my xp. just to in the end try and make a big deal out of the cable situation the last week and obviously trying to get under my skin. i basically tell him hey i understand but you dont have to worry, first time, etc etc, it'll be alright you know. and btw there has been mistake done on the other guys part(accidently disconnecting the units wifi etc) and i don't know if hes had conversations with everyone else but it looks to me im being singled out, and i hate to bring race into this but as a black guy in arizona this seems to be and issue for me more than i thought it would be. but what really left a bad taste in my mouth from that conversation was was i walked away for a second because he was making the conversation hostile after i told him its fine bla bla bla were going back and forth a little but im trying to stay professional and i was pretty much done listening to him try to disqualify me ( the convo was over my heart was beating fast etc) i went to throw some trash away and i say to myself it will be alright, he comes out from the storage obviously rilled up from this argument he tried to start, and says what did you say dont walk away mumbling things?! walking up to me, i'm like dude i was talking to myself, i said everything is going to be fine. but that just left me bitter because why is he acting in this way. ive only kept things professional to this point and ive been nice to everyone help full communicative studious all of the above, but its like i was on his bad side all of a sudden. like dude im a grown man i dont need these issues at work you know im not trying to have conflict and if there needs to be converstations im open to them but its like were already on a bad start and hes trying to disrespect me with his athurity as a team lead, im fine with constructive criticism and things like that but its the way he approached and continued to make toxic conflict. so yeah anyways today after that bs im ready to just go in get done what needs to be done and not disappoint not make any mistakes communicate be helpful. all the things ive ben doing already but with a focus because i dont want to have an problems i'm just trying to work. so i get to work as usual go to the meet up spot and there's no plan just waiting then i see some of the guys there but at this point i don't even want to make friends anymore im just focused on doing my job. they already were starting to clique up so i just said hey and stuck around until finally we get some word to get started and what building were working on. we start on the building but already im annoyed because i had a task to prep then set up cable. i go to set up the unit and the young guy i thought we were cool, he starts working on that same unit im in like he/we didn't just comfirm what we were all doing and that i was to prep this unit. no big deal i think we can work on this together like last week ill help you out if you need then ill move on, the lead come in because this kid clearly cant do the task on his own which i could have taken over but he already started calling for help etc sso the lead comes up and see me standing there and acts like im no doing anything and tells me to set uo the cables. im like ughh in my head because at this point im just doing what was told to do as usual but whatever let me go do what i do. mind you in between working on setting up the cables he tries to play the narc card, are you okay when was moving the stuff up to prep. idk if he felt bad, felt like i was upset , or just wanted to set me up and check my temp from the previous day, i simply tell him in okay everything is good and continue working taking the mat. up the stairs, but from previous xp i can tell he was pulling a bs card asking me whats wrong when clearly im fine, its like gaslighting me to make me feel like im acting different of something playing as my friend but i can tell it wasnt genuine.
so everything is going good we break for lunch and get back. again the plan for the building isn't even set because were figuring it out so i cant move ahead or nothing im waiting on his go to set up the next set of cables to run but we cant because there aren't reasy to be be run anyways as he already knew what was done from me because i communicated with him etc. i see who and asks who needs help and let him know then i'm advised to help the other kid from earlier on something which i did. after that i take a second to think about what's next and he comes out of a unit and acts like im just standing around then we go to the side for a conversation. at this pioint i pull out my phone and record the conversation. he's trying to blame me and saying a whole bunch of crapto me and making up things so were going back and forth. ill include it if i can but its 17 minues long. he tried to send me home and shhit im jsut like dude why are you acting this why and explaining myself to him for some reason and after i deescalated that i end up going to to finish the job because he understood or at least i hope he did that his points some of them were not factual and dude your giving me unnecessary shit trying to kick me off the team.
so i guees im here on advise of what do i do. the first time we talked i went home ealry ad started looking up how to stand up for myself etc etc without coming off rude or seeming like a problem and came to the conclusion just to do better, then today i have this issue. its honeslty so fustrating trying to take care of my bills etc but these jobs im in i keep havng issues. i dont know what to do. i guess ill start looking for a new job already but i dont know why it has to be ths way. i literally don't understand why these situations keep happening to me, and this as mentioned earlier isnt the first case of harassment from sups or leads no matter what i do how or much i do. im trying to be the best i can be and everything always start off so for new jobs but it always ends up going bad no matter what i do. this is only the secind week of this new contract and this is already happening and i haven't been doing anything wrong to anyone but i always am the odd ball of something whatever im at. i cant get any help from any one and im afraid im cured with dealing with the forver! why do people focus on me and want to be my enemy, i want to love people and have great relationships and do good at my job and pay my bills and stuff but i jsut cant get over beig blammed as the bad guy
i can include the conversation from today if anyone wants it but i just done know aht to to. its hard for me to stand up for myself and i know im a independt contractator so i probably can say some things but im always being put as the bad guy even when im not doing shit to anyone so i feel im screwed both ways because if i do say the things i want to say iim screwed, if i dont and get walk over im screwed theres nothing i can do and im at the mercy of learning how to kiss ass bettter and as best as possible but even that does work or guarantee my job securty. its jsut starting to give me toxic vibes already and is already effecting my preformance. ill know it but ill eventually be forced out from the squad im sure. none will talk to me, theyll force me to feel like im not trying to stick with the plan with them etc etc etc

so first i just want to say this i my first time using reddit to post and i don't know what's the best community to go to for help but i thought this could be sorry for any typos i just want to type this asap if there's a better place like maybe a therapy community or something please lmk. So i'm in my 20's and i live in arizona. i've been having issues with my career stability and i've just been having the worst of luck, not to mention my and my girlfriend are planning on getting out first apartment at the end of this month and im worried ill keep having to do go from job to job. My job before my current job right now was contracting for low voltage work my first contract with them was short(about w week) and it was cool but then that was cut short and i was moved to the original site i was planned for. at the site on the first day i had an issue trying to get into the parking lot for training(watching some videos then leaving) and ended up getting in trouble because the guy didn't like my tone when he started yelling at me when i got into the wrong area to park mind i was a little frustrated am i'm usually a nice guy but the guy was giving me a hard time and somehow called my recruiter later the same day and they told me to just head home for the day because of that incident. and then i call my recruiter for that job and told him what happened. long story short they never got back to me for new openings so i was out of a job. and the job before that was a low voltage project that i was on for about some months or so but the team lead on that job just randomly fired me one day for bs reasons regarding to cutting the team costs short bla bla bla, it was literally bs he told me because i have proof of me doing a good job his lies when he fired me and oddly enough i thought we were friends because everytime i start a job its already is going so good but eventually some bs happens, but even then i could tell eventually that i was being singled out just by my job task and how the team was behaving and eventually fired for me simply showing up and doing my job, now i don't want to sound like a victim in the post but i promise i reflect on my situations and i'm always looking to please everyone and do the best job i can do and after i always look to see what i could've done differently but i swear my situation im being done so wrong i get fired for literally no reason. even my job before that was a valet position i got from my friend because i was working a job i liked but the crew i didn't get along with after a while for reasons idk( again i have no reason why im nice to people and i try to make friends and overall im a good person to everyone im not being mean in anyone etc) i just wasn't able to make friends and eventually even a old friend from a old job i had starting working with us in the crew but me and him were not even cool again we stopped talking after the first about week he got there for some reason, but yea the valet job i was working there for a while doing good but eventually i get fired for a bs reason but i could tell it was going to happen because a whole bunch of other bs i can make a whole post about but basically i got fired from that job too and the reason was because apparently i wasn't at my valet post not doing my job (and a supervisor that worked there didnt like me from day one which he did his best to make me look bad), which was a lie he said the front desk peoplesaid, which im almost positive they didnt because one i was doing my job and two i knew the front desk people well and they wouldn't have a reason to say a lie or even tewll him anything like that. so basically my worst history sucks all of reasons that i genuinely fell are out of my control. and of course my little backstory doesn't cover all the nuances and details but trust when i say im a great worker and i do really good at whatever job im doing, and i also look to do better but i don't get the recognition ever! and if i do its not rare it makes a difference.
So as i mentioned earlier the last job i was contracting for isn't responding, i did all i could do so i moved on. i recently just started this new contract for a new company last week. i was hoping this job was going to work out smoothly for the projected three months or longer. So its not a big team, its a small crew and were basically pulling cable into apartment units for internet etc. this is my first time working in this type of setting but im clearly qualified for the job and i understand the work as much so. So this is only the second week and im already having issues with the lead on the team and the guys. Last week on our first run we finally get a plan on how to run the fiber and we got it up to the top floor. mind you were all working together. the job is going great at this point were all happy to be there bla bla bla everything seems cool, im learning the job helping out, proving/providing my skills, making relationships all that jazz. i thought i made a friend i was working with him most of the time that week and he is younger so of course im helping him out with what werer doing when he had questions, we would talk basketball. its a small crew so no cliques to worry about( except two guys the were friends before the job) clear objective and it just seemed like it would be a cool rewarding job that i can do good at and make the most of. but yea so things are going smooth up until this point. were up stairs and ima helpful person so i started helping with a task i see another one of the guys doing that the lead called out that needed to be done. the lead cuts me off as im helping out and tells me to wait for a reason that he never gave me, so i was measuring had i set i back down but i ends up getting tangled because the formation 8 it was in it had to be laid back in a specific way which i was unaware of. no big deal though he starts working on unraveling it and it was done no big deal, yes a little mistake but no big deal foreal easy to fix. and mind you its not like i'm slowing us down we literally can only do so much in the day to due residents not wanting us in the house etc etc that's why we all in that unit in the first place so dont get the picture that this is a smooth job because its not at least while we are figuring out the building layouts etc, trust me. so yea the next day or so we end up done the same thing a little differently because again this is the first building were working on and expectations are way off bla bla bla they had bad communication on the timeframe of the job, so yea i'm spooling the cable this time and its my first time doing it, i get the rundown and i do the job, but at the end i noticed i forgot to label the tail before i cut it and let that be known, i tell our team lead and we move on. sure i technically "messed up" but tbh not taking away from what happened, its not a vital step in the cable pulling because its already pulled and ready to go that why hence we moved on but yes i understood i made a mistake and owned up to it, not a big deal considering everyone makes mistakes including other guys on the team but he wanted to single me out the next day. so next day we cant do the original plan and start working on the next building because he messed up communication with the apartments on how long each building would take before the job started and we couldnt go in the building, so no work for the day pretty much, but we ended up making a plan to work on some vacant units. i didn't get the plan until last minute because i started noticing they were going over shit without me whenever they could so once i get over there i ask to see the map so see what going on joining the conversation on the lead tell me not to take things from people that not nice because i grabbed the map. so im like that weird why is he acting like that? then later i ask bro like khey are you okay do you fell like i didn anything wrong, he said no and we moved on but it was weird that the lead would even say that trying to call me out in front of the crew like i was just being the rudest guy ever, like you guys are having meetings and shit without me in the conversations and im being rude, whatever but okay whatever like no big deal ill just try to make sure that doesn't keep happening(being singled out of little talks/ seeming rude or being too friendly) which they started doing already singling me out but yeah eventually i get the plan to do one unit after basically forcing myself into the task to see what is being done and what i can do , i got the code to do one unit and the lead said he would come with. simple task no cable pulling just setting the unit up for the cable. so it was weird i only got one but okay let me bust this out real quick. i only had one unit to do so we both do take care of it and it was easy boom, we go over back to the storage and were just waiting on them to finish the rest,,, (odd i could've been helping out too on other units) but whatever if hes here too then obvouly im good plus i asked whats the pla and he wanted the guys to do them, so we started prepping some shit to make time, i try to make small talk which was cool but then a little later he starts asking me about my xp. just to in the end try and make a big deal out of the cable situation the last week and obviously trying to get under my skin. i basically tell him hey i understand but you dont have to worry, first time, etc etc, it'll be alright you know. and btw there has been mistake done on the other guys part(accidently disconnecting the units wifi etc) and i don't know if hes had conversations with everyone else but it looks to me im being singled out, and i hate to bring race into this but as a black guy in arizona this seems to be and issue for me more than i thought it would be. but what really left a bad taste in my mouth from that conversation was was i walked away for a second because he was making the conversation hostile after i told him its fine bla bla bla were going back and forth a little but im trying to stay professional and i was pretty much done listening to him try to disqualify me ( the convo was over my heart was beating fast etc) i went to throw some trash away and i say to myself it will be alright, he comes out from the storage obviously rilled up from this argument he tried to start, and says what did you say dont walk away mumbling things?! walking up to me, i'm like dude i was talking to myself, i said everything is going to be fine. but that just left me bitter because why is he acting in this way. ive only kept things professional to this point and ive been nice to everyone help full communicative studious all of the above, but its like i was on his bad side all of a sudden. like dude im a grown man i dont need these issues at work you know im not trying to have conflict and if there needs to be converstations im open to them but its like were already on a bad start and hes trying to disrespect me with his athurity as a team lead, im fine with constructive criticism and things like that but its the way he approached and continued to make toxic conflict. so yeah anyways today after that bs im ready to just go in get done what needs to be done and not disappoint not make any mistakes communicate be helpful. all the things ive ben doing already but with a focus because i dont want to have an problems i'm just trying to work. so i get to work as usual go to the meet up spot and there's no plan just waiting then i see some of the guys there but at this point i don't even want to make friends anymore im just focused on doing my job. they already were starting to clique up so i just said hey and stuck around until finally we get some word to get started and what building were working on. we start on the building but already im annoyed because i had a task to prep then set up cable. i go to set up the unit and the young guy i thought we were cool, he starts working on that same unit im in like he/we didn't just comfirm what we were all doing and that i was to prep this unit. no big deal i think we can work on this together like last week ill help you out if you need then ill move on, the lead come in because this kid clearly cant do the task on his own which i could have taken over but he already started calling for help etc sso the lead comes up and see me standing there and acts like im no doing anything and tells me to set uo the cables. im like ughh in my head because at this point im just doing what was told to do as usual but whatever let me go do what i do. mind you in between working on setting up the cables he tries to play the narc card, are you okay when was moving the stuff up to prep. idk if he felt bad, felt like i was upset , or just wanted to set me up and check my temp from the previous day, i simply tell him in okay everything is good and continue working taking the mat. up the stairs, but from previous xp i can tell he was pulling a bs card asking me whats wrong when clearly im fine, its like gaslighting me to make me feel like im acting different of something playing as my friend but i can tell it wasnt genuine.
so everything is going good we break for lunch and get back. again the plan for the building isn't even set because were figuring it out so i cant move ahead or nothing im waiting on his go to set up the next set of cables to run but we cant because there aren't reasy to be be run anyways as he already knew what was done from me because i communicated with him etc. i see who and asks who needs help and let him know then i'm advised to help the other kid from earlier on something which i did. after that i take a second to think about what's next and he comes out of a unit and acts like im just standing around then we go to the side for a conversation. at this pioint i pull out my phone and record the conversation. he's trying to blame me and saying a whole bunch of crapto me and making up things so were going back and forth. ill include it if i can but its 17 minues long. he tried to send me home and shhit im jsut like dude why are you acting this why and explaining myself to him for some reason and after i deescalated that i end up going to to finish the job because he understood or at least i hope he did that his points some of them were not factual and dude your giving me unnecessary shit trying to kick me off the team.
so i guees im here on advise of what do i do. the first time we talked i went home ealry ad started looking up how to stand up for myself etc etc without coming off rude or seeming like a problem and came to the conclusion just to do better, then today i have this issue. its honeslty so fustrating trying to take care of my bills etc but these jobs im in i keep havng issues. i dont know what to do. i guess ill start looking for a new job already but i dont know why it has to be ths way. i literally don't understand why these situations keep happening to me, and this as mentioned earlier isnt the first case of harassment from sups or leads no matter what i do how or much i do. im trying to be the best i can be and everything always start off so for new jobs but it always ends up going bad no matter what i do. this is only the secind week of this new contract and this is already happening and i haven't been doing anything wrong to anyone but i always am the odd ball of something whatever im at. i cant get any help from any one and im afraid im cured with dealing with the forver! why do people focus on me and want to be my enemy, i want to love people and have great relationships and do good at my job and pay my bills and stuff but i jsut cant get over beig blammed as the bad guy
i can include the conversation from today if anyone wants it but i just done know aht to to. its hard for me to stand up for myself and i know im a independt contractator so i probably can say some things but im always being put as the bad guy even when im not doing shit to anyone so i feel im screwed both ways because if i do say the things i want to say iim screwed, if i dont and get walk over im screwed theres nothing i can do and im at the mercy of learning how to kiss ass bettter and as best as possible but even that does work or guarantee my job securty. its jsut starting to give me toxic vibes already and is already effecting my preformance. ill know it but ill eventually be forced out from the squad im sure. none will talk to me, theyll force me to feel like im not trying to stick with the plan with them etc etc etc

