Podcasts about FaceTime

Patrick Bet-David, Tom Ellsworth, Vincent Oshana, and Adam Sosnick break down the fiery Musk - Trump feud as Elon threatens to back Trump's biggest GOP critic and oppose his “Big, Beautiful Bill,” the rise of socialist Zohran Mamdani in the NYC primary despite a wave of anti-Muslim backlash, Candace Owens' shocking claim that Trump personally called her over a Macron conspiracy, and a breakthrough U.S. - China trade deal that could reshape global tariffs.------

Ep.2: The Dead Parent Olympics Okay. If you've lost a parent or even just had a complicated relationship with one, this episode might hit you straight in the gut… but in like, a warm hug meets a gut-punch kind of way. This episode is for all of us in the “Dead Dad's Club” and the “Dead Mom's Club” and especially for those of us who didn't get a trophy for surviving the worst moments of our lives. Jessimae talks about the bizarre things that happen when your parents die-the competition, the weird flexes, the dark jokes that only make sense after your whole world falls apart. She's sharing stories I've never told before… like the FaceTime goodbye that was anything but graceful, and the hospice goodbye that haunts her in the best and worst ways. It's raw, it's ridiculous, and yeah we even roast her dead parents because they'd expect nothing less! This isn't therapy, but it might feel like the grief support group you wish had wine and didn't suck. You in? Email us! JessimaePelusoComedy@gmail.com FOLLOW JESSIMAE FOR MORE FUN IN YOUR LIFE! SUBSCRIBE TO THE DYING LAUGHING POD: ⁠⁠https://found.ee/DyingLaughing⁠⁠  SUPPORT THE FAN CLUB:  ⁠⁠https://found.ee/JessimaePeluso-Patreon⁠⁠ SEE JESSIMAE LIVE: ⁠⁠https://found.ee/jessimaetour⁠⁠  CHECK OUT JESSIMAE'S WEBSITE:  ⁠⁠https://found.ee/Jessimae⁠⁠ FOLLOW JESSIMAE ON IG: ⁠⁠ https://found.ee/InstaJess⁠⁠ BOOK A CAMEO: ⁠⁠https://found.ee/cameo-with-jessimae⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. economy is sending more mixed signals than a Gen Z relationship status. One minute, the S&P 500 is flirting with all-time highs, the next, the housing market's giving you whiplash with record prices and signs of a downturn. Is it a buyer's market? Depends who you ask—and what city you're in. Meanwhile, if you've been financing burritos with Buy Now, Pay Later, congratulations: it's now officially affecting your credit score. That's right—your lunchtime debt just got real. ➡️ This episode is the financial equivalent of trying to read the tea leaves during a hurricane. The stock market's partying like it's 1999, Bitcoin is soaring on dollar weakness, and the Fed is quietly pretending they don't see any of it. Plus, Jeff Bezos has a foam party on a yacht, and somehow that ties into prenups, choice-of-law clauses, and Chris being petty about FaceTime etiquette. Yeah, we went there.

Don and Tom tear into the lunacy of financial predictions—starting with famed doomsayer Nouriel Roubini suddenly turning optimistic (is that a good sign or a terrifying one?). Then it's onto Ron Baron and his wildly volatile, high-fee Barron Partners Fund, which beat the QQQ—barely—by taking massive concentrated bets on Tesla and SpaceX. Finally, they answer listener questions about portfolio diversification, international exposure, and outrageously overpriced 401(k) fund options (Nationwide, we're looking at you). It's a full-on roast of Wall Street's ego-driven nonsense with a side of smart, actionable advice. 0:04 Predicting markets is impossible—so why do people still listen to those who try? 1:50 Dr. Doom (Nouriel Roubini) turns into Mr. Boone—predicting good times ahead 3:35 Roubini blames AI and nuclear fusion for his new optimism 4:57 Don's rule: All predictions are a prehistoric brain trap 5:20 Ron Baron and his Partners Fund—poster child for active management hype 6:41 Nearly half the fund is in two holdings: Tesla and SpaceX 8:44 From $10K to $6.5K in 6 months: the cost of extreme concentration 9:47 Expense ratio: 2.25%—with $7.5B in assets? Outrageous 10:54 Why high-flyer funds are built to crash hard, too 11:39 Investing in Barron = trying to beat the market (and probably failing) 13:14 Lost 43% in 2022—twice the S&P's loss 13:48 But in 2020? Up 150%. Thanks, Tesla 14:51 Listener Q: Army major wants to clean up his Roth portfolio 16:10 Don and Tom: Scrap the mid-cap clutter—go global with VT 17:59 Listener Q: New job, horrible 401(k) fund choices—can he still contribute? 19:03 Nationwide's 93-basis-point index fund sparks full-on Don rant 20:14 High fees vs. tax breaks: what wins? 21:31 Why the financial industry is addicted to greed 22:11 Appella's no-pressure offer to review your portfolio 23:04 Don's publisher's clearinghouse FaceTime scam story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(!!!unbeauftrag und unbezahlte Werbung!!!)Thaddäus von Feldenstein feiert mit seinen drei Ex-Frauen seinen Geburtstag, seine Tochter Allegra findet in einer Prostituierten vom Sirius die perfekte Untermieterin und ihre Mutter Wildemuth schließlich mit einem Indianer eine späte Liebe. Ein Schloss voll ausgestopfter Tiere, ein attraktiver Lehrer und eine alternde Soziologin tun das ihre, um die Lage zu verkomplizieren. Währenddessen hat Kater König Saul schon längst den Käsekuchen geklaut.Der Alltag der Familie von Feldenstein ist wahrlich nicht alltäglich, aber das Leben ist nun mal voller Überraschungen und man weiß nie, wo die Wege hinführen. Vor allem, wenn man den Namen von Feldenstein trägt.Thaddäus von Feldenstein, seine Tochter Allegra und ihre Mutter Wildemuth – Thaddäus erste und imposanteste Ex-Frau – sind die drei Hauptpersonen des Romans. Die Perspektive wechselt im Turnus von drei Kapiteln zwischen den Protagonisten.ISBN: 9783384236227Sprache: DeutschAusgabe: TaschenbuchUmfang: 446 SeitenVerlag: treditionErscheinungsdatum: 22.05.2024SocialMedia & WebsiteInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/vonhirschheydt_schreibtJetzt reinhören.---Meine LesungEin Podcast in dem Autoren ihre Bücher, und auch sich selbst vorstellen.Du als Leser, mit Interesse an Lesungen, kommst voll auf deine Kosten. Finden für dich interessante Lesungen nicht in deiner näheren Umgebung statt? Dann ist dieser Podcast genau das Richtige für dich. Hier stellen diverse Autoren ihre Bücher im Rahmen einer Lesung vor. Ein paar Fragen zum Autor und seinem Buch dürfen natürlich nicht fehlen. Der Podcast kommt in einem wöchentlichen Rhythmus und bietet ein riesiges Portfolio an Autoren bzw. Buch-Lesungen.  Du kannst diesen Podcast auch kostenlos mit der App deiner Wahl abonnieren. Sobald es eine neue Folge gibt, wird diese zum anhören bereitgestellt. Alle Einzelheiten und Informationen unter https://meinelesung.de.Bist du AutorIn oder Autor und möchtest dein Buch in meinem Podcast vorstellen? Aufnahmen sind per Telefon, Skype, FaceTime, Zoom oder bei einem gemütlichen und persönlichen Zusammensitzen möglich. Melde dich ganz einfach bei mir, und wir können vorab alle Einzelheiten besprechen.Weitere Einzelheiten, Informationen und Kontaktmöglichkeiten unter https://meinelesung.de.Dir gefällt dieser Podcast? Dann empfehle ihn weiter und lass eine kleine Bewertung in den entsprechenden Portalen da, wie zum Beispiel Apple Podcasts (iTunes) oder Podcast.de.Herzlichen Dank. SocialMedia:website: https://meinelesung.deInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meinelesungfacebook: https://www.facebook.com/meineLesungYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@meinelesungPodcast AbonnementRSS-Feed: https://pcr.apple.com/id1484505215

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Shan Nair, the visionary founder of Nucleus, a company that's revolutionized how businesses scale across borders. From helping Tesla navigate international expansion to supporting the growth of FaceTime globally, Dr. Nair shares his unmatched insights into global compliance, operational strategy, and the future of international business. If you've ever dreamed of taking your business worldwide, this episode is your playbook.Tune in to discover:The biggest mistakes companies make when expanding internationallyHow startups and scale-ups can go global without breaking the bankWhat it takes to build a business that transcends bordersThis is a masterclass in global entrepreneurship from one of the best in the game.