The American media is oversaturated with voices misrepresenting the settler colonialist project of Israel. Effectively these voices seek to delegitimize the Palestinians' struggle for independence and self-determination while running defense for the Zionist movement by softening their crimes through a handful of repetitive tactics. One of the most common tactics is to conflate the occupation with a war or conflict. Language is a powerful tool in shaping how someone perceives reality; when American media publications refer to the illegal occupation of Palestine and subsequent violence as a conflict it seeks to create a false equivalency of the violence of the two sides, as stated by a non-profit The Slow Factory “What is happening in Palestine is settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing. A conflict means there is equal footing which is not the case. There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A colonizer (Israel) and a colonized (Palestine).” This inaccurate framing portrays an equivalence that ignores the reality that according to the Congressional Research Service; Israeli military occupation has been supported by US aid with $3.8B a year paid for by US tax dollars since 2016 and continuing for the next ten years. Asia Khatun illuminates this attempt to shroud the realities facing Palestinians in his article written for Jacobin Magazine “The normalization of colonialism begins where it always has: in language. These language choices, be they irresponsible or just ignorant, reinforce the notion that this is a conflict in which both sides have the means to be equally violent toward each other. But the fact of the matter is that Israel is one of the most militarised occupying nations in the world, backed with billions of dollars and weapons from the United States. The power dynamic that Western society at large believes in simply does not exist…” Another common tactic for American media to delegitimize the struggles of an oppressed people against a colonizer is to decry any violent resistance as terrorist attacks. The term terroirist itself is not a description of an amoral group with the sole goal of causing violence, but a political designation that is applied disproportionately to resistance movements and historically seldom applied to the crimes of state actors with the same vigor. The primary distinction that separates if an act of violence is a terrorist act depends on the legitimacy of the actors' claims of being an independent nation in the eyes of the accusor. The United States House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence defines it thus (2002): "Terrorism is the illegitimate, premeditated violence or threat of violence by subnational groups against persons of property with the intent to coerce a government by installing fear amongst the populace." Note the all-important “subnational” distinction in their definition effectively this allows the same inhuman acts of violence done by a resistance movement or religious organization to be declared as terrorist while violent actions by a governmental body of a nation would not be subject to the same label even if the acts themselves bear a near indistinguishable likeness. Terrorism as a distinct denotation of a group is a dubious term at best and at worst is used entirely as a political means to delegitimize any opposition force against the interests of a state. Despite decades of careful deliberation, the UN has no agreed-upon definition of the term terrorism. The issue with the term is that it relies entirely on the perspective of the person using it, depending on your viewpoint an act of violence can either be an unjustifiable act of terror or a legitimate use of one's right to defend their sovereignty. A simple way to think about this idea is in the classic dilemma of the terrorist vs freedom fighter terms, does a person subjected to the ills of a foreign nation seeking to subjugate and oppress them have the right to pursue their liberation through violent resistance? In the case of the Palestinian people’s attempt to liberate themselves from the settler colonial occupation and systemic slaughter, we have a definitive historical record of the General Assembly of the United Nations to refer to the legal rights of these states. Time and again the General Assembly of the United Nations has upheld the rights of states to defend themselves from colonial occupation and specifically upheld the Palestinians' right to defend themselves from Israeli settler colonialism even with violent opposition.
The UNGA unequivocally reinforced the legal right of the Palestinian people and any people to defend themselves from colonial conquest through armed struggle and in the language of the resolution “any legal means necessary.” On December 3 1982 UNGA resolution 37/43 reaffirms “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle…” The same resolution goes on to directly address the Palestinian struggle for self-determination “reaffirming the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and all peoples under foreign and colonial domination to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without outside interference…” The resolution goes on to strongly condemn “the expansionist activities of Israel in the Middle East and the continual bombing of Palestinian civilians, which constitute a serious obstacle to the realization of the self-determination and independence of the Palestinian people…” and consider “that the denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and return to Palestine and the repeated acts of aggression by Israel against the peoples of the region constitute a serious threat to international peace and security…”
Another historically common tactic to legitimize a colonial state's actions is an appeal to complexity. As stated in an article by a non-profit Decolonize Palestine titled “It's just so incredibly complicated” “Appeals to complexity, especially in the context of settler colonialism, have been historically employed in an attempt to defend the indefensible. For example, during Apartheid in South Africa, white South Africans would commonly retort that things weren’t so black and white if you can forgive the pun. Similarly, those defending slavery in the United States would argue that while releasing the slaves was the moral thing to do, it was more complicated than that, because it would too greatly threaten the status quo and the economy. Some try to market such arguments as “nuance”, but in reality, they primarily serve the purpose of apologia for heinous oppression.” They continue to apply this logic to the colonization of Palestine “This arcanization serves to make Palestine exceptional, meaning that our normal judgment or morality go out of the window; they do not apply here due to these special circumstances.”Normally, it would be difficult to argue against the right of refugees to return to their homes, but in the case of Palestine these are special refugees created under special circumstances [You can read more about this here]. Our conventional approaches to law or morality are framed as ill-fitting and lacking in refinement or nuance.
Israel openly colonizing the West Bank is different due to its complicated history, it is not occupied it is contested. Consequently, Israel can then argue that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply either. Palestinian prisoners are unique and captured under special circumstances, therefore, they cannot be viewed as prisoners of war, nor can they be viewed as civilians deserving of a civilian court or due process. It’s quite versatile and convenient. It’s complicated because it is special, it’s special because it’s complicated. The cycle continues, and Palestinians continue to lose their lives and lands, yet find themselves unable to clearly indict their tormentors lest they be accused of lacking nuance. These exceptions aim to legitimize what cannot be legitimized and defend what cannot be defended. So that you can look at injustice, oppression, and domination and tell yourself it’s not as clear-cut as it looks.” Illan Pappe describes the mystification of the Israeli colonization in his work with Chomsky: On Palestine, “The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve. Indeed, the story of Palestine has been told before: European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect. But Israel succeeded nonetheless, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or anti-Semitic at worst.”
Pappe also touches on another readily used tactic in American media which is to conflate criticisms of the actions undertaken by the current Israeli government as anti-Semitic. This is readily seen in the reporting on the pro-Palestine student protests at American universities. In an article by Fox News, they conflate the protests of university students as “Antisemitic Agitators” titled “Antisemitic Agitators what Protestors at Elite Universities are Shouting.” Not the importance of shifting the language to fit the narrative, the university students protesting for divestment from supporting Israel with their tuition become “Antisemitic Agitators.” Also note that the article strays away from calling the protests Pro-Palestine instead preferring to denote them as “Anti-Israel.” This is furthered by attempts to equate Zionism with Israel and Jewish ethnicity. In an article for the Georgetown Voice Annette Hasnas writes “ Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are linked, and the former certainly can be present in the latter, but it is not always. In fact, assertions that the two are inherently synonymous are themselves antisemitic. Such claims often rely on the idea that Jews as a collective must support the Zionist cause, which is not only untrue but also paints Jews as a monolith. Though the percentage of Jews who oppose Israel is a minority, it is a significant one. As many as one in 10 U.S. Jews actively supports the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement—a movement aimed at pressuring Israel into conforming with certain demands surrounding its treatment of Arab Palestinian residents of the region.” A coinciding narrative often pushed is the idea that Zionism is an inherent necessity for Israeli liberation continued in the article she combats this notion, “Supporters of Israel will often push the notion that to deny the nationhood of Israel would be to deprive Jews “of all people on earth” of the right to self-determination. But there is no shortage of examples of other peoples without total control of the governments that rule over them, including Uyghurs, Kashmiris, and Basques. These peoples, much like Jews, deserve self-determination, and separatist movements exist within many of them. But to oppose the establishment of an ethnostate for these groups is not generally considered evidence of bigotry against them. To claim that the protection of Jews necessitates a Jewish state is not just wrong, but dangerous. It buys into the arguments made by other ethnonationalists that the existence of a state controlled by one ethnicity or religious group is required to ensure that such a group is protected.”
Two other forms of media manipulation that succeed in obfuscating the realities on the ground in Palestine are utilizing emotive language and passive voice in favor of articles concerning the occupying state, and disproportionately reporting on the deaths of Israelis over the deaths of Palestinians despite Palestinian deaths far outpacing their counterparts. In a qualitative analysis done by Adam Johnson and Othman Ali in an article for the Intercept titled “Coverage of the Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows” the writers detail some of the strategies used by American media outlets that indicated bias that may not be as readily apparent to readers. “In the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, the words “Israeli” or “Israel” appear more than “Palestinian” or variations thereof, even as Palestinian deaths far outpaced Israeli deaths. For every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned once. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times — or a rate 16 times more per death that of Palestinians.” They continue by depicting the disparity in evocative language used, “Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like “slaughter,” “massacre,” and “horrific” were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around. (When the terms appeared in quotes rather than the editorial voice of the publication, they were omitted from the analysis.) The term “slaughter” was used by editors and reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1, and “massacre” was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2. “Horrific” was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 36 to 4.” The deaths of children naturally evokes a bitter sense of injustice and makes for a provocative title for any article therefore it is somewhat surprising that the analysis showed that “Only two headlines out of over 1,100 news articles in the study mention the word “children” related to Gazan children. In a notable exception, the New York Times ran a late-November front-page story on the historic pace of killings of Palestinian women and children, though the headline featured neither group. Despite Israel’s war on Gaza being perhaps the deadliest war for children — almost entirely Palestinian — in modern history, there is scant mention of the word “children” and related terms in the headlines of articles surveyed by The Intercept.” Similarly, the study found that this same discrepancy applied to the deaths of journalists, “While the war on Gaza has been one of the deadliest in modern history for journalists — overwhelmingly Palestinians — the word “journalists” and its iterations such as “reporters” and “photojournalists” only appears in nine headlines out of over 1,100 articles studied. Roughly 48 Palestinian reporters had been killed by Israeli bombardment at the time of the truce; today, the death toll for Palestinian journalists has topped 100. Only 4 of the 9 articles that contained the words journalist/reporter were about Arab reporters. The lack of coverage for the unprecedented killing of children and journalists, groups that typically elicit sympathy from Western media, is conspicuous. By way of comparison, more Palestinian children died in the first week of the Gaza bombing than during the first year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times ran multiple personal, sympathetic stories highlighting the plight of children during the first six weeks of the Ukraine war.”
TL;DR: The American media uses false equivalence, delegitimization of violent struggle for self-determination through the terrorist label, false complexity, emotive language, passive voice, and selective publishing to obfuscate the realities of the Israeli settler colonialist project.
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so first i just want to say this i my first time using reddit to post and i don't know what's the best community to go to for help but i thought this could be sorry for any typos i just want to type this asap if there's a better place like maybe a therapy community or something please lmk. So i'm in my 20's and i live in arizona. i've been having issues with my career stability and i've just been having the worst of luck, not to mention my and my girlfriend are planning on getting out first apartment at the end of this month and im worried ill keep having to do go from job to job. My job before my current job right now was contracting for low voltage work my first contract with them was short(about w week) and it was cool but then that was cut short and i was moved to the original site i was planned for. at the site on the first day i had an issue trying to get into the parking lot for training(watching some videos then leaving) and ended up getting in trouble because the guy didn't like my tone when he started yelling at me when i got into the wrong area to park mind i was a little frustrated am i'm usually a nice guy but the guy was giving me a hard time and somehow called my recruiter later the same day and they told me to just head home for the day because of that incident. and then i call my recruiter for that job and told him what happened. long story short they never got back to me for new openings so i was out of a job. and the job before that was a low voltage project that i was on for about some months or so but the team lead on that job just randomly fired me one day for bs reasons regarding to cutting the team costs short bla bla bla, it was literally bs he told me because i have proof of me doing a good job his lies when he fired me and oddly enough i thought we were friends because everytime i start a job its already is going so good but eventually some bs happens, but even then i could tell eventually that i was being singled out just by my job task and how the team was behaving and eventually fired for me simply showing up and doing my job, now i don't want to sound like a victim in the post but i promise i reflect on my situations and i'm always looking to please everyone and do the best job i can do and after i always look to see what i could've done differently but i swear my situation im being done so wrong i get fired for literally no reason. even my job before that was a valet position i got from my friend because i was working a job i liked but the crew i didn't get along with after a while for reasons idk( again i have no reason why im nice to people and i try to make friends and overall im a good person to everyone im not being mean in anyone etc) i just wasn't able to make friends and eventually even a old friend from a old job i had starting working with us in the crew but me and him were not even cool again we stopped talking after the first about week he got there for some reason, but yea the valet job i was working there for a while doing good but eventually i get fired for a bs reason but i could tell it was going to happen because a whole bunch of other bs i can make a whole post about but basically i got fired from that job too and the reason was because apparently i wasn't at my valet post not doing my job (and a supervisor that worked there didnt like me from day one which he did his best to make me look bad), which was a lie he said the front desk peoplesaid, which im almost positive they didnt because one i was doing my job and two i knew the front desk people well and they wouldn't have a reason to say a lie or even tewll him anything like that. so basically my worst history sucks all of reasons that i genuinely fell are out of my control. and of course my little backstory doesn't cover all the nuances and details but trust when i say im a great worker and i do really good at whatever job im doing, and i also look to do better but i don't get the recognition ever! and if i do its not rare it makes a difference.
So as i mentioned earlier the last job i was contracting for isn't responding, i did all i could do so i moved on. i recently just started this new contract for a new company last week. i was hoping this job was going to work out smoothly for the projected three months or longer. So its not a big team, its a small crew and were basically pulling cable into apartment units for internet etc. this is my first time working in this type of setting but im clearly qualified for the job and i understand the work as much so. So this is only the second week and im already having issues with the lead on the team and the guys. Last week on our first run we finally get a plan on how to run the fiber and we got it up to the top floor. mind you were all working together. the job is going great at this point were all happy to be there bla bla bla everything seems cool, im learning the job helping out, proving/providing my skills, making relationships all that jazz. i thought i made a friend i was working with him most of the time that week and he is younger so of course im helping him out with what werer doing when he had questions, we would talk basketball. its a small crew so no cliques to worry about( except two guys the were friends before the job) clear objective and it just seemed like it would be a cool rewarding job that i can do good at and make the most of. but yea so things are going smooth up until this point. were up stairs and ima helpful person so i started helping with a task i see another one of the guys doing that the lead called out that needed to be done. the lead cuts me off as im helping out and tells me to wait for a reason that he never gave me, so i was measuring had i set i back down but i ends up getting tangled because the formation 8 it was in it had to be laid back in a specific way which i was unaware of. no big deal though he starts working on unraveling it and it was done no big deal, yes a little mistake but no big deal foreal easy to fix. and mind you its not like i'm slowing us down we literally can only do so much in the day to due residents not wanting us in the house etc etc that's why we all in that unit in the first place so dont get the picture that this is a smooth job because its not at least while we are figuring out the building layouts etc, trust me. so yea the next day or so we end up done the same thing a little differently because again this is the first building were working on and expectations are way off bla bla bla they had bad communication on the timeframe of the job, so yea i'm spooling the cable this time and its my first time doing it, i get the rundown and i do the job, but at the end i noticed i forgot to label the tail before i cut it and let that be known, i tell our team lead and we move on. sure i technically "messed up" but tbh not taking away from what happened, its not a vital step in the cable pulling because its already pulled and ready to go that why hence we moved on but yes i understood i made a mistake and owned up to it, not a big deal considering everyone makes mistakes including other guys on the team but he wanted to single me out the next day. so next day we cant do the original plan and start working on the next building because he messed up communication with the apartments on how long each building would take before the job started and we couldnt go in the building, so no work for the day pretty much, but we ended up making a plan to work on some vacant units. i didn't get the plan until last minute because i started noticing they were going over shit without me whenever they could so once i get over there i ask to see the map so see what going on joining the conversation on the lead tell me not to take things from people that not nice because i grabbed the map. so im like that weird why is he acting like that? then later i ask bro like khey are you okay do you fell like i didn anything wrong, he said no and we moved on but it was weird that the lead would even say that trying to call me out in front of the crew like i was just being the rudest guy ever, like you guys are having meetings and shit without me in the conversations and im being rude, whatever but okay whatever like no big deal ill just try to make sure that doesn't keep happening(being singled out of little talks/ seeming rude or being too friendly) which they started doing already singling me out but yeah eventually i get the plan to do one unit after basically forcing myself into the task to see what is being done and what i can do , i got the code to do one unit and the lead said he would come with. simple task no cable pulling just setting the unit up for the cable. so it was weird i only got one but okay let me bust this out real quick. i only had one unit to do so we both do take care of it and it was easy boom, we go over back to the storage and were just waiting on them to finish the rest,,, (odd i could've been helping out too on other units) but whatever if hes here too then obvouly im good plus i asked whats the pla and he wanted the guys to do them, so we started prepping some shit to make time, i try to make small talk which was cool but then a little later he starts asking me about my xp. just to in the end try and make a big deal out of the cable situation the last week and obviously trying to get under my skin. i basically tell him hey i understand but you dont have to worry, first time, etc etc, it'll be alright you know. and btw there has been mistake done on the other guys part(accidently disconnecting the units wifi etc) and i don't know if hes had conversations with everyone else but it looks to me im being singled out, and i hate to bring race into this but as a black guy in arizona this seems to be and issue for me more than i thought it would be. but what really left a bad taste in my mouth from that conversation was was i walked away for a second because he was making the conversation hostile after i told him its fine bla bla bla were going back and forth a little but im trying to stay professional and i was pretty much done listening to him try to disqualify me ( the convo was over my heart was beating fast etc) i went to throw some trash away and i say to myself it will be alright, he comes out from the storage obviously rilled up from this argument he tried to start, and says what did you say dont walk away mumbling things?! walking up to me, i'm like dude i was talking to myself, i said everything is going to be fine. but that just left me bitter because why is he acting in this way. ive only kept things professional to this point and ive been nice to everyone help full communicative studious all of the above, but its like i was on his bad side all of a sudden. like dude im a grown man i dont need these issues at work you know im not trying to have conflict and if there needs to be converstations im open to them but its like were already on a bad start and hes trying to disrespect me with his athurity as a team lead, im fine with constructive criticism and things like that but its the way he approached and continued to make toxic conflict. so yeah anyways today after that bs im ready to just go in get done what needs to be done and not disappoint not make any mistakes communicate be helpful. all the things ive ben doing already but with a focus because i dont want to have an problems i'm just trying to work. so i get to work as usual go to the meet up spot and there's no plan just waiting then i see some of the guys there but at this point i don't even want to make friends anymore im just focused on doing my job. they already were starting to clique up so i just said hey and stuck around until finally we get some word to get started and what building were working on. we start on the building but already im annoyed because i had a task to prep then set up cable. i go to set up the unit and the young guy i thought we were cool, he starts working on that same unit im in like he/we didn't just comfirm what we were all doing and that i was to prep this unit. no big deal i think we can work on this together like last week ill help you out if you need then ill move on, the lead come in because this kid clearly cant do the task on his own which i could have taken over but he already started calling for help etc sso the lead comes up and see me standing there and acts like im no doing anything and tells me to set uo the cables. im like ughh in my head because at this point im just doing what was told to do as usual but whatever let me go do what i do. mind you in between working on setting up the cables he tries to play the narc card, are you okay when was moving the stuff up to prep. idk if he felt bad, felt like i was upset , or just wanted to set me up and check my temp from the previous day, i simply tell him in okay everything is good and continue working taking the mat. up the stairs, but from previous xp i can tell he was pulling a bs card asking me whats wrong when clearly im fine, its like gaslighting me to make me feel like im acting different of something playing as my friend but i can tell it wasnt genuine.
so everything is going good we break for lunch and get back. again the plan for the building isn't even set because were figuring it out so i cant move ahead or nothing im waiting on his go to set up the next set of cables to run but we cant because there aren't reasy to be be run anyways as he already knew what was done from me because i communicated with him etc. i see who and asks who needs help and let him know then i'm advised to help the other kid from earlier on something which i did. after that i take a second to think about what's next and he comes out of a unit and acts like im just standing around then we go to the side for a conversation. at this pioint i pull out my phone and record the conversation. he's trying to blame me and saying a whole bunch of crapto me and making up things so were going back and forth. ill include it if i can but its 17 minues long. he tried to send me home and shhit im jsut like dude why are you acting this why and explaining myself to him for some reason and after i deescalated that i end up going to to finish the job because he understood or at least i hope he did that his points some of them were not factual and dude your giving me unnecessary shit trying to kick me off the team.
so i guees im here on advise of what do i do. the first time we talked i went home ealry ad started looking up how to stand up for myself etc etc without coming off rude or seeming like a problem and came to the conclusion just to do better, then today i have this issue. its honeslty so fustrating trying to take care of my bills etc but these jobs im in i keep havng issues. i dont know what to do. i guess ill start looking for a new job already but i dont know why it has to be ths way. i literally don't understand why these situations keep happening to me, and this as mentioned earlier isnt the first case of harassment from sups or leads no matter what i do how or much i do. im trying to be the best i can be and everything always start off so for new jobs but it always ends up going bad no matter what i do. this is only the secind week of this new contract and this is already happening and i haven't been doing anything wrong to anyone but i always am the odd ball of something whatever im at. i cant get any help from any one and im afraid im cured with dealing with the forver! why do people focus on me and want to be my enemy, i want to love people and have great relationships and do good at my job and pay my bills and stuff but i jsut cant get over beig blammed as the bad guy
i can include the conversation from today if anyone wants it but i just done know aht to to. its hard for me to stand up for myself and i know im a independt contractator so i probably can say some things but im always being put as the bad guy even when im not doing shit to anyone so i feel im screwed both ways because if i do say the things i want to say iim screwed, if i dont and get walk over im screwed theres nothing i can do and im at the mercy of learning how to kiss ass bettter and as best as possible but even that does work or guarantee my job securty. its jsut starting to give me toxic vibes already and is already effecting my preformance. ill know it but ill eventually be forced out from the squad im sure. none will talk to me, theyll force me to feel like im not trying to stick with the plan with them etc etc etc

so first i just want to say this i my first time using reddit to post and i don't know what's the best community to go to for help but i thought this could be sorry for any typos i just want to type this asap if there's a better place like maybe a therapy community or something please lmk. So i'm in my 20's and i live in arizona. i've been having issues with my career stability and i've just been having the worst of luck, not to mention my and my girlfriend are planning on getting out first apartment at the end of this month and im worried ill keep having to do go from job to job. My job before my current job right now was contracting for low voltage work my first contract with them was short(about w week) and it was cool but then that was cut short and i was moved to the original site i was planned for. at the site on the first day i had an issue trying to get into the parking lot for training(watching some videos then leaving) and ended up getting in trouble because the guy didn't like my tone when he started yelling at me when i got into the wrong area to park mind i was a little frustrated am i'm usually a nice guy but the guy was giving me a hard time and somehow called my recruiter later the same day and they told me to just head home for the day because of that incident. and then i call my recruiter for that job and told him what happened. long story short they never got back to me for new openings so i was out of a job. and the job before that was a low voltage project that i was on for about some months or so but the team lead on that job just randomly fired me one day for bs reasons regarding to cutting the team costs short bla bla bla, it was literally bs he told me because i have proof of me doing a good job his lies when he fired me and oddly enough i thought we were friends because everytime i start a job its already is going so good but eventually some bs happens, but even then i could tell eventually that i was being singled out just by my job task and how the team was behaving and eventually fired for me simply showing up and doing my job, now i don't want to sound like a victim in the post but i promise i reflect on my situations and i'm always looking to please everyone and do the best job i can do and after i always look to see what i could've done differently but i swear my situation im being done so wrong i get fired for literally no reason. even my job before that was a valet position i got from my friend because i was working a job i liked but the crew i didn't get along with after a while for reasons idk( again i have no reason why im nice to people and i try to make friends and overall im a good person to everyone im not being mean in anyone etc) i just wasn't able to make friends and eventually even a old friend from a old job i had starting working with us in the crew but me and him were not even cool again we stopped talking after the first about week he got there for some reason, but yea the valet job i was working there for a while doing good but eventually i get fired for a bs reason but i could tell it was going to happen because a whole bunch of other bs i can make a whole post about but basically i got fired from that job too and the reason was because apparently i wasn't at my valet post not doing my job (and a supervisor that worked there didnt like me from day one which he did his best to make me look bad), which was a lie he said the front desk peoplesaid, which im almost positive they didnt because one i was doing my job and two i knew the front desk people well and they wouldn't have a reason to say a lie or even tewll him anything like that. so basically my worst history sucks all of reasons that i genuinely fell are out of my control. and of course my little backstory doesn't cover all the nuances and details but trust when i say im a great worker and i do really good at whatever job im doing, and i also look to do better but i don't get the recognition ever! and if i do its not rare it makes a difference.
So as i mentioned earlier the last job i was contracting for isn't responding, i did all i could do so i moved on. i recently just started this new contract for a new company last week. i was hoping this job was going to work out smoothly for the projected three months or longer. So its not a big team, its a small crew and were basically pulling cable into apartment units for internet etc. this is my first time working in this type of setting but im clearly qualified for the job and i understand the work as much so. So this is only the second week and im already having issues with the lead on the team and the guys. Last week on our first run we finally get a plan on how to run the fiber and we got it up to the top floor. mind you were all working together. the job is going great at this point were all happy to be there bla bla bla everything seems cool, im learning the job helping out, proving/providing my skills, making relationships all that jazz. i thought i made a friend i was working with him most of the time that week and he is younger so of course im helping him out with what werer doing when he had questions, we would talk basketball. its a small crew so no cliques to worry about( except two guys the were friends before the job) clear objective and it just seemed like it would be a cool rewarding job that i can do good at and make the most of. but yea so things are going smooth up until this point. were up stairs and ima helpful person so i started helping with a task i see another one of the guys doing that the lead called out that needed to be done. the lead cuts me off as im helping out and tells me to wait for a reason that he never gave me, so i was measuring had i set i back down but i ends up getting tangled because the formation 8 it was in it had to be laid back in a specific way which i was unaware of. no big deal though he starts working on unraveling it and it was done no big deal, yes a little mistake but no big deal foreal easy to fix. and mind you its not like i'm slowing us down we literally can only do so much in the day to due residents not wanting us in the house etc etc that's why we all in that unit in the first place so dont get the picture that this is a smooth job because its not at least while we are figuring out the building layouts etc, trust me. so yea the next day or so we end up done the same thing a little differently because again this is the first building were working on and expectations are way off bla bla bla they had bad communication on the timeframe of the job, so yea i'm spooling the cable this time and its my first time doing it, i get the rundown and i do the job, but at the end i noticed i forgot to label the tail before i cut it and let that be known, i tell our team lead and we move on. sure i technically "messed up" but tbh not taking away from what happened, its not a vital step in the cable pulling because its already pulled and ready to go that why hence we moved on but yes i understood i made a mistake and owned up to it, not a big deal considering everyone makes mistakes including other guys on the team but he wanted to single me out the next day. so next day we cant do the original plan and start working on the next building because he messed up communication with the apartments on how long each building would take before the job started and we couldnt go in the building, so no work for the day pretty much, but we ended up making a plan to work on some vacant units. i didn't get the plan until last minute because i started noticing they were going over shit without me whenever they could so once i get over there i ask to see the map so see what going on joining the conversation on the lead tell me not to take things from people that not nice because i grabbed the map. so im like that weird why is he acting like that? then later i ask bro like khey are you okay do you fell like i didn anything wrong, he said no and we moved on but it was weird that the lead would even say that trying to call me out in front of the crew like i was just being the rudest guy ever, like you guys are having meetings and shit without me in the conversations and im being rude, whatever but okay whatever like no big deal ill just try to make sure that doesn't keep happening(being singled out of little talks/ seeming rude or being too friendly) which they started doing already singling me out but yeah eventually i get the plan to do one unit after basically forcing myself into the task to see what is being done and what i can do , i got the code to do one unit and the lead said he would come with. simple task no cable pulling just setting the unit up for the cable. so it was weird i only got one but okay let me bust this out real quick. i only had one unit to do so we both do take care of it and it was easy boom, we go over back to the storage and were just waiting on them to finish the rest,,, (odd i could've been helping out too on other units) but whatever if hes here too then obvouly im good plus i asked whats the pla and he wanted the guys to do them, so we started prepping some shit to make time, i try to make small talk which was cool but then a little later he starts asking me about my xp. just to in the end try and make a big deal out of the cable situation the last week and obviously trying to get under my skin. i basically tell him hey i understand but you dont have to worry, first time, etc etc, it'll be alright you know. and btw there has been mistake done on the other guys part(accidently disconnecting the units wifi etc) and i don't know if hes had conversations with everyone else but it looks to me im being singled out, and i hate to bring race into this but as a black guy in arizona this seems to be and issue for me more than i thought it would be. but what really left a bad taste in my mouth from that conversation was was i walked away for a second because he was making the conversation hostile after i told him its fine bla bla bla were going back and forth a little but im trying to stay professional and i was pretty much done listening to him try to disqualify me ( the convo was over my heart was beating fast etc) i went to throw some trash away and i say to myself it will be alright, he comes out from the storage obviously rilled up from this argument he tried to start, and says what did you say dont walk away mumbling things?! walking up to me, i'm like dude i was talking to myself, i said everything is going to be fine. but that just left me bitter because why is he acting in this way. ive only kept things professional to this point and ive been nice to everyone help full communicative studious all of the above, but its like i was on his bad side all of a sudden. like dude im a grown man i dont need these issues at work you know im not trying to have conflict and if there needs to be converstations im open to them but its like were already on a bad start and hes trying to disrespect me with his athurity as a team lead, im fine with constructive criticism and things like that but its the way he approached and continued to make toxic conflict. so yeah anyways today after that bs im ready to just go in get done what needs to be done and not disappoint not make any mistakes communicate be helpful. all the things ive ben doing already but with a focus because i dont want to have an problems i'm just trying to work. so i get to work as usual go to the meet up spot and there's no plan just waiting then i see some of the guys there but at this point i don't even want to make friends anymore im just focused on doing my job. they already were starting to clique up so i just said hey and stuck around until finally we get some word to get started and what building were working on. we start on the building but already im annoyed because i had a task to prep then set up cable. i go to set up the unit and the young guy i thought we were cool, he starts working on that same unit im in like he/we didn't just comfirm what we were all doing and that i was to prep this unit. no big deal i think we can work on this together like last week ill help you out if you need then ill move on, the lead come in because this kid clearly cant do the task on his own which i could have taken over but he already started calling for help etc sso the lead comes up and see me standing there and acts like im no doing anything and tells me to set uo the cables. im like ughh in my head because at this point im just doing what was told to do as usual but whatever let me go do what i do. mind you in between working on setting up the cables he tries to play the narc card, are you okay when was moving the stuff up to prep. idk if he felt bad, felt like i was upset , or just wanted to set me up and check my temp from the previous day, i simply tell him in okay everything is good and continue working taking the mat. up the stairs, but from previous xp i can tell he was pulling a bs card asking me whats wrong when clearly im fine, its like gaslighting me to make me feel like im acting different of something playing as my friend but i can tell it wasnt genuine.
so everything is going good we break for lunch and get back. again the plan for the building isn't even set because were figuring it out so i cant move ahead or nothing im waiting on his go to set up the next set of cables to run but we cant because there aren't reasy to be be run anyways as he already knew what was done from me because i communicated with him etc. i see who and asks who needs help and let him know then i'm advised to help the other kid from earlier on something which i did. after that i take a second to think about what's next and he comes out of a unit and acts like im just standing around then we go to the side for a conversation. at this pioint i pull out my phone and record the conversation. he's trying to blame me and saying a whole bunch of crapto me and making up things so were going back and forth. ill include it if i can but its 17 minues long. he tried to send me home and shhit im jsut like dude why are you acting this why and explaining myself to him for some reason and after i deescalated that i end up going to to finish the job because he understood or at least i hope he did that his points some of them were not factual and dude your giving me unnecessary shit trying to kick me off the team.
so i guees im here on advise of what do i do. the first time we talked i went home ealry ad started looking up how to stand up for myself etc etc without coming off rude or seeming like a problem and came to the conclusion just to do better, then today i have this issue. its honeslty so fustrating trying to take care of my bills etc but these jobs im in i keep havng issues. i dont know what to do. i guess ill start looking for a new job already but i dont know why it has to be ths way. i literally don't understand why these situations keep happening to me, and this as mentioned earlier isnt the first case of harassment from sups or leads no matter what i do how or much i do. im trying to be the best i can be and everything always start off so for new jobs but it always ends up going bad no matter what i do. this is only the secind week of this new contract and this is already happening and i haven't been doing anything wrong to anyone but i always am the odd ball of something whatever im at. i cant get any help from any one and im afraid im cured with dealing with the forver! why do people focus on me and want to be my enemy, i want to love people and have great relationships and do good at my job and pay my bills and stuff but i jsut cant get over beig blammed as the bad guy
i can include the conversation from today if anyone wants it but i just done know aht to to. its hard for me to stand up for myself and i know im a independt contractator so i probably can say some things but im always being put as the bad guy even when im not doing shit to anyone so i feel im screwed both ways because if i do say the things i want to say iim screwed, if i dont and get walk over im screwed theres nothing i can do and im at the mercy of learning how to kiss ass bettter and as best as possible but even that does work or guarantee my job securty. its jsut starting to give me toxic vibes already and is already effecting my preformance. ill know it but ill eventually be forced out from the squad im sure. none will talk to me, theyll force me to feel like im not trying to stick with the plan with them etc etc etc