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 21 Andy's spirits are lifted by an old friend. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Chapter 36 Half an hour later, his phone rang and Andy glanced down to see it was Phil calling, a picture of him with the words "Phil The Elder" superimposed over part of it. The poker group actually had two Phils in it,  Phil Marcos and Phil Pak. The two men were dramatically different from one another, but also remarkably similar in others. They shared the same first name, so the group had given them nicknames when they were talking about them if it could've been either of them. Phil Marcos a.k.a. Phil The Elder a.k.a. Greater Phil was 34, Filipino and worked for Boeing with the Air Force at a base in the East Bay, and was certainly the closer friend to Andy. They'd met at a local comic book store just after Andy had moved out to the West Coast, and had hit it off immediately. When Andy had started his poker group up a few years later, Phil was one of the first people Andy had called. Phil Pak, a.k.a. Phil The Younger a.k.a. Lesser Phil was 32, Korean and worked for the NSA out of San Francisco, and not someone they'd seen as often as they liked. For the last couple of years, Lesser Phil had been trying to convince Andy to come work as a data analyst for the NSA in terms of interpretation and extrapolation. Lesser Phil had been a college friend of Eric's, and had been introduced to Andy only a few months after he'd met Greater Phil. While Andy still typically thought of them as Greater and Lesser Phil, he tried not to call them that out loud, and had them as Phil The Elder and Phil The Younger in his phone. Andy asked if it was a common name, and Eric remarked that he knew at least a couple more Phils but none he knew that well. Andy told him he'd had a similar problem with Jennys in high school. "Talk to me, Phil," Andy said to his friend. "You heard the recording. Should I be worried?" "Concerned, yes. Worried, no," Phil sighed. He sounded exhausted on the other end of the line, but as of late, Phil had always sounded exhausted. Whatever he was doing over at the base, it was certainly taking a toll on his friend. "So the good news is that in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. But that reaction means that Lexi had been infected with the Orange Variant of the DuoHalo virus before we introduced the serum to her body." "The 'Orange Variant?'" "We started naming them after colors, working our way through the spectrum. The Red Variant was first but it died off very quickly, so this is the second one," he grumbled. "But she isn't our first exposure to it, so we know how the serum's going to generally react to it, and what it's going to do to her. There are only two real major differences you're going to need to worry about." "Is she going to be okay?" "I told you, in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. The two differences you need to pay attention to are this,  first, her margin of error for recursion is far less forgiving. That means don't ever make her go more than a week without getting some Rook juice, if you know what I mean, otherwise she see temporary cognitive decline set in pretty fast, and she'll be ripping your clothes off no matter where you are, so keep that in mind." "Every seven days minimum," Andy repeated, writing it down on a notepad in his writing office. "What's the other major difference I need to worry about?" "It shouldn't even be a concern, but you should still know about it. You know how other men's semen will typically make an imprinted woman ill?" "Sure?" "Those who've been exposed to the Orange Variant, if they come in contact with the semen of a man other than those they're imprinted with, they go into a violent fit of rage, attacking anyone other than their imprinted man on sight. Those rage fits tend to be relatively short lived,  only a hour at most,  but they're still incredibly dangerous and not the kind of thing you want sprung on you as a surprise." "And this is my bodyguard who has this," Andy sighed. "Oh it's fine," Phil chuckled. "She won't harm you, and you know how to protect your family better than anyone. I think anyone who tried to use it as a weakness against Lexi would probably not live to regret it. She'll also be imprinting for longer than normal, so if she's sleeping for like a day and a half, don't worry about it. That's to be expected." "You doing okay, Phil?" Andy asked. "You look like shit, and I'm more worried about you now than I am Lexi." Phil sighed then laughed a little bit. "You know me. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Lots of long days in the office turning into long nights, and on top of that, Audrey and Linda are making sure that I have several partners as well, so that my immunity to DuoHalo continues to be strong. We're not entirely sure of the science of it yet, but it looks like the more people inside a particular polypod, the stronger the internal herd immunity the male at the center get is. Once we knew that for certain, my two queens made sure I had a good litter of partners in our household. So I'm up to eleven myself now." "I still can't believe I'm a level five and you're not, Phil," Andy said, deliberately testing a theory by trying to bait it out of his friend. "Okay, Andy, you got me," Phil said with amusement. "I'm also a level five. I was lying to you earlier, for security reasons. In fact, I think technically I was one of the first level fives. I've also technically had DuoHalo, but I can't really get into the details of that all that much. Let's just say that when we're finally through this whole pandemic, I'm going to have a bunch of stories to tell you that will blow your mind. I probably have to get clearance for you so that I can tell you some of them, but it'll be worth it." "I've always known you were up to something over there, Phil," Andy laughed. "I just couldn't figure out what it was." "Greater Phil, International Man of Mystery. It's got a nice ring to it." "Speaking of Mystery. Poker, this week. Let's do it." "Yeah, sure," Phil said. "I could use a break, so you call everyone else, and I'll make a point of coming over with as much of the family as I can convince to come out, although it has that weird side effect of making every poker night feel like a giant party where we're all hiding from our wives. Maybe we should see if there's enough interest to set up a second table and we can mix and match, so you can spend a bit more time meeting my partners and vice versa." "Well, you see Niko all the time, what with her being at your work, so you probably know her about as well as I do." "That girl's got secrets upon secrets, Andy." That caught him a little off guard. He wasn't bothered by it, but he was amused at the idea of her trying to hide something from him. "Niko? My Niko? I can't see it. She's open and transparent about everything with me." "Sure, okay. Didn't you feel that way about Erin?" "That was different?" "Was it though?" Phil said in a tone that immediately conjured the Smug Thor meme to his mind. "I mean, sure, Niko's secrets are probably being kept from you for the right reasons, as opposed to Erin's, but secrets are secrets." "The last thing I need is you making me more paranoid, Phil." "Forget I said anything. Oh, one last bit of news for you. Maya won't be there until tomorrow midday. Turns out she's also got the Orange Variant, so we're making sure the serum is getting a good foothold before we send her over to you. It's all just safety precautions, but it'll be over soon enough." "Great. We can do poker night on the 20th, so we can all watch the President's speech and the 60 Minutes story together." "Sounds like fun," Phil agreed. "Hopefully Katie Couric's team caught my good side. See you on Friday." As Andy hung up the phone, he noticed that Whitney was lingering in the doorway. She was dressed impeccably in a white button up shirt and a black pencil skirt with black pantyhose on beneath, and the shirt was just barely thin enough that he could see hints of her red bra on underneath. "Have you got a moment, sir?" "Sure thing, Whitney, what's up?" "Just wanted to go over the set up work I've done for the house so you know what's going on, and to ask you a few questions so I can start the process of replacing your laptop for you," she said, her hands folded together in front of her, her eyes mostly lowered. "Sounds great, but Whitney, you don't have to look down all the time. I know you're more used to a stern hand than I am, and I'll do my best to be what you like when we're intimate, but when you're acting in your duties as the house IT manager, you need to relax a little more and try to fit in." Whitney smirked a little bit, those dark red lips perked up as she lifted her head, nodding at him with a little smile. "Oh, I know, sir. I think I mostly just wanted to see if you would notice. Shall we?" For the next half an hour, Whitney explained to him in good detail all the changes she'd gone about to the house in the last day, getting all the rooms configured to work within the house's larger intranet. As it turned out, there were multiple LAN ports in the walls of every room in the house, it seemed like, and once again, Andy found himself wondering who this house had been built for originally. In addition to making sure all the ports were working, Whitney had also set up wireless hubs and repeaters all throughout the house, enough so that no matter where a person was in the house, they should always have a good signal to the internet. The house's security systems ran on an entirely separate network, one with minimal external connectivity, and Whitney said that she would work with Lexi to make sure the system was up to whatever standards his new head of security had in mind. They walked while they talked, and outside in the back, Andy could see Katie astride her riding lawn mower, zipping in lines across the monstrous amount of green grass in his back yard, making sure to get all of it cut even and levelly. He could also see Tala hauling things into the back house with the help of Nicolette, who had ditched the maid outfit for the time being for a more practical set of blue jeans and a baggy t shirt covered in paint splotches. All of the changes, Whitney assured him, had been done with minimal disruption to anyone's work in the house, and she'd been trying to get as much of it today, as it was a Sunday. The last thing they talked about was his replacement laptop, something that Andy was remarkably picky about. Oh, he didn't care about the things most people cared about,  when it came to processors and memory, Andy insisted none of that mattered to him,  but the thing he was adamant about was that the keyboard feel as close to the one on the laptop he was currently using, an eight year old IBM ThinkPad. Too many keyboards were difficult to use for long periods at a time, and considering how many words Andy found himself putting into his laptop on a daily basis, if the keyboard was unwieldy, the laptop might as well be non existent. Whitney made a special note that "keyboard feel" was of the utmost import, and she insisted to him, she would do her best to get him a good replacement within a week or so. She had already begun backing up all the files from his existing laptop to the house's master network, as well as to a backup kept in a fire safe, so that even if disaster struck, he would still have his work in a safe location. Andy did tell her that she didn't have to work full time on the weekends, and that she should make a point of getting settled into her own room, and spending some time catching up with her friend Nicolette who had brought her here. Whitney had smiled at that, and agreed to go get changed so she could help Tala move in, and then they could all help Whitney get moved in afterwards. He was starting to walk back towards his office when he ran into Lauren, clearly just back from a jog around the neighborhood, sweaty and out of breath, a big smile on her face. "Hey there, fella, just the bloke I was lookin' to have a moment with. Got a snip?" He grinned, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sure, what's up?" "I've been thinking, and I think maybe we should let Taylor off the hook now," she said, looking down at her feet for a second. "I know, I know, I was the one who set the whole month punishment in place but, strewth, seeing her walking around naked all the time is starting to make me feel bad. I'm thinking she's learned her lesson, and she knows she's got lots of trust to earn back from me, so I'm only keeping her from getting to spend time learning more about all the other amazing sheilas you have in this house, and that's not fair of me." "I agree," Andy chuckled, "but I didn't want to be the one to tell you, seeing how fire and brimstone you were about the whole thing when you set the rules in place." "Strewth," she muttered. "Was it really that much a dunnybrook?" "I was a little worried the heavens were going to part and you were going to call down lightning bolts from the skies," he said, the smile wide on his face. "Real wrath of god type shit." "Bugger. Anyway, you should tell'er that you've talked me down, and that you laid down the law, and you decided, and eventually I relented, that she is done with that punishment and should just join the family like all the other birds. Make it clear you decided, not me, so I still get to keep a bit of that big scary reputation." Andy rolled his eyes but nodded. "Sure sure, you'll look mean. You'll look really scary. Anyway, I'll go find her and tell her while you're hopping into the shower." "Stink that bad, do I?" "Your sweatstains have got sweatstains, Lauren," he said with a laugh as he was backing away from her, while she mimed punching motions in his direction. He wasn't certain where he'd find Taylor in the house, so he decided just to go wandering the halls and see where he stumbled into her. He found her in Hannah's room, where she, Asha and Hannah were sitting on the bed, gossiping. Asha and Hannah hadn't bothered to change out of their pajamas, enjoying a lazy Sunday, while Taylor sat nude with her back against the wall. One of his two cats, Muninn, the Russian blue, was sitting on the bed near Asha, who was petting him idly. All three girls tensed a little bit when he entered the room,  Taylor wasn't supposed to be sitting up on furniture unless Lauren or himself had told her to do so, but Andy hadn't really followed the rules at all, and had made it clear multiple times that Taylor's 'punishment,' such as it was, was mostly for Lauren's mollification, and that if Taylor slipped on the rules from time to time while she wasn't around, he didn't particularly care. "No no, don't get up, Taylor, it's fine," he said, coming into the room. "In fact, it's what I came to talk to you about." "You need to get Nicolette to turn up the house furnace, babe," Asha said to him. "If I'd ta walk around all day in me skivvies, I know I'd be freezin'." "Totally, Daddy," Hannah said. He'd repeatedly told her that she didn't have to call him that (in fact, going so far as to hint that it made him a little uncomfortable when she did) but she had repeatedly answered that she liked calling him that, so she wasn't going to stop any time soon. At least she knew enough not to do it when other people were around the house. "We're just talkin' anyway, so I told her to hop up here, so if you gotta punish someone, it should be me." "You look far too eager when you suggest that, Hannah," he told the Asian teenager. "Anyway, I had a talk with Lauren just a little bit ago. I told her this is my house, and I'm in charge, and that I've decided you've served this part of your punishment long enough. You're free to get dressed, wear clothes around the house, sleep wherever you want, sit wherever you want. You can get your phone back, and you can start working with Lauren at the 49ers camp whenever you feel like you're ready. You're a full member of the household now, and there's no reason for this silly punishment to go on any further. And you can certainly take off that ridiculous dog collar." Taylor's bright blue eyes had been focused on him the entire time he'd been talking, and she slipped off the bed quickly to throw her arms around him, pressing those impressive tits of hers against his chest as she hugged him very tightly, clinging to him, even as he could hear her sniffling back some tears. "Thank you, Andy," she said quietly. "I know Lauren's still mad at me, but this has been really hard, being made to feel like less than a person." He wrapped his arms around her, patting her bare back. "I know, and I get that, but you also have to realize that cheating on her hurt her in a way she'd never been hurt before, and that won't go away fully for a long long time. Just because you're done with all of this doesn't mean you're done with all of that. I know you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded that you're going to be repairing that damage between you two for years to come. You screwed up, but there's a way back from that, as long as you're willing to put in the work and learn from your mistakes." Taylor pulled back, looking at him as something just dawned on her. "So, wait, all the rules have been lifted? Like all all of them?" He tilted his head a little. "Yyyyes? Why, is there one in particular you're asking about?" "So, like, next time, y'know, when me and you, then we can,” He bit back a smile and nodded. "Yes, yes we can. And if you want to masturbate again, you're welcome to start doing that too." She shook her head over dramatically once then leaned in to kiss him. "After we've had our first time together, our first real time together, then I will, but I want the first thing inside of my cunt after all this time to be your cock. If that's okay," she said, biting her lip nervously. "Of course it's okay. I think your next day in the rotation was going to be the 20th, but if you want, we can try and find some time before then instead. It can even be just the two of us, without Lauren around, if that's what you want." She pouted again for a moment. "Anything I want?" "Well, within my usual limits, but sure." She slipped her arms away from him, and turned back to look at Asha and Hannah, extending a hand to each of them. "I want the four of us together, for my first time normally with you, Andy," she said, as Asha took one hand and Hannah took the other. "Oh rrrrreally?" Asha said, dragging the sound out, her London accent dripping through the word. "All four of us together? Sounds like a spot of fun. I'm game if you are, Whiskers," she said, looking over at Hannah with a smile. "Anything you can throw at me, I can totally handle, Goldfish," Hannah shot back at her friend. Clearly the girls had developed nicknames for each other when he wasn't around. "I was supposed to have tomorrow night, Daddy, so instead of it just being me, it'll be all three of us, if that's totally cool and shit." "Yeah, that's, ahem, totally cool. And shit." He leaned in to give Taylor a quick kiss, but she kissed him back harder than expected, and it lasted longer than he'd planned, not that he minded. "And you, young lady, should get some clothes on, and maybe unpack your stuff, whether that's in your own room or in Lauren's room, that's up to you." "Oh it totally all goes in with Lauren," Taylor said. "I don't even want my own room. Either I'm in her bed or yours. You want to come help me move in, girls?" "You couldn't stop us, love," Asha said. "Last one there has a smelly cunt!" Hannah said as she bolted towards the door, Asha and Taylor just a step or two behind her. "Y'know," Andy said to himself and the cat, "I feel like I should've yelled that there's no running in the house after them, but I just know it wouldn't have done any good." "Meow," Muninn said to him in response. "Oh hush," Andy said. "What the hell do you know?" "Meow," Muninn agreed. "Damn straight." After leaving Hannah's room, he was halfway down the hall when he ran into Sarah, who was wearing one of his t shirts, one for a band called Stereophonics, and sweatpants beneath it, her hair done up in the least stylish ponytail he'd ever seen from her, as if she'd just put her red mane up to get it out of the way for a while. "Hey you," she said, her pearly white smile beaming at him. "Maya should be here any minute, and I know you're just gonna love her." "I actually spoke to Phil a little bit ago, and she's not going to be here until tomorrow, but she's still coming, don't you worry." He explained the Orange Variant to her, and while she was a little disappointed that her friend's arrival would be delayed, she understood that Maya's health was the most important thing, and the base didn't want to let her out of their sight until she was ready. "What've you been up to today?" She rolled her oceanic blue eyes at him with a big harumph. "Reading screenplays that my agent sent over, trying to pick my next project. It's looking like everyone's going to want to do serialized television right now, because they can get more content out of smaller budgets, but so many of these stories are just so boring," she groaned. "It's like my agent's only sending me the same stuff." "Well," he said, taking her hand in his as they walked down the hallway, "tell your agent what you want then, whether that's more drama, more action, more comedy, more whatever it is you want more of. They only know what you want when you tell them. I had to learn the same lesson with my literary agent early on." She squeezed his hand thankfully. "My agent really should know better, but you're right. I can get her on the hunt for the kinds of things I want to be doing. You know there aren't really any good spy stories on television right now? I should see if she can get me something like that. I'll give her a call tomorrow, see if maybe she can reach out to the production companies, see who's already got projects winding up I can try and piggyback onto." They walked past the door of Emily and Sarah's workspace, and Andy noticed it was closed. He pointed with his other hand at the closed door as they kept on walking. "Em in some kind of meeting?" Sarah nodded. "London based production company wanted to reach out to her, so she's taking the call today, but she should be out in an hour or so." The doorbell rang, and Sarah arched an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought you said Maya wouldn't be here until tomorrow." "That's what Phil told me," he said, as the two of them started to head downstairs, although Andy could hear someone answering the door, followed by a loud squeal of recognition. When they came down the stairs, Andy could see it was Piper who'd answered the door, and she had her arms wrapped around a short blonde girl, hugging her tightly. "Andy! Sarah! Brooke's here!" Piper said to them, swinging the shorter girl around a bit. "That's great, but I thought she was  " "Surprise, man!" Xander said as he stepped in through the doorway. Andy let go of Sarah's hand and rushed down the rest of the stairs, suddenly stopping about six feet away from the door. "Are you...?" "Paired with three people this morning, so I'm 100% safe as houses," his tattooed friend said. Once he'd gotten the word 'paired' out, Andy had continued rushing his best friend, wrapping his arms around the burly guy, giving him a hell of a hug. "Oh Jesus, it's good to know you're safe, man," Andy sighed. "And it's so fucking good to see you. I know we hung out last December, but fuck, these eleven months have felt like five fucking years,” "Glad to see my mouth's rubbing off on you," Sarah laughed, closing the distance to meet them. "Xander, these are my partners Piper Brown and Sarah Washington, both of whom you've talked to a bit through FaceTime. Piper, Sarah, this is my best and oldest friend, Xander Baker, whom I've known since we were both, like, what, 6?" Xander laughed, nodding. "6, 7, something like that. However old we were in kindergarten." "Not very," Andy said. "Not enough!" Xander replied. "Anyway, Andy, Sarah, this is my soon to be partner Brooke Maloney, whom I have your partner Piper to thank for." "Well," Piper laughed, "I'd originally pitched her to come here and be Andy's partner, but he realized she'd be a much better fit for you, considering how much you both love classic cars, although really, I think it was just so he didn't have to hear her singing Vince Gill songs around the house all the time, 'cause she does that a lot, and I hope they warned you about that, Xander." "She can be singing Vince Gill while I'm singing Wu Tang Clan, and somewhere in the middle, over the engine of a Dodge Charger, I think we can make it work," Xander said. "Honestly, Pipes," Brooke said to her, "the only reason he said soon to be is because I wanted to come over and say thank you to y'all, and let Xander have a bit of time with his friend before we got to bumpin' uglies. But all the other gals in his house have just been so sweet, y'all, I can't wait for you to meet'em." "Why don't Piper and I give you a tour of the place, Brooke," Sarah said, "and the boys can do a little bit of catching up. You want me to have Jenny bring drinks to you out on the patio, hun?" "Yeah," Andy said, "I'll take a pina colada. Xander?" "Just a Corona." Sarah nodded. "Drinks coming up! This way ladies!" she said, marching them down towards the kitchen first. "Jesus Andy," Xander said quietly. "You really bagged Sarah Washington. I mean, I know I've talked to her vidchat, but seeing her in person like this,” "Seriously, I don't deserve this much luck," Andy said with a chuckle as he started to lead his best friend towards the back patio. "Oh fuck you," Xander teased. "You deserve exactly this much luck. Our entire lives, I've been watching you do good things for people left and right and never asking for so much as a thank you in return, and this is what karma has brought you, dude, so live a little. Enjoy it." As they moved out onto the patio, Xander shook his head. "I will say, however, that my house isn't quite as big as yours is. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fucking palace compared to that one bedroom shithole I lived in back in Ohio, but I'm just saying,” Andy rolled his eyes with a smirk. "You know I didn't pick the places myself, right jackass?" "I guess so," Xander said, as the two men moved to sit down on deck chairs near the pool. It was cool for November but not so cold that either man felt like they needed to add layers, both having grown up in the Midwest, where California winters would be considered nice spring days. "God, I'm really here. It's wild, man." "It's great having you out here, Xander. Jesus, the stories I have to tell you. You're here early, though. I didn't expect you out here for at least a few more days." "Turns out these DuoHalo Variants are pretty intense," Xander sighed, "and since they were pairing me up with someone in the military, they wanted to make sure I got hooked into the system as quickly as they could, so everything got very rush rush rush. When you told me to be ready to go at a moment's notice, you weren't kidding. As soon as we finished up that conversation, I started packing, and just barely got done before they showed up to cart me away. They're even taking care of selling my house for me, although I suspect it's just going to become government housing or something." "Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me," Andy agreed. "God, it's good to have you here, man." "Well if it isn't my favorite hoodrat," Fiona said, carrying out a tray with three drinks on it, setting it down on a table as Xander immediately got up and hugged him hard. "How you been, lunkhead?" "Better now that I know you made it here okay, muckraker," he teased back. "How the hell you been Fi?" "Better now that I know you ditched that crazy ex of yours," she laughed. "Can I say it?" "Oh I think you've earned it." "I told you that girl was no good." "You did indeed tell me that," Xander agreed, taking his bottle of Corona from the drinks tray, as Andy grabbed his pina colada and Fi grabbed a tall glass of wine. "Hey hey hey, the gang's all back," Fi said with a smile. "To old friends and new flames." "To life, liberty and us getting through this fucking plague together," Xander toasted. "To family," Andy corrected. "To family!" they all toasted together, clinking glasses. Piper has a confession to make.. Chapter 37 The conversation had gone far into the evening, with members of the household coming in and out several times, joining for a while before leaving the trio to their own devices once more, mostly anyway, a couple of Andy's partners choosing to remain longer. Sarah and Aisling in particular were intent on getting as many stories about Andy's youth as they could, and he felt a little like they hoped either Xander or Fiona would tell them embarrassing tales from their college years. While Fi had been mostly coy about the years they'd spent at university, Xander, by contrast, had been eager to tell at least a handful of hilarious and ridiculous stories about the troubles they'd found themselves in during their misspent youth. Despite how flustered he got a couple of times, it was a wonderful night of reminiscing, and a chance for the girls to see Andy in a different light. A piece of advice Andy had never let go of was that as you got older, it was almost important to keep people around you who knew you when you were young and fearless. At least a few times, he'd managed to deflect the conversation off himself and onto other people, a detour letting both Sarah and Emily talk about their experiences making movies, and Xander talking about the process of being relocated from Ohio out to California. Xander's trip had been surprisingly surreal, and he told the group about it in explicit detail. He'd been loaded into an isolation chamber on a cargo plane along with twenty other men, each in their own little plastic bubble tent, although each of the tent also had curtains that could be dropped for privacy. Xander told them he'd found that odd but understood why eventually. The plane had been mostly full of men when it picked Xander up in Ohio. The little isolation chamber was like a emergency field hospital's clean room, with a mattress on the floor as well as a few days of rations, both food and water, and a little sealable chemical toilet. Nearly everything was ziptied to weights to keep it steady. There was also a little headset that connected to a series of voice chat channels all the men could use to talk to one another. The main channel had been too hectic for Xander to stay in for more than a handful of minutes, but he'd eventually peeled off a couple of the men in the plane into a separate channel, and was able to both give them some information and get some on his own. All of the men on the plane had been gathered from cities in the central and eastern United States, and were being ferried out to partners, generally military but some in other branches of the government, and they weren't being let out of their isolation chambers until they'd been paired up with at least one woman, thus, the beds and the privacy curtains. At least a couple of the pods had not only men in them, but also a woman in the middle of the imprinting process . The government didn't want to risk the life of any man, so this was an emergency plan decided to keep as many people as they could safe. The two men Xander spent the afternoon talking with were Klaus, a 26 year old Master Sergeant from Georgia that Xander felt like was probably in special ops of some kind, and Bill, a 34 year old schoolteacher from Tennessee who was being paired up with a prominent Silicon Valley businesswoman he'd dated back in high school. Klaus clearly knew far more than he wanted to share with Xander and Bill, but he'd done his best to give the two men some information to make their journey a little less panic stricken. There were two women in the isolation chamber with Klaus, a twenty year old blonde named Olivia and a twenty two year old Korean American named Naya, or so Klaus told them, as both women were still in the middle of the imprinting process. The man was part of the security forces for the flying hospital that was transporting men and women around the country. He knew what he could and couldn't tell Xander and Bill, and just having a conversation with Klaus had made Xander feel more safe in their travels. He had a calm and casual demeanor to him while discussing how everything had been carefully planned, even if it all felt pretty slapdash. He couldn't answer all of their questions, for security reasons, but he told the two men that the airplane had basically been in motion nonstop for the last three weeks, doing its best to ferry people around the nation. Xander had asked him if it was truly necessary, only to be told how high the casualty rate was for men around the nation. Klaus had seen the stacks of bodies, and the man sounded rattled when he described the hundreds of empty apartments he'd seen in his native Queens, as the corpses had filled up dump trucks, and they'd had to conceal the bodies as they were taking them out in the dead of night. Klaus told them he'd been in a biohazard suit for most of the last week, but now that he had two partners, he would be able to go out and provide an escort for everyone going to and from the plane, although he planned to return to his isolation room with his two partners in between each stop they made. From Ohio they flew down to Nebraska, stopping at Offut Air Force Base, where they picked up a handful of soldiers and dropped off a handful of women. Bill had asked Klaus how long they'd been running these routes. Klaus said they'd been running for a few weeks now, and they were only one of five planes that were crisscrossing the nation. Olivia and Naya had both been brought into the inoculation center in Denver earlier and then swapped planes to meet up with him in New York, where they'd met up after he'd returned bringing in another stable of surviving men. All privacy had basically gone out the window. Klaus told him that most of the men had the option to wait until they were in a house or an apartment or something, but Klaus had been told by his commanding officer that they couldn't spare him that much time, so he needed to just get on with his business on the plane so he could get back to work as soon as he was done. By the time they'd touched down at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Bill had been just about ready to break out into full fledged panic, between the constant shift in air pressure, the take offs and landings done without proper seatbelts and his inability to go anywhere that wasn't his little sealed off compartment, but a quick talking to from Xander had gotten the man to cool down at least a little bit. They were barely on the ground in Nevada an hour, taking people off and bringing new people on, as well as refueling the plan, before taking off again, landing at Oakland airport a few hours later under the cover of night. Their cellphones had been taken from them when they'd arrived at the plane, so Xander had been forced to guess at the time, but he would've placed their arrival in Oakland at something around 2 a.m. or so, although the lock in had made it impossible to use traffic as a gauge. In Oakland, everyone had been taken from their individual compartments and loaded onto a large troop transport truck, with no caution given to cross contamination or infection, as they were all told they would be getting paired up within a few hours, so even if they caught DuoHalo now, it wouldn't matter. Xander had been concerned by that but he had decided to go along with it, because Klaus seemed to consider the whole thing fine, and he was the one loading people onto the trucks. The trucks had ferried them from Oakland up to a staging area next to the lab near Mount Diablo, just adjacent to New Eden, and once there, they'd been introduced to their new partners and from there, sorted into where they were going to go. The building they were using as a staging area felt like a converted aircraft hangar, with a high curved metal ceiling and big fluorescent lights hanging high above them. Although there were some tented parts of the space, similar to what had been inside the cargo hold of the airplane that had brought him here, most of the space was open, with long painted striped lines on the ground, leading people through the processing. Men weren't being given any injections, something Xander had thought was odd, until all the men were given a five minute lecture on "Your New Reality," something that the men were told to take deadly seriously. The lecture included basic things like how they would be receiving their vaccinations (sexually transmitted from their new partners), how their partners would need sexual satisfaction about once a week or so, how their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, and how if they ever felt like they were coming down with the symptoms of DuoHalo they should have sex with one of their partners immediately, which would resolve them. At the point when the men had been told that their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, a handful of the men had quietly jeered and rolled their eyes, but the next slide in the presentation showed a wound on a woman's arm that had silenced all that nonsense quickly. The end of the lecture included a video message from President Pelosi, urging the men to consider fatherhood like a new version of the World War 2 draft,  every man needed to do his service to help save the country. Extensive tax breaks and financial aid would be provided to families with multiple children, it was stressed. The country needed to be rebuilt. As soon as the lecture was done, they'd been marched single file to a series of processing windows, over a dozen clerks taking people's names and social security numbers before assigning them a holding area to head over to, where they would meet their partners. A sticker was placed on their chest before they were sent on their way. It had all felt very assembly line, as if there wasn't time for kindness or courtesies, and people were simply being pushed through the grinder as quickly as possible. Klaus had joked around with them on the ride over that while it might seem rough, it was being done for optimal performance in getting people in and through the system and into their new lives, wherever they may be. Xander had heard several different locations mentioned,  the San Jose highrises, the Stanford campus, the Berkeley campus, the SF towers, the Altamont sprawl, the Tracy ghosttown,  but when it came time for him to be told where to go, he was told he wouldn't need to go far, as he was being assigned to Dos Eden, the first expansion zone to New Eden. He'd been given four partners on site, with one more to be waiting for him at the location. They'd been waiting for him in the holding area assigned to him, each having arrived sometime over the previous day, so they'd all had a chance to get to know one another. Letting the women have some time to bond in advance of the man's arrival seemed smart to Xander, as they could size each other up without having to worry about keeping their new mate's attention. The women had also been given their injections in the holding area, and so Xander assumed the spaces had also doubled as observation areas, making sure none of the women had suffered any adverse reactions to their injections the day before. Captain Betsy Ross had turned out to be a complete knockout, a blonde pint size pocket rocket dynamo who was training men nearly twice her size in hand to hand close quarters combat, and they had clicked immediately, almost as if they were custom made for each other. She'd kissed him hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet before he'd even been able to say hello. The second woman had been Serena Ortiz, a Latina woman in her late twenties who was a U.S. Marshall, and had built a career out of tracking down fugitives. Tall and statuesque, she had a certain grace to how she'd moved, he'd noticed immediately. She'd spent the past few hours talking with Betsy before Xander's arrival, and the two already had a friendly relationship, having bonded over the fact that they could both kick Xander's ass if needed. The third was a slender blonde woman in her late 30s who had looked hauntingly familiar before her introduction, but Xander had struggled to place her, even after she identified herself as Alicia Geller. When she'd told Xander that he would likely know the role she'd played in her youth, Rascal Rachel, that had made it all come together immediately. Alicia was a child actress who had been the star of a popular kids show until she'd grown out of it and the show had been canceled. Instead of continuing acting, she had retired from show business and gone into education, teaching history to high school students. She seemed a little shy, but had assured him that once they'd had time to get to know one another, she would come out of her shell. The final one on site had been Brooke, and she'd detailed the story to him how her friend Piper was paired up with Andy, and that they had recommended Brooke pair up with Xander, so she had. She'd been wearing a Shelby GT Cobra necklace when they met, and Xander had known it was going to work out just fine. A second sticker was placed on his chest and the girls were told to stay with him, as everyone was sorted into lines and sent towards trucks. Most of the trucks were large troop transports, but Xander had been surprised to see that the vehicle he and his partners were set to was much smaller, and they were the only group loaded up onto it. He'd felt a little bad, since really they could've just been loaded up into an Escalade, him, his four new partners and the MP driving them over to their new home. On the way over, the MP delivered the final set of instructions to Xander, as to why his fifth partner hadn't been waiting for him at the base and was, instead, at the new home. Her name was KC Kadrey, and she was a 20 year old Vietnamese American student over at Stanford, studying mechanical engineering. She'd needed to get her injections a couple of days prior, and there had been some concerns that she might simply just grab the first man she saw and go after him, so she'd been taken to their new home and allowed to settle in. But, the MP warned him, it meant that she might be a bit intense when they arrived. She'd also brought her golden retriever with her, and keeping the large dog at the staging area had seemed problematic. Xander, like all the men who'd been on the airplane, had been forced to travel light, a single wheelie suitcase all he'd been allowed to bring with him. All of his things that had been picked up in Ohio would show up at some point within the next few weeks as the truck conveying them drove cross country, but until they, he would have to make due with the things he had. Xander had been forced to argue with the people picking him up that the one car he'd been restoring, a black 1970 Barracuda, would be part of the things taken to his new home, and while the discussion had gotten a little heated, eventually the people picking him up had relented and loaded it into the truck with the rest of his stuff. Each of the women had a similar amount of things with them, and when they arrived at their new home, they all felt woefully unprepared. Dos Eden was technically part of New Eden, but it was an expansion to the original enclave, and the dwellings there were much more of nice houses than they were the sorts of mansions and manors that made up New Eden itself. The MP driving them over had said she lived in Dos Eden, and she was incredibly thankful, as it meant having a family was a distinct possibility, while the people in many of the other locations were going to be doing lots of relocating and readjusting over the next few years. Those in the tower condo buildings were generally being given an entire floor to themselves, and as needed walls would be knocked down and units combined as families expanded. The views were nice, the MP told them, but it just didn't feel like a home. When they pulled up to the house just around dawn, Xander was a little surprised by it. They had told him not to expect a grandiose mansion, but the home was far nicer than any place he'd ever lived in before, a two story building with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, so not enough that each person had their own bedroom, but they would make it work, all of them agreed. It was mostly glass walls, and Xander found himself thankful for the ring of trees, and the high fences, that would provide him with at least a little privacy from his neighbors, who were only a short walk away on either side. It had a three car garage, and Xander was told there were new Teslas charging inside for them. (Xander immediately planned to turn one of the three garage spaces into his own little workshop where he'd continue restoring the Barracuda.) The driveway was long enough that they would be able to comfortably fit at least four more cars out front if needed. The place had its own pool with hot tub, however, something Xander was astonished to find. He'd never lived in a place with a pool before, and now his home had one. They'd barely gotten in the door before KC had rushed Xander, practically mauling him with love in the entry way to the home. She'd been coherent enough to talk with him, the two of them moving into the master bedroom before he'd had sex with her and she'd fallen into her imprinting process. The other girls had moved into the bedroom somewhere in the middle of their tryst and Betsy had immediately insisted on going second, having stripped down while watching Xander and KC. Alicia had gone third, leaving him with only Serena and Brooke conscious. The three of them had taken a shower together, and somewhere in the middle of the shower, Serena had decided she couldn't wait any further, and had gone through part of the process in the shower and the rest bent over the bathroom countertop. As much as he wanted to, he told Brooke that he was going to need a while before he could imprint her, his entire body more than a little exhausted, as the chemicals from the four women had been flowing through his bloodstream, giving him immunity from DuoHalo and doing some rather significant changes to his body. Brooke had laughed and just suggested they go over to visit Andy and Piper, which brought them up to now. "Fuckin' hell," Andy laughed. "No fucking wonder you look exhausted, Xan. How much have you slept in the last two days?" "Oh, we took a nap after we settled into the house, and I slept a bit on the plane while it was hauling our asses through the skies," his best friend said with a chuckle. "So yeah not as much as I should but more than I do some days. Was your experience similar, Fi?" Fiona's journey had been very similar, with her and Moira catching an earlier flight out of Washington a few days ago, although their plane had made only one additional stop before landing in Oakland, their plane having gone straight from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, where many of the men in the chambers had been unloaded and several women had been loaded on board. Because Fi and Moira had been traveling together, they'd had each other to talk with and neither had felt especially lonely during the voyage. Fi even admitted they had spent much of the time talking about Andy, speculating how much he might or might not have changed over the years. As the hour grew late, Brooke returned to the main room with Piper, suggesting she and Xander head home, reminding the two old friends that they now lived less than fifteen minutes apart, and could see each other as often as they wanted to, but Andy and Xander still hugged for a long minute, thankful to have reconnected on the other side of the disaster, before they walked the two to the door and sent them home. Several of the girls had peeled off and gone to bed over the course of the evening, and at the end of the night, the only people still awake were Andy, Piper and Sarah. Aisling had been the very last to go to bed before reminding Sarah not to stay up too late, otherwise she would be too tired to talk to Maya when she arrived tomorrow, but Sarah had laughed it off and dismissed it. After closing the door behind Xander, he walked back down stairs, intending to clean up the remaining empty beer bottles and glasses left behind in the living room, only to find that Nicolette had beaten him to it, having cleaned it all up and then disappearing into her room for the night, so he couldn't even say thank you to her. "I swear, we've got a ninja for a French maid around this house," he muttered to himself with amusement. Huginn, his black cat, stood up from his perch on the back of one of the couches, stretched by arching his back, then moved to sit back down exactly where he was. "I feel ya, bud," he agreed with the cat. "We should probably see about getting to bed, don't you think, ladies?" Piper shook her head, pushing Andy back to sit down on the couch. "Not for a bit. You can sleep when you're dead," she said with a grin. "Don't you agree, Sarah?" "Oh totally," the tall redhead said, moving to slide in to one side of Andy on the couch. "You lose one third of your life sleeping, well, I mean I guess you don't really lose it since you have to sleep otherwise you'll go insane, but it's, like, a lot a lot of time to be spending doing just one thing." "Besides, I have to say thank you for making sure you brought my best friend to be nearby so I didn't feel so lonely all the time," Piper said, peeling her shirt up and over her head, tossing it aside, leaving her in a sports bra and tight fitted blue jeans, her toned stomach bared to the cool night air. "We've been kinda dancing around each other for the last few weeks, Andy, and I don't want you to think I'm not grateful, because I'm very thankful for all the things you've done for me since we've met." "Piper, you don't have  " he started before she lifted her hand up to cover his mouth, "Andy, enough," she giggled. "You can just say 'you're welcome' when you're being thanked for something, you know. You don't have to try and play down the work that went into it." He smirked a little bit, as she pulled her hand back. "I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything." "Oh, but Andy, I do owe you," she said, bending down to press a kiss to his lips, just a soft and quick one. "You got me away from that asshole Covington. When I couldn't think straight, you did everything you could to bring me back to being me again, and that's not something anyone would do." She inhaled the scent of him, and he could swear he saw her pupils dilate a little in response. "You remember how I told you I could smell you from far away? I still can, but the raw musk of you is even more intense up close, and I fucking love how you smell, you sexy bastard. It makes me feel warm and safe and gooey and sticky and protected all at once. And I know that at least some of that is just the chemicals flowing through my brain bonding me to you, but you know what?" She leaned in and nibbled on his earlobe a little bit. "I've decided that I don't fucking care why I feel how I feel. I feel how I feel and that's all that fucking matters. You've kept me safe. You've given me space when I wanted it, and been happy to talk with me when I needed that. You helped me get my friend here and kept her safe, and as soon as you thought it was time, you pushed my ass to get back to work and reminded me not to give up on my dreams. So don't you dare fucking tell me I don't have to repay you, because even if you don't think that I do, I do, and I want to." "You're the only one of the girls who says she can smell me anywhere in the house, Piper," he told her. "I hope that's not a sign that anything's wrong because Covington held off so long on letting you get imprinted after the injections." "Oh, there's nothing wrong with me, Andy," she purred, unbuttoning her jeans before pushing them down to her ankles, not having bothered to put shoes on earlier, stepping out of them and her panties, leaving her in just the sports bra. She had such an athletic body that it had a tendency to make Andy feel a little ashamed of how out of shape he was. "I'm just different, that's all. Being able to smell you when you're in the house? I consider that a benefit, not a side effect. I get a little anxious when you leave and I can't smell you, not so much that it bothers me, but just enough that I notice the feeling of longing I have that you aren't on hand. And I've reread that letter you left me over a dozen times, because each time, I think I fall for you a little more." She grinned, grabbing her sports bra, pulling it up over her head, tossing it aside. "So yeah, I was scared of saying that, but I'm definitely falling for you, Andrew Rook. Falling in love with you. That's why I was so deep in thought the other morning. You didn't do anything to make me upset or angry. I just was worried about how to tell you." "Piper, Why would you be worried?" Andy said with a kind smile. "You've got so many beautiful women here, Andy," she said, gesturing back to the house. "I mean, shit, you've got Sarah Fucking Washington with her arm around you right now! I know I'm fit, but I'm not beautiful like she and Em are." At that, he raised a single finger, pointing at her. "How dare you," he said, his tone evening a little bit. "You are fucking stunning, I mean beautiful like you cannot even imagine and I do not want to hear you saying you're not beautiful ever again, okay? Because whatever dumb ass boyfriend or athlete you met who said you weren't pretty was the biggest fucking moron you ever met, and you shouldn't give whatever that prick said another thought ever again. Tell her I'm right, Sarah," he said with a soft laugh, shaking his head. "Yep yep yep," Sarah said with a giggle. "Stop being fucking stupid because you're not just pretty, you're fucking hot, and every girl in this house who likes girls thinks so. Shit, I heard Katie telling Jenny that if she wanted to give her a hall pass for her birthday, she'd want to use it on you over all the other girls in the house." Piper giggled, shaking her head, her dark hair covering her eyes for a minute. "You're fucking lying, Sarah." "Cross my fucking heart, swear to fucking God, may she strike me the fuck down if I'm lying. Katie thinks you're the hottest bitch in the house, so you need to shut the fuck up about saying you aren't fucking pretty because that's the stupidest fucking thing anyone's said today, and people talk, like, the worst amount of shit in this house when they think people aren't listening," Sarah said, rolling her eyes, as if she found the whole thing hilariously sad. "Well, that's something I wouldn't have believed if you hadn't told me," Piper replied with a smile. "And I was talking about us dancing around each other, Andy, and I want to apologize for that. I know we've had a handful of encounters, but I've been, guarded, and I'm sorry for how guarded I've been emotionally. I think maybe I was a little hurt that you didn't want to bring Brooke into this house, even though I know you said you thought she'd be a better match with Xander. I thought maybe that was a polite way of you trying to duck out of meeting her,” She looked down at her feet. "I feel a bit guilty about that right now, having spent a bunch of the evening talking with her. I have known that girl almost half a de