The American media is oversaturated with voices misrepresenting the settler colonialist project of Israel. Effectively these voices seek to delegitimize the Palestinians' struggle for independence and self-determination while running defense for the Zionist movement by softening their crimes through a handful of repetitive tactics. One of the most common tactics is to conflate the occupation with a war or conflict. Language is a powerful tool in shaping how someone perceives reality; when American media publications refer to the illegal occupation of Palestine and subsequent violence as a conflict it seeks to create a false equivalency of the violence of the two sides, as stated by a non-profit The Slow Factory “What is happening in Palestine is settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing. A conflict means there is equal footing which is not the case. There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A colonizer (Israel) and a colonized (Palestine).” This inaccurate framing portrays an equivalence that ignores the reality that according to the Congressional Research Service; Israeli military occupation has been supported by US aid with $3.8B a year paid for by US tax dollars since 2016 and continuing for the next ten years. Asia Khatun illuminates this attempt to shroud the realities facing Palestinians in his article written for Jacobin Magazine “The normalization of colonialism begins where it always has: in language. These language choices, be they irresponsible or just ignorant, reinforce the notion that this is a conflict in which both sides have the means to be equally violent toward each other. But the fact of the matter is that Israel is one of the most militarised occupying nations in the world, backed with billions of dollars and weapons from the United States. The power dynamic that Western society at large believes in simply does not exist…” Another common tactic for American media to delegitimize the struggles of an oppressed people against a colonizer is to decry any violent resistance as terrorist attacks. The term terroirist itself is not a description of an amoral group with the sole goal of causing violence, but a political designation that is applied disproportionately to resistance movements and historically seldom applied to the crimes of state actors with the same vigor. The primary distinction that separates if an act of violence is a terrorist act depends on the legitimacy of the actors' claims of being an independent nation in the eyes of the accusor. The United States House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence defines it thus (2002): "Terrorism is the illegitimate, premeditated violence or threat of violence by subnational groups against persons of property with the intent to coerce a government by installing fear amongst the populace." Note the all-important “subnational” distinction in their definition effectively this allows the same inhuman acts of violence done by a resistance movement or religious organization to be declared as terrorist while violent actions by a governmental body of a nation would not be subject to the same label even if the acts themselves bear a near indistinguishable likeness. Terrorism as a distinct denotation of a group is a dubious term at best and at worst is used entirely as a political means to delegitimize any opposition force against the interests of a state. Despite decades of careful deliberation, the UN has no agreed-upon definition of the term terrorism. The issue with the term is that it relies entirely on the perspective of the person using it, depending on your viewpoint an act of violence can either be an unjustifiable act of terror or a legitimate use of one's right to defend their sovereignty. A simple way to think about this idea is in the classic dilemma of the terrorist vs freedom fighter terms, does a person subjected to the ills of a foreign nation seeking to subjugate and oppress them have the right to pursue their liberation through violent resistance? In the case of the Palestinian people’s attempt to liberate themselves from the settler colonial occupation and systemic slaughter, we have a definitive historical record of the General Assembly of the United Nations to refer to the legal rights of these states. Time and again the General Assembly of the United Nations has upheld the rights of states to defend themselves from colonial occupation and specifically upheld the Palestinians' right to defend themselves from Israeli settler colonialism even with violent opposition.
The UNGA unequivocally reinforced the legal right of the Palestinian people and any people to defend themselves from colonial conquest through armed struggle and in the language of the resolution “any legal means necessary.” On December 3 1982 UNGA resolution 37/43 reaffirms “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle…” The same resolution goes on to directly address the Palestinian struggle for self-determination “reaffirming the inalienable right of the Palestinian people and all peoples under foreign and colonial domination to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without outside interference…” The resolution goes on to strongly condemn “the expansionist activities of Israel in the Middle East and the continual bombing of Palestinian civilians, which constitute a serious obstacle to the realization of the self-determination and independence of the Palestinian people…” and consider “that the denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and return to Palestine and the repeated acts of aggression by Israel against the peoples of the region constitute a serious threat to international peace and security…”
Another historically common tactic to legitimize a colonial state's actions is an appeal to complexity. As stated in an article by a non-profit Decolonize Palestine titled “It's just so incredibly complicated” “Appeals to complexity, especially in the context of settler colonialism, have been historically employed in an attempt to defend the indefensible. For example, during Apartheid in South Africa, white South Africans would commonly retort that things weren’t so black and white if you can forgive the pun. Similarly, those defending slavery in the United States would argue that while releasing the slaves was the moral thing to do, it was more complicated than that, because it would too greatly threaten the status quo and the economy. Some try to market such arguments as “nuance”, but in reality, they primarily serve the purpose of apologia for heinous oppression.” They continue to apply this logic to the colonization of Palestine “This arcanization serves to make Palestine exceptional, meaning that our normal judgment or morality go out of the window; they do not apply here due to these special circumstances.”Normally, it would be difficult to argue against the right of refugees to return to their homes, but in the case of Palestine these are special refugees created under special circumstances [You can read more about this here]. Our conventional approaches to law or morality are framed as ill-fitting and lacking in refinement or nuance.
Israel openly colonizing the West Bank is different due to its complicated history, it is not occupied it is contested. Consequently, Israel can then argue that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply either. Palestinian prisoners are unique and captured under special circumstances, therefore, they cannot be viewed as prisoners of war, nor can they be viewed as civilians deserving of a civilian court or due process. It’s quite versatile and convenient. It’s complicated because it is special, it’s special because it’s complicated. The cycle continues, and Palestinians continue to lose their lives and lands, yet find themselves unable to clearly indict their tormentors lest they be accused of lacking nuance. These exceptions aim to legitimize what cannot be legitimized and defend what cannot be defended. So that you can look at injustice, oppression, and domination and tell yourself it’s not as clear-cut as it looks.” Illan Pappe describes the mystification of the Israeli colonization in his work with Chomsky: On Palestine, “The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve. Indeed, the story of Palestine has been told before: European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect. But Israel succeeded nonetheless, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or anti-Semitic at worst.”
Pappe also touches on another readily used tactic in American media which is to conflate criticisms of the actions undertaken by the current Israeli government as anti-Semitic. This is readily seen in the reporting on the pro-Palestine student protests at American universities. In an article by Fox News, they conflate the protests of university students as “Antisemitic Agitators” titled “Antisemitic Agitators what Protestors at Elite Universities are Shouting.” Not the importance of shifting the language to fit the narrative, the university students protesting for divestment from supporting Israel with their tuition become “Antisemitic Agitators.” Also note that the article strays away from calling the protests Pro-Palestine instead preferring to denote them as “Anti-Israel.” This is furthered by attempts to equate Zionism with Israel and Jewish ethnicity. In an article for the Georgetown Voice Annette Hasnas writes “ Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are linked, and the former certainly can be present in the latter, but it is not always. In fact, assertions that the two are inherently synonymous are themselves antisemitic. Such claims often rely on the idea that Jews as a collective must support the Zionist cause, which is not only untrue but also paints Jews as a monolith. Though the percentage of Jews who oppose Israel is a minority, it is a significant one. As many as one in 10 U.S. Jews actively supports the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement—a movement aimed at pressuring Israel into conforming with certain demands surrounding its treatment of Arab Palestinian residents of the region.” A coinciding narrative often pushed is the idea that Zionism is an inherent necessity for Israeli liberation continued in the article she combats this notion, “Supporters of Israel will often push the notion that to deny the nationhood of Israel would be to deprive Jews “of all people on earth” of the right to self-determination. But there is no shortage of examples of other peoples without total control of the governments that rule over them, including Uyghurs, Kashmiris, and Basques. These peoples, much like Jews, deserve self-determination, and separatist movements exist within many of them. But to oppose the establishment of an ethnostate for these groups is not generally considered evidence of bigotry against them. To claim that the protection of Jews necessitates a Jewish state is not just wrong, but dangerous. It buys into the arguments made by other ethnonationalists that the existence of a state controlled by one ethnicity or religious group is required to ensure that such a group is protected.”
Two other forms of media manipulation that succeed in obfuscating the realities on the ground in Palestine are utilizing emotive language and passive voice in favor of articles concerning the occupying state, and disproportionately reporting on the deaths of Israelis over the deaths of Palestinians despite Palestinian deaths far outpacing their counterparts. In a qualitative analysis done by Adam Johnson and Othman Ali in an article for the Intercept titled “Coverage of the Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows” the writers detail some of the strategies used by American media outlets that indicated bias that may not be as readily apparent to readers. “In the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, the words “Israeli” or “Israel” appear more than “Palestinian” or variations thereof, even as Palestinian deaths far outpaced Israeli deaths. For every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned once. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times — or a rate 16 times more per death that of Palestinians.” They continue by depicting the disparity in evocative language used, “Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like “slaughter,” “massacre,” and “horrific” were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around. (When the terms appeared in quotes rather than the editorial voice of the publication, they were omitted from the analysis.) The term “slaughter” was used by editors and reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1, and “massacre” was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2. “Horrific” was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 36 to 4.” The deaths of children naturally evokes a bitter sense of injustice and makes for a provocative title for any article therefore it is somewhat surprising that the analysis showed that “Only two headlines out of over 1,100 news articles in the study mention the word “children” related to Gazan children. In a notable exception, the New York Times ran a late-November front-page story on the historic pace of killings of Palestinian women and children, though the headline featured neither group. Despite Israel’s war on Gaza being perhaps the deadliest war for children — almost entirely Palestinian — in modern history, there is scant mention of the word “children” and related terms in the headlines of articles surveyed by The Intercept.” Similarly, the study found that this same discrepancy applied to the deaths of journalists, “While the war on Gaza has been one of the deadliest in modern history for journalists — overwhelmingly Palestinians — the word “journalists” and its iterations such as “reporters” and “photojournalists” only appears in nine headlines out of over 1,100 articles studied. Roughly 48 Palestinian reporters had been killed by Israeli bombardment at the time of the truce; today, the death toll for Palestinian journalists has topped 100. Only 4 of the 9 articles that contained the words journalist/reporter were about Arab reporters. The lack of coverage for the unprecedented killing of children and journalists, groups that typically elicit sympathy from Western media, is conspicuous. By way of comparison, more Palestinian children died in the first week of the Gaza bombing than during the first year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times ran multiple personal, sympathetic stories highlighting the plight of children during the first six weeks of the Ukraine war.”
TL;DR: The American media uses false equivalence, delegitimization of violent struggle for self-determination through the terrorist label, false complexity, emotive language, passive voice, and selective publishing to obfuscate the realities of the Israeli settler colonialist project.
If you like this sort of content please visit my blog where I write articles and OP-EDs like these from a leftist perspective, thanks! paradigm-shift.blog

o first i just want to say this i my first time using reddit to post and i don't know what's the best community to go to for help but i thought this could be sorry for any typos i just want to type this asap if there's a better place like maybe a therapy community or something please lmk. So i'm in my 20's and i live in arizona. i've been having issues with my career stability and i've just been having the worst of luck, not to mention my and my girlfriend are planning on getting out first apartment at the end of this month and im worried ill keep having to do go from job to job. My job before my current job right now was contracting for low voltage work my first contract with them was short(about w week) and it was cool but then that was cut short and i was moved to the original site i was planned for. at the site on the first day i had an issue trying to get into the parking lot for training(watching some videos then leaving) and ended up getting in trouble because the guy didn't like my tone when he started yelling at me when i got into the wrong area to park mind i was a little frustrated am i'm usually a nice guy but the guy was giving me a hard time and somehow called my recruiter later the same day and they told me to just head home for the day because of that incident. and then i call my recruiter for that job and told him what happened. long story short they never got back to me for new openings so i was out of a job. and the job before that was a low voltage project that i was on for about some months or so but the team lead on that job just randomly fired me one day for bs reasons regarding to cutting the team costs short bla bla bla, it was literally bs he told me because i have proof of me doing a good job his lies when he fired me and oddly enough i thought we were friends because everytime i start a job its already is going so good but eventually some bs happens, but even then i could tell eventually that i was being singled out just by my job task and how the team was behaving and eventually fired for me simply showing up and doing my job, now i don't want to sound like a victim in the post but i promise i reflect on my situations and i'm always looking to please everyone and do the best job i can do and after i always look to see what i could've done differently but i swear my situation im being done so wrong i get fired for literally no reason. even my job before that was a valet position i got from my friend because i was working a job i liked but the crew i didn't get along with after a while for reasons idk( again i have no reason why im nice to people and i try to make friends and overall im a good person to everyone im not being mean in anyone etc) i just wasn't able to make friends and eventually even a old friend from a old job i had starting working with us in the crew but me and him were not even cool again we stopped talking after the first about week he got there for some reason, but yea the valet job i was working there for a while doing good but eventually i get fired for a bs reason but i could tell it was going to happen because a whole bunch of other bs i can make a whole post about but basically i got fired from that job too and the reason was because apparently i wasn't at my valet post not doing my job (and a supervisor that worked there didnt like me from day one which he did his best to make me look bad), which was a lie he said the front desk peoplesaid, which im almost positive they didnt because one i was doing my job and two i knew the front desk people well and they wouldn't have a reason to say a lie or even tewll him anything like that. so basically my worst history sucks all of reasons that i genuinely fell are out of my control. and of course my little backstory doesn't cover all the nuances and details but trust when i say im a great worker and i do really good at whatever job im doing, and i also look to do better but i don't get the recognition ever! and if i do its not rare it makes a difference.
So as i mentioned earlier the last job i was contracting for isn't responding, i did all i could do so i moved on. i recently just started this new contract for a new company last week. i was hoping this job was going to work out smoothly for the projected three months or longer. So its not a big team, its a small crew and were basically pulling cable into apartment units for internet etc. this is my first time working in this type of setting but im clearly qualified for the job and i understand the work as much so. So this is only the second week and im already having issues with the lead on the team and the guys. Last week on our first run we finally get a plan on how to run the fiber and we got it up to the top floor. mind you were all working together. the job is going great at this point were all happy to be there bla bla bla everything seems cool, im learning the job helping out, proving/providing my skills, making relationships all that jazz. i thought i made a friend i was working with him most of the time that week and he is younger so of course im helping him out with what werer doing when he had questions, we would talk basketball. its a small crew so no cliques to worry about( except two guys the were friends before the job) clear objective and it just seemed like it would be a cool rewarding job that i can do good at and make the most of. but yea so things are going smooth up until this point. were up stairs and ima helpful person so i started helping with a task i see another one of the guys doing that the lead called out that needed to be done. the lead cuts me off as im helping out and tells me to wait for a reason that he never gave me, so i was measuring had i set i back down but i ends up getting tangled because the formation 8 it was in it had to be laid back in a specific way which i was unaware of. no big deal though he starts working on unraveling it and it was done no big deal, yes a little mistake but no big deal foreal easy to fix. and mind you its not like i'm slowing us down we literally can only do so much in the day to due residents not wanting us in the house etc etc that's why we all in that unit in the first place so dont get the picture that this is a smooth job because its not at least while we are figuring out the building layouts etc, trust me. so yea the next day or so we end up done the same thing a little differently because again this is the first building were working on and expectations are way off bla bla bla they had bad communication on the timeframe of the job, so yea i'm spooling the cable this time and its my first time doing it, i get the rundown and i do the job, but at the end i noticed i forgot to label the tail before i cut it and let that be known, i tell our team lead and we move on. sure i technically "messed up" but tbh not taking away from what happened, its not a vital step in the cable pulling because its already pulled and ready to go that why hence we moved on but yes i understood i made a mistake and owned up to it, not a big deal considering everyone makes mistakes including other guys on the team but he wanted to single me out the next day. so next day we cant do the original plan and start working on the next building because he messed up communication with the apartments on how long each building would take before the job started and we couldnt go in the building, so no work for the day pretty much, but we ended up making a plan to work on some vacant units. i didn't get the plan until last minute because i started noticing they were going over shit without me whenever they could so once i get over there i ask to see the map so see what going on joining the conversation on the lead tell me not to take things from people that not nice because i grabbed the map. so im like that weird why is he acting like that? then later i ask bro like khey are you okay do you fell like i didn anything wrong, he said no and we moved on but it was weird that the lead would even say that trying to call me out in front of the crew like i was just being the rudest guy ever, like you guys are having meetings and shit without me in the conversations and im being rude, whatever but okay whatever like no big deal ill just try to make sure that doesn't keep happening(being singled out of little talks/ seeming rude or being too friendly) which they started doing already singling me out but yeah eventually i get the plan to do one unit after basically forcing myself into the task to see what is being done and what i can do , i got the code to do one unit and the lead said he would come with. simple task no cable pulling just setting the unit up for the cable. so it was weird i only got one but okay let me bust this out real quick. i only had one unit to do so we both do take care of it and it was easy boom, we go over back to the storage and were just waiting on them to finish the rest,,, (odd i could've been helping out too on other units) but whatever if hes here too then obvouly im good plus i asked whats the pla and he wanted the guys to do them, so we started prepping some shit to make time, i try to make small talk which was cool but then a little later he starts asking me about my xp. just to in the end try and make a big deal out of the cable situation the last week and obviously trying to get under my skin. i basically tell him hey i understand but you dont have to worry, first time, etc etc, it'll be alright you know. and btw there has been mistake done on the other guys part(accidently disconnecting the units wifi etc) and i don't know if hes had conversations with everyone else but it looks to me im being singled out, and i hate to bring race into this but as a black guy in arizona this seems to be and issue for me more than i thought it would be. but what really left a bad taste in my mouth from that conversation was was i walked away for a second because he was making the conversation hostile after i told him its fine bla bla bla were going back and forth a little but im trying to stay professional and i was pretty much done listening to him try to disqualify me ( the convo was over my heart was beating fast etc) i went to throw some trash away and i say to myself it will be alright, he comes out from the storage obviously rilled up from this argument he tried to start, and says what did you say dont walk away mumbling things?! walking up to me, i'm like dude i was talking to myself, i said everything is going to be fine. but that just left me bitter because why is he acting in this way. ive only kept things professional to this point and ive been nice to everyone help full communicative studious all of the above, but its like i was on his bad side all of a sudden. like dude im a grown man i dont need these issues at work you know im not trying to have conflict and if there needs to be converstations im open to them but its like were already on a bad start and hes trying to disrespect me with his athurity as a team lead, im fine with constructive criticism and things like that but its the way he approached and continued to make toxic conflict. so yeah anyways today after that bs im ready to just go in get done what needs to be done and not disappoint not make any mistakes communicate be helpful. all the things ive ben doing already but with a focus because i dont want to have an problems i'm just trying to work. so i get to work as usual go to the meet up spot and there's no plan just waiting then i see some of the guys there but at this point i don't even want to make friends anymore im just focused on doing my job. they already were starting to clique up so i just said hey and stuck around until finally we get some word to get started and what building were working on. we start on the building but already im annoyed because i had a task to prep then set up cable. i go to set up the unit and the young guy i thought we were cool, he starts working on that same unit im in like he/we didn't just comfirm what we were all doing and that i was to prep this unit. no big deal i think we can work on this together like last week ill help you out if you need then ill move on, the lead come in because this kid clearly cant do the task on his own which i could have taken over but he already started calling for help etc sso the lead comes up and see me standing there and acts like im no doing anything and tells me to set uo the cables. im like ughh in my head because at this point im just doing what was told to do as usual but whatever let me go do what i do. mind you in between working on setting up the cables he tries to play the narc card, are you okay when was moving the stuff up to prep. idk if he felt bad, felt like i was upset , or just wanted to set me up and check my temp from the previous day, i simply tell him in okay everything is good and continue working taking the mat. up the stairs, but from previous xp i can tell he was pulling a bs card asking me whats wrong when clearly im fine, its like gaslighting me to make me feel like im acting different of something playing as my friend but i can tell it wasnt genuine.
so everything is going good we break for lunch and get back. again the plan for the building isn't even set because were figuring it out so i cant move ahead or nothing im waiting on his go to set up the next set of cables to run but we cant because there aren't reasy to be be run anyways as he already knew what was done from me because i communicated with him etc. i see who and asks who needs help and let him know then i'm advised to help the other kid from earlier on something which i did. after that i take a second to think about what's next and he comes out of a unit and acts like im just standing around then we go to the side for a conversation. at this pioint i pull out my phone and record the conversation. he's trying to blame me and saying a whole bunch of crapto me and making up things so were going back and forth. ill include it if i can but its 17 minues long. he tried to send me home and shhit im jsut like dude why are you acting this why and explaining myself to him for some reason and after i deescalated that i end up going to to finish the job because he understood or at least i hope he did that his points some of them were not factual and dude your giving me unnecessary shit trying to kick me off the team.
so i guees im here on advise of what do i do. the first time we talked i went home ealry ad started looking up how to stand up for myself etc etc without coming off rude or seeming like a problem and came to the conclusion just to do better, then today i have this issue. its honeslty so fustrating trying to take care of my bills etc but these jobs im in i keep havng issues. i dont know what to do. i guess ill start looking for a new job already but i dont know why it has to be ths way. i literally don't understand why these situations keep happening to me, and this as mentioned earlier isnt the first case of harassment from sups or leads no matter what i do how or much i do. im trying to be the best i can be and everything always start off so for new jobs but it always ends up going bad no matter what i do. this is only the secind week of this new contract and this is already happening and i haven't been doing anything wrong to anyone but i always am the odd ball of something whatever im at. i cant get any help from any one and im afraid im cured with dealing with the forver! why do people focus on me and want to be my enemy, i want to love people and have great relationships and do good at my job and pay my bills and stuff but i jsut cant get over beig blammed as the bad guy
i can include the conversation from today if anyone wants it but i just done know aht to to. its hard for me to stand up for myself and i know im a independt contractator so i probably can say some things but im always being put as the bad guy even when im not doing shit to anyone so i feel im screwed both ways because if i do say the things i want to say iim screwed, if i dont and get walk over im screwed theres nothing i can do and im at the mercy of learning how to kiss ass bettter and as best as possible but even that does work or guarantee my job securty. its jsut starting to give me toxic vibes already and is already effecting my preformance. ill know it but ill eventually be forced out from the squad im sure. none will talk to me, theyll force me to feel like im not trying to stick with the plan with them etc etc etc
i feel like things are going to keep getting worse. ill go in tommorow and the enrgy is going to be off still, the lead is going to be thinking certain thinkgs and the guys on the team will contineu being more and more passive agressive and stuff

The global agriculture drones market size was valued at USD 4.17 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to grow from USD 4.98 billion in 2023 to USD 18.22 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 20.3% during the forecast period.
The agriculture drones market is experiencing significant growth propelled by advancements in technology and the increasing adoption of precision farming practices. The integration of drones in agriculture is revolutionizing traditional farming methods, offering farmers enhanced efficiency, real-time data insights, and improved crop management.
~Browse Report:~
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/agriculture-drones-market-102589
Key Market Insights: Agriculture Drones Market
Market Segmentation: The agriculture drones market is segmented based on type, application, and region. The key segments include
Type: Fixed Wing Drones, Rotary Blade Drones, Hybrid Drones
Application: Crop Monitoring, Precision Farming, Livestock Monitoring, Agricultural Spraying
Region: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa
Key Players: Agriculture Drones Market
The competitive landscape of the agriculture drones market features prominent players driving innovation and market growth. Key players include:

• DJI
• PrecisionHawk
• Parrot SA
• Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.
• AeroVironment, Inc.
• AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc.
• senseFly SA
• DroneDeploy
• Delair
• SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd.