Apple se enfrenta a la Unión Europea por una serie de normas que podrían cambiar su modelo de negocio. Hoy analizo lo que está en juego para el ecosistema de Apple.La estrategia de Apple: control del ecosistema y blindaje tecnológico Durante más de una década, Apple ha construido un ecosistema cerrado en el que hardware, software y servicios están profundamente integrados. Desde los chips propios hasta sistemas operativos exclusivos, todo está pensado para ofrecer una experiencia fluida… siempre que se utilicen productos de Apple. El emparejamiento automático entre AirPods y iPhones, la sincronización entre Apple Watch y iOS, o las funciones exclusivas de FaceTime y AirDrop, son algunos ejemplos.Las exigencias de la Unión Europea: más competencia, menos monopolio La Unión Europea ha comenzado a aplicar el Digital Markets Act (DMA), una normativa pensada para limitar el poder de las grandes tecnológicas y fomentar la interoperabilidad. En este contexto, Apple está obligada a permitir a otras marcas acceder a funcionalidades que hasta ahora eran exclusivas: desde emparejamientos por Bluetooth y notificaciones, hasta pasarelas de pago.El futuro del ecosistema Apple: ¿adaptarse o enfrentarse a sanciones? Apple tiene dos caminos por delante: adaptarse a las normativas europeas y abrir su sistema, o resistirse y enfrentarse a multas, sanciones y una posible pérdida de reputación. Aunque por ahora ha comenzado a hacer concesiones (como permitir tiendas de apps externas en la UE), cada cambio parece llegar con restricciones que diluyen el espíritu del DMA.También puedes escuchar nuestro podcast tecnológico Diario en Movimiento de lunes a viernes. Unos minutos para estar al día de las noticias y estrenos más destacados. Si quieres participar en la conversación puedes unirte al chat abierto de Telegram, desde donde charlamos y debatimos sobre los episodios semanales.También puedes seguir a TecnoAp21 a través de las redes sociales:- X (antigua Twitter)- Threads- Mastodon- BlueSky- LinkedIn- Post.News- Facebook- Instagram   Conviértete en un seguidor de este podcast