Latest Trends:
Drone Swarming Technology: Growing interest and research in drone swarming technologies are enabling synchronized and collaborative drone operations for large-scale agricultural monitoring and data collection.
Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI-powered drones are gaining traction, providing farmers with advanced data analytics, predictive modeling, and autonomous decision-making capabilities.
Increased Affordability and Accessibility: Advances in drone manufacturing and a decline in production costs are making agriculture drones more affordable for small and medium-sized farmers, leading to increased market accessibility.
Driving Factors: Agriculture Drones Market
Precision Farming Adoption: Farmers are increasingly adopting precision farming techniques, which utilize agriculture drones for precise monitoring, mapping, and management of crops. This results in optimized resource utilization and increased crop yield.
Government Support and Regulations: Favorable government initiatives and regulations supporting the use of drones in agriculture are contributing to market growth. Subsidies and incentives further encourage farmers to adopt drone technology.
Environmental Concerns: Growing environmental awareness is driving the demand for sustainable farming practices. Agriculture drones assist in reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers through targeted and efficient application.
In conclusion, the agriculture drones market is poised for substantial growth as technological advancements continue to reshape the farming landscape. The integration of drones is empowering farmers with real-time insights, precise monitoring, and sustainable practices, making it a key driver in the evolution of modern agriculture.
Regional Analysis:
Geographically, the market exhibits a varied landscape. North America dominates the agriculture drone sector, driven by a tech-savvy farming community and government support for drone adoption in agriculture. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific is rapidly emerging as a key player, propelled by the adoption of modern farming techniques and the need for efficient crop management.
Industry Trends: Agriculture Drones Market
As the Agriculture drones market evolves, noteworthy trends are shaping its trajectory. Integration of advanced sensors, real-time data analytics, and machine learning algorithms are enhancing the capabilities of agriculture drones. The rise of autonomous drones, capable of performing tasks without human intervention, is a trend set to redefine efficiency in farming practices.
In conclusion, the Agriculture drones market is not just about flying machines; it represents a transformative force in agriculture. With key players steering innovation, precise segmentation, driving factors catalyzing growth, regional dynamics influencing adoption, and industry trends pointing to a future of increased autonomy, the agriculture drones market is set to continue its ascent, contributing to sustainable and efficient farming practices worldwide.

Email sent at 5:39PM today by the Council of Graduate Students:
A Statement from the Council of Graduate Students at The Ohio State University on the University’s Response to Protests
As the official representative body for graduate students at The Ohio State University, the Council of Graduate Students (CGS)[1] condemns the use of excessive force and consequent legal repercussions in response to those exercising their civil liberties peacefully, and unequivocally supports free speech and academic freedom. We emphatically oppose the University’s responses to protests focused on Palestinian and Pro-Palestinian speech, for example those which occurred on April 23rd [2] and 25th [3] [4], 2024.
Fifty-four years ago, unarmed students were killed and injured by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State [5] during the Spring of Dissent [6] that occurred across Ohio while participating in anti-war, anti-imperialist demonstrations. The anniversary of these horrific tragedies underscores the importance of de-escalation and the role that university leaders have in shaping the outcomes of student advocacy. While there are policies in place for space reservations and supposedly disruptive noise on The Ohio State University’s campus, alleged “University Space Rules” violations should not result in violent, militarized responses, and the wanton labeling of student activities as aggressive or violent. The University states that it was following established University procedures when responding to student activities. However, the Ohio State University Police Department and Ohio State Highway Patrol’s aggressive engagement tactics escalated the situation. The “University Space Rules” are created and maintained by the University, and CGS urges OSU to use this power to communicate clearly about alleged breaches of this policy before framing them as violent and to de-escalate responses to alleged violations arising from student activities.
The disproportionately aggressive responses on the aforementioned dates via the targeted, violent, and islamophobic treatment of protestors in hijabs and keffiyeh, and explicit singling out of student organizers and faculty and staff supporters at these demonstrations deeply troubles CGS. The well-documented events that spurred this statement contradict Ohio State’s previous insistence that it is “content neutral” in its treatment of protestors. If OSU and President Carter truly believe in “free speech” and “academic freedom” (which are arguably at the center of OSU’s motto, “Education for Citizenship”) then they cannot and should not threaten students with the possibility of arrest, trauma, and violence for participating in protests. Nor should President Carter express pride in violent police forces [7] [8] [9] that brutalized and mocked students, suppressed free speech, and violated civil liberties [10][11][12] when those he should be proud of are the students of this university who engaged in their constitutionally protected rights [13] as students at an American university. Students have the right to peacefully and openly state their beliefs without the fear of legal persecution, whether or not they violate university policy. CGS stands in solidarity with many other faculty [14][15] [16] [17], staff, and students [18][19] and urges all relevant units of OSU to immediately work toward the dismissal, expungement, and reversal of all charges and disciplinary actions brought against all students, staff, and community members arrested between April 23rd and April 25th, 2024.
CGS supports (as it has historically done, including during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa [20] [21]) protestors and their rights to protest for OSU to make every effort to disclose investments in any organization that would directly or indirectly harm those within the Buckeye Community — in this case, those investments related to military operations of the Israeli nation-state on occupied Palestinian-land. Furthermore, if the University truly believes in shared governance, the University and its Board of Trustees should readily seek and accept feedback directly from students, staff, and faculty regarding divestment from said organizations. Such actions related to the above aims and others should be discussed in a setting (e.g., a town-hall style meeting for graduate students to speak directly to administrators, moderated by CGS leadership) that is open to all graduate students currently enrolled at OSU. CGS requests that this conversation involve President Carter and all other relevant members of the OSU administration. We further ask that the appropriate units and administrators reach out to CGS no later than May 24th, 2024 to schedule this conversation.
CGS is OSU’s official shared governance partner [22] for all matters related to graduate student experiences at Ohio State. We are alarmed by the lack of intentional communication and consultation from upper administration (specifically the President, the Provost, and the Director of Public Safety) with our democratically elected and publicly accountable leaders. While University Administrators espouse supposed concern for our academic success, well-being, and safety, their lack of communication or consultation directly with CGS regarding the continuation of the lockdown of University buildings after the peaceful May 1st and May 3rd demonstrations on the South Oval was unacceptable. This course of action did not lead to the intended outcome of “ensuring the business of the university continues uninterrupted,” as our constituents have reached out to us en masse and informed us that closures have delayed or in some cases halted their work related to the closures or lack of communication about them. We are the arbiters of what is best for us as graduate students; CGS firmly believes in “Nothing about us without us.” CGS reminds the University that while it prides itself on embracing a shared governance model [23], in this instance those efforts fell short. OSU and its administration needs to proactively consider student feedback on all actions concerning student protests, free speech, academic freedom, the right to peaceful assemblies, and decisions that impact graduate student work, education, and free movement around campus.
We, as the Council of Graduate Students, expect more from our leaders. Peaceful protests should be met with dialogue and curiosity, instead of undue force and fear at the hands of police summoned to campus at the behest of the University. If administrators truly believe in “Education for Citizenship,” then political expression and normal campus activities should be encouraged, not met with threats and violence from police and criminalization from administrators. Questions and concerns about University funds and divestment should be met with good-faith engagement from those with the ability to answer them. And finally, democratically-elected student leaders should be welcomed early and often into discussions about OUR safety, success, well-being, needs, and concerns. We look forward to the President’s Office upholding their explicitly stated commitment to “teaching, learning, listening to, and supporting one another as well as peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights on our campus. [24]” To further build on President Carter's closing words in his April 29th message to the campus community, our Buckeye community is indeed capable of peacefully exercising First Amendment rights on campus “even – and especially – when it is most difficult.” [25] CGS requests that President Carter and his fellow OSU administrators heed their own words by meaningfully rectifying the wrongs done through the violent actions of law enforcement on April 23rd and 25th. We further expect that in this and every other case where students utilize their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, the administration of OSU will respond with peaceful discourse, open communication, and meaningful action.
Email sent by the Office of Student Life at 5:43PM:
The statement from the Council of Graduate Students (CGS) you received a short time ago contains a number of misleading and inaccurate statements. Given that the CGS message was sent via a university-facilitated system, consistent with their benefits of being a student government organization, we are obligated to provide this awareness as it is important for you to understand the facts surrounding the recent protests on campus.
Ohio State has worked diligently to support our community throughout these extremely challenging times. Our priority is always the health, safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff. In particular, during finals week, we communicated broadly through a number of channels that we would continue to consistently enforce our space rules to support the success of all students.
Well established university rules prohibit camping and overnight events. The university reached out to student organizers well in advance of the planned encampment to remind them of Ohio State’s space rules and to inform them that encampments are not and would not be permitted. On Thursday, April 25, demonstrators exercised their First Amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings over a five-hour period were arrested and charged with criminal trespass for knowingly violating university policy and police orders.
Arrests are not an action that we take lightly, and we appreciate the support of all of our law enforcement partners to disperse the encampment for the safety of our university community.
No specific groups or individuals were targeted other than those who refused to comply with the lawful order to disperse.
Ohio State is steadfastly committed to protecting the First Amendment right to free speech and expression on our campuses. The university has made this commitment clear, publicly, and is transparent with our community about how to exercise these rights. What occurred on April 25 was not about limiting free speech. The encampments on the South Oval were an intentional violation of university space rules that exist so that teaching, learning, research, service and patient care can occur on our campuses without interruption.
Decisions about demonstrations are never made based on the content of the speech or political views of those participating. Rather, Ohio State consistently and uniformly enforces its well-established space rules. These rules prohibit disrupting the university’s mission, administrative functions and other campus-life activities.
Since October 7, 2023, the university has supported more than 30 demonstrations, vigils, and public events hosted by a variety of student organizations. OSUPD and trained student support staff are on-site for all student demonstrations. Since October, Ohio State has repeatedly communicated that the law and university policy will be enforced consistently.
It is also important to point out that, pursuant to Ohio state law, state entities cannot divest interests in Israel. Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits the university from divesting any interests in Israel and prohibits adopting or adhering to a policy that requires divestment from Israel or with persons or entities associated with it.
Ohio State utilizes a diversified investment strategy to grow the resources available to support our academic mission, such as student scholarships, faculty positions and educational resources. The university generally invests in funds, not individual companies. Specific investments are trade secret and therefore not public. The university follows all applicable laws regarding investments.
Thank you for allowing us to clarify the inaccuracies contained in the CGS statement.
Ohio State has always, and always will, take the action that is in the best interest of our community.

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Tony Hawk Pro Skater - $6
Nintendo Gamecube Games (CIB unless noted)
ATV Quad Power Racing 2 - $10
The Hobbit - $24
Enter the Matrix - $13
Eternal Darkness - $90
Fifa 2003 - $6
Fifa Street 2 - $25
Finding Nemo - $8
F-Zero GX - $90
Gun (missing manual) - $10
Harry Potter Chambers of Secret - $12
Killer 7 - $65
Luigi's Mansion - $60
Madden 2003 - $5
Madden 2007 - $8
Mario Golf Toadstool Tour - $27
Mario Kart Double Dash - $75
Monopoly Party - $10
Monsters, Inc. Scream Arena - $7
Nascar Thunder 2003 - $7
Pikmin - $50
Power Rangers Dino Thunder - $8
Resident Evil - $25
Resident Evil 2 - $100
Resident Evil 4 - $30
Resident Evil Zero - $18
The Sims Bustin Out - $12
Smuggler's Run (missing manual) - $12
Sonic Adventure Battle 2 (missing manual) - $45
Spiderman 2 - $15
Spyro A Hero's Tail (missing manual) - $15
SSX Tricky - $28
Starfox Assault - $45 (CIB; some wear to cover art)
Super Mario Sunshine (missing manual) -$35
Super Smash Brothers Melee - $60
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (missing manual) - $12
WWE Crush Hour - $27
WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (missing manual) - $25
Nintendo DS Games (cart only unless CIB noted)
Avatar The Game - $6
Bionicle Matoran Adventures - $6
Build-A-Bear Workshop (CIB) - $6
Carnival (CIB) - $6
Deal or No Deal - $5
Guitar Hero On Tour Bundle (CIB) - $25
Happy Feet - $4
Horsez (CIB) - $6
Hot Wheels Beat That - $6
Kung Fu Panda (CIB) - $6
Mario Party DS - $13
Mario Kart DS (loose) - $15
Mario Kart DS (CIB) - $18
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (CIB) - $10
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (CIB) - $10
Megaman Starforce Dragon - $85 shipped
Metroid Hunters First Hunt - $6
Nacho Libre - $15
Namco Museum DS - $8
Naruto Ninja Council 3 - $6
New Super Mario Bros. (CIB) -$22
Nickelodeon Team Umizoomi - $6
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - $20
Picross 3D - $9
Ping Pals - $3
Planet Puzzle League - $10
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (case & manual only, no game) - $55
Pokemon Ranger Shadows of Almia (cart only) - $30
Ratatouille - $5
Rayman DS - $10
Ridge Racer DS - $8
Shrek Superslam - $5
Spiderman 3 - $8
Star Wars II The Original Trilogy (LEGO) - $6
Super Money Ball Touch & Roll - $6
Transformers Animated - $11
Tron Evolution - $4
Zhu Zhu Pets - $3
Nintendo 3DS (cart only unless noted)
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (CIB) - $20
Lego Marvel Superheroes: Universe in Peril - $5
Mario Kart 7 - $12
Minecraft New Nintendo 3DS Edition - $18
Pilotwings Resort - $10
Pokemon X (CIB) - $30
Skylander Giants - $6
Skylander Swap Force - $16
Skylander Trap Team - $12
Super Mario Maker - $10
Super Smash Bros (CIB) - $15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - $9
Wipeout: Create & Cash - $5
Wreck-it Ralph - $6
Yo-Kai Watch - $15
NES Games (cart only; unless noted)
8 Eyes - $11
A Boy and His Blob (cart, box, manual) - $40
Blades of Steel - $8
Bubble Bobble - $16
Burgertime - $15
Castlevania II Simon's Quest - $15
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse - $45
Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers (CIB) - $125
Contra - $40
Dick Tracy - $7
Double Dragon - $13
Donkey Kong 3 - $20
Dr. Mario - $10
Duck Tales - (cart & box) - $100
Excite Bike - $11
Faxanadu - $11
GI Joe: A Real American Hero - $75
Golf - $3
Legend of Zelda - $30
Mickey Mousecapade - $7
Mike Tyson's Punch-out - $40
Paperboy - $16
Punch-Out - $20
Rad Racer - $6
RBI Baseball 3 (cart & box) - $25
Robocop - $10
Rollerball - $8
Skate or Die 2 (cart & box) - $65
Spy Hunter - $5
Street Fighter 2010 - $15
Super Glove Ball - $7
Super Mario Bros. 2 - $20
Super Off-Road - $12
Super Team Games - $7
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game (cart & box) - $80
Tiger Heli - $8
Wall Street Kid (cart, box, registration card, poster) - $45
WWF Wrestlemania - $6
SNES Games (cart only)
Aladdin - $15
Castlevania IV - $45
Clue - $5
Earthbound - $350
F-Zero (Player's Choice) - $20
Jungle Strike - $9
Ken Griffey Jr Major League Baseball - $11
Kirby's Avalanche - $15
Lion King - $11
Mario Paint - $6
Mega Man X - $32
Mickey Mania - $13
Mortal Kombat - $13
Ms. Pacman - $9
NBA All-Star Challenge - $5
Pilot Wings - $10
Scooby Doo Mystery - $11
Starfox - $15
Super Adventure Island - $16
Super Baseball 2020 - $13
Super Ghouls N Ghosts - $23
Super Mario All-Stars - $25
Super Mario Kart - $40
Super Mario World - $20
Super Punch Out - $28
Top Player Tennis - $8
WWF Raw - $13
Zombies Ate My Neighbors - $30
Gameboy/GBC
All-Star Baseball 200 - $5
Batman - $20
Dr. Mario - $12
New Adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley - $5
Men In Black - $5
Pac-Man - $9
Rugrats the Movie - $8
Shrek - $5
The Smurfs Nightmare - $15
Tony Hawk 2 - $5
Tony Hawk 3 - $8
Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories - $10
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - $25
GBA (cart only unless noted)
Aggravation/Sorry/Scrabble - $5
Barnyard - $8
Bratz - $4
Care Bears Care Quest (CIB) - $28
Cars - $5
Cars (CIB) - $16
Castlevania Double Pack - $85
Cho Makaimura R Super Ghouls N Ghost ( Japanese Import) - $95 Shipped
Crash Bandicoot 2 N-tranced - $10
Crash Huge Adventure - $11
Curious George (CIB) - $28
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 - $4
Disney Party - $10
Disney Princess (CIB) - $12
Donkey Kong Country (GBC/CIB) - $56
Dora Explorer's Pirate Pig's Treasure - $4
Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors - $20
Elf - $10
ESPN Great Outdoor Games Bass 2002 - $5
F-14 Tomcat - $7
Finding Nemo - $5
Green Eggs & Ham (CIB) - $20
Incredibles (CIB) - $14
Kong 8th Wonder of the World - $5
Lost Vikings - $25
Madden 2005 - $5
Mario Kart Super Circuit (torn label) - $20
Metroid Zero Mission - $60
Monsters Inc - $4
Monster Jam Maximum Destruction - $6
Namco Museum - $6
Oddworld Munch's Oddysee - $12
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl - $5
Pong Asterios Yar's Revenge - $4
Sonic Advance 3 - $25
Quad Desert Furty - $3
Shaun Palmers Pro Snowboarding (GBC/CIB) - $10
Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway - $5
Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron - $5
SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom - $7
Spongebob Squarepants Super Sponge - $6
SSX 3 - $7
The Incredibles - $3
Thunder Alley - $5
Top Gear GT Championship - $10
Sony PSP (all CIB)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - $15
Gurumin A Monstrous Adventure - $42
LocoRoco - $10
Mega Man Powered Up - $38
Parappa the Rapper - $27
Sega Genesis Collection - $17
PS1 Games (CIB unless noted)
007 Tomorrow Never Dies - $7
Action Bass - $6
Andretti Racing (GH) - $5
Ball Breakers (sealed) - $10
Bass Championship - $7
Battle Arena Toshinden (GH) - $14
Bust A-Move 4 - $17
Driver 2 (GH) - $10
Fighting Force - $20
IHRA Drag Racing - $5
Missile Command - $6
MLB 2001 - $9
MLB 2003 - $9
Nascar Heat (CIB) - $7
NBA Live 2000 - $8
NBA Shootout 98 - $9
NHL 98 - $8
NHL Faceoff 97 (GH) - $5
PlayStation Underground Jampack Fall 2001 - $9
Resident Evil 2 (DualShock Edition) - $65
Rocket Power Team Rocket Rescue - $7
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - $12
Spongebob SquarePants Super Pants - $7
Syphon Filter 2 (GH) - $10
Tecmo Super Bowl - $20
Tiger Woods 99 - $8
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 - $12
Twisted Metal 2 (Greatest Hits) - $32
Toy Story 2 - $22
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour - $20
World Cup 98 - $12
PS2 Games (CIB unless noted)
All-Star Baseball 2005 - $5
Ape Escape 2 - $48
Ape Escape 3 - $43
ATV Offroad Fury 2 - $6
Avatar the Last Airbender - $8
Batman Begins - $13
Batman Vengeance - $19
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chaos Bleeds - $28
Burnout Revenge - $11
Burnout 3 Takedown - $13
Buzz the Mega Quiz - $12
Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 - $13
Castlevania Lament of Innocence -$25
Corvette - $5
Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex - $12
Crash Nitro Kart (GH) - $9
Crazy Taxi - $10
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 - $7
Dead to Rights - $6
Devil May Cry (GH) - $7
Enter the Matrix - $10
Eragon - $6
Family Feud - $5
Finding Nemo - $6
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns - $10
Ford Racing 3 - $5
Frogger the Great Quest - $7
Golden Compass - $5
GTA 3- $10
Gran Turismo 3 - $5
Godfather the Game - $14
Guitar Hero - $10
Guitar Hero Aerosmith - $7
Guitar Hero II - $7
Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock - $9
High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 - $5
Hot Wheels Velocity - $10
Hot Wheels World Race (missing manual) - $12
Hobbit - $10
Ice Age 2 The Meltdown - $7
Ironman - $6
Karaoke Revolution Party - $8
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol - $5
Legends of Wrestling II - $12
Lego Star Wars The Original Trilogy - $6
Lego Star Wars The Video Game - $7
Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring - $10
Madden 2003 - $5
Madden 2004 - $5
Madden 2005 -$5
Madden 2007 - $5
Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 - $10
Max Payne - $10
Metal Arms Glitch in the System - $16
Midway Arcade Treasures (1) - $12
Midway Arcade Treasures (2) - $12
MLB 07 the Show - $5
MLB Slugfest 2003 - $10
MLB Slugfest 2004 - $13
Namco Museum (GH) - $8
Nascar 2001 - $5
Nascar Thunder 2003 - $7
NBA Street - $12
Need for Speed Underground 2 (missing manual) - $20
NFL Blitz Pro - $10
NFL Street - $17
NFL Street 3 (missing manual) - $20
Pinball Hall of Fame - $5
Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat - $12
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder - $8
Reel Fishing III - $7
Resident Evil Code Veronica X - $13
Rise of Kasai - $8
Rocky - $11
Scooby Doo First Frights - $13
Sega Superstars - $10
Sega Superstar Tennis - $10
Shrek Superslam - $8
Simpson's Hit & Run (Greatest Hits) -$50
Spiderman - $10
Sprint Cars Road to Knoxville - $6
Spy Hunter - $7
Spy Hunter 2 (missing manual) - $7
Starsky & Hutch - $7
SSX - $7
SSX 3 - $9
SSX On Tour - $8
Superman Shadow of Apokolips - $14
Super Monkey Ball Adventure - $10
Summoner - $10
Taito Legends - $15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battlenexus (missing manual) - $17
Teen Titans - $22
Theme Park Roller Coaster - $8
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 - $6
Thrillville - $6
Thrillville Off the Rails - $10
Time Crisis 3 - $23
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - $11
Wheel of Fortune - $6
Virtua Fighter 4 (missing manual) - $6
Warriors of Might & Magic - $10
WWE Smackdown vs Raw - $11
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 (Sealed) - $45
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 - $17
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - $10
WWE Smackdown Shut Your Mouth - $15
PS3
Band Hero - $6
Batman Arkham Asylum - $7
Battlefield 3 - $6
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare - $6
Call of Duty Ghosts - $6
Call of Duty Mordern Warfare 3 - $6
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare - $7
Call of Juarez Bound in Blood - $9
Crysis 2 - $7
Dirt 2 - $12
Dirt 3 - $10
Driver San Francisco - $25
Enemy Territory Quake Wars - $9
Fifa Soccer 11 - $5
Fight Night Champion - $13
GTA IV Complete Edition - $25
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - $8
Gran Turismo XL Edition - $11
Gran Turismo 6 - $19
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan - $10
Infamous - $6
Infamous 2 - $8
Killzone 2- $7
Killzone 3 - $7
Lego 3: Beyond Batman - $8
Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 - $7
Lego The Hobbit - $9
LittleBigPlanet - $9
Madden 2011 - $5
Metro: Last Night - $8
Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition - $12
MLB the Show 10 - $4
MLB the Show 11 - $4
Monster Jam Path of Destruction - $20
NCAA Football 11 - $9
Sports Champions - $5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 [Masters Historic Edition] - $23
Transformers Fall of Cybertron - $35
Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark - $13
Virtua Tennis 3 - $6
WWE 2K16 - $12
PS Vita
Lumines Electronic Symphony - $16
Need for Speed Most Wanted - $20
Sly Cooper Collection - $50
Sega 32X (all cart only)
Primal Rage - $50
Virtua Fighter - $24
Virtua Racing - $20
Sega Dreamcast Games (disc & manual only***; do not have original cases unless noted CIB)
Centipede - $7
Plasma Sword Night of Bilstein - $50
Psychic Force 2012 - $25
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - $12
Resident Evil Code Veronica (CIB) - $40
Rippin Riders - $5
Sega Bass Fishing - $8
Sega Rally 2 Championship - $12
Speed Devils - $15
Sword of Berserk: Gut's Rage (game only) - $65
Trick Style - $7
Zombie Revenge - $30
Sega Genesis (**CIB unless noted)
Aladdin (cart + manual) - $10
Double Dragon (cart & box) - $45
Game Genie (loose + booklet) - $20
Hard Drivin' (Missing Manual) - $15
John Madden Football (cart + manual) - $20
Lemmings (CIB) - $30
MERCS (cart & box) - $35
NBA Jam T.E. (CIB) - $20
Prime Time NFL Football starring Deon Sanders (cart +manual) - $9
Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Intervention (CIB) - $20
Road Rash II (CIB) - $22
Robocop 3 (CIB) - $40
Streets of Rage (cart only) - $22
Super Off-Road (CIB) - $30
WWF Super Wrestlemania (CIB) - $20
X-Men (cart + manual) - $15
Zero Tolerance (CIB) - $35
Sega Master System (CIB unless noted)
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - $28
California Games (missing manual) - $20
Choplifter - $18
Ghostbusters - $25
Great Baseball - $10
Monopoly - $10
Parlour Games - $10
Pro Wrestling - $14
Rocky - $17
Space Harrier (missing manual) - $18
Shinobi (includes map; missing manual) - $30
Xbox (all CIB)
MechAssault 2 Lone Wolf (Limited Edition) - $8
Project Gotham Racing - $6
Xbox 360 (CIB)
Assassin's Creed - $6
Assasin's Creed II - $6
Asssasin's Creed III - $6
Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition - $10
Battlefield 3 Limited Edition - $6
Bioshock - $7
Bioshock Infinite - $5
Call of Duty World at War - $9
Call of Juarez: Blood Bound - $10
Civilization Revolution - $6
CSI Hard Evidence - $9
Fifa Soccer 10 - $5
Fifa Work Cup South Africa 2010 - $5
Game of Thrones - $11
Gears of War - $9
Halo 4 - $5
Injustice Gods Among Us - $5
L.A. Noire - $7
Mass Effect - $5
Mass Effect 2 - $5
N3 Ninety-Nine Nights - $20
NBA 2K12 - $5
NHL 10 - $3
NHL 14 - $6
Saints Row 2 - $10
Saints Row The Third - $5
Skate 3 - $6
Star Trek Legacy - $18
Star Wars Kinect - $7
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 - $5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 - $5
Top Spin 3 - $6
Walking Dead Survival Instinct - $8
Wheel of Fortune - $14
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -$5
Nintendo Wii (all CIB unless noted)
Animal Crossing City Folk - $20 (includes inserts but missing manual)
Celebrity Sports Showdown - $6
Guitar Hero World Tour - $18
Little League World Series Baseball 2008 - $10
Madden 2013 - $14
Mario Kart Wii - $35
Mario Super Sluggers (disc only) - $25
Mario Strikers Charged (disc only) - $10
NBA Live 09 All-Play - $5
New Super Mario Bros - $25
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz - $6
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - $20
Tony Hawk Downhill Jam - $5
Tony Hawk Shred Big Air - $5
Warioware Smooth Moves - $22
Wii Sports - $22
Wii Sports Resort - $30
Wheel of Fortune - $6
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - $7

First / Previous
​
I think it’s obvious that, while I’ve never lied to my dad and my brother about something big before, I haven’t told either of them about the animals at the zoo and I’m not planning on it. Even if they believed me, that would actually be worse than thinking I was being foolish by working here. If my dad knew what kind of animals the zoo had, he’d freak out, whether or not there were invisible walls to protect me. In and of itself, my father would demand I quit on the spot if he found out about my hourly rate because it was obvious that there was something about this job that warranted it.
So, I opened a savings account at the bank, and when I deposited the check, I put half in that account. That lowered the chances of my dad finding out how much money I was pulling in.
It wasn’t as if I had anything huge to spend the money on anyway, though. Dad had been thrilled with $25/hr. when I got the job, and we’d already started spending some of that first paycheck on new clothes and little house repairs and such. Money has always been tight, and we live in a three-bedroom house, with my dad graciously having taken the smallest room (which was kind of a catchall storage room up until then) once my brother and I wanted separate rooms when we hit our teenage years.
My mom isn’t in the picture, if you’re curious. She worked as a wildlife photographer, and was so good at it that she’d get paid to go off to remote places in Africa. For months at a time. As if we don’t have animals in America, right? But even when she was here, it always felt like she was distracted, wanting to go back to work. Like she cared more about the animals than about us. Say what you want about me, but I like animals more than people, I don’t love them more. I don’t even think of her as mom anymore; in my brain, she’s Patricia.
When I was nine and my brother Stanley was two, she basically left and never came back. Doesn’t even send postcards. For all I know, she’s dead, and the most meaningful thing I ever got from her was my passion for caring about other animals. I got into it early because of Patricia, and then practically every birthday or Christmas present was some book or movie or toy about wildlife. But that’s all she did for us besides financial support. My dad is a real rock in my life, and I count myself lucky I got at least one good parent.
When Patricia ditched us, I started to help out financially when I was younger by working odd jobs, and then real jobs when I hit sixteen. Stanley is sixteen now, and he’s been working at Hanks Hardware for a few months, which meant now it was all three of us pulling in money. But Stanley only makes $10/hr., working four hours after school and then eight hours on Saturday, so my $25/hr. literally doubled our household income. When I’d gotten the job, I told Dad and Stanley that I wanted Stanley to quit his job, and that I’d give him an allowance, $80 a week, which was what he'd be using for pocket money if he’d still been working.
Getting that time back would be huge for Stanley, because it would let him spend more time on his schoolwork. Not just to bring up his grades; he would literally be learning more. And he’s a junior now, doing things like taking a computer class to learn Microsoft Office. Living in a small town limits your options, and knowledge broadens them. I know that much for sure.
Not to mention, he could actually be a teenager, do the stuff kids did. Go see a movie, hang out with his friends at the bleachers and smoke pot, and head out to the lake to swim when the weather warmed up and have a genuinely fun summer instead of having a forty hour work week. And most important, playing video games. I know that sounds strange, but Stanley loves video games and plays online on the TV in the living room. But he hardly ever has time to play, which means sometimes he’ll stay up too late enjoying himself and fall asleep the next day during his first period class. Dad and I never have the heart to tell him to go to bed, though.
My father was uneasy about Stanley quitting, mostly because of the hypothetical of my job falling through. And Dad didn’t even know about the possibility of there being some terrifying incident with an animal, which might cause me such anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to push past it and would end up needing to quit. I really didn’t think that was likely after I’d managed to mostly get over my paralyzing fear of Yui, but I yielded to his logic and we negotiated. Stanley decided to switch to three hours three days a week and four hours on Saturdays.
Little did they know that not only was I was saving up for my own impending student loan payments, but my savings account would cover a most or maybe all of the cost of any college or trade school Stanley wanted to attend when he graduated. I was so happy about that, I don’t have the words. Half of my income is $25/hr. and for eight hours a day will be $52k a year, all of it put in my savings account. Before taxes, but still, that is fantastic money. I’ll have to come clean eventually, when Stanley started filling out FAFSA forms next year, and I’ll probably tell my dad that I was pretty sure they’re running drugs out of the back of the zoo or something. He’ll be so pissed, but that’s over a year away and I’ll burn that bridge when I came to it.
So, in general, I’ve been enjoying working at the zoo and depositing those paychecks. Call me a cynic, but inevitably, that meant something had to go wrong.
After settling in for my shift a few minutes before 9 p.m., Andrew bid me farewell and headed home. He’d just done one last walk of the zoo, so I took out a book and resumed where I’d left off, planning to do a sweep in an hour. I do have some enrichment planned for one of the animals, but I’d had to order something online and it won’t arrive for a few days.
Shortly after my second ramble around on my route to check every enclosure at the zoo, however, I got a text from my brother.

Gary and Shaun are going to the zoo. They want to try to see the animals.

I closed my eyes in annoyance. Gary and Shaun were two sort-of friends of Stanley’s, the middling kind of friend that you sit with at lunch and hang out with at parties but you’ve never actually been to their home. I knew Stanley had been bragging to his friends about my new job. Well, I guessed. He’d told me and Dad at the dinner table that his friends were impressed with my job, and I figured the fact that his sister had a college degree and had started work at $25/hr. was bragging material, especially when it meant Stanley could work fewer hours.
The idea that some of his friends would want to come check out the zoo hadn’t occurred to me, because I’d come at it logically: The zoo was closed to outsiders. Appointment only. And none of them would ever get an appointment, because they were human. But if anything, the rules that restricted them had probably made it a more enticing idea. Also, Stanley said it the zoo on Google Maps at this point, but that it was blurred out. Andrew told me that had been by request (anyone can do it actually), but I’m sure that made the temptation even worse.
Obviously I wasn’t going to let them in, but I didn’t want them to cause trouble, and they were teenagers. Teenagers tend to cause trouble as a general rule. The last thing I wanted was to have to tell Andrew that they’d shown up at the gate intent on visiting the zoo because my brother had talked it up so much. Not that Stanley knew what this place really housed, but still, Andrew had been so stern on no photography of Leila that I would’ve been embarrassed if I had to call the cops because of something like this.
My reply was curt.