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 20 Fiona fills in some gaps. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Fiona giggled once more. "I think since we were both being stupid about it, it cancels each other out. Some, anyway. But then I got this message from Captain Linda Hayes in the Air Force, telling me that a request had been put in for me to be paired up with you out here in California, if I was interested in that." "Well," he said, teasing her back, "you did say you wanted me to reach out,” "I did, and you agreed to my condition, because there was no way I was coming without bringing Moira." "Thanks for that." "I did my homework first, though," she chided. "Even after I'd accepted, I still had about a day to change my mind, so I reached out to Xander and spent about five hours talking to him on the phone." "I thought you said you hadn't talked to him?" "Yeah, well, I was lying, but most of the time I was talking to him, I was asking about you." "Oh, and that was enough to convince you?" "Well, he answered a lot of questions, but the only thing I really cared about was if you were still, y'know, you. Doing good deeds without thinking too much about them in advance, trying to help every lost soul you bump into. He said of course you were still you, and probably even more you now than you'd ever been." She paused for a minute, then continued. "He actually told me all about the poker game, and how you were just trying to help one of Niko's friends, and had to do your best to save nearly every damn person that you could, and the more about it he told me, the more I knew that you hadn't changed a bit. Still jumping face first into the firing line, just like Moira." "I wish I could say I'd gotten a little wiser over the years, but I don't know if that's true." "If Niko, Ash and Emily are to be believed, I'd say so," she said. "They certainly grilled the hell out of us before they were okay letting us into the household. Emily's quite the little spitfire, considering how short of a time she's known you. Very protective of you, although maybe that's as much protective of Sarah as it is of you." "Yeah, that's definitely a possibility," Andy admitted. "Sarah's so insanely optimistic about things, maybe she needs Em to keep her down to earth. And the poker game caused lots of ripples out here, so everyone was a little on edge about all of it. Well, that and the fact that I just made the decision to invite you entirely on my own without talking to anyone in the household first. I mean, they'd told me to make sure I invited someone of my own choosing, but I think they thought I would've talked it out with them a little bit beforehand." "And you didn't?" "Didn't need to." "That confident, were we?" she chuckled. "I see we haven't entirely shed the overconfidence problem we had back in high school." "It was me taking a bit of agency back in my life, Fi. And while it surprised everyone a bit around here, I don't think anyone really complained, other than they hated waiting to learn more. I just figured, if you said no, there was no reason getting everyone excited for nothing." "Did you honestly think I would've said no?" Andy shrugged a little. "It'd been over a decade, Fi. I figured anything was possible." "I suppose," she said. "So what do I need to know about my new family? The short version, s'il vous plaît." He smirked at her dipping into French for a moment. She tended to do that when she was feeling particularly playful, knowing he didn't speak a word of it. "Well, there's three levels of partner here in the house, I guess. The fiancés, the partners and the staff." "How did you decide which fell into which category?" "I mean, I mostly didn't decide, or I suppose, basically they either chose to be partners or staff first and foremost, and from there, the ones who felt the most emotionally connected to me decided they wanted to eventually get married. I asked Aisling first, and she agreed, and then Niko asked me before I could ask her. When I announced that, Emily and Sarah both sort of insisted I accept their proposals as well." "Much like I did," she said with a titter of laughter. "See? Not as different as you thought. Nicolette, Jenny, Katie and Whitney all came here expressly because they wanted to be staff, and not partners." "And you're okay with that?" Her voice didn't have a tone of judgment to it, just a hint of curiosity. "It's what they wanted, so who am I to tell them that's wrong?" "That's completely fair," she said. "It just surprises me that you sort of made peace with that so easily. I would've thought you would've taken more time to get your head around it." "After you get past the notion of the first one, it's pretty easy to make peace with the rest, and Nicolette was very good at making that clear to me early on. Katie's the weirdest of the cases, but we've made it work." "How so?" "Oh," Andy said, amused in how offhandedly he mentioned it, "she's completely a lesbian, so she gets everything secondhand." "I'm sure there's a story behind that one." "There is, but I was giving you an overview." "Fair enough, Mr. Rook," she said, mirth layered in her voice. "Do continue." "Everyone who isn't a fiancé or a staff member falls into the category of partner, but even there, there can be quite the range of attachment." "How many others are there that don't fall into either category?" "Eight, not counting you or Moira, with one more on the way, and one more to maybe fall into staff but maybe into partner as well." She giggled a little. "You, sir, are drowning in cunt." "Yeah, well, it comes with its own complications." "And you know I'm going to be a fiancé, as is Moira." "Well," Andy admitted, "I knew you wanted to be, but I didn't want to jump to any conclusions about Moira." "You were the first man she ever loved," Fiona sighed. "As much as she might have tried to pretend otherwise, she never hid that very well." "Well, fair's fair, Fi," he chuckled. "You were the first person I ever loved, so I guess it all works out in the end." The rain had actually gotten heavier rather than easier since they'd been talking, but the fog was starting to roll in a bit, so it was harder to see, wisps of clouds covering the grounds of the manor. "What am I going to do with myself here, Andy?" she said, leaning into him. "I'm a reporter. It's my job to report things. I'm used to covering the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, even the military. Granted, I hated DC, but how is any of this ever going to compare?" He shifted a little bit. "I mean, you could write a book about the whole pandemic, document the whole thing from top to bottom. I know there's going to be the 60 Minutes news story in less than a week, but they're only going to have an hour to cover so much. You could write a book like Bob Woodward, cover everything." She stood quietly for a minute, then nodded. "You're right. Maybe I could do something like that." She reached a hand and smoothed it across his chest through his shirt a bit. "So, now I want to get the juiciest piece of dirt here in the house. Who's the best in bed?" "Oh hell no," he laughed. "Even if I could make that kind of judgment, which I can't, there's no way in hell that I would. Everyone's amazing in their own way." "Picked up any new fetishes I should know about, or just the ones you had back in college?" she teased, her fingertip trailing down his sternum. "And what old fetishes those would be?" "Oh come on, Andy," she said with a smirk. "I haven't forgotten. Sweary wife, happy life. I bet if I started telling you that my cunt still ached from the fucking you gave it last night, you'd be getting,” Her fingertips teased against the waistline of his sweatpants. "See? There it is, right on cue." "Tease," he scolded. "No no no, love," she giggled. "Tease would be if I wasn't going to do anything about it. I am, but I just want to know what else you've done with whom else." "Too many things to list all at once," he said. "Maybe just ask some specific questions, and you'll get your answers." "Did you fuck Emily in her costume from the movie?" she said, rubbing one of her thighs along the front of his. He was amused by the question. "I did, but that was her idea, not mine." "Doesn't matter whose idea it was, only that you've done it. Doesn't make it any less hot. How many different girls in the house have blown you?" "Almost all of them?" "Done any of them in the ass?" "I think five or six of them." "Was it the first time for any of them?" "For most of them, not that it matters." "Everything matters, Andy. Everything matters." She slid her hand to rub against Andy's cock a bit through the sweatpants and boxers. "Any of them as loud as I was the first time you fucked me in the ass?" "Only Niko," he said with a chuckle. "Most of the others were loud, but Niko really howled in pleasure loud enough to shake the walls." "You gonna do all of them that way?" Her fingertips stroked his shaft just a little through the fabric, her eyes looking up at him in amusement. "Only if they want to." "Anyone said they don't want to?" "Piper said she wasn't too sure about it, and Sheridan said the idea scares her, which she said also turns her on a little, but she was still pretty nervous about it, so we'll see I guess. If they want to, I will, but if they don't, I won't. You know me, Fi. I'm never going to make anyone do anything they don't want to do. Ever." "What about that plump Japanese teenager you've got?" "Hannah?" he said with a laugh. "Oh, she's eager for it, but she's always rushing towards new things like a cat after a laser pointer. I think if one of the girls said she wanted to have sex on a trapeze, Hannah would say she had next. " "Done any bondage?" "A little bit with Whitney, the newest staff member, but she's very much into that kind of thing, so I felt like I'd be letting her down if I didn't at least give it a go. And I suppose you could say Nicolette and I dabble at that back and forth all the time." "How did it feel?" Her hand slipped up and then pushed down beneath the waistband of his sweatpants and boxers, moving to close around his naked cock. "Did you like being a Master for a day? Everyone doing only what you told them to?" He grinned, feeling her cool touch against his warm skin. "It's a fun hat to put on from time to time, but certainly not one I want to wear too often, and definitely not one I want to get too comfortable wearing. Too many people get a little taste of power and then run away with it." "Did you like our little game yesterday morning where we were all touching and kissing and sucking on you at once?" He nodded, maybe even a bit too quickly. "It was intense. Overwhelming and hard to focus, but it felt so damn good. Was that your idea?" "Of course it was my idea," she giggled. "Well, it wasn't entirely my idea, but I started coming up with the plan. Niko and Ash both helped a little bit. I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by being here, am I? It seems like you and those two are especially close." "Other than Lauren, we've been together the longest. But Lauren and Taylor are a couple. They love both me, but they love each other more, which is absolutely fine. So we've all worked pretty hard to make each other happy." "Where do you think Moira and I are going to fit in here?" "It feels like the fiancés have their own little clique, and I expect you'll slide right in there before you know it. I know you, and you've always been one of the most adaptable people ever. You've always been the kind of person to go up and pick a fight with the biggest person in the yard, if it's what you thought you needed to do." "Prison metaphors?" she laughed softly. "Not exactly your most romantic approach, is it, Rook? Shouldn't you aim a little higher?" "I actually think you and Ash are going to become the most dangerous team I've ever seen, and that's before you rope in the partnership that Emily and Niko are already building," he said with a little laugh. "I'm just a guy in the background, a meat puppet for you ladies to steer me around into whatever conflict you need me to put down." He gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "You're gonna love her. She reminds me a lot of you. Or you remind me a lot of her. Take your pick." "Well, while redheads are an acquired taste, it's one you know I've already acquired," she said, her thumb teasing over the head of his cock. "So maybe I should just tell you that I'm looking forward to get a taste of her, hmm?" Fiona smirked. "Or maybe that I already did?" "You didn't," Andy said, tilting his head to one side. "No, I haven't, but I will soon enough," she said with a laugh. "So I don't need to worry about the fiancés, because we're all going to get along like a house on fire. Do I need to worry about the partners? Do you think any of them aren't going to like me?" Andy grinned. "I don't know anyone who didn't like you the moment they met you, Fi." "But Ash is the lady of the house." "We don't have a lady. I thought we were an autonomous collective," he said to her, smugly. She gave his cock a firm squeeze, enough to make him yelp a little. "You're fooling yourself. And the two showing up today? Those are going to be the last ones? Or is there space for one or two more, if the right girl strolls in front of you?" "I mean," Andy said, as she begun to stroke his cock very slowly and deliberately. "I said in the interview with 60 Minutes yesterday that if I had my say, we were definitely done adding people to the household, but Emily pointed out I really don't have the final say in these kinds of things." "All I'm saying is that you shouldn't shut any doors permanently, Andy." Her fingertips were sliding back and forth. "I think you're almost ready for me again." "Twice in two days?" he said, trying to shift a little bit against her cold touch. "The other girls are going to think you're greedy." "I paid close attention to the briefing when they were giving us the injections, Andy," she scolded. "You can pump out a good five loads a day without any trouble, so I'm making up for lost time." "I mean, I didn't say that I didn't understand." "Good," she said, turning around, putting her back to his chest, letting go of his cock as she leaned forward, and tugged her yoga pants down to the middle of her thighs, exposing her cunt to him. "So get to it." He reached down to grab his shaft, moving to get it lined up before he pushed forward, sliding good and deep inside of her, feeling her honeyed walls clench on him even as he filled up her hungry cunt with his shaft. "Ffffuck," she hissed. "That's never going to get old, feeling you slide inside of me. God, I'd forgotten how much I fucking missed this. Promise me we'll never be that stupid again, Andy," she said as she started to swivel her hips a little bit, not pumping into him, just making his cock press against one side of the inside of her snatch then the other. "I'm never going to let you go again, Fi. You have my word on that." "Right now, there's only one word I give a shit about," she said. "Fuck." Her hips slammed back against his in time with the word. "Fuck." She repeated it, both the word and the motion. "Fuck!" The tempo and the force of her body thrusting back into his increased with the intensity of the word. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" They'd fallen back into their old, familiar rhythm, each of them remembering the other's personal turnons. They knew how to get each other going quickly, and while Andy had expected that Fi would want to savor their moment alone, she was hellbent on getting another orgasm from him. Patience was not on the cards. Each time he pushed forward, she whipped back, as if every second he wasn't inside of her was a second she couldn't afford, that she couldn't abide by him being anywhere else. She wanted him to be inside of her as much as she could get it. "C'mon, Andy," she whispered. "Just you and me, just like old times. Just do it already!" The familiarity was a heady cocktail of lust, and her body gripped his cock in just the perfect way, and before he knew it, the moment as on top of him, just as he was on top of her. His body seized and she started to spasm just as he began to unload his hot spunk inside of her body, the two shivering in one unison, a completed pair once more. A minute or two later, they were both laughing softly again, his cock having slipped out of her, both of them having tugged their clothes up, Fi having slipped back into his arms once more. "I'm gonna love getting that regularly," Fiona giggled. "Not that you weren't great at sex before, but man, the chemical life is quite a trip." She reached up, tipped his head down and kissed him again. "I still love you, Andy. Always have." "Me too, Fi. Me too." They stood there on the balcony listening to the rain for a few minutes. "So who's coming today? You said you've got a few more lined up?" "One of Em and Sarah's friends, plus my new bodyguard." "Bodyguard, huh?" Fiona smirked as they turned to walk back into the house. "Gotta admit, sounds kinda hot." Lexi arrives to the House Of Rook. Chapter 35 When they sneaked back into the bedroom, Andy could hear the shower running, and he and Fiona stepped into the master bathroom, closing the door behind them. They each stripped and hopped into the running shower, where Niko was just finishing washing her hair. He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss before Fi moved to hug the smaller girl warmly. "Thanks for being so welcoming, Niko," Fi said to her. "You've really been the best at welcoming both me and Moira. Not that any of the girls have been bad, but you were there to talk with us the whole time the treatment was going on, and it means a lot to me that you were willing to answer all our silly questions." Niko smirked, leaning in and kissing Fi on the cheek. "Not a problem," she said. "I just wanted you both to feel as comfortable as possible here, and we all knew that if Andy invited you personally, you'd get along with everyone great. Which reminds me, Andy. I don't think anyone told you yet, but Moira will actually be passed out in the imprinting process for a significant amount longer than normal, but that's expected and nothing to worry about, so don't freak out when she sleeps through all of today, okay? That's exactly what's supposed to happen, and nothing's wrong." Andy tipped his head a little in curiosity. "Why's the treatment taking to Moira differently?" "Unlike everyone else in the house, Moira actually had dengue fever during her time working for Doctors Without Borders, and while she's fully recovered from it, the antibodies for that complicate the serum so it takes longer to settle in and take hold. It's a minor flap, and it won't have any impact in the long run," Niko said, as she stepped out of the shower. Fiona stepped out after her, grabbing a towel as well. "She's lived a way more interesting life than the rest of us. You'll be astonished by some of her stories from when she was performing triage in warzones. It turns out people can be far more horrific than I ever imagined." Andy turned off the water and stepped out last, grabbing the one massive black towel that was his and exclusively his. Andy sometimes wondered if Nicolette always had laundry running, what with all the people in the household. He knew she had a system of some kind, and had yet to give any woman someone else's clothes, so the last thing he wanted to do was jinx it by asking for details, though he had complimented her on it several times, something that always made her smile. "Oh, some people suck," Andy grumbled as the hot air from the fan blew down on him even as he was lightly caught in the backwash of Niko and Fiona's hair dryers. "I've known that since I was a kid, and it's basically the backbone for the career of any writer. I'm sure we're going to hear a bunch more about that starting today, since we'll be adding an ex spook to the family." Niko nodded, as she flipped off her hair dryer. "She and Maya won't be showing up at the same time, either. Lexi will be here around lunchtime; Maya won't get here until late in the evening. People are passing through the base at such a high speed that we're just treating everyone as soon as they arrive rather than batching them like we used to." She grabbed her clothes from the shelf and started tugging them on, clearly getting ready to head to the base. She'd been taking a lot of time off to meet new arrivals to the Rook family, but she was determined to get back into some sort of normal rhythm now. "Lexi's a tough one to get a read on, but I think she'll warm up to you eventually," she said, giving him a firm hug. "She's had a pretty rough go of it for the last several years, so try and be patient with her. I know you always are, but a little extra patience here wouldn't go amiss, if you know what I mean. This is quite the severe change for her." Andy nodded. "Of course I'll be patient," he said before giving Niko a soft kiss. "You liked her though? She seemed like a good person? You get to meet everyone before most of us do, so I trust your judgment on these kinds of things." "She'll take care of you, and that's the most important part for a bodyguard. The rest we can figure out as we go." While Fiona finished getting her hair dried and shaped, Niko got dressed and headed out. They would see her again in the evening, but people needed to start getting back to work. Lauren was already changed into her workout clothes and heading down to the cars, as she was heading off to training camp, something that Andy had just heard about yesterday. Knowing full well there were going to be huge amounts of dead players, the NFL was preparing something truly unheard of. The following season would be the first co ed season played in the history of the league, and would be that way moving forward, so thousands of adjustments were being made, but the last thing the owners were going to allow to happen was the death of their livelihood because many of their players died. The 49ers had asked Lauren to consider playing, but for the time being, she had insisted she only wanted to continue as a trainer for players. That just meant instead of training exclusively men, she was mostly training women with some men, mostly new incoming players from other countries. Andy couldn't even begin to imagine how much restructuring and revamping of the game itself going completely coed was going to result in, but he imagined it would be no slight shift. They had nearly a year before the scheduled 2021 season would start, with the 2020 season already fully canceled, but the amount of changes they were going to be making meant they needed to get a head start on them, particularly so they could figure out how to start recruiting women to play. It had come as a bit of a surprise to him that they hadn't just started recruiting men from other countries, considering the rest of the world hadn't faced casualties anywhere near as badly as the US, but the last time he'd talked with Phil, Andy heard that DuoHalo was flaring up again in many other parts of the world, as piss poor world leaders had convinced themselves the dangers had passed, and that they could just "endure" through the resurgences. It would likely take a few more million deaths overseas to prove them wrong. He wondered if there was a collapsing of other American leagues, such as the NBA and the WNBA, into one league. For non contact sports, the changes would be exceptionally minor, but the recruiting would be the biggest challenge, although he wondered if entrenched sexism would impact more international things like FIFA or the Olympics. He suspected it would have to, eventually. Most of the other girls were still either working from home or not working at all, so most people tended to be around the house for the majority of the day. Both Sheridan and Piper were getting up as Lauren left, however, the two getting ready to start their morning workout, although Andy suspected they might grab Hannah and Asha to join them. Andy had tried participating in their morning workout routine once, and had found himself unable to keep up with the girls, despite his best efforts. They were just in far better shape than he was. Lauren had also allowed Taylor to get dressed and had taken her to work, as she was training her partner to work with the 49ers with her. By midday, most of the girls were up and tending to their own worlds, Sarah and Emily taking meetings with studio folks and their projects about upcoming agents, Ash working away on some project or another for Google, Hannah and Asha were both doing some coursework having enrolled in remote courses at Stanford until onsite learning could begin again. Tala and Jade wouldn't be up until late afternoon, so Andy spent the rest of the morning doing edits and rewrites on the draft of the newest Druid Gunslinger novel. Everyone met up for lunch, however, as they usually did, and just as they were finishing up, the doorbell rang and Nicolette hopped up to rush towards the door before Andy could even get up. "Oh, let her have her moment," Sarah said to him with a smile. A minute or so later, Nicolette entered the dining room with Lexi in tow. While Andy had spoken to her a little bit on FaceTime, it was their first meeting in person. He smiled, rising up and walking over towards her. "Hey Lexi, welcome to your new home," he said, extending a hand to her. Lexi was an odd mishmash of styles, two differently contrasted vibes struggling for dominance in the woman's look. She had on tight blue jeans and a leather motorcycle jacket, but beneath the jacket she had on a pastel pink top that seemed a little frilly. The Latina woman's scars were more prominent in person, the right side of her face from the cheekbone downward warped and wrinkled, definite burn scars that had healed but had been severe enough that cosmetic surgery would prove difficult. He could see the scars covered almost half of her neck and disappeared down into the neckline of her shirt, so he assumed it spread over at least some of her torso. He knew it bothered her, but wanted to assure her that it didn't bother him at all. She took his hand and shook it, certainly a different greeting than the other girls had gotten, but Andy wanted to give Lexi the space to settle in however she wanted. Their relationship hadn't been defined yet, and both Jenny and Katie had made it clear that they suspected it would blossom into something more than a professional relationship, but at first, that's what it would need to be. "Let me introduce everyone. You know Katie and Jenny already, obviously, you met my fiancé Niko on the base, and you met Nicolette at the door," he said. "These are my other fiancés Aisling, Sarah, Emily and Fiona, and these are my partners Piper, Sheridan, Hannah and Asha. This is the house IT tech Whitney. My partners Tala, Jade and Moira are all still recovering from the imprinting process, and my partners Lauren and Taylor are both off at work. I know, I know, it's a lot of names to remember all at once, so don't worry, everyone will be happy to remind you for a while." Lexi tried to shake hands with all of them, but many of the girls insisted on hugs, something that seemed to take the Latina a little aback, although she didn't retreat from any of the contact. "It's very nice to meet all of you," she said. "Mr. Rook? Would you mind giving me a bit of a tour of the grounds, just so I can get my bearings?" "Not at all, Lexi, but please, you're welcome to call me Andy if you like." She offered a brief tight lipped smile that appeared and was gone just as quickly. "Let's stick to 'Mr. Rook' or 'sir' for now, and we'll see where that goes, okay?" He grinned, shrugging his shoulders. "Play it where it lies. C'mon, I'll give you the tour." The two walked out of the room, and once they were down the hallway a bit, he could see Lexi visibly relax a little. "Sorry about that," she said to him. "That was a lot of people all at once, and I know they're all your family, and that it's part of the gig, but it's a ton of information to take in all at once. The longer I stayed in there, the more worried Jenny was gonna get about me, and that's all I need, is her up my ass worrying that I'm going to have another episode." "Episode?" he said, as they walked out into the back yard. He figured he would give her a tour of the grounds first before doing the house, that way they would be a good distance from people, allowing her to have a bit of time to wrap her head around all of it, and to get to know him one on one before having to adapt to all the other people. "We talked a little bit about this when we spoke earlier, but I do have PTSD, so from time to time, I can go through panic attacks, nightmares or even brief flashbacks, although nothing that should prevent me from doing my job, which is to keep you and your family safe," she said. There was a confidence to her walk, a sense of purposefulness, like she was always on task. "And I do want to stress that while I'll do my best to keep all of your family safe, you will be the primary protectorate, and that means your health and well being will always have the highest priority. You seem like a good guy, and that may take some getting used to, but if I'm going to do my job properly, it's a thing you're going to have to get your head around pretty fucking quickly, pardon my language." "Okay, first thing's first," he said with a laugh. "Never apologize for swearing around me. Ever. I happen to like women who swear, and while that may not be what you're used to, it's S.O.P. around here and you don't need to waste words on apologizing for things you don't need to." She laughed a little, a genuine warm laugh, and that made Andy feel a little bit better. She'd been putting on a very cold exterior since her arrival, and Andy wanted to make sure she felt like she didn't need to be so guarded from the whole family. "Fuckin' a, then," she said, nodding to him. "But my point still stands. If it comes down to keeping you safe or keeping one of your women safe, I am always going to put your safety first. You don't have to like that, but you're gonna have to fucking accept it, because that is the way it's going to be. If you die, it sounds like there's a good chance that all of your partners die with you, and the protection business is about understanding the very basic math of it, which is that in a situation where I can let one of these women die or I can let all of these women die, I am going to protect you first, and will mourn the loss of the woman I couldn't save afterwards. I realize that may sound particularly cold, but I don't want you thinking about it like that. Trust me to do my job, and I will keep you safe with my last dying breath, if I have to." "I can't imagine it'll ever come to that," he said, as they walked past the pool, heading out to walk into the large grassy field off to the side of it. "I get everyone wanting to make sure that I'm safe, knowing that their health is dependent on mine, but I don't live a high risk life. I haven't pissed off arms dealers, drug dealers or crime bosses. There aren't any foreign governments trying to kill me. I'm not in the line of fire for anything or anyone." "Can I speak plainly, sir?" "Always. In fact, you should never worry about saying something that will offend or anger me, Alexis. If we're out in public, maybe use some tact in conversations then, but when we're at home, and this is your home now, if you want it to be, just speak your mind." She nodded a bit, walking along side him. "Copy. That's horseshit, sir, about you not being in the line of fire for anything or anyone. I spoke with Niko some yesterday, and as one security person to another, she told me that I should consider this Covington to be a hostile operator, and that should extend to anyone in his family or household." "Arthur?" Andy said. "Sure, I bet he's pissed at me, and that man has a lot of resources he could bring down to bear on me, but I wouldn't think he's the kind of guy to hire a hitman to rub me out or anything. That sounds a little too 'Goodfellas' and not enough 'Trading Places,' for his tastes. He's an asshole, but I doubt he's up to out and out murder." "I have to keep reminding myself that despite this house and your large collection of beautiful women, you're extremely new to this lifestyle, sir," Lexi said to him. "The ultrawealthy are almost exclusively assholes with no regard for human life or the well being of anyone who isn't providing something of use to them. You may think Covington's harmless now, but at any moment, he could turn far more malevolent, and it's my job to ensure that he doesn't get to you." "You know, I'm just going to trust your judgment on this, then. When I got an agent, I had to learn to let my agent to do all the things an agent should be doing. The same when we signed a five book deal and I got an editor. I had to learn to trust the editor's judgment on what did and didn't belong in a story. So third time's a charm. If you take on the job here, then I'll defer to you in all things of this kind of nature, and if you tell me someone could be a threat, I'll consider them a threat." "If I take the job here?" she asked, stopping in her walk as they neared the fence at the edge of the property. "I thought I'd already made it clear I accepted it." "Well, you did, but up until you're imprinted, you can still change your mind," he said. "And I always give everyone up until that moment to reconsider if they want to. Jenny said she thought you were looking for your Prince Charming, and if you take this job, if you get imprinted to me, that effectively ends that search for you for the foreseeable future. That's a huge step to take, and if you have any misgivings about it, you shouldn't commit to it, to me, to us, to this." "Well, Jenny established pretty clearly that I am absolutely disinterested in intercourse with any of the women in the house, right?" "Absolutely. And if that's what you want, nobody's going to push. You and I can have our intimate time one on one without anyone else around, and if you like, I can even spend a night with you in your bed regularly. The key is that you're going to have to accept that I'm also attached to all these other women, and while I'm going to do my best to divvy up my time equally, I won't always be perfect at that." "Anytime you go anywhere, I'll be by your side, so we will get plenty of time together, sir," she said with a little laugh. "A better question is how good have you been at not comparing your partners? I'm sure someone's got to be the best, which means someone's also got to be the worst." "No bests and no worsts," he said sternly. "Everyone's different, and that's exactly how it should be. Hell, I think everyone's different enough that it makes comparisons nearly impossible anyway." "Do the scars bother you?" she asked him, turning to face him directly as they stood near the fence, a big metal monstrosity that was far enough from the house that its appearance was mostly masked by trees. "At some point I could get cosmetic surgery, but up until recently, I've constantly been working, and there hasn't been any time for it." "That's entirely up to you, Lexi," he told her. "I don't mind the scars. I think they add character and personality." "You haven't seen how far they go," she sighed. "Not yet, anyway, but I will when you're ready to show me." "They go down to my ribs, and my right boob is scarred up like my neck here. Not very sexy, I know, but it's what I got." He took her hand for a moment, which made her jump a little bit at the sudden contact. "Lexi, don't worry about it," he said emphatically. "You're a beautiful woman, and I do not mind the scars. If you want to have them corrected at some point, you are welcome to do so, but you do not need to think you have to do so on my behalf, okay? I'm going to trust you so I need you to trust me on this." She looked down, drew in a heavy breath then sighed it out. "I got hit with a molotov cocktail in the jungles of Peru. The doctors there did everything they could to tend to the burns, but they were severe, and we were several hours away from a real hospital, so before I could get the best treatment, a lot of the damage had already been done. There's some nerve damage anywhere I'm scarred, so I have to be careful if I get into scraps, because I could be bleeding from there and not notice it. I also get phantom itches all the time, but I've mostly gotten the compulsive need to scratch under control at this point. Some people, a lot of people actually, have trouble seeing past the damage." Andy's other hand moved to brush along the underside of her chin, touching some of the scarred flesh for the first time, forcing her to look back up and at him. "There's where they're going wrong," he said. "You don't look past the damage. You learn to see that the damage is part of what you're seeing, and integrate that into the whole. Everyone's damaged, Lexi. Everyone. Some people, they just have an easier time hiding the scars. But you are a beautiful, sharp witted woman, and anyone who gets fixated on the scars is looking at the wrong thi  " He didn't get a chance to finish his sentenced, because she leaned up and kissed him, shutting him up, her hand holding onto the back of his head. The kiss took him but surprise, but it wasn't unwelcome. Still, he let her set the tempo and intensity of it, their tongues remaining in their mouths, and the kiss only lasted a few seconds before she pulled back, lifting her free hand up to wipe a tear from her eye. "That's, that's very sweet of you to say, sir. It's been a long time since anyone's looked at me with something other than sympathy." "I can tell you've never read any of my books," he said with a soft laugh, She blushed a little, frowning. "I'm sorry sir, I haven't,” "Don't worry about it," he said, waving a hand. "The reason I said that is because the main subtext of my books is that everyone has damage, and how they manage that damage is the important part, not the damage itself." She laughed a little bit dismissively. "You've got two world renowned actresses and an Olympic hopeful athlete here. I somehow doubt they've got all that much damage to them." "Well, Piper was imprisoned by Covington and left in a sexual frenzy locked in a room without clothes or a toilet for days, so maybe don't go implying around her that she does have any idea what damage looks like." The laughing died immediately. "Oh my god, that's horrible. I didn't even realize  " "As for Sarah and Emily, someone attempted to rape Sarah about six years ago, and while she got lucky and someone interrupted it, the person responsible was a studio mogul and still hasn't been really punished for it. Emily, on the other hand, has had stalkers for years, and had her home broken into a couple of times, once when she was even in it. She told me once the interview airs in a few days, announcing that she and Sarah are partners, but also that they're going to marry me, that we may get some hate mail and death threats, although she says they're generally just people venting. But I suppose you can add that to your list of possible threats against my life." She nodded somberly. "I expected that, although I did not know about Miss Washington's near rape, obviously. Powerful men are such bastards." She chuckled a moment. "Present company excluded, clearly." "Oh, I've probably been a bastard a couple of times in my life, of that I have no doubt." They started walking along the fence line, so that Lexi could see the outskirts of the property. "But I draw the line at assaulting innocent women." "But assaulting non innocent women's cool then?" she said with a slight smile. "Look, if a woman's coming at me with a weapon in hand, all bets are off," he chuckled. "And I think that's fair, don't you?" "Absolutely fair, sir." They walked along the fence for a minute or so in silence. "Now that we've sized each other up a little, do you still think I'll be a good fit here, Mr. Rook?" "Oh, I knew you'd fit in here after our first conversation, Lexi, but that's not what's important right now. What's important is if you want to be here, and if you can stomach having to be sexually involved with me on the regular." That made her giggle, a sound he was particularly pleased to draw from her. "You make it sound like you're some oafish brute with a face not even a mother could love." He smirked. "I have no illusions about who I am, Lexi. I'm losing my hair. I have a bit of a belly. Hell, I've got hair on my back. On the best of days, after a good amount of prep work, I am a six, at best, and certainly not deserving of all the beautiful women I'm surrounded with. But I'm alive, and most of the men who were nines and tens aren't any more, so women are reevaluating their standards, I guess, and I'm the beneficiary of the new sliding scale. Is that fair? Oh fuck no, but that's where we find ourselves. But the social game is radically different than it was a year ago. No matter what you may think of yourself, I can assure you that you are well out of my league. But you have friends here, in that you know Jenny and Katie, and they'd both love to have you around the house. I know Jenny's worried about you, and all the girls are worried about my safety, so this seems like an easy two birds with one stone solution to me. But if you look at me and think 'God, I just can't see myself fucking this dude every week or so,' then I get that, and I'm not gonna be angry." She smirked a little bit. "I can see myself fucking you every week or so. I just don't know that I can see you wanted to fuck my scarred ass every week or so." "The scars go down to your ass?" he said with a grin. "That's even sexier." That set her off giggling again. "No, they don't extend down to my ass, you jerk," she said, still smiling. "But you know what I mean." "No," he said, shaking his head. "I really don't know what you mean. The scars are beautiful, they're a part of the beautiful woman that you are. Anyone who's been put off by that is a fucking idiot, and isn't worth your time." "And my past isn't a dealbreaker?" He arched an eyebrow at her in surprise. "You're kidding, right? I didn't want to say anything, but when Jenny showed me that photo of you holding an AK 47 in the jungle, looking like an utter badass, I got an immediate hard on. How the fuck would that be a dealbreaker?" "Some people think hooking up with an ex spy is risky." "I accept you, Lexi," he said. "I'll keep repeating that as long as it takes. The decision's really yours to make." They were nearly back at the house again, approaching the small pool house first. "It okay if I build a small gun range out here?" "I mean, as long as you set it up so there's minimal risk to us or the neighbors, although I guess if you point it that way," he said, gesturing off in one direction, "there really isn't any risk, as any missed shots will just go into the hillside." "And you know I'm going to have guns in the house?" "I sort of expected that, what with the whole body and guarding aspects of what you're going to be doing. I just ask that you make sure they're stowed safely, either on your person or in a case. My cats are assholes, but they won't open cases. That's all I'm really worried about." "Well, and babies, eventually," she said to him. "Oh you heard?" She nodded. "Niko mentioned it yesterday, which was why she was grilling me so hard for my professional qualifications. She's remarkably competent for someone so young." Andy returned the nod. "It's easy to forget she's barely old enough to drink, considering how much she runs around here. I think you'll learn that between her, Ash and Em, I really don't get to make all that many decisions in the house," he laughed. "Not that I'm complaining." "And any specific sexual kinks I can't practice on you?" He grinned. "No poop, no pee, and my ass is exit only." "Then is it fair of me to say mine is as well?" "Absolutely fair." "And you're gonna be okay fucking in a bed with a gun on the nightstand?" "Are you kidding?" he chuckled. "That might make it hotter. Anyway, this is the pool house, which is going to get converted into Tala's bedroom and work space. You haven't met her yet, but she's both a wood worker and a musician, so giving her her own area where she can hammer away on oak, metal, guitar or drums whenever she wants to seemed to make sense." "She won't be sleeping in the master bedroom regularly?" "Regularly, yes. Often, no. I expect her to be the main bedroom like once a week or so, but there won't be any kind of rigid schedule for that kind of thing. Jenny said you're the kind of person who likes to have schedules and follow them, but with this many people in the family, there's got to be some room for give. That going to be a problem?" "Nah," she said. "Who you fuck when isn't any of my concern, as long as I'm getting my regular fix within my timeframe." "So you're going to stay then?" "I think we both knew I was going to before I got here, but yeah, I feel comfortable saying I'm in now that I've had a chance to size you up a little more. I've heard about most of the girls here either from Jenny or from when I was talking with Niko yesterday, and while there may be the occasional personality clash here and there, I don't think it'll be anything we can't work out together." "And I'm not too ugly for you?" he teased. "Look," she sighed with a hint of exasperation. "If I'm not allowed to be bothered by my scars, then you can't call yourself ugly, deal? You're a handsome man, and I won't have you demeaning the man I'm going to be fucking on the reg, got it?" "Yes ma'am." The tour of the house gave them a little bit more time to discuss the general routines people were in within the house, what times and days people were coming and going, and when people woke up and went to sleep. She seemed especially amused by the Needs board, tracking the last time each of the girls in the house had gotten their fix, and the point when they were going to start being mentally affected by not hooking up. "You've got a few here you're gonna need to tend to soon," she said, tapping the schedule. "Yeah, the last few days have been pretty busy, but I'll make sure I take care of them in the next couple of days. And we'll have to add your name up here on the board, assuming you're joining the household." "Didn't I say I was going to?" "I mean, not explicitly, no." He shrugged slightly. "You've been strongly hinting that you're going to, but you need to say it to finalize it." She was quiet for a bit, as they walked away from the board, heading towards the stairs. "Fine. Fine then. I'm in. I'll join this weird household you have and become part of your family, as well as taking on the job of your personal protection. Just don't ever ask me to be a play partner with any of your girls, or invite any of them into my bed." He raised his hands as they walked up the stairs, heading into the hallway that lead down towards some of the individual bedrooms, finding Jenny and Katie standing down in front of one of the doors down near the end. "Are you gonna do it?" Jenny said, stepping forward to take Lexi's hands in her own. "Yeah, I am," she said. "It seems like you're right. He seems like a good guy, and finding those in this world's new layout is going to be a bitch in the best of circumstances. And if you say he's a good fuck, I have no reason not to trust you, Jen. Plus, the idea of having lots of people around, of having friends around, that sounds pretty fucking great to me. So what's next then?" She turned to look back at Andy. "You want to do it now or later?" "I mean, that's entirely up to you," Andy said. "You can wait up to a couple of days if you want to, or we  " "I wanna fuck right now, if that's okay," she said, interrupting him, blushing a little bit. "Not to be pushy or anything, but I haven't gotten laid in a couple of years, and even before the treatment, I was fidgeting more than a whore in Sunday School. So if it's alright with you, maybe we can go and do that right now?" Jenny leaned back and pushed the door open behind her, as Katie gestured to the open room. "This'll be your bedroom, Lex," Katie said. "It has its own attached bathroom, like most of the bedrooms do. You can decorate all of it however you want to, but Jen had one little touch that she wanted to throw up to make you feel more at home." Lexi stepped into the bedroom and then began howling with laughter, reaching behind her to slap several times at Jenny's arms playfully. "You! Utter! Bitch! Oh my fucking god! Where did you fucking find it?" Andy moved closer to peek his head inside of the room and noticed that on one wall was a large poster of a shirtless Enrique Iglacias on the wall, like something from Teen Beat magazine back in the day. The image had to be at least ten or fifteen years old, and Andy suspected he had wandered into a private joke between the two women. "I had to buy it off the internet, but when I talked to Andy about bringing you here, I ordered it so that if you came, you could have it up on your wall, just like you did in your bedroom at our old apartment." "I can't tell if I want to rip it down immediately or leave it up forever!" "Well if you take it down, don't rip it up," Jenny teased, giving her friend a big hug, one that Katie joined in on. "Good to have ya here, Lex," Katie said. "Now we'll leave you two to it." The two women excused themselves and headed back down the hallway, as Lexi stepped into her bedroom, Andy stepping in behind her, closing the door behind them. Lexi was glancing around the room, but still slid out of her leather jacket, tossing it on top of a dresser in the room. Beneath the jacket had been concealed a shoulder holster with a firearm in it, that she slowly slid off, placing next to her jacket on the dresser. "I have some serious decorating to do in here, but I can make it work."

Join us as we break down Kendrick Lamar's unforgettable Super Bowl halftime show! Our lively panel at Music IV Breakfasr discusses their favorite moments, from the revolutionary statements to the intricate details of the performance. Get an inside look at the symbolism, the music, and the cultural impact. Like, share, and subscribe for more engaging content!00:00 Introduction and Initial Banter00:14 Building the Hype00:54 Performance and Lyrics01:34 Audience Interaction02:30 Energetic Performance03:16 Reflective Moments06:40 Closing Remarks and Reactions08:51 Debating the Super Bowl Performance09:33 Symbolism in the Performance10:44 Recap and Favorite Moments11:40 Kendrick Lamar's Set Analysis12:32 Discussing the Unreleased Song15:38 Supporting Black-Owned Businesses17:14 Closing Remarks and Appreciation#podcast  #music  #hiphop #youtube #fyp #trendingCopyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS

BE WARNED: It's LuAnna, and this podcast contains honest, upfront opinions, rants, bants and general explicit content. But you know you love it! It's time to get TOTALLY EXTRA. Extra chat, extra rants, extra bants, extra stories, nonsense and more.On this week's Totally Extra: It's Imo's birthday and she's off to a courtroom drama – but not before we dive into fanny flannels, burnt vaginas, and altitude farting for revenge.Plus: A listener confesses to faking her way onto a pub karaoke stage as an X Factor finalist, there's a hamster that dies twice, an equestrian sexcapade with a surprise FaceTime willy, and a girl who accidentally sprays athlete's foot treatment on her nun.Remember, if you want to get in touch you can:Email us at luanna@everythingluanna.com OR drop us a WhatsApp on 07745 266947Please review Global's Privacy Policy: https://global.com/legal/privacy-policy/

In this episode of The Broadband Bunch, recorded live at the CBAN Annual Conference in Ames, Iowa, host Brad Hine sits down with broadband leader and digital equity advocate Deb Socia. Recently retired from her role as CEO of The Enterprise Center in Chattanooga, Deb shares insights from her decades of experience supporting community broadband, digital inclusion, and infrastructure development. They discuss the importance of early and strategic marketing for broadband builds, challenges around funding and predictability for ISPs and nonprofits, and the evolving role of local ownership in fostering digital equity and community pride. Deb shares stories—from seniors learning to FaceTime their grandchildren to middle school students mapping free Wi-Fi hotspots—that highlight how connectivity transforms lives. They also touch on the value of storytelling and data in building stakeholder support, the influence of education on community tech adoption, and how to cultivate the next generation of broadband leaders. This conversation offers a blend of policy perspective, community insight, and actionable advice for anyone working to bridge the digital divide.

Your brand doesn't need more content… it needs more connection. In this episode, Neil sits down with Axel Arzola, a filmmaker-turned-brand strategist who has helped scale content for companies, influencers, and major YouTube channels like Impact Theory.They unpack what's really working in content today, from “FaceTime-style” ads and emotional storytelling to using data to drive massive reach on YouTube and beyond. Whether you're a founder, content creator, or brand builder, this episode will shift the way you think about audience connection and creative testing.In This Episode, We Cover:✅ Why AI content can't replace human storytelling✅ The rise of FaceTime-style content and how it's outperforming flashy videos✅ Why you shouldn't “fight the platform” when scaling content✅ How to build brand resonance by understanding your actual buyer✅ The value of running multiple creative angles—not just one big idea✅ How data and narrative work together to scale brand reach✅ Axel's journey from Cuba to directing content for millions of viewersChapters:[00:01:32] Axel Arzola: From Filmmaking in Cuba to Brand Storytelling[00:02:00] AI-Powered Content Is Everywhere, but Is It Working?[00:06:00] Are We Entering the Era of Deepfake Conversations?[00:08:23] Can AI Be Useful Without Losing the Human Touch?[00:15:18] Building a Narrative That Resonates With Your Real Customer[00:18:00] The Secret to Better Product Research (Hint: Facebook's Listening)[00:22:00] Why Data Should Inform Your Creativity[00:25:11] The Intersection of Filmmaking and Business Growth  

The gals are back together!! Feels so good to be reunited and catch up with each other! Gabie is back from her UK travels and the girls chat all about storybook villages, flight anxiety, Gabie's pregnancy updates (officially 23 weeks!) and Clancy's mama life with Decker! We love connecting with you all and hope these episodes feel like a fun FaceTime with each other! If you have any future episode topics, please let us know!As always, our DMs are open- we love chatting with you on Instagram! You can connect with us @offtherecordpodcast_ or on @clancyburke and @gabriellepayne_Thanks for listening and hanging with us! xo

https://mikkoschoice.com/ https://americanminipigassociation.com/            In today's episode, we're tackling a serious and frustrating issue in the pig community—piglet scams. These scams are popping up all over Facebook and the internet, tricking people into thinking they're buying a piglet, only to steal their money with nothing to show for it.          I break down the red flags to watch for, like fake photos, new social media pages, and suspiciously low prices. Scammers even steal real breeders' photos—including mine—and pretend to be us. I've had people contact me thinking they were working with me, only to find out they'd been talking to a scammer.           I also share practical tips to protect yourself: ask for current photos or videos, request a FaceTime call with the piglet, check social media and reviews, and contact their vet. And most importantly, trust your gut—if it feels off, it probably is.           I also recommend checking out the American Mini Pig Association for a list of registered, ethical breeders you can trust.          Let's work together to keep our pig community safe and informed. Autumn's Links:  Website: https://www.autumnacresminipetpigs.com/ Email: https://stan.store/autumnacresminipetpigs Educational Membership Group: https://stan.store/autumnacresminipetpigs/p/autumn-acres-educational-membership-group Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnacresminipetpigs/ Facebook:  HTTP://Facebook.com/autumnacresminipetpigs Free Community: https://stan.store/autumnacresminipetpigs/p/autumn-acres-free-community YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCGue5Kp5AwOXkReCGPUyImA Stan Store: https://stan.store/autumnacresminipetpigs Newsletter: https://stan.store/autumnacresminipetpigs

Just as Chloe dives into listener dilemmas, Italian Bach crashes the pod. Things get personal when Chloe's mum and sister join via FaceTime for a heart-to-heart that's equal parts supportive and brutally honest. From emotional spin class moments to group chat shade and the pressure to “perform” in fitness, Chloe and Italian Bach unpack what it really means to stay confident, show up for yourself, and tune out the noise. There are also very special messages from Joe Baggs, Millie Court, and Specs Gonzales! Listen to the FULL PODCAST and follow us on:Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4UjhcQP...Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@chloevsthewor...Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chloevsthew...Chloe: https://www.instagram.com/chloeburrows/?hl=enDilemmas: chloevstheworldsubmissions@gmail.com

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, novels of suspense, and books for kids. Her books have received many accolades. As Allison Brook she writes the Haunted Library series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series, the Twin Lakes series, and Giving Up the Ghost. Her suspense, Come Home to Death, was released in April, 2024, and her suspense, Dangerous Relations, was republished earlier this year. Death on Dickens Island, the first book in her Books on the Beach series, will debut on October 21, 2025.Marilyn's juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children's Book Council Children's Choice and has recently come out in a new edition. Rufus and the Witch's Drudge, the second book in the series, has been released and the third, Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic, will be released in May 2025. And Don't Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards. Her YA horror, The Devil's Pawn, came out in a new edition in January, 2024.Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place. She loves traveling, reading, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, chatting on FaceTime with her grandkids and playing with her cats, Romeo and Juliet. Website: http://www.marilynlevinson.comFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.levinson.10?ref=ts&fref=tsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marilynlevinsonauthor/https://www.bookbub.com/authors/marilyn-levinsonhttps://www.bookbub.com/authors/allison-brook*****************About SinCSisters in Crime (SinC) was founded in 1986 to promote the ongoing advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers. Through advocacy, programming and leadership, SinC empowers and supports all crime writers regardless of genre or place on their career trajectory.www.SistersinCrime.orgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sincnational/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sincnational.bsky.socialThreads: https://www.threads.net/@sincnationalFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/sistersincrimeTikTok:: https://www.tiktok.com/@sincnationalThe SinC Writers' Podcast is produced by Julian Crocamo https://www.juliancrocamo.com/

Send us a textEver wondered how to explain AI news to the curious young minds in your life? This episode of AI for Kids Scoop breaks down the latest artificial intelligence developments from early to mid-June in language kids and adults can understand together.We dive into Apple's new "Apple Intelligence" features unveiled at their Worldwide Developer Conference. Picture asking your iPhone to translate a FaceTime call in real time or edit photos simply by describing what you want to change. We explore what this means for families who use these devices and how AI is quietly transforming everyday tech experiences.The conversation turns to Mattel's groundbreaking partnership with OpenAI, which promises to bring AI-powered toys to market later this year. Yes, Barbie's getting a brain! While these interactive toys offer exciting possibilities for creative play and learning, we discuss the important privacy considerations parents should keep in mind as toys begin collecting and processing children's data.We also unpack significant research from the Alan Turing Institute showing that 22% of children ages 8-12 have already engaged with AI chatbots, often without distinguishing between human and machine interactions. This highlights the critical need for AI literacy in schools and homes. Our screen-free activity encourages critical thinking about AI by having kids identify potential AI failures and develop human backup plans—a perfect way to build digital discernment without more screen time.From European AI regulations to Microsoft's transparency reports and Meta's privacy defaults, we translate complex tech developments into actionable insights for families navigating the AI revolution. Join us for this enlightening discussion that keeps your curiosity switched on while keeping screen time in balance. Download, share with friends, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!Support the showHelp us become the #1 podcast for AI for Kids.Buy our new book "Let Kids Be Kids, Not Robots!: Embracing Childhood in an Age of AI"Social Media & Contact: Website: www.aidigitales.com Email: contact@aidigitales.com Follow Us: Instagram, YouTube Gift or get our books on Amazon or Free AI Worksheets Listen, rate, and subscribe! Stay updated with our latest episodes by subscribing to AI for Kids on your favorite podcast platform. Apple Podcasts Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Other Like our content, subscribe or feel free to donate to our Patreon here: patreon.com/AiDigiTales...

La entrada iChat Facetime se publicó primero en Blog Xavi74.

There are so many benefits to having a video call with a girl you've met on a dating app before meeting her in person. It helps her feel secure that you are who you say you are, allows you to check that she's not a catfish, and lets you assess whether she's even worth going on a date with. It also gives her a glimpse of how much of a champion you are, which helps build attraction before the date. Today's episode will teach you everything you need to know about video calls with women—how to set one up, what to say, and what to be aware of. After this episode, you'll have mastered the art of video calling with women. Sign Up for The Online Dating Masterclass Here: https://coachmarksing.com/online-dating-masterclass/ Apply for Mark's 3-Month Coaching Program Here: https://coachmarksing.com/coaching/ Check Out The Perks Program: https://coachmarksing.com/perks/ Follow Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachmarksing/ Watch UMP Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCybix9PZoDgcyyt5hNxPLuw Grab Mark's Free Program: "The Approach Formula": https://www.CoachMarkSing.com/The-Approach-Formula Contact Mark Directly: CoachMarkSing@Gmail.com

It's day five and the final day of Royal Ascot and Nick is joined on course by our RMA interview, Luca Brooks Edwards. We hear first from Harry Eustace who joins via FaceTime after landing two Group 1 races this week including yesterday's Commonwealth Cup. Nick and Luca run through the results on day four and have the reaction of Karl Burke after his filly Venetian Sun landed the Albany and Francis Graffard, who's Zarigana looked to throw away the Coronation Stakes. On that, Adam Mills looks at how Zarigana's stride changed once she hit the front but also believes the winner Cercene is a proper Group 1 filly. Jack Jones discusses whether his runner could spring a surprise in this afternoon's Jersey after a from boost yesterday and to wrap up the first four days, Lydia Hislop provides us with her top five moments so far.

Join us from Royal Ascot on day 3 as Nick is joined by Charlotte Greenway on course, this time from the pre parade ring. They begin by reflecting the action from day 2 and Ombudsman's performance in the Prince of Wales's Stakes and David Johnson of Timeform discusses what sort of figure he might earn. Adam Mills of Total Performance Data also looks at whether the two Ballydoyle horses went too quick on the front end, ruining there chances after the first couple of furlongs. Eve Johnson Haughton very kindly joins us via FaceTime after yesterday's emotional success in the Windsor Castle Stakes and thinks she has a Group 3 filly running in a handicap tomorrow. Then Nick and Charlotte move onto today's racing and look at the Gold Cup and whether Trawlerman can capitalise on the absence of Kyprios whilst we also hear from Orlando at Fitzdares on the betting for day 3's feature. Of course, Lisa Tan has the latest fashion tips and Grainne Hurst, CEO of the betting and gaming council on the charity ascent if the Britannia Stakes, run this afternoon.