Tell those dipshits the place is closed to walk-ins. I’m not letting them in.
I did. They want to go anyway.

I facepalmed and sighed before replying.

If you can’t talk them out of it, just don’t go with them. I’ll deal with it.

There was a long silence, then some ellipses as he typed, then another long silence. I got antsy and sent a follow-up.

Stanley, I mean it. I do not want you here if I have to call the cops to get them to leave. Stay home. If you show up here with them, I’m cutting off the money I give you.

I wasn’t the type to play fast and loose with threats about money, so that probably surprised him. There was the briefest of pauses.

Geez, no need to be a bitch about it. Fine. I’ll stay here. Good luck dealing with those assholes without me.

That was indeed exactly what I wanted, and he must have known that. Hell, I had pepper spray and a taser, so it’s not like I couldn’t keep them out if I really wanted to. But when it came down to it, I figured, what were they going to do? I wasn’t going to open the door or the front gate. The fence was ten feet high, the kind with spaced bars that had decorative spikes at the top, and it was brand new. It wasn’t as if they were going to take bolt-cutters to a barbed wire fence like in a movie.
In the end, I sat back in my chair and just fell back on my regular routine. I wonder now, if I’d called Andrew and told him, maybe asked him to come hang out for a while, whether things would’ve turned out different. But I wasn’t very well going to wake him up for something that essentially sounded like a minor irritation.
At 10:41 p.m., a beep, beep, beep, alert sounded, and I know the exact time because I picked my phone up off the desk out of habit, assuming it was what was making the noise. But it wasn’t. Looking up to the screen of cameras, one was outlined in red, pulling my focus to it. It was an exterior camera with a wide view that panned back and forth, but was now stopped on movement that it had detected and had deemed sufficient to audibly alert me. I later learned that it was in conjunction with a motion detector on the fence. On the screen, I saw two boys, one on the outside of the fence to the left of the entrance gate and one on the inside.
“What the fuck?” I breathed, standing up and putting my book aside. My fingers went to the mouse and keyboard, and I expanded the view from the camera and zoomed in. It seemed I’d underestimated the boredom and curiosity of two small-town teenage boys.
I saw how the first boy had gotten in when the second boy used the same technique, which was to climb a rope that had knots tied in it about a foot apart, a rope that had been hooked onto one of the spikes at the top, presumably with a loop that had been lassoed and tightened. He made it to the top, shifted and dropped to hang from the top by his hands, then let himself fall to the ground, his knees bending and absorbing the shock of the impact before falling on his butt.
One of the boys had hit a growth spurt, topping out at 5’11” now, all gangly limbs. He had short brown hair and I could see him wearing a sweatshirt with the logo of his school on it. That’s the best outfit to wear when breaking in, apparently: something that shows what high school you go to. The other one was a little more built and half a foot shorter, with long blonde hair that he probably thought made him look like Chris Hemsworth. It didn’t.
“I cannot believe this,” I growled, my anger flaring. Heading quickly out of the office, slamming the door behind me, I was out the door and walking toward the entrance, driven by my anger.
Already walking into the park at a speed driven by their interest in the forbidden areas, they started on the path that went toward enclosure one and rounded the zoo. “Hey!” I barked.
“Ripley!” Gary exclaimed. “Your brother said you wouldn’t open the gate, so we let ourselves in.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, keeping pace beside them, rage bubbling up inside me. They slowed but didn’t stop. “Do you think this is a joke? There’s a reason I told my brother not to come with you. That alarm you set off goes to the owner of the park, and they’ll definitely be pressing charges. You really want ‘breaking and entering’ on your rap sheet?”
They gave me long-suffering looks, the kind only someone under twenty is capable of. The kind that imply you’re neurotic, or pushy, or self-centered. The kind that say you don’t know what you’re talking about, that they know so much more than you, and that all you are is an annoyance.
“Come on. What is with this place? It sounds awesome, some private zoo, but Stanley didn’t know anything about it,” Shaun told me. Glancing at my belt, where my pepper spray and taser were, he asked, “Is it that top secret? Everything here could sell on the black market for a million bucks or something?”
“They’re expensive animals if poachers get their hands on them, yes,” I said tightly.
“Why would they hire someone fresh out of college for that?” Gary asked, his eyes continuing to take in his surroundings, the path and everything in sight bathed in their standard eerie red glow. “And what’s with the lights?”
“It’s for night vision,” I told him, skipping over the part implying I wasn’t qualified for this job. “Hey, stop.” Moving in front of them, I forced the issue, moving to stand in front of them and forcing them to either stumble to a stop or run into me. “If you climb back over the fence and leave now, before anyone gets here, I’ll lie and say I didn’t know your faces.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re uptight,” Shaun chuckled. “What’s the big deal? I mean, we might not even see anything, since it’s nighttime and the animals are sleeping. It’s not like we’re stealing a tour.”
Honestly, I have no idea how our species has survived this long when our formative years make us so confidently stupid. “So, why are you even here then?” I asked, folding my arms.
“Why not?” Gary asked.
With that, they were quickly walking around me, toward enclosure one. I hadn’t yet seen the animal in enclosure one, but what I did know was I didn’t want to see it for the first time tonight. Roger’s short and snappy description described it as Bear - Steve. According to procedure in the small manual Andrew had given me, I was supposed to deter any intruders with fact that they were on camera and threaten to call the police. It didn’t say what to do if that didn’t work, but I assume I was supposed to…call the police. And also call Andrew, of course. That didn’t solve my urgent problem though, which was two teenagers who wanted to see something cool.
“That’s it,” I growled, taking my taser in one hand and my pepper spray in the other, hoping the sight of me being armed would deter them. Heading after them, I snapped, “If you guys do not leave, I will make you leave.”
Shaun turned and walked backwards so he could speak to me. “Just because you’ve got a complex since they hired you to look after a place like this, doesn’t mean you have any real authority,” he told me. “Look, call the cops if you want. Tell them some teenagers broke in. Response time around here is probably fifteen minutes, so we’ve got ten minutes, minimum. We just want to see something cool, and then we’ll leave.”
I hate that he called my bluff on the weapons, especially in hindsight. I’m not a confrontational person, and my instincts are always to avoid a fight if possible. So, in this case, my instincts were telling me to call in someone else to help get these clowns out of the zoo, not to use the weapons I had for just such a purpose. It makes me feel helpless and angry knowing that I back down from fights, but I balked at the idea of getting physical with them. Only the fact that that wasn’t supposed to be part of my job kept me from feeling like a complete failure as security.
“The animals here are not puppies,” I finally exclaimed. “Some of them are territorial. They could seriously hurt you.”
They finally slowed their pace as they closed in on the gate to the wooden fence. “What are you talking about, territorial? They’re zoo animals,” Gary said.
“This is a huge zoo, and it’s more like a preserve,” I sighed. “It backs up into the forest. These animals build their homes here, scent mark the boundaries, and regularly eat small animals that come in through the bars of the fence to explore. So, like I said. These. Are not. Puppies.”
The two of them finally came to a stop at the gate, looking at me warily. “With this fence, how dangerous could they be?” Gary asked. I didn’t answer. Shaun scanned the expanse behind the gate and Gary looked around, making it clear what he was looking for when he said, “Where are all the signs and shit?”
“There’s a tour guide,” I said. “They don’t need signs.”
“Okay, so, what’s in here?”
Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “It’s time to leave. I’m serious.”
Gary glared at me for a beat and then said the worst word possible. “Whatever.” Then he turned and unlatched the gate, walking through.
“Gary!” I shouted, stopping short at the threshold. Shaun walked past me, and I made a grab for him, but was too slow. I’ll regret that until the day I die.
Halted at the gate like there was an invisible force field keeping me out in just as it kept the animals in, I officially started panicking. I’d messed up, and now I couldn’t even hit them with either the pepper spray or the taser unless I wanted them to be easy prey.
My eyes scanned the smaller plants along the fence, which slowly grew in average height the closer you got to the tree line. The trees were surprisingly close to the fence, only a few yards in. Also, there were no footprints, no path that only grew small weeds from an animal that often paced back and forth, so I wasn’t sure how often it came out of the trees. Maybe it didn’t.
I wondered if there was another lake, maybe a small pond, that I didn’t know about further in, if the animal lived there. Or maybe this one was relatively reclusive, so I might have time to get the boys out. It could be that it had heard the ruckus of voices and decided to investigate, as it did during tours, but it would take a while to get here. Or I could get lucky and whatever it was could have just had a great meal, deciding to pass up the humans within its grasp.
But I was not lucky.
Putting my pepper spray and taser back in their holsters, I took a couple steps back as I pulled out my cell phone and called 911.
There was a brief pause before I heard someone pick up, and a calm female voice spoke, “911, what is your emergency?”
“Yes, I work at a private zoo, address 11842 Lincoln Road,” I spoke, drawing the shocked gazes of both boys. “Two teenage boys broke in, and they’re refusing to leave the property.”
“For real, Ripley?” Gary exclaimed, as if genuinely offended at my actions.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
Gary was standing near enough to the tall trees that he was under the branches, and something dropped on him, its weight crushing him to the ground. He didn’t even have time to scream. Shaun did, though, crying, “What the fuck?” as he stumbled backwards.
“Get out of there!” I screamed, grabbing my taser from its holster and pointing it at the animal.
On top of Gary’s body was something that looked like a koala. The only thing was, it must have been almost twice as big and had an orange, spotted pattern on its fur. The kicker was the teeth. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, most people know, so they don’t have much use for many teeth or even sharp teeth. They’re equipped with a pretty pathetic set of chompers.
Whatever this was, I knew it had a full set of teeth made for a meat-eater, because it had bitten down on Gary’s neck and ripped out a chunk of flesh, arterial blood spraying from the wound.
Shaun, unfortunately, did not take the opportunity to run. He stared at his downed friend, just as I did, in horrified fear. And then ran to him. “Gary!” he screamed. “Hey, get the fuck off him!”
“Shaun, don’t!” I shouted.
Whatever Shaun was thinking, it was less about the potential of him being attacked versus the fact of his friend being attacked right at that moment. I’ll say that about him at least: he didn’t just leave his friend to die. Unfortunately, if he had, it might’ve saved him. Throwing himself at the animal, Shaun shoved it off, an impressive show of strength, before grabbing Gary by the arm and trying to pull him to his feet. “Come on!”
I could see that Gary was barely conscious, though. A gash in an artery that was profusely bleeding will do that to a person. I attempted to aim my taser at the animal, but only a split-second passed before it turned and leapt once more, slamming into Shaun and biting his neck. I stumbled back in fear, adrenaline now pumping through me in earnest, as Shaun cried out in terror and fell to the ground before the animal ripped out his throat.
My vision swam at the sight of a copious amount of blood and the sound of Shaun choking on it. Thick chewing sounds came from the animal before it swallowed and then turned to me.
I only realized I’d dropped my cell phone when I heard a faint, panicked voice ask, “Ma’am? Ma’am, are you there?”
Lowering the taser, I slowly took a couple steps forward, picked up the phone, and I quietly said, “Yeah. I’m here.”
It felt like she was speaking from the other end of a long tunnel when I heard, “I’m sending police and EMT right now. What happened? Was someone injured?”
Swallowing hard, I grimaced as tears came to my eyes. Staring at the animal, which was still meeting my gaze unwaveringly, I simply answered, “Yeah. They’re dead.” At that point, the animal grabbed one of the boys by the throat, then the other, and started dragging them into the trees.
She hesitated before asking some more questions, and I replied to them all absently. Eventually, the animal was gone from my sight, but I still walked backwards as I retraced my steps to the security office, exactly like the first time I’d seen Yui. Eventually I arrived at the security room, and my shaky hand swiped the key card to get in. Shutting the door, I told the 911 operator, “I’m safe.”
“Good. The police should be there in ten minutes.”
My brain thought it was funny that it turned out the boys had been right about the timing, but filed it under ‘things to think about later’. “Okay. I have to call my boss.”
“Just stay on the line with me until the police arrive, okay?”
“It’s okay. I’m fine,” I said quietly. “I just really need to call my boss.”
In spite of her protests, I hung up. The silence of the room rang in my ears and I slowly sat down in my chair, pulling up Andrew’s number.
After four rings, he picked up, his voice drowsy but tense, knowing I’d only call if something had happened. “Ripley? What’s wrong?”
It took me a moment to find my voice. “Two teenagers broke in. They’re dead. Steve killed them.”
“Oh, fuck,” he breathed. After a few beats, he said, “Okay, all right, I’ll, ah, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Did you call the police already?”
“I was on the phone before it even happened, saying they broke in.” I grimaced at that. I was supposed to call my boss first, not the police. That let him determine what actions to take.
Andrew let out a breath. “Okay. I’m assuming Steve took the bodies?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, I’ll call Suzanne and have her put Steve down for a nap, and then get the bodies back to where the EMTs can get them.”
That confused me, and I didn’t really know what to say, so I went with, “I’m sorry, Andrew. I should’ve tried harder to get them to leave. Even tasing and pepper spraying them would’ve-”
“Ripley, this is not your fault,” he said firmly. “I’ll be there soon as I can, all right?”
We ended the conversation and I glanced at the screen of cameras, which was how I’d left it, focused on that section of the fence where the boys had climbed in, with the view enlarged to take up most of the screen. I stared at it until the police arrived.
When the motorcade of flashing lights were visible at the end of the road through one of the cameras, I pressed the button to open the front gate. Fielding the police officers and the EMTs and their questions, I brought them to the enclosure, and right at the edge of the tree line were the two bodies, looking exactly as I’d last seen them. So, I guess Suzanne knows how to run her zoo and handle things when the worst happens.
Both boys were put into body bags and lifted onto gurneys, and then each one was put into one of the two waiting ambulances. Andrew arrived before too long and answered all the questions the police had for him, the ones I didn’t know how to answer. Also the questions that I didn’t really feel comfortable answering, like, “What species of bear is it exactly? And why is there just this flimsy fence here?” I watched from a distance as they took his statement and, I determined by watching their facial expressions, Andrew seemed to answer their questions to their satisfaction.
The long, exhausting experience ended when the last of them left, and Andrew and I went back to the main building, going to his office. Instead of sitting in his desk chair, my boss vied for the couch that sat against one wall, used occasionally by visitors. I sat at the other end, leaning back heavily into the cushions.
Andrew spoke first, echoing his earlier sentiments and immediately making it clear that what occurred wasn’t my fault. I felt some anger at myself, mostly because I knew that if I’d used one of my weapons on one of them, they’d still be alive. But I hadn’t wanted to go to such extremes just because they’d climbed over a fence. They were dumb teenagers, right? I’ve never been tased or pepper sprayed, but I’d seen videos on YouTube and it didn’t look like a fun time.
“Look, you said it that first day in your interview, that people are stupid,” he told me. “Teenagers especially. You know that’s a fact. You did the best you could in that moment, so don’t look back and think of what you could’ve done to fix things, because solutions always seem obvious in hindsight. All right?”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
Andrew sent me home at that point, saying he’d take the rest of the shift. I was too weary to object, so I left.
Stanley was still sleeping safely in his bed, and that’s one thing I’m so grateful for. If this job took my brother from me, I’d be done with it. Still, I don’t relish waking up tomorrow and having to face him. I don’t know exactly how he’s going to react to the news, but it’s going to be the worst thing in the world that’s happened to him, mostly because of the guilt of not being able to talk them out of going. The same way I couldn’t talk them out of staying out of an enclosure.
My schedule is still nocturnal, so I’m not tired enough to sleep right now. Hopefully I’ll get sleepy soon. For now, I’ll play one of Stanley’s mindless old school video games with the sound muted. My main goal is to get the image of all that blood out of my head.
​
First / Previous
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/storiesbykaren

Hello! I know there's a million vegan restaurant lists out there, but here's one that I maintain constantly and would like to share: Vegan LA - Google Map
You can save it for later by clicking the star icon in the red header and later find it in your google maps app/website by going to the "saved" tab on the left, then > the Maps tab.
I find that Google's My Maps feature is the best way for me to keep track of all our wonderful options. You can easily look up places depending on where you're around town, and you can download the map so it works offline.
Thanks all for supporting LA's amazing vegan restaurants and helping our planet.
Please comment if a place you love isn't on here! Key: V = Vegan VG = Vegetarian VF = Vegan Friendly.
I defined Vegan Friendly as ones with more than two vegan options, the options were well thought out (not just an impossible burger or a house salad), had good menu labeling, and enjoyable for a vegan eating out with non-vegan friends. Open to suggestions for these, too!

Jake, my 11-year-old son, blindsided me one day when he asked if we could go camping. I nearly spit out my lukewarm coffee in surprise—this was coming from the same kid who complained about the sun’s brightness at soccer practice and whined about mosquitoes at night! So when he suddenly expressed interest in camping, I couldn’t help but chuckle. It was such a far cry from his usual pastime of being glued to anything with a screen.
We were hanging out by my truck one morning, talking about school, when Jake first mentioned camping. He nudged a pebble along the dry road, his gaze fixed on the ground. “Hey Dad,” he began hesitantly, “think we could go camping sometime?”
I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. Apparently Jake's friend Daniel had been endlessly bragging about a camping trip he went on with his dad, making the great outdoors suddenly irresistible to my screen-obsessed son.
“Camping, huh?” I said, trying to contain my excitement. “Sounds great, but you know, it’s not all fireflies and s’mores. There’s bugs, for one thing. Lots of ‘em.”
Jake grimaced, his enthusiasm briefly dimming. “Yeah, I know,” he mumbled, kicking at the dirt with his sneakers.
I gave him a playful nudge. “If the weather holds, maybe we can just find a good spot by the lake next weekend. Just you and me. You up for it?”
“Yeah,” Jake said, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
His response to the lake idea didn’t seem genuine. A subtle shrug and a glimmer of disappointment in his eyes revealed his desire for a more immersive experience—one that involved tents, campfires, and a genuine escape into nature. Merely visiting the lake wouldn't cut it. Only a true camping trip would satisfy him.
Truth be told, I hadn’t been camping in years. Fond memories of childhood fishing trips and backyard campouts with my own dad felt like a lifetime ago. Work had a way of taking over, and lately, it had been consuming more than its fair share.
But after listening to Jake’s retelling of Daniel’s camping trip story, it had stirred something in me—a friendly rivalry. I was suddenly determined to one-up Daniel and his dad, to make sure my boy had the camping trip of a lifetime.
A grin spread wide across my face as I promised Jake, “Yeah you know what Jake? We’re gonna go camping, and it’s going to be the best camping trip ever! As soon as I can take a break from work, we’ll go.”
Jake’s excitement was contagious. He jumped up and down with joy, and I couldn’t help but laugh. It hit me then that I probably should’ve introduced him to camping sooner.
“Thank you, Dad!” he shouted, his voice ringing with gratitude. “Thank you, Dad! Thank youuuu!”
I gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Alright, champ, let’s simmer down a bit,” I chuckled. “Head inside and get started on your homework. We don’t want Mom holding this over our heads,” I added with a wink. Jake nodded eagerly and practically skipped into the house, leaving me with a warm sense of fatherly pride.
The weeks flew by, and I finally managed to snag some time off work. In the evenings, I’d pore over articles and videos on wilderness survival and the delicate art of s’more making. My childhood camping memories were more fuzzy nostalgia than concrete know-how, and I couldn’t let my lack of experience show—not in front of Jake, and certainly not in front of that Daniel.
Meanwhile, my ever-supportive wife, Sarah, decided to forgo the mosquitoes and campfire smoke for the comfort of our home. She said it was ‘girl time’ with a good book and a long bath, but I couldn’t help but sense a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Traitor!” I’d jokingly tease, reminding her of our grand mission to outshine Daniel and his dad’s camping trip. She’d just laugh and say, “Go conquer the wilderness, honey. I’ll be here holding down the fort.”
It was true that Sarah wasn’t exactly an outdoors enthusiast. She enjoyed a leisurely stroll in the park, but multi-day camping trips weren’t her cup of tea. Still, I knew she secretly loved seeing Jake and me bond, and deep down, I hoped this ‘man vs. wild’ adventure might reignite my own forgotten love for the outdoors.
My mission? Mastering the art of building a fire that wouldn’t leave us all choking on smoke, identifying constellations for Jake (hoping I wouldn’t mix up Orion with the Big Dipper), and maybe even catching a fish or two (although, based on my past fishing experiences, that might be the biggest challenge of all). It was time to put my crash course in wilderness survival to the test and create an unforgettable camping trip for Jake—one that even Daniel and his dad couldn’t top.
At last, the weekend we’d been waiting for arrived. That Friday, as I picked Jake up from school, excitement buzzed through the car as we pulled into the driveway. The moment we stepped through the front door, Jake’s eyes widened in amazement at the sight of the camping gear I had meticulously (or so I thought) laid out for him like a treasure trove for an intrepid explorer. The living room had transformed into a chaotic staging ground for our trip.
A giant, green tent bag rested at his feet, while two mismatched sleeping bags—one a vivid orange, the other in subdued camouflage—leaned precariously against the table. Beside two overstuffed backpacks, I’d proudly displayed a bounty of “rations”—mostly marshmallows, chocolate bars, and enough instant ramen to feed a small army.
“Ready to conquer the wild with me?” I asked.
Jake didn’t disappoint. His eyes sparkled with an unspoken thrill that seemed to shout: “I can’t wait to tell Daniel I went camping too!”
With the car packed to the brim and threatening to keel over at any sharp turn, Sarah pulled me aside just before we left. Her usually bright and playful eyes held a seriousness that cut through my usual humor. “Please, be careful out there,” she said, her voice tinged with worry.
I knew this wasn’t the moment for jokes. Squeezing her hand, I gave her a reassuring nod. “We’ll be fine,” I promised, hoping my confident smile would hide any lingering anxieties about my own lack of camping expertise.
Jake and I settled into the car, the engine rumbling with the promise of adventure. Determined to make Daniel and his dad’s Crystal Lake camping trip look like a backyard picnic, I’d scoured maps and forums for the perfect spot. Jake had mentioned that Daniel and his father had gone camping at the Crystal Lake campgrounds, conveniently close to our town.
“Crystal Lake?” I teased, as if it were the last place any self-respecting outdoorsman would pitch a tent. “We’re going somewhere way better,” I added with a wink. Our destination was Whisperwood Forest, a hidden camping ground three hours north.
As the miles stretched before us, Jake peppered me with questions, his enthusiasm keeping the energy high. “Are there bears in Whisperwood?” he asked, eyes wide with a mix of fear and excitement.
“Maybe,” I replied, trying to sound nonchalant, though a flicker of unease ran through me—the forums did mention some black bear sightings. “But that’s why we have all this camping gear, right? To be prepared for anything.”
Jake’s questions ranged from the practical (“Will there be a bathroom?”) to the fantastical (“Do you think we’ll see Bigfoot?”). By the time the landscape outside our window blurred into a patchwork of greens and browns, his voice had grown hoarse, and a peaceful silence settled over the car.
We veered off the main road, following the rhythm of a narrow dirt path snaking through the dense forest. Sunlight struggled to penetrate the thick canopy overhead, casting long, dancing shadows on the dusty track.
The air hung heavy with the earthy scent of damp moss and decaying leaves, punctuated by the occasional chirp of an unseen bird. With every bend and dip, the car swayed alongside us, its tires crunching on loose gravel. I caught a glimpse of Jake in the rearview mirror, his head bobbing with every bump, his eyes wide with anticipation and fixed on the passing scenery.
After about 20 minutes, we emerged into a small clearing, the sudden brightness of unfiltered sunlight momentarily blinding me. As my eyes adjusted, I took in the scene. The clearing was modest in size, about the size of a tennis court. In its center stood a gnarled oak, its branches reaching out like skeletal arms. An eerie silence enveloped the area, interrupted only by the rustle of leaves in the still air.
I brought the car to a gentle stop, the engine sighing softly as it died. Jake’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as he looked over at me. “Ready?” I asked, my voice echoing in the sudden stillness. His nod was eager and swift.
As I stepped out, my joints popped like distant firecrackers. I retrieved our backpacks from the trunk and hoisted the tent onto my shoulder, its weight familiar and grounding.
I let Jake take the lead as we scouted for a camping spot. I knew it was important for him to feel like the captain of our adventure, the leader of our expedition. Watching his determined strides and furrowed brow as he surveyed the land like a seasoned explorer was hilarious. Eventually, we found a suitable spot—or rather, my son did—tucked away from the car and hidden by thick underbrush.
Sunlight danced through the leaves, casting dappled patterns on a carpet of moss and ferns. Nearby, a crystal-clear stream burbled, its melody harmonizing with the chirping symphony of unseen insects. It was a secluded paradise, the perfect refuge for me and my son, nestled away from the world within the forest's embrace.
With a proud grin, Jake declared our campsite found. While he scampered off to explore the nearby stream, I tackled the seemingly straightforward task of pitching the tent. However, the instructions were akin to cryptic hieroglyphs, filled with diagrams resembling abstract art and terminology that would challenge even a seasoned scholar.
Twenty minutes later, after much head-scratching and muttered curses, the tent stood—albeit with a noticeable lean to one side.
"Behold!" I announced, trying to hide the beads of sweat gathering on my forehead.
Jake, ever the diplomat, simply grinned. “Coolest tent ever, Dad!”
As we unrolled our sleeping bags inside the tent, I sent Jake on a mission to gather sticks for our fire. He scampered off into the undergrowth while I patrolled the edge of the woods, collecting stray logs to bolster our firewood stash. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a figure peeking from behind a tree, but dismissed it as a trick of the fading light.
Igniting a fire, often portrayed in movies with a single dramatic swipe of a flint, turned into a comedic ballet of fumbled matches and stubborn kindling. My attempts at channeling my inner caveman were met with sputtering defiance from the damp sticks. After twenty minutes of frustration, I surrendered to the ease of modern technology and pulled a lighter from my backpack. As if sensing my defeat, the fire roared to life with a satisfying crackle.
I called Jake back, and together we roasted marshmallows under the shifting hues of the evening sky. As the sun began its slow descent, painting the sky with fiery shades of orange and red, we shared stories and laughter, leaving behind the worries of city life for the simple joy of being together in the wild.
As the clock neared 9:00 PM, exhaustion settled over us like a warm blanket. Jake, his eyelids drooping like weighted curtains, readily agreed it was bedtime. I subdued the fire with a few nudges from my boot, but instead of fading completely, the embers seemed to pulse with an unnatural inner light, casting dancing shadows across the forest floor.
The usual nighttime sounds of crickets and rustling leaves took on an unsettling tone. A distant howl pierced the silence, long and mournful, similar to an owl's call yet somehow different from any I'd heard before. A chill ran down my spine, prompting me to pull Jake closer and tuck him snugly into his sleeping bag. “Just an owl, champ,” I reassured him, trying to sound confident despite my unease.
My voice echoed strangely inside the tent, adding to the eerie atmosphere, but Jake, already drifting off to sleep, remained unfazed.
Before I knew it, my eyes had closed, and I'd drifted off. It felt like no time had passed before a soft nudge at my shoulder stirred me awake. Squinting in the dark, I made out Jake sitting bolt upright, looking at me.
“What's wrong?” I mumbled, my voice heavy with sleep.
“Shh,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “There's something outside.”
Half-asleep, I assured him it was probably just a squirrel or a similar creature and encouraged him to try and sleep.
I turned onto my side, seeking the comforting embrace of sleep once more. But before it could claim me again, I heard it—a sequence of sounds distinct from the forest's usual symphony. Footsteps—deliberate and measured footsteps—circled our tent.
These weren't the light steps of a deer or the clumsy thudding of a bear. There was no natural rhythm to them, no telltale snap of a twig. They were silent, calculated movements—two steps, a pause, two more steps, a pause—as if whatever lurked outside was deliberately trying to be quiet.
Two minutes stretched into an eternity before the pattern resumed: two deliberate steps, a pause, and then two more steps. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I propped myself up.
A glance at Jake confirmed he was still awake, his eyes wide with terror. In a hushed tone, I promised to investigate. He gave a small nod, and with a deep breath, I inched forward, my hand trembling as I unzipped the tent just a crack.
Peering through the gap, I found the darkness outside impenetrable, the only light source being the faint embers of our extinguished campfire. Squinting, I strained to see beyond the flickering red glow. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought I saw a figure near the tree line—a subtle shift in the shadows that seemed to move on silent feet. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving me questioning my tired sanity.
Turning back to Jake, I forced a reassuring smile. “Everything's okay, champ. Go back to sleep.”
Whatever lurked outside wasn't any creature I recognized, and it showed no signs of leaving.
As we settled back into our sleeping bags, a sudden noise shattered the silence, jolting me awake. It wasn't the familiar rustle of leaves or the distant hoot of an owl. This was a sharp crack, a deep, resonant snap of a fallen branch—weighty and too close for comfort. A cold sweat instantly coated my skin. Whatever had caused that sound was heavy.
Quietly, I rose from my sleeping bag, the tent floor feeling small and exposed beneath me. Retrieving my flashlight, I unzipped the tent fully with deliberate care. The chilly night air rushed in, stealing my breath momentarily. With trembling hands, I switched on the flashlight and swept its beam across the surrounding woods.
The once-familiar trees now loomed ominously in the darkness. Shadows danced and twisted in the flickering light, playing tricks on my already rattled mind. I scanned the forest floor for any sign of the creature—a footprint, a snapped twig—but found nothing. Yet, just beyond the flashlight's reach, a glimmer caught my eye—a subtle movement, a flash of reflection. I focused the beam in that direction, my heart pounding, but saw only the swaying branches of a nearby pine.
Convinced the source of the noise was ahead of me, I had turned away from the tent. However, the sound of leaves crunching behind me shattered that assumption. Whirling around, I aimed the flashlight toward the tent, partially illuminating my son, who sat upright with a confused expression. Whatever had made the noise remained out of sight.
I had almost convinced myself it was merely a curious animal nosing around behind our tent. Just as I was about to dismiss the fear and retreat into the safety of the tent, ready to label the sounds as harmless, the source of the noise revealed itself—a moment that stretched my sanity thin. It stood up from behind the opposite end of the tent, where it had been hiding.
It? Or... Me?
Standing over the tent, partially bathed in the weak glow of my flashlight, it defied all logic and reason. Even as I stared directly at it, my mind struggled to accept what my eyes were seeing. It wasn't an animal, as I had initially assumed. It was... me.
I found myself locked in a gaze with... myself. It had my face, but it wasn’t me. Its limbs extended from misaligned joints at the shoulders, longer and more spindly than mine. Though humanoid in shape, its proportions were wrong, its limbs extending at unnatural angles. Clad in tattered clothes akin to my camping attire, its body seemed like a grotesque mirror image of my own.
The most unsettling part was its face. It mirrored mine in almost every detail, save for the eyes—voids of absolute blackness in place of my familiar brown eyes. When caught in the beam of my flashlight, those eyes revealed twin specks of light within the darkness, staring back at me with an unnerving intensity.
A single glance revealed its formidable strength, far surpassing my own. Its arms, thick with sinewy muscle, bore the unmistakable markings of a life lived in the wilderness. These were not the sculpted muscles of a gym-goer, but the rugged strength forged by the trials of nature itself—mountains climbed, rivers crossed, battles waged against the elements.
As its mouth contorted grotesquely across its face, the skin splitting like parched earth, a wet tearing filled the night air—an agonizing sound that sent a primal scream echoing through my mind. The chill of the night was now a distant memory, replaced by a fear so profound it threatened to immobilize me.
Suddenly, a voice pierced the silence—a small, vulnerable voice belonging to Jake, calling out from within the tent, asking if I could see anything. At the sound of his voice, the creature's attention shifted sharply toward the tent. It leaned in, drawn by Jake’s innocence. Its already unnaturally wide mouth stretched further, the lower jaw unhinging to an impossible length, revealing a menacing row of needle-like teeth.
The thing raised its elongated arm, which moved unnervingly stiff and jerky, like the movements of someone who hadn't felt flesh beneath their fingertips for years. I could see each joint crackle and pop as it extended its arm.
I was confused as to what it was doing, but then realization hit me. Instinct took over. I plunged my hands into the tent, grabbing Jake, and yanked him out with all my strength.
Yanking him from the tent, we stumbled out, the ground a sickening blur beneath my feet. We landed in a heap, the sound of ripping fabric filling the air as the creature tore through the tent like a child ripping through tissue paper. The metallic tang of blood, sharp and acrid, filled my nostrils. I covered Jake's mouth with my hand, feeling his tears against my skin. We lay there in silence, watching the thing eviscerate our tent.
Amidst the chaos, my bag was flung towards us. Recognizing it, I rummaged through it until my fingers closed around the car keys. Leaning close to Jake, I told him when I gave the signal, I wanted him to run for the car.
In the tense silence that followed the creature's assault, a distant noise momentarily captured its attention. Seizing the opportunity, I whispered to Jake, “Run!” We sprang up and bolted towards the car, the creature's piercing shriek chasing us from behind.
My lungs burned, my legs screamed in protest, but I pushed on, fueled by a primal urge to protect my son. Reaching the car, I fumbled with the keys, the creature's rasping breaths hot on my neck. With a satisfying click, the door unlocked. We tumbled inside, slamming the doors shut just as the creature lunged forward, its fingers scraping against the metal.
With trembling hands, I turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life. In the dim light, I could see the creature standing mere inches from the car, its grotesque smile contorted in what seemed to be frustration. With a surge of adrenaline, I shifted into reverse, then spun the car around, tires churning the earth as we sped down the trail.
We didn't stop until we got home. Throughout the drive, Jake remained silent, his soft sobs a stark contrast to my own stifled emotions.
That night marked the end of our camping trips—it doesn't look like I’ll be beating Daniel and his dad’s camping trip, any time soon.

This isn't really a Google Maps specific thing, it's a whole tech-industry thing.
Recently Google Maps added some extremely useful new changes in navigation mode:

1. When you choose a destination, and hit "directions" (not "start") and begin driving, your location dot would turn into an arrow, the estimated time until arrival would update in real-time, and a little arrow would pop up labeling the next turn you need to take. This is all extremely useful, especially in rural locations, where you don't need extensive direction or voice guidance, you just need a general idea of where you're going and to know where your next turn is.
2. Furthermore, from this screen, you could tap anywhere on the map, and the search bar and other buttons would disappear, and the map would automatically adjust the zoom to make the blue route line fit the entirety of the screen, and would even update in real time. This is another brilliant streamlining of the user experience.

Now what's the problem? These features aren't ******* reliable. A couple days ago, I noticed that when I would tap the map to enable #2, it would work for about 10 seconds, before the search bar popped back up and the map zoomed back out to where it was before. And today, even #1 is gone. No more arrow, or real-time ETA updates, and not even a next-turn label.
How does this happen? I understand that software is complex thing, but how is it possible for things to be this unreliable?

Many cases in the 19th through the 21st century have been labeled "the crime of the century" and for various reasons, this might be true. Ones which immediately come to mind being Jack the Ripper in the 19th century, the Nuremburg trials and OJ Simpson in the 20th , and even some who used that term during the Casey Anthony trial in the 21st. Whether you agree or disagree with this title being placed on these cases, no one can doubt the "infamy" which these cases acquired both in the countries in which they occurred and internationally.
Prior to the advent of worldwide media (including newspapers in the 19th centuries) were there any criminal cases that might fit this label in earlier centuries? To further narrow my question, I'm interested in criminal cases and/or trials whose infamy spread further than the nation in which it occurred and its immediate surrounding areas (i.e., a famous case in USA being known in Canada). Also, apologies for using more "western" examples. I'm also very interested if there's cases like this in Asia/Africa/South America that spread across the continent, but possibly not to Europe or North America.