Ben Kweller's excellent new record COVER THE MIRRORS comes with a heartbreaking back-story —it was borne out of the tragic death of his teenage son Dorian— but in typical Kweller fashion, the album is an inspirational and life affirming collection  that also happens to be the best thing he's ever recorded. On this episode we talk to “the kid” about producing himself, growing up in Texas with a drummer dad, Face Time collaborations, his first slug-bugging meeting with Scott, Jewish rockers, Nirvana and Garth Brooks, why you'll never make it through his new song “Letter To Agony” with dry eyes, and we pick the best(!?!) Beach Boys songs.  Upcoming Ben Kweller Tour Dates: Tickets at benkweller.com Follow BK's socials @benkweller July 9, 2025 Wednesday Aspen, CO Belly Up July 11, 2025 Friday Denver, CO Bluebird Theater July 12, 2025 Saturday Fort Collins, CO Aggie July 14, 2025 Monday Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge July 17, 2025 Thursday Seattle, WA Neumos July 18, 2025 Friday Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret July 19, 2025 Saturday Portland, OR Mississippi Studios July 21, 2025 Monday San Francisco, CA Independent July 22, 2025 Tuesday Venice, CA The Venice West July 23, 2025 Wednesday Los Angeles, CA Troubadour July 25, 2025 Friday San Diego, CA Casbah July 26, 2025 Saturday Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom

Titan Athlete, Big Dru answers questions regarding Fitness, Health and Lifestyle from our live stream audience! If you're looking to gain lean muscle, more energy, and we talk about our Therapy of the week: NAD and DIHEXA

Elliot Jay Tanzer was one of the first astro*carto*graphers Helena first discovered years ago. After reading his books, it was an even bigger joy to meet him and chat with with his delightful self!  In this week's astrocartography interview, we talked about...

Join us from Royal Ascot on day 3 as Nick is joined by Charlotte Greenway on course, this time from the pre parade ring. They begin by reflecting the action from day 2 and Ombudsman's performance in the Prince of Wales's Stakes and David Johnson of Timeform discusses what sort of figure he might earn. Adam Mills of Total Performance Data also looks at whether the two Ballydoyle horses went too quick on the front end, ruining there chances after the first couple of furlongs. Eve Johnson Haughton very kindly joins us via FaceTime after yesterday's emotional success in the Windsor Castle Stakes and thinks she has a Group 3 filly running in a handicap tomorrow. Then Nick and Charlotte move onto today's racing and look at the Gold Cup and whether Trawlerman can capitalise on the absence of Kyprios whilst we also hear from Orlando at Fitzdares on the betting for day 3's feature. Of course, Lisa Tan has the latest fashion tips and Grainne Hurst, CEO of the betting and gaming council on the charity ascent if the Britannia Stakes, run this afternoon.

"Yo, you should go win a year of free burritos." Jess joins the show to discuss a WNBA fracas, the most in-jail person, chanting at the Elbo Room, the J-Off between Zaslow and Greg Cote, and the Pedro Pascal look-a-like contest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AROUND THE HORN RETURNS FOR BEST BALL BROS!!!Join this channel to get access to exclusive Swolecast perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRUA9P6vB_O9sEKrEluPETQ/joinTimestamps:00:00 SocrDave Cold Open1:30 A brand new show concept 6:20 OVERZETS OVERVIEW 17:30 Explanation Of The Around The Horn Format 21:00 Lightning Round 29:00 Sims and 3 QBs 32:30 Sauna Etiquette 46:00 Buy or Sell In Best Ball 52:30 The Showdown 58:30 FACETIME #bestball #draftkings #dailyfantasy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian, the Government has requested permission to introduce new evidence during redirect examination in the federal criminal case against Sean "Diddy" Combs. The evidence pertains to an early 2024 FaceTime conversation between witness Bryana Bongolan and Rob Holladay, who was a mutual acquaintance of both Bongolan and Combs at the time. According to the Government, Ms. Bongolan is expected to testify that during this call, Holladay acknowledged her intent to sue Combs and relayed an offer allegedly originating from the defendant: that she would be paid one million dollars if she refrained from involving legal counsel.Ms. Bongolan reportedly rejected the offer, choosing to move forward with legal action. Following her refusal, she and Holladay—described as long-time friends—ceased communication entirely. The Government argues that this conversation is relevant to show the defendant's alleged attempts to silence or deter accusers through financial coercion and to rehabilitate Ms. Bongolan's credibility after cross-examination. The Government is seeking to admit this testimony as part of its ongoing effort to establish a pattern of obstruction and intimidation by Combs.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:gov.uscourts.nysd.628425.409.0.pdfgov.uscourts.nysd.628425.410.0.pdf

BJ got a Facetime call from his son from his wife's phone. It got him to wondering what age he should be little Frog his first phone. Do you think it's rude to wear airpods all the time?

Jamie's son still hasn't come back for the summer. He is out at an AI conference. Connor McGregor has a video going viral of him knocking out someone at a nightclub in Ibiza. A trucker in Bennett had 3000 Switches stolen out of the back of his trailer. The legendary Anne Burrell from Food Network unexpectedly passed last night. Reports says that Travis Kelce is looking lean and mean, but SMH Dil thinks he's gonna get hurt. BJ got a Facetime call from his son from his wife's phone. It got him to wondering what age he should be little Frog his first phone. Do you think it's rude to wear airpods all the time? BJ needs a cow friend.

BJ got a Facetime call from his son from his wife's phone. It got him to wondering what age he should be little Frog his first phone.

In a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian, the Government has requested permission to introduce new evidence during redirect examination in the federal criminal case against Sean "Diddy" Combs. The evidence pertains to an early 2024 FaceTime conversation between witness Bryana Bongolan and Rob Holladay, who was a mutual acquaintance of both Bongolan and Combs at the time. According to the Government, Ms. Bongolan is expected to testify that during this call, Holladay acknowledged her intent to sue Combs and relayed an offer allegedly originating from the defendant: that she would be paid one million dollars if she refrained from involving legal counsel.Ms. Bongolan reportedly rejected the offer, choosing to move forward with legal action. Following her refusal, she and Holladay—described as long-time friends—ceased communication entirely. The Government argues that this conversation is relevant to show the defendant's alleged attempts to silence or deter accusers through financial coercion and to rehabilitate Ms. Bongolan's credibility after cross-examination. The Government is seeking to admit this testimony as part of its ongoing effort to establish a pattern of obstruction and intimidation by Combs.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:gov.uscourts.nysd.628425.409.0.pdfgov.uscourts.nysd.628425.410.0.pdfBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

TL;DR Better out than in. Be bold. Tell people you love them while you still can. No regrets.

Service excellence emerges when businesses solve problems others avoid tackling. This week I spoke with Zohra Shroff from Sealink Logistics, a freight forwarding company that started in 2005 from a one-bedroom apartment in LA. Zohra joined the family business in 2006 and has helped grow it into a comprehensive logistics provider. Our conversation walked through the complete journey of shipping a container from Houston to India. Zohra detailed every step of the freight forwarding process, from initial customer vetting through final container return at destination. Their technology platform allows customers to book shipments, track cargo, and manage payments through their mobile app, maintaining this edge for over six years with live tracking and monthly rate updates. Their approach evolved from simply moving freight to becoming a complete logistics partner handling sea freight, air freight, and domestic transportation under one portal. When customers face problems like container mix-ups or space constraints, Zohra's team works directly with steamship lines to resolve issues rather than leaving customers stranded. This service model applies to any business where customer problems become your competitive advantage. When others walk away from complex situations, stepping in to solve them builds lasting relationships and premium pricing power. The freight forwarding industry reminded me that behind every simple transaction sits a web of coordination most people never see. Zohra's passion for helping customers navigate these complexities shows why service businesses thrive when they embrace the hard parts.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I explore Sealink's journey as a logistics company founded in 2005, emphasizing its deep family roots and innovative approach to the shipping industry. I discuss the complexities of the international shipping process, including filing shipping instructions with US Customs and securing an AES number. We highlight the challenges and financial implications for shippers when consignees refuse to pick up shipments, emphasizing the importance of financial due diligence. In our conversation, we examine the role of freight forwarders and the critical importance of service levels and customer support in the logistics industry. We delve into Zohra's entrepreneurial journey, from the jewelry industry in India to co-founding Sea Link in the U.S., illustrating the courage and determination required for such ventures. She provides insights into maritime routes and their impacts on transit times, including the choice between the Panama Canal and the Cape of Good Hope.   Contact Details LinkedIn - Zohra Shroff (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zohra-shroff-383276172/) LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance About Sealink International Inc GUEST Zohra ShroffAbout Zohra TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Good morning Zohra. How are you today? Zohra: Good morning, I'm well. How are you I? Dave: am good Now. Are you calling in from San Francisco, or is that just a background you have? Zohra: No, it's just a background I have. Dave: Where are you calling in from? I am San. Zohra: Antonio Texas. San Antonio Texas. Dave: Yeah, soft spot for me. I went to high school in a suburb of San. Zohra: Antonio, oh, that's really nice. It's a great city, you know, small growing, not too big yet, but I guess eventually getting there. Dave: Yeah, Now are you a native of San Antonio. Zohra: I've been here almost 22 years now, so I think I am. Dave: Okay, and what about originally when? Zohra: are you from? Originally from India, Migrated to the US in the early 2000 and came into Jersey. Stayed there for a couple of years and then moved to San Antonio, Got married and moved to San Antonio. Dave: That's awesome. Zohra: So been here since then. Yes, so it's home now. Dave: That is great. So my wife is a native Texan. I'm what I choose to call a naturalized Texan. We have a saying. I got here as quick as I could. Zohra: I think I can say that now too. You know it's been wonderful, and it's home now. So yeah, it's great. Dave: That is great. So tell me about SeaLink. When did the company start? What prompted it to start? Who started it? Kind of a whole story. Zohra: Sure, sure, definitely. So. Sealink was started by Shaizad. He is my cousin and the forwarding business has been in our family for three generations now. Okay, india. And then my father took it over in the early 80s and 90s and then Shaizad joined him as well after he graduated from college. So he worked in the Indian market on at that point we used to do a lot of brick bulk vessels and we used to do containerized vessels as well. So that's how it all began. And then when Shaizad moved to the US I want to say in 2001, he was working for one of the forwarders and stuff for a few years and then he decided that we should, that he should start on his own. So he started Sealink in 2005 from LA, from his one bedroom apartment, just handling freehand cargo that our sister company back in India was anyways consigning to different agents in the US. And so then we took over that business and that's how we started. And then from there we are here today, grown to a fully export plus import oriented forwarder. So I think that's awesome. Dave: And when did you join the company? Zohra: I joined very early on 2006. So it was yeah, not very late on, so started in 2005. I joined in. I think we were September 2005,. If I'm not mistaken, I think I joined March 2006. Dave: Okay, so Shaizad gets credit for the first six months. Zohra: Yes, Shaizad gets credit for it. Dave: But you get credit for all the growth starting in 2006, right? Zohra: I wish I could take all the credit, but he is a visionary. He is a visionary and without his vision or without his farsightedness on you know what like, we don't want to just be called a forwarder. I don't like saying Sealink is just a forwarder. Because of that, because of his vision, I think we are so ahead of the market in terms of our competitors also and in terms of our vendors also, like overall, I think, for the shipping industry. I think we have it one notch up at, I think, at any given point. You know, just because we have because of his vision. I should again say that, because of Shaizad's vision of not only moving freight but making sure that we are giving service with the service industry and also making sure that we are making sure that we are giving the standard of service with the competitive rates at all time, and I think that is one thing that puts Seelink above. Of course, our technology is our greatest selling point. We've had our app I think so for over six years now six to seven years and you can do everything on our Seelink app you can book, you can give your documents, you can download an invoice, you can download an invoice, you can pay an invoice. You can track and trace your cargo. You can do everything on that app so you are not stuck to see that. Okay, what is going on on my shipment? You know where is my shipment. Why do I need to like hassle bustle and call somebody and someone's not answering the phone? So we have live tracking and tracing that shows on your website that your that your shipment has been delayed or there is a vessel delay or there is a longer transshipment hold. All of that information is available on our app, ready to go. Every month we update our rates so the customers know that in February, if my rate from place A to place B was $500, then we know that March 1st that rate is either going to be $400, depending on the market, or $600. So they have visibility of all of this, which is giving them ease of business. They can make their deals. They can look and then get a figure that, okay, you know what, my freight is going to be so much and my material is going to cost so much. This is what I need to do and this is how I can sell. So we give them all that information. Also, not only we are providing a sea, water services or sea services, we are even providing air freight, we are providing domestic, we are providing trade services. So, for example, if I have a customer who wants to move from Atlanta, atlanta into into Moondra, so I have a rate through the vendor from Atlanta to Moondra to Mundra, so I have a rate through the vendor from Atlanta to Mundra. But if he has a facility in Duluth, atlanta, and then wants to get into on the rail, so we provide that drage service as well. So he can put in his zip code that I need to pick up from so and so zip code, take it to the rail and then it'll go out, you know. So we provide that part of draGE as well, which is really helpful for our customers if they want to go ahead and offer that to their suppliers or to their clients as well. So everything is under one portal and easy access. That's what I can say. Dave: That sounds great. So even though I've been in this business for 20 years, working with exporters, I never really understood how the freight moved. So what I would love for you to do is let's imagine that I'm a brand new scrap broker, scrap metal broker, and I have my first load ready. It's in a container and it's at the Port of Houston. And so let's just imagine like, help me just understand all the steps. So I call you up and I say, zohra, how I've got this uh load of uh of scrap metal at the port in houston and I need to get it to uh, um, what would be a good, a good port in india. Zohra: That that, mundra, let's say. Dave: Let's say, so, walk me through like all the things that that like, just walk me through all the steps that have to happen okay. Zohra: So initially, if I'm onboarding a new scrap customer, we we have an onboarding process that goes into place. You know we we run their credit scores. We, you know, ask for references, we make sure the company is in good standing. Because we do all these thorough checks? Because in the end we don't want a long standing container in some other country where then Seelink is responsible. So we have a thorough vetting process. So it's not like you know, somebody didn't just come to me and say, hey, you know what, I want to move one box of scrap and please help me. It doesn't work like that anymore Because you know there has been so many people who have not done the right thing while moving metal scrap. You know they say that it is metal scrap, but they load something else and it happens. It's just the way the industry is right. So, first and foremost, when we onboard a customer, there is a whole onboarding process. We go ahead, we make sure that the customer is vetted completely. For some reasons, if there is no scores, we ask them for their financials, three years financials and sometimes we even ask for a deposit, depending on the situation of the customer. That's how our onboarding process works. Once the onboarding process is done, then they can go on the website or the app and they can see what port pairs they are moving this freight on. Now, for example, if they are buying from Houston and they want to move from Houston to Moondra, they will plug in on my website Houston to Moondra 120 footer metal scrap and they will see all the steamship lines that I have rates on. It could be MSC, maersk, capagloid, you know all of these top three, four lines where I can say that, ok, this is what your price will. If you want to ship with Maersk, your price is A. If you want to ship with MSC, your price is B. It will give them the transit time. Some of the shippers are very, very, very, very concerned about the transit time. Shippers are very, very, very, very concerned about the transit time. It depends on what they're shipping. If they're shipping ferris and it is, like you know, maybe five boxes they might not be very concerned. But if they're shipping non-ferris, they might be like okay, zohra, I need a 45 day transit. So then I'm telling them okay, choose Maersk or MSC, because their transit is somewhere between 45 to 46 days, you so so let's say so. Dave: Let's say I pick mursk mursk. Zohra: Yes, so then you go on my app and then you hit book. Once you hit book, I get a notification saying abcd has made a booking request from houston to mundra for next week's cutoff for 120 footer. I come inside, I come into play, my team goes ahead, makes the booking on Maersk and turns it around and about. I want to say we want to try to keep it under two hours, so we go ahead and we send a booking confirmation that has all the information of this load. So, the customer exactly knows that, okay, this load needs to get picked up, the empty container needs to get picked up at Bayport Terminal. Okay, once the trucker picks it up at Bayport Terminal, they go to their facility, they get it loaded If the customer is doing their own trucking. If the customer says, or I don't have a trucker in Houston, do my trucking, then I'll offer him, I'll say give me your zip code in Houston, I'll give you a dredge rate and then I can go pick up, schedule your trucking. So I will schedule the trucking, get the container loaded, bring it back to the port, return it loaded at the port and then from there it will sit on the port on the day of the cutoff and then from there we will go ahead and make sure that it gets loaded on the ship. There. We will go ahead and make sure that it gets loaded on the ship. Now, that is where the whole process is working in terms of getting this container into the port. Now, once it's into the port, then it is the customer's responsibility to go ahead and send me shipping instructions. Who is he shipping to? Who is his shipper? Who is his consignee? What is the container number? What is the weight. What is the weight? What is the seal? Dave: is there a name for that set of documents? Zohra: yes, it's called shipping instructions the shipping instructions. So those shipping instructions are given to, given by the, the customer, to us. We go ahead and we put it. Dave: I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. I just really want to make sure understand yeah so those instructions? Is that done electronically through your website? Zohra: We can do it electronically. There are lots of customers who send us emails also, so, however, they are comfortable. Dave: Okay. Zohra: If they feel comfortable, there is a way on our website to go ahead and save their shipper and consignees as well, so they can just click, click and say that, okay, this is my shipper, this is my consignee, and then they just change the container name or the container number and weight and seal number. Dave: Okay, so I've given you the shipping instructions. Zohra: Yes, Now you've given me the shipping instructions, I'm going to go back and send you. I'm going to put everything on the BL and I'm going to send you a draft bl. I'm going to say, hey, this is what your draft, a draft bl will look. So you will go ahead and get a draft bl from ceiling and you will check everything your shipper, your consign what is bl? a bill of lading okay yes, the bill of lading, but this is a draft copy, okay, so we, so we can still make changes. If you say, oh, you know what, I don't want to write metal scrap, I want to write heavy metal scrap. So can you edit that for me? Or if your consignee says you know what, I want to add a notify party, so we're going to be like, ok, we'll add a notify party. So we send you a draft copy and stuff like that and we tell you that, okay, please look at it thoroughly, this is what your draft, this is what your bl is going to look like. Okay, so once they check everybody is in order, we go ahead, we take and we file those shipping instructions with the us customs. We tell them that, hey, this person is shipping this cargo from here to here. These are the details. And then we file the entry into the US Customs. They come back with an AES number for us where it is that OK, you know what. The customs has approved your shipment. This is your AES filing number and now you're good to go. Dave: And what does AES stand for? Zohra: It's an automated uh-oh export system export uh automated export documentation okay, yeah yeah. So it's like uh, it's like an ams that you file from the import side, and where does the and then the uh container number? Is that going to be? Dave: in shipping instructions yeah, so it'll still end up on the bill of lading. Zohra: Yes, yes, everything. All this information, shipper consignee, container number, weight, seal, what commodity you have shipped. Everything will appear on the bill of lading, All of this instructions, so everybody has clarity on what has shipped, who has shipped and where is it going. Dave: Okay. Zohra: Also, and if Seelaling has done the trucking for this customer, then I'm not even asking him for the container number because the trucker will give me. He's my trucker, so he's going to be like hey, I pulled this container number. Once I load it, I'll give you the weight and seals. So once we send out the draft BL, it is approved, we go ahead and we send all the information to the Steam ship line, whichever vendor you chose, and we file everything. Dave: We ask the Now where does it, I'm sorry. When does it ship? From being a draft to being a final After the customs process? Zohra: After sailing, after sailing. So once the customs is processed, we have all our information. Once the shipment is sailed, then the steamship line will be like okay, your shipment has sailed, Everything looks good. This is your original bill of lading. Dave: And sailed is a reference to 200 years ago, right With ship that sails Does it? Just mean it's departed the port. It has departed the port, yes. Zohra: So once it is sailed and then after, I think most of the time, they give us a draft in two days of sailing. The original bill will come out in two days of sailing and then from there, once we have the original bill, the customer does have a choice that if he wants a complete set of original bill of ladings, so that means that's a paper copy, or else he wants a telex, which would be an electronic copy. And then he can say that oh, you know what, I don't mind, my consignee doesn't mind a telex release. So if you can go ahead and update this to a telex release, and is the telex? Dave: is it truly going through the old telex system or is it just being electronic? Zohra: It's through the old telex system or does it just mean electronic? It's just meaning electronic. There's no funny how the language just stays around. Right, yeah, okay, all right, so go ahead. Yeah, so once. So then they have a choice to either have some of the guys if they have an lc, they would like the obl so that way they have control on the cargo, they have control on the money, and then they release the bills once they get paid and if they are confident, if they are a regular shipper and a regular consignee, they might go in for a telex release which is just electronic Gotcha. Dave: So then it leaves Houston, and I'm guessing does it go through the Panama Canal. Zohra: Depends on the routing. Some go through the Panama Canal, some do not, so it just depends on what route the steamship line is taking. Dave: I'm just curious. So if it's going from Houston to Moondra, I mean it's got to get around South America. Zohra: Yeah, yeah. So it would go through the canal and if not, because of all the issues that we're going through now, a lot of steamship lines have been routing it to the Cape of Good Hope. Dave: So they've been going that direction, that direction Around Africa. Zohra: Okay, yes, yes, so that makes it a little bit transit longer, but just the safety was more important at that point. Dave: So a lot of routes. Zohra: At least it's a predictable amount of time even though it's longer, and so if it goes, around Houston to Mondra by the Cape under Cape of Good Hope. Dave: How many days does that typically I? Zohra: think it added. I think it added 15 days to the transit. Dave: So what would that? Be total transit so about 60 days about 60 days. Zohra: Yeah, so I think first it was 45 days and then it became 60 days when they were doing, uh, the cape of good hope. Um, I and you know what, sometimes it even is a little bit shorter. I did see a couple of vessels that were doing 55 days also. So I think it just depends on you know how, how how delayed the vessel is, or if there is any any issues on any transshipment ports and stuff like that. So sometimes it's hard to say if it's going to be like anywhere between 40 to 60 days okay, so now it's on the water, is there just no activity at this point? Dave: is there any? Zohra: hopefully you don't want any activity, you just want everything to be good. But there are things that happen, like you heard about the Baltimore issue that happened early last April. I want to say it's going to be a year that everything was good to go. The vessel was ready to sail and it hit the bridge right and that was disastrous and that lasted for six months. Containers, fellers, fell in the water and you know some got damaged and then you know those things. Yeah, we don't want those things to happen, but of course it is. It is an inevitable. Like you know, hazards happen sometimes, so you would want that. Dave: Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. I know you know this really well and so I'm sorry I have to keep stopping you for such basic questions. Zohra: No, no, not at all Do the containers these days. Dave: Do they have any electronic tracking on the containers? Zohra: Some do and some don't. Okay, so the ones that do like. Dave: Is it RF tracking or a different type of electronic tracking? Zohra: I don't believe they have an RF tracking. Most of our containers do not have a tracker because the lines will only give us 10 plus old, 10 plus year containers to load scrap, I see. So we don't get the nice fancy containers. So, most of us are not trackable. Okay, so my scrap load, load. Dave: It's not being tracked but it's on the boat it's on the boat, and so it's sailing, and then now it shows up in mundra. And what happens now? Zohra: so once it shows up in mundra, the steamship line that you have picked is going to send an arrival notice, five to seven days, to your consignee in India or your forwarder in India, whoever you have put on the BL instructions, so you will get an arrival notice. Dave: Now will you be? Will you be the forwarder in India? Zohra: No, no, we do have our own office in India, but most of metal scrap moves on a master bill, so there is really no requirement of a forwarder per se needed when your shipment reaches destination. Dave: They just need a broker and they can clear their shipment and pick it up at the port. Okay, so the ship arrives, and then that starts the arrival notice. Time clock. Zohra: Yeah. Dave: From the time it's actually lands. No, so the arrival notice you will get from the time it's actually lands? Zohra: no, so the arrival notice you will get five to seven days before arrival. So it gives you it gives you ample of time to say that okay, you know what my shipment is coming in. Let me get my docks ready and file it with the Indian customs. Because you can file, I want to say, four days before your shipment is arriving. Dave: So you're not scrambling, and how do we know that the ship is five to seven days away? Zohra: Is there tracking of the ship? Yes, yes, you can track it. Dave: Does the captain get on the radio? Call Zohra. Yeah, hey, I'm about five days away. Zohra: Yeah, no, so the shipment can be tracked on the steam ship lines website also, and plus on ceilings, on ceilings website as well. so you, will see, definitely that your shipment is arriving in three days or five days. If there is a delay, it will blink red and say that hey, there is a delay. And then when you get your arrival notice from the steam ship line, also it will have a date of arrival. It will be like, okay, you know this shipment is arriving on so and so date, so you are prepared that. Okay, you know what. My shipment's coming in five days. Let me get all my documents ready. Dave: Let me have it send it to my broker, you can start and you can start the process with the india customs four days before. I want to go four to five days before so that way, when the ship lands, the you can you already have your entry done and you already know that. Zohra: You know there are no holds of customs and you've paid your freight and you can go along and say that, okay, you know what, I just need the ship to berth. Once they unload my containers, then you know I can just send my trucker to go pick it up. Everything will show green released. You know, unless they have not paid ceiling, then I'll hold the cargo. Dave: Yeah, okay, and help me understand, because I'm an accountant by training. Help me understand the payment of the shipping. At what point do I pay for the shipping? Zohra: Okay, so we have. I want to say 90% of our customers are cash customers. So, when they need their original bill of lading after sailing. We generate an invoice after two days of sailing most of the time, because the line will give us a BL and an invoice in a couple of days. We go ahead, we generate that, we give it to the customer and when he wants to release his shipment he makes a payment to us. So whether it is an OBL or a DELEX, it doesn't matter. When he will tell me okay, zohra, he can go on my website and say release bill. He can go ahead and it will show him that you owe so-and-so amount for this shipment in order to get your release. He can go make a payment and then within 24 hours he will get a release from us. Dave: Okay, Because without that release will the Indian customs not unload. Zohra: No, the Indian customs doesn't really have any control on that. The Indian customs is only getting involved, saying, okay, I have a vessel that has 200 containers coming into India. I need documents to just make sure that it is what they are claiming it is. So they don't have anything to do with our BL release. They only work with customs release. So if I said that I have moved metal scrap and if there is battery in that box, that's a flag for the US customs and I mean for the Indian customs and they will be like I'm going to hold this box. So at that point that box is on a customs hold. Customs will not worry about a BL hold. There are two types of hold. One is a BL hold where either I or the steamship line is holding it for payment, holding it for payment, and then the customs hold is because there is an exam or there is some kind of uh inspection they want to do on the container or if they find some misdeclarations and stuff like that okay yeah, okay, yeah and then, so it shows up, it goes through customs. Dave: Uh, the freight forwarder there puts it on a truck, yeah, and then the truck goes to the warehouse or wherever they need to originally drop. Zohra: They go ahead, they unload the goods off the container. They make sure everything is weight and the weight is matching to what they had claimed it was. Sometimes the weight has shifted or sometimes they feel like, okay, the weight is less, then internally they will file a claim. It doesn't happen a lot, but some things sometimes do happen. And then, once the shipment has been unloaded, they have to make sure it is their responsibility to return the empty container back to the depot. So, once this empty container is returned back in India, that's when my shipment is closed here. Dave: That okay, you know what. Zohra: My empty container has been returned. This has been picked up. Everything is good, payment is good. We are good to close this file. Okay so one file can be open anywhere from 45 days to 60 days, okay, and then if you have issues with that shipment, then it can go longer. If the consignee refuses to pick up the shipment, the consignee abandons, you know, the shipment and says, oh, I don't, I don't have money to pay for it, I can't pick it up. That's when we get into different problems. You know that. Okay, then we need to figure out what we want to do and we all have to keep in mind that every country, every destination country, gives you a few days of free days. So when my shipment arrives in India with my contracts I have 14 free days. So for 14 days I'm not going to get billed for that container sitting at the port. But on that 15th day the clock will start and then, you know, all those charges for demurrage will start occurring for port charges, and then that becomes an expensive, you know, charge that will be billed back to the shipper here because he will have to take accountability of why his consignee didn't pick up the shipment or whatever happened. Dave: You know, and this is part of why you do your financial due diligence on the customers, because you need to make sure that they're a solid business. Solid business, the customer is going to pick it up. Yeah. Zohra: And sometimes we do the due diligence on the shipper part and you know we don't really know what the consignees are in different countries. So now we've started even collaborating with the US customs and you know we run the consignees also through our AES system and if there is like a faulty consignee, then that gets flagged in our system. This is something very new that we have started and we are proud to say that now we are going to run them also to make sure that you know what. There is utmost ease in this process, you know, not to say that when I run the check he's a good consignee and then in the 30 days or the 60 days of the transit something went wrong. Right, I'm not saying that's not going to happen, but at least at the time of the shipment we know everything is a green check, you know. So that's one extra step that we have started taking now, because of so much long standing in different countries are happening due to consignee abandonments. You know, people not paying the banks, lc issues, frauds, people have said that, oh, they are going to do it and then they don't do it. So because of that we are trying to do this extra check where at least the shipper is also at ease. We are also at ease at the time of shipment, and we have this great tool that the US customer is offering us, and so we've started using that as well. Dave: Okay, yeah. So let's instead imagine that this first container is by a friend of mine. Let's say he tells me oh Dave, these freight forwarders are just so expensive, I'm just going to do this all myself. Sure, I would say to them good luck, yes. I would say good luck, because this sounds like an impossible thing to try to do on your own Virtually impossible. Zohra: So a lot, a lot of customers or BCOs that I can say is like the direct shippers, like, of course, the Walmarts and the targets they have, they have a shipping department that does this, of course. But if you have, like, a small trader who's sitting out of Houston or probably New York, it is not worth his headache to do this, because there are lots of small nitty gritty things that are happening along the way, like, for example, I gave you this booking, okay, from Houston to Moondra. Now you have arranged for a trucker, the trucker is trying to pull an empty and my booking is not on file. Okay you are sitting and making a phone call to that line saying, oh, my booking is not on file. I have a trucker. Your trucker is charging you $65 because he's in line for an hour, gets to the terminal and the booking is not on file. I have a trucker. Your trucker is charging you $65 because he's in line for an hour, gets to the terminal and the booking is not on file. They're not going to let him wait there. He will have to go back in the line. So doing business with a forwarder is bringing you ease of these kind of kinks that are going to cost you financially. It is going to cost you a $65 dry run fee or a $65 detention fee for that guy to turn around and stand back in the line With us. We go ahead and we make sure that their booking is on file. Most of the time the depots are filled with containers. And again, I'm not saying that things don't happen. Of course things happen. But if you are a guy who's moving five to seven boxes a week, you don't have the time to sit and call for every booking and say, hey, is my booking on file? Is my trucker standing there? Do we have chassis, you know? Do the container depots have containers mounted on chassis? Do I have to take my own chassis? What's going on, at least with with us? We are telling them okay, your pickup is here, your booking is on file, go ahead, send the trucker again. Sometimes, when the trucker is there, some things happen. Then we can go ahead and fix it. I just feel like, because we are, our relationships are so much more deeper with the lines, you know what we can try to solve problem faster than someone trying to do this first time on their own or even if they've been in the business. Because these are painstaking things you know, like getting appointments to return. Like APM terminal in New York, it is a nightmare right now. It is a nightmare to get an appointment to return your box. So think about it. It. You pulled a box, you loaded it. Now you need to return it and your trucker is trying to get an appointment right and everything is showing full. Your cutoff is tomorrow. So you know those kind of hassles come in, which all come with the financial costs, and I'm not saying that you know what. Every time we will be coming to the rescue, but I feel like we have. So we have a good leverage to come to solve your problems, to make it easy to ship for you guys. You know our job is to make it easy to ship and you can have, you can have, you can be stress-free and you can concentrate on the growth of your business instead of worrying about how one container is going to move. You know yeah now, that's where we come in well, you've sold me. Dave: When I, if I ever get into the scrap metal business and ship to mundra, you'll be the first call thank you now I understand this now. This may be shocking, but I understand that there are other freight forwarders besides Sealink. Oh yes, oh yes, but help me understand, though I imagine that on the surface it's funny. Every business like when you're an outsider, it looks like a commodity, right, you know, it just looks like they're all the same. So if you don't know anything about, I don't know whatever like, let's say, farming equipment. To me, all farming equipment looks the same. I'm sure there's differences between them. Some do better at some things than others. Some are more expensive, some are cheaper, and so I'm sure that it's like that in the freight forwarding world. So give me an example that it's like that in the freight forwarding world. So give me an example. I'm sure that from time to time you get a call from somebody and says Zohra, my current freight forwarder dropped the ball once again and I'm fed up with them. I want to start using you all. Let's think back to maybe an example of that. And of course you don't mention the customer name or the prior freight forwarder. But what's a typical fact pattern that makes them shift from somebody else to you all? Zohra: so in in all these years of of me being at ceiling, the the majority people turn back to us is because of service levels. If there is a problem, I'm not going to run away. I'm going to sit with my customer, explain to them that this is an issue and we need to work together. It is going to cost. Let's come to that understanding that it is going to cost. Am I going to do my very best to make the cost minimal? Yes, yes, of course, though I know that the customer is at fault or the trucker is at fault, it doesn't matter. But we at Sealing believe that we are not going to haggle our customers when they are in problems to make a quick buck. We're not going to do that. We are never going to do that. So we make sure that if a customer is stranded like I'll give you an example right now, I have a situation I have a booking from A-Line Okay, and we got a container loaded. Okay, we got a container loaded. When the container got returned at the port, we got an email from the A-Line saying hello, this container doesn't belong to us. So then we started digging. We started digging, we found out that my customer had used another forwarder's booking for a line that ceiling doesn't work with. Okay. So there are seven, eight vendors we work with and two, three vendors we don't work with. Okay. So now I have a situation where I have a container loaded sitting in the port which my line is saying Zohra, I can't move it, it's not my box, I can't on hire this box because they won't let me. Though it is a partner box, they won't let me. You need to go to this line and figure out what you want to do. Now, zohra or ceiling doesn't work with this line. And my customer is frustrated because his forwarder, who gave him this booking, is saying oh, I can't do anything. You pulled a box now and my booking I gave it to somebody else so that booking is full. Now okay so now he has no space to accommodate this box here, okay, okay. So I'm not going to tell my customer. Oh, you know what? You got a booking from another forwarder on a line that ceiling doesn't work with. You figure out your stuff, because this container here is already accumulating demurrage, sitting sitting on the boat, which is $250 a day. So now yesterday what I did is I called the line that I don't work with and I gave them the whole rundown. I gave them the container number. I told them see, this is what is going on. I understand we don't work with you guys, but can you go ahead and help us? So yesterday they said okay, you know what, we can help you all. We are going to try to see we can reach out to the other forwarder and increase his booking and make sure that this can get returned at that point. Would that that other forwarder should have taken that step to help his customer, who is also my customer, but because of the service failure, or because maybe he doesn't, he was not able to understand how to problem solve this or troubleshoot this, or probably he just didn't have the resources to do it? I don't know. But if my customer came to me and is stranded. I am going to offer that help. I'm not going to be looking here to make a quick buck and say, hey, I don't work with this guy. Pay these 200 demurrage or go ahead and dray out the container. Pay $900 to dray out the container and then go back reloaded in my Steam Ship Lines box. Dave: I see so what happened in that scenario? Zohra: So now today I mean this is very live. This just happened like two days ago. So now today, hopefully you know, the line that I'm not working with has talked to that forwarder and hopefully we have increased his original booking and now we can attach this container to his booking. Go ahead and tell that line. Okay, please move this. Tell my customer. Go ahead, I have increased your booking. Please go to your forwarder, submit your shipping instructions and make sure your container gets on water on the next vessel. You will have some demerit charges which you will have to settle directly with the port, so they had to find space on the line that owned the container. Yes. Dave: Okay. Zohra: Yeah, the line that owned the container. So right now, because of so much of vessel shiftings, right, every vendor in the market whether it is Maersk, hapag, lloyd, zim, msc, all these lines are relocating services, they're readjusting services. Someone is coming into a new alliance, someone has come out of an alliance. There are lots of new vessels come into the market, larger ships come into the market, so everyone is adjusting a lot of vessels. So that is why it is very space, a space constraint. Right now. There are blank sailings, you know, to make sure that these new services are well adjusted for april. So, uh, so that is why there is this space issue. If there was no space issue, right, there wouldn't be a problem I see the other forwarder could pick up the phone and get it right right and the containers are owned by the shipping lines yes, the container. Dave: That's why, when I see a railroad when I'm sitting at a rail stop yeah comes by. Zohra: I see the maersk yeah, the big blue, because that's one of their containers yes, a musk or any, or a costco hat bag, they they all they all own their containers. Yes, correct, wow. Dave: So how, uh, it sounds like you have to work 168 hours a week, I mean, if you're in the service business yeah, tell me if I'm wrong, but I think moondraw is on a different time zone. Zohra: Yes, yes, yeah it's almost end of working day for them right now. Actually, before this, I was on my india office call. We have our own office in india as well, so we have a call with them once a week to just see what's going on, how's business, what can we do to support from here. So they were already, like you know, getting ready to go home, because it's almost eight o'clock in the night over there so is it safe to assume that you, that eight to five is not the sole hours that you work? there is no eight to five in this industry. No, there isn't. Dave: No, I mean my business you know, is to somewhat the same way. I mean, what I tell my clients is all you need to know about the ic disc is my mobile number. Yeah, that's it. That's all you need to know. Just call me, I'll take care of it. Zohra: Yeah, that's how we are, that's how we are. Customers call us, whatsapp us, email us and we try to service. We try to service. We are in the service industry. We believe our service is, is on top and if, and and I'm not saying c-link is the cheapest, I'm not saying that even at but we thrive on it because we know that. You know our customers, and hats off to our customers. Their support has got us here and they are willing to pay us an extra $25 for what we offer. We offer the app, we offer the service. All my sales reps are very in touch with the customers. They just don't sell and then you never see them. It's not. That doesn't work here. You know we do trade shows. We see our customers there make it a point at least two times a year. We are seeing our customers. We have FaceTime with them. So it's not like you're going to like have a salesperson. Dave: They sell you a rate and then they are gone. It's not going to be like that. Zohra: Your point of contact is your salesperson. Of course we don't want our salespeople to get in operations which they don't. Their work is to sell. But customer is not going to feel like isolated saying that, oh you know what. So, and so was my salesperson at ceiling. They sold me a rate and now have all these problems and I don't know who to go to. You know that problem will never arise. Like you say that problem will never arise like you say that, uh, your cell phone number is what they need for us. It's just just email email me or email one of my reps, and you will get a response, like I can promise that well, you all have a booth at the rima san diego show. Dave: I'll be sure to stop by, will you be wow? Yes, I'm gonna be there I'll be sure to stop by. Oh, that'll be awesome, yeah, we do rima every year? Yeah, we've been doing it for the past several years now okay, yes, so uh, uh, wow, I can't believe how the time has flown. Zohra: Yeah, it's um, it wasn't that bad, like I thought it would, I know. Dave: So, so a couple, so last couple questions what? What do you enjoy the most about your job, like what's the most satisfying part of your role within C-Link. Zohra: Helping my customers. Dave: Okay, I had a feeling that was it? Zohra: I really, really find it satisfying when I see an email saying you know, thanks, Zohra, you saved my life, you know, or you know like. Dave: Chad, he's our sales director. Zohra: You know, thanks, zohra, you saved my life, you know, or you know, like Chad, he's our sales director. You know he'll send out an email saying, okay, you're a miracle worker, not to me, but to my teams as well, right, because sometimes it's, it's very frustrating to get small things done right, and when that small thing gets done, then everything flows. So I feel like once you get them that ease, that, okay, now their cargo is going to flow. I feel, I feel satisfied, my teams feel satisfied, right. So I think, just helping out and making sure we are there, that's, you know, that's, I think, is very important, because if you're missing in this chain, your customer is just going to be stranded, you know. Dave: Yeah, no, that makes makes sense. So last two questions. So one's kind of serious and the last one's fun. So the serious one is um, if you could go back 20 years, and what year did you say you came to the uS? Zohra: I came in 2000. Dave: Okay, so if you could go, if you had a time machine and you could go back and you could give advice to yourself back in the year 2000, what advice or pep talk or insight, would you tell yourself? Zohra: you tell yourself that I should have started this earlier. I did. Dave: I don't know why I waited till 2006, okay, so yeah that you know that's the answer that every client gives yeah, that they, they didn't start the business, or they didn't do this because they were afraid or there was risk or whatever. And the advice they always, almost always, give is don't be afraid, take the risk, do it. Zohra: Yes, yes, I agree. So I'll give you a little background. So before I joined Shaizad, I was working at a wholesale jewelry place. We had, you know, huge wholesale and we had a lot of mexican um imported jewelry. You know, we used to sell a lot like. It was a very different, different field altogether. We used to supply to all the big stores and stuff like that. And then when shazad started this, you know, he told me he's like I don't know if I can, like we'll be able to afford a salary, or you know how it's going to be, because I'm just starting and and and we don't know. You know how it's going to work because right now I don't have overhead expenses. So think about it, right. So, like I said, he's a visionary, right. And he just told me one thing he's like I promise you that you will not regret, right. And at that point I feel he, he was all. He already taken the risk, he had already taken the risk, he had left his job at at another forwarder and taken the risk to start this. And when he told me that you know you won't regret, I just I just took the leap of faith and said you know what? This is it. If I think I would have like thought a little bit more and said, oh, I won't. I don't know how I'm going to replace my income or what's going to happen. I don't know if this is going to work. I feel like maybe we wouldn't be here. So I think sometimes you just take that leap and then leave it up to the big man up and I think it all works out with your hard work. But you have to put in the work, I feel. Dave: Sure, that is great. Well, my last question, a fun one. So in Houston we have a thriving Indian community and I have a lot of great Indian restaurants to choose from. So two questions. One if you want really good Indian food in San Antonio, do you have to go to your kitchen? Zohra: Or are there some good Indian restaurants in San Antonio? Actually, now there are a couple of good Indian restaurants in San. Antonio, I can say that you know. Dave: Because I'm guessing the Indian population in San Antonio is a lot smaller than Indian. Zohra: Yes, it is a lot smaller, but I can now say if you would ask me this five years ago, I would be like nothing my kitchen but, now I can say actually we just went to one day before yesterday and it was pretty nice. Dave: So yes, yeah, I think I am heading to Houston, uh, next week. Zohra: so I'm going to make it a point to go to one of the nice restaurants Indian restaurants to know, get some food, that's great, which I think. Dave: I think the yellow curry is my favorite. What's your favorite curry? Zohra: I think I'm not very fond of curries, but I think I'm not a big. I'm not a big curry person, so, but I think my favorite Indian food would be biryani. Dave: Okay. Zohra: Yeah, the rice with the meat. Yeah, yeah, I think that that is awesome. Dave: Well, Zohra, thank you again for coming on the show sharing your story, the SeaLink story and uh and sharing your passion. It really comes through that you and uh and Shaizad both have a passion for serving your customers, and that's really. It's always fun to hear that somebody's just really enjoying what they do. Zohra: Yes, yes, thank you. Thank you for having me and thank you for letting me talk about sealing, and I hope that whoever listens to this, you know, comes to us and uses us. Thank you. Dave: That sounds great. You have a great day. Zohra: You too, you too. Special Guest: Zohra Shroff.

Love Finds a Way (Even When Tinder's Not an Option)When Katherine's son with Down syndrome asked if he could download Tinder, her immediate "no" sparked a revolutionary idea. As a mother of four children with varying intellectual and developmental disabilities, Katherine recognized a critical void—adults with disabilities deserve safe paths to love and connection too.Katherine's journey to founding Find Love Safely weaves through profound personal transformation. After years as a stay-at-home mom initially driven by a desire to "fix" her children's disabilities, she gradually discovered the grace of accepting them exactly as they are. Her path led through corporate America, coaching, and what she describes as "the darkest year of my life" in 2024—experiences that uniquely prepared her for her current mission.Find Love Safely isn't just another dating app. It's old-school matchmaking with modern safeguards. Katherine personally meets every member and their guardian via Zoom before adding them to her database, ensuring authenticity and safety. The service has already created meaningful connections, with her son being the first success story, now happily in a relationship where they "have FaceTime dates every night where they sing worship songs to each other."Beyond romance, the service creates vital socialization opportunities. "Our children were isolated, on their devices all the time and looking for connection online," one parent told Katherine. Now, members practice conversation skills, learn boundaries, and build confidence in real-world interactions. What began in the Twin Cities has quickly expanded to multiple locations nationwide, with Katherine providing not just matchmaking but also educational resources on dating etiquette, consent, and healthy relationships.Join us for this powerful conversation about motherhood, resilience through life's valleys, and how one woman's empathetic understanding of a vulnerable population created a business that's changing lives. Follow Find Love Safely on social media or visit findlovesafely.com to learn more about this growing movement to help adults with intellectual disabilities find meaningful connection safely.Connect with Katherine:Coaching: katherinegyolai.comWebsite: Find Love SafelyFacebook: Find Love SafelyInstagram: Find Love SafelyYouTube: Find Love SafelyThreads: Find Love SafelyContact the Host, Kelly Kirk: Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com Get Connected/Follow: IG: @ryh_pod & @thekelly.tanke.kirk Facebook: Reclaiming Your Hue Facebook Page YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@RYHReclaimingYourHue Credits: Editor: Joseph Kirk Music: Kristofer Tanke Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue!

Keke vents about her disapproval of unplanned FaceTime calls. She believes you can't FaceTime someone out of the blue... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen to the full 8 am where Judge Keke weighs in on an all new Kek's Court. Plus, Fred's got a new fun fact for us. And Keke believes you should NEVER FaceTime someone unannounced. Listen now!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by Chuck Joiner, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Guy Serle, Jeff Gamet, We break down WWDC 2025 highlights across VisionOS, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The team dives into Vision Pro's spatial widgets, iOS 26's revamped lock screen and call features, iPadOS 26's new multitasking, and Apple Intelligence's privacy-focused AI. They also explore the growing convergence between iPad and Mac and wrap with a shoutout to Macstock 9.  The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com  Direct Link to Audio  Links to our Show Give us a review on Apple Podcasts! CLICK HERE we would really appreciate it! Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee  Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios Website: In Touch With iOS YouTube Channel In Touch with iOS Magazine on Flipboard Facebook Page BlueSky Mastodon X Instagram Threads Spoutible Summary In Episode 363 of In Touch With iOS, host David Ginsburg is joined by an all-star panel — Chuck Joiner, Jeff Gamet, Marty Jencius, Guy Serle, and Eric Bolden — for an in-depth breakdown of Apple's WWDC 2025 keynote. With major announcements across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and VisionOS, the group dives into what these updates mean for users, developers, and Apple's broader ecosystem strategy. The episode opens with panel introductions before jumping straight into VisionOS 26, where the team highlights Apple's focus on spatial computing. Features like interactive 3D widgets, refined Personas, and improved collaboration tools on Vision Pro generate both excitement and critical commentary. Marty and Eric share real-world experiences with spatial widgets, emphasizing their value in immersive environments. The panel acknowledges Apple's ambitious direction for Vision Pro as it evolves from a tech demo to a productivity and creative powerhouse. Next, the conversation moves into iOS 26, spotlighting the redesigned lock screen with dynamic wallpapers and a streamlined interface for messages and phone calls. Jeff praises the new call screening and RCS group chat support, both of which significantly improve communication experiences. Updates to the Camera app and accessibility tools also reinforce Apple's commitment to a more inclusive user experience. iPadOS 26 draws praise for finally bridging the productivity gap with macOS. The introduction of a new windowing system allows for desktop-like multitasking, and panelists are enthusiastic about the debut of the Preview app on iPad. The improved Files app and richer audio input options are celebrated as productivity boosters, making the iPad an even stronger contender as a primary computing device. Turning to macOS 15, the conversation continues around convergence — with iPad and Mac experiences growing closer than ever. Chuck and David discuss how feature parity is leading to more seamless transitions between devices, particularly for multitasking and app continuity. The panel also briefly touches on watchOS 11 and tvOS 18, noting updates in health, fitness, and media experience. While these updates were more iterative, they reflect Apple's steady enhancement of its peripheral platforms. One of the standout segments is a look at Apple Intelligence, Apple's new generative AI initiative. The group discusses how Apple's privacy-first approach to AI, combined with on-device and cloud-assisted processing, could change the way users interact with Siri, productivity apps, and automation. The discussion also covers how this impacts developers and third-party integrations moving forward. In the final stretch, the team speculates on the future of the iPad and Mac. Will they fully converge or continue to serve distinct roles? With the iPad gaining more macOS features and the Mac embracing touch-like elements, the lines continue to blur. The episode closes with a few announcements and community highlights, including a plug for Macstock 2024 — inviting listeners to connect in person and keep the Apple discussion going. Topics and Links In Touch With Vision Pro this week.      VisionOS 26 Spatial widgets and realistic 3D spatial scenes from photos. More natural, detailed personas for video calls. Shared Vision Pro experiences for local and remote collaboration. Enterprise features for shared device use and protected content. New spatial accessories (Logitech Muse, PlayStation VR2 controllers). Adobe Premiere spatial video editing and native 180/360 video playback. New immersive Jupiter environment. visionOS 26: The MacStories Overview   iOS 26 Revamped lock screen with dynamic wallpapers and 3D spatial scenes. Redesigned Camera app with easier mode switching and visible settings. Improved Photos app with tabs and spatial photo views. Safari with floating, shrinking tab bar and edge-to-edge browsing. Enhanced Phone app with unified layout, call screening, and Hold Assist. Messages add group chat polls, personalized backgrounds, Apple Cash in chats, typing indicators, and spam filtering. https://www.macworld.com/article/2575705/ios-26-features-release-date-beta.html

It was Damnit Maurie's birthday! And to celebrate, we get an epic new birthday song from Shem—this time featuring Maurie's dad, Frank J. Sherman. Michael Bunting calls in with a surprise birthday message, Maurie hits the streets to ask strangers to celebrate him, and things get awkward when he asks Mocha for a hug. Plus, Roz humiliates himself and gets a parking ticket. Also: Roz can't get a jingle out of his head since 1998, we vent about public FaceTime users and tech in cars, and the Human Centipede movie pitch left out one very key detail.

Apple just dropped the biggest design overhaul since iOS 7, and hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard dive deep into everything announced at WWDC 2025, from the stunning "liquid glass" interface to game-changing iPad features that finally make it feel like a real computer. Liquid Glass Interface - Biggest visual redesign in many years! Translucent elements, enhanced lighting effects, and improved visual hierarchy Design Principles - Built around hierarchy, harmony, consistency, layering, depth, and vitality for a more expressive user experience Visual Effects - Enhanced Control Center with peek-through background visibility and ghostly transparent aesthetic Apple Intelligence Levels Up Live Translation - Real-time translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls running entirely on-device for privacy Visual Intelligence Expansion - Now works with screenshots and integrates with third-party apps like Etsy for product searches ChatGPT Integration - Enhanced Image Playground functionality with ChatGPT support across the platform Carplay & Music Updates Message Improvements - Tapback support directly in CarPlay without needing CarPlay Ultra Widgets Integration - CarPlay now supports widgets for enhanced navigation and app experiences Apple Music Features - Auto Mix with crossfade and beat matching, plus lyric translation for foreign language songs Phone App Overhaul Call Screening - System asks unknown callers for their name and reason before connecting you Hold Assist - Automatically waits on hold and notifies when a human agent returns to call Unified Interface - Streamlined call history and contact management in a single interface Gaming & Social Features Apple Games App - New dedicated hub for Apple Arcade with recommendations and social "Play Together" features Game Library - Comprehensive view of installed games with play history and activity tracking Messages Upgrades Built-in Polling - Native poll creation with expandable voting options and visual participant tracking Custom Backgrounds - Personalized chat backgrounds, including AI-generated options through Image Playground Group Payments - Apple Cash support for splitting expenses in group chats Smart Filtering - Automatic separation of unknown sender messages into a dedicated folder Apple Watch Enhancements Gesture Controls - New wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications and return to watch face Configurable Widgets - Enhanced customization options for watch complications and widgets Integration Features - Seamless connection with iPhone's hold assist and other new iOS features Accessibility Advances System-wide Reader - Enhanced reading experience across all apps and interfaces Braille Improvements - Better support for connected Braille displays on iPhone Enhanced Features - Updates to Live Listen, background sounds, and Personal Voice capabilities iPadOS 26 Mac-Style Windows - Red, yellow, green window control buttons finally come to iPad Default Apps - Set specific applications to open different file types automatically Preview App - New system app for viewing and annotating PDFs and images Folder Customization - Color-coded folder system across Files app (also coming to Mac) Background Processing - Computationally intensive tasks can run in the background Shor These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today/episodes/756 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Apple just dropped the biggest design overhaul since iOS 7, and hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard dive deep into everything announced at WWDC 2025, from the stunning "liquid glass" interface to game-changing iPad features that finally make it feel like a real computer. Liquid Glass Interface - Biggest visual redesign in many years! Translucent elements, enhanced lighting effects, and improved visual hierarchy Design Principles - Built around hierarchy, harmony, consistency, layering, depth, and vitality for a more expressive user experience Visual Effects - Enhanced Control Center with peek-through background visibility and ghostly transparent aesthetic Apple Intelligence Levels Up Live Translation - Real-time translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls running entirely on-device for privacy Visual Intelligence Expansion - Now works with screenshots and integrates with third-party apps like Etsy for product searches ChatGPT Integration - Enhanced Image Playground functionality with ChatGPT support across the platform Carplay & Music Updates Message Improvements - Tapback support directly in CarPlay without needing CarPlay Ultra Widgets Integration - CarPlay now supports widgets for enhanced navigation and app experiences Apple Music Features - Auto Mix with crossfade and beat matching, plus lyric translation for foreign language songs Phone App Overhaul Call Screening - System asks unknown callers for their name and reason before connecting you Hold Assist - Automatically waits on hold and notifies when a human agent returns to call Unified Interface - Streamlined call history and contact management in a single interface Gaming & Social Features Apple Games App - New dedicated hub for Apple Arcade with recommendations and social "Play Together" features Game Library - Comprehensive view of installed games with play history and activity tracking Messages Upgrades Built-in Polling - Native poll creation with expandable voting options and visual participant tracking Custom Backgrounds - Personalized chat backgrounds, including AI-generated options through Image Playground Group Payments - Apple Cash support for splitting expenses in group chats Smart Filtering - Automatic separation of unknown sender messages into a dedicated folder Apple Watch Enhancements Gesture Controls - New wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications and return to watch face Configurable Widgets - Enhanced customization options for watch complications and widgets Integration Features - Seamless connection with iPhone's hold assist and other new iOS features Accessibility Advances System-wide Reader - Enhanced reading experience across all apps and interfaces Braille Improvements - Better support for connected Braille displays on iPhone Enhanced Features - Updates to Live Listen, background sounds, and Personal Voice capabilities iPadOS 26 Mac-Style Windows - Red, yellow, green window control buttons finally come to iPad Default Apps - Set specific applications to open different file types automatically Preview App - New system app for viewing and annotating PDFs and images Folder Customization - Color-coded folder system across Files app (also coming to Mac) Background Processing - Computationally intensive tasks can run in the background Shor These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today/episodes/756 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Apple just dropped the biggest design overhaul since iOS 7, and hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard dive deep into everything announced at WWDC 2025, from the stunning "liquid glass" interface to game-changing iPad features that finally make it feel like a real computer. Liquid Glass Interface - Biggest visual redesign in many years! Translucent elements, enhanced lighting effects, and improved visual hierarchy Design Principles - Built around hierarchy, harmony, consistency, layering, depth, and vitality for a more expressive user experience Visual Effects - Enhanced Control Center with peek-through background visibility and ghostly transparent aesthetic Apple Intelligence Levels Up Live Translation - Real-time translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls running entirely on-device for privacy Visual Intelligence Expansion - Now works with screenshots and integrates with third-party apps like Etsy for product searches ChatGPT Integration - Enhanced Image Playground functionality with ChatGPT support across the platform Carplay & Music Updates Message Improvements - Tapback support directly in CarPlay without needing CarPlay Ultra Widgets Integration - CarPlay now supports widgets for enhanced navigation and app experiences Apple Music Features - Auto Mix with crossfade and beat matching, plus lyric translation for foreign language songs Phone App Overhaul Call Screening - System asks unknown callers for their name and reason before connecting you Hold Assist - Automatically waits on hold and notifies when a human agent returns to call Unified Interface - Streamlined call history and contact management in a single interface Gaming & Social Features Apple Games App - New dedicated hub for Apple Arcade with recommendations and social "Play Together" features Game Library - Comprehensive view of installed games with play history and activity tracking Messages Upgrades Built-in Polling - Native poll creation with expandable voting options and visual participant tracking Custom Backgrounds - Personalized chat backgrounds, including AI-generated options through Image Playground Group Payments - Apple Cash support for splitting expenses in group chats Smart Filtering - Automatic separation of unknown sender messages into a dedicated folder Apple Watch Enhancements Gesture Controls - New wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications and return to watch face Configurable Widgets - Enhanced customization options for watch complications and widgets Integration Features - Seamless connection with iPhone's hold assist and other new iOS features Accessibility Advances System-wide Reader - Enhanced reading experience across all apps and interfaces Braille Improvements - Better support for connected Braille displays on iPhone Enhanced Features - Updates to Live Listen, background sounds, and Personal Voice capabilities iPadOS 26 Mac-Style Windows - Red, yellow, green window control buttons finally come to iPad Default Apps - Set specific applications to open different file types automatically Preview App - New system app for viewing and annotating PDFs and images Folder Customization - Color-coded folder system across Files app (also coming to Mac) Background Processing - Computationally intensive tasks can run in the background Shor These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today/episodes/756 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Apple just dropped the biggest design overhaul since iOS 7, and hosts Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard dive deep into everything announced at WWDC 2025, from the stunning "liquid glass" interface to game-changing iPad features that finally make it feel like a real computer. Liquid Glass Interface - Biggest visual redesign in many years! Translucent elements, enhanced lighting effects, and improved visual hierarchy Design Principles - Built around hierarchy, harmony, consistency, layering, depth, and vitality for a more expressive user experience Visual Effects - Enhanced Control Center with peek-through background visibility and ghostly transparent aesthetic Apple Intelligence Levels Up Live Translation - Real-time translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls running entirely on-device for privacy Visual Intelligence Expansion - Now works with screenshots and integrates with third-party apps like Etsy for product searches ChatGPT Integration - Enhanced Image Playground functionality with ChatGPT support across the platform Carplay & Music Updates Message Improvements - Tapback support directly in CarPlay without needing CarPlay Ultra Widgets Integration - CarPlay now supports widgets for enhanced navigation and app experiences Apple Music Features - Auto Mix with crossfade and beat matching, plus lyric translation for foreign language songs Phone App Overhaul Call Screening - System asks unknown callers for their name and reason before connecting you Hold Assist - Automatically waits on hold and notifies when a human agent returns to call Unified Interface - Streamlined call history and contact management in a single interface Gaming & Social Features Apple Games App - New dedicated hub for Apple Arcade with recommendations and social "Play Together" features Game Library - Comprehensive view of installed games with play history and activity tracking Messages Upgrades Built-in Polling - Native poll creation with expandable voting options and visual participant tracking Custom Backgrounds - Personalized chat backgrounds, including AI-generated options through Image Playground Group Payments - Apple Cash support for splitting expenses in group chats Smart Filtering - Automatic separation of unknown sender messages into a dedicated folder Apple Watch Enhancements Gesture Controls - New wrist flick gesture to dismiss notifications and return to watch face Configurable Widgets - Enhanced customization options for watch complications and widgets Integration Features - Seamless connection with iPhone's hold assist and other new iOS features Accessibility Advances System-wide Reader - Enhanced reading experience across all apps and interfaces Braille Improvements - Better support for connected Braille displays on iPhone Enhanced Features - Updates to Live Listen, background sounds, and Personal Voice capabilities iPadOS 26 Mac-Style Windows - Red, yellow, green window control buttons finally come to iPad Default Apps - Set specific applications to open different file types automatically Preview App - New system app for viewing and annotating PDFs and images Folder Customization - Color-coded folder system across Files app (also coming to Mac) Background Processing - Computationally intensive tasks can run in the background Shor These show notes have been truncated due to length. For the full show notes, visit https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today/episodes/756 Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard

Join Jay Gunkelman, QEEGD (the man who has analyzed over 500,000 brain scans), Dr. Mari Swingle (author of i-Minds), and host Pete Jansons for another engaging NeuroNoodle Neurofeedback Podcast episode discussing neuroscience, psychology, mental health, and brain training.✅ Infant Brain Development Explained: Jay and Mari dive into the astonishing neurological growth from womb to toddlerhood, how sensory pathways evolve, and the importance of face-to-face interactions in the first 3 years.✅ Parenting Responses and Emotional Regulation: Learn how calm parenting fosters emotional stability in infants, how toddlers interpret safety, and why your response to a child's fall matters more than you think.✅ Transgenerational Trauma & Epigenetics: The team unpacks how trauma passes through generations—even before birth—and why both the mother's and grandmother's stress may affect a child's mental health and development.✅ Additional Topics:

On this week's episode, Jess and Anissa are in full catch-up mode...talking about moving chaos, messy work moments, summer dreams, and all the real stuff in between. From feeling cute one minute to spiraling the next (we've all been there), this convo is like a FaceTime with your funniest, most unfiltered friends. Pop in your earbuds and come hang out.

Follow me on social media, find links to merch, Patreon and more here! This week the trip to Grenada continues with Shamea and Brit facing off over donations, Angela tries to get Charles on FaceTime, Kelli wants to know what's going on with Drew and Black and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are you, a sociopath? PLUS: Never hear "no," long lost family, and when THEY like YOU more than YOU like THEM.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shannon is phoning a friend, and you're invited. Sit in on her life update FaceTime with good friend and great podcaster, Taylor Strecker! Shannon shares a pregnancy update, how has she been feeling lately? Taylor is here with all the details about Canal Street, and the real vs. fake handbag scene in NY. They chat about their summer travel plans, spending with significant others, and stories from their childhood. Taylor talks about her upcoming appearance on Vanderpump spinoff “The Villa” with Stassi and her exciting panel with DearMedia x Sports Illustrated. Enjoy all this and more on Probably A Podcast.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Introduction01:46 Pregnancy Talk and Baby Updates02:49 Shopping and Spending Habits13:25 Canal Street Adventures27:26 Reality TV Experiences33:37 Room Mix-Up and Reality TV Drama34:09 Friendship Dynamics and Fights40:37 Sports Illustrated Media Moment48:13 Summer Plans and Travel Stories51:47 Pregnancy and Lifestyle Changes01:06:24 Upcoming PlansLINKS:Follow Shannon: https://instagram.com/probablyshannon/Follow Taylor: https://www.instagram.com/taylorstrecker/Follow Producer Courtney: https://instagram.com/whatsacourtney/Follow Probably A Podcast: https://instagram.com/probablyapodcast/Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/probablyshannonfordProduced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"This is what you want a spleen answering." Around the Horn ends tomorrow, and Tony Reali is here to grace us with his art of conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices